Close to a dozen residents in the Esterhazy area have recently reported hearing a strange, pulsing low-frequency sound.

Judith Smider has lived on a farm near Hazelcliffe, located south east of Esterhazy, for the last 25 years. She said she first noticed the mysterious drumming sound in October. Since then, it hasn’t stopped.

“It really is terribly, terribly hard on the nerves,” Smider said. “You can’t get away from it”.

Laura Lomenda lives east of nearby Gerald, and says she can hear the noise Smider described as sometimes sounding similar to an engine.

“Sometimes it even has a grinding noise, just like a motor running,” Lomenda said.

Smider has contacted numerous government officials, potash mines in the area and SaskPower, yet none of them have been able to help identify what the noise is and where it’s coming from. She also says she’s heard the noise as far as Spy Hill, Yorkton and even Regina.

“Everybody has tried their best, but they don’t know what it is,” Smider said.

The Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment says environmental protection officers were in the area for an inspection on Monday and Tuesday, but they didn’t hear anything unusual. The officers also checked the start-up dates of any new equipment or events that could cause any noise like the one Smider describes, but couldn’t determine anything that could contribute to the sound.

“Most people can’t hear it,” Lomenda said about the mystery sound. “It’s a very, very deep noise, and lots of people can’t hear that. They can hear higher noises, but not lower.”

Doug Henheffer, a hearing instrument practitioner with Chicken Cow Hearing Centre in Yorkton, says although the low frequency sound won’t cause any hearing damage, it is enough to be quite the nag.

“If they’re picking up a sound that they have not heard or cannot recognize, their brain is going to rack itself to try to figure it out,” Henheffer said. “It can be antagonizing to say the least.”

Henheffer adds it’s possible that not everyone can hear the noise

“You can hear a low frequency from a long, long distance,” he said. “Some people, just like anything, they’re more sensitive to it.”

Smider, Lomenda and other residents hope more people have been able to hear the sound, and that someone who has may know exactly what’s behind it.

Based on a report from CTV Yorkton’s Stefanie Davis