There are woods filled with ancient oaks across the street from Fernandina Beach High School.
Those woods hold the burial site of a young girl. A girl who was executed for witchcraft hundreds of years before the school was built. Some spins on the legend say she was executed in the 1600’s, others claim the 1700’s.
Local legend says the witch, known as Wiccademous, was buried beneath one of the oldest oaks and that if you walk toward her grave the ground will shake as a warning to turn back.
There are stories that people have ventured too close to the witch’s grave and were never heard from again. Others have left the woods safely only to be tormented by the Wiccademous in their dreams.
Sceptics believe it is nothing more than a drainage pipe buried underground that vibrates when water passes through, that and overactive imaginations. That is possible, but the legend of the Wiccademous predates any drainage lines by a few hundred years.
Some of those sceptics were said to have been teachers from the high school, as well as a principal from many years ago. They set out to debunk the Legend of the Wiccademous. Their stories were never told. They’re okay, as far as we know. They just never spoke of their adventure, presumably because they were unable to debunk the legend.
Many a Junior varsity athlete from Fernandina Beach High School has been forced to run the woods, late at night, as part of an initiation ritual, a ritual that administrators claim has never happened, and if it has happened is not condoned by the administration.
There are stories that some of those athletes are still running.
I’ll take this time to note that there has been no documented disappearances of any students, faculty or local citizens that have been directly connected to the Wiccademous.
The story is shared here as a legend, a traditional story sometimes popularly regarded as historical but unauthenticated.
That said, if you venture into those woods late at night and the ground is shaking, the Wiccademous ain’t faking.
Portions of this article were originally published in the Riverside Review, October 1986
and on examiner.com, October 2012