Cherub statues mysteriously appear in college woods

Strange angel statues have been popping up randomly throughout the trails in the Campus Woods.

    Students and faculty are confused about where these statues are coming from and who is leaving them. These statues are the size one would see in a garden or in a cemetery by a gravestone, so they are easily moveable. However, due to the weight of them, it seems unlikely that these statues are being placed out there by only one person.  

    Whoever has been leaving these statues has violated two rules that Campus Woods have. According to the school’s website, if you enter the woods you must “leave no trace: carry out what you carry in” and “stay on existing trails.”

    The statues that have been left throughout the woods are called cherubs, which means they are a depiction of a small, chubby child or baby with wings. They usually symbolize the death of a child or the grieving of a child’s life that was cut too short. It is unclear how many statues are in the Campus Woods. Some think there are six, while others claim to have seen more than eight.

    “Personally I have seen four; however, I’ve heard tell that there are eight statues scattered throughout the woods,” senior Lenny Lively said. “The first time I saw one was at the spring house. I turned around a corner in the trail, and a stone angel was positioned on top of the structure. It was a truly haunting sight. And every time I’ve returned it has been positioned in another spot, like it has moved.”

    One statue can be found by the spring house, which is on a trail near the House in the Woods. It was knocked over by someone, who is unknown, but was repositioned, also by someone unknown. The statue depicts a baby with wings that is crouched down and picking up a seashell. Another statue, which is by a small clearing and a creek, was moved from under a tree to sit at the creek’s base. This one also shows a baby with wings that is seated while shushing a frog. Both of these statues have a blue hue to them.

     “I do know that some statues like this were in and around the amphitheater in the woods,” said Bruce Guillaume, the Director of Mountain Challenge. “I have not had the opportunity to see if they have been moved.”

    There should not be any reason to be concerned about safety, though. These may be creepy statues, but they are not dangerous.

    “I don’t know exactly where the statues came from, but I have no reason to be concerned about their appearance,” Guillaume said. “As we can, we will likely remove them. If they are from the amphitheater, we will try to return them.”

    The angels do not move on their own and are just innocent cherubs with playful personalities. If you haven’t seen any of these statues, take some friends and go exploring the Campus Woods to see if you can spot all eight statues.  Some students have made a connection between these statues and a famous T.V. series, “Doctor Who.”

    “I have no idea why people would put the angels in the woods besides to scare the living daylights out of people,” Lively said. “I think these statues are an allusion to a ‘Doctor Who’ episode in which stone angels will remain frozen while you watch them, but as soon as your eyes stray, the angels approach you. I think somebody’s getting a fun laugh out of this.”