The Prince Arthur Hotel is one of the oldest hotels in Thunder Bay, Ontario, infamously part of a prohibition smuggling ring, and hosting the likes of a pre-coronation Elizabeth, Canadian prime ministers, and Johnny Cash.
Established in 1911 on the back of a poker game aboard a private rail car between two partners and principle promoters of the Canadian Northern Railway, The Prince Arthur is home to a wild collection of ghost stories and fantastic lore. Though the manager assured me he’d seen no evidence of spiritual disturbances, a waitress in the connected Portside Steak & Seafood restaurant spoke passionately to the contrary, telling stories of strange energies, smells, and unexplainable smoke formations that hover over guests in their beds.
Granted access to the basement in a private tour, I was able to see where old prohibition tunnels led from the hotel to the waterfront where unsubstantiated rumours claim Al Capone collected barrels of illegal alcohol.
Don’t the tunnels beneath a haunted hotel seem like the perfect place to weather an apocalypse…?
Learn how the old hotel plays into the end of the world.
Within the narrative of The Path That Takes Us Home, I took great creative liberties in the use of this hotel and its subsequent tunnel system. One of the fun things about fiction is that you can take the truth and fashion it into something different. While I took great care with my research and spent a good deal of time exploring the hotel and asking questions of its management and staff there is not (to the best of my knowledge) a bunker hidden beneath The Prince Arthur.
The Path That Takes Us Home is not officially supported or endorsed by The Prince Arthur Hotel and will not be held responsible for misunderstanding caused by its fictional representation within this fictional series.