Driving on Mt. Sicker Road north of Ladsymith, B.C., you might see the shape of a woman walking along the side of the road. You might also see that she’s missing her head.
At least, that’s the legend of the aptly named Headless Woman of Mt. Sicker Road. She’s reported to be wearing old-fashioned clothing and looking for her head. Legend has it that a young woman was killed and dismembered by her fiancé, angry that he wasn’t her only suitor, who scattered her remains across the mountain. She’s been looking for her head ever since.
We headed up the mountain on a dark and stormy night hoping to catch a glimpse of the Headless Woman. What we actually found was quite different, but no less creepy.
The legend of the Headless Woman sprang from a short-lived mining boomtown on Mt. Sicker. At its peak, about 400 people lived in two town sites close to the copper, gold and silver mines on top of the mountain. The towns, Lenora and Tyee, had about 70 homes, two hotels and an opera house (likely a loose term). The mines were only really producing for about 12 years, from 1895 to 1907.
It’s likely that the murder of a young woman, particularly from decapitation, would receive some attention in the news, even all the way in the provincial capital at Victoria. But author Shannon Sinn, in his well-researched and entertaining book, The Haunting of Vancouver Island, failed to find any evidence that a young woman died at the Lenora townsite – or anywhere in the Mt. Sicker mine area.
This doesn’t mean the place isn’t incredibly creepy. The buildings that made up the town sites are all gone, demolished by a previous land owner to dissuade youth from partying and squatters from setting up camp. But you can easily come across evidence of human habitation as the concrete foundations to support the massive mine apparatus are still visible. It gives the area an air of abandonment; like you are stepping into a place that someone just left and who could return at any moment. It’s the feeling of being watched.
It’s hard to imagine the hulking machinery grinding away, hauling tons of dirt, stone and debris up from the belly of the earth. The men, covered in grime from coal dust and soot, shouting orders to one another as load upon load is carted out of the depths and onto wagons to take the ore to nearby smelters. The now-lush landscape was once a barren slice of rock in the mountainside. Trees were felled for makeshift buildings and cabins to house mine offices, general goods stores and saloons, while many miners lived simply in tents pitched in back lots.
IndesctructiBill’s Jeep rocked and rolled over the pot-holed dirt road at the top of the mountain. A partially torn-down fence marked a shaft, likely an air vent, into one of the mines. We stopped, got out with our flashlights and cellphones, and peered over the edge. You couldn’t see much in the dark with the rain pouring down. But we heard it, clear as day: a knocking that echoed from the depths of the shaft.
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It’s incredibly irritating to have someone asking, ‘Did you hear that?’ every nine seconds, as they do in most videos from paranormal investigations. But, as we learned, it’s really, really hard to stay quiet and listen when you’re unsettled.
Abandoned mines are dangerous places. Lethal gasses build up and people often die from lack of oxygen from just taking a few steps inside a mine shaft. Don’t ever go into a mine. On this night, although we peered from the edge, we were still cognizant that the ground was saturated and liable to collapse under our feet if we got too close. So we packed it in for the night & headed down the mountain, with plans to return in daylight with a GoPro camera and some rope.
Knockers, according to our friends over at Wikipedia, are from Welsh and Cornish mythology. These little creatures live below ground and wear tiny versions of standard miner’s outfits. They’re mischievous and steal miner’s tools and food when the workers aren’t looking. But they also have a potentially life-saving purpose: they knock on the walls of the mine shaft just before cave-in.
Some miners argue that Knockers are malevolent spirits and the knocking is them trying to create a cave-in; others believe they are spirits of miners who died in previous accidents and the knocking is their way of warning their fellow miners of imminent danger.
As far as we know, the mine shaft has not yet collapsed.