THE UNTOUCHABLES: Amanda delves into the everchanging mysteries of haunted history

How Ghost Stories Share History’s Forgotten Past

History has always been written by the conquerors. The stories and lives of the proverbial “losers” have gone relatively unnoticed over the centuries. Prostitutes. Enslaved men, women, and children. Disabled people. Queer individuals. People of color. We rarely get to hear their versions of history, and if we do, it is usually from a white, Christian, male perspective. Luckily, there has been a shift in recent years, and we are starting to hear more of these undesirables and their lives. Surprisingly, their stories are revealed and shared through paranormal research and ghost stories. Many of the popular locations among paranormal investigators today were once locations where society’s undesirables gathered— bars, brothels, jails, and asylums. These were locations where we would put people away to forget about them… or perhaps a place where a poor unfortunate soul would seek out to forget themselves for a while. They were unimportant in life—not a king or queen, not a celebrity—yet, in death, they have found fame and notoriety

By: Amanda R. Woomer

in our ghost stories that we still tell hundreds of years after their sad lives ended. A young woman named Lydia worked as a prostitute in the Red Onion Saloon. Opened as a saloon and brothel with ten “cribs” in 1898, the Red Onion served the many men who came to Alaska during the Klondike Goldrush. According to legend, Lydia came to Skagway, Alaska, with a man who left her in the town before venturing into the Yukon Territory. He never returned. Lydia resorted to prostitution and worked at the saloon. Sadly, she contracted syphilis. Ashamed and unable to work, she hanged herself. Today, Lydia is said to haunt the second floor of the Red Onion Saloon, where there is still a brothel museum sharing the history of Skagway. They also share Lydia’s story and talk about her regularly. They say that a person dies twice when you breathe your last breath and again when someone says your name for the last time. This quote has been uttered for years, some crediting the Ancient Egyptians, others Banksy. If this sentiment is believed, Lydia lives on, and it seems her afterlife might be even better than her mortal life in Skagway. Where she may have been privy to hunger, poverty, and abuse, now she is immortal and famous, people calling out to her and telling her story at the Red Onion Saloon. These ghost stories not only offer Lydia eternal life but a new life. Of course, Lydia is not the only person that might have been forgotten by history if they didn’t choose to haunt. Roy was a patient at Rolling Hills Asylum before his death in 1942 and still makes an appearance in Shadow Hallway (and looks a tad bit unnerving at seven feet tall!). Maureen, a lesbian who opened one of the first gay bars in New Jersey in the 1970s, now haunts the building that was once her pride and joy. Nina (pronounced nine-ah) was a prostitute that mysteriously fell down an elevator shaft after offering to give information about her captor. She now haunts Old Town Pizza and Brewing in Portland, Oregon. Chloe was supposedly an enslaved girl working on the infamous Myrtles Plantation who is said to haunt the grounds after being hanged for poisoning the family that owned her. Though there is no evidence that Chloe existed, somehow, people still tell her story and claim to see her on the plantation. For many investigators, we feel drawn to these locations of dark history and great sadness. Asylums and sanitoriums where living conditions were horrific, and many were locked away unnecessarily. Plantations where the horrors of slavery can still be felt… for it was not that long ago. Jails where some of the worst criminals were locked away… and some innocent men and women as well. Of course, for some investigators, it’s the thrill of the hunt. For others, it’s a chance to brush against history. But I think (whether we realize it or not) we investigate to be part of the ghost’s stories—to remember them and help them keep going in the afterlife they’ve chosen. Amanda x