Day Five: On a Witch Hunt

Of all the places that Bryan and I have travelled together, never have we been to a place that we instantly liked as much as we did Salem, Massachusetts. It was a very laid back day and there were only a few things that we wanted to make sure that we saw. The rest of the day was devoted to walking around and seeing the town.

The first thing that we definitely wanted to do was to have breakfast at a diner called "Red's Sandwich Shop." At first glance it was a typical diner, an order at the table, pay at the counter kind of place, but the breakfast food was very good. It was a great place to go to get a feel for the locals, kind of like South City Diner.

From there we walked through the town. There were old brick buildings lining the streets and it was remarkably clean. I would imagine the some of the charm was due to it being October in Salem - the entire month is called "Haunted Happenings" and it has to be the only tourist season for them.

On the agenda were: the Witch Dungeon Museum, the Witch House/Corwin House, the House of Seven Gables, two cemeteries and some monuments.

The Witch Dungeon Museum was first on the agenda. It started with a trial reenactment, which was pretty interesting. While we waited for the show to start we played around in the stocks.

The inside of the building was awesome. It was old and all dark wood and brick.

After we watched the presentation we went to the dungeon which was a recreation of the cells in which those accused of witchcraft were held. It was far too dark to take pictures, but suffice it to say, it was creepy. Many of the cells were not tall enough to stand up in, and there were all sorts of torture devices. I learned a lot about the trials in general. I had never heard that the whole thing was likely due to money and greed. It seems that when someone was accused of being a witch and they entered a plea, guilty or otherwise, their property was automatically forfeited and typically split between the sheriff and the judge. It was largely wealthy people who were accused.

Next we went to the Witch House, which is actually called the Corwin House.

It was built sometime before 1675 and Jonathan Corwin lived there while he served as a judge for the witch trials. The house was much like other old houses I have toured, filled with interesting things from hundreds of years ago - it made me grateful for modern conveniences.

After the witch house we explored the rest of the city, saw Old Town Hall:

Some land that once belonged to a someone who came to America on the Mayflower:

And then we walked up to the river and saw "The Friendship of Salem." It was an absolutely gorgeous day and there were not many people out so everything was quiet and peaceful and a welcome break to all of the driving and rushing we had been doing.

There were birds EVERYWHERE. It was a bit scary.

We took pictures of each other at the lighthouse and at the waters edge.

As we were leaving the pier area there was a woman sketching the "Friendship of Salem" ship. It was remarkably good, but admittedly hard to see in this picture.

The trees in salem were even more impressive in color than the ones in Canada.

I know nothing about the House of Seven Gables at all. I have not read the book and I did not pay the $15.00 per person to go in, but it is old, and we did walk up to see it from the outside.

Even more impressive than the buildings that were on display were the homes in the neighborhoods. Most have a sign indicating the year they were built.

This is the oldest candy store in America. We bought gibralters (which we have not yet tasted) and halloween peeps for Bryan's mom.

This one has nothing to do with Salem, but it is pretty great anyway.

For the rest of the afternoon we walked around, in and out of each of the shops along the adorable little streets.

In one of the little shops Bryan tried on all of the funny hats we could find, and I took pictures, until I got yelled at by the shop owner. There are NO PHOTGRAPHS ALLOWED!

The cemeteries in Salem are very old and the first one we visited had graves from the 1600's. Bryan was enthralled by the graves - I thought that it was neat at first, then I was bored by it. I mean really, how many headstones can you look at?

Outside of the cemetery was a memorial park dedicated to those who were killed during the witch trials. It is a series of benches, each inscribed with the name and method of execution. The one for Giles Corey says he was pressed to death - this was because he refused to speak when he was told to enter a plea. As long as he did not answer the charges one way or the other no one could take his property. In an attempt to get him to speak they laid him on the ground, placed a door on his chest and piled it with rocks. It took almost 3 days to kill him using that method.

We forgot to take pictures of the hotel from the outside earlier in the day, so we did it as we walked around.

The town was all decorated for Halloween

Even the restaurant had a giant witch.

One of the things we were looking forward to most was the "Salem Night Tour." As soon as we finished dinner we headed over to meet our guide. I was not sure what to expect because some places called it a "ghost tour," but overall it was entertaining and interesting, and I learned a lot. I did not take many pictures because they were not coming out very well, but I got a few.

This is a picture of the Old Salem Jail (I know you can't see it, but it is there!) which was open and functioning as a jail until 1991 - and NEVER had any running water or electricity. There were some infamous people who did time there. I cannot think of any though...

According to our tour guide there was a murder that took place in this house. Supposedly the person was killed by a candlestick in the hall and served as the basis of the American version of Clue. I tried to find more about that online, but have not been able to substantiate any of it.

When the tour ended we headed back to our car and drove about 15 miles outside of the area to a our next hotel. Tomorrow is Boston!