Haunted Roads of Western Pennsylvania

by Thomas White

  HOGBACK ROAD

  MERCER COUNTY

  On the outskirts of Hermitage in Mercer County is a well-known haunted road that runs for a little over a mile. Unlike many of the other roads that we have looked at, it does not have an alternative creepy name, perhaps because its real name is unique enough. For several decades, Hogback Road has drawn legend trippers and those curious about its ghostly tales. It is not clear when the legends first appeared, but they have been around long enough to pass through multiple generations. The wooded road was once more isolated and was in poor condition, with a small wooden bridge that crossed over Hogback Run. It was a true liminal space. In recent years, the road has been upgraded and the bridge replaced with a less spooky concrete one, but that has not stopped its many haunting legends from spreading, especially on the Internet.

  Like the other roads, Hogback has several different types of supernatural tales associated with it, and each has its own variations. Much of the reported activity is centered on the area around the bridge and in the surrounding woods. In this way it is very similar to Shades of Death Road, where the activity was centered on the lowest portion of the road where it crossed the creek. Since the bridge is so important in the stories, we will first look at the legends surrounding it.

  According to local traditions, the original wooden bridge was the site of one or more tragedies. Some accounts are linked to the earliest settlers in the region in the late 1700s. Supposedly a mother and her children died in or along Hogback Run at the location of the bridge (before it was there.) The family’s death is often blamed on hostile Indians who were fighting to retain the area. Their bodies were allegedly discovered by a local trapper. Now the ghostly woman can be seen some nights, desperately searching for her children near the bridge. Sometimes the apparition is carrying a lantern or some kind of light as she wanders the area.

  A view of the isolated stretch of Hogback Road. Authors’ collection.

  But that is not the only tragedy associated with the old bridge. There is an alternate tale that involves members of the local Amish community. This story claims that at an unidentified time in the past, an Amish woman and her baby were riding home late one evening in a buggy and took the dark route down Hogback Road. There seems to be at least two variants of what happened to the woman and her child. In one version, something spooked her horse and caused her to lose control of the buggy near the bridge. It went off the side of the road and crashed down into Hogback Run. Another version, presumably occurring more recently, reports that the woman’s buggy was run off the road near the bridge by teenagers who were driving drunk and speeding. Again the buggy crashed into the creek. No matter the cause, both the woman and her child were killed by either being thrown from the buggy or crushed beneath it.

  Hogback Road where it crosses over Hogback Run. Authors’ collection.

  Much like the previous account of the murdered family, it is the Amish woman who is reportedly seen wandering near the bridge, dressed in white and carrying a lantern. Many alleged sightings of the spectral woman and a strange light moving through the woods have been reported over recent decades. A quick search of the Internet will reveal that the ghostly woman at the bridge is probably the most common story associated with the road. Legend trippers have also reported screams and cries for help coming from under the bridge. A strange mist frequently envelopes the road, surrounding cars that linger near Hogback Run. Sometimes the ghost or the screams seem to emerge from the fog.

  If these two sad tales were not enough, in the late 1980s the bridge came to be identified as the site of an alleged human sacrifice. Brian and Terrie Seech uncovered local lore that holds that members of a satanic cult were using the isolated woods along the road as a place to conduct ceremonies. They abducted a young woman and sacrificed her to the Devil at or under the bridge. Hannah Palmer, who grew up in West Middlesex not far from the road, heard that in the 1980s and ’90s, the same satanists also gathered in a field in Hermitage at an old structure. Locals called it the “Tar House” because it was covered in black tar paper. The abandoned building was said to have been an old foster home or orphanage, though this has not been confirmed.

  Palmer also heard the other stories about the bridge, including the tale of the family killed at the location. She remembered that Hogback Road and its bridge were frequently visited by teenagers every year around Halloween. When she was a child, Palmer also heard a rather unique tale about the legendary bridge. A troll or some other type of monster lived under the old structure. To get him to come out, one had to park his or her car on the bridge and then shut it off completely. Only then would the creature emerge.

  Hogback Run from the bridge on Hogback Road. Authors’ collection.

  Legend says that if you leave your car keys on the bridge on Hogback Road for five minutes, your car will be unable to start. Authors’ collection.

  The method for summoning the troll is not much different from the rituals that legend trippers frequently use to bring out the ghosts. Most of the rituals involve stopping and shutting off the car on the bridge. Sometimes it is said that everyone must exit the vehicle and the car keys should be left under the driver’s floor mat. The legend trippers are to remain outside the car for five minutes, and when they get back in and turn it on, the ghosts will appear. The more common version of this ritual requires the driver to leave his or her keys on the bridge for five minutes. Not only is it possible that the ghosts will appear, but also your car will be unable to start, leaving you stranded on the haunted road.

  Other frightening entities inhabit the land along Hogback Road, though they are not necessarily linked to the old bridge. The ghosts of the Indians who once inhabited Mercer County have been seen on the hillsides around the road. They are often spotted at a distance, watching legend trippers from behind or beside old trees. The Indians appear under the Hunter’s Moon in the fall and are accompanied by strange glowing lights that move through the woods and pass by visitors.

  Reports of Ku Klux Klan activity around the road have also circulated for the past few decades. There are those who claim, usually anonymously on the Internet, that the Klan still occasionally meets somewhere on the road. There are also the usual allegations that Klan members murdered someone in the woods in the not-so-distant past. Of course, the victim’s ghost is bound to the road, unable to move on.

  Hogback, at least in previous decades, was also known to be a lover’s lane. Young couples would park their cars down along the isolated road in the hollow before climbing into the backseat. Their nocturnal activities could put them in danger, however, and not just from angry parents but also from the infamous Green Man. The Green Man was a man, or his ghost, who walked the road at night and surprised couples parked in the dark. He supposedly glowed green after being electrocuted in an accident, which also disfigured him. Matt Frankovitch, who grew up in Sharpsville, Mercer County, heard the stories of the Green Man on Hogback Road in 1979. By then the legend had already been well established. As you may already know, the Green Man is one of the most popular legends in western Pennsylvania, and he has reportedly been seen in many different locations. We will hold further discussion of the Green Man until the final chapter in this volume, which will cover the legend more extensively.

  So once again we have a haunted road with many different legends and variations. Only the most frequently told tales have been recorded here. Some of these will certainly seem familiar to the reader by now. Ghostly Indians, which we discussed in regard to Beaver County, seem to have a strong presence on Hogback Road. Settlers in western Pennsylvania were no strangers to violent clashes with the native inhabitants, particularly in the early years when Mercer County was first explored and settled.

  After the American Revolution, settlers began to move north and west of the Allegheny River, occupying the Depreciation and Donation Lands, which were distributed as partial payment for military service against the British. Aside from the obvious tension brought by white settlers infringing
on their territory, hostile feelings still simmered over the fighting that took place during the Revolutionary War. A large number of Indian tribes had sided with the British during the conflict and, as a result, bore the brunt of the fighting along the frontier. These lingering tensions and other factors ignited the Northwest Indian War, which lasted from 1785 to 1795.

  Even though most settlers came to Mercer County after the war had ended, a handful were present during the conflict. Most of the heavy fighting took place in Ohio, but skirmishes and raids could happen anywhere along the frontier. Even after the war was over, occasional incidents between Indians and white settlers were reported into the early 1800s.

  Indians delivering captives to Colonel Bouquet in the “Ohio Country” in the 1760s. Conflicts between settlers and Indians in western Pennsylvania and Ohio would continue for the rest of that century. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

  Though there is no direct evidence that a family was ever killed by Indians near the bridge at Hogback Road, the history of the area makes the story seem plausible or believable. Perhaps it is only the community’s memory of this long-ago conflict that ultimately gave birth to this particular legend. This version of the bridge story and the Indian ghosts are a reminder of the original inhabitants of the region and the hostilities involved in displacing them.

  But what if the unidentified Amish woman is the real ghost at the bridge? Why would such a legend emerge on Hogback Road? Obviously this legend is linked to the Amish community that was, and still is, located in Mercer County. In fact, central Mercer County is home to one of the nation’s largest Old Order Amish communities. For many modern Americans, the Amish seem anachronistic and are the subject of curiosity. Their pious religious dedication, rejection of modern conveniences and simple dress create a sense of strange fascination for those who cannot imagine living in such a traditional way. And their form of transportation—the horse-drawn buggy—remains a common sight on Mercer County Roads.

  Needless to say, horse-drawn buggies can be just as dangerous to their passengers as cars can be. Sadly, accidents and near accidents between buggies and cars are not infrequent. As recently as 2013, an accident between a buggy and a truck resulted in two fatalities. It is likely that older buggy accidents, whether on Hogback Road or anywhere nearby, inspired the legend of the buggy accident on the bridge. Certainly the idea that drunk teenagers caused the accident can serve as a reminder for young legend trippers to be vigilant behind the wheel and not to drink before driving. Teenagers clustered around the larger metropolitan centers to the south and the north of Mercer County do not usually have to worry about encountering a horse and buggy, but in Mercer County, it is not unusual.

  A depiction of Mad Anthony Wayne’s victory over the Indians at Fallen Timbers, which ended the Northwest Indian War in 1795. A treaty was signed the following year. Courtesy of the Library of Congress.

  And what of the third legend about the bridge, that of the satanic cult and the human sacrifice? The timing of this legend, in the late 1980s and early ’90s, fits perfectly with the spread of the Satanic Panic that we discussed earlier in the book. In fact, sociologist Jeffrey Victor, who authored the first definitive work on the panic, tracked the spread of this idea across northeastern Pennsylvania and southern New York State in 1988. Mercer County fell on the fringe of the area in which he mapped this “outbreak,” and the timing seems to match exactly with the start of the legend. Most of these cult stories in Pennsylvania seemed to last for about a decade before evolving into kernel or summary narratives. The same is true on Hogback Road, since the story is not told as frequently today as that of the massacred family or the Amish buggy accident. At the time, the story represented the perceived threats to the youth of the region by evil and corrupt individuals. As is usual with these cult legends, there is no evidence that anyone was ever sacrificed on Hogback Road.

  Like the other haunted roads, this one also requires legend trippers to use their car (and the keys) to bring about interactions with the ghosts. The car again becomes the mechanism by which the journey to the supernatural is made. Unfortunately, we can report that after numerous attempts at leaving our keys on the bridge, the authors’ cars started right up and no ghosts appeared.

  The other legends of Hogback Road have left little evidence to examine. Though the story that the Ku Klux Klan frequently uses the road is often repeated, few solid details are ever provided. It is likely that this particular legend remains only as a kernel narrative or summary report, and more elaborate stories of their activities have been lost, or at least have not been repeated in detail for some time. We could speculate that these stories may have emerged in the 1970s as they did on other roads, but as of now, we really have no proof either way.

  As for the troll, we can honestly say that we have no idea how it came to be associated with Hogback Road. Many readers are probably familiar with old legends of trolls living under bridges that were part of European folklore. (Given the number of bridges in western Pennsylvania, one would think we had the highest troll population in the world.) We may not know how the troll got under the bridge, but it is an amusing and unique feature of this heavily haunted road.

  CRYBABY BRIDGE

  GREENE COUNTY

  In Greene County, not far from Waynesburg, is a relatively short but eerie haunted road known for its bridge. To the northeast of the Greene County Airport, the road known only as T555 connects Prison Road to Sugar Camp Road. Part of T555 is a small and unremarkable bridge that passes over the south fork of Tenmile Creek. Though this bridge seems like any other, local legends identify it as the site of a tragic event and a very disturbed ghost. To legend trippers who visit the road, it is known as Crybaby Bridge.

  Unlike most of the other haunted roads in this book, Crybaby Bridge is T555’s only legend. It is an interesting one, however. The story seems to have spread locally by word of mouth and has not appeared in print or in any widespread form on the Internet (at least at the time of this writing). Haley Bristor, who grew up in Greene County, heard the tale of the bridge when she was in high school in the 2000s. She and her friends made the trip out to the road one night to test the legend that they had heard. According to the story, years ago a woman escaped a local mental institution or prison. She had been unmarried and pregnant and had recently given birth. Somehow she slipped out with her baby and carried it in the dark to the bridge. In her unstable mental state, she tossed the baby from the bridge down into the creek to his or her death. The mother either died not long after or committed suicide, depending on the version that you hear. Now her ghost returns to the road, desperately searching for the baby that she regretted killing. Visitors can also hear the sound of a baby crying, coming from somewhere below the bridge.

  Crybaby Bridge in Greene County. Courtesy of Haley Bristor.

  Bristor and her friends had heard that there was a way to make the ghostly woman appear. You had to drive your car out on the bridge and turn it off but leave the headlights on and windows down. Most importantly, the driver had to put the car keys on the hood of the car and then get back in the vehicle. Finally, someone in the car had to say, “I have your baby” or “I killed your baby.” At that moment the spectral woman would appear, frantically looking for her child and possibly becoming hostile to those in the car. Even though they completed the ritual process, Bristor and her friends did not see the ghost.

  A few other variations of the story exist, including one in which the woman throws herself down into the creek and dies after throwing her baby over the bridge (since it is not that far of a drop, it is assumed that she would have broken her neck). Another variation claims that the baby’s father was a prominent man in the community. His neglect of the young woman caused her distress and ultimately her suicide. Generally though, the legend about this specific road is not very widespread, and it is not clear how long ago it originated. The legend of Crybaby Bridge is a different matter entirely.

  There are, in fact, many Crybaby Bridg
es located around the country. There are at least two others in Pennsylvania and four in neighboring Ohio. Though there will be slight local variations, most share the same core story. A young woman becomes pregnant out of wedlock, often by an important individual. The stress drives her into a mental institution or causes her to do something that lands her in a supervised facility. She gives birth and throws the baby from the bridge or jumps while she is still pregnant. Either way, her ghost and that of the baby haunt the bridge today.

  The south fork of Tenmile Creek runs under Crybaby Bridge. Courtesy of Haley Bristor.

  The moral warnings of this legend are obvious. A young woman becomes involved in an inappropriate relationship, has an unplanned pregnancy and things go horribly awry. This is an exaggerated version of a situation that many teenagers could potentially face. This legend expresses the worst possible outcome of such a scenario and taps directly into these fears, which is why the legend is so widespread.

  But how did this legend become attached to this particular road in Greene County? There is no record of a real event resembling the story at that location. It seems that this particular Crybaby Bridge may be a result of the proximity of two particular institutions. Near the bridge are both the Greene County Prison and a youth substance abuse recovery academy. When the legend is repeated, it is one of these two institutions that is often pointed to as the one from which the woman escaped. With the bridge so close by, it provides the perfect local home for this otherwise widespread legend. The bridge is also the perfect liminal space. It is located in a place where most teenagers—or even adult legend trippers, for that matter—would have no reason to go on a regular basis.