November
2004 - The Witch's Tower - San Diego, California
Special
Guests: Sarah, Alissa, and Teelah
Legend:
Local's call a storage shed, located
in a parking lot adjacent to the mission at Presidio
Hill, The Witch's Tower. There is a large pentagram
built into the cobblestones atop of this structure.
Visitors have seen apparitions dressed in Druid
type clothing or black cloaks with glowing eyes.
Reports of possession, & strange darting figures.
History:
After
countless hours of research on San Diego's Presidio
Hill area, and many unanswered E-mails to the San
Diego Historical Society, the following information
is my best 'guess' of the History of this possibly
haunted structure. To the Best of my Knowledge,
the story goes like this...
The structure known as
'The Witches Tower' was used at one time as a guardhouse
and a makeshift jail, and today is known as "THE
PATTIE MEMORIAL".
The Pattie Memorial sits
on the spot where Sylvester Pattie, who came to San Diego
on March 27, 1828.
He and his son, James Ohio Pattie, along
with six other men decided to undertake an expedition
into New Mexico from St. Louis. The group eventually got
lost and crossed the New Mexico desert into California
as a last resort to stay alive. They found their way to
the Presidio of San Diego and begged for just enough food,
gear and horses for a return trip. However, the Governor
of San Diego, Jose Maria de Echeandia, did not believe
them. Rather, he believed this group had been sent to
spy for the Spaniards who, he believed, still desired
to take back control of California.
Echeandia sent them to the guardhouse,
which was converted to a makeshift jail, where
they were held captive for many years. The elder
Pattie died in this building before he could be
freed with-in the first year of captivity. He
is reputed to be the first American to die in
California.
James and the rest of the group
were eventually freed, on condition that Pattie
should vaccinate the mission Indians, who were
dying in great numbers from an epidemic of smallpox.
Nothing could be found
about the cobblestone pentagram, or when this guardhouse
was originally constructed. However this next set of pictures
show the guardhouse as part of the original walls that
surrounded the mission, and they also show the roof with-out
the pentagram
This
early hand drawn sketch of the area makes reference
to the guardhouse as "Pattie Memorial".
Damon and I were not planning on going
to the Witch's Tower, since we were not exactly sure where
or what it was. However we met three girls in the El
Campo Santo Cemetery, named Sarah, Alissa, and Teelah,
who mentioned they were going to go there and would be
willing to take us. Since nothing real spooky was happening
in the cemetery we decided to go with them
After a short drive up a large hill in
the dead of night we arrived. The girls pointed out a
rather small structure at the end of a parking lot and
said that this was what people refer to as 'The Witch's
Tower'! By today's standards this is the farthest thing
from a tower. It's a single story structure with stairs
leading up to the top.
They mentioned that
they had been to the Tower earlier in the night,
but some other people were there making out or something,
and they went to the Cemetery where they met us
instead. I inquired if they had ever seen anything
as far as ghost go here in the past. They all said
no, but indicated that they have in fact seen people
dressed up and doing witchcraft type rituals. Definitely
nothing Supernatural.
We went up to the top and sure
enough there was a large pentagram that took up
the entire roof. In the center of the pentagram
were dark stains that the girls claimed to be blood,
but with out my JR. CSI detective kit, I had no
way of proving or disproving this statement.
After a while it became increasingly
clear that this structure isn't haunted. So we did what
ever other supernatural investigation group would do.
We lit some candles and acted like we were sacrificing
one of the girls in the center of the Pentagram.
Feel
free to comment about this hunt!
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Join the discussion about this hunt
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The legend says Druid type apparitions
have appeared as well as darting figures. This can all
be chalked up to some bored high-schoolers with nothing
better to do on a Saturday night, or some young kids going
to a dark spooky place to make out. I am curious however,
why is the pentagram there? Who put it there? There may
be a perfectly reasonable explanation, or a sinister one,
but one thing is for sure there's no ghost here. Just
a lot of young over active imaginations that are not too
familiar with their town's history.
If I were trying
to scare someone, I would make up a far more believable
legend. I would say it's haunted by the ghost of
Sylvester Pattie. The man that died inside of this
'Witch's Tower'. The Man that died tragically in
captivity. The man that was imprisoned unjustly
and was the first American to die in California.
The man who's name is on a plaque on the outside
of the building...but that's just me...
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VIDEO:)
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