Date of Discovery
One of the earliest reports of the apparition came in 1975 via the “Siuslaw News.” We’re still looking for the original story to verify.
Name
“Rue” is the alleged name of the ghost. This was established by a group of Lane Community College students who claimed to get the name from an Ouija board several days before Halloween, possibly in the late 1980s or early 1990s.
Physical Description
Rue is described as an apparition of a gray haired woman wearing late Victorian-era dress.
The lighthouse is 56 ft tall and sits 1,000 feet above sea level on Heceta Head. The lighthouse is located 12 miles from Florence, Oregon. The lighthouse is named after Spanish Basque explorer Bruno de Heceta.
Origin
The rumor is that Rue was most likely a lighthouse keeper’s wife, however, there were no records of lighthouse keepers families kept. Only the men who managed the lighthouses sometimes called “wicked” were accounted for in records at the time. The story is that Rue had two daughters and one of them had drowned either in the ocean or a nearby cistern. Allegedly Rue has returned to the place of her daughter’s death after her own passing.
To add to the mystery there is an unmarked grave near the lighthouse that is reported to be overgrown and old.
Mythology and Lore
One encounter with the ghost was reported in the Siuslaw News in 1975. “Maintenance man Jim Anderson saw an odd reflection in a window he was cleaning. When he turned he saw the apparition which was described as an elderly woman in a Victorian-style gown. He fled in fear and later housekeeping reported hearing scraping sounds to find the glass he had broken in his escape neatly piled up.
The Lighthouse which now operates as a Bed and Breakfast has had guests reported seeing a figure float by, items being re-arranged in rooms, and feelings of being watched or a presence.
Modern Pop-Culture References
None known to date
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