The Werewolf of Portland

If you look at the name of the city–it has the word PORT in it–it makes sense that Portland, Oregon would be infamous as the capital of shanghaiing. To be shanghaied meant to be kidnapped and sold as a virtual slave to some ship’s captain. You’d drink something that some creep had spiked with some drug, or maybe you’d just pass out drunk without any help. Or maybe you were walking along at night, minding your own business, and you got cracked over the head. Either way, you woke up on a ship already under sail, and were informed by the captain and his mates that if you didn’t get your ass to work, they’d feed you to the sharks. THAT is shanghaiing. Scary scenario, yes? It happened to a lot of people in Portland.

There are these interconnected, labyrinthine tunnels beneath the city of Portland called the “Shanghai Tunnels,” because they made the process so much easier to accomplish. Unsurprisingly the tunnels are haunted. You can take a tour of them today.

What isn’t as well known about the tunnels is that one of the entities purported to haunt them is a werewolf. Sometimes people see just a spectral wolf. Sometimes they see a man who then transforms into a wolf. He is described as a Native American, and there are those who theorize that he is the ghost of an Indian who got Shanghaied, and now patrols the tunnels to keep the same fate from befalling any other of his people. He is something of a guardian spirit, then. Would this make it any less scary for you, were you to encounter him, down there in the dark?

By The Evil Cheezman

WAYNE MILLER is the owner and creative director of EVIL CHEEZ PRODUCTIONS (www.evilcheezproductions.blogspot.com, www.facebook.com/evilcheezproductions), specializing in theatrical performances and haunted attractions. He has written, produced and directed (and occasionally acted in) over a dozen plays, most of them in the Horror and Crime genres. His first novel, THE CONFESSIONS OF SAINT CHRISTOPHER: WEREWOLF, is available for purchase at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/734763 MORTUI VELOCES SUNT!

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