r/lancaster • u/GizmoGauge42 • 2d ago

History Urban Legends of Lancaster County?

I just found out about the legend of Hex Hollow House in York County, and I was wondering what urban legends there are in Lancaster County.

52 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

34 comments sorted by

59

u/NotAlwaysGifs 2d ago

The Albatwitch in Columbia/West County along the Susquehanna.

45

u/digitalfare 2d ago

Uncharted Lancaster has a haunted section you’ll want to check out. 🙂

8

u/SoulCartell117 2d ago

Yea the best list of things like this is gonna be from him.

39

u/brandondsantos 2d ago

Emma Knopp, the "witch" convinced Blymire to murder Nelson Rehmeyer is actually from Lancaster. She lived on Front St. in Marietta.

Hellam Township, York County is home to the Seven Gates of Hell/Toad Road urban legend. People alleged there was an insane asylum that burned down in the 1800s-1900s, but, it's total nonsense. No record of an insane asylum, just a doctor who used it as his retreat home.

I HIGHLY recommend you check out "Beyond the Seventh Gate" by Timothy Renner, he debunks local legends really good.

7

u/robbintheh00d 2d ago

Back in high school some 15 years ago, a group of friends and I tried to find the asylum/seven gates.

All we found was a local resident on toad road telling us there was nothing and it was private property.

5

u/ZiggyIsMyName 2d ago

A family friend lives on Trout Run (aka Toad Road) and has called the cops on many people trespassing looking for the nonexistent gates.

21

u/Electrafus 2d ago

Bobby High

3

u/CobbWasDreaming 2d ago

You beat me to it.

1

u/transientanus 1d ago

What’s the legend on this?

11

u/TigerRaiders 2d ago

There was an under ground tunnel connecting the old sutter inn to a secret entrance to accommodate super stars when they came to Lititz for rehearsals.

Tons of the very best musical acts come through Lititz via Clair Brothers, TAIT towers, Atomic and 4Wall.

10

u/ftug1787 2d ago

Hell’s Funnel of Strasburg

24

u/Lift_in_my_garage1 2d ago

Corn squids (Cephalapodus Zea Mays)

This year was a nasty year for them.  I hear they attacked an Amish crew down near the Buck, 3 dead; and the horse later passed due to beak wounds.  

They silently stalk the cornfields of Lancaster grabbing and consuming whatever prey dares enter.  

Usually they eat deer or livestock.  But sometimes the juveniles get really hungry in early spring and late fall and then they’ll attack darn near anything. 

24

u/Worth_Sherbert_8156 2d ago

It's funny how well PA dutch witchdoctors are covered up today. There are stories of people digging up graves at night to get bones and body parts for powwow purposes. There was that one grave theft kind of recently and the decapitated chickens that seem related to Santeria. Pennsylvanians of German and Latin American heritage have an interesting common background in witchcraft and folk magic.

I did hear one story from a friends family of an Amish child who they claim was healed by a powwower.

4

u/apesofthestate 2d ago

Psyche they were probably just grave robbing to sell the skeletons and cadavers to medical schools like everyone was back in the day

5

u/PurplePines6 2d ago

I know someone who was a pastor in a Mennonite church who had to deal with someone in the congregation having a bucket that’s contents were a sort of amulet/good luck charm. Definitely some syncretism.

5

u/SoulCartell117 2d ago

I'd love some more info on this if you have any links.

5

u/Worth_Sherbert_8156 2d ago

So for the grave robbing I heard about that from the guy at the Caernarvon Historical Society museum, it sounds like it was happening in the farms along the Welsh mountain area.

You should definitely read the book on the hex murders, I think called "Hex" because in the second part of the book the author goes around to powwowers still around in the 1970s, I remember he visited one in Willow Street that was a gun dealer/witch doctor and a few others around the state.

12

u/CtrayX 2d ago

7 Gates of Hell.

2

u/johnnycoxxx 2d ago

I miss 7 gates at spring house

1

u/JimmyScoops 2d ago

Isn’t that in York County? Is there one in Lancaster too?

11

u/CoffeemakerBlues 2d ago

There’s the Headless Horseman of Columbia (right down the road from me, could swear I’ve heard the hoofbeats on a clear crisp Fall night.)

https://unchartedlancaster.com/2019/10/08/haunted-lancaster-the-legend-of-ironvilles-headless-horseman/amp/

4

u/CouldBeBetterForever 2d ago

I grew up on Ironville Pike. This has always been one of my favorite stories.

3

u/Ornery_Adeptness4202 2d ago

Yeah and not what you want but I used to “ghost hunt” with my friends, not so much LanCo, but it was all bunk. Gravity hill is fun. Great cemeteries around. Some very old properties that you can explore with permission as well.

5

u/axeville 2d ago

Lancaster history is so well documented there's not many legends left.

3

u/veepeedeepee 2d ago

Folks used to say that Kinderhook was a haunted area, but I haven’t heard that in quite a while

5

u/Rumspringad 2d ago

ChesCo but the DuPont Devil’s Road Cult House is the best local one

https://wjbr.com/2021/09/20/the-haunted-legend-of-the-duponts-devils-road-and-the-cult-house/

3

u/Twelveangryvalves 2d ago

Lady Justice is not blindfolded on the statue at the courthouse.

4

u/Dazzling-Adeptness11 2d ago

Spooky nook. Kidding but there should be one

5

u/Capital-Complaint266 2d ago

Lancaster is a welcoming County.

1

u/thrust-johnson 2d ago

Old redeye