The Dungarvon Whooper: A Lumber Camp Ghost of New Brunswick

The Dungarvon River runs through the forests of central New Brunswick, part of the Miramichi system, where generations of lumbermen spent winters in remote camps. The best-known ghost story of those woods concerns a young cook, usually called Ryan.

The story

As the tale goes, while the crew was out cutting, the camp boss killed the cook for the money belt he wore and buried him in the snow, telling the men he had died suddenly. That night a terrible whooping sound came from the woods and drove the lumbermen from the camp. It went on until a priest came and said a Mass over the grave. In some versions it still sounds.

Song and record

The schoolmaster-poet Michael Whelan set the story to verse in 1912, and it became a staple of the region. Folklorists in Canada and the United States recorded it from local singers; recordings survive at the Library of Congress and the University of Maine. A railway train on the line nearby was nicknamed the Dungarvon Whooper. No record of the murder has been found.

Ledger status

Marked folklore. Map position is river-region level; the reputed grave is not pinned.

Sources

• Library of Congress, American Folklife Center recording — loc.gov
• University of Maine, Song and Story Sampler — digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu
• Wikipedia, “Dungarvon Whooper” — en.wikipedia.org

Part of the World Ledger, batch 1. Original text; no images are used.