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Interview with Trevor Eschler about St. Anne's Retreat

Trevor Eschler interviewed by Anne Gray Perrin describes his experience legend-tripping at St. Anne's Retreat in a taped interviewed, later transctibed by Perrin.

Interview with Trevor Eschler about St. Anne's Retreat
By Anne Gray Perrin
Utah State University
Fife Folklore Archives
Logan, UT
English/History 6770 (Folk Narrative)
Professor Steve Siporin
Spring 2011


Interviewee:
Place of Interview:
Date of Interview:
Interviewer:
Recordist:
TRANSCRIPTION COVER SHEET
Trevor Eschler
Merrill-Cazier Library, Utah State University
April, 2011
Anne Gray Perrin
Anne Gray Perrin
Recording Equipment: Alesis Pamtrack 24bit Wave mp3 digital recorder
Transcription Equipment: Express Scribe transcription software
Transcribed by: Anne Gray Perrin
Transcript Proofed by: Anne Gray Perrin
Brief Description of Contents Eschler recou ' s bis trips to St. Ann-'s rrtrcl!~; rc~s0ns ' .y he
goes and what he has experienced.
GP: .L rL.'le Gray Perrin
TE: Trevor Eschlcr
NOTE: Interjrrtic1 -::: ~:-irg p::!~~.;:'s o~· '"?_,:_.. . ;ti~::~ in d!R~~~~~ s:~~l ~a$ "11h" a_... ~ st?J~s ar~.~ stop~
in conversations arc not included in transcribed. All additions to transcript are noted with
brackets.
TAPE I'K<\RSC
[00:01] Trevor Eschler: Trevor Eschler
started going up to the Nunnery. So what provoked you to go up there?
and find it. But we weren't able to find it. So I moved up here in August. We were bored one night . .We
started looking on thr i tc~nct for thinGs t0 d~ in L0C:''1, - ~~ h~ rem m!:-('rcc!_ H:: V!'JS try!~z t flr.d the
Nunnery so we kind of found the directions on the Internet and decided to go up there. It was about
11:00 at night when we started out. At 11:00, we gathered up some people.
AGP: And so had you heard tit'"· stories at..out th N.1i·,;-:2fr ;
TE: What Y..'e decided to d~ is we were !ook!!'1[; for do, we dcdc0~ tc rc2.d i t0 th:- to~ic!: t khrl of fr?J1:
( ours_;!".J<.:s cut; to sec ·' :Jt it '/las all about.
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AGP: So what had you heard?
TE: A couple of the stores that read was that the cabins up there were summer homes for the Owner of
tried to sell it to the University. The University didn't want it so he ended up selling it to the Catholic
Church, and the Catholic Church took over; and started running the Nunnery out of it. Up there, there's
of wedlock out of there and take them into the swimming pool and drown them. One account we read,
you walk in there and you kind of get this eerie feeling. We tried that out, and it's true.
TE: You 1NJ!k in and th{!re 's just this cold spot; and it kind of sends chills down your back. We read the
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up there, and there's three security guards. They got caught and got tied up in the swimming pool and
. . . ··~ - - a •• y · .mg ::Kt! U •d~.
AGP: You still 'Nan edt go even th •_•gh you heard of this attack?
TE: Yeah. We kind of, I don't know. We're thrill seekers so we tried. If someone says, "Don't do it," we do
it just to prove them wrong, that it can be done.
AGP: Yeah?
AGP: Have you encountered any mortal beings or any security issues?
there with us but the people we go up there with.
stuff?
mile away from the entrance, kind of walk up. You had to cross this bridge, and if you go walking up it, it
looking directly at the swimming pool, and you could see the silhouette of a person; just one person. I'm
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clouds. There was nothing. So that really freaked us out. We ventured down into the swimming pool.
Came out. '\nd there's r 3bins s•1rro•Jnning it, a rod . t thi time, like ! c~id, we h ~d re, d all the stories so
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called us up. He was like, "Dude, let's just take some girls up there and scare them." We were like,
"Alright." So we went up there, kind of scouted it out. Then he came up about a half hour later. We were
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occasions. It's pretty fun. It's scary, too because sometimes you're in some of the buildings alone by
yourself and you hear the old wood creek. It gives you a rush.
AGP: So had you experienc.ec.i el~e supernatural or is it jusi. the swim ruing pool. io~:u.J}
AGP: Yeah. And so how many of your friends go up there like group-wise?
TE: Let's see. We got, there's probably about eight regulars, and then our groups usually range from
eight to twenty. Anywhere in there.
AGP: So it just depends on like what's going on?
TE: Yeah. It depends on the night; if it's a week day or weekend; wha~' s the next ctay; if thc·rc's te:;.ts
people have to take or whatnot. We try to get as many people as we can to go up there because the
more people, the funner [sic].
AGP: So even thoilgh there's al! these storlt:s, with th .... ati.a .... ~ and th.:: supciTIJh.irc.l, an ' cvu-. though
you've experienced those things, you still keep going?
( TE: Yean.
AGP: So why do you think that is? Why do you go?
i c: It's sornethlng 1u''; ~u cL.
AGP: It's just fun?
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get up there to just have fun. It's kind of fun to take new people up there just to see their reactions.
TE: Because, I mean, pretty much everyone on campus has heard the stories or they know someone
AGP: Yeah. Yeah.
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you up there." And then they call the rest of us, that the people don't know, say, "Hey, we're going up
there at this time. Be there." And so we'll just go around scaring people. We've got it clown to an art sc>
that i.hey c.::;tc>iii words, we'll k cvv how to react.
AGP: Can you give me an example of that?
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TE: There's one, there's a three story house with a big glass window. It would be on the southeast side of
it. And just south of that big old house, there's three little cabins. And they come walking down, and
they kind of, they're making noise, you know. And we have person that throws on a hood, and they're
standing in the glass window. And what they do is, they'll walk around to the side of the house, and
they'll take a flashlight, and they'll run it over the window; and they'll see someone there. And they'll
kind of freak out, and they'll run it back. And by the time they pass it by the second time, the person
ducks below the window so t hey're not sec11. So you sec a shactov:, <:~ silhci.i~t'.. c o~ a p.:.f5!)!1 at fr JL Th.:: .-,
the second time, it's gone. That really gets to girls. There was a couple times where they'!! come walking
by, and there's just slamming doors shut. Funny experience v,;lth that, is we were preparing ourselves
than fivz fe:3t taiL So you got J '.'.tJJl here, .:md there .. nd so I want to see how loud it would sound, shut.
So l :;l;:,mmcd the -::!oor, Jnd th: de-or j<::m:ncd vn us. So t :::r.:'s three of us. We're all pulling on the door
to come barre! it down vith the shou!d~r, prop it open. It was a pretty funny experience.
TE: Well, at first I was like, "Oh, crap, what to do?" But I realized we were up there with friends. but if I
had been up there by rn\·sc!f, i wouk~'vc been t ·r rificd, 'OLJ knvv •. Btr'. ~ir:u' 1.\''- wcr u;; H:cr::· v ·iii:~
group of people, we're becoming more familiar with area.
AGP: Yeah.
TE: So ycu kind of k~o l\.1 ·.'hat to Gxpect and vhat not to expect.
TE: Yeah. We got to.
AGP: Yeah. Yeah.
and see like this was built in the '60s or 70s and kind of see the structure of it. It's super close to the
highway, but there's so many trees around. If you don't it's there, you'll never notice it.
TE: Just trying to think if there's been anything else. I t hink those are like the main stories.
TE: The main experience where you see the silhouette in the pool. Oh, there's one time, we came out of
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bag. It was probably about five and half, six feet tall. We were like, "What the crap?" It looked like a
body bag.
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AGP: Oh!
TE: And we had our freshman roommate, and he was trying to prove himself to us.
AGP: Yeah.
TE: So we dared him to go and check it out because it just looked suspicious. So after about twenty
minutes of convincing him to go down, he went and ripped the bag open. It was just a bag of leaves. It
was just funny seeing that. It's something I think lots of people should go up there and check it out
because it's pretty interesting.
AGP: Do you think, because I didn't really get a lot of responses as far as people going back up to the
Nunnery, so do you think it's rare or do you think? I mean, are you one of the only groups of people that
go up there or do you think other people do it?
TE: If they do, they don't do it as much as us. You know what I mean?
AGP: Yeah.
TE: Because, like I've said, we've probably gone up there a dozen or more times, and we've never seen
another group up there.
AGP: And have you ever heard people talk about it?
( TE: I haven't heard anyone talk about going up there. If we have, it's like people going up there like two
years ago.
AGP: Yeah.
TE: Nothing too recent.
AGP: Well, again, is there anything else you would like to say?
TE: I think that's it.
AGP: I think that's it. Okay.
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Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections and Archives, FOLK COLL GRAD: 2011-05

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St. Anne's Retreat

http://digital.lib.usu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p16944coll20/id/0

SCAFOLK008GRADBx050-11-05.pdf