• Part 1: "It won't happen here."
• Part 2: A woman who could do a man's job
• Part 3: TESC?
• Part 4: Peanut Butter
• Part 5: OPD roadblock
• Part 6: The ghost
• Part 7: Custom meat service
• Part 8: The dedication
• Part 9: The American Legion Story
• Part 10: Stokely Carmichael
• Part 11: The Soviet of Washington
• Part 12: Saving the whales
• Part 13: The broken promise
• Part 14: Third time's a charm
• Part 15: Evergreen character
• Part 16: TESC to the rescue
• Part 17: Left of McGovern
• Part 18: Watergate of the West
• Part 19: Tic-tac-toe
• Part 20: Spiritual cleansing
• Part 21: The "The"
• Part 22: "The experiment is over"
• Part 23: Their blood makes me deeper
• Part 24: Evals and grades
• Part 25: The Jungle Gallery
• Part 26: Monday Night Movies
• Part 27: Jobbo Bonobo
• Part 28: Jobbo and Bonobo
• Part 29: "Repeat after me..."
• Part 30: Eat the Sun
• Part 31: "I think his idea's obscenely"
• Part 32: Happy birthday, Senator Proxmire
• Part 33: "Safe and bland"
• Part 34: An epic water fight?

With Halloween around the corner, this seems as good a time as any to tell the story of Evergreen's resident ghost. Early one morning in 1988, a student worker in the TESC Library was preparing for the day near the periodicals section before the building opened to the public. She freaked when she saw a clean cut young man, all in gray, walk out of an invisible door, stride purposely north to south about 50 feet, and vanish into another invisible door. The witness, as I recall, was a level headed serious student. I talked with her shortly after the incident, and something about it made me remember a long forgotten bit of trivia.

In the Halloween issue of the Daily Olympian in 1968, two decades before this ghost sighting, the paper ran an article about the Churchman family, who sold their property to the State in order to make room for the new college. They lived, as near as I can tell, in what is now the southwest corner of campus. Here is their public statement, which was run on page 1, top of the fold: "To the future students of Evergreen State College. We, the Churchman family of the Lewis Road, west of Olympia, wish to leave a legacy to The Evergreen State College, which will occupy the land we have called home for the last ten years. We have left now, after a reluctant sale of our home to the State of Washington. We leave behind us one small member of our family whom we found it impossible to move. We leave you our household ghost. He came to us about four years ago and his presence has been part of our lives since the day he entered our home unannounced. He is often heard walking about the house and gravel paths and he is often seen and heard opening the doors of the home and other buildings. He seems to be quite at home and comes at all hours of the day and night. He has never attempted to harm any members of the family. Not only are we used to his comings and goings, but the family dogs now ignore him though he is heard walking within a few feet of them. Sometimes they will look when he opens a door but never make a fuss about it. We wonder why he chose our home. Was there something here we never understood? We are going to miss him but we feel our friend will be a good member of the new college. We wonder which group of students he will choose for his new companions when the school is finished and occupied. We hope you will be kind to him, future students, and accept him as we have. Treat him well. He is our legacy to you."

The article goes on with more description of the ghost. He was a "solid-state" apparition of medium build. He liked to turn lights and faucets off and on. SPSCC also has a ghost, The Lady in White, and she likes to play tricks as well. I think we need to get these two together.

I'm glad that someone else thinks that maybe it isn't such a great idea to have 125 log trucks per day driving through downtown.

From the Olympian:

Activists Jerry Parker and Jan Witt want the port or Federal Way-based Weyerhaeuser to pay for a more comprehensive environmental impact review. They've retained Olympia attorney Barnett Kalikow to handle the legal challenge under the State Environmental Policy Act.

At stake is the potential for $1.5 million in new annual port revenue, 36 Weyerhaeuser jobs and the need for up to 23 new longshore jobs at the port docks.

Commissioners voted 3-0 in August to enter into a five-year lease with the timber giant to begin shipping logs overseas next year. Parker and Witt say the port failed to sufficiently review the effects of bringing new log trucks to the city, including exhaust emissions, noise and wear and tear on streets. They also have raised questions about the effect on sea life from possible dredging near port docks, on water quality from wood that might spill into West Bay and Budd Inlet, and of glare that could result from adding lighting to the proposed 24.5-acre Weyerhaeuser site.

On concrete wall in front of Capital Retirement, facing sidewalk, across from mall, 700 Black Lake Blvd SW, Olympia. All other graffiti is consistently painted over, this has been left untouched. Photo by Cheri Hall.

(Update 11/15/2005: Recent graffitti has been painted over again, the stencil art remains untouched.)

(Update 4/10/2007: This stencil art continues to be protected and treasured. Other graffitti is painted over periodically while this remains.)

(Winter 2007: everything painted over including this stencil, alas)