Albert The Ghost Bride
KamloopS BanFF
Sagebrush Theatre
in 1886, albert Mallott was the first
man hanged in Kamloops. The 23-year-
old bartender, from O’Keefe’s Saloon at
eagle Pass near Revelstoke, had killed
a man he thought was stealing from his
bar. albert has at least one redeeming
quality: he likes watching plays at the
Sagebrush Theatre, built on the site of
an old cemetery. in 1939, when a flood
displaced tombstones, albert’s was lost.
He now has his own reserved seat on the
end of the theatre’s back row. Patrons
claim to have seen it lower at the begin-
ning of a production and then return
upright at the end of the show. actors
and crews report mysterious events and
v oices: stage lights suddenly being re-
programmed, and an employee warned
to avoid a falling lamp that could have
killed her. Perhaps albert has discov-
ered, albeit a little late, that “life is not a
dress rehearsal.”
Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel
This story is so well-known that it was
commemorated with a limited-edition
coin issued by the Royal Canadian Mint
in 2014. in the early 1930s, a bride was
ascending a flight of limestone stairs to
the library at the Banff Springs Hotel,
which was being rebuilt after a fire.
There she was to join her groom and the
wedding guests before the party moved
up to the Cascade Ballroom. The stair-
case still lacked a banister rail and was
lined with tall candles. Maybe a breeze
caught her veil; maybe she tripped on
it. it caught fire. alarmed, she fell and
broke her neck. The young woman is
still seen getting ready in a washroom,
or waltzing alone in the ballroom. “Till
death do us part” came true far too early
for this unhappy couple.
Tours
Walking night tours
offer an entertaining
way to learn a little
local history.
VANCOUVER Ghost
tours of downtown or
Gastown. www.ghostly
vancouvertours.com
SEATTLE Ghost tours of
the Pioneer Square area.
www.spookedinseattle
.squarespace.com
BANFF A daily staff-led
historical tour May to
Oct. covers the ghost-
bride story. www.fair
mont.com/banff-springs
Rocky Mountaineer Magazine 2018
33