Home Before Dark
It’s Halloween, the perfect time for scary fun. Newfoundland has plenty of creepy yarns designed to entertain but I don’t think that’s the purpose of every spine-tingling tale told. Some have an ulterior motive; sometimes they were told to keep people safe.
Storytellers — parents and grandparents — leveraged a fear of the supernatural to keep children away from real-world, physical dangers. Sometimes places were described as ‘haunted’ because they were flat-out dangerous places to be.
The following creepy anecdotes were probably told with an eye to caution, as a means of ‘scaring kids safe.’
Did it always work? Probably not For fun, I’ve assigned a ‘Scare Factor’ to each tale; a sort of estimate of how frightening I think I’d have found the story as a child… and, consequently how effective it would have been at keeping me safe.
I’ve rated them on a ten-point scale. The higher the rating, the more they creep me out!
It’s entirely subjective, of course.
I’d love to hear your take.
The Headless Ghost Dog of Elliston
A ghost dog, generated by Bing AI
Would you get home before dark if it meant avoiding a headless ghost? What if it were a dog?
According to legend, the ghost of a Newfoundland dog can be seen running toward the town each night.
It’s said the dog was once the faithful companion of a man named Welcher (or Wiltshire). In the animal’s mortal life, it was a working dog. It toiled alongside Welcher in his fishing enterprise — hauling nets, fetching buoys and pulling carts of cod. Welcher even took the animal to sea.
Then, one tragic day, far from shore the dog was killed.
It wasn’t just killed — it was decapitated.
Some say it happened when the dog fell through some rapidly shifting ice; others insist it died in a violent schooner wreck.
Regardless, it didn’t seem to want to stay dead.
Some folks swear that every night, just after sunset, the headless spectre of Welcher’s dog can be seen racing toward Elliston, as if it’s trying to return from sea; as if it’s trying to come back home to the world of the living.
It’s a story that’s sent shivers down the spine of generations of children… and I think it might have done the same to me.
It sounds like a perfectly good reason to be home before dark.
But admittedly, any story featuring a dying dog sets me off kilter, emotionally.
Scare Factor: 9/10
The Webber, Stephenville
Something lurking in the shadows, Generated by Bing AI
Many dangers lurk in the woods, some real and some imagined.
The Webber — a strange creature that’s said to occupy the wilderness near Stephenville — is a case of the later.
I hope.
There’s more than one version of the Webber tale but generally the creature is described as a murderous, half-human. Some say it was the offspring of man and a bear, others believe it is a feral child that adapted to its marshy, woodland environment by developing webbed-feet and reptile-like characteristics.
According to legend it stalks human prey at night, leaving behind webbed footprints.
In some ways it reminds me of stories of The Jersey Devil.
Near Gull Pond, Stephenville (one of the Webber’s favourite haunts)
Scare Factor: 7/10
It’s a scary story, for sure. As a child, I imagine I wouldn’t have ventured far into the forest before imagining the sound of sloppy, web-footed feet creeping up behind me.
The Mudsucker
A face beneath the mud, generated by Bing AI
Bogs can be dangerous places — they are slippery and full surprisingly deep holes. It would be entirely possible to fall in a bog and never be seen ever again.
Naturally, parents wanted to keep their kids from such a fate. One tactic they tried was the legend of the ‘mudsucker.’
The mudsucker is a mysterious creature that lives beneath the surface of the bog where it quietly waits for a hapless visitor. When venturing too close, the creature would strike and ‘suck’ the interloper into the bog.
Think you’ve never seen a mudsucker? Don’t be so sure.
The only part of the creature visible above the bog is the pitcher plant — the marsh-loving, and legitimately carnivorous, provincial flower of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Scare Factor: 3/10
As a kid I was fascinated with carnivorous plants. In fact, I’m still fascinated. I have a Venus Fly Trap that I’m keeping on life support.
The thought of some Audrey II like creature lurking in the bog next-door would not have kept away.
It might have drawn me in.
If they really wanted to keep me out they need only have told me of bog bodies.
That would have creeped me out.
The Little People/ Fairies
The Newfoundland the woods are full of fairies, at least in some bays. They are not the benign winged-fairies of toy aisle, but troublesome and dangerous creatures that appeared in a variety of guises.
Fairies were said to lead travellers astray, making familiar places strange and confusing. They also stole babies leaving behind fairy changlings.
Fairies were seen as especially dangerous during berry-picking season. Probably not because they were more active, but instead because people were apt to wander further into the woods.
In that regard, the fairy legends were probably just as beneficial to adults as children. They kept people from getting lost.
In some places people were (and maybe still are) very concerned about ‘the little people’ and they developed superstitions to ward them off. Things like wearing a coat inside-out or having bread in a pocket were thought to foil the fairies.
These superstitions persist. In the 21st century, I have met people who claim they will not go into the woods without some bread in their pocket.
Scare Factor: 5/10
I didn’t grow up in a fairy-infested part of the province but I lived in St. Mary’s Bay for a short time. While there, I met people who seemed legitimately concerned about being ‘led astray’ by fairies.
They assured me that they, themselves, had heard the laughter of ‘the little people’ in the woods.
Listening to their accounts was, I’ll admit, a little unnerving.
Jacky Lantern
Jacky Lantern is a nocturnal figure seen as a ghostly, glowing light moving over marshes, ice or open water.
Like the fairies, he is said to lead people astray.
In the book If You Don’t Be Good researcher John Widdowson records instances of Jacky Lantern being used in the Bonavista/Elliston area to keep children safe. Parents would warn their children to keep off the marshes/ice because Jacky Lantern would ‘get’ them.
What he would do if he lured them away is a bit of a mystery. I’m sure most people weren’t keen to find out.
I recently asked my mother, who grew up in Happy Adventure, if she ever heard people speak of Jacky Lantern there. She says they did.
Than’s not surprising, the Jacky Lantern legend is known in Britain and Ireland so the stories probably spread with settlers throughout Newfoundland.
A mysterious floating flame, Bing AI
The Jacky Lantern phenomenon reminds me of ‘weather lights.’
In the Eastport area, where I grew up, I remember being told of a ghostly ‘weather light.’ It was described as a strange glow that moved into the bay and seemed to precede inclement weather.
I don’t remember any sinister story connected to the light, but I do remember thinking that an unexplained glow was kinda creepy.
Scare Factor: 7/10
I don’t know why but I find unexplained lights especially creepy.
Red Eyes at the Old Mill, Glovertown
The Old Mill, Glovertown
A little more than a hundred years ago the Terra Nova Sulphite Company started construction on a pulp and paper mill in Glovertown, NL.
Part way through construction, funding fell through. The project was abandoned and a hulking concrete shell of a factory was left on the banks of the Terra Nova River. It is there to this day.
It has become a bit of a landmark, and is easily accessible from Angle Brook Road in Glovertown.
Glowing red eyes, generated by AI
If you are going to visit, be forewarned. The mill is supposedly haunted. It is home to a malevolent spirit the locals call Red Eyes.
As the legend goes, Red Eyes is the ghost of a construction worker who died when he fell into wet concrete. His physical remains were forever entombed in the old mill. His spirit, it is said, stayed close by and continues to haunt the building.
At times, people swear, his glowing red eyes can be seen penetrating the darkness, gazing from the shadows of the Old Mill. Even when no eyes are spotted, visitors report an ominous feeling of being watched.
Creepy as it sounds, the legend seems to have done little to deter people from visiting the mill. As anyone who’s ever visited can attest, the place is covered in graffiti.
Scare Factor: 6/10
I’m not the bravest person, but I’ve felt perfectly un-haunted when visiting the site. That said, I’ve always gone in daylight.
I have friends who used to hangout at the old mill in their teenage years. They tell stories of running from the mill after dark because of an overpowering sense of foreboding.
Stories are powerful things.
Tell Me Your Stories?
Newfoundland has lots more of these kinds of tales.
I’d love to hear some of your favourites —what stories did your parents and grandparents tell you of supernatural dangers lurking in the shadows.
Did you believe them? I’d love to hear.
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Mudsucker, Dictionary of NL English, word slip
The Webber Cycle in Western Newfoundland, John Ashton, Contemporary Legend, 2001
If You Don’t Be Good, John Widdowson, 1977
Ghost Dog, People of Elliston — The and Now, FaceBook
Strange Terrain: The Fairy World in Newfoundland, Barbara Rieti
