Oregon is the state below Washington, the last and first state we did in this series. Oregon is bordered with Washington, Idaho, California and Nevada and has a coast on the Pacific Ocean. It is known for being the most geographically diverse state within the US with volcanoes, rivers, lakes, the Oregon High Desert, dense forests and semi-arid shrublands. Crater Lake, located in the states only National Park of the same name is the deepest lake in the US. Oregon is also the nation’s largest timber producer and although it has no Silicon Valley, it does have the Silicon Forest, keeping it competitive in the Technology sector.
Portland, Oregon was where one of mine and my sister’s favourite TV series was based, Grimm, a TV Show about a detective who was able to see Wesen, creatures visible to the “Grimms”. If you are into creatures of mythology and those from fairy tales then it is a must-watch, it is a shame that it was cancelled in the end as I feel it had so much more potential left but don’t let that detract you, it is good.
Oregon’s capital city is Salem and no, it isn’t the same Salem connected with the Witch trials, that one is located in Massachusetts across the other side of the US and is now called Danvers. Yeah, I guess you’re disappointed a bit from that because it would have made a nice slide into the paranormal part of Oregon, but sometimes things aren’t that simple and besides… Oregon still has a lot of paranormal to offer!
And that’s how you slide into it, folks. Once again, we have to bring up the ape, the myth, the legend, ole’ Bigfoot or as it is directly called, the Sasquatch. Just like in Washington, Oregon has many sightings of the tall, hairy hominid known as the Sasquatch again with all those trees and forests it is no wonder there are so many sightings of the cryptid roaming around out in the state’s vast wilderness. The encounters are dated back as far as 1904 and reports particularly came from miners and prospects working out in the wilderness, with one of the focal points being Myrtle Point.
There was an encounter with a bigfoot-like creature in Oregon that is perhaps not as popular as the one from Ape Canyon in Washington which I went over in my extensive Sasquatch blogpost, which was one of my first ever genuine posts. But Oregon also has a similar though not as well-known tale of a siege of sorts with the creature or one similar to it at least.
The encounter we are going to talk about also happened to prospectors like the Ape Canyon one and also involves a cabin they were staying in. The incident happened at a place called Thompson’s Flat where the ape-like creature or wildman is also known as the Thompson’s Flat monster. The story goes that the prospectors William Ward and a young man called Burlison were keeping warm at a fire in their cabin when they were disturbed by some large figure walking around outside, looking like some kind of humanoid, such as a man, but surely far too large to be a human. The creature would eventually grab a corner of the cabin and shake violently and also made a strange hair-raising whistling noise, whistling being a common sound encountered and reported of the apparent apemen in the area by frightened miners who had come across them.
After the shaking stopped Ward got the courage to look outside and witness the creature begin to walk away, of which he decided to fire his rifle at it, missing it. The creature left.
But this would not be Ward’s last encounter with the creature, as he would be in a similar situation within a different cabin in the area staying with the Harrison brothers. At about 5am in the early hours there would be a wild shaking at the cabin door, startling them awake and causing the Harrison boys and Ward to grab their rifles and confront the apparent intruder.
Again, Ward took a shot at the hairy creature but this time the beast would reply in kind by hurling a 4lb rock at his head, which to Ward’s relief missed. The creature then scampered off into the brush.
Another tale of a wildman from Oregon is that of the Chetco Monster and it is involved with a story that has a terrifying ending. Said to have taken place somewhere along the Chetco River, happening to a group of a dozen loggers working out in the wilderness and living with their families in tents that were set up in the area.
The trouble started small at first after a few weeks, with garbage cans being overturned in the night, which the loggers presumed were bears looking for food. Due to worries of safety and the bears potentially being aggressive the loggers would get someone armed to guard the camp and their families while they were away. Children had a close eye kept on them and were also forbid from playing games such as hide-and-seek in the forest.
On one particular morning large footprints would be discovered along the riverbank. At first the loggers thought it may be one of their own, someone who perhaps had very large feet, but after they all measured their foot up against the large prints, nobodies’ feet came close to match. The loggers also questioned if they could be bear tracks and if not, then what made these tracks?
One of the group suggested it could be a wildman who lived further up the river. An irritable man who threatened to shoot anyone who got close to his cabin, a man said to not wear any hats or boots, no matter how adverse the weather may be, he was simply bareheaded and barefoot. Believing the case to be solved the occupiers of the camp and the loggers forgot about it. In several nights time though there would be room for fear again, as ominous whistles and seemingly angry shrieks in the distance woke the camp. The men grabbed their guns, jumping to the defense of the camp and their families, many assumed it could be a wounded bear nearby.
The camp was kept in darkness and scared children were hushed from crying, due to fear of attracting whatever the creature was. The sounds went on for a long while, at times seeming closer but other times further away. Eventually the terrifying noises ceased and an eerie silence descended on the dark camp. The next day the men debated on the incident, some arguing it to be a bear and others arguing it to be a mountain lion. In an attempt to quell fear and put minds at rest the men grouped together and searched around for signs and evidence of bears or mountain lions, but no such evidence could be discovered. But scarily they did discover more large footprints in the ground and the men discussed with each other if it could be the crazy wildman they had talked of.
The men came to an agreement that it would be best to capture this old crazy man who lived up the river, before he ended up killing someone at the camp. So, the men quietly followed the large tracks back from where they came. The tracks led them to a road several hundred yards up from the camp, up the road and then into the logging site, the men discovered the part of the forest where the wildman had emerged from and where he had stalked around the logging site. But then they noticed something shocking, massive tree limbs had somehow been moved from out of their piles, all far too heavy for a man to move, they had been thrown about as if they were little toys and they had even been used to beat up the logging site machinery.
The men then followed the tracks back towards the camp and then also noticed something they had missed on the trip up, shrubs that had been torn to shreds and saplings that had been torn up and destroyed, which explained some of the sounds they had heard in the night. The large footprints circled round the camp, down a path to the river and turned back to the road and went down for about half-mile into the forest. The men kept following until they discovered the tracks lead down into a steep ravine which they stopped at, looking down into its darkness, they surmised that it would provide too many places for a possibly demented killer to hide. And it was left at that.
At some point one of the loggers recounted a story about the Chetco Indians who believed there were these man-animals that lived in the woods. The Indians had claimed for generations that they had shared their hunting grounds with fierce hairy creatures that were bipedal like men but that they were not men nor animal and were neither friendly or hostile. They were simply just there, just like any other creature and so the Indians left them alone.
Late on the third night the people of the camp were once again startled awake by the terrifying distant noises, emanating from the woods. The whistling and screaming gradually drew closer and closer. The men got dressed and armed themselves. When the creature or whatever it was seemed about 50ft away, one of the men in desperation crafted a torch, lit it and ran out into the forest armed with a rifle.
The wife, unable to stop her husband from taking such action, yelled for help, causing the other men to run to her from the camp, upon learning of what happened the men armed themselves and travelled after into the forest. A little way in and the sounds stopped. The men listened into the distance and suddenly a loud bestial noise was heard followed by human screams. Believing their friend was now being attacked, the men fought through the undergrowth. Eventually the man they were after came back towards them and collapsed into their arms. The men fired their guns to drive off the creature while the man was too terrified to speak, eventually he said that he followed the tracks before bumping into a huge hairy beast.
The other men wondered if it were a bear but the victim said it was a monstrous ape at least seven or eight feet in height with 50 inch wide shoulders, beady yellow eyes and bared teeth. The man said that his torch must have blinded it as it stood still using its hand to cover its eyes but it eventually let out a tremendous roar. In response the man threw his torch at it and instead of then shooting it, he instead ran back towards camp.
The men, although not doubting him, wanted more information and clarification of it being an ape. The man assured them it was and that it had fangs and hands like a man only that they were twice as large and covered with hair all the way down to the fingernails.
The men returned to camp and agreed to take turns standing guard over the camp until the ape was either captured or shot dead. Two men patrolled the camp on two-hour intervals and women who knew how to handle guns also assisted during the daylight hours. The older children gathered firewood to keep fires burning throughout the night. During the day and early night hours nothing strange had yet occurred. At 2am the men patrolling were asked to relieve and stand by as some of the men wanted to really search for the ape in the woods. The patrol reluctantly agreed and their relief party set out to hunt for the ape, taking a small light to follow the tracks and kept it low to the ground, they had loaded rifles.
The party found where the encounter had taken place between the man and the ape and followed tracks deeper into the forest. This would lead to a dark encounter where shots were exchanged. The patrol back at camp begun to celebrate on hearing the shots, believing the ape to have been killed but they were soon horrified to hear the terrified screams of the men, drowned out by beastly shrieks and roaring, continuing for a while and then fading away. The guards found the silence even more terrifying.
The patrol shouted for help attracting men and their wives from the camp. The patrol explained to them what happened and the men went into the woods to look for the missing men, leaving the wives behind to defend the children at camp. The men moving into the forest yelled, fired their guns and swung lanterns to try and let the missing men know they were on the way. Upon failing to get any response from the missing men the searching men came about a terrible sight.
All of the men who had went searching for the ape had been brutally killed. Bodies had been seemingly slammed up against trees, blood spatters everywhere and the bodies had been torn to pieces. Bloodied trails from the beast led back into the forest, which no man chose to follow. Some gathered up the remains of their friends while others went back to camp to tell of the bad news. Within 24 hours the campsite was deserted and the logging operation would be moved to another location.
The above gut-wrenching story is from the book “On the Track of Bigfoot” by Marian T. Place and the events supposedly took place in 1890. What do you think? Do you think the story of the Chetco Monster is real or is it simply a tale to scare people?
Next up is a water cryptid found in Oregon and reported since the 1930s. Known as Colossal Claude within the Columbia River and nearby ocean the sea serpent is described as fifteen to forty feet in length, long slender neck, round body, serpentine tail and evil-looking snake-like head. The beast has been reported by many people around the river and nearby sea.
One of the first documented sightings of the creature was made in 1934 by the crew of the Columbia River night ship, claiming to spot a creature in the water at least forty feet long, with a snake or horse-like head, round body, long neck and they observed using binoculars for quite a while.
Another interesting incident happened in either 1963 or 1966 when the Shell Oil Company while doing an oil search either off the coast of Oregon or California (disputed) some kind of Serpent with barnacles encrusted on it, about 15-feet long swimming in the ocean. It appears this creature was dubbed Marvin the Monster while others claim it was actually Colossal Claude – whatever it may be, there appears to have been something out there that caused a bit of a stir, could it even have also been the Cadborosaurus also known to stalk the same waters along the coast? The descriptions appear similar in detail. Although the video doesn’t appear to be out there on the internet, there are two stills allegedly from the footage shown below.
To round this off we will talk about ghosts! For this we will head to the city of Portland to the Benson hotel that is said to be haunted by several ghosts including Bensen himself. Found in downtown Portland on 309 SW Broadway Street. Simon Benson, who the hotel is named after was a businessman and philanthropist who had the building designed from 1905 and the hotel opened up in 1913 after it was completed, 287 bedrooms and seventh largest hotel in Portland would go on to be world-class and a historic landmark. The hotel has had many famous visits including Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell who died in his hotel room on 12th November 2008, apparently from natural causes. The hotel remains open and in operation to this day for people to use.
Said to be one of the most haunted hotels that include ghosts such as Benson, who is said to haunt 7th, 9th and 12th floors of the hotel in particular and so they are the floors you should aim to stay on in a room if you are looking for a ghostly experience with the man himself who founded the hotel. Full body apparitions of the man have been reported inside the hotel, on stairs and in the common area and at the hotel bar, where he may be strict at times and disturb guests by knocking their drinks, apparently Bensen despised drinking during his life. Bensen has also been seen simply observing staff activities such as conference meetings, merely just watching silently. Glasses going missing in the bar and bottles being disturbed as well as people being touched on the shoulder have been attributed to Bensen.
Another ghost is that of a young boy, some say to be one of Bensen’s sons, often hanging about on the 9th floor. Hiding behind objects such as the tables at the bedside and jumping out to scare the guests of the hotel. The boy is described as one of the most mischievous ghosts at the establishment.
There are also many other ghosts such as ladies dressed in white or blue and the ghost of a helpful porter but none of the ghosts are described as threatening or malevolent and so guests are assured safety. So, if you are looking for a ghostly experience when visiting Oregon, the Benson hotel is one of the suggested places to stay for a while.
There you have it! Oregon paranormal from cryptids to ghosts. Next up will be California – which I know has a wealth of paranormal stuff to share, certainly too much to fit into one blogpost, but I’ll pick out some interesting ones.
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