Hauntings at Baker Prairie

You hear people talk about the hauntings at Baker Prairie Cemetery. Everyone knows someone who knows someone who knew the next door neighbors who said it was definitely haunted. Children see dead people and even talk to them. One particular ghost wears a black suit and leather hat and holds a briefcase, staring down at a grave. If you try to talk to him he disappears, or he strolls away through the mist on Knightsbridge Road. He may even try to follow your car at spectral speed. You can never forget the chilling stories. But the stories differ greatly if you talk to Theresa and Samantha St. Clair. They share the fence with the cemetery, and they’ve never seen one single ghost in the 18 years they have lived there. However, they have seen things.

In 1850, the Donation Land Act in Oregon allowed “married white men and half breed Indians” to claim as much as 640 acres. In Canby, the history of the Pioneer Cemetery began in 1852, when J. Wesley Joslyn sold one acre of his donated land grant to his community for $1. The community at that time was called Baker Prairie, and that image gives us a picture of what the Cemetery looked like before we began burying our noble citizens there — perhaps a prairie grassland buzzing with bees, birds and butterflies. Out of 131 gravesites, 86 are for people who died before 1900. There’s no more room in this sun drenched heaven, unless you are a family member of someone who already purchased a plot. But you can visit many of the dignitaries of old Canby residing in eternal peace. Along with the Knights, the Lees, and the Macks, the founders and the pioneers are buried where giant conifers stretch long shadows across their graves.

Theresa and her daughter Samantha often sit fireside next to the cemetery fence, and people looking at the graves do sometimes hang over the fence with typical questions. The St. Clair’s have to disappoint them, however, saying they have never once seen a ghost inside the graveyard. They have, however, seen things inside their house, a big blue-gray two story with an expansive yard.

18 years ago, they had just moved in. Boxes were everywhere. As they told this story, an enormous and annoying cat wound around the yard, making himself at home. They’d never seen the cat before. “We’ve had a couple little weird things happen in the house,” said Theresa.

Sam was about five years old in the retelling. Theresa was moving into her new house beside a graveyard. She went upstairs to start unboxing toys in the playroom and she found a stuffed animal sitting on the landing. Since she was home alone, it was somewhat unnerving, but she tossed it inside the playroom without too much worry. Later she returned to the playroom and the stuffed toy was sitting on top of all the boxes. After that day. Samantha doesn’t like to be alone in the playroom. It makes you wonder if, perhaps, the stuffed toy was once a cat, like the big stray tramping all over the yard like he’s been there before.

The St. Clair’s spy interesting people in the graveyard, especially on nights with a full moon or Friday the 13th. They recalled a Goth student — dressed in all black — shooting his senior pictures there. “Why did I not think of that?” joked Sam. Another interesting visit came from a group of five women and two teenage girls — but they were not a witch coven, as any reasonable person would imagine. They stood in a semicircle and hummed the rosary.

Today, people like to stop by at the end of a walk and stroll around. “It’s surprising how many people come,” said Theresa. She does observe what goes on in the cemetery. It feels right to keep watch, and other neighbors do as well. Thankfully, people remain respectful of the old graves.

Sam recalls how many sleepovers she had as a kid, “pretty much every year for my birthday.” Her friends wanted to sleep next to a graveyard. They found it plenty scary, but she never did. “I’ve lived here my whole life,” she said. Theresa and her daughter Sam aren’t put off by the threats of ghosts, not even on All Saints Night.

If you want the chance to see a ghost or maybe just some spooky dancing shadows, stop by Baker Prairie Cemetery on some moonlit night, maybe even Halloween.