Searching for spirits in DEAD MAN'S HOLLOW
Youalmost have to hold a Halloween-themed event if you administer a conservation area named Dead Man’s Hollow.
Having been asked by people for years now, the Allegheny Land Trust is going to do it, with an Oct. 28 evening hike to explore some of its 450-acre green space in Elizabeth Township, Liberty and Lincoln and, specifically, its often lurid lore.
Local legend long has held that these wooded hills along the Youghiogheny River have been the setting for all sorts of deaths and “lots of debauchery,” says Julie Travaglini. She’s the director of the nonprofit’s education program that is leading this event along with two paranormal groups: the Ohio Paranormal Investigations Team and Cripple Crick Paranormal.
The latter, in fact, is run by her mother, Becky Travaglini, who’s been really into spooky subject matter like this for the past decade. She and the other investigators will be looking for communicative spirits among the ruins of a sewage pipe factory that burned down in 1924. “We just want to see if anything is there.”
Whatever you think of such phenomena, you can’t say they’re not looking for them in a promising place. Based on sources, including a 2003 book, “Dead Man’s Hollow: An Oral History and More,” by then-local author Karen Frank, the Land Trust has included in its management plan a number of stories about people who supposedly died here.
As marketing communications director Lindsay Dill says, some are more substantiated than others. For instance, the name of the place is said to have originated in the 1870s when a group of boys happened upon a body hanging from a noose in a tree, but that story is not supported by documented fact.
However, it is true that a man was crushed to death in 1905 by an elevator as he was leaving work at the Union Sewer Pipe Co.
Julie Travaglini says it is also true that two women drowned after their boat capsized in the river here. “Those are three for sure reported deaths in the hollow.”
True or not, there are some other great tales, including one about a store owner gunned down by robbers after he chased them into the hollow. It ends with the hanging of the man convicted of that crime, who denied it to the end, with his last words being, “Goodbye, murderers, goodbye.” Another tells of four stone quarry workers who died when they tried to warm up their frozen explosives by a fire. There’s even a story about 30- to 40-foot-long resident snake. (That tale/tail may
have been made up by moonshiners wanting to keep people away from their stills.)
Whatever the case, some locals will tell you, and proudly, that the hollow is home to a ghost or ghosts.
If there are spirits there, Melissa Rhodes Hornbeck says she and her East Liverpool, Ohio, paranormal investigators should be able to help attendees see and hear them via their electromagnetic field detectors, cameras and recorders. “As active as I hear it is there, I think the group will be leaving there happy.”
Due to the sometimes gory subject matter, this hike is for adults only, but Julie Travaglini says she’s already planning to add a family friendly one for next Halloween season.
They have room only for 30 on the Oct. 28 walk, which will be relatively short and flat, starting at the Boston Ballfield Park. Most of the walk will be on the bike trail and the trust’s short Ruins Trail. It starts at 5 and goes to 7:30 p.m.
If you’re brave enough, you also can take your own hike on the 8-plus miles of trails in the park, which is open daily from dawn to dusk. Learn more and find a map, at http://alleghenylandtrust.org/green-space/ dead-mans-hollow.
Ms. Dill says that programming such as the Halloween hike supports the trust’s mission of protecting green space for the public to enjoy and learn from. “History is one of those aspects that we’re often asked about,” especially at this park, where the group is continuing to develop more trails and otherwise, ironically, add new life. “We see history, and Dead Man’s Hollow’s history, as a way to engage people in the land.”