THE COAST GHOSTS OF OREGON

The Oregon Coast has always been a magnet for the paranormal.

HECETA HEAD LIGHTHOUSE
– Florence, OR –
Built in 1892, the Heceta Head Lighthouse, and the remodeled house nearby, are known to be home to The Grey Lady. Believed to be the mother of a drowned baby girl, whose remains were found on the land, the woman shrouded in a grey mist is thought to wander the grounds, searching for her babe. The name “Rue” is associated with this entity, but we don’t know for certain if the name refers to the woman or the baby. The Grey Lady shows no inclination towards violence – instead she wanders aimlessly, opening cupboards and releasing a rare, distressed sob. The house is now a bed and breakfast of sorts, with rooms available for reservation.

THE BATTERY RUSSELL
– Fort Stevens / Warrenton, OR –
Fort Stevens was built during the Civil War to protect the mouth of the Columbia River. It served through WW2, and was even the only part of mainland America to be shelled by the enemy during WW2. Soldiers as recently as that war claim the fort is haunted by the ghost of a Civil War soldier. But his identity has never been revealed.

HEAVEN'S GATE
– Waldport, OR –
Since last year, everyone knows about Heaven's Gate- the UFO-worshipping cult who committed mass suicide in San Diego. But few people know that this group actually started right here on the Oregon Coast, 20 years ago. In 1975, a seminar on UFOs was held in a Waldport hotel. After selling all "worldly" possessions and saying farewell to loved ones, around 20 attendees of the seminar vanished from the hotel and from the public eye and joined the group. The Heaven's Gate cult was born. Some say there's something mysterious about the rugged nature of the coast that attracts the occult-minded...

AUREMANA
– Skinner, OR and surrounding areas? –
Unlike Heaven's Gate, little is known about this group. But it is believed that Auremana has a presence somewhere along the coast, possibly in on Skinner. Some claim the secretive group has ties to the occult, and goes back to the days of Aleister Crowley. Others claim it was a counterculture movement, akin to LaVeyan Satanism, that simply died out after the 70s. No one has heard from or of this group in the last decade, which is in itself quite the mystery.

TORMENT ROCK
– Skinner, OR –
Skinner (Mukwaslee) Island has seen dozens, if not hundreds, of shipwrecks- dating back to the late 1700s. But no spot on the island is as trecherous as Torment Rock. Situated near the tip of the South Island, the rock is notorious for wrecking ships traveling north to Portland (or West from Asia) in the fog or in the night. The rock has claimed dozens of lives, and residents of the island say the ghosts of wayward sailors often make their way up the cliff to flag down drivers on South Loop Road.

SOUTH LOOP ROAD
– Skinner, OR –
The treacherous road is cut into the perimiter of Skinner's rugged South Island. Between the winding switchbacks and its exposed location high up on the cliffs, the road has claimed motorists for decades- especially during storm season.

THE WINTER OF TERROR
– Skinner, OR –
In the winter of 1929, a series of disappearances shook the island of Skinner to its core. Rumors at the time pointed to everything from a Jack the Ripper-inspired madman to a ghostly fog that entranced unsuspecting victims, pulling them off the cliffs to their doom. While the disappearances were prolific, the culprit- and the bodies- were never found. And to this day, the Winter of Terror weighs heavy in the imaginations of those raised on Skinner.

The Shore Acres Mansion
– Coos Bay, OR –
The tale of Shore Acres feels like something straight out of a Henry James novel. A young shipwright and timber baron, Louis Simpson (more fond of gambling and drinking than he was of industry), built an extravagant estate on the cliffs outside Coos Bay as a birthday gift for his wife, an amateur actress deeply unhappy about her newfound life in rural Oregon. In 1921, a few short years after they had settled at Shore Acres, she took ill suddenly and died - and the mansion mysteriously burned to the ground not long after. Simpson spent the rest of the roaring twenties living in the gardener's cottage on the grounds, salvaging wood from local shipwrecks in a pitiful attempt to rebuild - but the stock market crash in 1929 bankrupted him, and he was forced to abandon Shore Acres forever.

SKINNER FERRY LANDING
– Skinner, OR –
The oldest operating ferry dock in Oregon is on the island of Skinner. In service since the town's founding, the dock has seen its fair share of accidents and disasters. Sailors on this dock are said to be the last on the island to have seen the infamous Skinner's Pride. Legend has it that a pirate struck a deal with the Devil in exchange for grandest and most beautiful ship in Skinner. But after the pirate stole the Skinner's Pride, he tried to escape the Devil without keeping his side of the bargain. Infuriated, the Devil set the Skinner's Pride ablaze, and the pirate was last seen sailing the inferno out of the bay, and to his inevitable death.

THE SKINNER MANSION
– Skinner, OR –
The Skinner family was once the island's wealthiest. But after the young heir to the Skinner dynasty disappeared in the Winter of Terror, the family never recovered. Between the 1930s and the 1960s, the family succumbed to a series of tragic and bizarre incidents. They lost control of the cannery, and squandered their remaining wealth. Several of the Skinners are said to have gone mad during this time. There are at least two suicides on record that occurred in the house. The mansion, once one of the two grandest on the island, fell into disrepair, and by the 1960s was abandoned. Long said to be one of the most haunted places in Skinner, it burned to the ground in the 1970s.

THE WYLDE MANSION
– Skinner, OR –
Rumors abound about the wealthiest family on Skinner, tucked away in a cliffside mansion on the South Island. The Wylde Mansion, perched on one of the roughest spots of the island, is the only inhabited mansion on Skinner. Its remote location- in contrast with the Wyldes' heavy involvement in the community- has led many to speculate on the reason the Wyldes chose such a secluded place to build their home. Do they simply value privacy? Or is there something they don't want us to see?

BIGFOOT
- Oregon Coast -
Bigfoot has become almost synonymous with Oregon, as he’s known to trample through the forested areas he calls home. Reports go back as far as can be remembered, with many native stories recalling large man/beasts covered in hair. Throughout the Pacific Northwest, the name for this being is either Bigfoot or Sasquatch. Many believe that he, or they if it’s to be believed that Bigfoot is a species and not a singular creature, possesses the power of invisibility, explaining why sightings are few.

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