The Wizard of Easton!
Cathy, Evan, and I went geocaching today in Easton, which always results in a nice hike in the woods. While we were out hunting for caches, we ran across this roadside sign near one of the cache sites… a sign that we have passed a zillion times, but never really read:
In case anyone can’t read it, I will provide a transcription so you will be full educated about an important part of Easton’s history:
“Mill Pond
Site of the sawmill built by John Selee in the 18th century and continued by his son Nathan, a wizard who purportedly used satanic imps to run the mill at night.
EASTON CONSERVATION COMMISSION
6.6 Acres
Acquired in 1999″
We looked for Nathan’s headstone in the cemetery across the street, but alas the wizard’s tomb could not be found. We did find his father’s though.
Posted on July 4, 2007, in geocaching, just for fun, Scott's posts. Bookmark the permalink. 6 Comments.
There’s no tomb stone for this guy because he’s still alive. Wizards can stay alive for a long time by using magic and stuff.
Today I went to the Ames free library whistle stop branch and I was researching for an english project. While I was researching I came across a book about the history of Easton. Naturally I was curious about the history of my town so I picked it up and started to flip through. I came across a legend that has supposedly has been well known in easton for the last 200 years. It was called “The Devil’s Foot Print.” Basically the story goes that Nathan Selee who owned a farm on Poquanicut Ave, was visited by the devil who told nathan to come with him. Nathan grabbed one of his black magic books and followed him. When Nathan opened the book a ferocious thunder and lightning storm erupted instantly and he became frightened, so he ran back to his home and threw the book into his fireplace, the storm stopped instantly. The devil was furious and to calm himself he gathered a bundle of rocks. He traveled fast and arrived at easton center and then to the center school grounds. There he jumped from rock to rock to get through the swamp but he slipped and all the rocks he had gathered scattered everywhere. To right his fall he planted hard on a rock and made a foot print. 24″ long and 10″ wide. I was interested by this story and I followed the rough directions the book gave me, (Follow the eastern fence at the center school grounds untill you come to the rock wall at the southern most edge, walk 60 ft along the path and you should see a large rock with an inprint of the devil’s footmark) I did this and I am pretty sure that I found the mark. It did not seem as impressive as the story had said, although I think some stones were quarried from that area in recent years and it looked as though the rock with the ‘print’ had a missing section. I checked around the swamp for anything else unusual but I did not find anything else of that sort. (However I did find a very large and gnarly tree, it certainly looked as though it contains some Easton history.) This is the very condensed version of my adventure but it was truly amazing to come face to face with Easton history.
How cool! Thanks for the comment. What was the name of the book? Now I want to read it!
My brother showed me that sign yesterday. He lives adjoinant the property we also visited the old cementery. Fasinated I had to searh the web and found that Nathen Selee is buried at the Selee cementary on mill st. Next time I visit my bro. we have find the marker.
Very cool, Bruce. I think I have found that marker myself. Let me know if you find it.
FYI… your links weren’t working, so I edited them out.
Thanks for your comment!
Justin,
where did you find the article “the Devil’s Footprint”?
Thanks,
Susan