ParaGhoul Paranormal: Discoveries from the Dark
Oct 1, 2026 · 20 min · 9 segments
Season 3 or ParaGhoul Paranormal begins with a new format. Welcome to What Haunts Saskatchewan? Investigating Gravelbourg, a season-long paranormal investigation that follows the stories, history…
However, as you drive in, you are surrounded by what locals call a little piece of Europe on the prairies.
This has to do with the French culture that helped start this town in the early 1900s.
It was incorporated as a town in 1916, although the settlement started earlier, and some of the help was from Father Louis-Joseph Pierre Gravel.
He is said to have been an important figure behind the Francophone movement into Western Canada, although I found some sources that disagreed with that statement, thinking that these settlements probably would have happened regardless of his involvement.
But Father Gravel, however, first visited the area we now know as Gravelburg, you know, after his name, in 1906, although he wasn't the first to arrive.
Some had already settled in the area, but Father Gravel, with his brother Emil, chose the site as a location for setting up a parish.
What was different about this settlement, or so I read, is that before the townships were settled, Emil began taking Francophone names from those who wanted to settle in the area to sort of like reserve the land before it could even be purchased.
Now, apparently this was Father Gravel's aspiration to build a Francophone settlement in the heart of the prairies to establish a strong community for the French language and the Catholic faith.
And wow, did he ever, you know, deliver on that, which we'll get to in a second here.
For almost a year, Emile, his brother, would reserve sections of land for those from the French community before a church was even built on the Gravel's land.
So by 1917, enough people had settled in the area for it to officially become incorporated as a town.
I found one record even stating that it was the most populated RM in Saskatchewan in 1928, which sounds like, you know, quite a big feat to be able to accomplish.
especially right before, you know, the dirty 30s or the depression that would come.
So the first school was built in 1910 with the father petitioning even for the Canadian Northern Railway to have their tracks come through Gravelburg in 1913. which of course would be later transferred to the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1984.
As we know, many of these railways, the companies would collapse, dissolve, shut down until finally that even the Canadian Pacific Railway backed off.
Now, the father would also bring in other religious groups to help bolster the community, including the sisters of Jesus and Mary, whom he convinced to send five sisters to Gravelburg to teach in a convent.
However, as you drive in, you are surrounded by what locals call a little piece of Europe on the prairies.
This has to do with the French culture that helped start this town in the early 1900s.
It was incorporated as a town in 1916, although the settlement started earlier, and some of the help was from Father Louis-Joseph Pierre Gravel.
He is said to have been an important figure behind the Francophone movement into Western Canada, although I found some sources that disagreed with that statement, thinking that these settlements probably would have happened regardless of his involvement.
But Father Gravel, however, first visited the area we now know as Gravelburg, you know, after his name, in 1906, although he wasn't the first to arrive.
Some had already settled in the area, but Father Gravel, with his brother Emil, chose the site as a location for setting up a parish.
What was different about this settlement, or so I read, is that before the townships were settled, Emil began taking Francophone names from those who wanted to settle in the area to sort of like reserve the land before it could even be purchased.
Now, apparently this was Father Gravel's aspiration to build a Francophone settlement in the heart of the prairies to establish a strong community for the French language and the Catholic faith.
And wow, did he ever, you know, deliver on that, which we'll get to in a second here.
For almost a year, Emile, his brother, would reserve sections of land for those from the French community before a church was even built on the Gravel's land.
So by 1917, enough people had settled in the area for it to officially become incorporated as a town.
I found one record even stating that it was the most populated RM in Saskatchewan in 1928, which sounds like, you know, quite a big feat to be able to accomplish.
especially right before, you know, the dirty 30s or the depression that would come.
So the first school was built in 1910 with the father petitioning even for the Canadian Northern Railway to have their tracks come through Gravelburg in 1913. which of course would be later transferred to the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1984.
As we know, many of these railways, the companies would collapse, dissolve, shut down until finally that even the Canadian Pacific Railway backed off.
Now, the father would also bring in other religious groups to help bolster the community, including the sisters of Jesus and Mary, whom he convinced to send five sisters to Gravelburg to teach in a convent.
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