Today this Herald Journal article caught my eye: “Travel Channel, HBO confirm filming in Cache Valley.”
Pretty innocuous title, right? You may be wondering why it appealed to me.
It had to do with this description that accompanied the title in my feed:
The “Ghost Adventures” episode will be part of the show’s next season, but … Nick Groff and Aaron Goodwin in their investigation of haunted places…
I haven’t watched “Ghost Adventures” in years now, so, again, you may be wondering why I bothered to click the link.
Curiosity.
Filming Where?
I wanted to know where both an HBO show and “Ghost Adventures” had been filming.
I also wanted to know which HBO show it might be. (Maybe “The Leftovers,” which is based on Tom Perrotta’s book by the same name? Anybody else smitten with that series?)
Turns out HBO was in Nibley, Utah, filming for “Vice News.”
“Ghost Adventures” was in Logan, Utah, at some place called St. Ann’s Retreat.
St. Ann’s Retreat’s History
St. Ann’s Retreat wasn’t always owned by the Catholic Church.
The most succinct account of its history came from this Deseret News Faith article about the legends of St. Ann’s Retreat.
Used by a group of Catholic nuns in the 1950s as a summer retreat and then a children’s camp, the site was originally developed in the early 1900s by Hezekiah Eastman Hatch, a prominent Logan businessman who built the first cabin there.
The Hatch family developed the grounds even more in the 1920s and 1930s. Prior to being known as St. Ann’s Retreat, it was called Hatch’s Camp, Forest Hills and Pine Glenn Cove (which is actually it’s legal name these days).
The Hatch family and its descendants stopped using the grounds by the mid-1950s. That’s when it was sold to the Catholic Church.
It was never a nunnery. It was used a children’s camp during summers, but some also claim it was a place the Church sent pregnant nuns to convalesce until they gave birth and their children could be put up for adoption.
The Pool
The pool seems to be the site of a lot of St. Ann’s Retreat’s legends and activity.
There is a story that a nun’s baby was drowned in the pool. But many sites say there is nothing factual backing this tale.
However, many who have been to the abandoned property claim they hear children’s voices and feel cold spots even on the hottest summer days…near the pool.
One thing that did happen in the pool was when a group of teenagers trespassed on the property in 1997. They were rounded up, and “herded” into the pool by “by three shotgun-wielding night watchmen” who tied them up and held them until police came. (From HJNews.com’s “What’s up with that?: Logan Canyon nunnery, center of urban legends, still for sale.”)
[bctt tweet=”Witch nuns and Hell Hounds? Yep. Sounds like a place that would appeal to the GAC crew!” username=”HauntJaunts”]
Witch Nuns and Hell Hounds
According to the article, some of the legends about St. Ann’s Retreat are pretty juicy:
It was rumored the nuns would have their babies there, and, if they didn’t abort them, drown them in a nearby pool; one of the legends is that you can still hear the cries of the babies.
Another legend is that the nuns were witches associated with the devil and “the hounds of hell” still lurk around the property, as does a witch named Hecate, after a Greek goddess.
Knowing Zak’s penchant for haunted places with dark and malevolent connections, it’s no wonder St. Ann’s Retreat was on his radar of haunted places to investigate.
Have you jaunted to St. Ann’s Retreat?
Courtney Mroch is a globe-trotting restless spirit who’s both possessed by wanderlust and the spirit of adventure, and obsessed with true crime, horror, the paranormal, and weird days. Perhaps it has something to do with her genes? She is related to occult royalty, after all. Marie Laveau, the famous Voodoo practitioner of New Orleans, is one of her ancestors. (Yes, really! As explained here.) That could also explain her infatuation with skeletons.
Speaking of mystical, to learn how Courtney channeled her battle with cancer to conjure up this site, check out HJ’s Origin Story.
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