The Bandage Man of Cannon Beach, Oregon

If you grew up anywhere near the north Oregon coast, you’ve probably heard this tale: Don’t park on those dark turnouts near Cannon Beach. Don’t kill the engine. Don’t make out with your girlfriend/boyfriend. Because, on quiet and foggy nights, some … thing … wrapped in filthy and bloody bandages might tap your window. But you won’t see him first. You’ll smell him first.

The Bandage Man Mini-Profile

Type: Roadside entity / urban legend
Where: Highway 101 corridor near Cannon Beach, commonly described from the Highway 26 junction area to the north entrance of Cannon Beach, and sometimes as far south as Arch Cape
First appearance: 1950s
Description: Mummy-like figure wrapped in bloody bandages, stinks like rotting meat, “logger accident” origin story in many versions
Modus operandi: Targets teens in parked cars; sometimes jumps into the back of a pickup or an open-top vehicle; vanishes before anyone reaches town
Threat level: 2/5 – “Get out of here” scary

Witness Descriptions

There are a few stories about the Bandage Man floating out there. If I had to find the most common description, it would go something like this:

• You smell him before you see him. A rotting, spoiled-meat stench is the first warning sign.
• He is wrapped in bandages. Bloody, dirty, sagging, torn, shredded, and sometimes described as oozing.
• He looks like a nightmare logger. Many versions tie him to a sawmill or logging accident.
• He appears along Highway 101. Parked cars. Rest stops. Scenic views. Any place you stop along this stretch of road could be in for a scary encounter.

Legend evolution: There’s 2 competing versions of the Bandage Man. The first tells of a lumberjack, who got injured while hacking down trees or at the sawmill carving up timber. In the second tale, he was a construction worker injured while blasting the Arch Cape Tunnel. More on these later on in the post.

Haunting Range

The Cannon Beach History Center places the Bandage Man on the stretch of Highway 101 near Cannon Beach, often described around the Highway 26 junction down toward Cannon Beach, and sometimes extending to Arch Cape.

Beach Connection adds an extra detail locals love: An older access road outside Cannon Beach that kids reportedly drove at night, and in local talk it was even called “Bandage Man” Road.

If you need something a bit more specific, check out the approach roads and turnouts on the north side of Cannon Beach, then south along Hwy 101 to Arch Cape Tunnel. You may see him where the forest hugs the roadway.

Bandage Man’s Ghostly Anchor

Let’s get ghostly for a minute here. The curious thing about Bandage Man is that he’s actually roaming the highway, and he didn’t die along that same road. I could understand if he haunts the lumber mill or Arch Cape Tunnel where he tragically died. But miles upon miles of a road? That’s a stretch.

Take Resurrection Mary, Chicago’s infamous hitchhiker ghost. She haunts about a mile or two of the road where she died and always exits at Resurrection Cemetery. That’s how most roadside ghosts operate, so …

This tells me Bandage Man is more than just a ghost. He’s likely to be an omen. Maybe those taps on car windows tell people to skidaddle before something bad happens to them.

Bandage Man’s Behavior

The Bandage Man doesn’t stand in the middle of the road and scream at you. He’s more intimate. Sneaky. Kinda like a peeping Tom. He gets right up in your (amorous) business.

This is what we know from the spooky stories:

• Primary targets: teens in parked cars (classic lover’s lane setup).
• Secondary targets: drivers in open-top cars or pickup trucks, with stories of him hopping into the bed, then disappearing before the vehicle reaches town.
• Escalation: some versions include window-smashing or a “calling card” (bits of bandage left behind). Beach Connection even repeats a bar-story version where he smashes a window at Bill’s Tavern and snatches a dog.
• Diet rumors: pets and small animals, with “and sometimes people” tossed in for variety (Note: I’m doubting the human carrion feeding bit).

Timeline Of Sightings And Retellings

There isn’t a neat, documented ledger of sightings. But what we do have is a timeline of how the legend changes in local legend retellings.

Dates	Documentation	Description
1950s	Cannon Beach History Center says the Bandage Man “first made an appearance” in the 1950s	Logger accident “mummy,” bloody bandages, rotting smell, roadside haunt on 101 near Cannon Beach
1960s	The same History Center post notes Bandage Man pranks and tales were “common place” in the 1960s	A youth-driven legend. Something kids dared each other with.
1960s (road lore)	Beach Connection discusses an “old road” alignment outside Cannon Beach and says locals called it “Bandage Man” Road	The legend anchors to a physical route and becomes a rite-of-passage drive.
Oct 25, 2019	Beach Connection publishes a roundup of the lore and how it’s been repeated in books	Emphasizes the 50s/60s peak, teen harassment stories, and local prank culture.
Oct 5, 2020	Cannon Beach History Center publishes a “spooky season” post with a clear Bandage Man summary	The cleanest “this is the legend” capsule: bandages, smell, teen targets, pickup-bed jump, vanishing act.
Oct 1, 2025	Cannon Beach History Center reiterates the legend and highlights two origin variants	Lumberjack saw injury vs Arch Cape Tunnel dynamite injury. Still pinned between Cannon Beach and Arch Cape.

How To Find The Bandage Man

Investigating reports of the Bandage Man isn’t going to work like a regular ghost hunt. Roadways don’t allow for using REM pods and motion detectors. Your best bet to capture video evidence like you would for a cryptid. Here’s the plan:

1) Build the map first

Document every turnout and pull-off in the Cannon Beach-to-Arch Cape corridor that locals associate with the story. Use daylight. Note sight lines, traffic speed, and whether it’s even safe to stop.

2) Interview locals

Ask locals and longtime workers (hotel staff, bartenders, tow drivers) the same set of questions:

• Where exactly did it happen?
• What did you smell first?
• Was the car parked or moving?
• What happened right before it tapped?

You’re trying to see if the stories cluster around the same pull-offs and the same time.

3) Document “legend conditions”

Most versions indicate a night-time encounter with crappy weather like fog, rain and low visibility. Log weather, time, and traffic.

4) Use passive documentation

Dash cam, audio recorder, and a co-pilot reading notes. Drive through. Don’t park in sketchy spots. The story is about parked cars for a reason.

5) Follow the paper trail

The legend is described as peaking in the 1950s and 1960s. That means your best “evidence” is likely old local retellings, not modern TikToks. Start with local archives and regional folklore books.

Speculative Biology For Corpse Reanimation

Ok, this is going to sound like something from a sci-fi/horror comic book, but here are the possible ways a corpse could roam a random highway in Oregon. Oh boy …

A) The “stasis” model

A reanimated body can’t run continuously for decades. Otherwise, decomposition and critters would’ve torn it apart. The stasis model requires long periods of dormancy. Think about hibernation, dehydration, and cryptobiosis vibes.

How it works:

• body desiccates in a hidden place (cave, sealed structure)
• moisture/temperature triggers brief activity windows (foggy nights, rain)
• it moves like a slow, stiff thing because joints and tissues are half-functional

What it predicts: seasonal or weather-linked “activity nights,” limited range, very short bursts. And a need to feed.

B) The “parasite puppet” model

A parasite/fungus doesn’t “raise the dead” in real life, but it can hijack behavior in insects. If you scale that idea up (pure speculation):

• a colony of organisms uses the body as scaffolding
• it moves it crudely like a marionette
• “bandages” could be interpreted as wraps holding the structure together (or even growth/strands)

Reality check: human-scale movement and decades-long stability are a huge stretch.

What it predicts: jerky motion, weird posture, minimal fine motor control, and strong aversion to light/heat.

C) The “not a corpse at all” model

We’re moving into Supernatural TV show territory. This one’s halfway between science and folklore. The “corpse” is a mask for a supernatural entity because humans understand it instantly.

So the non-corpse options include:

• could be a person pranking unsuspecting people
• could be a non-human animal misread, which is plausible in this neck of the woods
• could be something “other” if you’re letting in the supernatural as an option

What it predicts: If it’s not a human playing dress-up, and it’s not a misidentified animal, then it’s probably something supernatural. And that’s very spooky.

A Skeptic’s Perspective: An Urban Legend Evolves

If you wanted to design an urban legend that thrives forever, you’d pick a foggy coastal highway and target teenagers in parked cars. That’s not a dunk on Cannon Beach. That’s just how folklore works.

The Cannon Beach History Center even notes one source told them the story was used to frighten tourists. They describe how the legend took on a life of its own over time. Beach Connection frames it as a youth rite-of-passage thing, like most urban legends are. It even calls out how pranks and story-morphing kept the Bandage Man alive.

So, skeptical read: The Bandage Man is a local urban legend that got upgraded. The “bandages” form an instantly recognizable silhouette. The “smell” is a horrific hook. And the setting (isolation, foggy nights, rain and creepy environment) does the rest.

Bibliography

Story + Legend Bibliography

Cannon Beach History Center & Museum. “Spooky Stories, Head Scratchers & Tall Tales.” Cannon Beach History Center & Museum, 5 Oct. 2020.

Cannon Beach History Center and Museum (WordPress). “Spooky Season In Cannon Beach.” Cannon Beach History Center and Museum, 1 Oct. 2025.

Hagestedt, Andre’ GW. “Cannon Beach’s Bandage Man a Spooky, Goofy Oregon Coast Lore for Decades.” Beach Connection, 25 Oct. 2019.

Goodman, Kent. Haunts of Western Oregon. Schiffer Publishing, 2009. (Publisher listing notes the Bandage Man as included.)

Stasis Model Bibliography

Carey, Hannah V., Matthew T. Andrews, and Sandra L. Martin. “Mammalian Hibernation: Cellular and Molecular Responses to Depressed Metabolism and Low Temperature.” Physiological Reviews, vol. 83, no. 4, 2003, pp. 1153–1181.

Giroud, Sylvain, et al. “The Torpid State: Recent Advances in Metabolic Adaptations and Protective Mechanisms.” Frontiers in Physiology, 2021. (Open-access via PMC7854925).

Drew, Kelly L., et al. “Central Nervous System Regulation of Mammalian Hibernation: Implications for Metabolic Suppression and Ischemia Tolerance.” Journal of Neurochemistry, vol. 102, no. 6, 2007, pp. 1713–1726.

Clegg, James S. “Cryptobiosis — a Peculiar State of Biological Organization.” Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology Part B: Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, vol. 128, no. 4, 2001, pp. 613–624.

Rebecchi, Leonardo, et al. “DNA Degradation in Tardigrades: Anhydrobiosis and Extreme Longevity.” Journal of Experimental Biology, 2009.

Nagwani, Deepa, et al. “Recovery from Anhydrobiosis: Insights into the Role of DNA Repair and Antioxidants in the Tardigrade Paramacrobiotus experimentalis.” Current Research in Physiology, 2024.

Parasite Puppet Model Bibliography

Poulin, Robert. “Parasite Manipulation of Host Personality and Behavioural Syndromes.” Journal of Experimental Biology, vol. 216, no. 1, 2013, pp. 18–26.

Lafferty, Kevin D., and J. C. Shaw. “Comparing Mechanisms of Host Manipulation across Host and Parasite Taxa.” Journal of Experimental Biology, 2013.

de Bekker, Charissa, et al. “Hijacking Time: How the Fungal Parasite Ophiocordyceps Could Be Using the Host Clock to Manipulate Behavior.” PLOS Pathogens, 2022.

Lovett, Brian, et al. “Behavioral Betrayal: How Select Fungal Parasites Enlist Living Insects to Do Their Bidding.” PLOS Pathogens, 2020.

Zhu, Yao, et al. “A Baculovirus Insecticide Manipulates Host Behaviour to Enhance Its Own Virulence and Transmission.” PLOS Pathogens, 2025.

Hernandez-Caballero, Irene, et al. “The Adaptive Host Manipulation Hypothesis: Parasites Modify the Behaviour, Morphology, and Physiology of Amphibians.” Diversity, 2022.

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Have you encountered Bandage Man? If so, let me know in the comments below.

Thanks for stopping by Puget Sound Monster Club. Much appreciated and take care!