On June 13th, Ghostly Activities Club members, Amy and Jake, took the Foss Seaport Museum tour … and boy was it loaded with ghostly goodness. Get the review after the jump.

About The Foss Seaport Museum

Sometimes the best stories start with fire, water, and grit. That’s exactly how the Foss Waterway Seaport Museum came to be. It was a little bit of destruction, a lot of history, and a whole lot of ghosts.

Before we get into spectral shenanigans, let’s meet the first ghost I’d like to meet.

Let’s Talk About Thea

You can’t talk about this place without talking about Thea Foss.

Back in 1889, Thea Christiansen Foss was a Norwegian immigrant with a bold streak. She rented a rowboat to earn a few extra dollars, then bought another. And another. Before long, she and her husband Andrew had started what would become the Foss Maritime Company and, at one point, the largest tugboat business on the West Coast.

The Thea Foss Waterway is named after her. She’s a maritime legend. The museum channels her pioneering spirit.

Her husband, Andrew, built boats and helped grow the family business. And their son, Henry Foss? He went on to be a World War I tugboat skipper, a rear admiral during World War II, and later a Washington state senator and Port of Tacoma commissioner. His name lives on in places like Henry Foss High School.

So yeah, the Foss family didn’t just work the waterfront … they shaped it.

Back to the spooky tour …

Now About Those Ghosts At The Foss Seaport Museum

Pretty Gritty Tours provided the tour of the museum. Chris, our guide, welcomed everyone in right on time, and we got started about 10 minutes later. Overall, the tour definitely had a haunted-true crime-unsolved mystery vibe to it with a dose of tragic happenings to boot.

Over the next hour, Chris took us to over a dozen spooky highlights around the building. I’ll have to dance around some of the stories, so I don’t spoil them for you.

Over the years, the warehouse (now museum) has witnessed:

• A series of fires that reduced the half-mile long warehouse to its current size
• An explosion or two
• Corrupt cops whacking union leaders
• People accidentally suffocating in wheat
• An earthquake swallowing houses and their residents along the shore
• Some human trafficking

… and more shenanigans.

The Haunted Hotspots At Foss Seaport Museum

Without giving away too much, here are my favorite destinations inside the museum.

A Touch Of The Cursed Ship, Andelana

The Andelana, a cursed ship that docked in Tacoma, met its demise in January 1899. Chris showed us some items related to it and told a few spooky stories. Allegedly, the most haunted part of the museum is just behind this exhibit. It’s nothing more than a corporate-bland corner, but the ghosts tend to hang out there.

If you want the full, cursed story of the Andelana, take the Old Town ghost tour. It’s a good one. You’ll feel learned after taking it.

An Earthquake Swallows Homes (And Ships)

Underneath Chris sits homes and boats swallowed by the sea when an earthquake struck Tacoma around 1900. The ground liquified, and a little girl and her home fell into the swirling, murky waters. Today, this section of the museum stands above her watery tomb … and the girl’s ghost has been seen next to these doors.

An Unsolved Mystery On The Water

Back in 1971, seven students hopped on this sailboat for a fun little night tour of Commencement Bay. None of them were seen again. It’s still an open case. Was it really a tragedy or something more sinister?

Two Brothers Keep The Canoes Coming

The Willits brothers made beautiful, painstakingly handcrafted canoes. And they hated each other. I guess tension really helps artistry, eh?

Anyway, Floyd allegedly haunts the museum on. the regular while Earl manifests less frequently. It may have do with a slightly imperfect canoe in the museum. The brothers need to finish the job.

Museum Archives

I love old stuff. Especially old stuff locked away in a dark room that could lure spirits with haunted objects.

As part of the tour, Amy and I got access to the archives. So much history waited for a mini ghost hunt. I brought along an EMF meter (nothing registered), and Amy used some ITC to capture ghostly voices. And she did get a couple of responses.

That’s pretty spooky! With so many objects in the archives, there has to be a few spirits attached to the antiquities. We must find the source(s)!

Random Picture Gallery (Because I’m A Whore For Pics)

Not every picture and spooky story made the hightlights, but you can check out more exhibit items below.

Recommendation

Amy and I had a great time. The Foss Seaport Museum tour runs about an hour, but you can hang around a little bit longer to ask the staff and your guide questions. The best things about the tour include all the ghost stories, oddball history of some exhibits, free access to roam if you’d like, and those archives!

We recommend taking the tour, but you can also go to the museum for free. It’s open 10 AM-4 PM during the week. The general exhibits don’t offer up the spooky stories, nor archives.

Thanks to Amy for providing pics for this post.

Note: Amy and Jake bought their tickets with their own money, so there’s no expectation of a positive review for the tour provider.

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Have you had a ghostly encounter at the Foss Seaport Museum? If so, let me know in the comments below. Thanks for reading Ghostly Activities. Much appreciated and take care!