JENNIFER ANDERSON loves listening to people that aren’t really there.
From irritated pioneers to lonely prostitutes, the Oregon native’s heard it all—a result of many long nights recording seemingly one-sided conversations with eroding gravestones and empty basements. And she’s not stopping anytime soon.
“Ghosts are just as real as you and me,” says Anderson, who received a degree in physics years back. “We’re all just electricity floating around up here. Might as well make the connection.”
Anderson isn’t alone in her paranormal pursuits. Whether it’s rumors of werewolves in St. Johns or UFOs over Milwaukie, the Portland region has been teeming with folks on the hunt for the unexplained since the 1940s. From blurry Sasquatch photos, creepy underground tunnels, abandoned chemical weapon and nuclear waste sites—the Pacific Northwest was tailor-made for unexplained phenomena. Hollywood even knows it.
So what makes Portland such a hotbed for the paranormal? Is it the volcanic current trapped in the nearby Cascade Mountains? Is it an extraterrestrial attraction to Oregon’s various military bases? Or is it just the curiosity of the population itself, raised in a city where weirdness is a badge of honor?
One thing’s for certain: Paranormal activity has been a staple of the Northwest for a long time—and it’s not going anywhere.
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DARK HISTORY
UFOs owe a lot to Oregon. The state was the first to coin the term “flying saucer,” after a sighting over the Cascade Range—weeks before the famous 1947 Roswell, New Mexico, UFO incident. It even produced some of the first and most famous photographic evidence of UFOs in Oregon (and in the nation) taken in McMinnville, now home of the annual UFO Festival.
“Regardless of what skeptics say, history tells you that this is the place,” says Clyde Lewis, host of Ground Zero, a talk radio show dealing with paranormal topics. “Oregon is the paranormal capital of the country.”
Lewis moved himself and his nationally syndicated show to Portland in 1999 from Salt Lake City, solely for its spooky history.
“It’s a dark place,” says Lewis. “And for some reason, the paranormal is drawn to it. So I was, too.”
Ghost hunter Jennifer Anderson, head of North Oregon Paranormal Investigators, agrees that the area’s present-day paranormal attraction sprouted from its gloomy history, specifically during the pioneer days. She says that compared to the East Coast, the Northwest had a much more tumultuous and tragic past of colonization.
“With pioneers crossing thousands of miles to get here, some perishing along the way, it wasn’t an easy transition,” says Anderson. “It’s a haunted land.”
Anderson says she recently visited a river crossing spot in Eastern Oregon with a history of pioneer drownings. “Not only were the houses near the bank haunted, but I could feel the spirits in the air,” she says.
She’s also sensed the dead’s tragic past on late-night patrols with her small group of investigators. The most common phrases she claims to capture on her small hand-held recording device used on these hunts are “Help me” and the occasional angry “Get out!” Once, while traipsing though Portland’s Lone Fir Pioneer Cemetery, she was unsure whether she was walking on an unmarked gravesite. “I hope I’m not walking on anyone,” she said aloud.
Back home, listening to the night’s tape recording, she heard a clear “I don’t know” after her question. “A lot of these people had troubled, tragic lives,” Anderson says. “It lives on in what we hear.”
Alien investigators, on the other hand, say that the land itself could be luring in the unearthly.
“We’ve got a large volcanic underlay of quartz here,” says Charlie Robinson, member of Northwest Paranormal Investigations. “Quartz! It may act as a battery to attract other beings’ attention. And then there’s the military bases.”
Oregon has more than 50 major military facilities—ranging from air force bases to armories—a wealthy amount for a state its size. Robinson suggests that the military institutions may draw attention from undercover aircrafts, extraterrestrial or earthly.
“Who knows who we’ve attracted,” he says.
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PECULIAR PEOPLE
Despite its eerie past, many people see the open-minded community of Portland as key in keeping paranormal interest afloat.
“It’s the whole ‘Keep Portland Weird’ thing. People here have a different mindset than others,” Robinson says. “They have the ability to believe in things we can’t see. Or at least not discount it.”
Robinson says that most people who are interested in investigating the unknown do so because of a personal interaction with the paranormal. But in Portland, many simply want to believe.
At a recent Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) meeting in a Portland church, a group of 25 eager UFO investigators discussed the reason they were there. Some were old veterans who always questioned unusual objects they had seen in the sky while on duty, others had dedicated years of their lives to taking video footage of flying objects hovering over their backyards. One couple even said they often interacted with beings in different dimensions in their own home.
But the majority of the attendees had never seen a UFO in their life. Curiosity, they said, was the biggest draw.
“I grew up reading every sci-fi book I could get my hands on,” one thirtysomething man said. “And even though I haven’t seen anything specifically to prove it, I think there’s got to be something out there.”
Eyes trained on a photo of a bright orange orb displayed on the room’s projector, a teenage girl shyly echoed the man’s reasoning. “Yeah, I’m just curious, that’s all. What if?”
Even local skeptics are open to the possibilities. Jim Todd, OMSI’s director of space science education and member of Rose City Astronomers, is known by MUFON as one of the top debunkers in the area. However, he sees reason in the group’s mission.
“Considering that Oregon has one of the best dark sky viewing in the United States, there is great interest in the viewing of celestial wonders,” says Todd. “The belief that we on Earth are not alone in the universe is a persistent one, and follows a human inclination to investigate the unknown.”
And while Robinson is an active member of Northwest Paranormal Investigations, he still dubs himself the “group skeptic.” After going on over 300 ghost hunts with the group, Robinson says he only truly believes three of them could be real hauntings (McMenamins’ Edgefield, the Klondike Restaurant and Bar in St. Helens, and the Heathman Hotel).
“I question everything and tear it apart,” says Robinson, laughing at his stubbornness. “That way we’re certain we’re providing accurate, scientific data. We want to be taken seriously.”
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PHONY BUSINESS
Robinson’s dedicated drive to be taken seriously comes from the fact that so many paranormal groups aren’t. From clearly Photoshopped UFO photos to videos manipulating filtered Star Wars clips, it’s effortlessly easy to find a hoax piece of evidence online. He says that the only way paranormal investigators can be seen as reputable scholars, rather than kooks, is to crack down on these “scams.”
“You can’t prove anything by manufacturing something,” says Robinson. “Until we can weed out the hobbyist investigators, the future’s a little cloudy.”
Even the media’s played a part in belittling the bizarre. Radio host Lewis says that one of his “dreams” would be to eliminate the media’s use of The X Files motto.
“You see TV anchors mention a potential UFO sighting over Portland and laugh,” says Lewis. “Well, you know what they say, ‘the truth is out there,’ they say. It’s bullshit. This is more real than plopping down in front of your TV to watch Snooki.”
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FUTURE PROPHESIES
As for the future of Portland’s hunt for the paranormal? Investigators agree: It’s complicated. With the endless stream of fabricated material popping up on YouTube and the media, it’s an uphill battle for those who want to be trusted.
MUFON State Director Tom Bowden says that belief in UFOs in particular will only be accepted on the mainstream level if it comes from someone that people can trust, similar to the nation’s politics system.
“I mean, heck, people trust guys like Paul Ryan, who is full of crap. It’s all a matter of credibility,” says Bowden, who’s been working for years to bridge the gap between academia and “UFOlogy.” “The only way people will believe is if they hear it from someone with a great deal of leadership and following.”
Regardless of achieving the widespread belief in the paranormal, Robinson says that there’s still a lot of work to be done in the field locally.
“This is an excellent area. We’re dripping with paranormal activity here waiting to be found,” he says. “We’ve only just scratched the surface.”
If you have to ask, then you haven’t been looking up.
“You can’t prove anything by manufacturing something,” says Robinson. “Until we can weed out the hobbyist investigators, the future’s a little cloudy.” I disagree! that’s how so many investigators join the field or as least become involved. That’s like saying, “Sure we’ll make Star Trek films, but we won’t support the conventions!”.
Weed out the hobbyists as if it’s a paid profession in the first place. Now if you could just get rid of all those pesky contactees, you might just be able to maintain denial.
Alex, I hope this was Hump’s idea for a column and not yours….
in this day and age, we should be beyond this ridiculous nonsense. it’s embarrassing
If you think Orygun has peculier people, and a weird vibe, try North Bend, Washington. David Lynch filmed Twin Peaks there for good reason. You go into the dinner from the show, and this customer comes up to you with a yellow plastic squeeze botte of mustard and squirts a yellow string out the nozzel at you. Then when you like it, he goes out to his car and brings in a talking parot doll.
http://www.twedescafe.com/
Just a few weeks ago, a UFO was seen dropping a shitload of orrange orbs into Lake Sawyer, in Maple Valley.
http://www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=2025&category=Environment
NASA has recently announced that they intend to make an announcement. NASA won’t say what that unspecified announcement will be about, except that it has something to do with what Curiosity rover has found on Mars.
This is similar to how when NASA made an announcement of a scheduled press conference on another undisclosed subject, which at the press conference, turned out to be about a supposedly new life form, an arsenic eating bacteria, found in a polluted lake in the desert of California. This press conference coincidentally, eclipsed the news of the return to Earth of the secret X-37B which has been reported “missing”, lost in Space, on a nine month long Mission, by the Airforce. A few days latter, scientists totally debunked NASASS’ findings as fraudulent. We still don’t know shit about the X-37B.
Where oh where can I ever find the retractions?
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/astrobiology_toxic_chemical.html
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2010/02dec_monolake/
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2010/12/this_paper_should_not_have_been_published.html
http://www.news.com.au/technology/us-air-forces-secret-space-shuttle-x-37b-goes-missing-again-rumours-of-possible-landing/story-e6frfro0-1225937846236
http://science.time.com/2012/11/20/a-mars-announcement-for-the-history-books/
http://www.eceti.org/Eceti.Testimonials.ht…
About The ECETI Ranch
An unprecedented event is unfolding in a small town known as Trout Lake, Washington. This event has the potential to change the course and destiny of Humanity and the Earth. The people of Earth are being offered a chance to join the rest of the universe in peace.
The technologies to end disease, clean up and restore the environment, fuel-less energy technologies, and the virtual keys to Utopia have been disseminated and are waiting for distribution and production. A whole new world is unfolding for those with the courage to accept it.
C5 Contact with spiritually and technologically advanced extra and ultra terrestrial off world visitors which we refer to as the greater family of man has occurred at the home of James Gilliland, known as the Sattva Sanctuary. ABC, Fox News, The History Channel, Evening Magazine, and other cable channels too numerous to mention have covered the ongoing contacts at the Sanctuary. Radio shows such as Coast to Coast AM with George Noory & Art Bell, Jeff Rense and many others have all covered this incredible verifiable event.
http://www.mt.net/~watcher/angelicconspira…
http://www.mt.net/~watcher/stones.html
Art Bell/Mel’s Hole, part 1 of 27
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRUDvPO4-Hc
Eastern Washington hole is shrouded in mystery
By Denise Whitaker Published: Feb 7, 2012
Eastern Washington hole is shrouded in mystery »Play Video
ELLENSBURG, Wash. — From Bigfoot to the disappearance of D.B. Cooper, the Pacific Northwest is full of mysteries. Another mystery buried deep in the hills of eastern Washington keeps resurfacing.
Ellensburg and its surrounding valleys and Manastash Ridge are beautiful in any season.
Some believe what lies beneath is a deep, dark hole with supernatural powers.
A man named Red Elk is one of the only people alive known to have ever seen the mysterious hole.
A Native American Shaman, or medicine man, Red Elk said his dad first showed him the hole in 1961.
“He said ‘This is an endless hole,'” Red Elk said.
Red Elk’s been back many times and said strange things happen every time he goes near it.
“People get it confused with what I call the devil’s hole,” he said.
Many locals claim to know about the hole, but it didn’t become phenomena until 1997, when Mel Waters went on the Coast to Coast radio show with Art Bell.
“I brought the dogs with me.” Waters said on the show. “They wouldn’t go anywhere near the damn thing.”
Waters said the hole had a three-foot stone wall around it.
It seemed bottomless to him, so he used an old shark fisherman’s trick — sending thousands of feet of fishing line down.
“What I did, was I sent down a roll of lifesavers,” he said. “So when it hit water the lifesavers would dissolve.”
But the lifesavers came back up whole — no water — so how deep was this hole?
Waters said he believed it descended miles into the earth and he heard strange stories about its powers.
“One guy claims that he threw his departed canine down into the hole,” he said. “He swears the dog actually came back to him.”
Red Elk said it was when Waters went public that the trouble began.
“Now I’m going public on this. And that could land me in a pile of junk,” he said.
Red Elk claims the government has a secret base there.
“An underground base, a very small, underground base,” he said.
That’s how Red Elk explains the white boxes covering the area on some satellite images.
He also said he’s seen “alien activity” in the area.
“A huge space craft, one, will appear and hover over the hole,” he said.
That’s what he said happens during Summer Solstice, when space men load and unload things at the hole before flying away.
At the Northwest Museum of Legends and Lore, Phil Lipson said he’s heard the stories.
“Well, I believe there is a hole,” Lipson said.
But Lipson’s never seen the hole, even though he’s led expeditions to find it.
“I think it’s actually a true event just something that’s never been totally uncovered,” he said.
And to this day, no one’s been able to find it, since that famous radio conversation.
Ellensburg Public Library Historian Milton Wagy said the story became a sensation after Waters went on the radio.
He said the phone rang off the hook with all kinds of stories about the hole — some explainable — some not.
He’s still trying to solve the mystery of what happened to the library’s file on Mel’s Hole.
“Well it just disappeared, which lends itself to the mysteriousness of Mel’s Hole,” Wagy said. “Did Mel take it? Did it just kind of rise out of the locked file cabinet.”You never know there might be a hole out there.”
Now the question is, can anyone can find Mel’s Hole and prove its existence?
http://www.komonews.com/news/local/Eastern…
THE NATIONAL UFO REPORTING CENTER
Dedicated to the Collection and Dissemination of Objective UFO Data
REPORT A UFO
On-Line UFO Report Form
http://www.ufocenter.com/reportform.html
Hotline: 206-722-3000 (use only if the sighting has occurred within the last week.)
http://www.nuforc.org
National UFO Reporting Center
P. O. Box 700
Davenport, WA 99122
First of all, this article asks the wrong question. It starts off on a faulty premise — by assuming that supernatural phenomena exists and is the work of spirits, energy, aliens etc, you’re already talking the wrong path to meaningful inquiry.
“Why Is Portland a Hotbed for Unexplained Phenomena?”.
How about “Why do so many people in Portland believe in the paranormal?”.
I’d wager for the same reasons so many people here believe in homeopathy, horoscopes and fluoride as a conspiracy. I’ve been on ghost hunts. I’ve chased UFOs. There’s a lot more psychology, sociology and flat-out misinterpretation that takes place under heightened circumstances. It’s not ignorance by any stretch, but it does go hand in hand with a poor understanding of the scientific method. And to be clear — waving an EMF meter around a graveyard does not automatically qualify as scientific. Been there, done that.
When you start at your conclusion and work backwards, the tendency is to cherry-pick data to support your conclusions and see patterns that aren’t really there. That method of investigation is as sloppy as this piece of journalism.
As for collecting evidence: we live in an age where virtually everyone is armed with a camera phone. If there were so many convincing cases of hauntings, alien encounters, hell, BIGFOOT… we’d have some decent photos or video by now. Thus far, nothing has passed scientific scrutiny.
As the maxim goes, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. At such time that something convincing is submitted, tested and tested again, the scientific outlook will adapt.
Just because something is “unexplained” doesn’t mean automatically make it “supernatural” in nature. That’s a big jump, and one that has yet to be proven.
This article sucks. The picture at the top made it almost worth my time, though. Please come up with something better than Discovery-channel indulgence of hippie bullshit. Thanks. <3 Will
I have a little hand-held digital recorder and have recorded unexplained voices while traipsing around old cemeteries. What the hell are they? Ghosts? Spirits long dead but feeling the need to communicate? Radio cross signals? TV audio transmissions? I have no idea.