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Legends of St. Anne's Retreat

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
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LEGENDS OF ST. ANNE"S RETREAT
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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
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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
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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 •
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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
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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
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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.
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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 •
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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.
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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.
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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 •
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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.
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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.
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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 •
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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 •
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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.
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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 •
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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 •
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Item it 11
"Clean and Dirty Swimming Pool"
Jana Hoth
Logan, Utah
July, 1984
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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.
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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 •
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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

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Utah State University undergraduate student fieldwork collection, 1979-2011 FOLK COLL 8 USU

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St. Anne's Retreat

http://digital.lib.usu.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p16944coll20/id/51

SCAFOLK008USUBx028-84-50.pdf