Voices of the Beals Building

The Beals Building is vacant. Or, is it?

Beals Building owner Valerie Schumann, and Tillamook County local Jay Harrison, claim to have experiences they can only attribute to the paranormal.

Historical plaque on the Beals Building.

In roughly 1900, Arthur Generous Beals built the building, located at the corner of Main and 3rd Street, in downtown Tillamook. Around that same time, Beals built several other buildings, making it the present central business area of Tillamook, which had previously centered around the Hoquarton Slough.

The Beals Building has served dozens of different businesses through the years. Though the last several, it’s been unoccupied. But, maybe that’s just how it appears to the passerby.

“Once a ghost tripped me [inside the building],” Schumann recalled. “And in the course of tripping me, it was expressed to me it was appreciative of all the work done [to the building].”

Harrison had an experience of his own.

He recalls that Schumann (realtor by trade) was giving walking tours of vacant commercial buildings in the Tillamook area. He was serving refreshments at the Beals Building for the tour.

The Beals Building is currently vacant and for sale.

“People didn’t like coming downstairs. It gave them an eerie feeling,” Schumann said.

At the conclusion of the tour, Harrison was locking up the building and noticed a light on in the back office. He didn’t remember turning it on.

“I was in the back of the building on the first floor,” Harrison remembered. On his way to the lit room, “a short lady with a long, brown sweater crossed in front of me.”

Harrison didn’t recall seeing her as a part of the walking tour. He entered the back room: she was nowhere to be found. With no other entrance or exit, Harrison, spooked, quickly turned off the light and left.

Harrison and Schumann shared their experiences during a presentation at the Garibaldi Maritime Museum on Feb. 3 featuring Big River Paranormal. The same group that investigated the paranormal happenings at the Beals Building.

Big River Paranormal helps clients to explain perceived paranormal activities, free of charge. The majority of those investigations end with logical explanations.

“We’re not trying to say everything is paranormal because then the real stuff is not as cool,” Big River Paranormal Assistant Director Mariah Hassler told the crowd in attendance.

Historical photo of the Beals Building. The photo is currently on display in the building's window.

The Big River team spent several hours in the Beals Building on April 29, 2023 collecting photos and recordings; evidence of which they presented.

Hassler played three recordings from their Beals Building investigation. In the first two, voices (reportedly not identifiable to a member of their team), can be heard saying: “Get out of the kitchen” and “Yoo-hoo.” The third is said to be a recording of footstep sounds in an upper floor.

“There’s a spirit about the building,” Schumann said. “And I welcome the ghost.”

Paranormal? Maybe. Good local, myth? Absolutely.

Click here to view additional photos and recordings from Big River Paranormal investigation.

And if you’ve always wanted to own a ghostly building, you’re in luck: it’s for sale.

A previous version had attributed *Gary Nothstein in the story. Correction has been made.