+0 m
01
The Tower
Downtown Cornwall · where the walk begins
The walk begins beneath the clock face, still keeping time for eight communities that no longer need it.
Cornwall, Ontario · All ages · Friday, Saturday & Sunday, after dark
Dark Tales After Dark presents
The Haunted River Walk
A lantern-lit ghost walk from the clock tower, along the St. Lawrence, to the gate of an 1833 jail. Eight stops. Two centuries. One river that drowned an entire county and never gave it back.
Descend
+350 m
02
The Civic Theatre
Downtown Cornwall
Sixty-eight thousand people were reported missing in Canada in 2025. Most came home within days. This is where we talk about the ones who did not — and about the man who kept a buried kit an hour east of here.
+700 m
03
The Point of No Return
Along the river
Nobody drowns in a river that looks dangerous. The rapids were flooded out in 1958 and what is left looks like a lake. Below the dam, the water will not hold a body up.
+1,050 m
04
The Far Harbour
Cornwall waterfront
Upstream ran the Long Sault, the worst water on the upper St. Lawrence and the reason the canal was dug. In 1970 the Eastcliffe Hall went down just upriver with nine aboard.
Along the way · 1 July 1958
Inundation Day
Twenty-seven tonnes of explosives took out the cofferdam. The water came up over four days. Six thousand five hundred people had already been moved to Ingleside and Long Sault. Some houses were jacked onto trucks and hauled away whole. The rest were burned where they stood, or simply left for the river.
- Aultsville
- Farran's Point
- Woodlands
- Dickinson's Landing
- Wales
- Moulinette
- Mille Roches
- Sheek's Island
+1,400 m
05
The Old Bridge
The river crossing · where the piers went down
They were still building the first bridge here when pier two went into the river on 6 September 1898, taking two spans and the men standing on them. Fifteen died. Not all of them came back up.
+1,750 m
06
The Factory
The Domtar mill ground · beside Lock 18
Paper came off this ground for a hundred and twenty-three years, 1883 to 2006, and nine hundred jobs went with it. What the plants along this shore left in the river was buried where it lay.
+2,050 m
07
The Museum
Cornwall Community Museum · where the records are kept
The county’s records live here, back to 1784 — which is how we know what is missing. Canada’s first ghost is said to have been seen just west of here in 1845. There is no 1845 anything.
+2,400 m
08
The Jail
SDG Historic Jail · Water & Pitt Street
They say the carts still run the corridors — iron wheels on stone, always moving away. And the yard: more than two hundred men, it is said, were never carried back out of it.
THE JAIL
End of the walk · Water & Pitt Street
Before you come
Practical things
- Season
- 25 Sept – 8 Nov 2026Friday, Saturday & Sunday nights, weather permitting.
- Departures
- 8:00 & 9:30 pmArrive ten minutes early. We leave on time and we do not turn back.
- Meeting point
- The clock towerLook for the lantern. The walk ends in front of the jail — we gather outside, we never go in.
- The walk
- 2.4 km · 90 minFlat, paved, outdoors the whole way. One washroom stop at the park.
- Group size
- Max 22Small enough that everyone can hear without a microphone.
- Suitable for
- All agesReal history, some of it grim. No actors jumping out, no gore.
- Accessibility
- Wheelchair friendlyThe full route is paved and step-free. Tell us when you book and we will pace it.
- Bring
- Layers and flat shoesThe river wind is colder than the forecast. Always.
$30Adult
$25Student & senior
$25Youth · ages 12–17
$90Family of four
Reserve
Take a lantern
Send us the night you want and we will hold your places and reply with payment details. Nothing is charged here.
Your request is in.
We will confirm your night and send payment details within one working day. Your place is not booked until we reply. Dress warmer than you think you need to.