Outdoor Products; Catalog; Latok;
Latok
Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections & Archives, Outdoor Recreation Products Catalog Collection (Book Collection 72, L-3, 1984)
Utah State University Libraries
Digital Initiatives Unit, Merrill-Cazier Library
In copyright https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en
MERA; protest buttons; Mormons
Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections and Archives, Collection MSS 225, Box 24.
Stained glass windows
Episcopal Church
Religion
Art and religion
Churches
St. John's Episcopal Church (Logan, Utah)
Stained glass window depicting symbols from 1 Corinthians 12:13
St. John's Episcopal Church (Logan, Ut.)
Ascione, Frank R., Photograph of Laub Window. 2023. Captured with digital camera.
Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library (Publisher--Digital)
Frank R. Ascione
This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).
Illegal aliens; Families; Religion;
Laura talks about her difficult and poor childhood in Mexico where she had to work from an early age to help her family, traditions like Day of the Dead, Christmas and Three Kings Day and burial customs; and her marriage. She talks about her husband getting sick from coming through the sewers to enter the U.S. and her dangerous journey to the United States. She also tells us about her father's death, about raising her children in the U.S. and her desire for them to get an education; and her conversion to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah and her religious beliefs.
Laura
The original of this item can be found at Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections and Archives, Latino Voices, FOLK COLL 38 Box 4.
Digitized by Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library
Delgadillo, Lucy
Pacheco, Sara;
Ubiqus
Reproduction for publication, exhibition, web display or commercial use is only permissible with the consent of the USU Libraries Special Collections and Archives, (435) 797-2663.
Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections and Archives
Latino/Latina Voices Project, 2007, 2012
Latino/Latina Voices Project inventory can be found at: http://nwda.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv83200
image/jpeg; audio/mp3; application/pdf;
eng; spa;
Image;StillImage; Sound; Text;
Mexico;
Mexico; Utah; United States;
Cache Valley (Utah and Idaho); Utah; Idaho; United States;
Laurel Refinery Pre-EPA, Galaxy Station, view 1 of 2;
Cooperative societies--Utah--Pictorial works; Petroleum refineries--Utah--Pictorial works;
http://uda-db.orbiscascade.org/findaid/ark:/80444/xv47692 ;
Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections and Archives, Utah Cooperatives Photograph Collection, P0385 01:02:02;
Reproduction for publication, exhibition, web display or commercial use is only permissible with the consent of the USU Libraries USU Archives curator, phone (435) 797-0894.;
Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library;
Utah Cooperatives Photograph Collection, P0385;
Extension, Enterprise, and Education: the Legacy of Co-operatives and Cooperation in Utah Digital Collection;
image/jpeg;
eng;
Image;StillImage;
Utah;
1960-1969; 1970-1979; 20th century;
Keller, Lauren Gobel
Volleyball
Volleyball for women
Women volleyball players
Utah State University
Women athletes
College sports
Volleyball--Coaching
Volleyball coaches
Sports uniforms
Athletic clubs
Audio recording of an oral history conducted with Lauren Goebel Keller. Lauren joined the USU team in 1979 and played as a outside hitter and setter. She later went on to coach volleyball at Mount Crest High School and helped led them to their first state championship. The interview includes Lauren's early life and recruitment to USU after playing for the US Junior National Team, the 1979 team experience, 1979 AIAW national championship game, and pivotal role of Title IX, and the support from fans and the USU community for women's athletics.
Keller, Lauren Gobel (Interviewee)
Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections & Archives, HIST 3005 Spring 2022: 1978 Women's Volleyball National Champions (25.10/16-1)
Digital Initiatives Unit, Merrill-Cazier Library (Publisher – digital)
Carter, Megan (Interviewer)
McCright, Kira (Interviewer)
Proctor, Tammy (Recordist)
Reproduction for publication, exhibition, web display or commercial use is only permissible with the consent of the USU Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections & Archives (email: SCWeb@usu.edu)
Lauren Gobel Keller Oral History Transcript
Transcript of an oral history conducted with Lauren Goebel Keller. Lauren joined the USU team in 1979 and played as a outside hitter and setter. She later went on to coach volleyball at Mount Crest High School and helped led them to their first state championship. The interview includes Lauren's early life and recruitment to USU after playing for the US Junior National Team, the 1979 team experience, 1979 AIAW national championship game, and pivotal role of Title IX, and the support from fans and the USU community for women's athletics.
Olsen, Rory (Transcriber)
Proctor, Tammy (Transcript Proof Reader)
Lauren Turner portrait in the Jubal House, August 8, 2017
Image of Lauren Turner in the Jubal House
Jubal House; Living room
Dude ranches--Wyoming--Jackson Hole
Turner, Lauren
Jones, Michelle, 1995-
Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections & Archives, Jackson Hole Dude Ranching Tradition: Triangle X Folk Coll 64, Item
Digitized by: Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library.
Reproduction for publication, exhibition, web display or commercial use is only permissible with the consent of the USU Libraries Special Collections & Archives, (435) 797-8248.
Jackson Hole Dude Ranching Tradition:Triangle X
image/jpeg
1132523 Bytes
eng
Image; StillImage
Jubal House, Triangle X Ranch, Grand Teton National Park, United States
21st century; 2010-2019
Lauren Turner talking during set up, August 8, 2017
Image of Lauren Turner talking during set up
Interviewer Rebecca and recordist Ross getting set up while talking to Lauren.
810103 Bytes
Lauren Turner talking in the tack room, August 8, 2017
Image of Lauren Turner talking in the tack room
Tack Room; Gift shop; Cabin
1121478 Bytes
This is a picture of the English Lavender plant in a garden in Oxfordshire, England.
Ken Irwin
Laying the Final Tracks in Brigham City, Utah
Utah-Idaho Central Railroad; U.I.C.; Ogden, Logan and Idaho Railway; O.L.I.; Brigham City, Utah; Railroad Tracks; Railroad Workers
Railroad workers lay the final tracks for the connection of Ogden and Logan in Brigham City, Utah in 1915. The collection notes state that the Brigham City depot can be seen through the trees at the right of the photo.
Fellows, Fred
University of Utah, J. Willard Marriott Digital Library, Classified Photograph Collection, Utah-Idaho Central Railroad p.4, https://collections.lib.utah.edu/ark:/87278/s6mg7z1m
University of Utah, J. Willard Marriott Digital Library
J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah
Digital Image © 2008 Utah State Historical Society. All Rights Reserved.
MERA, ERA, Protest, General Conference
LDS church moves meetings and delays sustaining votes in order to avoid engaging with protesters.
MERA Newsletter
Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections and Archives, Collection MSS 225, Box 3, Folder 1.
LDS Tabernacle and Trinity Methodist Church
Religion; Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Mormon; Methodist; Main Street; Logan, Utah
View looking south down Logan, Utah's Main Street. LDS Tabernacle and Trinity Methodist Church, 50 North Main, Logan, Utah.
Utah State University Special Collections & Archives, Raymond C. Somers photograph collection, P0324 (13:11:008)
Reproduction for publication, exhibition, web display or commercial use is only permissible with the consent of the USU Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections & Archives (email: scweb@usu.edu)
LOGAN, UTAH
symbols; cemetery; folklore; legends; memento mori; headstone
A photograph of an LDS temple on a headstone
Devin Greener; Emily Crumpton editing
Devin Greener June 2017 Original Photography
Reproduction for publication, exhibition, web display or commercial use is only permissible with the consent of the USU Libraries Western and Mormon Americana curator, phone (435) 797-2661 or the USU Libraries Manuscript Curator, phone (435) 797-0891.
Outdoor Products; Catalog; Leading Edge;
Leading Edge catalog, front cover, 1982-1983
Leading Edge
Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections & Archives, Outdoor Recreation Products Catalog Collection (Book Collection 72, L-4, 1982-1983)
Logan-Cache Airport; Learjet
Floyd D. Hansen
Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections & Archives, Floyd D. Hansen photograph collection, P0657, Box 2, Folder 5, Image 8
Logan, Utah
Grizzly Bear; Department of Wildlife Resources, Utah
Photograph of "Learn to live with bears" sign from Department of Wildlife Resources, Utah.
Jingles the Pirate (photographer)
I Don't Think So by Jingles the Pirate is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0
Intermountain Indian School; Navajo education; Indian boarding schools; Brigham City UT history
Intermountain Indian School
Utah State University, Merrill Cazier Library, Special Collections & Archives, Intermountain Indian School Photograph Collection, P0327 1:01:06 (http://digital.lib.usu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/IndSchool/id/519)
Reproduction for publication, exhibition, web display or commercial use is only permissible with the consent of the USU Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections & Archives scweb@usu.edu
Lecture Room for Physiology in the Laboratory Building, BYC
Lecture train from Agricultural College of Utah, 1904;
<a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=49&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Livestock+exhibitions--Pictorial+works%3B+Sheep--Pictorial+works%3B+Railroad+trains--Pictorial+works%3B+Traveling+exhibitions--Pictorial+works%3B+Union+Pacific+Railroad+Company--Pictorial+works%3B+Agricultural+College+of+Utah--History--Pictorial+works%3B+Agricultural+experiment+stations--Utah--Pictorial+works%3B">Livestock exhibitions--Pictorial works; Sheep--Pictorial works; Railroad trains--Pictorial works; Traveling exhibitions--Pictorial works; Union Pacific Railroad Company--Pictorial works; Agricultural College of Utah--History--Pictorial works; Agricultural experiment stations--Utah--Pictorial works;
Before county agents were located in the field, a lecture train furnished by the Union Pacific Railroad toured Utah and Idaho carrying speakers and exhibits from the Experiment Station. 8x10 in photo for the book Bounty, by Jan Alm;
http://uda-db.orbiscascade.org/findaid/ark:/80444/xv13534 ;
Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections and Archives, Jensen Living Historical Farm Photograph Collection, 1852-1992 P0356 7:22:07;
The Jensen Living Historical Farm Photograph Collection, 1852-1992 P0356;
Utah; Idaho;
1900-1909; 20th century;
Outdoor Product; Catalog; 1984
Lee Maynard
Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections & Archives, Outdoor Recreation Products Catalog Collection (Book Collection 72, L-13, 1984)
In copyright, https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en
National parks and reserves--Utah; Natural monuments; Natural monuments; Scenic landscapes;
Hopkins, William H., 1873-1958;
Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections and Archives, Dr. William H. Hopkins Addendum Collection, 1918-1939.
Digitized by : Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library
Andrus, Dolph, 1890-1981;
Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections and Archives, P0360, Book 4;
Inventory for the Dr. William H. Hopkins Addendum Collection, 1918-1939, can be found at: http://nwda.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv21139
Black-and-white photograph;
573969 Bytes
Monument Valley (Utah); San Juan County (Utah); Utah; United States;
Foto de libro
flowerflinging.com
leer entre lineas
Mindy McDonald
Left side view of Betatakin Cliff dwellings.
Zane Grey; Rainbow Bridge; Northern Arizona;
This photograph was taken by either Zane Grey or another unknown photographer during Zane Grey's trip to Rainbow Bridge in April 1922. A right side view of the Betatakin cliff dwellings.
Zane Grey [?]; unknown;
Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections & Archives, Zane Grey Rainbow Bridge photograph collection (P0672, Box 1, Image 181)
Left to right: Camille Gooch, David Duvall, Nick Edvarchuk
StillImage
Left to right: Rose Milovich, Georgen Gilliam & Ann Buttars
Left to right: Vic Cannon, Joel Hatch, Brad Cole, A.J. Simmonds, Noel Carmac, Ann Buttars & Lisa Hearne at the piano, Special Collections Christmas party in the Tanner Memorial Reading Room
Legacy of Japanese Americans in World War II: 42nd Infantry Regiment
World War Two; Discrimination; Detainment; Internment Camps
The internment of Japanese Americans in the United States was the forced relocation and incarceration during World War II of between 110,000 and 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry who lived on the Pacific coast in camps in the interior of the country. Such incarceration was applied unequally due to differing population concentrations and, more importantly, state and regional politics: more than 110,000 Japanese Americans, nearly all who lived on the West Coast, were forced into interior camps, but in Hawaii, where the 150,000-plus Japanese Americans comprised over one-third of the population, only 1,200 to 1,800 were interned. The forced relocation and incarceration has been determined to have resulted more from racism and discrimination among whites on the West Coast, rather than any military danger posed by the Japanese Americans.
Worldwide digital video distribution by Janson Media http://www.janson.com
The Second World War
Weeping Lady; Logan; Utah State University; cemetery; memento mori; folklore; death; legends
David Jasper; collected by Bruce Jasper; Emily Crumpton editing
Utah State University, Merrill Cazier Library, Special Collections and Archives, Folklore Collection 008a, Group 07, Box 009a
Legend of the "Weeping Lady," Logan Cememtery
Weeping Widow; Utah State University; Logan; Cemetery; folklore; legends; memento mori
Val Dawson; collected by Robert Stokes; Emily Crumpton editing
Ester Truitt; Emily Crumpton editing
Brent Baskett; collected by Terri Mathie; Emily Crumpton editing
Legend-tripping at St. Anne's Retreat and Hecate in Logan Canyon: Origin, Belief, and Contemporary Oral Tradition
Legends;
legend-tripping;
This thesis talks about legend-tripping at St. Anne’s Retreat and examines the origin and history of Hecate who plays a central role in this oral tradition.
LEGEND-TRIPPING AT ST. ANNE'S RETREAT and HECATE IN LOGAN CANYON: ORIGIN, BELIEF, AND CONTEMPORARY ORAL TRADITION by Anna-Maria Sna:bjornsd6ttir Arnlj6ts Two essays submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Approved: Jeannie Thomas Committee Member of MASTER OF ARTS In American Studies (Plan B) Barre Toelken Major Professor UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY Logan, Utah 2000 Randy Williams Committee Member • • Legend-Tripping at St. Anne's Retreat What is now referred to as St. Anne's Retreat was initially a summer home eight miles up Logan Canyon, east of Logan, Utah. It was built in the 1930s by the Boyd Hatch family from New York, and Mrs. Hortense OdIum. The property was donated in the 1950s to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City, and it was used occasionally as a retreat and a vacation place for Sisters of the Holy Cross. Because it was not in continuous use, there was ample opportunity for vandals to visit, even on nights when the sisters were present. This prompted the nuns to get watch dogs to alert them to the presence of intruders. The sisters felt unsafe with the increase of the sometimes intoxicated young trespassers and vandals, and stopped coming to the retreat. In 1992, Mark Epstein, together with some other investors, bought the property with plans of turning it into vacation homes (Herald Journal, October 15, 1997. Pg. 16). What these investors may not have anticipated was the long standing cultural gap between local Mormons and Catholics, and how fear, belief, prejudice, and a generally accepted folk tradition of legend-tripping would interfere with their hopes of vacationing peacefully in the beautiful mountains of Logan Canyon. Legend-tripping is a term that Linda Degh, William Ellis, and others use in describing the practice of visiting the sites of supernatural legends. In a collection of essays called "Legend-Trips and Satanism: Adolescents' Ostensive Tradition as 'Cult' Activity, " Ellis quotes Kenneth Thigpen who describes legend tripping in three parts consisting of "1) initiation into the story; 2) performing the acts that 'cause the fulfillment of the legend'; and 3) retrospective discussion of what participants believed happened, which then feeds back into the core story into which newcomers were • • • • • • • • • initiated" (Ellis 1991 :280). The legends surrounding St. Anne's have provided a thrill to local adolescents for generations as is manifested by the number of people of all generations who claim to have taken part in legend tripping at St. Anne's. St. Anne's retreat and the legends associated with it achieved national media attention when over 30 high school students seeking to experience the "trip" of this legendary place, were caught and fell into the hands of vigilante security guards. The students were captured by three men, who were armed with shotguns; they were then roped around the neck, handcuffed, and forced to kneel in an empty swimming pool (Herald Journal, October 12, 1997, pg. 1). The legend-tripping youths embarked on a "trip" more exciting than they had anticipated as some were allegedly verbally threatened, physically abused, and sexually assaulted while awaiting the arrival of the local police. What followed this incident was a public uproar against the watchmen's use of force against the trespassers. This paper will look at the circumstances around this event and how age differences, religious folklore, and other cultural constructions play important roles in the maintenance of a vivid local legend cluster. The paper will further analyze versions of the St. Anne legend currently circulating among local high school students. I ultimately hope to illustrate how the nature of folklore is manifested by incorporating the vigilante incident into the legend cluster ofSt. Anne's retreat, evident in some ofthe recent versions collected from seniors at a Logan High School. The angry response of parents whose children were manhandled at the Retreat while legend-tripping on Halloween in 1997 was based on their notion that teenage trips to St. Anne's were so common that they constituted an understandable, coherent 2 • • • • • • • tradition, the rationale of which was more important than the relatively trivial matter of trespass. In other words, local concepts of justice are heavily influenced here-as elsewhere in the world-by local traditions. And if the tradition and its intemallogic are that important, of course it tacitly affirms the local attitudes on differences in religion. A different example of local concepts of justice being influenced by tradition may be the blood libel case involving a child: Andrew ofRinn at Judenstein, a town near Innsbruck, Austria is said in legend to have died by ritual murder at the hands of a Jew. Alan Dundes relates that Eli Wiesenthal, a Nazi-hunter, "voices his dismay at seeing full cars and busloads of school children making annual pilgrimages to Rinn under the tutelage of their religious instructors to see the ritual murder lie depicted as a historical event ... [t]his is depicted by three figures made of wood or wax in a menacing pose with knives in hand surrounding a stone upon which was stretched out a supplicating infant garbed in white" (Dundes, 342). In spite of great effort to stop pilgrimages to this blood libel legend site, including orders from Pope John Paul XXli to remove certain statues-the legend is treated as historical fact and thus the local concepts of justice in Rinn, and the power of their folk belief and tradition carry on unchanged. The parallel seen between the St. Anne's legends and the blood libel legends is clearly that local belief and tradition in both cases justify a long standing custom--one that penetrates basic principles and issues of a local population. For the St. Anne's legend this means legend­tripping to experience the legend by ostension; and in the case of Andrew ofRinn at Judenstein, pilgrimages to the site that commemorates the child murdered there. Recollections from older locals of the Cache Valley region, recalling their visit to the "Nunnery," suggest a general consent to this behavior of legend-tripping associated 3 • • • • • • • • • with the belief and its tradition and suggests that this ritual functions as a rite of passage for local individuals. This is evident from older generations of legend-trippers that established the tradition of visiting St. Anne's; and thus viewed as a custom that one would expect most locals to have participated in. The youths apprehended in Logan Canyon on Halloween 1997 who expected fulfillment of the St. Anne legend, really did get a thrill-but not of the sort they expected. Instead of red-eyed Dobermans, the haunting sound of murdered babies crying out, Witch Hekate in the shape of a cloud moving down the mountain, the car not starting, boulders falling down the mountain upon curious visitors, blood in the swimming pool, (representing the death that the pool is so much associated with), these trippers were ambushed in the night by armed men with shotguns and held hostage for two hours. Another story involving St. Anne's Retreat reflects an incident that again deals with local traditions confronting an aggregate concept of justice. Diane Browning, a former journalist for the local newspaper, The Herald Journal, wrote an article in 1986, telling of the St. Anne's Retreat legends as a ghost story for Halloween. She related the history of the article to me in a phone conversation (1997). After a co-worker told her one of the St. Anne's legends, they decided it would be a fun piece to write for Halloween (1986). However, the article instead created an emotional response from the Logan Catholic community, who took the article as an intentional provocation. Diane described verbally abusive anonymous phone calls and irate letters to the editor in The Herald Journal. Also outraged by her article was the incumbent priest, who spent two consecutive Sundays attacking the author from the pulpit, promoting a charged atmosphere. 4 • • • • • • • • • • Legend versions that Browning discussed in her article include: nuns raped and murdered at the retreat, a nun who had given birth to a child while at St. Anne's, drowning the baby in the swimming pool, and a nun coming out of the woods accompanied by two white Doberman Pinschers with red eyes. Browning ended the article by saying: "A note to the adventuresome: St. Anne's is located on private property and is patrolled regularly by a night watchman" (Herald Journal, October 26, 1986). This statement seems somewhat ironic-since eleven years later-the community becomes witness to an incident on this property that specifically deals with vigilante actions by the night watchmen. Browning's newspaper article and the trespassing incident in 1997 involving St. Anne's, illustrate the magnificent potential of a legend, and the powerful role that it plays in local folklore. This is further illustrated by the resiliency of the legend as it persists in its navigation through time, through a periodic resurgence, giving rise to otherwise dormant tensions between the Mormon majority and the Catholic minority in Logan. In the Fife Folklore Archives at Utah State University are some 50 legend versions of the St. Anne's Retreat, and an additional 25 of the related Hecate legend version, collected by students through the years. Several examples of these follow here to facilitate an understanding the concepts and ideas involved in this discussion. The current oral legend tradition appears to contain a basic version: example 1-8; and a trespassing version that follows as trespass versions 1-4. [stories are written verbatim]. 5 • • • • • • • • • • • 1. The Old Nun I once heard of some kids from Hyrum that went up to the old Catholic Nunnery in Logan Canyon. There was three boys and three girls. It was really late at night when they went, the guy had wanted to really scare their girlfriends. They got out of their car, walked down the path towards the Nunnery. Along the way was a couple of ponds. When they walked past the ponds little hands reached up and grabbed all of them around the ankles. They were all so scared that they took off running back to the car. Some of the guys started asking around as to why this happened. An old Priest that lives here in the valley told them that when there were people from the church living there, some of the Nuns became pregnant by the Priests. The Nuns would carry the baby to full term, and then to save the Church from embarrassment, they would drown their babies in the ponds. When strangers enter the property and walk by the ponds the babies' spirits will grab at them; they try and pull themselves out of the water to keep from drowning (Fife Folklore Archives, L2.1.12.1.27). 2. Freezing Nuns St. Anne's was a place where nuns could go on a vacation, usually in the summer or winter. One winter a long time ago, some nuns went up there to stay. It was a very severe winter with lots of snow so a man had to bring their supplies to them every week. He would take their fuel and food to them because it was the only way they could get it. One week the man couldn't get his wagon through, and he had to wait about two weeks before he could go up there again. He finally made it up to the retreat, and he found all the nuns had starved and frozen to death. He noticed that their bodies had been chewed by dogs. He was very worried about this, and was just leaving when he saw one of the nuns, whose name was Hekeda. She began chasing him with her two dogs. He got away and told the towns people what had happened. Hekeda still haunts the retreat with her dogs, and you can see her chasing you in your rearview mirror as you are leaving. It is believed she is of the devil (Fife Folklore Archives, ColI. 8. USU. 84- 050. Item 5). 3. St. Anne's Retreat St. Anne's Retreat was originally established up Logan Canyon for Cache Valley's Catholic nuns who needed to "get away" from things for awhile. One nun got herself in trouble and as time passed her problem became more noticeable. He[r] superiors knew that something needed to be done-she couldn't walk the streets in her condition, so she was sent to the St. Anne's for the duration of her pregnancy. The Mother Superior at St. Anne's talked this nun into putting up the baby for adoption when it was born, because she 6 • • • • • • • • • • thought this sort of thing was horrible. If the nun would agree to do as the Mother Superior said, the Mother Superior would help her. If not, then she could fend for herself. Well, as time went by and this nun spent her time reading, thinking, swimming in the pool, and walking around the retreat and in the nearby woods, she began to think of this child and knew she could never give it up. She decided to leave the order and raise her baby. When the baby was born she told her decision to the Mother Superior. The Mother Superior did not agree and felt that she had to end this situation. One day when this nun was sleeping, the Mother Superior took the baby and drowned him in the swimming pool. The nun took it very hard, but couldn't believe the Mother Superior would actually do this. She thought the Mother Superior had taken the baby and given him to a family, or was hiding him on the retreat somewhere. As she was recovering, she would take walks around the retreat to see if she could find her baby. As she walked by the pool one day, the Mother Superior pushed her in and she drowned. The Mother Superior thought she had rectified the problem, and now could live with herself after taking care of this nun. About three weeks later another nun was sent to St. Anne's to rest and relax for a couple of weeks. One day as she was walking past the swimming pool she saw a nun floating face down in the pool. She screamed, and the Mother Superior came to see what the problem was. The Mother Superior tried to grab at the nun in the pool, but the nun disappeared. The second nun wanted to know what had happened, but the Mother Superior would not say anything. The second nun called the Father and told him to come up to the St. Anne's because there was something wrong. the Father came and got to the bottom of what had happened and soon after, the Mother Superior was taken from St. Anne's. Shortly after this happened, the Catholic church sold St. Anne's Retreat. St. Anne's is still used as a get away place for various groups and there have been reports that the one nun is still looking for her baby. Some have seen her walking around the retreat, and some have seen her floating in the pool. While there are no reports of anyone talking to this nun, there are plenty of reports of people who have seen her, so as you go camping in this part of Logan Canyon, beware of the nun (Fife Folklore Archives, L2.1.12.1.34). 4. Saint-Ann-Retreat Saint-Ann was a nunery a long time ago. As Catholic, nuns are not suppose to have sex or any relationship with male. However, some nuns up at Saint­Ann had broke the rule and got pregnant. When babies were born, the nuns killed the babies by drowning them in a pool in the back of Sain-Ann. Some of the nuns felt guilty and killed themselves also. Now, the nuns sometimes appear back to visit the place. There is a watchman with two dobermans and a gun to keep the public out (Fife Folklore Archives, L2.1.12.1.14). 7 • • • • • • • • • • 5. Hekeda and Her Dogs All the nuns and mother superior lived at St. Anne's. One of the nun's name was Hekeda, and she took care of seven afghan hounds. In the early 1920' s a guy went up there and killed and raped them all. All of the bodies were found except Hekeda's and the dog's. Every time someone goes up to St. Anne's to fix it up, they always hear dogs barking, and then see a lantern on the ountain. You can see the figure of a woman walking her dogs up there at night. If you yell the name Hekeda three times, a blue fog will cover your car, and you won't be able to come down out of the canyon (Fife Folklore Archives, ColI. 8. USU. 84-050. Item 6). 6. The Lynching Mob This actually happened sometime in the early sixties. St. Anne's was a vacation area, and there were about twelve or thirteen nuns up there when one of them went bezerk. She just went bonkers. She had been training these four Black Labs, which she had gotten from Hekeda, to kill. She kept them in a woodshed on the mountainside, and one night she let the dogs loose. She got a lantern and a hatchet, and she and her dogs slaughtered all of the nuns. Time passed and nothing was discovered until someone made a delivery to the retreat. The person who found the dead nuns went back to Logan and got a bunch of people together. This mob of people went up to St. Anne's, and they found the crazy nun, and they decided to hang her. They gave her the chance to speak her last words, and she said, "I will forever haunt this place." She still haunts St. Anne's today (Fife Folklore Archives, ColI. 8. USU. 84-050. Item 8). 7. Saint Anne's Retreat A long time ago there used to be a nunnery at Saint Anne's. One of the nuns got pregnant by a young priest. She hid the fact that she was pregnant for a long time. When she had the baby she was told she had to leave the nunnery. She was grieved at what had happened and went out and drowned her baby in the swimming pool, then hung herself. Her spirit haunts the place in the form of a dog. Sometimes people can hear dogs howling at Saint Anne's. Nobody has ever seen the dogs (Fife Folklore Archives, L2.1.12.1.37). 8. Heckada If you go up Logan Canyon to 3rd dam and cross the bridge into the Spring Hollow area or go to the Quarry up Providence Canyon, you can summon the Devil's wife, her name is Heckada. My friend's brother's girlfriend's brother had a friend that did this very thing. He and a date 8 • • • • • • • • • • went up to the Spring Hollow area, for some romancing. After being turned down he got out of the car and yelled the phrase "Heckada, come get me" this was the saying that you needed to say to get Heckada to appear. After saying it a few times he returned to the car. His date was scared, which was his main intention for doing the little prank, or so he thought. After a few minutes of sitting there they began to hear dogs barking, they looked up and saw a green glowing chariot pulled by six wolves, and a mistress with long flowing hair at the reins. At about the same instance the doors locked, the boy and date was pretty scared by this time so the boy tried to get the car started but it seemed like the battery was dead, nothing would start or no lights would come on. By this time the wolves were on the hood of the car clawing at it and grow ling. The mistress stared into the boy's eyes and said "I have come for you." The boy freaked out and didn't know what to do, the girl was screaming and crying. Then the boy remembered to say "In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to leave," at the very instance of saying that, the mistress and her wolves disappeared. The boy then started the car and returned to Logan. Upon returning to his date's house they looked at the hood and saw scratches that the wolves left (Fife Folklore Archives, L2.3.1.15.9). These legends may function to express curiosity, suspicion and even fear of a minority religion by a local majority. They may also function as a means of illustrating the idea that outside religions are too strange for local adolescents to take seriously by creating a sense of fear and skepticism about their behavior. Such stories allow for hostility toward another group to be expressed in narrative dramas rather than the form of physical harm. Nonetheless, it is clear that there is a considerable emotional load in these stories as well, and it is important for us to wonder why. It will become increasingly clear through these legend examples and discussion throughout this paper of different themes and issues that surface, and the function that this oral tradition serves. The trespass legend versions that circulate today tell about the horrors occurring during the incident on Halloween of 1997. Examples 1-4 follow: 9 • • • • • • • • • • • Trespass Story: 1 My father has told me stories of when he would visit there, and my friend did some research on it last summer. I've heard about the kids that went up there and the caretaker tied them up in the pool and harassed them [my emphasis]. My father told me about stories where he would go up there and play pranks on his dates. Him and his friends would dress up like ghosts and act out scenes with real rifles and blanks. I have heard something about somebody dying in the pool, and people making sacrifice up there [merger of traditional story and trespass version of 1997] (Logan High survey). Trespass Story: 2 I heard that there were some high school students were at the nunery and they got kidnapped [my emphasis] and tied up and I heard they were breaking into [my emphasis] the nunery (Logan High survey). Trespass Story: 3 I probably only know rumors from people around me at my school. I don't know any facts about it. I have heard that there is a nunery up the canyon where little kids were murdered. Then I heard that kids from my school and others went up there and got caught by cops. My friend has been there, and she said it was really scary [a mixture of the basic story and trespass version of 1997] (Logan High survey). Trespass Story: 4 The only thing that I have heard about it was about the teens who where trying to break in and they got harassed [my emphasis] [1997 events] (Logan High survey). There are several themes that can be observed in various versions of these legends that address the Mormon-Catholic tensions. The story of "Witch Hekate," identified with the Mother Superior, and her red-eyed Dobermans, symbolize the evil connotation that the locals have associated with the Catholic church. The ancient belief of dogs as a 10 • • • • • • • • • • • symbol of evil is seen in this legend by .the presence of Witch Hekate's Dobermans­further attempting to associate the nuns as evil (Barre Toelken, personal communication). Also with origins in ancient belief, is the theme of sexuality and pregnancy at St. Anne' s- which comes from the old notion that nuns and priests secretly engaged in sexual encounters (Barre Toelken, personal communication). In the case of the legend, the horror of disposing of these unwanted pregnancies follows. The congruency between the dramatic images of the legends and local western and Mormon values suggests still another level of meaning for these narratives. Teenagers from a patriarchal society go away from town to experience the thrill of danger in a female-dominated place; teenagers who are dating but are exhorted to refrain from sex until after marriage go there to be thrilled by legends of women who are prohibited from having sex, and who don't get married, but who have illegitimate babies anyway; espousing religion and abhorring murder, they visit places where religious people are said to have been murdered. To understand the emotional load and the religious dimension in these legends is to understand local belief and perception of the world, including the presence of the Catholic Retreat established some fifty years ago Logan Canyon. Fundamental attitudes of Mormons towards Catholics is an essential component of the religious dimension, but what appears prominent through the legends is gender-and the struggle to maintain, and confirm the male role in this religious culture. The legends serve as faith promoting events of not only the male establishing his role as dominant, but also to verify that the Mormon church is superior and one that will prevail over the other. 11 • • • • • • • • • • • Mormon attitudes towards Catholics is well documented. Thomas quotes the following from personal communication with William A. Wilson, a Mormon scholar: Mormons see Catholics as the principal apostate church. Protestant churches have at least tried to draw closer to the original church in their reform movements, but Catholics have steadfastly persisted in their error, in their apostasy, and are therefore easily connected with evil. Bruce McConkie called the Catholic Church the great and abominable church before he was forced to recant; some missionaries refer to the church as the "G & A." Missionaries to Catholic countries often come home with tales of evil nuns and priests" (Thomas, 18). It is clear to see how attitudes such as these mentioned can determine the perception of this particular religious culture. Through the legends one can detect apprehension, fear and anxieties of the presence of the outside religion as well maintain male dominance of this patriarchal culture. The male confirms his status and role as dominant male legend-tripping through ostension to maintain, and confirm the importance and continuation of his role as male in his culture. Male dominance is established in legend as initiator of courtship; protector against evil by averting evil with power of priesthood (Example above: 2. Heckada: L2.3.1.15.9). Another theme presented in some legends is the female outsider vs. the male insider: the female breaks the rules in these legends and pays the penalty. She either becomes ostracized as the nun who becomes pregnant in St. Anne's Retreat: (L2. 1. 12. 1.34) which is noted by the following: St. Anne's Retreat was originally established up Logan Canyon for Cache Valley's Catholic nuns who needed to "get away" from things for awhile. One nun got herself in trouble ... she couldn't walk the streets in her condition, so she was sent to St. Anne's ... " This may not only be illustrating the attitudes of the local Mormon religion of their perception of such a 12 • • • • • • • • • • • situation by stating that pregnant unwed women cause shame and should be hidden away-but this situation may also be inverse of reality and that it reflects their own attitudes about as if happened to their own. The punishment for breaking moral codes may even become rape and murder as in the following version S. "Hekeda and Her Dogs" (Fife Folklore Archives, ColI. 8. usu. ColI. 8. 84-0S0.Item 6). The stories projected on the nuns and the punishment received for breaking the rules may illustrate local attitudes and feelings towards moral transgressions. Thus the legends send a strong message to conform to local codes of living. Other themes represented are 1) In the first version: nun gets pregnant by a priest; nun has baby and drowns it in the legendary swimming pool located at St. Anne's; nun commits suicide but remains as a ghost and haunts the place (as a dog); sounds of dogs howling. 2) The second version: An example of legend-tripping functioning as teenage courtship scene. (Toelken, personal communication; Fife Folklore Archives: L2.3.1.1S.9; Thomas, IS). Boy takes girl to this haunted place with hopes of romancing. Also present is the notion of calling Hekate's name three times to make Hekate appear. This of course not only has the effect of scaring the girl, but also brings about various phenomena as described in the story. There is also the presence of dogs, a green glowing chariot with Hekate at the helm; she also later speaks to the boy, and the car not starting. There is a definite religious overtone as well in this traditional story. The boy chases away the evil (nun) Hekate with the words "In the name of Jesus Christ.. .. " This seems to suggest the idea that the righteous and powerful religion prevails over the evil presence of the other. This is followed by a safe return as explained by the following quote: "Those who go there are invariably frightened and end up retreating to 13 • • • • • • • • • • • the safety of their own LDS culture" (Thomas, 18). This would also have the effect and function as a "faith promoting" (Thomas, 16; Hufford, 222) event for the couple and undoubtedly the event would continue to serve its purpose in narrative form for the inspiration of others. In trespass version (1) the father condones a legend-tripping tradition to St. Anne's because he recollects his own trips to this legendary site. In other words, there remains a general acceptance of legend-trips to this supernatural site by precedence of local tradition, and again, because the trips to St. Anne's are so common that it becomes a justifiable, acceptable, and a coherent custom that consequently affects local concepts of justice. In several of these newer trespass versions, the intruders are perceived as being victims and are described as being harassed, even though they are the ones breaking in! This is significant in light of a general local perception that legend­tripping at St. Anne's is more than a local tradition and viewed by many as a benign activity. Although it should be clear that large numbers of locals voicing their opinion in letters to the editor articulated their dismay and frustration with the trespassers. In one of the stories (trespass version 3), kids are said to have been murdered at St. Anne's; this is closely followed by the statement "kids from my school were caught by cops." This has the appearance (as seen throughout these stories) that the trespassing high school students were victims-even though they were breaking the law by entering private property. It may also be a reflection of the traditional themes, incorporated into the newer trespass stories. 14 • • • • • • • • • • • Still another possible level of meaning in the cluster of traditional stories can be seen by using Alan Dunde's tenn "projective inversion." Dundes uses the blood libel legend to illustrate this concept. This legend with origins in ancient times tells of Jews killing Christian infants and children, using their blood in a ritual to make matzah. He explains that: "The Christian guilt for indulging in symbolic ritual cannibalism is neatly projected onto the Jews through such legends" (Dundes, 110). Dundes continues: "I am persuaded that a more appropriate and revealing approach to the legend lies in the Christian need for a Jewish scapegoat and in the psychological process I have tenned "projective inversion"(Dundes, 352). The point is that the blood libel legend is Christian folklore-"and that it is Christians, not Jews, who [tell and] would like to commit the blood libel" (Dundes, 354). Also important to note that it was not the Jews who killed Christ, it was the Romans. "Christians blame Jews for something which the Christians needed to have happen, a thing which the Jews never did ... [so] projective inversion refers to a psychological process in which A accuses B of carrying out an action which A really wishes to carry out him or herself' (Dundes, 352-353). An example of what makes clear the projective inversion in the blood libel legend is suggested by the following facts: Jews are prohibited from consuming blood; but Christians, take part in a ritual of consuming the body of Christ by the symbolic bread and wine (or bread and water) symbolizing the body and blood of the Christ. Along these lines of wish fulfillment, it appears that Christians are projecting upon the Jews what they themselves are guilty of­which is killing and consuming the body of Christ. Some of the themes in the legends of St. Anne's, parallel to the blood libel legend, appear to be the reverse of reality: 15 • • • • • • • • • • • --the ghostly nuns are described as menacing and aggressive, intruding on the visiting teenagers' courtship scene; when in fact the teenagers were trespassing on church property. --the nuns are described as sexually active, thus breaking local religious and moral codes, when of course the teenagers are the ones doing the courtship game. These examples suggest that the very characteristics attributed to the ghostly nuns are actually projections of the young legend-trippers, phrased in such a way as to blame the aberrations on the other. Thomas states a similar point when infonning us that" ... the majority of those telling the legend are Monnons ... [and that the] St. Anne's legend versions are ostensibly about Catholics and certain Catholic practices; however, a closer study of the versions reveals that they are really about Monnons and their view of Catholics ... " (Thomas, 15). This appears to support the notion of projective inversion and its function in the St. Anne's legends by projecting an inverse reality. It has been nearly three years since the ambush of local legend-trippers by security guards at St. Anne's. The stories currently circulating among local youth continue to illustrate the dynamics of folklore and the power of local tradition. Tradition propelled by local belief is clearly seen in the survey of local high school students, recalling the Halloween trespass incident of 1997; basic versions were also produced in the survey. Out of twenty-five students surveyed, fourteen mentioned elements from the trespassing event, while eleven used a traditional motif. So what does this mean? It tells us that this incident of three years ago was more than news. In fact it clearly fits into a so-called "civic brush fire incident." Grant Davie uses this phrase in 16 • • • • • • • • • • • describing local news bits that have a huge impact on the local population (Grant Davie, 1-2). It is evident by local newspaper articles and particularly editorials, both in the 1997 trespass incident, and certainly also the uproar that Diane Browning's article created in 1986, that St. Anne's is a topic that clearly fits into this "civic brush fire" category. Grant-Davie proposes four qualifying areas as conditions for civic brush fire incidents and St. Anne's is one of his examples: 1) A provocative incident: The St. Anne's controversy was started in dramatic fashion by two events in quick succession: first the teens' visit to the property and the caretakers' hostile reaction, and then the raising of criminal charges against all involved. 2) An emblematic object or image: In the example of the St. Anne's incident, the incident itself provided a strong enough image-an angry, nighttime confrontation between a few armed men and a crowd of thrill-seeking teenagers-to excite the general public's imagination. 3) Accessible media and forums: The St. Anne's debate was played out in at least seven articles, two guest commentaries, 17 letters to the editor, more than 50-callin messages (a selection of nine of which were printed), and an editorial. 4) A conflict between threatened values: This was very apparent in the St. Anne's incident, which became a debate between property rights and civil rights. The first wave of letters to the editor sided with the caretakers, who were characterized as heroes wrongly crucified for defending property and taking a stand against vandalism, while the second wave defended the teens' actions as a harmless, traditional prank and condemned the caretakers for assaulting and terrorizing them (Grant Davie, 3-5). [only definition, and material pertaining to St. Anne's included] Grant-Davie also suggests that the brush fires surrounding the St. Anne's incident "were fueled by some fundamental issues and deeply-rooted values [my emphasis] that fired the public emotions" (Grant Davie, 6). So, yes--clearly the St. Anne's incident on Halloween 1997 was more than local news-it goes much deeper than that. It taps fundamental group values with regards to ex: religion, gender, and property rights, that play a crucial role in this particular "civic brush fire" and fire up emotional debates among the local population. 17 • • • • • • • • • • • I would like to suggest another level beyond the idea of property vs. civil rights. This has to do with the fundamental and inherent rights as seen by the locals, of upholding and justifying a long standing tradition of legend-tripping at St. Anne's vs. the property owners' rights to stand up against vandalism. I propose that fundamentally it is an issue of property vs. civil rights, but in essence it becomes an issue of local concepts of justice vs. local folklore and tradition. Local concepts of justice are diverse and may stem from dominant Mormon religious beliefs as can be noted throughout this discussion. Legend-tripping at St. Anne's becomes justifiable due to the long standing custom and tradition established in the past 50 years. The incident of Halloween 1997 in Logan Canyon had such an impact on local youth that stories are still circulating that tell of the frightening events surrounding the trespassing incident. It is important to note that out of the 25 students surveyed, fourteen stories contained primarily data of the trespassing event. This appears to demonstrate the powerful emotions around the event itself, certainly property vs. civil rights, and lastly the concepts of justice in defense of tradition. Perhaps the traditional St. Anne's legend depicting supernatural phenomena-is certainly frightening enough but the memories of the ambush of local high school students on Halloween 1997 remain a dominant image. These are recollections of a small sample group of students surveyed as representative of their knowledge ofSt. Anne's Retreat. So vivid are the memories ofthis event that some of the students surveyed vow never to participate in any legend-tripping activity to at St. Anne's. What we have is a history of a legend-tripping custom which entails visiting a site of the supernatural-a thrill seeking event-experiencing the legend by ostension by 18 • acting out the legend, which has been going on for over 50 years. First, the trespassing • event of 1997; then the "civic brush fire" (Grant-Davie, 1) ignited after Browning's article on Halloween 1986 that caused considerable emotional distress in the Catholic community. In 1997, the public debate primarily deals with property rights vs. civil • rights, and also local concepts of justice vs. local folklore and tradition; whereas in 1986 the incident provoked tension among Catholics and Mormons. Both cases involve the legendary St. Anne's Retreat and the local lore persisting through the generations. • The trespass legend versions of 1997 collected recently from local high school . , students illustrate yet another dimension to the St. Anne's legend. They portray a • sentiment of pity for the teenage offenders- portraying the lawless teenagers as victims. It is a case where the community opinion (in the form of letters to the editor) appears to be significantly divided, In my research it appears as though approximately fifty percent • defend property rights and condemn the behavior of the trespassers; the other fifty percent largely condemn the actions taken by the caretakers at St. Anne's, and appear to • minimize the incident as a teenage prank, or in some cases defend the actions of the teenagers by indicating such things as rites of passage. According to a prominent local resident cited in the Herald Journal, visiting St. Anne's is a local custom that most local • residents at one time or another have taken part in. In general, the Herald Journal overall displayed more sympathy towards the trespassers rather than those leasing the property. The "ambush" of the trespassing teenagers was depicted vividly and as seemingly • unprovoked while little sympathy was lent to three security guards defending a property on Halloween from 30 plus teenagers and young adults, in the middle of the night, in the • dark, of Logan Canyon, eight miles away from town . .The event was clearly biased in the 19 • • • • • • • • • • • • media, and certainly did not for the most part take into account the circumstances in which the security guards operated under. It also did not adequately sympathize with threats previously made to caretakers. Nor did the newspaper adequately acknowledge the frustrations of property owners facing ongoing vandalism and destruction of their property in Logan Canyon. To illustrate the type of news paper rhetoric that at large demonstrated bias towards the trespassers- a few quotes follow: [Cache County Sheriff Lynn Nelson] "The kids were wrong to trespass, he said, but they were just looking to have some fun. "The big issue here is what these other guys did to them" (Herald Journal, October 14, 1997. Pg. 3). A similar sentiment states: [Cache County Attorney's Office, Scott Wyatt] Wyatt said: "St. Anne's is a local haunted house on private property and what happened when the carloads of youngsters got there is almost unbelievable ... It's one of the most incredible things I've ever seen ... The kids should not have done what they did because they were trespassing but that doesn't justify the reaction of these guys ... "(Herald Journal, October 14, 1997. Pg. 3). To further illustrate this point is to note that repeated issues the actions of the security guards are accentuated and depicting them as the criminals. Detailed and repeated attention is given in describing the fate of the trespassing youth as they entered the St. Anne's property. Such accounts are commonly referred to as "Vietnam-style terror in Logan ... they [trespassers] were ambushed, shot at, handcuffed, tied together by their necks and threatened with their lives by shotgun-toting private guards (Herald Journal, October 12, 1997. Pg. 1). These images from words in the news paper are followed by detailed descriptions of the event picturing the supposed injustice against the youth. According to my research, two articles from the Utah State University Statesman presents the case of both parties, but in 20 • • • • • • • • • • • addition offers significant and supportive statements in defense of the security guards. One article tells: "Some defend the gun-toting men claiming they had no other choice but to detain the youth and protect themselves. Friday evening it was 30 on three. Some ask the question, how were the men supposed to detain the youth and protect themselves from retaliation?" (Statesman, October 13, 1997). Sympathetic comments such as this one are important for a balanced view of the incident, and to understand that these security guards did not chose to go into "combat" but acted in defense of themselves and the property. A fascinating aspect of the whole St. Anne's incident that only surfaces in the end and appears to have been largely overlooked is the fact that Logan Canyon is a National Forest. The land that the St. Anne's property consists of is actually government land leased by the occupants (Herald Journal, March 11-12. 1998) [date based on public hearing court documents; date of news paper release not available]. In this case the whole controversy over trespassing becomes void, as we can see from subsequent statements by the Forest Service because technically the youth never actually trespassed in light of this information. All through the news articles covering the St. Anne's event of 1997, there was only incidental mention of the U.S. Forest Service and the rules that apply to government land. It was not until the St. Anne defendants accepted a plea bargain on bringing an end to the trial that this issue really surfaced and played any significant part. The Herald Journal newspaper article [date of issue not available, however public hearing court documents are dated March 11-12, 1998 which indicates the approximate issue of the article in the news paper] informs us that the St. Anne defendants accepted a plea bargain, admitting guilt of assault, and consequently receiving 21 • • • • • • • • • • • reduced charges. Quoted in this article are the words of a U.S. Forest Service official Chip Sibbemsen who said that: "he himself had removed 'no trespassing' signs at St. Anne's, as well as from other cabins permitted as summer homes in Logan Canyon over the years." Then Mr. Sibbernsen continues: "The permit holders at St. Anne's have permission for a gate ... but not for the razor wire and signs that give the entrance to the retreat a prison camp appearance. That's because the land is still public land ... not private property" (Herald Journal, March 11-12. 1998) [approximate date based on court documents]. The article concludes: "Basically, while permit holders have the right to keep people out of their cabins, they can't keep people from walking through on surrounding land. That's why the Cache County Attorney's Office dropped criminal trespassing charges against all 38 youths captured and held at gun point by the retreat's caretaker. ... " This in the end appears to resolve the issue of trespassing charges-but also further complicates the question of "property ownership" and the limited power allowed residents to defend property from invaders. What seems incredible is the fact that it took several months for anyone to realize this fact when that should have been obvious to law enforcement and the legal profession from the very beginning. Since this law pertaining to public access on government land is now public knowledge, there seems to be yet another possibility (although by chance and through a technicality) for anyone to enter this property in the future as they wish. This may be great for the legend­tripping tradition, but this notion certainly does not help permit holders in Logan Canyon get any relief, or hope to end future "trespass" and vandalism on "their" properties. So what we can understand from the 1997 incident and the 1986 Halloween article is that the St. Anne's tradition has fueled numerous debates from property rights to 22 • • • • • • • • • • concepts of justice and customs. But the conditions under the surface for this brush fire to bum, as discussed throughout this paper, are important to remember in order to understand the deep-rooted fundamental concerns of the citizens of this or any community. Folklore is powerful, and given a function and purpose, proves to move persistently through time as is evident from the legends surrounding St. Anne's. The "dynamics of folklore" (Toelken, 55) powerfully illustrates not only how a local legend has circulated for over 50 years, but how a new aspect is introduced into the realm of the legend-that is this intense, not so easily ignored incident of Halloween 1997 which appears through recent stories to have left its own mark on this vivid legend cluster. The event surrounding the legend-tripping trespassers on Halloween 1997 at St. Anne's may be viewed in terms of property rights, or a fundamental civil right to carry on a local belief, a long standing custom-tradition, or a rite of passage. It can also be studied as local rhetoric involving a "brush fire incident" (Grant Davie, 1). Religion and gender appears to be a dominant factor in the complex cultural issues presented through the legends and the legend-trips through its participants. It illustrates that the themes discussed in this paper, and the stories it evolves around, are still vital issues to the community at large and dramatize concerns, fears, and anxieties still present in the undercurrent of this community. The Mormon religion is not just a religion, b~t a way of life; it becomes clear from this and examples given in this paper, that religion plays a central role in directing fundamental concerns such as gender roles, and fear ofthe other. This legend will remain a vivid part of narrative tradition-as long as there is a function, and purpose-to entertain narrator, audience, and legend-trippers ofthis local culture, as other legends will elsewhere. Cultural issues and concerns will continue to surface in 23 • • • • • • • • • • • oral tradition and reflected and dramatized in the stories they tell; because-"Ifit weren't important-they wouldn't keep doing it" (Toelken, personal communication). / 24 • • • • • • • • • • • Works Cited Browning, Dianne. Personal communication, March 1998. Dundes, Allen. 1991. The Blood Libel Legend: A Casebook in Anti-Semitic Folklore. Madison. The University of Wisconsin Press. 1997. From Game to War and other Psychoanalytic Essays on Folklore, pp. 11, 110-111. Lexington. The University Press of Kentucky. Ellis, Bill. 1991 . Legend-Trips and Satanism: Adolescents' Ostensive Traditions as 'Cult ' Activity, pp. 279-295. The Satanism Scare. New York. de GruyterPress. Fife Folklore Archives. Various traditional legend versions ofSt. Anne's Retreat. Grant Davie, Keith. Civic Brushfires: The Rhetoric of Local Community Debates. March 8, 2000 unpublished paper. Hatch, Anne. Personal communication, March 1998. Herald Journal. October 14, 1997. Pg. 3; October 15, 1997. Pg. 16; October 12, 1997. Pg. 1; October 26,1986. [page number unavailable]; March 11-12 [approximate date based on court documents from a preliminary hearing on March 11-12 recorded July 8, 1998]. Logan High School Survey. Results from survey April 2000 that produced 25 examples total. Eleven of a traditional legend version and fourteen trespass versions­representing stories of the Halloween trespassing incident at St. Anne's Retreat in 1997. In this survey, students were asked to recollect any version of the St. Anne's legend and to write it down. Hufford, David J. The Terror That comes in the Night. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982. Salt Lake Tribune. October 14, 1997. Statesman (Utah State University). October 13, 1997. Thomas, Jeannie. 1991. Hecate in Habit: Gender, Religion, and Legend. Northwest Folklore. Vol. 9: 14-27. 25 • • • • • • • • • • Toelken, Barre. 1996. The Dynamics of Folklore. Logan, Utah. Utah State University Press. Personal Communication, April 1998. 26 • • • • • • • • • • Hecate in Logan Canyon: Origin, Belief, and Contemporary Oral Tradition Local legends about a "Witch Hecate" primarily surface around the Spring Hollow-Guinevah campgrounds three miles up Logan canyon. This particular area is frequented by local Mormon youth groups (primarily girls camp) and boy scouts, where many of these legends emerge and thrive as ghost stories told at various camps. A parallel legend (in which Hecate appears also) about St. Anne's Retreat also depicts Hecate, and is based on the former Catholic Retreat referred to as St. Anne's Retreat located eight miles from Logan. This property came into the possession of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City in the early1940s and was used as a retreat and a vacation place for the Sisters of the Holy Cross (Salt Lake Tribune, October 14, 1997. D3). Due to the frequent visits oflegend-tripping1 trespassers and vandals, the sisters stopped coming to the retreat (Anne Hatch, personal communication) and the property was subsequently sold (Herald Journal, October 15, 1997. Pg. 16). In this paper I will explore the origin and history of Hecate by discussing the ancient Goddess worship, to subsequently gain an understanding of Hecate as an ancient underworld divinity, and the connection, if any, of the local Hecate legend character to the ancient Goddess Hecate from history and mythology. On this journey we should reach a broader understanding of Hecate and her performance in local legend as a bewitched nun. An analysis and discussion of hypothetical interpretations, meanings, functions, and symbolism-will follow. Before beginning these areas of discussion it is necessary to introduce the reader to samples of the "Witch Hecate" legend to allow an 1 Legend-tripping is a tenn that Linda Degh, William Ellis, and others use in describing the practice of visiting the sites of supematurallegends. - -------------------- -- • • • • • • • • • • • insight into the main core of this paper topic-the legends. [All stories and citations in this paper are quoted verbatim]. 1. Witch Heketa The story goes that an old woman lives somewhere up Logan Canyon. She is supposed to be a witch. Her name is Heketa. It is said that she has seven white dobermans which can become invisible at will. A local boy and girl supposedly went up to her place one night to see if they could see anything. They say they were sitting in the car when suddenly the windows fogged up from the outside. They heard dogs sniffing around the car and what sounded like a person breathing. A hand rubbed away some of the moisture like a person breathing. A hand rubbed away some of the moisture on the passanger window by the girl and an old womans face looked in. The girl went into a sort of trance and floated up off the seat a few inches. The boy got the car started and drove home quickly where his father, who was a Mormon bishop, gave the girl a blessing and she snapped out of the trance. The boy drove back up there the next day and says that there were seven dog collars on the ground (Fife Folklore Archives, L2.3.1.15.8). 2. Heckada If you go up Logan Canyon to 3rd dam and cross the bridge into the Spring Hollow area or go to the Quarry up Providence Canyon, you can summon the Devil's wife, her name is Heckada. My friend's brother's girlfriend's brother had a friend that did this very thing. He and a date went up to the Spring Hollow area, for some romancing. After being turned down he got out of the car and yelled the phrase" Heckada, come get me". This was the saying that you needed to say to get Heckada to appear. After saying it a few times he returned to the car. His date was scared, which was his main intention for doing the little prank, or so he thought. After a few minutes of sitting there they began to hear dogs barking, they looked up and saw a green glowing chariot pulled by six wolves, and a mistress with long flowing hair at the reins. At about the same instance the doors locked, the boy and date was pretty scared by this time so the boy tried to get the car started but it seemed like the battery was dead, nothing would start or no lights would come on. By this time the wolves were on the hood of the car clawing at it and grOWling. The mistress stared into the boy's eyes and said "1 have come for you". The boy freaked out and didn't know what to do, the girl was screaming and crying. Then the boy remembered to say "In the name of Jesus Christ 1 command you to leave", at the very instance of saying that, the mistress and her wolves disappeared. The boy then started the car and returned to Logan. Upon returning to his date's house 2 • • • • • • • .' • • • they looked at the hood and saw scratches that the wolves had left (Fife Folklore Archives, L2.3.1.15.9). 3. The Old Nun I once heard of some girls that went to girls scout camp up Logan canyon, a few years ago. There was about 12 girls plus a few leaders. The girls were between the ages of twelve and fifteen. They were sitting around the campfire telling scary stories, one of which was the "Old Nun" story. The story is about an old nun that died very angry that she had lost her youth and beauty. She had resided at the Nunnery, also in Logan canyon. Before she died, the nun would walk past the girls scout camp and long for the days of her youth. She became so obsessed by this idea that she decided by drinking the youths blood she would again be young. Well, the kids of the camp tried to laugh off their fear not wanting to admit to anyone that they really were scared. The group broke up after the story telling finished and went their separate ways. The leaders of the camp became increasingly concerned as the girls began to disappear one by one. They called and hunted for the missing girls not getting any response at all. A couple of girls from the camp had gone on a walk together. Suddenly they came running back into the camp screaming and shaking terribly. The girls reported seeing an old lady dressed as a nun, with an ax and blood dripping from her face walking near the camp. The next day when the sun came up six of the twelve girls were found murdered around camp (Fife Folklore Archives, L2.1.12.1.28). 4. Hekedah-the lady ofthird dam [told by scoutmaster] Once I decided to see if the stories about Hekedah were true. I grabbed a friend and we grabbed two girls and set out for third dam. As is the custom, we put the keys to the truck on the hood and then yelled for Hekedah to come. After waiting a long time, I saw a green light forming in the middle of the lake. I thought I was imagining things at first. It soon formed into a face of a lady all pale and green and she was crying. We grabbed her car keys from the hood, but waited to see what would happen. It wasn't long until a hand and arm appeared and started motioning us to come. (the teller motions with his hand and finger) She kept getting bigger and bigger and was soon a full size lady coming closer and closer to our truck. We put the keys in the ignition and tried to start the truck but nothing happened. Finally, when she was only 4 or 5 feet away, the truck started and we tore out of that place like crazy. [the collector continues to provide context by saying the following] (The teller then fills in the events in Hekedahs life which explain why she haunts the lake) Hekedah was a recluse woman, who lived in a little cabin above third dam. She had been quite wealthy in her life and had her money with her in the cabin. One night, two men broke in and killed her so that they could steal the money. 3 • • • • • • • • • • • The two men were never seen or heard of again. It is said that if you look up on the ridge on a night of the full moon, you can see the sillouette of Hekedah , with ax in hand, chasing two men (Fife Folklore Archives, L2.3.1.15.6). The above mentioned legends are samples of the Hecate legend that will be scrutinized in this study. But first it is necessary to introduce several complementary themes that surface in the parallel legend of St. Anne's Retreat, thus making it necessary to present sample versions of Hecate's role in the St. Anne's legends of Logan Canyon as a witch and a crazed nun. Themes from both "Witch Hecate" and "St. Anne's Retreat" will be discussed below. 5. Barking Dogs Lucy and her friend were driving around the canyon one fall night when it was really nice and warm, and they decided to go to St. Anne's. There were three guys who wanted to go, and three girls who didn't want to go. Since the boys were driving, they went. They parked the car by the highway, and began walking up the dirt road. On the way, one of the guys said "Do you know what happened up here?", and he proceeded to tell story of the nuns. "The nuns used to come up here in the wintertime and stay. One spring the nuns didn't come back. The townspeople went up to investigate, and they found the bodies of the nuns floating in the swimming pool, because they had been raped and murdered. They also found mother superior's black dogs chained up and starved to death in a shack." The guy telling the story suggested that they go look in the swimming pool. While they were looking at it, one of the guys yelled, "I'm scared," and ran to the car as fast as he could. Everyone else followed him, but the girls were slower. As they were running down the mountain, they heard dogs barking and chains dragging on the ground, and they thought the dogs were chasing them. The dogs were howling and looking for the nuns. The girls were crying because they were so scared (Fife Folklore Archives, ColI. 8. USU. 84-050. Item 10). 6. Saint Ann's Retreat A long time ago there used to be a nunnery at Saint Anne's. One of the nuns got pregnant by a young priest. She hid the fact that she was pregnant for a long time. When she had the baby she was told she had to 4 • • • • • • • • • • • leave the nunnery. She was grieved at what had happened and went out and drowned her baby in the swimming pool, then hung herself. Her spirit haunts the place in the form of a dog. Sometimes people can hear dogs howling at Saint Ann's. Nobody has ever seen the dogs (Fife Folklore Archives, L2.1.12.1.37). These legend illustrated above are examples presenting Hecate as a bewitched nun and includes several themes and symbolism that will be scrutinized further below. With this introduction, the mythological and historical aspects can now be explored. A brief over view of the origin of the Goddess follows. In Greek mythology, Hecate depicts an underworld third dimension of a triple Goddess representing Persephone, Demeter, and Hecate. Hecate appears as the crone part of this triple divinity; Hecate, the crone is also represented in the two local legend types in Logan Canyon. To extract meaning, and to gain a broader understanding of these legends, it is necessary to start from the beginning-to a time when the Goddess Hecate played a powerful and important role in many parts of the world. This process should elucidate the connection, if any, of the function of the local Hecate legend character to the ancient Goddess Hecate from history and mythology. In ancient times, dating back as far as 25,000 years BC.until shortly after the advent of Christianity, in many parts of the world-God was a Woman. This supreme deity, known by many names-according to region, was revered and worshipped not only for her fertility and procreation, but she represented wisdom, universal order (Stone, preface) [page number unavailable], knowledge, and capability of holding vital advisory positions. Goddess worship thrived from Neolithic periods 7000 BC., alongside of the Judeo-Christian religions and peoples who worshipped male gods until classical periods of Greece and Rome until around 500 A.D when any trace of this so called idolatry 5 • • • • • • • • • • • worship of the pagans was effectively, and nearly completely destroyed. (Stone, 20; preface) [preface page number unavailable]. "She [Hecate] bestows wealth and success, good luck and advice, is powerful in earth, sea, and heaven ... By a transference common in mythology, she became as a goddess of plenty, an infernal deity, terrible in aspects and often snakelike, the queen of ghosts and mistress of black magic, the keeper of the keys of Hades" (Leach, 487). Hecate is said to have had power and influence over earth, heaven, and sea. "She gave her votaries success in battle, in the law courts and political assembly, and in athletics. Later she came to be associated with the darker side of life, with the underworld and night, with ghosts ... Sometimes she herself was represented as an old hag with snakes entwined in her hair, or she might assume the form of a mare or dog, or, attended by hell-hounds, she haunted the cross-roads" (Pike, 174). The descriptions offered to us by Pike and Leach effectively provides an understanding of the pre­Christian image of the Goddess-and how hypothetically, simultaneous with the onset of Christianity, the role reversal of women into submission under a patriarchal system flourished. Goddess and thus Woman, is consequently seen in a subversive light­perhaps reflecting her new role and demoted status. Although the change away from Goddess worship appears to have taken place over thousands of years, Stone speaks of invasions of Northern tribes which apparently had immediate, harsh effects upon the Goddess religion by eradicating matriarchal-matrilineal societies to the new establishment of male dominated societies. The power of the Goddess societies became eradicated upon the solidification of a patriarchal system; [and] "only then was she fragmented, and reduced ... " (Sjoo & Moor, 183). 6 • It has been argued that early cultures did not understand the connection between • copulation and procreation and therefore worshipped the Goddess as the sole creator of life, and the only one who could create her own kind. But with the aggressive invasions of societies with male deities this matriarchal structure changed. The power of myth to • create perception and belief among man and woman-kind can be seen from the Adam and Eve myth. Stone talks about this being a dramatic and powerful turning point in the • manifestation and eradication of the Goddess. The Adam and Eve myth accomplished this by blaming Eve for the fall of mankind. Her punishment was to suffer pain in childbirth, and to serve man as a helpmate and inferior in status (Stone, foreword). This • is something to keep in mind as we note gender issues in these legends. The image of Hecate in lighter times shows that the Goddess was revered for her contributions to the world; this was before she was demoted in status and seen as dark • and sinister. After a mythological transference as mentioned by Leach-Hecate takes on a sinister-darker image. Hecate is held as moon Goddess, Queen of Ghosts, and deity of • the Crossroads (Sjoo & Moor, 183). After the entry to darker times "Hecate was [became] the destroyer; newborn children and animals were sacrificed to her" (Sjoo & Moor, 183). These are things this triple goddess has represented through time. With this • in mind, we can examine some classic themes existent in the local legends. Among some of the themes evident in both the historically documented mythical • origins from darker times of Hecate that are evident in "Witch Hecate" and the parallel "St. Anne's legends are: 1. The triple dimension concept. 2. Hecate's Suppers - Hecate at the Cross Roads. • 3. Hecate and the keys of Hades-keys as part of ritual in legend-tripping. 4. Sacrifice of newborns-in reference to the swimming pool as an altar. • 7 ~~~~~~~~~---- ----.-----~~~~- • • • • • • • • • • • 5. Hecate as Moon Goddess and Queen of Ghosts. 6. Presence and symbolism of torch. 7. Various themes connecting function and local religious culture i.e. presence of local dominant religion in legends as the righteous prevailing over evil. The Triple Dimension Concept There are several theories of the triple dimension concept of Hecate. One is that it represents "the three faces of woman: maiden, mother, and crone" (Thomas, 22). Theories ofthe triple head however, is that the triple head represents earth-heaven-sea (Pike, 173); past-present-future; three formed because of association with the moon: crescent-full-waning (Barnard, 85); yet another theory suggests a three headed dimension has to do with the need for Hecate (at the Crossroads, discussed below) to look down in three directions. In local legend versions Hecate appears to represent the triple dimension of what Thomas refers to as the "three faces of woman" by the following: "The legend versions depict woman as nun-a virginal maiden (Persephone); woman as a pregnant nun who becomes a mother (Demeter); a woman as a death threatening witch (Hecate) (Thomas, 22)." This can be seen in the following legend versions: First, the image of nuns being raped as was the virginal maiden Persephone raped by Hades. "The nuns used to come up here in the wintertime and stay. One spring the nuns didn't come back. The townspeople went up to investigate, and they found the bodies of the nuns floating in the swimming pool, because they had been raped and murdered" (Fife Folklore Archives, ColI. 8. USU. 84-050. Item 5). Second, the ancient notion of nuns and priests engaging in sexual acts; and consequently depicted in some of these legends as pregnant and having babies. This 8 • • • • • • • • • • • image may represent Demeter- mother of Persephone evident by the following quote: "One of the nuns got pregnant by a young priest" (Fife Folklore Archives, L2.1.12.1.37). Third, a depiction of Hecate-a woman as a witch or sometimes referred to as the devil's wife: "The story goes that an old woman lives somewhere up Logan Canyon. She is suppose to be a witch" (Fife Folklore Archives, L2.3.1.15.8). Another version similarly states: "If you go up Logan Canyon to 3Td dam ... you can summon the Devil's wife, her name is Heckada" (Fife Folklore Archives, L2.3.1.15.9). Hecate's Suppers - Hecate at the Cross Roads The Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics explains that crossroads are regarded as the dwelling place of evil spirits and ghosts creating bad luck and danger. Hecate is the Divinity of Crossroads (E.R.E. Vol. II, 330b). This is a place where at a new or full moon, rich people would worship her by leaving offerings in forms of food referred to as "suppers of Hecate." The crossroads was also a symbolic place for the sacrifices of newborn babies. Myth tells how "Hecate, as newly born infant, was exposed at a cross­way, but rescued and brought up by shepherds. This probably points to an actual custom of exposure at cross-roads ... (E.R.E.Voi. II 333b). Dogs were also a form of sacrifice at the cross-roads. St. Anne's may by a symbol of crossroads in terms of culture, religion and gender. A ghostly nun, may be a symbol of a strange outside culture and religion in which females at the retreat are perceived by locals to be dominant. The nuns in the legends take on aspects of Hecate-and she haunts this metaphoric crossroads. Hecate is known as the mother of ghosts (Leeming, 152); just as the nun becomes mother, she 9 • • • • • • • • • • • (Hecate-the nun) in a twisted way is also mother of dead sacrificed newborn babies who represent ghosts in the legends, and their spirits haunt the place. Another interesting theme is the presence of dogs in the legends and the historical significance in reference to "Hecate's Suppers." It explains that the poor and dogs would often consume the food offerings left at crossroads-hence the presence of dogs around the local legendary Hecate. Dogs are also told to be a form of sacrifice left at the crossroads (E.R.E., Vol. VI. 566b; Vol. II 333b; [Vol. Vill. 333b D. In tradition, dogs are often associated with the devil (Toelken, personal communication) which may explain their presence in Hecate's darker times. Hecate and the keys of Hades: keys as part of ritual in legend-tripping Keys are sometimes an important symbol in "Witch Hecate" and "St. Anne's" legends. From a mythological perspective, Hecate is known to hold and possess the keys of Hades. "She is even called the Lady bearing the keys of the Universe .. . " [it is further explained that] "The significance of the keys generally signifies the power over the regions ... (E. R. E. Vol. Vill 123a). Keys become a central point of a specific ritual, and playa significant role in this following legend version: "This is supposed to have happened to someone when they went up to St. Anne's. They drove their car up there, parked it, and turned off the lights. They put their car keys on the top of the car to bring Witch Hekeda down. A light shone on the car and the car keys disappeared. They couldn't leave St. Anne's without their keys, and they never returned home (Fife Folklore Archives, ColI. 8. USU collection#?! item #3 and 4)." This narrative clearly seems to suggest that Hecate is the holder of the keys-including their keys. She is the divinity of 10 ~~~~--~----.-- .- • • • • • • • • • • • the underworld who not only possesses their keys and but also has obvious powers over this particular region (St. Anne's Retreat and the Spring Hollow area). She appears to detennine in this story if in fact these trespassers may leave or not. Sacrifice of newborns-in reference to the swimming pool as an altar As discussed above, newborn babies are known to be a fonn of sacrifice at the crossroads. In the local legends discussed in this paper, the illegitimate offspring ofthe nuns is also known to be sacrificed. It can be understood as a local, modem day metaphoric crossroads; and on this site, newborn babies are also said to be murdered (sacrificed)-namely in the legendary swimming pool at St. Anne's Retreat. The swimming pool, with its frequent reference to murder in the legends, may serve as a symbolic altar in depicting the drowning babies and nuns. The ancient custom and ritual at doorways functioned to avert evil, and signified a place where offerings and sacrifices were made (altars often being placed right inside doorways). One can hypothesize that the intruders at St. Anne's in fact also came through a doorway (symbolic door, i.e. gate) to enter the 8t. Anne's property-to become a potential sacrifice as haunted victims of a ghostly nun. 11 • • • • • • • • • • • Hecate as Moon Goddess and Queen of Ghosts Hecate is considered by many to be primarily the moon Goddess "and one who forecasts perilous, unwelcome change" in the night [handout, Jeannie]. Hecate, the deity of crossroads-haunts the crossroads with her triple head staring in three directions to keep watch over evil powers. It is at new moon or full moon that offerings are given to Hecate at the crossroads. "Hecate is Mother of Ghosts, Queen of the underworld, of death" (Leeming, 152). In the legends it is common to witness supernatural phenomena at a full moon. One such account is: "Near Saint Anne's retreat up in Logan Canyon there is a small canyon. It is said if you go to this canyon around midnight, with the moon full in the night sky, and you call the name Heckata three times she will appear" (Fife Folklore Archives, L2.1.12.1.48). Presence and Symbolism ofthe Torch The torch in mythic terms symbolizes Demeter's search for her daughter Persephone after Hades raped her and took her to the underworld. Demeter searches desperately for her daughter with "lighted torches in her hands" (E.R.E. Vol. XU, 390a). Perhaps, in accordance with some legend versions, Hecate in the form of a bewitched nun, is also told to carry a torch; but rather than a torch in these examples, she uses a lantern. No longer is Hecate (or the bewitched nun) looking for her daughter Persephone, but she may be wandering the grounds of St. Anne's or Spring Hollow searching for her murdered baby. The following examples illustrate such stories. First, 12 • • • • • • • • • • an apparent torch, second, a lantern: (Fife Folklore Archives, L2.3.1.15.4; ColI. 8. usu. The Lynching Mob item#8). Various themes connecting function and local religious culture i.e. presence of local dominant religion in legends as the righteous prevailing over evil There exists a definite local religious flavor across many of the local Hecate legend versions depicting the more favorable dominant local religious culture over the strange, perhaps threatening outside influence of the Catholics. This is evident in legend #1 above, labeled "Witch Heketa" illustrated by the following quote: A hand rubbed away some of the moisture on the passanger window by the girl and an old womans face looked in. The girl went into a sort of trance and floated up off the seat a few inches. The boy got the car started and drove home quickly where his father, who was a Mormon bishop, gave the girl a blessing and she snapped out of the trance [my emphasis] (Fife Folklore Archives, L2.3.1.15.8). Another example from legend #2 above, labeled "Heckada" tells: The mistress stared into the boy's eyes and said "I have come for you". The boy freaked out and didn't know what to do, the girl was screaming and crying. Then the boy remembered to say "In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to leave" [my emphasis] at the very instance of saying that, the mistress and her wolves disappeared (Fife Folklore Archives, L2.3.1.15.9). This clearly represents what Hufford refers to as "faith promoting" events or stories (Hufford, 222). It serves to reaffirm the dominant and superior religion over the intruding, strange outside church as represented by the presence of nuns in Logan Canyon. It appears to symbolize that good (Mormon bishop giving blessing-and chasing evil spirits away with "in the name of Jesus Christ") breaks the spell of the evil abominable and apostate church as noted through Mormon doctrine (Thomas, 18; Notes 13 • • • • • • • • • • • 7). Thomas continues: "Those who do go to the site are invariably frightened and end up retreating to the safety of their own LDS culture." Another prominent theme surfacing in the legends is that of gender. This brings us back to the beginning of this paper-speaking ofthe Goddess and her mythological presence in local legend and geography. It brings forth aspects of challenges from a matriarchal and matrilineal local codes of living stemming from a patriarchal culture, based on religious beliefs dating back to the Old Testament. It is portrayed and manifested through the mythological Goddess Hecate, the power of the Goddess and Woman-challenging the notion of the patriarchal system; it confronts, and perhaps challenges local beliefs and attitudes in a culture dominated by men. In accordance with local belief-the female in the legends appear to take on a submissive and subservient role. As evident in the example in the previous paragraph, the male is dominant and has the power to avert evil. From this it is important to note that the Mormon bishop is male, while the Goddess Hecate is female. Stone describes the Paradise myth as "still the bedrock of fundamental theological arguments that women are divinely ordained to be subservient." This idea seems clear when looking at Mormon doctrine, and the status and role of the woman in local culture and legend; while the challenge to retain a status quo in a world that is in constant challenge of the patriarchal system and its dominance over women. It is the male who in many ofthe stories initiates the courtship ritual of visiting these sites haunted with the presence of the (female) supernatural. He appears as dominant male, aggressor, and savior; he is also capable through the power of the Mormon priesthood to revert evil, as mentioned in version #2 above. The male initiates courtship; the female is depicted in the legends as resisting his advances while she is 14 • • • • • • • • • • • expected to refrain from intimacy until marriage. So here her belief and moral codes are challenged. While his advances and plans for romance goes awry, he gets angry and calls upon the supernatural. He evidently inhibits the power to do so, as well as to make the evil go away using religious authority, power of the priesthood (which is in present day only given to men), and subsequently brings them both back to the safety of the Mormon culture. Example: (Legend version #2 above; Fife Folklore Archives, L2.3.1.15.9). Other examples of male dominance and female subordination are: "There were three guys who wanted to go, and three girls who didn't want to go. Since the boys were driving, they went" [my emphasis]. Once there, one ofthe boys proceeds to tell the St. Anne's legend. Later in the story, it tells of everyone running back to the car-but the girls were slower" [my emphasis] (Fife Folklore Archives, ColI. 8. USU. 84-050. Item 10). Some stories further illustrate moral transgressions as being punishable by rape and death (Fife Folklore Archives, L 5,11,12). This concept also has ancient origins. As the male deities took prominence in the Goddess religions [time period] or as illustrated in ancient Hebrew societies (Stone, 56) the moral codes so dictated that punishment for moral transgressions was to be put to death. The ancient belief and custom went as far as to punish a woman who had been raped with death. The notion of moral transgressions punishable by death as noted through ancient belief and custom, and as depicted in local legend is evident in the depiction of the female-a nun-who becomes the model for unacceptable moral behavior and consequently becomes raped and murdered for her choices. This possible representation may serve as a powerful image to members participating in this local courtship ritual and serves as a reminder to follow principles as set forth by the indigenous religion. 15 • • • • • • • • • • • The mythological and historical significance of the Goddess religion in relation to the presence of the mythological Goddess appearing as a nun in local legends has been presented and illustrates several themes drawn somehow from mythology of Goddess­Hecate. The presence of these classical themes incorporated in the modern legends may remain a curious aspect, but as a whole, all of the stories seek to exemplify certain aspects of the local people's attitudes and beliefs. This is illustrated in what may constitute their fears and concerns. One of these has to do with gender. Underlying anxieties are displayed through these legends and may stem from the systematic changes in the roles of women through time. To understand the present day presence of the Goddess Hecate in local legend, it is important to understand that gender is still an vital and combative issue-particularly in the local religious culture that may resist the worldly changes around them in order to maintain their religious convictions, including the role and status of woman in this culture. Somehow, Hecate an ancient mythical underworld divinity-manages to creep into modern day local legends; the resiliency of this myth thousands of years old functions today to in ways described above. The triple Goddess Hecate performs as a witch and a nun in both legend versions; and in a sense, she is still worshipped today as thrill seekers tempt their fate by making visits to her habitat in the metaphoric crossroads of Logan Canyon. 16 • • • • • • • • • • • Works Cited Barnard, Mary. 1967. The Mythmakers. New York. H. Wolff. Fife Folklore Archives. Various traditional legend versions ofSt. Anne's Retreat and Witch Hecate. Hastings, James, editor. 1980. Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics. Edinburgh, England. T & T Clark LTD. Hatch, Anne. Personal communication April 1998. Herald Journal. October 15, 1997. Opinion section. Hufford, David 1. The Terror That comes in the Night. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982. Leach, Maria, editor. 1949. Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore Mythology and Legend. New York. Funk and Wagnalls Company Leeming, David; Paige, Jake. 1994. Goddess: Myths of the Female Divine. New York. Oxford University Press. Pike, Royston. 1958. Encyclopedia of Religion and Religions. New York. Meridian Books, mc. Salt Lake Tribune. October 14, 1997. D3. Sjoo, Monica; Mor, Barbara. 1975. The Great Cosmic Mother. San Fracisco. Harper & Row, Publishers. Stone, Merlin. 1976. When God was a Woman. New York. The Dial Press. Thomas, Jeannie. 1991. Hecate in Habit: Gender, Religion, and Legend. Northwest Folklore. Vol. 9: 14-27. Toelken, Barre. Personal Communication, April 1998; May 2000. 17
Anna-Maria Arnljots
Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections and Archives, FOLK COLL 3
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Logan Canyon (Utah); Cache County (Utah); United States;
2000-2009; 21st century;
Legendary swimming pool at St. Anne's Retreat
Legends; Law enforcement; Trespass;
legend-tripping; St. Anne's Retreat; Logan Canyon legends;
Legend holds that nuns were raped by priests and drowned their newborns in the infamous swimming pool at St. Anne’s Retreat. It is said that if you go there at night you can hear the babies crying. In 1997 St. Anne’s Retreat and the legends associated with it achieved national media attention when over 30 high school students and young adults seeking to experience the “trip” of this legendary place, were caught and fell into the hands of vigilante security guards. The trespassers were captured by three men, who were armed with shotguns; they were then roped around the neck, handcuffed, and forced to kneel in an empty swimming pool.
Zsiray, John
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1990-1999; 20th century;
Folklore fieldwork assignment presenting several accounts of Witch Hecate in Logan Canyon.
LEGENDS OF LOGAN CANYON Tammy Durtschi Utah State University Fife Folklore Archives Logan, Utah Honors 336 Instructor: Wilson Winter 1981 • • • LEGENDS OF LOGAN CANYON Tannny Durtschi Logan, Utah 84321 Utah State University Mormon Folklore Honors 336 Winter Quarter, 1981 • • • TABLE OF CONTENTS Cover Essay ......................................... o •••••••••• ii Autobiographical Sketch •..•....•....•.••.•...••.••••..•...••••.• v List of Informants ............................................. vi Witch Hecida Title Informant Item How Witch Hecida Came Into Being ..• Lutz .•• ltem #l •..• Page # 1 Witch Hecida •.........•.•.....••.• Siler •.. Item #2 ••.• Page # 2 Witch Hecida ..•..................• Gates .•. Item 11=3 .... Page # 3 Personal Experience with Hecida .•.• Lutz .•• ltem #4 •... Page # 4 Saint Anne's Retreat -Ti-tl-e Informant Item St. Anne's Retreat .•••..•....•....• Lutz .•• ltem # 5 ... Page St. Anne's Retreat .•.•....•..••... Siler .•• Item 11= 6 .•• Page St. Anne's Retreat ••.•..•.•......• Hugie ... Item 11= 7 ••• Page St. Anne's Retreat •.•..•.•......•• Gates •.. ltem # 8 ... Page Personal Experience at St. Anne's.Hugie ••• ltem # 9 .•. Page The "Real" Story of St. Anne's ..... Lutz ••• Item 11=10 ••• Page Miscellaneous Legends <" -Ti-tl-e # 6 # 8 11= 9 11=10 11=11 #14 A fresence in Logan Canyon .•.•..•• Siler .•• ltem #ll ••• Page #15 The Man of Logan Canyon ••.......••. Ward •.• ltem #12 ••. Page #16 i • • • COVER ESSAY This has been an intriguing project to undertake. People's reaction when asked to be interviewed varied from one extreme to another. The great diversity in the version of the story from one person to the next was remarkable. In the following essay I will attempt to explain these statements as well as make some additional assertions. The topic I chose for my paper is the Ledgends of Logan Canyon. I concentrate most on Saint Anne's Retreat and Witch Hecida. Items 11 and 12 are just miscellaneous stories about Logan Canyon that I chose to include because I wanted to illustrate that there are many, many other ledgends about Logan Canyon other than the two main stories of St. Anne's and Witch Hecida. St. Anne's is located about five miles up Logan Canyon. There are many people who are sure that they know the "real" story about what happened there, but they all disagree about it. One of the "real" stories that I heard indicated that nuns were never at St. Anne's Retreat. (Item 1fl0) Another "real" story said that a family built ~he retreat, but then they decided to donate it to Utah State University. The University was too slow in accepting it so the family decided to donate it to the Catholic church. I was only able to obtain a very limited amount of facts about St. Anne's. It was built sometime during the 1930's and it eventually burned down. The ledgends are built around the demise of the retreat. The stories range from a hermit coming down out of the hills and killing all of the nuns to a story where it is actually the Mother Superior who does the killing. There is alot of diversity in who was really killed. One story states that all of the nuns got killed, whereas another story tells of babies that belonged to the nuns were drown in the swimming pool. The most detailed description of St. Anne's is found in Item #9. All that is now left of the original retreat is a swimming pool and the cement foundation of the original building. ii • • • The only logical reason that I can come up with as to why all of these stories began circulating is because up until the 1930's there were virtually no other churches in Logan. besides the Mormon church. When the Catholic church began prospering in the valley the Mormons resented it. When St. Anne's actually did burn the locals probably seized upon this as a chance to exploit the Catholic church and point out that this would never have happened if the Catholics were not wicked. Once it was a generally accepted fact that something Rad been going on at St. Anne's that shouldn't have been going on, the stories probably had free rein of the imagination. Stories began circulating that one of the nuns had gone crazy and killed her sister nuns. Other stories say that a 15 year old girl that the nuns had been taking care of had killed the nuns. There are two details that are included in most versions of the St. Anne's story. One detail is that there are generally dogs somewhere in the story. No one seems to know where the dogs came from, but they are there all the same. In most of the stories the do.gs play the part of being a guardian over the retreat. The second detail is the ~wimming pool. The swimming pool is always used as a means by which someone is murdered. Someone is thrown in the pool by someone else and drown. The swimming pool is still there today and is the factor that convinces alot of people of the validity of these stories. Witch Hecida stories offer even a greater variation between versions than doe ,; the St. Anne's stories. In each story Witch Hecida is in an entirely different location. up at Third Dam in Logan Canyon. (Item #1). One story puts her Another ledgend says that Witch Hecida resides in a cave in Logan Canyon. (Item #20 Still another story says that Witch Hecida comes down at Spring Hollow in the form of fog. (Item #3). But the most amazing story is that Witch Hecida came from St. Anne's Retreat. She was supposedly the Mother Superior that murdered all of the babies, and her original name was Saint Hecida • iii • • • Some of the people I talked with were anxious to share their stories with me. A couple of people I talked to told me that they knew the stories of St. Anne's and Witch Hecida, but they refused when I told them that their stories were going to be included in the Archives. Generally once people started talking and began telling me their stories they loosened up and would tell me anything I wanted to know. I recorded my interviews with my informants and then I typed them up exact~y as they were told. I would ask my informants questions to help draw similarities between the different versions. Theyonly editing of their original versdions was by eliminating repeated segments of their tales and dropping the unnecessary lIand ll s i • • • AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH I was born in Logan, Utah and I have lived here in Cache V~lley all of my life. I attended Sky View High School and Lam now a Freshman at Utah State University. My father is an Economics professor here at USU. a housewife and has dedicated her life to her family. My mother is My parents are the best anyone could ever ask for. I am the sixth out of seven children in our family . We have very strong family ties. I wouldn't trade my family experiences for anything. The reason I chose to do my paper on the legends of Logan Canyon is because I have lived here my entire life and I h.have heard these stories ever since I can remember. I was interested to see what other people thought of these stories and I was interested in collecting different versions of the same story. I am fascinated by people, and I enjoy doing projects that allow me to gain a better understanding of people and why they function like they do. This paper has given me an opportunity to get some insights that I otherwise would never have been able to gain. My hobbies include reading, being with and observing people, and sports. I could watch professional football forever! I also like participating in almost all sports. v • Gates, Larry. Hugie, Bryon Lutz, Chris • Siler, Jon Ward, Bruce • LIST OF INFORMANTS Larry was raised in Logan and attended Logan High. He is presently a Senior at Utah State University and is majoring in Pre-Med. He is the presently the president of the Honors Program at U.S.U. He has served an LDS mission. He contributed items 3 and 8 in this paper. Bryon is a Freshman at Utah State University. He was born in Logan and was raised in College Ward, Utah. He is currently waiting for his mission call. Bryon does not play with ouija boards since his experiences at St. Anne's. He took those events seriously and will have nothing to do with ouija boards or St. Anne's Retreat now. He contributed items 7 and 9. Chris was the most anxious to tell her stories of the people I interviewed. She is a Freshman at Utah State University. She is a non-mormon, but is ver~ knowledgable about our culture. She was by far the most cofrorful story teller I talked to. Items 1,4,5 and 10 belong to her. Jon is a Pre-Med major at Utah State University. He has lived in Cache Valley allt of his life. He is preparing for an LDS mission and will leave in June of this year. He enjoys skiing and playing racquetball. He contributed items 2,6and 11. Bruce was raised in southeastern Idaho. He was active in the Boy Scout program in Cache Valley. He served a mission in Alabama. He is currentJy a student at Utah State University studying Biology. His hobbies include snow skiing and reading. He contributed items number 12. vi • ~ i • • Chris Lutz "How Witch Hecida Came Into Being" February, 1981 USU Campus Item iH Chris told me this story when I asked her if she knew anything about Witch Hecida. Chris honestly believes that there is such a person as Witch Hecida. Her personal experience with Hecida is recounted in a later item. There was a camping excersion. She (Witch Hecida) was just a young girl and they all went up the canyon partying that night. up at Third Dam in Logan Canyon. They were all partying around and evidently one of the guys got rough and they took advantage of her and she was really upsec and really mad. She went after them and they were all drunk and laughing at her and she said, "don't do that" and she tried to fight them off, but they jumped her. She felt really bad, and they were all still so drunk and afterwards she was just kinda mad at them. She went after them with a club and they were all laughing and they pushed her into the water. She was drunk in the place and she drown, a young girl drown. The guys didn't know what to do. If they went back to town and were asked how she drown, well, what could they say? So she died there and thats how come she is in the water and she comes across like a ball. They call her a witch because anybody caught drinking or messing around up at Third Dam s~e will come and get. 1 • • • Jon Siler "Witch Hecida" February, 1981 USU Campus Item in Jon didn't know the people that actually had this experience. He heard this story from some of his friends when they were driving up Logan Canyon one night. This was told to me by a friend. It didn't happen to him, but he heard it from somebody else who heard it from somebody els~. Witch Hecida is suppose to be in Logan Canyon. She is suppose to have seven white mice and seven dogs. These guys were going through the cave one time and they smelled something and then they started to hear dogs barking and they thought that was really strange to hear dogs barking and they thought maybe a dog went in there and got caught or something. They kept going in there and they came to a big pit. They looked down there and sawall these mice and it ended up that there was seven mice and then they saw some dogs After they saw the dogs they left because they start­ed getting really scared because they knew about Witch Hecida. They left and never went back. ,2 • • • Larry Gates "Witch Hecida" February, 1981 UEU Campus Item if3 Larry couldn't remember the story very well. It had been a long time since he had heard it. The following is the story of Witch Hecida that he recall hearing from some of his friends in high school. He said that his friends didn't actually believe in ~~ci~a, it was just a good story to tell • . -. l . -u All I know is that a friend of mine, Steve Peterson, who is now in the Theatre Department used to go up there and do a little routine. I'm not even sure what it was, I was never with them. They would go up and call down Hecida in Spring Hollow and do a little chant and they had a little ritual they would do. Then the fog was suppose to come down, rolling down the mountain. You could see this blanket of white fog. It would move down through the trees toward the hollow. As far as I know they didn't ever stay around there to see what happened when the fog got down. I was never there when they did it. 3 • e ,e February ~ 1981 USU Ca!llpus Chris Lutz Item #4 "PersonaUExperience with Witch Hecida" Chris swears to this day that she saw Witch Hecida. She refuses to go up the canyon any more and tell ghose stories. She claims to have only been up the canyon once since her experience with Hecida. This is my Witch Hecida story~ this honestly happened to me. I'm really scared about things like that and they always told me that if you go up on Third Dam bridge in Logan Canyon and you stand there at midnight~ turn around three times and saY'tlWithh Hecida~ Witch Hecida~ Witch Hecida" and look over the water she will come to you. She'll come to you in a little golden ball~ like the good fairy. She comes across the water in this little golden ball and she comes to you and stands on the bridge. I figured it all out because it scared me. But it was nothing~ we all knew these stories. So one night~ me and my girlfriend--I guess we were juniors--were going out on a double date with these two guys and one guy had his brother's new 240Z. We went to Smithfield and we went to see the Love Bug. After­wards we were driving into town and we said "Let's go driving up the canyon and tell ghost stories". So we drove up the canyon and my friend was telling us about if you stand on the bridge and turn around three times Witch Hecida will come to you. We turned to gon onto the bridge and I said, "I'm scared, you guys, I just have this awful feeling"--it scared me real bad. So we went to tu~n the car around and we went to flip a "u" and thats a pretty big place up there, but the car would only go half way so we were wedged between the bridge and the road and it was just like in the Love Bug--this sounds really stupid--I ~; said, "Oh my gosh we are going to . • . " in the Love Bug we had just saw an hour earlier he went to flip a "u" and he didn't quite make it and he turned into the hill and the hill fell down on him. I said, "the hill is going to fall down on us". We all started screaming and we hurried and backed up and flipped around and started driving out of there as fast 4 • • • as we could. We were hauling "A", going 90 miles, no kidding. I lobked over at the speedometer. I said, "slow down, slow down, there is a car in front of us". It was an old beat up Falcon job. I said, "Oh my gosh, it's Witch Hecida". The two in the back were screamJng and laughing, kinda joking. I lOOked forward and there in the car it looked like her hair was just glowing. It looked like an old lady with one of those puffy hairdos. It was just kind oa like hazy-blue, like it radiated from her head. I said,"It's Witch Hecida, I know it, she knows that we are here". So we started slowing down and she started slowing down. There was just one person in the car. We were going 20 miles and hour. 20. After going 80. So we started slowing down and it:: (her hair) seemed to grow more brilliant, just like cotton candy, kind of fluffy and mysterious and I was just freaking out. So we slowed down and we thought that we would just let her go into town. She slowed down too. We were creeping along 20 miles an:~ hour. When we hit first dam we were going 5. She was going 5 and we were going 5 miles an hour. I said, "hit it!" and Vrooooooom •... we went right around her. We hightailed it up that hill. She started racing us! I said, "she is trying to catch us, she is trying to catch us." We hauled "A" into town. We were go­ing 90 down Fourth North. We ran a red light at Fourth DNorth cause we were so scared. She was right behind us, On Main Street we turned left and we went into that gas station and we turned around to watch, she was right behind us on that block, but she never came down to Main Street. We sat there and we just shook and shook and I said, "why didn't she come after us?" They told me that she can't come out of the canyon. Fourth North is still considered part of the canyon because of the slope. She cant turn onto Main Street. She just disappeared. To this day I swear that was Witch Hecida. I've never gone up the canyon and told ghost stories since. I won't. I believe in it • 5 • • • Chris Lutz "Saint Anne's Retreat" February, 1981 USU Campus Item 115 Chris heard this story at her Senior class party that was held at St Anne's Retreat which is located up Logan Canyon. She doesn't believe this story, but she was anxious to tell it to me. St. Anne's used to be a retreat for nuns. In the Catholic church they believe in taking care of their welfare program. There was this one girl who was living up there because evidently she didn't have any parenti. The nuns were taking care of her while an adoption was goin~ through. She was about four-teen or fifteen years of age. ',.' ~ '; She was a gorgeous girl, but ·she had a few mental problems because she thought no one wanted her. She was living up there because she was so old and no one had adopted her. While she was living up there with the nuns she really took good care of herself. She had this long beautiful hair and every­one told her how beautiful they thought she was. They would tell her not to worry and that someone would want someone·'as beautiful as her. She goes out on this date one night and she is traveling through the canyon and they wreck and her face went through :. the windshield. He died, he got thrown out of the car when the car started to roll. Her face went through the windshield. It severed all her hair off. She was lucky to make it. She broke her arm. Her other arm went through the windshield with her and it got cut off. And they found her there. She was about half crazy because she couldn't get out of the windshield. She was stuck, just like that. He was dead and she was just hysterical and half crazy when they found her, but she did survive. They had to shave off all her hair because of the head lacerations. They had to sew up her scalp again. She had a hook arm because all the nerves in her ar~were so badly damaged that they couldn't put it back on. She was having a lot of trouble adjusting. They took her back up to the convent and told her not to worry. All of the nuns were sweet to her, but she was never the same. She would have 6 • • • fits and tremors. On the first anniversary of the accident was the ending of St. Anne's. They went up there the next day and every single nun had been hacked to death with a hooken arm and that girl was gone. They never found her. That's when they closed St. Anne's. If you go there at midnight you can see her face looking into the swimming pool looking at her hair gone because that is what triggered it off. It was her anniversary, her hair was gone, and she wasn't the same. She was out walking in the moonlight and looked in the pool and saw her reflection of her with her long hair. She was all nice and normal. Then it turned midnight when it happened and she looked back and she was standing there saying, "oh ye s, someone wi 11 want me, I'm so great. II Then it turned midnight and she saw herself as she really was, all scarred and deformed. Her hair was short and hacked off. And her arms .•. 0 She went crazy and turned around and ran into the house and slashed everybody up. They found hook marks in the door where she tried to claw in. She broke her way in and killed them and cut off al1 their hair. Then she ran away in to the hills. They say that if you go back there at midnight and look into the pool she will appear to you. 7 • • • Jon Siler " Saint Anne~ s Retreat" Fe bruary, 1981 USU Campus Item ~f~ Jon first heard this story while he was driving up Logan Canyon on his way to Saint Anne's with some friends. He doesrrt personally believe this story, but he admits that it did make for a frighten­ing experience at St. Anne's. I heard that St. Anne's was at first built and owned by the Catholic church. They would send nuns up there. First I heard that it was a place where they would send nuns that got pregnant. I heard that there was this guy that lived up there in the hills that was a hermit. He would come down and really hassle all the Catholics there. He would tell them to leave and they never would. So he started getting physical and violent. It ended up that he came down and killed these nuns. He killed all the nuns in different places. There's a shack down lower and one got hatched there. One got drown in the ~wimming pool. I have also heard that one nun got pregnant and went and drown herself in the swimming pool. People have told me that they have gone up there and they had been walking up the road and there was a noose hanging from a tree that was swinging back and forth. They have also sworn to have seen dogs up there. 8 • • • Bryon Hugie "Saint Anne's Retreat" February, 1981 USU Campus Item #7 Bryon first heard this story from his grandmother. He doesn't know where she heard it from. He has heard this story more than once and from different people so he figures there is a good chance some of it is true. It (St. Anne's) used to be an old nunnery. It was a sin for the nuns to have kids. Well there was a camp up there and there was a couple of nuns that did have kids. The mother nun, I don't know what they call them, found out about the babies so she stole the kids one night and threw them in the swimming pool and drown them. There is a big swimming pool up there and a bunch of old buildings. The main nunnery where they used to hold their meetings burned down and all there is is an old building place. The cement foundation is still there and that is about all. She threw the babies in the pool and they drown and that same night the whola place burned down. It all happened in one day and one night. From what I hear, the nuns aren't permitted up there any more. They aren't suppose to go up there and they closed it all down. I don't know if they (the nuns) all left of if they are still here in the valley. The original name of that mother nun was Saint Hecida. There is suppose to be some dogs sitting there watching the place for Witch Hecida. When ever you go up there you are suppose to be able to hear their chains or hear them bark. 9 • • • Larry Gates "Saint Anne's Retreat" February, 1981 USU Campus Item #8 Larry wasn't too sure on the details, but the main ideas are included in the story. .He heard the story from some of his friends quite a few years ago. It's just a typical maniac nun story. The nun with the hook, she lost one hand. There were two kids up the canyon going at it in the back of the car. They heard something russtling in the bushes. They got real nervous and drove home. When they got home there was a hook hanging in the door handle. (The person with the hook was suppose to be a nun from St. Anne's) 10 • • • Bryon Hugie February, 1981 USU Campus 'Item 119 "Personal Experience with Saint Anne's Retreat" At first Bryon was a little reluctant to talk about this after I told him it would be typed up and recorded in the Archives. Once I got him talking though, he told me everything I wanted to know. It all started one night up Logan Canyon. Me and a bunch of my friends had a big brain storm idea. We would cruise up to St. Anne's and have a little fun. We had heard a bunch about the place so we decided to go up and check it out by ourselves. There was me and three other guys the very first time we went up there. We got up there and it was pretty quiet and there was a full moon. We got up there and we started walking up in there. We thought we heard a bunch of stuff ••• We got up there and we went into the swimming pool. (there is no water in the pool now.) My friends like playing with ouija boards. I thought this was going to be super that we would be playing with a ouija board at the bottom of the swimming pool. We didn't have one with us that night so we figured that we would bring one up next time we came. We looked through all the old buildings and that was pretty scary. We saw a lot of mounds of dirt with crosses on top of them with weeds over the crosses. It was pretty weird because they were allover. They were around the houses, and they were on the side hills. We looked around a little bit longer but we didn't stay too long. The next night we got a bunch more of people. I think there was about six, seven of us, maybe eight of us up there. We took a ouija board and we got up there and played with it at the bottom of the swimming pool. It was a full moon again. The board was working super. I swear that I heard dogs chains that night and so do my buddies. It was weird the way it happened. We told everybody about it. The next night we went up there with quite a few more friends. We took a couple car loads up. When we got up there nobody dared to go in there. There was a weird feeling there. There is a bridge there before you go in and it is all locked up. The whole place is chained up and nobody wanted to go in. 11 • • • I finally told them that I would go in if somebody would come with me. So me and two other guys went in there and we got way back in there and there was some people up in there. It is summer homes up in there now. We knocked on their door, but nobody answered. So we left. We went and rumaged through a bunch of old junk that is under­neath the cabins and looked through it and found a bunch of old beds and dressers and junk like that. My mom and a few people that I have asked about the place don't really care for us to go up there. For a while we were going up about every night. It was for about three weeks straight. It was a big thing. We'd take everybody up there and show them around and show them the things that we had found. St. Anne's is a weird place. We went up there some nights and there was no way we could find it. It's in a corner. It's just off the side of the road and it has a bunch of trees around the road. It'~ all grown in the there is an old bridge that is chain­ed up and there is no way you could break that chain. St. Anne's is pretty neat looking. There is a bridge and then there is an upper road or a lower road you can go on. It forks off and right in the center of that fork is where the swimming pool sits. It sits up on a great big high mound of grass. It's got a diving board off of it. After that the right road dies and the left one goes up a canyon. The nuns used to go up this canyon to do their meditating and being with the Lord. It's got a big gate going across the bridge. Some nights we have gone up there and we have combed that canyon. It's down from the Girl's Camp and we have combed the right side of the road fifty times and there was no way we could find that road. We have all but walked up and down there. We've gone about 5 miles an hour in the car and there is no way we have been able to find it. But on some nights we've been able to drive right to it. I remember one special night. We all jumped in the car and went way off the side of the road just as slow as we could, but 12 • • • we thought we might have missed it so we went up and down that road about 10 times and we never did find it. There was a bunch of us looking, so it's not just a matter of one of us missing it. There was just no way it was there • • • • Chris Lutz February, 1981 USU Campus Item iHO "The 'Real' Story of Saint Anne's Retreat" Chris told me that the following story is the real story of St. Anne's Retreat. I have no reason to believe that this is not the real story, but on the other hand, I have no proof to back this story up. She did not tell me where she heard this story. There is a Catholic church on Fraternity Row. Some people owned this church--it was their house. They were Catholic and they wanted to hold masses and there was no other churches except the Mormon church. So the Catholics built on that chapel part of it. They named it Saint John's, because they always name everything after saints. ~Ci,e!:1 Then it started becoming big and lots of Catholic families started moving in so they converted their whole house into a church. You know, with a place for the Father to sleep. And then they built St. Anne's for themselves as a home. And it was a home, it was not a retreat for nuns. Nuns were never there. It has a swimming pool up there. It's a really nice plaee with a family room and a kitchen and bedrooms and a little deck to overlook the swimming pool. It's just a house . --------------------------- ------------ • • • Jon Siler "A Presence in Logan Canyon" February, 1981 USU Campus Item tfoll This story happened to the brother of one of Jon's friends. He believes it to be true because it happened to someone he knew that swears that it actually happened. Jon said this experience was instrumental in the reason the boy involved in the story served a mission. The person this story happened to is the brother of a friend of mine. He was a pretty rowdy guy.[,:,He was driving through Logan Canyon by himself one night and all of a sudden he felt a type of presence or something and so he looked in his rear view mirror. In the back seat there was two red eyes looking at him. He drove through the canyon because he didn't know what would happened if he stopped. Then all of a sudden somebody started rattling in his 8-track tapes in the back seat. Then some tapes started flipping around in the back of his car. He kept driving all the way home and nothing ever really happened, but he kept looking in the rear view mirror and those red eyes were right there all the way down the canyon. When he got home after that he straightened up and went on a mission. 15 • • • Bruce Ward "The Man of Logan Canyonll February, 1981 USU Campus Item 1112 Bruce heard this story while he was at a scout camp. He doesn't believe the story himself, but he thinks that some of the people at the camp did. The story is about a guy who is suppose to live in the Logan mountains. He worked in a mine. His foreman for some reason ended up falling in love with this guy's wife. So the foreman set a charge that had a delayed fuse on it. They set it off and it didn't go off and it didn't go off so the foreman sent Hyrum in after it ti see what was going wrong with the charge in the mine. Just as Hyrum got in there it blew up. They thought it had killed him and it really didn't. It just burned one side of his face real bad. He didn't dare go home cause he looked so awful, and it made him sick. So he just lived in the mountains for a long time. He went back and he killed this. foreman and no one could never figure out how he had died. Hyrum was suppose to have been seen by some people, but he would always run away. No one ever got a good look at him. Some forest ranger were up there in the mountains one day and they say they saw this guy that was doing something, but they couldn't figure out what it was so they got up real close and he turned around and one side of his face was a11bblack and he had filed his teeth pointy. ~He started coming after the forest rangers so they ran, and they got in their truck and the story is suppose to go that he was so strong that he ripped the door off as they drove away. They found some old cabins up there that had human ske1tons hanging on hooks. The story has it that he would go around and kill people and that he would take them back up to his cabin. 16
Durtschi, Tammy;
Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections and Archives, FOLK COLL 8, 81-03
Utah State University undergraduate student fieldwork collection, 1979-2011 FOLK COLL 8 USU
7640751 Bytes
Folklore fieldwork assignment presenting several versions of St. Anne's Retreat in Logan Canyon.
LEGENDS OF ST. ANNE'S RETREAT Sandra L. Shaw Utah State University Fife Folklore Archives Logan, Utah English 423 Instructor: Wilson Summer 1984 • LEGENDS OF ST. ANNE"S RETREAT • • Sandra L. Shaw Logan, Utah Utah State University American Folklore Summer, 1984 T ABLE OF CONT ENTS Cover Essay • • • • . . . . . . . i • Autobiographical Sketch . . . . . . . . . •• vi Item if Informant Title I. Hekeda at St. Anne's Retreat 1 Rich, R. The Deer Lady 2 Richardson, D. The Jealous Nun 3 Ferrin, R. Drowning Babies 4 Ferrin, R. Disappearing Keys 5 Alder, E. Freezing Nuns 6 Hardman, L. Hedeka and Her Dogs 7 Neeley, A. S. Hook Lady 8 Jensen, S. The Lynching Mob II. Modern Day Experiences at St. Anne's Retreat • 9 Jensen, S. Scratched Paint Job 10 Hardman, L. Barking Dogs 11 Hoth, J. Clean and Dirty Swinuning Pool III. Other Hauntings of St. Anne's Retreat 12 Allred, J. Mass Murderer 13 Nelson, J. Haunted Retreat 14 Budge, L. Pregnant Nun 15 Sinunons, P. Fighting Nuns • 1 2 3 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 11 12 13 14 15 • • • Cover Essay I have grown up in Log~ and because I know so many people from the area I decided to focus on something that I could collect from my friends. I thought of things that were common to most Logan High School graduates and St. Anne's retreat immediately came to mind. It has always intrigued me because I had never heard a story before that explained in detail why it was such a scary place. I had heard rumors that nuns had been killed at the retreat, but I had always wondered about the details. I thought it was amazing that such a thing could happen in Logan Canyon because it was so out of the ordinary for a place like Cache Valley to have a murder take place. I have ~een up to St. Anne's a couple of times when I was in high school, and I knew that other people had often gone up there too. I had been scared each time I had gon~ and I was also very curious about where and why the stories had originated. I thought that there must have been some incident that had started the telling of the legends, and I was very curious to know if there was any truth to them. I had always thought that nuns were interesting and mysterious, and this added to my. desire to find out more about the legend of St. Anne's. As I learned about folklore, I began to notice that legends like the one about St. Anne's were not just found in Cache Valley, but allover the country. I realized that being scared was a favorite pastime of many people, and even such small towns as Mink Creek had someplace that was considered haunted. I found that people, especially high school kids, .~ would tell scary stories about a certain place, and then go there to get scared or carry out some tradition to bring a ghost out. The stories i • • • usually dealt with some kind of restless ghost haunting the place because of a sudde~ violent death. After I had chosen my topic, I began collecting by asking people if they knew any stories about St. Anne's Retreat. The easiest place to collect, although it was somewhat ironic, was at church on sunday. I attend a young adult L.D.S. ward, whose members are mostly people who have graduated from Logan High School. I would ask as many people as possible if they knew anything about St. Anne's, and then I would wtite their name down and call them later to get the full details. This was an easy way to go through a large number of people without much effort. I later collected by calling informants on the telephone, and then writing down what they were saying as quickly and as accurately as I could. I tried to use the words that the informant had used, but I edited the un­necessaJY words. I put down the idea of what the person told me, and used the more original words in their narration. Some of the informants had a hard time remembering the stories, and would tell me a few circumstances out of order. For these items (#2,11,15) I put the circumstances in a story form, however most of the items were told in story form. I classified all of the items as legends, and then I ~anged them according to theme. From each informant I collected their place of birth, age, education, religion, and ancestry. I asked each informant a variety of questions about the circustances in which they heard the story, and I also asked them what they thought of the story. These questions included such things as: whether or not they believed the story, if it scared them, if they had been to the retreat, why they thought that people told the legends, did they like the story, and why were nuns used in the stories • ii • • • The answers to these questions enabled me to better evaluate the p~Tpose of the legends and the reasons why people tell them. Most of the informants thought that reasons for telling the storieses were for fun, excitement, and thrills. While I was doing this project, I realized that people love the excitement that goes along with being scared, and they tell these stories in order to get that excitement. Some people believed that the legends originated because something really did happen at St. Anne's Retreat which spa'DkEid the telling of these stories. I do not know if a murder took place at St. Anne's, but I think that something mysterious might have happened at the retreat. Another reason for the stories could be the intriguing qualities that nuns have to an L.D.S. community like Logan. Few mormons understand nuns, and because of this, people might have begun to tell stories about them to express their fears of the unknown. They could have begun as warning stories to young people to keep them from going up the canyon late at night. This theory is ironic because telling such legend causes young people to become curious, and they desire to go to the retreat to find out if it realily is haunted. Most of the people I interviewed had been to the retreat. I felt the , comment made by informant if 8, "people tell stories about St. Anne's because it adds excitement to an otherwise normal place," was an ,',insightful comment about St. Anne's. It is an ordinary retreat, but because pe0ple have built up such a significant tradition of legends about it, it has become an infamous landmark to a large number of Cache Valley residents. I asked many people if they could tell me a story about St. Anne's, and most of them could not give me a detailed story about it, but they had heard of it, and they' knew that legends did exist about it. It iii • • • is amazing that so many people know that St. Anne's even exists. Because they do know, I think that a conclusion about human nature can be drawn. People like to talk about the infamous, tragic, mysterious, and sensational, otherwise the legend of St. Anne's would have died out long ag~ along with many of the other legend that exist allover the world. Many of the informants had heard the story at girl's camp where it is traditional to sit aroung the campfire telling ghost stories. Most of the other informants heard the story at a party where there was a large group of people. This shows that people like to talk about the supernatural. They like to think about those things that are out of the ordinary because they may feel that their own lives are very normal and relatively unexciting. Because they do not know what the lifestyle of a nun is like, they may thi nk that a nun has a more exciting life than they do, especially if she has a big black dog or a haunted swimming pool nearby. I think that people receive a superioTity; by talking about these kinds of things. First, they are eager to pity someone else other than themselves, and they are also relieved that such a terrible thing didn't happen to them. They can vicariously experience the fear that the legendary characters have felt when they visit the retreat, but they feel the security of having a group of friends with them. They also have the security of knowing that other people have gone up to the retreat before them and made it back altve. This gives the person a chance to feel superior to the figures in the legends, and may enable the person to feel better about themselves. The variations on the legend are so numerous that it is almost impossible to come up with an all inclusive story. The nuns are usually a significant part of the legends, and the black dogs, and empty swimming pool are often mentioned. These three it~s allow the storyteller to add iv • • • unusual details to their story that will make it more interesting. The purpose of these stories is significant because they do offer a c~~ce for the listener to escape from an ordinary life and think about the extraordinary. Because they are somewhat believable, the stories are exciting and fun to hear. They are an interesting and exciting way of entertaing people. v • • • Autobiographical Sketch I was born on July 25, 1964, in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. I grew up in Logan, Utah. Both of my parents were raised in Ogden, Utah. I have one older brother, and one older sister. Both -:of them are married, and I have been the only child living at home with my parents for about seven years. For many years my dad worked for Grand Teton National Park during the summer months as a naturalist. Our family enjoys hiking and camping together. We enjoy mountains and wilderness because we spent so much time togetether in the Tetons. We often sat around a campfire and talked until late at night. I don't remember hearing any ghost stories, but I do remember hearing jokes and bear stories. During the rest of the year my father teaches botany at USU. I have lived in Logan all of my life. I went to Hillcrest Elementary School, Logan Junior High School, and Logan Senior High School. I am now attending USU where I have changed my major from computer science to nursing. I was recently accepted into the WSC/USU nursing program. I will graduate in 1986 with an associate degree in nursing, and I hope to go on to get my bachelor's degree • I am an active member of the L.D.S. Church. My hobbies include sewing, crosstitch, photography, playing the piano, hiking, and skiing. I work for the USDA Poisonous Plant Lab in the Plant Industry Building at USU analyzing poisonous plants • vi • • • Item if 1 "The Deer Lady" Informant Data: Robert Rich Logan, Utah July, 1984 Robert Rich, 22, was born and raised in Logan, Utah. He is an active member of the L.D.S. Church, and he served a mission to Japan. His ancestry is English. He is a sophomore at U.S.U. majoring in civeil engineering. He likes skiing, phoography, and sports. Contextual Data: Robert heard this story at a high school party at St. Anne's. He didn't believe the story, and it didn't scare him. He liked the story because it scared everybody else. He thinks that people tell the St. Anne's story because it is scary to alot of people, and it brings about a scary atomosphere. Robert thinks it is fun to be scared, and he likes to tell scary stories. * * * * * * * * * * * * Julian was the most beautiful lady in all of Logan. She was working at a bottling plant to get enough money to get married. One day as she was working, her beautiful long hair got caught in a machine and pulled her in, scarring and mangling her face. Her hand was cut off, and a hook was put in its' place. Her fiancee refused to marry her, and the towns-people made fun of her ugly features. Angered and discouraged, she changed her name to Hekeda and moved up the canyon to live. As she watched young, pretty couples corne up the canyon, she got a wonderful idea of revenge. She attacked the couples and scarred and mangled the girls. She couldn't be caught because she could run as fast as a deer, and she knew trails and shortcuts in the woods that no one else knew of. Sometimes, even today, you can still see her running in her white nightgown with her hook hand glistening in the moonlight. 1 • • • Item # 2 "The Jealous Nun" Informant Datal Darci Richardson Logan, Utah July, 1984 Darci Richardson, 19, was born in Wisconsin and raised in Logan, Utah. She is a sophomore in elementary education at U.S.U., and she enjoys playing the piano, bicycling, and talking. She is an active memeber of the L.D.S. Church. Contextual Data: Darci heard this story at girl's camp. She was very scared when she heard the story, and she believes that nuns did get killed at St. Anne's, but she doesn't believe the rest of the story. She has been to the retreat, and she was scared when she went. She thinks that everyone wants to tell their own story about St. Anne's because it is fun and entertaining. She believes it was a Catholic Retreat, and she is curious to know if any of the story is true. She thinks that people go up to the retreat to showoff and to satisfy tpeir curiosity. * * * * * * * * * * * * The pregnant nuns were sent up to St. Annes. One of the nuns, named Hekeda was having an affair with the male caretaker. She became jealous when the other nuns talked to hi~ so she killed all of the nuns. The dogs barked when she murdered the nuns, and when you go up there now you can hear them barking and see their green eyes shining • 2 • • • Item II 3 & 4 "Drowning Babies" & "Disappearing Keys" Informant Data: Rosalie Ferrin Logan, Utah July, 1984 Rosalie Ferrin, 18, was born and raised in Logan, Utah, She is a freshman at U.S.U. majoring in communications. She recently graduated from Logan High, where she was the validictorian of her class. She was also honored as "Miss Logan." She is an active member of the L.D.S. Church, and she enjoys dancing, sleeping, and just "hanging out.- Contextual Data: She heard both of these stories at girl's camp when they were sitting around a campfire telling ghost stories. She does not believe the stories are true, and she thinks that they are told to keep up the tradition of telling stories. She believes that everyone changes the legends about St. Anne's, and tells them the best that they can remember them. * * * * * * * * * * * * The nuns used to go up there when they got pregnant, and they would have their babies. Then they would drown them in the swimming pool and bury them. He~eda was a nun who got caught drowning her baby, and she got in trouble with her priest. She stays at the retreat to haunt other nuns who try to drown their babies. * * * * * * * * * * * * This is supposed to have happened to someone when they went up to St. Anne's. They drove their car up there, parked it, and turned off the lights. They put t}h::>lirr car keys on the top of the car to bring Witch Hekeda down. A light shone on the car and the car keys disappered. They couldn't leave St. Anne's without their keys, and they never retruned home • 3 • • • Item IF 5 "Freezing Nuns" Informant Data: Elise Alder Logan, Utah July, 1984 Elise Alder, 19, was born and raised in Logan, Utah. She is of Swiss and Welch ancestry and active in the L.D.S. Church. She is a sophomore in elementary education at U.S.U •• She likes to play with children, do handwork, sew and care for plants. She works at Carousel Square as a food worker. Contextual Data: Elise thinks she heard this story at a slumber party with all of her girlfriends. She said they would tell scary stories and stay up all night because they were so scared. They liked to talk about the supernatural. She thought that if they talked about evil things long enough, something evil would happen to them. She believed that nuns were used in the story because they were mysterious, and nobody knew what the lifestyle of a nun was like. She didn't think it was to put down Catholics, but to play up the devil. She doesn't belive the storiesi but she and her girlfriends were very scared by them because they thought something evil could happen to them. * * * * * * * * * * * * St. Anne's was a place where nuns could go on a vacation, usually in the summer or winter. One winter a long time ago; some nuns' went up-, there to stay. It was a very s1!V~e winter with lots of snow so a man had to bring their supplies to them every week. He would take their fuel and food to them because it was the only way they could get it. One week the man couldn't get his wagon through, and he had to wait about two weeks before he could go up there again. He finally made it up to the retreat, and he found all the nuns had starved and frozen to death. He noticed that their bodies had been chewed by dogs. He was very wo~ried about this, and was just leaving when he saw one of the nuns, whose name was Hekeda. She began chasing him with her two dogs. He got away and told the towns-people what had happened. Hekeda still haunts the retreat with her dogs, and you can see her chasing you in your rearview mirror as you are leaving • It is believed she is of the devil. 4 • • • Item fI 6 "Hekeda and Her Dogs" Informant Data: Larry Hardman Logan, Utah July, 1984 Larry Hardman, 22, was born and raised in Logan, Utah. He is of Anglo-saxon and Danish ancestry. He is active in the L.D.S. Church, and he served a mission in London. He is a sophomore majoring in business at U.S.U. He likes sports, writing, and exercising. Contextual Data: His friend told him this story one evening when they were bored and trying to think of something to do. His friend wanted to take some girls up to St. Anne's and scare them. Larry hadn't heard of St. Anne's before so he was told this story. He thinks the story is a good one because he believes it to be partially true. He said that he read in the local news­paper th~t there actually were some nuns who were killed up there. He also likes the name Hekeda because it is a good, scary name. He used b go up to the retreat often when he was in high school. He liked to go up there to get scared, and showoff how brave he was. He would take girls there to scare them and protect them. * * * * * * * * * * * * All the nuns and mother superior lived at St. Anne's. One of the nun's name was Hekeda, and she took care of seven afghan hounds. In the early 1920's a guy went up there and killed and raped them all. All of the bodies were found except Hekeda's and the dog's. Every time someone goes up to St. Anne's to fix it up, they always hear dogs barking, and then see a lantern'on the mountain. You can see the figure of a woman walking her dogs up there at night. If you yell the name Hekeda three time~ a blue fog will cover your car, and you won't be able to come down out of the canyon • 5 • • • Item # 7 "Hook Lady" Informant Datal Angela Sue Neeley Logan, Utah July, 1984 Angela Sue Neeley, 20, was born and raised in Logan, Utah. She is of English ancestry and active in the LDS Church. She is a senior at U.S.U. majoring in elementary education. She enjoys skiing, writing letters, reading, and crosstitch. Contextual Data: She was at girl's camp in Logan Canyon sitting around a fire telling scary stories when one of the girls told about St. Anne's. She said that everyone got scared, especially since they were so close to the retreat. She was very scared, but she still wanted to go to the retreat for the adventure of it. She thinks being scared when you are in a big group is fun because you can all hold hands and scream. She thinks the stories are told for fun, for a reaction, and for scaring people. She has gone up there a couple of times with friends, and she kept watching for Hekeda all the way home. She was so scared one time, that she wet her pants. She doesn't believe the story is true, but it does scare her. She says she wants to believe the story for fun. * * * * * * * * * * * * The most beautiful woman in logan was in an accident while she was working, and she got caught in some machinery. Her hand was cut off and her face was marred. She had to we-ar a hook on her hand, and she lives up at St. Annes. She gets revenge on beautiful girls. Some girls were found floating the the swimming pool, and they had scraped necks from Hekeda's hook. If you go up to the retreat . and bother Hekeda, she will follow you home at night and scratch on your window • 6 • • • Item /I 8 ''The Lynching Mob" Informant Data: Steve Jensen Logan, Utah July, 1984 Steve Jensen, 21, was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and .lraised in Logan. He is majoring in Pre-med at U.S.U. where he is currently a junior. His ancestry is Finnish and English, and he is an active member of the L.D.S. Church. His hobbies include sports, and horseback riding. Contextual Datal Steve heard the first item from a friend, who told him the story, when they went up to St. Anne's Retreat one day. He later asked his parents if the story was true, and they told him it was, but they were on vacation when it happened. He didn't think the story was scary, but he thought it was amusing in a gory sort of way. He doesn't believe the story is true, but he thinks it sounds possible, however it is hard for him to beleive that something like that would happen in Utah without everybody knowing about it. The second item was told to him by his brother when they were taking dates up there. The dates had heard about St. Anne's, but they had never seen it. The dates wanted to see the place and hear about it. This story scared Steve because it was more modern, but he didn't believe it. Steve thinks that people tell stories about St. Anne's because it adds excitement to an otherwise normal place. He believes that nuns are used because the retreat was owned by the Catholic Curch. He doesn't like to get scared, but he does like adventure. * * * * * * * * * * * * This actually happened sometime in the early sixties. St. Anne's was a vacation area, and there were about twelve or thirteen nuns up there when one of them went bezerk. She just went bonkers. She had been training these four Black Labs, which she had gotten from Hekeda, to kill. She kept them in a woodshed on the mountainside, and one night she let the dogs loose. She got a lantern and a hatchet, and she and her dogs slaughtered all of the nuns. Time passed and nothing was discovered until someone made a delivery to the retreat. The person who found the dead nuns went back to Logan and got a bunch of people together. This mob of people went up to St. Anne'~ and they found the crazy nnn, and they decided to hang her. They gave her the chance to speak her last words, and she said, "I will forever haunt this place." She still haunts St. Anne's today. 7 • • • Item it 9 "Scratched Raint Job" Steve Jensen Logan, Utah July, 1984 About eight years ago, four high school guys drove up to St. Anne's. They were just goofing around, and they thought all of the stories about St. Anne's were just a joke. -They had a ouija board with them, and they started saying stuff like, "St. Anne, come and get us. Come here St. Anne." All of a sudden they heard dogs barking, but they couldn't see them. This scared the~ so they got in their car and locked the doors. They were just sitting in the car when the heard scratching noises allover their car, but they couldn't see anything. They started to drive away, and they looked out their back window. They saw a woman standing there with four Black Labrador dogs, and she had a lantern in one hand and a hatchet in her other hand. When they got down out of the canyon, they found that the car was all scratched up, and the guy who owned it had to pay $200.00 to get a new paint job. *Notes Informant and contextual data are found on the previous page. 8 • • • Item if 10 "Barking Dogs" Informant Datal Lucy Hardman Logan, Utah July, 1984 Lucy Hardman, 24, was born and raised in Logan, Utah. She is a senior at U.S.U. majoring in art. She is active in the L.D.S. Church, and she served a mission to Kansas. She does volunteer work at a preschool for handicapped children, and she enjoys sports, ceramics, and sewing. She likes to tease people, and she has a fun sense of humor. Contextual Datal Lucy told me this story as a personal experience which happened to her when she was in high school. She believes the legend of St. Anne's, and she believes that there really were dogs chasing her and her friends. I don't know if she was teasing me when she told me that she believed the story or not. She loves to be scared,and she thinks that is why people tell scary stories. She doesn't believe that nun stories are told only in Cache Valley, but allover the world. * * * * * * * * * * * * Lucy and her friend were driving around the canyon one fall night when it was really nice and warm, and they decided to go to St. Anne's. There were three guys who wanted to go, and three girls who didn't want to go. Since the boys were driving, they went. They parked the car by the highway, and began walking up the dirt road. On the way, one of the guys said "Do you know what happened up here?", and he proceeded to tell story of the nuns. '~he nuns used to come up here in the wintertime and stay. One spring the nuns didn't come back. The townspeople went up to investigate, and they found the bodies of the nuns floating in the swimming pool, because they had been raped and murdered. They also found mother superior's black dogs chained up and starved to death in a shack." The guy telling the story suggested that they go look in the swimming pool. l"'hile they were looking at it, one of the guys yelled, "I'm scared," and ran to the car as fast as he could. Everyone else followed him, but the girls were slower. As they were running down the mountain, they heard 9 • • • dogs barking and chains dragging on the ground, and they thought the dogs were chasing them. The dogs were howling and looking for the nuns. The girls were crying because they were so scared • 10 • • Item it 11 "Clean and Dirty Swimming Pool" Jana Hoth Logan, Utah July, 1984 -------------------- Informant Data: Jana Hoth, 20 was born and raised in Logan, Utah. She is of German ancestry and active in the L.D.S. Church. She is a sophomore at U.S.U. majoring in business. She likes sports, sewing, and watching T.V •• She works at Schriber's Cheese. Contextual Data: Jana can It remember where or why she heard this story, but her friend told her the story as if it had happened to her brother. She didn't know if it was true or not, but she believes that stories are told about St. Anne's because something did happen at the retreat, and people add on to and change the real story. She had never been to St. Anne's or heard the legend about the nuns. * * * * * * * * * * * * Some guys went up toS:t:o,Anne's once, and while they were drivinB'-up the road a tree fell down in front of their car, and they thought they might have seen a lady jump out of the trees too. They saw the swimming pool and half of it was dirty and half of it was clean, but they didn't know why. Some girls also claimed that they saw ghosts or something there. • 11 • • • Item if 12 "Hasa{Murderer" Informant Data: Jeff Allred Logan, Utah July, 1984 Jeff Allred, 21, was born and raised in Log~, Utah. He is of English ancestry, and he is active in the L.D.S. Church for which he served a mission to Oklahoma. He likes footbal~ softball, motorcycles, and women. He is attending U.S.U •• Contextual Data: Jeff heard this story when he was in high school. He was talking with his friends at lunch time and sitting on the jock bench--this is a bench at Logan High where all of the "jocks" sit--when the subject of St. Anne's came up. The legend was told to entertain, and to scare the guys. He went up to St. Anne's often in high school. He liked to take girls up there, and scare them. He doesn't believe the story is true, but he does like it. * * * * * * * * * * * * On a dark and dreary night, a fugitive from the law murdered his wife . and his neighbors on both sides of his house. They were left in pools of blood. The cops came to get him, and he cut their throats :with a knife he had hidden in his left shoe. He drove the cop car up fourth north, and on the way he saw a group of preschool children, which he picked up and drove to St. Anne's, where he butchered them and put them in the swimming pool. The nuns living there came out to see what was going on, and he slaughtered them too. He threw them into swimming pool, .and it had become a pool of blood. The police came up to the retreat to find him, but they never did. The cops took all the bodies down to the dump in garbage trucks, and they came back to go swimming in the bloody pool • 12 • • • Item IF 13 "Haunted Retreat" Informant Data: Jenny Nelson Logan, Utah July, 1984 Jenny Nelson, 20, was born in Colorado Springs, Colo., and reaised in Logan, Utah. She is of Swedish ancestry and active in the L.D.S. Church. She enjoys reading, playing the cello, and skiing. She works as a secretary, and sh is a junior at U.S.U. majoring in English. Contextual Data: Jenny was at a high school party in Logan Canyon when she heard this story. Guys and girls were sitting around telling scary stories when they began talking about St. Anne's Retreat, and they decided to go up there and look around. Jenny didn't believe all of the story, but she did believe that someone had been killed at the retreat. She was scared when they were at the retreat, and she felt like something might happen, but she didn't know what. She thinks that people tell the stories because ito: is fun to be scared, and she does not feel that the stories are told to demean Catholics. She felt that the experience she had at the retreat enhanced the associations between the guys and girls, and she thought that some boys would take girls up to the retreat so that they could act as a protector and show off their courage. * * * * * * * * * * * * There was a murderer hanging around the canyon who visciously slaughtered one or two of the nuns, and their ghosts haunt the area now. When they were murdered the dogs barked at the murderer, and you can still hear them barking and the nuns screaming when you go up there at night. The dogs will bark until you fall into the swimming pool. They closed the nunnery because of what happened there. The hauntings have caused more deaths, and someone dived off the diving board into an empty pool. Other people have gotten killed there. 13 • • • Item if 14 "Pregnant Nun" Informant Data: Lanice Budge Logan, Utah July, 1984 Lanice Budge, 19, was born and raised in Logan, Utah. She is an active member of the L.D.S. Church, and she is of German and English ancestry. She likes to swim and ride horses. She is a sophomore at U.S.U majoring in math education. Contextual Data: She can't remember where she heard this story or who told it to her because she has heard so many stories about St. Anne's at different times. She thinks that she probably heard it at a party in the canyon with a group of her friends. She tried to go up to the retreat onc~ but a man told her to leave. She doesn't like the story, and she dOGS not believe any of it is true. She thinks it is a sick story, and whoever made it up had a morbid imagination. She was not at all scared by the story. She thought people told the story to get scared and excited. * * * * * * * * * ~ ~ * One of the nuns that was living up at the retreat got pregnant, so she killed all of the other nuns because she didn't want anyone to know that she was pregnant. She had the baby, and it reminded her that she had killed everyone else, so she killed it toq by drowning it in the swimming pool. She haunts the area today. 14 • • • Item If 15 "l1ighti ng Nuns" Informant Data, Patricia Simmons Logan, Utah July, 1984 Patricia Simmons, 19, was born and raised in Logan, Utah. She is a sophomore at U.S.U. majoring in economics. She is of English ancestry, and she is active in the L.D.S. Church. She enjoys playing the piano, reading, playing tennis, and music. Contextual Data, Patricia was at a party in the canyon with her high school friends when she heard this story. They went up to the retreat to look around, but she was truo scared to go all the way to the swimming pool. She doesn't enjoy getting scared, and she didn't like the story or believe it. She was scared because of the spirit of telling ghost stories, and she did have a little belLef in the story. She thinks that people tell the stories about St. Anne's because they like to get attentnion, get scared, and show off. She believes that the story is told about nuns because it was once a nunnery. * * * * * * * * * * * * Two nuns were fighting by the swimming pool at St. Anne's retreat. One of the nuns was knocked into the swimming pool where she hit her hea~ and went unconcious and drowned. She haunts the swimming pool today. 15
Shaw, Sandra L.
Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections and Archives, FOLK COLL 8
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Sagebrush Rebellion - Legislation
Legislation of the public lands is to protect the wildlife and resources.
Unknown
By Bureau of Land Management [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
BLM
Camping--Utah--Blacksmith Fork Canyon--Photographs; Blacksmith Fork Canyon (Utah)--Photographs;
Black and white photograph of a group of people camping in Blacksmith Fork Canyon, Utah, July 1908. Image is from a family album, in the possession of Don Smith, that shows a summer camping trip in Blacksmith Fork Canyon in July 1908. Although the people in the image are not individually identified, there is a list of the members in the party including: Christian Christiansen, Louisa Bradley, John Wright, Inga Jorgensen, John Israelsen, Jennie Christiansen, Nicholas Jorgensen, Carrie Wilson, Jos. Pearce, Nellie Hill, Esther Wilson, and Lizzie Israelsen. Image is grainy and out of focus.
Smith, Don
Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collection and Archives, Blacksmith Fork Canyon photographs, 1908, P0026 1:12
Reproduction for publication, exhibition, web display or commercial use is only permissible with the consent of the USU Libraries Photograph Curator, phone (435) 797-0890.
Blacksmith Fork Canyon photographs, 1908, P0026
1889062 Bytes
http://digital.lib.usu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/regreening/id/444 SCAP0026Bx001-012.jpg
Blacksmith Fork Canyon (Utah); Cache County (Utah); Utah; United States;
Outdoor Product; Catalog; Leki
Leki
Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections & Archives, Outdoor Recreation Products Catalog Collection (Book Collection 72, L-05, 2004)
Outdoor Products; Catalog; Leki;
Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections & Archives, Outdoor Recreation Products Catalog Collection (Book Collection 72, L-5, 1993)
Larsen, Leland, 1928-; Railroad stations--Utah--Mendon;
Trains;
Photograph of Lelan Larsen standing by a microphone. Back reads: Lelan Larsen demonstrates passenger ??? while riding the "Galloping Goose". Information provided by Shirley Stauffer Darley.
Scanned by Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library using Epson Expression 10000 scanner, 8-bit RGB, at 600 dpi. Archival file is uncompressed TIFF (600 dpi); display file is JPEG2000.
Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections and Archives, Mendon Collection
Image;StillImage
http://digital.lib.usu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/Mendon/id/4014
Mendon (Utah); Cache County (Utah); Utah; United States;
Leland and Barbara Larsen talk about taking cows to pasture
Leland Larsen; Barbara Larsen; Cows
An audio interview of Leland and Barbara Larsen on May 10, 2007 where they talk about taking cows out to pasture and remember when they got treed by a bull. Excerpt from full interview.
Leland Larsen (interviewee); Barbara Larsen (interviewee)
Utah State University Special Collections & Archives, Folk Collection 67
Richard Watkins (interviewer)
Reproduction for publication, exhibition, web display or commercial use is only permissible with the consent of the USU Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections & Archives (email: SCAWeb@usu.edu)
Mendon, Utah
Leland and Barbara Larsen talk about theater in Mendon, Utah
Leland Larsen; Barbara Larsen; Theater
Audio interview of Leland and Barbara Larsen in 2007 where they talk about the theater in Mendon, Utah. Barbara remembers being lifted up to see her mother perform. Excerpt from full interview.
Larsen, Leland, 1928-;
Leland Larsen moving a chair. Information provided by Shirley Stauffer Darley.
Scanned by Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library using Epson Expression 10000 scanner, 8-bit Grayscale, at 600 dpi. Archival file is uncompressed TIFF (600 dpi); display file is JPEG2000.
http://digital.lib.usu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/Mendon/id/3804
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events | Official Trailer [HD] | Netflix
Dear Viewer, We regretfully present you with the official trailer, a word which here means a collection of the unhappy happenings surrounding the lives of the three Baudelaire orphans and one despicable Count Olaf. For the sake of your mental well-being and overall enjoyment of your internet browsing experience, we recommend you search "cats playing instruments" immediately and spend the next 2 1/2 minutes watching a tabby in a t-shirt attempt to play a keyboard instead. With all due respect, Netflix Based on the internationally best-selling series of books by Lemony Snicket (aka Daniel Handler) and starring Emmy and Tony Award winner Neil Patrick Harris, A Series of Unfortunate Events recounts the tragic tale of the Baudelaire orphans -- Violet, Klaus, and Sunny – whose evil guardian Count Olaf will stop at nothing to get his hands on their inheritance. The siblings must outsmart Olaf at every turn, foiling his many devious plans and disguises, in order to discover clues to their parents’ mysterious death. The eight-episode series is a Netflix original production, executive produced by Emmy Award winner Barry Sonnenfeld and Daniel Handler. A Series of Unfortunate Events is now Streaming on Netflix. Proceed with caution for tragedy is sure to come. Watch A Series of Unfortunate Events Now: https://www.netflix.com/title/80050008 SUBSCRIBE: http://bit.ly/29qBUt7 About Netflix: Netflix is the world’s leading Internet television network with over 117 million members in over 190 countries enjoying more than 125 million hours of TV shows and movies per day, including original series, documentaries and feature films. Members can watch as much as they want, anytime, anywhere, on nearly any Internet-connected screen. Members can play, pause and resume watching, all without commercials or commitments. Connect with Netflix Online: Visit Netflix WEBSITE: http://nflx.it/29BcWb5 Like Netflix on FACEBOOK: http://bit.ly/29kkAtN Follow Netflix on TWITTER: http://bit.ly/29gswqd Follow Netflix on INSTAGRAM: http://bit.ly/29oO4UP Follow Netflix on TUMBLR: http://bit.ly/29kkemT Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events | Official Trailer [HD] | Netflix http://youtube.com/netflix
Netflix published via YouTube.com
Standard YouTube License This video represents licensed content on YouTube, meaning that the content has been claimed by a YouTube content partner.
Families; Education; Hispanic Americans;
Mr. Leo Bravo talks about holidays in his homeland of Venezuela, about coming to Utah State University to study, his life in Cache Valley, his family, and his jobs, particularly about his current job as Family Adviser for the Cache Valley Multi-Cultural Center and the experiences related with his work.
Bravo, Leo;
The original of this item can be found at Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections and Archives, Latino Voices, FOLK COLL 38 Box 2.
Gómez, Corina Jiménez
Mérida (Venezuela); Venezuela;
Venezuela;
Logan (Utah); Cache County (Utah); Utah; United States;