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)
2008 Archive
Here are some buttons which will take you
to an archive copy of the last years of the "What's New"
section I began in 2001.
I am writing Weird
Oregon and I need help:
Posted 13 April 2007.
White
Eagle Night Coming Soon Posted
14 December 2007
The
First Weird Oregon Road Trip Posted
17 January 2008
I
Can't Publish Haunted
Portland Posted
18 January 2008
Firewalk
Videos Posted 18 January 2008
Update
on White Eagle Night. Posted 18 January 2008
Staying
at the Historic Anchor Inn Posted 8 February 2008
Cable
Televion Hunts UFOs? Posted 8
February 2008
Feng
Shui is Paranormal? Posted 8
February 2008
One
Room Left at the White Eagle Posted 16 February 2008
Psychic
Workshop Posted 16 February 2008
White
Eagle Night Posted 7 April 2008
Many
New Ghosthunter groups and
I've
added Some Links Posted 7 April 2008
Weird
Washington is almost here posted 7
April 2008
Portland's
Rose City Ghosts is
at the printers Posted
7 April 2008
Weird
Washington is Here posted 5 May 2008
Haunted
Astoria Event posted 5 May
2008
Working
Holiday in England posted 5
May 2008
The
Golden Hinde
The Ghost Club
Salisbury and Stonehenge
High Point
Rose
City Ghosts I is now available Posted
11 May 2008
Error
in Rose
City Ghosts I Posted 18 June 2008
Astoria's
Ghosthunters Getaway Posted 18 June 2008
International
Got Ghosts Conference Posted 18
June 2008
Weird
Washington Web is
up and sort of running
Posted 24 June 2008
Weird
Washington Interview in Portland,
Oregon Posted 4
July 2008
Ghost
Hunter's Getaway to Oregon Caves Chateau from 3 - 5 October Post
3 August 2008
Ghost
Hunter's getaway to Astoria, Oregon from 10 - 12 October Posted 3
August 2008
Know
of any Multiple-Murder Haunts for a Television Show?
Posted 6 August 2008
Oregon
Caves Activities Posted 30 September 2008
End
of Halloween Season Posted 25 November 2008
Pierce College, in Lakewood,
Washington
Posted 25 November 2008
PAST
Paranormal Group Link Posted 25
November 2008
Emerald
Valley Paranormal Group Link Posted
25 November 2008
Puget
Sound Ghost Hunters Posted 28
November 2008
I am writing Weird
Oregon and I need your help
Last year, I signed a contract with Mark Moran and Mark Sceurman, publishers of Weird
New Jersey. That book turned into a
second book of stories, and now they have over 20 books in their
catalog.
I contributed three stories
to their latest book, Weird US presents Weird Hauntings. I did
several book books signings in the Pacific Northwest, later
on in the fall. I also sell copies of the book from this website.
See the Book Orders section of this website. If the link is not up in my
store, I will email you with the information.
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.
Weird
Washington is at the publishers:
Well, I have good news and I have some bad news. My co-author Al and I
turned in the final chapters of Weird Washington to Mark Moran, of the WeridUS.com
series. The editing staff there have already formatted half of the
chapters, and sent them back for review. The bad part is, Mark and the
other authors have been very busy this year, and are working on a few other book
projects. This means that Weird Washington will not be out in time
for Christmas. It will probably be released in the spring of 2008.
In the meantime, please check back with this website for
updates and perhaps more videos from Weird Washington. We will also have
a separate Weird Washington website up and running sometime after
Halloween. Thanks to everyone who contributed stories to Weird
Washington, as well as Weird Oregon, which we will hopefully start
work on soon..
Jeff Davis
I need help Al
and I are already working
on ideas for Weird Oregon, and need more locations. Each
book has a dozen chapters, including: Ghosts
and Haunted Places
Abandoned Places
Ancient Mysteries
Unexplained Phenomena
Bizarre Beasts
Fabled People and Places
Roads Less Traveled
Local Legends
Local Heroes and Villains
Cemetery Safari
Personalized Properties
Roadside Oddities So, if you think
you know of any places or people that are odd, unique, or just plain weird in
Oregon, please write to me: jddavis@rocketmail.com
White Eagle Night
Coming Soon Posted 14 December 2007
During Halloween season, I had several people asking me why I was not doing any
events in the Portland/Vancouver area. It has taken some planning, however
I will be staying overnight at the White Eagle Saloon, in Portland on the night
of 16 February 2008. I booked my room (haunted #2) on 14 December,
and there were only 9 rooms left, so you will have to book soon. You can
book online,
or by calling the Kennedy School at: 888 249-3983. This is not an
official McMenamins event, so there are no special rates or package deals,
and the rooms are open to first come, first serve.
I will have more details later, and I hope those people who
are staying that night will contact me, and I can send out emails directly to
them. At this point, what I hope to happen is a simple get together of
people who are interested in ghosts and ghost hunting. When we did this
before, we booked our rooms as early as the White Eagle would let us. I
gave every participant one of my books, and we watched some videos on ghosts
in the northwest, and had a general discussion of what has happened to us in
the past. Throughout the night, many people performed experiments in
their rooms, and generally had a good time.
The White Eagle does not normally provide a breakfast. I
will see if we can persuade them to set up some kind of continental breakfast,
but if so, there will be a fee involved. If we cannot do this, I will
try to find a place for us to have breakfast Sunday, to compare notes and
share stories. I am open to any ideas people might have, and will have
more details later.
Jeff
Weird Oregon
Road Trip Posted 17 January 2008
Well, I finally have a chance to get back to posting here at
ghostsandcritters.com. I want to apologize to everyone who checks the
website regularly. My only excuse is that I have been really busy.
I was writing the first two chapters of Weird Oregon, went on a long
photo-op road trip, and finished the draft copy of a book on the Ghosts of
Portland. I hope that I can spend a bit more time working on updating
you on my doings. First the Weird Oregon road trip.
My co-author Al and I have divided the writing
responsibilities of Weird Oregon with six chapters each. Al does a great
job with personal interviews, so he has taken chapters like Roadside Oddities,
where he gets to interview the unique people who do things like starting
dinosaur museums. Because of my research background, I get to do things
like look into Abandoned or Mystical places in Oregon. I try and make it
as exciting as Al's work, and I help him out from time to time, as I will
mention later.
I started on January first, and made it home on the 6th.
In that time, I drove about 1,800 miles, took over 300 pictures, about an hour
of video footage, and interviewed about a dozen pictures. It was not an
easy trip, I drove through several mountain passes, taking advantage of about
three days of warm weather. I took a day off when I got home. I
started from Vancouver, and drove first to the Dalles, where before the Dams
were built along the Columbia River, the native people gathered to fish, and
trade. Some archaeologists believe that it was a gathering ground for
more than 10,000 years.
Next I went by the Umatilla Army
Depot. At one point they had over 10% of the United States
Chemical munitions, in thousands of containers, locked up in hundreds of
bunkers. This includes Mustard
"gas" and two kinds of nerve gas agents. It is enough to kill
millions of people if the containers rupture. That is definitely one place
that is abandoned by all people with common sense.
I continued along the road, stopping quickly in Canyon City,
to visit the county Museum. Unfortunately, it was closed so I did not
get a chance to see what they have inside. But I can tell you that it
involves an old story of love, death, and old-tyme justice.
John Day Fossil Beds National Monument. The forces of
catastrophism and gradualism contributed to the accumulation of fossils over
millions of years, and then they literally ripped the rocks apart, and wore them
away to expose thousands of fossils from ancient animals like these.
I made a few more stops, and one of my new favorite places is in Fort Rock,
south of Bend. This amazing geologic feature was once a volcano, and then
an island in a huge ancient lake.
The lake is now gone, but something of the people who lived around it remains,
like many ancient sandals.
There are many legends surrounding the Crack in the Ground. It is only a
few feet wide, but up to 70 feet deep. How did it get there? Paul
Bunyan?
Or perhaps it had something to do with Santa Claus, in nearby Christmas Valley?
In Grant's Pass, many of the older citizens were Cavemen. Several places
are named after them, and their mascot. He was a bit too big to get a
proper picture, so this is all I got that trip.
While I was in Grant's pass, the weather started getting
colder, and wet. As I recall, I-5 was even closed. I took a
chance, and drove south of Grant's Pass along Hwy 199, to California, and then
up Highway 101. The weather was nice, at least for that day. I
stopped to watch a skilled Myrtlewood artist at work, before heading for
Coos Bay.
On the way I stopped at a certain dinosaur museum. It
was getting dark, and I paused to speak with the owner before I hit the road
again. The oddest thing happened. A car stopped, and a young woman
got out, wearing nothing but a long sleeved shirt. She was followed by
another woman, dressed much the same. The first posed for several seconds
under the main dinosaur out front, while the second took pictures of her, then
they switched. I went outside and asked if I could get pictures for
Weird Oregon, but they took off. I don't' know why they were so
shy. I am sure that their pictures are now posted somewhere on a myspace
website.
Cape Arago Lighthouse was recently shut down by the government, and it was about
time too. It was the third lighthouse built on the same island, and there
were certain problems. As I was walking around a headland trying to reach
the lighthouse, I was warned off by a U.S. Coastguard helicopter, it seems that
there was a storm coming...
I wouldn't recommend anyone trying to walk across that old footbridge.
I also stopped at the Sea Lion Caves, North of Florence.
It was very interesting, they hang out in a sea cave, under a cliff.
Just as interesting is the way modern tourists can visit the cave. Oh,
and they smell like wet dogs that have been rolling in fish.
After that, I continued on for quite a distance and made a few more stops.
Of course, you will have to wait a while for the book to come out to see
the pictures and articles. I stopped overnight in Lincoln City with my
friends Tim and Veronica.
They used to run the Captain
Cook Inn, where we stayed several times over the years. This time, Tim
took me to a great place for dinner. It's called the Historic
Anchor Inn. They had a great dinner special that was modestly priced,
and included soup, salad, and desert with main course. It's wonderful what
can happen when people do things because they enjoy it. Even more
interesting were the rooms. The Anchor Inn was historic for a reason, I
believe that the oldest portion of the Inn dated to the 1940s, and during the
1950s, it got bigger, as a motor lodge/inn. Of course, over the years it
deteriorated until the present owners bought it. Now the rooms are filled
with antiques, and Tim showed me the ceiling in one of the rooms. The
owner had someone come in and paint a starscape on the ceiling. You can't
see it during the day, or when the lights are on. You have to wait until
it gets dark, then the stars come out.
The next morning, which was Saturday, I continued on my way, and stopped at the
Tillamook Air Museum. This should not be confused with the air museum in
McMinnville. The museum is housed in an old blimp hangar, built for World
War II. It is probably the largest wooden building in the world.
Of course, there were many more stops than I can write here. I met a lot
of great people on the way, and one or two people that were not so great, but
that is for my memoirs. I hope to keep you informed on the progress of Weird
Oregon as I go on.
I Can't Publish
Haunted Portland Posted 18 January 2008
Sorry for the drama, but I wanted to catch people's
interest. Last year I worked with David Schargel of Portland
Walking Tours to set up his Ghost Walk, Beyond
Bizarre . He temporarily shut down the walk, for the winter.
It will be back in spring. I did a lot of research for this tour, and have
been compiling it for a book. I am almost finished with it, but am stuck
on a title. Haunted Portland has already been taken by some enterprising
author in Portland, Maine. Does anyone have any suggestions? XXXXXXX
should be out in spring, and I'll give the person with the winning title a copy
by way of thanks.
email
Jeff with suggestions
Firewalk
Videos Posted 18 January 2008
Last year was interesting for me in a non-ghostly paranormal way. I did
three firewalks at my house. The last time, we got video footage of myself
and my nephew Matt. I've got two versions posted here. The first is
about 1.5 megs in size. It lasts around four minutes, so to keep the file
size small, I kept the video window small as well.
And I have a better resolution version of this if you are interested. It
is 7.6 megs in size. Depending on your bandwidth, please enjoy.
Above is an interview I did with Washington Public Broadcasting about my
firewalking
Update
on White Eagle Night. Posted 18 January 2008
Alright, more news on the White Eagle Night. They do not
normally let guests into the rooms until 5 PM, so that is where we will
officially kick off. However I will probably be on the ground floor
earlier on the
16th, eating and talking to anyone else who arrives early. You do not need
to be an overnight guest to go upstairs with us, at first.
From 5 PM to 8 PM, we will be upstairs, and I will pass out free
books to anyone with a room key. We will also watch the Haunted History
episode, that highlights the legends surrounding the White Eagle. It will
also give you a good idea of what the place looked like before the McMenamins
fixed it up. I hope that everyone has their own experiments that they want
to perform, and will open their rooms to other participants. I will answer
any questions I can on ghost hunting techniques, and share some boring stories.
Starting at 8 PM, non guests will have to leave. This is
also when the White Eagle starts charging admission for customers to sit
downstairs at the bar. If you are a paying guest, you can get in for free
if you show them your room card. I think. Since the live music
usually runs until 2 am, most people won't be able to get to sleep, so we can
run experiments most of the night. If there are non-ghost hunter guests,
we'll have to be careful that we don't disturb them. I am betting that by
the time the music ends, everyone is ready for bed.
I am sorry, but the White Eagle could not set up a continental
breakfast on Sunday the 17th. The next morning, we'll go to Bridges Cafe
at 2716 NE Martin Luther King JR BLVD for breakfast, to share experiences.
I need to get a head count on Saturday
afternoon!!! They have limited seating, but I checked with them, and they
said they could seat 20 - 25 of us if we confirmed in advance, and we have to
arrive between 8 and 8:30 in the morning. Sunday is their
busiest day. We can order from the normal menu, which includes foods
ranging form organic oatmeal to Eggs Benedicts.
For more information, please email me. The White Eagle is
located at: 836 North Russel Street, in Northeast Portland. Their phone
number is: (503) 282-6810. You can call there for directions, or
visit the McMenamins
website. I understand that all of the rooms at the White Eagle are booked
up for the night. Even so, there might be a last minute
cancellation. You can check online,
or by calling the Kennedy School at: 888 249-3983. This is not an
official McMenamins event, so there are no special rates or package deals.
email
Jeff
Staying
at the Historic Anchor Inn Posted 8 February 2008
I have had a couple of people ask me about the Historic
Anchor Inn in
Lincoln City. My wife and I managed to make it back town recently, and the
inkeepers allowed us to stay, even though they were really not open for
business. Unfortunately, the dining room was not open, so Janine missed
one of their great meals. The current owners are fixing up the Anchor Inn,
perhaps to operate themselves, or to sell once the renovation is finished.
They are doing wonders, some restoration of original features like cedar shingle
siding, to themes.
And there are a few interesting ideas they have outside,
There was a rustic feel to our room, but there was an
interesting historic feel to it. Not in our room, but my friend Tim showed me the ceiling in one of the
main rooms. The
owner had someone come in and paint a starscape on the ceiling. You can't
see it during the day, or when the lights are on. You have to wait until
it gets dark, then the stars come out.
There is a restaurant and lounge. In the hallways there
are a lot of historic photos, including several autographed ones from the old
Batman series. They would not sell me the one signed by Julie Newmarr.
The lounge kind of reminds me of something from the old Gilligan's Island
show, where they periodically set up a Tiki-style bar. There are more
bamboo hoola girls there too.
Because the Inn had its own restaurant and lounge, its builders
also have a lot of space on the second floor for a common area, that the owners
have made very comfortable. In addition to a big screen tv with great
sound system.
And
this guy, I don't know where he came from, perhaps New York State, but he guards
one of the upstairs rooms
It was a great visit, and we talked with the owners for a
while. They are still remodeling and trying to set up the Historic Anchor
Inn for full occupancy, and they are not open every day and night.
Especially in the winter time. If you are interested in staying there, I
would recommend that you visit their website, Historic
Anchor Inn to
check their posted days for rental and the restaurant.
Although I am not their representative, I think a lot of people would enjoy
their stay. Having said that, to the best of my knowledge, the place is
not haunted, and I do not think that the owners believe that either.
Though there are lots of historic objects that might have absorbed something
over the years.
Cable
Television in the Hunt for UFOs posted
8 February 2008 As many of my readers know, I do not
normally write about or investigate UFOs. While I do believe that there is
life on other planets, I do not think all that many extra-terrestrials have
visited earth. At the same time, I respect people who are serious
investigators in the field. Two such serious people who are interested in
both UFOs, and every other facet of the paranormal are Philip and Charlette, of the Seattle
Museum of Mysteries
They have both sacrificed a lot in terms of time, money, and
lifestyles to pursue their passion, and educate the public. From
time to time, I have spoken as their guest, and donated a few books to support
their museum. We have had a lot of interesting discussions about the
paranormal, and they have graciously let me use parts of their research
library. When I started researching Weird Washington, they helped me with
information about Mel's Hole, and the Maury Island UFO incident. I found
out in 2007, that they were trying to find the site where the B-25 airplane
(flown by Air Force investigators) crashed near Kelso, Washington. They
invited me to come on one of their investigations. I
remember how thrilled they were when a local landowner took them to the crash
site. When the airplane crashed, and the investigators died, the FBI
received many phone calls claiming that someone had shot the airplane
down. The Air Force investigated, and determined that it was a tragic
accident. After removing the bodies, and many classified items, they
abandoned the fuselage. According to some ufologists, they also removed
several metal fragments dropped on Maury Island by a UFO. For Philip and
Charlette this was an opportunity to continue the investigation of the UFO
sighting. The put
out a press release, and were approached by at least one group. Philip and
Charlette were hoping to interest a serious, well funded, and above all, honest
foundation that would treat the crash site with respect, as well as scientific curiosity.
What they got were television producers. I
have worked on a few television and motion pictures over the years, in one way
or another. In the late 1990s, I was approached by Joshua Alper, who was
producing part of a series called Haunted History. I was one of the
consultants for the Haunted Northwest episode of his show. It was a great
experience, and Joshua and I still correspond, and meet when our schedules
allow. I found him to be an honorable and honest man, who represents the
best of the film-maker-documentary producers. No wonder one of his shows
was nominated for an Emmy! I did not know how lucky I was to work with
him, as it raised my expectations. A
few years later, I was contacted by an internationally known travel show, about
their production in the Pacific Northwest. They told me that they were
filming the show they would release on Halloween in Portland, and wanted my help
finding haunted places. We traded several emails, and I put them in
contact with several other paranormalists and businesses in the area.
Between us, we set up several events. All went well, and I even got an
email saying that they would call me as soon as they got off the airplane in
Portland. Then next time I heard from them was several weeks later;
stating they had changed their minds in mid-flight, and the show was already
finished. My main regret was that many people were put out, preparing for
the film crew, who did not even call us to cancel things. Another
paranormal investigator friend of mine was contacted by a reality show to
investigate a house one of their stars (?) thought was haunted. He and his
team did not come off looking as professional as I know they really are. I
suspect because the producers did not like the star, and it made her look bad as
well. Now, while
I will talk to anyone for an hour or two, I have been reluctant to consult
with television producers or even Indie filmmakers without a
contract. Especially after one of them walked away with my raw footage of
the White Eagle Saloon, and promptly disappeared. Knowing the spectrum of
television producers, from Joshua to other unnamed ones, I hoped that Philip and
Charlette would meet with the better half! As an opinion, I don't think
they did. Cable
channels like the History Channel, the Travel Channel, and the rest have affiliations
with many, many production companies. Each of these companies are
competing with each other to sell a concept, and television episodes to these
channels. It is a cutthroat business, and they are all trying to
"scoop" the competition. Philip and Charlette were approached by
one such company. From there, events became complicated, and I will not
bore you with the details. In effect, the producers learned the location
of the crash site and proposed sending out a crew to "investigate" the
crash site. At that point I became involved in the consultation. Washington
State has many laws regarding the preservation, protection and the excavation of
historical properties. This crash site, whether you believe in UFOs or not,
was historically significant. As a fatal air crash, I also believed that
it needed special reverence. I advised the producers, through Philip and
Charlette that they could not perform any kind of archaeological (other than
photographing the site) investigations without a permit from the State of
Washington. There are many details in this process, which are necessary to
keep people from acting like grave robbers. Sometime after that, the
producers had limited contact with the Museum of Mysteries, though they did hire
an archaeologist. Again,
the facts are fuzzy here, but if I understand correctly, they went out to the
crash site, and staged some kind of investigation for their cameras.
Though they did not perform any excavations, they did remove some items from the
crash site. Although the State of Washington was notified, they apparently
did not consider this an illegal investigation, because of certain conditions at
the site. After a few more interviews, the film crew left, taking their
booty with them. It
is interesting that this production company did not quite scoop the
competition. The History Channel, and the SCIFI Channel both released
their own UFO Hunter shows at the same time. I have included two reviews
below. One from the spooky paradigm blogspot, and the other from the
Museum of Mysteries. I ask readers and television watchers to consider
whose "investigators" you might believe more in this
controversy. If you are a paranormal researcher, I also ask you to be
careful about what might happen to you if you sign on with some of these
people. For more
information on Maury Island, visit this link at their website: http://www.seattlechatclub.org/Arnold.html.
Make up your own mind, and like most things in the world, if you do not like
what happened, do not watch the show.
The Seattle Museum of
The Mysteries is located at:
623 Broadway E
Seattle,WA 98102
206-328-6499
_________________________________
http://spookyparadigm.blogspot.com/2008/01/dueling-ufo-hunter-tv-shows-and-why.html
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
The Dueling UFO Hunter TV Shows and Why Ufology May Not Be Ready for Prime-Time
Positioned
almost perfectly to take advantage of the increased popular and media interest
in UFOs, two different television series entitled UFO Hunters will be airing
this year. Clearly the model for each of these is the popular American
Ghost Hunters franchise and similar shows from the United Kingdom such as Most
Haunted.
The first will
be on the History Channel. Each episode will follow four investigators (one a
previously known figure in ufology, but not the others) from case to case. The
official website has the reality-style video in the opening promo, but the
videos on the site are in droning narrator style, and I suspect may not be
part of the show (and if they are, they are pulling a serious
bait-and-switch). Much more information about the investigators and cases can
be found at Slice of SciFi.
The second is
on the SciFi channel, a stylistic spin-off of Ghost Hunters. As with the other
show, two lead investigators are the main "characters" with a
rotating ensemble cast of investigators. The official site has video previews,
and bios of the two lead investigators. It is noteworthy that both have ties
to Bud Hopkins. And in a promo for the History Channel show, an implant case
is featured prominently. This suggests abduction will be a significant part of
the mix on both shows.
Personally, I
think the SciFi show has a better chance at success. The format has been
tested and works. Two main characters, with an emphasis on them being
"everyday" people, rather than degreed experts. The Mission
Impossible-style rotating cast of investigators that are called in for each
case (and importantly, not all male). The use of acronyms (ala the now famous
TAPS). By contrast, the History Channel show focuses on four men (no women)
who are older, and in the promos at least one of them, the most well known
ufologist in the group, is already talking about how they know many of the
answers, etc. in a style more suited to the stock-footage/talking head style
UFO tv shows that History Channel runs every week. Furthermore, the History
Channel show is focusing on historical cases, from decades ago, starting with
Maury Island, hitting Socorro, and others.
This is part of
the problem both shows will face. First off, while UFOs are hot now, popular
interest in ghosts and ghostly matters is much higher, and was before Ghost
Hunters ever hit the air. Second, part of the reason people watch ghost
hunting shows of any sort is because there is the supposed chance that the
camera crew and investigators, skulking around in creepy dark abandoned
buildings, could run directly into the ongoing phenomenon. That can be
thrilling and engaging. By contrast, ufology is for the most part a forensic
study (if proper research is even being done at all), looking for evidence
(physical trace, photographs, testimony) to understand a past event, a
sighting. Attempts to build up dramatic tension will be much harder.
UFO Hunters Review - an Embarrrassment to UFOlogy
by Charlette LeFevre and Philip Lipson
Seattle UFO Paranormal Group
2/6/08
If one thought UFO Hunters on the History Channel defined UFO researchers, rest
assured they do not.
Aside from a basic recounting of the story of the Maury Island Incident, the
first show of this series is about how four guys can do a shallow job of not
only research but investigating. But perhaps that was their intent, to disinform
by embarrassing themselves and the field of UFOlogy.
The best that can be said about the new UFO Hunters show on the Maury Island
sighting was that they used interesting fonts and had a few decent graphics.
The spokesmen for the show, Bill Birnes and his geek gang
basically got overly excited by trivial matters such as diving into the frigid
waters of Puget Sound to collect ordinary rocks, and finding airplane parts that
had already been found and reported upon six months earlier by the Seattle
UFO/Paranormal Group.
What they neglected could fill volumes. There was hardly a
mention of Kenneth Arnold whose sighting over Mt. Rainier is when media coined
the term “flying saucer” and his investigation of the the Maury Island
incident. There was also no mention of Fred Crisman, a key character and witness
to the case who had a notorious background in CIA matters and had been linked to
the Kennedy Assassination.
Unfortunately, the “UFO Hunters seemed to focus on a
“gee-whiz” approach, pretty much neglecting the importance of the story
which had featured the first appearance of the Men in Black, involved one of the
first disinformation campaigns by the military and a mysterious informant to the
local papers and much more. There was no mention of the work of Maury Island
researcher Kenn Thomas and no interviews with any persons who have historically
studied the case.
If they were going for ratings, they failed there too. A few
reenactments would have helped. But understand obviously the show was
about them, not the history and obviously this was low budget.
Instead we get to hear Pat Uskert’s complain about his dive
into the cold water’s of Puget Sound for a futile look for slag along the
miles and miles of Maury Island’s shores. His dedication though is
steadfast as he states the importance of the case and that “No stone should go
unturned”. I can only imagine Bill Birnes yelling at Pat to keep looking until
he comes up with something!
One diver, with no information or indication where the slag is,
no sonar data as reference, sifting through the rocks with his hands. What
are the chances he would find evidence of slag that may or may not have been
dumped sixty years ago? But behold, Pat surfaces with a quarter size black rock
for the crew!
Easily mistaken for evidence we later see Ted “Mr. MIT”
Acworth stating this is only igneous rock as he casually tosses the rock from
hand to hand. No chemical spectrometer lab testing needed for this sample!
No siree!
Its nice to know fine upstanding graduates of our finest
Universities using their utmost skills in making such academic assessments.
I am left to consider if Ted is making a slight dig at Pat.
Perhaps but it is possible that Pat Uskert is still diving in Puget Sound
as he “..overturns every stone”.
If you knew nothing about Maury Island, and were half asleep by
the TV, they might have finished the job for you, along with providing a couple
scenic pictures of Puget Sound.
Not surprising, the show failed on many levels. There was little
information, no entertainment, and boring participants who they themselves did
not seem to enjoy their roles. But I guess after hearing Bill Birnes bark
so much, I guess I too would be annoyed.
Our recommendation is check any case first hand with material in
books and on the internet - it will be vastly more rewarding.
Feng
Shui is Paranormal? Posted 8 February
2008
The paranormal is not always running around with ghost
detectors, and other gizmos looking for ghosts. Nor is it always a
clairvoyant looking and sensing that things are out of place. Some people
might describe the art of Feng Shui as paramormal. It is more than some
weird interior decorator sweeping through the house, tossing off weird
terms. It involves understanding energies, and how they flow in houses,
and other places. My friend Tina has done a lot, and is still researching
the way feng Shui works. There are principles that guide arranging lives,
which once you know them, may mean that Feng Shui is not paranormal, it is just
normal. Please visit Tina's website at:
I
hope to have more information about Feng Shui over the coming weeks.
One
Room Left at the White Eagle Posted 16 February 2008
HI All,
I received word this morning, that one couple, and one individual had to cancel
their reservations at the White Eagle for tonight. if you are interested,
contact them online,
or by calling the Kennedy School at: 888 249-3983.
Psychic
Workshop Posted 16 February 2008
I received word from my friend Loyd Auerbach, from San
Francisco's Office of Paranormal Investigations. He and his psychic
consultant Ankhasha Amenti will be giving a workshop on paranormal phenomena in
Sammamish, Washington on March 15th. Please download the flier for this,
or visit his website
Loyd will also be a guest speaker at the Nevada Spiritseekers Ghost Hunting conference
in Victoria B.C., in July this year. Unfortunately, I won't.
Sometimes the affairs of state must take precedence over the affairs of state.
The
White Eagle Night... Happened Posted 7
April 2008
Well, sorry to for the delay in updating the website. Some
of the posts below will explain why I have delayed. I cannot write books
and write web updates at the same time. When I was a private in the Army,
I could not chew gum and march at the same time, either.
The White Eagle night was very interesting, and fun, and a bit
odd. Although the rooms were all booked up early, over the last few days
before the 16th, several people cancelled their reservations. Even so,
about a dozen people were at the White Eagle around 5 PM, and I took them
upstairs, and we watched a video on the White Eagle's Ghosts, and then discussed
the history of the place, and did some informal investigations for a couple of
hours. Unfortunately, the White Eagle Management had a few rules about
non-room-guests being upstairs, and they had to leave. Two couples did
stay over, and I consulted with them for a short while, before the music
started, and ghost hunting became a bit more difficult. I do have a few
comments from some of the folks who were there
One of the people was Nattie, who has been exchanging emails
with me for some time. She has had a hard time, including loosing a close
family member. I introduced her to my clairvoyant friend, Karan, and the
two talked for quite a while. I also spoke with Nattie's mother and
father. The two of them were very reluctant to take her to the White
Eagle, and did not believe in ghosts. I spoke with them for quite a while,
and I believe that I made sense to them, and showed that not all the people who
do believe in ghosts are flaky. Here is her email to me.
Natalie S.
I HAD SO MUCH FUN LAST NIGHT
I didn't now how crazy that
place was wow.
My dad read the book [I
gave him] and he loved your writing so he
told me when ever he is in town and so are you he will take me to any meet up
places. my parents enjoyed talking
to you. Wow I didn't think
they would like me to go to places like that that
was awesome thank you
Another group who attended were members of Oregon
Paranormal Investigations. They had emailed me shortly before the get
together, and I am including a link to their website in the next article.
Hello
Jeff,
Just a quick email to let you
know that I enjoyed your history comments in regards to the White Eagle,
Saturday, February 16, 2008.
I really appreciate
the time you took in speaking with us and giving us insight into the world
of media. We will be linking you on
our site so if you have a banner or a page please let us know.
Thank you and feel
free to contact me in the future if we can be of any assistance.
Regards,
Tim
Marks/founder
Oregon
Paranormal Investigations
www.Oregonparanormalinvestigations.com
This leads to another question, would anyone be interested in a spring weekend
getaway to one of my other favorite places; Astoria? I recently spoke with
the inkeeper at the Rosebriar B&B in Astoria, and she is very ghost
friendly. While this is not a conference, I think that we might have some
lively discussion of the paranormal in their front parlor, and I would love the
chance to lead either ghostly or historic walk-and-talks of places like the
Knappton Pest House, Fort Stevens, and who knows? If you are
interested, please email me, and I will try to set up some kind of arrangement
with the Rosebriar.
email
Jeff
Many
New Ghosthunter groups and
I've
added Some Links Posted 7 April 2008
Well, it has been a few months, and many new paranormal
investigation groups began operating with the new year. I have exchanged
emails with a few of them and installed links to their websites in my links
section. I also wanted to draw attention to them in this section.
Please visit their websites and see what they are up to. A few of the
groups do not have working websites yet but I hope to add them later.
"Hi, my name is Rich Lyons. I run CGP (Columbia Gorge
Paranormal), a paranormal investigation group out of White Salmon, Washington in
the Columbia Gorge. We haven't been around long, but are a very serious and
scientific in our approach We have done several local investigations already and
have got some interesting data! If you want, check out our new website at www.columbiagorgeparanormal.com
to read about us. The site has only been up a couple of weeks, and our team has
got a few new members recently, so it is kind of like we are starting the group
from scratch. I am the founder and lead investigator. Before moving to the Gorge
in the late 90's, I was a member of Alabama Paranormal out of Birmingham Alabama
. I hope to hear from you, as you seem to be much more familiar with "local
haunts" (pun intended!).
Sincerely,
Richard Lyons"
Richard and his group are operating
in my old neck of the woods, the Washington side of the Gorge. I worked
for the US Forest Service out of Carson, WA for several years. It is a
beautiful land of contrasts, hot in the summer, cold in the winter, but always
beautiful. I wish them luck with their future investigations.
Jeff
I have been corresponding with Lisa Branum, from the Paranormal
Researchers of Oregon Society, PROS for a while. A few weeks ago, I met
with her and some members of her group near Hillsboro. Her website
is interesting, and her folks are fun to talk with.
Some of the people who attended the White Eagle night were from
the group, Oregon Paranormal Investigations (OPI.)
He contacted me by email first; "I'm
interested in making new contacts and expanding the options and reputation for
OPI. We are a small group that is very serious, and good at what we do."
While
at the White Eagle, I spoke for some time with their co-founder,
Aaron. He had some suggestions for the title of my new book, and some
interesting ideas about the White Eagle Saloon.
I received an email some time ago, about a local ghost huntrr
television show:
"I'm a member of S.P.O.O.K.S. Paranormal TV that
investigates locations and broadcasts them on Fort Vancouver TV, local channel
11. I was wondering if there's any way you could get us into the old hospital at
the Fort for a taping for the show ? Or if you know of any other places that
would let us do an investigation in the area ? Would enjoy having you join us
and spending some time with you. I know you have a wild schedule with the new
book and all, (how's it coming along), but would like to visit with you.
Thanks, Terry C"
Terry is busy with other groups, and sent me a link to the
Pacific Northwest Local Haunts Research Group (PNLHRG)
Weird
Washington is almost here posted 7 April
2008
Last year Al Eufrasio and I spent several months writing and
taking pictures for Weird Washington. At long last, Weird
Washington is ready to be released. It should be on the shelves on the
7th or 8th of May. Weird Washington will only be available locally at
Barnes and Noble bookstores and online at weirdnj.com. I am not inked in
for any book signings at this time. I suggest you walk, no drive to your
local Barnes and Noble and tell them, no ORDER them to schedule me for a book
reading!!!!
OK, don't order them, but perhaps you can tell them that I live
in the northwest, and really enjoy these events. Give them my web address,
and email: jddavis@rocketmail.com
and I will do my best to visit your store.
I hope to arrange to sell them via my website, but that is another story.
Al and I want to have our own Weird Washington website up and running
soon.... when that happens I'll post a link here.
Portland's
Rose City Ghosts is
at the printers Posted
7 April 2008
Now you know why I have not been posting on this website
recently. In addition to Weird Washington, and Weird Oregon, I have been
working to finish a book on Portland's ghosts. The first volume is
finished, and at my printing service right now. I expect to officially
release Portland's Rose City Ghosts I in June.
'Rose City Ghosts I has 98 pages, with over 30 photos and
illustrations. It will sell for $10.95, and I hope it will be available at
many of Portland's bookstores, and some of the local haunts I visited for the
book. Most of these haunts have not appeared in my other books before,
though some stories, like the White Eagle Saloon, Pittock Mansion, and others
have been revamped for this book. I wanted all new stories, but could not
skip some of these famous haunts.
Weird
Washington is Here
At long last, Weird Washington is back from the
publishers, and in your local Barnes and Noble stores. Due to some
logistical problems, namely having two authors, it is a bit difficult to set up
books signings close to home or Al and I. He lives in Renton, and I live
in Vancouver. Please check the appearances section of this website for
events and appearances. At this time, the 5th of May, there are not too
many confirmed events close to home. I am including the contact
information for the nearby Barnes and Nobles below. I have a tentative signing
at the Barnes and Noble in Vancouver, but no date yet. If you want
the stores to schedule an event with me, please contact them directly, and
hopefully they will have the time to set something up with me. Please
forward them my email address:
email
Jeff
Barnes
& Noble Booksellers
Vancouver
Vancouver Plaza
7700 NE 4th Plain Blvd
Vancouver, WA 98662
360-253-9007
Barnes
& Noble Booksellers
Jantzen
Beach
Jantzen Beach
1720 N. Jantzen Beach
Portland, OR 97217
503-283-2800
Barnes
& Noble Booksellers
Lloyd Center
Lloyd Center
1317 Lloyd Center
Portland, OR 97232
503-249-0800
Barnes
& Noble Booksellers
Tanasbourne
Tanasbourne
18300 NW Evergreen Pkwy
Beaverton, OR 97006
503-645-3046
Barnes
& Noble Booksellers
Washington
Square
10206 SW Washington Square Rd
Tigard, OR 97223
503-598-9455
Barnes
& Noble Booksellers
Clackamas
Towne Ctr Mall
Clackamas Towne Ctr Mall
12000 SE 82nd Avenue
Portland, OR 97086
503-786-3464
Haunted Astoria
Event
The Rosebriar
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.
I received word from the innkeepers at the Rosebriar
Inn, B&B in Astoria. We are set up for a ghost getaway in
Astoria on the weekend of 6 - 8 June 2008. This is not meant to be a
conference, but kind of informal retreat, where people who share an interest can
get together to discuss things in a relaxed manner. Things are still open,
as far as what we can do. I am open to suggestions, but there are a few
things that we have to work around.
Most importantly, the registration at the Rosebriar is not
limited to us alone. It is first come, first served, so if you want to
attend, please make your reservations, with the Rosebriar, then email me that
you are going to attend. The room cost will be normal, there will not be
any additional fee added. Each couple or individual who attends will
received a free copy of Haunted Astoria. I will also be giving a
free ghost walk of Astoria, either on Friday or Saturday. Combined this
has a value of $40 per couple or $25 per individual attending.
Whatever we do, we have to be respectful of any other guests who
do not want to participate. Having said that, we might actually gain some
converts among guests who did not know we were going to be there. I do
have a few suggestions, which we might have to rearrange depending on how soon
everyone arrives.
Friday Evening
6:30 PM Everybody arrives, meet and greet, everyone received a
copy of Haunted Astoria
7:00 or 7:30 PM Ghost Walk of Astoria conducted by myself
8:30 - 9:30 PM Visit winebar at Hotel Elliott
Saturday
Late morning, visits to some other haunts, depending on
everyone's wishes. This could include Fort Stevens, the Knappton Cove Pest
House, dining at a haunted restaurant or two, or even visits to historic sites
that are not haunted, such as Fort Columbia, or the replica of Lewis and Clark's
Fort Clatsop. I am open to suggestion.
Saturday evening, between 7:00 and 10:00 PM, I suggest we share
ghost stories with each other, and discuss techniques. If anyone wants to
give mini-talk, I will bring a computer, projector, and screen which we can set
up in the Rosebriar Inn. Please let me know if advance and we can get a
list.
Sunday
After breakfast we can visit some more haunts, and perhaps visit
some local events. I believe that the Farmer's Market will be operating,
and their might be a cruise ship docking as well. I am looking for any
suggestions. of things to do before we head for home that afternoon.
email
Jeff
Working
Holiday in England posted 5 May 2008
The
Golden Hinde
As some of my readers know, I went to graduate school in England some
time ago. Every year or two, my wife and I return to the Sceptered Isle to
visit friends, and some historic or haunted historic sites. This year was
a bit busier than normal, because I had several business dealings, and research
visits. Among them was a visit to one of two replica's of Sir Francis
Drake's ship, the Golden Hinde.
Francis Drake was England's first legendary sailor saviors, who
gained fame by circumnavigating the globe in the 1500s, and later in the
destruction of the Spanish Armada. During Drake's voyage, while sailing
along the west coast of North America, Drake stopped and claimed the land for
England, naming the place Nova Albion. While many historians think that
Drake landed in what is now California, others believe that he beached the
Golden Hinde in Oregon. When Drake returned to England, Queen Elisabeth
declared the ship to be a museum, England's first floating one.
In the years since, two replicas of the ship have been
built. One of these two is berthed in London. This same ship
actually sailed around the world a few years ago.
The Ghost Club
While stopping in London, I was the guest speaker at the monthly
meeting of the Ghost
Club. This Parapsychological society is the oldest in the world;
having been established in the mid 1800s. According to their website:
The
club has its roots in Cambridge when in 1855 fellows at Trinity College began to
discuss ghosts and psychic phenomena. Formally launched in London in 1862
(attracting some light hearted ridicule in "The Times"), it counted amongst
its earliest members Charles Dickens and Cambridge academics and clergymen...
The group seems to have dissolved in the 1870s following the death of Dickens
but was relaunched in 1882 simultaneously with the Society for Psychical
Research (SPR) with whom there was an initial overlap of members.
Some of their members included Dickens, (as I already mentioned,) Harry Price,
W.B. Yeats, Sigfried Sasoon, Peter Cushing, Sir William Crookes, Arthur
Koestler, and many others. Among their many investigations were such
famous places as Borley Church, Glamis Castle, and the Clerkenwell House of
Detention.
I gave a talk on ghosts in the Pacific Northwest, and answered some questions
about my own "ghost" photos. Fortunately they were easy going
about their reactions to my orb photos, which were taken with a film camera and
no flash, by the way. We also discussed some haunts in England. For
those of you who know something of English history, I just missed getting
invited to an investigation of the tunnels that were used by the Hellfire Club
centuries ago.
The Ghost Club meetings are held in the Victory
Services Club, near London's Marble Arch. Contact them in advance, and
you might be able to attend. This Victory Services Club was established
and created to serve British service members, and allied services while staying
in London. As a veteran, I was allowed to book a room there, which was
great because the Ghost Club discussion carried on for over an hour in the bar,
after my talk. I recommend any ghosthunter vacation to England include a
visit to the Ghost Club's website, and if possible getting permission to attend their monthly
talks.
While there, I made a reacquaintence with my friend Philp
Hutchinson. Philip is a member of the Ghost Club, an actor, and fellow
ghost author. He has more fingers in more ghostly pies than I do. He
is, or was the Castelan at the old castle in Guildford, south of London.
To fans of Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll had a house there. Philip
also wrote a book on the ghosts of Guildford, and conducts regular Guildford
ghostwalks. When he is in London, Philip is also a guide on one of
several Jack the Ripper
walks. Philip used to do a walk for another company, or rather his alter
ego, George conducted the walk. However his new tour is much more user
friendly, and George has retired, probably to Guildford.
Philip has written three book dealing with the spooky and
paranormal, and co-written a book on Jack the Ripper. He gave me a
copy of, The London of Jack the Ripper: Then and Now.
Below is a synopsis of the book, which is available from Philip, and Amazon.com
"The
London of Jack the Ripper: Then and Now" is a photographic journey through
the London of Jack the Ripper, as it was when he stalked the mean streets and
alleyways of the capital. Philip Hutchinson and Robert Clack will take the
reader on a step-by-step tour of the crime scenes giving a detailed history of
the victims, the crimes and the police investigation. Using many previously
unpublished photographs and illustrations, the authors put the reader on the
very streets that Jack walked, showing the crime scenes, the victims homes, the
common lodging houses and the public houses. They show the readers how to
retrace the steps the victims took pointing out the changes to that particular
area and when those changes occurred. Using only contemporary documents and
police files, the authors trace the history of all eleven Whitechapel murders
from 1888 to 1891 and discuss other contemporary attacks that may well have been
from the same hand. The book will not only be of interest to Ripperologists, but
also to those who are interested in the history of London and the East End of
London in particular.
I think it is a great reference book which will become a
must-have for anyone who has more than a casual interest in Jack the
Ripper. I like to try and imagine what any significant place looked like
in the past, when historic events took place. The thing about most
of the Jack the Ripper Walks is that they take place at night. Well, in
the dark and rain you do not get a real look at the neighborhood. If you
walk around during the day, as I have done, it is still difficult to imagine
what Whitechapel looked like to Jack the Ripper. With the book in hand, it
gave me a real idea about what old London looked like at the time of the
murders, and what it looked like through time, to the present day. Several
times Philip and his co-author Robert Clack used Global Positioning Systems to
relocate either the murder sites, or buildings mentioned in historic
accounts. In addition to this, they also went into detail what happened to
many of the murder victims, where they were buried, and what happened to their
graves. I would recommend this book to anyone taking any of the many
ripper walks, for a read through before, or afterward.
Salisbury
and Stonehenge
I think we all develop a
fondness for certain places when we travel. For my wife and I,
Lincoln City and Astoria top the list in Oregon. In England, we developed
a liking for the city of Salisbury, the largest population center close to
Stonehenge. I was doing research for a proposed television
series on ancient Britain, and what better place to stop. I have found
it's not just what you see that makes a place a favorite, it is the people you
meet there. Salisbury is only about an hour and a half away from London by
train, and the fare is not bad, so long as you do not travel at peak times, like
7 - 9 am. We arrived around 2 pm, and got a lot of help from the friendly
lady at the local tourist bureau, including tickets for the bus to
Stonehenge, train tickets to our next stop, and a room at one of the B&Bs
around Salisbury.
We stayed at the Edwardian
Lodge Guest House, which was about a 15 minute walk from downtown
Salisbury. We did not mind the walk since the B&B was about half the
price of a downtown hotel. Unfortunately for Americans, the Dollar to
Pound exchange rate was about two to one, so a Coke out of the vending machine
was L1.50, or $3.00, so every pence counted for us. Our room was nicely
decorated, warm, and had a view of the cathedral spire. One of the nice
things about the Edwardian was that they had free wifi, the English
breakfast was quite large, and all of the table settings matched. We have
been to a few B&Bs that were lacking a bit in these qualities.
In between visiting
Stonehenge, we stopped in at Salisbury's oldest pub, the Haunch
of Venison. Believe it or not, there are at least two pubs in England
that share this name, only this one is haunted. The building was
constructed around 1320, to house men working on the spire of nearby
cathedral. Over the year it has served many uses, including, according
rumors a bordello serving the priests. Other people deny that this
happened. No one has found the tunnel that supposedly linked the building
to the nearby church. There are several features that suggest it was used
by the clergy, such as the same floor tiles. Over time, it did become a
pub, with several other unique fixtures.
In the past, the local
judges used to sit in a room now called the House of Lord's up a short flight of
stairs from the ground floor. They used to look out the window, and gauge
of the people waiting to appear in court were confident or worried. Their
wives waited in the Horse Box, a small bar room, located on the ground floor
with a separate entrance from the main bar room. This section of the bar
still has a pewter, not wood top. And according to local stories, during
World War II, the bar was off limits to local folk, in favor of a military only
club. This apparently included Dwight Eisenhower and Winston Churchill who
discussed the upcoming Invasion of Normandy over drinks.
During some repair or
renovation in the early 1900s, workmen found a small niche, perhaps an old bread
oven in the chimney in the House of Lords room. This was not unusual, but
the contents of the niche was; among the things there was a severed human hand,
still clutching some 18th century playing cards. For many years the hand
and cards were on display, until 2004, when someone stole them. The hand
and cards were returned later, and put in the local museum. A local
historian made copies of the cards, and a replica hand is not protected by a
window and iron grate on the old oven. There is a legend surrounding the
old hand.
It is hard to tell whether
this story predates the finding of the hand. According to this legend,
several locals were playing cards in the House of Lords, when a stranger, a
dandy type of fellow asked to sit in on the game. After a short while, he
began winning, and winning big. One of the locals happened to be the local
butcher, who became convince the stranger was cheating. When he finally
saw the stranger hiding cards, he chopped the man's hand off, and the others
found the extra cards still clutched in the severed hand. People think
that the whist player still remains, tortured by the loss of his hand. He
is sometimes felt as a cold spot on the stairs, and he often steals small items,
only to return them days, or weeks later.
Some evenings people also
claim to have seen a ghostly lady standing at one of the upper floor windows,
looking out at the church graveyard. This lady is looking for her lost
child, who may have been buried in the churchyard.
When I identified myself as
a ghost writer, several local people told me of odd experiences there in the
pub. We got to be quite friendly with these people, who treated us like acquaintances,
rather than strangers. This included our bartender, and girlfriend, who
shared a little bit of gossip with us, as well as a man playing a pretty blusey
guitar; he also did a mean Stairway to Heaven solo.
High
Point
One of the high points of our trip came at the very beginning. We stayed
first with our friend Christian and his fiancé Samantha. Over the last
few years I have seen a great change in the fortunes of all of my school
friends. Many of them have risen quite high in their careers, whether
these were archaeology, or Christian in web design and computer software
design. He works for the BBC right now, and took us on a tour of their
London studio, which may be sold in the coming years. We tried a few
things, like the blue screen set up for people to practice being weather men or
women like Samantha.
It helps if
you are not wearing a blue shirt though.
But the real thrill came
when we were walking through the back entry way of the studio building.
Can you see it?
How about a closer look?
Does the phrase Time and
Relative Dimensions in Space help?
Apparently Doctor Who left
the TARDIS parked at the BBC Studios. We tried to get in, but to no
avail.
Hopefully we can find it
when we come back.
Rose
City Ghosts I is now available Posted 11
May 2008 It
is a month early, and Portland's Rose City Ghosts I, is back from the
printers. Finally. Actually they were not at all slow, I was.
Last year, David Schargel, of Portland
Walking Tours contacted me, and asked
me to help him set up a sort of ghost walk of downtown Portland. This
became his Beyond Bizarre
tour.
Of course, there were a few other tours
that took people into Portland's seamier side, introducing them to the Shanghai
tunnels, as well as the stories behind the stories. I took on the task of
setting up a kind of wikipedia, an online encyclopaedia which his guides could
use as a reference for my articles.
It took several weeks of work, walking the
streets of Portland with my clairvoyant friend Karan, and several training
sessions with his guides. The tour launched last year, and continues this
year. I had hoped to get my 200+ pages of notes cut down into a book last
year, but several events took over. At last I finished it, after three
separate editors, and lots of cutting. I am afraid that it is not
comprehensive, I will have to wait until next year to put out Book II, and then
Book III. In the mean time, I have visited, and written about many of
downtown Portland's haunted locations, as well as some of her more famous
haunts, like Pittock Mansion, overlooking Portland, and the White Eagle Saloon
on the east side of the Willamette River. As I write this article, I am in
the process of notifying bookstores, and trying to get them to order it through
my distributor. If you cannot wit, it is available here, online, and I
hope you enjoy it.
Follow this link to take the live Beyond
Bizarre tour, or call (503) 774-4522.
Rose
City Ghosts I error Posted 18 June 2008
When it comes to fears, one of the most
common ones is a few of public speaking. Many people would rather face a
masked gunman rather than a live audience. Writing books, particularly
books on the paranormal is very similar; only when you write a book, you are
in front of an audience every time someone opens the book. Many people
buy books on the paranormal for fun, but most also want factual information
about haunted places, and I believe that I fulfill that desire. I try
very hard to get as many facts, particularly historical facts right, to
explain the background of a haunt. Unfortunately in a book of 96 pages,
with around 25,000 words like Portland's Rose City Ghosts I, it is inevitable
that I will get some things wrong. In this case, I discovered what I
consider a small, but significant editing/factual error, which I wanted to
note before any critics do.
On pages 12 and 13, I wrote:
"So during the high point of the
Oregon Trail, those 650,000 people meant more than 15% of all Americans went
west in search of a better future. Perhaps ten percent of the people
(65,000) who traveled the Oregon Trail died along the way, which was nine deaths
for every mile. That is 1% of all Americans."
The text should read:
"So during the high point of the
Oregon Trail, those 650,000 people meant more than 1.5%
of all Americans went west in search of a better future. Perhaps ten
percent of the people (65,000) who traveled the Oregon Trail died along the way,
which was nine deaths for every mile. That is .15%
of all Americans."
I want to apologize to those of my readers
for this mistake.
Jeff Davis
Astoria's
Ghosthunters Getaway Posted 18 June 2008
On June 6 - 8 I hosted a ghosthunter's
getaway at the Rosebriar Inn, Astoria's first B&B. I have included an
email from one of the attendees, so you can tell that although I am into self
promotion, I am not into shameless self-promotion. I am waiting on a few
pictures from participants which I will post as they arrive. I hope to
have another event there or elsewhere in the Pacific Northwest in early
Fall. I f you have any questions or suggestions, please email me.
email
Jeff
Thanks,
Jeff Davis
PS Photos are from Claris H. JDD.
Below is a letter forwarded to me by another participant, Lisa A.
Jessica
and I went on a ghost hunting event this weekend to Astoria! The event was
organized by Jefferson
Davis, a popular NW author and friend of mine. Him, his
wife, and several other participants - including some members of AGHOST
from the Seattle area - were there. The weekend included a fabulous stay
at the Rosebriar
Inn Bed & Breakfast, a free copy of "Haunted Astoria"
(written by Jeff), a walking ghost tour around Astoria showcasing some
local locations reputed to be haunted, and two presentations - one by
Jeff about his upcoming book "Weird Oregon" (in which I'm
quoted!), and one by AGHOST about two past investigations they did at the
old Liberty Theatre in Astoria - complete with a very interesting EVP recording!
(Electronic Voice Phenomena)
The
second file [not
included here,]
named "ghost" is a photo I took during our visit. I don't know
if the photo is actually that of a spirit or not, but it definitely is an
anomaly neither myself nor Jeff could explain. There was nothing shiny on
the carpet that could have reflected back, and our bedroom door is shut, so no
shadows or anything could have been cast or reflected into the hall.
This anomaly did not appear in any other photos I took and it almost appears as
if it might be above the carpet. It just happened to be the last
photo taken before we went back in our room for the night (around 12:30 am).
I am going to run this by my cousin who is an experienced professional
photographer to see if he can offer an explanation - I'll let you know what he
says!
Note:
You can see an "orb" floating in the hall kind of below the
bottom of the window. This is NOT a spirit! These "orbs"
are usually caused by light reflecting off dust motes. You can also see
the reflection of my flash in the window when it went off. But the other
one . . . not so typical!
Background
of the Rosebriar Inn:
The
Inn used to be the private home of a prominent banker in Astoria and was built
in 1902. After he died in 1952, the family sold it to the church as a home
(convent) for the nuns who taught at the nearby Catholic school.
After the church sold it, it was a school for girls (home for
"wayward" girls actually) before it became Astoria's first B
& B in the 1990s. Reported sightings include the ghost of the banker seen in
the living room, a nun who walks the halls or appears in the kitchen, the sound
of children laughing & running in the upstairs hall, and possibly a male
gardener who might just love the place so much, he's still trying to take care
of it - even in death.
Jessica
& I stayed in room 4, which according to Jeff's book, is the
most active (didn't know it when I booked it, but we got lucky there!)
Bars of soap have been known to disappear (ours didn't, we kept checking!). I
interviewed the maids and found out they not only get the feeling of being
watched while in that room, but one of them said she often gets poked in
the back or tapped like someone is trying to get her attention when she is
servicing the room. Before we found all this out, Jessica and I were
already strongly experiencing the "watched" feeling, and the air in
the room definitely had a "heavier" feeling to it. I believe I
had a paranormal experience while I was brushing my teeth: I glanced
up in the mirror briefly only to do a double take when I saw a shadow on the
wall in our room behind me through the open bathroom door. At the time, I
thought it was my own shadow being cast by the bathroom light, but later, when
Jessica and I tried to recreate it, we found my shadow only reached the edge of
the bathroom floor & doorway. Now I'm wondering what - or who - it
was! We were on the second floor so it's not like a shadow could have gone
by our bedroom window to cause it . . . We were told #4 was the room used
for isolation when one of the girls did something deserving a punishment . . . .
hmmm.
We
had nothing but "bad luck" in our room from the moment of our arrival
- the door knob came off in my hand and the other side ended up in the hall
when we first tried to lock the door but the manager fixed it. Our
door wouldn't lock either (deadbolt), so he fixed that too. Our TV would
only give us sound but no picture (we fixed that as well.) The toilet got
plugged twice so we had to plunge it, but it worked fine the rest of the
weekend. And all this happened Friday night! Jessica and I
think it might have been "something" or "someone" trying
to tell us it didn't want us in "their" room. I kept getting the
impression of a girl about 11 - 13 years old and the name Heidi popping
into my head . . . Jessica thought she heard someone enter our bathroom
Friday night from inside our room and wash their hands, but she said she
wasn't about to get up and go look!
Saturday
morning at breakfast, two of the members of AGHOST had a dining room chair at
their table suddenly pull itself out, like someone was going to sit down with
them. Each of them thought the other had moved the chair with their foot,
but when they asked each other, neither one of them had.
But
don't let our temporary "bad luck" in our room deter you! The
Inn is a fabulous place and the food is wonderful. It is very reasonably
priced and offers luxurious accommodations with a spectacular view. A
couple of the rooms have hot tubs and kitchenettes. If you ever consider a
trip to the Oregon Coast, you wouldn't be disappointed with your stay! We
certainly weren't and would love to go back for more ghost hunting adventures!
Lisa A.
International
Got Ghosts Conference Posted 18 June 2008
This is short notice, but from 6 - 9 July, I'll be at the International
Got Ghosts paranormal conference in Victoria B.C. I will be
giving a talk on paranormal investigation techniques. I hope that there is
less controversy when I was mobbed, after talking about digital cameras and orb
photos. Seriously, there will be quite a few nationally known paranormal
investigators, psychics, and personalities. The cost includes many
bonuses, including I think, a ghostwalk. I hope to see some of you
there. If you are interested, but cannot attend, please forward the notice
around. I
am afraid that I had to cancel out of this conference. I still encourage
folks to consider attending. Below is part of the itinerary from the Nevada Spirit
Seekers.
OUR
CONFERENCE WILL TAKE PLACE AT THE FAIRMONT EMPRESS IN VICTORIA CANADA LOCATED
AT:
721 GOVERNMENT STREET
VICTORIA, BRITISH COLUMBIA CANADA V8WIW5
1-800-257-7544 TOLL FREE OR 250-384-8111
YOU MUST SAY YOU ARE WITH THE GOT GHOST GROUP TO GET THE DISCOUNTS
ROOMS NORMALLY COST $399.00 AT THIS TIME OF YEAR. THEY WILL BE $169.00.
The Empress Hotel which opened in 1908 is a famous landmark at the Inner Harbour.
The apparition of a thin man with a mustache has been seen by many visitors and
staff. He fits the description of Francis Mawson Rattenbury, the architect who
designed the Empress and the nearly Parliament buildings.
Sunday
July 6th, 2008
Check
in and dinner on you own, meet and greet
Monday
July 7th, 2008
lectures
will be held at the Crystal Ballroom
10 - 11:30 a.m. John Adams Victoria's Historian. He will be talking about the
haunted history of Victoria and the places we will be investigating.
11:30 - 12:00 noon book sales, bid on auction
12:00 noon - 1: 30 p.m. Lunch own your own. Maybe check out Victoria Well known
Tea Garden
1:30 - 2:30 p.m. Dave Schrader will talk about paranormal investigating.
2:45 - 4:00 p.m. Tiffany Johnson is a psychic/medium and she will talk about
past lives.
4:15 - 5:30 p.m. Mark and Debby Constantino will talk about EVP, how to record
and share some of their class A EVP's
5:30 - 7:00 Dinner own your own
7:00 - 8:30 p.m. Question and Answers Panel in the Palm Court/Crystal Ballroom
8:30 p.m. break into groups
9:00 - 3 a.m. investigate 3 spots Hatley castle , Bedford Regency Hotel,
cemetery
Tuesday
July 8th, 2008
Lectures
will be held at the crystal ballroom
10 - 11:30 a.m. Randy Schneider will talk about equipment, some of the new
devices coming out. Franks box and digital dowsing.
11:30 - 12 noon book sales/ last chance to bid on auction
12 - 1:30 p.m. lunch own your own
1:30 - 2:30 p.m. Loyd Auerbach will talk about parapsychology
2:45 - 4:00 p.m. Amy Bruni will talk about the do's and don't's in investigating
4:15 - 5:30 p.m. Patrick Burns will discus paranormal photography
5:30 - 7:00 p.m. Dinner @ TBA included in ticket price. Announce winners of
auctions
7:00 - 8:30 p.m. Cemetery Walk
8;30 p.m. break into groups
9:00 - 3:00 a.m. investigate other 3 spots St Ann's Academy, Maritime Old
Morris, Rogers Chocolates
Wednesday
July 9th 2008
Say
our goodbyes
9:00 - 11:00 a.m. hotel check out
11:00 - 1:00 breakfast and evidence review @ TBA
This is just for those who want to share anything they may have
Weird Washington
Web is
up and sort of running
Posted 24 June 2008
At long last the Weird Washington Website is up and running, please visit www.weirdwashington.us
or simply click on the graphic below. You may notice some stories from
this web on the new site, but soon we hope to have more content, including
excerpts that did not make it in the book, as well as more stories from the
general public.
Portland,
Oregon Interview
On
July 3rd 2008, I was a guest on KATU's AM northwest morning show.
It was interesting and fun, despite the fact that I showed up on the 2nd
as well. I guess I had yet to embarrass the human race for the
month of July. Anyway, I hope to get a copy of the interview
posted soon. Until then, follow the link below:
Ghost Hunter's Getaway to
Oregon Caves Chateau from 3 - 5 October Post 3
August 2008
Picture a newlywed
couple on their honeymoon. They are not wealthy, but they could afford to
visit one of the premier natural wonders in their area; the Oregon Caves
National Monument . It was a stretch, but their budget included a couple
nights in the rustic chateau, rather than camping out. Sure, they could
only afford a room on the third floor, but they were actually staying THERE!
Sadly, the bride, Elisabeth found that the third floor was not far enough away
from the kitchen maid, who stole her husband away. This abandonment left
its mark on Elisabeth, and the Chateau.
Many people believe that Elisabeth still remains at the Chateau, haunting the
top floor, and she is not alone. Others believe that they have seen a
ghostly handyman and other manifestations
of the paranormal at the Oregon Caves Chateau. There are also stories of a
ghost haunting the Caves themselves. He
was shot and killed in a freak accident while climbing through a narrow tunnel.
This is the setting of my next Ghost Hunter’s Getaway.
Location
of Oregon Caves Chateau:
By
car, follow Highway 199 from Grants Pass , Oregon (Interstate 5) or Crescent
City , California (Hwy 101) to Cave Junction. Turn south on Hwy 46 (Chevron
station is on the corner) and follow this road for 20 miles to the Oregon Caves
National Monument and the Chateau. The nearest bus station is in Grants
Pass , Oregon . The nearest airport is in Medford , about 70 miles from the
Chateau.
For
a detailed, printable map, please click
here.
To
make reservations:
Phone:
877-245-9022
Email:
As
I hope all of you know, I am currently working on my upcoming book, Weird
Oregon. One of my stops was at the Oregon Caves National
Monument , and the adjacent Chateau. In the past, the operators of the
Chateau were not what I would call overly “ghost hunter friendly.” At
the present time, the Chateau is being managed by the Oregon
Caves Outfitters, who are. Several
of their guests have reported experiencing odd and unusual things there.
There is even a ghost logbook at the front desk where they and other guests have
reported odd things.
They
agreed to setting up this event. This is not meant to be a conference, but
kind of informal retreat, where people who share an interest can get together to
discuss things in a relaxed manner. Because of that there are no
conference fees for attending, and the event is open to the public. As in
my past getaways, I am starting with a tentative schedule, which will change
slightly as we get closer to the getaway. I hope that we can add more fun
things later, like we did last year.
Friday,
3 October:
The
Oregon Caves are located in Southern Oregon, nearly at the California border.
I expect a lot of people will arrive late Friday evening, or
early Saturday morning. Because of that, we are holding off on some of the
more interesting things, until Saturday. I will be there Friday afternoon,
greeting folks who come in that night. The major event will be watching
movies on a projection screen, in one of their big open rooms. If there is
a fire, later that evening we might sit around it and tell ghost stories.
Saturday,
4 October:
We
have not set a time, but after breakfast, one of the Chateau employees will give
us a talk on the history of the building, and Oregon Caves and… the ghosts.
Unlike many hauntings, in this case there are newspaper stories documenting some
aspects of the events there. We will also have a talk on the ghosts of
Southern Oregon . Then we will break, to follow our own interests.
This might be going up to our rooms to conduct an investigation, or to visit the
Oregon Caves , or visit with other ghost experiencers at the Chateau.
There are also some interesting tourist activities nearby.
Starting
at 7 PM, we will get together again, after dinner where I will give a show and
tell of some of my stories in Weird Oregon. I hope that other folks will
agree to share their own experiences, and bring pictures, or audio files for
discussion. We did this in Astoria earlier this year, and everyone was
respectful, and I think learned a lot in an exchange of ideas. As more
people sign up, I will post more discussion topics.
Sunday,
5 October:
In
the morning, I expect to get together over or after breakfast to discuss and
paranormal happenings on Friday or Saturday.
Rooms,
bonuses and amenities:
There
are 23 rooms at the Chateau. They are an interesting mix of rooms with
queen beds, to family suites. The current rates for these rooms runs from
$90 to $160 a night. As we get closer to the event, room prices might go
down, reflecting winter rates. For ghost hunter groups on a budget, some
of these rooms have two beds, and it might be possible (for a small fee,) to
have a rollaway bed added to the larger rooms. Because this is a historic
building, and in some cases plumbing was an afterthought, a few rooms have a
bath only, others have a shower but no bath, but most do have a bath and shower.
All of the rooms have a view. Some overlook the waterfall and pond running under
the Chateau, others look at the woods and canyon on the other side.
On
to bonuses:
The first ten people to make a reservation, and keep it will get one free copy
of one of my ghost books. Along with the free talks, we might have a
raffle for some ghostly items, or items relating to the Chateau. The
proceeds of this will go to the IVCDO for their support. Their
gift gallery will also be selling paranormal books and videos at a discount
during the getaway. Sorry, their contract with the National
Parks Service will not let the Chateau allow other vendors to sell.
The
Chateau offers premier fine dining in one of the most beautiful settings in
Oregon . They feature Northwest cuisine made with choice Oregon-grown
ingredients. Sample the best of what southern Oregon has to offer, from the
freshest, locally-grown foods to Illinois Valley and Rogue Valley cheeses and
wines.
The
Dining Room is open
from 6-8 PM for dinner. Click
here to see a Sample Dinner Menu The 1930's
style Caves
Cafe offers good a free continental breakfast from 7-9
AM for guests.. For those guests who are "on the go", please
check out their Deli,
located in the Gift Gallery area, offering sandwiches, salads, and other
goodies, made fresh daily, open from 10AM-7 PM.
Although it is a little drive away, there are other restaurants in Cave
Junction. Most of the recreation in the area is outdoorsy, and here are a
few things to think about.
Recreation
opportunities:
Oregon Caves
National Monument
Just a few steps from the lobby of
the Chateau lies the entrance to the Oregon Caves and your ticket to a 90 minute
tour of wonder. Bring warm clothing. The Caves stay at a chilly 42 degrees
fareheit (5.5 degress celcius) all summer!
Old
Growth Forest
The Chateau sits nestled in the
midst of an old growth forest high atop the Siskiyou Mountains ; enjoy the peace
and quiet of these ancient whispering woods both day and night.
Hiking
Spreading out in all directions,
four loop trails at the Monument offer a range of hiking opportunities for all
ages and fitness levels. The Big Tree Loop climbs past one of the largest
Douglas Fir in Oregon to a flower-filled ridge.
Illinois
River
Valley Wineries
Enjoy wine tasting at our award-winning wineries,
including Foris,
Bridgeview
and Deer
Creek
Kerbyville
Historical Museum
- Illinois Valley history, Waldo Historic Mining District, and the
William and Nannie Naucke House. Haunted? Why not go see.
Highway
199 Traveler and Rogue
River Country
Great
Cats World Park
Predators
in Action – Voted 2005 Best Commercial Project of the Year, one mile south of
Cave Junction
Out
'n' About Treesort & Treehouse Institute
If
you are interested in Horseback rides, Tree climbing, Rafting, Camping, Hiking,
New Giant
Zip Line
& giant Tarzan swing!
To
make reservations:
Phone:
877-245-9022
Email:
Ghost Hunter's
getaway to Astoria, Oregon from 10 - 12 October Posted 3 August 2008
Earlier this year I hosted a Ghost Hunter's Getaway at the
Rosebriar Inn in Astoria (see above.) I have consulted with the managers,
and we are doing it again. The Rosebriar
is the former residence of a prominent
Astoria banker, Mr. Patton. 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. For a few years it became a kind of girl's
school. After the school closed down, the building sat vacant for some time and
changed hands, before becoming Astoria's first Bed and Breakfast in the
1980s.
We are set up for our getaway at the Rosebria over the weekend of 10 - 12
October 2008. This is not meant to be a
conference, but kind of informal retreat, where people who share an interest can
get together to discuss things in a relaxed manner. Things are still open,
as far as what we can do. I am open to suggestions, but there are a few
things that we have to work around.
Most importantly, the registration at the Rosebriar is not
limited to us alone. It is first come, first served, so if you want to
attend, please make your reservations, with the Rosebriar, then email me that
you are going to attend. The room cost will be normal, there will not be
any additional fee added. Each couple or individual who attends will
received a free copy of Haunted Astoria. I will also be giving a
free ghost walk of Astoria, either on Saturday. Most ghost walks cost
around $15, so combined this
has a value of $40 per couple or $25 per individual attending.
Whatever we do, we have to be respectful of any other guests who
do not want to participate. Having said that, we might actually gain some
converts among guests who did not know we were going to be there. I do
have a few suggestions, which we might have to rearrange depending on how soon
everyone arrives.
Friday Evening
6:30
PM Everybody arrives, meet and greet, Rosebriar guests receives their
copy of Haunted Astoria. As part of the open-to-the-public nature
of this event, we will be running horror movies in the Rosebriar's conference
room, and their just might be popcorn. Rosebriar guests will attend for
free. We ask that members of the public bring a donation to the local food
bank of $5 or some food item.
Saturday
8:30 to 9:30 AM, guests eat breakfast.
10:00
to 11:30 AM free Ghost Walk of Astoria conducted by myself. This is also
open to the public, and we will meet at the replica of old Fort Astor.
After the last walk, I will limit the walk to 25 people. I am sorry, but
it is safer that way. I might be persuaded to host another walk at noon,
if enough people ask. After the ghost walk, we will split up, and visit
some of the many haunts in and around Astoria. This could include Fort Stevens, the Knappton Cove Pest
House, dining at a haunted restaurant or two, or even visits to historic sites
that are not haunted, such as Fort Columbia, or the replica of Lewis and Clark's
Fort Clatsop. I am open to suggestion.
7:00 and 10:00 PM, I suggest we share
ghost stories with each other, and discuss techniques. Last year we had
two paranormal groups give talks. I will bring a computer, projector, and screen which we
will set
up in the Rosebriar Inn. I will give a talk on Weird Oregon, and I
hope others will want to
give mini-talk. If so, I will add it to the list.
Sunday
After breakfast we can visit some more haunts, and perhaps visit
some local events. I am looking for any
suggestions. of things to do before we head for home that afternoon.
email
Jeff
Know
of any Multiple-Murder Haunts for a Television Show?
Posted 6 August 2008
Perhaps I am being melodramatic, but I do need help.
I was contacted by a ghost-hunter-author friend who is working with new show on
the paranormal, and they are looking for haunts to visit. They have a
pretty steep set of conditions though, and I need help finding some places that
will fit. Do any web visitors know of a Northwest haunt where:
1) At least five people or more died in tragic
circumstances. This could be a house, hospital, prison, mine, or any other
location. These have to be historically documented, not just legend.
2) This can be either a building, or a building built over the site.
4) There has been recent paranormal activity there.
3) The owners would welcome a paranormal investigation.
Please email me and I will contact you, and put you in
touch with my friend.
Thanks, Jeff
email
Jeff
Non-Ghostly
activities at Oregon Caves posted 30
September 08
Well, it's only a few days until the Oregon Caves ghost getaway. I
contacted the Oregon Caves Chateau, and there are around 30 people so far
planning on attending. That does not include any local folks who decide to
visit as well. Below is a list of non-ghostly activities in the
vicinity. See you soon,
Jeff
Oktoberfest
When:
Oct 4th
Location:
Cave Junction, Oregon
Spirit
of the Rogue Art Exhibit
When:
Oct 1 to Oct 25.
Location:
Fire House Gallery 4th & H
Outdoors
Grower's Market, Riverside Park
When:
Oct 1 to Oct 29, Wednesdays, 9am - 1pm.
Location:
Riverside Park
Contact:
Marti Fate, 476-5375
First
Friday Art Night
When:
Oct 3, 6:00 - 9 pm.
Location:
Downtown Grants Pass
Contact:
Pat Sheets, 787-7357
Art
Along the Rogue
When:
Oct 4 to Oct 5.
A
Grants Pass music and street art festival showcases some of the very best area
artists and musicians. There's something for everyone in downtown Grants Pass
during this popular two-day event. Bring your camera!
Location:
H Street
Web:
www.artalongtherogue.com
End
of Halloween Season Posted 25 November 2008
Well, it has been nearly a month since the end of the Halloween
season, and I am finally able to finish this update on how things went.
During the month of October I did over 15 public appearances both in the Pacific
Northwest, and across the country. It was exciting, interesting, sometimes
boring, but ultimately it was tiring. I will include some of the
highlights below. But not so many that it is boring for you the readers,
or hopefully too much work for me, the writer.
Jeff
Western
Washington University, in Bellingham
Western Washington University in Bellingham is one of
Washington's loveliest campuses. Like many of the State's colleges and
universities, it started out small, and has grown over time. The oldest
buildings are located in the center of the college, and the further out you go,
the larger, and more modern the buildings become. In the case of WWU, the
oldest buildings were on a hilltop, and the more recent buildings have crept
down the hillside, which leads to some interesting architectural styles.
Western Washington University's library is located in the
older part of the campus, however it has had recent improvements, including some
to its subbasement. In the periodical (magazine) section there are a vast
number of different magazines and journals in movable cases. According to
a story told by two students, they were looking at some periodicals, when the
movables shelves began closing, ever so slowly. So slowly that they did
not realize what was happening until they were nearly trapped. As my demonstrator
shows, there is so much weight on these stacks, that it would be difficult to
stop them from closing if you were in the middle. Due to this story and
others, we attempted several EVP recordings.
Full length
attempt.
Of course, this audio file is over a minute long.
Here is an excerpt of what we agree was an anomalous sound, that is, a sound
that none of us made when we were recording, but it still showed up on the audio
file. Possible EVP.
Question: "How old were you when you
died?"
Answer "Seven?" "Eleven?"
"Seventeen?" Or were we hearing things?
SUNY at
Oswego, New York
I really enjoyed meeting the people at SUNY, at
Oswego, New York. I arrived early enough that I met with the
students. They were very kind to me. We visited a few places on
campus, and may have contacted the other side. In this case, we did not
get any responses to our first questions. So we tried asking some
questions that might be considered insulting, if you were a stodgy university
administrator type.
Second
attempt.
Like
to party? Well, as in many EVP attempts, there
is something of an overlap between our voices, and what may be an answer to the
question. There were three of us making this recording, and all of us
agree, we did not make the noise which is heard over the question after liking
parties.
Urbana University in Ohio
Urbana University in Ohio is old, even for the state of
Ohio, and has some interesting associations. Some of the founders were
members of a Protestant group known as the Swedenborgs, and one of the land
donators was the real Johnny Appleseed. It was part of the Underground
Railroad, and during the Civil War, it was garrisoned by at least the Union
Army. Perhaps even a Confederate Militia stayed there as well. There
are several buildings that have a reputation for being haunted, including the
building above, which has a gravestone as a doorstop leading into the
attic.
We may have gotten an EVP from that building, but had even
more success in the Barkley - Bailey Hall, also one of the older buildings on
campus, which as seen some modifications, but still retains some of its older
features. There were stories that students told of seeing a soldier
dressed in a heavy, dark jacket.
First
EVP attempt
One of the questions asked was, "What is your
name?" Was there a
response? Do you hear a quick response of
"Martin?" Some of the people with me believe they did. We
tried narrowing down this and other noises with a second
round of questions. When the student asked, "Is your named
Martin?" We got what might not have been a voice, but something
else. All of us agreed, none of us made any banging noise after
the question was asked.
Simpson College, in Indianola,
IA
On 31 October 2007, I went to
Simpson College and had the following
experiences: Everyone was so
enthusiastic and interested in the supernatural. I was not the first
person do investigations there,
because there was a longstanding tradition of more than one of their buildings
being haunted as a result of a horrible tragedy. Of course, most of the
time these stories are usually nothing more than stories, but at Simpson,
there was at least one tragic death, that of a young woman named Mildred.
According
to Emili Johnson, staff writer for the Simpsonian, In 1935 Mildred
Hedges was 22 years old, and a student at Simpson College. At that time,
the College Hall building was known as the Old Chapel Building. It was
named that for good reason, because it has a high bell and clock tower.
There is an open square shaped stairway which leads to the top of the tall
tower. Unfortunately for Mildred, the railing around the stairs was not
high enough.
No one knows whether she was in a hurry going from one class
to another, or if she committed suicide, but Mildred plunged over the banister
from the third floor landing. She is supposed to have hit the railing at
least once on the way down, before landing on the ground floor, after falling
over 40 feet. They rushed her to the local hospital where she was
pronounced dead. According to campus tradition there is a red blood spot
on the railing where Mildred hit her head.
Since then people have reported seeing her on the third floor
landing, as well as one of converted classrooms, which has been converted into
a historic display, with beds, dresses, and other clothing items. But
more of that later.
I
know I will get some details wrong, but I spoke with one of the ladies in the
admissions offices, and she told me of her experiences. One morning she
came into work, finding only one other employee, and a student intern in the
building. It turned out that the rest of the staff were away from campus
on a retreat.
She was allowed to have a radio playing in her
office. She turned it on with the volume low. A few minutes later,
the volume on the radio turned up to its highest setting. This was
impossible, since there was no one around. She got up, and turned the
volume down again.
They had a few visitors come in, and she, the other employee,
and the intern all took care of the visitors. She stepped away from her
office for a few minutes, and when she returned, the radio volume was on high
again. She turned it down again, and waited for the other employees to
finish with their guests before asking who turned up her radio. Before
she could ask them, one of the employees spoke first, "Did you see the
older gentleman I was with? That was Mildred's brother! He wanted
to see the place where she died."
Of course my informant listened to the rest of this news
before asking if anyone had been playing a trick on her. They denied
touching the radio volume. So did Mildred know her brother was coming,
and wanted to leave him some kind of message?
This
is the portion of the third floor set up as a historic room/display. You
cannot see it from this picture, but there is a dress on a hangar to the right
of the bed. According to one student, the staff used to pull pranks to
keep the Mildred legend active.
Every year they used to have a female student go up to
the this room in the late evening. She would hide there for an hour or
two, to make sure that everyone supposed that the building was empty.
Then, around midnight, the girl would stand silhouetted against the window
when students were walking by. I believe it was two years ago when they
tried it last. That time, the girl went up to the room as usual.
She came down less than an hour later, saying that she could not stay up there
another minute. Apparently the old dress, still on its hangar flew off
the rack, and moved toward her. There was another occasion when someone
saw a woman walking into this room, open a door, walk through, and close the
door behind them. When the person investigated, they found the door
opened a closet, and empty closet. We tried some EVPs, and at least one
of the students seemed to get a response
When one of the students asked if Mildred was a stupid name, did she giggle a
bit, or was there an answer. And was Midred a klutz,
yes or no?
Next
we went out onto the third floor landing, where we tried contacting Mildred
herself. We looked close at the banister on the way up, and I am not so
sure that the supposed blood stain is not furniture polish. But I will
leave that to the chemistry department out find out. We may have gotten
a response.
Do you hear anyone hear an answering knock
when I asked Mildred to recreate any sounds of her fall? I admit that it
is a small sound, and there were several people there, but we were all pretty
sure that we were quiet throughout the entire recording process. You
will have to judge.
In addition to these odd happenings, I and others witnessed
another odd set of occurrences. One of my friendly native guides worked
for campus security. There were stories every now and then among the
officers that they had heard ghostly meetings going on in some of the
College Hall conference rooms. When they investigated the voices, they
found rooms empty. There were also stories of apparitions, and other
things... My guide experienced this first hand, so it is not a repeated
urban legend. Earlier this year he was walking by College Hall, and the
clock chimed. He reported it to his supervisor, because the bells had
been disconnected years earlier. Sure enough, they looked at the
mechanism, and the bells were still disconnected.
I did not know this during part of my investigation. I
remember distinctly leaving the building with my student ghost hunters.
As we walked away from College Hall, we all heard the bells chime. They
paused, and I did too. They commented on the sounds. I looked at
my watch, and noted that it was 45 minutes past the hour. I said
something about many clocks chimed every 15 minutes, so it sounded alright to
me. That's when they told me the bells were disconnected. A few
minutes later we walked back into College Hall, and the bells chimed
again. This time, it was not on the quarter hour, or the top of the
hour. It was about six minutes till midnight. So what was it?
I returned on 29 October 2008.
I really loved the folks at Simpson College, and was fortunate
enough to be asked by in 2008. I found that some interesting things had
been reported after my visit.
Among
other things, one of the janitors reported something odd while working late at
night. Apparently he was covering for one of the other janitors, who was
out sick, but was unfamiliar with some aspects of the main building. He
was walking down the hall, and saw that one of the office doors was open.
He poked his head inside, and saw the back of a woman's head. She was
sitting on a plush leather chair, facing away from him. The man was a
little surprised to see someone working that late at night.
He said almost embarrassed, "I am sorry to bother you,
but I was just checking on things. I'll just clean up the bathroom next
door, and be out of here." There was no response from the woman, and
she did not even turn around. The man went about his duties, though he did
discuss the matter the next day.
The person he talked to was surprised that the office door
was open. Apparently it was never open, or the office owner had not been
able to find a key. And was not a woman. They checked out the office
that evening, and the janitor was surprised to find that the leather chair was
gone, and the furniture did not match the other furnishings he had seen the
night before.
Along
with this new incident, I took a trip to the University Library with several of
the better informed students, who showed me a college year book, which included
a picture of Mildred, proving she was not a campus legend. At least the
time she spent on campus was not a tall tale. I went through parts
of campus with several of the students before my evening presentation. We
went back up into "Mildred's Room" looking for her. We did have
an interesting possible EVP. It is interesting that on my visit the year
earlier, I had wanted to stay overnight in Mildred's Room, but that was not
allowed.
This was probably not Mildred's real room, but it was a
small nook, set up with historic furnishings such as twin beds, a dress, chest
of drawers, etc (see above.) We had gotten some interesting
Electromagnetic Radiation readings there, and others reported odd things.
In this later visit, I had permission to stay there, but not to sleep on the
bed. Several of the other students wanted to stay there, and a few
did. I was the only one to actually sleep in her room.
We started with a question
and answer session. And one of the students, who stayed up with
me did get a response.
If I ever write a book about haunted colleges in the Pacific Northwest, Simpson
Colleges will be one of the first stories include.
Pierce College, in Lakewood,
Washington
Posted 25 November 2008
Although Pierce College was not the last college I visited, I am
including it last in this Halloween Tour article, since I went back for a second
visit in early November. Pierce College was formerly known as Fort
Steilacoom Community College, and it was built (in part) on land that used to
belong to the Western State Hospital, one of Washington State's oldest facility
for treating the mentally ill. There are many stories about a building
located near the main campus, which was on of the sanitarium buildings.
These stories involved tales of lobotomies, torture, and other odd medical practices.
In reality, this particular building was a kind of dormitory for hospital
inmates who worked in the dairy. After the building was abandoned, it
became the haunt of gangs who practiced rituals as diverse as devil worship and
muggings. It was torn down by the time I visited in November 2008. In
2008, Pierce College may have been the most active haunt I visited, at least as
far as a college or university. If I can, I arrive a few hours before
any presentation I am to make, and take a group of students to haunted locales
on campus. We do a mini-ghost hunt and I include any results we get in my
evening presentation. I had this chance at Pierce College. We
started by going down to the basement areas of one of the main buildings.
There was a stain on the cement floor, which several people believed was caused
by a blood stain, that was cleaned up; which left behind a white spot on the gray
cement. It is true that the iron and copper in human blood can stain
concrete, but so can many other ordinary chemicals. Many of which have
been stacked on this loading dock. Even so, the workers do not like to
walk on the spot, though some brave or foolish students have indulged themselves
by dancing on it for a dare. We tried getting EVP
attempts, but the results were not certain. There were a lot of noises
around, and several people stopped to watch us, and comment. Next we went
into the hallway outside the loading dock, and tried as well. According to
some of the cleaning staff, and security, people had seen and heard odd things
there in the evenings. Again we did not get anything too conclusive, but
we decided to go back there in the evening with other students, after my
presentation. A third location we visited that afternoon included the art
gallery in the college art wing. That evening my presentation was
very well attended, especially for an urban college. After a few years of
visiting colleges across the country I learned that colleges located in small
towns, with little in the way of recreation have lots of students attending
talks and presentations. In colleges located in or very near large cities,
attendance is less; because students can go out to clubs, restaurants, or other
places. Afterward we went to on a ghost hunt. The audience was so
large that I divided it into two groups, each one taking about an hour to
investigate parts of the campus. We started with the basement, and may
have gotten some responses to our questions, or it seemed that we did. It
was hard to tell, after one of the janitors came wandering down the hallway in
the middle of our EVP attempts. To
jump ahead a bit, we moved to other locations before gathering up the second
group. When we returned to the basement we noticed something very
interesting. In the hallway leading to the loading dock, there was a large
block of mail boxes. I noticed that one of the mail box doors had been
broken off, it stood out against all of the other closed and locked mail
doors. When we returned with the second group, the mail door to the left
of the broken box was hanging open. Could one of the mail handlers
have waited for us to leave, and opened it as a prank to be found when we
returned? That is possible, but if I were the prankster, I would not have
risked a fine, jail, or both to scare a group of students. My student
guide for this expedition, Jennifer investigated, and found that the box was
still assigned to someone who had not been at the college for at least a
year. So who opened the box? Another location we visited
was a faculty lounge in one of the upper floors. While there the
first group got what might have been an EVP. I will not include it here,
since the second group got better results. This is the recording
made by the second group. About 30 seconds into the recording, someone
asked, "How old are you?" In the few seconds of silence after
the question there is a clear and audible thump.
When we started these recordings, I set the digital audio recorder on a table,
and no one touched it. So where did the thump come from? Later in
this question, around 1:30 minutes, someone asked, "were you a
student?" There may or may not have been a response of "No."
At least Jennifer thought she heard a
voice. I decided to clean it up a bit using Magix MP3 Maker, an
inexpensive audio editor/conversion program. Normally I do not use this
kind of software, but the results were interesting. Here is the result.
I do believe that I hear a male voice answering negatively, as well as some
garbled voice sounds. Someone I asked though they heard, "No... I was
a teacher." The problem with this kind of software is that is can
create patterns out of static. In this case though, the girl's voice
asking the question is also clear, rather than garbled. However I will
leave it to the reader/listeners to decide. A
Later Visit
I
arrived at Pierce College on 20 November 2008.
I met with Jennifer, the student coordinator who had hosted me in an
earlier, October performance. Jennifer
was very interested in having a psychic/clairvoyant give some input into the haunting
at the college. She contacted my
friend Janet, who I have worked with before. Shortly after Janet
arrived, students Megan and Shalaa joined us. Although Jennifer told Janet
somewhat about the college over the phone, she did not give her a tremendous
number of details. We decided to
visit the loading docks/basement, the faculty lounge, and art gallery.
This was not meant as a full-fledged vigil or investigation, it was more
of a scouting mission, to see if Janet could pick up on any energies that were
similar to what we had experienced before. We
did take along a digital audio recorder, my Pentax digital camera, and Tri-field
EMR meter. As we went along, I used
or held the audio recorder, but also let Jennifer hold it.
I gave the Tri-field meter to Megan initially, but she later traded it
back and forth with Shalaa.
We went to the loading bay first. Janet said she
detected the energies of a lonely man in the hallway.
She walked around the mail boxes, where we had gotten our possible EVPs.
She went to a corner, and directed me to take pictures there, in the
hopes he would show up. (no
anomalies in the pictures.)
However Megan was carrying the Tri-field meter, and she
detected several anomalous readings in the corner.
We walked around with the Tri-field meter, trying to determine whether
the readings, higher energy levels than the surrounding hallway, were the result
of wiring or metal in the walls. It
was hard to tell. The energy levels
did not appear to grow stronger near floor level, or high up on the walls, but
centered around three feet off the floor. On
the other side of the wall, it was the outside loading dock, with no visible
high energy wiring. We went into the
mailroom itself, and did find some higher readings that were probably the result
of wiring.
We
started up the stairs to go the Art Wing. Jennifer,
Megan and Shalaa started up the stairs first, but Janet held back.
She whispered to me, “Jeff, there is a girl here now too.
And she’s very frightened.”
She asked me if I knew about a female ghost, or stories of
females. I told her that I did not
know, but would check. We started up
the stairs. I believe we were on the
first landing, when Megan paused. She
was holding the Tri-field meter, and told me that the device was out of control.
Most of the time she had been using it on the 0-3 scale, but the readings
on the stairway were so high that she switched it to 0-100.
She showed me that it was over 30. Janet
came up and said something like, “it’s the girl I sensed down below, she’s
followed us up the stairs. She’s
here, and she’s scared.”
I watched as the needle go up suddenly, as a matter of
fact, it spiked several times, so violently that it went over 100, and bounced
back. Megan’s hand was shaking.
She told me in an excited voice, “Oh my God, it’s vibrating!”
Janet replied, “It’s the girl, and she’s frightened,
calm down, because you’re making her more frightened.”
I was afraid for my meter. Megan’s
hand was shaking so hard, whether from adrenalin, or the vibrating of the meter,
I do not know. I took the meter from
her. I also turned on my digital
audio recorder, and we tried asking for responses from the female entity who
Janet detected. This recording
session lasted about two minutes, but the results were not conclusive.
About 30 seconds after I took the meter from Megan, she calmed down, and I gave
it back to her. Oddly, the meter
reading was now down around 3 miligauss. Janet
said that the girl had calmed down, and left.
We went back up the stairs, one floor, then down a hallway
toward the Art Wing. We paused, or
rather Janet paused in the large room, which opened into a breezeway, leading to
the Art Wing. She told Jennifer that
she did not want to go to the Art Wing. She
told Jennifer that she sensed a tormented soul, or souls somewhere in the Art
Wing. Despite her misgivings, Janet
went with us as we continued down the breezeway, toward the Art Wing.
Jennifer
held the recorder this time, while I held took my camera out and took
several pictures. The recording took
several minutes, and I do not have the bandwidth to include a compete copy of
the recording. After about two minutes we reached the Art Gallery and
paused there. Janet commented that
she would not go further down the hallway and
Megan and Jennifer agreed. Meanwhile,
back to the Art Gallery.
Jennifer
paused in the gallery with the recorder, and Shalaa was standing near her with
the meter. Oddly, when I played back the
recording there were a series of taps
on the recording. I
was standing nearby and I did not see Jennifer tap on the recorder, and she
denied making the sound. At that point, the Tri-field meter energy
readings went up significantly near the center of the room, far from any
possible conduit in the walls. We
tried asking several questions, hoping for EVP responses.
I also tried getting the spirit to move the meter needle.
“Move the needle,” I said.
The meter was at four milligaus, and I put my finger on the outside of
the meter housing, and moved it down from four, to three.
The meter needle moved downward, following my finger.
When I removed my finger, the needle stayed there.
I asked several more times for the meter to move again.
Nothing significant happened, though the needle wavered several times.
Again, I put my finger against the meter, and said, “move the needled
again.” This time I moved my
finger from three up to four, and the needle followed it.
When I removed my finger, the needle stayed at four milligaus.
We paused for several more seconds, while the needle remained around
four, before finishing our recording session.
On the recording, there were two other indistinct
anomalies. I am waiting for Jennifer
and the others to listen to the recording to give me feedback.
After that incident, we paused to discuss the event for
several minutes. Janet was convinced
that there were several souls, with darkness, or in pain in the wing.
It might have started with a single soul, that attracted others.
I also suggested that it was a remnant haunting, where all of the artists
(a strange bunch) had emoted so much energy into their work that it saturated
the building and wing. And so much of it was dark that the aura wore off.
After
reading all of these incidents, I am sure that many web readers are ready to
head right to Pierce college, tape recorders, cameras, and Tri-field meters in
hand. I must ask you not too. Although I was asked to come back,
this was very discretely done, and I went around with only a small party of
students. I am certain that the College administrators would not approve a
larger investigation. And if you show up without being asked, you will be
asked to leave, and will give paranormal investigators in the future a black
eye. Please check back for more information here, and I'll post any new
results.
Thanks for understanding
Jeff
PAST
Paranormal Group Link Posted 25 Nov 08
Greetings!
My name is
Ellen Allmendinger and I am the Founder and President of The P.A.S.T. is Present
paranormal investigation team. The P.A.S.T. is present is a new paranormal
investigation team based out of central and southeast Washington. We now
have our website up and going and would love to add your site to our link
section, as well as possibly adding our link to your site. Although our
website is under some construction, we do have information in each section of
the site that explains our group. Please feel free to go to our site for
our link banner, as well as join our forum which you can access thru the
website. www.thepastispresent.org
is the location of our site.
We would love
to hear from your group as well. You may contact me thru the website,
forum or at ellenallmendinger@yahoo.com.
Thank
you,
Ellen Allmendinger
Founder
& President of
"The P.A.S.T. is Present"
"Unwrapping the past..one presence at a time."
.
Emerald
Valley Paranormal Group Link Posted 25 Nov
08
I
just thought I would write to you and thank you first of all, for your wonderful
books that have helped us to get to know our State a little better. And
second, to share one of our stories with you.
Happy writing to you.
Sincerely,
Darci Chappell
Co-Founder
Emerald Valley Paranormal
IPI
(International Paranormal Investigators) Representative - Oregon Chapter
Darci@EmeraldValleyParanormal.com
http://www.EmeraldValleyParanormal.com
http://www.myspace.com/EmeraldValleyParanormaljc
http://www.myspace.com/ipi_oregon
Weird Washington
Website Updated Posted 28 November 2008
In addition to this website, I also maintain a smaller
website tied to my book Weird Washington. I just posted an update to www.weirdwashington.us
which includes a few videos from Lakeview Cemetery, Gravity Hill, and Stonehenge
in the Columbia River Gorge. Enjoy
2009
Paranormal Conference Posted 28 November 2008
Catherine Duncan and the Trails End Paranormal Society
have joined with the Cascade Geographic Society and are putting on the Mt Hood
Ghost Conference. Speakers include: Michael
P. Jones, Cascade Geographic Society; Catherine Duncan, Trail's End Paranormal
Society; Haunted Hunters; Regan Vacknitz APART of Washington Paranormal;
Ross Allison from AGHOST; and Darren Thompson of WSPIR.
Puget
Sound Ghost Hunters
Who
is PSGH?
The
Puget Sound
Ghost Hunters (PSGH) is a volunteer paranormal investigation and research
organization, whose primary goal is to assist clients in identifying and
understanding the paranormal activity they may be experiencing.
PSGH
adheres to strict procedures and policies to promote successful investigations.
All our investigators are fully trained in our protocols and procedures.
These procedures are in place to ensure that PSGH provide state of the art
investigation techniques to their clients. A reliance on the basics allows
us to document paranormal activity.
email
Jeff
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