When the days shorten and changing leaves signal the end of summer, you know there’s little time left to enjoy the outdoors before our infamous Pacific Northwest rains set in. The beautifully brisk autumn season is what sold me on settling in Vancouver when my husband finished graduate school ten years ago, and I keep finding new things to love the longer I live here. As a history lover, I have especially enjoyed visiting places connected to the Lewis and Clark expedition, and learning about the heritage of indigenous tribes.

Local historian and author Jefferson Davis shares my fascination for learning the stories of everyday people from the past, not just the ones mentioned in history books. According to Davis, “Once someone begins learning the history of their area, their home, many of them catch the bug, so to speak. They open their minds to asking questions about issues and events they would not consider prior to gaining an interest in history.”

Davis is one of many dedicated and educated volunteers at the Clark County Historical Museum (CCHM) who are “committed to responsible collections stewardship, innovative collaboration and inspiring exhibitions and programs that engage the community in an exploration of Clark County’s past, present and future.” Some of those engaging programs include a variety of walking tours showcasing different aspects of Clark County’s past.

April Pereira, former outreach and program manager at CCHM shared that, “People come back every year, because you get a new tour guide with more information as more history is discovered.” She added, “It’s never the same story twice. Some guides will focus more on one story than another.” The public has loved these tours so much that each year the museum tries to add a new one. Downtown Vancouver tours have focused on notable women of Clark County and arts and entertainment through the ages, while other tours are held in Battle Ground and Downtown Camas. Most tours are offered in the summer, but come autumn, people want to hear a good ghost story.

And here in Clark County, we have more than a few ghost stories.

Vancouver’s Haunted History Tours

The Downtown Vancouver Haunted Walking Tour is CCHM’s most popular event, with tickets selling out before summer. In August, I attended the Arts and Entertainment tour hosted by Pereira to get a taste of what a walking tour is like. Immediately I could see why these events keep growing. I was already fascinated by history, but it was much more meaningful to stand in the places where the stories actually happened. I also liked being with fellow history enthusiasts who asked thought-provoking questions.

Walking the streets it was much easier to imagine a time of carriages and street cars, but Pereira’s passion brought the stories to life. “I love getting people engaged in their history and seeing themselves in the story. So often history is presented as something that happened and is now over. Tours are a way to show the ‘aliveness’ of history. That it is a living, breathing entity that we engage with in our daily lives and that we’re still learning about.”

Some of that “aliveness” has lingered.

The Arts and Entertainment tour takes roughly the same 1.5-mile route as the Haunted Walking Tour. “We go down Main Street, visit the museum and places like the Kiggins Theatre and Elks building. Pretty much if it is an old building, it’s got a story,” explained Pereira.

After the official tour, Pereira told me about the friendly ghosts who greet people by name, the ones who are perpetually waiting, and the scarier ones who like to make noise and messes, all of which are the subjects of the Haunted Walking Tour. I also learned about a woman who was possibly the first female to be tried for murder in Clark County—who was acquitted despite multiple eyewitnesses—and who purportedly still haunts the street where it all happened.

“These programs fund more programs. We’d like to create two more additional Haunted Walking Tours [because] we have more research to build new tours,” said Pereira, who explained that most of the stories shared on the haunted tour were collected by Pat Jollota, a local historian who wrote “Darkness Next Door” (Clark County Historical Society, 2002), the first book about the haunted history of Vancouver. For those hungry for more ghostly tales, Davis has written his own series, “Vancouver USA Ghosts” (also available at CCHM), highlighting the hauntings at the Vancouver Barracks/Fort Vancouver.

Davis, who often serves as a guide for CCHM’s walking tours, noticed the demand for more haunted history and created his own tour: Spirit Tales of the Vancouver Barracks. He was gracious enough to give a private tour to VFM editor, Nikki Klock, me and my two pre-teen kids who like history as much as I do.

Now retired, Davis worked as an Army historian at the Vancouver Barracks and has been inside many of the buildings around what is now referred to as Fort Vancouver National Historic Site. He had so many tales to tell, he had to let us pick which one we wanted at some locations, which included his own encounter with an angry entity at the old hospital!

Davis has a knack for sharing stories in such a way that his audience isn’t sure what direction it will go. One was of a young soldier whose job was to patrol what is now the parade grounds at the barracks during nighttime to make sure those held in jail didn’t escape. Some have reported seeing a ghostly guard with a bayonet pointing and yelling, “Halt, who goes there?”

Through relentless research, Davis has come to believe that “the soldier was Tryggve Jgerdwine. He [died by] suicide on December 10^th, 1890 [and] was a member of Company F, 14^th Infantry.” Not only did I enjoy multiple surprise endings, but I learned other facts, such as times when the Vancouver Barracks became strategic in wars in other parts of the county, how the hospital operated in the past, who certain homes were built for and who still may be residing there.

A perfect mixture of facts and supernatural tales, both tours taught me more about what life was like here in centuries and decades past, making it feel not that long ago. Those who like true crime or a spooky/cozy story while enjoying the fresh air will love the Haunted Walking Tour, or any of the other tours and talks offered by CCHM.

This year the museum celebrated its 60^th anniversary with a goal to get 60 more museum members. And though Pereira has moved on to start her own nonprofit dedicated to amplifying the many voices of our community, she hopes more in Clark County will come enjoy and support CCHM’s family-friendly programs. “I’d like to invite anyone to explore our rich history at the museum! This fall our programs will delve into everything from the weird and sometimes spooky stories of Washington to the development of Vancouver’s alternative education system. And if you’ve ever wondered where the PNW’s love for hops and IPAs began, or who was the first female riverboat captain on the Columbia, this is the place to find out . . . I encourage everyone to come by for a visit and if you like what you see, join us to help keep the story going.”

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