Visit to Watson's Mill

Were we alone or not?

I have always been intrigued by Watson's Mill, though it use to terrify me when I first heard the story of Ann Currier, the young wife who was killed while visiting her husband's mill and now spends eternity walking the floors. Now at age 26, I am a true believer in the Paranormal. I thought I'd share my three stories with regards to visits to Watson's Mill and my pictures. (Though only one is really what I consider proof of the Paranormal the others are the illustrate my story. I'd appreciate any feedback on the pictures (especially the green mist and shadow pictures below) or the occurrence as I do not have any background to base my experience on. I had no direct sense of who was causing the experience. The following are the accounts of my first two experiences and the views of the third experience with accounts from me, my 13 year old cousin Chris (12 at the time) and my 11 year old cousin Sarah (10 at the time).

Laura's view first

My experience happened largely on the attic of the Mill. Keep in mind my only memory of the upper floor was that I didn't like being up there. I visited the mill three times last summer, once with my best friend , second with my parents and the third time with my parents and cousins then ages 2, 6, 10, 12,who are now 3, 7, 11, 13.

 The first time my friend and I went up to the attic and I immediately started to get nervous. I felt a nervous energy in every part of my body (I am a great believer in meditation and raising one's energy) this visit raised my energy before I finished climbing the stairs. At the top I could not leave the top of the stairs. I just didn't want to. More over, my friend tried to walk around under the slope of the roof nearest the stairs and said she felt as though there was a force field there.  My friend moved around the far side of the building and as she reached the far corner opposite the stairs I got a chill down my spine. I did not like her being in that corner, as though I feared something was going to happen. I can't explain it. We tried it several times and each time I got very nervous.   My friend managed to walk around the whole floor after that, including past the spot she originally couldn't pass. I however never made it past the stairs. I went back up there three times during the same visit and had the same problem. I never had a problem on the second floor where Ann's ghost is supposed to be. I had to meditate for a day and a half to release the energy built up after the top floor area. I had no idea it would affect me that way. I knew of Ann's ghost and vaguely remember being scared out of my wits by the story of the ghost when I was really young but I've never had an experience like that before.

 The second time I visited the Mill this summer was with my parents. I had a similar reaction on the third floor and met a man who seemed to have a similar reaction though at first I though the was just teasing me. Then I saw him sort of agitated and jittery and I realized he was having the same reaction. I'm so use to being surrounded by skeptics and I regretted not talking to him later.

The third visit with my cousins was different. The oldest two are very into the paranormal and they knew of the ghost and (by accident my reaction) and were eager to test it out for themselves. My 13 year old and 11 year old cousins took my cameras (one digital, one film) and took pictures of various spots on both upper floors. The second floor pictures really brought few results but the top floor brought several questionable pictures and one definite green mist in the corner I was nervous about my friend passing. The Following pictures are the Digital results of our visit. Click on the picture to enlarge it.

As I said the kids (unfortunately) knew of my previous reactions and we were undoubtedly feeding off each other, (all of them being very empathetic and easily reacting to what others are feeling). I did, however, make around the top with the kids glued to me but again Chris may have been feeding off me and Sarah, I don't think really felt anything, Sarah felt the energy rise but I'm not sure how much of her reaction was based on mine. She's very empathetic and easily feels others.

 Sarah said she said she just didn't feel like smiling after the pictures of her had been taken it seemed to be a very oppressive atmosphere. (But could it be a depressing spirit or could it be she was depressed because her brother had the digital camera?)

Chris said afterwards it was the second floor he felt a problem. He said he kept seeing something out of the corner of his eye at the front corner of the room furthest away from the stairs but nothing was there.

The 6 year old said she also felt scared on the second floor and had the same feeling as though there was something to see in the same of the room as her brother but there was nothing there. Sarah and I were calmer on the second floor and Chris had yet to tell us about his views so it's unlikely BJ was feeding off us but it's possible too. The two year old didn't like the second floor or third floor much either but he's very intuitive and may have been picking up on the others. (I was also trying to get the older two to down play their fears around the younger two yet the younger two did show some reaction).

I would post the film camera pictures but I can't find them. Our family is very open to paranormal activity, though we have several skeptics too. We've had several instances we believe to be ghost related in addition to several (dare I say prophetic dreams) but I've never had such an experience. I just thought it was worth sharing with believers. Hope you enjoy our pictures. On my honour they have been untouched (with the exception of the circles around the distortions. I can send you the film camera pictures if you like when I find them for comparison. The two young photographers tried to take the pictures from the same view though the 13 year old photographer is a little taller than the 11 year old. We intend to go back next summer with my cameras and video cameras and see if we can get some more pictures. (I'm not very good a picture taking but usually the digital takes pretty clear pictures). True Paranormal experiences freak me out but thrill me. I hope for other chances at other locations. If I have them I'll pass them on.

  Chris' View

Yes, it is me, the world renouned. something.... give me a minute to think...Well, I shouldn't bore you to death while thinking of what to be world famous for, so I'll tell you the mill story. Every Ottawaian knows that the Manotick Mill is probably one of the most haunted places in the Ottawa area, so I, being me and all, decided to check it out. This is the story of the ghost: one of the owners of the mill not too long ago, most likely the 20's, was just married and took his new wife to the mill, to show her how it worked. Amazingly, the woman's dress got caught in one of the gears and it was so powerful, it took her right up to the ceiling of the second floor and whacked her head so hard, she died. Sightings of the "Lady of the Mill" all all closely related, most include walking down the road or riding down the river late at night, 9-11 PM, and seeing in the second floor window a woman, dressed in white, either weeping or screaming uncontrollably. Freaky? You tell me.

And something else about the second visit to Watson's, since we were getting a little freaked out about being in a haunted mill, we decided to go outside and feed the ducks. Sarah and Laura, our 26-year-old fearful... ahem, fearless leader, were the last to leave the mill and were still checking out stuff. They say, when they were walking by the window to go down the stairs so they could meet us outside, the window slammed shut, and surprisingly enough, we were talking to them through that same window just a minute before.

Laura mentioned that I kept on seeing something out of the corner of my eye, close to the stairs that led up to the attic. That's true. I could swear that every time I would look at something towards the river, some white mist thing would appear behind the stairs, near the big blue exhibit thingys. But, whenever I turned my head to see what it was, it would disappear. I was probably least comfortable on the second floor, as appose to Laura and Sarah, who couldn't stand the attic. I was nervous at first when I went up the stairs to the attic, because the girls were freaked out like crazy and were all cowering behind me, expecting me to protect them from the evil attic. Once I got to the attic, I wasn't that freaked, but the girls told me of what they had experienced while going near the right corner. And believe you me, it was freaky, it looked like your normal everyday attic corner, but something was telling me: "Don't do it, Chris. You're going to regret it." Not that I have voices in my head or anything. When we finally worked up enough courage to go over to the corner with them, they both got freakishly freaked out and I got crazy when they ran away, and I don't have a clue why. And other than that, nothing else happened. Or, did it?

Laura's retort.

Was there supposed to be significance to the window slamming shut after we'd been talking through it? Was it a shot at us by Chris? I wonder. Is he accusing us of causing the window to slam?

For the record: Yes the incident at the window did happen as we were passing it and (as freaked out as we were) it did send us "flying" down the stairs.

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