The Ketchikan Vampire
My Visit
A few months ago, I traveled to Southeast Alaska for work. I decided it would be a good opportunity to dig into some of the region's eerie legends and make a few stops along the way.
One of the strangest legends to come out of Alaska centers on a grave at the Bayview Cemetery in Ketchikan. The grave belongs to Dume Zitz, a man who died in 1937 and became the subject of local rumors that he was a vampire.
It was a beautiful spring day in Ketchikan on my last day there. If you know anything about Ketchikan in the spring, the sunny days are few and far between. I drove up the winding hill to Bayview Cemetery, my Polaroid camera at my side, and found a spot to park. The cemetery is big and sprawling, on a hill at the foot of a mountain, overlooking the Tongass Narrows. The far edge of the cemetery borders the forest and was still covered in snow. There were multiple sets of footprints in the snow (maybe human, maybe not…) that I followed as I looked for Zitz’s headstone. I circled the whole cemetery, trying not to get spooked by the noises coming from the woods, but I could not find the headstone. I was about to give up when I stopped on top of the hill to take a picture of the narrows below. I looked down next to a large tree, and there, completely submerged in water, was Zitz’s headstone.
The Legend
According to former cemetery caretaker John Scheldt, Zitz was originally buried on nearby Pennock Island before his remains were moved to Bayview Cemetery. Local lore claims that only part of his body was recovered during the reburial. While incomplete reburials were not unusual when relocating old graves, the story helped fuel speculation that "the rest of him" was still somewhere else, and from there, the vampire legend grew. Scheldt himself said he couldn't verify any of the supernatural claims.
No one knows exactly how the story began.
Who was Dume Zitz?
Historical records show that Dume Zitz (Domenica Zorich Zitz) died in 1937 and was eventually buried in Bayview Cemetery. Beyond that, surprisingly little is known about his life. At some point, rumors began circulating that Zitz wasn't an ordinary man. Depending on who tells the story, he was said to have been either a vampire, a werewolf, or simply "something that wouldn't stay dead."
Unlike famous vampire legends from Europe, there are no stories of Dume attacking villagers, drinking blood, or rising from his grave. The tale is much more of a local curiosity, a piece of Ketchikan folklore that seems to have grown through word of mouth rather than documented history.
That's part of what makes it so fascinating. Somewhere along the way, an ordinary man became Alaska's closest thing to a vampire legend. And perhaps that's how all good ghost stories begin, not with proof, but with a question no one can quite answer.
The mystery continues to draw curious visitors, many of whom leave flowers or candles at the grave. According to cemetery staff, it's one of the most frequently visited graves in Bayview Cemetery, thanks almost entirely to the vampire story.
In a rainy port town surrounded by dense forest and long winter nights… It’s the kind of story that refuses to die.
Until next time,
Hannah
I'll Believe In Anything
keep wandering, keep wondering
