Alice's Ghost
According to local legends, in 1932, Donald Rheem, the son of an executive for Standard Oil purchased a property on Orcas Island that sits off the western coast of Washington.
Despite its scenic views, his intent was not to enjoy the landscape, but to find a place to stash his unstable wife Alice.
THE GHOST STORY
As the story goes Alice Rheem was an alcoholic party girl who was known to dress only in a bright, red nightgown. Alice didn't seem to believe much in propriety especially in those years, as she was often seen riding her Harley motorcycle to Eastbound, where she would go to play cards with locals at the corner store.
Alice was supposed to have died in 1956 from complications of her alcoholism, and that she haunts the mansion where she lived, which is now known as the Rosario Resort.
Employees at the resort report seeing shadows and being caressed by fingers, especially in the room that used to belong to Alice. Guests have reported hearing footsteps that sound as if they're being made by high heels, and others describe seeing a lady carrying a dog that corresponds to what Alice looked like.
The Rosario Resort was originally the Moran Mansion built by Mayor Robert Moran between 1906 to 1909, on 7,000 acres he had purchased on Orcas Island. He planned the 58-room mansion as a retirement home. He had become rich as a ship builder after arriving penniless in Seattle in 1875, and served two terms as Seattle’s mayor.
In 1911, he donated several thousand acres to the state so it could be used as a park.
Robert Moran died in 1943, however in 1938, he sold the Moran Mansion to Donald Rheem for $50,000. He in turn used it as his vacation home for the next 20 years.
Rheem started his own company after graduating from high school. His company made water heaters, then furnaces. During WWII his firm was building ships, tank manufacturing and munitions.
It was during these years that Alice was supposed to have lived there and indulged in her risque behavior. According to local lore, she didn’t let death get in her way.
Donald Rheem sold the property in 1958, to Ralph Curtain who had plans to turn it into a resort. Due to financial problems he sold it in 1960 to Gill Geiser who did go on to turn it into the Rosario Resort and Spa.
The following is a story told by someone who visited Orcas Island:
In early 1990, I went to Orcas Island in Washington's San Juan islands to stay with family and friends at an older estate nestled on 80 beautiful wooded acres. It was a hot August afternoon and everyone but myself left to go play tennis. After lounging around awhile outside I got hot and decided to cool off inside. The house was very lovely so I gave myself a self-guided tour. I ended up in what looked like attic space, and I saw a lovely wood framed mirror of which I peered inside. Suddenly, I could hear voices around me, wildly talking in an attempt to be heard. Surprised and a bit shocked, I ran downstairs and fled outside. I was not going back in that house alone! When the owner's son returned with my family, I asked who might be haunting the house. I was told that there was a ghost in the house and it was a woman who had killed herself several decades earlier. She had stuffed her car's tail pipe with a rag and ran the engine in the garage until she died of carbon dioxide poisoning. She left this world but didn't leave the manor.
FACT VS. FICTION
Screeeeech..... Those are the brakes being applied to the above story of Alice, the red negligee-wearing, frisky ghost. Before she became Alice Rheem, her name was Alice Goodfellow. She belonged to a prominent Piedmont family, and her father William S. Goodfellow was a well known San Francisco attorney.
Her father died in 1913, and in the following years she appeared in different society events with her family in the Oakland, California area. In April 1921, she announced her engagement to Donald Rheem and in August 1922, the couple eloped despite having a brilliant wedding planned by the family. They never had children.
Alice's mother who was English died in 1933. During the 1930s and 1940s, the Rheem family was featured in several society events. Alice was reported attending family events for both the Goodfellow and Rheem families (in other words she was not an outcast among her rich family members).
Donald and Alice Rheem lived in Moraga, a town in the San Francisco bay area. Alice owned a stable and she was pictured in local newspapers at several horse shows, with different saddle horses she owned and who won competitions.
She died on May 11, 1956 in Oakland, California. It reflected she was still living on the family estate in Moraga, not Orcas Island. No doubt that Donald Rheem owned the Moran estate in Orcas Island, but there is little proof to show that Alice lived there. She might have vacationed there and was leading a double life, but in those newspaper pictures, she doesn't appear to be a disreputable alcoholic that was stashed away on a forgotten island out of the reach of society and gossip columns.
So who is the Lady in Red who outraged the islanders? Was she someone else, or is she the product of a made-up ghost story? In truth, there is a good probability that those who have experienced ghostly encounters in Rosario Resort crossed path with someone who is not Alice's ghost. No doubt there is one among a cast of a 1,000 who throughout it's 100 plus years has found that the large mansion is the place to call home even in the afterlife.
And it’s not just the Moran Mansion, but Orca Island itself that might have produced the ghostly manifestations.
On January 3, 1922 a man's body was found on a beach 7 miles north of Bellingham. He was identified as Richard Schapler, 22, and a postmortem examination found he had drowned. Since he had no bruises on his body, foul play was not suspected.
Also missing was a 35-foot sloop named the Mizpah, on which he had been traveling with another man named Andrew Brown. They had left on December 28, 1921.
It was suspected the men had been caught in a terrible storm that raged over the Gulf of Georgia a few days before the discovery of the body.
When neither Brown’s body or the wreck of the Mizpah washed ashore, the police started to suspect that Schapler had been thrown overboard by his companion, who had taken the boat, and 90 cases of booze they had picked up.
In February of that year, Charles Maddox (Mason) allegedly the head of a huge American-Canadian whisky smuggling ring was arrested in San Francisco. He handled a line of smuggling that stretched from Mexico to Canada.
In the turned back cuff of Schapler's mackinaw a manifest for 90 cases of whiskey had been found. It was signed by "William Quinn" an alias used by Maddox. This whiskey was supposedly loaded on the Mizpah when it docked on Industrial Island, being manned by Schapler and Brown.
Maddox had already been arrested before Christmas, 1921 early one morning with a young woman he introduced as his wife. They found 10 cases of Canadian whiskey in the trunk of the car. A man who gave the name of Bert Williams drove up behind in a Ford car containing 10 more cases of liquor. The federal officer arrested him also.
Then a third car arrived with another 10 cases of whisky.
It was believed Maddox was making an overland trip to try out the luck of "booze runners".
By March, 1922, a reward was being offered for the apprehension of Andrew J. Brown by Schapler's family. This all stemmed from the belief that Schapler had been murdered by his companion.
The police had traced their route, and after they left Vancouver with 90 cases of whisky they headed south, which is when they ran into the storm. They returned to port, and unloaded 30 cases of the whiskey and started south again in a heavy gale.
In June, 1922 the mystery seemed to be solved when a body was found on a beach on Orcas Island. A hand was spotted protruding from the sand. It was a fully dressed man wearing a life preserver. The left shoulder, arm and hand were too badly gone for identification marks. The index finger was missing the tip. There was also a a scar for an appendicitis operation. On the body was found rosary beads, but no papers, money, knife or other articles. Several friends and a former employer said the description of the man fit Brown. Eventually Brown's brother Clifford confirmed his identity.
The discovery cleared Brown from the suspicion of being a murderer. The question that remained was whether the Mizpah had been wrecked, or if they were boarded by whiskey pirates who threw them overboard and took the boat and the booze.
The authorities closed the case claiming the men were caught in the gale on December 18, 1921. It seemed the New Year’s Eve booze run had ended in disaster.
No doubt there was plenty of skulduggery taking place close to Orcas Island during Prohibition, however there were other incidents which were not so sinister.
For example in 1925, Albert Viereck was killed when he was struck by a falling tree. He was clearing the road between Doe Bay and East Sound, which was obstructed by trees blown across it during a northeast gale.
In 1938, a trolling boat exploded off Orcas Island, four of the bodies were recovered but not all of them.
In 1952, the sloop the Prelude disappeared on May 18, when it was returning from from a weekend sail to Orcas Island. Five bodies were recovered.