Emerald
Vol 83, No, 41
~X7
Eugene, Oregon 97403
Friday, October 30, 1981
Heceta Halloween
Raging winds and white caps set the stage
for haunted house’s legendary lady in grey
Story by Caroline Petrich
Photos by Bob Baker
G osh murmured the
usually cynical photographer it is
kinda spooky isn t it
I nodded in agreement This
house — reputed to be haunted — •
rested on a cliff above the violent
Pacific Ocean evoking an eerie
sentience
Perhaps the weather had
something to with it The wind
raged spitting rain everywhere and
whipping up giant white caps in the
infinitely grey sea The waves
relentlessly smashed into Conical
Rock and Parrot Rock, mammoth
guards to the tumultuous cove
called the Devil s Elbow
Yes. the Heceta House could be
haunted by a legendary woman in
grey
Harry and Ann Tamman,
caretakers of the Queen Anne style
structure, believe that a spirit exists
I
1 have to because I saw
something one night. Ann says
Ann encountered the specter in
a hallway between the kitchen and
dining room She thought the
grey-haired old woman might b<?
one of her two dinner-guests Ann
immediately looked in the dining
room Both guest$‘grey-haired
women in their sixties, still sat
Ann remembers her guests
quizzical looks after she ran out of
the room She came back, wearing
an odd expression
I think I just saw our lady." she
said
Ann describes the meeting as
"mostly a shock "
"She never announces she s
there
One night Harry saw her at the
top of the stairs and charged up
Not quite at the top. he saw the hem
of a grey skirt and empty space
below The figure who had no feet
went into a room and vanished
The Heceta House, named after
the cliff it sits on. adjoins the Heceta
Head Lighthouse \When the house
a duplex was built in 1893. the
lieutenant lighthouse keepers'
families lived there The head
keeper occupied a house that once
slood next to the shore's beacon
Electricity’s advent eliminated
the keepers' duties and the two
houses were abandoned Workers
tore down the head iightkeeper s
house in 1940 leaving only the
ghost and her Heceta House
After the woman's initial
appearance, the Tammans
employed an ouija board to
decipher her mystery The board
spelled out the old-fashioned name
Rue They ve called her that ever
since
She just appears when she
feels like Ann says
Rue startled a repairman in the
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