On a crisp autumn evening, Nadine Bailey deftly throws a black velvet cloak around her shoulders. The sun is setting, casting long shadows along the streets of Old Strathcona, and Bailey is about to guide a group of intrepid travellers, including me, on a dark and mysterious tour of the neighbourhood.
“Over the next hour, we’re going to walk around Old Strathcona,” she says. “We’re going to hear about ghosts, hauntings, murders and mysteries that have happened here.”
As the owner and founder of Edmonton Ghost Tours, Bailey is versed in the macabre parts of Edmonton’s past. Tonight, she begins her tour at the Walterdale Theatre, next to the Old Strathcona Farmers’ Market. She walks through the building’s history, from its origins as the Strathcona Fire Hall 1, to its current role as a community theatre. Over the years, she explains, the building has borne witness to unexplained events, including ghostly ringing bells, clanging chains, neighing horses and even a blonde wig that mysteriously travelled from an upstairs dressing room to the theatre’s main stage.
“To this day, no one knows how it got there,” she says, before guiding guests to the next stop on the tour, down a path she calls Murder Alley.
“Don’t worry, I’m sure that’s just oil,” she says, gesturing at a stain on the pavement. “At least I think so.” I shiver, not from the cool temperatures.
Bailey started Edmonton Ghost Tours nearly 30 years ago, when she realized none of the city’s tourism operators had tapped into the mysterious parts of Edmonton’s past. Her first tour through the Old Strathcona neighbourhood had six guests. What started as a one-woman, one-tour operation, has grown to include additional tour guides running six scary offerings through cemeteries, across the High Level Bridge and around the University of Alberta campus.
“Dark tourism has taken off in the past 10 years,” she says. “I started the university tour, and that one took off. So I started adding other stuff: history tours, cemetery tours, trolley tours, I’m always trying to come up with new ideas.”
Bailey’s latest addition is the True Crime Trolley, in collaboration with Sundog Tours on its Edmonton Explorer tourist trolleys. The hour-long voyage brings guests on a journey around the sites of some of Edmonton’s most notorious crimes, from the city’s first serial killer to modern examples, like the case of Dexter-inspired murderer, Mark Twitchell.
“Some pretty horrific crimes have happened in Edmonton. We go to the places where they took place,” she says.
When she’s not guiding guests around the eeriest parts of Edmonton, Bailey runs a podcast, Haunted Canada, where she interviews experts about hauntings and mysteries across the country. In 2025, it was named Outstanding True Crime Podcast of the Year at the Canadian Podcasting Awards.
“I try to honour the history and the heritage of the place when I’m sharing stories, in a way that doesn’t make it campy,” she says. “We talk about the ghosts and murders, mysteries, whatever is connected to the story, in an entertaining but respectful way.”
Heading into October, Bailey is gearing up for her busiest season yet. Although she welcomes crowds throughout the summer months, the darker nights and changing leaves in the weeks leading up to Halloween seem to attract more visitors, curious to hear her tales.
“People like a good ghost story, and they want something different to do,” she says. “It’s a fun night out for the family.”
Edmonton Ghost Tours
edmontonghosttours.com
