The Three Valley Gap ghost town along the Trans-Canada Highway.

(CARLI BERRY / iNFOnews.ca)

- This story was first published Oct. 10, 2021.

Nestled at Three Valley Gap along the Trans-Canada Highway between Sicamous and Revelstoke is a ghost town known for its old buildings, antiques and a few spirits that may be tagging along with the property's pioneer collection.

Travellers on Highway 1 can’t miss the red-roof of Three Valley Lake Chateau built by Gordon and Ethel Bell.

The Bell's Three Valley dream began in the late 1950s with a small service stop and motel. Since the opening of the famous Rogers Pass east of Revelstoke, Three Valley has been growing.

Image Credit: FACEBOOK/Three Valley Gap Lake Chateau and Ghost Town

The ghost town looks like it's been there for the best part of a century and houses more 25 buildings including St. Stephen's Church, Hotel Bellevue, a saloon, jewellery store and more together with a wide assortment of artifacts from across B.C.

Rosina Bell, museum coordinator and wife of George Bell, Gordon’s son, said Three Valley is a mystical place.

She believes there’s energy everywhere, from the railroad, highway and flowing river, she said.

READ MORE: The ghost of former premier W.A.C. Bennett may be haunting his old Kelowna home

In the chateau, she hasn’t experienced any ghostly sightings but once she crosses into the ghost town, it's a different story.

“The place that has the most energy that you feel the most of is the Bellevue Hotel because it was built in the 1800s. Of course, it has seen death and a lot of things have happened to it over time,” Bell said.

A lot of old buildings and antiques have been collected and added to the ghost town. One of the most interesting antiques they’ve collected was silverware from the old Vancouver Hotel Georgia and put in the Bellevue, which she thinks has ghostly energy.

“Anybody that was somebody back in the day would have stayed in the Georgia Hotel,” she said.

It feels like there are ghosts, what she calls extras, still sitting at the tables in the hotel. Once she claims to have seen a lady dressed in white walking up the staircase.

“I’ve seen stuff move and this was all out in the ghost town."

She believes the railroad roundhouse also has paranormal activity, including a train car that she said gives off a creepy feeling.

Image Credit: FACEBOOK/Three Valley Gap Lake Chateau and Ghost Town

“You’ll see extras in the ghost town and you’ll feel them,” Bell said, adding smell and temperature in the room will drop.

“I’ve seen the turntable turn without anybody turning it on to turn it.”

She’s not quite sure where the energies come from and to whom they belong, but they do offer ghost tours for tourists who may experience it for themselves.

Last month, a production crew for the TV show True North Paranormal set up in the ghost town to do some filming and they reported paranormal activity. The Falkland-based Thunder Boyz Productions Inc. crew is known for filming creepy things in Western Canada.

Owner and producer with Thunder Boyz Dean Trumbley said most of the paranormal happenings they captured for the show were located in the roundhouse and the Bellevue Hotel.

READ MORE: Kamloops couple hopes to spook American-dominated paranormal T.V. industry

The hotel used to sit in Sicamous in the early 1900s before it was eventually bought, moved and reconstructed by the Bells, Trumbley said. There was a suicide reported in one of the hotel rooms at one point.

“We never got any direct names, but the two voices we got prominently is a little girl’s voice and an old man’s voice,” he said. They also filmed items that seemingly moved by themselves.

The episode will air on Amazon Prime, Shaw Cable and Paraflixx as part of the show’s second season next year.

The chateau and ghost town are closed for the season by the time Halloween rolls around since it's too cold, but people who enjoy a good scare can experience that spooky feeling even in the summertime, Bell said.

For more information, visit Three Valley Gap’s website here.

Three Valley Gap Lake Chateau

(CARLI BERRY / iNFOnews.ca)

To contact a reporter for this story, email Carli Berry or call 250-864-7494 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. 

News from © iNFOnews, 2022