In the 1920’s, the Barry family bought land just outside of town to expand their carpentry business into undertaking as well. Mr. Barry had a fascination with the dead and specialized his carpentry skill to building coffins. The funeral home and graveyard were wonderful additions to the growing city and were welcomed as an upstanding business. Thus, the Current River Valley Funeral Home and Graveyard was founded. The Barry Family was quite happy with their move, that is, until they discovered why the land had been so cheap…
Nathaniel Barry was born on All Hallow’s Eve 1940 into a family of secret keepers. Their only mission in life was to tend to their inherited graveyard and undertaking business, and never let anyone find out what happens the week of Halloween. As a third generation Barry carpenter, Nathaniel was expected to carry on the traditions of his grandfather; a tradition that would eventually become the end of the Barry lineage.
Every year, for an entire week before Halloween, the grotesque dead buried in the Current River Valley Graveyard would rise to seek out blood, bone and sinew. The Barry family did their best to provide fresh meat for their undead guests, which kept the creatures from escaping to murder their unsuspecting neighbors.
Still, the curse of forgotten ancestors on their sacred burial ground was strong and unyielding. Spirit guardians tormented the residents of the funeral home, driving the entire family insane. Nathaniel’s mother began spending extra time selecting “naughty children” for the feast, rather than deer and livestock. The screams of the mayor’s daughter woke the entire city, alerting them to the unbelievable truth of the Funeral Home.
The townspeople forced the Barrys’ to shut down their funeral home and remove all the bodies from their graveyard. They never did. The Spirit Guardians thwarted any attempts to rid the area of the decaying remains. Nathaniel’s parents supposedly killed each other that night, stabbing one another in the heart. Some say it was the curse claiming payment.
So the task fell on the backs of those who desecrated the sacred grounds to tend to their undead curse. Nathaniel and his beloved wife inherited these abominations, and eventually grew to accept them as family. Each year, Mrs. Barry would take great care in preparing a wonderful feast for their loved ones. Unfortunately, the creatures weren’t affectionate the way she was. Rotting teeth ripped through her soft flesh while she tended their graves during the week of Halloween. Nathaniel swore to spend every last day of his life finding a way to destroy the creatures.
Nathaniel grew old and gave up his quest against the curse. He never buried his wife, and her preserved body became his silent companion. His only son, an overgrown terror of a man, tended to the graves on behalf of his elderly father. Together they lived in peace with their curse, protecting their secret from those who wished to destroy it. The City of Thunder Bay grew to encompass the cursed Barry land. To this day people claim that they still see the ghost of Nathaniel’s wife glowing and trying to warn people to stay away or suffer the same fate that she did.