You Can Sense The Dead In Wasco, Oregon — Especially At The Just-Us Inn
By Amy Venezia
Wasco, Oregon is a tiny, tiny town with a big history. You can feel it too. There aren’t any elaborately designed buildings of old architectural charm. You won’t find any of the bells and whistles associated with most historic towns that lends you the feeling it may be haunted. No…there’s none of that — which may be why I was a little nervous about this one.
The Just-Us Inn was built in 1889 by Levi Armsworthy and his sister Sarah. From the stories I heard and the actual research I have done since my visit, it served as a courthouse at the beginning where public trials and public hangings took place. Also, a hotel and from what I was told, it was also a brothel of sorts (I didn’t find that in my research).
Today, it is an inn that offers monthly, weekly, and nightly stays. As sad is it is for me to say this, it doesn’t feel like it gets much traffic. First off, it’s in an area where most people would not be traveling to unless they had a specific reason to. It’s off the beaten path. Second, it’s not the most updated of places and unless you know that in advance, it might take you by surprise. I think though, this is how the spirits like it. I think whoever comes there is drawn there for a reason and I think whoever stays there does so by their granting alone. Any others would be too uncomfortable and leave. Which is how they like it. They “drive off” (or at least they like to feel they do) those who they don’t want and welcome the ones they do want like old friends.
I picked this inn because it was around an area we wanted to take a weekend trip to…and because of its rumored hauntings, of course. Once we got there, I put in the code to the front door (only way to get the key) and unlocked the door…only to walk in on a man eating soup while sitting on a couch. Now, do you ever have those moments where you lock eyes with a person and you know this is not going to be some random, ordinary meeting? This was one of those times.
The man was friends with the owner and he knew we were expected. At first, I tried hard to focus on our conversation as I let the rest of my senses scan the room and put my feelers out for the unseen. That is until I really looked at him, as he felt compelled to trust us enough to share his recent struggles in life. I saw them all around him. Oh yes. They were popping in and out from behind and to the side and I would watch as they would attach to him — connect to him — in mid-sentence and the man would stop talking and stare into space.
I wanted to tell him why that was happening to him and wanted to ask him if he noticed when he did it…but I refrained. My boyfriend put his arm around me, which is a code for us. Although he doesn’t come out and readily admit it, he is quite gifted and always knows when something is occurring with me. It’s a true gift to me, really, since having that kind of understanding and support for something so bizarre is rare. Anyway, as he was talking with the man…that is when I saw the one thing I don’t ever enjoy seeing. A shadow figure darting out of the corner of my eye. I am not a big fan of the shadow people.
This one had me intrigued though because it wasn’t a full figure I saw. What I saw was something dark black shadow darting to the right of my eye and floating at the top of the ceiling. It knew I would see it. So the fact that it came forth at the very beginning had me wondering why it was presenting itself. The others I saw and sensed were benevolent. So what was this one? I didn’t want to really find out.
I did finally ask the man if he knew he had “friends” with him. He immediately spilled his feelings about how he felt them often and how they played tricks on him all the time. I felt that too…a trickster in the house. Harmless and far more entertained by his own shenanigans than the ones he is playing tricks on.
We left and came back later that night.
Because I saw the shadow person earlier in the day, what I normally would have been up for, I was no longer up for. Like going to the other floors of the empty inn and/or doing a session in the attic. Nope. Once I see shadow people, I opt out. My choice and not for everyone. I just choose to protect myself in that area. May be wimpy or may be wise.
First thing I did was take some pictures in the room. This first picture is of the curtain area of a 2nd small bedroom in the suite. Do you see the snarled face?
Here is another picture I took a minute or so later…not as prevalent?
Next, I just began to ask them in my mind’s eye to communicate. I do the same thing I do with human beings. I introduce myself…tell a little about myself and make sure they know I mean them no harm. As an hour or so went by I could sense they were hesitant. I said to my boyfriend that they didn’t quite trust us yet. They were curious, but staying back.
That is when I decided to place my Zoom H1 out in the kitchen and let it record the empty rooms. You will see the table in this picture that I placed it on. The long kitchen table. Our suite that was downstairs as well. Alone in that kitchen, the recorder picked up some compelling activity.
The first EVP I got was when we first arrived back that night and my boyfriend and I stood in the entrance of the inn. I explained that they could speak into the red light on the device I was holding if they wanted to be heard or communicate. What I got was a female voice that sounds like she is saying “Huh” at the beginning of this short EVP. Like someone would say if they were perplexed about something.
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Next, I captured what sounds like something directly hitting or flicking the recording device.
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Next, glasses clinking and moving in an absolutely empty kitchen in the Just-Us Inn.
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Next, what sounds like glass tinkling followed by a very faint giggle at the 12 second mark?
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Lastly, a bunch of knocking in the kitchen and what sounds like faint talking/mumbling in the background.
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I was very frustrated to find that one of the EVP’s I captured could not be picked up once I transferred the file to the software. I can still hear it on the ZOOM H1, but not in the software file. It was the sound of the singing monks that I also picked up in EVP at The Palace Hotel. I will continue to try and see what can be done to be able to post that. I found it fascinating that they would show up again!
Lastly, I want to share my personal experience, even though I am not sure how to even begin to put it into words.
After falling asleep that night, I had an experience that I have not had since my teens. It is not a pleasant one and actually one I hoped I would never have to feel again. The feeling of when something overtakes my body and I am paralyzed. Unable to speak or move. The first time I experienced this was when I was 12 years old. The next, at 15 years old and now at the Just-Us Inn. In this experience I awoke to the feeling of something wrapping around my neck and squeezing tighter and tighter like a python would feel. As I tried to say my boyfriend’s name to wake him up, I could not speak. As I tried to scream, I could not make a sound. As I tried to get myself to kick my legs so I could hit my boyfriend to wake up…literally because the upper half of my body was completely smothered by this thing and paralyzed…I couldn’t get myself to move. I really hesitate to tell this story because to someone who has never experienced something like this, it sounds absolutely insane.
Through me gaining complete control of my fear and panic, by controlling my breathing and going deep within to the surety that nothing has permission to do this to me and commanding that I be released, I finally was. Instead of waking up though, I directly went into a dream of seeing my boyfriend talking with a lady from his high school. She was petite and had short blonde hair. My boyfriend is 45 years old, so high school wasn’t just yesterday. In my dream I knew they were friends on Facebook and my boyfriend was telling her about a guy from high school that had committed suicide. I then saw her start talking to another man (without my boyfriend there anymore) and she was asking him if he had heard about the guy that committed suicide. She couldn’t remember the name that my boyfriend had told her though and so she walked off and around the corner from this guy. All the sudden she ran back around the corner and shouted “Matt Cummings was his name!”
I awoke with a jolt and immediately woke my boyfriend up and began to spew forth all that had just happened. I watched by boyfriend’s face as he came to and the look of shock taking over as he was hearing my words. Stuttering on his words, he began to tell me he had only one friend on Facebook from that time period…who after she friended him years ago, he has never communicated with. She is petite and has short blonde hair, but the most shocking of this whole story is he had two friends commit suicide from high school. One had the first name of Matt. The second man had the last name of Cummings.
Absolutely unbelievable.
Why did this happen? I can’t say. I do feel that maybe the public hangings that took place on the property has to do with the entity that is still sticking around at this inn — one that is the energy behind such trauma and experiences. Why I was given the information about my boyfriend’s high school friends, I still am not sure. One of them hanged themselves and the other jumped out a window. Maybe they were trying to connect with me. To communicate. In a place where others too have met somewhat of the same fate? I can’t say.
I just know that come sunrise, I packed up my things and we left early in the morning. Do I feel there is a dark presence at the Just-Us Inn? I feel that the shadow figure that made itself known to me at the beginning of the day is a protector of sorts. I also saw a woman with dark brown hair and a longer face. Larger features. Hair up with tendrils around her face. She was quite lovely. The trickster…felt like a jovial man. Maybe this shadow thing is kind of the security for the place. It has been in jeopardy of being torn down in the past. Somehow, it always gets saved. Maybe they don’t like too many visitors in their little inn and they make sure it stays that way by having this dark thing flex its muscles a bit?
All I know is from my personal experience alone, I do 100% believe it has paranormal activity. Add that to what was captured from the recordings and I wholeheartedly back up that belief.