{"id":3469,"slug":"battle-rock-port-orford-oregon","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["Battle Rock is where Port Orford began in blood — the 1851 fight between the first white landing party and the Tututni people, the rock being the ground where the town's founding was contested by the people whose land it was.","The file's documented spine is the battle's founding weight: a landing that became a fight, the rock being the site where the settlement's first day was defended by the people the settlement displaced."]},{"heading":"The battle dead","paragraphs":["The lore reports the dead seen — the file's haunting being the 1851 fight's residue: the men who died at the rock reportedly still there, the town's founding violence keeping its dead at the place where it happened.","The battle dead are the file's signature — a founding fight's casualties reportedly still at the rock, the town's first blood still on the ground that took it."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["Battle Rock is the archive's founding-fight file — an 1851 battle at Port Orford's first ground, keeping the dead reportedly still there. The documented fight is the record; the lingering dead are the lore of a town born in a fight.","A rock that saw a town's first battle keeps its dead — the file's suggestion being that Port Orford's founding casualties still hold the ground they defended."]}],"name":"Battle Rock","aliases":[],"type":"SITE","type_label":"Site","cats":["BATTLEFIELD","LOCAL_FOLKLORE","LEGEND_SITE","INDIGENOUS"],"groups":["dark-history","legends"],"desc":"The 1851 rock—where the landing party held the beach.","full_desc":"A site in Port Orford, Oregon, Battle Rock is filed here for what the record attaches to it. The 1851 rock—where the landing party held the beach. The presences in its file go unnamed: the battle dead, the record says. The dossier holds 2 reported claims, 1 legend and 1 documented fact, with the verified spine filed separately from the lore. The site is open to visitors.","address":null,"city":"Port Orford","county":null,"state":"Oregon","postal":null,"region":"West","lat":42.749276,"lon":-124.498118,"coord_kind":"CITY","status":"ACTIVE","access":"PUBLIC","access_notes":null,"ownership":null,"website":null,"phone":null,"year_built":null,"year_opened":null,"year_closed":null,"year_demolished":null,"designation":null,"current_use":"Historic site","research_notes":"PNW2 batch; VERIFY task auto-queued.","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"MEDIUM","score":59.4,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.65,"historical_confidence":0.8,"source_quality":0.3999999999999999,"paranormal_claim_provenance":0.8,"coordinate_confidence":0,"current_access_confidence":0.7,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[{"id":3746,"type":"NAMED_GHOST_LEGEND","description":"The dead are reportedly seen. The accounts name only a collective — the battle dead. Battle Rock's file is thin on proof and long on persistence — the standard profile of American place-lore. The story is documented as legend — recorded and retold, never verified as fact. The account appears in 'Battle Rock'. The name travels further than the proof; the sightings keep renewing the lease.","evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","evidence_label":"Documented legend","entity":"The battle dead","where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.8,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Battle Rock","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Rock","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]},{"id":3747,"type":"APPARITION","description":"Reported figures at the rock. Battle Rock in Port Orford, Oregon carries the report the way old places do — as part of its identity. The file holds testimony rather than proof; the claim remains anecdotal. Sources including 'Battle Rock' keep the claim in circulation. The apparition is the file's anchor — every other report orbits it.","evidence":"ANECDOTAL","evidence_label":"Anecdotal","entity":null,"where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.8,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Battle Rock","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Rock","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]}],"history":[{"description":"The 1851 battle is documented. The site's documented history is the record the rest of the file stands on. The record holds it as fact — documented, not retold. The detail is preserved in 'Battle Rock'. The entry's timeline holds it; the lore holds the rest. The reports keep the address on the map. The account stays in the file — reported, retold, unresolved.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":"1851","date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Battle Rock","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Rock","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"legends":[{"name":null,"summary":"The dead are reportedly seen. Battle Rock in Port Orford, Oregon carries the report the way old places do — as part of its identity. The story is documented as legend — recorded and retold, never verified as fact. The report is preserved in sources like 'Battle Rock'. The tale is the site's other archive — oral, embroidered, and outlasting the documents.","earliest":null,"evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","source":{"name":"Battle Rock","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Rock","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"entities":[{"name":"The battle dead","claimed_identity":"The battle dead","verified":null,"summary":"The dead are reportedly seen. The lore files them collectively as the battle dead. Battle Rock in Port Orford, Oregon carries the report the way old places do — as part of its identity. The named presence is what turns a haunting into a household. The file stays open on it. The lore keeps its witness.","behavior":"The dead are reportedly seen.","area":null,"first_ref":null,"source":{"name":"Battle Rock","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Rock","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"events":[],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"tour_availability":"Verify before visiting","notes":"Site access varies; verify before visiting.","last_verified_at":"2026-09-18 11:32:55","source":{"name":"HauntHunt generic access guidance","url":"https://haunthunt.com/about#access-guidance","publisher":"HauntHunt editorial","type":"DIRECTORY","authority":2}},"sources":[{"name":"Battle Rock","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Rock","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}],"conflicts":[],"wiki":{"title":"Battle Rock","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Rock","desc":"Promontory on the coast of Oregon, USA","extract":"Battle Rock, or Battle Rock Arch, is  a promontory on the west coast of the United States of America. It is located in the southwest Curry County of Oregon, near the small coastal city of Port Orford. The rock is composed mainly of basalt, and is part of the coastal Otter Point Formation. In 1851, a small skirmish broke out on the rock between white settlers and the indigenous Quatomah Tututnis, the Athapaskan people who lived in the area. The settlers eventually fled, before returning in greater numbers and establishing a fort at Cape Orford. The skirmish passed into local legend, becoming a part of Port Orford's community celebrations and folklore.\n\n","img":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d8/BattleRockCityPark.jpg/960px-BattleRockCityPark.jpg?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=api&utm_content=thumbnail","score":104,"lat":42.7392756,"lon":-124.4884377},"counts":{"claims":2,"history":1,"legends":1,"entities":1,"sources":1}}