There are mysteries all around us

Sometime around the early 2000s, I flew to a small town in Virginia to record in a cabin with Fred Weaver. The whole scene there was very rustic; the cabin being miles from town accessible by dirt road and housed on the property of a larger southern plantation. The night I arrived, Fred took me into town to check out the restaurant he worked at. The town was Culpeper. After hanging out at the restaurant a bit, we went outside and Fred mentioned wanting to show me something. Across the street was a large theater. He pointed to the marquee, which contained a cryptic sentence that didn’t make much sense, but implied something unsettling. He said the theater was owned by a group of people called The Finders. There was never any activity at the theater during the day, but occasionally someone would be there at night, either bringing things in or out from the back of the building. The marquee would also randomly change slogans; no one ever seeing anyone up there replacing the letters, which would require a ladder to access.

We then crossed the street and approached the building. Part of it contained a store front, which Fred said they also owned. Looking inside the large front windows, I saw many interesting things. A scene that looked like an office waiting room: A desk, some couches around a table, and bookshelves. Everything had a veil of intention to it: the phone off the hook, a book on the table opened to a page with one line of text underlined, and other placements and objects that seemed random at first but then implied some kind of secret message. It was utterly fascinating to me, and I wondered more about those who were responsible. Art students? A secret society?

We then approached the front of the theater. The foyer was dark and the empty ticket booths served as an unwelcoming entry. That dark space opened to a long hallway, which ran straight ahead, until it meet an adjacent hallway (likely leading to the theater spaces). At that intersection, was the dim light of a large rice paper bulb lamp. Next to that lamp was a long park bench. In it sat a frightening looking mannequin/scarecrow looking figure, its arm resting casually on the back of the bench as it stared right back at you. I won’t deny that I had the creeps pretty severely.

“Ok, Fred,” I asked, “what’s the story with this place?” He then began to tell me what he knew, admitting that a lot of it was speculation, rumor, etc. but that the group was possibly connected to satanism, kidnapping, child pornography, and if that wasn’t enough, connections to the CIA. It was a lot to take in, and I had not expected this kind of experience on this trip. The town took on a whole new meaning to me, as every thing and person I saw going forward made me wonder if there was any connection to this group, and of course if the statements about the group were even true.

After leaving Culpeper, I did a bit of research on my own, and there’s some information out there about the group that reports similar things to what Fred said. It’s not a pretty story. Based on the reports that the CIA banned any investigation into the group, people may never actually know the truth.

Years later, in 2008, I was on a tour with Jason Kahn that took us through Virginia. While driving, I saw a highway sign for Culpeper and quickly told Jason the story. He insisted that we drive into town to see the theater I talked about, as we were both very curious to see if it still existed. We found the building, but it was not the same, and the storefront was boarded up with sign for some other business coming soon. I could tell from Jason’s reaction that his feelings matched mine: we both really wanted to see an updated version of that cryptic scene, but the people who made that were obviously gone. Hopefully their activity beyond creative decoration has ceased as well, but if they are indeed protected and hidden, I hate to think about how things have progressed over time.

This was a place that I likely would never have known about had I not traveled there, despite the severe implications of the group involved. It really makes me wonder what other things are happening in the world, at this very moment, that are profound actions, that none of us will ever know exist.