Pacific Paranormal Research Society

Mission Mill Museum

 

This was one of our first & earliest investigations as a team! We were still a little "green" back then!

Mission Mill Museum
1313 Mill Street SE
Salem, OR
www.missionmill.org

Investigation Results: We received Orbs in the Mill area, at the Machine Room, and we got to see a full apparition of Wayne. EMF meters went up to 7.00 at the Jason Lee House, and up to 4.00 at the Boon House. Keep in mind that it is difficult to get true readings on EMF meters in the Mill itself due to its high use of electricity. No EVP was detected although requested by the spirits present in the Jason Lee House.

Haunted: Both by conscious ghosts and residual imprints, yes.

Upon your arrival to the Mission Mill Museum, you are immediately transported back into the late 1800’s. Not only the Mill itself, but there is an excellent array of surviving historic homes that have been replanted onto the museum grounds. The woolen mill itself was in operation until 1962, and run by Thomas Kay and his family since 1889.

Jason Lee was a Methodist missionary in1842 who was one of the founding fathers of the City of Salem, and also established Willamette University, which is the oldest University on the West Coast.

Let’s talk about Wayne Mentzger for a moment. Wayne worked at the mill as did his father before him, and took special loving care of the Mill. In fact, he was totally devoted to it; the Mill was his whole life. He was employed there for 60 years as a Mill Wright. When we were heading toward the gift shop area to meet our party that morning, a man in his late 60’s with white hair and wearing blue coveralls and a blue cap passed in front of us. He turned and looked at us as if to wish us good morning, and kept walking; he headed toward the bridge. We figured he was a maintenance employee, and did not think twice about this. Later, when we were taken to the Machine Room, we saw a picture of Wayne on the wall. We laughed aloud as we realized that the maintenance man we had seen earlier had been Wayne. The museum staff view him as a caretaking spirit, and are comforted in the possibility that he is still wandering the grounds; making sure his beloved Mill is operating properly. Much of the staff has seen or felt his presence.

You will find more spirits in the Jason Lee House, where a little girl has been seen on the porch. There is a domineering male and a shy female ghost in the downstairs Lee Apartment area. Upstairs in this same house, there is a male ghost who enjoys preening himself in the mirror. Customers and employees have reported seeing this ghost peering out ruefully from the upstairs window, watching them below. The domineering male downstairs is extremely possessive of material things, and moves items from one place to the other to annoy the staff. He also likes to toy with the alarm system and the lights downstairs.

Volunteers and Employees have reported lights and sounds emanating from the Pleasant Grove Presbyterian Church.
In the early 1900’s on the third floor of the Mill, a drunken security guard fell out of an open glass door and was killed instantly when he hit the ground below. They now have this glass door blocked off by a piano. Whether the staff or volunteers have seen his ghost in this building, we did not ascertain.

There is a wandering spirit in the Boon House. She travels constantly from the living room area to the kitchen.
We were allowed into the Boiler Room which is not open to the general public. In the back rooms, they have warehoused old equipment. Maintenance staff have reported movement of the equipment in these rooms, disembodied footsteps, and the sound of one of the two Boiler Doors slamming shut.

There is a story that there is the ghost of a woman that has been heard screaming from the bridge near the water wheel. There was a murder there less than a decade ago; an angry man murdered his wife and left her in this location. One of the maintenance men told us how he had been the one to find her body on the bridge when he came to work that morning. (And you think your Monday’s suck!)

The staff and spirits are pleasant (not scary), and it makes for an extremely interesting and spirited visit. It brings back memories of how devoted we used to be to our work and incorporated it into our daily lives; much more so than we do today.

There are self-guided as well as guided tours of the Mill and its historic houses.