A Brief History of the Crypt of Torment…

When the Napoleonic Wars cut off Britain’s supplies of timber from the Baltic in the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries, Britain turned to her colony, British North America, as a new timber source. The huge white pines of the Ottawa Valley made perfect masts for British naval vessels.

Throughout the 19^th century, the Ottawa Valley’s towering pines were felled and floated down the Gatineau and Ottawa rivers toward Quebec City. This colourful chapter of Canadian history was dominated by Irish, Scottish and French Canadian loggers, whose songs and legends are part of our folklore today.

The lesser known truth about this period, however, is that there were many strange and unexplained deaths among the loggers. Bodies were discovered with their faces frozen into screams of terror and strange markings were frequently visible on the skin of the dead. The locals began to call these unfortunate souls the Cursed Dead. Initially, they were blessed by priests and buried in the local graveyards as with any other deceased of the time. Shortly after the first burial however, people began to disappear from nearby homes in the dead of night. Investigations revealed only blood and muddy footprints leading from, and back towards, the cemetery.

The local constable volunteered to stay inside the cemetery one night and catch the perpetrator of the vile murders. The next morning, he was nowhere to be found. His notebook, found ragged and covered in blood, contained the following final entry, “The Cursed Dead rise from their graves. They claw at the earth as if escaping from the fires of hell, their white sightless eyes a window into suffering itself. Their cries of agony screech like stones scraping bone and speak of torment beyond human comprehension. There are so many…”

The townspeople held a meeting and unanimously decided that the Cursed Dead must be moved to a crypt far, far, away and that all future Cursed Dead must be placed therein. And so, miles from the river, in an area today called Barrhaven, The Crypt of Torment was built and the cursed dead were locked within. From time to time, grave robbers or bandits would try to enter the crypt to steal from the dead, but would never be seen again.

As the years passed, Ottawa expanded and the area around the crypt was developed and yet still, anyone who damaged the crypt or attempted to enter suffered cruelly at the claws of the Cursed Dead and were never seen again.

To this day, none who have entered have lived, and distant cries of anguish can be heard on the chill night air. Only a fool would enter such a place, but as the saying goes, a fool and his head are soon parted...