Faerie Lore and Legends

So, while on an archaeological survey project in Ohio, I investigated local myths, legends, and urban lore. One of the sites of interest to pop up on my radar was the government take-over eminent domain of a town formerly known as “Boston, Ohio”. It is now fabled in urban legend and called “Helltown.”

I dismissed visiting because, according to Atlas Obscura, all town remnants had been bulldozed and flattened; there’s nothing to see there since 2016. It would have been a 4-5 hour round-trip excursion, so I decided not to go. Plus, rumors of a toxic dump are just not something my asthmatic ass needed during a pandemic. So, it was boxed away in my mind as a lost ghost story.

Then, upon returning to the Pacific Northwest while looking for something to watch … the pseudo-documentary by the Travel channel of Series 1, episode 1: Helltown, popped up on Amazon Prime. It was free since I was subscribed to Discovery Channel, so why not? It was the Blair Witch Project in a different light: the utterly false story, narrative, and made-up mythology based on actual urban lore and legend. No more than one episode was released in 2017. I assume they took a real video of the location before the Park System razed it.

Helltown, Travel Channel’s Documentary?

In 2017, the Travel Channel released a documentary/docudrama to explore the different theories and facts around what had happened to Boston, Ohio, in 1974 and why it was called “Helltown.” It’s true that in 1974, President Ford ordered the evacuation of Boston, Ohio. No one knows why, but the official story was for the preservation of natural beauty to turn into a National Park. There was a chemical spill, but that’s all that is known. Locals claim the Wendigo ran around the site, that there was a satanic cult operating in the town, that there were mutations caused by the spill, that it was a hangout for serial killers, and that it has a crybaby bridge. None of these stories have proof of them. So what did happen?

The docudrama by the Travel Channel claimed “Boston, Ohio,” aka “Helltown,” was inhabited by the “WW” cult that worshipped the wendigo. While the government was clearing the town in the 1960s, there was a Waco-style shootout between the Feds and the cultists, leaving 14 dead. In 2016 a local teenager investigating “Helltown” was attacked on a YouTube live stream and eaten by a Wendigo. According to Snopes, none of this occurred.

The Documentary followed stories of a military cover-up of a mutation causing a chemical spill, forcing the government to evacuate the town for a clean-up and restoration. At the same time, an Irish Catholic turned Pagan turned Satanic Cult started animal sacrifices to a wendigo in the woods, and a shoot-out happened between the military and the locals, leading to death. Not to mention the story of the all too common missing kids. The Docudrama included supposed interviews, re-enactments, fake newspaper articles, fake YouTube videos, and fake professors—all hogwash and “Blair Witch Project” style shock-journalism.

The local legends

All too famous in local lore, Helltown, Zombieland, and many stories run everywhere – especially during Halloween. Every state has satanic ritual stories, as do their intriguing crybaby bridges, missing children, and mutations. There is no evidence of missing kids or Waco-style shootouts between the Feds and cult members. The Army didn’t kill locals. No bear was dead. No teenagers were attacked or eaten by said bear. These parts were created by the “Helltown” docudrama. The locals, however, pre-filming, did have their legends and ghost stories. The 20-second-long YouTube video supposedly uploaded in 2016 depicting a girl screaming amidst flashing lights was faked.

The Satanic Church

There was a local church in Boston, Ohio, that had some upside-down crosses in its architecture, belonging to a typical Gothic style. There were no Satanists operating out of the church or in the town. It was a Presbyterian Church called “The Mother of Sorrows.” It was not formerly an Irish Catholic Church, as the fake documentary dictated.

The Crybaby Bridge

Every town has them. It’s a local bridge where one claims late at night, and you can hear babies crying, either coming from the bridge itself or the nearby woods. Some claim that tiny hand prints would appear on your car windows or hood.

The Murder Bus

Before the town was demolished, there was a graffiti-laden old school bus that locals claimed housed “serial killers.” It was, however, just an abandoned bus that a local family lived in while building their home. There is no evidence of actual serial killers living there.

The End of the World

Many dark roads, especially those with ledges along them, have this nomenclature. The one in Boston, Ohio, was a steep section of Stanford Road, so it could look like someone driving it was dropping off at the “End of the World.”

Mutations

Because the local Krejci Dump was known to have chemical contamination, numerous stories flooded the area with tales of mutated giant frogs, the Wendigo, mutated glowing people that were zombie-like, or glowing head creatures wandering the woods. The dump is genuine. The chemical spill was a problem. The National Park bought the landfill for their waste, but local rangers got sick and suffered chemical burns due to the heavy metals and chemicals in the ground. It was closed and cleaned up by 2015 after it was declared a Superfund site.

The Wendigo of Boston, Ohio

The local Algonquin tribes did have lore about a humanoid creature with deer antlers that would eat humans. The creature lives around the Great Lakes and/or Nova Scotia. However, there has been no scientific documentation of its existence nor real records of sightings in this area outside of what the docudrama claimed.

Real History:

The area’s original inhabitants were the Delaware or Lenape people, an Algonquin tribe known as the Mingo, who had a village next to Clear Creek in Ohio. There was bloodshed between the Euro-American settlers and the local Native Americans, and it was quieted with the Treaty Of Easton. They left in 1755. The settlement was re-founded in the 1770s by the Lenape and was called “Clear Town” after the “Clear Creek” it was established. Some claim that the German word for “Clear” is “hell” and it was nicknamed “Helltown”.

They abandoned the village in 1782 after struggles with Euro-Americans and Colonial American troops. The Gnadenhutten Massacre of 1782 occurred, killing 96 Lenape. After the bloodshed in 1782, the village was abandoned as it supposedly sits along a battle trail that stretched from Sandusky through the Cuyahoga River valley. After struggles vanished, Euro-American homesteaders settled the area and built the town of “Boston, Ohio”. According to archaeologists, in the late 19th century, the village was a high mound composed of sandstone rocks and packed earth. Supposedly, Lenape graves were buried there, but a local farmer plowed over them in 1881. The only artifacts recovered were an iron tomahawk, two iron knives, stone arrowheads, a stone ax, a gunflint, and some brass mountings from a musket.

The town was named after its township and officially settled by Euro-Americans in 1820. In 1821, it was home to a sawmill called Boston Mills. A post office was established in 1825 and remained in operation until 1957.

Congress passed Public Law 93-555 in 1974, permitting the U.S. Government to establish the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area. The government purchased the town of Boston and relocated its residents out of the area. This eminent domain action condemned hundreds of homes and businesses, closing the town of Boston. After clearing the town, the Government fell behind on the development of the National Park. This left the area a ghost town with abandoned buildings and empty streets.

Locals came up with their conspiracy theories, claiming the government felt the site was haunted, a wendigo was killing people, serial killers were hiding in the area, and a toxic spill was causing mutations. The government demolished the last structures in 2016. President Gerald Ford claimed the area needed to be turned into a National Park to preserve the environment, taking large swaths of land surrounding Boston, Ohio. However, while by 2016, they finally demolished all remnants of the town, they didn’t turn it into a park for over half a century after taking it from its residents. The U.S. government took it from the indigenous tribes and then took it from its people.

Visiting Helltown

According to Atlas Obscura, nothing exists in Boston, Ohio. It is, however, in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and, therefore, easy to visit, though there is nothing to see. It is in the Boston Township just west of Brandywine Falls. Travel to Brandywine Falls, exit 271, and find the “road closed” sign.

Bibliography/Recommended Readings:

• Atlas Obscura 2019 “Helltown, Ohio”: visited 5/19/21.
• Case, H.B. “Description of Mounds and Earthworks in Ashland County, Ohio.” In Miscellaneous Papers Relating to Anthropology. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1883. p. 74.
• Didymus, John Thomas 2019 “Is Helltown Real or Fake? Was Ohio Teenage Girl Killed in Wendigo Attack?” Monsters and Critics 23 September 2019.
• Evon, Dan 2019 “Does Helltown Film Document Weird Happenings in Abandoned Ohio Town?” SNOPES. Website referenced: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/helltown-document-real-events/ on 5/19/21
• IMDB 2017 Helltown, Season 1, Episode 1 viewed on Amazon Prime.
• Urbex Underground n.d. “The Actual Truth About Helltown Ohio”. Website referenced 5/19/21: https://urbexunderground.com/helltown-ohio/