Paranormal Road Trip: Destination Spokane Washington with Cathy Clamp

Come on boys and ghouls!  It's time to hop on Route 666 for a spooktacular Paranormal Road Trip.

This week's stop is Spokane, Washington and our special guide is Cathy Clamp author of the Tales of the Sazi series and the spin-off Luna Lake series, including new release ILLICIT.

Spokane's Top 5 Spooky Places

The Sazi of Luna Lake novels are set in rural northeastern Washington in Ferry County. Just to the west of Ferry County, and where the residents go to shop and interact with regular humans is Spokane, which has a rich history of hauntings, owing to the gold mines that made the fortunes, or were the deaths of many fortune seekers.

Clark Mansion.  One such fortune seeker was Patrick (known to his friends as “Patsy”) Clark. At the young age of 18, Patsy made his way to the United States from Ireland and quickly mastered the art of mining. He made his way up through the ranks of some of the most well known mines in western America, including the Comstock lode in Nevada, and the Alice Mine in Montana, until he was ready to be owner of his own mines: The Poor Man mine in Spokane and The Republic mine in Ferry County. Patsy and his bride, Mary, lived in the Clark Mansion until their deaths in 1915 and 1923, when it was sold to investors. It wasn’t until the 1970s that the hauntings began and nobody really knows why they started, as the house was never reported to have been the subject of any tragedies. But former employees of the restaurant that it eventually became report strange happenings. Wine bottles are tossed about, voices of at least three entities can be heard in the basement and cold spots and chilled breezes from nowhere are reported.

Mirabeau Park Hotel.  Set among 76 surrounding lakes and multiple golf courses, this luxury resort in Spokane has several permanent (and transparent) residents. A reported suicide of a guest in a room near the front desk has resulted in a spirit who asks night bellman and maids for extra towels but disappears before they can get a room number. The ghosts of a woman and her two children have also been seen by guests and staff alike, and while most of the sightings have been mundane or simply mysterious, some have been frightening. There are also some rooms that more sensitive employees refuse to enter for reasons they can’t explain.

Greenwood Cemetery.  While a haunted cemetery might seem almost like the norm in any major city, Greenwood Cemetery goes a step above. A thousand steps, actually. The staircase at Greenwood Cemetery was supposedly the site of satanic rituals in the past and visitors report that they are unable to make it to the top of the stairs because the disembodied faces of the men, women and children sacrificed appear to prevent them from going further as they climb. Those who have made it to the top report shrieks and cries of the dead greet them and rain pelts their skin, although they never get wet. Don’t try to visit this one, though. The thousand step staircase is on private property and access renovations to the cemetery have made the staircase obsolete.

The Davenport Hotel.  Louis Davenport loved the hotel he built in 1914. In fact, he lived there, in Suite 1105, until his death in 1951. He was reported to have said “I never want to leave here,” before he died. And according to staff, he never did. He died in his beloved room, as did his wife Verus, in 1967. Suite 1105 still houses their spirits. During renovations, wiring blew back and forth in the breeze while workers watched. Except there was no breeze. The windows were sealed and the electricity was off to do the work. Party noisemakers are often reported heard near the room. That sort of makes sense, since the first event in the hotel was a New Years Eve party.  There’s also a spirit haunting the mezzanine in 1920's vintage party wear, walking back and forth through a door. Ellen MacNamara supposedly fell to her death through the lobby skylight by walking through the same door. Employees report that Louis Davenport always seems to appear when guests need attending to. One bellman believes that a ‘legacy of supreme hospitality’ isn’t such a bad spirit for a hotel to have.

Monaghan Hall.  No trip down the paranormal highway in Spokane would be complete without Monaghan Hall on the Gonzaga University campus. James Monaghan was another Irishman who made the rags to riches journey because of the mines. Except he wasn’t a miner.  He was a trader and shipper who contracted with the U.S. mail and Army to haul freight, and with steamboat and ferry companies to bring goods to the bustling mine area. By 1909 he was a millionaire. He became a county commissioner and justice of the peace and by the time of his death in 1916 of natural causes, “Spokane Jim” had a funeral procession that was one of the largest in the city’s history. Jim was among the first graduating class of Gonzaga College and was later donated heavily to the Jesuit-run learning institution. There are any number of rumors about how Monaghan Hall came to be haunted.

One of the most widely believed is that a young seminary student hanged himself in the attic and it’s his spirit that roams the halls. But organ music can often be heard as well, and reportedly, it’s the same music heard at Spokane Jim’s funeral. Another tie to Monaghan is that a photograph of the donor, lying in state, was supposedly found by an historical society in a hole in a dirt wall in the basement of the Hall that shows the crucifixes around his coffin upside down. A housekeeper reported that attempts to burn the photograph failed and it was buried there instead. A former director of music, responding to the reports of hauntings, began to sleep on his office couch and was frequently awakened by the sound of phantom flautists and organists and also by doors opening and shutting with nobody there.  There are varying reports of “rituals” being done in the 1970s (although the university does not admit to any sort of exorcism being done) to remove the entities that witnesses reported would cause feelings of tingling skin, paralysis and a strangling sensation.

Thank you Cathy for giving us such a haunting tour of Spokane! 

Learn more about Cathy Clamp and her books by visiting her website.  You can add ILLICIT here on Goodreads.

What did you think of Cathy's picks for spooky places?

On our last Paranormal Road Trip we visited Houma, Louisianna with Madison Granger.

Join us for another spine-tingling Paranormal Road Trip...
if you dare!

And don't miss our Q+A with Cathy Clamp from our From the Shadows blog archives.  We talk about casting for the first Luna Lake novel FORBIDDEN, favorite supernatural talents, and more!