County Fair
Horse Show
Extension work
Agricultural Agent]]> Utah State University. Cooperative Extension Service; United States. Office of Cooperative Extension Work]]> jpeg]]> eng]]> image]]> Adrian Thomson]]> eng]]> Adrian Thomson]]> eng]]> Triangle X Ranch, Interview; Grand Tetons National Park, Wyoming; Jackson Hole; Dude Ranch; Chef]]> Dude ranches--Wyoming--Jackson Hole]]> Ritter, Thomas, 1972-]]> Schroeder, Kylie M., 1992-]]> Digitized by: Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library.]]> Cushenberry, Jessica, 1992-]]> image/jpeg]]> 6727990 Bytes]]> eng]]> Image; StillImage]]> Main Lodge of the Triangle X Ranch, Grand Tetons National Park, Wyoming, USA]]> 21st century; 2010-2019]]> Triangle X Ranch, Interview; Grand Tetons National Park, Wyoming; Jackson Hole; Dude Ranch; Chef]]> Dude ranches--Wyoming--Jackson Hole]]> Ritter, Thomas, 1972-]]> Schroeder, Kylie M., 1992-]]> Digitized by: Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library.]]> Cushenberry, Jessica, 1992-]]> image/jpeg]]> 6090924 Bytes]]> eng]]> Image; StillImage]]> Main Lodge of the Triangle X Ranch, Grand Tetons National Park, Wyoming, USA]]> 21st century; 2010-2019]]> Triangle X Ranch, Interview; Grand Tetons National Park, Wyoming; Jackson Hole; Dude Ranch; Chef; Cooking; Ovens; Food; Cooking]]> Dude ranches--Wyoming--Jackson Hole]]> Ritter, Thomas, 1972-]]> Schroeder, Kylie M., 1992-]]> Digitized by: Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library.]]> Cushenberry, Jessica, 1992-]]> image/jpeg]]> 6218105 Bytes]]> eng]]> Image; StillImage]]> Main Lodge of the Triangle X Ranch, Grand Tetons National Park, Wyoming, USA]]> 21st century; 2010-2019]]> Brigham Young College (Logan, Utah)--Commencement ceremonies;]]> Brigham Young College (Logan, Utah);]]> Brigham Young College (Logan, Utah);]]> Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library]]> application/pdf]]> 683761 Bytes]]> eng]]> Text]]> Logan, Cache County, Utah, United States, http://www.geonames.org/5777544/]]> 1900-1909; 20th century;]]> Legends;]]> legend-tripping;]]> St. Anne's Retreat Legends
Russell Jones
English/History 5700
Professor Gabbert
Utah State University
Spring 2010
, .
RJ 1 • There's Been a Scandal, Here Are The Facts
"Why do history books divide time up according to wars instead of the periods of peace?
Because it's interesting, and because, on some level, people like seeing big things fall apart."
Michael Garibaldi, Babylon 5
I first heard of the nunnery in fifth or sixth grade myself. I didn't even know the name of
it until I began this project. It was always just "the nunnery up in Logan Canyon." I'd been
told it several times and the story was ,~lways pretty close to the same. Some nuns had gotten
pregnant up there and drowned their babies in a pool to cover it up. On a certain night -
whether it was a full moon, or a night without a moon, that part always changed - you could go
up there and you'd see the pool filled with water and dead babies floating in it. I never gave it
much thought, honestly. People rarely do when it comes to local legends. • The nunnery, St. Ann's retreat, has been a part oflocallegend for a long time. One of
the sources I interviewed stated that people had been going up there on legend trips since before
he'd been patrolling the area as a police officer. His estimate was forty years. Recently, razor
wire was set up around the place and security guards were hired to keep trespassers out. This
didn't stop trespassers, though; at least, not until a security guard caught a group of students and
tied them up and threw them in the empty pool to scare them. This case was well documented
and became quite a scandal. It brought the nunnery back into the public mind, which seemed to
have forgotten about it.
Thinking on this event was part of the reason why I chose St. Ann's retreat for my
project. The other part of the reason was that I thought it was a common legend that everybody
knew and that it would be simple. Naturally, I expected some variation from one story to the
• next, but I never expected just how much variation I would get, or that it would be so hard to find
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people who knew of it. Of the fifty different people I asked in my initial excursion, only five
actually knew the legend. Oh, everybody knew the haunted nunnery existed, because of the
recent scandal, but nobody would admit to knowing exactly why people would go up their in the
first place. This was quite frustrating at first, but as I continued my quest to find people who
knew the legend, a common element showed itself in people's hesitation: they didn't have the
Facts.
You'll notice this immediately in the story I collected from Greg Nielsen, who was the
most willing person I collected from. He prefaces his story with an explanation of how he
knows about the place: his grandfather helped build it. He then gave a disclaimer that the story
is as he "understood it," not necessarily according to the Facts. Facts were so important to him
that he even stopped by my home later to correct a mistake; his wife had informed him that the
uranium tycoon built the place first and the Catholic church acquired it later.
This disclaimer was another common element. People would stress that what they were
telling me was a story. As I did my collecting, I noticed that I had to emphasize this as well in
order to get them to tell it. If I opened up my interview by asking what people know about St.
Ann's retreat, they clammed up instantly and no amount of prodding could convince them to talk.
If, however, I asked them to tell me what others had told them about it, I had a much greater
chance of getting them to speak. This happened with Jeff in the most dramatic way. When I
first told myoid friend I was collecting performances of the legend, he insisted that he'd be a bad
source because he didn't know that much about it. I had to keep asking for several days and
eventually got him to open up by asking him to tell me specifically what he'd been told by others.
Even after I'd completed the interview and moved on, he would continue to remind me
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RJ 3
afterward that what he said probably wasn't the Facts. When I confronted him about this and
said that the real facts, what little I had, suggested that the story never actually happened,
however, he quickly became defensive and looked for ways to justify it. From his own mouth,
"well, you can't really know for sure that it didn't happen. I mean, the Catholic church is always
trying to cover up things like this." Interesting, that someone so unwilling to talk without the
Facts would have such a strong reaction against the suggestion that Facts seemed to say the event
never happened at all.
This point about the Catholic church covering things up came back again when I
interviewed my mother. "But I guess I always kind of believed that because when we went to
Rome with our family that was the story there too, that a lot of the nuns, that they found babies
cemented into the walls of the underground tunnels throughout the city of Rome." I think this
may be one of the keys to explaining why there would be a legend surrounding an abandoned
Catholic retreat. While all the stories have some pretty wild variation - some say the ghost is of
the babies, some say its of the nun who drowned a baby, etc. - but aside from an obsession with
facts, they all have one element in common: scandal.
It is well known that members of the Catholic clergy cover up scandals because they have
been caught in it. Stories of Catholic priests involved in illicit sexual acts have been hanging
around them for centuries because it's such a taboo. People love scandal and will look for it
wherever they can. The fact that there have been stories of this confirmed in the public mind
through news media have probably served to increase these stories. That the date of the event
involving the security guard and the kids, October 15, 1997 (Herald Journal), seems to coincide
with the trial, sentencing and death of one of the priests involved in the sex scandal lends a bit of
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credence to this conclusion. According to BBC news, Brendan Smyth pled guilty 96 counts of
child molestation in 1997 and died one month into serving his sentence (BBC Online). A search
of website dedicated to holding priests involved in sex scandals accountable for their actions also
yielded a considerable number of priests exposed or tried in 1997
(http://www.bishop-accountability.orglirishpriestsinus/).Itis important to note that
these are internet sources and therefor may not be entirely reliable. Although there are plenty of
articles about Brendan Smyth easily available, time constraints made it impossible for me to go
through and verify every priest tied to a scandal in 1997 for this assignment, but the correlation is
strong enough that it's probably worth a followup study to confirm it at a later time.
The interest in a scandal also comes up in the version I collected from Josh Mecham. He
said, "I know that it was a place for nuns to go up that were pregnant and would kill their
babies." One of the only ones I collected that didn't need to be coaxed into talking by reminding
him that I was only looking for how it was told, Josh specifically says he "knows" how things
happened. His story is also the most gruesome in its implications, suggesting that not only did a
baby drowning happen there, but that St. Ann's retreat existed specifically for that purpose. You
see scandalous details emphasized in other stories as well. In Jeffs, the nuns drown a baby born
from a woman who was not a member ofthe clergy and in Danielle's the Mother Superior
drowns the baby for the nun to cover up the truth. In Tawny's version, the first thing she makes
known is that nuns aren't allowed to have babies. Like Josh, she also said that St. Ann's Retreat
was a place where nuns were supposed to drown the babies, but the way she said it was off-hand,
as if she didn't see the implications ofthat, but the fact that nuns weren't supposed to have
babies was very important. This was also emphasized in the story told by Nathan. "You know
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RJ 5
the nuns can't have sex, or aren't supposed to. To cover it up, they would drown the babies in a
pool."
This is very interesting to me in light of earlier studies I did on "The Hook" and
information I've picked out from other urban legends. I made a special point in my report about
how the people being punished in the urban legend were people who broke the taboo of
pre-marital sex. In the story ofthe kidney heist, it's a man out looking to pick up women in a
bar who gets his organs stolen. There are even urban legends about children swearing on live
broadcasts of kid shows, such as "Bozo, the Clown," or that Mr. Rogers was secretly a child
molester, which was the reason why children were never seen on his show. (Brunvand)
Scandal seems to be a very important element to urban legends and the more fervently the taboo
is preached, the more emphasis is placed on the breaking of it in the telling of the story .
At first, I thought that the correlation to stories in the news was the cause of the obsession
with Facts in the tellings and that may very well have something to do with it, but the more I've
gone over the tellings, the more I think that the scandal is at fault. It is more a interesting and
juicy story to tell if Facts seem to back it up. Facts mean that it Actually Happened, that it
wasn't just a story somebody Made Up to scare us all. It's important that the story be true,
because the possibility of a scandal isn't as interesting as one that actually happened. It would
be particularly interesting to see if the way Catholics tell the story is different from how the LDS
sample I collected from tell it. I would bet that if they would be willing to tell it at all, there
would be a lot less emphasis placed on the taboos broken. They might be more inclined to tell
the version of the story in which it was just one nun who got pregnant to minimize the scandal.
As interesting as all this speculation is, it's nothing but speculation, because I did not find any
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Catholics to ask. Still, this would be another interesting area to follow up on.
When I first started this project, I expected a simple essay. I thought I'd make some
points about the gender roles like Tatar did in OjfWith Their Heads, and say a few things about
the common elements of urban legends brought up by Brunvand and possibly make a few
statements about a legend in an LDS area laying blame on the Catholic church. I believed it
would just be another small project for me to demonstrate a large amount of information I'd been
spoon-fed in class, but as I collected the stories and examined them in detail, new things came to
the surface that were of far greater interest. The importance on Facts, the emphasis on scandal
and the correlation of the documented legend trip that went bad to the arrest and trial of several
Catholic priests caught in sex scandals; I hadn't predicted any of this. It's given me a lot of
interesting areas for myself and others to look into in future research projects on the subject, as
well as given me a new perspective to examine urban legends from. And, above all, this
experience has hammered home the importance of keeping an open mind and not going into a
collection project with to many specific ideas in mind .
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RJ
Allen, Paul (October 14,2000). Thrillseekers Steer Clear of Canyon. Harold Journal.
Retrieved from:
http://news.hjnews.com/article6aS07c12-eSb4-Se22-S77c-a6cdaSfOf929.html
Anonymous (2004). Bishop Accountability. Retrieved from:
http://www.bishop-accountability.org/irish priests in usl
7
BBC Online - No Author Given (2010, March 15). Profile of Brendan Smyth. BBe News
Online. Retrieved from:
http://news.bbc.co.ukl2/hi/uk news/northern ireland/8567868.stm
Brunvand, Jan Harold (1981). The Vanishing Hitchhiker. New York, NY: W.W. Norton and
Company.
Reily, Jerome (2008, April 6). Abbey For Sale, With Pervert Priest's Grave Included.
Independent National News. Retrieved from:
http://www.independent.ie/national-news/abbey-for-sale-with-pervert-priest
s-grave-included-1339709.html
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Infonnation:
JeffJohnson
Logan, Utah
April, 2010
Jeff is an old friend of mine. We've known each other since before grade school and he
was raised her in Logan all his life. He is an active LDS church goer, returned missionary and
currently a student at USU majoring in exercise science.
Context:
I recorded this in my basement for a project. It was difficult to get him to agree to the
recording because he "didn't have all the facts." I had to coax him into telling it by infonning
him that I wasn't interested in the facts, just the telling of the story.
Text
Me: Where did you first hear the legend of the nunnery?
Jeff: I heard it when I was actually in fifth grade, was the first time.
Me: Okay. Who told it to you.
Jeff: A friend of mine in my class.
Me: Okay, now go ahead and tell me what the legend is as you heard it.
Jeff: The way I heard it is that there used to be a nunnery up in Logan Canyon and a
pregnant woman for some reason, I guess she was running away from an abusive husband went
up to the nunnery for shelter. The nuns took her in; she was fine for a while, but the nuns started
doing really odd stuff, started to kind of act creepy. Then she had her child, but she was afraid
of what the nuns were doing, so she hid the child and went to go find a way to get away. Find a
place to live, or something like that. Then she came back and everywhere in the nunnery there
was blood and stuff and her baby was missing and the nuns were missing away. The woman
ended up going crazy grieving for her child and I guess ended up killing herself. They say that
around the nunnery now around Logan River, they say you can hear her screaming for her baby.
That's how I heard it.
Russell Jones
North Logan, Ut
Utah State University
Spring 2010
. ,.
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Information:
Greg Nielsen
Logan, Ut
April, 2010
Greg Nielsen is one of the stake leaders for the LDS student ward I go to. He works at
Thikol as an engineer. He regularly goes to Florida to supervise rocket assembly and considers
himself an active outdoorsman.
Context:
This sample was recorded at an LDS activity. Greg volunteered to be interviewed
because he said he had a family member who'd worked on building the nunnery and had heard I
was having trouble finding people who knew the story.
Text:
Greg: My grandpa did a lot of the rock work up there for the Catholic church in the
1930s. As I understood it, one of the nuns went crazy up there and killed herself up there and
then the church sold it to a guy that had a uranium mine, had a lot of money. He put a
swimming pool in and some billies (?) up there, but as far as I know, because the girl killed
herself there, that's what drove the catholic church to sell it. They didn't put the pool in there, it
was this uranium tycoon that installed the pool and used it like a summer camp.
Me: What have you heard said about the haunting? What is the manifestation?
Greg: The haunting is that you go up there at night time and on certain nights you can
hear her screaming. (Unclear due to background noise) She still haunted the place because she
went crazy. The ghost has always been up there in the mountains above the lodgings. Some
people say it's the wind, but everybody else say it's not the wind that makes that noise, it's
actually the screaming. She screams up there.
Russell Jones
North Logan, Ut
Utah State University
Spring 2010
2
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Information:
Josh Meacham
Logan, Utah
April, 2010
Josh Meacham is an undeclared major at USU. He is 22 years old and recently just
returned from an LDS mission. He lived in California until he was 14, at which point he moved
here to Logan, where he's lived ever since.
Context:
This was recorded at a large gathering in Elk Ridge park. It was an LDS activity for our
ward.
Text:
Me: What do you know about St. Ann's retreat?
Josh: What?
Me: St. Ann's retreat. That's the nunnery.
Josh: Oh. I know that it was a place for nuns to go up that were pregnant and would kill
their babies. I've had some friends actually go up there, I did not attend with them, but I have
heard that on the full moon in the middle room or cabin, I guess there's some sort oflittle pool, it
fills up with blood on a full moon and there's chains hanging on the wall and there's blood seen
around there and it's kind of crazy.
Me: And this is what you were told by your friends?
Josh: Yes, that have gone up there.
Me: Any other times you've heard it told or just that?
Josh: I've heard of kids going up there and some getting possessed and getting attacked
by spirits, I guess you could say. Just rumors, basically. I haven't heard them first-hand from
anyone.
Me: That's awesome, thank you very much.
Russell Jones
North Logan, Ut
Utah State University
Spring 2010
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Joe Yonk
Mendon, Utah
April, 2010
Information:
Joe Yonk is a retired police officer currently serving as a stake leader for the LDS
University student wards. He was involved in a lot of operations involving trespassers to St.
Ann's retreat. He currently lives in Mendon and has been in Utah for most of his life.
Context:
This was recorded at an LDS social gathering. He was hesitant to say much at first
because he claimed not to know the details of the legend, despite having been involved in a lot of
cases surrounding it.
Text:
Me: What do you know about St. Ann's retreat?
Joe: Well, I know that it's supposed to be haunted up there. I don't remember all the
background on it, but I've been up there on several incidences involving young people going up
there at night, trying to stay there. Most ofthem get in trouble doing one thing or another.
Me: Do you have any knowledge of the story that people tell about why it's haunted.
Joe: I don't.
Me: Have you heard anything, any stories about what people are supposed to see?
Joe: I know it's supposed to be people that used to live there. I can't remember ifit was
the way that they die, or, I don't know. Their spirits or their ghosts are supposed to still be
around there. That's about all I remember.
Me: About how often did people go up there when you were on duty?
Joe: In the spring and summer, every weekend.
Me: Every weekend?
Joe: Every weekend, there was somebody up there.
Me: You're serious?
Joe: Yeah, they had to finally put up No Trespassing signs up there. They've been going
up there for, oh, I was a cop for thirty years and they went the whole time I was there and they
were going up there before I was even a cop, so they've been going up there for forty years.
Russell Jones
North Logan, Ut
Utah State University
Spring 2010
.. . •
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Danielle Grunig
Smithfield, Utah
April, 2010
Information:
Danielle Grunig is 21 years old and an active member of the LDS church. She was
raised in Utah her whole life and is currently a student at USU majoring in English.
Context:
This was recorded at an LDS social event. She voluneered to be interviewed for this
project because she heard I was having trouble finding people to tell the story.
Text:
Me: You've been here in Logan, or here in Utah, this area?
Danielle: I've lived her my whole life, in Smithfield, which is right next to Logan, so ...
Me: Alright, tell me what others have told you about St. Ann's retreat.
Danielle: The nunnery is up Logan Canyon, I've seen it. Basically, the story is that a nun
had a baby and the Mother Superior there drowned it in a pool because nuns aren't allowed to
have babies, or something to that effect. That's all I know. It's technically (?) haunted by the
baby.
Me: By the baby?
Danielle: Yeah.
Me: Okay, what are the conditions under which you can see the baby?
Danielle: I don't know because I've never had the desire to go up there. I just know the
story because my parents told it to me.
Me: Have any of them ever actually told you how it is that the ghost is supposed to
appear?
Danielle: My brother told me that they can hear a baby crying from the pool area
sometimes.
Me: So, you saw it (the nunnery) what was the situation you saw it? Were you just
driving by?
Danielle: Yes. We were just driving by and I'd heard of the nunnery, but I'd never seen
it. I asked my parents about it and they drove slowly by it so I could see it through the trees.
Me: What kind of an impression did you get from looking at it?
Danielle: It looks like a haunted house, definitely.
Russell Jones
North Logan, Ut
Utah State University
Spring 2010
.,'
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Dawn Jones
Logan, Utah
May, 2010
Infonnation:
Dawn Jones is a homemaker. She also works part time at K-mart and as a substitute
teacher. She graduated from Logan High in 1976 and has lived in Utah her whole life.
Context:
This perfonnance was recorded in my home. It was hesitantly given because she didn't
feel she had much to say about it. She told it with a bit of sarcasm and she was teasing me as
she told it. That's our relationship, though, so it may be nothing.
Text:
Me: So, I've been collecting these stories of the nunnery. I want to get just see what do
you know about it? Have you been told this story before?
Dawn: Oh, yes, around the campfire, years and years.
Me: Okay. How has it been told to you?
Dawn: It was told to me that there was a nunnery up there and one of the nuns had a baby.
She didn't want anybody to find out about it. It would be a secret. She'd been raped by one of
the fathers there, or priests or whatever. So, when the baby was born, she and the other nuns
that were there helping her smothered the baby. Somehow there was a tunnel or a basement
there, I don't know. It was buried inside the cement somewhere. Now when you go up there
it's haunted. The nun did such a terrible deed that she's not allowed to go to heaven, so she
haunts the nunnery. She's a spirit that wanders around there at night.
night.
Me: Alright. And, of course, everybody's heard about people going up to the nunnery at
Dawn: Oh, yes.
Me: Have you heard any stories about what people say is supposed to be up there?
Dawn: Oh, they say the black cloak floating around in the air, things like that. She
moans and wanders around. It's worth a thrill, but when I was a kid, all the kids going up there
for a thrill.
Me: So you say the nun was raped by a priest up there?
Dawn: That was the story, yeah.
Me (with malicious twinkle in my eye): So he was both a father and the father.
Dawn: *laughs* Yes, yes, I guess. Don't make fun of that. But I guess I always kind of
believed that because when we went to Rome with our family that was the story there too, that a
lot of the nuns, that they found babies cemented into the walls of the underground tunnels
throughout the city of Rome. So it sounds pretty believable to me.
Russell Jones
North Logan, Ut
Utah State University
Spring 2010
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Tawny Jones
Logan, Utah
May, 2010
Information:
Tawny is my sister and she is a senior student at Sky View High School, age 18. She
enjoys dancing and singing and is member of the LDS church. She currently works at a local
restaurant.
Context:
This performance was collected at my home, in the kitchen, in front of my mother and a
friend of hers from Sweeden. She was very nervous as she gave the performance.
Text:
Me: So, sitting here in the comfort of my own home, I am asking you to tell me the story
of St. Ann's retreat as you have heard it.
Tawny: Well, I heard that the nuns weren't allowed to have kids or something, so the
nunnery retreat was a place where they had nuns and there was a pool that they would drown the
babies in. That's the story that mostly everyone hears and so that's what I've heard that they do.
Me: And you of course know that people go up there, or that they used to before they
surrounded it in razor wire and crazy security guards. Have you heard stories from people
who've gone up there, or say they've gone up there.
Tawny: Yes .
Me: What do they say goes on up there?
Tawny: Well, the person that I talked to who said went up there trashed the place.
Me: Okay.
Tawny: They just said it was really scary. That it felt weird.
Me: What were they expecting to happen.
Tawny: I don't know. I think they thought it was haunted.
Me: So what were they supposed to see? What sort of ghost was supposed to appear?
Tawny: Babies.
Me: Babies?
Tawny: The ones that were drowned, but they're in their older years.
Me: Really?
Tawny: Yeah.
Russell Jones
North Logan, Ut
Utah State University
Spring 2010
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Infonnation:
Nathan "Nate" Jones
Logan, Utah
May, 2010
Nathan is a member of the LDS church who recently returned from his mission to North
Dakota. He has lived in Utah his whole life and currently works at a Camp Chef warehouse
unloading trucks.
Context:
Nathan insisted on being interviewed when he heard that I was doing this project It was
collected in my basement and he was particularly enthusiastic.
Text:
Me: St Ann's retreat; what's the story?
Nate: Well, what I've heard is that's where the nuns and the priests would go to take it
easy_ Somehow, the nuns got pregnant and you know the nuns can't have sex, or aren't
supposed to. To cover it up they would drown the babies and then they would throw their babies
in the well. I've been there. There's a pool and there is a well, but it's all blocked off. That's
what I know of the nunnery_
Me: So you went up there, did you see any ghosts or anything, or was this after the razor
wire?
Nate: No, the razor wire was still up .
Me: Did you actually get into the nunnery?
Nate: Oh, yeah.
Me: So you didn't see any crazy security guards or anything.
Nate: No, but we did hear weird stuff.
Me: Such as?
Nate: Such as doors moving, not like voices or anything, but we did hear growling. Who
knows, maybe it was a large cat, I don't know. But maybe it was a ghost
Me: Maybe. So you didn't hear any crying babies or anything.
Nate: No, they wouldn't cry, they were being drowned.
Me: Oh, that is a good point
Russell Jones
North Logan, Ut
Utah State University
Spring 2010]]> Digitized by : Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library.]]> Digitized by: Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library.]]> legends (folk tales);]]> application/pdf;]]> 5848968 Bytes]]> eng]]> Text;]]> Logan Canyon (Utah); Cache County (Utah); United States;]]> 1970-1979; 1980-1989; 1990-1999; 20th century; 2000-2001; 2000-2009; 2010-2019; 21st century;]]> ]]> ]]> Utah State University]]> ]]> application/pdf]]> eng]]> Text]]> The Old AC, Built Environment, USU, Campus, Utah State, University]]> Mikkel Robb; Shay Larsen]]> Cody Patton]]> Eng]]> Legends;]]> legend-tripping;]]> St. Anne's Retreat
Anne Christensen
History 5700
Professor Gabbert
Utah State University
Spring 2010
•
The Nunnery
Anne Christensen
HIST 5700
5/6/2010
Folk Narrative is so much a part of life that on an almost daily basis people retell stories,
of one shape or form, to each other. We tell stories to relay life's most difficult and most
wonderful of times. If we're late for work, the reason is often related as a story, retelling the
events as they unfolded to provide an adequate and vivid excuse for our tardiness. As Bruce
Jackson says in The Story is True, "We organize the events of our lives in the form of
narrative ... Every story we tell, specifically or by implication, includes a theory about what
happened and what matters" (Jackson, 8). Legends are a part of this wide storytelling tradition.
In Cache Valley, Utah the story of St. Anne's Retreat is one of the most commonly retold
• Legends. By examining the different "Rules of Legend," the content, style, structure, and
function of several versions of St. Anne's Retreat we can come to a greater understanding of
whey the legend's popularity continues.
The story of The Nunnery, or St. Anne's Retreat, as I heard it when I was in high school,
was that the Catholic Church owned a lodge in Logan Canyon and whenever a nun got pregnant
she was sent there to have an abortion. When the babies were born, they were all drowned in a
well that was located in the middle of the lodge area and if you go there today you'll hear the
sound of babies cries coming from the well. This is just one of the many versions of liThe
Nunnery," but it contains some of the elements that almost all of the collected versions
contain; the Nuns, the death of a baby, and the presence of some sort of spirit that remains • 1
• today. It is these three elements that seem to compose of the majority of the content for this
Legend, but each legend to varying degrees.
The localization of "The Nunnery" plays a huge part in its retelling of the suspicious
events and origins of its haunted nature. While trying to find people I could interview, most
people had at least heard of the Nunnery, but many didn't know the story behind it. When
asked ffDoes everyone you know, know the story? Do most people you know, know about it?
Benjy, a seventeen year old high school student from Bear River High School replied that, "Most
people that have gone up logan Canyon," know the story (Transcription 3). The location of the
story is of vital importance in its retelling, even in the minds of those who told the story. Style
also plays a role in who the story was first collected from.
Callista Christopher began her telling of the story by saying that, "So what I heard from
• my mom when I was little was that .... "(Transcription 6) She begins her story by using the "friend
•
of a friend," rhetorical device. Jan Harold Brunvand says, "In the world of modern urban
legends there is usually no geographical or generational gap between teller and event. The
story is true; it really occurred, and recently, and always to someone else who is quite close to
the narrator, or at least "a friend of a friend" (Brunvand, 4). Callista's use of reference, who she
heard the story from, helps lay claim to the reliability of the source, it being her mom, and thus
the believability of the story. While no one expressed implicit belief in the story of the nunnery,
everyone I interviewed expressed some amount of belief in the supernatural and spiritual
occurrences that made the nunnery a haunted place.
The structure of each story differs slightly as does the content of each story. Almost the
entire story encompasses a bizarre plot twist. Pregnant nuns, which are two things that are in
2
~----------------. - , - -_ ..
• direct opposition to each other, still function within the realm of believability, the true twist
comes at the point in which the nuns give birth and murder their children. Callista's story differs
slightly from the others because the nuns are portrayed in a positive light; rather it is only the
priest that is a wicked murderer. She says after the nun gives birth to the baby and hides it
away, lithe priest guy found out and he went, followed them up there, and he killed the baby in
the swimming pool," and then he kills the nun (Transcription 6). Though Callista's story is only
one instance, the fact that her mother was telling the story to a young girl, makes a gender
. differentiation visible. In this instance, the man, not the women are at fault. While sex is
something that anyone can be tempted by, and religiously speaking, it's forgivable, murder is
not. The murdering of children contradicts everything that a nun, or a priest, should represent.
As noted earlier, Brunvand says the story has often happened to someone who is quite close to
• the narrator. While no one character in the story is known by any of the tellers of the story, the
•
use of the Nunnery site in Logan Canyon as a place to go legend tripping helps lend the story
credibility.
All throughout high school I remember hearing stories of other teenagers going to the
Nunnery in Logan Canyon and being scared out of their mind. As I searched for people to
interview, I couldn't find anyone who had actually been. I went to my brother, whom I had
heard the story from numerous times. He recalled that, iii have known people who have gone
there. And have said they heard things, not necessarily babies crying, but they said it's freaky.
One of the most freakiest places they have ever been" (Transcription 2). He told me to call one
of his friends that he thought had been there, but that was a dead end. He hadn't ever been
there and he couldn't think of a specific person who had either. Hoping that the story still
3
• resonated with teenagers today I went to my younger brother and after asking him if any of his
friends had gone up there, he said that one of them had but he didn't know what his friend had
said of the experience (Transcription 3). Ca"ista grew up in Logan and she didn't know anyone
that had actually been there. I called a few male friends from high school, thinking that if
anyone had been, they most certainly would have, and not a single person had actually been to
the Nunnery. They only knew vague stories of people they had heard about going up the
Canyon. Benjy, the only one still in high school, expressed an adamant desire to go up there and
had hoped when I first asked him about the story that I had the same thing in mind. Other than
the increased security measures taken to keep trespassers out of the grounds, I don't know why
so few people have actually been
While legend tripping may serve as one function of the story of the Nunnery, enforcing a
• belief or value is another function ofthe story. Both Kylie and Josh's recollection ofthe story
•
skirted over the sexual issue with veiled references, rather than outright statements. Kylie said,
somewhat comically, that the nunnery was, "actually an abortion clinic for nuns who weren't
really, um, standing by their vows of being a virgin" (Transcription 5). Josh said that, "Um,
apparently they were attractive nuns or locals frequented the area and the nuns got pregnant.
Because it's against their lifestyle to participate in those kind ofthings ... " (Transcription 2). Both
stories refer to the misconduct implicit in the sexual act of a nun. Even Emily's recollection of
the story, with her blunt appraisal of events shows some of the apprehension about sexual
issues. She says that, "there was a nunnery and a" the nuns got really horny, along with the
priests and the priests knocked up the nuns ... " (Transcription 1). She states the facts of the
story as she has heard them in a way that sexual issues can't be overlooked, but she does so
4
• while laughing throughout her recollection. Her laughter could be interpreted as discomfort in
talking about sexual issues, or that she thinks the legend itself is funny, either way the sexual
nature of the story isn't admired.
The overwhelming religious population of Cache Valley has historically lent itselfto
advocating extremely conservative views of sexual conduct. The story of the nunnery takes that
to the extreme with associating the Catholic religion, a minority religion in northern Utah, with
sexual misconduct. If the lodge itself had been an abandoned LDS retreat would such stories
have ever begun to be circulated about past inhabitants? This is a question that can never be
answered, but it seems important in understanding why the popularity of such a story exists.
The foreignness of the Catholic Religion to many in Cache Valley can't be overlooked.
The story of the Nunnery itself is creepy. It pushes the boundaries between truth and
• fiction and makes us question the believability of such a story, but its use in life and its
•
popularity make it an important part of, most especially, adolescence in Cache Valley. Both
Benjy and Kaitlyn knew little of the story about the nuns, and the murdering of children, but
they had both heard of the haunting nature of the Nunnery itself. Whether the belief that the
Nunnery is haunted or the story came first, it's apparent that it's a legend that will continue to
affect those all who have heard it and that they in turn will continue to tell it .
5
•
•
•
Emily Christensen
Emily: Go?
Anne: Yeah, just tell me the story.
Emily: Okay.
Anne: What you've heard
Emily: Once upon a time, [laughing] in a dark and dreary land [laughing].. Just kidding.
Anne: Okay, tell me for real. [laughing]
Emily: Well, there was a nunnery and all the nuns got really horny, along with the priests and the
priests knocked up all the nuns and then the nuns had babies and they suffocated them and just
threw them in like the little sewer tunnel things under the nunnery and now there's creepy nun
babies that scream and crap. And that's about it. [laughing] That's all I know.
Anne: Okay
•
•
•
Josh Christensen
Anne: Alright, just tell me the story, like you've heard it.
Josh: My understanding of the nunnery in Logan Canyon, but like, I've googled stuff so I know
other things too.
Anne: That's okay, just tell me the story you've heard first.
Josh: The story is that there's a nunnery up Logan canyon. Urn, apparently they were attractive
nuns or locals frequented the area and the nuns got pregnant. Because it's against their lifestyle
to participate in those kinds of things they would have their babies in secret then they would
drown their babies in the pool that was up there. The rumor is that you can go up there at night.
And, uh, you can go towards the middle of the nunnery, and I guess they filled in the pool or
something, but if you go and stand in the middle of the places you can hear babies crying.
Anne: Did you know anyone that went up there in high school?
Josh: I have known people who have gone there. And have said they have heard things, not
necessarily babies crying, but they said that it's freaky. One of the most freakiest places they
have ever been.
Anne: Alright, thanks.
• Benjy Christensen
Anne: Okay, I'm just asking you what have you heard? What's the story you've heard?
Benjy: Urn, Just that it's haunted.
Anne: That's all you've heard?
Benjy: Well I heard one story. A kid's dad went up there and urn he said there was like scratch
marks, and urn there was a fresh loaf of bread while they were up there.
Anne: Oh really? I've never heard that.
Anne: Do you know why it's called the nunnery?
Benjy: Cause of the nuns ... [laughing] that lived there.
Anne: That's all you know about it? Just that it's haunted?
Benjy: Yeah
Anne: Have any of your friends gone there?
• Benjy: Urn, One of them.
•
Anne: Just one of them? What did he say?
Benjy: I don't know [laughing]
Anne: Urn, Does everyone you know, know the story? Do most people you know, know about
it?
Benjy: Most people that have gone up Logan Canyon I think ...
Anne: Know about it.
Benjy: Yeah, but.. .
Benjy: A lot of people are, uh, don't get out much [laughing]
. Anne: Do you believe that it's haunted?
Benjy: Yeah.
Benjy: That was intimidating .
•
•
•
Kaitlyn Faraone
Anne: Okay, what have you heard about the nunnery.
Kaitlyn: I've heard that the nunnery in Logan Canyon is haunted and if you go you can feel a
presence there. I've also heard it's especially bad at Halloween time, you have to be careful then.
Anne: See that was easy .
•
•
•
Kylie White
Anne: Okay, what have you heard?
Kylie: Well, what I've heard about the nunnery is that it's haunted because it used to be a hotel
getaway for Hollywood stars but then the Catholic Church bought it out and then it became the
nunnery where these priests and nuns would go and like escape for a little while. It was kind of
like a vacation for them. But then in reality it was just a cover-up because it was actually an
abortion clinic for nuns who weren't really, urn, standing by their vows of being a virgin. So,
instead of being condemned and having babies they would go there and have abortions. And so,
that's kinda what I heard about it. And then, somehow the children there, I don't really know if
like all the nuns had abortions so they wanted to stay there with their kids, or something, I don't
really know, it's like two different stories. The one with children there, one of the nuns went
crazy, or all of the nuns, I'm not real sure, but they killed all of these little children. Whenever
you go to the nunnery, you have to hop the fence and everything, and you can feel either the
babies that were aborted or the children that the nuns killed, you can feel like their presence and
see them playing and acting like they are real children there anyways and not being dead. It's
scary.
•
•
•
Callista Christopherson
Anne: Just tell me what you know.
Callista: Okay. So what I heard from my mom when I was little was that the nunnery was like a
normal nunnery and that the little priest man got one of the nuns pregnant. And she like kept the
baby full term and had the baby and blah blah and then she gave birth to the baby and hid it up in
the woods behind the nunnery and had all these nuns like go back and check on it every once in a
while and the priest guy found out and he went, followed them up there, and he killed the baby in
the swimming pool. And then he came back [laughing] and like killed the nun up in the woods.
And .. [laughing, He's all judging on us]. So you're supposed to be able to like feel the baby in the
swimming pool. There's supposed to be a cold spot where the baby was murdered And the nuns
like hunting, like hunting, what is that? haunting the place.
Anne: Thank you
Callista: You are so welcome.]]> Digitized by : Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library.]]> Digitized by: Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library.]]> legends (folk tales);]]> application/pdf;]]> 3708712 Bytes]]> eng]]> Text;]]> Logan Canyon (Utah); Cache County (Utah); United States;]]> 1970-1979; 1980-1989; 1990-1999; 20th century; 2000-2001; 2000-2009; 2010-2019; 21st century;]]> Legends;]]> legend-tripping;]]> •
•
THE NUNNERY
Tristin Merkley
Utah State University
Fife Folklore Archives
Logan, Utah
Mythology; Folklore
Mr Brad Gibbons
Fall 2014
Mountain Crest High School
Hyrum, Utah
• Table of Contents
Release Forms
Cover Essay
Autobiographical Sketch
List of Informants
Item No. Informant Title
1 Rylin Baby Crying
2 Rylin Halloween Guards
3 Dawsin Nunnery Location
4 Dawsin Nun Killing Herself
5 Strattin Dog Story
6 Ryan Selling It
7 Ryan Trespassing
8 Ryan Shotgun Wielding Guards
9 Ryan Built in the 20th Century
10 Ryan Hatch Family Donation • 11 Ryan Private Ownership
12 Ryan Movie Stars
13 Ryan Aborted Children
14 Ryan Fined
15 Ryan USU Students
16 Ryan Pool Cold Spot
17 Ryan Names
18 Ryan Offerings
19 Ryan Handcuffs
20 Ryan Guards Going to Jail
•
• Tristin Merkley
Mr. Gibbons
Cover Essay
11/7/2014
Nunnery
I did my report on the Nunnery. I selected this topic because me and all of my friends
have gone up to the nunnery several times before. And it is a pretty popular place for lots of
teenagers to go, and takes their girls. Or dates up there with them to get a good scare and to
get their dates to cling tightly to them. That is probably the main reason a lot of the high
school students go up their. To scare the girls so bad that they need to hold on to them super
tight and the guys really like that so they keep on doing it over and over, and therefore it will
always remain a popular attraction for all of the kids to go up there. • The method that I used to collected all of my materials for this report is that I had a
bunch of my friends come over and then I selected one of them to tell me a few different
stories that they had heard about the Nunnery. After getting interviews from one of them I
would move down the list and interview the other ones about different stories, and myths or
legends that they had heard or read about on the internet or they were told by their friends.
And then they retold those stories to me while I recorded them on my phone in the Voice
Memos, then later I emailed all of those stories to myself. After doing that I downloaded them
on to my computer and moved them all into a new file that I created. Upon doing that I then
put the CD in my computer and went into the new folder and selected all of my recordings
then I moved them all over onto the CD and burned them on to there and added that to my
packet.
After finishing all of my interviews there was a conclusion that I came to. Listening to
all of the haunted stories I decided that the Nunnery is not haunted. Even though there is all of •
• those myths and legends about the place. But I feel that most of them are just myths. They
are just stories about the place that people have made up. Or they have just changed
dramatically over time and now they are corrupted and aren't even close to the stories that
they were originally. Thats why I think that the place isn't really haunted there was just a lot of
things that happened there and people think that it is this old creepy compound of buildings
with all of these murders and ghost stories that happened there but really it is just a bunch of
old buildings nestle in the trees across the river up on the mountainside about seven miles up
logan canyon. And it isn't haunted it is just an old retreat used by the Nuns that is now
abandoned and isn't in use anymore and that is what makes it so creepy because it is just old
and abandoned. And then people came up with all of the scary stories to go along with it.
•
•
•
•
Mr. Gibbons
Tristin Merkley
11/6/2014
Autobiographical Sketch
My name is Tristin Merkley. I am seventeen years old, and I am a senior at Mountain Crest
High School. I was born in Mesa Arizona but grew up in snowflake, about three hours away
from there. I have a deep passion for my dirtbike and I love to go and tear it up on the track
doing huge jumps through the air. My passion for dirtbikes started early when I was little and
started riding a little fourwheeler, and when i moved up to my first dirtbike I totally fell in love,
and I have been doing it ever since. In my report about the Nunnery I interviewed lots of my
closest friends, and they told the stories that they personally had, happen to them. They
actually had all of these things happen, and sawall of these while they were at the Nunnery.
My friends like to go up there and experience a really good scare, and I am always right there
with them. The first time I went up there I had heard about the place but didn't really think
anything about it because I was seventeen and nothing could scare a senior on the wrestling
team, but that night at the Nunnery I got really scared. My friends had gone up lots of times
previously but i had never gone with them, my first time, my friends picked the "perfect" time
to go they said. Late at night on a friday evening after we all got off work and met up to hang
out. Once we arrived at our spooky destination we started up the path that went up to all of
the abandoned buildings. After walking up there in the dark with little crappy flashlights on our
phones, we were all on edge, walking really close to each other. We walked past a few
buildings then over to one of the bigger ones, opened the door, and we all went inside. Shortly
after entering the house one of my friends claimed to see a ghost walking on the upper level
of the building along the stair railing, thoroughly freaking all of us out. We all looked up there
but nobody saw anything, after that we were all really scared and went through another
building and that did it for us, we had to get out of there. We all ran down the trail back to the
car and took off. Not really knowing what happened but we could all feel ghosts at the
Nunnery .
• Ryl i n- Rylin Merkley is a sophomore at Mountain Crest. He is currently on the wrestling
team wrestling in the one hundred and fifty two weight class. He likes to hang out with his
woman and can always be caught texting her and he can never not text her because she
means the world to him.
•
•
Dawsin- Dawsin Merkley is currently in the eighth grade and likes to mess with pvc pipe
and melt it into different objects axes and swords. He is also a pyromaniac and can always be
found wit matches ready to burn or melt something to bits.
Stratti n- Strattin Merkley is a very weird little guy. He is currently attending the 5th grade
at Mountainside Elementary. He likes to run around with no shirt on most of the time and is
always good for a great laugh because he is always doing dumb stuff and makes everybody
laugh at how dumb he is.
Ryan- Ryan Parkinson is currently graduated and he is now working at Thompson Electric
and he doesn't really do anything but work and save up money to go to Utah State University
and he wants to become a surgeon and do lots of surgeries on people and get lots of money
because doctors make bank.
•
•
•
Item 1
Baby Crying
Rylin Merkley
Petersboro, Utah
November 8,2014
Context: Me and my little brother rylin were sitting at our kitchen counter and i asked him to
tell me a story that he had heard about the Nunnery and this is what he said.
Text: Ok tell me a story about the Nunnery. So supposedly there was a bunch of pregnant
nuns that went there and they got their babies and drowned them in the pool. So when you
walk by the pool you can hear babies crying.
Texture: Rylin said that this as just a story, or kind of a rumor that /'Ie had heard about the
Nunnery in the past.
We both thought about how true the story seemed and by the en~ we decided th~t it se~med
false and that the nuns wouldn't have killed their babies like that.
•
•
•
Item 2
Halloween Guards
Rylin Merkley
Petersboro Utah
November 8, 2014
Context: Me and rjlin were again sitting in our kitchen when I asked him to tell me another
that he had heard or been told about the Nunnery and he told me the Halloween Guards
story.
Text: Another story 1 heard about the Nunnery, the owner of it, hired some guards and some
kids went up there on Halloween. And the guards captured them put them in the pool and
then they shot all of the execution style.
Texture: Rylin said that he heard this story from one of his friends and after thinking about the
truthfulness of the story we came to the conclusion that this story couldn't be true .
•
•
•
Item 3
Nunnery Location
Dawsin Merkley
Petersboro Utah
November 8,2014
Context: I interviewed Dawsin and I asked him if he knew where the Nunnery was at and if
he did if he would describe it, or tell me where it was.
Text: So the Old Nunnery about 3 miles up Logan Canyon if you don't look for it you would
never see it, it's on the other side of the river. And it is se back into the mountains and fenced
in, there are houses and an old chapel and a swimming pool. The only thing noticeable as you
drive by is the huge gate that is locked and barbed wired. They have guards stationed up
there at all times. the Catholic church used to use it as a place to send nuns that were having
troubles mainly the ones that had gotten pregnant.
Texture: After pondering the story me and Dawsin drove up Logan Canyon and found the
Nunnery and after much more than 3 miles it was on the side of the road where he had
described it at.
•
Item 4
Nun Killing Herself
Dawsin Merkley
Petersboro Utah
November 8,2014
Context: I asked Dawsin If he had anymore stories from, or about the Nunnery that he knew
about and that is what brings us to our next story.
Text: Tell me the Nun story. Ok so the story goes that a Nun tried to escape with her baby
late one night. She left her baby in the bushes, to lead the dogs away from her child When
she returned to the spot the baby was missing, so she returned to the main houses. And saw
her baby floating in the swimming pool dead. The Nun then killed herself in the pool, the
whole area was then sold years later to a private family. A group of kids got in there once
before security was beefed up and they swore the empty swimming pool was freezing even
• though it was a july night.
•
Texture: Dawsin said that he had red this story out of some article that he had seen then read
off of the internet.
And after hearing the story I decided that this story could not have happened up at the
Nunnery .
•
Item 5
Dog Story
Strattin Merkley
Petersboro Utah
November 8,2014
Context: I asked my little brother Strattin to tell me a story that he heard from our brother
Dawsin about the Nunnery, which was the Dog Story.
Text: Tell me the Dog story, ok there is a rumor that if you go up there at night and pull off of
the shoulder of the road, you can see the eyes of the dogs sniffing for the babies of the nuns
that were trying to keep their kids.
Texture: This story goes along with the previous story that dawsin told about the Nun killing
herself in the pool and then the dogs are still running around up there looking for the babies of
the Nuns.
• After he told this story we both decided that it couldn't be a true, or real story.
•
•
•
•
Item 6
Selling it
Ryan Parkinson
Providence Utah
November 8, 2014
Context: I interviewed Ryan and told him to tell me what he knew about the nunnery and was
up with the place.
Text: Ok so tell me about the Nunnery, it's a bunch of cabins, also known as Saint Anne's
Retreat. the owner is basically trying to recover what he spent on the place it was listed for 2
million dollars in july of 2010 the price has gone down now to about 600,000.
Texture: after critically thinking about this interview we decided that this story was real. We
researched what it was listed for now. And we even took a drive up there and saw that there
was a for sale sign on the gate that went up to it.
•
•
•
Item 7
Trespassing
Ryan Parkinson
Providence, Utah
November 8,2014
Context: So me and ryan were talking and I asked him what the grounds look like and stuff
like that from everybody trespassing, and that is what he told me about which takes us to his
story.
Text: So there is a lot of people trespass there, there is always crap on the ground like,
garbage and stuff, and most of the cabins are usually locked but there is a lot of people that
break in a lot up there.
Texture: We both thought about the story but after we went up there and walked all over the
grounds and then when we looked around but we didn't really see a bunch of trash or
anything like that but we did see that a lot of the cabins had been locked but had been broken
into so you could still enter them if you wanted to .
•
•
•
Item 8
Shotgun Wielding Guards
Ryan Parkinson
Providence Utah
November 8,2014
Context: Me and Ryan were sitting in my kitchen doing an interview and I asked him if he had
heard about the halloween story with the guards and he said that he knew that story and
decided to tell it to me.
Text: Ok tell me the swimming pool story. Ok n like 1997, 38 kids trespassed and the guards
found them and then they herded them into the swimming pool, then the kids were tied up and
threatened by the guards until the police showed up, anyways a bunch of people got mad
about it and the resulting trial that followed made national news .
Texture: After reviewing and researching the story we decided that the story had to have
been fake because we couldn't find a reason why the guards would have reason to tie them
up and threaten them while they were in the swimming pool.
•
•
•
Item 9
Built in the 20th century
Ryan Parkinson
Providence Utah
November 8,2014
Context: I asked Ryan if he knew the general area of the Nunnery and if he knew when it was
built or made. And a lot of general information about the place.
Text: Where is the Nunnery at. It's about 7 miles up Logan Canyon, Its privately owned and it
was built in the early twentieth century by the Hatch family. And the land is owned by the
forest service.
Texture: We researched on the internet for stories like this and we found almost all of this
general information on there. And this story is true and real and he was a really reliable
source for this.
•
•
•
Item 10
Hatch Family Donation
Ryan Parkinson
Providence Utah
November 8, 2014
Context: I asked Ryan about how the Nunnery ended up with the Catholic Church and what
they ended up doing with it.
Text: So what happened to the Nunnery. The Hatch Family Donated it to the Catholic Church
in the nineteen fifties. And they re-named it St. Anne's Retreat. The Nuns from Sisters of the
Holy Cross, vacationed there until it was turned into a youth camp in the eighties.
Texture: After validating the truthfulness of the story and finding out much more research
about the place .
•
•
•
Item 11
Private Ownership
Ryan Parkinson
Providence Utah
November 8, 2014
Context: He is telling me the story of what happened to the Nunnery after it was turned into a
kids youth camp.
Text: So what has happened to the Nunnery nowadays. So in the early nineties the Catholic
Church, turned the Nunnery into a private ownership. And that is how it has been ever since.
Texture: Ryan said that he heard this story from an online internet source that he had read
about.
•
•
•
Item 12
Movie Stars
Ryan Parkinson
Providence Utah
November 8, 2014
Context: Ryan decided to tell me some history of the Nunnery and what it was used for
before the Nuns used it and it was turned into a summer camp. And that is what brings us to
this story.
Text: So what happened with the Nunnery before the hatch family donated it and it was used
by the catholic church. So before it was used by the Catholic Church it was used as a hotel for
lots of famous movie stars.
Texture: Ryan told me this story and he said that he had heard it from one of his friends that
he was hanging out with them and then they told him this story. and we both thought about it
for a while and decided that the story was pretty truth full.
•
•
•
Item 13
Aborted Children
Ryan Parkinson
Providence Utah
November 8, 2014
Context: I asked Ryan why the Nunnery was still haunted or like what still haunts the
Nunnery and why everybody is scared of that place.
Text: So what still haunts the Nunnery like why does everybody think that the Nunnery is
haunted and everything like that. There was rumors in the nineteen fourties that the Nunnery
was an abortion clinic for unwed teenagers. And these aborted children still walk the grounds.
Texture: Ryan read this off of the Old interweb and he found that it is actually not a real storie
and it wasn't completely truth full.
~--------------------------------------.--------------------------------------------------
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Item 14
Fined
Ryan Parkinson
Providence Utah
November 8,2014
Context: I was still continuing my interviews with Ryan and I asked him what would happen to
you, or any other person if they went up there and were caught by the police for trespassing.
And he told me this story.
Text: What happens when you walk around up at the Nunnery and get caught by the police.
Well so it's private property so if you trespass and get caught the cops will give you a citation,
and you will get in trouble and fined for it.
Texture: This is a really legit story because i have some friends that went up there and got
caught by the cops and were cited and fined for trespassing on private property and they got
in big trouble.
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Item 15
USU Students
Ryan Parkinson
Providence Utah
November 8, 2014
Context: I was asking Ryan if he had ever heard of any stories of people that had gone up to
the Nunnery and had been caught by the cops and got in trouble for trespassing and were
fined for it.
Text: So do you know of any stories where people have gotten fines and have been
trespassing up at the Nunnery. There was a bunch of USU students that were caught up there
at the Nunnery and they got ticket and fines and everything.
Texture: Ryan is currently going to USU and he said that he heard it from one of his friends
that goes to school with him and they told him the story, so when it comes to the validity of
this story it is one hundred percent truth full.
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Item 16
Pool Cold Spot
Ryan Parkinson
Providence Utah
November 8, 2014
Context: Ryan told me this story because he had a cousin of his drown in a pool and it really
has a personal connection with him so this next story he told because he could relate to it
very personally.
Text: Ok tell me about the cold spot in the pool, ok so there was a little boy who drowned
there in the pool, and the cold spot is because of the little boy, and he is haunting it. The cold
spot is about two or three feet in diameter.
Texture: This story is one hundred percent true I really believe deep deep down in my heart
that a little boy might have actually drowned in the pool and did die there and he is now
haunting it because the is a coldspot in the pool I felt it when we went up there .
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Item 17
Names
Ryan Parkinson
Providence Utah
November 8, 2014
Context: I asked my friend Ryan to tell me all of the different names of the Nunnery and so
that is what brings us to this next interview or story that I have recorded.
Text: Ok so tell me all of the different names of the Nunnery that you know of. Ok so the first
one is Hatch's Camp, the second one is Forest Hills, the third one is Pine Glen Cove, and the
fourth and final one is just the Nunnery.
Texture: Ryan stated that he had seen all of those names off of some website and he told
them to me. And we both concluded that this story is completely true.
•
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Item 18
Offerings
Ryan Parkinson
Providence Utah
November 8,2014
Context: Ryan told me this story after me asking him to tell me more about the Nunnery and
basically just a bunch more of background information and other things about the Nunnery.
Text: So when the family stopped using the Nunnery, who did they try and give it to first. Well
in the nineteen fifties they offered it to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Then
they offered it to Utah State University but neither one of them were interested in it, that is
when they handed it over to the Catholic Church.
Texture: This is a true and reliable story because they Hatch Family did try to give the
Nunnery to all of those different places before the Catholics took it from them.
(
Item 19
Handcuffs
Ryan Parkinson
Providence Utah
November 8, 2014
Context: Well one day Ryan was looking on the internet and he was just reading a bunch of
stories about the nunnery and he came across this story and then after he had read it he
decided to tell it to me.
Text: Ok so what is one of the big myths or legends that surrounds the Nunnery. Well
according to the article one boy was butted by a shotgun and the little girls were molested and
they all had wristmarks from fake plastic handcuffs.
Texture: This story I think is a myth because the people couldn't just do, all of what they did
to those kids. They would have to go to jail for that.
(
(
(
Item 20
Guards Going To Jail
Ryan Parkinson
Providence Utah
November 8, 2014
Context: This Interview goes along with the previous story but it tells the after the fact part.
Like how that other story ends and what happens after.
Text: So what happened to the kids after they were found. Well the cops showed up and they
replaced the plastic hand cuffs with real metal ones then they took them to the sheriffs office
and they were given tickets for trespassing. But then the victims parents found out what
happened and the charges were dropped and the guards went to jail for a few months for their
crimes against the kids.
Texture: As for the truthfulness of this story I believe that this one is a real, and a very true
and honest story that for the most part is pretty accurate.]]> Digitized by : Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library.]]> Digitized by: Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library.]]> Tristin Merkley]]> legends (folk tales);]]> application/pdf;]]> 6611293 Bytes]]> eng]]> Text;]]> Logan Canyon (Utah); Cache County (Utah); United States;]]> 1990-1999; 20th century;]]> image/jpeg]]> eng]]> Image]]> StillImage]]> Logan (Utah)]]> application/pdf]]> eng]]> Text]]> Logan, Utah]]> Brigham Young College (Logan, Utah);]]> Brigham Young College (Logan, Utah);]]> Brigham Young College (Logan, Utah);]]> Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library]]> application/pdf]]> 5929987 Bytes]]> eng]]> Text]]> Logan, Cache County, Utah, United States, http://www.geonames.org/5777544/]]> 1880-1889; 19th century;]]> Brigham Young College (Logan, Utah);]]> Brigham Young College (Logan, Utah);]]> Brigham Young College (Logan, Utah);]]> Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library]]> application/pdf]]> 7770166 Bytes]]> eng]]> Text]]> Logan, Cache County, Utah, United States, http://www.geonames.org/5777544/]]> 1880-1889; 19th century;]]> The first office of Northern Utah Community Television, located at 26 South 100 East in Logan, 1971 ]]> image/jpeg]]> eng]]> Image]]> StillImage]]> Logan (Utah)]]> De Villers family
Catholic Church -- Liturgy -- Texts
Illumination of books and manuscripts -- France -- 15th century
Manuscripts, Medieval
Manuscripts, Latin (Medieval and modern)
Books of hours -- France -- 15th century
Devotional calendars -- Catholic Church
France -- History]]> De Villers family]]> image/jpeg]]> eng]]> StillImage]]> Brigham Young College (Logan, Utah);]]> Brigham Young College (Logan, Utah)]]> Brigham Young College (Logan, Utah)]]> Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library]]> application/pdf]]> 22458475 Bytes]]> eng]]> Text]]> Logan, Cache County, Utah, United States, http://sws.geonames.org/5777544/]]> 1900-1909; 20th century;]]> Brigham Young College (Logan, Utah)--Newspapers;]]> Brigham Young College (Logan, Utah);]]> Brigham Young College (Logan, Utah);]]> Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library]]> application/pdf]]> 6642577 Bytes]]> eng]]> Text]]> Logan, Cache County, Utah, United States, http://www.geonames.org/5777544/]]> 1920-1929; 20th century;]]> Brigham Young College (Logan, Utah)--Newspapers;]]> Brigham Young College (Logan, Utah);]]> Brigham Young College (Logan, Utah);]]> Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library]]> application/pdf]]> 6357345 Bytes]]> eng]]> Text]]> Logan, Cache County, Utah, United States, http://www.geonames.org/5777544/]]> 1920-1929; 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20th century;]]> Brigham Young College (Logan, Utah);]]> Brigham Young College (Logan, Utah)]]> Brigham Young College (Logan, Utah)]]> Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library]]> application/pdf]]> 18646718 Bytes]]> eng]]> Text]]> Logan, Cache County, Utah, United States, http://sws.geonames.org/5777544/]]> 1910-1919; 20th century;]]> Brigham Young College (Logan, Utah);]]> Brigham Young College (Logan, Utah)]]> Brigham Young College (Logan, Utah)]]> Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library]]> application/pdf]]> 22881529 Bytes]]> eng]]> Text]]> Logan, Cache County, Utah, United States, http://sws.geonames.org/5777544/]]> 1900-1909; 20th century;]]> Brigham Young College (Logan, Utah);]]> Brigham Young College (Logan, Utah);]]> Brigham Young College (Logan, Utah);]]> Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library]]> application/pdf;]]> 20289421 Bytes]]> eng]]> Text]]> Logan, Cache County, Utah, United States, http://sws.geonames.org/5777544/]]> 1900-1909; 20th century;]]> Brigham Young College (Logan, Utah);]]> Brigham Young College (Logan, Utah)]]> Brigham Young College (Logan, Utah)]]> Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library]]> application/pdf]]> 22035524 Bytes]]> eng]]> Text]]> Logan, Cache County, Utah, United States, http://sws.geonames.org/5777544/]]> 1910-1919; 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