Category: Ghosts and Hauntings

All stories about ghosts and haunted places

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Geiser Grand Hotel

Categories
Haunted Places

Date of Establishment

The Geiser Grand Hotel was originally opened in 1886 in the height of the gold frenzy in Oregon. The Grand still operates to this day even after a few reopenings and change of owners, the latest of which was in 1993.

Name/Name & Location

The Geiser Grand Hotel opened in Baker City, Oregon, which was known as the “Queen City of the Mines,” due to the Gold Rush happenings within the region. The hotel also became known as “the Grand” for short because of the advanced technology and beauty it held within its walls.

Physical Description

An Italianate building containing technology that was ahead of its time: an elevator, a 4th story clock tower, a 200-foot corner cupola, a 2nd-floor balcony overlooking marble floors, crystal chandeliers, Honduran mahogany paneling, and stained-glass ceilings. All of these components made this hotel a grander of its time for all the wealthy and high society figures to flock to.

The Lady in Blue was also known as “Granny” Annabelle, a beautiful Victorian woman dressed in a blue gown is one of the hotel’s most known spirits. She was a permanent character making grand entries down from her room 302 and having her own reserved chair at the bar each night.

Origin

Opened in Baker City the hotel has stood for years and in 1906 was named the “the most fortunate place in the country” by a newspaper article. Ever since it’s 1902 reopening The Lady in Blue was a prominent figure at the Grand, which lead to the first tales of ghosts roaming the grounds after her death.

Mythology and Lore

The Lady in Blue has been a staple of siting’s at the Grand, multiple people have reported seeing her descending the staircase, sitting at the bar, and disappearing into the wall through-out the hotel. She is suspected of moving guests’ jewelry and items, nibbling snacks from their rooms, or down at the bar pinch the rears of those who sit in her chair. There are other well-known spirits to call the Grand home as well. There is a saloon girl in a red laced bustier who hangs about the balcony, a cowboy who chats with bar-goers, a little girl wandering the 3rd floor, and flappers from the 1920s. Many of the guests and workers have reported wide-ranges of experiences with the ghosts of the Grand, as well as paranormal groups who investigate the hotel regularly. Ghost Hunters and Atlantic Paranormal Group (TAPS) are two teams that see the Grand regularly and continue to collect data and do studies on the building and its spirits. The Grand also does daily ghost tours at the hotel to educate and tell the tales of the ghosts that stay at the Grand.

Modern Pop-Culture References

Books & Literature

Coast to Coast Ghosts: True Stories of Hauntings Across America (2012) page 156

Television Series

Ghost Hunters (2013 Season 2 Episode 5)

Is there anything we missed about Geiser Grand Hotel? Let us know in the comments section below!

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Golden North Hotel, Skagway, AK

Categories
Haunted Places

Date of Establishment

            The Golden North Hotel was built in 1898 to provide accommodations to ‘gold-rushers’ making their way through the city of Skagway every week. In 1908 the hotel was moved, then another story was added to it, as well as the dome.

Name

Golden North Hotel is also known as the Golden North to local Skagway residence.

Physical Description

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            The Golden North Hotel was beautiful off white, 3 story building, with large windows and golden trimming. On the roof, there was a large golden-colored dome clearing marking its place on

Origin

            The origin comes from the height of the rush when a prospector Klondike Ike was staying at the hotel with his beloved fiancé Mary. Mary took residence in Room 23 while awaiting Ike’s return from the goldfields with hopefully their new fortune.  This is where legends split for dear Mary; some say she grew ill with pneumonia and died. Other variations say that Mary grew sick with worry when her lover didn’t return, locking herself away from the town and passing away alone. Hotel staff found her in Room 23, and for years since have reported experiences with her spirit.

Mythology and Lore

            The true nature of ‘Scary Mary’ also comes with a variety of reported sightings. Some claim to see a woman roaming the halls and watching from windows while others hear strange noises, feel colder then one should in Alaska. Some guests reported waking up in the middle of the night choking as well.

            They are another Supernatural event claiming a room at the Golden North, this is Room 14. Staff and guests have reported mysterious lights ‘sparkling’ and also ‘twinkling’ around the room. There’s also an orb about the room that visits guests and workers. None of these “lights” have an apparent source, all reports state they are non-threatening to the viewer.  

            Though the hotel officially closed in 2002, the Golden North did let guests take a turn at staying in the ‘haunted rooms. Room 23 was on the 3rd floor toward the northwest corner, and Room 14 is believed to be on the 2nd floor. The build is currently the Frontier Excursions & Adventures but features the Golden North sign.



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Hanako-san

Date of Discovery

Matthew Meyer, an author and folklorist, has dated the legend of Hanako-san back to the 1950s, but like the western counterpart, Bloody Mary, it is clear that the legend existed before official documentation.

Supposedly the urban legend began in 1950 as, “Hanako of the third stall.” In the 1980s, her story became widely known all over Japan, and in the 1990s a variety of movies and animes were made about her. She is now known as, “Hanako of the Toilet.”

Name

Hanako-san and Toire no Hanako-san in Japanese, which translates roughly to, “Hanako of the Toilet.”

Vaguely related to the legend of Bloody Mary.

Physical Description

Hanako-san, according to Japanese urban legends, is the spirit of a young girl who haunts the bathrooms of schools. Although her physical description varies across the different sources, she is commonly seen as wearing a red skirt or dress, with her haircut worn in a bob long enough to cover her neck.

In Japanese culture, she is known as a yōkai–which is a reference to a spirit in the form of a monster, or demon–or a yūrei, which is synonymous with what western culture considers a ghost. 

Origin

Over the last seventy years, Hanako-san has become a fixture of Japanese urban folklore, before the 1990s, it was just an oral legend, but it has since become a part of their pop-culture, being featured in movies as well as manga and anime series. Michael Dylan Foster wrote The Book of Yōkai: Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore, in which he stated that Hanako-san is a well known urban legend associated with all schools across Japan.

Mythology and Lore

As a part of Japanese urban legends and folklore, Hanako-san is more versatile spirit than most, like Bloody Mary she comes to haunt only when she is called. Each reported case has different details of the haunting and encounter, but there are common themes across the board. In one version, she is a school child who was killed during an air raid, while playing hide-and-seek, during World War II–a variation on this is that she was starving, but agreed to play the game anyway, but her body gave in to hunger and died in the bathroom stall. In other versions, she either committed suicide or she was hiding from an abusive parent and upon finding her in the bathroom they killed her. Some stories suggest that she came to the school to play when it wasn’t in session, was followed by a pedophile, then was assaulted and killed. Depending upon the variant of the story, however, she can either appear as a ghostly, bloody hand or Hanako-san herself. Additional details about where her grave can be found are given in some scenarios, which suggest that she was either buried in a garbage dump in Saitama, or behind a school gym in Tokyo.

In Japanese schools across the country, the typical ritual goes, that you enter the girl’s bathroom (usually on the third floor) and knock three times on every door. From the closest door to the farthest door, after knocking, you would ask, “Is Hanako there?” After repeating this question three times the answer, “yes,” will come from the third stall in a small, soft voice. When you open the door to the stall, Hanako will be standing there, waiting to drag you into the toilet.

While it may sound like an odd trend, there are quite a few yōkai and yūrei that reside within bathrooms and toilets. Most any person from Japan will tell you that they have tried to summon Hanako-san while they were in elementary school.

Modern Pop-Culture References

Books & Literature

Movies

Television Series



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Heceta Head Haunted Lighthouse – Florence, Oregon

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.

1931 image of Heceta Head Lighthouse - Florence, Oregon

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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Hot Lake Hotel – La Grande, Oregon

Categories
Haunted Places

Date of Establishment

The original building of the resort began in 1864 and has been reconstructed serval times over the years. In 1884 the Pacific Union Railroad cause constructing to go on again, followed by the renovations to build a fully operational hotel in 1903. Later it became a sanitorium and had a large fire once again leading to more construction issues.

Name & Location

Hot Lake Hotel is located off Highway 203 in La Grande, Oregon situated between beautiful hillsides and a hot spring named “Ea-Kesh-Pa”.

Physical Description

The hotel red brick buildings with a beautiful white railing around the building. The grounds surrounding the building feature rolling hillsides, a garden, statues, and walkways to draw their guests out into nature.

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Origin

Originally built in 1864 the Hot Lake Hotel had a long history of operation and disastrous events leading to remodeling and reopenings. It was first built to be a hotel featuring the hot springs, later being reopened as a therapeutic get-away, then as a training school, retirement home, and finally an insane asylum before being abandoned.

Mythology and Lore

The myths and lore of the Hot Lake Hotel can be hard to nail down as its long history and main use blur the lines of fact from myth. It’s been rumored to be haunted by past vacationers, a nurse who was murdered, a gardener who committed suicide, and a long string of asylum residents. There is a large number of reports stating a piano formerly owned by Robert E. Lee’s wife is haunting the 3rd floor and playing itself through-out the day. Other reports have been of ghostly screams, haunted crying sounds, whispers, rocking chairs moving on their own, spirits wandering the grounds, phantom footsteps, as well as other objects seeming to move around the rooms. The hotel was even featured on “The Scariest Places on Earth” television series in 2001 because of the main accounts of experiences. Today this haunted hotel has been remodeled into a bed and breakfast with a spa, though its owners are wary of highlighting the building’s darker past.

Modern Pop-Culture References

Books & Literature

Ghost Stories from the Pacific Northwest (1995)

Television Series

Scariest Places on Earth (2001)

Is there anything we missed about the Hot Lake Hotel? Let us know in the comments section below!

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