Salem's Lot

In Pickering, Ontario, where Highway 7 meets Salem Road (right between Greenwood and Kinsale) there used to be a small corners known as Salem(a)s Corners. The origin of the name "Salem" dates back to the 1800(a)s.

Salem(a)s Corners was a small farming community. A cemetery was established in 1831. Check this link to see the cemetery(a)s location: http://www.ogs.on.ca/durham/cemeteries/pickmap.htm.

A school was established in approximately 1844. It has been speculated that mills may have operated in the area along Duffin(a)s and Carruther(a)s Creeks. A brick kiln did exist by the creek as evidenced by the 1878 Beers Map. Check this old map link to see its location: http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/countyatlas/images/maps/townshipmaps/ont-m-Pickering.jpg . However, by 1878 there were no mills in this area from here southward.

Since the 1990(a)s, people have reported seeing mists and hearing laughing, screaming or growling sounds in an area well south of Salem(a)s Corners in what has now become known as "Salem(a)s Lot". You may read one such story about Salem(a)s Lot here: http://www.wirenot.net/X/Stories/Ghost/Ghost_C-D/Canada.shtml
(The growling noises came from dogs at the autowreckers that existed just west of here).

The location given here is well south of Salem(a)s Corners (part of the City of Pickering) and is actually in the Town of Ajax, between Rossland Rd. and Taunton Rd., just east of Salem Rd. Click the map link below to see its location. It is actually much closer to the former village of Audley (which existed at the corner of Taunton Rd. and Audley Rd.).

At Salem(a)s Lot you can find the remains of a dam, the old bridge and a stone foundation with a decaying chimney still intact. The bridge was actually an old bridge that was part of Sideline 4, which at one time started at Rossland Rd. (formerly Concession 3) and headed northward over Carruthers Creek in the 1800(a)s. By checking out the 1878 Beldon Map of the area you can see where the bridge crosses one concession SW of Audley. Here is the map link: http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/countyatlas/images/maps/townshipmaps/ont-m-Pickering.jpg

Housing development has now taken over the area, though there were only ever 2 or 3 farmsteads from the 1800(a)s in the general area.

The name "Salem(a)s Lot" simply originates from both the 1970(a)s novel and film of the same name, and from its close proximity to Salem Rd. With a name like that it is no wonder folklore stories have arisen.

I have added a bunch of new photos (Oct. 2009) of Salem(a)s Lot(a)s remains at the next link called "Salem(a)s Lot: Halloween 2009"- so check them out!!

For online history go to: http://www.pada.ca/books/details/?id=215

With such a name it is not surprising the site has become a noted source of outlandish ghost stories and modern folklore in Ajax, Ontario.

An old dam/bridge used to cross Carruther(a)s Creek here. Sideline 4 once ran northwards from Concession 3 (today(a)s Rossland Rd.). Here is the 1878 Beldon Map that shows the area in question: http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/countyatlas/images/maps/townshipmaps/ont-m-Pickering.jpg
Look one concession SW of the village of Audley.

The dam(a)s remains still exist in the bush by the creek here. Nothing ghostly, just history ignored by the modern world. There are also remains of an old home(a)s foundations and chimney in the forest just north of where the bridge once crossed on I.B. Carpenter(a)s property. These were all built in the 1900s. The old road is still there but overgrown in the valley. It is now a trail where kids apparently like to party- I found a lot of beer caps around. I also found other very old goodies (including the dam) so check the new photos- just in time for Halloween too..

IB Carpenter coincidentally also owned property at the ghost town of Howell(a)s Hollow to the north..Howell(a)s Hollow has its own write-up under "Pickering".

For online history of Ajax and Pickering go to: http://www.pada.ca/books/details/?id=215

According to rampetbunny, whose family owned this property in the 1980(a)s:

"we made a stone pad for the chimney/BBQ in the 1980s . there is a old rock quarry on the north west side , there was a upper pond that was feed from the north east side by the CN tracks , the over flow would run down to the dam where the farmers would fill big water tanks to water crops or cows in the dry summers , there were 5 places on there at one point , 1 was a 2 room house ie you just came in off the road about 20 so yards . then a lil one just about 5 yards on the west side of the dam . 1 big hunter(a)s cabin 15 yards up in the east side of the dam . on the north west side of the dam was a 3 room house , then the well was between my grandmothers 2 room lil place."

The silly Salem(a)s Lot stories began circulating sometime after the 1980s when the area became abandoned. As for the story of the ghostly dogs barking: well there used to be an autowreckers just west of Salem(a)s Lot.