A local-feature story out of Oregon has turned into something bigger than a simple event preview. The Oregon Ghost Conference, often described as the state’s largest ghost-focused gathering, is now being framed through the haunted reputation of the Ermatinger House in Oregon City — giving the story an unusually rich blend of real history, place-based ghost lore, and a modern paranormal events ecosystem.
At the center is Rocky Smith Jr., an Oregon City commissioner, teacher, ghost-tour operator, and founder of the conference, whose reported paranormal experiences at the historic house helped shape what would become one of the Northwest’s most recognizable ghost conventions.
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The Haunted Origin Story
According to OregonLive, the Ermatinger House in Oregon City played a major role in inspiring the Oregon Ghost Conference. Built in 1845, the house is one of Oregon’s oldest surviving homes and has long accumulated stories of unusual activity.
Smith has said his interest in the paranormal deepened while working there in the 1990s. Reports tied to the house include oddly behaving doors, stories of spirits associated with the property, and recurring lore about a child spirit nicknamed “April”. Another long-circulating tale involves the spirit of a steamboat captain affecting dining room chairs inside the house.
Whether one reads those accounts as paranormal evidence, folklore, or community storytelling, they helped transform the house from a neglected historic structure into a place people felt invested in preserving.
From Haunted House to Conference Ecosystem
That is what makes this story more than another ghost-tour feature. Smith’s involvement reportedly expanded from the house itself into ghost tours and eventually into the Oregon Ghost Conference, now a multi-day event featuring workshops, readings, demonstrations, paranormal investigations, walking tours, and theatrical séance experiences.
According to the official Oregon Ghost Conference site, the 14th annual event is scheduled for March 27–29, 2026 in Seaside, Oregon, and is marketed as the Northwest’s largest paranormal convention.
The event is also listed by the Seaside Civic & Convention Center, underscoring that this is no fringe back-room gathering. It has become part of Oregon’s wider tourism and event culture.
