The Haunting of Kay’s Cross
· 10 min. read
This article may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
If you're looking to visit the notorious Kay's Cross in Kaysville, Utah, you might be tempted to just wander down into the hollow and see it for yourself. However, the cross is on private property and the owners aren't a fan of trespassers. Legend says that the owners will shoot you if they catch you, but they told me they would just call the police instead.
Either way, access to the cross is $20 USD, or $28 CAD, and they only take cash. It's a much cheaper option than a trespassing fine or a trip to the hospital so I recommend this approach.
However, a lot of people still take the risk and visit the cross without permission. Kay's Cross ? or the remains of Kay's Cross after it was mysteriously destroyed in 1992 ? has become a beacon for the paranormal, both for investigators and for practicers alike. My guide told me that Satanists often visit the cross and perform rituals. Once, he even said he encountered a dark entity while down there.
Okay, so the cross is really spooky. But why?
According to local legend, the cross was created by Krishna Venta (born Francis Herman Pencovic), the founder of the WKFL (Wisdom, Knowledge, Faith and Love) Fountain of the World cult. Venta believed he was the Second Coming of Christ and gathered over a hundred followers while in Utah before going to California. He would establish a base in Semi Valley and create a home for his cult.
In 1958 two cult members turned against Venta, accusing him of mishandling cult funds and having an affair with their wives. They killed Venta in a suicide bombing, along with severely burning two children and a 59-year-old woman.
Venta's Fountain of the World would also briefly be the home of Charles Manson and his family a decade later, as well as Sun Myung Moon, both who claimed to be future messiahs.
Back in Utah, it is said that three of his wives are buried around the base of the cross, with one wife being buried standing up. From that point on, the spot was regarded as a highly occult location. It is believed that the explosion in 1992 was to try and remove the evil it emitted, but it didn't work.
My guide told me that it wasn't just the cross that was destroyed either. He told me there was a smaller house on the property, just down from the cross, that had a family with children living in it. This family were the original owners of the property. It is said that the people who detonated the cross also set the house on fire, believing they were Satanists. The fire killed three of the people living there, including two children.
The people who did these crimes were never caught.
My guide also told me that there were two suicides on the property as well. One was from a former soldier who was going through withdrawal from drugs after being administered while overseas. My guide believed this soldier either served in the Second World War or the Vietnam War, but he wasn't sure.
The other suicide was a person my guide's father knew. My guide said that his father found him hanging from a tree not far from the cross, and was the one who cut him down. The man had driven a motorcycle down into the hollow that fateful day, and now my guide uses it.
In 2018, the paranormal group Ghost Adventures came to Kay's Cross. My guide said he met the hosts of the show and showed them how to visit the cross. The route I took was the reverse route that Zak Baggins and his crew took down. In the episode, Zak and his crew hear a strange growl from the other side of a gate and set up microphones and cameras to see what they can find. It was through that gate that I approach the cross.
We arrived at the cross at night, and it was a little hard to see what I was looking at. The cross had been blown up nearly thirty years ago and was now just a pile of rocks. We stood by the cross and chatted for a few minutes, and then my guide showed me the tree that was used for the suicide a decade years earlier.
My guide then told me the story of the spectre he saw while at the cross, and the conversation they had. He told me he saw a six-foot-high black shadow glide out of the trees towards him. He asked the shadow why he was here, and the shadow asked him the same question. My guide said the shadow didn't realize he had died, and that this was no longer his property. After that, the shadow retreated and disappeared.
After a brief pause, my guide told me that he could feel the spirits there that night too.
Once we were done at the cross, we crossed the river and walked through the woods. The path was muddy, so we walked on the grass, and were poked and prodded by thorns. I didn't know it until I got home but I was also somehow got covered in burrs.
We arrived at an abandoned well a few minutes later. The Ghost Adventures crew visited this well too, but only for a few minutes. My guide told me that the white writing on the sides of the well was done by spirits, but to me, it just looked like graffiti.
A few minutes later we arrived at a burned-out house. Although it was very much dilapidated, the guide and his family convert it every October into a haunted house. My guide walked me through the burned-out rooms, the broken doorways and the icy, slippery floors. Once we were done, he asked if I wanted to go through again. I said yes? and then realized I would be doing it by myself.
The second time through I got to see more of the building and saw the hallway that my guide said the spirits write on the walls. He said one of the glass windows have a handprint on it that a ghost made.
Once I got out of the building, I met up with my guide again. Immediately afterwards my camera died. Was this paranormal, or was it just because of all the footage I was recording? It's tough to say.
We then walked up the trail to their tree orchard and we talked for about a half-hour. My guide was only eighteen and wanted to know about Canada, and I wanted to know more about Utah. After a while, we walked back to the house and said our goodbyes.
I didn't feel anything paranormal or sinister at Kay's Cross, and I only felt a little uncomfortable in the burned-out house. There's a lot of strange things that happen down in Kay's Hollow, and I had a lot more questions than answers by the time I left.
If you want to plan a trip to Kay's Cross, you can contact them on Facebook at Haunted Kays Cross or on their website.
Would you ever visit Kay's Cross? Have you heard any stories about it? Let me know in the comments below!
Don't forget to pin it!
Categories: Dark Tourism, Paranormal, USA, Utah
Sharing this article helps the blog grow!
