___________________
|
September to October 2006 Ghost Stories
In recent weeks it has come to my attention that certain parties are using my ghost stories and those of my contributors as references for their own commercial enterprises. If you or someone you know is writing a book on ghosts in the Pacific Northwest, PLEASE DO NOT!!! copy or use the following stories or any other materials within this website as references. Jefferson Davis (25 April 2003)
Date: 12 Sep 2006 From: Jim C Subject: Portland – OR At the Hotel Vintage Plaza - managed by Kimpton, in downtown Portland, I experienced moaning in my room on two separate nights (first time a woman, second time a man). On the same evening I heard the man moaning, minutes afterwards, my bed began to shake left to right (it wasn't a violent shake). When my story was told to the night auditor, he said they got that 'complaint' several times...the bed shaking for no reason. Jim
C
Date: 3 October 2006 FROM: Aaron Subject: Yakima River
Canyon I had been visiting a friend in
Ellensburg one night, and it had gotten very late about 2:00 am, I'm a night
person and had been working nights so I was used to staying up all night anyway,
but it was getting late and I told my friend good night and headed out. It was a cold night, no stars or moon
and a black night. I normally take the Yakima River Canyon home to Yakima, and
that night was no different, so I head out, it was a weeknight in the middle of
January at 2:00am, and there was no one out, and completely deserted. I had been driving about 20 minutes
without seeing anything, no cars, no animals, just the music on the radio, and
as I come around a turn a young girl steps out on the side of the road and
starts flagging me down. She was
somewhere between 18-22 years old I'd guess, blond hair, pulled back in a pony
tail, wearing a white winter coat zipped all the way up to her neck, and she was
wearing faded blue jeans, and white sneakers. I of course hit the brakes and came
to a sliding stop about 30 yards past her. I put the car into reverse and went
back and opened the window as I came to the side of the road where she'd been,
there was nothing there but a drop off into the water. To this day I remember
opening the window and calling out "Hello?" into the dark, watching my
breath frost over. I went home and
told my sister about it months afterwards, later she was working and one of her
customers mentioned seeing the same girl in the canyon on a winters night. Now just to be clear I don't believe
in ghosts, I didn't then, and I don't now, I don't really know what I saw, that
doesn't mean it was a ghost though, its a great story to tell people riding with
me through the canyon though, and I still watch for her when I pass that way on
winters nights.
Date: 11 October 2006 From Karan H. Subject: Brookdale Lodge
Reading (California) Hi I did get some activity at
Brookdale but not in room 32 (where we stayed) that was said to be an active
room. If it was, it is no longer.
We were right across from the pool and that is where I felt the activity
still resides (it was closed for the season) But I did take pictures inside
through the windows. We ate in the dinning hall with the
brook running through it and there is no activity that I picked up in there
either. However we asked the waiter
if he knew anything about hauntings. He
said no but then he told us that just a few days before he watched a plate on the table of a customer slide from one side to the other with no one touching it. They even checked to see if the table was level and it was. That same night we had the back door
to our room open (that faces the pool) and I saw a man walk by so I stepped out,
it was the waiter that we had talked to at dinner.
He said he was checking out the pool because they had heard loud banging
noises coming from the pool in the main building.
I told him that was odd, we had our door open for the last half hour and
not a single sound was heard by either of us.
Our room was no farther then thirty feet from the side of the pool that
is all glass windows. There is no
way they would have heard anything in the main building that wouldn't have been
much louder to us. Karan
Date: 13 October 2006 From: Joe and Judy Subject: Rainbow color
streaks? Hi
Jeff, I came across your website while
looking for possible explanations for rainbow
colored streaks in a photo I took in Arizona using my Kodak digital camera.
We were near Sedona and while leaving a vortex site, I turned to take a
shot. It was a very bright, clear day, and I guess it is
overexposed. I was quite surprised
and interested by the effect. Thanks,
Hi Judy, There are several mundane
explanations for rainbow effects not just in > digital cameras, but in film
type cameras. Sometimes on very
bright > days, if you are taking a picture with the sun at a side angle to
your camera, the camera lens sometimes acts like a prism, splitting the visible
light into a rainbow spectrum. This
happens more often with plastic lenses as opposed to glass. I have also taken pictures where
the sun is in the background of the shot, that is the camera lens is looking at
the sun. The direct sunlight can
create a flare across the front of the lens as well.
This is also sometimes rainbow colored. Or you could have a real
ghost/paranormal photo event. I hope my opinion helps. Hi
Jeff, It would be very interesting to have
a real ghost/paranormal photo event going on! However, the more I read about this on the web, the
more convinced I was that your explanation of the lens acting as a prism or
overexposure, or both happening, are more likely explanations.
It is very nice to see however :-) Thank
you so much for your response. Judy
Date: 14 October 2006 From: Joe and Judy
Subject: UFO Conference,
Aug Mt Adams www.eceti.org/index1.html Jeff, (I
gave you my card with a friend whose also an intuitive) Please
believe me when I say I'm not trying to convince you of my point of view, which
might have come across that way when I saw you. It really doesn't matter, we all
have rights to our points of view, no matter how different they are. My reality
stems from my own experiences as yours does for you. I
enjoyed listening to your history information about our area. The library has a
book on Ghost Towns of the North West, a very think book that includes Montana,
Ore., Wa., Idaho, Utah? and New Mexico +/- other states. If you haven't
seen it, might be a good reference.
Date: 18 October 2006 From: Ra H
Subject: Astoria, Oregon hey...after seeing a ghost last week at work, I started researching the internet and found your website...I work in downtown Astoria...I was closing and felt energy behind me and looked...I saw the back of a male...dark short hair...dark pants...probably around 5'9"...he was walking into the next room...I was surprised but not due to the energy in the room for several hours...what I mean by energy is that I sensed there was someone there but couldn't see anyone...and I’ve encountered a number of business owners when I was in sales that told me about 'activity'...or testimonies of those in the downtown Astoria area...so welcome to Astoria, Oregon in November...
Date: 19 October 2006 From: David L Subject: Ghost Stories Dear
Jeff, I
was reading stories on your website and was impressed by the advice and
questions you have given several of the people who have written to you.
You seem like an open-minded and compassionate sort of soul and while I have
never shared my experiences with strangers, for some reason I was compelled to
write you. I
have always believed in spirits; it never occurred to me not to. I did,
however, learn early to keep my mouth shut about things I felt and “knew”
(no better way to put it). Even as a child, one doesn’t like to be
thought crazy. Later, I studied ghost phenomena (strictly as an amateur)
and have come across a dizzying array of fable, hysteria, urban legends, and
here and there stories that rang true. Friends, acquaintances, strangers
and the occasional relative have all told me about odd things that have happened
to them and it’s always interesting (sometimes actually fun!) to swap stories
with people who understand that the world has a lot more depth and strangeness
to it than meets the usual five senses. But in that research, I have come
to understand that EVERY culture on earth has ghost stories…and that in and of
itself argues that spirits are normal phenomena, so to speak. The biggest
problem, to my mind, is that Anyway,
my own experiences have been varied and constant since, well, probably birth.
As a child I often lived in older houses that had a definite sense of history to
them, and spirits that inhabit them. I always felt (and perhaps saw; I
don’t really remember) unseen people around me; even when I was very young
that I understood others couldn’t see or sense these people. I talked to
them and my parents put it down to imaginary friends and a lively imagination.
Which I do admit I possess *grin*. Specific incidences I can relate only since the age of about 14. Until then, it was just a part of who I was and what I “knew” and “felt”…I just sensed spirits around me and didn’t really take note of it as unusual, at least not for me. About this time, I started questioning WHY I sensed things others didn’t, and trying to make sense of things. A couple of manifestations I think you’d be interested in come to mind. My
mother owned a house that was well over 100 years old. When I was 13, my
parents bought it and I remember when we first walked in, I KNEW this was our
house. My parents had dragged me and my brother along to countless houses,
looking for one to buy, and when we walked in to this one, it just WAS our
house. I was supremely unsurprised when they told us we’d be moving in.
My bedroom was basically the entire upstairs portion, which was probably the
attic in its original incarnation, but was now a finished suite of three rooms.
The
middle portion at the time of this story was where my bed was. The bigger
room to the left was used for storage, and the small narrow room on the right
side was my desk and closet area. The staircase leading to my room was
narrow, steep, and made a definite creaking sound when someone walked on it.
The door also made a distinct sound when someone turned the knob, and creaked
when opened. If you were seated on my bed, which was located in an alcove
in front of the dormer windows, you only saw the rails around the hole in the
floor around the stairwell; the door was at the bottom of the stairs. You
could hear the doorknob turn and someone coming up the stairs, but couldn’t
see them until they were at least halfway up. I
was about 15 when this happened. It was fairly late at night and my mother
and brother were both asleep, as far as I knew. I was lying in bed, trying
to get to sleep, when I heard the knob of my door squeal, and the door open.
I heard someone coming up the stairs, but although at first I just thought my
mom or brother was coming up to see me, I suddenly got a little scared. At
the halfway point, (you could hear each step creak, so you knew when to expect a
head to pop up) I realized no one was there. Trembling, I closed my eyes
and listened to this unseen person finish climbing the stairs, walk around the
rails, and over to my bed. I sensed someone looking down at me, lying on
my bed. Eventually, I opened my eyes and still…no one there. Once
I got over being scared, I sensed the presence was male, and meant me no harm.
I didn’t actually SEE anyone, but I got the impression of a kindly older
gentleman who smiled at me. Then he was gone. Later
that same year, I had another odd encounter. The family room of this house
was a converted 2-car garage (the core of the house was old, but had been built
on to over the years). The door to it had a spring that pulled it shut
after you walk through. Our dog, Danny, was a Sheltie who was very
smart and had figured out how to open the door by sticking his paw in the gap
under the door and prying it open enough to thrust his nose into the partially
open door and slither in. Of course, the door would shut behind him as he
wiggled through. The
hallway from the main part of the house was narrow, and the door opened into the
hall, not into the family room (or Danny could have simply pushed the door
open). This door also made a distinct creak when opened. One night,
I was in there with my boyfriend and we both heard the door creak. We
turned to look and saw Danny walking into the room with the door all the way
open to the wall, as if someone was holding it open to let him pass, but no one
was there. There was no room for a person to be behind the door, and even
if there was, we could have seen them, since the hinges were large enough to
make a gap big enough to see the wall. Besides, the dog wasn’t touching
the door at all, and despite the spring attached, the door remained open until
he was halfway into the room. Possibly
the weirdest thing is that neither me nor my boyfriend (or for that matter, the
dog) were freaked out. There was no malice in the presence at all.
In fact, we both just said “Thanks George!” (that was my name for my ghostly
visitor) and went on watching our movie. And strangely, we never discussed
what had happened. These
incidences happened over 20 years ago, and remain my most concrete
manifestations, although I still sense spirits around me regularly.
Mostly, they are benign, and we coexist peaceably.
I’d be interested in your comments, if you have any. Thanks,
Date: 22 October 2006 From: Amy S Subject: ghosts in NE
Portland, OR Hey
Jeff.
I read some of your ghost stories about Oregon and Portland, and I had a
question about a particular house in NE Portland. Its on NE Junior St
directly north of the Concordia University Campus. In fact, it’s owned
by the university and is used for married housing. I had a friend who
lived there with her husband and I often went there several times a week.
Her basement was unusually cool at all times of the year, particularly one room
(the basement is finished) which is painted yellow. The rest of the house is
painted white. I
have been coming into new sensing abilities, as my mother and sister see and
feel presences as well, and in the last few months they lived there, I’ve seen
people walk up to the house, but not come up to the door and knock, and no one
else sees them. he/she is wearing all white ... at least it seems that
way. The following summer (this past summer) my friends were around more
often and they often saw someone walking by in the driveway, but they never came
up to the house to knock. And they never went to the sidewalk. They
sort of just disappeared. The basement always felt like there was someone
else down there. One
evening when me and my friend were looking through pictures, I felt another
presence down there, and it was as if it was sitting down on the floor with us,
watching us. the room grew gradually colder, and I was growing more and
more frightened of being down there. And we were in that yellow room.
When we left that room, I felt safer, so I am wondering if you knew anything
about this house, or whatever happened in it. The address of it is 28xx NE
Junior St, Portland, OR 97211. I
do not know the particular ways of researching an address of a house and the
history or what not, and if u do not have the time, then tell me how to do it,
but I was particularly curious about it, mostly because my nerves and senses
were so heightened every time I went there. Granted, they don’t live
there anymore, and in fact the marriage ended in that house, and I am wondering
if the haunting had anything to do with it. The house seems to have been
built in the late 50s or early 60s. It has a only one level and the
basement. If
you know anything about this house, and if you don’t, please let me know.
My friend was particularly weirded out by it, and I am mostly curious about it.
Thank you for your time. Hello
Amy, No,
I don’t know the people who live there now. The house had been vacant
until just recently, but my friend who lived there with her now ex-husband knows
them, but it’s more or less a relationship based on the buying of appliances.
but thank you for your reference. I appreciate it.
Date: 24 October 2006 From: Krista G Subject: PDX Ghost Story Hello Jeff, I saw your site and wanted to give
some info on another Portland ghost story: My
sister, Michele C. worked for the Rheinlander and Gustav's for over 15 years. She started as a waitress and moved up to management and
eventually General Manager of the restaurant.
It was while she was manager and GM that she experienced/heard about a
few different paranormal events. The first was the sound of a woman
crying/wailing up in one of the locked manager's offices in the upper portion of
the restaurant (I've never worked there so I don't know the lay out of the
building well). Two different
people who worked there about ten years apart (they didn't know one another)
both report the same thing. Both
people said it was in the morning when they opened the restaurant.
One of the waitress, a young woman,
was looking for a place to change into her uniform and she didn't want to go
down into the basement so she went upstairs and that's when she heard someone in
one of the offices "crying her eyes out".
Just after that, the acting manager arrived, the young woman went down
and told her to come check it out, and the two of them went back upstairs and
unlocked the office but no one was there. And
again, this crying had been heard by others as well. The second was when she was GM.
The restaurant had been closed up for about a ½ hour or so when the
security company called my sister at home telling her one of the motion
detectors was going off in the restaurant.
It was in one of the banquet rooms and it was something big (person size)
not like a curtain flapping in the wind or something.
They told her none of the doors going into the restaurant had been opened
and nothing was happening in the other rooms.
They suggested the idea that someone (a janitor maybe) may have gotten
locked in when they closed up (people would go into the empty rooms to take
quick power naps on the later shifts) but whoever it was was still there and,
again, moving around in one of the banquet rooms. So she called the police and they met
her at the restaurant but when they went inside no one was there.
They checked the motion detector to make sure it wasn't faulty (being
such a large building their security equipment had to be up to par at all times)
but it was fine. The last thing was the most
disturbing. My sister was closing
up the restaurant and was counting the tills at the safe when she saw someone
pass by out of the corner of her eye. But
when she turned to see who it was there was no one there.
She went back to work and this time she felt/heard someone behind her.
She was suppose to be alone but thinking it was one of the cooks/staff
she turned around and, again, no one was there.
She thought it was very odd because she KNEW she felt/heard SOMEONE (the
floors in the Rheinlander are poorly constructed/not solid and flimsy - it's an
old building). She made a mental note because she
and others knew that the restaurant was known to be haunted.
So she went back to counting and again someone came up behind her but
this time the person was running, she felt the floor rattle/bounce (for lack of
better words) as if someone was stomping up behind her.
She did not want to respond again because she felt that it would
encourage the activity so she quickly finished up and went home, totally weirded
out. The next night she asked one of the
cooks to stick around with her because she "freaked herself out the night
before and thought she saw/heard/felt a ghost.” She said she felt stupid telling the guy that but wanted him
to stay. He agreed and waited there
with her while she locked up all the doors, and set the perimeter alarms and
went to work counting the tills at the safe.
The cook was leaning back against one of the walls beside her resting his
eyes (she said he was really tired and had mentioned it to her so she was trying
to hurry) when all of the sudden she heard this huge boom boom boom boom boom
like some one was running down one of the halls in the restaurant (again the
crappy floors echo/thunder really bad). She turned around to say to him
"Did you hear that?!?!?" when he jumped up and shouted "What the
*%*!# was that?" and started running toward the noise.
None of the alarms had gone off so
they knew whoever it was still in the restaurant but they searched the place and
found nothing. I don't know if you've received other
stories about the Rheinlander but it may be something to look into.
My sister is not one to make up silly stories and I've never heard her
mention anything like this about any other place.
When she, of all people, told me about it I believed her! Krista
G Hello Krista, Thanks for sending me the story of your sister's experiences. I had not heard anything strange about the place before. I will be doing an update in the second week of November, perhaps I can include your email, minus your sister's name, and see if anyone else has had anything happen to them too? I may see about visiting there
myself, or forwarding the idea to another ghost hunter group. Jeff Davis Sure, no problem.
My sister said pretty much everybody who worked there for any amount of
time knew the restaurant had a "history".
She said it was pretty well known so if someone who used to work there
reads your site they should respond. Let
me know if you have any other questions.
Date: 25 October 2006 From: Jerry Subject: Olympia Jeff,
Date: 26 October 2006 From: Shelley P Subject; Ghosts at Old
Montana Prison This
past summer my husband and I took a road trip on our motorcycles to Wyoming.
We stopped at the Old Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge along the
way. I didn’t expect anything to
happen and was not even thinking about seeing ghost or spirits. I wasn't feeling
well and really was having hard time dealing with the heat. My mind was not
on ghost hunting. When I got to the cellblock they refer too as Siberia
West, I was suddenly struck dead in my tracks with fear.
I
couldn’t even walk inside the doorway. I grabbed my husband and begged
him to walk away quickly; in fact I think I was shoving him away from the doorway. I caught
myself fighting back tears. I
was terrified! You should know, I have spent my entire life having spirit
visits, and am comfortable talking about paranormal activity.
I am usually only given the names of someone who has passed and have
never actually seen a spirit while I was fully awake.
The fact I reacted this strongly to something I could not see, really
shook me up.
My
husband snapped a picture. I was
doing my best to get out of that area as fast as I could. After that experience I was more sensitive to spirit activity for
the rest of the tour, but nothing unnerved me like cell block 10! I can
tell you with certainty, Old Montana State prison has many spirits waiting
to greet each visitor. I also was given the names, Amanda and Jake. Both names were
confirmed to be in the prison records by the prison staff. I also was told that
cellblock 10 housed the most criminally insane. When
I got home and downloaded my pictures to the computer, I found this picture of Siberia
West. Cellblock 10. There was nothing there when I was there in person, but
you can see clearly there is something in the end cell. When I blew this picture
up, I was shocked to see two hands, one holding something like a flashlight, and
a partial face from the nose down. Nose,
Mouth and Chin are very visible. Its
as if he is shadowed half way down his face.
The head is also tilted a bit.
I
say "HE" because that’s the definite feeling I got. When I tried to
lighten the picture, I could see the bones in the spirits fingers.
His finger tips have a light I originally thought was fingernail tips,
(like a French manicure) but now I think it's energy. When you blow the
hands up really big its obvious its not white, but a very bright light.
Although I am fascinated by the paranormal, I don’t think I could ever revisit
the Old Montana State Prison. I cannot look at this picture without feeling as
terrified as the day I was there in person. Shelley
P
Date: 28 October 2006 From: Karen S Subject: Bruce Lee’s
grave http://www.ghostsandcritters.com/December%2005.html
In
regards to the picture of Bruce Lee's tombstone, a writer by the initials of T.C.
submitted a picture of Bruce Lee's tombstone with a supposed reflection.
If you googled Bruce Lee's gravesite, you'll notice that his tombstone is an
dark orange colour and not black. Also, the stone itself is barely
reflective so I don't see how this picture/image can be real. Brandon
Lee's tombstone on the other hand is black and very reflective. I took a
picture a few weeks ago and it shows a profile of a face. Take a
look at my pictures which are linked to my flickr site. http://www.flickr.com/photos/karenseto/page3/
Karen in Toronto
Date: 30 October 2006 From: Brent A Subject: Ghost Hunting Hi
Jeff My Name is Brent A, My wife and I were at one of your book signings at Barnes and Nobles in Vancouver. We were interested in the Edgefield story so I booked a weekend get away (this last weekend) We
stayed in the main house on the third floor (room 314) right in the
middle by the door that sometimes is found open (it stayed closed.)
I don’t know if when you stayed there if you heard the bell chime
in the bell tower or not but on Friday night at nine pm my wife and I heard it
chime in the bell tower and did not think anything of it.
So when it rang at six am we also did not think anything of it.
It is Saturday now and we have a tour at two pm and as we were going
around with the tour guide we brought up bell (she looked at us as what are
talking about.) So when we got done
with the tour we went back to the front desk and asked if they rang the bell,
they do but not at those times. So
with the tour guide we went to the rules of poorhouse when it was open and read
that they rang the bell at six am and at nine pm. I don’t know what to
say about this, but it did happen and we asked the questions (this did make the
weekend an experience that we will not forget soon.) You
can check this out if you like the tour guide name was Tiffney. Thanks
for your time and good haunting Hi
Brent, Thanks for emailing me about your experiences at the Edgefield. It's a funny thing about some of those old bells. I bet that they don't even have the bell anymore. I am on the road (again) right now. I will check in with them soon after I return. I am trying to get them to carry my books in their gift shop again. In
addition to your experience, I hope you enjoyed everything else about the place.
It is one of my favorites in the Portland area. Thanks again for buying my
books, and sharing your experiences. If you don't mind, I will include it
in my next web update. Sincerely, Hi
Jeff, We
don't mind at all, it will be fun to read about it, and one more thing they did
have one of your books there A Haunted Tour Guide to the Pacific Northwest
(two copies) I bought one and by the time we left the other one was gone. Thanks
again, let us know when you include the story on your website update.
Want to share a story?
Copyright © 1996-2001 by Jeff Davis | Maintained by J. Davis |
