A Night With Ghosts

A Night With Ghosts is a walking tour through Northwest Portland that runs on weekends year-round, with almost daily tours at 5 PM, 7:30 PM, and 10 PM throughout September and October. It starts and ends at the northeast corner of NW 21st and Pettygrove St., and it's run by Slabtown Tours, a locally and women-owned walking tour company.

What sets this one apart from your average ghost walk is the research behind it. The tour is led by Dr. Tanya Lyn March, an urban folklorist and Portland historian with advanced training in historic preservation and community development from Portland State University and Columbia University. Instead of relying on urban legends, she builds her narratives from primary sources: medical records, spiritualist writings, census records, and newspaper archives. The route pulls ghost lore from elders, books, medical journals, alienists, spiritualists, and hundreds of newspaper accounts of hauntings in Northwest Portland.

That local history is baked into the neighborhood's very name. Slabtown got its name from the lumber mills that first populated the area with industrial laborers, who sold slabs of log edges as cheap fuel. The tour focuses on the paranormal heritage of Slabtown and Nob Hill, so it's a history-focused experience rather than a haunted house—there are no jump scares here. It's also wheelchair accessible.

Tickets are $32 per adult, with all taxes and processing fees included. You have to be 12 or older to join, and reservations are required. If you're looking for a walk through the city's older stories that actually has the receipts to back them up, this is a good place to start.