The Night Runner

There is a small logging town in Douglas County Oregon, this town is called Myrtle Creek, the town was founded on the fallen trees that became the backbone to the surrounding area's economy. To this day the mill it the main means of employment to the small town.

The story begins in the 1960s with a man named Jared Morgan, he was a student of the local community college. He was quite fond of running. He would run miles through the surrounding hills of the Umpqua valleys each day because of his love for the forest but he would only run during the twilight.

Many of the towns people disliked him and even hated him because he was a conservationist, he saw the danger of unchecked clear cutting of the Umpqua forests and he spoke out against it. But the forests being the bulk of the towns income many people treated him like a outcast and few took him seriously.

One day near the twilight a group of hunters discouraged because of a lack of game where about to head back to their camp when one of the spotted movement at the foot of the ridge where they were presently located. With a second look the hunters realized that in fact it was Jared Morgan running through the hills as he was accustomed during the twilight hours.

Because of the hunters dislike for him they decided to have a little fun and try to scare him a little by firing down at him, but one decided to go too far and aimed for his head. The bullet went through Jared's skull and he died instantly. In fear of what was to happen next the hunters fabricated a story of how they were quite a distance away and being so far into the wilderness and during the twilight hours they mistake him for a deer. Of course the hunters were acquitted and not much was said after that.

In the years following many strange reports have come from those hills. On one occasion a hunter had a pack of game in his sights through his scope when all of a sudden a man jogging ran between him and the deer the hunter was shocked because the man had not run even ten feet from the deer and they had not so much as looked up, they just continued grazing as if not having heard or seen anything, and we all know that deer are startled fairly easily.

Other eyewitness accounts, always from hunters, include seeing a man running through the forest wearing a navy blue sweatshirt and forest green pants, he is always seen running at the foot of the ridges where the hunters wait for deer to appear out from the tree line. He has also been seen running the long stretch of road leading into town, but mostly he is spotted in the surrounding forests.