Haunted Lighthouses
Yaquina Bay Lighthouse
(old) Newport, Oregon
The older lighthouse is said to be haunted by
a strange mystery and a disappearance.
The story says that someone disappeared after
the old lighthouse was abandoned. The tale got its start with an old
magazine story called the Haunted Light, a late nineteenth century story about
a young girl who is drawn to the empty lighthouse one day while picnicing with
friends. She disappeared that day.
Some say her spirit still lingers, yet was it
a story of fiction or fact? The legend of Muriel is a well-known tale in these
parts, with locals lending their stories of sightings to the energy of the
story.
To the north of the old lighthouse is the
replacement. Yaquina Head Beacon is still said to be haunted. In
the thirties, one of the lighthouse keepers said he heard the ghost on the
stairs almost every night.
No keepers now, but the staff and visitors and
volunteers have heard voices and footsteps in the Yaquina Head Lighthouse.
Most believe that the spirit is one of the old lighthouse
keepers.
Heceta Head Lighthouse
To get to Heceta Head Lighthouse from Portlant,
Oregon, you have to drive along highways of incredible vistas. The
Pacific Ocean and the rugged shores of the Pacific Northwest, some of the most
beautiful scenery in the world. Heceta Head Lighthouse sits on a wedge
of cliff, with its keepers quarters and light tower.
The keeper's quarters is a Queen Ann style
fully restored house, beautiful amid the trees and rock croppings, now open to
the public as a bed and breakfast. It is said to be the most haunted area of
the compound.
The legend talks about a keeper's wife named
Ru. who lost her child in an accident, with conflicting tales of the way the
child died.
Guests of the bed and breakfast talk over the
breakfast table of ghostly experiences and for the most part, the tales hold
true to the legend.
The curator tells of the DeRoys, a couple, the
wife joining her husband the keeper at Heceda Head. Staff have seen a woman,
the style of the early nineteen hundreds, moving about the keepers quarters. A
workman in the attic saw woman's reflection in the windows he was cleaning,
the image clear and not fleeting.
The desolate area and windy weather gives the
haunted lighthouse an even eerier feel, but none who work there have reported
feeling uneasy with the spirit which resides there. All have reported
feeling quite comfortable in the keeper's house.
On the coast of Maine,
Owls Head Lighthouse is extrordinary when it comes to the
stories of hauntings there.
An hour north of Portland, Maine, Curtis
Island Lighthouse is a bird sanctuary. Even closer to Owls head, we get
to Breakwater Lighthouse, one of the few said to be not haunted.
Owls Head is a rocky, craggy area on the
coast, sitting haunted on the hill. Footprints appear on the stairs and
the cleaning's been done after a rain, but the footprints don't go down the
stairs. Is it the spirit of a keeper taking his job seriously to this
day?
One family that stayed in the keeper's house
in the eighties, who found the ghost interacting with their daughter.
The tiny daughter told the dad in the middle of the night that he had to turn
on the fog horn. The family knew it wasn't coming from the little girl,
but from a keeper from days gone by.
Strange events have gone on in the house, the
footprints, the cleaning, the extreme care of the lighthouse, points to a
former keeper. The resident family never feels alone.
Prospect Harbor,
Maine is about five hours north of Boston.
The keepers quarters is used for navy personnel,
calling it Gull Cottage. The former light keeper's ghost is said to haunt Gull
Cottage and the solitude brings on a tale about an old man called Captain
Salty.
Guests often talk about the events that plague
them through the night, like doors opening and closing, lights going on and
off and other odd occurrences. The owners leave journals for the guests
to write in if they have odd occurrences. There are a trio of statues at
a window at Gull Cottage and in the morning, they're faced in a different
direction than they were in before the guests retire.
Florida -
Pensacola Lighthouse
Nearly one hundred and fifty years old, the
tower is maintained by the US Coastguard and they tend to refuse the rumors
about ghosts.
The local story talks about a tragedy in the
late eighteen hundreds on a hot summer night. An argument between a
keeper and his wife resulted in a bloody and brutal murder, likely, the locals
say, after years of abuse. The blood stain won't be scrubbed out.
It returns no matter how much one tries to clean that part of the bedroom
floor.
A plumber, looking for frozen pipes one cold
January evening, saw and heard a person near him and around him, not his work
partner. He spoke to him and the specter spoke back. To this day
the plumber swears the encounter is true.
Tour guests have seen a lady in white on the
second catwalk on the tower and even though the stairs and tower are
locked, the spirit is seen walking around the light.
2009 © J Scheffler
Old
Port Boca Grande Haunted Lighthouse
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