It sounds simple enough: come sit down in the Chair, kick your feet back and relax.
It's OK if you want to bring a drink for yourself, just make sure you have enough to share with your buddy--he'll be along shortly, just after midnight. Like we said, simple enough, right?
No, not simple at all. Not when the chair you're sitting in is the Devil's Chair and the buddy you're waiting for is Satan himself.
Cassadaga, Florida is a strange town. It was founded at the tail end of the nineteenth century by George Colby, a medium from Iowa. The town became a focal point for Spiritualists, who claim to possess various supernatural abilities, including clairvoyance and the ability to speak with the dead. To this day, when one visits the tiny burg, they'll invariably meet many people who subscribe to these Spiritualist beliefs and offer their services for hire. Is it any wonder then, that Cassadaga would be a perfect place to summon the dark prince?
In a cemetery just on the border of Cassadaga and Saint Helen is a grave. Next to this grave is a bench, known as the Devil's Chair. There are a few legends associated with this evil armchair. The most popular story regarding the Devil's Chair is that if one sits in it at midnight, the Devil will appear. You can have a conversation with him whilst seated amongst the graves.
One rumor says that if you place an unopened can of beer on the Devil's Chair before midnight, by the next morning the devil will have drank it and left the beverage's container behind as proof. Since the mid-eighties, Cassadaga has taken measures to keep people away from the Devil's Chair, especially around the Halloween season, for a few reasons. Vandalism and underage drinking had gotten out of control in the cemetery because people were flocking from far and wide for their chance to sit down and chat with the evil one. Also, with Cassadaga’s Spiritualist traditions already fueling strange rumors about the town and their strange ways, they felt it best to distance themselves from being associated with witchcraft, Satanism, and other dark practices.
Recently, though, Cassadaga has had a change of heart. Around Halloween they run a haunted walk around town that takes patrons through the graveyard and past the Chair. Unlike most towns with legends such as these, Cassadaga has embraced their direct communication line to Satan--if you can't keep the kids from sitting in the Devil's Chair, you might as well charge them to do it!
Local police deny that the chair has any supernatural powers. The following is from the Daytona Beach News-Journal: “Lake Helen Police Chief Keith Chester has spent many a night on patrol in the cemetery, sometimes even seated in the Devil's Chair.
"’I've been here 18 years and I've never seen (a devil),’ he said. ‘If there ever was one, I'd have been retired by now.'"
This makes us wonder--maybe it isn't the Devil who's been downing all those brews.
If they've spent so many nights sitting in the Devil's Chair, maybe it's been the Lake Helen police all these years who have been quenching their midnight thirsts.
There is a big stone chair in Cassadaga. If you sit in this chair at midnight the Devil will talk to you. I know someone who went there and they said they could hear voices in their head but when they got up out of the chair the voices went away. If you put a can of beer on the grave next to the chair it will be empty in the morning and the top will still be sealed. Now how is that possible? But I know someone who did it and the next morning the can was empty.
– deathvader
Go to the Lake Helen cemetery just down the road two miles from Cassadaga. Up on the hill in the middle of the cemetery you will see a large brick chair with arms. This is the Devil’s Chair and if you sit in it he will appear. We went out there at night but no one would sit in it because we saw some dark figures lurking in the shadows. We did not know if it was just some kids or something else.
– thestetsonkid
Some students from Stetson went there on Halloween night but they said they could not get into the cemetery because the road was blocked by some strange people. They said the people were mediums from Cassadaga and were there talking with the dead.
– Kim S
Excerpted from the book Weird Florida by Charlie Carlson.
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