Whitehorse spooked by mysterious 'loud howling noises'

To some, it sounded like a revving motorcycle. Others compared it to a "very drunk owl," or a "mechanical goose repeatedly honking."

Whatever it was, it drove a lot of people in Whitehorse batty on the night before Halloween.

"Totally driving me bonkers," wrote Sofia Fortin on Facebook.

Nobody could figure out what was behind the strange wail, or where exactly it was coming from. Some phoned Yukon Energy, wondering if something was going on at the nearby Whitehorse hydro dam.

"Shortly before 7 p.m., we started to receive calls from residents in Riverdale who were commenting on hearing loud howling noises in the area," said Yukon Energy spokesperson Stephanie Cunha.

Workers at the power dam were equally baffled. Cunha says there are alarms and sirens throughout the facility to indicate problems, and none were going off. 

"So there was no reason for us to believe that the sound was coming from Yukon Energy or from this plant."

Nevertheless, she said workers did a "complete walk-through," and soon solved the mystery: a very non-spooky spill gate found partially open.

Not a drunken owl or mechanical goose in sight.

"The right amount of the gate being open, and the right amount of water, and the right amount of wind — and just the perfect combination of those three factors led to the howling noises," Cunha said.

"It certainly caught us by surprise."

Relief came quickly for the harried folk in Riverdale.

"We readjusted our gates. And when we closed it we were able to stop the howling," Cunha said.

And so the city rested, and waited, for All Hallows' Eve.