Come check out Northern California's most extreme yard haunt.
2011 Sonoma County Halloween Event - Our Extreme Yard Haunt is based on the legend of the Rosa Witch. The legend itself is based on a story passed down generation to generation by different families. All the families that we know of lived in Sonoma County for decades. Is it a true story? I can’t tell you if it is or it isn’t. All I can say is my grandmother (Nonie) and great grandmother (Nona) along with other local grandparents swore it was true. When I told Nonie I was going to recreate it, she begged me not do such a thing. She believes it will awaken the evil from our family’s past.



Dear Townspeople and Visitors of Santa Rosa,
I would like to share with you a story. A legend. The Legend of the Rosa Witch…

In the early 1800s, William Wolcott aka Wild Bill, moved his family from The Carolinas to California. They planted their roots in the small Spanish settlement called Jose Ramon, this was many years before Father Juan Amorosa baptized the young Native American women in the creek then later named the creek as well as the region Santa Rosa. Wolcott purchased some land and a small hotel his family soon called home. The Wolcott's had three children: the eldest Billy followed by Dennis and Tracie whom they called by her middle name Aileen. Over the next several years William acquired more land, increasing his holdings to 472 acres. A number of acres were used for pumpkins, corn and vineyards. The townspeople took a grand liking to the Wolcott’s and appointed William/Wild Bill as the town marshal, as he was making a name for him self and had many friends and fallowers in the community.

On a day like any other, William was inspecting his pumpkin patch that grew behind the hotel, when he saw a figure in the middle of the patch. As he approached, the figure took shape of an elderly woman hunched over as if she had been snapped in half. Wolcott called out to her with no response… As he was easing closer to get a better look, something startled him and his gun shot off. The woman pointed at him and vanished into thin air. Wolcott thought he may have had too much to drink and was imagining things… until after dinner. That evening, the Wolcott family heard "thumping" sounds on the outside walls of the hotel.

The mysterious sounds grew louder and more forceful as each night passed. Wolcott and his sons often hurried outside to catch the culprit but always returned empty-handed. In the days that followed, the Wolcott children began waking up frightened, complaining that rats were gnawing at their bedposts and something was tugging at their bed covers. Soon, the Wolcott's began hearing a faint whispering voice that sounded like a feeble old woman singing hymns. The encounters first became violent when the Wolcott’s youngest daughter Aileen was brutally attacked in her sleep. She awoke to what seemed to be a woman in a rose colored dress fleeing out the window. The Wolcott family could no longer keep this a secret. William decided to share what he began calling the Rosa Witch with his closest neighbor and town blacksmith, Bryan McCully.

McCully and his wife Jennifer spent the following night at the Wolcott Hotel. They quickly experienced the same terrifying disturbances that the Wolcott’s had. After having bedcovers removed and being beaten McCully sprang out of bed, exclaiming, "In the name of all things evil, who are you and what do you want?!" There was no response, and the remainder of the night was relatively peaceful.

The following day, Wolcott and his son Billy went out to repair their scarecrow that hangs high above the corn field located in their western acreage. William felt drawn to an overgrown forest area that wasn’t cleared for crops yet, this area remained unexplored. Being the wild man that William is, him and Billy started cutting a path in to the overgrown forest area and after just a few yards they came to a clearing and an old rundown shack. Wolcott went inside to find the remains of what seemed to be an old woman in a rose colored dress. The shack was full of bones and other strange wicked looking items. Wolcott made no hast declaring to his son Billy that this was the home of the Rosa Witch. With the help of his son, Wolcott burned the old shack to the ground hoping this would rid them of the Witch forever.

He was wrong… Burning the shack angered the Rosa Witch more than ever and that night vowed to kill Wolcott. She kept her promise. A few days later Wolcott started experiencing episodes of violent twitching and shaking throughout his body and it became difficult to swallow. By the fall of 1810, his declining health had confined him to the hotel. William Wolcott took his last breath on the night of October 1, 1810. The family surrounded his bed and as they stood by his side a small vial of rose colored liquid fell to the floor. The Rosa Witch’s loud shrill could be heard all over town cursing "old Wild Bill is going to die!" Billy quickly threw the vial into the fireplace, where it burst into a bright, red flame and shot up the chimney. It was said that the Rosa Witch could be heard throughout the town laughed loudly.
 
William Wolcott's funeral was one of the largest ever held in the region, all the townspeople attended. Story has it that she sang a song about haunting the town and bringing evil to all, until the last person left the graveyard. Terrible unexplainable occurrences continued to happen to the town each night…But nothing compared to what occurred on the night of October 31, 1810. The Witch paid a visit that night to William Wolcott's widow Cassandra. She told her she would continue to haunt and bring vast evil upon the townspeople and her family. The Rosa Witch kept her promised and returned to the town each year.  

Rumor has it that when the harvest moon aligned with the scarecrow and the pumpkin patch, the greatest evil spread across the land. The pumpkins came alive, the scarecrow shook violently trying to get down and the townspeople went mad, having witch hunts and snatching up all the towns children and locking them away in the old lumber mill. The last record of this was around 100 years ago on October 31st.

William Wolcott’s direct descendants still live in the region that was haunted by the Rosa Witch so many years ago. The closest living direct descendant of William Wolcott is Me, Bill Wolcott. The spooky part is, my wife’s name is Cassie (short for Cassandra) and it just so happens we live at 472 Jose Ramon Avenue in Santa Rosa California. Is this a coincidence? Is it a tall tale? Maybe. But facts don’t lie…This year, when the harvest moon aligns with the pumpkin patch behind the Wolcott’s hotel…where will you be? It happened to my ancestors and the townspeople in the 1800’s and again in the 1900’s…maybe this year you will experience the Witch and all her evil when you Trick or Treat on our street, Jose Ramon Ave.
Hold that thought for now, and see if the truth comes alive…    

Pleasant dreams!