What's New

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.

Here are some buttons which will take you to an archive copy of the last three years or so of the "What's New" section I began in 2001.

It has been a long time since I have posted any news in this What's New section. For those people who have come back to this portion time and again, I apologize for not adding any new articles. I have been busy, but I have not had anything that I have thought interesting enough (paranormal wise) for readers to post.

As many of you know, I am in the US Army Reserves, and I frequently travel for extended periods of time for the military. In the latter half of 2003, I spent over six months in Afghanistan, deployed as a military historian. It was a rewarding time going from firebase to base, talking to soldiers about their experiences. Sometimes it routine, but every once in a while it was pretty exciting, and always interesting. In 2004, I stayed on active duty in Florida from February through June, writing up reports on the personal stories I recorded. I was home for about 11 months, fixing my property, which had suffered from me being gone for a couple of years, before I was again on Active duty. Last year, in 2005, I spent nearly six months on Active Duty at Fort Lewis and other places in Washington State. This was a mix of administrative duties supporting the ROTC program, and giving military history tours of the Pacific Northwest.

This assignment was good for me as a civilian, because it gave me the idea for my next book. I am currently researching and writing a tour guide to battlefields and European exploration in Washington and Oregon. I hope to have it finished and in bookstores by Christmas of 2007. If you are interested, please contact me at: jddavis@rocketmail.com.

As I wrote at the beginning of this page, I have been done some things paranormal wise, and I will post a few of them below:

Early in 2006, my friend, Shannon Steadman, a paranormal investigator approached me, and asked me to be a guest on her new Seattle area cable talk show on Scan-TV. She called it Seattle Paranormal. We taped one, 30 minute episode, which has already aired. It was so fun, that I asked to come back, and she asked me to host an episode. That episode has also aired, and her show continues. Unfortunately, Shannon has not had the time to post a schedule online. If you are in the Seattle area, I suggest you check the link to scantv.org hopefully they will list out Shannon's program.

In 2005, my wife Janine and I traveled back to England to visit school friend, and do a little bit of paranormal tourism. Our first stop was London, where we took a Jack the Ripper walk, hosted by Philip Hutchinson. There are at least four companies that take tourists on a nightly walk over the same ground where Jack the Ripper stalked prostitutes in the alleyways of London's East End. There are also assorted ghost walks. For a look at some of the places we have visited in the past, visit Samuel Pepys house.

Up to last year, my favorite Jack the Ripper walk was the one put on by a place called ripping yarns. I must confess that I enjoyed Philip's walk even more. He has been interested in the paranormal as well as the historic aspects of the site for several years. He even participated in a seminar on it. http://www.ghostclub.org.uk/ripper.htm His tour costs a bit more than most of the other walks, but that is because guests ride a bus most of the way to the East End, rather than walking. http://www.goldentours.co.uk/tour.php?18 This saves about three miles and some sore feet, which some tourist prefer.

Philip has been a member of the Ghost Club for several years. The Ghost Club has been in operation since the late 1800s, and it is the oldest paranormal society in the world. Phillip lives in a small town named Guildford, a short train ride outside of London. Guildford is famous (in England) for being the town where Lewis Carroll had a home, where he entertained his friends. He died there, and is buried in the cemetery. Guildford witnessed other, less famous historic events. Their castle has recently been restored, and is open to visitors on a seasonal business. When it is open, Philip is there much of the time. He has worked there for 12 years, and is the senior custodian.

When he is not taking people on Jack the Ripper walks in London, Philip conducts haunted Guildford walks, and has recently written a book on the same subject.

It is available on Amazon.com in the United States. Haunted Guildford. It is a delightful read. Philip takes care not to embellish just to make the story interesting, and sticks to the facts. If you are interested in a walk around Haunted Guildford, contact him Philip Hutchinson

This is to let you know that The Washington State Ghost Society has a new home base. We are now located in the City of Snohomish at the Oxford Saloon & Eatery on the third floor in Room # 6.

We are very excited to have an actual base of operations where we can help people and provide a comfortable environment for our clients to meet with us and talk about their various experiences. We hope that you can come by someday and visit with us.

We will be holding a fund raising event in the near future and hope you all can come to see us and join in on the fun. The day of the drawing for the Grand Prize will be about a 3 hour event with a presentation and open forum discussions on paranormal phenomena. I will let you all know when this event will take place.

I have added your message to my website. I hope to finish the update tomorrow. Please check back in with me Monday, and let me know what you think and want to add. We've all got to stick together.
Jeff

I agree that we all need to stick together. I wanted to let you know that we will be having a special event at the Oxford Saloon in Snohomish with a presentation and so forth on June 10th from 12:30pm - 3:30pm on a Saturday. We would love if you could join us and maybe give us your expertise in this field at the audience participation part. I will be sending you a flyer about the event that is attached to this email ok.

To be Co-Hosted by West Coast Paranormal & Trails End Paranormal Society. We still have allot of work to do, but location has been established. The Scream at the Beach Haunted House has offered to host this years event at Jansen Beach. Also the Cascade Geographic Society is again taking part with their Shanghai Tunnel Tours. Michael has also said our tapes from last years conference will be available by them. I know I have been waiting hoeing to see what all was said by our speakers.

We will be having a special mixer for all groups, speaker and venders on the 13 of Oct. Note Friday the 13th is a full moon. Again this event will be free for the public as this is our chance to educate and spread the word on the paranormal. Washington State and Northwest Paranormal are also on board.

As some of you know, AGHOST has been working on a new method in communication with the other side. In doing so, we developed the PK Board. Which uses PK (psycho kinesis), The ability to move objects with the mere thought or in our case in dealing with spirit activity. We are using PK to see if spirits that move objects, can now move a needle. Now this is only effective in locations where physical activity has been reported.

The PK Board which utilizes PK energy to allow the spirit to move a needle on a board with letters and phrases. Inspired by the Ouija board, but eliminates the living human factor, by removing the holding of a pointer. This allows the spirit energy to communicate by simply moving a needle across the board to spell out words or in a simpler form, refer to a phrase or word, such as â€œYes or NOâ€.

In developing this new device, we have been running experiments at several haunted locations. The first, proved positive, when children made contact with a spirit in the room. They proceeded to ask questions and received answers through the movement of the board. Unfortunately we missed out on capturing this data on video, but did witness results.

In recent events, The PK Board was used at a restaurant in Steilacoom. Where the physical results have been recorded on video. These results will be shared at the next AGHOST meeting on the 18th.

So with this data and more to come, AGHOST may find itself in the history books, for the development of a new source in speaking with spirits. Already other groups, such as the Ghost Club are helping us to collect this data in support that there is something out there.

Also keep an eye out for the other devices we are working on. Such as the Spirit Typewriter, which uses other methods of spirit energy in communication.

AGHOST used to stand for the Amateur Ghost Hunters of Seattle and Tacoma. After several years of work in the paranormal field, they have changed their name to the Advanced Ghost Hunters of Seattle - Tacoma. They have also revised and updated their website.

I will be working with them on their annual ghost hunters getaway. This year it will be in Astoria, Oregon, on November 11 - 12th.

These tours were created by real ghost hunters from the organization AGHOST (Advanced Ghost Hunters Of Seattle Tacoma), one of Americas leading paranormal investigation groups and inspired by the upcoming book “Spooked In Seattle” by authors Ross Allison and Joe Teeples. These ghost hunters are thoroughly trained in the investigative field of paranormal research and offer guided tours on true experiences and research on the unknown world of spirits. Tours will begin on March 7, 2006. Please call 253 203 4383 to schedule.

Ross and his fellow AGHOST members are continuing their efforts to support themselves in other ways. Visit their store and see if anything interests you.

I have been selling my books over the Internet for several years. In that time, I have sent out books that were mis-delivered or lost, but I have not had a customer actually order and take delivery of books, and then refuse to pay. This person ordered an entire set of books from me, with a value of over $70, including my paying postage. Because of this, from now on, I will have to ask for payment in check or money order before I send any books. To all my honest customers, I apologize for this necessary change. The fraudulent book order is below:

Item #	Item	Price	Tax*
1	Ghosts & Strange Critters of Washington and Oregon	$10.95	.00 ea
2	Ghosts, Critters & Sacred Places of Washington and Oregon	$12.95	.00 ea
3	Ghosts, Critters & Sacred Places of Washington and Oregon II	$12.95	.00 ea
4	Ghosts, Critters & Sacred Places of Washington and Oregon III	$13.95	.00
5	A Haunted Tour Guide to the Pacific Northwest	$15.95	.00
	Shipping and Handling, First book only	$0.00	X
	Shipping for each additional book	Free	X

I would like to order one of each of your books. I absolutely love you're website and can't wait to read your books.

Belinda Miller

XXXXXXX

Spokane Wa 99205

509XXXXXX

This is a new section with listings for some of the many ghost walks being given across the Pacific Northwest, and in England. I would like to have comments on these and other ghost walks.

As readers probably know, I am helping plan and put on the 4th Annual Ghost Hunter's Get Away, in Astoria this November. In honor of this year's conference, I am going to write a book on haunted Astoria. If I write quickly, I will have it out for Halloween. As part of this project, I have visited Astoria a few times, trying to get some background information, and coordinate with local businesses. I am amazed at the civic spirit of the people in Astoria. I started by contacting the local Chamber of Commerce. I found that the little town of around 15,000 people are involved in many community events and protecting their heritage. After speaking to a number of volunteers, I learned that most of them had volunteered at many of the local museums, or historic houses. There are probably more museums per capita in Astoria than anywhere else in the northwest. They also volunteer for tourism events, such as beer fests, and water sport competitions. They talked freely about many of the strange things they saw or experienced.

Probably one of the most famous historic residences in Astoria is the Captain Flavel house. He was Astoria's first commercial pilot, who guided ships past the mouth of the Columbia River. This made him a rich man, and it showed in the house he built. Guess what, it may be haunted.

Another haunt I will return to investigate will be the Elliot Hotel, downtown Astoria's oldest and finest. The Elliot Hotel is right next to the Liberty Theater, once a movie theater, now Astoria's Performing Art's Center. There are enough haunts to make for an interesting ghost walk in downtown Astoria. I will be going back to Astoria soon to visit more haunts and historic places.

The place I want to highlight is a place called the Officer's Inn, Bed & Breakfast. The Officer's Inn was built in Warrenton, southwest of Astoria proper. As its name suggests, it was built in 1905 as housing for military officers serving at Fort Stevens.

Like most military houses, except for general officers, or the post commander's residence, this was a duplex, and each half was the mirror image of the other side. This is quite a large building, and senior officers, such as Colonels and their families lived there. Each part of the duplex included space for servant's quarters and a back staircase. Not that all of the officer's were rich enough to hire servants. In that time, there were two classes of officer's in the Army. There were many rich families whose children joined the Army and served, by tradition. If they lived well, it was because they had some secondary income. Most of the officers were in the military to try and make a living as well as tradition. If they did not have another source of wealth, they had to put on a front. The Innkeeper, Laurie told me that a woman, who had lived there as a child visited. The woman talked about how they were so poor they hung sheets up over the windows instead of curtains.

I interviewed Laurie about strange things that happened at the Officer's Inn. I did this a day or two ahead of my friends of AGHOST. Although Laurie did not think that she was psychic, she seemed to have enough experiences to qualify as being psychic. Some of the things she described were strange smells, and some physical effects.

Laurie lived in the servant quarters on the left side of the building. Shortly after she moved in, she was in her bedroom late at night. She heard the sound of someone walk up to her back entrance, and put a key in the lock. She heard the sound as it slid in, locking into the tumblers. She waited for the sound of the door to open, fearing some kind of intruder. Nothing happened. After some time, she investigated, but did not find anyone outside. In retrospect, she came to believe that the spirit of the house was just making sure she was safely tucked in for the night, making sure the door was locked, instead of trying to get in.

She took me on a tour of the house, and it's many rooms. She described an interesting haunting. To let guests enjoy the decor of the B&B, she left the doors to unoccupied rooms open. Several times, guests told her that as they walked by one or two of the empty rooms, out of the corner of their eyes, they saw people, or the outlines of people in these rooms. When the guest stopped to investigate, they found the room empty. One of the rooms, the General's Room, was particularly active this way. Strangely, when this room was occupied, no one reported any strange happenings. As we continued our walk, Laurie got a little agitated. She pointed out that the bedspread on one of the beds was rumpled, as if someone sat on it.

I did not think this was unusual, and said so. She told me that she had just cleaned the room we were standing in, and always made sure that the bedspreads were smooth and tight on top of the bed. As we wandered around, we found several the bedspreads in the same condition. Was she mistaken, or were the spirits aware of our impending investigation? Ross Allison and several investigators from AGHOST arrived the next day. We spent most of the day in Astoria, visiting several haunts and just enjoying walking around the city. We returned to the Officer's Inn later in the evening.

The AGHOST team included a psychic, who went through the building with Laurie. After a while, she separated from the group, and came down into one of the parlors, where I was sitting with my wife Janine and friend Paul. Laurie was pretty upset. I think that she and the AGHOST sensitive shared some psychic vibes which had never happened to Laurie before. Laurie told us she was afraid because she could feel the house waking up to all the activity, and Laurie did not know what would happen. I have been doing this kind of thing for several years, and I have sensitives tell me a number of impressions or psychic observations. Because I am not psychic, there is normally no way that I can verify this kind of thing or not.

That night was different. Laurie had been standing at the parlor entrance, never coming into the room. After talking to us a couple of minutes, she left, to go into the kitchen to make some tea or something. A few seconds after she left, I noticed that the room had become several degrees colder. There was no breeze, yet I felt a kind of wave of coldness. I was sitting furthest away from the entrance, and I felt the cold start at my foot, and it moved up my leg, until my entire body was in the area of coldness. Janine was there with me, as was our friend Paul.

It was just like we were all in a horror movie. We all looked at each other in silence for several seconds. In these circumstances, who wants to admit something like this strange happening, even if you are there ghost hunting. I believe Janine spoke first, saying she noticed the temperature dropped. I think she was relieved that Paul and I agreed with her. We sat for a few minutes, discussing what kind of mundane things might have caused this. The front door was open, and it was after dark and cool outside. However I did not notice any draft, nor did Paul or Janine. A draft would not have progressed slowly into the room, like a slow moving thing either. After a few minutes the temperature warmed up, which it should not have done either, without the heat on.

Nothing else out of the ordinary happened at the B&B, unfortunately. The next morning we got together over breakfast and shared observations from the entire team. I think the owner, Steve was a little amused, and needs more proof before he believes in all this stuff. I think Laurie does believe. I would also recommend the Officer's Inn, even if you are not into ghost hunting. It was comfortable and the breakfast was great. Their website address is: www.officersinn.com. If you want to talk to Laurie about here experiences, she has moved to the Rosebriar Inn, a former convent, which is supposed to be haunted by a ghostly nun...

The Rosebriar Hotel is the former residence of a prominent Astoria Banker. Unlike many of the haunts I have found, there does not seem to be any evil or mysterious happenings in this man's life. Well, no more evil or mysterious than banker who lived through the Great Depression. He and his family lived in the house, mansion for many decades, before he died and his heirs sold it to an order of Catholic Nuns, devoted to children and education. They turned the mansion into their nunnery, as they worked for many more years in Astoria. The nun's plans and goals changed, and they eventually sold the building and other holdings in Astoria, and moved away. The building sat vacant for some time and changed hands, before becoming Astoria's first Bed and Breakfast hotel in the 1980s.

There had always been some rumors of ghosts, perhaps some spiritual residue of the nun's stay there. Maybe it was the rich banker, refusing to leave his fine home. Previous inkeepers discouraged talk or publicity of any paranormal events. Recently, my friend Laurie from the Officer's Inn became manager, and welcomed me for a night, and discussed the house and perhaps a few ghosts.

She told me that she felt that there was at least one spirit in the house, as we took a tour. The building is magnificently maintained by the present owners. After a recent remodel they kept the original wood paneling and flooring in the main room, and the front desk and decorative creek and shrine added by the nuns. The nuns themselves kept most of the original stained glass, but added crosses to the stained glass in the ballroom windows stained glass. The current owners converted the attic space into a master suite, complete with jetted tub. The most interesting suite was the carriage house, which predated the mansion, and is a self-contained apartment with indoor hot tub. Too bad my meager publishing budget could not afford either accommodation. Instead I stayed in one of the normal guest rooms, which I am sure was furnished nicer than it had been when a lonely nun lived there.

It is in the hallway outside of the guest rooms, where people have reported feeling watched by an unseen energy. Sometimes it is a trifle too cold there, on warm days. The housekeeper frequently has to replace the soap and toiletry items in one of the rooms (I'm not telling which,) even though she stocked the room an hour earlier. And Laurie herself saw a ghostly nun in the kitchen, while she was cooking. According to Laurie, she was busy, on a sunny day, not expecting anything strange to happen, until she looked up from her work, and saw a woman in a nun's habit, standing by the entrance to the kitchen. The woman was turned away from Laurie, so her face did not show, and strangely; her habit was not black, but blue. When Laurie walked toward the nun, she simply disappeared.

Recently I was contacted by Mark Moran and Mark Sceurman, publishers of Weird New Jersey. A few years ago, their website of strange and unusual happenings around New Jersey turned into a book. That book turned into a second book of stories, and now they have over 20 books in their catalog.

In addition to their state series of books, Mark and Mark have expanded their interest to a television show on the History Channel, called Weird US, and a related Website. I contributed three stories to their latest book, Weird US presents Weird Hauntings. I will be doing books signings in the Pacific Northwest, supporting this book later on in the fall. I will also be selling copies of the book from this website, when it is officially released.

I guess they liked my writing, or they were just desperate to find an author in the Pacific Northwest to write one of their future books, Weird Washington. Either way, I was lucky enough to get the job. For those readers who have never seen any of the Weird Series, they are not just about ghosts. The Weird Books include sections on roadside attractions, The biggest, the oddest, the oldest, graveyards, abandoned relics, and many other fascinating human and natural features that make each state in the Union so interesting. To do the best job possible on this book, I need help from readers and their friends.

To really capture the entire flavor of Washington State, my co-author Al and I hope to have you readers suggest locations that figure prominently in local legends of the weird and strange. Know of any cemeteries with unique or weird tombstones? How about curses or interesting dedications? Are their ghost towns, lost mines, abandoned shipyards or factories with strange and macabre tales? Is there a haunted house that everyone seems to know about? Do you have first hand experiences at any of these places? Please let us know and we will be in touch. I cannot promise to include all places you might suggest, but I appreciate any proposals. I will include a separate page listing places we want to highlight as the book progresses.

In September my wife, Janine, and our friends Karan and her husband Chris joined us on a great vacation. We traveled by train from Vancouver, Washington to Vancouver, British Columbia, and then took a cruise down to San Francisco. During this trip we met up with some great friends from WSPIR, Washington State Paranormal Investigations and Research. We visited some great haunts along the way, which included Vancouver BC's Gastown, Astoria, Oregon, and San Francisco.

We began our trip by taking AMTRAK, which was more pleasant than some people might think. If we had driven the entire distance, it would have been pretty tiring, and everyone would have been cramped. With security concerns at airports, it takes a couple of hours just to get in and out of security, and you can get pretty cramped, even on a two hour flight. Given the timing, and lower cost of going by rail, it made sense to take the train. We began around 9 AM, and it took about three hours to get to Seattle. Since I do most of the driving, it was great to be able to sit back and relax, and watch the countryside go by. The food car had some surprisingly good snacks as well. Unfortunately, the train did not go all the way to Canada.

Because of various laws, construction problems, and maybe lack of interest, we had to take a bus from Seattle to Canada. Even though it was not as roomy as the train, again it was good to let someone else drive, and just enjoy the ride. Customs was what people might expect, long, and the duty free was not all that "Free!" The bus dropped us off at the Vancouver BC train station and we took a taxi to our Bed and Breakfast. It was not haunted, but very nice.

I believe that the place was called the Aberdeen House, and it was located about ten minutes from the bus station. This was some distance from downtown, and Gastown, their "Old" town. However, it was a few minutes walk to the tram, which took us into town.

One of the things I liked about our B&B was the feel of it. As you can see, it was decorated in a very old-fashioned style, which dated to the building's heyday. The staff checked us in, and left us alone. The bad part was that it did not actually provide us breakfast, but gave us a discount to go and eat at a nearby restaurant. Our room was a suite, with a kitchen, so we did not need to go out to eat.

We arranged to take the Ghostly Gastown tour that night. As someone who writes books on the paranormal, and history, I really like ghost walks that are informative as well as a bit spooky. I have to say that I found this one to be a great blend of both. The tour guides were well educated, and knew the history of Gastown, as well as having a great sense of humor.

Karan even had a bit of a surprise for all of us. While we were walking toward the oldest part of Gastown, we saw a bunch of trees, surrounding a statue of "Gassy Jack" one of old Vancouver's more interesting characters.

It turned out that the trees had been left behind, around the old town center because that was the place where they held their public executions. They hanged over a dozen people on a gallows built on the site of the trees, and the nearby alley led to the old jail (or as they spell it Gaol.) It was called Gaolers Mews.

Karan had other surprises for us, and we spent a few days there, before continuing on our ghostly holiday. We travelled by cruise ship to Astoria, where I gave a ghost walk of the great city, and then to San Francisco. Janine had a great time hunting for ghosts on Alcatraz Island, as well as on their Nob Hill Ghost Walk. I on the other hand got very sick and spent the next few days in bed.

For those people who used to visit my website regularly for updates, I have to apologize. My recent military work, as well as my contract to write Weird Washington has kept me very busy. I will try to update this the section, even though I have archived it, and began a 2007 update. So check back on this page every so often to see if I have been able to add more to 2006, which was a great year for me.