1886 San Juan Island Resort & the McMillin Mausoleum
248 Reuben Memorial Drive, Roche Harbor, WA 98250
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$
Resort lodging $200+; mausoleum trail visit is free.
Access
Limited Access
The mausoleum requires a forested walking trail; resort grounds are mixed paved and gravel.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1886 · Oldest Operating Hotel in Washington State · National Register of Historic Places · Masonic Architectural Symbolism
Roche Harbor occupies a sheltered cove on the northwest shore of San Juan Island, in Washington's San Juan Archipelago. The site was used by the Hudson's Bay Company in the mid-19th century, and an existing bunkhouse formed the foundation for the hotel that industrialist John S. McMillin opened in 1886. McMillin named it Hotel de Haro after the Spanish navigator who charted the surrounding waters in 1791.
Under McMillin, Roche Harbor became the headquarters of the Tacoma and Roche Harbor Lime Company, the largest lime-producing operation west of the Mississippi for several decades. The kilns, dock works, and worker housing that supported the operation are preserved as part of the resort's historic core.
Hotel de Haro hosted notable guests during its lime-era prime, including Theodore Roosevelt and, later, John Wayne. The hotel remains the oldest continuously operating hotel in the state of Washington.
McMillin commissioned what would become the resort's most singular structure — the Afterglow Vista mausoleum — completed in 1936 after his death. Designed with extensive Masonic symbolism, the open-air monument features a limestone-and-concrete round table surrounded by six chairs, the bases of which contain the cremated remains of family members. McMillin's secretary Ada Beane was interred at the site in the 1950s. The U.S. National Park Service maintains documentation on the structure as a notable example of American funerary architecture.
Sources
The Afterglow Vista mausoleum is the most consistently reported site at Roche Harbor. Photographs published in regional press and paranormal coverage describe blue orbs hovering above the central limestone table, and visitors have reported disembodied voices when no one else was present on the trail. Some accounts describe a sense of unease when seated in the chairs, which form the family's burial rings; a smaller number of reports describe the sensation of a hand on the shoulder.
Local folklore attaches a specific story to Ada Beane, John McMillin's longtime secretary, whose ashes were interred at Afterglow Vista in the 1950s. According to coverage in Seattle Met and other regional publications, the unexplained reports at the mausoleum began after her interment.
A frequently repeated anecdote concerns the gap left in the ring of chairs, which represents a son who died young and is buried elsewhere. The vacant chair is the most-photographed seat at the monument and the one most often associated with reports of cold spots and pressure changes.
Reports from McMillin's Dining Room — the family's former harbor-side residence, now the resort restaurant — include candles relighting after being blown out and furniture found rearranged between shifts. Hotel de Haro itself has a quieter reputation, with occasional accounts of footsteps in upper-floor corridors. The resort treats the mausoleum as both a historic site and an active cemetery, and asks visitors to behave accordingly.
Notable Entities
Hotel de Haro, built in 1886 atop the foundation of an old Hudson's Bay Company bunkhouse, is the oldest operating hotel in Washington state. Twenty rooms overlook Roche Harbor, and the lobby preserves artifacts from the resort's lime-works era.
Walk the forested trail from the Roche Harbor Cemetery to the McMillin family's open-air mausoleum, completed in 1936. The structure features a limestone table ringed by six chairs whose bases serve as crypts; visitors are asked to treat the site as an active cemetery.
McMillin's Dining Room occupies the former McMillin family residence overlooking the harbor. Staff have reported candles relighting after being extinguished and furniture found rearranged between shifts.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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