Minaki, Ontario is a small town that sits about forty miles north of Kenora on a very winding road that weaves its way around many small lakes on its journey north. Add in all the tree covered hills, swamps and rocks and it becomes a drive where the driver has to stay alert, especially at night.
Minaki Lodge was a great fishing resort and was the backbone of the town until it burned down..
It is still a great fishing destination with all its many smaller fishing lodges and camps. In winter the tourist all go home and traffic in the town and on the road drops off drastically. It can be a dull and boring place during the winter.
Some forty years ago the owner of a small grocery store in Minaki use to drive into Kenora on a regular basis to pick up supplies. He had a large station wagon and it was usually piled high on the home bound trip.
One evening, after loading up the station wagon, the store owner and his assistant started on the journey home. It was very dark and cold and they could not wait to get safely home. The car headlights were acting up and once in a while they would flutter, go out, then come back on. The driver was beginning to regret that he had not taken the time to get it repaired. Once the vehicle warmed up the problem seemed to go away.
The road was good, having been plowed recently, but because the vehicle was overload it was difficult to steer. About three quarters of the way home the two occupants were chatting away when suddenly the lights on the vehicle went out and stayed out. Everything turned pitch black and they could not see a thing. Before the brakes could be applied, the vehicle left the road on a curve and smashed into some very large rocks, after knocking over a few trees.
Once they came to a stop they found they were buried in all of the groceries that flew forward from the back of the loaded vehicle. It took some time to dig out from under all the cans and boxes and get out of the badly damaged vehicle. Once they were standing outside they realized that other than a few bumps and bruises they were both fine.
The vehicle on the other had was badly damaged and might not be repairable. The front of the car was smashed in, the radiator was leaking so that antifreeze and oil was spilling out onto the ground. The battery had also been smashed so they had no lights and no flashlight.
The vehicle had come to rest about 20 feet from the road and was hidden behind some small trees and bushes that had returned upright, after being run over.
The driver told his helper to get up onto the road and wave down the next vehicle. It was a difficult stumbling trip up to the road over all the rocks and bushes because it was pitch dark. After a short time a vehicle came by heading north and the young man stood there on the side of the road waving his hands. When the headlights of the car shone on him, the car suddenly increased speed and raced away without slowing down.
After this had happened a couple of times the grocer stumbled his way up to stand with the boy but the same thing occurred. At this point it was getting late and they were getting cold. They decided they were going to have to stand out in the middle of the road and force someone to stop and aid them. The curve in the road made it impossible for the drivers to see them until the last moment.
The next car arrived about a quarter of an hour later and the two men stepped out onto the road in front of the car and waived their hands in the air. The driver slammed on the brakes, swerved, and just missed the two. The man and the boy ran up to the drivers door. The grocer recognized the driver as an old friend and yelled at him as he yanked open the door. “Why the hell didn’t you stop when you saw us. You know who we are!”
At this point the driver seemed to relax and then he started laughing. He and his wife got out of their car and stood there in the center of the road in the middle of the wilderness, laughing and pointing at the pair standing in the beam of the headlights.
It was not long before everything started to make sense. When the station wagon crashed into the ditch and all the contents flew forward, a large sack of flower ripped open and covered everything and every one in the car with flower.
Because the station wagon occupants had no lights they did not realized they were covered in flower from head to toe. Later, they learned that the first few cars that passed the boy standing on the side of the road, had a fright and thought they had seen a ghost and kept right on going.
When the last driver saw the man and the boy step onto the road in front of him he thought the same thing.
If his car had not stalled, he later confessed, he would have sped away as fast as he could.
Once they all got to Minaki a tow truck soon had the wrecked vehicle back home. The entire interior was covered in a coating of flower, as was every bit of the contents. Both occupants had flower down their neck and in their ears and hair and had quit the time cleaning it off their clothes.
The story of the two ghosts that were seen near Catastrophe Lake went the rounds and soon every resident in the community heard the tale. It was told and retold many times with gales of laughter.
For many weeks after, the two ghosts got free drinks and a request to retell the story, when ever they appeared in a coffee shop or bar. It helped pass an otherwise dull winter in the North woods.
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