As the sun entered into the final hours of the longest trip across the sky of the year, hundreds gathered atop Casper Mountain on Monday to celebrate the summer solstice the Crimson Dawn way.

The annual celebration has its roots in the stories of witches, fairies and phantom woodsmen created by Neal Forsling, a woman who homesteaded Crimson Dawn with her two daughters three-quarters of a century ago.

"She made everything seem magic," Eleanor Carrigen said of her friend Forsling. "You could walk through the trails with her and she would actually make you see that the fairies were underneath the flowers. All that sort of thing. She had a wonderful way of telling stories. And all the kids were just crazy about her. She was quite a character."

While Forsling had the sort of charisma that made her midsummer's celebration magical, Carrigen said there is also a mystical feeling within the land on which Forsling lived.

"It does seem like a magical place," she said of Crimson Dawn. "It really does. I hate to say that it does too much because I am afraid people are going to get eerie about it. I don't want to make it sound like it is scary or anything like that.

"But I think (Forsling) felt the magic when she came," Carrigen added.

Whether it's magic that people feel at Crimson Dawn or not is a matter of speculation. But friends Barbara Thompson and Alexis Lewan said they feel something very positive about the place every time they visit.

"It's like you come up here with a bad feeling and you're all bubbly when you get up here. It's cool," Thompson said as she made her way through Crimson Dawn's forest.

The positive feeling was also felt by Veneta Ratheun and Sarah Smith as they strolled amid the trees Monday evening.

"You can't help but be in a good mood when you are here," said Ratheun.

"And if you are not, then you are just grumpy," interjected Smith.

Texan Joanna Allen, who was visiting Casper Mountain for the first time Monday, said she too felt something special at Crimson Dawn.

"It's a spiritual thing," Allen said. "I think it is the people who have lived here" who are responsible for the place's feeling.

Unfortunately, there have been times during the last 75 years people have taken things about Crimson Dawn the wrong way and mistook the celebration as something sinister, Carrigen said.

A number of years ago certain groups began protesting the solstice event and spreading false tales about its nature - specifically that the gathering promoted witchcraft and occultism, she said.

"We had a terrible time for about three or four years," she said. "They came up and preached against us and told big lies … and all kinds of terrible tales."

No one appeared to be protesting on Monday.

"Before then, the schools would bring classes to Crimson Dawn on field trips," Carrigen said.

"And then these people went to the school board and demanded that we not allow anything like that for the schools," she continued. "It was just a shame because the kids just loved it."

Even though Carrigen and others cannot tell Forsling's tales at schools or school-sponsored events, children can still hear them at the solstice celebration.

"I like how they gear it towards the children so much," said Kimberly Thomas, who attended the celebration with her children Shawn, Karla and Daniel. "It is very family oriented, they do a lot of different things for the kids," she added.

Thomas said that she has heard it said that Crimson Dawn is a magic place. But she attributes the feeling people get at Crimson Dawn to its beauty and its naturalness.

"For me just any place you go in nature is magical," she said. "And you know being up here on the mountain is different from being down in the city. So naturally it would seem magical."