Page 12 - 20060708 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - July/August 2006

12 Ghost Hunting in Oregon 12 Ghost Hunting in Oregon Adventures in Ghost horizon, apparently on the water. It was as if Between ’97 and 2000, I did a number Hunting on Oregon’s something was glowing from beneath. It didn't of interviews with people on this subject. I look like anything was casting the glow from heard a tale about a UFO sighting in Astoria. Coast above, as the moon wasn't to be seen, and it Indeed, that whole town is full of strange tales certainly wouldn't have looked red. Whatever it about hauntings in numerous spots, like the old was, it must've been huge, and it kept changing fire engine house and plenty in the Liberty By Andre’ Hagestedt shape. Theater. Then again, this is the oldest town west By Andre’ Hagestedt I thought I was seeing things, but finally of the Mississippi. Two horror flicks latched pointed it out to Christine, and we spent the next onto it recently and filmed there: “The Ring II” half hour staring at it, trying to figure it out, and the Lovecraft tale “Cthulu” was recently with theories about UFO's and whatever just made there. flying. Just as we began zipping up the I heard about a supposed sea monster at foredunes to the cabin to grab our friends, it Cape Kiwanda (probably just the result of disappeared. They simply laughed at us. people going missing in the raging, monstrous This got me thinking about the coast in a surf of the area). I was told of coffee pots that go whole new way. Over the years, as my flying in a restaurant in Seaside, and the obsession with the coast grew, and “The X- mysterious footsteps of someone walking Files” came on TV, I periodically wondered behind a kitchen door when there’s no one there. about what I’d seen that night in 1987. I paid There’s the old tales of buried treasure and a attention to fishing boats on the sea, and mysterious Spanish Galleon in Manzanita, with Oregon Coast) – Some people collect hubcaps, realized these definitely did not create this one version purporting the crew buried their figurines or stamps. I collect paranormal stories oddity. African slaves alive with the treasure to keep about Oregon’s coast. Somewhere in the early 80’s, I heard the natives away. It’s not that I swallow this stuff – it’s just about a weird phenomenon called “glowing There were the strange, nebulous tales that it fascinates the hell outta me. It’s certainly sands” in a hidden cave in Lincoln City. This, of the Van Duzer Corridor – between Salem and a whole new level to Oregon tourism, I’ve too, captivated me for years and years, and I Lincoln City – sort of Oregon’s version of the discovered. And well, I have had a few things yearned to finally see this. Eventually I did “Extraterrestrial Highway,” with talk of lights in happen I can’t really explain. some research on the subject, and discovered it the sky or people appearing in the roadway and Doing this research has been an was glowing phytoplankton named then disappearing. One rumor has a pair driving adventure all its own as well, filled with dinoflagelettes, which are bioluminescent, through the winding, twisting roadway and startling, strange discoveries, memorable meaning they glow in the same manner fireflies feeling as if their car was being controlled by moments and interesting twists in all sorts of do. some unseen force. Another tale, according to ways. Finally, in 1993, I spotted the my old friend Jason Frank, has two Seattle It all started about 20 years ago, when I dinoflagelettes myself on a dark beach in friends telling him they spotted what looked like was in my early 20’s, and I was dating this girl Newport. It was one of the biggest thrills of my a secret military base while hiking in those whose family went out to Oceanside quite a bit. life. woods. Stranger than fiction already: I actually grew up Lincoln City’s visitor center sells a hating the Oregon coast. But this one trip to videotape of ghost hunters rummaging around Oceanside with this girl’s family had me town, looking into the famed “ghost ship” of entranced with the place. I got my mother Siletz Bay, and there are numerous seriously hooked on it as well, and she took me and my chilling moments where they deal with ghosts in brother out there once or twice, which, in turn, the firehouse on the north end of town and with got me even more hooked. a really ticked-off ghost at a Depoe Bay Somewhere around one of these trips restaurant. with my mom, my girlfriend and I read this book about Oregon ghost stories, including this one about “bandage man,” – some goofy tale about a bandaged specter who terrorized folks on dark roads around Cannon Beach. Really, it was a silly story that was sort of a low-budget version of the mummy, but it had me scared late one night when I took a walk in Netarts, next to It was suggested once that maybe what I Oceanside. Here I was, 22 years old, and all of saw in Neskowin was those little glowing a sudden the idea of “bandage man” frightened critters. Somewhere around 1997 or ’98, I’m me into high-tailing it back to the motel. interviewing this expert on glowing Then, I had what I call my own phytoplankton from Florida, and I ask her about "personal X-File." A couple years later, in 1987, my personal X-File. She said there is a brand of I was dating this amazing beauty for about a glowing phytoplankton known that glow in red, month - exactly a month, actually. It was the but these waters are too cold for that. Then there was the bone-chilling second full moon and Friday the 13th in a row. The rest of her response still chills me to interview I had with famed photographer Steve This was weird enough. But Christine and I this day: "There's still much out there we don't Terrill about the ghost at the Heceta Head were celebrating our one-month anniversary know about." lighthouse. While I laughingly remark that this together (we had hooked up on the prior full So, by 1997, I became engaged with yarn has shades of the old "Ghost and Mrs. moon/Friday the 13th). discovering more ghost stories. At the time, I Muir" TV series, Steve was thoroughly lucid She and I joined a group of friends at had a wacky, cutting edge website called the and convincing on this one. He and their beach cabin at Neskowin about 1 a.m. We Oregon Coast Alterna-Guide, which had a photographer Steve Gaddis were staying at the immediately hit the beach, and serendipitously, paranormal/weird science section to it. lighthouse B&B, when they had various we found a big bonfire still burning - as if Periodically, people would email me their weird encounters with the “lady phantom of the waiting for two star-crossed lovers. tales of the coast. Someone told me about house,” including spotting someone in Gaddis’ We chatted beneath cloud cover so thick glowing balls of lightning floating around Coos room window, when there wasn’t a soul in the the moon was not visible, but you could still just Bay. Someone supposedly discovered “crop B&B. The family there considers her a member barely make out the horizon. At one point, I circles” in the sands of Hug Point near Cannon of the family, and this tale actually has the most noticed something odd in the darkness. There Beach, which they attributed to beings who witnesses of all the ones I’ve researched on the was a faint, undulating patch of red on the lived under the Earth (whatever that meant). coast. (Continued on Page 13)