What began as regular midnight trips to the old War of 1812 British Fort would soon turn into a discovery that would haunt us for the rest of our lives.
Back in 2007, just after graduating high school, my best friend and I were fascinated with paranormal activity. This was mostly because of the town we had grown up in was at the center of the historic War of 1812. During the early 1800's, the British and the Americans were at war. Both sides had built up heavy armies and built some incredible forts in the Niagara Region. The historical structures that remain today as a result of the war are fascinating, however not as fascinating as the stories of death and war that had surfaced since the war. My friend and I were well aware of the tens of thousands of American and British soldiers who had died in the area, sometimes in gruesome ways. The British soldier, Captain Swayze is an excellent example of the horror stories from the war. Captain Swayze was hiding inside an oak barrel in the basement of a tavern when a dozen bayonets that had punctured the oak barrel stabbed him. He was left to die in that barrel.
It was the mystery and horror that taunted us to explore the battlefield where so many had perished. After reading this story I can assure you one thing, you're skin will get goose bumps, this I can assure you.
My best friend and I would spend our Friday nights researching the best places in our small community to catch a glimpse of paranormal activities. We were particularly interested in anything that pertained to the War of 1812 due to the horror stories from the war.
One day we finally got the courage to explore the historic Fort George. Many high school teens would frequent the site, many of which would "chicken out" before ever journeying down the deep trenches where so many American soldiers succumbed to bullet wounds and hopping over the old wooden fortress walls that would protect the Fort. My friend and I were dedicated though we weren't going to let fear get in our way.
The moon shined bright as we drove under the night sky. The cornfields would glow and sparkle moonlight across vast farmland as we sped towards the haunted town of Niagara on the Lake. I was driving my black sedan, chatting with my buddy Matt over blaring heavy metal about how fun the summer had been. We were both typical late teens, talking about house parties, how weird our other friend's brother was behaving at a party one night and about girls.
We had arrived at the Fort faster than I had predicted. The same bright glow that had illuminated the farm fields as we drove into town was shinning in the vast field that surrounded the Fort only this field was glowing much brighter. There also seemed to be a great deal of fog and mist that had rolled off Lake Ontario during the early hours of the morning. This whole atmosphere as well as the cold and moist air added to the curiosity and rigidness that the night would entail.
As we began walking through the forest that surrounded the Fort, we could see through the thick fog the silhouette of the massive Fort in the distance. The massive structure was illuminated by the moons glow. The reflection of the moon also made the field that surrounded the Fort glow like water under a clear nights sky. The atmosphere seemed beautiful in a mysterious and haunting way.
We were approaching the Fort very slowly, watching our every step, as we didn't want to attract any attention to ourselves. If we got caught anywhere near the Fort by security there would be problems, so we did our best to avoid any detection.
As we entered the glowing field that surrounded the Fort I couldn't believe what my eyes had discovered. A large black silhouette was standing tall and proud, gracefully walking through the fog in the field that had surrounded the Fort. I couldn't believe what I was seeing! Could this be real? Was it another person? No, it couldn't have been. No person was this tall and able to move the way I was seeing. You see, this mysterious silhouette wasn't moving around like any other person, it was disappearing and reappearing in different places. I quickly grabbed my friend's arm and held it very firming as I told him not to move or say anything. I said, "Listen very carefully, and do not move. Do you see that figure standing over there?" My friend instantly froze, he saw it, and he saw exactly what I saw, the odd movements, and the silhouette vaguely resembling an 1812 soldier. The whole thing was too overwhelming, we bolted it back to my car, making no effort to hide our tracks, we just wanted to get the hell out of there.
We made it back to my car, exhausted, terrified, and eager to escape the thing we had just witnessed. I sped out of the secluded parking lot with no desire of turning around. As we got about 10 kilometers away my friend and I started to share our experience about we had seen. We finally got the courage to turn the car around and confront whatever it was we had seen. We insisted we had to confirm what we had just witnessed and confront it. The adrenaline was flowing and our curiosity was so heightened that we were committed to getting to the bottom of what we had seen.
As we made it back to the Fort the scene was exactly as we had left it. We peered into the field, full of adrenalin and dedication to confront the mysterious shadow that had haunted us. I was looking towards the Fort wondering what would be inside when my friend shouted over to me "Look there it is again!" we both rushed towards the silhouette hoping to find answers, however the closer we got the more the silhouette would fade. When suddenly, we were standing in front of a large maple tree. The maple tree wasn't visible before as the fog hid it. Our eyes could have been playing tricks on us, however we both saw the silhouette as it would pace around the field and there was no wind that night so that couldn't have caused the tree to move about.
We will never know what we truly saw that night. The goose bumps I get when I think of that tall silhouette and how it would gracefully patrol the moonlit field still haunts me to this day. Could it have been another person? I'll never know.