The small town of Rock Point, Oregon dried up and died many years ago. Today, the area where the town once stood is owned by Del Rio Vineyards, and the only remaining building, The Rock Point Tavern, is on vineyard property, and used for weddings and other special events. The cemetery, just down the hill, stands as a tribute to those who called this place home. And by some accounts, a few residents have never left.
The tavern and nearby Rock Point hotel were built near the mid-1800’s. In addition, the town boasted a church, school, blacksmith shop, store and post office. When stage routes were mapped out, Rock Point gained it’s own coach stop, thus connecting the tiny town with the outside world. However, when the railroad came through some years later, Rock Point was by-passed, as the train station was built several miles south in Gold Hill. Cut off from the world after the stage coaches stopped running, Rock Point died a slow death as it’s citizens moved closer to civilization.
The Rock Point Cemetery, however, sits today where it has sat for nearly two centuries, alongside the railroad tracks that doomed the town. The earliest graves are from the 1800’s, although the odd burial does still take place on the grounds. It is a shady, quiet spot, overgrown with oak trees and star thistle, and, if you believe some of the stories, it’s also a hotbed of paranormal activity.
It is said that on dark, moonless nights in late fall, a dark, hooded figure walks the rows between the tombstones, holding a glowing lantern in one hand. Unearthly noises and strange, red-eyed animals frequent the woods around the graveyard. Cell phones, GPS and digital cameras sometimes act oddly, or refuse to work altogether.
The ghost of an old woman laying flowers on the grave of a baby has also been reported. When approached, she disappears into thin air. Is she perhaps still tending the grave of her lost child, dead herself all these long years?
The most famous legend, however, concerns the road that runs parallel to the graveyard. It is said that if you drive down that stretch of road on certain nights at midnight, a green-tinted fog will begin to emerge from the graves. This fog is said to break car windows, mess with electrical systems, and occasionally cause your car to stop working altogether.
There are those that say the reports of haunting can all be attributed to the magnetic fields of the nearby Oregon Vortex, just up the hill from the graveyard. This would certainly explain the technological malfunctions that seem to take place within the cemetery’s grounds, but does not explain away the apparitions or noises, nor the destructive green fog. It is a mystery that may never be solved.
Rock Point, Oregon may be no more than a ghost town today, but it is a ghost town populated by real ghosts. The cemetery is open daily until dusk, and can be found between Gold Hill and Rogue River on Highway 234.