Strange stops in Pennsylvania

Creatures people keep reporting and nobody has caught.

• Cryptids40.0523° N, 76.5249° W

  Albatwitch — Chickies Rock

  West Hempfield Township, PA

  Lancaster County folklore places the Albatwitch—a roughly four-foot hairy "apple-snitch" sometimes described as a miniature Bigfoot—in the woods surrounding Chickies Rock, where stories say it stole apples and threw the cores back at picnickers. The legend has been recorded in the area for generations and now has its own annual celebration; travelers can visit its traditional territory by hiking to the public Chickies Rock Overlook.

  Access

  Seasonal or ticketed

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Stories a place tells about itself, passed down and still repeated.

• Folklore42.0304° N, 80.1530° W

  Axe Murder Hollow

  Millcreek Township, PA

  For generations, Erie-area teenagers called the woods off Thomas Road "Axe Murder Hollow," telling stories about an axe murderer and ghosts haunting the hollow. Erie Reader's archival investigation found no evidence that the legendary family massacre occurred; much of the old hollow is now residential private property, so experience the location only from public roads and **do not enter the woods or neighboring property**.

  Access

  Private land, view only

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• Folklore40.6255° N, 80.0066° W

  Blue Mist Road Trail

  Pine Township, PA

  The closed section of Irwin Road through Irwin Run Conservation Area is better known as Blue Mist Road, a longstanding Pittsburgh-area urban-legend location associated with ghosts, strange lights and a blue-tinged mist. The old road is now primarily a walking and biking trail rather than a spooky drive; the usual route is about 3.8 miles out and back, and the more sensational stories remain folklore rather than established history.

  Access

  Seasonal or ticketed

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• Folklore40.0238° N, 75.2016° W

  Cave of Kelpius

  Philadelphia, PA

  Tradition connects this stone-lined chamber in the Wissahickon to Johannes Kelpius and his seventeenth-century community of mystics, who believed the end of the world was imminent. Historians debate whether the structure was actually Kelpius's cave or a later springhouse, but visitors can reach it on foot from the public park trails.

  Access

  Seasonal or ticketed

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• Folklore39.9856° N, 78.6486° W

  Gravity Hill

  New Paris, PA

  Put the car in neutral at the marked spot on Gravity Hill Road and it rolls, slowly, in the wrong direction. The surrounding hills hide the true horizon well enough that your eyes lose the argument with the road. Bring a bottle of water to pour out and watch. There are two such stretches in the area.

  Access

  Roadside, no entry

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• Folklore40.2726° N, 79.9691° W

  Green Man's Tunnel

  South Park Township, PA

  Western Pennsylvania's Green Man legend grew from the real life of Raymond Robinson, a badly disfigured man whose nighttime walks inspired generations of frightening stories about a glowing figure called Charlie No-Face. The legend was later attached to this abandoned railroad tunnel even though Robinson did not live there; view the tunnel from the legal road or trail area and do not enter blocked infrastructure or storage areas.

  Access

  Roadside, no entry

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• Folklore40.2948° N, 78.6035° W

  Lost Children of the Alleghenies Monument

  Pavia, PA

  Brothers George and Joseph Cox disappeared from their Bedford County home in 1856 and were found dead in the mountains after a massive search, a tragedy later surrounded by stories of a local man's prophetic dreams helping locate them. A stone memorial now stands near the place they were found, reached by a rough seasonal dirt road and a short walk into State Game Lands 26.

  Access

  Seasonal or ticketed

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Hotels, theatres, prisons and back roads with a reputation.

• Haunted40.2938° N, 76.6544° W

  Auntie Mortem's Abattoir at Hersheypark Dark Nights

  Derry Township, PA

  Auntie Mortem's Abattoir is one of the walk-through haunted houses inside Hersheypark's Dark Nights Halloween event, built around a grotesque butcher-shop and slaughterhouse theme. It is not a standalone Derry Township business and can only be visited when the park's seasonal Dark Nights event is operating.

  Access

  Seasonal or ticketed

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• Haunted40.4068° N, 75.0376° W

  Black Bass Hotel

  Lumberville, PA

  The Black Bass Hotel has served travelers along the Delaware River for centuries and incorporates stories of unexplained visitors into its documented history and folklore. It remains a functioning hotel and restaurant, so travelers can visit normally without entering private guest spaces.

  Access

  Open to visitors

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• Haunted40.4563° N, 78.5642° W

  Cresson Sanatorium and Prison

  Lilly, PA

  This sprawling mountaintop complex began as a tuberculosis sanatorium, later became a state hospital and then a prison before closing in 2013. Its empty cellblocks, medical buildings and tunnels are now used for scheduled historical tours, photography and paranormal investigations; the property is controlled and should never be entered outside an authorized event.

  Access

  Seasonal or ticketed

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• Haunted39.9683° N, 75.1727° W

  Eastern State Penitentiary

  Philadelphia, PA

  Eastern State Penitentiary is a preserved 19th-century prison where visitors can explore cell blocks, prison yards and exhibits about incarceration, including Al Capone's restored cell. The historic site operates as a museum, while separate Halloween programming adds large-scale haunted attractions during the fall.

  Access

  Open to visitors

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• Haunted40.2913° N, 76.6555° W

  Estate of Evil at Hersheypark Dark Nights

  Derry Township, PA

  Estate of Evil is a haunted-house experience inside Hersheypark Dark Nights, taking visitors through a sinister mansion filled with themed rooms and live scares. It is part of the amusement park's fall event rather than a separate attraction, so access requires the appropriate Hersheypark/Dark Nights admission.

  Access

  Seasonal or ticketed

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• Haunted39.8755° N, 75.2129° W

  Fort Mifflin

  Philadelphia, PA

  Fort Mifflin is a surviving Revolutionary-era fort on the Delaware River and saw intense bombardment during the 1777 defense of Philadelphia. The historic site is open for tours and events and has also developed a major paranormal reputation involving voices, footsteps and apparitions reported in its old barracks and casemates.

  Access

  Open to visitors

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Sighting sites, crash lore and the towns that kept the file open.

• UFOs41.5699° N, 75.5034° W

  Carbondale UFO Marker

  Carbondale, PA

  A city historical marker records the November 1974 incident in which teenagers reported a glowing object flying low over Carbondale and crashing into a silt pond near Russell Park. Crowds and investigators descended on the site before a lantern was eventually recovered from the water, but the case remains a major piece of local UFO folklore and now inspires the annual Carbondalien Festival.

  Access

  Roadside, no entry

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• UFOs40.1834° N, 79.4620° W

  Kecksburg UFO Monument

  Kecksburg, PA

  Something came down in the woods here on the evening of 9 December 1965, seen across several states. Astronomers called it a meteor; witnesses described an acorn-shaped object and a military convoy. The village settled the matter its own way: the large acorn outside the volunteer fire department is a prop built for an Unsolved Mysteries episode in 1990, and it has stood there ever since.

  Access

  Roadside, no entry

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• UFOs42.1444° N, 80.1380° W

  Presque Isle Beach 6 UFO Encounter

  Erie, PA

  On July 31, 1966, witnesses stranded at Beach 6 reported a luminous metallic object descending near the beach, an incident later investigated as Project Blue Book case 10798. Beach 6 is still an ordinary public beach at Presque Isle State Park—there is no UFO monument—so the physical stop is the location associated with the documented Erie UFO story.

  Access

  Open to visitors

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Real events too strange to have made the textbook.

• Weird history41.6527° N, 78.0859° W

  Austin Dam Ruins

  Keating Township, PA

  The broken concrete walls in Austin Dam Memorial Park are the remains of the dam that failed catastrophically in 1911, sending water and debris through the valley and killing dozens of people. Visitors can walk among the enormous tilted sections of concrete and see interpretive material in the public park.

  Access

  Open to visitors

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• Weird history40.6149° N, 75.3695° W

  Bethlehem Steel Blast Furnaces at SteelStacks

  Bethlehem, PA

  Five enormous blast furnaces from the former Bethlehem Steel plant loom over the SteelStacks arts campus, preserving the scale of a company that once employed tens of thousands of workers. Visitors can view the furnaces freely from the public campus and Hoover-Mason Trestle, with guided industrial-history tours available separately.

  Access

  Open to visitors

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• Weird history40.4076° N, 79.8867° W

  Carrie Blast Furnaces

  Rankin, PA

  Carrie Furnaces 6 and 7 are surviving pieces of the enormous Homestead Works steel complex that once dominated the Monongahela Valley. Rivers of Steel preserves the furnaces and offers scheduled industrial-history tours, but visitors cannot freely enter the site outside authorized programs.

  Access

  Seasonal or ticketed

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• Weird history40.8040° N, 76.3405° W

  Centralia Mine Fire

  Centralia, PA

  A coal seam under the borough caught fire in 1962 and is still burning. Almost everyone was bought out and moved; the street grid remains, the buildings mostly do not, and steam still works its way up through the ground on cold mornings.

  Access

  Roadside, no entry

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• Weird history41.1885° N, 75.9753° W

  Concrete City

  Hanover Township, PA

  Twenty reinforced-concrete houses were built here in 1911 as experimental company housing for coal workers, then abandoned little more than a decade later. The roofless shells still stand in the woods near Nanticoke, but reaching them requires walking from the public access area and the structures are deteriorated, so do not climb unstable walls or enter restricted land.

  Access

  Seasonal or ticketed

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• Weird history41.1403° N, 75.3360° W

  Devil's Hole Ruins

  Paradise Township, PA

  Deep in State Game Lands 221 are stone fireplaces, foundations and mechanical remnants from a large building whose exact purpose remains disputed, with stories ranging from a ski lodge to a Prohibition-era speakeasy. Reaching the ruins requires a secluded hike with multiple stream crossings, and hunters use the surrounding state game lands seasonally.

  Access

  Seasonal or ticketed

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Small, specific collections run by people who care far too much.

• Museums40.1275° N, 75.4536° W

  American Treasure Tour Museum

  Upper Providence Township, PA

  The American Treasure Tour fills a huge former industrial building with automatic music machines, classic automobiles, animated store displays, advertisements and other pieces of American popular culture. Much of the collection is seen from a guided tram ride through rows of densely packed artifacts.

  Access

  Open to visitors

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• Museums40.4906° N, 78.4083° W

  Baker Mansion History Museum

  Altoona, PA

  Ironmaster Elias Baker completed this imposing Greek Revival mansion in 1849 after construction costs pushed him close to financial ruin. The Blair County Historical Society now fills the house with period rooms and regional artifacts, with public tours offered during its seasonal museum schedule.

  Access

  Seasonal or ticketed

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• Museums40.4984° N, 79.9159° W

  Bayernhof Museum

  O'Hara Township, PA

  This eccentric mansion was built by Charles Brown III and hides secret doors, concealed passages, unusual architecture and a large collection of antique automatic music machines. Tours are by advance appointment only, so this is a planned stop rather than a walk-in museum.

  Access

  Seasonal or ticketed

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• Museums40.4563° N, 80.0324° W

  Bicycle Heaven

  Pittsburgh, PA

  Bicycle Heaven combines a working bike shop with a sprawling museum packed with vintage bicycles, rare models, movie bikes and unusual cycling memorabilia. The collection fills multiple rooms and is open to visitors during posted business hours.

  Access

  Open to visitors

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• Museums40.3209° N, 79.6920° W

  Big Mac Museum

  North Huntingdon Township, PA

  This McDonald's contains a small museum devoted to the Big Mac, which was created by western Pennsylvania franchisee Jim Delligatti in 1967. Displays include memorabilia and an oversized Big Mac sculpture inside an otherwise operating restaurant.

  Access

  Open to visitors

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• Museums40.5077° N, 78.4079° W

  Castle Halloween Museum

  Altoona, PA

  More than 35,000 Halloween and macabre objects fill this private museum, ranging from nineteenth-century decorations and costumes to funeral-related pieces and modern holiday collectibles. Tours are arranged in advance rather than offered as normal daily walk-in admission.

  Access

  Seasonal or ticketed

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See all 29 museums

Giant objects, odd monuments and things built for no clear reason.

• Roadside oddities41.5117° N, 75.5741° W

  Archbald Pothole

  Archbald, PA

  A glacial waterfall drilled this enormous vertical pothole into bedrock thousands of years ago, leaving a cavity roughly large enough to hold dozens of fire trucks' worth of water. A viewing platform inside Archbald Pothole State Park lets visitors look directly into the formation during park hours.

  Access

  Open to visitors

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• Roadside oddities40.9318° N, 75.9227° W

  Beasts of Beaver Meadows

  Beaver Meadows, PA

  Dragons, dinosaurs, owls and other monsters made from concrete, scrap metal and old vehicle parts line Route 93 north of Beaver Meadows. The sculptures were created by Joseph J. Woitko and sit on private land, so they should be viewed from the road without wandering onto the property.

  Access

  Private land, view only

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• Roadside oddities40.0230° N, 78.5176° W

  Bedford Coffee Pot

  Bedford Township, PA

  Bert Koontz built this 18-foot coffee-pot-shaped building in 1927 to lure Lincoln Highway motorists into his adjacent service station and lunch business. Saved from demolition, it was moved to the Bedford County Fairgrounds and restored in 2003–04; the exterior and historical marker are always the attraction, while the interior has no dependable regular public hours.

  Access

  Roadside, no entry

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• Roadside oddities39.9524° N, 75.1657° W

  Clothespin

  Philadelphia, PA

  Claes Oldenburg installed *Clothespin* in 1976, turning an ordinary spring clothespin into monumental public art opposite Philadelphia City Hall. It stands directly above the downtown transit concourse at 15th and Market and is freely visible from the public plaza at any time.

  Access

  Open to visitors

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• Roadside oddities40.9269° N, 75.2023° W

  Columcille Megalith Park

  Bangor, PA

  This privately owned but publicly accessible sanctuary contains more than 90 large stone settings spread across more than 20 wooded acres, with most placed between 1980 and 2005. Visitors can wander several miles of rough trails from dawn to dusk for free; climbing the stones is prohibited and organized activities require permission.

  Access

  Open to visitors

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• Roadside oddities40.1192° N, 76.7092° W

  Conewago Potholes at Falmouth

  Conoy Township, PA

  When the Susquehanna River drops low enough, the exposed diabase bedrock at Conewago Falls reveals deep circular potholes, sculpted channels and ripple-like forms carved by powerful water and sediment. The formations are only safely visible at low river levels; use the public boat-launch access and never walk onto exposed river rock during high or rising water.

  Access

  Seasonal or ticketed

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See all 35 roadside oddities