Photos taken in June 2004.
Elizabeth, the Oregon Cave Chateau's Resident Spirit
Like most old lodges, this one has ghost stories. The resident ghost at The Chateau at Oregon Caves is "Elizabeth". The story is that Elizabeth and her new husband were honeymooning at the then just-built Chateau. She caught him cheating on her with one of the chambermaids. From this point the story varies:- The most common version is that the distraught Elizabeth leapt to her death from the window of her room. Room 310 is almost unanimously said to be the room she stayed in, although I have heard the story using room 210. (We stayed in 210 and didn't see Elizabeth or witness any of her pranks.) If it was room 310 she had to climb out onto the roof, since the window is in a shed dormer on the roof. A quick slide down the steep, roof takes you from the window to a 6- floor drop down to the rocky creek bed below.
- Another variation on the story is that Elizabeth didn't jump out the window, she slit her wrist and died in the bathtub of room 310.
- Another variation has her hanging herself in the room, or possibly off the roof?
So what does the ghost of Elizabeth do to disturb visitors? She apparently is not a friendly ghost, but not particularly harmful either. The story is that when someone stays in room 310, she leaves the room and wanders the hallways all night. She cries and moans, with the noise often coming from the 3rd floor linen closet, where she apparently likes to hide.
She also is rumored to not like those who don't believe the stories about her. Apparently she does not restrict herself to the 3rd floor. She reportedly has dropped stuff on the head of a particularly vocal non-believing employee on a couple of different occasions in the kitchen!
OK, now for the reality check. There are no official records of any deaths at the Chateau- ever. It is likely that if a jilted bride did a swan dive from the Chateau roof, or slit her wrists, or whatever, it would have been noted in the local papers. Certainly the Chateau management might want to avoid negative publicity, but it's hard to keep a juicy story like that under wraps! It's especially difficult to not leave some official death notice. It's doubtful the staff just snuck out in the woods and buried her body without anyone missing her. Who cares, every old lodge needs a good ghost story! That's part of the fun!
Don't believe in ghosts? If ghosts aren't your style, maybe you could hike the area behind the Chateau in the early morning or at dusk and look for Bigfoot. There's a recorded Bigfoot sighting in the vicinity of the Chateau!
The next page looks at the landscape around the Chateau (I'm a landscape architect, expect me to be excited about the landscape.) Also there are 3 other historic buildings here that I have a few photos of to share if you're interested. I didn't have access to those buildings during my visit or I would have documented them better.
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