By Vincent Bottaro Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching, and if you aren’t heading on down to the Love Shack this February 14th, you may be feeling like love is dead. Well, here in Corvallis, there are a couple other places where things are dead, but you might still be able to see them. This set of hauntings will take you across town and back again. Be warned, some of them may be closer than you think. The list will increase in creepiness as we progress. The veil between worlds becomes thinnest at night, so beware of going to these places alone… First up on our local locations is the Corvallis Courthouse. I remember going there on a field trip with my class in 5th grade, and one of the other students asked if it was haunted. And the tour guide replied with the best answer, which was yes. She said that he was a good ghost, and that his name was George. He would move around the courthouse at night, when there were less people around. One security guard said they saw him standing in the basement once, and then he vanished. Most people agree that he lives up in the clocktower, as there are sometimes unexpected noises coming from up there. Occasionally, George also likes to play with the knobs on the radiators, and twists them during the night. The true history of George is not truly known, since the courthouse itself has a long history, and the truth is that George may not exist entirely, but that doesn’t stop the employees from bidding George a goodnight before heading home for the night. Next up is Cheldelin Middle School. Supposedly, a janitor died of a heart attack in the upper gym while cleaning. Some people say, if you go up there alone, you can still hear the jingling of their keys as they make their way up and down the staircase. Personally, I went to Cheldelin Middle School and never experienced this, but perhaps the jangling of keys got lost in the sound of my PE class heading up stairs. Believe it or not, our own cross-town rivals have a ghost of their own in the theater. During one of CHS’s productions, they left the trapdoor on the floor of the main stage open since there was going to be an orchestra down in the pit underneath and the conductor needed to see what was going on up onstage. An unfortunate custodian was sweeping the stage and not looking when they fell down, where they broke their neck. Now, whenever you visit the Pit, the creaks and moans you hear may not be the settling of the stage or the movement above, but possibly the spirit of an unfortunate soul, trapped in a high school, forever. Night hiking in McDonald Forest can be dangerous for more reasons besides encountering cougars and Bigfoot. It's said that about 150 years back, around the time of the founding of Corvallis itself, two kids went missing around this area in the Willamette Valley. Maybe they did encounter said cougars, maybe they just got lost in the woods, but either way, no one saw them again. Well, saw them again alive. People have reported seeing two children run across the paths, laughing, and then fading from view. The laughter of kids can be heard from ahead in trails, but there is no one there. One person reported simply just seeing a kid pointing. While these two don’t cause harm necessarily, they are more of just a mystery as to what happened to them and why they are still here, potentially leading travelers astray. The next story in this list brings us back to our own school, Crescent Valley! The auditorium is typically a huge empty space, perfect for ghosts to roam around in. A similar story to Cheldelin and CHS, with another janitor dying whilst cleaning the theater. Evidently being a custodian is a dangerous job here in Corvallis. Stories range on how their death occurred, from heart attacks to breaking their neck. But people say that this is a less-than-happy spirit. While on the stage and in the costuming room, some people report a feeling of being watched, from an entity not known to be sitting in the audience. It has been described as a cold and unwelcoming presence, and delivers a sense of unease to people in productions. Maybe we should offer them a job in the talent show. Oregon State University has its fair share of ghosts and hauntings, and are grounded in facts. First up is Mrs. Ida Kidder, who haunts Waldo Hall. She worked at the university as a librarian for a very long time, up until her death in 1920. After her death, people have reported seeing an apparition that looked similar to her looking out of the windows in Waldo Hall. She has also been known to occasionally show up in photos taken by students outside of there, so be on the lookout for any ghostly photobombers near Waldo Hall. Next up on the collegial collection of crazy encounters is Benton Hall, where many ghosts exist. Loud sounds are very common occurrences to come from rooms above you; footsteps in a seemingly empty hall, and items not being in the same spot where you left them have become facts of life while living in Benton Hall. There is no real urban legend as to how or why there are so many ghosts in this one location, so this could be a whole family of ghosts or simply one really active one. Here’s a not-so-fun fact for today: Ted Bundy abducted one of his victims from Sackett Hall here in OSU. Ted Bundy testified in court to murdering here, but wouldn’t reveal where the body was located. This sparked the urban legend that her body is stashed somewhere in the catacombs beneath Sackett. The catacombs themselves have an eerie vibe to them, even without the knowledge of Ted Bundy possibly stashing a body down here. Maybe you could round a corner and come face to face with an apparition. The final entry in this list is the most gruesome urban legend based around Corvallis. It involves a gate on abandoned property, and the death of a family. The legend says that the farmhouse was inhabited by a farmer and his family. One night, he eventually killed them all, in a variety of manners that seem to change with every rendition of the story. Either way, he killed them and then died out near the gate to the edge of his property. His spirit is supposedly more malevolent than others due to the nature of his death, and Ouija board sessions held at the aptly named Hell’s Gate have spooked more than one participants. Pictures have also shown the face of a woman appearing behind, so the spirit of the wife could haunt this place as well. Either way, if you do visit here, know that you may be unprepared for whatever happens next. The truth of the matter is that facts get intermixed with fiction—who's to say that all of these stories weren’t made up a while back just to spook their friends? Either way, the stories still stand. The power of the stories comes from belief. The real question is, just how many of them do you believe in? Those might just be the ones that come back to haunt you... Major sources/further reading: This OSU Daily Barometer Article and this Corvallis Advocate Article. If you want to write for the Crescent Crier, we would love to see you at one of our virtual meetings, which are every Wednesday at 1:30pm! To come to a meeting, fill out this form: https://forms.gle/TrQ5PqFcDqeE2yiB9, and we’ll send you a link ASAP. If you would like to submit a single article - or anything else like creative writing, an opinion, an art piece, photo or photo series, or something else entirely - then you can do that using this form: https://forms.gle/WAHSoWJuVwK3q5du6. If you want to contact us for any reason, you can email
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