In 1983 I drove from Longview Washington to the Elokaman Fish Hatchery, about 50 miles away to do some salmon fishing. It was around the first part of January, I had my dog Duke with me just in case a bear or cougar came around.   Old Duke weighed 160 lbs - a mix of Rottweiler and King Boxer, and he loved to go fishing.

It was 23 degrees out. I was 30 years old when this occurred. Driving off the main highway, it took about 20 minutes to get to this old fish hatchery, as I crossed the small bridge I noticed the lights were on at the hatchery it was 6am,  light snow.   As I crossed the bridge, suddenly right in front of me was a boy of around 13 walking away from me this I guesstimate to be a full 10 seconds  - I could make out his clothing, shoes, hair, even his breath.

Then it hit me where was a car he must have come in, what the hell is a kid doing out here, then I looked down in the snow, my truck completely at a stop - no shoe prints.  The boy turned real quick to look at me put his body sideways arm out as if to run and in a blink evaporates in air.  Now during this Duke is going nuts barking and growling so I let him out of the cab.  He ran up to the spot where we both saw this kid, circled it ran back to the cab jumped in put his head down and acted like he just got ran over shaking and whining.

I made a u - turn and drove out of there going sideways.   I got back to the highway and drove to a small town, called and made a report to the sheriff.

Later in 1997,  I married and moved up to Seattle.

He said you really gave a start to my boy -  why I remember floating down the river and my boy jumped in to get me.  I slipped when I was cleaning the fish and with a laugh he said I dove right in.

By now I was going who is this?  Is this a joke?   He said very quietly, your dog I had to bring him back to your truck -  hope I didn’t scare him to much.  Now I was stunned,  nobody knew of this story but the sheriff and even then I didn’t mention my dog getting out of the truck.

Now my old Duke, rest his soul, has treed bears, treed cougars, never ever backed down from nothing - he died one week after that encounter,  from dehydration and shock.   The vet said he had a very traumatic experience and has never seen a case like it.  

Anyway he told me his name and boys name - he said my boy could use a new hat and play some catch, (I’m in shock but writing all this down) he said they pulled me out but my boy looked like Casper and just went right on by me he said once more to come down, I said in a ‘can’t believe this’ way why didn’t I see you, he said I nearly made it through and hung up.

I looked on my caller ID -    No incoming phone call.  My wife knew something was wrong, I finally told her the whole story. I did ask my wife if the person asked for me by name and I remember her saying no. Only that it was from someone from the hatchery.   

Back a few years ago a reporter called me from Longview and had heard of my story through the sheriffs office, not just mine but numerous others including the manager at the fish hatchery and workers over several years it was common to see the boy, other fisherman same thing.   I did a little research and a dad and son died there in the early 50s the name same as I was given.  The story appeared in October 2002 in a Longview Washington newspaper-  2 pages (news article below).

No, I’ve never gone back, and I never seen a UFO or noticed any ‘bump in the night’,  but I did see and I did talk to something from somewhere this is 100% authentic.  I don’t think you can build a story like this. 

I called the manager of the hatchery and he even guessed the boy to be 13, said he’s seen it several times- mainly when it‘s real cold, or really stormy out, anyway maybe you had a similar sight I’m never going down there again its old and very spooky and now I know what’s there.   Thank you Doug

I told nobody including my wife of what I saw, as for the phone call it was no hoax the man told me his name, Dan or Don Breeden I am still having problems with this encounter - it's not just the phone call or sighting,  there have been several calls, sometimes he laughs and goes on about how I should be :there: the last call was on Sunday night Jan 2 at around 4 in the morning, he makes it very clear I need to get back down there as his son needs me.

Does this make any since?  I'm  rattled over this, but it seems he’s only capable of phone calls that end abruptly, he’s contacted me I would say 20 or so times. Never threatening. Very calm as a matter of fact type, my caller ID shows nothing at all.

Can’t call the cops or phone company, and just telling you this I feel like a nut I mean who the heck would believe this? By the way I tried one time to tape record his voice, this is the strange part I talked, then when he talked nothing at all total silence, in my head?  only a few times has he talked the rest of the calls sounded like water or wind, it lasts maybe 20 or so seconds I know its him because one time I heard this then he started speaking, and he’s gone.

For some reason I’m wanted down there, WHY?  And WHY is this guy calling me?

Haunted Hatchery

By Leslie Slape   Oct 29, 2002 - 08:41:13 am PST

CATHLAMET -- When Doug Carter went fishing on that chilly morning, he caught something he didn't expect.

"I don't believe in ghosts. I don't even believe in UFOs. I'm an outdoors person, all the time. I don't believe in Bigfoot, I don't believe in nothing. But what I saw, I can't deny," said Carter, 49, a former Longview resident who now lives in Tacoma.

"I don't drink, don't use drugs," he said. "I'm not the type who tells tales."

Sometime in the 1980s -- he can't recall the exact year -- he decided to try his luck fishing on the Elochoman River near Cathlamet. He arrived at the Elochoman Salmon Hatchery long before dawn.

"I'm thinking, 'How did he get ahead of me?' " he said. "The kid spun around, looked right at me, leaned to his right, put his arms into the air and literally disappeared into thin air. Boom. Gone. He didn't run. My lights and the fish hatchery lights were on him; it was as bright as a parking lot. He just disappeared right in front of my eyes."

"It was definitely something," said Sam Lundgren of Cathlamet. Lundgren, who retired from the hatchery in 1999, said he saw the boy's ghost "a dozen or so" times in the 13 years he worked there.

"Usually this time of year when it's raining and stormy out we'd be up cleaning an intake screen," he said. "We'd look back and see somebody standing in the hatchery."

He said workers would hurry back into the hatchery to see who it was, but no one was ever there.

"You wouldn't see wet footprints," he said. "He never bothered anything or like that. He seemed to be there -- and not."

The boy, whom he estimated to be 12 or 13, appeared so frequently that workers stopped getting spooked.

"You got used to it," he said. "It was, 'Oh yeah, he's back.' "

That's why he didn't think about warning his son, Sam Jr., when he helped the night watchman at the hatchery one stormy night when he was 14 or 15 years old.

"He was checking upper pond, right there by the intake," Lundgren said. "He came walking back and saw somebody inside. He went running back. There were no footprints or wet spots or anything. He told me, and I said, 'That's just the ghost. If you see him I want to talk to him. I'll put him to work.' "

He said fishermen often saw the boy.

"We've had people come in and see a boy standing at the end of bridge soaking wet. They'd stop to help but he'd disappeared."

Lundgren added, "Supposedly years ago a boy drowned. I don't know, that's what I was told, and they assumed it's him."

Though many people have drowned in Wahkiakum County, no one can think of a boy who drowned in the Elochoman on a stormy night.

"It was way before my time," said Sheriff Gene Strong, who began working for the Wahkiakum County Sheriff's Office in 1977.

He had heard of Carter's sighting, but no other appearances.

"It's not a well-known Cathlamet legend of a haunting on the bridge," he said. "He may truly believe he saw something -- but what, nobody knows."

According to Carter, the boy he saw was about 12 or 13 years old and wore a baseball cap.

His dog Duke, a brawny mix of Rottweiler pit bull, boxer and Great Dane, went "absolutely nuts."

"He started barking when he saw the boy. He saw it too, no doubt," said Carter, who let Duke out of the cab. "He ran right for that spot and started circling. He was a real good sniffer. He sniffed in five circles, then put his tail down and ran right for the truck. Duke didn't back down from anything, nothing, but he sensed something and got back in the truck real quick. He wouldn't get out of the truck again."

Carter said when he found no trace of the boy, he "freaked out," positive he'd seen a ghost.

"The shock that went through my body, my mind -- I was completely out of air," he said.

He said it was hard to talk about it, but he told his sister, Gloria Cook of Longview.

Cook, who said she's not superstitious, wanted proof.

"He said, 'Do me a favor, go to the fish hatchery and tell me if you see anything weird,' " she said. She and her husband, Terry, drove there at 3 a.m. the following morning.

"We had cameras and a video recorder with us. Me, the big sister, I'm saying, 'We'll get up there and get a picture,' " she said.

They didn't see a ghost, but they definitely got the shivers.

"It's an eerie, creepy place," she said. "You feel uncomfortable when it's dark and gloomy. We went across the bridge and into the parking lot. Then my husband and I looked at each other and said, 'Let's get out of here.'

"Take a trip out there in the morning," she said. "It's ... different."

Carter, who has never been back to the Elochoman, said he thinks about the ghost every day.

"There is another dimension to our whole life. There is another life after ours; there has to be."

~~~~~

Elokomin Salmon Hatchery

The Elokomin Hatchery is located on the Elokomin River, 7 miles upstream from the river mouth. The Elokomin River is a north bank tributary of the lower Columbia River below Bonneville Dam. It enters the Columbia at river mile 38, just downstream of Cathlamet, Washington. Elokomin Hatchery was authorized under the Mitchell Act and began operating in 1954 as part of the Columbia River Fisheries

 The facility consists of 20 raceway, 3 large ponds and a hatchery building with 6 shallow troughs, 12 deep troughs, 36 stacks of vertical incubators and 9 freestyle incubators

Water rights are from four sources: the Elokomin River, one well, a small, unnamed stream and Clear Creek.  The Elokomin River supplies the majority (94 percent of average flow) of the water used for fish rearing. Water from Clear Creek and an unnamed stream is used for incubation. 

~~~~

Main Entry: ¹phan·tom  something (as a specter) apparent to sense but with no substantial existence; APPARITION something elusive or visionary; an unusual or unexpected sight : PHENOMENON b : a ghostly figure. 

Merriam-Webster  Dictionary

~~~~~

From Trent Brandon at zerotime; 

In almost all cases the caller has a close emotional tie with the person they are contacting. They're usually a spouse, parent, child or good friend. The intentions of the telephone call will vary. Sometimes the calls will be on the date of a special anniversary, or to warn of some kind of impending danger. Other times the calls are messages for the living to carry out a task on behave of the deceased. The majority of these calls seem to be to express love and give a final goodbye.

The caller's voice sounds exactly the same as when they were alive. There may be static or other strange noises on the line. The telephone calls can last anywhere from only a few seconds to a couple of minutes and it usually ends with the voice fading away until there is nothing to be heard on the line but an eerie silence.

Phone Calls From the Dead by Wendy Brenner