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Tuck Woodstock
Tuck Woodstock wrote and edited content for Travel Portland from 2014–2020. Read More
Haunted Portland
Explore Portland's paranormal side with these spooky spots and spirited tours.
Tuck Woodstock
Tuck Woodstock wrote and edited content for Travel Portland from 2014–2020. Read More
The Pacific Northwest is rife with spooky lore and tales of things that go bump in the night. The Halloween season is the prime time to check out Portland’s many mysterious spots, paranormal activity and spirited walking tours. Goosebumps are all but guaranteed.
White Eagle Saloon
McMenamin’s White Eagle Saloon claims to play host to several apparitions, from a prostitute named Rose to the souls of unwitting residents kidnapped via Portland’s infamous Shanghai Tunnels. But despite this eerie history, the bar’s most notorious spirit is that of Sam Warrick, a bartender and cook from the saloon’s pre-prohibition days. Warrick, who can be spotted in the hotel’s trove of historical photos, has been known to fling condiments across the kitchen.
Lone Fir Cemetery serves as the final resting place for 25,000 souls.
Old Town Pizza
Arguably Portland’s most famous — and persistent — phantom, “Nina” has bedeviled the same spot for more than a century. Nina worked at Old Town’s Merchant Hotel, where she met her untimely end at the bottom of a dark elevator shaft. When Old Town Pizza replaced the Merchant Hotel in 1974, Nina’s spirit refused to leave — diners still report a woman in a black dress keeping watch over their tables.
Lone Fir Cemetery
One of the city’s largest and best-kept pioneer-era graveyards, Lone Fir Cemetery serves as the final resting place for 25,000 souls — believer or not, that’s pretty good odds for spirit-spotting and ghost stories. The Lone Fir Cemetery Historical Tours, offered by the Friends of Lone Fir Cemetery, teach about asylum patients, shanghai captains and ‘fancy ladies,’ just a few of the cemetery’s permanent residents with the creep factor.
Spooky Portland
Halloween Events in and Around Portland
From corn mazes to dance performances, half-marathons to haunted houses, Portland provides the perfect Halloween plans for any scare-seeking witch or warlock.
The Spirit of Halloweentown
The historic town of St. Helens, located 45 minutes from Portland, celebrates Halloween all month long with haunted tours, costume contests and more.
Searching for Sasquatch at the North American Bigfoot Center
Compare Bigfoot casts, listen to Sasquatch howls and read harrowing tales about the Pacific Northwest’s favorite hairy hominid at this eccentric museum near Portland.
Haunted Walking Tours
Looking for safety in numbers? The Haunted Pub Crawl from BeerQuest unites fun-loving specter-seekers on a tour of Old Town Portland. With Portland Ghost Tours, you can also explore some of the most ghost-infested places. Spend A Night with Ghosts in the Nob Hill area with its cobblestone streets and beautiful 19th-century buildings; this district is steeped in history and is purportedly home to a sizable ghost population.
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