Arcadians After Dark

Ben Graham & Darlenne Cazarin
November 3, 2023

To those scared of the dark, what do you do to avoid whatever lurks in the night? Do you turn on all the lights and hope it will be enough to protect you? What if you are an Arcadian living in a yurt village fueled by the sun? In this week’s investigation, supernatural hunters Ben Graham and Darlenne Cazarin were contacted to provide an explanation of what energies flow within the yurt village after dark and how it affects the lives of the Arcadians that live here. We will provide stories of horrific encounters that were experienced within the depths of night. These are those stories…

When conducting our research with the Arcadians, there was an overwhelming number of responses as to what exactly haunts the yurt village. “I honestly think there’s [bleep] fairies in Arcadia and they’re [bleeping] evil,” exclaims Arcadian Meg Costin-Shaw.

***

Location: Yurt #4
Time: 8:32pm
Date: Oct. 5, 2023

“The Onion-Wear?”
Amidst the chaos following the backpacking trip, something was brewing in yurt #4. Nice day, and I was one of the yurt platforms with Will past Adirondack semester assistant director. According to Meg, “It was a nice day, and I was on one of the yurt platforms with Will [past Adirondack Semester assistant director]. We had just finished unpacking expedition gear, and I had yet to touch my bear canister, so it came to my surprise when I entered my yurt and found something disturbing.” “What was it?” hunters Ben and Darlenne inquired. It took Meg some time before she allowed herself to answer. “Next to my pillow… [a pause]… was an onion inside… [another long pause]… a pair of underwear. And it was not my onion, nor my underwear.” Meg, distraught, sat beside this unique sight and pondered as to how it got there in the first place. After taking matters into her own hands, Meg began an unlawful investigation which included forceful wakeups followed by extensive interrogations. The first order of business was finding out whose underwear it was. The first suspect was Sam Voter, as he had been previously calling her “Onionlover6969.” In deep slumber, Meg wakes up both Sam and his yurt mate Arianna Roeder in the effort to find answers to her questions. It was later revealed that the pair of underwear belonged to Arianna; however, how it landed next to Meg’s bedside accompanied by an onion is unknown.

You may be asking why we were called onto the scene, and the answer is simple: unidentified forces took place here. Meg believes it to be fairies for two reasons: (1) a previous incident in which a Christmas fern was found beside her pillow, and (2) fairies are known for leaving behind presents like when the Tooth Fairy leaves behind a gift tucked beneath a pillow. When asked further regarding this incident, Meg stated how she recently has noticed an influx of wooly aphids: “What are they doing flying around with their glowy, fluffy butts? Are they fairies or simply working with other fairies?”

But can this all be the work of just fairies? Callie Richards begs to differ: “I’m telling you, someone, nah, something watches me when I enter the Clive at night.”

***

Location: Clive
Time: 9:48pm
Date: Oct. 13, 2023

“Oh, [Bleep]”
P.O.V. You’re Callie. You’re part of a Slow Movers Club (a club for slow movers to gather), and it’s that time during the night when you tend to your bodily needs. You gather your headlight and some courage and begin to make your trek to the Clive. “I always focus my headlight towards the ground to make sure I’m not accidentally stepping on any toads and only look up when I know I will clap eyes on the Clive,” states Richards. “But this time was different. I was spider hunting [a task that Richards does by shining a headlight and observing a glint that comes from the spiders’ eyes] when I noticed a slim figure bending at a ninety-degree angle at the end of a tree close to the sauna and in complete darkness.” At first, she suspected it to be assistant director Nate Trachte but had just seen Trachte in his yurt. With a shaky hello, and no response, Richards swiftly returned back to the Lurt. To this day, Richards swears that she still feels eyes lingering at her every time she goes to the Clive at night.

***

When researching further into the origin of Arcadia, we discovered that St. Lawrence University ran its first Adirondack Semester program in autumn of 2000. A startling difference is that the first students and staff were housed at Gannett Lodge, part of the Boy Scout camp on Massawepie Lake. It is hard to believe that the yurt village that is widely known as Arcadia was not always a homestead. According to the “2023 ADK Semester Student Handbook,” the name Arcadia is derived from an imaginary region in ancient Greece that showed a “harmonious relationship between civilization and wilderness as well as humans and the natural world.” We now wonder if that also includes the supernatural. Massawepie caretaker Ben Geiger would say so, as he claims that he has seen the “Lady in White” before, a woman who allegedly died on Massawepie years ago and is rumored to still wander the area. That sounds like enough evidence to us.

***

As we investigated these cases, we came across a story that slowly blended into our lives and that we fear will follow us back home.

Location: Arcadia
Date: Aug. 10, 2023 / Nov. 9, 2023
Time: Unknown / 7:00pm

“Zombie Mice”
A week before Arcadians arrive, a team composed of Adirondack Semester alumni, directors, and volunteers gather at the yurt village to prep for their upcoming arrival. Recently, Nate Trachte and Eva Wetzel, assistant directors of the program, shared their encounter with the unthinkable during this past August’s work week. According to Wetzel, “Something really weird and actually kinda scary that happened were these mice that just sat around and were not afraid of humans. To the point where you could nudge them with your foot, and they still would not move.” Similar to Wetzel’s story, Trachte claims that a fury of mice was slowly crawling out from the stovetop. “One of our volunteers was deep cleaning the entire stove, which caused them to take it all apart in order to get a good clean, and as he was putting it back together, more than a dozen mice began emerging from every crevice of the stove.” As we were listening to this story, a small crowd of Arcadians began circling in front of the kitchen. “Dude,” someone said. “That mouse is just walking towards Arianna right now.” “No,” someone else replied. “It’s just sitting by the burner watching us.” As we began to take a picture of this phenomenon, the mouse started tweaking and ran away, never to be seen again.

Now, we may not have all the answers to what energies flow within the yurt village after dark, but we hope that future Arcadians who grow into calling this their home will get closer to the bottom of these mysteries. There may not be fairies, ghosts, zombie mice, or even mermaids, but something will continue to haunt those that step foot in the yurt village. Signing off a week late, your supernatural hunters, Ben and Darlenne.