Image by Stefano Pollio.
Ashland is home to a number of
ghosts and here are few of their stories.
Spanning more than 90 acres, Ashland’s
Lithia Park is the city’s largest park, with famed landscape architect John
McLaren overseeing a number of improvements. One of the park’s most well-known
ghosts is the Blue Lady or Blue Girl. According to the accounts, back in the
1880s, a young woman was sexually assaulted and murdered. Since then, many
witnesses have reported a mysterious blue light – or a glowing mist – floating throughout
the park, particularly the duck ponds.
Always at night, of course.
The Blue Lady, in her mist form, has
been known to move out in front of moving vehicles or seemingly appear out of
thin air. In these accounts, as the vehicles pass through the blue mists, the
occupants are hit with a cold chill.
Then, the cold goes away along with
the mist.
Another
story has it that a logger was killed during an accident. According to some accounts, the ill-fated logger used a drinking jug as a musical instrument . . . witnesses
claim to hear strange musical sounds as they walk through the park at night.
Where the
Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Black Swan Theatre now stands, nearly a hundred years
ago, there was a large parking lot (an automobile dealership would later take
its place). During the day, a young man – called Dog Boy or Dog-Faced Boy due
to an accident that scarred his face – would sell pencils out of a tin cup; at
night, he would break into parked cars or burglarized nearby businesses.
However, local vigilantes, according to one story, caught Dog Boy in the act
and beat him to death.
Ever
since, Dog Boy has been seen the in the area, looking for another vehicle to
rob or maybe even seeking shelter from vigilantes.
Famed stage and film actor Charles
Laughton went to the OSF in the early 1960s and enjoyed the shows he saw. It’s
been said Laughton had always wanted to play King Lear at the OSF and,
supposedly, the deal was made. However, Laughton died . . . stories have it
that whenever Lear is produced at the OSF, Laughton or some shadowy figure can
be seen in the audience during rehearsals or his footsteps can be heard
backstage.
In the
town’s old railroad district, what’s now the Peerless Hotel was once a boarding
house for railway workers and is rumored to be haunted by a ghost prostitute
who visited the men.
It should be
noted that these stories are based on various accounts and urban legends. Each
story probably has several different versions – that’s the nature of folklore.
Happy
Hallowe’en . . . .