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Talks On Oregon Coast Paranormal Legends Given in Newport, Seaside

Hagestedt

(Newport, Oregon) – It’s a paranormal stroll down the Oregon coast, covering just about every town from Astoria to Florence.

It’s called “Oregon Coast Ghosts and the Paranormal,” an interactive talk about coastal legends and weird tales held on two different ends of the coast, and given by BeachConnection.net editor Andre’ Hagestedt. The presentation will include spooky stories about lighthouses, the legends that are simply laughable, and a host of tales that defy category, covering ghosts, poltergeists, UFO’s, spiritual spots, conspiracy theories, sea monsters and myths that were debunked, as well as unusual historical tidbits and weird science that relate to the subject.

Hagestedt will give two talks at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport on October 28, and then one talk at Beach Books in Seaside on October 30.

One of Hagestedt's favorite hobbies is making fake ghost shots in Photoshop

Hagestedt has been covering the Oregon coast for various publications for ten years now, which includes his documenting every single beach access from Florence to Astoria – some 180 miles. In recent years, with the publication Beach Connection and its website, he’s documented every single bar, restaurant and lodging in that area as well. You can find much of this information on the website, especially in the virtual tour sections.

His favorite joke sums up his passion for the region: “I’m so obsessed with the Oregon coast that it’s ready to take a restraining order out on me,” he said.

That obsession with any detail about the coast, along with a couple of strange personal experiences there, led him to intensely research sides of the region which aren’t touristy in the normal sense, such as the paranormal legends.

“I don’t necessarily believe in this stuff,” Hagestedt said. “But some people collect stamps or hubcaps. I collect paranormal stories about the coast.”

Hagestedt said the talks will contain much of his trademark humor, which he doesn’t always get to utilize in BeachConnection.net.

Hagestedt said he will cover various myths and legends on the coast, including:

- The “Wheeler Moment,” a north coast town where if you make a wish, it just may happen

- Haunted lighthouses – and the ghost tales about them that were debunked

- A ghost ship on the central coast

- Haunted hangouts in Wheeler, Astoria, Lincoln City, Seaside and more

- Does the Van Duzer Corridor have an Area 51?

- Weird science on the coast, such as glowing phytoplankton

Hagestedt is a former music and entertainment writer for the Statesman Journal, The Oregonian, The Rocket, Eugene Weekly, Willamette Week and Our Town, among others. He was a news writer for KXL radio, a business news writer for Valley Business Weekly, and has written on a variety of subjects for Barfly Magazine, Oregon Stater, Inkfish, Hipfish and a wide array of tourism publications.

He is also an occasional on-air contributor to the Oregon Coast Show, often using humor in his segments. The show airs on Thursdays and Fridays on Charter Cable channel 18 at 7:30 p.m., in Lincoln County and Tillamook County. It also airs inland on KPXG channel 22, which is channel 5 on Comcast Cable.

He began writing about the coast in the mid-1990’s, when his role as music columnist for the Statesman Journal in Salem took him to Newport about once a month to cover events at an all-age club there. “This kind’a led to my obsession,” Hagestedt said. “It was around then I started realizing that I would get cranky if I didn’t visit the coast once a month.”

Hagestedt said the interest in the paranormal on the coast began some ten years earlier, in 1987, when he saw something in Neskowin in the middle of the night he couldn’t explain.

“There was this weird red, undulating glow on the horizon, that would change shape and intensity,” he said. “The girl I was and I were pretty freaked out. It looked like it was a glow that came from underneath the ocean, or was reflected from something shining above. But what on Earth could do that? We made up all sorts of crazy theories, like UFO’s, or all sorts of crazy stuff I won’t even mention.”

Years later, Hagestedt said, he was interviewing a scientist about glowing phytoplankton and asked her about what he’d seen, but she didn’t have any real answers. That, he said, started him thinking there was a lot more to the coast.

At the Oregon Coast Aquarium, the Coastal Ghosts talks are part of the annual “Creatures of the Night” celebration on Saturday, October 28, featuring numerous events, including a sort of haunted house. Hagestedt will speak at 7:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Admission is substantially reduced for the event with Aquarium members entering free. Non-members who donate a new, unwrapped toy or 2 items of canned or packaged food for Lincoln County Food Share, will enter free also. All other adults pay $2 and kids $1. 2820 SE Ferry Slip Road, Newport, Oregon. (541) 867-3474.

In Seaside, the talk happens at Beach Books on Monday, October 30 at 5 p.m. The event is free. 37 N. Edgewood (next to Pizza Harbor), Seaside, Oregon. (503) 738-3500.

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