In the Valley of Shadows

Werewolves in Bonner's Ferry?

Something a little different to start off my third year with the Journal.

When Trish first asked me to do this column, it was after she learned of my planned book of areas ghost stories and accounts of  unusual phenomenon. In other words, the material I had was finite and indeed, I would be close to running out by now if a number of people had not come forward with accounts I was not aware of when I began these column.

Now, though, I still have enough stories to at least run though this year. We’ll see what comes up after that. Among upcoming columns, Spirit Lake, our local lake monster, the house that floated down the river years ago during a flood, the Tanner House, and a  haunted car that gives ‘Christine’ a run for her money and more. Also on the horizon, a wider view of the mysteries of the world with Trish’s indulgence: ‘Shadow Science’, but that’s for the future.

Now, however, a few brief tales to kick off 2010.

For our friends in Bonners Ferry, well, they seem to have a slight problem with werewolves, at least according to one resident and her visiting sister-in-law from Sandpoint.

On the outskirts of Bonners (I won’t mention which side), a woman and her husband were hosting her sister-in-law one October weekend. The visiting woman was standing near her upstairs guest room window after dinner, talking on the phone, when suddenly a face appeared in the dark window. The face, if it could be called that,  was what she described as wolfish, but too flat  to be that of a normal animal.

Screaming in fright and dropping the phone, her sister-in-law and brother came bounding up the stairs. When she could finally get out what she had seen, her brother smirked and suggested Bigfoot, (as in my November account). Shaking her head in annoyance she insisted it had the fangs and features of a wolf, but was strangely flat-faced, with a foreshortened muzzle.

The next morning, the ground was searched and sure enough, there was a slight impression of a wolf-like print, but human sized with five toes at the top, like that of a human, and the addition of claw impressions just ahead of the toes.

What did she see? A werewolf? Whatever it was, how was it able to look into a second story window? In any event, the woman from then on has refused to return to her brother’s house, forcing them to visit here in Sandpoint.

Then there’s the woman in Rathdrum who suspects she was haunted by her dead husband until putting her foot down.  

The woman, after the death of her husband from a heart attack, had traded in his beloved pickup on a new car.  At once, the car began experiencing electrical problems. Panel lights flashing, the car stalling out on the road, only to mysteriously restart. Nothing a mechanic was able to do could explain or fix the problem. She was on the verge of taking the car back to the dealer when one night the car suddenly went stone dead driving home from a friend’s house. She got out,  stood by the vehicle and on impulse yelled:  “Enough!” In two seconds, the lights suddenly came back on, the engine purred and there was never any trouble again. Of course, the ghost wouldn’t let his wife get in the last word. She would often find the back room in the house where a lot of his stuff was stored with the ceiling light on every day after she was sure she had turned it off. The woman decided to allow this slight symbol of  defiance. In a way, she felt him close and it comforted her.

Finally, a brief and now former resident of the Westwood condos had one experience while his wife was still in bed as he got up early for his job and sat at the bar between the living room and kitchen drinking coffee. The sound of someone unseen, walking across the carpet towards the front door and, as he looked, the door suddenly opened about six inches. Nothing else followed, but another abode became available soon after and the couple moved, quickly.

Here’s to a spooky, thrilling New Year in the Valley of Shadows.