Ghost dogs of Battle Ground (Part I)
Dennis Sparks, Vancouver
In the mid-’60s on Halloween, a bunch of us teens decided to sleep over in a partly burned cabin in the middle of an abandoned field. The cabin was surrounded by thick trees, with a field that spread past them. After we had all dozed off, we heard dogs barking. Sensing that the owners of the property had discovered us, we prepared to leave, but we couldn’t tell which direction the barking was coming from.
We fanned out in a circle and began moving toward the outer edge of the trees, figuring we would take off in the opposite direction once we discovered where the dogs were. By the time we got into the field, we still heard the dogs, but now the barking was coming from inside the trees, in the direction of the cabin.
Later, we discovered the cabin had been used as a hunting structure. One time the dogs had accidently been locked inside while the hunters were temporarily away, and one of the kerosine lamps was knocked down, burning the dogs to death.
