Sept. 22, 2025

Terrifying & True | Urban Legends of Spook Hollow: Ghost Stories from America’s Haunted Roads

Terrifying & True | Urban Legends of Spook Hollow: Ghost Stories from America’s Haunted Roads
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Terrifying & True

Halloween 2025 is a week away—perfect time for true ghost stories about America’s haunted backroads. This Terrifying & True deep dive uncovers the nationwide pattern behind one eerie place-name: Spook Hollow. We track the Dutch origin of “spook,” the Appalachian meaning of “hollow,” and how frontier fear spawned murdered-peddler tales, haunted bridges, cemetery guardians, and roadside apparitions—prime Halloween podcast listening for fans of paranormal folklore and haunted places.

Inside this episode:
• Nyack, New York — Camboan legend: the gentle ghost said to give a real Spook Hollow its name.
• Phelps County, Missouri — Spook Hollow Rd / Pine Hill Cemetery: Goat-Man reports, phantom cars, dead electronics, rusting school bus.
• Oregonia, Ohio — headless bridge haunting: midnight ritual, thud on the planks, back-roads dare.
• Pennsylvania & Appalachia — murdered peddler motif: why these stories cluster in hollows and valleys.

If you’re searching haunted road stories, Goatman sightings, headless bridge ghost Ohio, Spook Hollow Road Missouri, or the meaning of “hollow” in Appalachia, this episode is your map. Follow and share for spooky-season specials all October.

We’re telling that story tonight.

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🎵 Music by Ray Mattis 👉 Check out Ray’s incredible work here !
👨‍💼 Executive Producers: Rob Fields, Bobbletopia.com
🎥 Produced by: Daniel Wilder
🌐 Explore more terrifying tales at: WeeklySpooky.com
WEBVTT

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America is full of places nicknamed spook colla, dark valleys

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and back roads, where lanterns bob without hands, where a

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headless ghost taps your car at midnight, and were a

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creature with horns guards a forgotten cemetery. Tonight we follow

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the map of fear itself and find out how much

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is legend what you were about to beat? You burne

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based on witness accounts, testimonies, and public record. This is

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terrifying and true. I was driving down a highway in

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upstate New York the first time I saw the name

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spook Hollow actually written on a road sign, and since

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then I've always wanted to know what exactly is it.

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It's a name that marks places where daylight ends and

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folklore begins all over the United States. In Pennsylvania, a

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stranger never made it out alive. In New York, a

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guardian spirit lingered for centuries. In Missouri, a horned figure

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is said to stalk a lonely graveyard. And in my

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home of Ohio, a covered bridge keeps a terrible secret.

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Are these merely stories or something more? We're going to

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dive deep after this. There's something about a dark, lonely hollow.

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That practically begs for a ghost story. Across the United States,

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especially in older towns and rural regions, you'll find places

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nicknamed or sometimes legitimately named spook hollow. It might be

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a twisting back road, a wooded valley, or a quiet

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stream bed, but the name is always a warning and

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an invitation. It whispers ghosts rome. Here, the term spook

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itself means ghost, a word inherited from early Dutch settlers

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in America, so spook hollow literally means ghost hollow, a

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place where spirits are said to linger, and indeed, in

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local lore from New York to West Virginia, from Pennsylvania

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to Missouri and beyond, spook hollows are the stage for

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some of the most spooky tales in American folklore. How

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did this tradition start? It turns out that nearly every

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region has its own spook collo legend. In parts of

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the country, especially the Appellachians and old Dutch settled areas,

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the concept of a haunted hollow is practically a cultural institution.

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In Pennsylvania, for example, there are numerous hollows informally called

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spook hollow, and most share a similar origin story locals

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say the hollow is haunted by the ghost of a

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wayfaring stranger who met a grim fate there. Over the generations,

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these stories have been passed around and campfires and front porches,

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transforming ordinary ravines and backwoods into legendary haunts. Tonight, we'll

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explore the origins of the spook hollow tradition and journey

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through some of the most famous and chilling spook hollow

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legends around the country. From the ghost of a benevolent

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Native American in New York to the malevolent goat Man

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of Missouri from tragic Lover's quarrel in Pennsylvania to a

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headless specter in Ohio. Each tale offers a dose of

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campfire spookiness, rooted in local history or folklore, all of

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them fun and creepy, like a good ghost story should be.

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But we won't shy away from the truth behind the tales.

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After all, part of the magic of spook hollow where

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facts end and legend begins. So grab a flashlight and

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let's take a moonlit tour of America's spook hollows. But

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just remember, if you hear a twig snap or a

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whisper in the dark, it's probably nothing. Probably the first

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question seems obvious, Why do so many places end up

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dubbed spook hollow in the first place. The answer is

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twofold language and lore. As we mentioned, the word spook

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came into American English through early Dutch influence and caught

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on to describe anything spectral or eerie. Meanwhile, the word

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hollow or holler, an Appellationian dialect, simply means a small

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valley or low place between hills, often wooded, shadowy, and remote.

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In early American settlement days, hollows were the perfect setting

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for spooky happenings. They were isolated and dark at night,

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making them natural backdrops for ghost stories. By the nineteenth

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and twentieth centuries, it seems every region had a notorious

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hollow with a ghostly nickname. In fact, a mid twentieth

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century folklorest observed that many counties in Pennsylvania have a

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place locals called spook hollow. Even if that name doesn't

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always appear on official maps, the prevalence of the name

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hints at a widespread tradition. Whenever something uncanny or frightening

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allegedly happened in a hollow, folks would start calling it

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spook hollow. The name itself became a tradition, almost an

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American folk genre of its own. So what kind of

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legends gave rise to these names? Interestingly, there are some

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common themes that pop up in spook hollow lore across

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different states. One of the most enduring is the tale

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of the murdered pedlar or wandering traveler. Early America saw

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many iterant pedlars and tradesmen trekking lonely roads to sell

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their wares. Tragically, some of these travelers fell victim to

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highwaymen or unscrupulous locals. Whether true or not, stories sprang

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up about pedlars being robbed and killed on the road,

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their restless ghosts haunting the spot forever after. West Virginia,

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for instance, is unusually rich in murdered peddlar ghost tales.

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Practically every corner of the mountain state has a story

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of an unlucky salesman whose spirit lingers in vengeance, and

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many a spook hollow from Pennsylvania down through Appalachia has

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at its core the legend of a wayfarer done wrong.

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Another common thread is love and betrayal leading to violence

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and hauntings. Domestic tragedies in secluded cabins, jealous rage, revenge

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from beyond the grave. These dramatic elements also fuel spook

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hollow legends. The dark, hidden nature of a hollow makes

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it the perfect stage for a clandestine affair or a

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secret crime. When the secret comes out, bang, a gunshot

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might echo through the woods and a ghost story is born.

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We'll encounter an example of this in just a Moment,

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with a Pennsylvania tale of love, murder and eerie screams

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on the wind. It is important to note that while

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these legends are told in whispers to scare the local

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kids and sometimes nosy outsiders, they're usually folklore rather than fact.

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Sometimes there is a kernel of truth, a real historical

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incident that sparked the tale, but over the decades the

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story grows taller and spookier, more supernatural. We'll point out

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where the embellishments likely are, but we'll also let the

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tales work there spooky magic. After all, part of the

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fun of the spook hollow tradition is suspending disbelief, at

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least until the fire dies down. Now, let's shine our

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lantern light on a few spook hollows and the ghostly

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legends that made them famous. Many spook hollow stories hearken

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back to the early days of America, times of pioneers, pedlars,

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and peril on the frontier. Picture a weary traveling businessman

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trudging through a wooded hollow with his pack of goods

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as dusk begins to fall. He might stop at a

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lonely cabin to ask for a night's shelter and maybe

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a hot meal. Sometimes he was welcomed kindly, but sometimes

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greed or desperation led his hosts to murder the traveler

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for the money in his pack, burying his body in

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the hollow's soil, and if local legend is to be believed,

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his troubled spirit would then rise, unable to rest, haunting

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that hollow ever after. It's a narrative you'll hear in

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various forms from New England to the Deep South, but

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nowhere was it embraced more than an Appalachia. As one

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folklorist noted, West Virginia folklore is full of ghost stories

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involving murdered pedlars who were killed for their money. Change

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the state and the names, and you have similar tales

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in Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and Ohio. Often the haunting takes the

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form of strange lights seen bobbing along a hollow, said

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to be the pedlar's lantern, or the sound of footsteps

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and a knock on a door that never comes. In

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some stories, the pedlar's ghost is helpful warning others away

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from the dangerous hollow, but more often it's a mournful

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presence searching for justice or the return of a stolen fortune.

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One evocative example comes from spook Hollow Farm, a small

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hallow on an old farm in West Virginia. According to legend,

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back in pioneer days, a French traveling peddler came through

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the area and he never made it out. Locals say

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he was robbed and murdered, his body hidden away in

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the woods. Although it was later discovered who committed the crime.

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Depending on the story teller, frontier justice may have been served.

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The hollow never shook its eerie reputation. People began avoiding

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the place after dark, claiming the murdered frenchman's ghost still

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wandered there, perhaps looking for his stolen possessions or for

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a proper burial. Generations later, the name spook Hollow stuck,

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a grim reminder of the crime is their proof of

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this pedlar's murder. Not really. It lives on as an

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oral tale, but ask the old timers and they'll tell

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you to steer clear of that farm lane at night

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monsieur ghost making his nightly rounds. Pennsylvania has its share

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of pedlar ghosts as well. In fact, as noted earlier,

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many Pennsylvania counties have hollows known as Spook Hollow, and

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most tie back to a ghostly pedlar legend. One such

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tale comes from Clearfield County, PA, where the road to

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Spook Hollow is spoken in hushed tones. The legend there

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isn't just about a ghostly salesman, but adds a twist

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of diabolical intrigue. Local lore says a man who lived

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near the hollow sold his soul to the devil during

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the Revolutionary War, and after cheating death in battle thanks

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to this dark pact, he returned home only to meet

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a mysterious and evil fate in that very hollow. Some

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versions say he became a miscreant, terrorizing the area until

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the devil came to collect his due. The details vary,

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but what's consistent is that the hollow gained a reputation

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for uncanny happenings. Travelers horses would shy refuse to go

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down the road, Strange apparitions were reported, and eventually folks

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just avoided the area altogether. The name spook Hollow took

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hold because, as one account put it, even the bravest

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men quickened their pace when passing through, just in case. Today,

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it's hard to separate fact from fiction in Clearfield spook

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Hollow tale. There is no written record of a soul

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selling soldier, for instance, but the story's persistence shows how

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a bit of folklore can cast a long shadow over

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what appears to be a simple place. Not all Boullo

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ghosts are anonymous strangers, however, Some are very personal phantoms

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born of love, betrayal, and violence. A chilling example comes

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from a spook hollow near Newville, Pennsylvania. This one doesn't

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date back to colonial times, but to the early nineteen hundreds,

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and it has the juicy plot of a soap opera

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turned deadly. According to local legend, a man who lived

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in that hollow was carrying on an illicit affair, cheating

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on his wife in a secluded cabin in the woods.

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For a while, he thought he'd kept it secret, but

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of course, secrets in a small community have a way

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of coming out. When his wife discovered the infidelity, her

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reaction was explosive. Literally, one fateful day, in a fit

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of rage and heartbreak, she took up a firearm, marched

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to that very cabin, and shot dead both her husband

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and his lover. The bloody deed might have ended the

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mortal love triangle, but it was just the beginning of

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the haunting. Ever since, locals swear that on certain nights,

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the hollow echoes with phantom screams, the lingering cries of

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the pair as they were murdered. Imagine walking that lonely

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road and hearing a distant, disembodied scream filtering through the trees.

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No wonder they call it spook Collow. Now did this

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double murder actually happen? There are no confirmed records of it,

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and details like names and dates have been lost to

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time or perhaps never existed. This tale may well be

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a morality story, concocted to discourage adulterous trysts. A ghostly

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I told you so from the beyond. But spend a

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night camping in those woods with the wind moaning like

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a woman crying, and you just might start believing the

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unhappy couple's spirits are still replaying their final moments. These

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Pioneer era and early twentieth century stories illustrate how spook

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hollow legends often reflect the fears and social values of

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their time. The murdered peddler tales speak to fears of

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violence on the lawless frontier and guilt over harming and

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innocent stranger. The cheating lover murder ghost speaks to marital

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betrayal and revenge. In all cases, the hollow becomes a

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kind of mortal theater where an unresolved crime or injustice

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keeps the supernatural world in play. It's spooky fun for

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us to recount now, but back in the day such

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tales also carried warnings don't rob people or you'll be cursed,

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don't cheat on your spouse or else. Of course, as

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listeners around a campfire where ghostly here for the chills,

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not necessarily the life lessons and chills you shall have

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because our next stop is a spook hollow story that's

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less tragedy and more other worldly. For that, we have

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to travel to a quiet New York village with a

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very famous phantom. Not all ghosts in the hollow are

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frightening or vengeful. In the village of Nyack, New York,

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there's a spook Hollow story that is as much local

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history as it is ghostly lore, and its specter is

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almost a sympathetic figure. This tale takes us back over

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three hundred years to the days when the Lenni Lenape

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people lived in the Lower Hudson Valley alongside the Dutch colonists.

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One member of the Lenape to Pan tribe was a

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man named Cambowen, who became something of a local legend himself.

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Camboen was known to the Dutch settlers in the Nyak

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area as a friendly and helpful soul, a bridge between cultures.

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He spoke fluent Dutch and often assisted the early Nayakers

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with hunting, fishing, and even diplomacy. In short, he was

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well regarded and trusted by both his own people and

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the newcomers. Then one winter, Cambowen disappeared. He stayed behind

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when most of his tribe moved away from the encroaching Dutch,

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so when he vanished, people took notice. For a while,

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no one knew what became of him, but odd signs

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in the woods suggested Cambowen might still be around in spirit.

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Villagers would stumble on moccasin footprints in the snow leading

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toward his old glen, or catch the whiff of wood

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smoke from his empty hut when no living person was there.

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These eerie occurrences went on for years. Eventually the settlers

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realized that, given the passage of time, Cambowen had to

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be long dead, so what was leaving those tracks and smoke.

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The conclusion Cambowen's ghost was lingering in his beloved glen

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by the brook. The area around that brook and glen

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earned the name spook Hollow because of all the reported

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Camboen related hauntings. Remember spook is Dutch for ghost, so

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it was the Dutch settlers themselves who likely started calling

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it that. For generations afterward, people in Nyac knew that

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a certain secluded woodsy hollow just north of the Old

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Mountain Road was haunted by the friendly Native American spirit,

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but as time passed, fewer remembered the full story behind

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the name. They just knew the hollow was spooky, perhaps

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not even realizing they were echoing the old Dutch term.

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Flash forward to the late nineteenth century during development of

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the area. Human bones were discovered in a ravine near

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the brook, the remains of a man in a hard

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to reach spot. Local historians like George H. Budkey believed

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these were likely Cambowen's bones. Finally unearthed after all that time,

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it seems Cambowen's mysterious disappearance was solved centuries too late.

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He had died alone out in his glen, and in hindsight,

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folks attributed the ghostly footprints and smoke to his spirit

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keeping watch over the land. Once his body was found,

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one might hope that Cambowen rested in peace. There's even

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an anecdote that some sympathetic locals the story suggests maybe

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the nuns at a nearby retreat performed a quiet ritual

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like burning sage to honor Camboen's spirit according to his

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people's customs. Niak spook Hollo stands out because it's a

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case where the ghost story and the name of the

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place have roots in real history. Camboen was very real,

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and his presence was significant enough that his disappearance inspired

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a lasting legend. The tone of the haunting is almost

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gentle sightings of a guardian spirit, rather than a frightening ghoul.

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Nyak even embraces its supernatural heritage. The village famously had

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a legally declared haunted house in the nineteen nineties, and

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it hosts Halloween festivals every year. The Camboan tale adds

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to that mystique. As one local writer put it, Niak

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has four hundred years of recorded history, with plenty of

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time for legends, yarns, and even legally verifiable oddities to accumulate.

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Spooky stories are woven into the fabric of the community

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to day. Spook Hollow Road in Upper Nyak runs through

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that very glen by a stream, and though modern homes

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line parts of it, if you walk there on a

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quiet evening, you might still feel a Sylvan solitude that

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sets it apart. It's the kind of peace that Camboen

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apparently loved, and perhaps the reason his spirit chose to linger.

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Next time you find yourself in Niak, take a moment

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near the brook, Listen to the leaves rustle and the

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water flow, and maybe whisper a kindness to Camboen, the

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man and ghost who gave Spook Hollow its name. Not

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all ghost stories are meant to scare. Some like this

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remind us of the people who came before us, and

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the marks, scene and unseen they leave behind. Of course,

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not every spook hollow ghost is so benevolent. For a

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much more menacing hollow dweller, we must venture to the Midwest,

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where a legendary goat man and his witchy mother are

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said to lurk in the shadows of an ozark hollow.

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Deep in the forests of Phelps County, Missouri, between the

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towns of Rallagh and Saint James lies a winding county

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lane formerly known as Pine Hollow Road, but ask locals

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and they know it by a far eerier name, spoo

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Collo Road. This remote stretch leads to an old graveyard,

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the Pine Hill Cemetery, and has a reputation that would

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make any ghost hunter giddy. For decades, maybe even as

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far back as the late eighteen hundreds, people have whispered

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about a monster haunting spoo Collo. They call him the

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goat Man, and his legend is the stuff of Ozark nightmares.

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Imagine driving down a lonely Missouri road at night, dense

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woods pressing in on both sides. The only light is

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from your headlights cutting through the darkness, you pass an old,

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overgrown cemetery where the tombstones peek out from tangled weeds.

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That is Pine Hill Cemetery. Locals will warn you don't

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get out of the car, for it's said that a

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half human, half goat creature stalks these woods and the graveyard.

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According to legend, the goat man is the offspring of

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a practitioner of dark witchcraft, born to a local witch

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who worshiped Satan himself. The creature has the body of

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a hulking man, but with grotesque goat like features, horns

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curling from his head, and hoofs that leave giant, cloven

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footprints bigger than a bear's tracks in the mud. Both

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the witch the Mother and the goat Man the Sun

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are rumored to be buried in Pine Hill Cemetery, which

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perhaps is why their spirits or undead forms guard the

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place so fiercely. Those who venture in to spook Hollow

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at night report all manner of terrifying phenomena. One common

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claim is encountering phantom vehicles. You'll see headlights or hear

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an engine revving, as if a car or truck is

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suddenly barreling down the narrow road. Toward you, but then

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it vanishes without a trace. Some actually think this particular

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scare might be the work of a very human local

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man who takes pleasure in scaring trespassers and nosy thrill seekers. Indeed,

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there is talk of a dangerous resident who will chase

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you off and could be behind those ghost cars. In

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other words, in spook collo, the living can be just

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as scary as the dead. Electronics notoriously malfunction in the hollow,

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as countless visitors have attested, flashlights die and the cameras

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refuse to work when you need the most. It's as

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if the goat man carries an aura that snuffs out light,

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or maybe, as skeptics would say, the sheer fear makes

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people fumble with their gear. Photographs taken out there often

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come out inexplicably blank or distorted, adding to the lore

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that the goat man doesn't like to be photographed. If

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you're brave or foolish enough to wander off the road

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toward an old abandoned school bus rusting in the woods,

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you might see something truly unnerving. Many have reported seeing

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red glowing eyes peering from the buses hollowed interior. Some

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rationalize it as just tail lights or reflectors catching your

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very flashlight beam, or maybe a couple of raccoons eyes

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catching a shine. But in the moment, when you see

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those two crimson points light up in the dark, it

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feels exactly like the stare of a demon. Legend holds

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that a vagrant once lived and perhaps died in that

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derelict bus, and that the evil spirit of the goat

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Man sometimes hangs out there watching intruders. So when twin

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red eyes blink from the shadows, is it a ghost,

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a monster, or just an optical illusion? Hard to say

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when your heart is pounding through your chest. Of course,

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the centerpiece of the legend is the goat Man himself.

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People have claimed not only to find those oversized hoof

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prints around the cemetery, but even to glimpse a towering,

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shaggy figure with horns lurking among the trees. Hunters in

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these woods sometimes speak of hearing bizarre, bleeding roars that

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don't sound like any known animal. And then there are

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the truly harrowing stories those who disrespect the hollow or

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the graveyard, something like rowdy teenagers knocking over headstones or

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thrill seekers mocking the goat Man aloud supposedly leave with

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mysterious burns or scratch marks on their bodies. This feeds

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the notion that the goat Man, or whatever entity inhabits

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Spook Hollow actively attacks those it deems to be trespassers

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or vandals. It's the kind of tale that insures local

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kids dare each other to test it, and also ensures

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they run screaming at the first sound of a snapped twig.

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How long has this goat man been scaring Phelps County

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at least since the mid twentieth century, if not earlier.

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Some reports suggest that even soldiers stationed at nearby Fort

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Leonard Wood heard stories of a goat like monster in

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the woods, and a few claimed to have seen inexplicable

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things when driving through Spook Road late at night. One

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imaginative and likely tongue in cheek twist from a more

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modern retelling posited that perhaps the goat man was the

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result of some secret military experiment like gene splicing a

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goat and a human, But that sounds like a classic

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tall tale to spice up a ghost story. More likely,

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the goat man legend grew organically out of older Ozark

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folklore about witchcraft and protective spirits. Every region has its

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monster in the woods, and for this part of Missouri,

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goat Man became the superstar. Skeptics point out that Pine

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Hill Cemetery was a popular hangout for local teens and

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college kids over the years. What better place to test

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one's courage. So many of the phenomena can be explained

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by pranks and overactive imaginations. The phantom cars could be

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a cranky neighbor in a pickup flicking on the high

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beams to scare people off, and the failing flashlights well

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perhaps cheap batteries. The red eyes in the bus could

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just be reflectors or animals, and those scratches could be

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from brambles in the dark rather than demonic clause. But

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when you're out in spook hollow, skepticism is hard to maintain.

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The place just feels charged with an uncanny energy. As

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one paranormal sight described, visitors consiststantly report feelings of being

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watched and overwhelming unease near that old bus. It's as

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if something unseen is trailing your every step. Could it

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be the goat Man himself or the ghost of his

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00:39:20.320 --> 00:39:27.239
wicked witch mother guarding their domain. No one can say

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00:39:27.360 --> 00:39:31.519
for sure, and those who might have gotten a too

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00:39:31.679 --> 00:39:37.400
close look aren't eager to stick around for a second encounter.

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The goat Man of spook Collo is a prime example

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of how a local legend can snowball into a full

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fledged tradition. It blends ghost story, monster tale, and cautionary

408
00:39:53.199 --> 00:39:59.280
fable don't mess with graves kids into one enduring piece

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of folklore. True or not, it has put that little

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Missouri Hollow on the paranormal map. If you're ever driving

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Route sixty six through Phelps County and get the itch

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for adventure, you can detour to spook Hollow Road, But

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consider yourself warned. You may get more than a fun scare.

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In goat Man's territory. The line between playing along with

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the legend and becoming part of it can get mighty thin.

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After that harrowing journey, let's head to our final stop,

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A spook Hollow tale of tragedy and terror from my

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home state. This one combines two classic ghost motifs, a

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deadly car accident and a headless ghost looking for what

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it lost. On a quiet country back road near the

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tiny village of Oregonia, Ohio. There's an old covered bridge

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that locals avoid when they can, especially around midnight. The

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reason this bridge, which spans a creek in a sharp

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00:41:35.599 --> 00:41:40.800
bend of the road, is the centerpiece of spook Hollow

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00:41:40.920 --> 00:41:46.079
Bridge legend. It's a tale with all the makings of

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a classic campfire story, reckless teenagers, a horrific accident, and

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00:41:52.920 --> 00:42:00.719
a ghost that lingers seeking its missing piece. Let's set scene.

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Shall we Oregonia is a very small town in southwestern Ohio,

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00:42:08.000 --> 00:42:13.320
surrounded by rural farmland and woods. Not much ever, really

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00:42:13.440 --> 00:42:20.679
happens in Oregonia, except for that one tragic night many

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00:42:20.800 --> 00:42:24.760
years ago when a car full of high school students

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was out joy riding. As the story goes, a group

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of teams were speeding down the winding road one night,

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perhaps pumped full of youthful bravado and maybe a bit

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of booze, when they approached the ninety degree turn leading

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00:42:43.559 --> 00:42:48.639
on to the old covered bridge, over confident they thought

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they could handle it at high speed. They were wrong.

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The car failed to make the sharp turn, plunging off

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00:42:58.920 --> 00:43:04.880
the road and into the creek below. The wreck was disastrous.

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According to the legend, Several of the teens were killed

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in the crash, one girl suffered an especially gruesome fate.

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She was decapitated during the accident. In the chaotic aftermath,

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rescuers purportedly never found the girl's severed head, at least

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00:43:28.400 --> 00:43:33.679
not immediately. In some retellings, it was never found at all,

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which could be an embellishment to add mystery. More likely

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00:43:40.079 --> 00:43:44.920
it was found later, or that detail is pure fiction.

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Public record of the crash is scant, suggesting the lore

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00:43:50.440 --> 00:43:57.280
has overtaken the fact, But this grisly detail is crucial

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00:43:57.760 --> 00:44:02.440
to the ghost story that followed. Not long after the tragedy,

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people who visited the bridge at night began to report

451
00:44:07.880 --> 00:44:13.000
strange experiences. The most common story is that if you

452
00:44:13.079 --> 00:44:17.199
park your car on Spook Hollow Bridge at midnight and

453
00:44:17.360 --> 00:44:24.920
turn off your lights, something incredible and terrifying will happen.

454
00:44:26.440 --> 00:44:31.440
You sit there in the dark, heart pounding, daring your

455
00:44:31.480 --> 00:44:36.840
body to flash the headlights three times to summon any spirits.

456
00:44:38.199 --> 00:44:44.760
There's an expectant silence, and then bang, something hits your car.

457
00:44:45.199 --> 00:44:50.239
Hard panicked, you might think you've been struck by another vehicle,

458
00:44:51.519 --> 00:44:57.639
but there's nothing. When you look. Some swear it sounds

459
00:44:57.719 --> 00:45:01.800
like a rock thumping the trunk or a fist pounding

460
00:45:01.880 --> 00:45:06.920
on the side panel. Others say it's lighter, more like

461
00:45:06.960 --> 00:45:13.679
a pebble, or more creepily, like the sound of a

462
00:45:13.760 --> 00:45:21.119
severed head rolling onto your hood. Yes you heard that right.

463
00:45:21.920 --> 00:45:25.719
Local lore holds that the ghost of the decapitated girl

464
00:45:26.400 --> 00:45:32.599
haunts the bridge, desperately searching for her lost head. If

465
00:45:32.599 --> 00:45:35.880
you're on the bridge at the witching hour, she might

466
00:45:35.960 --> 00:45:40.320
mistake your car for the one that killed her, or

467
00:45:40.360 --> 00:45:45.960
perhaps she's trying to simply get your attention. The thud

468
00:45:46.000 --> 00:45:48.679
on the car is said to be the impact of

469
00:45:48.719 --> 00:45:53.400
her ghostly head hitting the vehicle, re enacting the moment

470
00:45:54.039 --> 00:45:58.840
it flew off in the crash. Some who have undergone

471
00:45:58.880 --> 00:46:01.880
the ritual claim to have seen in the rear view

472
00:46:02.000 --> 00:46:08.000
mirror a fleeting reflection the figure of a girl, headless,

473
00:46:08.719 --> 00:46:12.519
standing by the side of the road or wandering the

474
00:46:12.599 --> 00:46:18.519
bridge before vanishing into the night. It's the kind of

475
00:46:18.639 --> 00:46:24.360
story that college students at nearby universities love to test.

476
00:46:24.639 --> 00:46:28.719
A midnight ride out to spook Hollow Bridge to see

477
00:46:28.800 --> 00:46:35.000
if the legend is true. Many emerge with spooky anecdotes,

478
00:46:35.559 --> 00:46:39.880
helped DeLong no doubt by the power of suggestion and

479
00:46:39.960 --> 00:46:45.519
the creepiness of a covered bridge at midnight. Even those

480
00:46:45.599 --> 00:46:50.440
who experience nothing out of the ordinary often scare themselves

481
00:46:50.480 --> 00:46:55.199
silly in the process. Every little scrape of a tree

482
00:46:55.239 --> 00:46:58.840
branch on the roof or PLoP of a frog in

483
00:46:58.920 --> 00:47:05.039
the creek can send the imagination into overdrive. And if

484
00:47:05.039 --> 00:47:10.480
an acorn falls on the hood, well, that's definitely a

485
00:47:10.480 --> 00:47:16.719
ghostly head. Right. To be totally fair, there might have

486
00:47:16.800 --> 00:47:22.079
been a real accident that inspired this tale. Rural roads

487
00:47:22.159 --> 00:47:27.760
are notoriously dangerous for teen drivers, and Ohio folklore is

488
00:47:27.840 --> 00:47:32.599
full of so called cry baby bridges and gravity hill

489
00:47:32.719 --> 00:47:39.639
legends that involve phantom pushes or thumps on cars, usually

490
00:47:39.760 --> 00:47:45.000
tied to some kind of tragedy. The spook Collo Bridge

491
00:47:45.000 --> 00:47:50.280
story is basically a headless variation on those themes. It

492
00:47:50.360 --> 00:47:53.719
plays on both the guilt one might feel for a

493
00:47:53.760 --> 00:48:00.199
life cut short and the innate horror of decapitation, one

494
00:48:00.280 --> 00:48:05.719
of the ultimate taboos and fears. It also resonates with

495
00:48:05.960 --> 00:48:11.320
Washington Irving's classic the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, where the

496
00:48:11.360 --> 00:48:17.079
headless horseman throws a severed head at Ichabod Crane. Here,

497
00:48:17.360 --> 00:48:22.599
our poor ghostly girl hurls her own head or what's

498
00:48:22.719 --> 00:48:26.079
left of it at your car, as if to say,

499
00:48:26.920 --> 00:48:33.199
help me find it. Now. Have people truly seen a

500
00:48:33.239 --> 00:48:38.440
headless apparition there? It's hard to pin down a credible

501
00:48:38.480 --> 00:48:43.880
eye witness. Most accounts are friend of a friend's stories,

502
00:48:44.760 --> 00:48:51.760
but intriguingly, some older locals recall that spot had a

503
00:48:51.800 --> 00:48:59.159
reputation for being haunted even before the modern legend took shape.

504
00:48:59.320 --> 00:49:02.679
It could be that the bridge or the area itself

505
00:49:02.920 --> 00:49:07.920
was eerie to begin with. Many covered bridges are as

506
00:49:07.960 --> 00:49:13.559
they creak and echo and evoke a bygone era. The

507
00:49:13.599 --> 00:49:18.280
added tragedy just gave a concrete narrative to a free

508
00:49:18.320 --> 00:49:24.760
floating spookiness. True or not, the spook Hollow Bridge haunting

509
00:49:25.320 --> 00:49:29.920
has become part of local tradition. During the Halloween season,

510
00:49:30.480 --> 00:49:34.360
it's not uncommon to find a gaggle of cars parked

511
00:49:34.400 --> 00:49:39.239
near the bridge around midnight, their occupants working up the

512
00:49:39.360 --> 00:49:45.079
nerve to kill the headlights and summon the ghost. Usually

513
00:49:45.679 --> 00:49:49.079
all they get is the thrill of fear and a

514
00:49:49.079 --> 00:49:54.920
lot of laughter afterward at how jumpy they became. But

515
00:49:55.039 --> 00:50:01.320
every so often someone comes back convinced, convinced that the

516
00:50:01.440 --> 00:50:06.440
legend gave them a scare. They'll never forget a sudden

517
00:50:06.559 --> 00:50:10.960
thump for which they cannot account, a misty form on

518
00:50:11.039 --> 00:50:15.559
the bridge that might have been just fog, or might

519
00:50:15.599 --> 00:50:20.519
have been wearing a prom dress with no head above

520
00:50:20.639 --> 00:50:31.960
the neck. As with all these spook hollow stories, belief

521
00:50:32.239 --> 00:50:35.800
is in the eye of the beholder. If you want

522
00:50:35.840 --> 00:50:40.599
a fright, you'll probably find one. If you go looking

523
00:50:40.679 --> 00:50:47.239
to debunk, you'll find perfectly logical explanations for any noise

524
00:50:47.559 --> 00:50:53.519
or shadow. But on a dark night on that lonely

525
00:50:53.719 --> 00:50:58.840
Ohio road, with the wooden beams of the old bridge

526
00:50:58.960 --> 00:51:03.519
looming ahead, and the knowledge of what happened there in

527
00:51:03.599 --> 00:51:08.719
the back of your mind, logic can quickly give way

528
00:51:10.000 --> 00:51:15.880
to goosebumps. The headless girl of spook Hollow Bridge has

529
00:51:16.079 --> 00:51:23.039
entered Ohio's pantheon of ghostly lore, ensuring that her story,

530
00:51:23.960 --> 00:51:30.519
real or imagined, lives on each time someone retells it

531
00:51:31.320 --> 00:51:38.000
by firelight or tests it on a dare. As we

532
00:51:38.119 --> 00:51:43.320
emerge from these tales of spook hollows across America, a

533
00:51:43.400 --> 00:51:48.519
pattern comes into focus. Each story is unique to its place,

534
00:51:49.360 --> 00:51:55.079
shaped by local history, geography, and culture, yet they all

535
00:51:55.159 --> 00:52:01.440
share that deliciously creepy spirit of the case Vamphire ghost story.

536
00:52:02.719 --> 00:52:06.760
These hollows are more than just dips in the landscape,

537
00:52:07.519 --> 00:52:11.800
their vessels for our collective love of a good scare

538
00:52:12.480 --> 00:52:19.639
and a good story. Generation after generation, the legends adapt

539
00:52:19.800 --> 00:52:26.199
and persist. A peddler's ghost from eighteen hundred's Appalachia can

540
00:52:26.280 --> 00:52:29.639
inspire the theme of a haunted hay ride. In the

541
00:52:29.679 --> 00:52:35.000
two thousands, a tragic road accident in Ohio becomes a

542
00:52:35.119 --> 00:52:40.239
rite of passage dare for local teens. A Native American's

543
00:52:40.320 --> 00:52:46.280
memory is kept alive through a village's haunted lore. It's

544
00:52:46.400 --> 00:52:51.000
no surprise, then, that the idea of spook hollow has

545
00:52:51.039 --> 00:52:56.000
also made its way into modern Halloween entertainment. The most

546
00:52:56.039 --> 00:53:01.840
notable example is an Illinois Spook Hallo in Marquette Heights, Illinois,

547
00:53:02.360 --> 00:53:07.320
an annual haunted attraction that proudly bills itself as the

548
00:53:07.440 --> 00:53:13.400
longest running outdoor haunted house in the state. Every October

549
00:53:13.480 --> 00:53:18.639
since nineteen seventy nine, volunteers transform a patch of woods,

550
00:53:19.119 --> 00:53:23.840
fittingly a hollow in the landscape into a trilogy of

551
00:53:24.079 --> 00:53:29.199
terror with elaborate sets and scare actors. The very name

552
00:53:29.480 --> 00:53:34.760
spook show was chosen because it evokes that classic American

553
00:53:34.920 --> 00:53:40.679
Halloween Vibe Something Spooky in the Hollow behind the ballpark.

554
00:53:41.440 --> 00:53:47.239
A community tradition of fun frights, the event draws over

555
00:53:47.519 --> 00:53:52.119
ten thousand people each year, proving that what started as

556
00:53:52.159 --> 00:53:56.519
an old fashioned local spook trail can evolve into a

557
00:53:56.599 --> 00:54:03.559
major production without losing its homegrown charm. But you don't

558
00:54:03.639 --> 00:54:08.360
have to visit a commercial haunt to experience spook Hollow.

559
00:54:09.079 --> 00:54:12.559
You can find the real deal on many a map

560
00:54:13.199 --> 00:54:17.639
if you know where to look. By some counts, dozens

561
00:54:17.719 --> 00:54:21.840
of US states have at least one locale with the

562
00:54:21.920 --> 00:54:27.320
nickname spook Hollow or spooky Hollow. They might not all

563
00:54:27.440 --> 00:54:31.519
have well known ghost stories attached, and we skip those

564
00:54:31.639 --> 00:54:35.519
without any juicy lore, but the frequency of the name

565
00:54:35.679 --> 00:54:41.360
tells you how ingrained the idea is. America's early settlers

566
00:54:41.719 --> 00:54:45.559
and their descendants saw plenty of reasons to label a

567
00:54:45.639 --> 00:54:51.960
place haunted. Maybe a tragedy occurred there, or maybe the

568
00:54:52.039 --> 00:54:59.360
landscape itself gnarled trees, misty swamp, strange echoes gave people

569
00:54:59.519 --> 00:55:06.119
the he Bejeebi's. Once a spooky reputation takes hold, it

570
00:55:06.280 --> 00:55:12.719
tends to stick. After all, humans love a mystery, and

571
00:55:12.840 --> 00:55:16.920
what's more mysterious than a patch of dark woods where

572
00:55:17.039 --> 00:55:22.880
something might be lurking. If you find yourself traveling and

573
00:55:23.000 --> 00:55:28.079
you spot a road sign for spook Hollow Road or

574
00:55:28.920 --> 00:55:33.880
here a local refer to the old Spooky Hollow, don't

575
00:55:34.000 --> 00:55:40.000
just shrug it off. Consider asking about it, maybe in daylight.

576
00:55:40.280 --> 00:55:44.000
To be safe, you might be treated to a local

577
00:55:44.119 --> 00:55:49.079
legend that isn't in any guide book or podcast, a

578
00:55:49.199 --> 00:55:54.920
piece of living folklore. Just remember to be respectful if

579
00:55:54.960 --> 00:55:59.440
you go looking for the ghost. These places deserve caution,

580
00:56:00.400 --> 00:56:04.960
not just because of alleged spirits, but because they're often

581
00:56:05.039 --> 00:56:10.719
on private land or can be physically dangerous. Unstable bridges,

582
00:56:10.880 --> 00:56:15.559
wild animals, real life curmudgeons with shotguns, any number of

583
00:56:15.679 --> 00:56:20.519
dangers await in the end. Whether or not you believe

584
00:56:20.639 --> 00:56:25.400
in ghosts, spookalo will continue to be an American tradition

585
00:56:26.199 --> 00:56:30.559
as long as we love a good scare, and, judging

586
00:56:30.639 --> 00:56:35.079
by the thriving haunted house industry, the endless horror films

587
00:56:35.119 --> 00:56:39.920
about Backwood's terror, and the way we still delight in

588
00:56:40.000 --> 00:56:46.440
telling ghost stories myself included, that's not changing anytime soon.

589
00:56:47.679 --> 00:56:51.199
So on the next crisp autumn night, if you want

590
00:56:51.199 --> 00:56:57.280
a thrill, gather some friends, dim the lights, or better yet,

591
00:56:57.559 --> 00:57:02.280
step into the woods and spin one of these yarns.

592
00:57:03.199 --> 00:57:06.719
Tell them about the ghostly pedlar, or the goat man

593
00:57:07.199 --> 00:57:11.639
or the headless girl. Feel that shiver as the wind

594
00:57:11.800 --> 00:57:17.440
blows and the leave skidter. You'll be carrying on a

595
00:57:17.480 --> 00:57:22.559
grand tradition and keeping the spirit of spook Hollo alive

596
00:57:23.440 --> 00:57:29.719
for future generations of wide eyed listeners. Terrifying and True

597
00:57:29.760 --> 00:57:33.840
is narrated by Enrique Kuto. It's executive produced by Robfields

598
00:57:33.920 --> 00:57:37.599
and bobble Topia dot com and produced by Dan Wilder,

599
00:57:37.719 --> 00:57:40.679
with original theme music by Ray Mattis. If you have

600
00:57:40.760 --> 00:57:43.800
a story you think we should cover on Terrifying and True,

601
00:57:43.960 --> 00:57:47.840
send us an email at Weekly Spooky at gmail dot com,

602
00:57:47.880 --> 00:57:49.400
and if you want to support us for as little

603
00:57:49.400 --> 00:57:51.800
as one dollar a month, go to Weekly Spooky dot

604
00:57:51.840 --> 00:57:54.679
com slash Join. Your support for as little as one

605
00:57:54.719 --> 00:57:57.400
dollar a month keeps the show going. And speaking of

606
00:57:57.440 --> 00:57:59.119
I want to say an extra special thank you to

607
00:57:59.159 --> 00:58:02.280
our Patreon podcast boosters, folks who pay a little bit

608
00:58:02.280 --> 00:58:04.039
more to hear their name at the end of the show,

609
00:58:04.159 --> 00:58:08.000
and they are Johnny Nicks, Kate and Lulu, Jessica Fuller,

610
00:58:08.079 --> 00:58:12.239
Mike Escuey, Jenny Green, Amber Hansford, Karen we Met, Jack

611
00:58:12.320 --> 00:58:14.800
Ker and Craig Cohen. Thank you all so much, and

612
00:58:14.880 --> 00:58:17.440
thank you for listening. We'll see you all right here

613
00:58:17.559 --> 00:58:20.920
next time. On Terrifying and True