The Ghost of Nashwaaksis and a Tale of Two Lovers
Legend has it that in the distant past, the Iroquois moved through the Niagara region and into the Lake Huron area. Using a system of running scouts, the local Indigenous people sent word to neighboring tribes to warn of the incoming threat. Of the Attiwandaron tribe, a young, beautiful maiden named Nashwaaksis volunteered to warn the nearby Petun people. However, she was motivated by more than just duty. She was in love with a Petun warrior named Oromocto. She travelled with little rest for three days to Oromocto’s people and managed to deliver her message. There she rested for a few days, while Oromocto mended her worn moccasins and tended to her. Brought closer together by her brave deed and the incoming threat, the two of them decided to return to the Attiwandaron village and be married at once.
On the first night of their journey back, while Nashwaaksis rested, Oromocto scouted the area. He was in Cressman’s Woods, near the bank of the Grand River. While moving through the forest, he encountered a war party of their Iroquois enemies. He fought to defend his love hidden deeper in the woods, and after defeating seven enemies, he was slain in the battle. When Nashwaaksis came upon Oromocto, it is said her heart broke, and with a scream, she fell dead, lying over her slain lover’s body. Legend has it that from the spot where they fell, a spring of water gushed from the ground. Water as clear and pure as the love the two of them shared. Today, the waters are known as Oromocto Spring. Legend has it that the ghost of the maiden Nashwaaksis can be seen today along the banks of the Grand River, crying out and looking for her lost lover.
Fast forward to the present, and my friend Kevin and I loaded up with film equipment and ghost hunting gear, set out looking for that spot. The area of the Grand River in question was said to be in Doon, so we made our way through the woods and down a steep embankment to a bend in the legendary river. From there, we followed the moonlit waters until we found a small water run off that could be described as a spring.
As the sun went down and the river became obscured by the impending darkness, we found a small clearing nearby and began to set up our equipment. From our spirit box, we quickly heard the word “enemy.” Kevin took this to be a memory or warning from Oromocto about the Iroquois warriors in the area, as if recounting his last moments. I myself am skeptical regarding the reliability of Spirit boxes, so I began taking photographs of the embankment. In the distance, someone lit up a bonfire near the shoreline. You may have heard of the phenomenon of Spirit orbs showing up in photography, and though I am not writing to debate the validity of any given method, I will share with you what we found. Above or perhaps further behind the bonfire, my photographs show one such orb that slowly moved through the landscape.
Kevin had begun scanning the shoreline rocks near the location of the spring and kept getting flashes of the outline of a body while using an SLS camera. The body kept appearing in the same location, and given the stick figure outline that the SLS camera creates, the body seemed to be curled up in the fetal position. A position that would make sense for a dying warrior.
Our final investigation method also gave us strange results when pointed towards the water, just beyond the rocks of the potential “Body’s” location. We were using a thermal camera, and when I pointed it at Kevin, predictably, the camera showed the trees behind him as cold, his body as warm, and his face as the hottest area. I pointed it at the bonfire in the distance, and the fire showed up as a small spot of red, indicating high heat in that exact spot. However, when pointed towards the water and rocks, it radiated with a large area of high heat signature, which I still cannot explain, given that the water should have been the coldest part of the landscape during early May in Canada.
The rest of the night and the surrounding area proved to be uneventful. Now, I cannot claim that any of our scans are definitive proof of something paranormal. However, I can tell you that the area near the spring and the rocky shoreline had all of our equipment acting up in unusual ways. As always, I will leave it up to you to interpret the clues and evidence to draw your own conclusions. The story may just be a myth, a legend of the local people. Or perhaps, given our odd findings, there may be more to this story, or this location, than the untrained eye can detect.
