Once again, haven't posted in a while...been busy with Halloween stuff, work stuff, and some somewhat stressful stuff. But now that life has calmed down a bit, it's time to share some more adventures! (and time to wish my readers a belated Happy Halloween and Blessed Samhain!)
Of all the places we have recently visited, the Gingerbread Castle/Wheatsworth Mill in Hamburg (Sussex County), NJ is one of my all time favorites. We took a drive to the castle on the same day we traveled to Fairy Tale Forest, as the locations are only about a half an hour apart.
The Gingerbread Castle was, in its heyday, a cool fantasy type place for families to visit. I wouldn't call it an amusement park exactly, though at one time you could take a train ride around the place. The castle was built in 1928 and there have been rumors of refurbishment over the years, though on the day we checked it out, there was no sign of any work being done. In fact, it was more dilapidated than in any of the pictures I had seen on the internet.
The ever-present black cat of the Castle Witch watches over you...
There is a fence blocking off the castle, but part of it was cut open. I could have easily slipped through and investigated the inside of the castle, but thought better of it. The road where the castle is located is fairly busy and I didn't want anyone to call the police. Plus I was not sure of what the condition of the interior of the castle might be and I didn't want to risk slipping and falling and breaking my neck.
Even without going inside, though, there were still plenty of cool pictures to be taken.
A pie that, presumably, once held 4 and 20 blackbirds...
Many wishes were made at this well...
The castle's former moat...
Long dried up pond...
Humpty Dumpty still sits on his wall, waiting to fall...
I'm pretty sensitive to energies in places (part of being a witch, I suppose). I definitely picked up all kinds of energy at the Gingerbread Castle. There was a feeling of sadness at seeing what was once a fanciful place reduced to so much ruin, but at the same time I could almost feel shadows of the joy that was once experienced there. I could almost hear the children laughing and shouting and having a good time.
There was a feeling of peace at the castle as well. Even though it is in sad shape, which is heartbreaking, the overgrowth seemed to embrace the area, not overtake it. I felt very at home there.
Which is a stark contrast to the Wheatsworth Mill which is directly next to the castle.
Again, we could have explored the interior of the Mill - certain parts were blocked off but there were plenty of spots in which to gain entry. But it was very dark and we didn't have a flashlight, plus the Mill seemed even less safe than the Castle.
The Wheatsworth Mill was constructed in 1908 and was in operation (albiet as an office space) as recently as the 1980s. There is beauty to it, especially the tiled signs that bear the name of the mill and beside it there is a wooded area with a peaceful running stream.
The mill itself was not "bad creepy" at all...however...there was some of the most frightening graffiti I had ever seen spray painted on the exterior of the mill, on the side near the stream. It scared me so much I couldn't even bring myself to photograph it.
Besides the usual curse words and dirty pictures, there was very sinister stuff, such as what looked like an executioner with a sickle bearing the phrase, "Where's Rachel?" I could not help but think, terrified, who is Rachel and what have they done with her?
Mim had gone on ahead of us a little bit and found graffiti that was even scarier...a tag bearing the name of MS-13, which is one of the worst criminal gangs in the United States. Needless to say, after Mim told us he had seen that we couldn't get out of the area fast enough.
Granted, the graffiti could very well have been done by kids trying to be badasses, but you never know. I have tried to find out if there is a gang presence in Hamburg and/or Sussex County, but all I've been able to discover is that there is a huge Ku Klux Klan contingency (kontingency?) in that area. I didn't get the sense that this was KKK related graffiti, however.
Regardless of the scary part of our trip, however (or the fact that when driving home we got caught in a huge storm that delayed our trip back by about 2 hours), this was, again, one of our best explorations yet!
Here are some fantastic resources if you would like to learn more about/see more of the Gingerbread Castle and Wheatsworth Mill (and see some pictures of the interior of both buildings photographed by people who are much braver than I!):
Fantastic, eerie video:
Another cool video of the entire area:
Until Next Time...
Miss Myo
xoxoxoxo
