Devil's Island
Devil's Island is located at the northeast entrance to Halifax Harbour just off of shore of Eastern Passage. The first mention of the island historically can be found in 1711, when it was included in an early French map depicting what is now the Province of Nova Scotia.
The island has gone through many name changes, but it is believed that it was first known as Deville's or Duval's Island. Over the years of English habitation in the area the name was eventually anglicized and came to be known as Devil's Island. The first European settlers began a community on the island by 1830, this quickly grew to include at least 20 families, a school, and a general store. Early in the history of the island it was apparent that some form of aid to navigation needed to be established. At one point there were two lighthouses and a lifesaving station based on the island; today only the Southeast Lighthouse remains along with a later light keeper’s residence. There are at least three shipwrecks off the island.
Around the world Devil's Island is famous for its connection to Maritime Folklore, in particular Nova Scotian folklorist Dr. Helen Creighton. It was on this island that Helen Creighton began her career as a folklorist, later she would go on to preserve over 4,000 traditional maritime songs and stories.
The island experienced its biggest change at the onset of WW2 as the majority of island residents were moved off the island by the Department of National Defense amid wartime security concerns. The last resident, a Norwegian artist, left the island in the late 1990's. Written by Matt
- One of the more recent experiences of a paranormal nature on the island took place in the mid 1990's. A camper visiting the island had heard that the island was haunted and wanted to put it to the test. The camper placed his tent a good distance from the light keeper’s house. At night when it came time to turn out the light in the tent, he observed a light in the window of the light keeper's house. The camper walked over to the light keeper’s house and ventured inside to where he had seen the light. When he went to the window sill there was a candle but it had blown out, but was still warm as if it had been blown out just seconds before. It is of interest to note that the camper walked around the island earlier to make sure he was the only one present on the island. This story is also of interest as there is no electricity on the island.
- People have reported seeing mysterious fires and lights on the island.
- A former lighthouse keeper, after having finished just painting the stairs inside the lighthouse, turned to look at his handy work only to see that unexplained footsteps were left in the wet paint.
- After a party on the island Caspar Henneberry reported seeing a talking halibut who he claimed was the Devil. The next day they found Caspar hanging over the side of his boat drowned. Some say this is how the island got the name “Devil’s Island”. (Bluenose Ghosts by Dr. Helen Creighton. 1994. PP 110-111.)
- There once was a house on the island where all manner of unexplained things occurred. Everything from mysterious fires, knockings, objects moving about, disembodied voices, foul odors that would suddenly come and go, and apparitions were witnessed by various people at various times in the house. The house was eventually demolished. (Bluenose Ghosts by Dr. Helen Creighton. 1994. PP 258-261.)
Investigations
July 21, 2007
Devil’s Island is not easy to get to. After a year of planning we finally made it on our fourth attempt. At 5:30 pm on June 14th, 2008 we were dropped off and were on our own until 7:30 am the next morning. Mike Tilley, who operates McNab’s Island Ferry, was excellent and did a great job getting us out there and back.
Our group consisted of Rob, Alison, Matt, Rebecca Young, and Jessica Linzey, a freelance writer who was doing a story about us for CBC radio.
Devil’s Island is not a large island. It consists of long grass and shrubbery, ruins of past structures, an automated lighthouse, garbage that either washed ashore or was left by others, and many, many seagulls. It also has a dilapidated former lighthouse keeper’s house on it which was to be our focus of interest.
We pitched a tent to act as our mini head quarters and proceeded to set up our equipment. The house consisted of three floors, and during the course of the investigation, we made sure each floor was being covered with our analog audio and video recorders. I did an EMF sweep of the house, and on all of the settings, the reading was zero. There were also no abnormal temperature fluctuations during our stay.
No personal unexplained occurrences happened to us in the old lighthouse keeper’s house, or anywhere else on the island, while we were there. Overall we had a very good time and the house actually felt comfortable in atmosphere, sort of like an old fort you would have built when you were a kid.
As mentioned earlier, one of the mysterious reports of Devil’s Island is that people have seen “strange fires and lights” on the island. Perhaps the explanation for this is people being on the island unannounced. After all, besides the owner of the island Bill Mont, and Mike Tilley who brought us out there, no one else in Eastern Passage knew we were there. We didn’t light any fires while we were there, but from the mainland, people probably did see “strange lights” since our cameras were flashing and we had our flashlights on.
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Later on, when we returned home, an EVP was discovered after sifting through all of our data...
EVP 1: a disembodied response to Rob's question.
The EVP was picked up on the video camera’s microphone while nothing was picked up on any of the audio recorders. However, nothing visually unexplained was captured and nothing appeared in any of our digital pictures.
Devil’s Island has been on the Grim List now for awhile and we're glad we finally had a chance to visit. We would like to thank Bill Mont for the opportunity, Jessica Linzey for joining us and for the interview, and Mike Tilley for his patience and a job well done.
Click here to view our photos from the adventure!
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