Скачать или смотреть A Fugitive and Loosened Spirits Roam Portland’s Famed Witches Castle

Forest Park’s Balch Creek was initially part of a land claim established in 1850 by Danford Balch. The land track was extensive and Balch hired a transient worker named Mortimer Stump originally from Vancouver to help clear it.

Stump lived with Balch’s family for a few years consisting of his wife Mary Jane and nine children. Stump fell in love with Balch’s eldest 16 year-old daughter Anna and asked for permission to marry her. Balch refused and the couple threatened to elope. He fired Stump and vowed to kill him if they followed through with their plan.

The couple disregarded Balch’s warning and a few weeks later traveled to Vancouver where they were married in November 1858. The pair honeymooned and returned to East Portland (a separate city then) where other members of the Stump family lived.

Danford Balch took the elopement news harshly, falling into deep depression, insomnia and heavy drinking. His wife’s constant needling regarding his threat provoked him towards drastic action.

Mortimer Stump, his new bride and his parents had just finished buying furniture for their new house in downtown Portland. They had loaded the furniture on a wagon and boarded the Stark Street ferry that crossed the Willamette to return to their new home. Danford Balch was lingering nearby when the wagon passed him. He had a harsh exchange with the elder Stump and followed the foursome as they boarded the ferry.

He approached Mortimer and shot his son-in-law fatally twice in the face and upper chest with a shotgun. Balch was quickly apprehended and imprisoned, but escaped from the local dilapidated wooden jail before his trial.

He camped out as a fugitive on his property before being arrested six months later after refusing to pay a $1,000 bribe to the infamous town marshal James Lappeus. He was put on trial and convicted for Stump’s murder. He was hung on October 17, 1859, the first recorded legal execution in Oregon Territory. His wife remained on the property and turned to ethically challenged attorney John H. Mitchell for assistance. Mitchell’s lifetime of duplicity and later political intrigue was never more blatant than with his handling of the Balch family property.

He divvied up parcels to local influential individuals including Henry Pittock and ultimately defrauded the family of their land claim. When the Balch children reached the age of majority and tried to reclaim their land, Mitchell pled that the statute of limitations had expired and he was not tried.

The land was eventually given to the City of Portland and converted into Forest Park minus any credit to Danford Balch. In 1929, a stone structure was constructed to house restrooms and later a ranger station near the site of the Balch cabin. The structure is accessible by a winding descending path named the Lower Macleary Trail.

Vandalism and damage from an infamous 1962 Columbus Day storm prompted the remaining roof and fixtures to be removed. The cost of demolition was considered too expensive and the shell remains. Over time, the structure was called the Witches Castle due to its forlorn appearance.

The isolated location and rumors of haunting, have created a secondary purpose for the deteriorated stone structure. Portland teenagers have routinely chosen the location for evening and weekend parties. The spirits claiming to have been viewed include the ghosts of Mortimer Stump and members of the Balch family. The more likely spirits however, have been those consumed by successive years of teenage revelers.