Ghost Hunting: Stonehenge

Stonehenge! where the demons dwell.
Where the banshees live and they do live well!

Stonehenge! Where a man is a man,
and the children dance to the pipes of Pan

After World War I, the Quaker pioneer Sam Hill built a full-size poured-concrete replica of Stonehenge on the north bank of the Columbia River, about a hundred miles east of Portland.

He intended it as a monument to the slain soldiers of the Great War. According to the site's tourist notes, he found it strange that in the thousands of years since the original Stonehenge was built, we still hadn't gotten over the need to sacrifice people. (of course, the notes go on to explain that we now know that Stonehenge was an astronomical calendar, not a place for sacrifice.)

Sam Hill was quite a guy. In addition to Stonehenge, he built an entire town by himself, including the first asphalt-paved roads in the nation. Unfortunately, no one moved there, and now just the bare foundations of his buildings are visible.

I didn't know this, but the Maryhill Stonehenge isn't the only Stonehenge replica in the country. This page lists some of the others. Apparently, these stonehengi are magnets for pagan celebrations.

We gather around the interpretive materials, which feature a bunch of cool information on how to tell the seasons with Stonehenge. This stonehenge is apparently very accurate.

A barge lumbers down the Columbia.

Each of the interior stones is inscribed with the name of a soldier from the area who perished in the Great War.

And that was it. We were home a couple hours later. Damn, this was fun. Thanks so much to Jerry, Eric, and Victoria for going along; y'all are a lovely bunch to travel with.

---

...back to the Hot Lake Sanitarium

Home