Because he has a huge brain, he had a lot to say about what exactly is in the clay. Before I share A.P.'s thoughts, this is a good time to talk about that break after the Urban Barnhouse, as it involves My friend A.P. himself becoming part of this saga with an interesting Synchronicity.
As mentioned, after quickly leaving the Urban Barnhouse yesterday when feeling unsettled, we decided to shake off some bad mojo by taking a brief Vomit Hunt break.
One of the weird things I collect is old resin from the 1960s forward with random chunks of things inside. My favorite pieces look like actual puke. Anyway, there was a vintage store between the Urban Barnhouse and the Clark County Historical Museum/Carnegie Library. Vintage stores tend to feel "noisy" to me energetically anyway, so it was a perfect opportunity to look for vomit and shake off some bad vibes.
The shopping trip paid off, but what was interesting is one of the two things I snapped up was an old book on Houdini. I wasn't entirely sure that A.P. was into Houdini, but I thought I remembered him being super into him so I picked it up for a ridiculously low price. It ended up being a first edition. He had been looking for it for years.
I found a vomit ashtray that fits my old MGM Grand Hotel ashtray as well. Like I said, good store trip.
Additionally, A.P. was just gifted an art piece by another friend of ours, Mark Obscura, that was supposed to help him acquire rare books, A.P.'s obsession. I would say this worked. Ha! The weird/wyrd continues to make itself known in personal, strange synchronistic ways that aren't Earth shattering but powerfully validating for the souls involved. I love it!!!
On to A.P's thoughts about the bricks.
Remember, from part one of my series on these bricks:
"Hidden Brick Co., at 2610 Kaufmann Ave, Vancouver, Wash., uses a loamy alluvial silt that overlies the gravelly phase of the lacustrine deposits. Only the upper few feet of the surface materials is used for raw material at this plant. it is probably alluvial silt deposited during the downcutting of the lacustrine deposits, with perhaps some admixed colluvium" (p 106 - taken from "Geology of Portland, Oregon and Adjacent Areas: US Geological Survey Bulletin 1119," Trimble, D.E, 1963)."
What does this mean as far as my theory for the bricks themselves contributing to the hauntings in these buildings?
In discussing the pre-game plan before I headed out Saturday, he was brought up to speed on my theory that the Hidden bricks may be contributing to these hauntings. He had a lot to say about it:
"You realize that silt is at least partially composed of ground up and fossilized organic matter - bones and petrified bits of flora and fauna from a bygone age. In the case of alluvial silt, flora and fauna from the Pliocene epoch. This would be the time of early hominids such as Australopithicus. So Hidden bricks are composed at least partially of fossilized remains of the earliest human ancestors that we know of."
Or, you know, literal EARLY HOMINID GHOST BRICKS. (Sasquatch Ghost Bricks?!) About ourancestors: Australopithecus. Thanks for weighing in, A.P.!.!
Our final stop Saturday was 26th and Kaufmann, the site of the second Hidden Brick Factory, closed in 1992. The brickyard is fenced in, and we did not walk inside any of the fenced off areas. This should go without saying, but PLEASE DO NOT TRESPASS HERE OR ANYWHERE ELSE in the name of paranormal investigation!!
I took a brief video of the area, on Kaufmann. You can see that here, we found some old paths where loading and unloading obviously happened in the area.
When I am taking the above video I note stacks of Hidden Bricks inside the yard, mention longingly how much I would like to get my hands on one but I'm not going to break and enter and you know, steal.
This becomes important about a half hour later.
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| Oh, I see you, stacks of Hidden Bricks. |
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| I kept going back to this building. I'm not sure what happened in here but it feels eerie. |
All abandoned places have a strange vibe to them, but this one feels even creepier. I meant to take soil samples from the public areas just outside the fence line and ... I forgot. This is the second location today I set out for that I ended up not doing what I planned to do and leaving early after feeling weird.
Basically my entire purpose for tracking down where they dug out the clay was forgotten and abandoned. Okay then.
I climbed on an area across the street from the Brickyard to be able to see further back in the yard and had a minor slip (only pride injured haha) on the wet wood coming down so Dave made me wrap it up there. We were within 10 blocks of a park called Hidden Park, and so before he grounded me totally for the day we made one last stop.
A few blocks away from the park I noticed lots of Hidden Bricks on many houses in the general area approaching the park. I hadn't looked into the homes around here, but the Hidden stamp was literally everywhere.
I asked him to park the car a few blocks from the park as there were lots of cool houses with Hidden Bricks and I wanted to walk by a few on the way. Spotting them is my new favorite game.
Somewhere in the 30s and Kaufmann we took a random alley towards Hidden Park. On the ground, upside down next to some other random rocks, a board and few cans that obviously had been pulled out of the recycle bin next to the dumpster in the alley was 3/4 of a red brick.
Because I am out specifically looking for red bricks I turn it over and it says "IDDEN" on the underside.
I say "Oh shut the f*ck up!" to Dave, who is about half a block further up Kaufmann than I am and he turns around. I'm already muttering, "Where's the rest?" as he helps me move the recycle and garbage bin out of the way, where I then find the part of the brick stamped "H".
There were at least a dozen homes in a few blocks with significant amount of Hidden Bricks used in the construction of the homes itself, landscaping around the homes, etc. Collectible stamped bricks that are in good condition sell for around $10 and up in antique stores, so I am not sure if someone took this from a nearby home, dropped it and then abandoned it in the alley as it could no longer be sold or how it ended up next to dumpster. The moss shows it was outside for a while before it ended up smashed on Kaufmann.
Technically we are blocks from the stacks I saw and joked about stealing from inside the brickyard also. It could have come from anywhere. I guess I have good brick karma.
But... I, a witch who headed out on this journey wondering why I didn't want to grind up my own purchased Hidden Brick into dust for spiritual purposes know what to do with a very old, broken brick.
So I took him home, scrubbed him up, and am allowing him to spend time with his reunited brick brother before I turn him into a respected spiritual tool. I also feel irrationally attached to this brick, but will use as it intended as it appears to be already breaking down. Thanks again, Hidden Family.
This brick is one of the original hand molded ones, again you can tell by the back. It is the same process as my 1871 brick, meaning this brick is also prior to 1905 when the new wire method was employed.
I learned from spending time in the Hidden Bricks room at the Clark County Historical Museum what the wire cut bricks that began in 1905 look like on the back:
I figured I used all my good brick mojo for the day and called it a day. I'm nowhere near done with these bricks, however. I mean, they are all over the place.
Planned deep dives coming on:
- Providence Academy - a local ghost story claims the bricks there are "cursed" due to a disagreement about cost of the building between the Hiddens and Mother Joseph!
- Brickhouse Bar & Grill - one of the things I learned about the Hiddens is that they were very anti alcohol. Wonder if the fact that their old brick factory and offices is used for a Bar and Grill contributes to the activity there. I've been inside several times watching bands but not paying attention to the bricks. The strangest thing about that place is while it is a new, modern bar and grill, the decor and vibe in there could literally be from 1980 to Present. It sort of has a "beyond time" retro feel inside and I'm wondering if the bricks contribute.
- "Terrible Tilly" - The Tillamook Lighthouse, constructed from Hidden bricks. I've been interested in this site for a while as I had a strange experience involving photographing the lighthouse with my fathers antique camera. The running joke is Terrible Tilly killed my camera. Haven't thought about that in years.
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