The Witch's Castle

A moss-covered stone structure in Macleay Park, officially the Macleay Park Shelter, built by the WPA in 1935-1936. Located on land once owned by Danford Balch, who committed Oregon's first legal execution in 1859.

The Witch's Castle is the local name for a moss-covered stone ruin that sits deep within Portland's Forest Park, at the intersection of the Wildwood and Lower Macleay trails along Balch Creek. Officially called the Stone House or the Macleay Park Shelter, the two-story structure was designed by architect Ernest F. Tucker in 1929 and built by the Works Progress Administration between 1935 and 1936. It originally served as a public restroom, picnic shelter, and tool storage room, and held the distinction of being the most remote public restroom in Portland, located over a mile by trail from the nearest street in any direction. The water line to the building was destroyed during the catastrophic Columbus Day Storm of 1962, and city officials deemed repairs too expensive. The city stripped the structure of its fixtures, doors, and roof, leaving only the stone shell to slowly be consumed by moss, ivy, and the surrounding forest.

The land beneath the Stone House has a much older and darker history. It was once part of the homestead of Danford Balch, a settler who arrived in the area in the 1840s. In 1858, Balch's oldest daughter Anna, who was fifteen years old, eloped with Mortimer Stump, a young man who worked at a nearby lumber camp. Balch was enraged by the marriage and the feud between the two men escalated through the fall of that year. On the afternoon of November 18, 1858, as Mortimer and Anna prepared to board the Stark Street Ferry to cross the Willamette River, Balch stepped forward and shot Stump dead with a shotgun in front of his daughter and multiple witnesses. Balch was arrested, tried, and convicted. On October 17, 1859, he was hanged before a crowd of several hundred onlookers in what was the first legal execution in the city of Portland. Balch's land eventually passed through several owners until 1897, when Donald Macleay donated the lion's share to the city. Today it forms part of the larger Forest Park system, and Balch Creek bears the original settler's name.

The structure was mostly forgotten until the 1980s, when local high school students discovered it was a secluded spot for parties and christened it the Witch's Castle, despite the building having no historical connection to witchcraft. The name stuck, and over the decades the ruin accumulated layers of graffiti and an increasingly elaborate set of ghost stories. Visitors report seeing strange floating lights around the structure that vanish into the surrounding forest. Shadowy figures have been glimpsed near the stone walls, particularly at dusk. Some hikers describe fully embodied apparitions of women and children near the ruin. Others report hearing eerie sounds, including what has been described as the phantom flushing of toilets, a remnant perhaps of the building's original function. An overall feeling of unease and the sensation of being watched are among the most commonly reported experiences, even among visitors who arrive unaware of the site's haunted reputation.

Local legend attributes the ghosts to both Danford Balch and Mortimer Stump, with some accounts claiming that Balch's wife is the witch for whom the castle is named. The ruin sits at a confluence of natural and human history -- a Depression-era shelter built on the homestead of Portland's first murderer, deep in a forest that grows darker and more enveloping as the trail winds away from the city. Whether the paranormal reports reflect genuine phenomena or the power of atmosphere and legend, the Witch's Castle remains one of Portland's most visited and most unsettling sites, drawing hikers, paranormal enthusiasts, and curious visitors by the hundreds each week.