Oregon’s Spooky McMenamins Edgefield

McMenamins Edgefield

Located in Troutdale, Oregon is an impressive hotel named McMenamins Edgefield.

This large hotel has a brewery/winery, and offers fine dining, concerts, a movie theater, gardens, a spa, and a golf course.

Gardens and vineyard at Edgefield

It is also, without doubt, one of the most haunted hotels in the U.S.

The reason for this is how the site was used, for the seven decades before it became a hotel.

In 1911, the Multnomah County Poor Farm opened where the Sandy and Columbus Rivers come together.

Multnomah Poor Farm

This 345-acre farm was a progressive new idea, to help families, the disabled, and the mentally ill to become self-sufficient.

Even with overcrowding during the Great Depression, the Multnomah was still thriving. Residents in Portland would often visit the farm to buy handicrafts made by the residents.

After WWll, with Roosevelt’s New Deal, most of the residents were able to move on—leaving only the more disabled and sick residents on the farm.

A county jail was established on one section of the land in 1954. The inmates refused to work the farm, so it fell into disrepair. The decision was made to sell the livestock and lease the farmland.

The main building was used for the Edgefield Nursing Home starting in 1964.

When the nursing home closed, the property was abandoned for over 20 years, it was extensively vandalized. It was about to be torn down when the Troutdale Historical Society stepped in and saved it.

Spa with soaking pool.

Winery tasting room.

Then with financial support, the McMenamins brothers were able to renovate it.

After the hotel opened, it became apparent to both staff and guests that the grounds and buildings are haunted. A nurse wearing white, a former janitor, and a ghost dog have all been observed by many.

The phantom dog, besides being seen, wakes guests up late at night, by sticking its’ wet nose into people’s faces. Others state they heard the unmistakable clicking of a dog’s nails as this canine moved through their rooms.

One guest hearing this sound, spoke to the dog, telling it, “You are good fella,” at which point it jumped on her. She never saw it.

A phantom janitor, wearing a uniform of a different era, is seen, smiles, and even talks to guests. He is spotted in the same spot each time.

One time he gave a guest the direction to the ladies room as she left the ballroom, but it was where a restroom used to be. He often just disappears after people spot him.

Tasting Room

Allison Berliner, a wine server, has seen the ghostly nurse. She saw this entity walking with keys in her hands in the winery, at 11:00 in the morning. This ghost stopped as if to unlock a door and then just vanished. (The winery was previously the poorhouse infirmary.)

Mural near where entity walked
through Berliner.

One night, as she walked between the second and third floor, she felt an energy go right through her chest. It took her breath away, and she hyperventilated.

At one point Berliner was transferred to work at the hotel’s Black Rabbit Bar. She encountered a shadowy figure that had “very dark energy,” so, to her relief, she was transferred back to the winery.

Maids at the hotel report a variety of experiences. One housekeeper as she stood at the foot of a bed had her ankle grabbed firmly. This unseen hand wouldn’t let go until she jumped away. (Several guests have had this same experience.)

Another maid had just cleaned a room when she returned to retrieve an item that she had forgotten—she entered the room to find everything in disarray.

The night before this happened, a guest staying in this room told the front desk that she awoke to find a dark figure standing over her bed.

Several rooms on the second floor are very active. Guests report awaking to someone tapping on their chest or being poked in the side, or their feet being grabbed while they are in bed.

One guest had her backside grabbed by an unseen hand as she showered. She screamed and retrieved a towel, as she watched one of her shirts in the next room, lift up and fly across the room.

Another guest, who has visited the hotel several times, tells the story of kissing her boyfriend in one elevator when her hair was yanked violently. No one else was in the elevator with them, and her friend’s hands were both on her waist.

Haunted room.

One guest awoke to find an old man standing over her—he had his hand extended as if he wanted her to shake it. He only disappeared after she obliged him.

Guests often take pictures, knowing the hotel’s reputation. Many have captured mists outside. One guest who snapped many photos during his visit found that all the ones he had taken inside had just disappeared. This had never happened with his camera.

A female guest lost her brush. She poured her purse out on the bed in an attempt to find it—only to see it lying on top of the contents she had spilled out, moments before.

Haunted room.

A couple that stayed in a corner room on the third floor—another room with a lot of activity—had a disturbing night. The wife was shoved off the bed, only to see her husband was asleep and turned away from her.

In this same room, another couple both awoke to the sound of something substantial, hitting a hardwood floor. They turned on the lights and discovered the floor was carpeted, and nothing was on the floor.

A third couple heard creepy footsteps circling the bed. The husband saw what appeared to be a grandmother sitting in the corner, watching them.

These couples state they can hardly wait to revisit the hotel. Others say they are too scared to return.

Other activity includes: Cold breezes inside where they shouldn’t be, the feeling that something is watching, a child’s loud cries in what was the infirmary and lamps turn on by themselves.

Concert on the lawn at Edgefield.

The hotel doesn’t deny these hauntings. In fact, they have had the structures cleansed in the past.

Edgefield's' wines and beers.

But they also do not publicize them. The owners don’t have to. The McMenamins Edgefield is a popular destination for a myriad of reasons. Hot mineral springs—anyone?

Portland’s Haunted Old Town Pizza

For well over a century Portland, Oregon’s Old North End had a shady reputation at best.

Since the 1970s a restaurant, Old Town Pizza has been located in once was, the lobby of the Merchant Hotel. This popular restaurant inherited the hotel’s resident ghost.

The Merchant Hotel

The Merchant was built in 1880 by two successful lumber barons. It was built atop part of Portland’s infamous Shanghai Tunnels.

These tunnels were used to imprison unsuspecting men, from the 1870s until well into the 1900s. These men were either drunk or drugged and then forced to work on ships without pay.

I share the history and hauntings of these tunnels in my post entitled Portland’s Shanghai Tunnels.

Shanghai Tunnel under Old Town Pizza

Despite this nefarious beginning, the Merchant Hotel had a good reputation. But this hotel was also known to provide its elite clientele with “ladies of the night.”

One young lady, Nina (pronounced “Nigh-na”) was sold into prostitution by Portland’s thriving white slavery trade. She became a “working woman” at the Merchant.

Missionaries convinced Nina to share or “rat out” several of Portland’s powerful crime bosses in an attempt to clean up the neighborhood.

Nina agrees to give this information, in exchange for a chance to escape a life she had not chosen. But soon after she cooperated, she was found dead in the hotel.

She had been pushed down an elevator shaft to her death. Since her ghost has not left what was once the hotel.

One room in Old Town Pizza

Guests at Old Town Pizza report feeling someone is watching them, others mention smelling a floral scent without source, they are told, “Oh, that is just Nina.”

One secluded booth at the back of the restaurant sits next to a brick wall that once was the elevator shaft. Nina’s name often appears mysteriously, written on this wall.

Secluded booth at Old Town Pizza

She has been seen for over one hundred and fifty years at this location.

She is described as tall, wearing a long black dress, with a lovely smile. She is often seen walking down the stairs. She is also seen standing in the restaurant overlooking the diners as they eat.

Her apparition is sometimes spotted beneath this restaurant, in the basement, where one of the many Shanghai Tunnels is still located.

The following is a short video about this haunting. It includes a personal experience one Old Town Pizza employee had with Nina.

Oregon’s Sumpter Valley Dredge

Sumpter Valley Dredge
Largest abandoned dredge in the U.S.

In 1862 gold was discovered in this valley nestled in the Elkhorn Mountain Range. Between 1912 and 1954, dredges were used to extract rock and dirt from the riverbank and then this machine would separate the gold from the sediment. *  This dredge ran 24/7 with one exception--when it broke down.

When this happened, especially in the middle of the night, things got scary.

Large Gear

In 1918, Chris Rowe while greasing the dredge’s gears was sucked in and crushed to death. Years later, when the second of the three dredges was brought in to replace the first, the gears from the first one were transferred to the new machine.

Rowe’s ghost, who had been spotted by a workman in the hull of the first machine was said to follow the old gears into the new mechanism, for his ghost was now seen in this new dredge.

In the 1940s, a mechanic named Joe Bush worked on the dredge. He was the second man who was killed while working on this machine.

His ghost is the one connected to most stories told today about the haunted third dredge.

Workman in the Sumpter Valley in the 1940s and 50s state that Joe’s ghost would move their tools and eat their forgotten lunches. If the lights flickered, his spirit was always blamed.

Most disturbing of all was the fact that his wet, bare footprints were often spotted on the dredge’s various decks.

All this activity, according to old-timers Wes Dickison and Norm Hansen, who worked on the dredge in the 40s and 50s, caused such a ruckus that men refused to work at Sumpter.

They state the scariest times were when the dredge would break down at night—then the lights would go out.

Two men made up the night crew. One would have to leave to inform the boss, the Dredge master, while the other one—usually the junior crewmember—had to stay behind to keep an eye on the machine.

Most of the time, this is when Joe Bush’s ghost was heard and seen.

* This operation extracted 4 million dollars in gold.

The dredge was restored in 1995.

The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department have preserved this area as a heritage site. Tours of the Sumpter dredge are given in the spring and through the fall.

Park Rangers tell stories about Joe Bush’s ghost over a nightly campfire. Some have even spotted his spirit.

One female visitor went pale upon hearing these stories. During her tour earlier in the day she had spotted Joe— it dawned on her she had seen his ghost in one of the dredge’s upper windows.

Here is a video about this dredge.

Oregon: Haunted Hot Lake Resort

1940

This hotel was originally built in 1864 in Union County, Oregon. It sits in a remote part of northeast Oregon 10 miles from Le Grande. In 1910 this resort ideally located next to a hot springs charged its’ guests $2.50 a night or $3.50 per week. Meals cost .25 cents. In the 1920’s it attracted thousands of Portlanders who road the train to take the resort’s soothing waters. It also attracted visitors from around the US and the world.

In 1917 the resort took on a duel purpose. Part of the hotel became a state-of-the art hospital. The building was used for these two enterprises until 1934 when a large portion of the hotel was destroyed by a fire. After this calamity the remaining brick part of the structure was used as a nursing home and asylum for the mentally ill. During World War ll the building was converted into a flight school and nurse’s training facility. By 1991 the building had fallen into major disrepair and then lay abandoned for 15 years.

Photo: Werewombat
2009

By this time the old resort had a reputation as being haunted. Many witnesses over the years have reported hearing and seeing unexplained activity in and around the resort. Visitors often recount seeing spectral figures walking around the grounds. They also report hearing voices whispering and footsteps in various parts of the hotel.

Many see apparitions of people they feel must be former vacationers. Even more witnesses have seen an apparition of a man wearing work clothes. It is believed this ghost is probably a former gardener who committed suicide on the property. Yet other witnesses state they have seen apparitions of people who most likely were patients during the time the building was used as an asylum.

When the resort first opened a piano formally owned by Robert E. Lee’s wife was acquired and placed on the hotel’s third floor. To this day people hear this piano playing by itself. One time owner Donna Pattee, her husband and their caretaker Richard Owens had several strange experiences while they lived on the hotel’s second floor in the 1970s. They often heard screams and crying coming from what was once the hospitals surgery room. They also saw rocking chairs moving of their own accord.

Photo: Jamie Francis
The Oregonian

By 2003 the hotel was literally falling down, when David and Lee Manual bought it. This couple with the help of the surrounding community spent the next 7 years and millions of dollars restoring it to its’ formal glory. Today the Hot Lake Resort is a 22-room bed and breakfast with an art gallery, museum, bronze foundry, spa and restaurant. The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

Here is a link to a nice video about the restored resort, just click arrow to start it.