Macabre Ghost History of Portland, Oregon walking tour

From fiery deaths to watery graves: In this 1.5 mile cemetery walking tour, we weave what we know of the peoples who lived here for millennia with verifiable stories of recent centuries. We can only guess, based on our psychics’ readings and eerie coincidences we have observed, where people here before us feared to walk and canoe at night. As a wise person wrote, every story ends as a ghost story. Our ghosts are legion. We now call it Oregon; “ourigan” was ancestral home to hundreds of thousands. They have left a darkness here, expressed with stories from the earliest days of our written history to modern times. Starting with early disasters, we will tell ghost stories we have collected, from fiery deaths to those in the waters of nearby river; from self-inflicted to deaths brought by the state or a rich man’s guilt. Our route takes us through the inner eastside, where more of Portland’s disasters have happened than any other part of the city & where many early settlers are buried.

1. 1

   Revolution Hall

   20 min

   We will meet at Revolution Hall, a former high school who counted many now-famous people who would lead brilliant but tortured lives as alumni and suffered a tragic fire a century ago.

2. 2

   Stop 2

   20 min

   We will walk through the quiet streets of one of the oldest residential neighborhoods in what we now call Portland, telling stories of Portland’s first known witch and women who worked in the sex trade; and stories of seances that swept the city.

3. 3

   Lone Fir Pioneer Cemetery

   50 min

   We will enter the Lone Fir cemetery near the section known only as “Block 14,” where mass graves of Chinese immigrants and those who died at the nearby asylum for the insane were buried. After telling some of the stories we know, we will walk through the cemetery, visiting the final resting places of residents that we have heard stories of already, as well as some of the most intense resident deaths; from dramatic drownings to axe murders to suicides.

• Infants and small children can ride in a pram or stroller
• Public transportation options are available nearby
• Suitable for all physical fitness levels

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.