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2017 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)
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DATE:
January 5, 2017 FROM:
Dane SUBJECT:
Any chance you'd be interested? Hello there my name is Dan I'm among other things a playwright and a historic tour
guide. As a tour guide I
worked in San Francisco for several years, giving tours of Golden Gate park...
and Fisherman’s Wharf. Later
I was a tour guide at San Francisco Former national guard armory. A couple years back though I returned to Washington State
(Seattle’s where I grew up) and worked for a couple years at the Seattle
Underground tour... though I'm not with them anymore. Anyway I was approached a way back by the director of the
Historic museum in Wenatchee WA. He'd
seen some of my work script writing and presenting history in a live setting
that he thought was really engaging and he approached me about trying to put
something together for their museum. After several months we agreed that I would produce a one
night event (Hopefully something that could be reoccurring) were we have an
adults only (21+) night were the museum features some temporary exhibits and a
guided docent tour that is uncensored. Basically
giving contemporary patrons a chance to learn about some of the more juicy /
Scandalous facts and stories that are usual not talked about in traditional
museum settings with their All ages audiences.
I'm working with someone from the Museum itself... and I
had also been working with another young women with a particular interest in
Northwest history... but she recently had to drop out because of health
problems. Anyway so now I'm looking for someone who might be willing
to collaborate with me a little bit this month on the first, research phase were
we are identifying what types of things we are going to feature at the event.
Wenatchee is not a huge town... and Non-profits don't have
all that much budget wise... especially for a sort of experimental even like
this... but I do have a small budget to pay someone an honorarium for helping me
identify some interesting things to include and lend a hand with some of the
research. Anyway I'm familiar with your work from a couple of
publications... like the Weird Washington book, a little less through your ghost
books... and thought that it would be amazing if by some miracle you might be
free and interested to lend me some of your expertise on this. Again the goal is to developed some more "adult
themed" exhibits and stories
that can be presented, we want fight the perception some younger would be
patrons have that History is boring. We
want to shed some light on the juicier stories that you often only hear about if
you’re a real history buff. These
presentations may touch on a wide range of more adult topics including criminal
activities, all manner of vices, sex practices and more.
and since it's being presented in the Wenatchee Museum, we'd want to
connect it to Washington... and as much as possible to Wenatchee and the
surrounding areas. Given their
placement on the Rail lines from the east... and what have you I'm sure there
are many connections we can make with at least some connection that part of the
country. So... I've rattled on enough.
Please let me know if you might have ANY interest in working on the
project and we can schedule a phone meeting to talk in greater details and see
if we could make it worth your while. Or if your not interested but feel like you know someone
who would be perfect for this... by all means let me know.
We are supposed to start our research phase next week and so I'm short on
time to replace my former collaborator. Thanks Is Anyone Interested in Helping Dane? If so, let me know and I will put you in touch with him.
DATE:
December 26, 2016 FROM:
Jackie SUBJECT:
Sighting of the Young Lady at Yaquina Bay Lighthouse in Newport, Oregon
DATE: 26 February 2017 FROM:
Sheryl H. SUBJECT:
Palace Hotel in Port Townsend Hi, Jeff.
This is a strange little incident that I rarely tell because it is so
“weird”. Sounds like you may
understand or have an explanation.
When we got there, I asked to see the book
containing all of the prior guests’ ghostly encounters just so I could debunk
any questionable stories for the room we had booked.
When we walked into our room (the Madam’s room), I felt a great deal of
anxiety which I simply chalked up to being in a reportedly haunted hotel.
(The hotel and its rooms are beautiful, by the way!!!)
There were a few reports of the lamp in the room falling over when nobody
was near it. Guess what?
The bottom was rounded instead of flat, so of course it would fall over
sometimes. A scent of perfume would
occasionally waft through the room, which again I felt could have been from a
past guest or from an adjacent room where somebody was wearing perfume.
I still couldn’t get rid of the creepy feeling, though.
Again, anxiety caused by my own fear of the possibility a ghost. In the morning, my husband left the room to go
to a nearby coffee shop to grab a quick cup of coffee.
I was terrified while he was gone. My
anxiety had increased over time instead of decreasing.
I made myself get out of bed and go into the bathroom to take a shower.
While I was in the shower, my husband had come back, and I heard him yell
my name. I went running out of the
bathroom to see what was the matter. He
was standing beside the bed, looking down towards the floor with the strangest
look on his face. He looked at me
and said, “Did you do that? That’s
not funny!” I didn’t know what
he was talking about.
Marie's Suite, aka the Madam's Room, from Palace Hotel website If I was going to try and trick him into
thinking that there was “really” a ghost in our room, I’d never have
thought of doing anything so silly. I
believe that, if there is no plausible explanation, the ghost in our room must
have been a playful one with a wonderful sense of humor.
We were both so frightened by the whole thing that we checked out of the
hotel immediately, and I didn’t book our management retreat there.
After all, at that time I was the only female on our management team, and
there was no way I was going to stay in a room by myself at that hotel!!! Since then, I’ve done a lot of reading about
all things paranormal. I would love
to find a ghost hunting group that might research the Palace Hotel.
This time, I think I’d be more scientific and less emotional about my
methodology, though!! Sincerely, My Response to Sheryl's inquiry: Hello
Sheryl, So far, no one I have been able to speak with has performed any recent paranormal investigations of the Palace Hotel. I may make a trip up there next Fall. If anyone is interested, here is their website address and other information:
1004
Water Street Port
Townsend, Washington 98368 (360)
385-0773/(800) 962-0741 E-mail:
palace@olympus.net
DATE: March
17, 2017 Jeff, I emailed you a week or two ago about the Palace Hotel.
Since that time, I was reminded about the Lion's Paw in Seaview, WA. It's now privately owned, but served as a hospital for the
Long Beach Peninsula in the 1930's and 1940's.
it was a bed and breakfast for several years, and closed in 2013. My family rented the Lion's Paw for a family reunion before
it closed. I knew it was purported
to be haunted, but found it to be quite the opposite from the Palace Hotel.
When I walked into this house, it felt welcoming, inviting and very
friendly. The only odd things that happened were that, on one night,
the smell of formaldehyde was so strong in the basement that nobody could sleep
there because it burned our eyes. The
smell was gone in the morning. On
the day that we left the Lion's Paw, the formaldehyde smell reappeared in one
corner of the dining room. It didn't
even occur to me at the time that this could be indicative of a haunting. The other odd thing was that one of my sisters said that
somebody sat down on the bed next to her, but when she turned to look, nobody
was there. We've often thought that
this sister has an overactive imagination, so none of us put too much credence
in her ghostly claim. I hadn't let it be known that this location was thought to
be haunted, as it was the only place I could find that was big enough to house
all of us. Now, in looking back, I'm
wondering if we did actually meet up with the "healing spirit" that
was claimed to reside there. Am just wondering whether you've heard about the Lion's Paw
before this. While it's no longer
open to the public, I do have the name and phone number of the owner in case
anyone might be interested in doing an investigation. Thanks again for your time!
My Response: Hi Sheryl, thanks for emailing me about the Lion's Paw. I have heard about the place. One of my friends stayed there several years ago, before it closed. She believed there were two ghosts there, and at least one of them was accompanied by distinctive smells. I put part of her story in my Haunted Astoria book. It looks like I will have to find some friends to visit there soon. Perhaps during the Oregon Ghost Conference in a few weeks? Thanks,
FROM:
Rielly W. SUBJECT:
Native American Spirits
Hi,
there! I
happened to find your site when I was looking for some answers. I live in
Ridgefield, WA which is where the "Cathlapotle" Chinook tribe lived
years and years ago. As you probably know, there is a walking wildlife refuge
which has a plank house replica. I have lived in Ridgefield since I was in 4th
grade, and everyone has walked through there refuge many times, especially as
kids. I always remember feeling a little uneasy down there for some reason, but
never could pinpoint why. Just last night I was chatting to a friend of mine
about a time that we walked to the refuge from her house and as soon as I
stepped into the field by the beginning of the refuge I felt a really heavy
weight on my chest, and felt like it was hard to take deep breaths. I didn’t
mention anything to her at the time because I didn’t really know what to say.
We eventually got to a spot in the refuge where it is like a rocky/grassy hill
with a tree on top. We were just sitting in the grass relaxing and she mentioned
that she felt like she was having trouble getting a deep breath, and I told her
that I felt the exact same way.
There
has always been urban legends growing up in this town that there were native
American burial grounds all over the refuge because there are a lot of random
bumps and mounds/hills in the refuge. It is just kids talking, but we started
talking about how there most likely is remains of early people in the area just
from the fact that they used to inhabit the area. Once we began to talk about
this I felt a little more uncomfortable being there.
It
is also worth mentioning that this guy doesn’t scare easily, he is kind of a
tough-guy who I honestly wouldn’t think would open up about having that
experience. The second thing he told her about was how a few years ago him and a
friend were walking through the refuge during the day and they came up on this
hill/mound and were standing on it. They found a crack pipe and other supplies
that someone would use to smoke crack and they picked it up and chucked it away
into the forest. As soon as they did this they began to hear a noise. You know
when your hearing kind of fades in one ear and you hear a faint ringing sound
from inside your head? Well it was like that but the sound got louder and louder
until this guy was wincing and looked over at his friend who was having the same
exact reaction. They stepped off the little hill to leave and the ringing
stopped suddenly at the same time. Sorry
for making this such a long message, but I am just trying to give you some
background info. I was talking to my friend about contacting someone who belongs
to the Chinook tribe to ask them about the spirituality of the Chinook and how
they feel about spirits of their own people being stuck behind in this life. I
want to be as sensitive as possible and try not to offend them in any way, but I
think it would be interesting to see if I could find someone who would be
willing to come out to the refuge and walk around and see if they can pick up on
any residual negative energy. I feel sad for any potential spirits that are
upset about us being there and I want them to have peace. I don’t even know if
there is some kind of negative spirits or energy there, but I figured it could
be something for me to work on. I
would like to find someone who belongs to the Chinook tribe because I wouldn’t
want to anger the spirits or disrespect them by bringing in (excuse me to put
this so frankly- but a white medium or spiritual reader) because these spirits
would still be stuck in a time where the white men were pretty evil to them. But
it is also pretty difficult to find someone who fits the description of what I
need. If
you have any resources or know someone (even if they aren’t native) that I
could talk to about this I would really appreciate it. Thanks
so much, Rielly
W. My Response: Hello Rielly, Thank you for your
long and detailed email. I confess, many messages people send me are
composed on their phones, and I am not up to some of the abbreviations the phone
thinks up! You have had an
impressive number of encounters out there, with your friends. It seems
like you managed to keep your head, even when things became intense. A lot
of people would have run away in fear. There are a lot of
different types of hauntings. They can range from spirits trapped in one
location, because of unfinished business, or they do not realize they are dead.
Not all of these spirits want to move on. Some people call this a
self-aware, or autonomous spirit. Then again, some people seem to leave an
imprint on the land, which replays over and over again, in the right conditions.
This can happen, even if the actual spirits have passed on or over. Some
people call this a snapshot in time haunting, or a remnant. I am unsure if
either of these classifications apply to what is happening at Cathlapotle.
It would take a few visits to find out. To learn more about
the spiritual beliefs of the Chinook and other people of the Pacific Northwest,
there are two good sources/authors to look into. In the 1850s, the US
Government hired an ethnographer
named George Gibbs to gather information on
the region’s tribes. Here is a link to a Wikipedia article on him, which
is pretty accurate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Gibbs_(ethnologist) I will see about
attaching a few documents written by Gibbs, which can tell you about the
lifestyles and language of the people here, in the 1850s-1870s.
Unfortunately I do not have access to pdf documents of his collection of
spiritual tales of the native people. Decades after
Gibbs’ death, a woman named Ella Clark published his collected stories, as
well as other tales she collected from other sources. These stories are as
close as you can get, except for visiting living, Native American
heritage-speakers. Here are some links to places to download or buy copies
of Gibbs/Clark’s works. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20612219?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents http://ntserver1.wsulibs.wsu.edu/masc/finders/cg146.htm https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&an=ella+clark&tn=&kn=&isbn= Regarding your
question about getting a spiritual person to come out to Cathlapotle. I appreciate the way
you want to learn more, but also want to be respectful to the Native Americans,
both past and present. If you are interested in contacting the Chinook,
the website for the Chinook Nation is: http://chinooknation.org/.
They are headquartered in Bay Center, near the mouth of the Columbia
River. While you are right,
many of the Native Peoples did not like whites, in the decades following Lewis
and Clark’s visit. However, others were friendly, so perhaps a visit by
a non-native clairvoyant could be helpful. Would you be
interested in meeting myself and such a person in a week or so? If you
are, let me know and we can put something together. Best wishes,
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Copyright © 1996-2001 by Jeff Davis | Maintained by J. Davis |
On
the evening of October 31st of 2000 and a full moon, We were cruising through
Newport like we always did playing CB tag(Hide and Seek except with cars)and
somebody mentioned driving through the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse park, so since I
was driving we headed in that direction. As we entered the park I got an eerie
feeling but I just kept driving not letting anyone else know how I was feeling
and as soon as my car was in front of the lighthouse my car engine stalled and
stopped and we all noticed a young lady ghost figure wearing a long white
flowing dress. She kept saying "Help Me" over and over until each one
of us physically told her that we couldn't help her. As soon as each one of us
said that we couldn't help her my car started back up on its own and believe me
we were OUT of THERE.
Part
of my job has been to locate fun and interesting places for the management
retreat for the company at which I work.
When
I asked him what he was yelling about, he pointed to the shoes he had kicked off
the night before.
So
we were talking about this last night and she told me that she has heard a lot
of weird stories from people in the area about experiences they have had at the
refuge. For example, a guy she is friend with who went to school with us both
had told her about a few things that have happened to him there. One night when
he was in middle school he decided to walk to the refuge to meet up with from
friends (this was like 8 or 9 so it was dark out.) When he was walking up to the
entrance to the refuge he heard someone running up behind him, but they were
really light-footed and quiet. It didn’t sound like a gawky teenage boy
running through the rocks to meet his friend. But he thought maybe it was just a
friend messing with him so he turned to look behind him and as he turned, the
entity that was making these running sounds ran past him and brushed past the
side of his body and continues running away from him in front of him. But there
was no one there, just the