At the corner of Mediumship & Spiritualist you’ll find Cassadaga. If the name sounds familiar then you might just have a deck of tarot cards somewhere in your home. And if not, then you can definitely find a new set here in the tiny unincorporated town full of mosquitoes, healers and visitors looking for something mystical. Maybe even magical!

The history of the town is as follows (per their website)…

​The Prophecy: George Colby, a young Spiritualist from New York, was told during a séance that he would someday be instrumental in founding a Spiritualist community in the South. That prophecy was fulfilled in 1875 when Colby was led through the wilderness of Central Florida by his spirit guide “Seneca” to an area “surrounded by uncommon hills.”
The Camp is Formed: Colby homesteaded land here but continued to travel and work as a medium.  He later learned that his associates in Lily Dale, NY were interested in founding a Winter Spiritualist Camp in Florida. As a result, the Southern Cassadaga Spiritualist Camp Meeting Association was formed in 1894. In 1895, Colby deeded over 35 acres to our founders.
National Recognition: In 1991 the Camp was designated a Historic District and placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Today: Cassadaga Spiritualist Camp now consists of approximately 57 acres with 55 homes. Those who reside here have chosen to live in a community of spiritual people where they can worship and work in harmony with their beliefs. Many of the Camp’s residents are mediums and healers who offer their services from their homes or apartments.
We, as Spiritualists, welcome you, no matter what your religion of origin is or where you are on your spiritual path: a believer, a skeptic, or simply curious.

The historic area ranges just a few blocks each way but they pack a lot in – hotels, homes, museums (some historical and some more about the spooky stuff), shops, event hall, parks, pond, fairy garden and more. The houses are almost all brightly colored or at least adorned with beads or flowers or other trinkets. The yard art overfloweth.

While I am not a spiritual person in the traditional sense, I love the idea of people seeking solace or joy in whatever fashion works for them. I didn’t get any vibrations or the like from the vortex that the town is rumored to be built on/in but maybe I wasn’t in tune to things as needed for Cassadaga. And while I didn’t buy a moment of time with anyone there, everyone was very friendly and dealt with even the most vocal of skeptics with a tolerable air of resignation.

Just an fyi that I did buy an absolutely wonderful map of cryptids/spooky/haunted things. And I dropped $10 for C. Green’s Haunted History House and Museum but I have to say that I wouldn’t go back. No shade to them as it was very full of stuff and well displayed but it wasn’t my jam…

Now of course, cemeteries are my jam so I had to make my way over to the infamous Devil’s Chair of Cassadaga which is smack dab in the middle of the Lake Helen-Cassadaga Cemetery. Rumor has it that this brick chair built into the wall of this family’s plot has a direct connection to the Devil (yes, Satan himself hence the capital ‘D’) and he appreciates it when folks leave him a beer to drink in the wee hours of the night. And the legend also states that if you stick around past midnight to see if you can get a glimpse of the Devil then you might just get dragged back down with him. That means you’ll get to stare at his face 24/7 and there seems to be no beer in Hell so keep that in mind.

The Spiritualist Camp of Cassadaga has stated that they do not believe in Hell or the Devil so count them among those who scoff at the chair’s supposed powers. But if the number of unsmoked cigarettes, unopened beer and full lighters are an indication of those who do believe, well, then there’s a few visitors who might be trying to curry favor…or at least are very curious in nature.

Fun Facts! 1) This type of chair is actually called a mourning chair and they’ve also been referred to as exedra chairs. 2) Devil’s Chairs are a modern urban legend and this one in Cassadaga, Florida is one of the most well known out of 3 popular stories within the U.S. However, there are dozens of local stories around the country that allude to haunted chairs. Much in the same vein as ‘spook lights’, crying baby bridges, etc.