{"id":1714,"slug":"lithia-park-ashland-oregon","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["Lithia Park is the garden the lithium bought — the Chautauqua ground of 1892 that grew into the ninety-three acres along Ashland Creek when Bert Greer sold the town on becoming the Saratoga Springs of the West. The $175,000 bond issue passed in 1914 to pipe the lithia water down; the spa never came, but John McLaren — the man who'd built Golden Gate Park — laid out the park that did, the Olmstedian canyon of ponds and paths and native trees.","The flour mill came down for the plaza and the first Shakespeare played in the Chautauqua ruins in 1935 — the festival that grew out of the park's shell into the Oregon Shakespeare Festival that made the town. The lithium scheme failed; the park it funded became a million-visitor landscape, McLaren's only Oregon work, and the ground where Ashland's theater was born.","The file keeps Lithia Park: the Chautauqua, the lithia bond, McLaren's design, and the festival that grew from the park's old stage.","Lithia Park is the archive's Ashland file — the spa that failed and the Shakespeare that succeeded."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["Lithia Park is the archive's Ashland file — the 1914 lithia scheme, McLaren's landscape, and the OSF birthplace.","A failed spa keeps its park — the file's suggestion being that Lithia's hold is the accident: the water scheme that died but paid for the canyon, and the Shakespeare that grew where the Chautauqua's dome had stood."]}],"name":"Lithia Park","aliases":[],"type":"PARK","type_label":"Park","cats":["HAUNTED_LOCATION"],"groups":["hauntings","nature"],"desc":"Ashland park with multiple local apparition legends.","full_desc":"Lithia Park is a park in Ashland, Oregon. Ashland park with multiple local apparition legends. It sits in the archive under haunted locations. The dossier holds 1 reported claim and 1 legend — all telling, no verified spine yet, and the file says so plainly. Access details are unverified — research before visiting. The dossier keeps the place and the story in the same record — which is what the archive is for.","address":null,"city":"Ashland","county":null,"state":"Oregon","postal":null,"region":"West","lat":42.192216,"lon":-122.69825,"coord_kind":"CITY","status":"UNKNOWN","access":"UNKNOWN","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":null,"research_notes":"Attribution documents local folklore only; violent backstories and identities remain unverified.","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"LOW","score":43.1,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.65,"historical_confidence":0,"source_quality":0.6,"paranormal_claim_provenance":0.8,"coordinate_confidence":0,"current_access_confidence":0,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[{"id":898,"type":"APPARITION","description":"Travel Oregon recounts stories of a girl, a logger and a “dog-faced boy.” Open country keeps its stories differently — Lithia Park in Ashland, Oregon files its reports in weather and distance. 'Oregon’s Haunted Spots' preserves the telling; the record keeps it filed where it belongs, as lore. The apparition is the file's anchor — every other report orbits it.","evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","evidence_label":"Documented legend","entity":null,"where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.6,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Oregon’s Haunted Spots","url":"https://traveloregon.com/things-to-do/culture-history/historic-sites-oregon-trail/oregons-haunted-spots/","publisher":"Travel Oregon","type":"TOURISM","authority":3},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]}],"history":[],"legends":[{"name":null,"summary":"Travel Oregon recounts stories of a girl, a logger and a “dog-faced boy.” Lithia Park's reports travel the way outdoor lore does — by campfire, trailhead, and local warning. 'Oregon’s Haunted Spots' preserves the telling; the record keeps it filed where it belongs, as lore. The tale is the site's other archive — oral, embroidered, and outlasting the documents.","earliest":null,"evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","source":{"name":"Oregon’s Haunted Spots","url":"https://traveloregon.com/things-to-do/culture-history/historic-sites-oregon-trail/oregons-haunted-spots/","publisher":"Travel Oregon","type":"TOURISM","authority":3}}],"entities":[],"events":[],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"tour_availability":"Verify before visiting","notes":"Access details are unverified; research 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":"Oregon’s Haunted Spots","url":"https://traveloregon.com/things-to-do/culture-history/historic-sites-oregon-trail/oregons-haunted-spots/","publisher":"Travel Oregon","type":"TOURISM","authority":3}],"conflicts":[],"wiki":{"title":"Lithia Park","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithia_Park","desc":"Park in Ashland, Oregon, United States","extract":"Lithia Park is the largest and most central park of Ashland, Oregon, United States. It consists of 93 acres (38 hectares) of forested canyonland around Ashland Creek, stretching from the downtown plaza up toward its headwaters near Mount Ashland. Its name originates from lithium oxide (Li2O) or \"lithia,\" which is found in the stream water pumped to the park.\nThe park has two large greens, a bandshell for public musical performances, two duck ponds, a large playground, tennis courts, community buildings and, in winter, an ice skating rink. It also offers picnic areas and miles of hiking trails.\nThe park was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. It features a Japanese gar","img":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/34/Ashland%2C_Oregon_-_Lithia_Park_04.jpg/960px-Ashland%2C_Oregon_-_Lithia_Park_04.jpg?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=api&utm_content=thumbnail","score":104,"lat":42.19002778,"lon":-122.71697222},"counts":{"claims":1,"history":0,"legends":1,"entities":0,"sources":1}}