Everything OddWay knows about. Narrow it down by what you're after, or where you're going.
Stories a place tells about itself, passed down and still repeated.
Sarah Ann, WV
Hatfield clan patriarch Anderson “Devil Anse” Hatfield is buried in the family cemetery beneath a life-size marble statue imported from Italy. The cemetery is publicly visited as part of Hatfield-McCoy heritage tourism, but reaching the graves requires a steep climb and visitors should use care on the slope.
Camden, OH
This rocky cliff along Paint Creek has been called the Devil's Backbone since at least 1877 and has accumulated stories involving Bigfoot, hidden mines, missing skunks and a supposed curse. A Legends & Lore marker now stands at Herbert & Patricia Wagers Memorial Park, where visitors can also use the public walking and hiking trails.
Dundee, IA
The narrow rock spine that gave Backbone State Park its name forms a dramatic ridge above the Maquoketa River. Its devil-themed name and unusually rugged terrain make it a natural OddWay stop within the larger park.
Cassadaga, FL
Cemetery bench surrounded by local legends claiming the Devil visits those who sit there at midnight.
North Kingstown, RI
Three unusual impressions in this roadside rock have long been explained through local folklore as footprints left by the Devil. Versions of the story vary, but the marks turned an otherwise ordinary boulder into a persistent Rhode Island legend. View from a safe lawful roadside area and do not enter neighboring private property.
Manchester, ME
A large foot-shaped depression in a boulder beside the North Manchester Meeting House has long been explained through local stories involving the Devil. The stone sits near the cemetery and can be viewed without wandering onto unrelated private property.
Garretson, SD
Local tradition claims Jesse James escaped a pursuing posse by jumping his horse across this quartzite gorge after the 1876 Northfield bank raid. Historians dispute the dramatic leap, but the named chasm and its long-running legend remain firmly embedded in regional folklore.
East Haddam, CT
Chapman Falls tumbles over bedrock pocked with near-cylindrical holes. Early folklore claimed the Devil made those holes with his burning hooves after getting his tail wet, while geology explains them as potholes ground out by stones spinning in river eddies. The state park is open daily.
Cleveland, SC
A narrow passage splits a massive rock formation near the Caesars Head overlook. Local legend claims the Devil accidentally carved the opening after burning his dinner and angrily stomping on the rock, while geology offers a less supernatural explanation.
Alpine, NJ
This stone tower was built in the early twentieth century as part of an estate near the Palisades. Local legend claims the ghost of the owner's wife haunts the tower and that driving around it backward can summon her, but the structure is on private property and should only be viewed from the public road.
Bear Creek, NC
A nearly circular patch of bare earth in the woods has carried a sinister reputation for generations. Folklore claims the Devil walks the circle at night and that objects placed inside may be moved or disturbed. The supernatural story is legend, but the strange clearing itself is a long-running North Carolina curiosity.
Bernards Township, NJ
A solitary oak in a public park has accumulated stories involving curses, unexplained warmth and supposed hangings. Historical evidence does not support many of the more sensational claims, but the tree remains one of New Jersey's best-known pieces of local supernatural folklore.
Covington, KY
Stop on Devou Park, put the car in neutral, and it appears to roll uphill. The slope is an illusion — the surrounding land hides the true horizon, so a gentle descent reads as a climb — which has never once stopped anyone trying it with a bottle of water. A public road, so pull over sensibly and watch for traffic.
Berkley, MA
A roughly 40-ton boulder covered with carved symbols has inspired competing theories involving Indigenous people, Norse explorers, Portuguese navigators and other proposed creators. The rock was removed from the riverbed and placed inside a small museum at Dighton Rock State Park for preservation.
Rye, NH
At sufficiently low tide, ancient tree stumps and root systems appear along the shore near Odiorne Point, remnants of a forest drowned as sea level changed thousands of years ago. The exposed wood creates the eerie impression of a forest floor emerging from the ocean. Visibility depends on tide and conditions, so this is not guaranteed on every visit. Secondary source: https://www.nhmagazine.com/explore-nhs-drowned-forest/
Narragansett, RI
Near Gibson Avenue Cemetery is a collection of stone features known as the Druid's Chair, stone circle and, in some accounts, the "witches' altar." Rhode Island cemetery records attribute the unusual landscaping to eccentric spiritualist Joseph Peace Hazard in the late nineteenth century rather than an ancient ritual site. The area can be overgrown and should be approached only through lawful cemetery access. Secondary source: https://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/38961
Dummerston, VT
A nineteenth-century legend blamed the deaths of several members of the Spaulding family on a cursed vine creeping through their cemetery plot. The story likely grew from tuberculosis deaths, but the row of family graves in Dummerston Center Cemetery remains the physical location connected with the tale.
Wheatfield, IN
This unusual steel bridge over the Kankakee River carries a persistent local story that some of its metal came from the original 1893 Chicago World's Fair Ferris wheel. The bridge itself is real and historically significant, while the Ferris-wheel connection is best treated as legend rather than settled fact.
Dyer, AR
Stop on just outside Dyer, near Alma, put the car in neutral, and it appears to roll uphill. The slope is an illusion — the surrounding land hides the true horizon, so a gentle descent reads as a climb — which has never once stopped anyone trying it with a bottle of water. A public road, so pull over sensibly and watch for traffic.
Clinton Falls, IN
The 1922 Edna Collins Covered Bridge crosses Little Walnut Creek and carries one of Putnam County's persistent ghost stories. Local legend tells of a girl named Edna who would wait for her parents to honk three times at the bridge and is now supposedly connected to unexplained sounds and sightings around the structure.
Tucson, AZ
This small adobe shrine is dedicated to a figure remembered through several conflicting tragic legends and is famous for candles, notes and wishes left by visitors. It is a functioning community devotional site, so OddWay should emphasize respectful behavior rather than paranormal spectacle.
Baltimore, MD
Elijah Bond patented the talking board that would become the Ouija board in 1891. His grave in Green Mount Cemetery was unmarked for decades until researchers installed a new headstone in 2008 with a full Ouija board carved into its reverse side; visit only during cemetery hours.
Fredericksburg, TX
A gigantic pink-granite dome tied to Indigenous stories, strange nighttime sounds and generations of Texas folklore.
Esperance, NY
Local legend tells of a widowed French woman accused of witchcraft by neighboring settlers during the nineteenth century. The story claims she was eventually shot through her window with a silver bullet and buried beneath a pine tree so she could not return, and a Legends & Lore marker now preserves the tale along Route 20.
