Armory apparitions | Local News | The Register-Guard | Eugene, Oregon: COTTAGE GROVE — A group of women who claim they can detect paranormal activity say there is something strange in the downtown neighborhood that houses the National Guard Armory.Cottage Grove is roughly twenty miles from Eugene. It's considered a UFO/Bigfoot generally supernatural hotspot. Cottage Grove was where our own orange orb journey began years ago: we drove down to Cottage Grove to visit friend, friend wasn't there, we were feeling inexplicably anxious and odd, we left, and sighted an orange orb-craft (not a spirit orb) experienced missing time, and all manner of basic UFO High Strangeness.
And with the city’s blessing, they have done some investigations at the 33,080-square-foot, 1931 armory, concluding that there are several spirits with ties to the military who hang out there.
Your basic skeptic went along for the ghost hunting investigation; city councilman Jake Boone. I assume he was there as some sort of representative of the city, since the city had to give permission to the group to visit the armory. Personally, I wouldn't allow skeptics on my investigations, but that's just me. So lots of expected comments by Boone about how silly the whole thing is. And we are not at all surprised that Boone is "...the son of a hobbyist magician" and knows better, as an adult, since he was "...most likely being duped by his dad as a kid."
Now, one thing that is interesting about the skeptic Boone's presence (and the article seems to be more about Boone and his skepticism than the ghost hunting team) is his attempt to disprove the reality of the spirit world. At one point he asks if he could call out names of once living officers, to see if the spirits would respond. The names he called out were fake (unknown to the ghost hunters) and, a-ha! proof the whole thing is silly. That little stunt doesn't disprove a thing; one could make the argument that the spirits were responding in Trickster fashion. Annoyed, or, amused, by being teased.
And, the bullet quote pulled for the article?
"They were not trying to fool people. They were fooling themselves.” ~ Jake Boone, Cottage Grove City Councilor
This story annoyed a local citizen, who wrote a letter to today's Register Guard, calling the story "tripe" and "hookum." [Story about ghosts wasn't news, Register Guard, 7/2/13] The letter writer had a good point about the story appearing on the front page, instead of "real" news. On the other hand I find it interesting he missed the skeptic slant given to the article.
Now, all this is my own take on the piece. I have no idea how Markstrom, who wrote the piece, feels about this. I think I'll ask her.