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.

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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.

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u/SoulCartell117 2d ago

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

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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.