How did the PNW branch get its start?
Hey! Madigan here, great question, dude!
The PNW branch was founded in the late 80s, a few years after the Manhattan Crossrip of '84.
The founder and first member was Cody Ramirez, who was contacted by Dr. Stantz after it became increasingly apparent that the ghost problem wasn't exclusive to NYC, and four guys wasn't enough to cover the whole of the US. Stantz and Cody knew each other from... some convention or gallery, I don't remember. Cody told us once on the way back from a job, but we were all half-asleep.
From there, Cody hired Tybalt Jones, and Kimberly Dahlia.
Ty was a mechanic and helped develop some tech we used to have. He was really interested in contact with the other side, curious to know if we could talk to the ghosts instead of just busting 'em.
Kim was SUPER smart, she knew everything there was to know about the paranormal. She apparently had a lot of notebooks and field journals on ghosts, but we can't find them.
Their first busts weren't that well known, pretty quiet, but they really gained a lot of publicity after they busted the entity known as the Fremont Troll in 1990, which you've probably heard of.
When they busted it, it's soul went into the ghost trap, but it's body stayed behind and turned to stone. Weird, huh? Its been there ever since.
Most of this I've had to research and learn about myself. Cody... didn't like to talk about 'em.