Old Chestnut Grove Cemetery (Olmsted)

First of all, I had a bit of an ordeal with my visit to this place. I made it all the way down, walked around for about fifteen minutes, and only then realized that I had my camera, but not my memory card. I was determined to check this place out, so I ended up driving all the way back to Cleveland just to get my card and then return.

I would say this place is, "Referred to as Witch's Hill," but most of the people I've asked about the place have never even heard about the legend that lurks here.

Supposedly, and nobody is certain of the time period, a woman was put to death in the cemetery; death by hanging as she was accused of practicing witchcraft (insert Monty Python reference here). She was not even given a headstone, her grave was marked off with a fence and she was, quite effectively, forgotten. All that remains of the site is a faint hollow in the ground, surrounded by the barely visible remains of a long since discarded fence. I was confused, though, when I found the spot (which didn't take long at all, I knew just what to look for thanks to Dead Ohio). It was covered with a fresh pile of black dirt. It didn't appear that anything had been disturbed underneath, just that someone decided to place a mound of dirt over the spot. Could have been previous sightseers, I guess, marking the place for future visitors, but still, odd.

As far as the saying that something 'bad' will happen if you get too close to the 'witch's' grave, the only annoyance I encountered was being assaulted with acorns from the tree above. Although, I imagine that it would suck a great deal to step on one of those rusty spikes.

Old Chestnut Grove is just that, old. Many of the tombstones located here are from the early 1800's, as with many of the older cemeteries in the county of Cuyahoga. It's a gorgeous setting, literally appearing carved from the woods. There are graves everywhere, I'd even go so far as to suspect that there are even more, just without markers. Towards the back and over the hill, there are even little clearings with the graves of families. Down the trail to the left, there's a huge marker surrounded by stones that's so weathered you can't even make out where the indentations of text may have been. It's a beautiful place, and very creepy at the same time. It takes a lot to freak me out in broad daylight, but I have to say, I just wasn't feeling this place, and I'm feeling it even less as I look back on it.

The majority of the pics I got when I came back are only from the outer part and from the chain that blocks off the trail. I heard some weird animal I'd never heard before crying back in the woods and I wasn't about to become aquainted. That, and like I said, it was just damned spooky. Apparently the 'natives' use it as part of their walking routine, I probably would have had a coronary if someone walked up on me out of the blue while I was in the wooded part. I really need to look into recruiting some back up, haha.

Speaking of possibly having to make a swift getaway, I've not yet retired my favorite (not at all run-for-your-life-worthy) flats. What can I say? I'm a sucker for comfort.

Apparently, back in 1998 they had a bit of a scandal at the cemetery. A policeman had crashed his cruiser into a headstone, damages rang to the tune of about 800$. To save his skin, the police officer lied (with the help of a fellow officer) and said that someone had moved the headstone into one of the narrow driveways through the cemetery. Needless to say, the officers were found out and slapped with charges of falsification and tampering. Ah, humanity. And people wonder why I'd rather hang around a bunch of dusty, old corpses all day.