Here's how the 108 Mile House Heritage Site came to be.
The beginning was 1969 and we were called the 108 Mile ‘Recreational’ Ranch. The developer, Block Brothers Realty, had a vision to create an ‘outdoor playground’, a five stage 26,800 acre seasonal recreational resort. The Agricultural Land Reserve prevented the last four stages from proceeding, but luckily much of the recreational infrastructure had been put in place first. We are now 1,140 permanent homes at the 108, with a population of approx 2,900. The treasure of it is that we have recreational facilities for a development of about 7,000 homes. The developers are gone and we now control our own destiny through our 108 Mile Ranch Community Association.
[In 1979 the Block Brothers sold the seven acre site to the 100 Mile House Historical Society for $1, it took over the 108 Mile House Heritage Site and continues to operate it today.
From 108 Ranch
The oldest building on the site, originally the
108 Hotel, is known today as the
Post House, built on the north side of the highway in 1867 and moved to its present site in 1892. Despite the stories of murder and mayhem at the hotel (see below) probably being untrue, there have been many stories told of this building's being haunted. Both visitors and staff at the heritage site have reported seeing a face at an upstairs window of the building when it was locked up tight. A team of paranormal researchers have reported some unusual findings, including an audio recording of a woman saying “ I am in his….” or “I’m in history now”.
One year, a tourist frantically told the staff he saw someone through the Post House window who appeared to be trapped inside, despite the building being locked.
Another time, a staff member was mopping the floor, complaining to himself about “dirty ghosts” when his bucket went flying across the room.
From the 100 Mile Free Press
But did Agnus’ story really end? Fast forward to May, 2018. The 108 Mile Ghost Tours, a charitable organization which raises funds for the 108 Mile House Heritage Site, held a ghost tour on May 12th. During these tours, guests are encouraged to take as many photographs as they like. When photographs taken from that event were examined, two people were noticed staring out a window of the Post House.
From the Valley Grail
While investigating the Post house at the historic 108 Mile Ranch with special guest Ross Allison and David Weatherly, we had a spirit manifest on our SLS Camera. The spirit stood directly on Ross Allison’s hand when Ross was asked to extend his hand out.
From the Haunted Crew
The 108 Mile House Heritage Site now hosts several
Ghost Hunts annually, which include other buildings at the site. One of these is the
Clydesdale Barn, the largest log barn in Canada, built in 1908 to house a large herd of purebred Clydesdales. On a 2017 tour the following was recorded.
The ghost team, as well as several of the guests were able to get many good EVP’s (Electronic Voice Phenomenon) and some interesting pictures. The K-2 meters (which measure electrical frequency), were constantly lit up each and every night.
The picture below was taken by a local retired school teacher, who was skeptical about the ghost hunt, but came that night to accompany her friend. As I am part of the ghost team, I can vouch for the authenticity of the picture, as I was the one leading the group in the Clydesdale Barn the evening the picture was taken.
This clip is in the Clydesdale barn, when Dave asks about a date, an almost robotic voice answers back “I stand corrected” . We could not audibly hear the voice, but the lights on the K2 meter was lighting up, so that is why Dave says “Perfect, Thank you” .
Later in the audio recording, at 1:23 seconds, he may be speaking again, but it's too muffled to hear. At 2:46 you can hear the voice answering “yes” to the question of “Do you know it was just Remembrance Day here?”
From Questers
This is one of the entities in the barn. He is not very happy that we caught him on camera.
According to local legend, from 1875 until June of 1885 the building was operated as the "108 Hotel" by Agnus MacVee, Jim MacVee, and her brother-in-law (or son-in-law, depending on who is telling the story) Al Riley. The roadhouse they were operating was the perfect place in which to rob and kill unsuspecting miners returning from the rich diggings around Barkerville and Horsefly, their pokes loaded with gold. Another lucrative scheme of Agnus' was to kidnap young women passing through looking for a rich miner to marry, then sell them to the miners, either for overnight companionship or longer term as "wives" and camp cooks.
It is said that the MacVees killed more than 50 miners while relieving them of their gold and even killed some of the less cooperative young women. I won't go into further detail here but will instead refer you to
108 Mile House or the
Williams Lake Tribune for the grisly details.
While the story is written as a true story in local versions, it turns out that there is essentially zero documentary evidence to corroborate the story. According to a
Wiki article, the story may have come from a single source.
According to Maryanne Rutledge, president of the 100 Mile and District Historical Society, the story comes from an out-of-publication booklet titled "Lost Treasure in BC #3" by Larry Lazeo of Fort Langley. The author received the details from an old-timer...
...However, documentary evidence for the story is absent. An article by Greg Joyce in the Prince George Citizen newspaper discusses the story of the McVee murders. He states that there are no documents of ownership of the 108 Mile Hotel during the decade that McVee is supposed to have run it. Missing persons records do not list anyone who lodged at the hotel between 1875 and 1885 as reported missing. No police records of the arrest or trial have been found "despite Rutledge's extensive searches in Kamloops, New Westminster, and in the provincial archives in Victoria." Furthermore, there are no death certificates for either McVee or Riley.
From Wiki
After reading the aforementioned articles we decided to investigate ourselves. The UBC has a large collection of no less than 167 old newspapers online which one may search simultaneously. We searched and searched through 1885 and later editions to no avail. We managed to find zero references to murders at 108 Mile, or to Agnus MacVee, Jim MacVee or Al Riley. The obvious conclusion to be made is that what we have here is a classic example of an "Urban Myth", and one that continues to circulate to this day.