From abandoned hideaway to teen hotspot, this Utah retreat is getting a glow-up
From abandoned hideaway to teen hotspot, this Utah retreat is getting a glow-upÌęÌę
When Cameron Jensen first saw the abandoned buildings that sit beyond the mouth of Logan Canyon, he didnât know their disturbing lore.Ìę
No one told him they were supposedly home to the sinister soul of a vicious head nun. He didnât know of the ghastly Dobermans that, as legend put it, patrol the area with red eyes aglow.
When he explored the property for the first time in August, all he knew of the dilapidated, eroding structures was their detailed woodwork, hand-laid stone walls and staples of dated luxury now plastered with spray-painted graffiti and covered in rat feces.Ìę
He was sold.
âI saw it for what it was,â Jensen said. âI got it under contract.â
, is dead set on restoring these buildings that became a magnet for teenage mischief to their ritzy roots by opening a resort â complete with a coffee shop, pilates studio and spa, reports .Ìę
Only after he told his wife, Carlee, that he was in the process of buying the buildings did he learn of their haunted tales, which Carlee found on the internet.
âShe audibly gasped,â Jensen said. âSheâs like, âDo you realize that babies were drowned in that pool?â and I was like, âwhat are you talking about?ââ
Haunted or historic?
Babies, of course, were not drowned in that pool.Ìę
As Jensen started researching the real history of the buildings, which sit on a plot of U.S. Forest Service land, it started to make sense to him why no expense was spared in their construction. The property started with a single-cabin family retreat and evolved under .
After Hezekiah Eastman Hatch put up the first building in 1915, his son Lorenzo Boyd Hatch and Lorenzoâs brother-in-law, Floyd B. Odlum, expanded the complex, adding several houses, a pool and other amenities, according to documents submitted to the National Register of Historic Places.
âOdlum is known as the only person in the world that made a fortune out of the Great Depression,â Jensen said. âHe had lodges and properties all over the world. ⊠Hatches were obviously extremely wealthy, too.â
While under Hatch and Odlum ownership, the Logan Canyon property hosted famous actors, politicians and other accomplished people, records show.
Among them was pilot Jacqueline Cochran, Odlumâs second wife, who was the first woman to break the sound barrier.
âItâs rumored that Marilyn Monroe stayed,â Jensen said. âJoan Crawford, which is before my time ⊠but sheâs someone really famous. Thatâs whoâs staying here.â
In 1950, the families donated the complex to the . The church renamed the property from Hatchâs Camp to St. Annâs Retreat, and used it as a nunâs retreat and youth camp for years before the buildings fell into disrepair and were eventually sold in 1990. Since then, theyâve changed hands multiple times, but have not seen any significant improvements.ÌęÌę
It was while the camp was in the churchâs hands that dark rumors about the place began to flourish in the community, said Lisa Gabbert, the director of .
The cluster of buildings became known locally as âThe Nunnery.â
âThe Catholic Church and, I would say, Cache Valley, were both very closed societies,â Gabbert said. âOf course people are going to be curious. What is a nun? What do nuns do? ⊠Those kinds of stories about nuns having babies and committing, essentially, infanticide, are actually ancient.â
Ghost hunting in Logan Canyon
The Cache Valley community readily filled knowledge gaps with fanciful tales of what could be lurking some 8 miles into the canyon, and Gabbert said it became common for people to explore the property.
Jason Watson, who grew up in Tremonton, became curious about the place while attending USU.
One rainy night sometime around 1991, he visited the retreat with his friends. Many in the group, he recalled, were initially unconcerned or intent on making fun of people who grew scared.
âWe went up,â he said. âI was pretty blasĂ© about it.â
But on that drizzly, dark evening, what started as curiosity grew to a fever pitch of terror when his group stumbled upon the Hatch childrenâs playhouse and found miniature dishware in its cupboards.
âThere was something just kind of inherently creepy about this abandoned space,â he said. âBeing in this really dark, abandoned space just freaked us all out. Everybody stopped pretending that they werenât scared, including me.â
Horror to hospitality
Jensen, whoâs stayed alone at the property overnight, said he has yet to have any paranormal encounters. The buildings are, however, still haunted by curious teenagers looking for ghosts. These days, though, they are more likely to find the alarms Jensen has set around the complex.Ìę
As he juggles historic preservation rules on U.S. Forest Service land, Jensenâs also balancing the cultural significance of his buildingsâ fables with his desire to give the retreat new life.
âI learned how passionate people are and their opinions on the place,â he said. âSome people are like, âdonât touch it, keep it haunted.â ⊠But Iâm not going to base the history of this place and the beauty of this place on a few passionate folks.â
Jensen plans to open his resort next year. Heâs already replaced a bridge over the Logan River and rebuilt several of the buildingsâ roofs.
For the next three months, he has to pause construction to compile a historic report to ensure he restores the property in line with regulatory guidelines.Ìę
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