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SHIFT TO DISTANCE LEARNING LIKELY: School board notes PAGE 12
Haunts of the Northeast Metro
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Built as a wedding present for Anna and Emil Geist in 1883, the original structure was once used as a guest cottage and located on the south side of White Bear Lake.
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Weathered gravestones dating back to the Civil War era at Union Cemetery in White Bear Lake. It is one of the oldest cemeteries in the area. BY JACKIE BUSSJAEGER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
The human fascination with stories of the strange and unexplained transcends time and place. Every community has its share of skeletons in the closet. Whether you’re a skeptic or a true believer, it’s fun to share in the stories and legends built over generations that feature the places closest to home. Union Cemetery—White Bear Lake The ghost stories tied to Union Cemetery just off Highway 61 stretch back thousands of years to the first people who lived in this region of the world. A culture of early humans known as the Woodland Indians interred several of their dead in enormous earthen mounds near Lake Avenue and Shady Lane. The mounds went undisturbed for centuries until Euro-American colonists moved into the area and built roads into modern-day White Bear Lake. A bizarre accident in 1889 resulted in the removal of one of the most prominent mounds. A carriage carrying three travelers overturned when the horses spooked, resulting in the death of one of the passengers. After the accident, the mounds were razed and the human remains buried
within were reinterred in a quiet spot in nearby Union Cemetery. The disturbance of this resting place may be one reason for the reported haunting at Union Cemetery. The cemetery began as a family farm burial ground in the 1860s and later grew into a nondenominational cemetery for the White Bear Lake community. The site is replete with history, including the burial places of several Civil War soldiers. St. Genevieve’s Cemetery—Centerville Centerville is one of the oldest settlements in Anoka County, and St. Genevieve’s Cemetery contains a great deal of history since the town’s settlement. There are many mysteries about who lies beneath this hallowed ground. One notable gravesite is surrounded by an unusual iron structure and displays the name Louis Wenks on its stone. The Anoka Historical Society doesn’t know much about the grave’s occupant—only that he was a teenage boy who died sometime in the 1870s or 1880s. The reason for the iron bars is forgotten by history, but there are rumors that sometimes graves were enclosed this way because of a fear of witchcraft. Witches were said to be able to rise from the dead.
However, this theory might be a stretch—suspected witches weren’t usually buried in holy ground at a parish cemetery. More likely, these bars were meant to protect the person beneath, according to the Anoka County Historical Society. People were paranoid about being mistaken for dead and therefore buried alive, so some gravesites included contraptions that would allow the person below to signal to the world above if they woke up in their coffin belowground. The iron frame in St. Genevieve’s might have been part of one of these contraptions, or possibly installed to deter grave robbers.
2nd floor off-limits at aging gazebo BY DEBRA NEUTKENS STAFF WRITER
Black Panther—Hugo Sightings of large, mysterious black cats have been reported all over the world, and in the 1990s, Hugo had a few of its own. In 1999, a Hugo resident captured photos of the large animal in a pasture. He believed it to be the size of a German shepherd. Some theorized that sightings of the cat were due to mistakes in perspective—in the wide, empty farm fields around Hugo, sometimes it’s hard to tell just how far away things are. Without objects for reference, a
The 19th century gazebo at Matoska Park is an iconic landmark in White Bear Lake. It's a popular spot for wedding photos, painting easels and, unfortunately, vandalism. Damage by vandals is forcing the city to take the extreme step of removing the staircase. First caution tape was stretched across the stairs to keep people from using them, but the barrier is being ignored, according to Public Works Director Paul Kauppi. People are still going to the second level. Vandals, he said, are kicking out decorative plastic balusters on the upper floor and the city worries a small child could fall through the open space. The only alternative is to remove the staircase "to protect public safety." There are soft spots in the upper floor, too, but not bad enough for someone to break through. The city-owned structure is at the point, however, where decisions need to be made about its future. Built on the south shore of the lake in 1883, the two-story Victorian gazebo was built by Thomas Erd as a wedding present for his daughter Anna and her husband Emil Geist. Erd was a contractor and stonecutter who worked on St. Paul's Church of the Assumption. As the story goes in "Looking Back at White Bear Lake," the book by Cynthia Vadnais, the
SEE LOCAL HAUNTS, PAGE 17
SEE GAZEBO, PAGE 17
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