“Please, No Witchcraft Park in Arlington”
Caelum Moor, pink granite statues in Arlington, TX nicknamed "Texas' Stonehenge" made NBCDFW news in 2009 for their re-erection. But why were they controversial enough to be taken down in the first place?
The Caelum Moor environmental sculpture park was originally put up in 1984. The designer, Norm Hines, states that his vision in these sculptures was to feel as though viewers are in the Scottish Highlands. In 1996 Windstar Properties made a deal with Arlington officials to move the statues to a new site 1,400 feet from where they were so that they could build a shopping center on the property.
This deal was argued by some, such as minister Dena Smith, who accused the sculpture park of being a religious site and wanted the deal to go a step further and completely remove the stones from the city of Arlington. Smith claimed she had seen the statue park being used by witches, satanists, and "celebrants in white robes" to perform rituals. 19 other pastors joined Dena Smith in her fight and claimed that along with her claims, they had seen animal sacrifices being performed at Caelum Moor, and so moving them to a different park would allow these rituals to continue.
"Just last week we photographed an animal sacrifice sprawled out on one of the stones, if this is already occurring on private property, what do we think is going to occur when the city dedicates a public park to these stones?"
-The 20 ministers in a letter to Arlington City Officials
The group of ministers took it upon themselves to write a letter to Arlington officials entitled "Please, No Witchcraft Park in Arlington'' describing their concerns of witchcraft spreading in Arlington with the statues. The photographical proof of an animal sacrifice that they claim to have in the letter was never seen. In this letter, they compared the "Texas Stonehenge" at Caelum Moor to actual Stonehenge where seasonal festivals on solstices and Equinoxes had been observed (until they were banned in 1985).
While seeming outlandish to some locals, their claims frightened others and caught the attention of the Arlington-Star Telegram who interviewed self-proclaimed witches, pagans, and wiccans who actually confirmed Smith's concerns. The self proclaimed witches, pagans, and wiccans claimed that the Caelum Moor relocation would be ideal for their future gatherings. They also claimed that they already rent out spaces in local parks for their worship and major holidays. The committee meeting that was scheduled to discuss the relocation was then canceled by Mayor Richard Greene. Some speculate this was due to the massive media coverage (such as CNN) who were planning on attending the meeting.
After the debate around his statues, designer Norm Hines released a statement, "I have no knowledge of, nor interest in, Satanism or witchcraft, I am a confirmed Christian and in fact served as an altar boy when I was young."
After the development deal closed in 1997, the accused occult stones ended up sitting in storage for over a decade, until being planted near the Dallas Cowboys Stadium in 2009. Soon after their installment, claims started that the Dallas Cowboys were attempting to "siphon satanic power." The same day the statue was resurrected, Chaplain Michael Tumillo posted in an online religious tract, The Battle of Caelum Moor, and blamed Caelum Moors for a series of divorces, deaths, and church and business failures. This accusation is similar to ones we have discussed in class in which accused "witches" were blamed as the cause of misfortunes in their towns.
Whether there is any validity to claims of occult activity at Caelum Moor is up for interpretation. It is interesting to know that we had our own occult ritual accusations right near DFW. I work in a hospital next to AT&T Stadium, so I have driven by the Caelum Moor sculpture park and can say that I have never witnessed any rituals happening there, but I will keep an eye out on the next solstice.
References:
![Caelum Moor [Richard Greene Linear Park] Modern Stone Circle etc : The Megalithic Portal and Megalith Map:](https://www.megalithic.co.uk/a558/a312/gallery/The_Americas/USA/The_Southwest/flk6637753395.jpg)
Oh my gosh, I had never heard of this controversy. I am amazed. I wonder if others in class had heard of it. Occult rituals including animal sacrifices! I am not surprised by the fundamentalist response. Anything witchy is to such people part of Satan's plot to overthrow Christianity. Personally, I don't see anything satanic in the stones, and if anything they remind me of Christian church spires. Caelum, by the way, is Latin for heaven. Thanks, this is a great blog post.
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