Helltown is one of the most legendary areas of Ohio. Hundreds of legends surround the abandoned town, from ghosts to Satanic cults to chemical spills to mutants and more. It wasn’t always called Helltown and that is not its official name. The area is officially known as Boston Mills in Summit County. Settled in 1806, it is the oldest village in Summit County. In 1974, President Ford signed a legislation that allowed the National Parks Service to claim eminent domain over Boston Mills and take possession of the land. The idea was that they would raze the town and turn the area into a national park. Residents had to leave immediately, leading to graffiti that read “Now we know how the Indians felt.” However, the government being the government, they didn’t really get around to knocking down all the structures, so many streets would contain rows and rows of abandoned homes with “No Trespassing” signs, seated next to the burned-out remains of homes that had been used in fire department exercises.
With what is essentially an abandoned town, it is natural for ghost stories and legends to grow. While none have been confirmed, they are still really fun, spooky tales to share.
One common rumor involves an abandoned school bus in the woods. Stories maintain that the children in the bus were slaughtered by a serial killer, mental patient, or Satanic cult (depending on who you ask. In reality, the bus was used as a temporary shelter for a family whose house was undergoing renovations. It was not uncommon for vehicles and machinery that was no longer working to be left behind when residents left.
Another rumor maintains that the area was the site of a toxic chemical spill. The National Park story was just a ruse to cover up the abandoned houses and rumors of mutants living in the woods, including a monstrous snake nicknamed “Peninsula Python.”
Other popular legends suggest that two of the churches in town are used as meeting places for Satanic cults, home to ghosts that leave candles burning all night, and a strange man (possibly the one who killed the bus load of children) lives in the basement; a ghostly figure appears on a bench at the cemetery at night, even though there is no bench in the cemetery; a man who will chase you away with a hearse if you get too close to his property (which may have been based on a real resident who brought out a hearse on Halloween); and a road that leads to the end of the world, is haunted, will terrorize you, or something to that effect.
THE LEGENDS OF HELL TOWN
The stories currently circulating regarding Hell Town are so numerous that it is almost impossible to track them all. And in many cases, the stories often intermingle. But here are some of the more well-known legends, complete with the true story behind them:
The House in the Woods
The School Bus
End of the World
Highway to Hell
The Funeral Home
Children of the Corn
Figures in the Woods
“Satanic Activity” Warnings
The government is attempting to cover up the fact that they spilled deadly chemicals in the area. These chemicals are said to have caused bizarre mutations to area residents and their children.
Stories regarding a government conspiracy refer to the area where the chemicals were spilled as either Butane Town, Mutane Town, or Mutant Town-the first two named after the chemical said to have been spilled and the latter describing the results of the spill.
But records show that there never was a chemical spill of any type in the area, by the government or anyone else. These stories were no doubt created out of the need to tell the “truth” behind the various US Government signs affixed to the abandoned buildings.
THE CEMETERY LEGEND:
“The local cemetery is haunted by a ghost that sits on a bench and stares blankly into creation.”
To begin with, The Ghosts of Ohio have no idea what it means to stare “blankly into creation”. But oddly enough, that is almost always the way the ghost is described. And despite receiving numerous e-mails and reviewing postings on the Internet, The Ghosts of Ohio have yet to come up with any further description of this alleged ghost other than it “stares blankly into creation.” You would think that an eyewitness who was close enough to see a ghost’s eyes would be able to give a better description.
There is also the fact that the “blankly into creation” quote appears on a popular ghost Web site. This leads The Ghosts of Ohio to believe that many visitors to the Web site are reading the legend and passing it along verbatim.
The home to this spirit is said to be Boston Cemetery. And while people still continue to report seeing this ghost sitting on a bench in the cemetery, there’s one major problem: there are NO benches in Boston Cemetery.
“The trees in the cemetery move”
This legend is another one that appears verbatim on a large number of Web sites. And again, no additional information is ever given. However, one e-mail The Ghosts of Ohio received said the trees were the work of a “Satanic cult” that caused the trees move in order to protect the cult’s secrets.
Needless to say, there’s nothing to this legend, although it did lend itself to a lot of sarcastic comments (“sure the trees move-whenever it’s windy”).
The cemetery is a dark, foreboding place that sits atop a cliff:
•”The cemetery is possibly the creepiest place in northern Ohio.”
•”The cemetery road winds along a cliff.”
•”You could try to drive your car up there, but odds are you’d slide down the rocky cliff on the other side.”
The vast majority of descriptions of the cemetery describe it as a spooky cemetery that sits alongside a “cliff” at the top of a huge hill. And while this is not necessarily paranormal in nature, it does add to the sense of foreboding that is said to permeate the cemetery.
Boston Cemetery does indeed sit atop a small hill. And the road is unpaved and does wind around the top of the hill. But on our last visit to the cemetery, The Ghosts of Ohio were able to make up this hill in a Honda without effort. And if we did slide off the side of the hill, we would have simply slid down through the grass. Granted, there are some trees at the bottom of the hill, but it is a far cry from the steep, rocky ravine some would have you believe.
Boston Cemetery contains the graves of a large number of children who were all killed in a bus accident.
As with any cemetery, there are children’s graves in Boston Cemetery. But none are the result of any bus crash. This legend was apparently started in an attempt to tie the cemetery to the legend of the school bus (see below).
**NOTE: Ohio cemeteries, gated or not, close at dusk. So if you are inside a cemetery after dark, you are trespassing. Due to the recent vandalism in Boston Cemetery, the area is now patrolled on a regular basis. If you are caught inside Boston Cemetery at night, you will be arrested. To put it another way: there is nothing inside Boston Cemetery worth going to jail for.
THE HOUSE IN THE WOODS
“There is an abandoned house in the woods where one light always appears in the upstairs window.”
Believe it or not, there is house in Boston Township where a light stays on all night. It’s the local hostel-a lodging house for young travelers. The light stays on in since it functions as a boarding house that accepts guests 24 hours a day.
Saying that this house is “in the woods” is debatable. For while it does sit a bit off the road, there are several signs alerting you to the fact that you are approaching the hostel and one was even placed at the end of their driveway. It seems around the time of the signs being put in place, the story of the “light in the upstairs window” shifted away from the hostel and down the road a bit to the infamous “school bus house.”
THE SCHOOL BUS
A whole busload of children were slaughtered in the woods by (choose your favorite from the list below):
•A serial killer
•A band of serial killers
•An escaped mental patient
•Several escaped mental patients
•A group of Satanists or cult members
The bus is still there, although all the seats have been removed. But sometimes (again, choose your favorite):
•The bus fills up with the ghosts of the murdered children, each one sitting in their ghostly seats.
•The ghost of a man (“the killer”) smoking a cigarette is seen at the back of the bus.
•Children’s screams and/or laughter are heard coming from inside the bus.
Locals have tried to tow the “cursed” bus away, but each time they attempted to do so, some mishaps, which often resulted in injury and even death, resulted. As a result, they decided to leave the bus there.