Latest / PNW Haunts & Homicides / Portland's Most Haunted Tour: Ghosts, History, and Halloween Adventures
Transcript
- 0:00Whether you live in Portland or visit, you will not find a friendlier hotel. Everything is original to the building the hotel as it opened.
- 0:13You are surrounded and immersed by the ghosts and the spirit of 1900s, Portland and you feel it. And that is what is so cool about Portland's Benson Hotel.
- 0:40Hi Caitlyn. Hi Cassie. Hi creepy people. Hello. This is PNW Haunts and Homicides where we chat about true crime, the paranormal and all things spooky in the Pacific Northwest.
- 0:55In a high note. I was trying to be like the ghost from Beetlejuice.
- 1:03Yeah, they're very like melodic. We also do a little chero reading in every episode to give you a little bit of deeper insight into our topic for the episode.
- 1:16That we did and this episode we did a terror reading in a pretty cool place that we will talk about on the site.
- 1:25Yes, it was very cool and it worked totally worked. Obviously we took the terror out of the normal, terror alter zone and we did it. It was fun. It was so fun.
- 1:38So we're going to tell you all about what we did. What did we do? We went on a Portland ghost tour. We did.
- 1:47It's downtown Portland and they will link it for you, but that's ran by the US ghost adventures. Yeah. No, it's not big old bites. Unfortunately.
- 1:59Yeah, not THE ghost adventures. Yeah. It's a different ghost adventures.
- 2:04Other people like adventures and ghosts. There is three tours that they currently have. Poltergeist and psychopaths.
- 2:15Boos, Boos and booze. But that's like a podcast. Booze and booze haunted pub crawl and Portland ultimate dead of night tour.
- 2:27And those are offered daily year round. You do have to like book it in advance. Obviously. They're year round. I didn't realize that.
- 2:36Yes. Okay. If you missed it for a spooky season, you can go for unspookie season or you can wait until next year, but it's not too late.
- 2:44It's fun. Ghosts are fun anytime of year. So we got to go on kind of a mix of these tours just to get a little sample, little taste tester.
- 2:54Yeah. And our wonderful tour guide, Laurie, who you will get to know pretty well by the end of this episode took us around.
- 3:03She's a fantastic storyteller. It was so much fun getting to learn all of this crazy history about Portland.
- 3:11And I just obviously that's why I kind of do this podcast. It's to learn more about the Pacific Northwest more about my area.
- 3:17But it was really cool specifically Portland, you know, where I'm from.
- 3:21Yeah. I mean, and she really had a pretty interesting and like a wide breadth of different knowledge about periods of time in Portland and just kind of cool historical facts and.
- 3:34Yeah. I mean, it's interesting to learn so much about a place that like, and we've lived here all our lives pretty much.
- 3:42And we're going to get to a walk around and like really look at things really look at the buildings instead of just like walking by, you know, you get that.
- 3:49Yeah. What's that called tunnel vision. And you just don't really look at anything. But when you're like looking at it and like looking up because all the buildings are so tall and.
- 3:58Yeah. Beautiful. So that was cool.
- 4:00There were a few that I'm like, we have definitely I'm sure both of us at certain points, Ben in these areas and maybe like near these buildings or in the case of like spoiler alert - Kells.
- 4:14Like I've definitely been there to end to that location specifically.
- 4:19And obviously I've known about like kind of some of the spookiness there, but yeah really going in and like focusing on that when you're visiting.
- 4:29It's a whole different experience. How do you ever been down to the cigar room before?
- 4:34Yeah, I think I had just really like, oh, you're here. So you like go and see it.
- 4:42I think it was maybe on my 21st, first day.
- 4:48Oh, when I look a bad time to go down and smell all those cigars.
- 4:53And it was that part of it was regrettable. It's danky.
- 5:00Yeah. Yeah. I had been down there because I'd been on the booze, the booze and booze haunted pub crawl like years and years and years ago.
- 5:08Of course you had. And so yeah, we went down there, but it was actually full of people that were smoking cigars when we got to walk through.
- 5:16So it was empty when we went through. So it was cool to like hang out in there for a little bit and kind of look around more.
- 5:22Because it's a cool space. It is. Yeah. I feel like the timing of our tour, we hit a lot of the places that we were trying to visit.
- 5:33And it was like optimal timing to where it wasn't like their busiest time of the evening. Like, Kells is definitely, it depends on like if it's St. Patty's Day,
- 5:44they're going to be poppin' all day, you know, every day for probably like a week around the holiday.
- 5:51Normally they're kind of like a, I feel like a late night spot.
- 5:55They were poppin' upstairs with the way our life used to going. And that was really fun to record.
- 6:01We'll have some of that in the video for you because we took footage the entire time.
- 6:06I seriously always be recording. And we were.
- 6:10So we started off at the Benson Hotel. We walked in, we went straight to the bar and then we were like,
- 6:19"Oh, wait, did we pass someone that said US Ghost Adventures on their shirt? Was that, was that Lori?"
- 6:25So we did and then she was like, "Yeah, okay, go get drinks, you're gonna need them and we'll start the tour."
- 6:31And you had commented like when we first walked in, we were looking around.
- 6:36Do you remember what you said about it, like what it looked like? Oh yeah.
- 6:41Oh yeah. So we walked in and it's like everything about it is very like grand in terms of scale.
- 6:48And like the finishes are just like absolutely gorgeous. Oh just, I mean it's incredible.
- 6:54But we're walking in and it's like just like the highest end and most beautiful marble and stone and wood.
- 7:03I mean, oh the wood. It is gorgeous.
- 7:08But then you come to kind of their grand staircase where you would like be walking up that towards like guest rooms on the one side.
- 7:16And there's also a massive, massive like ornate gold frame mirror.
- 7:24Yes. Which we do get a story about later.
- 7:27Yeah. Like I don't even have a single wall in my apartment that would be big enough for like half of it.
- 7:33God, how heavy do you think that thing is?
- 7:35Like God, I feel like did they crane that in? Like they built that one wall, crained that in and kept building the building?
- 7:42Oh no no.
- 7:43It's massive. It's gotta be super heavy.
- 7:46But anyway, so it's like that gorgeous, beautiful kind of curved staircase.
- 7:52Just a, that is where you make an entrance my girl.
- 7:58I wanted to put on some prom dresses and walk down those stairs so bad.
- 8:02I know. And it turns out you were picking up on kind of the same vibe as me.
- 8:06I feel like with that comment because I was like this reminds me of the Titanic.
- 8:11This is exactly like when Rose is like walking down the set of stairs.
- 8:15Yeah.
- 8:16The vibe is, I mean aesthetically, all of the things I, it really was.
- 8:24And then to make that creepier that comment, when was the Benson built in 1912?
- 8:31When did the Titanic sink in 1912?
- 8:35So weird. So there was that kind of synchronicity connection.
- 8:39Yeah.
- 8:40With the dates on that. So yeah.
- 8:43Yeah. That's interesting.
- 8:45We had the reputation of being the routiest, raunchiest cowboy frontier town.
- 8:55At the same time, we were considered the world's most wickedest, evil seaport city.
- 9:04And we're like 80 miles from the Pacific Ocean.
- 9:08This is the story of how we got that reputation.
- 9:13So 1912, when this hotel was built, Simon Benson had been wealthy for years and years and years.
- 9:22He came here. He was integral in turning this city into the beautiful icon of architecture and of this day.
- 9:33The same time, his wife, who was a lifelong T-Totaler, the same thing with Mr. Benson,
- 9:42they were part of the temperance and prohibition movements here in Portland.
- 9:47Now, in this hotel, Champagne kind of wasn't really considered alcohol.
- 9:55Oh, before about the era.
- 9:58Yeah.
- 9:59And I completely agree.
- 10:01Because, right.
- 10:04Yeah. It's just bubbles, you guys.
- 10:07Exactly. Bubbles in water, expensive bubbles in water.
- 10:12So the average person never tasted Champagne.
- 10:18So already, that's a rarefied thing to have.
- 10:22And nobody in the right mind would ever get into the cup-stringing Champagne.
- 10:27So there was at a time people thought, "You couldn't get drunk on Champagne, but of course you can't."
- 10:34And people didn't.
- 10:36But we have to have those little grains so that you're setting up that wall.
- 10:47There's the haves and the have-nots and they're just hitting us right out of the face.
- 10:52Yep. Right back to the Titanic.
- 10:58Simon has been seen in his adult older form.
- 11:04Now, he did not die here in the hotel.
- 11:07He died back in the East at a very old age.
- 11:11So this is obviously his baby.
- 11:13This was kind of his pet.
- 11:15Oh, yeah.
- 11:17I could see where he might end up here.
- 11:20He is very proud and he is still proud of this place as is.
- 11:26You know, he'll kind of listen in.
- 11:30Now, at the time that he had this hotel that lounge, the poem court, or any drinking was not allowed.
- 11:39There was no alcohol served here.
- 11:43Now this was where beautiful weddings, very important business meetings and things happened.
- 11:49So I'm not saying there were no alcohol here, but this is also during the time when Portland started their prohibition earlier,
- 11:59like decades, than the rest of the United States and here in Portland, it was very important that we controlled alcohol and things.
- 12:10And so that's a lot of this story.
- 12:13So Benson is seen on the mezzanine here dressed in full tie and tails as he would have dressed in the evening dinners.
- 12:26And he stands either there looking over into the lobby.
- 12:35Now this is after his death, the year after his death, when the building was sold settled and they started serving alcohol,
- 12:45is when he started being seen up here on the mezzanine.
- 12:49Do you think he disapproves?
- 12:51Yeah, he does.
- 12:53He also been seen at the far end over there, over on the floor in the lobby,
- 13:03and he's leaning up against that one pillar.
- 13:06I showed you and asked if you felt anything weird.
- 13:10So if you are drinking and you see him, he's a full-bodied apparition, and he is not happy.
- 13:18He will be stern looking if you are holding a drink.
- 13:24It will feel, it'll just slide out of your hand.
- 13:27No, alcohol here is.
- 13:29Your drink is precarious.
- 13:32This thing responds to stories.
- 13:35Simon, we're so sorry.
- 13:37I mean, you can just have a little bit of chill.
- 13:39You have your drink close to the edge.
- 13:42It'll walk its way off the corner of the table.
- 13:47All were, if it's on the table, you could be talking and it's as though you or somebody knocked it over.
- 13:56I would never.
- 13:59If you've seen him and he's scowling at you, I would imagine especially young ladies,
- 14:07white and finger, white and finger.
- 14:10I'm not a fan of that.
- 14:12I feel like I have to chug this before he rips it out of my hands.
- 14:16I'm so excited to talk to you again, Laurie, how have you been since our ghost tour?
- 14:21Thank you.
- 14:22I've been great.
- 14:26Now it's the Halloween season.
- 14:29My last couple of pub crawls I do in costume.
- 14:35That is so fun.
- 14:37Laurie Hauntz is a gal from the 1970s that had a tragic disco accident that culminated with
- 14:50her wandering the streets outside the Benson Hotel and in the lobby with her giant spider Hugo.
- 14:59That's hilarious.
- 15:00I love that.
- 15:01I wish we could have seen that.
- 15:02I know.
- 15:03So I'm going to get some pictures and things.
- 15:08And I may debut another character tonight or that might be this Saturday.
- 15:14Their Halloween brings out the characters in me.
- 15:19Me too.
- 15:20I totally get that.
- 15:21Awesome.
- 15:22When we went into the Benson, when we were downstairs, you were telling a story of the
- 15:28Fay of a Fay entity.
- 15:31And I know Caitlin wanted to hear about that indefinitely about the wood.
- 15:35All of the fancy Titanic woodwork that she called it in the hotel.
- 15:40Car thing because the wood and the Fay are reported to be together.
- 15:45So one of the rumors why the beautiful Benson Hotel in downtown Portland is rumored to
- 15:55be so haunted is because the wood that distinctive black walnut is now rare.
- 16:05So rare that it's rumored to be extinct.
- 16:09It was owned by the Zars of Russia.
- 16:14It's a circadian black walnut that for centuries was grown in the Russian imperial forests and
- 16:23was used to build the Zars hunting lodges, their castles, any buildings of prominence.
- 16:33So when Simon Benson became a wealthy, wealthy man many, many times over and in 1912 when he decided
- 16:46that he wanted to open a grand hotel that was the epitome of old world charm and class
- 17:00in the center of the new world of a modern Pacific Northwest city which they all of our city
- 17:09fathers intended Portland to be the Benson Hotel does not disappoint.
- 17:17So whether you live in Portland or visit, you will not find a friendlier hotel.
- 17:24So come through the doors. The amazement starts as you go through the glass and brass revolving doors
- 17:35that are unique and everything is original to the building the hotel as it opened.
- 17:45So when you go into the Italian marble line, floor of the lobby,
- 17:51you immediately are surrounded by this gorgeous beautiful wood.
- 17:57You're bathed in the crystal rainbow glows of the Italian cut crystal chandeliers.
- 18:07You see the Italian at Preston motif, three dimensional ceilings and everything from the German
- 18:20gold guilt, huge mirror up the gorgeous Titanic era stairs to the mezzanine.
- 18:31You are surrounded and immersed by the ghosts and the spirit of 1900s, Portland and you feel it.
- 18:43And that is what is so cool about Portland's Benson Hotel.
- 18:50Now in the mid 1980s, it was reported that the Imperial Russian forest suffered some type of a blight,
- 19:01either a weevil or some type of wood boring pesticide that the last of these Circassian black walnut trees second and died.
- 19:15Roughly about that time, there's been an increase in some paranormal activity,
- 19:23particularly the appearance of what appears to be a fake creature.
- 19:30Now a fake creature is a forest creature.
- 19:33It never has been human, never will be human.
- 19:38Every culture and society has one.
- 19:41They're known as leprechauns and fairies and sprites, brownies and all kinds of things.
- 19:50So some can be outright evil, some can be helpful, some can be tricksters.
- 19:58The fave that appears at the Benson appears to be a benign trickster tends to appear in the middle of the night when you are either sleeping and your partner next to you is asleep and doesn't rouse over.
- 20:18You're in a room by yourself and your traveling companion leaves for a few minutes.
- 20:24Once again, you're left in the room by yourself.
- 20:27You turn around and you notice this charming adorable child.
- 20:33That's about three years old.
- 20:36And you can just imagine, especially if it's in the middle of the night, you have this cute chubby, cheap little little kid in the middle of your hotel.
- 20:47And you know, they're adorable.
- 20:50You want to help them and they're creepy as hell.
- 20:53They're also creepy even if they're cute.
- 20:56Exactly.
- 20:58Exactly.
- 20:59So that's why the haunting is something that shares that in common with the reports that I've heard is it tends to happen to women who have had children.
- 21:16Or have children around that age so that when they wake up, they see this child and instead of reacting in panic or order, they want to come for and reach out.
- 21:31So the women that have reported that they've touched the child reported first that it appears warm, solid, but either immediately turns icy cold or there's some sensation where you let go right away.
- 21:50Now the child immediately giggles and starts laughing.
- 21:55Okay.
- 21:56Creepy, but okay.
- 21:58And then does the little peekaboo thing.
- 22:01Okay.
- 22:02So women tend to do the peekaboo thing and now we're giggling and everybody who's been around creepy children or any children.
- 22:14No, you get them to do peekaboo and then you can get them to tell you, okay, who are you?
- 22:20They'll wear you from scream for help something like that, but you got them engaging and something.
- 22:28So every time you do the peekaboo, the second time, now the smile is bigger.
- 22:35It's kind of morphing into something.
- 22:39It's glints in the eyes that they seem a little bit larger than before and with the smile that couldn't be the tips of bangs.
- 22:52No, no, no.
- 22:53If you make it to the third peekaboo, then all the questions are gone.
- 22:58It then looks like a Gremlin.
- 23:01I've only heard that. So I'm assuming it's like that 1990s, you know, Bremlins, you know, the mean one or just something that obviously is.
- 23:15Now take it from me.
- 23:18If you are ever in the situation where you're in bed and you're faced with something, there are just some metaphysical rules and laws that are immutable.
- 23:29And if you want something to leave you alone, you say, Earth, think it.
- 23:34Leave me alone. Take your blankets.
- 23:37Cover your head. Close your eyes.
- 23:41Keep them closed. Think enough Christmas until it's all over.
- 23:47But what happens in this case, if and you won't be able to wake up anybody if they're sleeping next to you.
- 23:57But in that case, you cover your head.
- 24:01You will feel the entity. It doesn't touch you.
- 24:05But move is though down the bed to the foot.
- 24:10And then within a few moments, you feel it dissipate as though it ascends up or out of the room or something of that nature.
- 24:20So that's why we think it could be Rasputin who was prominently connected with Zahr Nikolai II family.
- 24:34That was the Zahr that was in power when Simon Benson, who was internationally known and famous for being wealthy.
- 24:48The lumberman had the money power and influence to contract with, you know, the Imperial Russian forest to get what is now reported to be the largest collection of this extinct or certainly very rare.
- 25:15Sir Casey in black walnut outside of Russia from what I've heard and understood many samples were destroyed in the Russian revolution.
- 25:28The hunting palaces, lodges, those things were torn down for souvenirs, that kind of thing. I don't know necessarily if that's true.
- 25:40But that's the fake connection from old Russia.
- 25:45And so if you're a Russian pay and you want to get back to your enchanted Rasputin would, hey, the Benson's the place to do it.
- 26:03And I guarantee you walk into that lobby, whether you wear tennis shoes or tiaras, you're welcome and you don't want to leave.
- 26:14It's so welcoming in there. There's that beautiful bar right when you walk in.
- 26:19Isn't it cool? Isn't it cool? Simon Benson. I am convinced key eaves drops on my tours through there and the EMF when I'm talking about him, especially or his hotel, it flutters.
- 26:37It does. It does. It's like he walks away like, okay, but he's keeping an eye on me. Yeah, I think we kind of scared him away a little bit.
- 26:47We were a crazy, loud crazy drink and women.
- 26:52Yes, yes, yes. This is the time of year where think about it.
- 26:58A very powerful and influential man like Simon Benson and all of the movers and shakers in Portland, especially the 1912s, 1924s when you're talking about spiritualists, suffragettes, socialists, socialites, excuse me, and all of that kind of spooky stuff.
- 27:27It would maybe make him a little nervous. Yeah. We're different breed nowadays.
- 27:37I was also going to say before we move on from the Benson that I'm a person who likes to touch things and like kind of feel and absorb its energy if I can.
- 27:49I highly recommend just like putting a hand on one of the wooden pillars and just like feeling the energy and also looking at them because you could see like faces in the in the wood patterns.
- 28:03It's so interesting.
- 28:05Yep. And it's like I told you going up the stairway to the mezzanine, you feel some cool spots.
- 28:15And the fact that I've been a tour guide and have had the blessing of being in the Benson weekly, sometimes several times a week, that it's always welcoming.
- 28:32I feel energies there. There is nothing scary, but there are many haunting things there that are cool to feel and they're like the travelers of today only through yesterday.
- 28:49Yeah.
- 28:50Besides all of the staff and the stories is just a super cool place. You know, it is.
- 28:59And it's kind of one of those things where you're not really sure if you can just go and visit without being like a guest there.
- 29:06Yes.
- 29:07You totally can. There's a bar.
- 29:09Yes.
- 29:10You hang out in the lobby. I mean, don't be disruptive and disrespectful, but.
- 29:13Absolutely.
- 29:14You can absolutely go in.
- 29:15Absolutely.
- 29:16It is so unique of what unfortunately now is modern where you know a lot of places will have you know code locks on the door and things like that.
- 29:28Now this just goes to that the Benson hotel is our presidential hotel and has been hosting every president since taft.
- 29:40So they're used to providing old world charm with modern conveniences and security and things I've never had any disruption or problems around there.
- 29:55And it got you walking off the street.
- 29:59You can go into their palm court lounge and have a beer or a pop or a micro brew have your Portland experience whether you stay there or not.
- 30:12You are free to walk around the lobby. They have a 12 story in essence historical library that you can take the elevator all the way up to the 12th floor and in the stairway.
- 30:33You know walk 12 floors down, but you see the presidential gallery. You see the celebrities that have gone through the doors where this place was in Portland history Northwest history.
- 30:50It boggles your mind.
- 30:52It bogged your mind.
- 30:54You're going to have to go back. You have to do it with me because I'm the gal to get you into all the fun nooks and crannies.
- 31:05Absolutely. We love the nooks and crannies around here.
- 31:12One of the cool ghosts and haunts here is a room attendant, a floor attendant.
- 31:21So this has happened over the years. The best version of the story that I heard happened to a gentleman.
- 31:29There's been photographic evidence of a room attendant type employee around here. That's what leads me to believe it was a male guest and a male floor attendant.
- 31:48So this male guest and this happened around 1990 or something. He was...
- 31:57What was that?
- 31:59Members only.
- 32:01Yeah.
- 32:02Yeah.
- 32:03I'm catching... yeah.
- 32:04Yeah.
- 32:05Ralph Polo.
- 32:06Oh.
- 32:07You got it.
- 32:08You got it.
- 32:09Yeah.
- 32:10So the gentleman needed help getting into bed. Now he could change and dress himself of course but his left leg was weak.
- 32:21So when he got into bed he could swing his right leg up but he just couldn't swing his left leg up.
- 32:28So he had that thought, "Oh, did I arrange when I checked in he couldn't remember. He's dressed in his pajamas and then he hears."
- 32:39So he hears two brisk knocks, "Yes, and in walks a floor attendant."
- 32:46Oh my goodness! I was just thinking about you. Thank you so much.
- 32:51Oh.
- 32:52He intended just nods his head and sweeps towards the bed and so the gentleman went over.
- 33:01So he sat himself down, he swung his right leg up and so as if he'd been doing it every day of his life, the room attendant just easily took his leg and gently propped it up, stood back.
- 33:19So now the guy, you know how long he first get into bed and then you just kind of bun walk yourself to, you know, insert a gap inside.
- 33:28So we had that and he looked away, took himself and as he looked up he saw the back of the attendant going out the room door and he thought, "Well, you know, he's, you know, a busy guy this is the time of night that he'd be doing that sort of thing."
- 33:48And he had a wonderful rest, wakes up, goes to check out, "You guys know the end of this story."
- 33:59Do we?
- 34:00It's the reason why he put the doon in his pajamas and that he had to be the chain.
- 34:05Yes, because when the gentleman went down and he wanted to make a point to say how much he appreciated that service of the attendant,
- 34:16the person downstairs at the desk is, "What?"
- 34:21"Pensary letter."
- 34:22"Aren't you this?"
- 34:23"Yes, yes, excuse me, so the crazy person said what?"
- 34:27"Exactly."
- 34:29And so he described the person and things and they haven't had those floor attendants since the 1950s.
- 34:40And the room he had.
- 34:45He was wearing his very distinctive and I believe there's pictures of staff, group pictures of staff in that stairway kind of a thing.
- 34:58But one of the bartenders has gotten a photo of this entity and it's the same as what this person saw.
- 35:12And so remember I was telling you this hotel was built under very, you know, you got the, the German staff, the regimented.
- 35:22So the floor attendants, their uniforms are going to look different than if you have ballet.
- 35:29Of course.
- 35:30So how else are you supposed to classify?
- 35:32How do you do the cross survive without these rules?
- 35:38So bell hops would have a little monkey hat, you know.
- 35:42But a floor attendant doesn't because a bell hop goes outside in the rain or floor attendants don't.
- 35:49So the floor attendant would have the same the buttons, but the floor attendant may have one stripe on say the uniform.
- 35:59Maybe his manager may have two, but there's very distinct uniforms and things.
- 36:04So this floor attendant that has been seen and videotaped appears in the uniform of the day.
- 36:14Isn't that cool?
- 36:15That's really cool.
- 36:16I'm like, did they identify him from the pictures?
- 36:20Did they have the clothes?
- 36:22So Simon Benson has been seen in a younger form in a lumberjack form down below the, where some of the convention rooms are.
- 36:35A lumberjack?
- 36:36In a corner where they keep the alcohol for the bar and things.
- 36:42So one of the bar.
- 36:44Oh, you mentioned lumberjack and alcohol and you actually can't hear you now.
- 36:49A lumberjack?
- 36:51I'm in a lumberjack.
- 36:54She's not hearing a word that you're saying because the land hole is closed.
- 36:59Exactly.
- 37:00What's not to look?
- 37:03They got the beards.
- 37:05It's just a whole vibe.
- 37:07A lumberjack, they just smell like one giant air freshener.
- 37:13Let's do it.
- 37:14Smell like wood.
- 37:16You smell like man.
- 37:19So when Simon Benson appears as a lumberjack, he's like in his 20s, very younger.
- 37:28But he will be seen walking, striding purposely through a door that leads to a storage where they just keep chairs and banquet tables.
- 37:41Oh, sure.
- 37:42All the events stuff.
- 37:43Yeah.
- 37:44So maybe back originally there could be a pass through or something.
- 37:47Sure.
- 37:48Well, I mean building has been renovated so many times at that point too.
- 37:53Yeah.
- 37:54But the actual building itself has not changed.
- 37:57So with the renovations, everything is exactly how it is today as when it was built back then.
- 38:06Wow.
- 38:07So that's where all of this wood, all of this marble, all of this crystal, that can soak up the metaphysical stuff.
- 38:17Now.
- 38:18So we were talking about what we were standing at the bar, having a drink.
- 38:23You're like, it's really warm in here.
- 38:26And I was like, I feel like that happens in a lot of older buildings when there's this much wood paneling and things like that.
- 38:32Because I think it holds in a lot of the humidity.
- 38:36And just it came.
- 38:37Yeah.
- 38:38And I'm also a believer too that everybody says, oh, it's a cold spot because they're kind of converting the heat from the air or that energy.
- 38:47And that's leaving it.
- 38:48But what can we say that they're also manipulating the heat?
- 38:52Yeah.
- 38:53Right.
- 38:54I feel like sometimes it's like a stuffiness that I get.
- 38:57Yeah.
- 38:58More like a heavy nut that I get.
- 38:59Oh, now I'm struggling to drive a breath.
- 39:01Yes.
- 39:02Yes.
- 39:03That makes more sense.
- 39:04I feel like I'm in Florida.
- 39:05And that's our nightmare.
- 39:06It's moist and thick.
- 39:09That's a good way to put it.
- 39:12Sorry, we said the voice.
- 39:14There's only one stairway on this end when many of the hotels would have two stairways.
- 39:19Yeah.
- 39:20But you don't have anything going to the rooms up there.
- 39:23So I'm assuming that was just by design and that sort of thing.
- 39:27But you feel like an elegant grand lady imagine going down in your ball, down her soul.
- 39:35So I start feeling kind of odd stuff around here.
- 39:39Like it's cool.
- 39:40I start feeling like I'm a gorgeous redhead from Ireland.
- 39:43Yeah.
- 39:44And I was wondering to tell the story of the lady in her voice.
- 39:48So nobody really knows if Mr. Benson knew the history of this mirror, but he did find it in Germany.
- 39:57It's gorgeous.
- 39:58And he brought it from Germany to here.
- 40:03So shortly after installing this, what they would see is a beautiful woman in a turquoise gown.
- 40:10And sometimes they would notice that she's coming down the stairs, but oftentimes she just would seem to appear here.
- 40:20Now this little lady floated around.
- 40:22Exactly.
- 40:23This grand mirror.
- 40:24You can just imagine your beautiful gowns that are being admired and you are, you know, preening a little bit, which she does.
- 40:34And so then she will either turn and walk down the stairs, disappearing about there.
- 40:42Over, she turns and walks into the mirror where you will see her.
- 40:49Now she will pure wet and turn and then walk on.
- 40:54If she walks down here, you do not see her reflection in the mirror.
- 40:59What's that all about?
- 41:02It's a really great question.
- 41:04I know and I don't have an answer for you.
- 41:07So then we go outside and we go here, the story of the bubblers, which I did not know were actually called Benson Bubblers.
- 41:19Yeah.
- 41:20We always just call them bubblers.
- 41:21Bubblers.
- 41:22They're little waterfountains all over Portland.
- 41:24So you can get a little free drink drink if you're parched.
- 41:27Drink any drink and I had never, I had never put these gorgeous lips on the bubblers before because you're not supposed to.
- 41:37Don't put your lips on it.
- 41:39Well, I mean on the water, whatever.
- 41:41I never got my lips close to the bubblers before because they are public waterfountains.
- 41:48Yeah, waterfounts, that's what they're called.
- 41:50Yeah.
- 41:51I think that just seems really gross to me but Caitlyn did it.
- 41:57She was very parched and I was like, well, solidarity, she gets really sick.
- 42:00I'm getting sick too.
- 42:01I'm going to go in and tongue this thing and just see what it's all about.
- 42:05And I did it.
- 42:06And we both lived.
- 42:08Yeah, we're still here.
- 42:09We're here for now to tell the tale of how we sucked from the Benson Bubblers.
- 42:15Boy, that's a lot.
- 42:17That is a lot.
- 42:18But it is really cool.
- 42:20It's really nice to have a fresh water source for people.
- 42:24Yeah.
- 42:25Maybe more cities should have that.
- 42:28I mean, obviously during COVID times, like, did they turn them off during COVID?
- 42:33I feel like that's my recollection.
- 42:36I'm not sure.
- 42:37Now I'm like, Google it.
- 42:38Yeah, Google that.
- 42:40My research indicates that, yes, in fact, they did in apparently a very historic.
- 42:47Move, turn the Benson Bubblers off.
- 42:52Here's the thing.
- 42:54They turned them off, like, basically the same day that the state home orders were issued.
- 43:01So that was like March 13th.
- 43:04They were trying to stop the spread of COVID-19.
- 43:08And then just over a month later in April, April 17th, 2020, they were going to be in the state home order.
- 43:16And then they were going to be in the state home order.
- 43:19And then they were going to be in the state home order.
- 43:22And then they were going to be in the state home order.
- 43:25And then they were going to be in the state home order.
- 43:28And then they were going to be in the state home order.
- 43:31And then they were going to be in the state home order.
- 43:34And then they were going to be in the state home order.
- 43:37And then they were going to be in the state home order.
- 43:40And then they were going to be in the state home order.
- 43:43And then they were going to be in the state home order.
- 43:46And then they were going to be in the state home order.
- 43:49And then they were going to be in the state home order.
- 43:52And then they were going to be in the state home order.
- 43:55And then they were going to be in the state home order.
- 43:58And then they were going to be in the state home order.
- 44:01And then they were going to be in the state home order.
- 44:04And then they were going to be in the state home order.
- 44:06And then they were going to be in the state home order.
- 44:09And then they were going to be in the state home order.
- 44:12I mean, by April, it's not usually super hot here, but...
- 44:16But it's warming up.
- 44:18And there's some warmer days.
- 44:20And you need water even if the whole day.
- 44:22Yeah.
- 44:23Well, and I think from the sound of it,
- 44:25they were able to kind of in that period of time,
- 44:29they were able to sort of learn, I mean,
- 44:32just the tip of the iceberg.
- 44:34Like we really didn't know anything about COVID at that point.
- 44:37Yeah.
- 44:38But in that month, it seems like they were able to determine that it was not being detected in drinking water.
- 44:45And they determined it was basically really low risk using the fountains in terms of transmission.
- 44:53So something, I just realized to you, I said,
- 44:57"That's the iceberg.
- 44:58That's about the title."
- 44:59Oh!
- 45:01That was very unconscious.
- 45:03But I was like, "Well, you know, I think we thought at certain points, like,
- 45:08"Oh, we're starting to understand this COVID thing."
- 45:11And then it was like, "Bitch, hold my beer."
- 45:14Which hold my call, Dren.
- 45:16Exactly.
- 45:17Exactly.
- 45:18And here are our iconic Benson Bubblers.
- 45:23Hi, Bubblers.
- 45:24So, when Simon Benson built this grand beautiful hotel,
- 45:29he was also, again, involved in the temperance movement, the prohibition that we started way, way before the rest of the United States.
- 45:42And it was reported that once when he saw a drunkard on the street, he asked the man,
- 45:48"Why do you have no self esteem?
- 45:52Why do you have no self control to fall prey to the demon drink?"
- 45:57And the guy basically said, "Well, because you can't get a decent glass of water in this town."
- 46:05So, Mr. Benson donated enough of 30 of these drinking fountains throughout the area, along here.
- 46:17Some of them are as grand as six arms,
- 46:21some are as small as a single arm, but the four are pretty standard.
- 46:28This is hooked up to our city water.
- 46:30Yay, you can play with it.
- 46:32You can drink it, but in the days of COVID.
- 46:35And stuff may be...
- 46:37How hot it is.
- 46:39Yep, yep.
- 46:40I'm gonna give her a try.
- 46:41Yep.
- 46:42So, these are really cool.
- 46:45Yeah, get it.
- 46:46I'll do it more than one.
- 46:48So, dry mouth.
- 46:49Oh, great, great, great, great.
- 46:52Never done that before.
- 46:55Oh, you're...
- 46:58I'm very proud of you.
- 46:59You were a brave co-star.
- 47:00Oh, I like that one.
- 47:01Yeah.
- 47:02I've lived here my whole life.
- 47:04So, the ladies of the temperance movement, they would walk the streets.
- 47:11Chinatown, Japan, town, the worst parts of Portland.
- 47:16They would have their beautiful white dresses on their black temperance sashes.
- 47:21They would have their bibles, a silver chain with a hammer.
- 47:27And they would walk the streets.
- 47:29And if they came upon a drunkard on the streets, they would surround them.
- 47:34Open their bibles, invite them to join them in prayer and renounce the demon drink.
- 47:42If...
- 47:43I would like to take a drink.
- 47:45If they were refused, then they'd simply turn to another part of their bibles.
- 47:53In tone of a brief, brief prayer.
- 47:59And then, as they surround the gentlemen with their hammers, they would in tone.
- 48:06It is better to be dead on the streets of Portland than drunk on the streets of Portland.
- 48:12And...
- 48:13On their head, leaving the man lifeless on the streets, and they went to find their nets sold to the same.
- 48:23No!
- 48:24Right?
- 48:25They're not saving you?
- 48:27Crazy!
- 48:28Let's go over here.
- 48:29So, we continue on our tour and we stop at a few banks.
- 48:36Yeah.
- 48:37We stop at like three different banks.
- 48:39So, the first one has a robbery story, which is Broody and Tens.
- 48:44Roll and Tens.
- 48:45And so, this tells you the amount of money that came through Portland in the turn of the century after the 1900s, where...
- 48:59Yeah, you have big banks.
- 49:01You got banks in Salem, but you don't have as big banks and buildings is here.
- 49:06Now, this modern US bank building, that is all a parking structure.
- 49:13Yeah.
- 49:14When there was a building there, wicked, wicked, haunted, and I'm going to take you around there, tell you some ghost stories from there.
- 49:27This used to be the entrance to a branch bank.
- 49:32This is where a bank robbery occurred.
- 49:37Is that what everybody?
- 49:38It was the classic.
- 49:39The robber comes in, brandishes a gun.
- 49:43It's a stick-up.
- 49:44Tosses the pillowcase to the first teller, holds the gun and she starts emptying as he moves down.
- 49:51Then, the few people here, there wasn't a guard back then.
- 49:56Give me your wallet's rings, all that kind of stuff.
- 49:59He gets to the last teller.
- 50:02She decides, hey, Pacific Northwest, I can take him.
- 50:07So she goes over the counter, is wrestling with the guy through the lobby.
- 50:16She gets the gun from it and shoots it, but he takes out a knife and stabs her in the neck.
- 50:25I thought it would be another gun.
- 50:27No, no.
- 50:29So she reels back against elevator shaft two.
- 50:36The doors open, she goes back into the car.
- 50:40Then, a sends up to the third floor where the person that called for the elevator, the doors open, and there she is.
- 50:51So, that's how they knew that the robbery had happened because the door opens, the guy that called the car.
- 51:00He sees her arterial spray dripping and then they saw what all had happened down there.
- 51:11The robber ran out but was apprehended.
- 51:16She obviously had died now. She is not seen in any way with the exception of the elevators have now been replaced and removed.
- 51:29But from that day on, elevator two, that bank would never work properly.
- 51:35The door would open to the lobby, go out to the floor.
- 51:40That's right.
- 51:42They would open, close and then just go back down again.
- 51:46They had it checked out so much.
- 51:48They said there is nothing mechanically or electrically wrong with that elevator.
- 51:53The first one we're fine.
- 51:55Always did and things.
- 51:57So, now, down below here, this is all event space and it's empty.
- 52:04Last week, what happened in week for tours and a guy pulled up and he stopped and rolled down his window and he said,
- 52:12"I work in that building. It's crazy haunted."
- 52:16But I couldn't ask specifics. I'm going to tell you another story and that's around the corner.
- 52:22Okay.
- 52:23The next one we stop at is the Wells Fargo building.
- 52:27That's the one where it had those huge gates.
- 52:34Those gorgeous gates.
- 52:36They were beautiful.
- 52:38We walk up to them and we're looking inside.
- 52:41We're kind of pushing on the gates and all of a sudden it goes creeeease.
- 52:45And Kate looks like, "Um, these open."
- 52:48Did I do that with my mind?
- 52:51Probably.
- 52:53Yeah, because we're like, "I wish we could get up closer and then all of a sudden they're like, "I'm sorry, you're too late."
- 52:57She was like, "Uh, yeah, they're locked at this time of night."
- 53:02They should be locked.
- 53:04Because it's like a little in between ways.
- 53:07So there's this big iron gate.
- 53:09I assume, I don't know what it's made out of.
- 53:12And then glass doors behind it.
- 53:15Portland, there's some things that happen at night.
- 53:19So I assume they close the gate so that people don't break the glass.
- 53:24But they were open.
- 53:26So we go in there and we're looking around and then all of a sudden,
- 53:29and Kate lands like, "Creeeease."
- 53:32"I'm going to close us in."
- 53:34We're like, "Oh my God, if we get locked in here, can you imagine?"
- 53:38What do we say to the police?
- 53:40We're ghost hunting and we just--
- 53:42It was soups and accident.
- 53:45But we didn't get locked in there.
- 53:47No, we didn't just kidding.
- 53:49She would never lock us in.
- 53:51No.
- 53:52Are you kidding me?
- 53:53No, I get hungry every 60 minutes.
- 53:55That would be such a mistake.
- 53:57Yeah, totally.
- 53:58Although you could probably Uber eats to the little--
- 54:02Yeah, this way.
- 54:03They could fit the bags through the--
- 54:05Or toss it over, you know?
- 54:07Does it go over?
- 54:08Like, or was it attached to the top?
- 54:10We'll see in the footage.
- 54:12I don't remember.
- 54:13I feel like we could figure something out.
- 54:15Just feed you through the little balls in the gate.
- 54:18I love her.
- 54:19We're like, "Let's not focus on getting out.
- 54:21Let's just focus on how we're going to eat when we're stuck."
- 54:24Well, listen, you have to have your priorities, you know?
- 54:27And that would have been mine.
- 54:29These are security gates from when this building was first done.
- 54:36So if you--
- 54:37During the daytime, you can walk in there and you will look and that's the lobby
- 54:42where the bank branch was.
- 54:46But it's been redone.
- 54:49They're opening.
- 54:51But now it's just kind of an empty space and it's been modernized and things.
- 54:56But that's where the telegram goes.
- 54:59Wow.
- 55:00Are we going to shut that door?
- 55:02I'm going to.
- 55:03I can't hear you.
- 55:04Don't get us locked in.
- 55:07So one of the stops I didn't really think I would care about is
- 55:11much or really like like, okay, who cares?
- 55:16It's the Scientology building.
- 55:19Oh, yeah.
- 55:20It was actually pretty interesting.
- 55:23And then she told kind of a funny little funny about what haunts the place.
- 55:30But then me, being me, I was like, let me--
- 55:34There's cameras.
- 55:35There's lots of cameras.
- 55:37Yeah.
- 55:38Our cameras were not the only cameras.
- 55:41They have cameras.
- 55:42And I was like, oh, should I flip off this camera and say, fuck you Tom Cruise?
- 55:47Yeah.
- 55:48Why not?
- 55:49Why not?
- 55:50I don't know.
- 55:51I couldn't think of a lot of reasons why.
- 55:53I feel like this is coming from someone who has not watched like the Leo Bromini.
- 55:58No, I watched it.
- 55:59I watched it.
- 56:01And then that is a choice.
- 56:03This is why I'm terrified that I'm being hunted.
- 56:07She's like, I knew it was dumb and that's why I'm scared.
- 56:10So I wanted to tell everybody and make sure everybody knows.
- 56:13So if I go missing, we know who did it.
- 56:17Contact what's her name.
- 56:20What's her name?
- 56:21Lerminium.
- 56:22What's her name?
- 56:23Leah Remini.
- 56:24Thank you.
- 56:25I think I cannot say it.
- 56:26That's a crazy documentary.
- 56:27So I am slightly terrified.
- 56:28I don't know what possessed me to do that.
- 56:30Maybe it was the tiny ghost of Tom Cruise.
- 56:33We don't know.
- 56:34I mean, could they?
- 56:35Yeah.
- 56:36I don't see that day.
- 56:38We were out in public.
- 56:41So I guess unless you came across like an inflatable couch or something, you didn't have the option
- 56:47of doing the full Tommy dance.
- 56:49But I did up on the roof.
- 56:51Spoiler alert.
- 56:52I did stand on the, like kind of built-in couchy, bentuition.
- 56:58Yeah.
- 56:59Kind of counts.
- 57:00Yeah.
- 57:01No.
- 57:07Every Scientology office on the planet or Scientology building has Elrond Puppard's office in it.
- 57:11Oh.
- 57:12Now, I've not heard of anything haunting the building.
- 57:16Trust me.
- 57:17Yes.
- 57:18There's ghosts.
- 57:19There's an entity that has been seen here and it appears to be a small miniature Tom Cruise.
- 57:28I'm not making this up, ma'am.
- 57:33My question is, for sure, because if you were going to make something stupidly for my amusement,
- 57:39that would be it.
- 57:40That would do it.
- 57:41But here's my point.
- 57:43How do we know it's not actually Tom Cruise?
- 57:48Right.
- 57:49Because he's cute.
- 57:50And he's like, "Oh, I'm in a church."
- 57:53Like right now, he has those very deep, deep, deep, glistening right now.
- 58:00No, of course it's so dark.
- 58:03Can I flip it over?
- 58:05Yeah.
- 58:06So, uh, fuck you, talk about it.
- 58:11They're going to get any of the witness protection.
- 58:16Dude, I might have to know.
- 58:19A couple other places we stopped at to talk about the Shanghai tunnels.
- 58:24We stopped at kind of like an empty lot that was spenced off and overgrown between a couple buildings.
- 58:29Yeah.
- 58:30And there was like an entrance to the tunnels down there.
- 58:33We got to hear about that.
- 58:35Ooh, what is this?
- 58:37Now, this is a big old pit, a little underground.
- 58:41A hole.
- 58:42Now we're going to start the story and the history of the Shanghai tunnels.
- 58:47Now I'm sure you know the stories.
- 58:51So, fill me in.
- 58:53Give me the basics.
- 58:54There's tunnels and they took people and dragged them and put them on the ships to make them work.
- 59:00Got it.
- 59:01Got it.
- 59:02I'm liking it.
- 59:03We're going to fill in the house, too.
- 59:05I like to give my guests enough background that, although I discourage it,
- 59:12it is a lucrative side hustle and in today's economy, every little bit hittles.
- 59:19I think they say that human trafficking is like a multi-billion dollar industry.
- 59:24What's get some of that?
- 59:25Yeah, I'm just saying.
- 59:26Like I want my cut.
- 59:27Right.
- 59:28So, here's the part of our story where all the modern day is that not only Portland,
- 59:38but any American city struggle with.
- 59:43It's the same ills that we struggled with 150 to 200 years ago.
- 59:48Addiction.
- 59:49The working poor.
- 59:53Racism.
- 59:55Horrid.
- 59:56Ridiculous laws that really targeted groups of people and was really cruel and halacious.
- 1:00:06Thankfully, if those laws are still on the books and many are,
- 1:00:11they have other laws that supersede and overwrite them.
- 1:00:16So, that's where our laws and things, you don't take a lot off the books.
- 1:00:24You just make it no longer relevant.
- 1:00:27Yes.
- 1:00:28Okay.
- 1:00:29So, here.
- 1:00:30Why it's like illegal to have ice cream on a Sunday.
- 1:00:33Exactly.
- 1:00:34Exactly.
- 1:00:35Yeah.
- 1:00:36Well, why would they name it a Sunday?
- 1:00:37Yeah.
- 1:00:38Exactly.
- 1:00:39Thank you.
- 1:00:40Thank you for the question.
- 1:00:42So, when I'm talking about the history stuff, I'm wildly simplifying it.
- 1:00:49Wildly, okay.
- 1:00:50We do it all the time.
- 1:00:51We do it all the time.
- 1:00:52Okay.
- 1:00:53Exactly.
- 1:00:54Exactly.
- 1:00:55So, where this empty lot is, and there's a lot of empty lots around here because they no longer
- 1:01:02are buildable for modern buildings.
- 1:01:05Okay.
- 1:01:06This is too small of a footprint.
- 1:01:08Modern buildings are going to wipe out all of this block and then build.
- 1:01:11I don't want to live here.
- 1:01:13Right.
- 1:01:14It's got a nice lawn.
- 1:01:15Guys, it is for sale.
- 1:01:17Right.
- 1:01:18No, right.
- 1:01:19And you just get married.
- 1:01:21Hot compounds.
- 1:01:22Right.
- 1:01:23So, when we're talking about the Shanghai tunnels, we're talking about a connection of tunnels
- 1:01:31that would link up to basements and sellers all over the city.
- 1:01:36And the reason that they did that is back in the day, the surface streets, ew, muddy, gross, ew.
- 1:01:46Socially, we had the working core, the indentured servitude of the Chinese immigrants that when they were essentially tricked to come over here to the United States.
- 1:02:00How does it feel to build a railroad?
- 1:02:03No, it feels like a railroad.
- 1:02:04It's like a fairy moon.
- 1:02:05Exactly.
- 1:02:06And it's a very new and unmarked grade.
- 1:02:09Exactly.
- 1:02:10And it was easy to get them over here because China was having a famine, a drought.
- 1:02:21Their rice crops had failed.
- 1:02:23And so you have a lot of desperate Chinese bachelors and some of them that brought family over here.
- 1:02:31So, they are working like the loggers and the miners as well with company stores.
- 1:02:40So, you might be a Chinese person may earn like a buck over a ridiculously long time.
- 1:02:48They're not paying them like the white men, but they're not paying the white men very well.
- 1:02:53But you have the company store, you have to buy all your stuff from so you can never really get ahead.
- 1:03:00Yeah.
- 1:03:01So, no, you just get further and further behind historically.
- 1:03:05Exactly.
- 1:03:06So now, let's put in some really racist laws pertaining only to the Chinese.
- 1:03:12I'm going to get to some others.
- 1:03:14But one of them was the Chinese Exclusion Act.
- 1:03:19Chinese people could not own buildings.
- 1:03:22They could not own businesses unless they vended to other Chinese people.
- 1:03:31So, that's where you would get your Japan towns and China towns and all of this.
- 1:03:39They're going to be in the older parts of the city because those are the places that were built first.
- 1:03:46But they always are the raggedy and so is the city's bill, bill, bill.
- 1:03:52Hey, we got the good cool buildings up over here.
- 1:03:56Well, the way Portland was set up, we just kind of let the riff raff police themselves, run themselves, fight themselves.
- 1:04:07Nobody really cared because they're not quality citizens like the rich, white, Christian-based, Yankee merchant mentality wealthy men from back to the big sub-sac.
- 1:04:25Yes, yes.
- 1:04:26Now, the wealthy men that built Portland and its corruption in the 1800s did not come over the Oregon.
- 1:04:36Now, they came from wealthy families and oftentimes they were referred to as remittance men.
- 1:04:46So, when they're young and they're wealthy families, they start going to college or start doing business-y things.
- 1:04:55And they will have a scandal so bad that they are literally paid by their families to never get closer than the Midwest.
- 1:05:07They're paid to disappear.
- 1:05:10Jonathan Born was one such individual.
- 1:05:16He was very wealthy, he was from New Bedford and something happened when he went to college that his family bundled his ass off to a whaling ship.
- 1:05:34Oh, no.
- 1:05:35He was on a whaler over here or so, but then he made it to Portland and with all his mad stacks of cash back east.
- 1:05:46He had a wonderful political career of stuffing that ballot boxes, getting drunk sailors and people to vote to do all these kind of things.
- 1:06:00He was instrumental in getting the police under the control of Salem and all of this and other men too.
- 1:06:09So, with the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Chinese couldn't work and so when the tunnels were put in so that a horse and wagon could be under the streets, they would offload the ocean-going ships and that's how they would deliver the city.
- 1:06:29They would deliver things to all the buildings because in their cellars they would have an opening that would be locked and then you're delivering somebody at open and then they bring it in here.
- 1:06:46There was a parking lot that we stopped at.
- 1:06:49So, we're going to start about the oldest haunts. Remember back in the 1700s when the Pacific Northwest is just getting discovered and everything and everybody's looking for the Northwest passage.
- 1:07:06Everybody knows that there's got to be a way to go up the west coast and cross Canada somehow, find the Great Lakes and hoop yourself out on the Atlantic.
- 1:07:19Right? It has to happen.
- 1:07:21Totally.
- 1:07:22There isn't a passage but we found all kinds of beavers and all the kind of fur-bearing animals.
- 1:07:35Their fur was so much better and superior than what was being used in the day that is what put the Pacific Northwest on the map.
- 1:07:47And a fun fact is the stove pipe hats that they would have in the 1800s, you were a status symbol, the taller the hat was and so milleners could now get those cool stove top heights because of our beaver-pealth fur and the type of animals from here that it made a better type hat.
- 1:08:15Yeah, all the way around. Go USA!
- 1:08:19So, now when all the Europeans are coming through here, this, most likely that area, was the traditional camping ground of northern Chinook tribes, Native Americans of this area.
- 1:08:38They were very peaceful when the immigrants came, when the first explorers came up here, they were accommodating, they were a peaceful band and things.
- 1:08:50But their camp site most likely was over there but city father said, "No, it was over here. We don't believe that because the EMFs go nuts here but they don't over there."
- 1:09:05And the reason for that would be is when they were falling victim to the small park and these old blankets.
- 1:09:17And that, this was before the blankets and kind of during that kind of thing. But what they would do is they dug a big hole here and then they threw the dead and dying Indians in, set it on fire and then kept throwing all of their belongings, everything until it all burned down.
- 1:09:46And then we covered it up and tried to put buildings up here. Well, there's never been a building that is successful here.
- 1:09:57They've burned down now. This has used to be all wood buildings. That burned down. They rebuilt them in wood. That burned down again.
- 1:10:08And then, oh, now we start the bridge that you see all around. But even with brick buildings, no business could really thrive here. There's been grocery stores. There's been barbers. There's been a small bank. There's been this, that, and the other thing.
- 1:10:27There's a loon. If a saloon can't make it in this tab. You're drinking a good to him's animal. Now, here's the cool story with that hunt. It's a residual hunt. So it does not interact with people. But no matter...
- 1:10:43They're like, yeah, that's a little bit low. And they're done that. But it doesn't matter what time of the year we are here. They appear as though it must be summer because they're in their summer clothes, bear, the man bear arms, bear chest, bear legs. They've got the breach clouds or the leggings or something.
- 1:11:05The women have... You can see that they've got the distinctive buckskin dress, the fringe. But again, they've got bear arms and moccasins rather than, you know, the leggings they would have worn if it were colder.
- 1:11:21So what happens, and it usually happens about 1 or 2 a.m. in the morning, you'll see a brownish, sepia-toned cloud form in the middle of that street. As it floats, as it starts crossing the sidewalk, you'll start see a head, an arm, an leg.
- 1:11:43And as it crosses the arrow, it becomes a band of Native Americans. They are clean. They appear healthy. They appear peaceful. I get goosebumps because they're standing and walking close as if they're a loving family or a band.
- 1:12:06And so you can hear them sort of talk, but you can't make out what they're saying, but you don't necessarily hear English. So it may be a dialect of Patois or so.
- 1:12:18But it is not English. They don't interact with you. If they pass you, you get that bone chill feeling.
- 1:12:28But it's as though they are reliving a moment of peace and happiness before white men came and after all of them.
- 1:12:38So that's the part of that story I love that despite all the horrors that were done to the First Nations all over, this band in eternity is that loving familial, that Native Americans, nobody tells us.
- 1:12:57Nobody tells that story. I think that's just cool. So they had a horrible end, but their goodness survives them.
- 1:13:10I still think it's good about my decision not to turn.
- 1:13:13And this is because along here is our gallows. Thank you ladies and gentlemen for bringing up that topic.
- 1:13:21So gallows would have been permanent structures. That's a Hollywood thing where they show the condemned man going out looking at the through the bars and their building things.
- 1:13:36Now a lot of gallows may be unimposed building, but oftentimes they wouldn't have a...
- 1:13:45They look like executions most often. And so there would be times where they don't have any walls. They may have three walls or not a roof or something in the floors.
- 1:14:02Always have bunch of holes. So you know how that happened.
- 1:14:05We actually just talked about a case where they talked about a prisoner who was set to be executed. His cell was at gallows level. And I was like, "Excuse me what?"
- 1:14:18"Yeah, yeah."
- 1:14:19"What's this now?"
- 1:14:20And I'm like, "Oh, so the whole time he probably is, he's not watching the building."
- 1:14:25Yeah.
- 1:14:26He's seeing them, you know, everybody moving about the space and the gallows are just there, just giving a little...
- 1:14:36Yeah.
- 1:14:37And in some places, now I have not found what our gallows looked like.
- 1:14:45So I cannot tell you whether they are completely enclosed, but I know in many cities they were open air. It was like a fair.
- 1:14:56You bring your parents, your kids, grandma, grandpa, the picnic.
- 1:15:00Bring the kids.
- 1:15:01Yeah, I'll follow the kids.
- 1:15:02Yeah, they're gonna be selling beer, popcorn or whatever.
- 1:15:08And then in a town like Portland, of course, you're gonna get the gambling and all of that.
- 1:15:16Who's gonna crack? Who's gonna curse God in country before they put the food over his head?
- 1:15:24Oh, yeah, you get the over-unnurse.
- 1:15:26Yeah. Who's gonna break and beg for mercy before the news goes over their neck or when they drop, how long till they stop kicking?
- 1:15:35Yeah.
- 1:15:36Yeah, you got that kind of stuff.
- 1:15:38Yeah.
- 1:15:39Yeah.
- 1:15:40So this is why they didn't have HBO.
- 1:15:44Exactly.
- 1:15:45Exactly.
- 1:15:46So a lot of creepy things happen in this parking lot.
- 1:15:51Let's go find another drink. Let's go to town.
- 1:15:54Yeah. Have you guys been down to Kel's cigar room?
- 1:15:57Yes. Well, on the first booze of booze tour I went on.
- 1:16:00Years and years and years ago.
- 1:16:02I went down there on my 21st birthday.
- 1:16:05Okay.
- 1:16:06I think I vaguely remember that.
- 1:16:09Well, you've done your 21st birthday right.
- 1:16:13You shouldn't.
- 1:16:14I know. You know what I do vaguely remember is that my life's lesson from that evening was
- 1:16:21don't drink medurry's hours and then eat buttermilk branch.
- 1:16:26Yeah.
- 1:16:28Lessons were more.
- 1:16:30They sure were.
- 1:16:34Yeah.
- 1:16:35Life skills people.
- 1:16:37So then we went to the Kel's and we got to walk through all of the people enjoying their
- 1:16:52delicious smelling food.
- 1:16:55There was beautiful, like kind of Irish-y music playing, right?
- 1:16:59Yeah.
- 1:17:00I mean, obviously not St. Paddy's Day.
- 1:17:04It's not like the season.
- 1:17:06But I feel like they kind of do like a folksy type of music.
- 1:17:10Yeah.
- 1:17:11Like live music, not just playing through the speakers.
- 1:17:15Yeah.
- 1:17:16So then we go down to the cigar room, which is in the basement.
- 1:17:19We get to learn all about that.
- 1:17:21All the spooky stories down there.
- 1:17:23And when Lori is starting to tell us about these spooky stories, what happened in
- 1:17:28the basement?
- 1:17:30I do not recall.
- 1:17:32I think you know what I'm talking about.
- 1:17:35Well, okay.
- 1:17:36So I am constantly putting in eye drops and there was no one else down there.
- 1:17:42Period.
- 1:17:43Not even just no one smoking in there actively.
- 1:17:46Like we were the only ones down there.
- 1:17:48Just the four of us.
- 1:17:51And I kept looking like kind of past her as we were headed towards the other end where the staircase
- 1:17:59was on the opposite side of the room.
- 1:18:02And I just kept seeing like, there's like something cloudy.
- 1:18:06And I really, like I put in eye drops like two or three times when we were down there,
- 1:18:11because like, oh, whenever I have something on my contact.
- 1:18:14Right.
- 1:18:15It wasn't on my contact.
- 1:18:16Oh, no.
- 1:18:17Because as soon as we went upstairs, I like never had an issue again after that.
- 1:18:22Oh, so you saw like like a blurry, like something.
- 1:18:27Yeah.
- 1:18:28And it kept moving.
- 1:18:30It did at a point.
- 1:18:31And then it just kind of like disappeared.
- 1:18:34Which was why I was like, oh, like maybe it's just my contact or you know, but I was like,
- 1:18:40no, smoke dispersed.
- 1:18:42Yeah, it was very strange.
- 1:18:47I had already been seeing it and then she starts talking about it and I was like, oh, God.
- 1:18:52Yeah.
- 1:18:53And I'd be out of here.
- 1:18:54Yeah.
- 1:18:55Yeah.
- 1:18:56Well, and especially like when she was talking about it and kind of describing it, then Chris and I were like,
- 1:18:59oh, that's kind of like the thing from lost.
- 1:19:02And she was like, yeah, yeah, actually a lot like that.
- 1:19:07And then she was like, oh, that's a lot of things.
- 1:19:14And then she was like, oh, that's a lot of things.
- 1:19:19And then she was like, oh, that's a lot of things.
- 1:19:23And then she was like, oh, that's a lot of things.
- 1:19:27And then she was like, oh, that's a lot of things.
- 1:19:32And then she was like, oh, that's a lot of things.
- 1:19:39And then she was like, oh, that's a lot of things.
- 1:19:44And then she was like, oh, that's a lot of things.
- 1:19:48And then she was like, oh, that's a lot of things.
- 1:19:52And then she was like, oh, that's a lot of things.
- 1:19:56And then she was like, oh, that's a lot of things.
- 1:20:00That's stairway for most parts from the street.
- 1:20:05Go up that stairway to the second floor.
- 1:20:08The owners of the building, the owners of the business have never experienced anything paranormal,
- 1:20:15anything unusual.
- 1:20:17In fact, they kind of peek their heads around the corners when different tour guides are going
- 1:20:25and they'll make a joke of, I have to listen to the stories of the things I'm supposed to be scared of.
- 1:20:34And we laugh and think.
- 1:20:36So, Kels is on the block right next to the creepy parking lot between Oak and Pine.
- 1:20:47There's been theories that whatever native entities that hang around from the Shanghai tunnels,
- 1:20:57from the waterfront, all of that from the human trafficking and all of those entities can be a negative spirit that may have been seen in the form of a smoky column.
- 1:21:15Like the size of a person moving from one doorway to another.
- 1:21:21So, I kind of imagine if you remember that show lost in the what, 2000s or whatever, where the smoke monster.
- 1:21:32So imagine something like that.
- 1:21:34But then the famous Haunt is actually our hero and that was our beloved fire chief from city fire department number one David Campbell.
- 1:21:50He tragically and bravely lost his life battling an arson blaze that had started in the early morning hours of 1911 across the Willamette River at the old Union oil storage depot.
- 1:22:11There's a fire at the oil storage place.
- 1:22:14Yeah, that's real bad.
- 1:22:16This is where you cue the music for the silent movies of the 1900s where you see the the horses running up with the steam pumps and things and the gallant men figuring out try to fight a fire in a building that's made of brick.
- 1:22:44And all the wood structures such as your staircases, your your roof of trusses and things are made of wood.
- 1:22:55And so everything's about ready to fail on you.
- 1:22:59And so David Campbell asked for volunteers six brave men stepped forward the word and the report was that David led the six men into the inferno with the hopes he had an idea.
- 1:23:20Maybe they could take polls or so and take a brick wall and see if through sugar brute force they could push this wall onto the blaze and hope that when the building collapsed it helps put out the fire.
- 1:23:42But as soon as they got approaching to this key area they heard a tremendous crack and David Campbell knew as they all did the building was beginning to fail right then.
- 1:23:58So David Campbell commanded the volunteers to turn around and escape which they did all six men ran out of the building they were able to safely cross the street get around the corner of the building directly across the street from the.
- 1:24:21Oil depot one of the last men he poked his head around the corner he saw fire chief Campbell just as he emerged from the depth of the building illuminated in the doorway when the explosion happened and the building collapsed down on David Campbell.
- 1:24:48All of the other firemen and stand buyers nobody was injured David Campbell was the only fatality the top of the storage silo landed two miles away.
- 1:25:04And the debtor and splinters from the explosion rain down on Portland David Campbell's funeral was the largest to be ever attended up till then was a prominent woman that had a business out of the what's now the society hotel.
- 1:25:29The ghost of David Campbell has never been seen at the original city fire department it is rumored that building is very very haunted as is the building that the current department one fire department building is very very haunted but David Campbell has been seen on many occasions at Kels.
- 1:25:54And he shows himself to other firemen as a full body deparation so it happened so frequently that it's been reported if you are a fireman or an EMT or somebody and you're drinking a beer you will look up and see David Campbell either dressed in his firefight turnouts drinking a beer or.
- 1:26:23Or he may be in his fire captains clothing and if he sees you he hoist his beer that you hoist you drink he puts his drink down you put your drink down and when you turn and look back he's gone.
- 1:26:44There's a modern day poster we have a we had a bear knuckles a bike club here in Portland that at the time of his death these boxing matches happened in the sellers of all businesses and saloons in Portland St. John's all around.
- 1:27:10It was reported at the time of his death he was the reigning champion and in Kels there is a poster of an event I think that happened in like 1990 or something where there's two boxers the gentleman in the black
- 1:27:27Liatards and the bear chest who's facing towards the other boxer is the visage of David Campbell.
- 1:27:37So when you see this reported hot that picture was based on I believe his obituary picture and so people recognize that's David Campbell.
- 1:27:51That is so cool that they have that to like reference back to yeah yeah yeah he's also been seen looking off in a corner looking sort of stern.
- 1:28:01Then they think that's him hanging around Kels if there's any negative entities or because the cigar room is part of the tunnels complexes and all of that you
- 1:28:19get that feeling of the tunnels and that's where the night manager of Kels I believe his name is Jonathan he didn't believe in ghosts but he was down in the cigar room it
- 1:28:35was closing out the charge machine down there as he's waiting at her to school he looks up into the mayor and standing to his right slightly behind him is the reflection of a guy he turned and look there was nobody there but he still was in the mayor
- 1:29:01and he disappeared so that guy is a believer so gotta be now yeah yeah that's what's so cool about whether you work at these places or frequent these places sometimes they have to get to know you a little bit before they'll start revealing themselves to you and oftentimes they're like
- 1:29:23trickster spirits or things and but they don't want to scare you they don't want to drive you from the the businesses so that's what I love is if you come with a spirit of fun they're willing to welcome you too so David Campbell is kind of my little would be boyfriend
- 1:29:45so you don't think that that smoke the smoke entity and him are the same even though they appear in the same area no okay no no and other things that you hear like player pianos and that kind of thing so not everything's a demon not everything that appears
- 1:30:09right big and nasty is scary you respect it you know I don't provoke things and that's one of the philosophies on our tours is you know I tell my guests on my tours there I treat them as performances that are including the kindred souls on the streets and so you're gonna
- 1:30:34draw to you and yeah so some people I've had the last couple of weeks I've been having some pretty wild experiences and so of my guests I saw partial body apparition from the knees down the knees and shoes and the feeling of being approached a couple of people have felt
- 1:30:58odd things in their chest and emotions and things so you know is the season whoa the streets are heating up baby heat know you're definitely just gonna come out to Portland ghosts and you just have to take a haunted pub crawl or our polter
- 1:31:19guys and psychopath tour and you know experience some ghosties for yourself exactly and will link where you guys can find everything we did not even touch like the tip of the iceberg of what's on these tours like we didn't spoil everything for you guys so it's totally worth it to go on again if you're a tourist if you live in Portland like it's such a great tour to learn all the history
- 1:31:45of the things about Portland that you just didn't know walking through it day to day so and then at the end of the night as things were winding down we kind of were going to this place where she wanted to take us on the roof and they were closed and we're like all man boomer
- 1:32:05and then someone comes out and it's like hey Laurie do you want to go up to the roof with your your group and we're like yes.
- 1:32:13What kind of question is that of course of course we want to go to the roof I'm touching my mind we're so nervous we all of the hand movements the bounciness I'm talking about.
- 1:32:24So we go up to the roof and it's just got the most not the most gorgeous view I'm sure there's more yeah better more better views more better but it has a gorgeous view of Portland yeah I just it's a cool area to yeah so I feel like there's a lot to look out on that's maybe not in the traditional sense like the most scenic of views but it's visually so interesting yeah
- 1:32:53kind of captures on like the skyline like how kind of cool the city of Portland is all the sparkling lights yeah it was gorgeous artsy artsy stuff on the sides of building yeah in what net up on this roof we do the
- 1:33:10video reading yeah and we get just the most perfect card that you'll you'll hear all about it it was really cool yeah it was the perfect end to the night it was calming up there it just kind of like wrapped
- 1:33:24everything up especially when we did like the interpretation of the tarot just wrapped everything up nicely and then we walk down I don't know if the audio was very good in the stair the stairwell
- 1:33:36but we kept going down the stairs we took the elevator up and then we took the stairs down and like they were so uneven my gosh you go down it like gets older and older feeling yeah
- 1:33:49like wooden stairs they're all like uneven so I was getting like crazy vertigo yeah makes us like see sick yeah and I'm so scared of trying movement yeah you're you're trying so
- 1:34:02hard to like sort of steady yourself yeah it's very it's very unnerving but there was so much cool shit all over like decorating the wall articles and old photos there was a thing on the like
- 1:34:20there's a little like alcove yeah underneath the stairs yeah have like old suitcases and like a bird like it old dead bird with the eggs and a nest I thought that was my
- 1:34:30favorite part of course I bring that up a very unique specimen yeah it's cool yeah I am not a car shop so when I do that I just kind of do this slap shop a little
- 1:34:43bit more lazy I need be need jelly be need you can have to speak I'm any region we usually just pull one but it's up to you for filling
- 1:35:07I felt a little tingley seven of cups it is new possibilities fantasy illusion meditation and decisions also associated with Venus the number seven Pisces Scorpio and cancer water
- 1:35:29did you pull it up right yeah so cups are what emotions that's intuition it's so with the intuition and things that goes back to the
- 1:35:43um the Romani stuff the water well you know the the ships and things it looks like a ghost coming out of the cup sweet spirit so all of the people that lost their
- 1:35:59lives there's a dragon these images are so small that there's like a snake a dragon so that iconography is very good because remember in Chinese
- 1:36:09or a dragon is a very powerful protector it's a very powerful defender but also is a strong ally in battle personal battles and things we have outside this building
- 1:36:27Old Portland tried to put together a Chinese effigy to honor the history so this was like in the 80s or something the ornamental street lights the red Chinese
- 1:36:47those were put in an 86 87 our ornamental Chinese gate was put in an 86 87 so it about this time before the year of the dragon exactly I did not know that but yeah yeah was born in 88 so here on this kind of weird
- 1:37:06closed streets they put together they tried to put together a art installation that was they got an artist from I think Seattle who had no Chinese background he didn't do any Chinese
- 1:37:29research or so so he takes the dragon image and in essence puts a big metal spiked collar on it put it in a fierce position chained it down and he was saying something about oh this shows how the
- 1:37:50symbolism of the strength and the power of the Chinese people but it looked a lot like if you set out to take the Chinese dragon and turn it into something hideous it would be like oh let's make a sculpture of a bald eagle let's
- 1:38:12shame it spread eagle it and then take the American flag and stick it up but it was basically you know like that so the Chinese community was a gast when they unveiled it right so then word was that when they tried to change it around they had
- 1:38:33another ceremony this time the the sculptures are covered and so when the ceremony starts the covers came down it's the same sculpture but here guys with chain saws are now cutting the dragons head off and now every
- 1:38:51way can you just stop trying to honor the the Chinese people because you're doing it so yeah really bad at it yeah so where that was before 2019 and everything there were times it was supposed to be now gas powered flames kind of like eternal flame things and then the riots
- 1:39:19happened and we can set things on fire with this and now we can not have nice things but I'm liking the the dragon the ghost the water did you go believe yeah so some symbols on the seven of Cubs card and their possible meanings include castle or tower can
- 1:39:45represent power stability or ones native land power and so yeah and treasure word can represent well to your native land yeah yeah can represent wealth and abundance
- 1:40:01and moral can represent victory honor and status show like school like shadow on the cup oh can point to the dangers of vanity and pride oh my gosh dragon can symbolize evil anger envy and calamity we
- 1:40:26all of the stuff and I believe we are like the perfect card with all of these different that's right this is interesting I've never heard this about Cubs but it makes sense thinking about this almost being like a place of spiritual guidance in a way with the
- 1:40:43harmony exactly exactly times Cubs were a symbol of the clergy so Cubs cards can also be interpreted as having to do with spiritual or religious matters
- 1:40:57sweet never did there was a dude yelling at us about God on the street on our way over here the cycle yeah oh my gosh well should we we didn't really acknowledge the fact that we were wearing costumes other than we played with my
- 1:41:18work the beginning but I suppose we are because Halloween isn't just a few days yeah this comes out on I think the 29 excellent so we thought we dress up for you we're gonna do we did a
- 1:41:33patreon bonus we're gonna do a normal bonus for the for the normal for everybody for the normies on the normie feed I love the normie feed and we're gonna stay
- 1:41:47dressed up we're just dress up for all three these things just dress in it up and Caitlin didn't have a costume so she copied me yeah I was like okay well I can just wear my
- 1:41:57which hat and one of my witchy shirts and then I went back into the closet and I was like oh fuck until you showed up and you actually like put on your
- 1:42:08banal jose yeah I was like oh shit I've had this shirt my closet forever it was just like given to me randomly I've never really worn it and I was like it was meant for this
- 1:42:21moment perfect yeah I'm so glad I do like to match with people so it's fun it is fun yeah well should we get out of here and let everyone have like their fun
- 1:42:33Halloween time this week are we not they're fun Halloween time we are definitely part of it okay well I can't entertain you all week you got to go find your own
- 1:42:43business today sure yeah I mean we do still have day jobs so we busy yeah whatever whatever you guys can do to help us with that
- 1:42:51have the creepy ass Halloween we'll see you next Tuesday yes where Halloween will be over and everyone will be sad again
- 1:43:02all right well thanks everybody and boy Cassie I really appreciate it hanging out with you guys and the rest of your listeners I'm out happy
- 1:43:13creepy ass day everybody and happy birthday Lori I know it was your birthday a couple of days ago it was on Sunday and it was the best so good yeah it's all
- 1:43:28Eights and aces is for me this this October. Think of Rose think of her surviving to live your life you have to get that same bravery. Pnwhauntsandhomicides.com