During our tour of Manresa Castle the tour guide indicated a 13 year old “spirit” named Lotta frequented the place. She liked room 214. No one really knew her affiliation with the castle.
She told us that the original owner and builder of the castle, Charles Eisenbeis, was buried several blocks away from the castle at the Laurel Grove Cemetery. For some reason they had to dig up his grave and discovered a casket of a child above Charles’ casket. Some speculate this may have been an illegitimate child of his and that it was Lotta. All speculation, but a cool story nevertheless.
So we decided to visit the cemetery. It was beautiful. Cemeteries calm me. There were some very ornate family plots like the Eisenbeis one. It was a drizzly day when we were there. I was in awe of some of the headstones and the way the moss, lichen and fungi were growing in the grooves of the deceased name.
Charles Eisenbeis (owner of Manresa Castle) family plot.This appears to be a recurring theme in these older cemeteries I’ve been visiting. A baby headstone is leaning against a larger stone.
Soooo beautiful! A tree stump decorated with age, lichen, and moss.
Moss growing in the headstone inscriptionsI have never seen black mold on a headstone before.
Fallen angel on Dick? I couldn’t help it, I had to snickerNot my stack. Nods to whomever placed it here. We cairns builders have to stick togetherAnother tilted smaller stone. Some very ornate headstones in this cemetery.I love the moss and lichen growing on the names
So for all of our hairy scary times at Manresa Castle in Port Townsend, our truly scary times were here at Fort Worden. It is an abandoned fort. Deer run the place and the steel and concrete barracks were windy, some leading into complete absolute darkness. We turned one corner and looked as the hallway descended fifty feet into nothingness. Even our phone flashlights couldn’t shine a light into it. It was spooky. And creaky sounds and a sense of cold and forlorn. At one point one of us screamed and we all ran out as fast as our chubby little bodies would take us. We’re very sorry if we scared anyone with our echo-e screams.
Good times, good memories, with good friends. Next time I’m taking them to Fort Casey.
The creepiest door I have ever seen. Handprint on Steel.
A few months ago my husband and I visited Manresa Castle. It was such a fun experience and the staff was good about giving me a quick tour. I received a bounce-back discount (as do all customers who stay at the castle) that allowed me 50% off so my girlfriends and I decided to take the “haunted” castle for a special spin.
We stayed in the upper turret room on the right. Just below where the Jesuit priest hung himself.Night Shot. I was astonished to be able to catch the visibility of the stars with my iphone.The back courtyardBarbed Brick perimeter fenceInfrared
Mirror in lobby
A little girl named Lotta is alleged to frequent this room
Lotta likes this room. A supposedly mischievous 13 year old girl
Suite 304, just below the Jesuit hanging site
Suite 302 Kate’s room
Suite 302, the window Kate Jumped from
First Floor bar
Fireplace in bar
First floor ladies room
Ladies room interior
Light fixture Ladies room
First floor Gentlemen’s room
heading from 2nd to 3rd floor
The breakfast area. It used to be a chapel. Kate has warned via ouiji board not to use the board in this area
Hall decor
Upper dance area
The Rooftop Access
The first visit I was here I noticed the Roof Access Door. Locked. It had a window above it with a mechanism to open. Didn’t work. I know. I tried three times. I asked Lindsey about this as we passed the door again, telling her I had previously attempted. She informed me the door had been locked for years.
So I turned the knob and it opened. She looked a bit taken aback, her surprise didn’t seem feigned. Excited I opened the door to find a light socket on the right and a set of very dusty stairs that went up and then turned left. I headed halfway up the stairs before Lindsey stopped me and told me she needed to go first as it may be hazardous. I asked her to take my camera and photograph the scene after she turned the stairs. The bottom picture is hers. After you turn left, the stairs go up to a completely open hole to the exterior. She wouldn’t let me go because of the stairs had holes. She didn’t walk to the open window either. It looked like there used to be a window there.
When I asked the gal at the front desk she reported a windstorm had blown off that window some time before.
Light switch inside the Roof stairwell.The first set of steps on the stairwell, it turns left at the top.The second stairwell leads to an open space where a window apparently used to be.
The Basement
I did not see the basement in my previous visit so I was pretty excited when Lindsey told me she’d take us down there. The laundry room is down there. Lindsey also showed me the original brickwork and then allowed me access to the crawl space under the castle. It was pretty big crawl space, I was able to stand in it.
Door to basementCrawl spaceOriginal brickworkOriginal mudded brickStorage spaceWeird foggy window in basementEntrance of basement from outside
The Attic
The Jesuit nuns used this sink in the attic to wash laundry. It is still intact and in same position. It hasn’t been used for a very long time.
Never cut a tree down in the wintertime. Never make a negative decision in the low time. Never make your most important decisions when you are in your worst moods. Wait. Be patient. The storm will pass. The spring will come.
The Tacoma Narrows Bridge is a pair of twin suspension bridges that span the Tacoma Narrows strait of Puget Sound in Pierce County, Washington. The bridges connect the city of Tacoma with the Kitsap Peninsula and carry State Route 16 (known as Primary State Highway 14 until 1964) over the strait. Historically, the name “Tacoma Narrows Bridge” has applied to the original bridge nicknamed “Galloping Gertie”, which opened in July 1940 but collapsed because of aeroelastic flutter four months later, as well as the replacement of the original bridge which opened in 1950 and still stands today as the westbound lanes of the present-day twin bridge complex.
The original Tacoma Narrows Bridge opened on July 1, 1940. It received its nickname “Galloping Gertie” because of the vertical movement of the deck observed by construction workers during windy conditions. The bridge became known for its pitching deck, and collapsed into Puget Sound the morning of November 7, 1940, under high wind conditions. Engineering issues as well as the United States’ involvement in World War II postponed plans to replace the bridge for several years; the replacement bridge was opened on October 14, 1950.
By 1990, population growth and development on the Kitsap Peninsula caused traffic on the bridge to exceed its design capacity; as a result, in 1998 Washington voters approved a measure to support building a parallel bridge. After a series of protests and court battles, construction began in 2002 and the new bridge opened to carry eastbound traffic on July 15, 2007, while the 1950 bridge was reconfigured to carry westbound traffic.
At the time of their construction, both the 1940 and 1950 bridges were the third-longest suspension bridges in the world in terms of main span length, behind the Golden Gate Bridge and George Washington Bridge. The 1950 and 2007 bridges are now the fifth-longest suspension bridge spans in the United States, and the 38th-longest in the world.
Total length 5,400 ft (1,645.92 m)[1]
Longest span 2,800 ft (853.44 m)[1]
Clearance below 187.5 ft (57.15 m)
Opened October 14, 1950 (westbound)
July 15, 2007 (eastbound)
I’d never been to the Narrows Park. Today was a very foggy day and the water for the most part was still, the only movement from the ducks and gulls breaking the surface. I walked about a mile on the beach, passing only two fishermen. The solitary time was wonderful and I was happy to spend my time soaking in the environment around me with nary an interruption.
