Bill Fernie

We tour western Canada every year and have built up a lot of great relationships with people from far and wide. One of our favorite places to play is a great city tucked in the mountains called Fernie. Each time we’ve played there, some of the local residents would tell us about the story of William Fernie and the Ghost Rider. Folklore has it that in the late 1800’s, William noticed a young woman of the local Ktunaxa people wearing a coal necklace. William, being a prospector, asked where she found the precious stones. The girl’s father agreed to tell William on the condition that he wed his daughter. William accepted. As soon as he learned where the coal deposits were located, he backed out of the deal and a curse was placed on the city Fernie as we know it. The city has had its fair share of floods and fires which would lead some locals to question whether the curse is real or not! When the sun sets in the summer and fall time, a shadow is cast on the side of Mount Hosmer. You can see the silhouette of a person on a horse riding angrily towards the city, the Ghost Rider. It’s Canadian folklore that needed music and lyrics so I wrote a song about it!