Helltown, Ohio

Helltown is an area in Boston Township, Summit County, Ohio, known formally as "Boston, Ohio". Local legend associates the area with Satanists and hauntings. These stories are generally considered fakelore, resulting from the empty buildings that stood as a result of a mass eminent domain seizure of homes in the area during the designation of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

History

Boston Village was founded in 1806, and apparently flourished until 1974, when a bill was passed by Gerald Ford that allowed the National Park Service to create a National Park in the county. On December 27th, the National Park service bought several houses with the intent to demolish them. The homes were boarded up and listed as property of the government, some standing for years before being demolished.

Rumors began to surface that the government was trying to conceal a chemical spill. Other people, especially tourists, did not know of the eminent domain proceedings, and mistook the empty buildings for a long-standing ghost town. Today the village remains, but some homes are boarded up- these were homes purchased by the NPS and the occupants moved out, but the park has left most of the homes intact. Some have been demolished, including a few around 2008 on Latta Lane.

Rumors of the chemical spill may have come from the NPS's toxic waste discovery in 1985, when a hiker in the park became ill after touching something coming out of some rusted drums at the abandoned Krejci Dump. The Krejci dump is a very short distance from Boston Village, just at the top of Hines Hill Road.

Legends

There are many legends regarding Helltown. The most popular ones regard satanists and an abandoned house in the middle of the woods. Others regard the Boston Cemetery and the Boston Mills Road bridge, which is believed to be a crybaby bridge.

Stanford Road

Stanford Road, nicknamed "The Highway to Hell," features prominently in Helltown's myths and legends. A steep hill and sharp dropoff on the road, leading to a barricade, is known as "The End of the World."^{[citation needed]}

Cemetery

Another popular place for legends is the Boston cemetery, which is said to be haunted. Reports claim sightings of a ghostly man, a moving tree, and grave robbers.

The School Bus

There was an abandoned school bus along Stanford Road near the End of the World that was supposedly haunted; at night a ghostly figure smoking a cigarette could be seen inside the bus. The bus has since been removed.

Satanists

Satanists have been said to practice rituals involving animal sacrifice at a Presbyterian church off of Boston Mills Road. Decorative fascia boards on the church had what appeared to be upside-down crosses carved into them. These fascia boards were removed sometime in the early to mid 2000s. It was also reported that groups of black hooded figures, apparently Satanists, tried to stop occupants passing through Boston Village at night in cars by blocking the road. More recently, the myth has included the KKK in the place of Satanists. It's also said that an escaped mental patient roams the woods at night looking for victims.

Mutants

As mentioned above, a rumor persists about the town being the site of a chemical spill or a chemical plant explosion in the area. Usually, a butane plant is the cause. This is often used to explain the local legend of the "Peninsula Python", a gigantic snake that wanders the area's woods. However, there has never been a chemical plant in the area; the "Peninsula python" myth dates back to the 1940s. There was, as mentioned above, a chemical dump a short distance from Boston Village, but no one other than the hiker was ever affected by the spill.

Popular Media

In 2008, T. Michael Conroy's independent horror film "June 9" was released. The film was shot largely around Boston and Cuyahoga Falls and is based largely on many of the legends surrounding Helltown. In the film, the name of the haunted town is Boston Mills.

References

• Gurvis, Sandra (2007). Ohio Curiosities. Globe Pequot. p. 72. ISBN 0762743441. http://books.google.com/books?id=otF3cU8kmqIC&pg=PA72&num=20. 
• Moran, Mark (2004). Weird U.S.. Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.. p. 316. ISBN 0760750432. http://books.google.com/books?id=bU9LwRjANagC&pg=PA316. 
• Summers, Ken (2006). Haunted Cuyahoga. Lulu. p. 76. ISBN 9780979106408. http://books.google.com/books?id=g69QbCizMY0C&pg=PA76. 

External links

• Helltown information
• Breakdown of the legends of Helltown
• more Helltown information