Haunted Places in Oregon: 24 of the Most Haunted to Visit
A lighthouse keeper’s house with a gray lady, a Gold Rush hotel with ghostly dinner parties, a stagecoach inn where Jack London stayed, and Portland’s legendary underground. These are Oregon’s best-known haunted places, with what is true, what is legend and how to visit.
Oregon’s ghost stories follow its history: the Oregon Trail and Gold Rush towns of the east, the lighthouses and fog of the coast, the timber and shipping money of Portland and the state institutions of Salem. Many of the best-known haunted places here are hotels you can actually sleep in, from the Geiser Grand in Baker City to the Heceta Head keeper’s house on the coast, and Portland has more ghost stories per block than anywhere else in the state. We have checked every place below against current sources, so you know which are open, which have closed, and which famous stories have no record behind them.
Address 226 NW Davis St, Portland, OR 97209 (tours start at Old Town Pizza and Brewing)
Where to look The brick basement passages under the old Merchant Hotel, the trapdoor stairway and the old elevator shaft
Reported ghosts Nina, said to be a murdered young woman; a basement presence some guides call Sam; voices and footsteps
Visiting Inside only on a guided tour from Old Town Pizza and Brewing
Tours Guided underground tour with history and ghost stories, ending with beer tasters (adults only)
Tickets About $38 per person
Ghost hunting No public ghost hunting; the tour is guided storytelling
The Old Portland Underground is the network of basements, passages and walled-off doorways under Old Town Chinatown. The famous story says crimps drugged sailors in waterfront bars, dropped them through trapdoors and moved them along tunnels to ships bound for Shanghai. Historians agree shanghaiing happened in Portland and that some passages existed, but the Oregon Historical Society’s Oregon Encyclopedia says there is no evidence the tunnels were used for it, and much of the tale traces to Stewart Holbrook’s colorful 1930s newspaper columns.
The tunnels you can visit today are the basements under the 1880 Merchant Hotel, now Old Town Pizza and Brewing, where a guided tour mixes city history with ghost stories. Guides and staff tell of footsteps and voices in the passages, a presence that switches lights off, and Nina, the hotel’s best-known ghost. The Cascade Geographic Society, which ran the original tours from 1979, lost its access around 2020.
What investigators report
On Portals to Hell, investigators reported a REM pod lighting up and a loud bang answering their knocks in the Sixth Avenue tunnels, and apparent intelligent responses on a communication device in the so-called crib room of the Couch Street tunnels.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book the evening tour, and ask the guide to show you which parts of the basement are original and which stories have no record behind them.
Where to look Victoria's Room, the attic and the upstairs hall
Reported ghosts Rue, the Gray Lady: a silver-haired woman in a long gray or dark dress
Visiting A working bed and breakfast in the keeper’s house; the lighthouse and grounds are part of Heceta Head Lighthouse State Scenic Viewpoint
The white Queen Anne keeper’s house at Heceta Head was finished in 1894 for the assistant keepers of a lighthouse that still throws the brightest beam on the Oregon coast. The Forest Service owns it, and it is run as a six-room bed and breakfast with a seven-course breakfast. Overnight guests are the only people on the headland after dark, when the light sweeps over the house.
The ghost is Rue, the Gray Lady, a silver-haired woman in an old-fashioned gown said to be looking for a baby girl buried on the point. In the best-known story, a workman fixing an attic window in the 1970s saw her, fled, and returned to find the broken glass swept into a neat pile. The B&B’s own room page mentions Rue in Victoria’s Room.
What investigators report
The ghost’s name, Rue, reportedly came from a Ouija board session held by college students, and guest book entries focus on the Cape Cove room, the only room with attic access, describing her in the chair and tapping on the walls.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book Victoria’s Room, the one the innkeepers link to Rue, and stay up for the lighthouse beam after dark. Saturdays need a two-night stay.
Where to look The main staircase, Room 302 in the cupola and the third floor
Reported ghosts A lady in blue on the main staircase (often called Granny Anabelle, linked to Room 302) and ghostly dinner parties in empty rooms
Visiting A working hotel; book a room to stay, and the public areas, restaurants and bars are open to visitors
The Geiser Grand opened in November 1889 as the Hotel Warshauer, when gold made Baker City ‘the Queen of the Mines’, and took the Geiser name in 1902. It was once called the finest hotel between Portland and Salt Lake City. It closed in 1968 and sat empty for decades until Barbara and Dwight Sidway saved it from demolition in 1993 and spent about $6 million restoring it; today it has 30 suites and a dining room under a stained-glass ceiling.
1859 Oregon’s Magazine quotes the restorers calling it “a whole party” of friendly ghosts. Guests describe a woman in a blue gown who walks down the main staircase and vanishes into the wall; owner Barbara Sidway says she is Granny Anabelle, the manager’s mother, who lived in Room 302 in the cupola. During the restoration about a dozen workers quit over ghostly encounters, according to the Seattle Times.
What investigators report
Staff say sitting in Granny Anabelle’s favourite bar seat can earn a pinch, and that late-night sounds of a dinner party in the original dining room stop abruptly when the doors are opened; Room 302 was her home.
Where to look The main staircase, the Palm Court bar, the meeting rooms, and the 7th, 9th and 12th floors
Reported ghosts Simon Benson, a lady in white, a woman in a turquoise dress seen in a lobby mirror, a vanishing porter, a little boy on the 9th floor
Visiting A working hotel; book a room to stay, and the public areas, restaurants and bars are open to visitors
The Benson opened on March 4, 1913 as the New Oregon Hotel, timed to the minute of Woodrow Wilson’s inauguration. Lumber baron and teetotaler Simon Benson, who gave Portland its ‘Benson Bubbler’ drinking fountains, took it over and renamed it in 1914. Its walnut-paneled lobby and Palm Court still look the part, and since 2021 it has been part of Hilton’s Curio Collection.
Staff and guests say Benson never left. He is described descending the main staircase in a formal suit and, in a nod to his dislike of drink, tipping over glasses at the bar. Other stories tell of a lady in white in the corridors, a woman in turquoise glimpsed only in a lobby mirror, a porter who vanishes before he can be tipped, and a small boy on the 9th floor.
What investigators report
The 7th, 9th and 12th floors are reported as the most active, and management is said to leave candy and toys out for the little boy spirit seen on the 9th floor.
Where to look The surviving center of the 1883 Kirkbride building, the memorial to the unclaimed remains and the old campus grounds
Reported ghosts Cries and footsteps in the old wards, in stories repeated by ghost lists
Visiting The museum is open to visitors; the working hospital and its grounds are not
Hours and season Museum Wednesday to Sunday, noon to 4pm
Ghost hunting No: this is a working state psychiatric hospital
The Oregon State Insane Asylum opened on October 23, 1883, in a Kirkbride-plan building on what was then Asylum Avenue. At its peak in the mid-1900s it held about 3,545 patients. Its history includes more than 2,600 forced sterilizations, lobotomies, and a 1942 kitchen mistake that poisoned 467 people with sodium fluoride and killed 47. In 2004 more than 5,000 copper canisters of unclaimed cremated remains were found in storage; a memorial to them opened in 2011. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was filmed here in 1975, with patients shadowed by the actors and some working on the crew.
A new hospital replaced most of the old campus, but the center of the 1883 building was saved and now holds the Museum of Mental Health, run by a nonprofit. Ghost lists describe cries, footsteps and doors in the old wards, and rumors say the service tunnels were used for experiments. The tunnels were real (a narrow-gauge railway moved food and laundry), but we found no record of experiments there, and the working hospital is not open to wander.
Haunted Rooms tip: Visit the museum Wednesday to Sunday afternoon and see the memorial to the unclaimed remains; the hospital buildings themselves are off-limits.
Where to look The Clark Gable room, Jack London's room over the front porch, room 8, the ballroom and the women's parlor
Reported ghosts Jack London, a young woman's voice, a female stagecoach driver, a man in the Clark Gable room, and the 'vampire-like' figure
Visiting A working hotel; book a room to stay, and the public areas, restaurants and bars are open to visitors
Wolf Creek Inn is a two-story stagecoach inn on the old Portland to Sacramento road, now a State Heritage Site run with Oregon State Parks and billed as the oldest continuously operated hotel in the Pacific Northwest. Henry Smith started the business in 1883; historian Finn J.D. John dates the present building to about 1887. Jack London finished The Valley of the Moon here in 1912, and Clark Gable and Carole Lombard came to hide from Hollywood.
The owners have told KOBI-TV about children running in the empty ballroom, toes being tugged in bed, and a heavy perfume near Clark Gable’s room. Other accounts describe piano music in the parlor, Jack London’s voice, and a young woman’s voice. Ghost Adventures filmed a lockdown here and repeated the strangest story of all: a ‘vampire-like’ figure said to have attacked a traveler in the 1970s.
What investigators report
A Portland-area team reported dowsing rods leading them to the Clark Gable suite, where EVP and spirit box sessions brought what they called direct responses to questions and an Ovilus gave the name “Carol”, which they linked to Gable’s late wife.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book the Clark Gable room or ask for room 8, and eat in the old dining room: the restaurant is open to the public Thursday to Sunday.
Where to look The 1906 brick lodge, its long corridors and the foyer
Reported ghosts Piano music with no player, footsteps, sudden fog indoors and apparitions
Visiting A working hotel; book a room to stay, and the public areas, restaurants and bars are open to visitors
Hot Lake has welcomed travelers since 1864, and its 1906 brick lodge became a famous medical resort after Dr. W.T. Phy bought it in 1917. A 1934 fire destroyed most of the west wing; the building later served as a nursing home until 1974 and then sat abandoned. Older guides call it an insane asylum, but the records show a sanatorium and rest home. New owners took over in 2020 and run it as Hot Lake Springs Resort, with rooms, soaking tubs, a pub and a theater.
Its ghost reputation grew while it stood empty in the 1990s, and it appeared on TV’s Scariest Places on Earth. Stories include piano music with no player, footsteps, apparitions and fog that forms indoors, and one tale says the foyer once held the bodies of typhoid victims. Owners have called the rumors false, so treat these as local legend.
What investigators report
A team that went in after dark with flashlights, candles and night-vision cameras, after holding a seance in the gazebo, reported a door slamming in the old surgery area plus footsteps and a distant elevator bell.
Address 2126 SW Halsey Street, Troutdale, OR 97060
Where to look Room 215, the main lodge corridors and the old poor farm buildings
Reported ghosts A nurse in the halls, a woman reciting nursery rhymes, a figure peeking from a closet
Visiting A working hotel; book a room to stay, and the public areas, restaurants and bars are open to visitors
Edgefield opened in 1911 as the Multnomah County Poor Farm, where people with nowhere else to go lived and worked the land. It later became a nursing home, stood empty in the 1980s, and was bought by McMenamins in 1990. Today it is a 74-acre estate 15 miles east of downtown Portland, with over 100 rooms, gardens, a winery, a soaking pool and a summer concert lawn.
Staff and guests describe a nurse in the halls and a woman who faintly recites nursery rhymes. A worker boarding up windows in 1989 saw a figure peeking out of a closet, and guest logs record unseen hands grabbing ankles. Yelp reviewers named room 215 as haunted when Yelp ranked Edgefield among its top 25 haunted hotels in 2022. McMenamins runs Edgefield ghost tours.
Haunted Rooms tip: Request room 215 in the main lodge and book a McMenamins Edgefield ghost tour, which runs on selected Fridays.
Where to look The staircase, McLoughlin's bedroom and the second-floor windows
Reported ghosts Dr. John McLoughlin's heavy footsteps; Marguerite at a window; a red-haired boy and his dog
Visiting National Park Service site; the house is seen on free guided tours
Tours Free tours from the Barclay House, hourly from 10:15am
Hours and season Friday and Saturday, 10am to 4pm
Tickets Free
Dr. John McLoughlin ran the Hudson’s Bay Company’s Fort Vancouver from 1825 to 1845, retired from the company in 1846, and became a US citizen and mayor of Oregon City. He built this house there and died in it in 1857. After his death it became a hotel, workers’ housing and, by some accounts, a brothel, before a paper mill threatened to demolish it in 1908. Preservationists saved it and moved it up onto the bluff above downtown. It is now part of Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, alongside Dr. Forbes Barclay’s 1849 house next door.
This is one of Oregon’s most storied haunted houses. Visitors describe a tall shadow and heavy footsteps on the stairs, McLoughlin’s rocking chair moving, a woman at a second-floor window said to be his wife Marguerite, and pipe smoke in the air. The most reported ghost is a red-haired boy of six or eight, sometimes with a dog whose muddy paw prints are said to appear in both houses. These are visitor stories; the Park Service tells the history.
Haunted Rooms tip: Take one of the free ranger-led tours, which start at the Barclay House, and look out over the Willamette from the bluff.
Where to look The old hotel lobby, the rear booth built into the elevator shaft, and the basement
Reported ghosts Nina, a young woman in a black (some say white) dress; a perfume or lavender scent
Visiting A working restaurant and taproom; open to all during business hours
Hours and season Afternoons and evenings Wednesday to Sunday (check the website)
Old Town Pizza has served pizza in the lobby of the old Merchant Hotel since 1974, and the brewery that runs it today sits right above the basements shown on the Shanghai Tunnels tour. The hotel went up in 1880, when this part of town was Portland’s rough North End of saloons, boarding houses and brothels.
Its ghost is Nina. The story told by staff and local historians is that she was a young woman forced into prostitution who agreed to help missionaries, and was found dead at the bottom of the elevator shaft soon after. Diners and staff report a woman in a dark dress watching from the corners, a sudden perfume, and taps on the shoulder. A name carved into the old shaft’s brickwork, now part of a rear booth, is linked to her, though no record of her death has been found.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for the booth in the old elevator shaft and look for the carving in the brick.
Where to look Rooms 703, 803 and 1003 (the '03' stack), the seventh floor and the library
Reported ghosts An unseen guest in the '03' rooms, a woman heard sobbing on the seventh floor, a figure at the foot of the bed
Visiting A working hotel; book a room to stay, and the public areas, restaurants and bars are open to visitors
The Heathman opened on December 17, 1927 as the New Heathman Hotel, a ten-story brick tower by Portland architects DeYoung & Roald, next to what is now the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. It is still Portland’s arts hotel, with a library of books signed by visiting authors, and has been run by Aparium Hotel Group since 2023.
Its ghost stories all point to one vertical line of rooms. Guests in 703, 803 and 1003 report used towels, moved glasses and chairs, and a shape standing at the end of the bed. CBS News visited room 703, where a longtime employee pointed to room 303 below and a death in 1975. Staff are said to be careful about who gets 703.
Haunted Rooms tip: Request room 703 when you book and again at check-in. If it is taken, ask for 803 or 1003, which sit in the same stack.
Where to look The upstairs rooms (staff knock before entering Room 3), the basement and the men's restroom
Reported ghosts Sam, a longtime resident; Rose, a woman said to have been killed upstairs; a bartender and a bouncer
Visiting A working hotel; book a room to stay, and the public areas, restaurants and bars are open to visitors
Polish immigrants Bronislaw Soboleski and William Hryszko opened the White Eagle in 1905 in what was then a working riverside neighborhood. McMenamins now runs it as a rock-and-roll saloon with 11 simple hotel rooms upstairs that share a bathroom down the hall. Bands play downstairs most nights, so this is a stay for night owls rather than light sleepers.
McMenamins itself calls it a place of ‘tales of ghosts and mischief’. Staff talk about Sam, a longtime resident said to have died in the building, and Rose, a woman said to have been killed upstairs, though Explore notes that even the brothel story may not be true. The manager told Willamette Week that staff still knock before entering Room 3.
Haunted Rooms tip: Ask for Room 3 and join a Friday ghost tour if you are there in October.
Address 20000 Caves Hwy, Cave Junction, OR 97523 (Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve)
Where to look The upper floors and the old guest rooms
Reported ghosts Elizabeth, said to have died here in the 1930s
Visiting Closed for rehabilitation until further notice; you can see it from outside when you visit the caves
Tours NPS cave tours in spring, summer and fall
Local builder Gust Lium designed and built this six-story lodge in 1934, stepping it down a steep ravine beside the cave entrance, with a creek once running through the dining room. It is a National Historic Landmark. The National Park Service closed it in 2018 for a major safety and accessibility rehabilitation, and in 2025 it was named one of America’s 11 most endangered historic places. There is no reopening date, though cave tours still run in season.
The Chateau’s ghost is Elizabeth. The story says she was a bride who found her new husband with a chambermaid on their wedding night and took her own life, and that she has wandered the halls ever since, moving things and switching lights. One version puts her death in 1937. We found no record of the death, so treat it as a lodge legend.
Haunted Rooms tip: Take a cave tour in season and look at the Chateau from the paths around it; the building itself is closed.
Where to look The balcony, the stage after the ghost light goes on, and the projection room
Reported ghosts George Guthrie, who built it; a girl on the balcony; a man at rehearsals who walks through the seats
Visiting A working performing arts theater; open to ticket holders
Salem attorney George Guthrie built the Elsinore on the site of an old livery stable, and it opened on May 28, 1926 with The Volga Boatman. Ellis Lawrence designed the Tudor Gothic front, inspired by European castles. It survived decline and threatened demolition, was saved by the Save the Elsinore Committee and restored by 2004, and is now a performing arts center with a Wurlitzer organ.
Theater people tell of Guthrie himself watching rehearsals from the seats and dozing in the projection room, a little girl playing in the balcony, a shadow on stage that walked up the aisle and through a wall, and a man who sat in on a rehearsal and vanished as he walked through the seats. The old tale of a boy murdered in the men’s room, with blood in the mirror, has no record behind it.
Haunted Rooms tip: See a show or a silent film with the organ, and sit in the balcony.
Where to look The bedrooms upstairs, the portrait of young Henry Pittock and the windows
Reported ghosts Henry and Georgiana Pittock; a scent of roses; a portrait that moves
Visiting Self-guided visits to the house and Gate Lodge with a ticket; the grounds and views are free
Hours and season Daily, about 9am to 4pm in fall and winter (noon on Tuesdays); longer in summer
Tickets Adults about $17
Henry Pittock, publisher of The Oregonian, and his wife Georgiana built this French Renaissance chateau 1,000 feet above Portland, finishing it in 1914 to plans by San Francisco architect Edward Foulkes. Georgiana died in 1918 and Henry in 1919, and family members lived on here until 1958. After the 1962 Columbus Day Storm damaged it, the city bought the estate in 1964 and opened it as a museum in 1965.
The ghost stories are gentle ones. Visitors and writers describe a sudden smell of roses, Georgiana’s favorite flower, in rooms with no flowers; windows found shut and latched after staff left them open; and a childhood portrait of Henry that is said to turn up in different rooms. The museum itself tells only the family’s history.
Haunted Rooms tip: Go late on a clear afternoon for the view of Mount Hood, then stay for the seasonal candlelight evenings if they are running.
Where to look The old pioneer sections, the MacLeay mausoleum and the unmarked ground on the southwest corner
Reported ghosts Wandering figures, voices and footsteps among the unmarked graves
Visiting Grounds open to visitors in daylight; Metro asks visitors to treat it as an active cemetery
Tours History tours by the Friends of Lone Fir Cemetery, including the October Tour of Untimely Departures
Lone Fir began with a single grave in 1846 and became a cemetery in 1855, when Colburn Barrell buried victims of a steamboat explosion here. More than 25,000 people lie in its 30 acres, among them mayors, governors and pioneers, and about 10,000 graves are unmarked. Chinese graves on the southwest block were dug up in 1948 for a county building; more were later found to remain, and that block is now a memorial site. Metro owns the cemetery, which is on the National Register.
With so many unmarked graves, it is no surprise the cemetery has ghost stories: walkers describe figures that vanish among the trees, voices and footsteps. Every October the Friends of Lone Fir Cemetery hold the lantern-lit Tour of Untimely Departures, with actors telling the true stories of people buried here.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book the Tour of Untimely Departures in October; it sells out.
Address Yaquina Bay State Recreation Site, SW Government St and SW 9th St, Newport, OR 97365
Where to look The keeper's rooms, the stairs to the watch room and the lantern
Reported ghosts The ghost of an 1899 short story that many visitors have taken as fact
Visiting Inside a state park; the lighthouse is open for viewing and tours
Tours Volunteer-led viewing and tours; call Beverly Beach State Park (541-265-4560) for current hours
Built by Ben Simpson and first lit on November 3, 1871, this two-story wooden keeper’s house with a lantern on its roof guarded the mouth of the Yaquina River for only three years: it was shut down on October 1, 1874, when the taller Yaquina Head light opened up the coast. It is thought to be the oldest building in Newport and is Oregon’s last standing wooden lighthouse, and the only one with its living quarters attached. Restored and relit in 1996, it now shines a steady white light from dusk to dawn.
Its ghost story comes from fiction. In 1899 Lischen M. Miller published a short story called The Haunted Lighthouse, set in the empty building, and the tale has been retold as a local legend ever since; a 2017 book, The Lighthouse Ghost of Yaquina Bay, picks it up again. Visitors still describe footsteps on the stairs and a presence in the upper rooms. We found no record of any real death or haunting behind the story.
Haunted Rooms tip: Climb the two flights to the watch room, then walk down to the beach at the jetty for the light at dusk.
Where to look The marble halls after hours and the third floor of the House wing
Reported ghosts Footsteps on the marble, slamming doors, and a smiling man in a 1970s suit
Visiting A working state capitol; free to visit when open to the public
Hours and season Normally weekdays 8am to 5pm
Tickets Free
Oregon’s first two capitols burned, in 1855 and 1935. The present one, a white marble Art Deco block by Trowbridge and Livingston with Francis Keally, was finished in 1938 and is crowned by Ulric Ellerhusen’s 22-foot gilded bronze Oregon Pioneer. When the statue needed regilding in 1984, schoolchildren raised the money.
Its ghost stories were collected by Sandra Allen, a Capitol foundation board member, in her 2002 book Ghosts in the Capitol. Staff describe footsteps on the marble floors after everyone has gone, doors that slam and soft voices in empty rooms. A custodian on the third floor of the House wing described a smiling man in glasses and a 1970s suit who walked away and vanished; Allen later matched him to a photo of a former representative.
Haunted Rooms tip: Check the Legislature’s website before you go: the building has been through a long seismic renovation and public hours and tours have changed.
Address 3505 Pacific Avenue, Forest Grove, OR 97116
Where to look The second-floor hallway of the main lodge, near Room 232
Reported ghosts The Lavender Lady (a white-haired woman some call Anna) and the laughter of children
Visiting A working hotel; book a room to stay, and the public areas, restaurants and bars are open to visitors
The Grand Lodge was built as the Masonic and Eastern Star Home, a retirement home for Masons and their families that opened in 1922, with a children’s cottage for orphans added in 1926. McMenamins reopened it in March 2000 as a 90-room hotel with bars in the old doctor’s office, a soaking pool and a small theater, about 40 minutes west of Portland.
McMenamins says late-night guests ‘may meet the Lavender Lady, whose spirit is said to drift through the halls’. Stories describe a white-haired woman in a long patterned dress who leaves a scent of lavender, believed to be a longtime resident named Anna who died just short of 100. The local tourism board suggests Room 232, and staff have also reported children’s laughter in empty halls.
What investigators report
The Lavender Lady is most often linked to the second floor, and staff keep a binder of guest and staff ghost reports at the front desk; one worker said knocking stopped whenever he entered the room it came from and resumed when he left.
Address 600 Mission St SE, Salem, OR 97302 (Bush's Pasture Park)
Where to look The upstairs rooms and the thermostat
Reported ghosts Eugenia Bush, Asahel Bush's youngest daughter; cold spots and a woman's voice
Visiting Guided tours of the house; the park is open to all
Tours Docent-led tours, Wednesday to Sunday
Asahel Bush II, founder of the Oregon Statesman newspaper and the Ladd and Bush Bank, built this Italianate house, designed by Wilbur F. Boothby, in 1877 and 1878, and added a conservatory for his daughters in 1882 that still stands. His wife Eugenia had died in 1863, leaving four children. His youngest, also named Eugenia, developed schizophrenia at college in 1880, was treated in Boston, and returned to live here with her sister Sally in 1914. The Salem Art Association has run the house as a museum since 1953, in the 90-acre Bush’s Pasture Park.
The ghost story is about the younger Eugenia, said to wander the rooms and turn up the heat. Writers also mention cold spots, shadows and a woman’s voice. The old rumor that she was hidden in the basement is false, and museum staff say they have not seen anything.
Haunted Rooms tip: Book one of the docent-led tours; the park and gardens around the house are free to walk.
Address Lower Macleay Trail, Macleay Park (entrance at NW 29th Ave and Upshur St), Portland, OR 97210
Where to look The roofless stone shell beside Balch Creek
Reported ghosts Danford Balch and Mortimer Stump; lights and shadows after dark
Visiting Free and open to walk to on the Lower Macleay Trail
Hours and season Park open 5am to 10pm
This mossy stone shell in Macleay Park, part of Forest Park, was built in the 1930s as a park restroom and shelter and lost its water line in the 1962 Columbus Day Storm. Its nickname comes from the land’s first settler, Danford Balch, who shot his daughter Anna’s new husband, Mortimer Stump, on the Stark Street ferry, and was hanged on October 17, 1859, the first legal hanging in Portland. The story says he blamed his wife for bewitching him.
The legend says the ghosts of Balch and Stump still fight here, and night visitors describe floating lights and shadows. The building is not Balch’s house, though it stands on his old land claim. It is an easy walk: about three quarters of a mile up the Lower Macleay Trail along Balch Creek.
What investigators report
A Pacific Northwest team reported using dowsing rods to pick spots in and around the stone house, then running REM pods, digital recorders and an Echo Vox there, including on the top floor.
Address 310 NE Evans Street, McMinnville, OR 97128
Where to look Room 203 (the Ollie Ruffler White room), the cellar bar and the hallways
Reported ghosts John, a mischievous presence reported since the 1980s on the rooftop, halls and elevator; a presence in room 203; children heard playing
Visiting A working hotel; book a room to stay, and the public areas, restaurants and bars are open to visitors
Hotel Oregon opened in 1905 as the two-story Hotel Elberton, gained its upper floors in 1910 and took its current name in 1932. It is still the tallest building in downtown McMinnville, about an hour southwest of Portland. Its lobby was a bus depot for two decades and its upper floors sat closed from 1967 until McMenamins reopened it in 1999. Its 36 rooms are each named for a person from its past.
Oregon Wine Press collected the stories in 2017: a guest who felt ‘pushed out’ of room 203, named for Ollie Ruffler White; a regular called John said to roam the rooftop bar and halls; and a former employee who watched a heavy steel cylinder spin in the cellar bar office as the room went cold. OPB adds reports of children heard playing.
What investigators report
Guests who seek out Ollie’s room (Room 203) report feeling watched, and a former employee described the cash cylinder in the cellar bar office spinning and the room turning cold during a late-night cash drop.
Address N Edison St and Pittsburg Ave, Portland, OR 97203
Where to look The ground under the bridge arches by the river
Reported ghosts Screams under the bridge linked to Thelma Taylor, murdered in 1949
Visiting A free city park
Hours and season 5am to midnight
The Gothic arches of the 1931 St. Johns Bridge, Portland’s only steel suspension bridge, gave this riverside park its name when a 1968 newspaper photo compared them to a cathedral. Neighbors raised the money to turn the junkyard under the bridge into a park, which opened in 1980.
In August 1949, 15-year-old Thelma Taylor was abducted at a St. Johns bus stop and murdered near the river by Morris Leland, who was executed in 1953. Local folklore says she haunts the park, and people describe screams under the bridge at night that bring police with nothing to find. Her murder actually happened on land nearby that is now industrial and closed to the public, not in the park.
Haunted Rooms tip: Go at sunset for the arches; the park closes at midnight.
Address 4303 Sardine Creek L Fork Rd, Gold Hill, OR 97525
Where to look The tilted House of Mystery and the level platforms
Reported ghosts An uneasy feeling on the 'forbidden ground'; stories of founder John Litster
Visiting Closed after the March 2025 flood; reopening aimed at March 2027
Tours Guided tours only when open; currently closed for flood repairs
The Oregon Vortex has drawn visitors to a wooded slope on Sardine Creek since 1930, when Scottish-born mining engineer John Litster opened it. The House of Mystery began as a 1914 assay shack for the Old Grey Eagle Mine that slid off its foundation and came to rest at a tilt. Inside, people seem to grow and shrink and balls seem to roll uphill. Skeptics put it down to optical illusion: a tilted room with no level horizon. The owners prefer a magnetic explanation.
The legend says Native people called it forbidden ground and that horses refused to go near. Our older guide added a ghost of Litster; we found no published account of one. A flood in March 2025 wrecked the gift shop and the bridge to the site, though the House of Mystery itself was not damaged. KOBI-TV reported in 2026 that it had been closed for over a year, with reopening aimed at March 2027.
Haunted Rooms tip: The Vortex is closed while flood repairs go on (reopening aimed at March 2027). Its website still shows old tour times, so check recent local news before you drive out.
These places appear in older lists of haunted spots. We keep them here so you know the facts before you go, but you cannot (or should not) visit them.
Highway 101 near Cannon Beach
The coast highway has a story, told since the 1960s, of a man with a bandaged face seen by the roadside or in the back seat. It is a busy two-lane highway: never stop on it or slow down to look.
The old Oregon Institute of Technology campus, Klamath Falls
Our older guide described ruins of an old campus with shadow figures and signs of rituals. Oregon Tech is a working university on Campus Drive, and we could not identify any abandoned site that is legal to visit. Do not trespass on old buildings or private land.
Lafayette Pioneer Cemetery, Yamhill County
The legend says a woman hanged for witchcraft cursed Lafayette to burn three times and still haunts the cemetery. We found no record of the hanging behind it and could not confirm visiting rules, so please do not go after dark or trespass.
Croisan Creek Road, Salem
A roadside legend of a little girl chasing a ball into the road. It is a narrow, winding road: do not stop or slow down to look.
Fairview Training Center, Salem
Demolished and now private, redeveloped land. Trespassers will be prosecuted.
Haunted Oregon by city
Haunted places in Portland: the Shanghai Tunnels, Old Town Pizza, Pittock Mansion, the Witch’s Castle and haunted hotels
Haunted places in Salem: the Oregon State Hospital, the Capitol, the Elsinore and Bush House
Changed from our older guide: the Oregon Caves Chateau has been closed for restoration since 2018; Highway 101, the old Oregon Tech campus, Lafayette Pioneer Cemetery and Croisan Creek Road moved to the off-limits list; and we added the Heceta Head keeper’s house, Wolf Creek Inn, the Benson, the Heathman, the White Eagle, Grand Lodge, Hotel Oregon, Old Town Pizza, the McLoughlin House, the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse, Lone Fir Cemetery, Cathedral Park and Salem’s Capitol, Elsinore Theatre and Bush House.
Visited one of these places? Tell us what happened
We collect first-hand accounts from visitors and add the best ones to our guides, with your first name and the date of your visit. We read every story before it’s published.
Portland’s Shanghai Tunnels are the most famous, though historians say the kidnapping legend is mostly myth. Among places you can stay, the Geiser Grand in Baker City, the Heceta Head keeper’s house near Yachats and McMenamins Edgefield in Troutdale are the best known.
Can you stay overnight in a haunted place in Oregon?
Yes. The Heceta Lighthouse Bed and Breakfast, the Geiser Grand, Wolf Creek Inn, Hot Lake Springs, McMenamins Edgefield, Grand Lodge, Hotel Oregon and the White Eagle, and Portland’s Heathman and Benson all take overnight guests.
Is the Oregon Caves Chateau open?
No. The National Park Service closed the 1934 lodge in 2018 for a major rehabilitation, and there is no reopening date. Cave tours still run in season.
Is the Oregon Vortex haunted?
It is better known as an optical illusion than a haunting: a tilted shack where people seem to change height. A legend says Native people called the site forbidden ground. It has been closed since floods in March 2025 damaged the site, with reopening aimed at March 2027, so check local news before planning a visit.
Are there ghost tours in Oregon?
Yes. Portland has the Shanghai Tunnels tour and a haunted pub tour, McMenamins runs ghost tours at some of its hotels in October, and Lone Fir Cemetery has a lantern-lit history tour each fall.
Who haunts the Heceta Head Lighthouse?
The keeper’s house has a gray lady known as Rue, a silver-haired woman in a long dress. The innkeepers tell her story, and Victoria’s Room is linked to her.
Sources and how we research
Every place in this guide is checked against its official website, historic register listings and news coverage, and we confirm whether it is open, closed, private or gone before we list it. Ghost stories are reported as staff, visitors and local historians tell them; we say so where records contradict a story. Each place shows how many independent sources we checked it against; our own Haunted Rooms pages are not counted.
New guides and haunted places to visit. No spam, unsubscribe any time.
About the authors
The Haunted Rooms Team are paranormal researchers who write about historic haunted places across the United States. We research every place in our guides using official sites, historic registers, local archives and news coverage, and we report ghost stories as the stories they are. We review each guide regularly so you are not sent to a place that has closed, changed hands or banned visitors. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
