When I was a kid, I went to the YMCA Camp Miller in Sturgeon Lake, MN and I was told there was a witch under the bell in the center of Camp Miller.

It seemed like everyone knew about this legend. There were a couple of other legends and stories about things in the camp that you accepted at face value, but now I see they served a purpose. This one kept young boys from running away from camp.

The legend about the witch is a story that has been passed down from kid to kid to make sure that a curse was not put on you or your family. If you see the witch in the woods, run! You don't want her catching up. Once she does, don't look in her eyes, she will curse you for the rest of your life. The legend says she was killed and buried by little boys and now she takes revenge on them.

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The tale starts out like this.

A long time ago, there was a woman who lived in a cabin just outside the YMCA Camp Miller property. She was getting old and hired some of the boys from the camp to come and do chores for her, like yard work and such. One day, a group of boys disappeared after doing some work for her, and they were never seen again.

Their friends at camp knew the last place these boys ever had been was at her house. So, some boys went to her house to find out what happened to them. After some yelling and screaming, the legend says the woman told them to leave, but they did not.  They instead lit the woman's house on fire until the woman couldn't breathe because of the smoke and she died.

The legend explains that the boys didn't want to be caught for killing her, so they took her body and buried it in the center of Camp Miller by the lodge, knowing there was going to be a bell put in within a day or so.

Shortly after the body was buried, they built an area to install a big bell to call the campers to come to meetings or dinner. Only those boys knew about it, until sometime later when the woman would reportedly make appearances in the camp or in the woods outside the camp, cursing boys at the camp, and sometimes boys would disappear.

You can still find her cabin out in the woods, partially burned and dilapidated. The legend says if you aren't careful and are out in the woods at night, you will see this woman and she will put a curse on you causing you to die an untimely death.

I have been checking on the internet and asking questions, and there doesn't seem to be anything about a woman dying or being killed in the woods by Camp Miller. I'm not sure what situation this story came from, but there is nothing online.

I would love it if someone came forward with more info, especially if this is partly true. Please contact me with any info I could use. I have heard the story a couple of different ways but always the same end result, and this one was the version I heard most.

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