Lithia Park

A 93-acre park in Ashland designed by John McLaren, the designer of Golden Gate Park. The park follows Ashland Creek through the center of town.

Lithia Park stretches across 93 acres of forested canyon along Ashland Creek in southern Oregon, its origins rooted in the earliest days of settlement. Abel Helman and Eber Emery built a flour mill on this site in 1852, establishing what would become the city of Ashland. The area remained largely wild until 1908, when the Women's Civic Improvement Club petitioned for the creation of a public park along the creek. Voters approved the measure 607 to 138 on December 17, 1908. The city hired John McLaren, the legendary landscape architect of San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, to design the grounds. Initially called Ashland Canyon Park, it was renamed Lithia Park in 1915 after the discovery of high lithium concentrations in local mineral springs.

The park's most persistent haunting centers on a young woman in a nineteenth-century dress who appears near the duck ponds, crying and calling out for help. According to local legend, a girl was assaulted and murdered in the park during the 1800s, and her spirit has never left. Visitors and Southern Oregon University students have reported seeing her apparition clearly, sometimes accompanied by an eerie blue light that flickers and drifts over the surface of the pond before vanishing. One group of visitors described driving through a paranormal blue mist near the ponds that chilled them to the bone despite mild weather.

A second spirit is that of a lumberjack who was killed when struck by falling logs in the forested upper reaches of the park. Unlike the sorrowful girl, the logger is described as friendly and approachable. Witnesses report hearing faint flute-like melodies when he appears, a detail attributed to the man's love of playing musical instruments during his lifetime. His apparition has been seen by multiple visitors over the years, always displaying a gentle demeanor.

A third ghost is said to be that of a train robber who fled into the park after a daring heist, seeking refuge in its dense woods. According to the legend, a group of vigilantes caught up with him and drowned him somewhere in the park's depths. His restless spirit is occasionally sensed along the wooded trails, particularly after dark.

Beyond the named apparitions, Lithia Park generates a range of unexplained phenomena. Visitors report shadow figures circling parked vehicles and dark silhouettes crossing pathways. Car alarms have activated without anyone touching the keys, and vehicles have repeatedly locked and unlocked on their own. Some visitors have experienced complete mechanical failures, unable to start their cars until leaving the park on foot. Photographs taken in the park frequently show light anomalies that were not visible to the naked eye, and electronic devices are said to drain rapidly, a phenomenon some paranormal researchers attribute to spirits drawing on electromagnetic energy to manifest.

The area around the fairy ponds at the park's lower end is considered the most active paranormal hotspot, particularly during late-night hours between midnight and one in the morning. Paranormal investigators from the Boise City Ghost Hunters have recorded EVP sessions in the park, capturing what they describe as a male voice clearly saying "Hi" in response to questions and a child's voice whispering "help." The park has weathered severe storms in 1974 and 1997 that caused significant damage to its old-growth trees and trails, events some locals believe stirred up spiritual energy that had lain dormant. Today Lithia Park remains one of Ashland's most beloved public spaces, drawing visitors for its natural beauty by day and its reputation as one of southern Oregon's most haunted locations by night.