April 16, 2025 • 35 mins
We explore the chilling legend of Camp Wendigo in Windsor, Massachusetts, a former children's summer camp with a dark reputation for paranormal activity and a gruesome, though unverified, history of murder. The tale reveals how local legends can evolve from grains of truth and reflect the collective anxieties of a community.
• Founded in 1942 by two Smith College physical education professors on 75 acres of former farmland
• Originally designed as a place for children to learn hands-on farming and outdoor skills
• Named "Wendigo," which refers to a cannibalistic supernatural creature in Native American folklore
• Legendary story claims a camp counselor murdered six young girls and then committed suicide
• No historical evidence supports the murder story, despite extensive searches through town records
• Several young women did go missing or were murdered in the surrounding area in the 1970s-80s
• Demolished in 2015 by the state after years of abandonment and deterioration
• Numerous visitors reported strange experiences including phantom footsteps, mysterious figures, and unexplained phenomena
• Courtney visited in 2011 and got her car stuck, requiring a tow truck and emergency services
• Former campers recall positive memories of caring for animals and enjoying the natural surroundings
If you've heard of Camp Wendigo or have thoughts about it, send us a message on Instagram or Facebook, or text us. We're reaching out to someone who claims to know more verified stories about the camp's history.
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Wicked Wanderings is hosted by Hannah & Courtney and it's produced by Rob Fitzpatrick. Music by Sascha Ende.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Courtney (00:01):
I feel like we had really good banter until we
pressed the record button.
Yeah, and it's like pressingthe record button was the SD to
not be funny anymore.
Do we have stage fright?
Hannah (00:11):
What's the MO here With the MO Food?
Courtney (00:17):
I really wanted to order DoorDash, but I know that
if I do that I'm going to belong-winded with my four pages
of notes and then DoorDash isgoing to get here while we're
trying to record Kitsie go.
Hannah (00:25):
I'm going to be long winded with my four pages of
notes and then.
Courtney (00:26):
DoorDash is going to get here while we're trying to
record, so I was like go get it.
Hannah (00:27):
I couldn't do all of that all I think about is ML
from grad school, like alright,you see those golden arches.
Okay, hi, I'm Hannah, and I'mHannah and I'm Courtney.
Join us as we delve into truecrime, paranormal encounters and
(00:50):
all things spooky.
Courtney (00:55):
Grab your flashlight and get ready to wander into the
darkness with us.
(01:18):
This is Wicked Wanderings.
I want everyone to know.
I just face-blanched it again.
I'm just going to get into it.
Hi, hannah, hi Courtney.
So I've been wanting to do anepisode.
I wanted to do multipleepisodes and bring them back
local to us, because I know thatwe've talked a lot about
different places, which isreally cool and it kind of has
that factor of like.
We haven't heard as much aboutit, and probably our audience
hasn't either.
But I've realized that becauseI live where the dragons are.
(01:39):
Quote unquote.
I might have some legends andthings that people are not
familiar with, and so I was kindof just thinking a couple weeks
ago and I was like, oh my god,there is this place.
What was it?
I tried to look through mycamera roll.
I wish I could say I still hadpictures, but it was from like a
2011 memory.
I'm dating myself here Today.
I'm going to talk about thelegend of Camp Wendigo.
Hannah (02:02):
I think we talked about this before I was like Wendigo.
I think we talked about thisbefore I was like Wendigo.
Isn't that like a type of beast?
But I think that's Wendigo.
Courtney (02:08):
Yes, so I'm glad that you made that connection.
So the legend of Camp Wendigois one that I can remember
hearing about all through middleand high school.
It's kind of one of thoseplaces where people would go in
groups of two or three or acarload of kids and they would
go and try to find the ghosts.
And where is this exactly?
It is in Windsor, massachusetts.
Okay, thank you, it's within theterritory of Windsor State
(02:29):
Forest currently.
Now, it is a place for me thatI have visited before, which I
think is cool.
I have my own story of beingthere, but I'm going to save
that because I think thatlearning about the history is
more important.
First, like I said, it is inthe Windsor Massachusetts area.
A lot of people are going to belike where the hell is Windsor?
(02:49):
You're going to need a map.
I'm not even going to try toexplain it.
It's actually near what'scalled Windsor Jams, which is a
small waterfall.
For those who might be morefamiliar with, like hiking
trails and waterfalls or if youare familiar with the area.
Sadly, the current status isthat it was demolished in 2015.
It was a decision that was madeby the state.
I'm assuming it was likely dueto safety hazards, because when
I went during the summer of 2011, which was obviously a long
(03:11):
time ago the buildings were in avery rough condition, so I'm
assuming that they just becameso bad that it was like
someone's going to get hurt here, and there were obviously
people going to go check it outbecause of all of the local talk
it had about it.
I'm finding, actually, when Iwas trying to do my like
official research for thispodcast that you couldn't really
find anything online.
Even when you like specifieddown like Camp Wendigo in
(03:34):
Windsor, massachusetts, youwould still get a short
paragraph and it would all bethe same exact information.
The history of the camp is thatit was founded by Florence
Ryder and Mario Logan.
They were two Smith Collegephysical education professors.
Ooh, smith College.
Yes, right out of NoHo.
Yeah, I mean it is kind oflocal to that area.
Yeah, not too far, but it'smore pushed out towards the
(03:55):
woods, obviously, where thedragon's like.
Hannah (03:58):
Next to Peru which I was looking at the map, I was like
I didn't even know there was aPeru in Massachusetts.
Very, very, very, very verytiny.
Courtney (04:04):
I think a lot of the areas out there are very tiny or
they don't have like clearboundaries in one shape, if that
makes sense, like they're kindof like reaching around other
areas.
They had worked to create awarm, educational,
non-competitive natural haven inthe woods in 1942 after they
purchased the farmland and thefarmhouse that was on the
farmland at the time.
This camp was built on 75 acresof land and it was previously
(04:26):
farmland that belonged to JohnDeCellas.
The farmhouse itself on theland actually dated back to 1790
, which I thought was reallycool.
That's cool and there wasactually a plaque on the house
that had said that that's cool.
So there was actually that kindof like history and the proof
of it.
Hannah (04:40):
To speak to the historical nature of the land
and the house.
You said they tore it all down.
Does that mean they had to teardown the historical house?
I believe so.
Courtney (04:47):
Yeah, I believe all of it had to come down.
That's really sad.
And it's sad too because I meanwe'll get more into like where
the land goes after it leavesthis camp.
But it really did just end upin the state's hands and it
really did fall under quiteduress.
I mean it was pretty rough whenI went there.
(05:10):
Some of the buildings, were justlike roofs caving in Furniture
and things were still there, butit was definitely one of the
more rough abandoned places thatI had seen During the operation
of the camp.
Approximately 30 boys and girlswould attend camp during the
months of July and August, soit's not really not a lot.
No, it was a small camp.
It wasn't an overnight.
Yeah, oh, they stayed there.
Yeah, they said that the peoplewho owned it too.
They would often use it for,like, cross-country skiing and
things out of season, but thatthe primary purpose of the camp
(05:31):
was for boys and girls to goduring July and August
specifically.
I feel like every camp has theirthing, that they're known for
or their reason why people wantto go, so theirs was that the
children could learn hands-onfarming and really spend that
quality time outdoors and withthe land, often tasks like
tending to animals, doingdifferent things with planting.
(05:51):
One camper had recalled thatthe campers would rotate, taking
turns learning how to tend tothe different animals at the
farm, which I thought was kindof cool.
So like one day you might havegoats, then sheep, they also had
pigs, horses, donkeys, ducks,chickens, rabbits, and then
there were dogs and cats on theproperty as well.
So they definitely had a lot tooffer as far as skills.
And then the land also had apond, a blueberry field and an
(06:14):
apple orchard on it as well.
It's kind of almost interesting, like if you think about state
hospitals and state schools,they kind of did that same model
where they were trying to a lotof them were trying to grow
their own crops and raise theirown chickens and things.
It kind of reminded me a lot ofthat and the timing of it was
pretty similar to.
Hannah (06:31):
And focusing on on trade stuff too.
I mean, wouldn't you considerlike farming a trade too?
Like yeah, and very pertinentfor that area, because we're not
?
Courtney (06:38):
talking like a city area.
Like that's probably one of thefew jobs that most of the
people who live there had.
Around 1971, it was purchased bythe Latter-day Saints and it
became a camp for younger Mormonchildren and it kept a similar
feel.
While it changed hands andobviously the camp changed it
was still dedicated to likefarming and learning those
(06:58):
skills, which aligns with, Ithink, what a camp for mormon
children would look like.
For most people's expectations,there's probably like a
biblical aspect, I'm sure, yeah,I'm sure, and it seems like
there's not a ton of historyavailable through the historical
society specific to that time,which is interesting, I should
say book of mormon because theydon't have the bible.
But sorry, just right factchecking myself it last hosted
(07:19):
campers in the 1980s and sincethen had just become a local
legend.
Later, after the 1980s andafter some time had gone by, it
was deeded to the state ofMassachusetts and it did become
part of the Windsor State Forest, which is when it fell into
disrepair.
There really wasn't anybodylooking after the property.
The story about the legend,which I know everyone's like,
courtney, you're burying thelead here is kind of vague.
(07:41):
For starters, I'll say andthere's some different
variations, kind of depending onwho's telling you I wrote down
all of the gist of what it is.
So the gist of it is that acamp counselor had a mental
break and murdered severalchildren at the camp, oh God.
So most sources are going tosay it was six young girls.
In this story that's often told, it alleges that the counselor,
(08:01):
in a mental episode, hung threegirls in one of the barns, oh
God, and drowned the other threegirls in a tub before
committing suicide herself.
Wow.
Some stories take this backfurther, from the 1970s into the
1800s, which is minorlyproblematic for a few reasons.
The town records can show thatthe land was actually a farm
during that time.
As we discussed, it would notyet be a camp until the mid-20th
(08:25):
century.
Some people speculate and oneparticular blog I was looking at
was speculating that perhapsthe confusion in the tale kind
of comes back to typos, because1980s and 1800s you know,
something with eights and zeroswhich I think makes sense.
And really, what I think ishard about this legend and part
of what captured me as a youngwoman who was obviously very
creepy I mean, I'm here soobviously there were signs that
(08:47):
I was going to be this way isthat it was so vague?
I can remember doing Googlesearches back then.
Like when I heard it.
You're like, okay, where's theproof?
Where's the proof?
How do I know?
People were always going there.
Which takes me into the nextpart, which is that varying
teams of ghost hunters haveevaluated this site, finding
some spooky evidence that couldsuggest a paranormal presence.
(09:08):
Some different things thatdifferent parties have noticed
orbs and mysterious, unexplainedshadows have appeared in
photographs.
A child-sized handprintappeared inexplicably once on a
window, disembodied voices ofchildren crying and one psychic.
This is where I'm skeptical.
One psychic claimed to havemade contact with the six
(09:28):
children of the property and allof that seems plausible when
you're considering what thelegend is right.
You're like, okay, orbs andmysterious shadows okay.
If you're talking about peoplebeing murdered, especially
children.
That makes sense.
Child says handprint would makesense.
Children crying would makesense.
But the problem is that whenyou dig back, the actual
(09:49):
evidence to support any of thisis none.
Yeah, there's nothing severaltown historians and other
curious locals have explored therecords with no actual evidence
that any grisly crime ever tookplace at the camp or really
anywhere in that direct vicinityfor that matter.
People have gone through policereports.
They've gone through the townhistorian records and other
official documents and theycan't find anything to support
(10:12):
that any.
Even an instance like thatoccurred when it didn't have to
do with someone dying.
You know what I mean.
Like were there people who hadan attempt at suicide where
nobody could ever come up withanything?
Hannah (10:23):
I have so many thoughts going in my head from a lot of
things that you said, becauseone is that when you have lore
right, there's like this onelittle grain of truth and then
it just like explodes right, yep, a truth.
And then it just like explodes,right, yep.
A second one is thinking aboutthis whole psychic thing.
Yeah, it brings me back to whenwe talked about mary king's
(10:45):
close in ennambro, scotland, andone psychic was like oh my gosh
, there's a little girl here andshe lost her doll.
So now everybody brings a dollto this one little room.
Just because of what onepsychic said and I'm not
discounting psychics in general,because I do think there are
some people just have like thisextra, like six cents that not
all of us have, but six girlskilled by a woman.
Courtney (11:09):
It's just so specific, so specific and I've really
tried, because you know that Ihave my own like I want to
believe a lot of what I readlike a psychic said, and I do
know that I have my own like Iwant to believe a lot of what I
read like a psychic said, and Ido believe that people have the
gift and they can get sensationsand they can get these like
vibes and things.
But what was troubling for meis in my research I could not
find anything more specific Liketo me, like okay, if you made
(11:30):
contact right, I don't mean Iguess I don't in psychic
language, know exactly what thatmeans If you made contact, like
what did they say?
What did they do?
What were their names?
Like, did you get any specificdetail?
Hannah (11:41):
and there was just nothing and there's is also this
thing with if there's a certainspot and everyone's talking
about the same thing over andover again, right, and a lot of
ghost hunters have proved thisto be true where there might be
certain entities if you want tocall them right, demons or
whatever you keep putting intothe universe, like there was a
boy, bob, that died here bystrangulation, right, and you
(12:05):
keep putting that in here andyou ask back, like through evps
or whatever, and you're gonnaget yes, my name is bob and I
died here by strangulation, likeyou know.
Courtney (12:13):
You know, I'm trying to say like and if you think
about like, I have a lot ofthoughts about that too, because
I obviously we've watched ghostshows together- and I know
you're a little bit- more intothe ghost shows than I am I am
but like I'm a weirdo, I mything is like for everybody
who's here and doesn't know us.
I'm always the one who's like alittle bit skeptical, where I'm
like yeah, I mean, but there's awhole camera crew following
(12:33):
them yeah but like we werewatching one show I'm not gonna
put the person on blast, becauseI did I did enjoy their show,
but they were like, did you hearthat?
They said blah, blah, blah andI was like I would not have
gotten that at all if we weren'tlistening with subtitles, on
absolutely exactly with evps,absolutely something.
But it sounded like to me, likeit didn't, like.
(12:54):
I do think it's kind of like aplacebo effect in science, right
, like if you keep tellingyourself you're taking that pill
and you're telling yourself I'mlosing weight, I'm feeling
better, I'm happier, you can usethe power of psychology to make
yourself actually experiencethose things, and I think that
some of that happens too, and Iwill say also, just because I've
watched so many ghost shows,now I won't if they're like, oh,
(13:14):
we're gonna play back the evp.
Hannah (13:16):
I won't even look at the subtitles, I'll just listen.
And of course some stuff getsdistorted when you're watching
it on television.
But like I'll be like I heardthis and you're saying like, if
I heard the number 11, I'll belike I heard 10, because
sometimes it is up tospeculation or some story.
I try to listen to it as best Ican because they did you hear,
(13:37):
they said devil.
Courtney (13:38):
I'm like yeah, they didn't say devil.
They make their owninterpretations and I also feel
like, and what I was trying toarticulate is that we deal with
human behavior every day and alot of people, in some capacity,
engage in attention seekingbehavior.
I've noticed this I mean Ibelieve we all engage in in
behaviors to serve all thefunctions.
I don't think that it like.
I won't get into that.
That's a whole ABA rap which wecan save for another day, but
(13:59):
also I think the functionsoverlap too.
They do A hundred percent.
But if you think about a spiritbeing trapped and there's
somebody here in a place wherepeople are probably not normally
and they're paying attention,and let's assume that this
spirit is attention driven, Ican see why that they wouldn't,
for any malicious reason, tellyou yeah, I'm Bob, yeah, yeah, I
(14:21):
was strangled here, right,right, because, one, I would
imagine being trapped someplacefor a very long time is very
unentertaining and two, you'rethere and you're showing them
some kind of compassion and somekind of attention and I can see
how maybe you might interactwith them.
Yeah, I wish I could find moreabout the psychic.
There wasn't a name drop, therewasn't anything.
I'm going to keep trying tolook.
That's all I could find on thatpart of it.
(14:43):
While it remains highly and I dohighlight, highly unlikely that
anything occurred of this typeof murderous event, there are
records in the area to supportthat during the late 1970s and
early 1980s, several local girlsdid go missing and or were
murdered.
Okay, I'm going to bring upthree names.
I'm not going to dive into anyof them today, but I have some
(15:07):
plans for things in the future.
The first one is Kim Benoitfrom North Adams.
The second one is CynthiaKryzik.
I hope I pronounced that rightfrom Williamstown and her body
was found not far from CampWendigo, down an embankment in
Windsor.
So I thought that felt like itwas important.
I want to dig a little bit moreinto that.
I just had to cut it offsomeplace so we didn't have a
rambling six-part episode again.
(15:28):
And the third one, lynn Burdick,from Florida, mass.
Wait, I'm sorry, the timing ofwhen?
Yeah, so it always comes backto Lynn Burdick with me.
I know, I know, I know I'm sosorry, but it's so true and I
didn't think about it until Iwas reading this one particular
blog.
I will give the link so we canput it in the show notes,
because he's done a lot ofextensive research on this and
(15:50):
it shows, and you can read somecomments from other people too.
He has it open so people cancomment on their own experiences
, which is cool.
You're talking about a timebetween the 1970s and 80s.
It would have had to have beenwhen there were kids available
there, so between 42 and 1980,and those three women from the
area surrounding windsor wentmissing and or were murdered.
(16:12):
So they didn't necessarilyobviously go to the camp, no,
but they're within the area andcynthia in particular.
She was from williamstown butshe was found in windsor.
I just feel like it'sinteresting yeah it's very
interesting and they might notbe related at all, but I'm
wondering if that played into.
(16:34):
The local lore is kind of what Ibrought it in because you're
talking about that grain oftruth, right and even just like
it's fresh on people's mind, andthis blogger did a beautiful
job of explaining that.
If you were from the areaduring that time frame of the
1970s to the 1980s and I saythose three names you know, you
remember, you remember thatfeeling or where you were when
(16:56):
some of this happened.
Is that playing into when?
Is that when all of a sudden,these stories started coming up?
Yep, because it is three andthe gruels were six girls
grouped into two groups of three.
You're right, there's alwayssome nugget of truth.
And this gentleman, again inthe blog, he goes back in and he
(17:19):
talks about the lore of wheredid it come from and how.
There's a lot of lore aboutcamps in particular, and they
always seem to go down thisrabbit hole of a camp counselor
committed some kind of crime andmurdered children, or a child
murdered other children, and hehad a lot of examples that were
really well thought out too.
Hannah (17:29):
I find it interesting that, ok, the name three, but
the lore had six.
And then also it was a womankiller, yeah, which I also
thought was interesting.
Allegedly yeah, yeah, and youdon't always hear about a woman
killer.
Courtney (17:43):
I know we've talked about a couple, not unless she
went crazy which I didn't love,I mean, as I was like reframing
my notes.
Wanderers, I don't love theword crazy.
I actually kind of loathe it.
I know I'll say it sometimesfor the sake of that's how
somebody else describessomething.
Hannah (18:08):
Women do murderous things, when they're quote
unquote in a fit of crazy, andalso what seems very normal.
You know what's normal for awoman, what's normal for anybody
?
Well, I feel like a man cankind of like do his own thing,
he's not considered crazy.
All of a sudden, we just decideto do something that's a little
bit more independent and we'reconsidered crazy.
Courtney (18:15):
A witch, a teat, a witch, a witch with a teat, a
witch with a teat.
So other kind of interestingfacts that I found in the midst
of my research that I was like Igotta make sure I bring this up
was that windigo refersactually to a cannibalistic
supernatural creature, and itreferences to darkness and fear.
(18:35):
That's what that word actuallyand that's the one they picked
for the camp.
So, and this is what I askedmyself, I have literal questions
in my notes.
Did the camp creators intend toname the camp something so dark
?
Did they choose the name foranother reason?
Did it just sound cool?
Unfortunately, with thosethings like, there is limited
records from that time anyways,but that wouldn't be something
that would be documented.
Is it the street name?
(18:56):
No, the history of the town ofWindsor put out a bicentennial
and they offered anotheralternative possibility, and the
entry stated that it was calledwindigo, and here I am quoting
because it is in the town ofwindsor, the wind often blows
there and the place wasoriginally known as the windlow
place, which is an indian name,windlow being w-i-n-d-l-o-w.
(19:18):
Which is important because thisblogger actually went to the
cemetery and he's like I checked, checked the records.
I couldn't find any wind lowpeople like anybody who would be
like wind low place becausethey lived there.
But there's lots of headstonesin the cemetery that say winds
low.
So he's like it's kind of likeputting a needle in a haystack
on this one.
There's no records.
(19:39):
There's probably some truth init someplace, but it's kind of
one of those things that youthink about and you're like down
the rabbit hole before you evenrealize what's happening.
Hannah (19:48):
I feel like every camp, even back then, would have like
a pamphlet.
They'll say about us like why,but?
Courtney (19:53):
where would that have been stored in 1942?
Very true, very true inside afiling cabinet inside the camp.
But then, when the latter-daysaints bought it, they'd be like
well, what is this?
Hannah (20:03):
Right, we don't need it.
Right, right and.
Courtney (20:04):
I'm sure it was frowned upon for whatever reason
, probably.
Hannah (20:08):
If it was a Native American name, which is cool,
yeah, why change?
Courtney (20:13):
with the L and the G, I don't know.
I think there's definitely alot about it.
That's super, super interesting.
I did find in one of the townrecords a little pamphlet that
had some statements from formercampers that talked about their
experience at the camp which Ithought was very cool, very
important.
So I'm going to give you threequotes that are three different
(20:33):
people's perspective andmemories that they have.
And here I am quoting Iabsolutely remember bathing in
ice-cold water once a week.
I think there may have beensome warm water to soap up with,
but their reasoning was that weswam every day, which we did.
The second one one of myfavorite spots, was Blueberry
Meadow, up a small knoll beyondthe horse barns.
I don't think I've ever beenanywhere with such an endless
(20:54):
amount of blueberries to pick,and then we made jam.
Oh, that's sweet.
I like that, yeah.
And then the last one the campwas wonderful.
Each child took turns caringfor animals.
I loved the goats and chickens.
We also had one or two colliepuppies that some lucky campers
were allowed to take home at theend of the summer.
There were bunnies by thearchery field and, yes, the
showers were frigid, oh geez.
But it sounds like, overall,the camping sounds like a camp
(21:17):
right and the camping waspositive.
Yeah, I do think it's importantto also note, because we're
looking at something officialfrom the town.
They do talk about the legendand how they say, according to
their record, that the legendtook place in the 1980s, and
they say the same thing that acounselor at the camp murdered
six little girls.
Hannah (21:34):
So, if anything, it happened in the 80s Right, but
they also state very bluntlyafter they say never happened.
Because that's intense right.
Courtney (21:48):
If you're thinking like this is what happened.
That's an intense, it's a bigkilling spree.
It's a really, really big jump.
I hate that I always have theepisodes that have no real end.
I would love to know ifanybody's ever heard of camp
windigo.
I certainly find that when Iwas growing up, everybody knew
about camp windigo.
I had gone to camp windigo, butif somebody else has a story.
Hannah (22:02):
No, no, no.
Courtney (22:03):
I went to Camp Wendigo in 2011.
Hannah (22:05):
You weren't even born yet Right?
Courtney (22:08):
No, I visited in 2011 and there were still buildings
standing at that point.
I did go into them.
It was a very off the beatenpath kind of place.
It did have like a weird vibeto it, but I don't think that's
uncommon when you've alreadykind of told yourself going into
it.
All these horrific thingshappened here and certainly that
was something that the group ofpeople I went with had been
talking about days leading upand the whole ride there my car
(22:31):
actually thank God my daddoesn't listen to this podcast.
Shout out, Papa Keating, if youever go back.
So when I had my first car, Iwas not even at the point where
I could have like other peoplein the car with me what was your
first car?
I'm just curious, it was a 1998Mercury Mountaineer.
Okay, so it was a bigger SUVvehicle.
(22:52):
So I went with friends.
I shouldn't have been drivingpeople by that point.
I did not have the ability todo that.
But I had this car full, like Ihad somebody in the passenger
seat, three people in the back,like we were full, the five of
us.
Yeah, absolutely.
We went up there and we had,like walked around the camp a
little bit and then there was atrail going up further that we
wanted to see if there wasanything further up.
When we started up it it was avery drivable path.
(23:15):
So I started driving up it andvery quickly it turned to a very
not drivable path and it turnedto mud.
And my car became stuck.
We tried desperately to get itunstuck for probably hours.
Now it's getting dark and Iremember walking back down to
the camp to try to find a shoveland I remember the very creepy
feeling.
A shovel at the camp, yeah, Ineeded something, and I figured
(23:38):
they had a barn.
So maybe there's a shovel.
I'm going down I'm trying tofind it.
It's getting dark.
I'm obviously very anxious ingeneral because my car is stuck.
You have no service at CampWendigo, mind you.
There's no cell reception.
I'm sure this road doesn't haveany lights, no, so Nor would
there be any people going up it,unless there are people who are
probably trying to do somethingbad.
Right, we finally have to call911 on satellite, because we
(24:00):
cannot get out of this place.
Wait, I'm sorry, you hadsatellite.
Well, you can make a 911emergency call off satellite.
Hannah (24:07):
Oh, okay, I guess this wasn't Hannah's being very
blonde right now I'm yeah, yeah,I am.
Courtney (24:11):
So we have to call 911 off satellite and we have to
get a tow truck company to comein.
They're like we could fine youfor destroying this road.
I'm like, sir, what road?
This is not a road.
They had to tow my carbackwards because there wasn't
even enough room to spin itaround a mile out of the woods.
Okay, very expensive tow bill.
Very expensive tow bill.
I got my car keys taken for it.
(24:32):
But I will never forget CampWendigo because of that
experience and it was definitelya very weird time to have had
there that.
When I'm thinking back, likelogically in my my logical brain
, should I have driven my caroff the path?
No, why did we get stuck there?
Because it wasn't muddy andthen it was very weird.
So, as I was kind of like goingthrough this blog and I'm
thinking about my own story, I'mreading some of the anonymous
(24:55):
comments by other people whohave gone there.
There's just a lot of comments,so I'll read you a few of them,
okay end this off.
This one is an anonymous andhere I am quoting and it says I
was up there today.
Beautiful, beautiful land.
I went there before reading anyof the it's haunted info, so I
had a very clear mind.
Despite its overall beauty, itdid give me the chills.
When I was walking back towardsthe back barns and buildings, I
(25:17):
stopped and turned around twicebecause I heard someone walking
directly behind me as I walked.
I thought my dog got out of thecar somehow and was just
trotting up behind me, butnothing.
I went to the barn across thestreet but didn't feel
comfortable going in.
These incidents drove me toresearch the place, only to find
that it's rumored to be haunted.
I did go to the cemetery first.
Maybe someone followed me backto the house, I don't know.
It was weird.
Hannah (25:45):
And with the cemetery cemetery.
Courtney (25:46):
It just has the people that passed from the town,
right, I would imagine.
So yeah, okay.
Another anonymous one campedout that way in the summer of
2004, I was with a fairly largegroup of folks who decided,
against better judgment, to walkin the dark around the camp
nothing creepy per se, outsideof hearing what sounded like
horses galloping, which isinteresting because it used to
be a farm.
So we're talking.
Even if there is somethingright, it doesn't have to
necessarily be from Absolutely,the land could hold a lot,
(26:09):
absolutely Right.
Another person who does havetheir name up, but I'm not going
to repeat it, just because Idon't know if that person would
be comfortable with me.
I can't get in touch with themto see if they to being named.
They said I lived there with mydad in the 80s.
I personally never saw anything, but at night I would sleep
facing the wall.
I always felt as if someone wasstanding behind me.
My brother told me years laterthat a little girl always ran
(26:29):
into my room at night, went backa few times, always made me sad
how fallen apart that it hadbecome.
And I will leave you with a very, very long one, one that had my
attention Unknown.
This person didn't go byAnonymous, they went by Unknown,
which I thought was evencreepier.
It's like Anonymous is like hey, I'm here.
Unknown is like you don't knowwho you are.
(26:50):
Right, are you human?
I worked for the Savoy MountainState Forest as a lifeguard
from 1997 to 2000.
The Blair Witch Project cameout sometime when I worked there
and a bunch of fellow workersand friends wanted to make a
kind of spoof on the movie bythe way, have you seen the blur?
Hannah (27:05):
yes, of course.
Okay, I'm sorry this is alittle off, whatever, but I saw
it and I don't know if it'sbecause, like I'm guessing, if
you saw it when it came out, notknowing that it was fake, you'd
be scared, because, rob's, likeI watched it when you did not
know if it was real or fake andI'm watching, I'm like this
isn't scary.
Courtney (27:25):
So, like, right, okay, they must have thought that it
was, though I'm sure yeah well,our supervisor at the time, who
still works for the state, so Iwon't mention their name, told
us about windigo and how he waspresent when the lady that lived
there hung herself and they hadto remove her from the ceiling.
Oh so we got permission to goup there and film the place.
Omg, what happened to us wasinsane.
I never, ever, believed inghosts until that night.
(27:47):
Not only did we see the littlegirl, like other people
mentioned in the comments, butwhat just creeped me out is that
when we were in the basement,an older man in overalls and a
hat knocked and peeked in thewindow, just as two of our
flashlights and video camerasshut off.
Then we hear footsteps crunchin the gravel right between me
and my friend as he got shovedout of the way.
We both ran as fast as we could, holding on to each other all
(28:08):
the way up the stairs back ontothe kitchen of the house.
We also had a dog with usanother night and the dog
started staring at and growlingat the door to the big green
barn.
The door opened up over twofeet on its own and we thought
maybe it was just the wind.
But when we watched the videolater that night, three or four
balls of light orbs, I guesspeople call them come out of the
door just as it opened, andnone of us saw that until we saw
(28:29):
the video.
One more thing that night, as wewere driving away from the main
white house, we all saw abluish, glowing light coming
from the center window upstairs.
None of us had any idea what itwas, but when we turned around
the car to take another look ohjeez, oh jeez, that's creepy had
(29:17):
been physically disconnected aswell as the service being shut
off.
I have a lot more unbelievablestories about Wendigo if anyone
wants to know.
We did a ton of research aboutit and know people that can
verify the information that isnot in the wonderfully written
article above, like the factthat two children did go missing
that lived there.
One of them was found in thepond behind the cemetery.
It sounds like the word ofmouth information about kids
(29:38):
dying and people missing hasbeen mixed up and modified like
the game of telephone but, ifanyone wants to hear some of the
verified stories of misfortunethat took place there, feel free
to email me at.
Some of the terrible accidentswere not really reported or put
in the newspaper and were keptvery quiet well shit, are you
gonna email the?
address I'm going to, and I alsohave one more that I want to
(30:00):
read.
I actually lied, I had one more.
So one more jump scare.
In the 1980s, after the campbecame state property, a
groundskeeper lived in the house.
The drownings are said to havetaken place in.
My mom was there with some ofher friends visiting the guy who
worked there.
What he told them is themurders is why the camp was
closed and the tub remained inthere.
When I was in middle school wetook a field trip to Windsor
(30:21):
Jams the waterfalls I wasmentioning.
One of the teacher's aidesworked there too, so he had to
close up the barn or something,and us kids were near the house.
Many of us saw a figure insidethe house, on the second floor,
I believe the shutters slammedshut too.
After the noise, the guy camerunning around the corner far
too fast for him to have.
Hannah (30:36):
I mean you just can't discount all of these people's
experiences.
Courtney (30:43):
What do you think?
Should I email the guy?
I think you should Should.
Hannah (30:46):
I email him from the podcast.
I definitely think you should,absolutely.
And what do we have to lose?
We're going to email him, guys.
So that's what we're going todo this time.
Courtney (30:52):
We're going to email him and I'm going to tell him
that we did an episode.
It's on Reddit, correct?
No, correct, no, it's onmysterious hills blog spot,
which is the blog that the guy?
How long ago was the post?
It just says 10, 33 pm.
They don't put the dates.
Okay, I mean, what do we haveto?
Hannah (31:08):
lose.
It could be like years ago, butlike if they don't respond,
they don't respond, right and ifyou get something cool.
Courtney (31:14):
We'll put it out there .
Maybe he'll even want to comeon the podcast.
Exactly what do we have to lose?
Let's do it be a completeweirdo.
We don't know exactly.
We're gonna.
We're gonna try it out.
I'm not gonna say their addressthey their email does give their
full name, but I'm not gonnasay it um on the air unless they
want us to redact it.
No, but I think that's a greatidea.
I will, uh, keep everybodyposted and if anyone's heard of
(31:34):
camp windigo or has thoughtsabout camp windigo, let us know.
You can send us an instagrammessage, you can send us a
facebook message.
You can send us a Facebookmessage or you can text us.
If the anonymous thing is moreyour style Should we do a card.
I have so many feelings aboutthe cards, but yes, I'll do pick
a card, any card.
Hannah (32:03):
All right, so this one is the Nine of Diamonds, tiffany
Lomax.
On Wednesday, july 2nd 2008,.
At approximately 2.37 am, thevictim was shot in the area of
199 River Street in Metapin,metapin.
Yeah.
If you have any informationabout this case, please call
1-855-MASOLVE Matapan,m-a-t-t-a-p-a-n.
(32:27):
I've never.
I'll have to look that up later, but anyways, tiffany Lovax,
that's just.
It's just.
I'm so sad, god.
Courtney (32:38):
I'm so sad.
I hate ending this way.
We got to figure something elseout, Courtney.
That was awesome that was fun,it was something and I really
hope that we're going to emailhim and we're going to see what
happens.
We'll see what happens.
We're going to see.
We always like to do the duediligence of getting all the
information and scoping it outfor you guys.
I love it.
Thank you, Courtney, so much,Thanks Always.
(32:59):
Bye guys Bye.
Hannah (33:00):
Wanderers.
Thanks for listening today.
Wicked Wanderings is hosted byme, hannah, and co-hosted by me,
courtney, and it's produced byRob Fitzpatrick.
Music by Sasha N.
If you enjoyed today's episode,don't forget to leave a rating
and review and be sure to followon all socials.
You can find the links down inthe show notes.
If you're looking for somereally cozy t-shirts or hoodies,
(33:21):
head over to the merch store.
Thank you for being a part ofthe Wicked Wanderings community.
We appreciate every one of you.
I feel like we had really good banter until we
pressed the record button.
Yeah, and it's like pressingthe record button was the SD to
not be funny anymore.
Do we have stage fright?
Hannah (00:11):
What's the MO here With the MO Food?
Courtney (00:17):
I really wanted to order DoorDash, but I know that
if I do that I'm going to belong-winded with my four pages
of notes and then DoorDash isgoing to get here while we're
trying to record Kitsie go.
Hannah (00:25):
I'm going to be long winded with my four pages of
notes and then.
Courtney (00:26):
DoorDash is going to get here while we're trying to
record, so I was like go get it.
Hannah (00:27):
I couldn't do all of that all I think about is ML
from grad school, like alright,you see those golden arches.
Okay, hi, I'm Hannah, and I'mHannah and I'm Courtney.
Join us as we delve into truecrime, paranormal encounters and
(00:50):
all things spooky.
Courtney (00:55):
Grab your flashlight and get ready to wander into the
darkness with us.
(01:18):
This is Wicked Wanderings.
I want everyone to know.
I just face-blanched it again.
I'm just going to get into it.
Hi, hannah, hi Courtney.
So I've been wanting to do anepisode.
I wanted to do multipleepisodes and bring them back
local to us, because I know thatwe've talked a lot about
different places, which isreally cool and it kind of has
that factor of like.
We haven't heard as much aboutit, and probably our audience
hasn't either.
But I've realized that becauseI live where the dragons are.
(01:39):
Quote unquote.
I might have some legends andthings that people are not
familiar with, and so I was kindof just thinking a couple weeks
ago and I was like, oh my god,there is this place.
What was it?
I tried to look through mycamera roll.
I wish I could say I still hadpictures, but it was from like a
2011 memory.
I'm dating myself here Today.
I'm going to talk about thelegend of Camp Wendigo.
Hannah (02:02):
I think we talked about this before I was like Wendigo.
I think we talked about thisbefore I was like Wendigo.
Isn't that like a type of beast?
But I think that's Wendigo.
Courtney (02:08):
Yes, so I'm glad that you made that connection.
So the legend of Camp Wendigois one that I can remember
hearing about all through middleand high school.
It's kind of one of thoseplaces where people would go in
groups of two or three or acarload of kids and they would
go and try to find the ghosts.
And where is this exactly?
It is in Windsor, massachusetts.
Okay, thank you, it's within theterritory of Windsor State
(02:29):
Forest currently.
Now, it is a place for me thatI have visited before, which I
think is cool.
I have my own story of beingthere, but I'm going to save
that because I think thatlearning about the history is
more important.
First, like I said, it is inthe Windsor Massachusetts area.
A lot of people are going to belike where the hell is Windsor?
(02:49):
You're going to need a map.
I'm not even going to try toexplain it.
It's actually near what'scalled Windsor Jams, which is a
small waterfall.
For those who might be morefamiliar with, like hiking
trails and waterfalls or if youare familiar with the area.
Sadly, the current status isthat it was demolished in 2015.
It was a decision that was madeby the state.
I'm assuming it was likely dueto safety hazards, because when
I went during the summer of 2011, which was obviously a long
(03:11):
time ago the buildings were in avery rough condition, so I'm
assuming that they just becameso bad that it was like
someone's going to get hurt here, and there were obviously
people going to go check it outbecause of all of the local talk
it had about it.
I'm finding, actually, when Iwas trying to do my like
official research for thispodcast that you couldn't really
find anything online.
Even when you like specifieddown like Camp Wendigo in
(03:34):
Windsor, massachusetts, youwould still get a short
paragraph and it would all bethe same exact information.
The history of the camp is thatit was founded by Florence
Ryder and Mario Logan.
They were two Smith Collegephysical education professors.
Ooh, smith College.
Yes, right out of NoHo.
Yeah, I mean it is kind oflocal to that area.
Yeah, not too far, but it'smore pushed out towards the
(03:55):
woods, obviously, where thedragon's like.
Hannah (03:58):
Next to Peru which I was looking at the map, I was like
I didn't even know there was aPeru in Massachusetts.
Very, very, very, very verytiny.
Courtney (04:04):
I think a lot of the areas out there are very tiny or
they don't have like clearboundaries in one shape, if that
makes sense, like they're kindof like reaching around other
areas.
They had worked to create awarm, educational,
non-competitive natural haven inthe woods in 1942 after they
purchased the farmland and thefarmhouse that was on the
farmland at the time.
This camp was built on 75 acresof land and it was previously
(04:26):
farmland that belonged to JohnDeCellas.
The farmhouse itself on theland actually dated back to 1790
, which I thought was reallycool.
That's cool and there wasactually a plaque on the house
that had said that that's cool.
So there was actually that kindof like history and the proof
of it.
Hannah (04:40):
To speak to the historical nature of the land
and the house.
You said they tore it all down.
Does that mean they had to teardown the historical house?
I believe so.
Courtney (04:47):
Yeah, I believe all of it had to come down.
That's really sad.
And it's sad too because I meanwe'll get more into like where
the land goes after it leavesthis camp.
But it really did just end upin the state's hands and it
really did fall under quiteduress.
I mean it was pretty rough whenI went there.
(05:10):
Some of the buildings, were justlike roofs caving in Furniture
and things were still there, butit was definitely one of the
more rough abandoned places thatI had seen During the operation
of the camp.
Approximately 30 boys and girlswould attend camp during the
months of July and August, soit's not really not a lot.
No, it was a small camp.
It wasn't an overnight.
Yeah, oh, they stayed there.
Yeah, they said that the peoplewho owned it too.
They would often use it for,like, cross-country skiing and
things out of season, but thatthe primary purpose of the camp
(05:31):
was for boys and girls to goduring July and August
specifically.
I feel like every camp has theirthing, that they're known for
or their reason why people wantto go, so theirs was that the
children could learn hands-onfarming and really spend that
quality time outdoors and withthe land, often tasks like
tending to animals, doingdifferent things with planting.
(05:51):
One camper had recalled thatthe campers would rotate, taking
turns learning how to tend tothe different animals at the
farm, which I thought was kindof cool.
So like one day you might havegoats, then sheep, they also had
pigs, horses, donkeys, ducks,chickens, rabbits, and then
there were dogs and cats on theproperty as well.
So they definitely had a lot tooffer as far as skills.
And then the land also had apond, a blueberry field and an
(06:14):
apple orchard on it as well.
It's kind of almost interesting, like if you think about state
hospitals and state schools,they kind of did that same model
where they were trying to a lotof them were trying to grow
their own crops and raise theirown chickens and things.
It kind of reminded me a lot ofthat and the timing of it was
pretty similar to.
Hannah (06:31):
And focusing on on trade stuff too.
I mean, wouldn't you considerlike farming a trade too?
Like yeah, and very pertinentfor that area, because we're not
?
Courtney (06:38):
talking like a city area.
Like that's probably one of thefew jobs that most of the
people who live there had.
Around 1971, it was purchased bythe Latter-day Saints and it
became a camp for younger Mormonchildren and it kept a similar
feel.
While it changed hands andobviously the camp changed it
was still dedicated to likefarming and learning those
(06:58):
skills, which aligns with, Ithink, what a camp for mormon
children would look like.
For most people's expectations,there's probably like a
biblical aspect, I'm sure, yeah,I'm sure, and it seems like
there's not a ton of historyavailable through the historical
society specific to that time,which is interesting, I should
say book of mormon because theydon't have the bible.
But sorry, just right factchecking myself it last hosted
(07:19):
campers in the 1980s and sincethen had just become a local
legend.
Later, after the 1980s andafter some time had gone by, it
was deeded to the state ofMassachusetts and it did become
part of the Windsor State Forest, which is when it fell into
disrepair.
There really wasn't anybodylooking after the property.
The story about the legend,which I know everyone's like,
courtney, you're burying thelead here is kind of vague.
(07:41):
For starters, I'll say andthere's some different
variations, kind of depending onwho's telling you I wrote down
all of the gist of what it is.
So the gist of it is that acamp counselor had a mental
break and murdered severalchildren at the camp, oh God.
So most sources are going tosay it was six young girls.
In this story that's often told, it alleges that the counselor,
(08:01):
in a mental episode, hung threegirls in one of the barns, oh
God, and drowned the other threegirls in a tub before
committing suicide herself.
Wow.
Some stories take this backfurther, from the 1970s into the
1800s, which is minorlyproblematic for a few reasons.
The town records can show thatthe land was actually a farm
during that time.
As we discussed, it would notyet be a camp until the mid-20th
(08:25):
century.
Some people speculate and oneparticular blog I was looking at
was speculating that perhapsthe confusion in the tale kind
of comes back to typos, because1980s and 1800s you know,
something with eights and zeroswhich I think makes sense.
And really, what I think ishard about this legend and part
of what captured me as a youngwoman who was obviously very
creepy I mean, I'm here soobviously there were signs that
(08:47):
I was going to be this way isthat it was so vague?
I can remember doing Googlesearches back then.
Like when I heard it.
You're like, okay, where's theproof?
Where's the proof?
How do I know?
People were always going there.
Which takes me into the nextpart, which is that varying
teams of ghost hunters haveevaluated this site, finding
some spooky evidence that couldsuggest a paranormal presence.
(09:08):
Some different things thatdifferent parties have noticed
orbs and mysterious, unexplainedshadows have appeared in
photographs.
A child-sized handprintappeared inexplicably once on a
window, disembodied voices ofchildren crying and one psychic.
This is where I'm skeptical.
One psychic claimed to havemade contact with the six
(09:28):
children of the property and allof that seems plausible when
you're considering what thelegend is right.
You're like, okay, orbs andmysterious shadows okay.
If you're talking about peoplebeing murdered, especially
children.
That makes sense.
Child says handprint would makesense.
Children crying would makesense.
But the problem is that whenyou dig back, the actual
(09:49):
evidence to support any of thisis none.
Yeah, there's nothing severaltown historians and other
curious locals have explored therecords with no actual evidence
that any grisly crime ever tookplace at the camp or really
anywhere in that direct vicinityfor that matter.
People have gone through policereports.
They've gone through the townhistorian records and other
official documents and theycan't find anything to support
(10:12):
that any.
Even an instance like thatoccurred when it didn't have to
do with someone dying.
You know what I mean.
Like were there people who hadan attempt at suicide where
nobody could ever come up withanything?
Hannah (10:23):
I have so many thoughts going in my head from a lot of
things that you said, becauseone is that when you have lore
right, there's like this onelittle grain of truth and then
it just like explodes right, yep, a truth.
And then it just like explodes,right, yep.
A second one is thinking aboutthis whole psychic thing.
Yeah, it brings me back to whenwe talked about mary king's
(10:45):
close in ennambro, scotland, andone psychic was like oh my gosh
, there's a little girl here andshe lost her doll.
So now everybody brings a dollto this one little room.
Just because of what onepsychic said and I'm not
discounting psychics in general,because I do think there are
some people just have like thisextra, like six cents that not
all of us have, but six girlskilled by a woman.
Courtney (11:09):
It's just so specific, so specific and I've really
tried, because you know that Ihave my own like I want to
believe a lot of what I readlike a psychic said, and I do
know that I have my own like Iwant to believe a lot of what I
read like a psychic said, and Ido believe that people have the
gift and they can get sensationsand they can get these like
vibes and things.
But what was troubling for meis in my research I could not
find anything more specific Liketo me, like okay, if you made
(11:30):
contact right, I don't mean Iguess I don't in psychic
language, know exactly what thatmeans If you made contact, like
what did they say?
What did they do?
What were their names?
Like, did you get any specificdetail?
Hannah (11:41):
and there was just nothing and there's is also this
thing with if there's a certainspot and everyone's talking
about the same thing over andover again, right, and a lot of
ghost hunters have proved thisto be true where there might be
certain entities if you want tocall them right, demons or
whatever you keep putting intothe universe, like there was a
boy, bob, that died here bystrangulation, right, and you
(12:05):
keep putting that in here andyou ask back, like through evps
or whatever, and you're gonnaget yes, my name is bob and I
died here by strangulation, likeyou know.
Courtney (12:13):
You know, I'm trying to say like and if you think
about like, I have a lot ofthoughts about that too, because
I obviously we've watched ghostshows together- and I know
you're a little bit- more intothe ghost shows than I am I am
but like I'm a weirdo, I mything is like for everybody
who's here and doesn't know us.
I'm always the one who's like alittle bit skeptical, where I'm
like yeah, I mean, but there's awhole camera crew following
(12:33):
them yeah but like we werewatching one show I'm not gonna
put the person on blast, becauseI did I did enjoy their show,
but they were like, did you hearthat?
They said blah, blah, blah andI was like I would not have
gotten that at all if we weren'tlistening with subtitles, on
absolutely exactly with evps,absolutely something.
But it sounded like to me, likeit didn't, like.
(12:54):
I do think it's kind of like aplacebo effect in science, right
, like if you keep tellingyourself you're taking that pill
and you're telling yourself I'mlosing weight, I'm feeling
better, I'm happier, you can usethe power of psychology to make
yourself actually experiencethose things, and I think that
some of that happens too, and Iwill say also, just because I've
watched so many ghost shows,now I won't if they're like, oh,
(13:14):
we're gonna play back the evp.
Hannah (13:16):
I won't even look at the subtitles, I'll just listen.
And of course some stuff getsdistorted when you're watching
it on television.
But like I'll be like I heardthis and you're saying like, if
I heard the number 11, I'll belike I heard 10, because
sometimes it is up tospeculation or some story.
I try to listen to it as best Ican because they did you hear,
(13:37):
they said devil.
Courtney (13:38):
I'm like yeah, they didn't say devil.
They make their owninterpretations and I also feel
like, and what I was trying toarticulate is that we deal with
human behavior every day and alot of people, in some capacity,
engage in attention seekingbehavior.
I've noticed this I mean Ibelieve we all engage in in
behaviors to serve all thefunctions.
I don't think that it like.
I won't get into that.
That's a whole ABA rap which wecan save for another day, but
(13:59):
also I think the functionsoverlap too.
They do A hundred percent.
But if you think about a spiritbeing trapped and there's
somebody here in a place wherepeople are probably not normally
and they're paying attention,and let's assume that this
spirit is attention driven, Ican see why that they wouldn't,
for any malicious reason, tellyou yeah, I'm Bob, yeah, yeah, I
(14:21):
was strangled here, right,right, because, one, I would
imagine being trapped someplacefor a very long time is very
unentertaining and two, you'rethere and you're showing them
some kind of compassion and somekind of attention and I can see
how maybe you might interactwith them.
Yeah, I wish I could find moreabout the psychic.
There wasn't a name drop, therewasn't anything.
I'm going to keep trying tolook.
That's all I could find on thatpart of it.
(14:43):
While it remains highly and I dohighlight, highly unlikely that
anything occurred of this typeof murderous event, there are
records in the area to supportthat during the late 1970s and
early 1980s, several local girlsdid go missing and or were
murdered.
Okay, I'm going to bring upthree names.
I'm not going to dive into anyof them today, but I have some
(15:07):
plans for things in the future.
The first one is Kim Benoitfrom North Adams.
The second one is CynthiaKryzik.
I hope I pronounced that rightfrom Williamstown and her body
was found not far from CampWendigo, down an embankment in
Windsor.
So I thought that felt like itwas important.
I want to dig a little bit moreinto that.
I just had to cut it offsomeplace so we didn't have a
rambling six-part episode again.
(15:28):
And the third one, lynn Burdick,from Florida, mass.
Wait, I'm sorry, the timing ofwhen?
Yeah, so it always comes backto Lynn Burdick with me.
I know, I know, I know I'm sosorry, but it's so true and I
didn't think about it until Iwas reading this one particular
blog.
I will give the link so we canput it in the show notes,
because he's done a lot ofextensive research on this and
(15:50):
it shows, and you can read somecomments from other people too.
He has it open so people cancomment on their own experiences
, which is cool.
You're talking about a timebetween the 1970s and 80s.
It would have had to have beenwhen there were kids available
there, so between 42 and 1980,and those three women from the
area surrounding windsor wentmissing and or were murdered.
(16:12):
So they didn't necessarilyobviously go to the camp, no,
but they're within the area andcynthia in particular.
She was from williamstown butshe was found in windsor.
I just feel like it'sinteresting yeah it's very
interesting and they might notbe related at all, but I'm
wondering if that played into.
(16:34):
The local lore is kind of what Ibrought it in because you're
talking about that grain oftruth, right and even just like
it's fresh on people's mind, andthis blogger did a beautiful
job of explaining that.
If you were from the areaduring that time frame of the
1970s to the 1980s and I saythose three names you know, you
remember, you remember thatfeeling or where you were when
(16:56):
some of this happened.
Is that playing into when?
Is that when all of a sudden,these stories started coming up?
Yep, because it is three andthe gruels were six girls
grouped into two groups of three.
You're right, there's alwayssome nugget of truth.
And this gentleman, again inthe blog, he goes back in and he
(17:19):
talks about the lore of wheredid it come from and how.
There's a lot of lore aboutcamps in particular, and they
always seem to go down thisrabbit hole of a camp counselor
committed some kind of crime andmurdered children, or a child
murdered other children, and hehad a lot of examples that were
really well thought out too.
Hannah (17:29):
I find it interesting that, ok, the name three, but
the lore had six.
And then also it was a womankiller, yeah, which I also
thought was interesting.
Allegedly yeah, yeah, and youdon't always hear about a woman
killer.
Courtney (17:43):
I know we've talked about a couple, not unless she
went crazy which I didn't love,I mean, as I was like reframing
my notes.
Wanderers, I don't love theword crazy.
I actually kind of loathe it.
I know I'll say it sometimesfor the sake of that's how
somebody else describessomething.
Hannah (18:08):
Women do murderous things, when they're quote
unquote in a fit of crazy, andalso what seems very normal.
You know what's normal for awoman, what's normal for anybody
?
Well, I feel like a man cankind of like do his own thing,
he's not considered crazy.
All of a sudden, we just decideto do something that's a little
bit more independent and we'reconsidered crazy.
Courtney (18:15):
A witch, a teat, a witch, a witch with a teat, a
witch with a teat.
So other kind of interestingfacts that I found in the midst
of my research that I was like Igotta make sure I bring this up
was that windigo refersactually to a cannibalistic
supernatural creature, and itreferences to darkness and fear.
(18:35):
That's what that word actuallyand that's the one they picked
for the camp.
So, and this is what I askedmyself, I have literal questions
in my notes.
Did the camp creators intend toname the camp something so dark
?
Did they choose the name foranother reason?
Did it just sound cool?
Unfortunately, with thosethings like, there is limited
records from that time anyways,but that wouldn't be something
that would be documented.
Is it the street name?
(18:56):
No, the history of the town ofWindsor put out a bicentennial
and they offered anotheralternative possibility, and the
entry stated that it was calledwindigo, and here I am quoting
because it is in the town ofwindsor, the wind often blows
there and the place wasoriginally known as the windlow
place, which is an indian name,windlow being w-i-n-d-l-o-w.
(19:18):
Which is important because thisblogger actually went to the
cemetery and he's like I checked, checked the records.
I couldn't find any wind lowpeople like anybody who would be
like wind low place becausethey lived there.
But there's lots of headstonesin the cemetery that say winds
low.
So he's like it's kind of likeputting a needle in a haystack
on this one.
There's no records.
(19:39):
There's probably some truth init someplace, but it's kind of
one of those things that youthink about and you're like down
the rabbit hole before you evenrealize what's happening.
Hannah (19:48):
I feel like every camp, even back then, would have like
a pamphlet.
They'll say about us like why,but?
Courtney (19:53):
where would that have been stored in 1942?
Very true, very true inside afiling cabinet inside the camp.
But then, when the latter-daysaints bought it, they'd be like
well, what is this?
Hannah (20:03):
Right, we don't need it.
Right, right and.
Courtney (20:04):
I'm sure it was frowned upon for whatever reason
, probably.
Hannah (20:08):
If it was a Native American name, which is cool,
yeah, why change?
Courtney (20:13):
with the L and the G, I don't know.
I think there's definitely alot about it.
That's super, super interesting.
I did find in one of the townrecords a little pamphlet that
had some statements from formercampers that talked about their
experience at the camp which Ithought was very cool, very
important.
So I'm going to give you threequotes that are three different
(20:33):
people's perspective andmemories that they have.
And here I am quoting Iabsolutely remember bathing in
ice-cold water once a week.
I think there may have beensome warm water to soap up with,
but their reasoning was that weswam every day, which we did.
The second one one of myfavorite spots, was Blueberry
Meadow, up a small knoll beyondthe horse barns.
I don't think I've ever beenanywhere with such an endless
(20:54):
amount of blueberries to pick,and then we made jam.
Oh, that's sweet.
I like that, yeah.
And then the last one the campwas wonderful.
Each child took turns caringfor animals.
I loved the goats and chickens.
We also had one or two colliepuppies that some lucky campers
were allowed to take home at theend of the summer.
There were bunnies by thearchery field and, yes, the
showers were frigid, oh geez.
But it sounds like, overall,the camping sounds like a camp
(21:17):
right and the camping waspositive.
Yeah, I do think it's importantto also note, because we're
looking at something officialfrom the town.
They do talk about the legendand how they say, according to
their record, that the legendtook place in the 1980s, and
they say the same thing that acounselor at the camp murdered
six little girls.
Hannah (21:34):
So, if anything, it happened in the 80s Right, but
they also state very bluntlyafter they say never happened.
Because that's intense right.
Courtney (21:48):
If you're thinking like this is what happened.
That's an intense, it's a bigkilling spree.
It's a really, really big jump.
I hate that I always have theepisodes that have no real end.
I would love to know ifanybody's ever heard of camp
windigo.
I certainly find that when Iwas growing up, everybody knew
about camp windigo.
I had gone to camp windigo, butif somebody else has a story.
Hannah (22:02):
No, no, no.
Courtney (22:03):
I went to Camp Wendigo in 2011.
Hannah (22:05):
You weren't even born yet Right?
Courtney (22:08):
No, I visited in 2011 and there were still buildings
standing at that point.
I did go into them.
It was a very off the beatenpath kind of place.
It did have like a weird vibeto it, but I don't think that's
uncommon when you've alreadykind of told yourself going into
it.
All these horrific thingshappened here and certainly that
was something that the group ofpeople I went with had been
talking about days leading upand the whole ride there my car
(22:31):
actually thank God my daddoesn't listen to this podcast.
Shout out, Papa Keating, if youever go back.
So when I had my first car, Iwas not even at the point where
I could have like other peoplein the car with me what was your
first car?
I'm just curious, it was a 1998Mercury Mountaineer.
Okay, so it was a bigger SUVvehicle.
(22:52):
So I went with friends.
I shouldn't have been drivingpeople by that point.
I did not have the ability todo that.
But I had this car full, like Ihad somebody in the passenger
seat, three people in the back,like we were full, the five of
us.
Yeah, absolutely.
We went up there and we had,like walked around the camp a
little bit and then there was atrail going up further that we
wanted to see if there wasanything further up.
When we started up it it was avery drivable path.
(23:15):
So I started driving up it andvery quickly it turned to a very
not drivable path and it turnedto mud.
And my car became stuck.
We tried desperately to get itunstuck for probably hours.
Now it's getting dark and Iremember walking back down to
the camp to try to find a shoveland I remember the very creepy
feeling.
A shovel at the camp, yeah, Ineeded something, and I figured
(23:38):
they had a barn.
So maybe there's a shovel.
I'm going down I'm trying tofind it.
It's getting dark.
I'm obviously very anxious ingeneral because my car is stuck.
You have no service at CampWendigo, mind you.
There's no cell reception.
I'm sure this road doesn't haveany lights, no, so Nor would
there be any people going up it,unless there are people who are
probably trying to do somethingbad.
Right, we finally have to call911 on satellite, because we
(24:00):
cannot get out of this place.
Wait, I'm sorry, you hadsatellite.
Well, you can make a 911emergency call off satellite.
Hannah (24:07):
Oh, okay, I guess this wasn't Hannah's being very
blonde right now I'm yeah, yeah,I am.
Courtney (24:11):
So we have to call 911 off satellite and we have to
get a tow truck company to comein.
They're like we could fine youfor destroying this road.
I'm like, sir, what road?
This is not a road.
They had to tow my carbackwards because there wasn't
even enough room to spin itaround a mile out of the woods.
Okay, very expensive tow bill.
Very expensive tow bill.
I got my car keys taken for it.
(24:32):
But I will never forget CampWendigo because of that
experience and it was definitelya very weird time to have had
there that.
When I'm thinking back, likelogically in my my logical brain
, should I have driven my caroff the path?
No, why did we get stuck there?
Because it wasn't muddy andthen it was very weird.
So, as I was kind of like goingthrough this blog and I'm
thinking about my own story, I'mreading some of the anonymous
(24:55):
comments by other people whohave gone there.
There's just a lot of comments,so I'll read you a few of them,
okay end this off.
This one is an anonymous andhere I am quoting and it says I
was up there today.
Beautiful, beautiful land.
I went there before reading anyof the it's haunted info, so I
had a very clear mind.
Despite its overall beauty, itdid give me the chills.
When I was walking back towardsthe back barns and buildings, I
(25:17):
stopped and turned around twicebecause I heard someone walking
directly behind me as I walked.
I thought my dog got out of thecar somehow and was just
trotting up behind me, butnothing.
I went to the barn across thestreet but didn't feel
comfortable going in.
These incidents drove me toresearch the place, only to find
that it's rumored to be haunted.
I did go to the cemetery first.
Maybe someone followed me backto the house, I don't know.
It was weird.
Hannah (25:45):
And with the cemetery cemetery.
Courtney (25:46):
It just has the people that passed from the town,
right, I would imagine.
So yeah, okay.
Another anonymous one campedout that way in the summer of
2004, I was with a fairly largegroup of folks who decided,
against better judgment, to walkin the dark around the camp
nothing creepy per se, outsideof hearing what sounded like
horses galloping, which isinteresting because it used to
be a farm.
So we're talking.
Even if there is somethingright, it doesn't have to
necessarily be from Absolutely,the land could hold a lot,
(26:09):
absolutely Right.
Another person who does havetheir name up, but I'm not going
to repeat it, just because Idon't know if that person would
be comfortable with me.
I can't get in touch with themto see if they to being named.
They said I lived there with mydad in the 80s.
I personally never saw anything, but at night I would sleep
facing the wall.
I always felt as if someone wasstanding behind me.
My brother told me years laterthat a little girl always ran
(26:29):
into my room at night, went backa few times, always made me sad
how fallen apart that it hadbecome.
And I will leave you with a very, very long one, one that had my
attention Unknown.
This person didn't go byAnonymous, they went by Unknown,
which I thought was evencreepier.
It's like Anonymous is like hey, I'm here.
Unknown is like you don't knowwho you are.
(26:50):
Right, are you human?
I worked for the Savoy MountainState Forest as a lifeguard
from 1997 to 2000.
The Blair Witch Project cameout sometime when I worked there
and a bunch of fellow workersand friends wanted to make a
kind of spoof on the movie bythe way, have you seen the blur?
Hannah (27:05):
yes, of course.
Okay, I'm sorry this is alittle off, whatever, but I saw
it and I don't know if it'sbecause, like I'm guessing, if
you saw it when it came out, notknowing that it was fake, you'd
be scared, because, rob's, likeI watched it when you did not
know if it was real or fake andI'm watching, I'm like this
isn't scary.
Courtney (27:25):
So, like, right, okay, they must have thought that it
was, though I'm sure yeah well,our supervisor at the time, who
still works for the state, so Iwon't mention their name, told
us about windigo and how he waspresent when the lady that lived
there hung herself and they hadto remove her from the ceiling.
Oh so we got permission to goup there and film the place.
Omg, what happened to us wasinsane.
I never, ever, believed inghosts until that night.
(27:47):
Not only did we see the littlegirl, like other people
mentioned in the comments, butwhat just creeped me out is that
when we were in the basement,an older man in overalls and a
hat knocked and peeked in thewindow, just as two of our
flashlights and video camerasshut off.
Then we hear footsteps crunchin the gravel right between me
and my friend as he got shovedout of the way.
We both ran as fast as we could, holding on to each other all
(28:08):
the way up the stairs back ontothe kitchen of the house.
We also had a dog with usanother night and the dog
started staring at and growlingat the door to the big green
barn.
The door opened up over twofeet on its own and we thought
maybe it was just the wind.
But when we watched the videolater that night, three or four
balls of light orbs, I guesspeople call them come out of the
door just as it opened, andnone of us saw that until we saw
(28:29):
the video.
One more thing that night, as wewere driving away from the main
white house, we all saw abluish, glowing light coming
from the center window upstairs.
None of us had any idea what itwas, but when we turned around
the car to take another look ohjeez, oh jeez, that's creepy had
(29:17):
been physically disconnected aswell as the service being shut
off.
I have a lot more unbelievablestories about Wendigo if anyone
wants to know.
We did a ton of research aboutit and know people that can
verify the information that isnot in the wonderfully written
article above, like the factthat two children did go missing
that lived there.
One of them was found in thepond behind the cemetery.
It sounds like the word ofmouth information about kids
(29:38):
dying and people missing hasbeen mixed up and modified like
the game of telephone but, ifanyone wants to hear some of the
verified stories of misfortunethat took place there, feel free
to email me at.
Some of the terrible accidentswere not really reported or put
in the newspaper and were keptvery quiet well shit, are you
gonna email the?
address I'm going to, and I alsohave one more that I want to
(30:00):
read.
I actually lied, I had one more.
So one more jump scare.
In the 1980s, after the campbecame state property, a
groundskeeper lived in the house.
The drownings are said to havetaken place in.
My mom was there with some ofher friends visiting the guy who
worked there.
What he told them is themurders is why the camp was
closed and the tub remained inthere.
When I was in middle school wetook a field trip to Windsor
(30:21):
Jams the waterfalls I wasmentioning.
One of the teacher's aidesworked there too, so he had to
close up the barn or something,and us kids were near the house.
Many of us saw a figure insidethe house, on the second floor,
I believe the shutters slammedshut too.
After the noise, the guy camerunning around the corner far
too fast for him to have.
Hannah (30:36):
I mean you just can't discount all of these people's
experiences.
Courtney (30:43):
What do you think?
Should I email the guy?
I think you should Should.
Hannah (30:46):
I email him from the podcast.
I definitely think you should,absolutely.
And what do we have to lose?
We're going to email him, guys.
So that's what we're going todo this time.
Courtney (30:52):
We're going to email him and I'm going to tell him
that we did an episode.
It's on Reddit, correct?
No, correct, no, it's onmysterious hills blog spot,
which is the blog that the guy?
How long ago was the post?
It just says 10, 33 pm.
They don't put the dates.
Okay, I mean, what do we haveto?
Hannah (31:08):
lose.
It could be like years ago, butlike if they don't respond,
they don't respond, right and ifyou get something cool.
Courtney (31:14):
We'll put it out there .
Maybe he'll even want to comeon the podcast.
Exactly what do we have to lose?
Let's do it be a completeweirdo.
We don't know exactly.
We're gonna.
We're gonna try it out.
I'm not gonna say their addressthey their email does give their
full name, but I'm not gonnasay it um on the air unless they
want us to redact it.
No, but I think that's a greatidea.
I will, uh, keep everybodyposted and if anyone's heard of
(31:34):
camp windigo or has thoughtsabout camp windigo, let us know.
You can send us an instagrammessage, you can send us a
facebook message.
You can send us a Facebookmessage or you can text us.
If the anonymous thing is moreyour style Should we do a card.
I have so many feelings aboutthe cards, but yes, I'll do pick
a card, any card.
Hannah (32:03):
All right, so this one is the Nine of Diamonds, tiffany
Lomax.
On Wednesday, july 2nd 2008,.
At approximately 2.37 am, thevictim was shot in the area of
199 River Street in Metapin,metapin.
Yeah.
If you have any informationabout this case, please call
1-855-MASOLVE Matapan,m-a-t-t-a-p-a-n.
(32:27):
I've never.
I'll have to look that up later, but anyways, tiffany Lovax,
that's just.
It's just.
I'm so sad, god.
Courtney (32:38):
I'm so sad.
I hate ending this way.
We got to figure something elseout, Courtney.
That was awesome that was fun,it was something and I really
hope that we're going to emailhim and we're going to see what
happens.
We'll see what happens.
We're going to see.
We always like to do the duediligence of getting all the
information and scoping it outfor you guys.
I love it.
Thank you, Courtney, so much,Thanks Always.
(32:59):
Bye guys Bye.
Hannah (33:00):
Wanderers.
Thanks for listening today.
Wicked Wanderings is hosted byme, hannah, and co-hosted by me,
courtney, and it's produced byRob Fitzpatrick.
Music by Sasha N.
If you enjoyed today's episode,don't forget to leave a rating
and review and be sure to followon all socials.
You can find the links down inthe show notes.
If you're looking for somereally cozy t-shirts or hoodies,
(33:21):
head over to the merch store.
Thank you for being a part ofthe Wicked Wanderings community.
We appreciate every one of you.
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