Helltown is an area in Boston Township, Summit County, Ohio, known formally as "Boston, Ohio".[1] 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.[2][3]
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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 no longer exists, as all the buildings have been destroyed due to safety issues. The only thing left is a wooded area that is blocked off to all visitors.
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, 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."
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.
Satanists have been said to practice rituals involving animal sacrifice at a Presbyterian church off of Boston Mills 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.
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 or chemical spill in the area; the "Peninsula python" myth dates back to the 1940s.[4]
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.
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