Dylan CahoonFollow

Date Collected

Fall 12-2-2017

Informant

Dylan

Point of Discovery/Informant Bio

Dylan is a 24-year-old white male that has lived in Utah his entire life. He is an English Major and has studied the nunnery in a Folk Lore class, as well as gone there multiple times.

Context

I usually find myself telling the story of Saint Anne’s Retreat when I am around people that I have not met, in a large group setting most of the time. I have found that it is a good icebreaker and that usually it convinces the group to want to go on a trip to the nunnery, and if not it is at least a good story. I am almost always the one to bring it up, and usually can recount the most details out of the other participants because I am usually the one pushing the subject

Text

I first heard of the nunnery when taking Lynne McNeill’s folk lore class my freshman year in 2012. Back in my freshman year I was much more adventurous and have always loved ghost stories and legend tripping, so I set out to find the nunnery. It became my go to story to tell people, and the second time I went was the most interesting. I talked about 15 people into going, however when we pulled up there were only about 6 that were actually willing to go. We stood on the road side of the river as cars passed because a few people in the group were concerned that a policeman may drive by, and wanted to be out of sight. After about 25 minutes of contemplation I finally said that I was crossing and they could come if they wanted. When I crossed the bridge to the property, there was a motion sensor that resulted in a spot light being cast on me (something that didn’t happen the first time that I went), however I acted like this wasn’t a big deal and continued onto the property of Saint Anne’s. There were two others that came with me, Brittney and Nick, and we walked around and looked at some of the buildings and the swimming pool. The main reason that we only sent a couple over at first was because there was an old truck backed into the bushes on the road side of the river, and a couple in the group were worried that it may be guards that would get us in trouble. I however assured them that it was clearly an abandoned vehicle, the windows were broken and there were branches of the tree growing through one of the windows from what I could see. After Brittney Nick and I explored for a few minutes, we called over for the rest of the group and 3 or 4 crossed over (the rest returned to their cars). All the buildings were locked up, including the ballroom in the large cabin that was the main attraction the first time that I went. After a mainly uneventful trip, we crossed the bridge to leave. The most exciting part of this trip was on the road leaving, when we realized that the abandoned truck was gone.

Texture

The nunnery is truly one of my favorite stories, and I try to tell it without a skeptical tone when I tell the story. Having gone there twice and the worst things being seeing some footprints in the dust and having a bat attack some people, it gets more difficult to tell the story with conviction when nothing supernatural has happened to me there. The disappearing truck is the most interesting thing that ever happened to me there, and was the most “supernatural” occurrence that I have experienced. It reinvigorated my story telling of Saint Anne’s retreat, and I tell it excitedly and always end with the story of the disappearing car.

Course

Introduction to Folklore/ ENGL 2210

Instructor

Lynne McNeill

Semester and year

Fall 2017

Theme

G7: Revenants

EAD Number

2.1.13.1

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