Check out my wife, Alex Severin's, new vampire short story collection "Make The Streets Run Vampire Red". It's available now for only $6.99 and features 11 pieces of short vampire fiction based on her forthcoming novels "Vampire Red" and "Vampire Vintage: Belladonna in Hollywood". Also included are the first five chapters of Vampire Vintage, her forthcoming vampire novel set in 1930's Hollywood.  Buy it here or visit the official support site at www.VampireVintage.com. If you're a fan of vampires or vampire books, you'll be glad you picked up a copy!
 
 

Readers who have an appreciation of folklore, the paranormal or of Gothic literature, will undoubtedly be aware that in the United Kingdom, there are numerous historical legends regarding apparitions of black dogs. In East Anglia, where these legends are very popular, these black dogs are known as Black Shuck. In Devon they are known as Yeth, while in Yorkshire they are known under their most widely recognized name: Barghest. Regardless of the name they happen to go by in their particular locale, these red-eyed demon dogs are almost always viewed as Harbingers of Death.

It is safe to say that the widespread recognition of these old legends was brought very much into vogue by the publication of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous tale featuring Sherlock Holmes “The Hound of the Baskervilles” which was first published in 1901. Doyle’s serial novel is thought to have been inspired by tales about the Black Shuck from Cromer and has helped to familiarize many people worldwide with the myth. As one of this author’s first published stories (The Black Dog, published in 1989) was also built up around the Black Shuck legend, imagine my surprise when in doing research for this book over fifteen years later that I stumbled across a report of Black Shucks in Oregon!

During the early 1980’s, a father and son were driving along a lonely country road near the Oregon-Washington border. The father would regularly work late at night, while his teenage son worked at a store nearby. As they lived some twenty miles outside of town, quite often the trip home would lead them along an empty, desolate country highway in the late hours when nary another car was seen along the ride home.

On this particular night, as they were driving along the most desolate stretch of road, as they rounded a corner, up ahead of them, in the gleam of their truck’s headlights, they saw what at first appeared to be a small horse standing in the middle of the road.

As the father brought the truck to a slow crawl to avoid hitting the animal, he and his son quickly noted that as the animal drew closer to them, save from its great size, the less the animal began to look like a horse. As they brought the truck to a complete stand-still, they could clearly see that the animal was actually very gaunt, had a long snout and was clearly dog-like with a shaggy, gray colored coat. As the animal crossed the road, it turned its head to look toward the truck. Opposed to having the reflective eyes of other animals that just seem to shine very brightly when blinded by headlights, the huge canine instead displayed a pair of sinister glowing red eyes unlike any the man or his son had ever seen. Almost as quickly as it had appeared from around the corner, the huge red-eyed dog then quickly bounded off the roadside and into the forest.

As the occupants of the truck quickly looked at each other in disbelief, the father quickly gunned the truck’s accelerator and drove away at a high rate of speed. As they passed the spot where the animal had leaped toward the trees, the son turned to look into the forest for one last glimpse of the animal, but the dog was long gone.

Though the two witnesses came to an unspoken agreement to never discuss the matter, the son later remarked that to this day, his father will speed up when he is driving this stretch of lonely road. 

What on earth did they see that night; a demon dog or a shared delusion?
 
 

On a final note, it should be noted that although the above tale describes a gray coated dog versus a black one, many sightings of the Black Shuck in the United Kingdom also describe huge gray-furred canines with glowing red eyes.

When the British first settled Oregon in the the late 18th century, did the dreaded Black Shuck follow the first settlers half way around the world or is there a giant canine species, still undiscovered by science, prowling the ancient woods of the Pacific Northwest? Your guess is as good as mine.

(If you like this true ghost story, please check out my book Oregon Ghosts)
 

The University of Portland was established in September 1901 and is considered Oregon’s Catholic University. Known internationally for many of its department, it is considered among the Top 100 of all American colleges and among the Top 10 of all West Coast schools. Besides being known for academics, the University of Portland is also apparently widely known for its ghosts and strange happenings.

The grounds of the school itself actually predate the exist campus and the story goes that school founder, a Reverend Christie, was traveling aboard a ship on the Willamette River when he spied an abandoned building sitting atop Waud’s Bluff at the very end of the Willamette Valley. The building, West Hall, was the original site of a short lived Portland University which had been founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1891. According to some, it may have also spent a few short years as a boarding school.

Ever since Christie’s arrival in Portland in 1898, he had stressed the need for a school that would provide “a superior education unequaled by any institution on the Pacific Coast”.  With the assistance of the Congregation of the Holy Cross, Christie promptly purchased West Hall and dubbed it “Columbia University”, named for the nearby Columbia River. The school opened its doors on September 5th, 1901 with a staff of eight teacher-priests and a student body of 56 boys. In the 1930’s, after the school reached Junior College status, the institution’s name was changed to the University of Portland.

Former students and former staff have reported some very strange goings on in the campus buildings, going back a good many years.

According to some, the University Commons, which is located on Waud’s Bluff, is the spookiest section of the campus and is rumored to be haunted by a particularly cranky, animated ghost. According to legend, this portion of the campus, the so-called Melvin Tract, was once owned by a particularly cantankerous old farmer by the name of Frank Houston. The old man was no fan of the priests of the university, whom he had dubbed “Old Black Crows” after the Congregation of Holy the Cross offered him a very reasonable sum of money for his land. The man refused, but after his death in the 1930’s, his widow finally did sell the property to the university. Reportedly, Frank Houston is now one of the many ghosts haunting the campus, who now spends his after-life pacing the line where his fence once ran as he shakes his fist and shouts “You old black crows!” at the neighboring buildings. A good story perhaps, but unfortunately, in researching Oregon death records, no one under the name of Frank Houston or any similar name could be found under the list of deaths in Multnomah County during the 1920’s or 1930’s. However, according to one source, there is reportedly a photo of Frank Houston somewhere in the university archive. 

Still, many eyewitnesses who have been unlucky enough to be near Waud’s Bluff in the wee hours, have reported feeling the strange sensation that they were being watched, while a rare few have reported seeing apparitions in the vicinity.

In Franz Hall, a night time janitor was nearly scared to death late one winter’s night when every door on the second floor of the building suddenly opened of their own accord, despite the fact that these doors are mechanically secured by a button located in a locked box. As the janitor’s key to the box was still on his person and the mechanism was still locked, he was completely baffled by the incident and is said to have quit his job soon afterward.

Meanwhile, the university’s Mago Hut Theater is said to be haunted by the spirit a young woman dressed in a late Victorian era dress and a lace trimmed hat. Nobody knows who the girl is, but her presence is definitely felt and seen by students and staff alike. According to some, her full apparition is often seen on the stage and also in the storage area of the theater’s basement. However, the area she most frequents is the room in the theater which serves as a classroom for drafting. On many occasions, this wandering spectre has made her presence known to students who are hard at work on late nights. She is said to often fiddle with classroom radio and has been known to turn the volume down or to change the station, presumably in response to her dislike of a particular song or station. On rare occasions she has also attempted to get up close and personal with some students, by appearing in full view of an entire group as she tries to touch unsuspecting students with their backs turned.

In Christie Hall, which is named after the school’s founder and was the second building built on campus, the basement is supposedly haunted. According to a former student who lived in the basement during his freshman year and spent a weekend alone in the basement after every other student went away for a Fall break, during the night he heard his window blinds moving as if someone were peering through them and later in the night as he tossed and turned in bed, he experienced a strange feeling that someone was sitting on the couching watching him as he slept. The next morning he asked the hall director if there had ever been any reports of a haunting in Christie Hall and the staff member told him that the building was in fact, haunted. The man went on to say that the basement had once been used as an infirmary and that several priests had died there. Meanwhile, other people have reported feeling breezes go past them when no doors or windows have been open, leading many to assume that a ghost had rushed past them.

Meanwhile, a ghost from Waldschmidt Hall (formerly known as West Hall, which is the original building on the campus) is said to have moved into Kenna Hall after the first was remodeled. The ghost is supposedly that of a young boy who had drowned in the nearby Willamette River during the late 1890’s. In 1997, a room advisor who was doing his laundry in the basement during the Spring break is said to have seen the boy. The R.A. had finished his laundry work and was carrying it upstairs. When he reached the landing that merged into the second flight of stairs to continue upward, he suddenly heard the door below him slam, despite the fact that it had a gas hinge on the top of the door to prevent the door from slamming. The man quickly looked back over his shoulder  toward the door and saw a young boy looking up at him. The boy’s clothes were dripping wet and his wet hair was plastered to his forehead, while his body looked bloated and was of an eerie bluish color. Naturally, the man was extremely frightened and promptly ran up the stairs. When he turned for a final look, the boy was gone.

In addition to the above, other areas of the campus are also haunted. In the cafeteria, employees who are working late at night have been chased by push carts moving on their accord. Pots, pans, utensils, dishes, glasses and food have been thrown around the kitchen by something unseen. In the priest’s dining room, a radio is known to turn on and off of its own accord. Pictures are said to shake on the walls, while a disembodied voice is said to shout into people‘s ears as they ascend the stairs from the basement.

Perhaps it is only a coincidence, but several houses near the campus are also said to be haunted. The most notorious of these is a house on Willamette Boulevard that is said to be haunted by a mysterious black shadow. According to neighbors, the shadow has no definable shape besides being upright and no definable color besides being very, very dark. Reportedly, the shadow is said to move around the house just outside the windows and starts at the center of the family room’s main window and moves quickly westward. Eventually it reaches a ninety degree corner and then promptly vanishes. Typically the shadow is seen at night, but on rare occasions it has been seen during the daytime.

Reportedly, dozens of people have seen the shadow, including a few witnesses who have seen it quite regularly. 

What on earth could it be?

(If you like this true ghost story, please check out my book Oregon Ghosts)
 
 

* If you like the story, please sign up for my FREE Newsletter to get exclusive stories by email*