By Adam Frisk Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
For more than a century, the historic Reid House at the Haliburton Highlands Museum has offered a glimpse of what life was like during the 19th-century pioneering days.
But for museum staff, locals, and curious visitors, the 1882 structure has long been known to house more than just artifacts.
Next month, the local lore of the Reid House will reach a national audience when the museum is featured on an episode of the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) series Ghost Hunters of the Grand River.
“The Reids would be so shocked to find out that their house, in 2026, was part of a museum and that thousands of people every year were coming to look at their house and find out something about them that’s interesting,” museum director Kate Butler told The Highlander.
Butler, who has been the director of the museum for more than a decade, explained that stories of strange occurrences happening in the house began making their way to her office as soon as she started on the job.
‘There’s a lot going on here’
Some of the stories and happenings Butler has heard include the sound of a ball bouncing down the stairs of the old house and hearing laughter coming from down the hall. She noted that a few visitors have also claimed to see a woman looking out from an upstairs window, or standing out in the garden.
“One story that really stays with me involved a family visiting with their young son, who was maybe three or four,” Butler said. “They went across to check out Reid House, and when they came back over to the main building, the little boy started telling me about another boy inside he’d been talking to. There wasn’t anyone else over there.”
The director said that while she hasn’t seen a ghostly figure herself, there have been some small, unexplained happenings within the walls of the house. “I have not had an apparition appear right in front of my face, but we have seen things like windows that have seemed to open by themselves. Drawers in the house that we were certain were closed, and no one else was in there. We’ve come back, and they’re open,” Butler said. In another instance, an old toy doll that was kept in a carriage moved positions while the house was empty.
But for Butler, none of the happenings feel unwelcome. “I’ve never felt anything malevolent in the building,” she said. “Whatever is here has always been friendly. Early on, investigators told us if the place is haunted, just say hello to them once in a while. So I just figure we’re sharing the space.”
Butler explained that interest in the Reid House began to grow after Andrew Hind wrote about the building in a book on Ontario’s haunted heritage, which led to an initial investigation in 2019 by Wellington County Paranormal Investigators. Then last fall, the crew behind Ghost Hunters of the Grand River did their own investigation.
The team had set up equipment in various rooms of the house and used radio-frequency and sensory deprivation techniques to capture some audio. But were they successful? You’ll have to tune in next month to find out. Despite the TV focus, Butler said that ghost lore is really just a starting point to talk about local history. When people stop in asking about the haunted house, staff use the tales as an opportunity to tell the story of John Russell Reid, his family, and 19th-century life in the County.
“People who come in curious about the ghosts are usually just as interested in the real history,” Butler explained. “We always start with the story of the Reids and the museum itself. Ghost stories are like dessert; they come at the end.”
The episode is set to air on Nov. 25 on APTN and will stream on the APTN app. It will also be available on YouTube at a later date.
“Judging by what we’ve seen from the experience we had with the crew from Ghost Hunters of the Grand River, this place is more haunted than I ever possibly imagined,” Butler said. “There’s a lot going on here.”
