October 2024 Newsletter
Crazydsadventures Newsletter
October 2024
Oxford Saloon, Black Diamond, and Lawson, WA
This month's newsletter is dedicated to the paranormal because it is Halloween. I will discuss three locations, all in about the same area, with paranormal activity.
Oxford Saloon
The Oxford Saloon is located in Snohomish, Washington. In historic Snohomish, the Oxford Saloon was built in 1900 and, for a decade, was known as Blackman’s Dry Goods store. It then became a saloon, and over the years, it has changed owners and uses, but each owner incorporated “Oxford” in its name.
When remodeled as a saloon, the owners added a vestibule to the entrance, with a stairway leading to several rooms on the second floor. These were supposed to be boarding house rooms, but there are rumors that a prominent local businesswoman, Kathleen (or Katherine), rented them as a high-class bordello. She did not go into the saloon but kept an office at the local Eagle’s Lodge, where she made reservations for her high-toned clientele.
Over the years, the Oxford Saloon was often the scene of violence, especially around the basement, a men’s card room, and the bar. One well-documented killing was that of a policeman named Henry. He was a regular at the Oxford and may have moonlighted as a bouncer. One night, there was a fight, and when Henry attempted to break it up, he was knifed and died in the melee.
Henry seems stuck here and enjoys certain aspects of his ghosthood. He hangs out around the stairs leading to the basement and has been seen many times in the lady's restroom. He is seen and felt, and many women report being pinched by him. However, Henry always disappears when confronted.
The second floor of the Oxford is now rented out as offices, but at least three ghosts seem to remain from the Oxford’s darker days. One is a man in a bowler hat, and the others are two women. Some people believe one is Kathleen, who eventually lived upstairs. She is seen as an older woman dressed in a purple dress with purple bows. The other woman is Amelia, one of Kathleen’s girls, who had been forced into prostitution. Her dead body was found curled up in her closet, and no one was sure whether she committed suicide or was murdered. It was never solved. In total, ten deaths have been recorded on the property.
Oxford Saloon is also home to a haunted doll inherited by antique shop owners who were former tenants. The doll has left the property several times only to mysteriously return. I couldn’t find the location of the doll when I was here, but here is a picture of her courtesy of Snohomishtalk.com
Many paranormal investigators have investigated it and found clear examples of electronic voice phenomena. I did not experience paranormal activity here, but the food and service were excellent.
Lawson, Washington
Lawson, Washington, is now a Ghost Town. The Lawson Coal Mine was located near the former coal mining town of Black Diamond in King County, WA. The small community of Lawson was established in 1896 as a coal company town.
On the morning of November 6th, 1910, an explosion tore through the mine, killing sixteen miners. Eleven of the sixteen miners who perished were recovered, and five of the miners were unable to be recovered due to the destruction of the mine workings.
The official cause of the accident was never determined, as the lower workings of the mine slope were inaccessible. Nine of the miners killed in the Lawson Mine are interred at the Black Diamond Cemetery. Dave Lunden, Fire Boss, is in a marked grave, and eight others are in a mass grave. This is probably why the Black Diamond Cemetery is haunted.
This disaster essentially brought the community of Lawson to a heartbreaking end. Today, what little remains of the Lawson Mine site is located on private land. The explosion of the mine blew the town of Lawson to pieces and is gone forever.
Black Diamond Washington.
A cemetery is not an inherently creepy place. Some of them can be pretty peaceful. But if you've ever walked around Washington's Black Diamond Cemetery, you may have felt something is a little off. And you wouldn't be the only one. This cemetery has quite a haunted history.
Please NOTE that there is no such thing as an actual ghost detector. Though many TV shows claim otherwise, there’s not. We have electronic devices that catch anomalies, and we deduce scientifically, using the scientific method, whether or not it’s a natural phenomenon occurring.
There’s the EMF reader, a standard ghost-hunting tool that measures electromagnetic radiation; some paranormal researchers claim ghosts emit a field that these devices can read. Then, there are full-spectrum cameras, which may capture a subject or object that isn’t visible in a spectrum that people can see. There are also high-end audio recorders that can pick up the voice of a spirit when the naked ear can’t hear it — otherwise known as an EVP or electronic voice phenomenon.
Other tools, too, are controversial, even among ghost hunters. One example is a “spirit box.” A spirit box is an audio-only device that rapidly scans through multiple audio channels. It is said to make it relatively easy for ghosts to manipulate to say a word or phrase in real time; there are also motion sensors that can pick up spirits' movements if they get near them.
Here is the grave of Dave Lunden, Fire Boss
If you do a quick Google search of the most haunted places in Washington, Black Diamond Cemetery comes up almost every time; there have been a lot of mining accidents — four big ones, to be exact — and I think that’s what has caused this… paranormal energy and activity in this small town.
It has been said that visitors hear whistling and hearing voices when nobody else is around. There have also been reports of the swinging lanterns of dead coal miners seen on foggy nights. Apparitions of deceased coal miners swinging lanterns have been known to appear late at night. There have also been reports of a white horse that weaves in and out of the tombstones.
This is an unmarked grave of the eight miners killed in the Lawson Mine Explosion.
One group of paranormal investigators was getting bizarre things… including violent words popping up on the Ovilus. Words like “homicide” and “riverbank” were heard through the device. They claim there was a lot of activity—words being spat out quite a bit—so there was some energy in the area that the Ovilus was picking up on and utilizing.
While here, I received some EMP activity and realized I needed to invest in a Spirit Box. There were also many places with changes in energy and cold areas. I would love to come back here someday with a Spirit Box and then head to Seattle to visit Kell's Irish Pub, another extremely haunted place. Before it became Kell's, it used to be a mortuary.
The Black Diamond Coal Mining Company established the Black Diamond Cemetery as a company and a community cemetery. Whether or not you believe in the paranormal, it is still a fascinating place to explore. The site's history dates to 1884; the cemetery now has over 1,200 gravestones.