Beware Of Witches' Graveyard - SassyGirl

To those who read the first story on Witches Graveyard, here is the second write up on this Legend. As I said in the first post, my daughter and I went to Loon Lake Cemetery today Nov. 1, 2001. We took lots of pictures and I will be putting them on my web site soon. I will post it when they are on there. Ok, on to the second newspaper article written in the Sioux City Journal:

SPIRIT LAKE, Iowa - On a dark, windswept and moonless night the faint outline of a stand of graves in the distance is barely visible. They tower eerily over siren, flat ground, keeping a silent vigil over Loon Lake Cemetery-the witches graveyard. One hundred years ago, Mary Jane Trulliger died at the age of 18, bare strange epitaph on her tombstone, nearly unreadable now, but inspired legends still told today. They say that Mary Jane is a witch. There are several witches buried alongside Mary Jane, or so the story goes. Standing in the cemetery on the blackest of nights and listening to the wind as it moans through the trees, it's easy to imagine that the stories are true. "I'll go up there on a day when there's no win at all and I can hear the whistling in the trees," says Walter Neitzel, who lives just north of the Minnesota Iowa border where the cemetery is located. Walking along the weed-choked path leading to the cemetery is scarey enough. Thin flashlight beams light the way. What with keeping an eye on the path ahead being unable to stop gaping at trees as they loom closer, it's tough to make anyone wonder if the trip was really necessary. The first body was buried in Loon Lake Cemetary in 1877, four years before Mary Jane went to her final (maybe) resting place. At first it was cared for religiously, but since it's fallen into disuse and left only to the weeds. Home of Mrs. Marion Allen's relatives are buried in the cemetery. In a 1960 letter, she told of the days when neighbors were the caretakers. All the first summer, many an evening after the chores wre done," she wrote, "we would go up to the silent city and water trees and plants to keep them from dieing."

IGNORING THE CURSE But now, it has become a place for curiosity seekers and high school party goers. Vandals have kicked over some of the grave markers. Over the years the legends have grown with the stories told around campfires near the cemetery. Most of them center on Mary Jane's grave. "Jump over the grave three times and something terrible will happen to you," says one of the legends. Any tragedies occurring nearby are immediately blamed on the witches' graveyard. One or two fatal accidents are said to have been the result of ignoring the curse on the grave. About 10 years ago, some teenagers from Spirit Lake were hunting around the cemetery. One supposedly jumped over Mary Jane's grave and on the way back was killed in a car accident. "It got foggy all of a sudden and then parked their car behind a haystack where they were found dead of carbon monoxide poisoning. Ken Temple of Jackson, Minn., whose son's Boy Scout Troop helped clean up the cemetery recently, scoffs at the legends...kind of. "My son did jump over the grave three times once and later that day had a car accident," he recalls. Most people who talk about the place will tell you right away they don't believe any of the strange stories about the cemetery. But after a few minutes they always recall something bad that happened to someone they know who had been there. Mat Hunefld, a Spirit Laker who used to live near Loon Lake, says he's heard a lot of strange stories about the place. Hunefeld says there is supposed to be a haunted castle somewhere around the cemetey. He says some people who went there met a strange man who chased them away. If you find the castle, he says, a pack of dogs will come after you. Hunefeld has his own story about Loon Lake. He went upthere on night and found a hole had been dug in front of one of the graves. There were bones and clothes and blood ("Probably pig's blood or something,"he says.) spread around the grave. Just then, people wearing masks jumped out from behind the trees and sent Hunefeld running as fast as he could go. Practical Jokers? Or...something else? Another story goes like this: A couple who farned near the area were murdered. Each Halloween night the woman comes back to haunt the cemetery. People have supposedly heard her singing there in the night. I'ts widely believed that a neighboring farmer shoots at anyone who comes to the cemetery at night. Neitzel says he doesn't know about that, but he knows one of the farmers sneaked up there on night and frightened a sightseer half to death by tossin rocks in among the tombstones. The poor guy took off at a run. Mary Jane Trulliger's father lived to be 101 years old. He and his wife are buried along Mary Jane. Their names have been forgotten but their daughter still has a place in folklore, especially at this time of year. That probably pleases her. ASK HER THE NEXT TIME YOU'RE UP THERE!!!

I've heard alot of these stories told. There are so many. I've lived in this area now for almost 22 years. LOL That a long time to hear all these scarey stories. There is one thing my daughter and I noticed was the temperature dropped while we were in the graveyard by 10 or 20 degrees and the wind was blowing very hard up there. In one of the pictures that was taken by my daughter of me getting ready to take a picture, my hair is blowing way back, so you will be able to see how hard the wind was blowing. We also heard the whistles through the trees. Next time we go up there in the spring, we willl be taking more pictures and we are also gonna take a thermometer along to get the right temperature so it can be measured.

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