Roy Exum: We Have Any ‘Hoya Saxa?’

  • Wednesday, July 20, 2016
  • Roy Exum
Roy Exum
Roy Exum

On May 16 that just passed, the park rangers at the Gettysburg National Military Park got “another letter.” It seems like every couple of months they will receive a package with the most painful letters you have ever read and each yields to a mounting belief – get this – that the stones folks swipe during visits are cursed!

Gettysburg is about 80 miles north of the nation’s capital, where at Georgetown University they have the strangest cheer in all of sports. The fans scream “Hoya Saxa! Hoya Saxa!” when games get tight and, while most people have no earthy idea what it means, the word ‘hoya’ is a Greek term that means ‘”what” and ‘saxa’ is Latin for “rocks.”

So while few can envision a sports cheer meaning “what rocks!” the park rangers at Gettysburg don’t even flinch when they get rocks in the mail with the urgent plea, “Put these back … they are about to kill me.”

What I am wondering is if other Civil War stones may … er, have mystical powers. We all know Lookout Mountain – which is actually a huge rock – was the site of “The Battle above the Clouds” and I’ve seen a few unfortunates hanging around down through the years. Tiftonia, where the famous “Cracker Line” led the battles in Chattanooga, has had its share of dandies and – whew – you get out towards Orchard Knob and Missionary Ridge and suddenly we have a sizable collection of folks who all act a little off plumb.

Chickamauga … are you kidding me! It is said the creek actually ran red with blood but – candidly – I don’t believe the rocks are haunted, this after witnessing several from North Georgia who have sure appeared to be stoned from time to time.

Gettysburg is different and people actually send letters begging to have the stones – and the ‘haints’ – returned to where they belong. Eight weeks ago the latest one read,

 ”Around 10 or 11 years ago, my wife at the time and I visited Gettysburg. We loved Gettysburg and its history and I had removed three small stones. We didn’t know then how the removal of the stones would affect our lives and we didn’t know the stones were cursed. It wasn’t long after that our lives fell apart,” the former visitor wrote.

“My wife took my son and walked out on me. I lost my house and the majority of what I owned and ended up in prison for nine years. My now ex-wife hasn’t fared any better. She has been plagued with health problems and other issues. When I was released from prison, I found another place to live. When I was going through what my mother was able to salvage, I found the stones and remembered what I had read in prison about the stones being cursed. I sure am sorry for taking them.”

Federal laws say people can be fined or penalized for “possessing, destroying, injuring, defacing, removing or disturbing from its natural state a mineral resource or cave formation of parts thereof.”

But the Gettysburg claims no longer evoke laughter, most especially from the rangers who patrol the ancient battlefields during the night.

“In 2006 I was visiting Gettysburg National Park. While out on the battlefield I picked these pieces (enclosed) up. Yes, it was wrong and I am sorry. Since then I have had nothing but horrible times, injured on the job, several surgeries, relationship failures, etc.” another souvenir hunter wrote.

“Perhaps coincidentally, maybe, but I am returning these small stones and twig. Please return them to where I picked them up on top of the Devil’s Den area. Thank you.”

I do not know of any person suffering a curse or perhaps having a ghost dwell within but, then again, if you ever took some rocks or a brick or something you shouldn’t have from any of our Civil War sites, it just might be your luck will clear up if you put it back. The Park Service has always had the rule, “Don’t touch” and in later years we’ve been taught to “leave no sign,” to make certain we disturb nothing.

Then there is this idea – if you have held a grudge for some years, or you’re still miffed your high school sweetheart married “that numbskull,” here’s not to say you ought to slip down the bank of Chickamauga Creek, and get you a Dixie cup of pebbles where that blood once turned the water red. Then, when you are dead certain you won’t get caught, fling those pebbles and sand on her tomato plants.

I ain’t above using a curse or a ghost if it will get the job done. Then again, do not ever play with anything from Gettysburg; seems that “Hoya Saxa” is so potent it could kick in before you get back to where you stay.

Royexum@aol.com

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