There is a popular superstition that Friday the 13th is a day of bad luck, especially in October when some say there is a “thinning of the veil” between this world and the supernatural.

But in the experience of Central Oregon’s ghost hunters and folklorists, the day holds little meaning to the specters and spooks who are happy to show their faces in downtown Bend at any time of the year.

One of the city’s most notoriously haunted buildings is the O’Kane Building on NW Oregon Avenue. Meg Kehoe, co-founder of Bend Ghost Tours, said she sometimes feels a presence — one that doesn’t seem human — watching her from the O’Kane Building as she guides paranormal enthusiasts through downtown Bend.

“It just has a reputation,” Kehoe said. “Most people who have grown up in Bend know this building by its reputation of being haunted. I can’t really tell you exactly why … but there are a lot of people who have had experiences in that building. Almost every business we’ve talked to (in that space) has had weird things happen. Sometimes they hear the voice of a young girl or a disembodied voice.”

Even spookier, guests from Kehoe’s tours have texted photos from the O’Kane Building taken during a tour with shadowed faces and orbs of light. She recalled once a tourist’s phone started speaking without being prompted. She distinctly remembered Siri saying, “he never came home.” Kehoe has even heard of a spirit who places a curse on any business that tries to renovate one of the O’Kane Building’s storefronts.

Of course, not all of Bend’s ghosts are so aloof and malicious. Certainly not George.

Of course, it was a dark and stormy night when Kelly Cannon-Miller, executive director of the Deschutes Historical Society, found herself alone in her office at the historic Reid School. The wind was blowing ferociously through the trees and she could have sworn she heard someone call her name.

If it wasn’t the wind that fall evening, then Cannon-Miller would assume she heard the voice of George Brosterhous. George is known affectionately to the museum staff as their “helpful ghost.”

It’s said George began inhabiting the Reid School after his death on the premises in 1914. George and his brother Ed were Bend’s premiere contractors at the time and had won the chance to construct the city’s first modern school. Unfortunately, George fell through an open stairwell from the roof of the building during construction and perished.

Over the years, Cannon-Miller said she and other staff have had many “George moments.”

One of George’s favorite pastimes is helping staff find missing items. More than once, an item Cannon-Miller was looking for has appeared in front of her unexpectedly in a place she already looked. If someone is missing something, they just need to say it aloud to summon George’s help, she said. Really.

Cannon-Miller said Bend residents often come to the museum to learn if there is a paranormal past to their homes.

“Some people will come in and start asking questions about their house, and pretty quickly you realize they’re trying to determine if something bad happened there. Usually, within 10 or 15 minutes, it finally will pop out that they’re trying to research if it might be haunted,” Cannon-Miller said.

Usually, Cannon-Miller and other museum staff can help residents debunk their superstitions. But for those who remain convinced that ghosts inhabit their homes, they can always call Ramsey Poindexter with Central Oregon Paranormal.

Poindexter is a paranormal enthusiast and ghost hunter who performs house calls throughout Central Oregon. He never charges for his services and always aims to help families understand that the specters in their homes are relatively harmless.

“The majority of them really are parents who don’t know what to do because they don’t want their kids to be freaked out,” he said. “We’ll go in and do our best to collect whatever evidence we can to come to an opinion of whether or not it’s something to be worried about. We try to find ways to explain to their children there’s nothing to be afraid of.”

In all the years Poindexter has been working in Central Oregon, he said he has never found anything worthy of concern.

Despite having vivid experiences, Poindexter, Cannon-Miller and Kehoe have never actually seen a ghost. But the stories that float around Bend still capture the imagination.

“Especially this time of year, I think there’s a part of us that wants (these stories) to be true,” said Cannon-Miller. “I think they pique the human imagination and human curiosity. And that’s true no matter where people are — we like to be jump-scared, right? We like to have a little bit of a spooky experience now and again.”