The Ghost of the Columbia
Decades after a brutal murder on the Columbia River, local lore claims a restless spirit still haunts the site.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Twenty years ago, a Chinese placer miner on the Columbia River, eight miles from Northport, was murdered for his money—$200—and the body thrown into the Columbia, all but the head, which was severed. When his countrymen came to gather up the poor fellow's bones to send to China, they could find only the skull. Now people say the ghost of a headless Chinaman visits the place every night, and sturdy men refuse to camp near the haunted spot.
“Now people say the ghost of a headless Chinaman visits the place every night, and sturdy men refuse to camp near the haunted spot.”
This item reflects the era's tendency to cloak the brutal reality of anti-Chinese violence in the language of the supernatural or 'eccentric.' It highlights a period where the displacement and killing of Chinese laborers were often treated as local color rather than grave civil rights failures.
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