Down in Grass Valley, past the fairgrounds and the city dump, lies an abandoned old water tank.
It’s known as the Round Room, since it is so, well, round and room-sized.
The tank lies in the middle of a field at the base of Wolf Mountain, at the end of a short hike down a dirt driveway.
Nothing special, really.
Photo credit: hauntedplaces.org/Justin
Updated 9/19/2019 – It’s pretty big, having been used to store water for local agriculture or perhaps the city water supply.
It’s about the size of your average living room, perfect for a group of friends to gather, chat, eat, drink, and perform human sacrifice.
Nothing like hanging out with your buddies to have a few beers and summon a demon.
Wait, what?
The Round Room and the Church of Satan
The Church of Satan was founded in the 1960s by infamous occultist Anton Szandor LaVey.
A devotee of Aleister Crowley, LaVey quickly attracted a following for his intimate knowledge of the dark side of the paranormal.
Although many have scoffed at the Church of Satan as being a mere fad or social club, LaVey was a true believer.
Declaring 1966 to be “Year One, Anno Satanas”, he quickly set about building his cult.
LaVey had a keen interest in summoning beings from other planes and learning the secrets they might hold, and rumor has it he was quite successful.
Most famously, LaVey cast a curse on actress and Playboy model Jayne Mansfield.
Mansfield died shortly thereafter in a freak car accident.
She was beheaded in the wreck and died instantly.
Northern California was the home of the Church, and the Round Room in particular was known as a favored spot for their bizarre rituals.
Although the Church of Satan denies that LaVey led expeditions of his most advanced disciples to the Round Room, Grass Valley locals still to this day speak of the strange noises and inexplicable lights that would emanate from the area late at night.
The proof of the matter is in plain sight.
Photo credit: youtube/P.I.C. of N.C.
The floor of the Round Room is covered by an enormous pentagram, still pristine and perfect after all these years.
Anton LaVey is long gone, and the Church of Satan has diminished in power.
Whatever he did in the Round Room years ago though, still resonates to this day.
The things he summoned are still there.
The Dark Energy of the Round Room
Stepping through the threshold of the old graffiti’d water tank, one feels an immediate sense of dread, fear, and negativity.
Dark thoughts flit through the mind, bad memories, and urges to violence.
This phenomenon has been widely commented on by ghost hunters and paranormal investigators from across the globe.
The exact cause is debatable.
Some say that a powerful supernatural force inhabits the Round Room and touches visitors, either out of curiosity or hate.
Brushing an invisible spectral claw across the flesh of mortal intruders, the entity imbues them with a measure of its alien thoughts.
Others maintain that the Round Room’s negative energy is caused not by a conscious being or force, but is rather a remnant of the years of rituals that took place there.
Animal sacrifice was commonplace in the heyday of the Church of Satan, and rumor has it that at least one poor unwitting human met a dark end there, as well.
Photo credit: youtube/yEdward Kapell
Regardless of the root cause, the phenomenon is real.
The Round Room affects us in subtle ways, and entering it has a tangible effect on our sanity.
People who are especially sensitive to psychic energy should exercise caution exploring the area.
The dark forces are so powerful to these people that it can send an unwitting sensitive reeling.
One ghost hunter found out the hard way that she was psychically aware.
Stepping into the Round Room, she felt as though a physical force slammed into her, like she had been struck by an invisible fist.
Reeling back from the pain and confusion, she fell to the ground and did not recover until her friends dragged her away from the site.
Cult Activity in the Round Room Today
Photo credit: flickr/laurensilagyi
Although the official Church of Satan disavows all knowledge of the Round Room and the activities that took place there, there are members of the organization who still embrace their leader’s darkest purpose.
Explorers visiting the Round Room in recent years have found evidence of people spending time there.
Beer cans and magazines from partying teenagers, yes, but also things much more sinister.
A close inspection of the concrete floor reveals multiple bloodstains, some old and others disturbingly new.
Very large syringes, suitable to sedate a cow or other large animals, are sometimes found scattered about.
Empty.
Paint cans, mostly in black and red, used to adorn the walls with graffiti.
Symbols and shapes and words in forgotten languages fill every available surface in the Round Room, confusing the eye and contributing to the sense of disorientation.
Small statues and figurines ranging from the recognizable to the inexplicable.
A wolf’s head is a common theme of these objects.
Others are simply abstract shapes, their significance unclear.
A frighteningly detailed likeness of a creature that is not quite human.
Photo credit: Mary Rogers
Locals say that the people who go to the Round Room today are a splinter group of the Church of Satan.
A secret, underground sect that goes much deeper into the black arts than even Anton LaVey himself.
Their research into the occult extends to animal sacrifice and worse.
Over the years, there have been a number of unsolved missing person cases.
People just disappear sometimes.
Other times people catch a glimpse of men in white robes, slinking through the trees, but nobody has ever caught up to them.
These are the devotees of LaVey, the ones who have sworn to continue his dangerous work.
They have sworn to unearth things mortals were not meant to know.
What have they discovered?
What have they done?
The Round Room Hates You
Photo credit: Mary Rogers
Ghost hunters braving the strange horrors of the Round Room find that their usual tools of the trade are overwhelmed with the sheer volume of paranormal energy.
EMF meters have been known to go off the scale, swinging wildly although there is no power source to be seen.
Some EVP recorders quickly fill up with such a cacophony of noises that it may as well be static.
The technology to make sense of the hundreds or thousands of voices crying out may not yet exist.
Most chilling of all, cameras are sometimes simply destroyed by the spirits.
One group of investigators attempting to take thermal photographs of the Round Room found that their camera was dead.
Thinking they had simply forgotten to charge the device, one of the ghost hunters swapped out the battery.
Still dead.
Chalking it up to equipment malfunction, the crew moved on.
Only when they had left the area did the camera come back to life.
As though flipping a switch, as soon as the Round Room was out of sight, the camera blinked on.
Something in there does not want to be seen.
It’s powerful enough to suppress the EM field of electronic devices. That’s very strong, indeed.
Visiting the Round Room
Photo credit: hauntedplaces.org/Justin
The Round Room is located in Grass Valley on public land, and there’s nothing stopping a brave ghost hunting crew from visiting it.
Nothing legal, anyway, and nothing mortal.
Plan your visit carefully, and bring plenty of equipment.
You never know what will work and what will simply cease to function.
Pay attention to your thoughts and feelings as you enter the Room.
As soon as you step foot into the tank, your mind is no longer a private sanctuary.
Something is in there with you, stirring it up, touching your psyche with dark energies.
And most of all, be careful, stay alert.
If you should hear footsteps or see a man in a white robe, don’t hesitate.
Just run.
Run away as fast as you can.
Directions to The Round Room
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