Spooky Spaces: A Ghost Hunter’s Guide to the PNW’s Most Haunted Places

By Alison Roach

An area isn't really complete until it has its own ghost stories. The Pacific Northwest has those in spades. The cool coastal forests and historic buildings of the West Coast are home to their fair share of ghost lore. Do your best [Ghost Adventures](http://www.travelchannel.com/shows/ghost-adventures) impression and set out to connect with the other side at these spooky PNW spots.

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  Lighthouse Oceanfront Resort

  For 50 years, the Lighthouse Oceanfront Resort has welcomed guests to Long Beach, Washington. The resort is a row of oceanfront townhouses and rustic cottages, and is also considered by locals to be [one of the most haunted places in the state](http://www.hauntedplaces.org/item/lighthouse-oceanfront-resort/). At least two ghosts can be found here, haunting the original motel units 101 and 105. Their presence has prompted reports of whispers and TVs mysteriously switching on and off by themselves (ya, we know—freaky stuff). Whether the playful phantoms are former sea captains or fishermen is up for debate, but one way to get to the bottom of it is to rent one of the haunted rooms for the night yourself.

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  Pike Place Market

  One of Seattle's reportedly most haunted spots is surprisingly one of its busiest: Pike Place Market, which is located right in the heart of the city. The land the market now stands on was once home to the Suquamish and Duwamish tribes, who resided there for thousands of years. In the mid-19th century, the native inhabitants were forced off the land, and the modern market was built in 1907 over the [ancient native burial ground](http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/special-reports/ghost-stories-haunt-pike-place-market/). The lower market is said to have been the site of apparitions ever since.

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  Waterfront Station

  An imposing brick structure on Vancouver's inner harbor, Waterfront Station [is touted as the most haunted building in the whole city](http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2012/10/the-most-haunted-building-in-vancouver-waterfront-station/). Nighttime station guards report seeing apparitions of a dancing woman dressed as a 1920s flapper and hearing phantom footsteps in the long halls. The entire site is replete with ghostly activity. There's a legend of an unlucky brakeman who was decapitated when he slipped onto the tracks outside the station in 1928, and can sometimes be seen looking for his lost head.

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  Beacon Hill Park

  Across the water in Victoria, [a city rich with its own haunted history](http://www.clippervacations.com/victoria-activities/haunted-victoria-tour/), is Beacon Hill Park. The 200-acre green space is named for two masts that once served as a beacon for mariners coming into the Inner Harbour. The park is also the location of the legend of [the Screaming Doppelgänger](http://www.examiner.com/article/the-doppelganger-of-beacon-hill-park). In the 1970s, several witnesses reported seeing a blonde-haired woman standing atop a rock at the entrance of the park. In 1983, another dark-haired woman was spotted standing in the same spot. Later that same year, a shallow grave of a missing local woman was found, and ever since the dark-haired apparition has been seen sitting on the rock where she once stood. Locals now identify the first blonde woman as the doppelgänger of the murdered woman and the dark haired apparition as her spirit.

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  Fairmont Empress

  One of the oldest and most luxurious hotels in the city, the Fairmont Empress is a staple of the Victoria Inner Harbour skyline. It's also home to the spirit of the hotel's architect, [Francis Rattenbury](http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/victoria-architects-murder-still-stumps-some-to-this-day/article16164723/). Guests have reported seeing the thin, moustached man with a cane walking the halls of the hotel. Aside from Rattenbury, there have been reports of a former maid seen still cleaning after her death as well as an elderly woman dressed in pyjamas who knocks on doors late in the night and leads unsuspecting guests toward the elevators before disappearing.