PART V: GHOST TOWN, B.C. – Victoria and the Spirit of Doris Gravlin

By Ted McIntyre

It is unlikely there is a more haunted city in Canada than Victoria, B.C., and inarguably one that more enthusiastically celebrates its paranormal past and present.

Residents figure that when their province coined the promotional slogan “Super, Natural British Columbia,” they should have simply spelled it “supernatural.”

This year marks the 150th anniversary of B.C.’s admittance into Confederation, and of Victoria being proclaimed the provincial capital. But ghost stories of the area stretch back centuries before the city’s founding.

Why Victoria seems to be ‘an otherworldly world like none other’ is a matter of conjecture. The City’s official website suggests “there are many theories why there are so many ghosts in downtown Victoria. One reason is the long period of human occupation, spanning 6,000 years from the arrival of the first aboriginal inhabitants. Some ghost experts believe that cracks, or ‘ley lines,’ in the earth’s surface beneath Victoria emit powerful magnetic energy that somehow attracts spirits and magnifies their presence. Others suggest that the surrounding saltwater, the underlying bedrock, the distant hills and mountains that wrap around the region and the abundant natural springs all help retain ghostly energy.”

THE HAUNTED SQUARE

The epicentre of spectral activity in town is probably Bastion Square. Part of the original Fort Victoria, it features some of the city’s best restaurants and pubs, as well as the dutifully restored Helmcken Alley, through which prisoners were once marched to the gallows.

“Even before Europeans arrived, the natives believed this spot had strong magical powers,” observes Victoria.ca. “Virtually every building is associated with a ghost or two. You might hear the clanking of chains at the entrance to Helmcken Alley. Listen for phantom music at the window of the building to the right of the alley, where an organist once employed at a restaurant there is said to still play requests from ‘the other side.’

“The most haunted building in the square is currently home to the Maritime Museum. Victoria’s jail and gallows once stood here. Some unclaimed bodies were buried there and their bones remain here today. Look through the windows at the entrance to the museum and watch for a shadowy, slender figure with a Van Dyke beard, which has been seen gliding down the main staircase. It’s thought to be the ghost of Victoria’s infamous Hanging Judge, Sir Matthew Baillie Begbie, eternally looking for another guilty man to condemn.”

For a true history of these streets, there’s no finer source than John Adams of Discover the Past and Ghostly Walks, a walking tour company Adams runs with his son, Chris.

A raconteur extraordinaire, the senior Adams reminds me of Homeland’s Mandy Patinkin, but with a soothing, melodious voice that deserves a national radio audience. Widely recognized as Victoria’s foremost authority on the city’s dark past and haunted present, Adams folded his previous career in the museums and history industry into an engaging exploration of Victoria’s rich history. The scarier Ghostly Walks side of the business conducts 90-minute tours detailing such stories as the ghost of the star-crossed Chinese lover, the ghost in the Broad Street bordello, a famous doppelgänger, the mysterious ghost in Trounce Alley, hauntings in Helmcken Alley and Bastion Square, the story of the ghost of Belle Adams who slit her boyfriend’s throat, a Jack-the Ripper-style murder and more.

THE GHOST OF VICTORIA GC

It’s about a 13-minute drive from Bastion Square to Victoria Golf Club, at the southern end of the suburb of Oak Bay. There’s a debate whether Victoria or Niagara-on-the-Lake GC can lay claim as the oldest course on its original grounds in Canada, but both have one thing in common: great ghost stories.

Founded in 1893, with its current routing finalized in the mid-1920s, the private Victoria GC features five holes along the Strait of Juan de Fuca, with ocean views pretty much everywhere else.

Its signature hole is the par-4 7th. At just 378 yards from the tips, it’s short by today’s standards. But it is beguiling, with a rocky shoreline above the Strait of Juan de Fuca guarding the entire left of the hole, Mount Baker across the water in the distance, and an expansive two-tiered green that slopes from right to left toward the ocean. When this hole played exclusively as a par-3 in the 1950s, Ben Hogan famously putted from the top-right portion of the putting surface into the water during an exhibition match. Due to a local rule, the water qualified as O.B. at the time, as opposed to a lateral hazard, leading Hogan to observe, “The was the only time in my career that I putted a ball out of bounds.”

But for fans of the occult, the 7th hole has more sinister side—one that includes Victoria’s most famous ghost of all.

“In 1936, there was a woman named Doris Gravlin,” Adams begins. “She separated from her husband Victor, who was a sports reporter for the Colonist newspaper. She was a private nurse looking after a Mrs. Richardson in a house along the Oak Bay waterfront. One day Doris received a letter asking her to rendezvous. Suspecting she was meeting Victor, Mrs. Richardson warned Doris to be careful and advised her to dress warmly for that chilly September night. Doris put on a heavy sweater and felt hat and off she went, but she didn’t come home at the appointed time. Mrs. Richardson became alarmed and contacted the police and advised them to first check with Victor’s parents, with whom he was living at the time. Mrs. Gravlin did not know where he was—he hadn’t come home that afternoon. So an all-point bulletin went out for Doris and Victor Gravlin.

“About five days later, a young caddie who was mooching for golf balls along the beach aside the 7th fairway came upon a pink sweater sticking out of some logs,” Adams continues. “He went over and discovered that not only was there a sweater, but there was a hand attached to it, and when he looked into the pile of logs he saw there was a body at the end of the arm. He raised the alarm and police came. It was quite clear that it was Doris and that she had been strangled. She was fully clothed, except for her hat and shoes, which were missing. They concluded that Victor must have been the culprit, but he was nowhere to be found.

“About three weeks later, a fisherman who was rowing in the kelp beds just off the 9th fairway came upon Victor’s body entangled in the weeds. The body was brought into shore by the police and Victor’s coat was opened up, and there in his pockets were Doris’ missing shoes, her felt hat and a length of rope. The police concluded it was a case of murder-suicide—that Victor, in remorse, had jumped into the ocean. They were able to retrace where the location of the murder was—close to the sixth fairway, and how the body was dragged across the 7th fairway and hidden in the water near the 7th green. So as far they were concerned, the file was closed.”

THE LEGEND BEGINS

Doris had indeed departed her mortal coil, but perhaps not her immortal one. “Most of the stories are anecdotal, a few were reported in the newspaper,” Adams explains. “The golf course is private property, but they’ve always been good about letting people go for walks after hours or go down to the beach to go fishing. One of the earliest sightings was from a fisherman who was a regular there. As he was casting from the rocks into the water, he felt uneasy and looked back. There was a slope with bushes on it and he saw this very forlorn woman coming down through the bushes and then disappearing.

“Beginning in the 1960s there were many sightings, and they have continued since. There are many manifestations of how she is seen. She often appears in white and is seen moving quite quickly above the grass, typically around the 7th fairway, particularly in the lower area where the green is. She’ll either veer away or fly into the air and disappear. They say her feet are not touching the ground. Many say it’s just someone in a white dress with a lantern trying to scare people, and there are examples of that for sure. But the fact that she flies into the air makes some believe this is the real thing.

“She also appears as orbs—the ones at Victoria GC tend to be the size of beachballs!” Adams notes. “In some cases it’s been reported that the orb actually followed people up the 7th fairway to their cars. On one occasion, high school students reached their car in a panic, but the light had passed over them and engulfed their car. Another time, there was a group taking an out-of-town person down there on a lark and Doris arrived and began running circles around their little group, terrifying the person they’d brought. People have also said they’ve also felt a rush of cold air sweep past them out there, even on a warm summer night.”

A GRIPPING EXPERIENCE

Adams personally knows a lady who has experienced Gravlin’s presence. “She’s now quite elderly,” he shares. “She and a group of ladies were part of a paranormal group in the 1970s and early ’80s, and the golf course was a favourite location of theirs. After play had concluded, just after dusk, they’d go down and sit on the logs on the beach where Doris was found, and would often make contact with her. On one particular night, they did not. Darkness fell and they decided it was time to head home. As they walked up the rough along the seventh fairway, the others were helping each other along and my friend was holding hands with one as well. But then she realized the rest of her group were all in front of her—so whose hand was she holding? She turned and saw nothing, but felt this cold hand slip away from hers. She is convinced to this day that it was Doris helping her, since there was no one to assist her that day.”

FLY FISHING

One of Adams’ favourite accounts, however, comes from an entire family, shared with him roughly 15 years ago during one of his group tours. “Grandparents living in Victoria were being visited by their granddaughter and grandson from the B.C. Interior,” he relates. “The grandfather decided to take his grandson fishing. They took their gear and headed down to the rocks. As they were casting, the boy got his hook stuck in his head. They went to the emergency room to stitch him up. At supper that night, the boy was recounting the story when he said, ‘Hey granddad, we forgot our tackle down on the rocks!’ By this time it was dark, but they all got in the car and headed back. When they got there, the grandmother and granddaughter stayed in the car, while the other two went to get the tackle box. When they were heading back to the car, they suddenly saw the figure of a woman in white heading toward. The kid was freaking out. The ghostly figure flew over them and landed some distance away near Beach Drive, which cuts across the middle of the golf course. The ghost ran across the road and came back, then ran toward the car and flew over it and disappeared. By the time they got back to their car, the grandmother and granddaughter were freaking out inside. They had all seen the same ghost.”

Gravlin’s phantom has even entered moving vehicles as they motor along Beach Drive, flying right through the car, Adams adds.

“There are many sightings of ghosts in other parts of the golf course, which may or may not be Doris,” he says. “People just assume that it’s the famous ghost that they’re encountering. But Victoria GC is a very haunted site, and Doris is probably just one of many ghosts there.”

Check out all five parts in this ghostly series:
Part I: Legends of the Abbey
Part II: The Algonquin Resort
Part III: War on the Shore: Niagara-on-the-Lake
Part IV: Spirits of the West: The Banff Springs and Jasper Park Lodge
Part V: Ghost Town, B.C.: Victoria and the Spirit of Doris Gravlin