Ghosts Among Us: True Stories of Spirit Encounters

Many theorize that ghosts are drawn in death to the same things they were drawn to in life. If this is true, that would certainly explain the proliferation of haunted restaurants and bars. In the places that people gather to eat, drink, and be merry, so do spirits. The following are just a few examples:

“Roslyn is the most haunted place I know of,” Steve Ojurovich, owner of the Pioneer Restaurant and Sody-licious Bar, said of the town he calls home. Nestled in the Cascade Mountains in central Washington, Roslyn was established by the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1886 as a coal mining town. Made famous when used as the setting for the mythical town of Cicely, Alaska, in the quirky hit television program Northern Exposure, which debuted in 1990, Roslyn is still recognizable to fans of the show who visit the small rustic town for the nostalgia, as well as for snowmobile and horse riding.

While known for its TV exposure, Roslyn is not yet well known for its ghostly exposure. Residents say the place is crawling with ghosts. In fact, Steve claims six of the town’s ghosts inhabit his restaurant and bar. “I saw the first one the night I bought the place four years ago,” he confided. He was in the downstairs bar area, cleaning up, when he saw a figure from the corner of his eye. “I thought it was my dad, so I called to him.” When there was no reply, he went in search of him but the place was empty and the doors locked. He’d no sooner gone back to his chores when he saw him again. “He looked like a logger, with a blue plaid shirt and jeans on. And he had a beard.”

Since then, the bearded ghost has been seen frequently, sometimes walking in the hallway by the bathrooms and sometimes walking past the cooler. He is always accompanied by the strong scent of cigarette smoke.

According to Steve, he just might be the fellow his grandpa once told him about—the fellow who “poked his nose where it didn’t belong.”

Steve, a fourth-generation Roslyn resident, is a walking history book of the town’s past. His great-grandfather came from Croatia to mine coal in Roslyn and the family has been here ever since. The building that houses his restaurant and bar was once the Pioneer Grocery Store. Before that it was a Sears and Roebuck that went out of business when it couldn’t compete with the other local merchants, he explained. The basement was once a Sody-licious soda bottling company where during prohibition more potent drinks were surreptitiously brewed. Secret underground tunnels hid the illegal activity and it was there that a visiting stranger decided to snoop around. “According to my grandpa, the man was shot and killed right there,” said Steve, pointing to the cooler behind the bar, where the entrance to the tunnel was long ago sealed up. “And that’s where we see the ghost.”

Steve Ojurovich, owner of the Pioneer Restaurant and Sody-licious Bar, often encounters ghosts there. (Leslie Rule)

I had brought my electromagnetic field detector along on this trip and I lifted the popular handheld ghost-hunting device and pointed it to where Steve gestured. It instantly measured high on the scale, indicating energy where there was no logical explanation for the source.

“And we see him over here,” said Steve, pointing to the hallway that runs past the small restrooms. Once again, the EMFD registered high on the scale as I pointed it in the areas where the specter was said to walk.

Upstairs in the two-story restaurant, a woman’s ghost was once seen peering from the window. It was late and Steve and the bartender had just closed up and were shooting the breeze on the sidewalk when they saw her. She stood in the restaurant window, gazing out at the street. “She wore a white blouse with puffy sleeves,” said Steve. “Her hair was parted in the middle, braided, and pulled back from her face.”

Steve’s mother, Marianne Ojurovich, thinks she knows who the ghost is. The description matches that of the woman who owned the grocery store where Marianne’s family shopped for many years. Steve was too young to have known Edna, but when he described her to his mother, she nodded her head as she remembered. Edna died decades ago of natural causes in her senior years, but the apparition appeared as she had looked in younger days. “I can’t say for certain it was Edna,” said Marianne, “but I think it was her. She always wore her hair like that.”

Edna’s apartment had once occupied the space that serves as the Pioneer Restaurant kitchen and Steve often senses her presence there. “She walked through me once,” Steve said. “It was the most exhilarating experience I ever had.”

He was in the kitchen, he said, when he sensed the ghost move through him. “I felt tingling all the way to my fingertips and toes.”

Steve believes that another woman’s ghost shares the downstairs bar with the logger. “She doesn’t know she’s dead,” he said, relying on his natural strong sixth sense to come to that conclusion. “The ghosts here have bothered me only once,” he added, and described an incident that left him uneasy. “Against my wishes, one of my employees had used a Ouija board here. I was at the cash register when a dark shadow shot up over my head and went across the room.”

Sometimes the ghosts make mischief at the Pioneer Restaurant. Marianne recalls the time that a young woman was so shocked that she never returned after a bottle of wine suddenly exited the wine rack, shot through the air, and shattered beside her. “The bottle had not been opened,” Marianne said. “I could see it was unopened because I picked up the broken glass myself. There was no way that gasses could have been built up to cause the bottle to explode.”

Another time, Marianne’s husband, Joe, was sitting quietly in the same area when a bottle of gin lifted up off the bar and dropped at his feet. “He doesn’t believe in ghosts,” said Marianne, who smiled when she remembered how unsettled he was by the unexplained occurrence. “He doesn’t like to talk about it.”

Next door to the Pioneer Restaurant is the Brick Tavern, the tavern used as a favorite setting for Northern Exposure. Fans might gaze around the familiar rustic watering hole and expect to see the characters Holling and Shelly serving beer behind the bar. While the actors have moved on, others have left something behind. Quite possibly, their souls.

Bartender Jeremy Kaynor still seemed shaken as he set down a tray and told me about the encounter he had when he began working at the Brick Tavern in the summer of 2003. He and a roommate shared an upstairs apartment and one night, shortly after moving in, they glanced at the security monitor, which kept them tuned in to the scene at the bar.

The bar was closed and buttoned up tight for the night, but movement on the monitor caught their attention. “There was a little girl staring at us!” said Jeremy. He pointed out the tiny white camera in the corner of the ceiling. “See that camera?” he asked me.

“She was just standing there, staring up at the camera,” said Jeremy. She was little—about as tall as the pool tables. Her blouse was white with puffy sleeves.”

When you drink at the Brick Tavern in Roslyn, Washington, the ghosts of miners might join you. (Leslie Rule)

When his roommate got up and started running to go check out the scene, Jeremy watched the monitor and saw the little girl run at the same time—as if she could see them through the camera too. “She ran behind the pool tables,” said Jeremy. The guys searched, but there was no sign of anyone there.

When a coworker later learned that Jeremy had seen a ghost, she casually asked him, “Oh, did you see the man or the little girl?”

That was it for Jeremy. He gave notice to move out of his apartment. “I’ll work here, but I’m not going to live here,” he said, and related another incident when owner, Wanda Najar, heard the sound of someone chopping wood in the bar in the middle of the night. Again, the Brick Tavern was closed and the doors were barred from the inside.

“Jeremy, are you making that noise?” Wanda called to him. “Are you chopping wood?”

He answered in the negative and together they went downstairs and found that a chair in the bar had been chopped into pieces.

This brings to mind the logger’s ghost, who has been seen frequently next door at Steve’s Sody-licious Bar. A logger, of course, would be adept with an ax.

Or perhaps it was the ghost of one of the miners who once populated the town. They, too, used axes in their work.

While Roslyn’s bars don’t allow minors, they couldn’t stop miners from frequenting their establishments even if they wanted to, for the ghosts of these dead men are persistent. Steve mentioned a house in town where his friends looked into a hole beneath it and saw something unexpected. “They saw the faces of the miners,” he told me.

Today Roslyn’s population is around a thousand people, far less than at its peak in 1910, when four thousand folks lived there. Over twenty different ethnic groups lived together as the men in the families worked the coal mines. In its heyday, nearly two million tons of coal a year were produced. It was an honest living but it was hard, dirty, and sometimes dangerous work. Accidents happened and miners were sometimes killed.

According to Marianne Ojurovich, the carbide lights on the miners’ hats produced acetylene gas, which at times built up and created deadly explosions.

When the steam locomotives were replaced with diesels in the 1920s, the mines gradually began to shut down. Logging became the major occupation there for a while.

Loggers or miners or merchants, they’ve all bellied up to the bar at the Brick Tavern, which is the oldest licensed bar in the state of Washington. It opened its doors in 1889 and has seen some rowdy characters come and go. Worn wooden floors, high brick walls, and a spittoon that runs like a little river beside the bar all add to the rustic ambience.

In addition to the apparitions seen there, witnesses have also heard phantom piano music. Staff have left shots of whiskey out on the bar at night, hoping to appease the rambunctious spirits, only to find the glasses empty the next day.

Downstairs, the remnants of an old jail cell recall a time when miners-turned-criminals were locked up there. Curiously, a tombstone for a man named William Thomas sits in one of the old cells. Is he buried there? If so, is his ghost one of the restless ones who roam Roslyn?

Many of the mysteries of the historic town are buried and may remain that way forever.

Ghost Makers

Much of the paranormal activity in Roslyn, Washington, is credited to the ghosts of miners who were tragically killed there at work. The worst explosion killed forty-five men in May 1892. The Cusworth family was one that lost two members. Joseph was forty-four and his son Joe was not yet twenty.

An October 1909 explosion killed sixteen men in mine number four, at 1 P.M. on a Sunday. While the families of those killed were grieving the tragic loss, others were counting their blessings because just the day before, a Saturday, five hundred men were down in the same mines and would certainly have perished if the explosion had occurred twenty-four hours earlier.

Excerpt from the Ellensburg Dawn, October 7, 1909, edition:

… Without warning of any kind, the terrific explosion shook the town and broke windows half a mile away from the shaft. A sheet of flames shot out of the shaft 150 feet in the air for several minutes. There were two distinct explosions following close after each other like rapid gun firing. The tiple [sic] over the shaft and the other outbuildings instantly broke into flames before anyone got near.

The dead are:

James E. Jones, pumpman, aged 21, single.

Ben Hardy, tracklayer, aged 60, married.

Dominick Bartolera, helper, aged 45, married.

Philip Pozarich, laborer, aged 45, married.

Aaron Isaacson, tracklayer, aged 30, married.

Carl Berger, foreman, aged 36, married.

Tom Marsolich, laborer, aged 30, married.

Geo. Tomich, laborer, aged 28, married.

Otis Newhouse, outside superintendent, aged 40 married.

James Gurrell, trackman, aged 50, married.

William Arundale, trackman, aged 40, married.

Excerpt from the Cle Elum Echo, October 9, 1909, edition:

… Men known to have been down in the mine and who probably will never be found, as the intense heat must have cremated them:

Daniel Hardy, Company Man; married.

Dom Bartolero, company man; leaves a family.

J. E. Jones, assistant company man; single, son of hoising engineer.

Tom Marsolyn, company man; single.

Philip Pozarich, company man; single.

The leading theory among parapsychologists is that traumatic, sudden death is most commonly tied to a haunted place. The mine disasters in Roslyn certainly qualify as ghost makers.

When I dined at Albuquerque’s famous haunted Luna Mansion, I hoped to see a ghost. Of course, I always hope to see a ghost while researching—though I wonder whether my readers would believe me if I ever did actually see one.

I worry that they will cluck their tongues and shake their heads. How convenient that she just happened to see a ghost while looking for one! Still, I had my eyes peeled when I arrived right before dusk and circled the outside of the impressive columned mansion. I photographed it from every angle and as I stood on the grass and stared at the back of the house, I tried to will the spirit of Josefita Otero to appear.

The big yard was eerily quiet with not a soul in sight. Everyone was inside eating. I soon joined my friend, fellow writer Cheri Eicher, at a window table in the elegant dining room, where paintings of the family who had once lived there adorned the walls.

As we ate, we queried our waiter, who told us that he had once seen the mansion’s ghost. “It was Josefita,” he told us. “She was on the staircase.”

With permission to enter the kitchen, I found several chefs busily chopping and stirring. “Have any of you ever seen the ghost?” I asked, after explaining that I was writing a book.

“No,” one of the chefs replied. “But something strange just happened. Someone knocked on the door.” He pointed to the kitchen’s backdoor. “When we opened it, no one was there. It happened twice in the last half hour!”

At first I thought they were pulling my leg, but they were all insistent that they had indeed heard knocking and that before tonight this had never occurred.

How odd, I thought, that this should happen around the time that I had been circling the building. Was the Luna Mansion ghost aware of my quest? Was this her way of accommodating me?

Diners at the Luna Mansion choose this spot for the fine food as well as for a chance to glimpse a ghost. (Leslie Rule)

It seems that she wants her existence known. A waitress who was bustling by with a pitcher of water stopped to tell me about the night a couple asked her about the ghost. “I told them I didn’t believe the stories about the ghosts,” she said. “And then when I started to walk away, something strange happened to the man at the next table. His plate flipped.”

Everyone had stopped eating and stared at the plate full of fine cuisine, now inexplicably turned upside down in front of the bewildered diner.

It wasn’t the type of behavior expected of Josefita. Josefita Manderfield Otero (affectionately known as Pepe) once lived in the home. A talented gardener and painter, she was a creative and kind soul. She was not the type to flip someone’s dinner.

Perhaps her spirit simply did not want to be dismissed. The mess was whisked away and a new meal was brought to the diner. The waitress never again doubted the ghost’s existence.

The staff at Luna Mansion told us about the time when a manager’s young child was upstairs alone. Later she told her father that “a nice lady read me a story …”

When the child spotted a painting of Josefita, she exclaimed, “That’s her! That’s the lady who read to me!”

This painting of Josefita Otero hangs on a wall inside the Luna Mansion, where her friendly ghost is seen. (Leslie Rule)

If you have any doubts about ghosts, consider a visit to the Luna Mansion restaurant. At the very least you will have a wonderful meal. And if you are really lucky, you may catch a glimpse of Josefita.

Hungry Ghosts

They hate to eat and run, but sometimes customers do leave running when they encounter something that isn’t on the menu in the following restaurants and bars:

Where’s the Fire?

This charming eatery is adorned with firehouse relics and named for the playful moniker of the steam pumpers and engines that served firemen in the late 1800s. It is, in fact, located inside Erie’s Fire House No. 1. The 1907 building has definitely seen its share of drama. In 1915, the city’s first firefighter, John J. Donavan, lost his life in the line of duty. He died while pulling Chief McMahon to safety during a surging flood. The chief died less than three weeks later from overexposure. Sadly, they were not the last to succumb to the dangers of the job, for many brave people died over the years. Their spirits may reside there, but it is the ghost of a little boy who materializes in the restaurant.

The Pufferbelly Restaurant is housed in the old fire station. A stubborn little ghost refuses to leave. (Leslie Rule)

Though owners Bruce and Mary Ellen Hemme have not seen him, both customers and employees have. “A waitress once saw the ghost run through a cook,” said Mary Ellen, describing how the cook couldn’t see the ghost but he suddenly shuddered and said, “Oh God, I just got the biggest chill!”

The ghost is believed to belong to a paperboy who collected his newspapers at the fire station in the 1960s. The child had a dangerous habit of jumping on the back of the newspaper delivery truck. One day, he fell off and the truck backed over him.

Retired firemen who lunch at Pufferbelly’s remember the child. One asked knowingly, “Have you seen the ghost of a boy here?”

Mary Ellen has heard the sound of little feet running when she is alone in the building. “I hear lots of odd noises,” she said. “Sometimes I hear a pop gun being used when no one is here.”

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THE PUFFERBELLY RESTAURANT

414 FRENCH STREET

ERIE, PA 16507

(814) 454-1557

WWW.THEPUFFERBELLY.COM

Check, Please!

Casa de Pasta’s owner and chef, Dominick Dardano, does not believe in ghosts. He laughs at reports that ghosts share Canandaigua’s favorite Italian haunt—a critically acclaimed restaurant in a historic brick house. Yet several waitresses insist that while diners enjoy the fine cuisine, one hungry-looking little girl never gets to chow down. The ghostly child appears to be about six with long blonde hair that flows past her shoulders. She’s been seen sitting quietly at a table. When a waitress approached, she vanished. Servers also report that candles inexplicably ignite themselves.

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CASA DE PASTA

125 BEMIS STREET

CANANDAIGUA, NY 14424

(585) 394-3710

WWW.CASA-DE-PASTA.COM

One hungry guest at Casa de Pasta, a popular Canandaigua restaurant, never gets to eat. (Leslie Rule)

Spirits of the Dead

Be silent in that solitude,

Which is not loneliness—for then

The spirits of the dead, who stood

In life before thee, are again

In death around thee, and their will

Shall overshadow thee: be still.

Excerpt from “Spirits of the Dead,” 1827, by Edgar Allan Poe

Fells Point, a historic waterfront section of Baltimore, Maryland, is home to The Horse You Came in On. This popular pub is purported to have been one of Edgar Allan Poe’s favorite drinking places.

Some insist that it is the famous poet’s restless spirit who haunts the bar. Paranormal activity includes a swinging chandelier and a cash register drawer that mysteriously opens by itself.

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THE HORSE YOU CAME IN ON

1626 THAMES STREET

FELLS POINT

BALTIMORE, MD 21231

(410) 327-8111

Under the Table

Speaking of horsey taverns and ghostly poets, the White Horse Tavern in New York is said to be haunted by Dylan Thomas. It is there that the poet is said to have collapsed and died after guzzling numerous shots of scotch in 1953.

Reportedly, his last words were, “I just had my sixteenth whiskey.”

Witnesses report that Dylan Thomas’s ghost still likes to rotate his favorite corner table—an odd habit he had in life.

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WHITE HORSE TAVERN

567 HUDSON STREET AT WEST ELEVENTH STREET

NEW YORK, NY 10014

(212) 243-9260

After You, Madam

Don’t expect to buy shoes for your horse in Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop in New Orleans, for it is not really a blacksmith shop, but a popular bar. Housed in a French Quarter historic structure, it is believed to be home to the ghost of Jean Lafitte, “the gentleman pirate.” Legend has it that Lafitte used the building as a front, operating a blacksmith shop there to cover shadier activities.

Today the candlelit bar with the flickering fireplace is a favorite haunt for jazz enthusiasts who visit for the music as well as the rustic ambience.

Built before 1772, the French-styled building survived the two terrifying fires of the late eighteenth century. In 1788 and 1794 infernos destroyed hundreds of buildings. Then under Spanish domain, the area was rebuilt with Spanish influence apparent in the architecture. Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop is one of the rare leftover original “French architecture” structures in the area. Perhaps it is this distinction that draws spirits inside. Customers report encountering a number of apparitions here. Some say the pirate’s ghost guards the fireplace, where his treasure may be hidden.

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LAFITTE’S BLACKSMITH SHOP

941 BOURBON STREET

NEW ORLEANS, LA 70116

(504) 523-0066

Is This Seat Taken?

You’re never drinking alone at Amy’s Ritz in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. The seat beside you may look empty, but you just might have some company. Folks say they feel a presence at the tavern that could explain why objects are sometimes inexplicably moved around. Some of the bartenders refuse to venture into the basement, but owner Amy Anderson is not afraid, though she and her father, John Anderson, have both seen the ghost of a short man there who is sometimes accompanied by a rush of icy air.

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AMY’S RITZ

114 WEST RIVER STREET

CHIPPEWA FALLS, WI 54729

(715) 726-8710

Scarlett O’Scara’s

“Splish, splash, I was taking a bath …”

It’s the upbeat beginning to a popular old song.

“And then I drowned but I’m still around” would be the next line if the singer was the legendary ghost of Scarlett O’Hara’s haunted bar! For he is—indeed—still around!

Scarlett O’Hara’s, in an old building in downtown St. Augustine, is known for its fine food and live entertainment. The upstairs bar is said to be the domain of a man who long ago drowned in a bathtub there. Witnesses insist that the wee hours of the morning bring with them the inexplicable sound of splashing and eerie moaning.

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SCARLETT O’HARA’S BAR AND RESTAURANT

70 HYPOLITA STREET

ST. AUGUSTINE, FL 32084

(904) 824-6535

WWW.SCARLETTOHARAS.NET

Table for Two

Two ghosts are seen at this Capitol Hill, Seattle, bar. Both appear to be from the 1930s. An elegant lady in an evening gown appears on the balcony level, where she has been spotted watching the piano player. Others have seen the ghost of a man in a dark suit and a fedora. The man seems to be searching for someone—perhaps the beautiful phantom.

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BALTIC ROOM

1207 PINE STREET

SEATTLE, WA 98101

(206) 625-4444

Someone’s in the Kitchen

A charming historic house in Sumner, Washington, has been turned into the Sleighbells Christmas Shoppe & Café, where customers can enjoy lunch or shop for exquisite Christmas ornaments year-round. Employees here have encountered the spirit of Lola, an old woman who once owned the house. She has been seen in the kitchen as well as in other parts of the house. Often it is just her silhouette that is seen. She is said to be a friendly presence.

The spirit of a friendly old woman lives at the Sleighbells Christmas Shoppe & Café in Sumner, Washington. (Leslie Rule)

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SLEIGHBELLS CHRISTMAS SHOPPE & CAFÉ

1711 ELM STREET

SUMNER, WA 98390

(253) 826-5501

A mischievous spirit sometimes tugs on customers’ hair at the Inn Philadelphia. (Leslie Rule)

Make Mine a Double

The Inn Philadelphia is a cozy restaurant recommended to those who savor fine cuisine in a romantic setting. Co-owner George Lutz is happy to share ghost stories with curious diners. Housed in a historic brick duplex on a narrow Philadelphia street, the one-time residence draws people with its artfully prepared food, street-level piano bar, and reputation as a haunted spot. “I think that one of the ghosts is a little girl,” admitted George, adding that she may have died in a fire there many years ago.

When he and business partner Phil Orchowski opened the restaurant in 1993, they immediately sensed they had a very special place on their hands. Phenomena at the Inn Philadelphia include the inexplicable sound of doors opening and closing, a spinning chandelier in the ballroom, and the occasional materialization of apparitions. An unseen presence sometimes pinches guests or tugs on their hair.

Lutz was once enjoying conversation with customers at the bar when the group turned white with shock. They all started talking and pointing at once and he turned around to see nothing amiss. They explained that a ghost had emerged from the closet behind him and vanished into the wall.

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INN PHILADELPHIA

251–253 SOUTH CAMAC STREET

PHILADELPHIA, PA 19107

(215) 732-8630