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1000 results for “tales_to”
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Frosty Kingdom Land of Ice and Magic
The enchanted moonlight blesses the realm of ice, where the mighty Snow King and his ice golems reside Explore this wintry land and discover fairy tales come to life
See More Seeds: https://aidyslexic.raupulus.dev/collections/show/1706#StableDiffusion #ai #ArtificialIntelligence #Mythology #Art #Fantasy #Winter #Snow #Frost #Ice #Golems #Snow-King #Magical #Realm
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It's time again for a globetrotting minisode, wherein Pooka skims through the rare German-only supplement Trolle, Träumer, Tiefe Wälder, which details Germany for Changeling. Local tales come to life and the wolpertinger stir in this curious book. Not much of this has made it into the game's more recent canon, but as historical oddities go, it still seemed worthy of discussion... 🇩🇪
Hören Sie ab: https://changelingthepodcast.com/podcast/episode-71-5-trolle-traumer-tiefe-walder/
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The Creating for #Daredevil panel with @annienocenti and @JrRomita. We talked about how bars, dentists and NY Newsday contributed to tales of Hell's Kitchen. And I got to see how a water bottle can project super villain patterns on my face. From #galaxyconrichmond. https://t.co/vBKgd4EQjs
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The Creating for #Daredevil panel with @annienocenti and @JrRomita. We talked about how bars, dentists and NY Newsday contributed to tales of Hell's Kitchen. And I got to see how a water bottle can project super villain patterns on my face. From #galaxyconrichmond. https://t.co/vBKgd4EQjs
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A Mirror Mended by Alix Harrow 👑 In this A Spindle Splintered sequel Zinnia's surfing through Sleeping Beauty stories problemsolving when she encounters an unnamed Evil Queen in a mirror and her understanding of fairy tales starts to change https://www.librarything.com/work/27144082/ #QueerSFF2022
#Booktodon #WLWbooks @bookstodon -
Fairies of Northern Appalachia: Cover reveal!
I’m so excited to reveal the cover for my next book, Fairies of Northern Appalachia: A History of the Little People of the Mountains, which covers fairy stories and beliefs from Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky.
I thought John Anster Fitzgerald’s painting “The Fairies’ Favourite” was the perfect cover for this book, because it captures something of the diversity and strangeness of the fairies that occupy Appalachian stories. I also like the fact that the cover seems to depict a fairy queen wearing a crown (can you find her?) because my book contains a couple of stories about “fairy queens”—from both eastern Kentucky and Pennsylvania.
Here is the cover and back cover in full:
Book overview
Join Andrew Warburton, author of New York Fairies and New England Fairies, as he explores the deep, but often overlooked, roots of fairy lore in the mist-shrouded mountains of Northern Appalachia.
The magic of Old World folklore lingers in Northern Appalachia’s hills and hollers. From banshees to tommyknockers to mischievous elves, myriad fairy spirits populate the stories of the region’s mountain folk. The Little Hunchbacked Man who dwelled in corners of Pennsylvania Dutch homes. Pixies whose knocking warned of explosions in West Virginia’s mines. A red-haired fairy whose magical arrows tormented the Scots Irish of Kentucky’s Cumberland Mountains.
In this vivid and well-researched history, Andrew Warburton gathers the region’s forgotten fairy stories―from tales about “ancient pygmies” in Ohio to a psychiatrist’s account of photographing fairies in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley.The contents are as follows:
- Introduction
- 1. German Fairies: Influence of Pennsylvania Dutch folklore.
- 2. Irish Fairies: Influence of Scots-Irish settlers.
- 3. Underground Fairies: Tales of “tommyknockers” and mining spirits.
- 4. Virginia’s Fairy Stone Park: Legends behind the famous staurolite stones.
- 5. Fairies by Other Names: Regional variations of little people.
- 6. Appalachian Pygmies: Legends of ancient, small inhabitants in Ohio and throughout Appalachia.
- 7. Modern Fairy Stories: Accounts and sightings in the modern era.
- A Glossary of Northern Appalachian Fairies
- Bibliography
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📖 Tevye the Dairyman & Motl the Cantor's Son 📚
As a big fan of Fiddler on the Roof, I decided I should read the original Tevye stories. First published in 1894, Tevye 'tells' Aleichem the tales of his family, focusing on six of his seven daughters, Tzeitel, Chava, Hodel, Shprintze, Taybele, and Bielke. I was surprised by how different these tales proved to be from musical.
But the highlight here is the delightful adventures of the 'orphan' Motl in Aleichem's unfinished novel Motl and the Cantor's Son. These tales take us on the journey from poverty in the Shtetl, across Europe to the promise land of America. Motls' take on life is endearing and funny. I am amazed that these stories have never made it to film!#tevyethedairyman #motlthecantorsson #shalomaleichem #fiddlerontheroof #tevye #tevyeandhisdaughters #books #book #mybookshelf #mybooklist #reading #booklist #readinglist #livre #buch #libro #libros #novel #novela #livres #bücher #judaica #shtetllife #shtetl
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📖 Tevye the Dairyman & Motl the Cantor's Son 📚
As a big fan of Fiddler on the Roof, I decided I should read the original Tevye stories. First published in 1894, Tevye 'tells' Aleichem the tales of his family, focusing on six of his seven daughters, Tzeitel, Chava, Hodel, Shprintze, Taybele, and Bielke. I was surprised by how different these tales proved to be from musical.
But the highlight here is the delightful adventures of the 'orphan' Motl in Aleichem's unfinished novel Motl and the Cantor's Son. These tales take us on the journey from poverty in the Shtetl, across Europe to the promise land of America. Motls' take on life is endearing and funny. I am amazed that these stories have never made it to film!#tevyethedairyman #motlthecantorsson #shalomaleichem #fiddlerontheroof #tevye #tevyeandhisdaughters #books #book #mybookshelf #mybooklist #reading #booklist #readinglist #livre #buch #libro #libros #novel #novela #livres #bücher #judaica #shtetllife #shtetl
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📖 Tevye the Dairyman & Motl the Cantor's Son 📚
As a big fan of Fiddler on the Roof, I decided I should read the original Tevye stories. First published in 1894, Tevye 'tells' Aleichem the tales of his family, focusing on six of his seven daughters, Tzeitel, Chava, Hodel, Shprintze, Taybele, and Bielke. I was surprised by how different these tales proved to be from musical.
But the highlight here is the delightful adventures of the 'orphan' Motl in Aleichem's unfinished novel Motl and the Cantor's Son. These tales take us on the journey from poverty in the Shtetl, across Europe to the promise land of America. Motls' take on life is endearing and funny. I am amazed that these stories have never made it to film!#tevyethedairyman #motlthecantorsson #shalomaleichem #fiddlerontheroof #tevye #tevyeandhisdaughters #books #book #mybookshelf #mybooklist #reading #booklist #readinglist #livre #buch #libro #libros #novel #novela #livres #bücher #judaica #shtetllife #shtetl
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📖 Tevye the Dairyman & Motl the Cantor's Son 📚
As a big fan of Fiddler on the Roof, I decided I should read the original Tevye stories. First published in 1894, Tevye 'tells' Aleichem the tales of his family, focusing on six of his seven daughters, Tzeitel, Chava, Hodel, Shprintze, Taybele, and Bielke. I was surprised by how different these tales proved to be from musical.
But the highlight here is the delightful adventures of the 'orphan' Motl in Aleichem's unfinished novel Motl and the Cantor's Son. These tales take us on the journey from poverty in the Shtetl, across Europe to the promise land of America. Motls' take on life is endearing and funny. I am amazed that these stories have never made it to film!#tevyethedairyman #motlthecantorsson #shalomaleichem #fiddlerontheroof #tevye #tevyeandhisdaughters #books #book #mybookshelf #mybooklist #reading #booklist #readinglist #livre #buch #libro #libros #novel #novela #livres #bücher #judaica #shtetllife #shtetl
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📖 Tevye the Dairyman & Motl the Cantor's Son 📚
As a big fan of Fiddler on the Roof, I decided I should read the original Tevye stories. First published in 1894, Tevye 'tells' Aleichem the tales of his family, focusing on six of his seven daughters, Tzeitel, Chava, Hodel, Shprintze, Taybele, and Bielke. I was surprised by how different these tales proved to be from musical.
But the highlight here is the delightful adventures of the 'orphan' Motl in Aleichem's unfinished novel Motl and the Cantor's Son. These tales take us on the journey from poverty in the Shtetl, across Europe to the promise land of America. Motls' take on life is endearing and funny. I am amazed that these stories have never made it to film!#tevyethedairyman #motlthecantorsson #shalomaleichem #fiddlerontheroof #tevye #tevyeandhisdaughters #books #book #mybookshelf #mybooklist #reading #booklist #readinglist #livre #buch #libro #libros #novel #novela #livres #bücher #judaica #shtetllife #shtetl
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Gravity Roads, Magnetic Hills, and Mystery SpotsAround the world, there are areas that have gained a reputation for being strange and mysterious because gravity appears to not work the same there as it does in an ordinary environment. Such “mystery hills” or “mystery spots” attract visitors and scientists who wish to experience the effect for themselves: up appears to be down, level ground is askew. The local tales attempt to explain the disorientation as resulting from a gravity anomaly, a deposit of iron or igneous rock that generates a magnetic field, a space-time disruption, or even invoke paranormal entities, aliens or secret technology. Is it true that these baffling mysteries require scientists to rewrite physics? Should people and animals avoid such bizarre places? The answers are surprisingly available and forthright, but they are displaced by the dramatic legends.
Gravity Roads and Mystery Hills
Hundreds of places known as Gravity Hill, Magnetic Hill, or Spook Hill (or similar names invoking confusion or wonder) exist around the world. These are low-traffic roadways in the countryside where, if you stop and put your car in neutral, it appears to roll uphill. Or, a ball placed on the surface will move in the opposite expected direction. Water appears to flows against gravity. Gravity Hill is a location promoted by the Bedford County tourism board in Pennsylvania. It is one of many “strange slopes” around the world where an observer visually perceives an apparent slope based on surrounding cues. Objects moving under gravity alone appear to travel in the unexpected direction – startling observation that freaks people out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgO6QPEt4mo
Wikipedia has a list of many of these places, at least the ones that have been marketed to the public to check out and experience for yourself. The U.S. has the most locations, possibly because this version of Wikipedia is in English. Or, more likely, mystery hills are very much an American phenomenon associated with leisure car driving that has been popularized for several decades. On pleasant weather weekends, these mystery hills will be busy with cars in a line having a go at defying gravity or, as the local stories suggest, experiencing a magnetic or mysterious force pulling the vehicles uphill. Mystery hills are never in an urban area but are narrow, almost straight, paved roads located in hilly landscapes. They are frequently demarcated by paint lines on the roadway that signal where to stop and put the car in neutral. Or, signage indicates instructions.
Straws Lane Gravity Hill in Victoria, Australia.Gravity Hill in Wisconsin also suggests defiance of gravity.Magnetic Hill, Ladahk Indian suggests you defy gravity.Signs and instructions in Ladahk, Indian show people exactly how to experience the effect.Confusion Hill in Northern California was a popular mystery spot.The media loves stories about mystery hills and frequently promote misinformation about them. Tourist sites highlight mystery hills for a worthwhile visit. News outlets often mention that some scientists are looking into solving the “mystery” of the site but such scientists mentioned often seem incongruously ignorant of basic physics and geology.
In 2010, at Kalo Dungar in Kutch, Gujarat, India, locals noticed that their cars appeared to roll down the scenic hill at startling speeds – 80 kmph – without a discernable cause. Speculation arose that an undocumented magnetic effect was pulling the cars down the hill. A team of experts from the Gujarat State Disaster Management was called in to study the phenomenon. A study later completed confirmed that the steep slope was the sole cause of the acceleration. No magnetic forces were needed.
Why would magnets be invoked at all to explain these mystery hills at all? Magnetic forces do not work on non-metallic substances so a magnetic force has no effect on water or plastic balls that appear to roll uphill. A magnetic effect would be easily noticeable and measurable, not hidden. But, most people aren’t all that clear how magnetics work.
At Magnetic Hill on the Isle of Man in the UK, if the magnetism from local iron deposits isn’t the cause, it’s the little people (fairies) that push the cars uphill. In other places, it’s ghosts. It’s difficult to keep count of the many stories that explain the anomalously moving cars as the product of ghostly hands at work. The stories sometimes relate that those who died from an accident on that very spot are pushing your car to safety so you don’t suffer their fate. Alternately, the ghosts of those who perished at a nearby spot might supposedly pull cars towards them for help. Spook Hill in Lake Wales, Florida promotes the legend of a Seminole chief who was killed in a battle with an alligator and was buried alongside what later became the “haunted” road. But that’s not the only ghostly tale there! A dead pirate buried at the foot of Spook Hill was said to come out and move cars that parked on his grave. Ghost children will push your car off railroad tracks in San Antonio or out of harm’s way in Lewisberry, PA. To be clear, there were no documented accidents as described in these locations but the story persists.
The truth of mystery hills is well-known to be an optical illusion. Scientific experts in visual perception confirmed that the brain is guided by spatial frames of reference we see. When those frames are missing or askew, we get confused and things feel odd. Situated in hilly surroundings, the horizon is obscured on the straight stretch of a gravity hill road, so we lose our horizontal reference and instead use local cues to judge slopes, which can be misleading because there aren’t many. Trees or walls in the surrounding area may be off-vertical making a downslope look like it is level or inclined upwards. Several scientific papers demonstrated this effect of visual illusions.
As with Gravity Hill in Pennsylvania, a slight downward stretch between two strongly downward stretches can be perceived as uphill or horizontal. Or, the apparent slope is opposite to the actual slope. Use of a level will confirm the correct inclination. Maps will clearly show the topography. The measurements have been checked, the elevations are not out of whack, water doesn’t really flow uphill, but your eyes will definitely fool you. The often remote locations and lack of structures for horizontal reference increase the eerieness of the mystery hills. The illusion is so convincing, it’s difficult for people to believe it, so they feel the need to invoke more dramatic explanations. They draw on their ideas of pulling from gravity or magnets instead. And they may believe the exotic sciencey-sounding explanations related to an underground geological cause (that they can’t see or confirm). Or, they want to believe in ghost stories or anti-gravity mumbo-jumbo.
Measuring slope on Gravity Hill near Los Angeles, CA (IIG West)Mystery Spots
When I was a kid, the local amusement park had a “crooked shack” that was constructed at odd angles so that when you walked through it, you were disoriented and confused but it was highly amusing. Many more of these crooked shacks exist as tourist traps across the world. They are variously described as being located above a gravity anomaly or in an energy “vortex” where space-time does not behave. A “vortex” (used in the paranormal sense), like the famous “vortex” areas in Oregon, Montana, and Sedona, AZ, as well as geographically legendary “vile vortices” such as the Bermuda Triangle and the Devil’s Sea, have been characterized by sciencey-sounding proponents as locations where some wild earth energy thing creates extraordinary observations. They are often linked to nodes of ley lines, alien charging stations, giant underground machinery, and wacky alternative physics.
You’ll have to pay to visit most crooked shack “mystery spots”. A famous one is in Santa Cruz, California. The tour guides say the “gravity house” is the product of a circular anomaly about 150 feet (46m) in diameter where gravity misbehaves. Here is a ridiculous attempt at an explanation from their website:
Some speculate that cones of metal were secretly brought here and buried in our earth as guidance systems for their spacecraft. Some think that it is in fact the spacecraft itself buried deep within the ground. Other theories include carbon dioxide permeating from the earth, a hole in the ozone layer, a magma vortex, the highest dielectric biocosmic radiation known anywhere in the world, and radiesthesia. Whatever the cause is, it remains a mystery.
The Mystery Spot (Santa Cruz)*SPOILERS* No, it's no mystery. That's a whole lotta bullshit in one paragraph.
The Santa Cruz Mystery Spot was listed as a California Historical Landmark (#1055) on August 22, 2014. It was not listed because of its natural wonder, though. It was notable as the first (1941) and most significant “tilt-box” or “gravity house” roadside attraction in California. It was certainly not the last. These types of tourist spots became popular in the mid-twentieth century.
Originally, tilt-houses were the product of the Great Depression era, when people needed cheap entertainment. Local tales notwithstanding, they have little to do with any physical anomaly. They are cleverly engineered structures designed to distort the architecture – where normal visual references are hidden, and distorted objects are added to enhance the effect. People stand at weird angles and experience a sensory illusion that can induce vertigo, nausea, or it may be entirely enjoyable and fun. Visitors are primed to be astounded and confused but discouraged from lingering too long in the structure to do any measurements. The exaggerated story of a physical anomaly that “baffles” scientists adds to the atmosphere. The illusion effect is so powerful that people buy a nonsensical incorrect explanation.
On the left is the original image of tour guide at Santa Cruz Mystery Spot taken by a visitor who attempted to keep her camera level using horizontal cues. The person clearly looks off-kilter in the context of the shack. But the right side shows the vertically corrected image that reveals she is in line with the outside trees so it is the house construction that confuses our senses. (Original image from Wikipedia: Briellecfarmer, Creative Commons Licensed) Can the claims in this sign at the Santa Cruz Mystery Spot be confirmed? Nope. It’s a good story, though. (Image Wikimedia Commons: Tshrinivasan, Creative Commons Licensed.)But what of the Saint Ignace Mystery Spot (Michigan) where the story goes that surveyors that found a piece of land that caused their equipment to malfunction – and nothing would register as level? Or of the messed up compass readings and weird feelings experienced at the Santa Cruz spot?
Gravity anomalies exist all over the world due to differences in density of the material underground, but they aren’t detectable by the average person, only by sensitive instruments. In order for a person to feel a gravity difference, or to see it affect a large object, it would have to be far more of an effect than could be accomplished on the earth’s surface. A compass will go wonky near a magnetic anomaly or an unnoticed electromagnetic field effect. (EMFs are everywhere in the modern world.) No hidden magnetic force can pull a car uphill. Various strange feelings are all too easily induced, especially when a person is primed by an eerie story about what weirdness to expect.
Scientists can conclusively demonstrate that no gravity, magnetic, or otherworldly physical effect is necessary to produce mystery spots or hills. They can recreate the illusions in a lab to show how convincing the perceptual illusion is. So, this spooky topic is more about geography and perception than geology or the paranormal. While most people are at least aware that these locations are an optical illusion, they still would rather indulge in the tales of the paranormal or natural anomalies that are associated with such locations. Making an attempt to undertake a challenge in response to local folklore is called “legend tripping”. It’s commonly associated with visiting haunted places or doing a task that will bring forth some nasty entity or open a portal to hell. In the moment, any surprise or coincidental happening will result in people freaking out. The legend tells you what might happen but the moment that something strange does happen can be exhilarating. The rise of websites and social media promotes mystery places. Visiting mystery spots or mystery hills is a form of legend tripping.
Mystery spots and hills are important features of the local community. With the various legends, we see how they fortify cultural identity, reinforce a specific sense of place, and they may even give people an almost spiritual experience. This is one reason why the real explanation is often ignored. I say that the truth about the mystery does not ruin the fun; it’s still amazing.
References
Bridgeman, B., 2005. Influence of visually induced expectation on perceived motor effort: A visual-proprioceptive interaction at the Santa Cruz Mystery Spot. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 12(3), pp. 549-552.
Bressan, P., Garlaschelli, L. and Barracano, M., 2003. Antigravity hills are visual illusions. Psychological Science, 14(5), pp.441-449.
Dunning, B. 2011. Mystery Spots. Skeptoid podcast #240 https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4240
Florida Memory Blog. 2018. What’s the history behind the Legend of Spook Hill? (October 30, 2018) https://www.theledger.com/news/20181030/whats-history-behind-legend-of-spook-hill.
Gibbs, P. 1996. Can Things Roll Uphill? http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/General/roll-uphill.html
Gregory, R. 1998. Mystery spots. Perception 27, pp. 503-504
Jaff, P.M. and Faraj, K.A., 2013. Magnetic hills and optical illusion in Kurdistan region. European Scientific Journal, 9(24).
Kinsella, M. 2011. Legend-Tripping Online: Supernatural Folklore and the Search for Ong’s Hat. U Press of Mississippi.
Kitaoka, A., 2015. Slope illusion (Magnetic Hills) in Radan. Art and Its Role in the History: Between Durability and Transient-ISMS, pp.751-760.
Mathews, J. (no date) Mystery Spots Explained. Sandlot Science. https://www.sandlotscience.com/mystery-spots-explained/
Roberts, D. 2006. Gravity Hill (CA) Investigation. Independent Investigations Group West. http://www.iigwest.com/investigations/2006/20060107_gravityhill.html
ScienceDaily.com. 2006. The Mysterious Gravity Hill: Physicists Show “Antigravity” Mystery Spots Are Optical Illusions. https://web.archive.org/web/20080217004146/http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2006/0609-the_mysterious_gravity_hill.htm
Shimamura, A. and Prinzmetal, W. 1999. The Mystery Spot Illusion and its Relation to Other Visual Illusions. Psychological Science 10(6), pp. 501-507.
Sieveking, P. 2004. Up the hill backwards. Fortean Times, 178, pp. 54-55.
#240 #carsRollUphill #confusionHill #earthEnergy #energyVortex #geologicalAnomalies #gravityAnomaly #gravityHill #gravityRoad #magneticAnomaly #magneticHill #mysteryHill #mysterySpot #mysteryVortex #OregonVortex #spookHill #vileVortices https://sharonahill.com/?p=1217 -
Gravity Roads, Magnetic Hills, and Mystery Spots
Around the world, there are areas that have gained a reputation for being strange and mysterious because gravity appears to not work the same there as it does in an ordinary environment. Such “mystery hills” or “mystery spots” attract visitors and scientists who wish to experience the effect for themselves: up appears to be down, level ground is askew. The local tales attempt to explain the disorientation as resulting from a gravity anomaly, a deposit of iron or igneous rock that generates a magnetic field, a space-time disruption, or even invoke paranormal entities, aliens or secret technology. Is it true that these baffling mysteries require scientists to rewrite physics? Should people and animals avoid such bizarre places? The answers are surprisingly available and forthright, but they are displaced by the dramatic legends.
Gravity Roads and Mystery Hills
Hundreds of places known as Gravity Hill, Magnetic Hill, or Spook Hill (or similar names invoking confusion or wonder) exist around the world. These are low-traffic roadways in the countryside where, if you stop and put your car in neutral, it appears to roll uphill. Or, a ball placed on the surface will move in the opposite expected direction. Water appears to flows against gravity. Gravity Hill is a location promoted by the Bedford County tourism board in Pennsylvania. It is one of many “strange slopes” around the world where an observer visually perceives an apparent slope based on surrounding cues. Objects moving under gravity alone appear to travel in the unexpected direction – startling observation that freaks people out.
Gravity Hill in Bedford County, PA draws plenty of visitors who delight in the illusion.Wikipedia has a list of many of these places, at least the ones that have been marketed to the public to check out and experience for yourself. The U.S. has the most locations, possibly because this version of Wikipedia is in English. Or, more likely, mystery hills are very much an American phenomenon associated with leisure car driving that has been popularized for several decades. On pleasant weather weekends, these mystery hills will be busy with cars in a line having a go at defying gravity or, as the local stories suggest, experiencing a magnetic or mysterious force pulling the vehicles uphill. Mystery hills are never in an urban area but are narrow, almost straight, paved roads located in hilly landscapes. They are frequently demarcated by paint lines on the roadway that signal where to stop and put the car in neutral. Or, signage indicates instructions.
Straws Lane Gravity Hill in Victoria, Australia.Gravity Hill in Wisconsin also suggests defiance of gravity.Magnetic Hill, Ladahk Indian suggests you defy gravity.Signs and instructions in Ladahk, Indian show people exactly how to experience the effect.Confusion Hill in Northern California was a popular mystery spot.The media loves stories about mystery hills and frequently promote misinformation about them. Tourist sites highlight mystery hills for a worthwhile visit. News outlets often mention that some scientists are looking into solving the “mystery” of the site but such scientists mentioned often seem incongruously ignorant of basic physics and geology.
In 2010, at Kalo Dungar in Kutch, Gujarat, India, locals noticed that their cars appeared to roll down the scenic hill at startling speeds – 80 kmph – without a discernable cause. Speculation arose that an undocumented magnetic effect was pulling the cars down the hill. A team of experts from the Gujarat State Disaster Management was called in to study the phenomenon. A study later completed confirmed that the steep slope was the sole cause of the acceleration. No magnetic forces were needed.
Why would magnets be invoked at all to explain these mystery hills at all? Magnetic forces do not work on non-metallic substances so a magnetic force has no effect on water or plastic balls that appear to roll uphill. A magnetic effect would be easily noticeable and measurable, not hidden. But, most people aren’t all that clear how magnetics work.
At Magnetic Hill on the Isle of Man in the UK, if the magnetism from local iron deposits isn’t the cause, it’s the little people (fairies) that push the cars uphill. In other places, it’s ghosts. It’s difficult to keep count of the many stories that explain the anomalously moving cars as the product of ghostly hands at work. The stories sometimes relate that those who died from an accident on that very spot are pushing your car to safety so you don’t suffer their fate. Alternately, the ghosts of those who perished at a nearby spot might supposedly pull cars towards them for help. Spook Hill in Lake Wales, Florida promotes the legend of a Seminole chief who was killed in a battle with an alligator and was buried alongside what later became the “haunted” road. But that’s not the only ghostly tale there! A dead pirate buried at the foot of Spook Hill was said to come out and move cars that parked on his grave. Ghost children will push your car off railroad tracks in San Antonio or out of harm’s way in Lewisberry, PA. To be clear, there were no documented accidents as described in these locations but the story persists.
The truth of mystery hills is well-known to be an optical illusion. Scientific experts in visual perception confirmed that the brain is guided by spatial frames of reference we see. When those frames are missing or askew, we get confused and things feel odd. Situated in hilly surroundings, the horizon is obscured on the straight stretch of a gravity hill road, so we lose our horizontal reference and instead use local cues to judge slopes, which can be misleading because there aren’t many. Trees or walls in the surrounding area may be off-vertical making a downslope look like it is level or inclined upwards. Several scientific papers demonstrated this effect of visual illusions.
As with Gravity Hill in Pennsylvania, a slight downward stretch between two strongly downward stretches can be perceived as uphill or horizontal. Or, the apparent slope is opposite to the actual slope. Use of a level will confirm the correct inclination. Maps will clearly show the topography. The measurements have been checked, the elevations are not out of whack, water doesn’t really flow uphill, but your eyes will definitely fool you. The often remote locations and lack of structures for horizontal reference increase the eerieness of the mystery hills. The illusion is so convincing, it’s difficult for people to believe it, so they feel the need to invoke more dramatic explanations. They draw on their ideas of pulling from gravity or magnets instead. And they may believe the exotic sciencey-sounding explanations related to an underground geological cause (that they can’t see or confirm). Or, they want to believe in ghost stories or anti-gravity mumbo-jumbo.
Measuring slope on Gravity Hill near Los Angeles, CA (IIG West)Mystery Spots
When I was a kid, the local amusement park had a “crooked shack” that was constructed at odd angles so that when you walked through it, you were disoriented and confused but it was highly amusing. Many more of these crooked shacks exist as tourist traps across the world. They are variously described as being located above a gravity anomaly or in an energy “vortex” where space-time does not behave. A “vortex” (used in the paranormal sense), like the famous “vortex” areas in Oregon, Montana, and Sedona, AZ, as well as geographically legendary “vile vortices” such as the Bermuda Triangle and the Devil’s Sea, have been characterized by sciencey-sounding proponents as locations where some wild earth energy thing creates extraordinary observations. They are often linked to nodes of ley lines, alien charging stations, giant underground machinery, and wacky alternative physics.
You’ll have to pay to visit most crooked shack “mystery spots”. A famous one is in Santa Cruz, California. The tour guides say the “gravity house” is the product of a circular anomaly about 150 feet (46m) in diameter where gravity misbehaves. Here is a ridiculous attempt at an explanation from their website:
Some speculate that cones of metal were secretly brought here and buried in our earth as guidance systems for their spacecraft. Some think that it is in fact the spacecraft itself buried deep within the ground. Other theories include carbon dioxide permeating from the earth, a hole in the ozone layer, a magma vortex, the highest dielectric biocosmic radiation known anywhere in the world, and radiesthesia. Whatever the cause is, it remains a mystery.
The Mystery Spot (Santa Cruz)
*SPOILERS* No, it's no mystery. That's a whole lotta bullshit in one paragraph.
The Santa Cruz Mystery Spot was listed as a California Historical Landmark (#1055) on August 22, 2014. It was not listed because of its natural wonder, though. It was notable as the first (1941) and most significant “tilt-box” or “gravity house” roadside attraction in California. It was certainly not the last. These types of tourist spots became popular in the mid-twentieth century.
Originally, tilt-houses were the product of the Great Depression era, when people needed cheap entertainment. Local tales notwithstanding, they have little to do with any physical anomaly. They are cleverly engineered structures designed to distort the architecture – where normal visual references are hidden, and distorted objects are added to enhance the effect. People stand at weird angles and experience a sensory illusion that can induce vertigo, nausea, or it may be entirely enjoyable and fun. Visitors are primed to be astounded and confused but discouraged from lingering too long in the structure to do any measurements. The exaggerated story of a physical anomaly that “baffles” scientists adds to the atmosphere. The illusion effect is so powerful that people buy a nonsensical incorrect explanation.
On the left is the original image of tour guide at Santa Cruz Mystery Spot taken by a visitor who attempted to keep her camera level using horizontal cues. The person clearly looks off-kilter in the context of the shack. But the right side shows the vertically corrected image that reveals she is in line with the outside trees so it is the house construction that confuses our senses. (Original image from Wikipedia: Briellecfarmer, Creative Commons Licensed)Can the claims in this sign at the Santa Cruz Mystery Spot be confirmed? Nope. It’s a good story, though. (Image Wikimedia Commons: Tshrinivasan, Creative Commons Licensed.)But what of the Saint Ignace Mystery Spot (Michigan) where the story goes that surveyors that found a piece of land that caused their equipment to malfunction – and nothing would register as level? Or of the messed up compass readings and weird feelings experienced at the Santa Cruz spot?
Gravity anomalies exist all over the world due to differences in density of the material underground, but they aren’t detectable by the average person, only by sensitive instruments. In order for a person to feel a gravity difference, or to see it affect a large object, it would have to be far more of an effect than could be accomplished on the earth’s surface. A compass will go wonky near a magnetic anomaly or an unnoticed electromagnetic field effect. (EMFs are everywhere in the modern world.) No hidden magnetic force can pull a car uphill. Various strange feelings are all too easily induced, especially when a person is primed by an eerie story about what weirdness to expect.
Scientists can conclusively demonstrate that no gravity, magnetic, or otherworldly physical effect is necessary to produce mystery spots or hills. They can recreate the illusions in a lab to show how convincing the perceptual illusion is. So, this spooky topic is more about geography and perception than geology or the paranormal. While most people are at least aware that these locations are an optical illusion, they still would rather indulge in the tales of the paranormal or natural anomalies that are associated with such locations. Making an attempt to undertake a challenge in response to local folklore is called “legend tripping”. It’s commonly associated with visiting haunted places or doing a task that will bring forth some nasty entity or open a portal to hell. In the moment, any surprise or coincidental happening will result in people freaking out. The legend tells you what might happen but the moment that something strange does happen can be exhilarating. The rise of websites and social media promotes mystery places. Visiting mystery spots or mystery hills is a form of legend tripping.
Mystery spots and hills are important features of the local community. With the various legends, we see how they fortify cultural identity, reinforce a specific sense of place, and they may even give people an almost spiritual experience. This is one reason why the real explanation is often ignored. I say that the truth about the mystery does not ruin the fun; it’s still amazing.
References
Bridgeman, B., 2005. Influence of visually induced expectation on perceived motor effort: A visual-proprioceptive interaction at the Santa Cruz Mystery Spot. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 12(3), pp. 549-552.
Bressan, P., Garlaschelli, L. and Barracano, M., 2003. Antigravity hills are visual illusions. Psychological Science, 14(5), pp.441-449.
Dunning, B. 2011. Mystery Spots. Skeptoid podcast #240 https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4240
Florida Memory Blog. 2018. What’s the history behind the Legend of Spook Hill? (October 30, 2018) https://www.theledger.com/news/20181030/whats-history-behind-legend-of-spook-hill.
Gibbs, P. 1996. Can Things Roll Uphill? http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/General/roll-uphill.html
Gregory, R. 1998. Mystery spots. Perception 27, pp. 503-504
Jaff, P.M. and Faraj, K.A., 2013. Magnetic hills and optical illusion in Kurdistan region. European Scientific Journal, 9(24).
Kinsella, M. 2011. Legend-Tripping Online: Supernatural Folklore and the Search for Ong’s Hat. U Press of Mississippi.
Kitaoka, A., 2015. Slope illusion (Magnetic Hills) in Radan. Art and Its Role in the History: Between Durability and Transient-ISMS, pp.751-760.
Mathews, J. (no date) Mystery Spots Explained. Sandlot Science. https://www.sandlotscience.com/mystery-spots-explained/
Roberts, D. 2006. Gravity Hill (CA) Investigation. Independent Investigations Group West. http://www.iigwest.com/investigations/2006/20060107_gravityhill.html
ScienceDaily.com. 2006. The Mysterious Gravity Hill: Physicists Show “Antigravity” Mystery Spots Are Optical Illusions. https://web.archive.org/web/20080217004146/http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2006/0609-the_mysterious_gravity_hill.htm
Shimamura, A. and Prinzmetal, W. 1999. The Mystery Spot Illusion and its Relation to Other Visual Illusions. Psychological Science 10(6), pp. 501-507.
Sieveking, P. 2004. Up the hill backwards. Fortean Times, 178, pp. 54-55.
#carsRollUphill #confusionHill #earthEnergy #energyVortex #geologicalAnomalies #gravityAnomaly #gravityHill #gravityRoad #magneticAnomaly #magneticHill #mysteryHill #mysterySpot #mysteryVortex #OregonVortex #spookHill #vileVortices
https://sharonahill.com/?p=1217
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Gravity Roads, Magnetic Hills, and Mystery SpotsAround the world, there are areas that have gained a reputation for being strange and mysterious because gravity appears to not work the same there as it does in an ordinary environment. Such “mystery hills” or “mystery spots” attract visitors and scientists who wish to experience the effect for themselves: up appears to be down, level ground is askew. The local tales attempt to explain the disorientation as resulting from a gravity anomaly, a deposit of iron or igneous rock that generates a magnetic field, a space-time disruption, or even invoke paranormal entities, aliens or secret technology. Is it true that these baffling mysteries require scientists to rewrite physics? Should people and animals avoid such bizarre places? The answers are surprisingly available and forthright, but they are displaced by the dramatic legends.
Gravity Roads and Mystery Hills
Hundreds of places known as Gravity Hill, Magnetic Hill, or Spook Hill (or similar names invoking confusion or wonder) exist around the world. These are low-traffic roadways in the countryside where, if you stop and put your car in neutral, it appears to roll uphill. Or, a ball placed on the surface will move in the opposite expected direction. Water appears to flows against gravity. Gravity Hill is a location promoted by the Bedford County tourism board in Pennsylvania. It is one of many “strange slopes” around the world where an observer visually perceives an apparent slope based on surrounding cues. Objects moving under gravity alone appear to travel in the unexpected direction – startling observation that freaks people out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgO6QPEt4mo
Wikipedia has a list of many of these places, at least the ones that have been marketed to the public to check out and experience for yourself. The U.S. has the most locations, possibly because this version of Wikipedia is in English. Or, more likely, mystery hills are very much an American phenomenon associated with leisure car driving that has been popularized for several decades. On pleasant weather weekends, these mystery hills will be busy with cars in a line having a go at defying gravity or, as the local stories suggest, experiencing a magnetic or mysterious force pulling the vehicles uphill. Mystery hills are never in an urban area but are narrow, almost straight, paved roads located in hilly landscapes. They are frequently demarcated by paint lines on the roadway that signal where to stop and put the car in neutral. Or, signage indicates instructions.
Straws Lane Gravity Hill in Victoria, Australia.Gravity Hill in Wisconsin also suggests defiance of gravity.Magnetic Hill, Ladahk Indian suggests you defy gravity.Signs and instructions in Ladahk, Indian show people exactly how to experience the effect.Confusion Hill in Northern California was a popular mystery spot.The media loves stories about mystery hills and frequently promote misinformation about them. Tourist sites highlight mystery hills for a worthwhile visit. News outlets often mention that some scientists are looking into solving the “mystery” of the site but such scientists mentioned often seem incongruously ignorant of basic physics and geology.
In 2010, at Kalo Dungar in Kutch, Gujarat, India, locals noticed that their cars appeared to roll down the scenic hill at startling speeds – 80 kmph – without a discernable cause. Speculation arose that an undocumented magnetic effect was pulling the cars down the hill. A team of experts from the Gujarat State Disaster Management was called in to study the phenomenon. A study later completed confirmed that the steep slope was the sole cause of the acceleration. No magnetic forces were needed.
Why would magnets be invoked at all to explain these mystery hills at all? Magnetic forces do not work on non-metallic substances so a magnetic force has no effect on water or plastic balls that appear to roll uphill. A magnetic effect would be easily noticeable and measurable, not hidden. But, most people aren’t all that clear how magnetics work.
At Magnetic Hill on the Isle of Man in the UK, if the magnetism from local iron deposits isn’t the cause, it’s the little people (fairies) that push the cars uphill. In other places, it’s ghosts. It’s difficult to keep count of the many stories that explain the anomalously moving cars as the product of ghostly hands at work. The stories sometimes relate that those who died from an accident on that very spot are pushing your car to safety so you don’t suffer their fate. Alternately, the ghosts of those who perished at a nearby spot might supposedly pull cars towards them for help. Spook Hill in Lake Wales, Florida promotes the legend of a Seminole chief who was killed in a battle with an alligator and was buried alongside what later became the “haunted” road. But that’s not the only ghostly tale there! A dead pirate buried at the foot of Spook Hill was said to come out and move cars that parked on his grave. Ghost children will push your car off railroad tracks in San Antonio or out of harm’s way in Lewisberry, PA. To be clear, there were no documented accidents as described in these locations but the story persists.
The truth of mystery hills is well-known to be an optical illusion. Scientific experts in visual perception confirmed that the brain is guided by spatial frames of reference we see. When those frames are missing or askew, we get confused and things feel odd. Situated in hilly surroundings, the horizon is obscured on the straight stretch of a gravity hill road, so we lose our horizontal reference and instead use local cues to judge slopes, which can be misleading because there aren’t many. Trees or walls in the surrounding area may be off-vertical making a downslope look like it is level or inclined upwards. Several scientific papers demonstrated this effect of visual illusions.
As with Gravity Hill in Pennsylvania, a slight downward stretch between two strongly downward stretches can be perceived as uphill or horizontal. Or, the apparent slope is opposite to the actual slope. Use of a level will confirm the correct inclination. Maps will clearly show the topography. The measurements have been checked, the elevations are not out of whack, water doesn’t really flow uphill, but your eyes will definitely fool you. The often remote locations and lack of structures for horizontal reference increase the eerieness of the mystery hills. The illusion is so convincing, it’s difficult for people to believe it, so they feel the need to invoke more dramatic explanations. They draw on their ideas of pulling from gravity or magnets instead. And they may believe the exotic sciencey-sounding explanations related to an underground geological cause (that they can’t see or confirm). Or, they want to believe in ghost stories or anti-gravity mumbo-jumbo.
Measuring slope on Gravity Hill near Los Angeles, CA (IIG West)Mystery Spots
When I was a kid, the local amusement park had a “crooked shack” that was constructed at odd angles so that when you walked through it, you were disoriented and confused but it was highly amusing. Many more of these crooked shacks exist as tourist traps across the world. They are variously described as being located above a gravity anomaly or in an energy “vortex” where space-time does not behave. A “vortex” (used in the paranormal sense), like the famous “vortex” areas in Oregon, Montana, and Sedona, AZ, as well as geographically legendary “vile vortices” such as the Bermuda Triangle and the Devil’s Sea, have been characterized by sciencey-sounding proponents as locations where some wild earth energy thing creates extraordinary observations. They are often linked to nodes of ley lines, alien charging stations, giant underground machinery, and wacky alternative physics.
You’ll have to pay to visit most crooked shack “mystery spots”. A famous one is in Santa Cruz, California. The tour guides say the “gravity house” is the product of a circular anomaly about 150 feet (46m) in diameter where gravity misbehaves. Here is a ridiculous attempt at an explanation from their website:
Some speculate that cones of metal were secretly brought here and buried in our earth as guidance systems for their spacecraft. Some think that it is in fact the spacecraft itself buried deep within the ground. Other theories include carbon dioxide permeating from the earth, a hole in the ozone layer, a magma vortex, the highest dielectric biocosmic radiation known anywhere in the world, and radiesthesia. Whatever the cause is, it remains a mystery.
The Mystery Spot (Santa Cruz)*SPOILERS* No, it's no mystery. That's a whole lotta bullshit in one paragraph.
The Santa Cruz Mystery Spot was listed as a California Historical Landmark (#1055) on August 22, 2014. It was not listed because of its natural wonder, though. It was notable as the first (1941) and most significant “tilt-box” or “gravity house” roadside attraction in California. It was certainly not the last. These types of tourist spots became popular in the mid-twentieth century.
Originally, tilt-houses were the product of the Great Depression era, when people needed cheap entertainment. Local tales notwithstanding, they have little to do with any physical anomaly. They are cleverly engineered structures designed to distort the architecture – where normal visual references are hidden, and distorted objects are added to enhance the effect. People stand at weird angles and experience a sensory illusion that can induce vertigo, nausea, or it may be entirely enjoyable and fun. Visitors are primed to be astounded and confused but discouraged from lingering too long in the structure to do any measurements. The exaggerated story of a physical anomaly that “baffles” scientists adds to the atmosphere. The illusion effect is so powerful that people buy a nonsensical incorrect explanation.
On the left is the original image of tour guide at Santa Cruz Mystery Spot taken by a visitor who attempted to keep her camera level using horizontal cues. The person clearly looks off-kilter in the context of the shack. But the right side shows the vertically corrected image that reveals she is in line with the outside trees so it is the house construction that confuses our senses. (Original image from Wikipedia: Briellecfarmer, Creative Commons Licensed) Can the claims in this sign at the Santa Cruz Mystery Spot be confirmed? Nope. It’s a good story, though. (Image Wikimedia Commons: Tshrinivasan, Creative Commons Licensed.)But what of the Saint Ignace Mystery Spot (Michigan) where the story goes that surveyors that found a piece of land that caused their equipment to malfunction – and nothing would register as level? Or of the messed up compass readings and weird feelings experienced at the Santa Cruz spot?
Gravity anomalies exist all over the world due to differences in density of the material underground, but they aren’t detectable by the average person, only by sensitive instruments. In order for a person to feel a gravity difference, or to see it affect a large object, it would have to be far more of an effect than could be accomplished on the earth’s surface. A compass will go wonky near a magnetic anomaly or an unnoticed electromagnetic field effect. (EMFs are everywhere in the modern world.) No hidden magnetic force can pull a car uphill. Various strange feelings are all too easily induced, especially when a person is primed by an eerie story about what weirdness to expect.
Scientists can conclusively demonstrate that no gravity, magnetic, or otherworldly physical effect is necessary to produce mystery spots or hills. They can recreate the illusions in a lab to show how convincing the perceptual illusion is. So, this spooky topic is more about geography and perception than geology or the paranormal. While most people are at least aware that these locations are an optical illusion, they still would rather indulge in the tales of the paranormal or natural anomalies that are associated with such locations. Making an attempt to undertake a challenge in response to local folklore is called “legend tripping”. It’s commonly associated with visiting haunted places or doing a task that will bring forth some nasty entity or open a portal to hell. In the moment, any surprise or coincidental happening will result in people freaking out. The legend tells you what might happen but the moment that something strange does happen can be exhilarating. The rise of websites and social media promotes mystery places. Visiting mystery spots or mystery hills is a form of legend tripping.
Mystery spots and hills are important features of the local community. With the various legends, we see how they fortify cultural identity, reinforce a specific sense of place, and they may even give people an almost spiritual experience. This is one reason why the real explanation is often ignored. I say that the truth about the mystery does not ruin the fun; it’s still amazing.
References
Bridgeman, B., 2005. Influence of visually induced expectation on perceived motor effort: A visual-proprioceptive interaction at the Santa Cruz Mystery Spot. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 12(3), pp. 549-552.
Bressan, P., Garlaschelli, L. and Barracano, M., 2003. Antigravity hills are visual illusions. Psychological Science, 14(5), pp.441-449.
Dunning, B. 2011. Mystery Spots. Skeptoid podcast #240 https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4240
Florida Memory Blog. 2018. What’s the history behind the Legend of Spook Hill? (October 30, 2018) https://www.theledger.com/news/20181030/whats-history-behind-legend-of-spook-hill.
Gibbs, P. 1996. Can Things Roll Uphill? http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/General/roll-uphill.html
Gregory, R. 1998. Mystery spots. Perception 27, pp. 503-504
Jaff, P.M. and Faraj, K.A., 2013. Magnetic hills and optical illusion in Kurdistan region. European Scientific Journal, 9(24).
Kinsella, M. 2011. Legend-Tripping Online: Supernatural Folklore and the Search for Ong’s Hat. U Press of Mississippi.
Kitaoka, A., 2015. Slope illusion (Magnetic Hills) in Radan. Art and Its Role in the History: Between Durability and Transient-ISMS, pp.751-760.
Mathews, J. (no date) Mystery Spots Explained. Sandlot Science. https://www.sandlotscience.com/mystery-spots-explained/
Roberts, D. 2006. Gravity Hill (CA) Investigation. Independent Investigations Group West. http://www.iigwest.com/investigations/2006/20060107_gravityhill.html
ScienceDaily.com. 2006. The Mysterious Gravity Hill: Physicists Show “Antigravity” Mystery Spots Are Optical Illusions. https://web.archive.org/web/20080217004146/http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2006/0609-the_mysterious_gravity_hill.htm
Shimamura, A. and Prinzmetal, W. 1999. The Mystery Spot Illusion and its Relation to Other Visual Illusions. Psychological Science 10(6), pp. 501-507.
Sieveking, P. 2004. Up the hill backwards. Fortean Times, 178, pp. 54-55.
#240 #carsRollUphill #confusionHill #earthEnergy #energyVortex #geologicalAnomalies #gravityAnomaly #gravityHill #gravityRoad #magneticAnomaly #magneticHill #mysteryHill #mysterySpot #mysteryVortex #OregonVortex #spookHill #vileVortices https://sharonahill.com/?p=1217 -
Gravity Roads, Magnetic Hills, and Mystery SpotsAround the world, there are areas that have gained a reputation for being strange and mysterious because gravity appears to not work the same there as it does in an ordinary environment. Such “mystery hills” or “mystery spots” attract visitors and scientists who wish to experience the effect for themselves: up appears to be down, level ground is askew. The local tales attempt to explain the disorientation as resulting from a gravity anomaly, a deposit of iron or igneous rock that generates a magnetic field, a space-time disruption, or even invoke paranormal entities, aliens or secret technology. Is it true that these baffling mysteries require scientists to rewrite physics? Should people and animals avoid such bizarre places? The answers are surprisingly available and forthright, but they are displaced by the dramatic legends.
Gravity Roads and Mystery Hills
Hundreds of places known as Gravity Hill, Magnetic Hill, or Spook Hill (or similar names invoking confusion or wonder) exist around the world. These are low-traffic roadways in the countryside where, if you stop and put your car in neutral, it appears to roll uphill. Or, a ball placed on the surface will move in the opposite expected direction. Water appears to flows against gravity. Gravity Hill is a location promoted by the Bedford County tourism board in Pennsylvania. It is one of many “strange slopes” around the world where an observer visually perceives an apparent slope based on surrounding cues. Objects moving under gravity alone appear to travel in the unexpected direction – startling observation that freaks people out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgO6QPEt4mo
Wikipedia has a list of many of these places, at least the ones that have been marketed to the public to check out and experience for yourself. The U.S. has the most locations, possibly because this version of Wikipedia is in English. Or, more likely, mystery hills are very much an American phenomenon associated with leisure car driving that has been popularized for several decades. On pleasant weather weekends, these mystery hills will be busy with cars in a line having a go at defying gravity or, as the local stories suggest, experiencing a magnetic or mysterious force pulling the vehicles uphill. Mystery hills are never in an urban area but are narrow, almost straight, paved roads located in hilly landscapes. They are frequently demarcated by paint lines on the roadway that signal where to stop and put the car in neutral. Or, signage indicates instructions.
Straws Lane Gravity Hill in Victoria, Australia.Gravity Hill in Wisconsin also suggests defiance of gravity.Magnetic Hill, Ladahk Indian suggests you defy gravity.Signs and instructions in Ladahk, Indian show people exactly how to experience the effect.Confusion Hill in Northern California was a popular mystery spot.The media loves stories about mystery hills and frequently promote misinformation about them. Tourist sites highlight mystery hills for a worthwhile visit. News outlets often mention that some scientists are looking into solving the “mystery” of the site but such scientists mentioned often seem incongruously ignorant of basic physics and geology.
In 2010, at Kalo Dungar in Kutch, Gujarat, India, locals noticed that their cars appeared to roll down the scenic hill at startling speeds – 80 kmph – without a discernable cause. Speculation arose that an undocumented magnetic effect was pulling the cars down the hill. A team of experts from the Gujarat State Disaster Management was called in to study the phenomenon. A study later completed confirmed that the steep slope was the sole cause of the acceleration. No magnetic forces were needed.
Why would magnets be invoked at all to explain these mystery hills at all? Magnetic forces do not work on non-metallic substances so a magnetic force has no effect on water or plastic balls that appear to roll uphill. A magnetic effect would be easily noticeable and measurable, not hidden. But, most people aren’t all that clear how magnetics work.
At Magnetic Hill on the Isle of Man in the UK, if the magnetism from local iron deposits isn’t the cause, it’s the little people (fairies) that push the cars uphill. In other places, it’s ghosts. It’s difficult to keep count of the many stories that explain the anomalously moving cars as the product of ghostly hands at work. The stories sometimes relate that those who died from an accident on that very spot are pushing your car to safety so you don’t suffer their fate. Alternately, the ghosts of those who perished at a nearby spot might supposedly pull cars towards them for help. Spook Hill in Lake Wales, Florida promotes the legend of a Seminole chief who was killed in a battle with an alligator and was buried alongside what later became the “haunted” road. But that’s not the only ghostly tale there! A dead pirate buried at the foot of Spook Hill was said to come out and move cars that parked on his grave. Ghost children will push your car off railroad tracks in San Antonio or out of harm’s way in Lewisberry, PA. To be clear, there were no documented accidents as described in these locations but the story persists.
The truth of mystery hills is well-known to be an optical illusion. Scientific experts in visual perception confirmed that the brain is guided by spatial frames of reference we see. When those frames are missing or askew, we get confused and things feel odd. Situated in hilly surroundings, the horizon is obscured on the straight stretch of a gravity hill road, so we lose our horizontal reference and instead use local cues to judge slopes, which can be misleading because there aren’t many. Trees or walls in the surrounding area may be off-vertical making a downslope look like it is level or inclined upwards. Several scientific papers demonstrated this effect of visual illusions.
As with Gravity Hill in Pennsylvania, a slight downward stretch between two strongly downward stretches can be perceived as uphill or horizontal. Or, the apparent slope is opposite to the actual slope. Use of a level will confirm the correct inclination. Maps will clearly show the topography. The measurements have been checked, the elevations are not out of whack, water doesn’t really flow uphill, but your eyes will definitely fool you. The often remote locations and lack of structures for horizontal reference increase the eerieness of the mystery hills. The illusion is so convincing, it’s difficult for people to believe it, so they feel the need to invoke more dramatic explanations. They draw on their ideas of pulling from gravity or magnets instead. And they may believe the exotic sciencey-sounding explanations related to an underground geological cause (that they can’t see or confirm). Or, they want to believe in ghost stories or anti-gravity mumbo-jumbo.
Measuring slope on Gravity Hill near Los Angeles, CA (IIG West)Mystery Spots
When I was a kid, the local amusement park had a “crooked shack” that was constructed at odd angles so that when you walked through it, you were disoriented and confused but it was highly amusing. Many more of these crooked shacks exist as tourist traps across the world. They are variously described as being located above a gravity anomaly or in an energy “vortex” where space-time does not behave. A “vortex” (used in the paranormal sense), like the famous “vortex” areas in Oregon, Montana, and Sedona, AZ, as well as geographically legendary “vile vortices” such as the Bermuda Triangle and the Devil’s Sea, have been characterized by sciencey-sounding proponents as locations where some wild earth energy thing creates extraordinary observations. They are often linked to nodes of ley lines, alien charging stations, giant underground machinery, and wacky alternative physics.
You’ll have to pay to visit most crooked shack “mystery spots”. A famous one is in Santa Cruz, California. The tour guides say the “gravity house” is the product of a circular anomaly about 150 feet (46m) in diameter where gravity misbehaves. Here is a ridiculous attempt at an explanation from their website:
Some speculate that cones of metal were secretly brought here and buried in our earth as guidance systems for their spacecraft. Some think that it is in fact the spacecraft itself buried deep within the ground. Other theories include carbon dioxide permeating from the earth, a hole in the ozone layer, a magma vortex, the highest dielectric biocosmic radiation known anywhere in the world, and radiesthesia. Whatever the cause is, it remains a mystery.
The Mystery Spot (Santa Cruz)*SPOILERS* No, it's no mystery. That's a whole lotta bullshit in one paragraph.
The Santa Cruz Mystery Spot was listed as a California Historical Landmark (#1055) on August 22, 2014. It was not listed because of its natural wonder, though. It was notable as the first (1941) and most significant “tilt-box” or “gravity house” roadside attraction in California. It was certainly not the last. These types of tourist spots became popular in the mid-twentieth century.
Originally, tilt-houses were the product of the Great Depression era, when people needed cheap entertainment. Local tales notwithstanding, they have little to do with any physical anomaly. They are cleverly engineered structures designed to distort the architecture – where normal visual references are hidden, and distorted objects are added to enhance the effect. People stand at weird angles and experience a sensory illusion that can induce vertigo, nausea, or it may be entirely enjoyable and fun. Visitors are primed to be astounded and confused but discouraged from lingering too long in the structure to do any measurements. The exaggerated story of a physical anomaly that “baffles” scientists adds to the atmosphere. The illusion effect is so powerful that people buy a nonsensical incorrect explanation.
On the left is the original image of tour guide at Santa Cruz Mystery Spot taken by a visitor who attempted to keep her camera level using horizontal cues. The person clearly looks off-kilter in the context of the shack. But the right side shows the vertically corrected image that reveals she is in line with the outside trees so it is the house construction that confuses our senses. (Original image from Wikipedia: Briellecfarmer, Creative Commons Licensed) Can the claims in this sign at the Santa Cruz Mystery Spot be confirmed? Nope. It’s a good story, though. (Image Wikimedia Commons: Tshrinivasan, Creative Commons Licensed.)But what of the Saint Ignace Mystery Spot (Michigan) where the story goes that surveyors that found a piece of land that caused their equipment to malfunction – and nothing would register as level? Or of the messed up compass readings and weird feelings experienced at the Santa Cruz spot?
Gravity anomalies exist all over the world due to differences in density of the material underground, but they aren’t detectable by the average person, only by sensitive instruments. In order for a person to feel a gravity difference, or to see it affect a large object, it would have to be far more of an effect than could be accomplished on the earth’s surface. A compass will go wonky near a magnetic anomaly or an unnoticed electromagnetic field effect. (EMFs are everywhere in the modern world.) No hidden magnetic force can pull a car uphill. Various strange feelings are all too easily induced, especially when a person is primed by an eerie story about what weirdness to expect.
Scientists can conclusively demonstrate that no gravity, magnetic, or otherworldly physical effect is necessary to produce mystery spots or hills. They can recreate the illusions in a lab to show how convincing the perceptual illusion is. So, this spooky topic is more about geography and perception than geology or the paranormal. While most people are at least aware that these locations are an optical illusion, they still would rather indulge in the tales of the paranormal or natural anomalies that are associated with such locations. Making an attempt to undertake a challenge in response to local folklore is called “legend tripping”. It’s commonly associated with visiting haunted places or doing a task that will bring forth some nasty entity or open a portal to hell. In the moment, any surprise or coincidental happening will result in people freaking out. The legend tells you what might happen but the moment that something strange does happen can be exhilarating. The rise of websites and social media promotes mystery places. Visiting mystery spots or mystery hills is a form of legend tripping.
Mystery spots and hills are important features of the local community. With the various legends, we see how they fortify cultural identity, reinforce a specific sense of place, and they may even give people an almost spiritual experience. This is one reason why the real explanation is often ignored. I say that the truth about the mystery does not ruin the fun; it’s still amazing.
References
Bridgeman, B., 2005. Influence of visually induced expectation on perceived motor effort: A visual-proprioceptive interaction at the Santa Cruz Mystery Spot. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 12(3), pp. 549-552.
Bressan, P., Garlaschelli, L. and Barracano, M., 2003. Antigravity hills are visual illusions. Psychological Science, 14(5), pp.441-449.
Dunning, B. 2011. Mystery Spots. Skeptoid podcast #240 https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4240
Florida Memory Blog. 2018. What’s the history behind the Legend of Spook Hill? (October 30, 2018) https://www.theledger.com/news/20181030/whats-history-behind-legend-of-spook-hill.
Gibbs, P. 1996. Can Things Roll Uphill? http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/General/roll-uphill.html
Gregory, R. 1998. Mystery spots. Perception 27, pp. 503-504
Jaff, P.M. and Faraj, K.A., 2013. Magnetic hills and optical illusion in Kurdistan region. European Scientific Journal, 9(24).
Kinsella, M. 2011. Legend-Tripping Online: Supernatural Folklore and the Search for Ong’s Hat. U Press of Mississippi.
Kitaoka, A., 2015. Slope illusion (Magnetic Hills) in Radan. Art and Its Role in the History: Between Durability and Transient-ISMS, pp.751-760.
Mathews, J. (no date) Mystery Spots Explained. Sandlot Science. https://www.sandlotscience.com/mystery-spots-explained/
Roberts, D. 2006. Gravity Hill (CA) Investigation. Independent Investigations Group West. http://www.iigwest.com/investigations/2006/20060107_gravityhill.html
ScienceDaily.com. 2006. The Mysterious Gravity Hill: Physicists Show “Antigravity” Mystery Spots Are Optical Illusions. https://web.archive.org/web/20080217004146/http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2006/0609-the_mysterious_gravity_hill.htm
Shimamura, A. and Prinzmetal, W. 1999. The Mystery Spot Illusion and its Relation to Other Visual Illusions. Psychological Science 10(6), pp. 501-507.
Sieveking, P. 2004. Up the hill backwards. Fortean Times, 178, pp. 54-55.
#240 #carsRollUphill #confusionHill #earthEnergy #energyVortex #geologicalAnomalies #gravityAnomaly #gravityHill #gravityRoad #magneticAnomaly #magneticHill #mysteryHill #mysterySpot #mysteryVortex #OregonVortex #spookHill #vileVortices https://sharonahill.com/?p=1217 -
Gravity Roads, Magnetic Hills, and Mystery SpotsAround the world, there are areas that have gained a reputation for being strange and mysterious because gravity appears to not work the same there as it does in an ordinary environment. Such “mystery hills” or “mystery spots” attract visitors and scientists who wish to experience the effect for themselves: up appears to be down, level ground is askew. The local tales attempt to explain the disorientation as resulting from a gravity anomaly, a deposit of iron or igneous rock that generates a magnetic field, a space-time disruption, or even invoke paranormal entities, aliens or secret technology. Is it true that these baffling mysteries require scientists to rewrite physics? Should people and animals avoid such bizarre places? The answers are surprisingly available and forthright, but they are displaced by the dramatic legends.
Gravity Roads and Mystery Hills
Hundreds of places known as Gravity Hill, Magnetic Hill, or Spook Hill (or similar names invoking confusion or wonder) exist around the world. These are low-traffic roadways in the countryside where, if you stop and put your car in neutral, it appears to roll uphill. Or, a ball placed on the surface will move in the opposite expected direction. Water appears to flows against gravity. Gravity Hill is a location promoted by the Bedford County tourism board in Pennsylvania. It is one of many “strange slopes” around the world where an observer visually perceives an apparent slope based on surrounding cues. Objects moving under gravity alone appear to travel in the unexpected direction – startling observation that freaks people out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgO6QPEt4mo
Wikipedia has a list of many of these places, at least the ones that have been marketed to the public to check out and experience for yourself. The U.S. has the most locations, possibly because this version of Wikipedia is in English. Or, more likely, mystery hills are very much an American phenomenon associated with leisure car driving that has been popularized for several decades. On pleasant weather weekends, these mystery hills will be busy with cars in a line having a go at defying gravity or, as the local stories suggest, experiencing a magnetic or mysterious force pulling the vehicles uphill. Mystery hills are never in an urban area but are narrow, almost straight, paved roads located in hilly landscapes. They are frequently demarcated by paint lines on the roadway that signal where to stop and put the car in neutral. Or, signage indicates instructions.
Straws Lane Gravity Hill in Victoria, Australia.Gravity Hill in Wisconsin also suggests defiance of gravity.Magnetic Hill, Ladahk Indian suggests you defy gravity.Signs and instructions in Ladahk, Indian show people exactly how to experience the effect.Confusion Hill in Northern California was a popular mystery spot.The media loves stories about mystery hills and frequently promote misinformation about them. Tourist sites highlight mystery hills for a worthwhile visit. News outlets often mention that some scientists are looking into solving the “mystery” of the site but such scientists mentioned often seem incongruously ignorant of basic physics and geology.
In 2010, at Kalo Dungar in Kutch, Gujarat, India, locals noticed that their cars appeared to roll down the scenic hill at startling speeds – 80 kmph – without a discernable cause. Speculation arose that an undocumented magnetic effect was pulling the cars down the hill. A team of experts from the Gujarat State Disaster Management was called in to study the phenomenon. A study later completed confirmed that the steep slope was the sole cause of the acceleration. No magnetic forces were needed.
Why would magnets be invoked at all to explain these mystery hills at all? Magnetic forces do not work on non-metallic substances so a magnetic force has no effect on water or plastic balls that appear to roll uphill. A magnetic effect would be easily noticeable and measurable, not hidden. But, most people aren’t all that clear how magnetics work.
At Magnetic Hill on the Isle of Man in the UK, if the magnetism from local iron deposits isn’t the cause, it’s the little people (fairies) that push the cars uphill. In other places, it’s ghosts. It’s difficult to keep count of the many stories that explain the anomalously moving cars as the product of ghostly hands at work. The stories sometimes relate that those who died from an accident on that very spot are pushing your car to safety so you don’t suffer their fate. Alternately, the ghosts of those who perished at a nearby spot might supposedly pull cars towards them for help. Spook Hill in Lake Wales, Florida promotes the legend of a Seminole chief who was killed in a battle with an alligator and was buried alongside what later became the “haunted” road. But that’s not the only ghostly tale there! A dead pirate buried at the foot of Spook Hill was said to come out and move cars that parked on his grave. Ghost children will push your car off railroad tracks in San Antonio or out of harm’s way in Lewisberry, PA. To be clear, there were no documented accidents as described in these locations but the story persists.
The truth of mystery hills is well-known to be an optical illusion. Scientific experts in visual perception confirmed that the brain is guided by spatial frames of reference we see. When those frames are missing or askew, we get confused and things feel odd. Situated in hilly surroundings, the horizon is obscured on the straight stretch of a gravity hill road, so we lose our horizontal reference and instead use local cues to judge slopes, which can be misleading because there aren’t many. Trees or walls in the surrounding area may be off-vertical making a downslope look like it is level or inclined upwards. Several scientific papers demonstrated this effect of visual illusions.
As with Gravity Hill in Pennsylvania, a slight downward stretch between two strongly downward stretches can be perceived as uphill or horizontal. Or, the apparent slope is opposite to the actual slope. Use of a level will confirm the correct inclination. Maps will clearly show the topography. The measurements have been checked, the elevations are not out of whack, water doesn’t really flow uphill, but your eyes will definitely fool you. The often remote locations and lack of structures for horizontal reference increase the eerieness of the mystery hills. The illusion is so convincing, it’s difficult for people to believe it, so they feel the need to invoke more dramatic explanations. They draw on their ideas of pulling from gravity or magnets instead. And they may believe the exotic sciencey-sounding explanations related to an underground geological cause (that they can’t see or confirm). Or, they want to believe in ghost stories or anti-gravity mumbo-jumbo.
Measuring slope on Gravity Hill near Los Angeles, CA (IIG West)Mystery Spots
When I was a kid, the local amusement park had a “crooked shack” that was constructed at odd angles so that when you walked through it, you were disoriented and confused but it was highly amusing. Many more of these crooked shacks exist as tourist traps across the world. They are variously described as being located above a gravity anomaly or in an energy “vortex” where space-time does not behave. A “vortex” (used in the paranormal sense), like the famous “vortex” areas in Oregon, Montana, and Sedona, AZ, as well as geographically legendary “vile vortices” such as the Bermuda Triangle and the Devil’s Sea, have been characterized by sciencey-sounding proponents as locations where some wild earth energy thing creates extraordinary observations. They are often linked to nodes of ley lines, alien charging stations, giant underground machinery, and wacky alternative physics.
You’ll have to pay to visit most crooked shack “mystery spots”. A famous one is in Santa Cruz, California. The tour guides say the “gravity house” is the product of a circular anomaly about 150 feet (46m) in diameter where gravity misbehaves. Here is a ridiculous attempt at an explanation from their website:
Some speculate that cones of metal were secretly brought here and buried in our earth as guidance systems for their spacecraft. Some think that it is in fact the spacecraft itself buried deep within the ground. Other theories include carbon dioxide permeating from the earth, a hole in the ozone layer, a magma vortex, the highest dielectric biocosmic radiation known anywhere in the world, and radiesthesia. Whatever the cause is, it remains a mystery.
The Mystery Spot (Santa Cruz)*SPOILERS* No, it's no mystery. That's a whole lotta bullshit in one paragraph.
The Santa Cruz Mystery Spot was listed as a California Historical Landmark (#1055) on August 22, 2014. It was not listed because of its natural wonder, though. It was notable as the first (1941) and most significant “tilt-box” or “gravity house” roadside attraction in California. It was certainly not the last. These types of tourist spots became popular in the mid-twentieth century.
Originally, tilt-houses were the product of the Great Depression era, when people needed cheap entertainment. Local tales notwithstanding, they have little to do with any physical anomaly. They are cleverly engineered structures designed to distort the architecture – where normal visual references are hidden, and distorted objects are added to enhance the effect. People stand at weird angles and experience a sensory illusion that can induce vertigo, nausea, or it may be entirely enjoyable and fun. Visitors are primed to be astounded and confused but discouraged from lingering too long in the structure to do any measurements. The exaggerated story of a physical anomaly that “baffles” scientists adds to the atmosphere. The illusion effect is so powerful that people buy a nonsensical incorrect explanation.
On the left is the original image of tour guide at Santa Cruz Mystery Spot taken by a visitor who attempted to keep her camera level using horizontal cues. The person clearly looks off-kilter in the context of the shack. But the right side shows the vertically corrected image that reveals she is in line with the outside trees so it is the house construction that confuses our senses. (Original image from Wikipedia: Briellecfarmer, Creative Commons Licensed) Can the claims in this sign at the Santa Cruz Mystery Spot be confirmed? Nope. It’s a good story, though. (Image Wikimedia Commons: Tshrinivasan, Creative Commons Licensed.)But what of the Saint Ignace Mystery Spot (Michigan) where the story goes that surveyors that found a piece of land that caused their equipment to malfunction – and nothing would register as level? Or of the messed up compass readings and weird feelings experienced at the Santa Cruz spot?
Gravity anomalies exist all over the world due to differences in density of the material underground, but they aren’t detectable by the average person, only by sensitive instruments. In order for a person to feel a gravity difference, or to see it affect a large object, it would have to be far more of an effect than could be accomplished on the earth’s surface. A compass will go wonky near a magnetic anomaly or an unnoticed electromagnetic field effect. (EMFs are everywhere in the modern world.) No hidden magnetic force can pull a car uphill. Various strange feelings are all too easily induced, especially when a person is primed by an eerie story about what weirdness to expect.
Scientists can conclusively demonstrate that no gravity, magnetic, or otherworldly physical effect is necessary to produce mystery spots or hills. They can recreate the illusions in a lab to show how convincing the perceptual illusion is. So, this spooky topic is more about geography and perception than geology or the paranormal. While most people are at least aware that these locations are an optical illusion, they still would rather indulge in the tales of the paranormal or natural anomalies that are associated with such locations. Making an attempt to undertake a challenge in response to local folklore is called “legend tripping”. It’s commonly associated with visiting haunted places or doing a task that will bring forth some nasty entity or open a portal to hell. In the moment, any surprise or coincidental happening will result in people freaking out. The legend tells you what might happen but the moment that something strange does happen can be exhilarating. The rise of websites and social media promotes mystery places. Visiting mystery spots or mystery hills is a form of legend tripping.
Mystery spots and hills are important features of the local community. With the various legends, we see how they fortify cultural identity, reinforce a specific sense of place, and they may even give people an almost spiritual experience. This is one reason why the real explanation is often ignored. I say that the truth about the mystery does not ruin the fun; it’s still amazing.
References
Bridgeman, B., 2005. Influence of visually induced expectation on perceived motor effort: A visual-proprioceptive interaction at the Santa Cruz Mystery Spot. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 12(3), pp. 549-552.
Bressan, P., Garlaschelli, L. and Barracano, M., 2003. Antigravity hills are visual illusions. Psychological Science, 14(5), pp.441-449.
Dunning, B. 2011. Mystery Spots. Skeptoid podcast #240 https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4240
Florida Memory Blog. 2018. What’s the history behind the Legend of Spook Hill? (October 30, 2018) https://www.theledger.com/news/20181030/whats-history-behind-legend-of-spook-hill.
Gibbs, P. 1996. Can Things Roll Uphill? http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/General/roll-uphill.html
Gregory, R. 1998. Mystery spots. Perception 27, pp. 503-504
Jaff, P.M. and Faraj, K.A., 2013. Magnetic hills and optical illusion in Kurdistan region. European Scientific Journal, 9(24).
Kinsella, M. 2011. Legend-Tripping Online: Supernatural Folklore and the Search for Ong’s Hat. U Press of Mississippi.
Kitaoka, A., 2015. Slope illusion (Magnetic Hills) in Radan. Art and Its Role in the History: Between Durability and Transient-ISMS, pp.751-760.
Mathews, J. (no date) Mystery Spots Explained. Sandlot Science. https://www.sandlotscience.com/mystery-spots-explained/
Roberts, D. 2006. Gravity Hill (CA) Investigation. Independent Investigations Group West. http://www.iigwest.com/investigations/2006/20060107_gravityhill.html
ScienceDaily.com. 2006. The Mysterious Gravity Hill: Physicists Show “Antigravity” Mystery Spots Are Optical Illusions. https://web.archive.org/web/20080217004146/http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2006/0609-the_mysterious_gravity_hill.htm
Shimamura, A. and Prinzmetal, W. 1999. The Mystery Spot Illusion and its Relation to Other Visual Illusions. Psychological Science 10(6), pp. 501-507.
Sieveking, P. 2004. Up the hill backwards. Fortean Times, 178, pp. 54-55.
#240 #carsRollUphill #confusionHill #earthEnergy #energyVortex #geologicalAnomalies #gravityAnomaly #gravityHill #gravityRoad #magneticAnomaly #magneticHill #mysteryHill #mysterySpot #mysteryVortex #OregonVortex #spookHill #vileVortices https://sharonahill.com/?p=1217 -
Cryptozoology and Myth, Part 5: Which came first – the monster or the myth?
This is the fifth and final post in a series examining cryptids (“hidden” animals said to exist based on local testimony), namely lake monsters, in terms of the folklore, tradition, and native tales of these creatures.
Previous parts:
Cryptozoology and Myth, Part 1: The Illusion of Facticity in Unknown Animal Reports
Cryptozoology and Myth, Part 2: Lake Monster Tropes
Cryptozoology and Myth, Part 3: Hiding in the cold, dark water until Judgment Day
Cryptozoology and Myth, Part 4: Crypto-zoologizing the natives’ magic monster
What can we make of folklore tales that cryptozoologists use to support claims that an unknown animal has been historically reported and remains to be identified?
If the book Lake Monster Traditions (LMT) has a most important message, it is:
It’s more complicated than that!
We simply should not be equating native folklore stories with a true cryptid destined to be discovered and classified by science.For example, it is a serious error, often committed by journalists and monster fans, to suppose that one mysterious creature accounts for all Nessie sightings. That’s absurd. We can certainly consider logs, several known animals, waves, and hoaxes, at the very least in the run down of possible explanations. To say that all reports can be attributed to A “Nessie” – a flesh and blood creature – is a naive and wrong conclusion. In the same vein, it’s a serious error to say that the water deity or demon of the natives corresponds to a single (or a suite of) mystery animal(s) today.
So which came first, the monster or the myth? Well, both. And, neither. The story through time is a mesh of several different color threads making our legendary beast of today an amalgam of history.
As I’ve described in the first four installments, the creatures of the native tales had magical qualities, they were spiritually connected, in the realm of shamans. They often meant bad luck to come or held evil powers to destroy. Their traditional names varied. A similar animal might be known to an adjacent tribe but in their own tradition, the beast had its own name.
Today’s version of the lake monster has been given its own trendy name like Ogopogo, Igopogo, Ponik or Memphre (the last not yet coined, it seems, when this book was written). But more importantly, the monster becomes naturalized, demythified. It’s NOT the same creature as the historic legend. That hardly matters, however, since it’s convenient to assume that is so.
Creation of the myth
Meurger explains that the stage of the new world, New France (Canada), was set with extraordinary creatures. The earliest maps showed pygmys and unicorns. The natives told of dwarves, cannibals, demons, and various dreadful monsters either as a tactic to scare the newcomers or as part of their own narrative worldview. It’s not justified to make the leap from legend to reality based on the native tales. Even in modern times, people willingly claim to experience legend as reality. They see dragons, they were abducted by UFOnauts, or had a physical or psychical encounter with Bigfoot.
In the formation of the colonial monster, a step by step process occurred:
- The natives transmitted their stories to the explorers.
- The colonists, who brought their own folklore ideas with them, saw relevance and familiarity in the new tales.
- Influenced by the stories, they claimed to see the creatures as well. (Believing is seeing, you know.)
- Unidentified relics are attributed to the beast – prints, bones, horns, fur.
- Natural events may be blamed on the beast – missing livestock or people, disasters or storms.
- A learned man comes along to describe it; an artist will construct it, giving it detailed anatomy. It may even be Latinized.
- The story and the depiction are published resulting in more people claiming to see it.
An example is given of the “sea tiger”. Mishipizwih was an imaginary and sacred beast of the Ojibwa. Father Nicolas, a Jesuit in the new land, heard the tale of the water god, but chose to consider it as a zoology problem. Nicolas, deluded by his own ignorance of walruses, transformed suggestion into fact and thought he discovered a new species. He inadvertently, according to Meurger’s research, considered the walrus the Mishipizwih. In a hopelessly confused mess of speculation, Nicolas blurred descriptions of a legendary creature with the characteristics of a real creature and made the sea-tiger, sea-wolf or Great Lynx into a common animal. That’s a shame.
Concretizing is the process of turning items, drawings, general beliefs and stories into a plausible whole. Data are selectively chosen to build the monster. The poetic and rhetorical aspects of the legendary story are lost. Symbolism is disregarded. Reasonable elements are extracted from the fabulous beings making them sound plausible. For the Jesuits, finding dragons, unicorns and leviathan of the bible was a victory for the church. In another example, the Elbst of Lake Selisbergsee in Switzerland, a product of five centuries of impressive tales prior to Nessie, morphed from ghost to monster to giant fish in the process of naturalization. The stories were made to sound real. But, in another critical takeaway message, realism should not be mistaken for reality.
It’s a VERY small lake. Lake Selisbergsee, Switzerland.The monstrous idea is fertile ground for new sightings to root. As Meurger says, these forms “sharpen the contents of generally blurred observations.”
Anchored by the stability of drawings, which was lacking in the more flexible oral testimony, the original myth is now reinforced by “an ideological crust of pretended facticity”. We see the concretization cemented when any ambiguous phenomenon is attributed to the beast. The interpretation of later encounters with unclear things is heavily influenced by the myth. Such a situation is pretty much immune to critical arguments. It’s the monster.
Reconstruction of OgopogoBut the belief is not frozen and static. This volume shows clearly that the myth evolves when it needs to.
Influence
The long-necked monster was not common in New France; it became important later likely influenced by the popularity of the Loch Ness image of a long-neck, large-bodied creature. This set a pattern for a new wave of sightings of lake monster. Such pop cultural influence has been seen before with Nessie itself possibly influenced by the appearance of a prehistoric reptile featured in King Kong. Mystery monsters suddenly began to look dinosaur-like when dinosaur imagery entered the mainstream. And we can also cite the Thetis Lake monster, the Hill alien abduction case and the chupacabra which all have evidence to strongly suggest they were derived from imagery in popular culture. But in the context of the media reporting, these creations of our faulty memories were turned into objective stories.
Thetis Lake monster cover of Junior Skeptic.What is clear to zoologists and careful researchers of today is that descriptions of these creatures are ordered by culture, not nature. We are not dealing with science but with world views. The distribution of monsters around the world does not follow tenets of zoology but travels via channels of communication. That, however, does not stop modern cryptozoologists from expanding the cryptid universe as Heuvelmans did with his nine types of sea serpents. All these contradicting descriptions means we end up with the ever more unlikely claims of multiple new animals – lots of lake monsters, several types of hairy hominids. We get lost in absurdity when we venture down the wild path of speculation, lack of critical thinking about witness tales and an ignorance and neglect of the “mythological landscape”.
A common claim of cryptozoologists is that the natives know the local fauna. If they say something unusual is there, that is NOT typical animal A, B or C, there must be something to it. Again, we see an error. Even knowledge of the local fauna does not preclude a myth existing. A culture can hold understanding of real creatures and belief in mythical creatures at the same time. It is dangerous to assume that an outsider can make full sense of the difference with just the stories.
Not long ago, a small piece of antler was found at Loch Ness. To believers, it was the tooth of the monster. Currently, any strange stick formation or broken saplings are signals of Bigfoot in the U.S. backwoods. Any anomaly is seen as evidence for the favored idea. Meurger equates the superficial associative thinking that plagues cryptozoologists with the “Erich von Daniken school of cosmology” where the ancient artifact becomes something entirely different in one’s own particular (or peculiar) worldview. The material is taken out of context and THEN interpreted, losing valuable information in the process. The native’s ivory tooth amulet transforms to proof of an extraordinary creature in the hands of the explorer. The original story loses its magic and become a quasi-zoological puzzle waiting for the learned man to come around and declare what the creature is for the “modern” man.
The ultimate key to influence is when cryptozoologists write up the cryptic hypothesis, transforming it, concretizing it, into a particular creature. The creature then has a new life; he will be hard to kill.
Transformation
Any normal animal sighting in poor light – the “mythogenic conditions of twilight” – will be transformed, potentially into something monstrous. Encounters with real creatures are embellished and mistakes are made. The monster framework now prevalent in the culture provides an artificial sense of reality and connection of the sightings that are glommed onto it. The monster framework may reinforce the mythical landscape, and the landscape prevents the monster from being discovered (it’s hiding in convenient underground caves or bottomless lakes). Like our memories, the monsters are manipulated, enhanced, forgotten, extended, and exaggerated. The creatures borrow from nature but are independent of it; they will always remain dependent on culture for their life.
Here’s a funny thing. Samuel Champlain didn’t see Champ. It’s a well publicized story that the famous explorer was the “first” to see the monster when he founded the lake. But he didn’t. He heard about a big fish. He didn’t see anything, according to his own log book. But that hardly matters when the new story is so much better. Cryptozoologists fail, Meurger says, because they “try to explain a general myth in local terms.” They ignore the play between belief and the mythical landscape. They are confused by the reinforcement by the local residents, which they take out of context. They transform discourses into fact. These beasts are not Fortean, they do not belong to the field of anomalistics, but to ideology.
So this concludes my efforts to share my notes from LMT with the few of us riding the new wave of cryptozoology. This is not Heuvelman’s cryptozoology. It’s way better, it’s richer but it’s being drowned by superficial, ridiculous pop cryptozoology of television and kids books.
Meurger’s LMT was chock full of fantastic ideas, new ways of looking at cryptids, and information I never found anywhere else. In that respect, it’s a classic, necessary cryptozoology text. However, it was terrible reading. That it was translated is obvious. The narratives are not linear, the topics jump around like crazy and it’s organized poorly with repetition. I could not always follow the lines of reasoning or the arguments which deserve to be presented in a more coherent way. It’s not a common book. It’s now out of print. Therefore, we need to present these ideas that I’ve outlined in the past 5 posts more emphatically to get them into the mainstream. As I discussed, modern cryptozoology studies, by the few of us attempting some higher degree of scholarship, is not intended to debunk or destroy the legend, but to make it even richer. Those who have hijacked or disregarded the complex path to the modern version of the beast, hacking through the tangle of history with a machete, are the ones who have done the destroying.
I am not so naive as to think that the typical way of sensationalizing monsters (via TV and poorly written popular crypto-books) will change drastically any time soon. But I do see hints that the folklore aspect may come close to returning to its proper place of importance. I’m looking forward to all that.
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#LakeMonsterTraditions #lakeMonsters #myth
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By Grin Reaper
Billed as blackened folk metal and boasting a sound that will remind listeners of the aughts-era Darkthrone, Änterbila1 returns with sophomore album Avart. Three years removed from their self-titled debut, the foursome from Gävleborg County, Sweden, retains the core sonic principles of Änterbila and dunks them into the muck, invoking a darker, grimier aura. Where the plight of peasantry informed Änterbila’s sensibilities, Avart looks to national folklore for inspiration. Rather than interpreting that folklore through the eyes of those who passed the stories on, though, Avart revisits lore from the perspective of the other side, the witch to Grimms’ Hansel und Gretel, imparting a sinister edge to the music. Is Änterbila’s latest platter sharp enough to brandish, or does it need more time with the honing rod?
The marriage of black and folk metal can take different forms, with folk infusions coming from instrumentation, melodies, and/or folk and pagan themes. Änterbila offers all of them, but presented disparately as stark components rather than fused together as an interconnected whole. Bookend instrumentals “Låt till Far” and “Eklnundapolskan” feature strings, a bagpipe, and choral harmonies between them, not unlike Saor or Summoning. These tracks conjure rustic firesides with an air of excitement as strange tales are told around them. Avart’s other six tracks are categorically different, hovering between pagan-leaning, late-eighties Bathory (“Kniven”) and the punky pluck of early Vreid (“Jordfäst”). I even catch a whiff of Bizarrekult (“Årsgång”) in the midst. None of the flavors are bad on their own, but without more cohesion, they’re a bit confusing on the same plate.
Avart is a lively affair, with snappy licks, punky riffs, and burbling kick rolls that whisk listeners through half an hour of sprightly black metal. Bandleader and founder Jerff wields axe and vocal duties, with Raamt abetting in six-string antics. The guitars trem pick their way through Avart, embracing an unadorned style that takes a few simple melodies, interchanges them every now and then, and rides through four or five minutes. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this stripped-down approach, but without more distinctive hooks or emotive vocals, the songs bleed together. Drop me in the middle of any of the songs, and I’ll have a tough time naming which one it is unless Jerff repeats the title several times (“Kniven,” “Jordfäst”). Another issue Änterbila grapples with throughout Avart is repetition. Even with such a compact runtime, there’s not always enough substance to justify track lengths. “Jordfäst” could explore its ideas in two-thirds the time, for example, but instead pushes them past optimal duration. As it currently stands, there’s enough material for a solid EP, but relentless refrains without variations make shallow wells, and drawing from them too often becomes tedious.
Änterbila’s strengths lie in creating a dangerously charming atmosphere and not overstaying their welcome. Avart’s old school production underscores its low-fi mood, perfect for settings of yore where things lurking within shadows go bump in the night. Even though the mix isn’t polished, it ably captures Svaltunga’s punchy bass and drummer Monstrum’s quadrupedal onslaught. There flows an energy in the music that crackles with roguish vigor, and it’s here that Änterbila excels. It’s a shame lyrics weren’t included as part of the press kit since dark folklore provides such fertile ground for music. Understanding what the (presumed) native Swedish translates to could have heightened my appreciation for what secrets Avart holds. Still, the runtime is trim and helps deflect some of the monotony of simpler song structures, keeping the overall package easily digestible.
Änterbila possesses all the ingredients for a rollocking good time, but fumbles with the recipe. The folk metal tag is a bit misleading, and given that the folk elements are so well-executed in the intro and outro, it’s disappointing that Änterbila didn’t incorporate them throughout the entire album. Doing so could have thwarted the uniformity across the remaining songs, adding dynamism and a through-line that brings everything together with reinforced congruity. Every time I spin Avart, I hope to find something I’d missed previously, because I want to like it more than I do. Avart seethes with potential, and while I don’t regret any of the time I spent with the album, I don’t expect to return to it, either. Hopefully, the next iteration delivers on the promise Änterbila has established here.
Rating: Disappointing
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Nordvis Produktion
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: November 14th, 2025#20 #2025 #anterbila #avart #bathory #bizarrekult #blackFolkMetal #blackMetal #darkthrone #folkMetal #metal #nordvisProduktion #nov25 #review #reviews #saor #summoning #swedish #vreid
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Your favorite fantasy TV series was cancelled, now what? RPGs
A few years ago it was the heyday of big, high fantasy TV series. Yes, the grit of Game of Thrones and Witcher were still popular, but there were also a selection of shows with a higher level of magic, higher level of heroism and a set of characters who you wanted to win. It was the era of peak fantasy TV.
Slowly but surely these faded away.
Screenshot of Willow on Disney+Some series got a reasonable run — The Magicians reached a conclusion. Some series were cut quite short — Willow, ended with more story to tell.
Universes were announced to be expanding. Shadow & Bone went from having the Six of Crows spinoff announced to the entire project dying.
There was big money in fantasy for a bit. These weren’t Brit TV specials like Merlin or modern attempts at low budget like Xena.
The biggest money of them all is still around. Rings of Power, the prequel-ish endeavor by Prime Video churns along at price points that are normally saved for theater or Andor.
The wheel weaves as the wheel wills, always turning.
Sometimes the wheel destroys the things you enjoy, like Wheel of Time — especially the last half of season 2 and all of season 3 with strong reviews and great fan appreciation. While there was enormous pushback against the changes made to adapt to the shorter run time of a book plus a bit per season, as well as pushback against the attempts to be less coded and more openly diverse, the series was generally well received. It was generally profitable.
It’s gone.
The story won’t finish (except in the books, which will always be around). Yes, there’s a petition to Save Wheel of Time. I hope it succeeds. Brandon Sanderson seems to suggest it should, but will not.
Petitions and book reading are passive.
Don’t be passive — adapt those stories to an RPG
Playing games in those worlds is active participation in the fandom, and helps build out that word of mouth.
You don’t need to have an authorized book in order to play. Any fantasy series, movie, video game, book, comic, etc can show up at your table.
You can instead borrow the themes, cultures, characters and put them in your world. Sure, you could play pure within the world created by Robert Jordan or Lev Grossman or Jonathan Kasdan.
The power of roleplaying games is that the tale is yours, no one can take it from you. The rules can be simple enough to fit on a business card or so complex it fills bookshelves.
What happens to Jade, Kit and Elora?
That’s up to you.
What happens to Mat, Perrin, Elayne, Min and the rest?
That’s up to you.
Take the themes, tropes and world of that story that a committee decided was no longer worth being told and tell it yourself.
That’s why I fell in love with D&D and RPGs in the 80s.
The unfinished trilogy, or maybe not
Back in my youth my bookshelves were covered with science fiction, fantasy and encyclopedias. Words on a page were meant to be consumed by me, like a black hole consumes a galaxy.
I’d shop at a used bookstore, looking for a new series to start. Except sometimes I’d never find book 2, let alone the inevitable trilogy. Sometimes I would start with book 3!
One of my favorite tales, and I say this as someone who had pets but didn’t really discover the love of pets until my 30s, was a story about a fading order of knights who rode giant tigers. The hero wasn’t really part of the order. His family was and he had that extremely large cat. In this dying world they journeyed, starting as outsiders and immediately recognized as legendary. But they were just a dude and a great cat.
They didn’t want to be heroes. It was so compelling, this story of man and beast who wanted to be normal while the world needed them to be great.
I never found book 2.
But I had already discovered Dungeons & Dragons. A character paralleling that tale was created. We roamed the worlds that Erik and Justin and Chis and Abel and Hayes and Jacob and Colin and Andrew and others created.
We finished that tale.
Wheel of Time is over, unless it isn’t
The series explored slightly different things from the books. One of those was how tales are told. There’s a suggestion from the meta of the series that within a world where there are endless retellings of tales and history.
What changes, and what stays the same is part of that story.
Your RPG could lean into that by playing similar characters at different levels, at different times with a power to oncer per month to have a past power show up, maybe ramping faster as time goes by.
Another possible exploration from the Wheel of Times series and books is how power corrupts. The nature of saidin is that man with power lose control of themselves — mentally, emotionally, physically.
Want to toss a saidin power into your D&D?
Maybe your Rand-ish character is a Warlock that has to roll on the Wild Magic table every time they cast a spell.
Of course, one of the most potent tales from the books that is amplified in the series is that women are not side characters. They are as important to the story, and powerfully so, as anyone else.
You don’t need special rules for this. The modern versions of D&D encourage this.
From Willow there is a connection in the series to the tales from the movie (history is a massive throughput in Wheel of Time as well).
To see this at your table means connecting a current adventure or campaign to one that ended a decade, a century, a millennia, an age ago.
A D&D campaign that builds off of former campaigns is a structure that generally needs some continuity of players, but can also be done through one-sheets, common knowledge pages and a regular re-telling of special moments.
This could happen around the campfire, on the steps of a temple, inside a tavern or any place where the PCs meet NPCs.
Find what’s important from these tales and make them your own
It’s rough to lose a special story.
You have your memory. You have your hope.
You have a game to help you continue the legends that are important to you. You don’t need Rafe or Sera or Kasdan.
You need dice, paper and a table of friends.
#DnD #DungeonsAndDragons #fantasyTV #PlayingDD #RolePlaying #RPG #WheelOfTime #Willow
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#IoW types! This
Ventnor Fringe has seen some cracking #storytelling sets from members of Island Storytellers, individually and collectively.This year's sets by group members culminates Sunday evening with this excellent-looking show by one of my favourite local tellers, Merl Fluin, 'Tales That Topple Tyrants'. https://purchase.vfringe.co.uk/EventAvailability?EventId=22002
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Devil Places
There are countless places in the world named after the Devil (and variations of an evil one in other words and languages). If variations are added such as “Satan,” “Lucifer,” and “Diablo,” for example, the list is massive. Devil places sometimes owe their names to the geology. The features of these places may create a spooky and foreboding feeling that reinforces the local legends of the places being cursed, evil or enchanted.
These places have historically or very recently been associated with spirits, magic, strange phenomenon and/or death. In the U.S., many sacred places of indigenous peoples were renamed by the more puritanical sort as “devil” places in order to demonize the past (and previous spiritual beliefs). Devil places are particularly ubiquitous in New England, where the Puritans started their renaming. The rocky landscape gave them plenty of impetus. They truly believed Satan was about, ready to steal their souls. They considered Indian deities to be demons or devils. Spots where shamans would gather or practice might have been a place of geological uniqueness and were given a bad name by the newcomers.
Connecticut might be nicknamed the devil’s playground with some 34 place names including five Devil’s Dens, four Backbones, two Kitchens and a Dripping Pan, as well as a Hell Hole and two Satan’s Kingdoms. Massachusetts is the most devilish state, with 43 place names. Arizona is chock full of “devil” and “hell” names due to the hellishly hot weather suitable for demons.
Satan’s Kingdom
Legends say that Satan himself claimed the area now called Satan’s Kingdom in New Hartford, Connecticut as his own until the angel Gabriel decided the area was too idyllic and cleared out the dark lord and his band of demons. In Vermont, Satans Kingdom got its name supposedly because the settlers who expected fertile land got difficult rocks and hills instead. In Massachusetts, settlers came into the area in the 1670’s during King Philip’s War, where native villagers defended their land. The rough terrain and dangerous wildlife made it difficult for the settler-colonialists to conquer.
The Northern Cascades National park in Washington is very much a hellscape. The Backpacker.com site says of a hiking trail there: “The devil looms large on this rugged loop—you’ll pass Devils Creek, Pass, Park, Junction, and Dome—and you may curse like Satan during the initial 3,300-foot, 4-mile climb to McMillan Park”.
As you will see in this collection of Devilish places, they commonly are places of remarkable features, desolation, or treacherous traversing.
In 2013, Jonathan Hull did a map of US places with Devil-related names. Though many locations received their names from attributes other than geologically related ones, he noted that Devil-named areas often indicated a dangerous, extreme, or remote place. Sadly, I can’t find the full-scale map online anymore.
This is the best version I could find of Hull’s map.While my collection is woefully incomplete, I did pick some notable Devil-named locations with geological connections. Several of these warrant their own pages on the site. Click on the titles to head to these pages:
Devil’s Tower
An iconic volcanic feature in the Black Hills of Wyoming was known as being the location in the culminating scene in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It has become a draw for not only sci-fi enthusiasts but also UFO chasers and New Age believers.Devil’s Den
To gain this place name, the location usually has stark, huge rock boulders or outcrops, often with caves and crevasses. Several famous locations exist in the U.S. where not only supposedly spirits but also people used as hiding places.Devil’s Hole
A depression or cave often containing water that has gained a reputation of being deadly, a path to the underworld, or bottomless. (Or all three together). The most famous being the Devil’s Hole of Death Valley, a bizarre oasis in the desert.Devil’s Kitchen
Scenic locations characterized by their impressive geological features that suggest something evil is cooking.Devil’s Gate
A cleft or gorge that is considered a dangerous area for natural or supernatural reasons.Devil’s Punchbowl
Bowl-shaped depressions of various sizes that stand out from the landscape and may look as if they have been deliberately created for or from a nefarious action.Some lesser known locations with ‘Devil’ names are just as curious. Their oddness prompted locals to bestow upon them an accursed name.
Devils Head Rock, North CarolinaThree locations in Pennsylvania have the name Devil’s Potato Patch to designate boulder fields. One is between Danielsville and Little Gap in Northampton County, just west of the Blue Mtn ski area off the Appalachian Trail. This is an otherwise featureless field of sandstone blocks resulting from frost action that broke up the ridge-forming rock. It is on State Game Lands and, like other boulder fields, is treacherous to traverse and home to sunning snakes. Another Patch is located on the border of Lebanon and Lancaster County near Brickerville. This “river” of diabase boulders is a wooded and graffiti-strewn, neglected and full of various hazards like trash, bottles, and poison ivy. The third is in Salford Township, Montgomery County, where the boulders of diabase will ring when hammered.
Another “Tater Patch” is a windy ridge with spooky twisted trees in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park of Tennessee/ N. Carolina.
Similar to these rocky landscapes is the Devil’s Marbleyard of the James River Face Wilderness, in the Blue Ridge Mountains at Natural Bridge Station, Virginia. The Virginia Trail Guide describes it thusly:
“…looks like an immense stone mountain exploded and collapsed into thousands of boulders of every shape and size.”
Australia also has the Devil’s Marbles, a scattered array of large granite boulders in a 4500-acre area of the Northern Territory which was the traditional land of the Warumungu, Kaytetye, Alyawarra and Warlpiri people. They call it “Karlu Karlu”. The rocks are set precariously and have been chemically and physically weathered into rounded shapes. One legend says the natives thought these were the eggs of the rainbow serpent. But the official management plan for the reserve explains the traditional origin:
The whole area of the reserve is known as Ayleparrarntenhe, which is also the name of the place of origin and final resting place of Arrange, the Devil Man—a twin-peaked hill to the east of the reserve. Traditional Owners tell the story of how the Marbles came into being:
Arrange, the Devil Man, came from Ayleparrarntenhe and travelled through the area. During his journey, he was making a hair belt (as worn by initiated men). Twirling the hair into strings, Arrange dropped clusters of hair on the ground. These turned into the Karlu Karlu boulders that can be seen today. On his way back, Arrange spat on the ground. His spit also turned into the granite boulders which dot the central part of the reserve. Arrange finally returned to his place of origin, Ayleparrarntenhe.
Removal or desecration (even climbing) of the rocks and smaller rocks of nearby Devil’s Pebbles (Kunjarra) is said to bring bad luck to the tribes.
Several rocky areas are also called Devil’s Garden with unique vegetation or none at all. The Devil’s Garden portion of Arches National Park in Moab, Utah features “arches, spires, and a large concentration of narrow rock walls called “fins”. The fins are the result of erosion along parallel fractures.
Devil’s Garden, UtahA section of the High Lava Plains of central Oregon is a kipuka (an area isolated by surrounding lava flows) also known by this name. It was formed from fissure eruptions of basalt.
The Devil’s Playground is not your typical place of joy and laughter, but a grouping of granitic rock features weathered into fantastic forms and eerie shapes. A Tertiary-age (approximately 38 million years old) granitic intrusion overlying Paleozoic (400 to 300 million years old) sedimentary rocks is known as the Emigrant Pass pluton.
Devils Playground, UtahThe deadly Devil’s Playground in the Mohave Desert of California was the nickname pinned on a 17-mile stretch of drifting sand that had neither a track to follow nor water to drink.
In Tennessee, near vertical bedding produces huge rock formations that look like fins (or teeth) protrude from the Southwest flank of Cumberland Mountain known as the Devil’s Racetrack. Hikers and climbers must watch for falls from these rocks.
The Devil’s Race Course is a boulder field in Dauphin County, PA. Rock outcrops along the ridges provided the now rounded boulders. Stream flow from Rattling Run has washed away all the finer sediment. Sometimes the stream can be heard under river of rock. Legend has it that the area’s early settlers believed the sound of the water was the devil running through the depths of hell.
Devil’s Racecourse, PAThe term Devil’s Elbow often refers to an obvious and problematic bend in a river or a road. Most notably, in Pulaski County, Missouri, a sharp turn in the river has this unlucky name. Switchback bends along a hillside are constructed to navigate a steep slope. One such tight curve along a road bordering a rock cliff in New York has an associated legend of the vanishing hitchhiker. The road was eventually straightened to avoid mishaps.
The Devil’s Windpipe is a natural chute in the rocks in Arizona. When the wind blows across the hot landscape, it’s said it feels like the breathing of the devil himself. The Devil’s Throat is a remarkable cave in Bulgaria that swallows the Trigrad River where it funnels through the Hall of Thunder. This cave in the Rhodope Mountains is associated with the legend of Orpheus descending into the underworld to look for Eurydice. There is also a large sinkhole called the Devil’s Throat near Lake Mead in Nevada.
Multiple features exist with the name Devil’s Backbone which typically indicates a prominent ridge of rock that looks like a spine or teeth. Iowa has a state park characterized by a narrow and steep ridge of bedrock carved by a loop of the Maquoketa River. The towers, columns and rocky cliffs make for precipitous climbing. Maryland also has a park where a rock ridge 512 feet above sea level was formed by erosion at the confluence of the Antietam and Beaver Creek and is a noted scenic area. A narrow jutting of rock from a ridge forms a distinct “backbone” across the landscape west of Loveland, Colorado. A particularly striking vertical wall of dark andesite about 1,000 feet long exists within the volcanic crater of Crater Lake, Oregon. The dike was formed when molten lava filled cracks as it forced its way upwards and then solidified. Erosion of the surrounding material has left the resistant material standing. The Illinois “Backbone” is a rocky landmark on a ridge in the Grand Tower area. The rapids near here were supposedly very dangerous and native legends evil spirits were responsible. Nearby is the Devil’s Bake Oven – a nearly 100’ rock on the edge of the river where folklorists have documented ghostly visions and sounds.
Devil’s Backbone, Loveland CO.About 80,000 to 100,000 years ago in eastern California, basaltic lava gushed from fissures and formed a lake within a glacial-formed valley some 400 feet deep. The lava cooled slowly, forming the hexagonal columnar structure that is so striking (also present in Devil’s Tower and Giant’s Causeway), resembling a pile of posts. Thus, it’s called the Devils Postpile. Glaciers smoothed and scarred the top of the formation. Devils Postpile (no apostrophe – which is the case with most official U.S. “devil” monuments) is now a national monument. A Little Devils Postpile exists in Yosemite.
Devils Postpile National MonumentDevils Lake in Wisconsin, part of a state park, is situated in a deep chasm formed by glacial action. It has no visible inlet or outlet. The lake was originally called “Sacred Lake” or “Spirit Lake” by the natives who considered it sacred where voices of the spirits could be heard. Glacial striations mark the rock surfaces around the lake and there are Native effigy mounds nearby. The lake has spooky legends of a phantom canoer, and lake monster, and some stories say the natives considered it a “place of many dead”.
A similar lake exists in North Dakota, also in a closed basin and also renamed from the Natives’ interpretation of “Spirit Lake”. This lake has been plagued with flooding problems.
Seven Devils Lake is a small reservoir in South Arkansas, located about 14 miles (23 km) out of Monticello. The Lake is formed by Seven Devils Dam. The area got its name from a man who was trapped in the area for days and finally made it out. A reporter asked if he found the rumored seven lakes of the area, but the man stated that there were not seven lakes, but seven devils. This area is the most northern point west of the Mississippi River where American alligators can be found.
Many bare mountain summits are named for their stark barrenness. Several rocky scenic outlooks called Devil’s Knobs are recognized around the world. There are many places called Devil’s Peak often referring to an imposing, rocky mount. Such peaks are in Cape Town in South Africa, Hong Kong, Flanders Range in Australia, Soda Springs, California, Santa Barbara, California, and in Nevada. A location in Baja, California has the Spanish name Picacho del Diablo and is also known as the Cerro de la Encantada or “Hill of the Enchanted”. It is a ragged granite summit that makes for a popular but challenging climb.
Mount Diablo in Contra Costa, California is awash with legends and has a reputation as a strange place. Now a state park, it was historically an important landmark for mapping and navigation because of its visibility and location. It is a geological anomaly, part of a thrust fault complex, growing higher every year due to compression of tectonic plates. Native tribes have various legends about it included the mountain as a point of creation. A notable legend of how the mountain got its name was from a misinterpretation of “Monte del Diablo” meaning “thicket of the devil” after several Natives escaped from the Spanish in 1805 into a nearby thicket. Not long after, the name was interpreted to mean a place of evil spirits. It’s not clear if this name was derived from a genuine tradition of spooky happenings in the area and there have been several attempts to rename the mountain to shake off the diabolical reputation. Author Loren Coleman writes that many unusual incidents have occurred in the Mount Diablo area, appropriate for its reputation, including sightings of black panthers (a difficult-to-explain animal that is reported all too regularly), mysterious lights, apparitions and even a claim of a live frog found in a stony concretion.
West Face of Mount Diablo and Highway 24. By Trurl66 – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5526277So-called Devil’s bathtubs are deep spots in a creek popular with visitors looking to cool off. In Hocking Hills State Park, Ohio, water falls from rock ledges into the stream where the water swirls into a bowl-shaped gorge. People told stories of this being as deep as hell. The pockets and tunnels were formed from scouring glacial meltwaters thousands of years ago.
In Scott County, Virginia, the Bathtub is a scour pool in the Devil’s Fork of Stony Creek. It’s not the easiest spot to get to and the water is far from hot. Many photos of the location have circulated on social media but these seem to be from the Ohio location, or from some other feature entirely, leading many to be disappointed when they reach this particular tub. The overabundance of visitors prompted by social media has caused local problems and threaten the natural area. The South Dakota version of the devil’s tub is much more secluded. With high rocky cliffs nearby, the water cascades in a chute called “the slide” and swirls into the tub.
According to Wikipedia, there are no less than 105 different locations of the Devil’s Canyon in the United States alone including Utah, Oklahoma, and California. Areas with this designation are typically steep, remote, and have plentiful snakes as residents. In Lincoln National Forest, New Mexico, Devil’s Canyon, so far as anyone knows, is so named because of the pinnacles – needles and balanced rocks that form the canyon walls and resemble distorted human forms. A 2017 TV show called “Devil’s Canyon” is based in British Columbia. It is the story of three gold prospectors seeking treasure in the canyon where they believe large deposits have escaped exploitation by big mining companies. But the rough, isolated terrain, bad weather, and wild animals make it an unforgiving location to explore.
A rock formation where the lower strata is more eroded and weathered leaving a larger slab perched precipitously on top are called “tea tables”. Such formations are a variety of hoodoo. Notable examples of Devil’s Tea Tables exist in Athens County, Ohio and in Illinois’ Shawnee National Forest. These features appear to lean in every direction, so whatever side you view it from, it looks like it will fall on you. A tea table feature in McConnelsville, Ohio collapsed in 1906. Explorers who came across the gravity-defying features often attributed their origin to supernatural forces.
Devils Tea Table, McConnelsvilleNot necessarily natural are the standing stones in North Yorkshire, England, called Devils Arrows. Legend has it that the Devil himself threw the stones into the ground as arrows to attack Christians in Aldborough but they fell short. The prehistoric monuments likely were constructed as part of a ritual landscape. Similarly, the Devil’s Quoits in Stanton Harcourt are also part of a Neolithic-age stone circle. The legend here is “the Devil once played quoits (a game) with a beggar for his soul or, alternatively, that it was a Sunday and God rebuked him whereby he flung the stones in anger. Many stone circles and henges in the UK remain imbued with New Age and mystical significance.
The most famous Devil’s Gulch, in Garretson, South Dakota, is rife with legends. This 18-20 foot chasm across blocks of quartzite is said to have obtained its name from strange noises made by the winds as they blow through. Split Rock Creek below is associated with a “bottomless pit” in the stream bed. (If it’s bottomless, how does the stream flow over it?) A Native tale tells a different origin story. They called it “Spirit Canyon” and that it was formed when two warriors fought. When the spirit warrior’s tomahawk hit the ground, it split the land forming the gulch. But the most famous legend, now marked on the spot, is that outlaw Jesse James made a getaway by leaping the gap on his horse. The location is now a park and also has Devil’s Falls and the Devil’s Stairway nearby.
When Satan needs a rest, he chooses Devils Throne, a summit in Idaho County, Idaho. It forms part of the Seven Devils Mountains. Or the Devil’s Chair in San Gabriel Mountains is part of the Devil’s Punchbowl.
What is really haunting the Devil’s Swamp in Scotlandville, Louisiana are nasty chemicals that have been poured into it, destroying the ecosystem over the years leaving ghosts of those animals (and people) dead from pollution. Beware when visiting this toxic stew. The Seven Devils Swamp natural area in Arkansas, however, is a healthy and diverse ecosystem.
Part of the Craters of the Moon National monument, Idaho, Devil’s Orchard has trees and vegetation growing from the flood basalt lava flows of the Snake River Plain volcanic province. The Orchard is a group of lava-transported cinder cone fragments that were once part of the North Crater cinder cone but broke off and were carried away by a new lava flow. The place is described as “otherworldly” with the black rocks providing no shade. Shoshone legend speaks of a serpent on a mountain who, angered by lightning, coiled around and squeezed the mountain until liquid rock flowed, fire shot from cracks, and the mountain exploded. Craters of the Moon National Monument was proclaimed on May 2, 1924 by U.S. President Calvin Coolidge to “preserve the unusual and weird volcanic formations”
Devil’s Orchard, IdahoIn the Big South Fork National River and Recreation area in Kentucky/Tennessee, legend has it that a band of brothers looking for salt drilled a well so deep that it hit oil. They became concerned that the well was so deep, it might reach Hell. Finally, they did strike something, but instead of salt brine coming out of the ground a black, smelly, sticky liquid came oozing out of the pipe. These explorers did not know what oil was, and since they were of a religious nature, they were disturbed about the new-found product. When they saw how this black substance burned, they called it Devil’s Tar. One of the crew was sent downstream with a sample but his raft overturned at the rapids. Later, he told the story that the devil himself, angry at the invasion of his domain, leaped from one of the rocks onto the raft sinking it. The rapids were named the Devils Jump.
Two other Devil’s Jumps occur in England. Three little hills near Frensham are said to have been thrown up by the Devil taking three enormous leaps. The Devil’s Jumps in Churt, county of Surrey, (also known as Devil’s Three Jumps) are a series of three small hills made of “ironstone” making them resistant to erosion. The devil made his mark all around this area, according to legend, as several local landmarks play into the story of his visit. For example, the tale goes that Devil made off with the cauldron of the witch, Mother Ludlam. As she chased him, the Devil’s leaps kicked up hills now known as the Devil’s Jumps. He left the cauldron on Kettlebury Hill and also left a valley known as the Devil’s Punch Bowl.
Another tale tells that the Devil amused himself by leaping from the top of each hill to the next. This annoyed the god Thor who picked up a boulder and threw it at the Devil, causing him to flee. The boulder remains at Devil’s Jumps. The same story is told of the Devil’s Jumps near Treyford on the South Downs in West Sussex though these are barrows upon which the Devil jumped. Other round barrows in Stoughton are also called the Devil’s humps.
Similar to the Jumps are the Devils Footprints – grassy meadows that top some peaks in the Appalachian mountains, particularly in the Great Smoky Mountains. These peaks, also called “balds” are where trees won’t grow, legendarily because the devil himself stepped there. More realistic theories are that the treeless patches are the result of past clearing, animal grazing or burning. Or that the soil, climate, or biota prevents trees from growing. It’s not clear why some summits are bald where others are not.
Apparent “footprints” in rock appear at Devils Foot Rock. Many colorful tales are told of the Devil himself leaving the prints as he pursued maidens or stomped in frustration.
Devil’s Promenade in extreme southwestern Missouri is the site of a regionally noted “spook light”. The locals named the four-mile-long gravel road on the border between southwestern Missouri and northeastern Oklahoma west of the small town of Hornet, Missouri. Hornet is famous for the Hornet Spooklight (also called the Joplin spooklight) – a seemingly unexplained light that appears in the distance. Some have explained it as normal lights from cars or trains and others insist it is paranormal in nature. The bridge along the Devil’s Promenade was originally a rickety wooden bridge. Legend had it that “anyone who walked back and forth across the bridge five times (or seven or three depending on who you ask) very slowly and asking for the Devil to appear, he would either answer three questions, grant three wishes or of course, kill you. Again this depends on the version you hear.” A concrete bridge was constructed and the story seems to have diminished. One story of the light’s origin was that it is the Devil swinging his Jack-o-lantern. Other stories, according to the Prarie Ghosts website, says the light represents the spirit of two young Quapaw Indians who died in the area. Another claimed the light was the spirit of an Osage Indian chief who had been beheaded on the Devil’s Promenade. As with many spook light stories, the light represents a torch carried by the ghost as he searches for his missing head. The torch motif also shows up in the version of the legend that a miner is searching in vain for his missing children by lantern light. Tellers of these tales claim that the lights and legends existed in Native lore prior to the construction of this road.
Many impressive masonry structures are named the Devil’s Bridge and have associated lore to go with them. The bridge in Sedona, Arizona, in the Coconino National Forest, is a large natural sandstone arch. In Massachusetts, the Devil’s Bridge is a shallow reef running northwest off the northwest corner of Martha’s Vineyard. This hazard to ships was supposedly created by the mighty giant Moshup. The local Wampanoag tribal history tells the tale:
Moshup was building a bridge to Cuttyhunk with heavy boulders when a giant crab latched onto his foot. In his pain and anger, he gave up leaving a treacherous shoal instead. The area has been the site of several shipwrecks.
In North Carolina’s Pisgah National Forest is the Devil’s Courthouse. According to Andrea Lankford:
By bradploeger – originally posted to Flickr as Devil’s Courthouse, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4237496“Cherokees believed an evil spirit [or giant} named Judaculla held court on top of this bare rock summit with a 360 degree view of three states”.
Whiteside Mountain in Jackson County, North Carolina also has a feature of this name. The bare overhanging rock is windy and dangerous.
The Devil’s Apronful cairn consists of a heap of rocks and boulders near Pendle Hill in Lancashire, England. Several natural boulders were used to construct the mound which provides an impressive view both now and back in Bronze Age times. The thousands of rocks of gritstone and sandstone are scattered in a roughly circular area. The area however is mostly limestone. It’s been suggested that the stones were glacial erratics and the stones were gathered by farmers to get them out of the fields. But there are more fantastic origin stories. The Devil was annoyed with people at Clitheroe Castle in the west. To do away with it, he filled an “apron” (quite the visual) with rocks to pitch at them. Most missed and in his rage he dropped the rest on this south side of Pendle Hill, creating Apronful Hill. For the similar Apronful in Yorkshire, the tale is that the Devil was collecting stones in his apron in order to build a bridge or fill in the ravine when his apron string broke (or he tripped) and the stones fell out. The Devil’s Apronful sites were disturbed by curious visitors and looters but are now protected.
The Devil has two “Hopyards”. One is a State Park and public recreation area in East Haddam, Connecticut. There are several ideas about how the place got its curious name. One is that it refers to supernatural origins for the naturally occurring potholes in the area. These potholes were formed by the grinding actions of stones moved downstream by the current when trapped in an eddy, wearing a depression in the rock. To the early settlers the potholes were a great mystery, and as with many “devilish” features, they explained them with references to the supernatural. They thought that the Devil has passed by the falls, accidentally getting his tail wet. This made him so mad he burned holes in the stones with his hooves as he bounded away. A sign in the park tells of the legends regarding the name. Another site with this name is in New Hampshire. This is a boulder-filled ravine where you can sometimes hear water running.
Devil’s Dyke (or ditch) near Bleaklow, in Sussex, England is a deep gully supposedly cut by Satan’s claws when he became enraged at the loss of a prospective soul. Other tales say it is his unfinished ditch as he bet St. Cuthberth he could dig it in one night and flood the town. The tourist-attracting feature is really the result of mass wasting and river erosion into a dip-slope valley. The V-shaped dry valley, the deepest in England, was born from the cold climate of 14,000 years ago when this area of chalk bedrock was covered in snow. During warm seasons, the upper layers of soil and weathered rock slid away with the thaw. Finally, an ancient river carried the material away at the end of the Ice Age. That river is now gone but its valley remains. The high hill showed the surrounding terrain and was used as a defensive position as well as being an impressive location to hold special events. Remains of an Iron Age fort have been found here. The location is managed by the National Trust and is a recreational area. A trail supposedly leads to the alleged burial site of the Devil and his wife. In 1900, a sound called The Howling Terror was heard echoing in the valley. It wasn’t demons but the testing of a new invention called the megaphone being used at the amusement park on the top of the Dyke.
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The information provided here is based on a cursory search of these sites and the entries will be expanded as I discover new source material (or visit them!). Please contact me with your corrections, information (preferably with solid references), and photographs and I will gladly add them to the page. Or, leave your contribution in the comments. Thanks!Book References
Coleman, L. (2001). Mysterious America (Revised edition). Paraview Press.
Lankford, A. (2006). Haunted Hikes. Santa Monica Press.
#devil #DevilPlaces #DevilSBackbone #DevilSElbow #DevilSGarden #DevilSPlayground #DevilSPostpile #DevilSRacecourse #DevilSWindpipe #DevilsLake #MountDiablo #Satan
https://sharonahill.com/?p=738
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Religious people often think that religion helps people grieve. But let me tell you that #evangelical funerals are god-awful! I just attended one of a more distant family member, whom I hadn't seen in probably ten years, and it was all about the necessity of submitting to God to go to heaven. Readers, I literally never heard this man mention God, not once, in decades.
If dead men tell to tales, it's amazing how many words can be put in their mouths!
#exvangelical -
Devil Places
There are countless places in the world named after the Devil (and variations of an evil one in other words and languages). If variations are added such as “Satan,” “Lucifer,” and “Diablo,” for example, the list is massive. Devil places sometimes owe their names to the geology. The features of these places may create a spooky and foreboding feeling that reinforces the local legends of the places being cursed, evil or enchanted.
These places have historically or very recently been associated with spirits, magic, strange phenomenon and/or death. In the U.S., many sacred places of indigenous peoples were renamed by the more puritanical sort as “devil” places in order to demonize the past (and previous spiritual beliefs). Devil places are particularly ubiquitous in New England, where the Puritans started their renaming. The rocky landscape gave them plenty of impetus. They truly believed Satan was about, ready to steal their souls. They considered Indian deities to be demons or devils. Spots where shamans would gather or practice might have been a place of geological uniqueness and were given a bad name by the newcomers.
Connecticut might be nicknamed the devil’s playground with some 34 place names including five Devil’s Dens, four Backbones, two Kitchens and a Dripping Pan, as well as a Hell Hole and two Satan’s Kingdoms. Massachusetts is the most devilish state, with 43 place names. Arizona is chock full of “devil” and “hell” names due to the hellishly hot weather suitable for demons.
Satan’s Kingdom
Legends say that Satan himself claimed the area now called Satan’s Kingdom in New Hartford, Connecticut as his own until the angel Gabriel decided the area was too idyllic and cleared out the dark lord and his band of demons. In Vermont, Satans Kingdom got its name supposedly because the settlers who expected fertile land got difficult rocks and hills instead. In Massachusetts, settlers came into the area in the 1670’s during King Philip’s War, where native villagers defended their land. The rough terrain and dangerous wildlife made it difficult for the settler-colonialists to conquer.
The Northern Cascades National park in Washington is very much a hellscape. The Backpacker.com site says of a hiking trail there: “The devil looms large on this rugged loop—you’ll pass Devils Creek, Pass, Park, Junction, and Dome—and you may curse like Satan during the initial 3,300-foot, 4-mile climb to McMillan Park”.
As you will see in this collection of Devilish places, they commonly are places of remarkable features, desolation, or treacherous traversing.
In 2013, Jonathan Hull did a map of US places with Devil-related names. Though many locations received their names from attributes other than geologically related ones, he noted that Devil-named areas often indicated a dangerous, extreme, or remote place. Sadly, I can’t find the full-scale map online anymore.
This is the best version I could find of Hull’s map.While my collection is woefully incomplete, I did pick some notable Devil-named locations with geological connections. Several of these warrant their own pages on the site. Click on the titles to head to these pages:
Devil’s Tower
An iconic volcanic feature in the Black Hills of Wyoming was known as being the location in the culminating scene in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It has become a draw for not only sci-fi enthusiasts but also UFO chasers and New Age believers.Devil’s Den
To gain this place name, the location usually has stark, huge rock boulders or outcrops, often with caves and crevasses. Several famous locations exist in the U.S. where not only supposedly spirits but also people used as hiding places.Devil’s Hole
A depression or cave often containing water that has gained a reputation of being deadly, a path to the underworld, or bottomless. (Or all three together). The most famous being the Devil’s Hole of Death Valley, a bizarre oasis in the desert.Devil’s Kitchen
Scenic locations characterized by their impressive geological features that suggest something evil is cooking.Devil’s Gate
A cleft or gorge that is considered a dangerous area for natural or supernatural reasons.Devil’s Punchbowl
Bowl-shaped depressions of various sizes that stand out from the landscape and may look as if they have been deliberately created for or from a nefarious action.Some lesser known locations with ‘Devil’ names are just as curious. Their oddness prompted locals to bestow upon them an accursed name.
Devils Head Rock, North CarolinaThree locations in Pennsylvania have the name Devil’s Potato Patch to designate boulder fields. One is between Danielsville and Little Gap in Northampton County, just west of the Blue Mtn ski area off the Appalachian Trail. This is an otherwise featureless field of sandstone blocks resulting from frost action that broke up the ridge-forming rock. It is on State Game Lands and, like other boulder fields, is treacherous to traverse and home to sunning snakes. Another Patch is located on the border of Lebanon and Lancaster County near Brickerville. This “river” of diabase boulders is a wooded and graffiti-strewn, neglected and full of various hazards like trash, bottles, and poison ivy. The third is in Salford Township, Montgomery County, where the boulders of diabase will ring when hammered.
Another “Tater Patch” is a windy ridge with spooky twisted trees in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park of Tennessee/ N. Carolina.
Similar to these rocky landscapes is the Devil’s Marbleyard of the James River Face Wilderness, in the Blue Ridge Mountains at Natural Bridge Station, Virginia. The Virginia Trail Guide describes it thusly:
“…looks like an immense stone mountain exploded and collapsed into thousands of boulders of every shape and size.”
Australia also has the Devil’s Marbles, a scattered array of large granite boulders in a 4500-acre area of the Northern Territory which was the traditional land of the Warumungu, Kaytetye, Alyawarra and Warlpiri people. They call it “Karlu Karlu”. The rocks are set precariously and have been chemically and physically weathered into rounded shapes. One legend says the natives thought these were the eggs of the rainbow serpent. But the official management plan for the reserve explains the traditional origin:
The whole area of the reserve is known as Ayleparrarntenhe, which is also the name of the place of origin and final resting place of Arrange, the Devil Man—a twin-peaked hill to the east of the reserve. Traditional Owners tell the story of how the Marbles came into being:
Arrange, the Devil Man, came from Ayleparrarntenhe and travelled through the area. During his journey, he was making a hair belt (as worn by initiated men). Twirling the hair into strings, Arrange dropped clusters of hair on the ground. These turned into the Karlu Karlu boulders that can be seen today. On his way back, Arrange spat on the ground. His spit also turned into the granite boulders which dot the central part of the reserve. Arrange finally returned to his place of origin, Ayleparrarntenhe.
Removal or desecration (even climbing) of the rocks and smaller rocks of nearby Devil’s Pebbles (Kunjarra) is said to bring bad luck to the tribes.
Several rocky areas are also called Devil’s Garden with unique vegetation or none at all. The Devil’s Garden portion of Arches National Park in Moab, Utah features “arches, spires, and a large concentration of narrow rock walls called “fins”. The fins are the result of erosion along parallel fractures.
Devil’s Garden, UtahA section of the High Lava Plains of central Oregon is a kipuka (an area isolated by surrounding lava flows) also known by this name. It was formed from fissure eruptions of basalt.
The Devil’s Playground is not your typical place of joy and laughter, but a grouping of granitic rock features weathered into fantastic forms and eerie shapes. A Tertiary-age (approximately 38 million years old) granitic intrusion overlying Paleozoic (400 to 300 million years old) sedimentary rocks is known as the Emigrant Pass pluton.
Devils Playground, UtahThe deadly Devil’s Playground in the Mohave Desert of California was the nickname pinned on a 17-mile stretch of drifting sand that had neither a track to follow nor water to drink.
In Tennessee, near vertical bedding produces huge rock formations that look like fins (or teeth) protrude from the Southwest flank of Cumberland Mountain known as the Devil’s Racetrack. Hikers and climbers must watch for falls from these rocks.
The Devil’s Race Course is a boulder field in Dauphin County, PA. Rock outcrops along the ridges provided the now rounded boulders. Stream flow from Rattling Run has washed away all the finer sediment. Sometimes the stream can be heard under river of rock. Legend has it that the area’s early settlers believed the sound of the water was the devil running through the depths of hell.
Devil’s Racecourse, PAThe term Devil’s Elbow often refers to an obvious and problematic bend in a river or a road. Most notably, in Pulaski County, Missouri, a sharp turn in the river has this unlucky name. Switchback bends along a hillside are constructed to navigate a steep slope. One such tight curve along a road bordering a rock cliff in New York has an associated legend of the vanishing hitchhiker. The road was eventually straightened to avoid mishaps.
The Devil’s Windpipe is a natural chute in the rocks in Arizona. When the wind blows across the hot landscape, it’s said it feels like the breathing of the devil himself. The Devil’s Throat is a remarkable cave in Bulgaria that swallows the Trigrad River where it funnels through the Hall of Thunder. This cave in the Rhodope Mountains is associated with the legend of Orpheus descending into the underworld to look for Eurydice. There is also a large sinkhole called the Devil’s Throat near Lake Mead in Nevada.
Multiple features exist with the name Devil’s Backbone which typically indicates a prominent ridge of rock that looks like a spine or teeth. Iowa has a state park characterized by a narrow and steep ridge of bedrock carved by a loop of the Maquoketa River. The towers, columns and rocky cliffs make for precipitous climbing. Maryland also has a park where a rock ridge 512 feet above sea level was formed by erosion at the confluence of the Antietam and Beaver Creek and is a noted scenic area. A narrow jutting of rock from a ridge forms a distinct “backbone” across the landscape west of Loveland, Colorado. A particularly striking vertical wall of dark andesite about 1,000 feet long exists within the volcanic crater of Crater Lake, Oregon. The dike was formed when molten lava filled cracks as it forced its way upwards and then solidified. Erosion of the surrounding material has left the resistant material standing. The Illinois “Backbone” is a rocky landmark on a ridge in the Grand Tower area. The rapids near here were supposedly very dangerous and native legends evil spirits were responsible. Nearby is the Devil’s Bake Oven – a nearly 100’ rock on the edge of the river where folklorists have documented ghostly visions and sounds.
Devil’s Backbone, Loveland CO.About 80,000 to 100,000 years ago in eastern California, basaltic lava gushed from fissures and formed a lake within a glacial-formed valley some 400 feet deep. The lava cooled slowly, forming the hexagonal columnar structure that is so striking (also present in Devil’s Tower and Giant’s Causeway), resembling a pile of posts. Thus, it’s called the Devils Postpile. Glaciers smoothed and scarred the top of the formation. Devils Postpile (no apostrophe – which is the case with most official U.S. “devil” monuments) is now a national monument. A Little Devils Postpile exists in Yosemite.
Devils Postpile National MonumentDevils Lake in Wisconsin, part of a state park, is situated in a deep chasm formed by glacial action. It has no visible inlet or outlet. The lake was originally called “Sacred Lake” or “Spirit Lake” by the natives who considered it sacred where voices of the spirits could be heard. Glacial striations mark the rock surfaces around the lake and there are Native effigy mounds nearby. The lake has spooky legends of a phantom canoer, and lake monster, and some stories say the natives considered it a “place of many dead”.
A similar lake exists in North Dakota, also in a closed basin and also renamed from the Natives’ interpretation of “Spirit Lake”. This lake has been plagued with flooding problems.
Seven Devils Lake is a small reservoir in South Arkansas, located about 14 miles (23 km) out of Monticello. The Lake is formed by Seven Devils Dam. The area got its name from a man who was trapped in the area for days and finally made it out. A reporter asked if he found the rumored seven lakes of the area, but the man stated that there were not seven lakes, but seven devils. This area is the most northern point west of the Mississippi River where American alligators can be found.
Many bare mountain summits are named for their stark barrenness. Several rocky scenic outlooks called Devil’s Knobs are recognized around the world. There are many places called Devil’s Peak often referring to an imposing, rocky mount. Such peaks are in Cape Town in South Africa, Hong Kong, Flanders Range in Australia, Soda Springs, California, Santa Barbara, California, and in Nevada. A location in Baja, California has the Spanish name Picacho del Diablo and is also known as the Cerro de la Encantada or “Hill of the Enchanted”. It is a ragged granite summit that makes for a popular but challenging climb.
Mount Diablo in Contra Costa, California is awash with legends and has a reputation as a strange place. Now a state park, it was historically an important landmark for mapping and navigation because of its visibility and location. It is a geological anomaly, part of a thrust fault complex, growing higher every year due to compression of tectonic plates. Native tribes have various legends about it included the mountain as a point of creation. A notable legend of how the mountain got its name was from a misinterpretation of “Monte del Diablo” meaning “thicket of the devil” after several Natives escaped from the Spanish in 1805 into a nearby thicket. Not long after, the name was interpreted to mean a place of evil spirits. It’s not clear if this name was derived from a genuine tradition of spooky happenings in the area and there have been several attempts to rename the mountain to shake off the diabolical reputation. Author Loren Coleman writes that many unusual incidents have occurred in the Mount Diablo area, appropriate for its reputation, including sightings of black panthers (a difficult-to-explain animal that is reported all too regularly), mysterious lights, apparitions and even a claim of a live frog found in a stony concretion.
West Face of Mount Diablo and Highway 24. By Trurl66 – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5526277So-called Devil’s bathtubs are deep spots in a creek popular with visitors looking to cool off. In Hocking Hills State Park, Ohio, water falls from rock ledges into the stream where the water swirls into a bowl-shaped gorge. People told stories of this being as deep as hell. The pockets and tunnels were formed from scouring glacial meltwaters thousands of years ago.
In Scott County, Virginia, the Bathtub is a scour pool in the Devil’s Fork of Stony Creek. It’s not the easiest spot to get to and the water is far from hot. Many photos of the location have circulated on social media but these seem to be from the Ohio location, or from some other feature entirely, leading many to be disappointed when they reach this particular tub. The overabundance of visitors prompted by social media has caused local problems and threaten the natural area. The South Dakota version of the devil’s tub is much more secluded. With high rocky cliffs nearby, the water cascades in a chute called “the slide” and swirls into the tub.
According to Wikipedia, there are no less than 105 different locations of the Devil’s Canyon in the United States alone including Utah, Oklahoma, and California. Areas with this designation are typically steep, remote, and have plentiful snakes as residents. In Lincoln National Forest, New Mexico, Devil’s Canyon, so far as anyone knows, is so named because of the pinnacles – needles and balanced rocks that form the canyon walls and resemble distorted human forms. A 2017 TV show called “Devil’s Canyon” is based in British Columbia. It is the story of three gold prospectors seeking treasure in the canyon where they believe large deposits have escaped exploitation by big mining companies. But the rough, isolated terrain, bad weather, and wild animals make it an unforgiving location to explore.
A rock formation where the lower strata is more eroded and weathered leaving a larger slab perched precipitously on top are called “tea tables”. Such formations are a variety of hoodoo. Notable examples of Devil’s Tea Tables exist in Athens County, Ohio and in Illinois’ Shawnee National Forest. These features appear to lean in every direction, so whatever side you view it from, it looks like it will fall on you. A tea table feature in McConnelsville, Ohio collapsed in 1906. Explorers who came across the gravity-defying features often attributed their origin to supernatural forces.
Devils Tea Table, McConnelsvilleNot necessarily natural are the standing stones in North Yorkshire, England, called Devils Arrows. Legend has it that the Devil himself threw the stones into the ground as arrows to attack Christians in Aldborough but they fell short. The prehistoric monuments likely were constructed as part of a ritual landscape. Similarly, the Devil’s Quoits in Stanton Harcourt are also part of a Neolithic-age stone circle. The legend here is “the Devil once played quoits (a game) with a beggar for his soul or, alternatively, that it was a Sunday and God rebuked him whereby he flung the stones in anger. Many stone circles and henges in the UK remain imbued with New Age and mystical significance.
The most famous Devil’s Gulch, in Garretson, South Dakota, is rife with legends. This 18-20 foot chasm across blocks of quartzite is said to have obtained its name from strange noises made by the winds as they blow through. Split Rock Creek below is associated with a “bottomless pit” in the stream bed. (If it’s bottomless, how does the stream flow over it?) A Native tale tells a different origin story. They called it “Spirit Canyon” and that it was formed when two warriors fought. When the spirit warrior’s tomahawk hit the ground, it split the land forming the gulch. But the most famous legend, now marked on the spot, is that outlaw Jesse James made a getaway by leaping the gap on his horse. The location is now a park and also has Devil’s Falls and the Devil’s Stairway nearby.
When Satan needs a rest, he chooses Devils Throne, a summit in Idaho County, Idaho. It forms part of the Seven Devils Mountains. Or the Devil’s Chair in San Gabriel Mountains is part of the Devil’s Punchbowl.
What is really haunting the Devil’s Swamp in Scotlandville, Louisiana are nasty chemicals that have been poured into it, destroying the ecosystem over the years leaving ghosts of those animals (and people) dead from pollution. Beware when visiting this toxic stew. The Seven Devils Swamp natural area in Arkansas, however, is a healthy and diverse ecosystem.
Part of the Craters of the Moon National monument, Idaho, Devil’s Orchard has trees and vegetation growing from the flood basalt lava flows of the Snake River Plain volcanic province. The Orchard is a group of lava-transported cinder cone fragments that were once part of the North Crater cinder cone but broke off and were carried away by a new lava flow. The place is described as “otherworldly” with the black rocks providing no shade. Shoshone legend speaks of a serpent on a mountain who, angered by lightning, coiled around and squeezed the mountain until liquid rock flowed, fire shot from cracks, and the mountain exploded. Craters of the Moon National Monument was proclaimed on May 2, 1924 by U.S. President Calvin Coolidge to “preserve the unusual and weird volcanic formations”
Devil’s Orchard, IdahoIn the Big South Fork National River and Recreation area in Kentucky/Tennessee, legend has it that a band of brothers looking for salt drilled a well so deep that it hit oil. They became concerned that the well was so deep, it might reach Hell. Finally, they did strike something, but instead of salt brine coming out of the ground a black, smelly, sticky liquid came oozing out of the pipe. These explorers did not know what oil was, and since they were of a religious nature, they were disturbed about the new-found product. When they saw how this black substance burned, they called it Devil’s Tar. One of the crew was sent downstream with a sample but his raft overturned at the rapids. Later, he told the story that the devil himself, angry at the invasion of his domain, leaped from one of the rocks onto the raft sinking it. The rapids were named the Devils Jump.
Two other Devil’s Jumps occur in England. Three little hills near Frensham are said to have been thrown up by the Devil taking three enormous leaps. The Devil’s Jumps in Churt, county of Surrey, (also known as Devil’s Three Jumps) are a series of three small hills made of “ironstone” making them resistant to erosion. The devil made his mark all around this area, according to legend, as several local landmarks play into the story of his visit. For example, the tale goes that Devil made off with the cauldron of the witch, Mother Ludlam. As she chased him, the Devil’s leaps kicked up hills now known as the Devil’s Jumps. He left the cauldron on Kettlebury Hill and also left a valley known as the Devil’s Punch Bowl.
Another tale tells that the Devil amused himself by leaping from the top of each hill to the next. This annoyed the god Thor who picked up a boulder and threw it at the Devil, causing him to flee. The boulder remains at Devil’s Jumps. The same story is told of the Devil’s Jumps near Treyford on the South Downs in West Sussex though these are barrows upon which the Devil jumped. Other round barrows in Stoughton are also called the Devil’s humps.
Similar to the Jumps are the Devils Footprints – grassy meadows that top some peaks in the Appalachian mountains, particularly in the Great Smoky Mountains. These peaks, also called “balds” are where trees won’t grow, legendarily because the devil himself stepped there. More realistic theories are that the treeless patches are the result of past clearing, animal grazing or burning. Or that the soil, climate, or biota prevents trees from growing. It’s not clear why some summits are bald where others are not.
Apparent “footprints” in rock appear at Devils Foot Rock. Many colorful tales are told of the Devil himself leaving the prints as he pursued maidens or stomped in frustration.
Devil’s Promenade in extreme southwestern Missouri is the site of a regionally noted “spook light”. The locals named the four-mile-long gravel road on the border between southwestern Missouri and northeastern Oklahoma west of the small town of Hornet, Missouri. Hornet is famous for the Hornet Spooklight (also called the Joplin spooklight) – a seemingly unexplained light that appears in the distance. Some have explained it as normal lights from cars or trains and others insist it is paranormal in nature. The bridge along the Devil’s Promenade was originally a rickety wooden bridge. Legend had it that “anyone who walked back and forth across the bridge five times (or seven or three depending on who you ask) very slowly and asking for the Devil to appear, he would either answer three questions, grant three wishes or of course, kill you. Again this depends on the version you hear.” A concrete bridge was constructed and the story seems to have diminished. One story of the light’s origin was that it is the Devil swinging his Jack-o-lantern. Other stories, according to the Prarie Ghosts website, says the light represents the spirit of two young Quapaw Indians who died in the area. Another claimed the light was the spirit of an Osage Indian chief who had been beheaded on the Devil’s Promenade. As with many spook light stories, the light represents a torch carried by the ghost as he searches for his missing head. The torch motif also shows up in the version of the legend that a miner is searching in vain for his missing children by lantern light. Tellers of these tales claim that the lights and legends existed in Native lore prior to the construction of this road.
Many impressive masonry structures are named the Devil’s Bridge and have associated lore to go with them. The bridge in Sedona, Arizona, in the Coconino National Forest, is a large natural sandstone arch. In Massachusetts, the Devil’s Bridge is a shallow reef running northwest off the northwest corner of Martha’s Vineyard. This hazard to ships was supposedly created by the mighty giant Moshup. The local Wampanoag tribal history tells the tale:
Moshup was building a bridge to Cuttyhunk with heavy boulders when a giant crab latched onto his foot. In his pain and anger, he gave up leaving a treacherous shoal instead. The area has been the site of several shipwrecks.
In North Carolina’s Pisgah National Forest is the Devil’s Courthouse. According to Andrea Lankford:
By bradploeger – originally posted to Flickr as Devil’s Courthouse, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4237496“Cherokees believed an evil spirit [or giant} named Judaculla held court on top of this bare rock summit with a 360 degree view of three states”.
Whiteside Mountain in Jackson County, North Carolina also has a feature of this name. The bare overhanging rock is windy and dangerous.
The Devil’s Apronful cairn consists of a heap of rocks and boulders near Pendle Hill in Lancashire, England. Several natural boulders were used to construct the mound which provides an impressive view both now and back in Bronze Age times. The thousands of rocks of gritstone and sandstone are scattered in a roughly circular area. The area however is mostly limestone. It’s been suggested that the stones were glacial erratics and the stones were gathered by farmers to get them out of the fields. But there are more fantastic origin stories. The Devil was annoyed with people at Clitheroe Castle in the west. To do away with it, he filled an “apron” (quite the visual) with rocks to pitch at them. Most missed and in his rage he dropped the rest on this south side of Pendle Hill, creating Apronful Hill. For the similar Apronful in Yorkshire, the tale is that the Devil was collecting stones in his apron in order to build a bridge or fill in the ravine when his apron string broke (or he tripped) and the stones fell out. The Devil’s Apronful sites were disturbed by curious visitors and looters but are now protected.
The Devil has two “Hopyards”. One is a State Park and public recreation area in East Haddam, Connecticut. There are several ideas about how the place got its curious name. One is that it refers to supernatural origins for the naturally occurring potholes in the area. These potholes were formed by the grinding actions of stones moved downstream by the current when trapped in an eddy, wearing a depression in the rock. To the early settlers the potholes were a great mystery, and as with many “devilish” features, they explained them with references to the supernatural. They thought that the Devil has passed by the falls, accidentally getting his tail wet. This made him so mad he burned holes in the stones with his hooves as he bounded away. A sign in the park tells of the legends regarding the name. Another site with this name is in New Hampshire. This is a boulder-filled ravine where you can sometimes hear water running.
Devil’s Dyke (or ditch) near Bleaklow, in Sussex, England is a deep gully supposedly cut by Satan’s claws when he became enraged at the loss of a prospective soul. Other tales say it is his unfinished ditch as he bet St. Cuthberth he could dig it in one night and flood the town. The tourist-attracting feature is really the result of mass wasting and river erosion into a dip-slope valley. The V-shaped dry valley, the deepest in England, was born from the cold climate of 14,000 years ago when this area of chalk bedrock was covered in snow. During warm seasons, the upper layers of soil and weathered rock slid away with the thaw. Finally, an ancient river carried the material away at the end of the Ice Age. That river is now gone but its valley remains. The high hill showed the surrounding terrain and was used as a defensive position as well as being an impressive location to hold special events. Remains of an Iron Age fort have been found here. The location is managed by the National Trust and is a recreational area. A trail supposedly leads to the alleged burial site of the Devil and his wife. In 1900, a sound called The Howling Terror was heard echoing in the valley. It wasn’t demons but the testing of a new invention called the megaphone being used at the amusement park on the top of the Dyke.
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The information provided here is based on a cursory search of these sites and the entries will be expanded as I discover new source material (or visit them!). Please contact me with your corrections, information (preferably with solid references), and photographs and I will gladly add them to the page. Or, leave your contribution in the comments. Thanks!Book References
Coleman, L. (2001). Mysterious America (Revised edition). Paraview Press.
Lankford, A. (2006). Haunted Hikes. Santa Monica Press.
#devil #devilPlaces #devilsBackbone #devilsElbow #devilsGarden #devilsPlayground #devilsPostpile #devilsRacecourse #devilsWindpipe #devilsLake #mountDiablo #satan
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Devil Places
There are countless places in the world named after the Devil (and variations of an evil one in other words and languages). If variations are added such as “Satan,” “Lucifer,” and “Diablo,” for example, the list is massive. Devil places sometimes owe their names to the geology. The features of these places may create a spooky and foreboding feeling that reinforces the local legends of the places being cursed, evil or enchanted.
These places have historically or very recently been associated with spirits, magic, strange phenomenon and/or death. In the U.S., many sacred places of indigenous peoples were renamed by the more puritanical sort as “devil” places in order to demonize the past (and previous spiritual beliefs). Devil places are particularly ubiquitous in New England, where the Puritans started their renaming. The rocky landscape gave them plenty of impetus. They truly believed Satan was about, ready to steal their souls. They considered Indian deities to be demons or devils. Spots where shamans would gather or practice might have been a place of geological uniqueness and were given a bad name by the newcomers.
Connecticut might be nicknamed the devil’s playground with some 34 place names including five Devil’s Dens, four Backbones, two Kitchens and a Dripping Pan, as well as a Hell Hole and two Satan’s Kingdoms. Massachusetts is the most devilish state, with 43 place names. Arizona is chock full of “devil” and “hell” names due to the hellishly hot weather suitable for demons.
Satan’s Kingdom
Legends say that Satan himself claimed the area now called Satan’s Kingdom in New Hartford, Connecticut as his own until the angel Gabriel decided the area was too idyllic and cleared out the dark lord and his band of demons. In Vermont, Satans Kingdom got its name supposedly because the settlers who expected fertile land got difficult rocks and hills instead. In Massachusetts, settlers came into the area in the 1670’s during King Philip’s War, where native villagers defended their land. The rough terrain and dangerous wildlife made it difficult for the settler-colonialists to conquer.
The Northern Cascades National park in Washington is very much a hellscape. The Backpacker.com site says of a hiking trail there: “The devil looms large on this rugged loop—you’ll pass Devils Creek, Pass, Park, Junction, and Dome—and you may curse like Satan during the initial 3,300-foot, 4-mile climb to McMillan Park”.
As you will see in this collection of Devilish places, they commonly are places of remarkable features, desolation, or treacherous traversing.
In 2013, Jonathan Hull did a map of US places with Devil-related names. Though many locations received their names from attributes other than geologically related ones, he noted that Devil-named areas often indicated a dangerous, extreme, or remote place. Sadly, I can’t find the full-scale map online anymore.
This is the best version I could find of Hull’s map.While my collection is woefully incomplete, I did pick some notable Devil-named locations with geological connections. Several of these warrant their own pages on the site. Click on the titles to head to these pages:
Devil’s Tower
An iconic volcanic feature in the Black Hills of Wyoming was known as being the location in the culminating scene in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It has become a draw for not only sci-fi enthusiasts but also UFO chasers and New Age believers.Devil’s Den
To gain this place name, the location usually has stark, huge rock boulders or outcrops, often with caves and crevasses. Several famous locations exist in the U.S. where not only supposedly spirits but also people used as hiding places.Devil’s Hole
A depression or cave often containing water that has gained a reputation of being deadly, a path to the underworld, or bottomless. (Or all three together). The most famous being the Devil’s Hole of Death Valley, a bizarre oasis in the desert.Devil’s Kitchen
Scenic locations characterized by their impressive geological features that suggest something evil is cooking.Devil’s Gate
A cleft or gorge that is considered a dangerous area for natural or supernatural reasons.Devil’s Punchbowl
Bowl-shaped depressions of various sizes that stand out from the landscape and may look as if they have been deliberately created for or from a nefarious action.Some lesser known locations with ‘Devil’ names are just as curious. Their oddness prompted locals to bestow upon them an accursed name.
Devils Head Rock, North CarolinaThree locations in Pennsylvania have the name Devil’s Potato Patch to designate boulder fields. One is between Danielsville and Little Gap in Northampton County, just west of the Blue Mtn ski area off the Appalachian Trail. This is an otherwise featureless field of sandstone blocks resulting from frost action that broke up the ridge-forming rock. It is on State Game Lands and, like other boulder fields, is treacherous to traverse and home to sunning snakes. Another Patch is located on the border of Lebanon and Lancaster County near Brickerville. This “river” of diabase boulders is a wooded and graffiti-strewn, neglected and full of various hazards like trash, bottles, and poison ivy. The third is in Salford Township, Montgomery County, where the boulders of diabase will ring when hammered.
Another “Tater Patch” is a windy ridge with spooky twisted trees in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park of Tennessee/ N. Carolina.
Similar to these rocky landscapes is the Devil’s Marbleyard of the James River Face Wilderness, in the Blue Ridge Mountains at Natural Bridge Station, Virginia. The Virginia Trail Guide describes it thusly:
“…looks like an immense stone mountain exploded and collapsed into thousands of boulders of every shape and size.”
Australia also has the Devil’s Marbles, a scattered array of large granite boulders in a 4500-acre area of the Northern Territory which was the traditional land of the Warumungu, Kaytetye, Alyawarra and Warlpiri people. They call it “Karlu Karlu”. The rocks are set precariously and have been chemically and physically weathered into rounded shapes. One legend says the natives thought these were the eggs of the rainbow serpent. But the official management plan for the reserve explains the traditional origin:
The whole area of the reserve is known as Ayleparrarntenhe, which is also the name of the place of origin and final resting place of Arrange, the Devil Man—a twin-peaked hill to the east of the reserve. Traditional Owners tell the story of how the Marbles came into being:
Arrange, the Devil Man, came from Ayleparrarntenhe and travelled through the area. During his journey, he was making a hair belt (as worn by initiated men). Twirling the hair into strings, Arrange dropped clusters of hair on the ground. These turned into the Karlu Karlu boulders that can be seen today. On his way back, Arrange spat on the ground. His spit also turned into the granite boulders which dot the central part of the reserve. Arrange finally returned to his place of origin, Ayleparrarntenhe.
Removal or desecration (even climbing) of the rocks and smaller rocks of nearby Devil’s Pebbles (Kunjarra) is said to bring bad luck to the tribes.
Several rocky areas are also called Devil’s Garden with unique vegetation or none at all. The Devil’s Garden portion of Arches National Park in Moab, Utah features “arches, spires, and a large concentration of narrow rock walls called “fins”. The fins are the result of erosion along parallel fractures.
Devil’s Garden, UtahA section of the High Lava Plains of central Oregon is a kipuka (an area isolated by surrounding lava flows) also known by this name. It was formed from fissure eruptions of basalt.
The Devil’s Playground is not your typical place of joy and laughter, but a grouping of granitic rock features weathered into fantastic forms and eerie shapes. A Tertiary-age (approximately 38 million years old) granitic intrusion overlying Paleozoic (400 to 300 million years old) sedimentary rocks is known as the Emigrant Pass pluton.
Devils Playground, UtahThe deadly Devil’s Playground in the Mohave Desert of California was the nickname pinned on a 17-mile stretch of drifting sand that had neither a track to follow nor water to drink.
In Tennessee, near vertical bedding produces huge rock formations that look like fins (or teeth) protrude from the Southwest flank of Cumberland Mountain known as the Devil’s Racetrack. Hikers and climbers must watch for falls from these rocks.
The Devil’s Race Course is a boulder field in Dauphin County, PA. Rock outcrops along the ridges provided the now rounded boulders. Stream flow from Rattling Run has washed away all the finer sediment. Sometimes the stream can be heard under river of rock. Legend has it that the area’s early settlers believed the sound of the water was the devil running through the depths of hell.
Devil’s Racecourse, PAThe term Devil’s Elbow often refers to an obvious and problematic bend in a river or a road. Most notably, in Pulaski County, Missouri, a sharp turn in the river has this unlucky name. Switchback bends along a hillside are constructed to navigate a steep slope. One such tight curve along a road bordering a rock cliff in New York has an associated legend of the vanishing hitchhiker. The road was eventually straightened to avoid mishaps.
The Devil’s Windpipe is a natural chute in the rocks in Arizona. When the wind blows across the hot landscape, it’s said it feels like the breathing of the devil himself. The Devil’s Throat is a remarkable cave in Bulgaria that swallows the Trigrad River where it funnels through the Hall of Thunder. This cave in the Rhodope Mountains is associated with the legend of Orpheus descending into the underworld to look for Eurydice. There is also a large sinkhole called the Devil’s Throat near Lake Mead in Nevada.
Multiple features exist with the name Devil’s Backbone which typically indicates a prominent ridge of rock that looks like a spine or teeth. Iowa has a state park characterized by a narrow and steep ridge of bedrock carved by a loop of the Maquoketa River. The towers, columns and rocky cliffs make for precipitous climbing. Maryland also has a park where a rock ridge 512 feet above sea level was formed by erosion at the confluence of the Antietam and Beaver Creek and is a noted scenic area. A narrow jutting of rock from a ridge forms a distinct “backbone” across the landscape west of Loveland, Colorado. A particularly striking vertical wall of dark andesite about 1,000 feet long exists within the volcanic crater of Crater Lake, Oregon. The dike was formed when molten lava filled cracks as it forced its way upwards and then solidified. Erosion of the surrounding material has left the resistant material standing. The Illinois “Backbone” is a rocky landmark on a ridge in the Grand Tower area. The rapids near here were supposedly very dangerous and native legends evil spirits were responsible. Nearby is the Devil’s Bake Oven – a nearly 100’ rock on the edge of the river where folklorists have documented ghostly visions and sounds.
Devil’s Backbone, Loveland CO.About 80,000 to 100,000 years ago in eastern California, basaltic lava gushed from fissures and formed a lake within a glacial-formed valley some 400 feet deep. The lava cooled slowly, forming the hexagonal columnar structure that is so striking (also present in Devil’s Tower and Giant’s Causeway), resembling a pile of posts. Thus, it’s called the Devils Postpile. Glaciers smoothed and scarred the top of the formation. Devils Postpile (no apostrophe – which is the case with most official U.S. “devil” monuments) is now a national monument. A Little Devils Postpile exists in Yosemite.
Devils Postpile National MonumentDevils Lake in Wisconsin, part of a state park, is situated in a deep chasm formed by glacial action. It has no visible inlet or outlet. The lake was originally called “Sacred Lake” or “Spirit Lake” by the natives who considered it sacred where voices of the spirits could be heard. Glacial striations mark the rock surfaces around the lake and there are Native effigy mounds nearby. The lake has spooky legends of a phantom canoer, and lake monster, and some stories say the natives considered it a “place of many dead”.
A similar lake exists in North Dakota, also in a closed basin and also renamed from the Natives’ interpretation of “Spirit Lake”. This lake has been plagued with flooding problems.
Seven Devils Lake is a small reservoir in South Arkansas, located about 14 miles (23 km) out of Monticello. The Lake is formed by Seven Devils Dam. The area got its name from a man who was trapped in the area for days and finally made it out. A reporter asked if he found the rumored seven lakes of the area, but the man stated that there were not seven lakes, but seven devils. This area is the most northern point west of the Mississippi River where American alligators can be found.
Many bare mountain summits are named for their stark barrenness. Several rocky scenic outlooks called Devil’s Knobs are recognized around the world. There are many places called Devil’s Peak often referring to an imposing, rocky mount. Such peaks are in Cape Town in South Africa, Hong Kong, Flanders Range in Australia, Soda Springs, California, Santa Barbara, California, and in Nevada. A location in Baja, California has the Spanish name Picacho del Diablo and is also known as the Cerro de la Encantada or “Hill of the Enchanted”. It is a ragged granite summit that makes for a popular but challenging climb.
Mount Diablo in Contra Costa, California is awash with legends and has a reputation as a strange place. Now a state park, it was historically an important landmark for mapping and navigation because of its visibility and location. It is a geological anomaly, part of a thrust fault complex, growing higher every year due to compression of tectonic plates. Native tribes have various legends about it included the mountain as a point of creation. A notable legend of how the mountain got its name was from a misinterpretation of “Monte del Diablo” meaning “thicket of the devil” after several Natives escaped from the Spanish in 1805 into a nearby thicket. Not long after, the name was interpreted to mean a place of evil spirits. It’s not clear if this name was derived from a genuine tradition of spooky happenings in the area and there have been several attempts to rename the mountain to shake off the diabolical reputation. Author Loren Coleman writes that many unusual incidents have occurred in the Mount Diablo area, appropriate for its reputation, including sightings of black panthers (a difficult-to-explain animal that is reported all too regularly), mysterious lights, apparitions and even a claim of a live frog found in a stony concretion.
West Face of Mount Diablo and Highway 24. By Trurl66 – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5526277So-called Devil’s bathtubs are deep spots in a creek popular with visitors looking to cool off. In Hocking Hills State Park, Ohio, water falls from rock ledges into the stream where the water swirls into a bowl-shaped gorge. People told stories of this being as deep as hell. The pockets and tunnels were formed from scouring glacial meltwaters thousands of years ago.
In Scott County, Virginia, the Bathtub is a scour pool in the Devil’s Fork of Stony Creek. It’s not the easiest spot to get to and the water is far from hot. Many photos of the location have circulated on social media but these seem to be from the Ohio location, or from some other feature entirely, leading many to be disappointed when they reach this particular tub. The overabundance of visitors prompted by social media has caused local problems and threaten the natural area. The South Dakota version of the devil’s tub is much more secluded. With high rocky cliffs nearby, the water cascades in a chute called “the slide” and swirls into the tub.
According to Wikipedia, there are no less than 105 different locations of the Devil’s Canyon in the United States alone including Utah, Oklahoma, and California. Areas with this designation are typically steep, remote, and have plentiful snakes as residents. In Lincoln National Forest, New Mexico, Devil’s Canyon, so far as anyone knows, is so named because of the pinnacles – needles and balanced rocks that form the canyon walls and resemble distorted human forms. A 2017 TV show called “Devil’s Canyon” is based in British Columbia. It is the story of three gold prospectors seeking treasure in the canyon where they believe large deposits have escaped exploitation by big mining companies. But the rough, isolated terrain, bad weather, and wild animals make it an unforgiving location to explore.
A rock formation where the lower strata is more eroded and weathered leaving a larger slab perched precipitously on top are called “tea tables”. Such formations are a variety of hoodoo. Notable examples of Devil’s Tea Tables exist in Athens County, Ohio and in Illinois’ Shawnee National Forest. These features appear to lean in every direction, so whatever side you view it from, it looks like it will fall on you. A tea table feature in McConnelsville, Ohio collapsed in 1906. Explorers who came across the gravity-defying features often attributed their origin to supernatural forces.
Devils Tea Table, McConnelsvilleNot necessarily natural are the standing stones in North Yorkshire, England, called Devils Arrows. Legend has it that the Devil himself threw the stones into the ground as arrows to attack Christians in Aldborough but they fell short. The prehistoric monuments likely were constructed as part of a ritual landscape. Similarly, the Devil’s Quoits in Stanton Harcourt are also part of a Neolithic-age stone circle. The legend here is “the Devil once played quoits (a game) with a beggar for his soul or, alternatively, that it was a Sunday and God rebuked him whereby he flung the stones in anger. Many stone circles and henges in the UK remain imbued with New Age and mystical significance.
The most famous Devil’s Gulch, in Garretson, South Dakota, is rife with legends. This 18-20 foot chasm across blocks of quartzite is said to have obtained its name from strange noises made by the winds as they blow through. Split Rock Creek below is associated with a “bottomless pit” in the stream bed. (If it’s bottomless, how does the stream flow over it?) A Native tale tells a different origin story. They called it “Spirit Canyon” and that it was formed when two warriors fought. When the spirit warrior’s tomahawk hit the ground, it split the land forming the gulch. But the most famous legend, now marked on the spot, is that outlaw Jesse James made a getaway by leaping the gap on his horse. The location is now a park and also has Devil’s Falls and the Devil’s Stairway nearby.
When Satan needs a rest, he chooses Devils Throne, a summit in Idaho County, Idaho. It forms part of the Seven Devils Mountains. Or the Devil’s Chair in San Gabriel Mountains is part of the Devil’s Punchbowl.
What is really haunting the Devil’s Swamp in Scotlandville, Louisiana are nasty chemicals that have been poured into it, destroying the ecosystem over the years leaving ghosts of those animals (and people) dead from pollution. Beware when visiting this toxic stew. The Seven Devils Swamp natural area in Arkansas, however, is a healthy and diverse ecosystem.
Part of the Craters of the Moon National monument, Idaho, Devil’s Orchard has trees and vegetation growing from the flood basalt lava flows of the Snake River Plain volcanic province. The Orchard is a group of lava-transported cinder cone fragments that were once part of the North Crater cinder cone but broke off and were carried away by a new lava flow. The place is described as “otherworldly” with the black rocks providing no shade. Shoshone legend speaks of a serpent on a mountain who, angered by lightning, coiled around and squeezed the mountain until liquid rock flowed, fire shot from cracks, and the mountain exploded. Craters of the Moon National Monument was proclaimed on May 2, 1924 by U.S. President Calvin Coolidge to “preserve the unusual and weird volcanic formations”
Devil’s Orchard, IdahoIn the Big South Fork National River and Recreation area in Kentucky/Tennessee, legend has it that a band of brothers looking for salt drilled a well so deep that it hit oil. They became concerned that the well was so deep, it might reach Hell. Finally, they did strike something, but instead of salt brine coming out of the ground a black, smelly, sticky liquid came oozing out of the pipe. These explorers did not know what oil was, and since they were of a religious nature, they were disturbed about the new-found product. When they saw how this black substance burned, they called it Devil’s Tar. One of the crew was sent downstream with a sample but his raft overturned at the rapids. Later, he told the story that the devil himself, angry at the invasion of his domain, leaped from one of the rocks onto the raft sinking it. The rapids were named the Devils Jump.
Two other Devil’s Jumps occur in England. Three little hills near Frensham are said to have been thrown up by the Devil taking three enormous leaps. The Devil’s Jumps in Churt, county of Surrey, (also known as Devil’s Three Jumps) are a series of three small hills made of “ironstone” making them resistant to erosion. The devil made his mark all around this area, according to legend, as several local landmarks play into the story of his visit. For example, the tale goes that Devil made off with the cauldron of the witch, Mother Ludlam. As she chased him, the Devil’s leaps kicked up hills now known as the Devil’s Jumps. He left the cauldron on Kettlebury Hill and also left a valley known as the Devil’s Punch Bowl.
Another tale tells that the Devil amused himself by leaping from the top of each hill to the next. This annoyed the god Thor who picked up a boulder and threw it at the Devil, causing him to flee. The boulder remains at Devil’s Jumps. The same story is told of the Devil’s Jumps near Treyford on the South Downs in West Sussex though these are barrows upon which the Devil jumped. Other round barrows in Stoughton are also called the Devil’s humps.
Similar to the Jumps are the Devils Footprints – grassy meadows that top some peaks in the Appalachian mountains, particularly in the Great Smoky Mountains. These peaks, also called “balds” are where trees won’t grow, legendarily because the devil himself stepped there. More realistic theories are that the treeless patches are the result of past clearing, animal grazing or burning. Or that the soil, climate, or biota prevents trees from growing. It’s not clear why some summits are bald where others are not.
Apparent “footprints” in rock appear at Devils Foot Rock. Many colorful tales are told of the Devil himself leaving the prints as he pursued maidens or stomped in frustration.
Devil’s Promenade in extreme southwestern Missouri is the site of a regionally noted “spook light”. The locals named the four-mile-long gravel road on the border between southwestern Missouri and northeastern Oklahoma west of the small town of Hornet, Missouri. Hornet is famous for the Hornet Spooklight (also called the Joplin spooklight) – a seemingly unexplained light that appears in the distance. Some have explained it as normal lights from cars or trains and others insist it is paranormal in nature. The bridge along the Devil’s Promenade was originally a rickety wooden bridge. Legend had it that “anyone who walked back and forth across the bridge five times (or seven or three depending on who you ask) very slowly and asking for the Devil to appear, he would either answer three questions, grant three wishes or of course, kill you. Again this depends on the version you hear.” A concrete bridge was constructed and the story seems to have diminished. One story of the light’s origin was that it is the Devil swinging his Jack-o-lantern. Other stories, according to the Prarie Ghosts website, says the light represents the spirit of two young Quapaw Indians who died in the area. Another claimed the light was the spirit of an Osage Indian chief who had been beheaded on the Devil’s Promenade. As with many spook light stories, the light represents a torch carried by the ghost as he searches for his missing head. The torch motif also shows up in the version of the legend that a miner is searching in vain for his missing children by lantern light. Tellers of these tales claim that the lights and legends existed in Native lore prior to the construction of this road.
Many impressive masonry structures are named the Devil’s Bridge and have associated lore to go with them. The bridge in Sedona, Arizona, in the Coconino National Forest, is a large natural sandstone arch. In Massachusetts, the Devil’s Bridge is a shallow reef running northwest off the northwest corner of Martha’s Vineyard. This hazard to ships was supposedly created by the mighty giant Moshup. The local Wampanoag tribal history tells the tale:
Moshup was building a bridge to Cuttyhunk with heavy boulders when a giant crab latched onto his foot. In his pain and anger, he gave up leaving a treacherous shoal instead. The area has been the site of several shipwrecks.
In North Carolina’s Pisgah National Forest is the Devil’s Courthouse. According to Andrea Lankford:
By bradploeger – originally posted to Flickr as Devil’s Courthouse, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4237496“Cherokees believed an evil spirit [or giant} named Judaculla held court on top of this bare rock summit with a 360 degree view of three states”.
Whiteside Mountain in Jackson County, North Carolina also has a feature of this name. The bare overhanging rock is windy and dangerous.
The Devil’s Apronful cairn consists of a heap of rocks and boulders near Pendle Hill in Lancashire, England. Several natural boulders were used to construct the mound which provides an impressive view both now and back in Bronze Age times. The thousands of rocks of gritstone and sandstone are scattered in a roughly circular area. The area however is mostly limestone. It’s been suggested that the stones were glacial erratics and the stones were gathered by farmers to get them out of the fields. But there are more fantastic origin stories. The Devil was annoyed with people at Clitheroe Castle in the west. To do away with it, he filled an “apron” (quite the visual) with rocks to pitch at them. Most missed and in his rage he dropped the rest on this south side of Pendle Hill, creating Apronful Hill. For the similar Apronful in Yorkshire, the tale is that the Devil was collecting stones in his apron in order to build a bridge or fill in the ravine when his apron string broke (or he tripped) and the stones fell out. The Devil’s Apronful sites were disturbed by curious visitors and looters but are now protected.
The Devil has two “Hopyards”. One is a State Park and public recreation area in East Haddam, Connecticut. There are several ideas about how the place got its curious name. One is that it refers to supernatural origins for the naturally occurring potholes in the area. These potholes were formed by the grinding actions of stones moved downstream by the current when trapped in an eddy, wearing a depression in the rock. To the early settlers the potholes were a great mystery, and as with many “devilish” features, they explained them with references to the supernatural. They thought that the Devil has passed by the falls, accidentally getting his tail wet. This made him so mad he burned holes in the stones with his hooves as he bounded away. A sign in the park tells of the legends regarding the name. Another site with this name is in New Hampshire. This is a boulder-filled ravine where you can sometimes hear water running.
Devil’s Dyke (or ditch) near Bleaklow, in Sussex, England is a deep gully supposedly cut by Satan’s claws when he became enraged at the loss of a prospective soul. Other tales say it is his unfinished ditch as he bet St. Cuthberth he could dig it in one night and flood the town. The tourist-attracting feature is really the result of mass wasting and river erosion into a dip-slope valley. The V-shaped dry valley, the deepest in England, was born from the cold climate of 14,000 years ago when this area of chalk bedrock was covered in snow. During warm seasons, the upper layers of soil and weathered rock slid away with the thaw. Finally, an ancient river carried the material away at the end of the Ice Age. That river is now gone but its valley remains. The high hill showed the surrounding terrain and was used as a defensive position as well as being an impressive location to hold special events. Remains of an Iron Age fort have been found here. The location is managed by the National Trust and is a recreational area. A trail supposedly leads to the alleged burial site of the Devil and his wife. In 1900, a sound called The Howling Terror was heard echoing in the valley. It wasn’t demons but the testing of a new invention called the megaphone being used at the amusement park on the top of the Dyke.
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The information provided here is based on a cursory search of these sites and the entries will be expanded as I discover new source material (or visit them!). Please contact me with your corrections, information (preferably with solid references), and photographs and I will gladly add them to the page. Or, leave your contribution in the comments. Thanks!Book References
Coleman, L. (2001). Mysterious America (Revised edition). Paraview Press.
Lankford, A. (2006). Haunted Hikes. Santa Monica Press.
MORE Devil-related content: Devil’s corkscrew, Going to Hell, Legends of Bottomless pits, Moodus: Place of Bad Noises
#devil #DevilPlaces #DevilSBackbone #DevilSElbow #DevilSGarden #DevilSPlayground #DevilSPostpile #DevilSRacecourse #DevilSWindpipe #DevilsLake #MountDiablo #Satan
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Devil Places
There are countless places in the world named after the Devil (and variations of an evil one in other words and languages). If variations are added such as “Satan,” “Lucifer,” and “Diablo,” for example, the list is massive. Devil places sometimes owe their names to the geology. The features of these places may create a spooky and foreboding feeling that reinforces the local legends of the places being cursed, evil or enchanted.
These places have historically or very recently been associated with spirits, magic, strange phenomenon and/or death. In the U.S., many sacred places of indigenous peoples were renamed by the more puritanical sort as “devil” places in order to demonize the past (and previous spiritual beliefs). Devil places are particularly ubiquitous in New England, where the Puritans started their renaming. The rocky landscape gave them plenty of impetus. They truly believed Satan was about, ready to steal their souls. They considered Indian deities to be demons or devils. Spots where shamans would gather or practice might have been a place of geological uniqueness and were given a bad name by the newcomers.
Connecticut might be nicknamed the devil’s playground with some 34 place names including five Devil’s Dens, four Backbones, two Kitchens and a Dripping Pan, as well as a Hell Hole and two Satan’s Kingdoms. Massachusetts is the most devilish state, with 43 place names. Arizona is chock full of “devil” and “hell” names due to the hellishly hot weather suitable for demons.
Satan’s Kingdom
Legends say that Satan himself claimed the area now called Satan’s Kingdom in New Hartford, Connecticut as his own until the angel Gabriel decided the area was too idyllic and cleared out the dark lord and his band of demons. In Vermont, Satans Kingdom got its name supposedly because the settlers who expected fertile land got difficult rocks and hills instead. In Massachusetts, settlers came into the area in the 1670’s during King Philip’s War, where native villagers defended their land. The rough terrain and dangerous wildlife made it difficult for the settler-colonialists to conquer.
The Northern Cascades National park in Washington is very much a hellscape. The Backpacker.com site says of a hiking trail there: “The devil looms large on this rugged loop—you’ll pass Devils Creek, Pass, Park, Junction, and Dome—and you may curse like Satan during the initial 3,300-foot, 4-mile climb to McMillan Park”.
As you will see in this collection of Devilish places, they commonly are places of remarkable features, desolation, or treacherous traversing.
In 2013, Jonathan Hull did a map of US places with Devil-related names. Though many locations received their names from attributes other than geologically related ones, he noted that Devil-named areas often indicated a dangerous, extreme, or remote place. Sadly, I can’t find the full-scale map online anymore.
This is the best version I could find of Hull’s map.While my collection is woefully incomplete, I did pick some notable Devil-named locations with geological connections. Several of these warrant their own pages on the site. Click on the titles to head to these pages:
Devil’s Tower
An iconic volcanic feature in the Black Hills of Wyoming was known as being the location in the culminating scene in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It has become a draw for not only sci-fi enthusiasts but also UFO chasers and New Age believers.Devil’s Den
To gain this place name, the location usually has stark, huge rock boulders or outcrops, often with caves and crevasses. Several famous locations exist in the U.S. where not only supposedly spirits but also people used as hiding places.Devil’s Hole
A depression or cave often containing water that has gained a reputation of being deadly, a path to the underworld, or bottomless. (Or all three together). The most famous being the Devil’s Hole of Death Valley, a bizarre oasis in the desert.Devil’s Kitchen
Scenic locations characterized by their impressive geological features that suggest something evil is cooking.Devil’s Gate
A cleft or gorge that is considered a dangerous area for natural or supernatural reasons.Devil’s Punchbowl
Bowl-shaped depressions of various sizes that stand out from the landscape and may look as if they have been deliberately created for or from a nefarious action.Some lesser known locations with ‘Devil’ names are just as curious. Their oddness prompted locals to bestow upon them an accursed name.
Devils Head Rock, North CarolinaThree locations in Pennsylvania have the name Devil’s Potato Patch to designate boulder fields. One is between Danielsville and Little Gap in Northampton County, just west of the Blue Mtn ski area off the Appalachian Trail. This is an otherwise featureless field of sandstone blocks resulting from frost action that broke up the ridge-forming rock. It is on State Game Lands and, like other boulder fields, is treacherous to traverse and home to sunning snakes. Another Patch is located on the border of Lebanon and Lancaster County near Brickerville. This “river” of diabase boulders is a wooded and graffiti-strewn, neglected and full of various hazards like trash, bottles, and poison ivy. The third is in Salford Township, Montgomery County, where the boulders of diabase will ring when hammered.
Another “Tater Patch” is a windy ridge with spooky twisted trees in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park of Tennessee/ N. Carolina.
Similar to these rocky landscapes is the Devil’s Marbleyard of the James River Face Wilderness, in the Blue Ridge Mountains at Natural Bridge Station, Virginia. The Virginia Trail Guide describes it thusly:
“…looks like an immense stone mountain exploded and collapsed into thousands of boulders of every shape and size.”
Australia also has the Devil’s Marbles, a scattered array of large granite boulders in a 4500-acre area of the Northern Territory which was the traditional land of the Warumungu, Kaytetye, Alyawarra and Warlpiri people. They call it “Karlu Karlu”. The rocks are set precariously and have been chemically and physically weathered into rounded shapes. One legend says the natives thought these were the eggs of the rainbow serpent. But the official management plan for the reserve explains the traditional origin:
The whole area of the reserve is known as Ayleparrarntenhe, which is also the name of the place of origin and final resting place of Arrange, the Devil Man—a twin-peaked hill to the east of the reserve. Traditional Owners tell the story of how the Marbles came into being:
Arrange, the Devil Man, came from Ayleparrarntenhe and travelled through the area. During his journey, he was making a hair belt (as worn by initiated men). Twirling the hair into strings, Arrange dropped clusters of hair on the ground. These turned into the Karlu Karlu boulders that can be seen today. On his way back, Arrange spat on the ground. His spit also turned into the granite boulders which dot the central part of the reserve. Arrange finally returned to his place of origin, Ayleparrarntenhe.
Removal or desecration (even climbing) of the rocks and smaller rocks of nearby Devil’s Pebbles (Kunjarra) is said to bring bad luck to the tribes.
Several rocky areas are also called Devil’s Garden with unique vegetation or none at all. The Devil’s Garden portion of Arches National Park in Moab, Utah features “arches, spires, and a large concentration of narrow rock walls called “fins”. The fins are the result of erosion along parallel fractures.
Devil’s Garden, UtahA section of the High Lava Plains of central Oregon is a kipuka (an area isolated by surrounding lava flows) also known by this name. It was formed from fissure eruptions of basalt.
The Devil’s Playground is not your typical place of joy and laughter, but a grouping of granitic rock features weathered into fantastic forms and eerie shapes. A Tertiary-age (approximately 38 million years old) granitic intrusion overlying Paleozoic (400 to 300 million years old) sedimentary rocks is known as the Emigrant Pass pluton.
Devils Playground, UtahThe deadly Devil’s Playground in the Mohave Desert of California was the nickname pinned on a 17-mile stretch of drifting sand that had neither a track to follow nor water to drink.
In Tennessee, near vertical bedding produces huge rock formations that look like fins (or teeth) protrude from the Southwest flank of Cumberland Mountain known as the Devil’s Racetrack. Hikers and climbers must watch for falls from these rocks.
The Devil’s Race Course is a boulder field in Dauphin County, PA. Rock outcrops along the ridges provided the now rounded boulders. Stream flow from Rattling Run has washed away all the finer sediment. Sometimes the stream can be heard under river of rock. Legend has it that the area’s early settlers believed the sound of the water was the devil running through the depths of hell.
Devil’s Racecourse, PAThe term Devil’s Elbow often refers to an obvious and problematic bend in a river or a road. Most notably, in Pulaski County, Missouri, a sharp turn in the river has this unlucky name. Switchback bends along a hillside are constructed to navigate a steep slope. One such tight curve along a road bordering a rock cliff in New York has an associated legend of the vanishing hitchhiker. The road was eventually straightened to avoid mishaps.
The Devil’s Windpipe is a natural chute in the rocks in Arizona. When the wind blows across the hot landscape, it’s said it feels like the breathing of the devil himself. The Devil’s Throat is a remarkable cave in Bulgaria that swallows the Trigrad River where it funnels through the Hall of Thunder. This cave in the Rhodope Mountains is associated with the legend of Orpheus descending into the underworld to look for Eurydice. There is also a large sinkhole called the Devil’s Throat near Lake Mead in Nevada.
Multiple features exist with the name Devil’s Backbone which typically indicates a prominent ridge of rock that looks like a spine or teeth. Iowa has a state park characterized by a narrow and steep ridge of bedrock carved by a loop of the Maquoketa River. The towers, columns and rocky cliffs make for precipitous climbing. Maryland also has a park where a rock ridge 512 feet above sea level was formed by erosion at the confluence of the Antietam and Beaver Creek and is a noted scenic area. A narrow jutting of rock from a ridge forms a distinct “backbone” across the landscape west of Loveland, Colorado. A particularly striking vertical wall of dark andesite about 1,000 feet long exists within the volcanic crater of Crater Lake, Oregon. The dike was formed when molten lava filled cracks as it forced its way upwards and then solidified. Erosion of the surrounding material has left the resistant material standing. The Illinois “Backbone” is a rocky landmark on a ridge in the Grand Tower area. The rapids near here were supposedly very dangerous and native legends evil spirits were responsible. Nearby is the Devil’s Bake Oven – a nearly 100’ rock on the edge of the river where folklorists have documented ghostly visions and sounds.
Devil’s Backbone, Loveland CO.About 80,000 to 100,000 years ago in eastern California, basaltic lava gushed from fissures and formed a lake within a glacial-formed valley some 400 feet deep. The lava cooled slowly, forming the hexagonal columnar structure that is so striking (also present in Devil’s Tower and Giant’s Causeway), resembling a pile of posts. Thus, it’s called the Devils Postpile. Glaciers smoothed and scarred the top of the formation. Devils Postpile (no apostrophe – which is the case with most official U.S. “devil” monuments) is now a national monument. A Little Devils Postpile exists in Yosemite.
Devils Postpile National MonumentDevils Lake in Wisconsin, part of a state park, is situated in a deep chasm formed by glacial action. It has no visible inlet or outlet. The lake was originally called “Sacred Lake” or “Spirit Lake” by the natives who considered it sacred where voices of the spirits could be heard. Glacial striations mark the rock surfaces around the lake and there are Native effigy mounds nearby. The lake has spooky legends of a phantom canoer, and lake monster, and some stories say the natives considered it a “place of many dead”.
A similar lake exists in North Dakota, also in a closed basin and also renamed from the Natives’ interpretation of “Spirit Lake”. This lake has been plagued with flooding problems.
Seven Devils Lake is a small reservoir in South Arkansas, located about 14 miles (23 km) out of Monticello. The Lake is formed by Seven Devils Dam. The area got its name from a man who was trapped in the area for days and finally made it out. A reporter asked if he found the rumored seven lakes of the area, but the man stated that there were not seven lakes, but seven devils. This area is the most northern point west of the Mississippi River where American alligators can be found.
Many bare mountain summits are named for their stark barrenness. Several rocky scenic outlooks called Devil’s Knobs are recognized around the world. There are many places called Devil’s Peak often referring to an imposing, rocky mount. Such peaks are in Cape Town in South Africa, Hong Kong, Flanders Range in Australia, Soda Springs, California, Santa Barbara, California, and in Nevada. A location in Baja, California has the Spanish name Picacho del Diablo and is also known as the Cerro de la Encantada or “Hill of the Enchanted”. It is a ragged granite summit that makes for a popular but challenging climb.
Mount Diablo in Contra Costa, California is awash with legends and has a reputation as a strange place. Now a state park, it was historically an important landmark for mapping and navigation because of its visibility and location. It is a geological anomaly, part of a thrust fault complex, growing higher every year due to compression of tectonic plates. Native tribes have various legends about it included the mountain as a point of creation. A notable legend of how the mountain got its name was from a misinterpretation of “Monte del Diablo” meaning “thicket of the devil” after several Natives escaped from the Spanish in 1805 into a nearby thicket. Not long after, the name was interpreted to mean a place of evil spirits. It’s not clear if this name was derived from a genuine tradition of spooky happenings in the area and there have been several attempts to rename the mountain to shake off the diabolical reputation. Author Loren Coleman writes that many unusual incidents have occurred in the Mount Diablo area, appropriate for its reputation, including sightings of black panthers (a difficult-to-explain animal that is reported all too regularly), mysterious lights, apparitions and even a claim of a live frog found in a stony concretion.
West Face of Mount Diablo and Highway 24. By Trurl66 – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5526277So-called Devil’s bathtubs are deep spots in a creek popular with visitors looking to cool off. In Hocking Hills State Park, Ohio, water falls from rock ledges into the stream where the water swirls into a bowl-shaped gorge. People told stories of this being as deep as hell. The pockets and tunnels were formed from scouring glacial meltwaters thousands of years ago.
In Scott County, Virginia, the Bathtub is a scour pool in the Devil’s Fork of Stony Creek. It’s not the easiest spot to get to and the water is far from hot. Many photos of the location have circulated on social media but these seem to be from the Ohio location, or from some other feature entirely, leading many to be disappointed when they reach this particular tub. The overabundance of visitors prompted by social media has caused local problems and threaten the natural area. The South Dakota version of the devil’s tub is much more secluded. With high rocky cliffs nearby, the water cascades in a chute called “the slide” and swirls into the tub.
According to Wikipedia, there are no less than 105 different locations of the Devil’s Canyon in the United States alone including Utah, Oklahoma, and California. Areas with this designation are typically steep, remote, and have plentiful snakes as residents. In Lincoln National Forest, New Mexico, Devil’s Canyon, so far as anyone knows, is so named because of the pinnacles – needles and balanced rocks that form the canyon walls and resemble distorted human forms. A 2017 TV show called “Devil’s Canyon” is based in British Columbia. It is the story of three gold prospectors seeking treasure in the canyon where they believe large deposits have escaped exploitation by big mining companies. But the rough, isolated terrain, bad weather, and wild animals make it an unforgiving location to explore.
A rock formation where the lower strata is more eroded and weathered leaving a larger slab perched precipitously on top are called “tea tables”. Such formations are a variety of hoodoo. Notable examples of Devil’s Tea Tables exist in Athens County, Ohio and in Illinois’ Shawnee National Forest. These features appear to lean in every direction, so whatever side you view it from, it looks like it will fall on you. A tea table feature in McConnelsville, Ohio collapsed in 1906. Explorers who came across the gravity-defying features often attributed their origin to supernatural forces.
Devils Tea Table, McConnelsvilleNot necessarily natural are the standing stones in North Yorkshire, England, called Devils Arrows. Legend has it that the Devil himself threw the stones into the ground as arrows to attack Christians in Aldborough but they fell short. The prehistoric monuments likely were constructed as part of a ritual landscape. Similarly, the Devil’s Quoits in Stanton Harcourt are also part of a Neolithic-age stone circle. The legend here is “the Devil once played quoits (a game) with a beggar for his soul or, alternatively, that it was a Sunday and God rebuked him whereby he flung the stones in anger. Many stone circles and henges in the UK remain imbued with New Age and mystical significance.
The most famous Devil’s Gulch, in Garretson, South Dakota, is rife with legends. This 18-20 foot chasm across blocks of quartzite is said to have obtained its name from strange noises made by the winds as they blow through. Split Rock Creek below is associated with a “bottomless pit” in the stream bed. (If it’s bottomless, how does the stream flow over it?) A Native tale tells a different origin story. They called it “Spirit Canyon” and that it was formed when two warriors fought. When the spirit warrior’s tomahawk hit the ground, it split the land forming the gulch. But the most famous legend, now marked on the spot, is that outlaw Jesse James made a getaway by leaping the gap on his horse. The location is now a park and also has Devil’s Falls and the Devil’s Stairway nearby.
When Satan needs a rest, he chooses Devils Throne, a summit in Idaho County, Idaho. It forms part of the Seven Devils Mountains. Or the Devil’s Chair in San Gabriel Mountains is part of the Devil’s Punchbowl.
What is really haunting the Devil’s Swamp in Scotlandville, Louisiana are nasty chemicals that have been poured into it, destroying the ecosystem over the years leaving ghosts of those animals (and people) dead from pollution. Beware when visiting this toxic stew. The Seven Devils Swamp natural area in Arkansas, however, is a healthy and diverse ecosystem.
Part of the Craters of the Moon National monument, Idaho, Devil’s Orchard has trees and vegetation growing from the flood basalt lava flows of the Snake River Plain volcanic province. The Orchard is a group of lava-transported cinder cone fragments that were once part of the North Crater cinder cone but broke off and were carried away by a new lava flow. The place is described as “otherworldly” with the black rocks providing no shade. Shoshone legend speaks of a serpent on a mountain who, angered by lightning, coiled around and squeezed the mountain until liquid rock flowed, fire shot from cracks, and the mountain exploded. Craters of the Moon National Monument was proclaimed on May 2, 1924 by U.S. President Calvin Coolidge to “preserve the unusual and weird volcanic formations”
Devil’s Orchard, IdahoIn the Big South Fork National River and Recreation area in Kentucky/Tennessee, legend has it that a band of brothers looking for salt drilled a well so deep that it hit oil. They became concerned that the well was so deep, it might reach Hell. Finally, they did strike something, but instead of salt brine coming out of the ground a black, smelly, sticky liquid came oozing out of the pipe. These explorers did not know what oil was, and since they were of a religious nature, they were disturbed about the new-found product. When they saw how this black substance burned, they called it Devil’s Tar. One of the crew was sent downstream with a sample but his raft overturned at the rapids. Later, he told the story that the devil himself, angry at the invasion of his domain, leaped from one of the rocks onto the raft sinking it. The rapids were named the Devils Jump.
Two other Devil’s Jumps occur in England. Three little hills near Frensham are said to have been thrown up by the Devil taking three enormous leaps. The Devil’s Jumps in Churt, county of Surrey, (also known as Devil’s Three Jumps) are a series of three small hills made of “ironstone” making them resistant to erosion. The devil made his mark all around this area, according to legend, as several local landmarks play into the story of his visit. For example, the tale goes that Devil made off with the cauldron of the witch, Mother Ludlam. As she chased him, the Devil’s leaps kicked up hills now known as the Devil’s Jumps. He left the cauldron on Kettlebury Hill and also left a valley known as the Devil’s Punch Bowl.
Another tale tells that the Devil amused himself by leaping from the top of each hill to the next. This annoyed the god Thor who picked up a boulder and threw it at the Devil, causing him to flee. The boulder remains at Devil’s Jumps. The same story is told of the Devil’s Jumps near Treyford on the South Downs in West Sussex though these are barrows upon which the Devil jumped. Other round barrows in Stoughton are also called the Devil’s humps.
Similar to the Jumps are the Devils Footprints – grassy meadows that top some peaks in the Appalachian mountains, particularly in the Great Smoky Mountains. These peaks, also called “balds” are where trees won’t grow, legendarily because the devil himself stepped there. More realistic theories are that the treeless patches are the result of past clearing, animal grazing or burning. Or that the soil, climate, or biota prevents trees from growing. It’s not clear why some summits are bald where others are not.
Apparent “footprints” in rock appear at Devils Foot Rock. Many colorful tales are told of the Devil himself leaving the prints as he pursued maidens or stomped in frustration.
Devil’s Promenade in extreme southwestern Missouri is the site of a regionally noted “spook light”. The locals named the four-mile-long gravel road on the border between southwestern Missouri and northeastern Oklahoma west of the small town of Hornet, Missouri. Hornet is famous for the Hornet Spooklight (also called the Joplin spooklight) – a seemingly unexplained light that appears in the distance. Some have explained it as normal lights from cars or trains and others insist it is paranormal in nature. The bridge along the Devil’s Promenade was originally a rickety wooden bridge. Legend had it that “anyone who walked back and forth across the bridge five times (or seven or three depending on who you ask) very slowly and asking for the Devil to appear, he would either answer three questions, grant three wishes or of course, kill you. Again this depends on the version you hear.” A concrete bridge was constructed and the story seems to have diminished. One story of the light’s origin was that it is the Devil swinging his Jack-o-lantern. Other stories, according to the Prarie Ghosts website, says the light represents the spirit of two young Quapaw Indians who died in the area. Another claimed the light was the spirit of an Osage Indian chief who had been beheaded on the Devil’s Promenade. As with many spook light stories, the light represents a torch carried by the ghost as he searches for his missing head. The torch motif also shows up in the version of the legend that a miner is searching in vain for his missing children by lantern light. Tellers of these tales claim that the lights and legends existed in Native lore prior to the construction of this road.
Many impressive masonry structures are named the Devil’s Bridge and have associated lore to go with them. The bridge in Sedona, Arizona, in the Coconino National Forest, is a large natural sandstone arch. In Massachusetts, the Devil’s Bridge is a shallow reef running northwest off the northwest corner of Martha’s Vineyard. This hazard to ships was supposedly created by the mighty giant Moshup. The local Wampanoag tribal history tells the tale:
Moshup was building a bridge to Cuttyhunk with heavy boulders when a giant crab latched onto his foot. In his pain and anger, he gave up leaving a treacherous shoal instead. The area has been the site of several shipwrecks.
In North Carolina’s Pisgah National Forest is the Devil’s Courthouse. According to Andrea Lankford:
By bradploeger – originally posted to Flickr as Devil’s Courthouse, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4237496“Cherokees believed an evil spirit [or giant} named Judaculla held court on top of this bare rock summit with a 360 degree view of three states”.
Whiteside Mountain in Jackson County, North Carolina also has a feature of this name. The bare overhanging rock is windy and dangerous.
The Devil’s Apronful cairn consists of a heap of rocks and boulders near Pendle Hill in Lancashire, England. Several natural boulders were used to construct the mound which provides an impressive view both now and back in Bronze Age times. The thousands of rocks of gritstone and sandstone are scattered in a roughly circular area. The area however is mostly limestone. It’s been suggested that the stones were glacial erratics and the stones were gathered by farmers to get them out of the fields. But there are more fantastic origin stories. The Devil was annoyed with people at Clitheroe Castle in the west. To do away with it, he filled an “apron” (quite the visual) with rocks to pitch at them. Most missed and in his rage he dropped the rest on this south side of Pendle Hill, creating Apronful Hill. For the similar Apronful in Yorkshire, the tale is that the Devil was collecting stones in his apron in order to build a bridge or fill in the ravine when his apron string broke (or he tripped) and the stones fell out. The Devil’s Apronful sites were disturbed by curious visitors and looters but are now protected.
The Devil has two “Hopyards”. One is a State Park and public recreation area in East Haddam, Connecticut. There are several ideas about how the place got its curious name. One is that it refers to supernatural origins for the naturally occurring potholes in the area. These potholes were formed by the grinding actions of stones moved downstream by the current when trapped in an eddy, wearing a depression in the rock. To the early settlers the potholes were a great mystery, and as with many “devilish” features, they explained them with references to the supernatural. They thought that the Devil has passed by the falls, accidentally getting his tail wet. This made him so mad he burned holes in the stones with his hooves as he bounded away. A sign in the park tells of the legends regarding the name. Another site with this name is in New Hampshire. This is a boulder-filled ravine where you can sometimes hear water running.
Devil’s Dyke (or ditch) near Bleaklow, in Sussex, England is a deep gully supposedly cut by Satan’s claws when he became enraged at the loss of a prospective soul. Other tales say it is his unfinished ditch as he bet St. Cuthberth he could dig it in one night and flood the town. The tourist-attracting feature is really the result of mass wasting and river erosion into a dip-slope valley. The V-shaped dry valley, the deepest in England, was born from the cold climate of 14,000 years ago when this area of chalk bedrock was covered in snow. During warm seasons, the upper layers of soil and weathered rock slid away with the thaw. Finally, an ancient river carried the material away at the end of the Ice Age. That river is now gone but its valley remains. The high hill showed the surrounding terrain and was used as a defensive position as well as being an impressive location to hold special events. Remains of an Iron Age fort have been found here. The location is managed by the National Trust and is a recreational area. A trail supposedly leads to the alleged burial site of the Devil and his wife. In 1900, a sound called The Howling Terror was heard echoing in the valley. It wasn’t demons but the testing of a new invention called the megaphone being used at the amusement park on the top of the Dyke.
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The information provided here is based on a cursory search of these sites and the entries will be expanded as I discover new source material (or visit them!). Please contact me with your corrections, information (preferably with solid references), and photographs and I will gladly add them to the page. Or, leave your contribution in the comments. Thanks!Book References
Coleman, L. (2001). Mysterious America (Revised edition). Paraview Press.
Lankford, A. (2006). Haunted Hikes. Santa Monica Press.
#devil #devilPlaces #devilsBackbone #devilsElbow #devilsGarden #devilsPlayground #devilsPostpile #devilsRacecourse #devilsWindpipe #devilsLake #mountDiablo #satan
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Devil Places
There are countless places in the world named after the Devil (and variations of an evil one in other words and languages). If variations are added such as “Satan,” “Lucifer,” and “Diablo,” for example, the list is massive. Devil places sometimes owe their names to the geology. The features of these places may create a spooky and foreboding feeling that reinforces the local legends of the places being cursed, evil or enchanted.
These places have historically or very recently been associated with spirits, magic, strange phenomenon and/or death. In the U.S., many sacred places of indigenous peoples were renamed by the more puritanical sort as “devil” places in order to demonize the past (and previous spiritual beliefs). Devil places are particularly ubiquitous in New England, where the Puritans started their renaming. The rocky landscape gave them plenty of impetus. They truly believed Satan was about, ready to steal their souls. They considered Indian deities to be demons or devils. Spots where shamans would gather or practice might have been a place of geological uniqueness and were given a bad name by the newcomers.
Connecticut might be nicknamed the devil’s playground with some 34 place names including five Devil’s Dens, four Backbones, two Kitchens and a Dripping Pan, as well as a Hell Hole and two Satan’s Kingdoms. Massachusetts is the most devilish state, with 43 place names. Arizona is chock full of “devil” and “hell” names due to the hellishly hot weather suitable for demons.
Satan’s Kingdom
Legends say that Satan himself claimed the area now called Satan’s Kingdom in New Hartford, Connecticut as his own until the angel Gabriel decided the area was too idyllic and cleared out the dark lord and his band of demons. In Vermont, Satans Kingdom got its name supposedly because the settlers who expected fertile land got difficult rocks and hills instead. In Massachusetts, settlers came into the area in the 1670’s during King Philip’s War, where native villagers defended their land. The rough terrain and dangerous wildlife made it difficult for the settler-colonialists to conquer.
The Northern Cascades National park in Washington is very much a hellscape. The Backpacker.com site says of a hiking trail there: “The devil looms large on this rugged loop—you’ll pass Devils Creek, Pass, Park, Junction, and Dome—and you may curse like Satan during the initial 3,300-foot, 4-mile climb to McMillan Park”.
As you will see in this collection of Devilish places, they commonly are places of remarkable features, desolation, or treacherous traversing.
In 2013, Jonathan Hull did a map of US places with Devil-related names. Though many locations received their names from attributes other than geologically related ones, he noted that Devil-named areas often indicated a dangerous, extreme, or remote place. Sadly, I can’t find the full-scale map online anymore.
This is the best version I could find of Hull’s map.While my collection is woefully incomplete, I did pick some notable Devil-named locations with geological connections. Several of these warrant their own pages on the site. Click on the titles to head to these pages:
Devil’s Tower
An iconic volcanic feature in the Black Hills of Wyoming was known as being the location in the culminating scene in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It has become a draw for not only sci-fi enthusiasts but also UFO chasers and New Age believers.Devil’s Den
To gain this place name, the location usually has stark, huge rock boulders or outcrops, often with caves and crevasses. Several famous locations exist in the U.S. where not only supposedly spirits but also people used as hiding places.Devil’s Hole
A depression or cave often containing water that has gained a reputation of being deadly, a path to the underworld, or bottomless. (Or all three together). The most famous being the Devil’s Hole of Death Valley, a bizarre oasis in the desert.Devil’s Kitchen
Scenic locations characterized by their impressive geological features that suggest something evil is cooking.Devil’s Gate
A cleft or gorge that is considered a dangerous area for natural or supernatural reasons.Devil’s Punchbowl
Bowl-shaped depressions of various sizes that stand out from the landscape and may look as if they have been deliberately created for or from a nefarious action.Some lesser known locations with ‘Devil’ names are just as curious. Their oddness prompted locals to bestow upon them an accursed name.
Devils Head Rock, North CarolinaThree locations in Pennsylvania have the name Devil’s Potato Patch to designate boulder fields. One is between Danielsville and Little Gap in Northampton County, just west of the Blue Mtn ski area off the Appalachian Trail. This is an otherwise featureless field of sandstone blocks resulting from frost action that broke up the ridge-forming rock. It is on State Game Lands and, like other boulder fields, is treacherous to traverse and home to sunning snakes. Another Patch is located on the border of Lebanon and Lancaster County near Brickerville. This “river” of diabase boulders is a wooded and graffiti-strewn, neglected and full of various hazards like trash, bottles, and poison ivy. The third is in Salford Township, Montgomery County, where the boulders of diabase will ring when hammered.
Another “Tater Patch” is a windy ridge with spooky twisted trees in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park of Tennessee/ N. Carolina.
Similar to these rocky landscapes is the Devil’s Marbleyard of the James River Face Wilderness, in the Blue Ridge Mountains at Natural Bridge Station, Virginia. The Virginia Trail Guide describes it thusly:
“…looks like an immense stone mountain exploded and collapsed into thousands of boulders of every shape and size.”
Australia also has the Devil’s Marbles, a scattered array of large granite boulders in a 4500-acre area of the Northern Territory which was the traditional land of the Warumungu, Kaytetye, Alyawarra and Warlpiri people. They call it “Karlu Karlu”. The rocks are set precariously and have been chemically and physically weathered into rounded shapes. One legend says the natives thought these were the eggs of the rainbow serpent. But the official management plan for the reserve explains the traditional origin:
The whole area of the reserve is known as Ayleparrarntenhe, which is also the name of the place of origin and final resting place of Arrange, the Devil Man—a twin-peaked hill to the east of the reserve. Traditional Owners tell the story of how the Marbles came into being:
Arrange, the Devil Man, came from Ayleparrarntenhe and travelled through the area. During his journey, he was making a hair belt (as worn by initiated men). Twirling the hair into strings, Arrange dropped clusters of hair on the ground. These turned into the Karlu Karlu boulders that can be seen today. On his way back, Arrange spat on the ground. His spit also turned into the granite boulders which dot the central part of the reserve. Arrange finally returned to his place of origin, Ayleparrarntenhe.
Removal or desecration (even climbing) of the rocks and smaller rocks of nearby Devil’s Pebbles (Kunjarra) is said to bring bad luck to the tribes.
Several rocky areas are also called Devil’s Garden with unique vegetation or none at all. The Devil’s Garden portion of Arches National Park in Moab, Utah features “arches, spires, and a large concentration of narrow rock walls called “fins”. The fins are the result of erosion along parallel fractures.
Devil’s Garden, UtahA section of the High Lava Plains of central Oregon is a kipuka (an area isolated by surrounding lava flows) also known by this name. It was formed from fissure eruptions of basalt.
The Devil’s Playground is not your typical place of joy and laughter, but a grouping of granitic rock features weathered into fantastic forms and eerie shapes. A Tertiary-age (approximately 38 million years old) granitic intrusion overlying Paleozoic (400 to 300 million years old) sedimentary rocks is known as the Emigrant Pass pluton.
Devils Playground, UtahThe deadly Devil’s Playground in the Mohave Desert of California was the nickname pinned on a 17-mile stretch of drifting sand that had neither a track to follow nor water to drink.
In Tennessee, near vertical bedding produces huge rock formations that look like fins (or teeth) protrude from the Southwest flank of Cumberland Mountain known as the Devil’s Racetrack. Hikers and climbers must watch for falls from these rocks.
The Devil’s Race Course is a boulder field in Dauphin County, PA. Rock outcrops along the ridges provided the now rounded boulders. Stream flow from Rattling Run has washed away all the finer sediment. Sometimes the stream can be heard under river of rock. Legend has it that the area’s early settlers believed the sound of the water was the devil running through the depths of hell.
Devil’s Racecourse, PAThe term Devil’s Elbow often refers to an obvious and problematic bend in a river or a road. Most notably, in Pulaski County, Missouri, a sharp turn in the river has this unlucky name. Switchback bends along a hillside are constructed to navigate a steep slope. One such tight curve along a road bordering a rock cliff in New York has an associated legend of the vanishing hitchhiker. The road was eventually straightened to avoid mishaps.
The Devil’s Windpipe is a natural chute in the rocks in Arizona. When the wind blows across the hot landscape, it’s said it feels like the breathing of the devil himself. The Devil’s Throat is a remarkable cave in Bulgaria that swallows the Trigrad River where it funnels through the Hall of Thunder. This cave in the Rhodope Mountains is associated with the legend of Orpheus descending into the underworld to look for Eurydice. There is also a large sinkhole called the Devil’s Throat near Lake Mead in Nevada.
Multiple features exist with the name Devil’s Backbone which typically indicates a prominent ridge of rock that looks like a spine or teeth. Iowa has a state park characterized by a narrow and steep ridge of bedrock carved by a loop of the Maquoketa River. The towers, columns and rocky cliffs make for precipitous climbing. Maryland also has a park where a rock ridge 512 feet above sea level was formed by erosion at the confluence of the Antietam and Beaver Creek and is a noted scenic area. A narrow jutting of rock from a ridge forms a distinct “backbone” across the landscape west of Loveland, Colorado. A particularly striking vertical wall of dark andesite about 1,000 feet long exists within the volcanic crater of Crater Lake, Oregon. The dike was formed when molten lava filled cracks as it forced its way upwards and then solidified. Erosion of the surrounding material has left the resistant material standing. The Illinois “Backbone” is a rocky landmark on a ridge in the Grand Tower area. The rapids near here were supposedly very dangerous and native legends evil spirits were responsible. Nearby is the Devil’s Bake Oven – a nearly 100’ rock on the edge of the river where folklorists have documented ghostly visions and sounds.
Devil’s Backbone, Loveland CO.About 80,000 to 100,000 years ago in eastern California, basaltic lava gushed from fissures and formed a lake within a glacial-formed valley some 400 feet deep. The lava cooled slowly, forming the hexagonal columnar structure that is so striking (also present in Devil’s Tower and Giant’s Causeway), resembling a pile of posts. Thus, it’s called the Devils Postpile. Glaciers smoothed and scarred the top of the formation. Devils Postpile (no apostrophe – which is the case with most official U.S. “devil” monuments) is now a national monument. A Little Devils Postpile exists in Yosemite.
Devils Postpile National MonumentDevils Lake in Wisconsin, part of a state park, is situated in a deep chasm formed by glacial action. It has no visible inlet or outlet. The lake was originally called “Sacred Lake” or “Spirit Lake” by the natives who considered it sacred where voices of the spirits could be heard. Glacial striations mark the rock surfaces around the lake and there are Native effigy mounds nearby. The lake has spooky legends of a phantom canoer, and lake monster, and some stories say the natives considered it a “place of many dead”.
A similar lake exists in North Dakota, also in a closed basin and also renamed from the Natives’ interpretation of “Spirit Lake”. This lake has been plagued with flooding problems.
Seven Devils Lake is a small reservoir in South Arkansas, located about 14 miles (23 km) out of Monticello. The Lake is formed by Seven Devils Dam. The area got its name from a man who was trapped in the area for days and finally made it out. A reporter asked if he found the rumored seven lakes of the area, but the man stated that there were not seven lakes, but seven devils. This area is the most northern point west of the Mississippi River where American alligators can be found.
Many bare mountain summits are named for their stark barrenness. Several rocky scenic outlooks called Devil’s Knobs are recognized around the world. There are many places called Devil’s Peak often referring to an imposing, rocky mount. Such peaks are in Cape Town in South Africa, Hong Kong, Flanders Range in Australia, Soda Springs, California, Santa Barbara, California, and in Nevada. A location in Baja, California has the Spanish name Picacho del Diablo and is also known as the Cerro de la Encantada or “Hill of the Enchanted”. It is a ragged granite summit that makes for a popular but challenging climb.
Mount Diablo in Contra Costa, California is awash with legends and has a reputation as a strange place. Now a state park, it was historically an important landmark for mapping and navigation because of its visibility and location. It is a geological anomaly, part of a thrust fault complex, growing higher every year due to compression of tectonic plates. Native tribes have various legends about it included the mountain as a point of creation. A notable legend of how the mountain got its name was from a misinterpretation of “Monte del Diablo” meaning “thicket of the devil” after several Natives escaped from the Spanish in 1805 into a nearby thicket. Not long after, the name was interpreted to mean a place of evil spirits. It’s not clear if this name was derived from a genuine tradition of spooky happenings in the area and there have been several attempts to rename the mountain to shake off the diabolical reputation. Author Loren Coleman writes that many unusual incidents have occurred in the Mount Diablo area, appropriate for its reputation, including sightings of black panthers (a difficult-to-explain animal that is reported all too regularly), mysterious lights, apparitions and even a claim of a live frog found in a stony concretion.
West Face of Mount Diablo and Highway 24. By Trurl66 – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5526277So-called Devil’s bathtubs are deep spots in a creek popular with visitors looking to cool off. In Hocking Hills State Park, Ohio, water falls from rock ledges into the stream where the water swirls into a bowl-shaped gorge. People told stories of this being as deep as hell. The pockets and tunnels were formed from scouring glacial meltwaters thousands of years ago.
In Scott County, Virginia, the Bathtub is a scour pool in the Devil’s Fork of Stony Creek. It’s not the easiest spot to get to and the water is far from hot. Many photos of the location have circulated on social media but these seem to be from the Ohio location, or from some other feature entirely, leading many to be disappointed when they reach this particular tub. The overabundance of visitors prompted by social media has caused local problems and threaten the natural area. The South Dakota version of the devil’s tub is much more secluded. With high rocky cliffs nearby, the water cascades in a chute called “the slide” and swirls into the tub.
According to Wikipedia, there are no less than 105 different locations of the Devil’s Canyon in the United States alone including Utah, Oklahoma, and California. Areas with this designation are typically steep, remote, and have plentiful snakes as residents. In Lincoln National Forest, New Mexico, Devil’s Canyon, so far as anyone knows, is so named because of the pinnacles – needles and balanced rocks that form the canyon walls and resemble distorted human forms. A 2017 TV show called “Devil’s Canyon” is based in British Columbia. It is the story of three gold prospectors seeking treasure in the canyon where they believe large deposits have escaped exploitation by big mining companies. But the rough, isolated terrain, bad weather, and wild animals make it an unforgiving location to explore.
A rock formation where the lower strata is more eroded and weathered leaving a larger slab perched precipitously on top are called “tea tables”. Such formations are a variety of hoodoo. Notable examples of Devil’s Tea Tables exist in Athens County, Ohio and in Illinois’ Shawnee National Forest. These features appear to lean in every direction, so whatever side you view it from, it looks like it will fall on you. A tea table feature in McConnelsville, Ohio collapsed in 1906. Explorers who came across the gravity-defying features often attributed their origin to supernatural forces.
Devils Tea Table, McConnelsvilleNot necessarily natural are the standing stones in North Yorkshire, England, called Devils Arrows. Legend has it that the Devil himself threw the stones into the ground as arrows to attack Christians in Aldborough but they fell short. The prehistoric monuments likely were constructed as part of a ritual landscape. Similarly, the Devil’s Quoits in Stanton Harcourt are also part of a Neolithic-age stone circle. The legend here is “the Devil once played quoits (a game) with a beggar for his soul or, alternatively, that it was a Sunday and God rebuked him whereby he flung the stones in anger. Many stone circles and henges in the UK remain imbued with New Age and mystical significance.
The most famous Devil’s Gulch, in Garretson, South Dakota, is rife with legends. This 18-20 foot chasm across blocks of quartzite is said to have obtained its name from strange noises made by the winds as they blow through. Split Rock Creek below is associated with a “bottomless pit” in the stream bed. (If it’s bottomless, how does the stream flow over it?) A Native tale tells a different origin story. They called it “Spirit Canyon” and that it was formed when two warriors fought. When the spirit warrior’s tomahawk hit the ground, it split the land forming the gulch. But the most famous legend, now marked on the spot, is that outlaw Jesse James made a getaway by leaping the gap on his horse. The location is now a park and also has Devil’s Falls and the Devil’s Stairway nearby.
When Satan needs a rest, he chooses Devils Throne, a summit in Idaho County, Idaho. It forms part of the Seven Devils Mountains. Or the Devil’s Chair in San Gabriel Mountains is part of the Devil’s Punchbowl.
What is really haunting the Devil’s Swamp in Scotlandville, Louisiana are nasty chemicals that have been poured into it, destroying the ecosystem over the years leaving ghosts of those animals (and people) dead from pollution. Beware when visiting this toxic stew. The Seven Devils Swamp natural area in Arkansas, however, is a healthy and diverse ecosystem.
Part of the Craters of the Moon National monument, Idaho, Devil’s Orchard has trees and vegetation growing from the flood basalt lava flows of the Snake River Plain volcanic province. The Orchard is a group of lava-transported cinder cone fragments that were once part of the North Crater cinder cone but broke off and were carried away by a new lava flow. The place is described as “otherworldly” with the black rocks providing no shade. Shoshone legend speaks of a serpent on a mountain who, angered by lightning, coiled around and squeezed the mountain until liquid rock flowed, fire shot from cracks, and the mountain exploded. Craters of the Moon National Monument was proclaimed on May 2, 1924 by U.S. President Calvin Coolidge to “preserve the unusual and weird volcanic formations”
Devil’s Orchard, IdahoIn the Big South Fork National River and Recreation area in Kentucky/Tennessee, legend has it that a band of brothers looking for salt drilled a well so deep that it hit oil. They became concerned that the well was so deep, it might reach Hell. Finally, they did strike something, but instead of salt brine coming out of the ground a black, smelly, sticky liquid came oozing out of the pipe. These explorers did not know what oil was, and since they were of a religious nature, they were disturbed about the new-found product. When they saw how this black substance burned, they called it Devil’s Tar. One of the crew was sent downstream with a sample but his raft overturned at the rapids. Later, he told the story that the devil himself, angry at the invasion of his domain, leaped from one of the rocks onto the raft sinking it. The rapids were named the Devils Jump.
Two other Devil’s Jumps occur in England. Three little hills near Frensham are said to have been thrown up by the Devil taking three enormous leaps. The Devil’s Jumps in Churt, county of Surrey, (also known as Devil’s Three Jumps) are a series of three small hills made of “ironstone” making them resistant to erosion. The devil made his mark all around this area, according to legend, as several local landmarks play into the story of his visit. For example, the tale goes that Devil made off with the cauldron of the witch, Mother Ludlam. As she chased him, the Devil’s leaps kicked up hills now known as the Devil’s Jumps. He left the cauldron on Kettlebury Hill and also left a valley known as the Devil’s Punch Bowl.
Another tale tells that the Devil amused himself by leaping from the top of each hill to the next. This annoyed the god Thor who picked up a boulder and threw it at the Devil, causing him to flee. The boulder remains at Devil’s Jumps. The same story is told of the Devil’s Jumps near Treyford on the South Downs in West Sussex though these are barrows upon which the Devil jumped. Other round barrows in Stoughton are also called the Devil’s humps.
Similar to the Jumps are the Devils Footprints – grassy meadows that top some peaks in the Appalachian mountains, particularly in the Great Smoky Mountains. These peaks, also called “balds” are where trees won’t grow, legendarily because the devil himself stepped there. More realistic theories are that the treeless patches are the result of past clearing, animal grazing or burning. Or that the soil, climate, or biota prevents trees from growing. It’s not clear why some summits are bald where others are not.
Apparent “footprints” in rock appear at Devils Foot Rock. Many colorful tales are told of the Devil himself leaving the prints as he pursued maidens or stomped in frustration.
Devil’s Promenade in extreme southwestern Missouri is the site of a regionally noted “spook light”. The locals named the four-mile-long gravel road on the border between southwestern Missouri and northeastern Oklahoma west of the small town of Hornet, Missouri. Hornet is famous for the Hornet Spooklight (also called the Joplin spooklight) – a seemingly unexplained light that appears in the distance. Some have explained it as normal lights from cars or trains and others insist it is paranormal in nature. The bridge along the Devil’s Promenade was originally a rickety wooden bridge. Legend had it that “anyone who walked back and forth across the bridge five times (or seven or three depending on who you ask) very slowly and asking for the Devil to appear, he would either answer three questions, grant three wishes or of course, kill you. Again this depends on the version you hear.” A concrete bridge was constructed and the story seems to have diminished. One story of the light’s origin was that it is the Devil swinging his Jack-o-lantern. Other stories, according to the Prarie Ghosts website, says the light represents the spirit of two young Quapaw Indians who died in the area. Another claimed the light was the spirit of an Osage Indian chief who had been beheaded on the Devil’s Promenade. As with many spook light stories, the light represents a torch carried by the ghost as he searches for his missing head. The torch motif also shows up in the version of the legend that a miner is searching in vain for his missing children by lantern light. Tellers of these tales claim that the lights and legends existed in Native lore prior to the construction of this road.
Many impressive masonry structures are named the Devil’s Bridge and have associated lore to go with them. The bridge in Sedona, Arizona, in the Coconino National Forest, is a large natural sandstone arch. In Massachusetts, the Devil’s Bridge is a shallow reef running northwest off the northwest corner of Martha’s Vineyard. This hazard to ships was supposedly created by the mighty giant Moshup. The local Wampanoag tribal history tells the tale:
Moshup was building a bridge to Cuttyhunk with heavy boulders when a giant crab latched onto his foot. In his pain and anger, he gave up leaving a treacherous shoal instead. The area has been the site of several shipwrecks.
In North Carolina’s Pisgah National Forest is the Devil’s Courthouse. According to Andrea Lankford:
By bradploeger – originally posted to Flickr as Devil’s Courthouse, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4237496“Cherokees believed an evil spirit [or giant} named Judaculla held court on top of this bare rock summit with a 360 degree view of three states”.
Whiteside Mountain in Jackson County, North Carolina also has a feature of this name. The bare overhanging rock is windy and dangerous.
The Devil’s Apronful cairn consists of a heap of rocks and boulders near Pendle Hill in Lancashire, England. Several natural boulders were used to construct the mound which provides an impressive view both now and back in Bronze Age times. The thousands of rocks of gritstone and sandstone are scattered in a roughly circular area. The area however is mostly limestone. It’s been suggested that the stones were glacial erratics and the stones were gathered by farmers to get them out of the fields. But there are more fantastic origin stories. The Devil was annoyed with people at Clitheroe Castle in the west. To do away with it, he filled an “apron” (quite the visual) with rocks to pitch at them. Most missed and in his rage he dropped the rest on this south side of Pendle Hill, creating Apronful Hill. For the similar Apronful in Yorkshire, the tale is that the Devil was collecting stones in his apron in order to build a bridge or fill in the ravine when his apron string broke (or he tripped) and the stones fell out. The Devil’s Apronful sites were disturbed by curious visitors and looters but are now protected.
The Devil has two “Hopyards”. One is a State Park and public recreation area in East Haddam, Connecticut. There are several ideas about how the place got its curious name. One is that it refers to supernatural origins for the naturally occurring potholes in the area. These potholes were formed by the grinding actions of stones moved downstream by the current when trapped in an eddy, wearing a depression in the rock. To the early settlers the potholes were a great mystery, and as with many “devilish” features, they explained them with references to the supernatural. They thought that the Devil has passed by the falls, accidentally getting his tail wet. This made him so mad he burned holes in the stones with his hooves as he bounded away. A sign in the park tells of the legends regarding the name. Another site with this name is in New Hampshire. This is a boulder-filled ravine where you can sometimes hear water running.
Devil’s Dyke (or ditch) near Bleaklow, in Sussex, England is a deep gully supposedly cut by Satan’s claws when he became enraged at the loss of a prospective soul. Other tales say it is his unfinished ditch as he bet St. Cuthberth he could dig it in one night and flood the town. The tourist-attracting feature is really the result of mass wasting and river erosion into a dip-slope valley. The V-shaped dry valley, the deepest in England, was born from the cold climate of 14,000 years ago when this area of chalk bedrock was covered in snow. During warm seasons, the upper layers of soil and weathered rock slid away with the thaw. Finally, an ancient river carried the material away at the end of the Ice Age. That river is now gone but its valley remains. The high hill showed the surrounding terrain and was used as a defensive position as well as being an impressive location to hold special events. Remains of an Iron Age fort have been found here. The location is managed by the National Trust and is a recreational area. A trail supposedly leads to the alleged burial site of the Devil and his wife. In 1900, a sound called The Howling Terror was heard echoing in the valley. It wasn’t demons but the testing of a new invention called the megaphone being used at the amusement park on the top of the Dyke.
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The information provided here is based on a cursory search of these sites and the entries will be expanded as I discover new source material (or visit them!). Please contact me with your corrections, information (preferably with solid references), and photographs and I will gladly add them to the page. Or, leave your contribution in the comments. Thanks!Book References
Coleman, L. (2001). Mysterious America (Revised edition). Paraview Press.
Lankford, A. (2006). Haunted Hikes. Santa Monica Press.
#devil #devilPlaces #devilsBackbone #devilsElbow #devilsGarden #devilsPlayground #devilsPostpile #devilsRacecourse #devilsWindpipe #devilsLake #mountDiablo #satan
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Devil Places
There are countless places in the world named after the Devil (and variations of an evil one in other words and languages). If variations are added such as “Satan,” “Lucifer,” and “Diablo,” for example, the list is massive. Devil places sometimes owe their names to the geology. The features of these places may create a spooky and foreboding feeling that reinforces the local legends of the places being cursed, evil or enchanted.
These places have historically or very recently been associated with spirits, magic, strange phenomenon and/or death. In the U.S., many sacred places of indigenous peoples were renamed by the more puritanical sort as “devil” places in order to demonize the past (and previous spiritual beliefs). Devil places are particularly ubiquitous in New England, where the Puritans started their renaming. The rocky landscape gave them plenty of impetus. They truly believed Satan was about, ready to steal their souls. They considered Indian deities to be demons or devils. Spots where shamans would gather or practice might have been a place of geological uniqueness and were given a bad name by the newcomers.
Connecticut might be nicknamed the devil’s playground with some 34 place names including five Devil’s Dens, four Backbones, two Kitchens and a Dripping Pan, as well as a Hell Hole and two Satan’s Kingdoms. Massachusetts is the most devilish state, with 43 place names. Arizona is chock full of “devil” and “hell” names due to the hellishly hot weather suitable for demons.
Satan’s Kingdom
Legends say that Satan himself claimed the area now called Satan’s Kingdom in New Hartford, Connecticut as his own until the angel Gabriel decided the area was too idyllic and cleared out the dark lord and his band of demons. In Vermont, Satans Kingdom got its name supposedly because the settlers who expected fertile land got difficult rocks and hills instead. In Massachusetts, settlers came into the area in the 1670’s during King Philip’s War, where native villagers defended their land. The rough terrain and dangerous wildlife made it difficult for the settler-colonialists to conquer.
The Northern Cascades National park in Washington is very much a hellscape. The Backpacker.com site says of a hiking trail there: “The devil looms large on this rugged loop—you’ll pass Devils Creek, Pass, Park, Junction, and Dome—and you may curse like Satan during the initial 3,300-foot, 4-mile climb to McMillan Park”.
As you will see in this collection of Devilish places, they commonly are places of remarkable features, desolation, or treacherous traversing.
In 2013, Jonathan Hull did a map of US places with Devil-related names. Though many locations received their names from attributes other than geologically related ones, he noted that Devil-named areas often indicated a dangerous, extreme, or remote place. Sadly, I can’t find the full-scale map online anymore.
This is the best version I could find of Hull’s map.While my collection is woefully incomplete, I did pick some notable Devil-named locations with geological connections. Several of these warrant their own pages on the site. Click on the titles to head to these pages:
Devil’s Tower
An iconic volcanic feature in the Black Hills of Wyoming was known as being the location in the culminating scene in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It has become a draw for not only sci-fi enthusiasts but also UFO chasers and New Age believers.Devil’s Den
To gain this place name, the location usually has stark, huge rock boulders or outcrops, often with caves and crevasses. Several famous locations exist in the U.S. where not only supposedly spirits but also people used as hiding places.Devil’s Hole
A depression or cave often containing water that has gained a reputation of being deadly, a path to the underworld, or bottomless. (Or all three together). The most famous being the Devil’s Hole of Death Valley, a bizarre oasis in the desert.Devil’s Kitchen
Scenic locations characterized by their impressive geological features that suggest something evil is cooking.Devil’s Gate
A cleft or gorge that is considered a dangerous area for natural or supernatural reasons.Devil’s Punchbowl
Bowl-shaped depressions of various sizes that stand out from the landscape and may look as if they have been deliberately created for or from a nefarious action.Some lesser known locations with ‘Devil’ names are just as curious. Their oddness prompted locals to bestow upon them an accursed name.
Devils Head Rock, North CarolinaThree locations in Pennsylvania have the name Devil’s Potato Patch to designate boulder fields. One is between Danielsville and Little Gap in Northampton County, just west of the Blue Mtn ski area off the Appalachian Trail. This is an otherwise featureless field of sandstone blocks resulting from frost action that broke up the ridge-forming rock. It is on State Game Lands and, like other boulder fields, is treacherous to traverse and home to sunning snakes. Another Patch is located on the border of Lebanon and Lancaster County near Brickerville. This “river” of diabase boulders is a wooded and graffiti-strewn, neglected and full of various hazards like trash, bottles, and poison ivy. The third is in Salford Township, Montgomery County, where the boulders of diabase will ring when hammered.
Another “Tater Patch” is a windy ridge with spooky twisted trees in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park of Tennessee/ N. Carolina.
Similar to these rocky landscapes is the Devil’s Marbleyard of the James River Face Wilderness, in the Blue Ridge Mountains at Natural Bridge Station, Virginia. The Virginia Trail Guide describes it thusly:
“…looks like an immense stone mountain exploded and collapsed into thousands of boulders of every shape and size.”
Australia also has the Devil’s Marbles, a scattered array of large granite boulders in a 4500-acre area of the Northern Territory which was the traditional land of the Warumungu, Kaytetye, Alyawarra and Warlpiri people. They call it “Karlu Karlu”. The rocks are set precariously and have been chemically and physically weathered into rounded shapes. One legend says the natives thought these were the eggs of the rainbow serpent. But the official management plan for the reserve explains the traditional origin:
The whole area of the reserve is known as Ayleparrarntenhe, which is also the name of the place of origin and final resting place of Arrange, the Devil Man—a twin-peaked hill to the east of the reserve. Traditional Owners tell the story of how the Marbles came into being:
Arrange, the Devil Man, came from Ayleparrarntenhe and travelled through the area. During his journey, he was making a hair belt (as worn by initiated men). Twirling the hair into strings, Arrange dropped clusters of hair on the ground. These turned into the Karlu Karlu boulders that can be seen today. On his way back, Arrange spat on the ground. His spit also turned into the granite boulders which dot the central part of the reserve. Arrange finally returned to his place of origin, Ayleparrarntenhe.
Removal or desecration (even climbing) of the rocks and smaller rocks of nearby Devil’s Pebbles (Kunjarra) is said to bring bad luck to the tribes.
Several rocky areas are also called Devil’s Garden with unique vegetation or none at all. The Devil’s Garden portion of Arches National Park in Moab, Utah features “arches, spires, and a large concentration of narrow rock walls called “fins”. The fins are the result of erosion along parallel fractures.
Devil’s Garden, UtahA section of the High Lava Plains of central Oregon is a kipuka (an area isolated by surrounding lava flows) also known by this name. It was formed from fissure eruptions of basalt.
The Devil’s Playground is not your typical place of joy and laughter, but a grouping of granitic rock features weathered into fantastic forms and eerie shapes. A Tertiary-age (approximately 38 million years old) granitic intrusion overlying Paleozoic (400 to 300 million years old) sedimentary rocks is known as the Emigrant Pass pluton.
Devils Playground, UtahThe deadly Devil’s Playground in the Mohave Desert of California was the nickname pinned on a 17-mile stretch of drifting sand that had neither a track to follow nor water to drink.
In Tennessee, near vertical bedding produces huge rock formations that look like fins (or teeth) protrude from the Southwest flank of Cumberland Mountain known as the Devil’s Racetrack. Hikers and climbers must watch for falls from these rocks.
The Devil’s Race Course is a boulder field in Dauphin County, PA. Rock outcrops along the ridges provided the now rounded boulders. Stream flow from Rattling Run has washed away all the finer sediment. Sometimes the stream can be heard under river of rock. Legend has it that the area’s early settlers believed the sound of the water was the devil running through the depths of hell.
Devil’s Racecourse, PAThe term Devil’s Elbow often refers to an obvious and problematic bend in a river or a road. Most notably, in Pulaski County, Missouri, a sharp turn in the river has this unlucky name. Switchback bends along a hillside are constructed to navigate a steep slope. One such tight curve along a road bordering a rock cliff in New York has an associated legend of the vanishing hitchhiker. The road was eventually straightened to avoid mishaps.
The Devil’s Windpipe is a natural chute in the rocks in Arizona. When the wind blows across the hot landscape, it’s said it feels like the breathing of the devil himself. The Devil’s Throat is a remarkable cave in Bulgaria that swallows the Trigrad River where it funnels through the Hall of Thunder. This cave in the Rhodope Mountains is associated with the legend of Orpheus descending into the underworld to look for Eurydice. There is also a large sinkhole called the Devil’s Throat near Lake Mead in Nevada.
Multiple features exist with the name Devil’s Backbone which typically indicates a prominent ridge of rock that looks like a spine or teeth. Iowa has a state park characterized by a narrow and steep ridge of bedrock carved by a loop of the Maquoketa River. The towers, columns and rocky cliffs make for precipitous climbing. Maryland also has a park where a rock ridge 512 feet above sea level was formed by erosion at the confluence of the Antietam and Beaver Creek and is a noted scenic area. A narrow jutting of rock from a ridge forms a distinct “backbone” across the landscape west of Loveland, Colorado. A particularly striking vertical wall of dark andesite about 1,000 feet long exists within the volcanic crater of Crater Lake, Oregon. The dike was formed when molten lava filled cracks as it forced its way upwards and then solidified. Erosion of the surrounding material has left the resistant material standing. The Illinois “Backbone” is a rocky landmark on a ridge in the Grand Tower area. The rapids near here were supposedly very dangerous and native legends evil spirits were responsible. Nearby is the Devil’s Bake Oven – a nearly 100’ rock on the edge of the river where folklorists have documented ghostly visions and sounds.
Devil’s Backbone, Loveland CO.About 80,000 to 100,000 years ago in eastern California, basaltic lava gushed from fissures and formed a lake within a glacial-formed valley some 400 feet deep. The lava cooled slowly, forming the hexagonal columnar structure that is so striking (also present in Devil’s Tower and Giant’s Causeway), resembling a pile of posts. Thus, it’s called the Devils Postpile. Glaciers smoothed and scarred the top of the formation. Devils Postpile (no apostrophe – which is the case with most official U.S. “devil” monuments) is now a national monument. A Little Devils Postpile exists in Yosemite.
Devils Postpile National MonumentDevils Lake in Wisconsin, part of a state park, is situated in a deep chasm formed by glacial action. It has no visible inlet or outlet. The lake was originally called “Sacred Lake” or “Spirit Lake” by the natives who considered it sacred where voices of the spirits could be heard. Glacial striations mark the rock surfaces around the lake and there are Native effigy mounds nearby. The lake has spooky legends of a phantom canoer, and lake monster, and some stories say the natives considered it a “place of many dead”.
A similar lake exists in North Dakota, also in a closed basin and also renamed from the Natives’ interpretation of “Spirit Lake”. This lake has been plagued with flooding problems.
Seven Devils Lake is a small reservoir in South Arkansas, located about 14 miles (23 km) out of Monticello. The Lake is formed by Seven Devils Dam. The area got its name from a man who was trapped in the area for days and finally made it out. A reporter asked if he found the rumored seven lakes of the area, but the man stated that there were not seven lakes, but seven devils. This area is the most northern point west of the Mississippi River where American alligators can be found.
Many bare mountain summits are named for their stark barrenness. Several rocky scenic outlooks called Devil’s Knobs are recognized around the world. There are many places called Devil’s Peak often referring to an imposing, rocky mount. Such peaks are in Cape Town in South Africa, Hong Kong, Flanders Range in Australia, Soda Springs, California, Santa Barbara, California, and in Nevada. A location in Baja, California has the Spanish name Picacho del Diablo and is also known as the Cerro de la Encantada or “Hill of the Enchanted”. It is a ragged granite summit that makes for a popular but challenging climb.
Mount Diablo in Contra Costa, California is awash with legends and has a reputation as a strange place. Now a state park, it was historically an important landmark for mapping and navigation because of its visibility and location. It is a geological anomaly, part of a thrust fault complex, growing higher every year due to compression of tectonic plates. Native tribes have various legends about it included the mountain as a point of creation. A notable legend of how the mountain got its name was from a misinterpretation of “Monte del Diablo” meaning “thicket of the devil” after several Natives escaped from the Spanish in 1805 into a nearby thicket. Not long after, the name was interpreted to mean a place of evil spirits. It’s not clear if this name was derived from a genuine tradition of spooky happenings in the area and there have been several attempts to rename the mountain to shake off the diabolical reputation. Author Loren Coleman writes that many unusual incidents have occurred in the Mount Diablo area, appropriate for its reputation, including sightings of black panthers (a difficult-to-explain animal that is reported all too regularly), mysterious lights, apparitions and even a claim of a live frog found in a stony concretion.
West Face of Mount Diablo and Highway 24. By Trurl66 – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5526277So-called Devil’s bathtubs are deep spots in a creek popular with visitors looking to cool off. In Hocking Hills State Park, Ohio, water falls from rock ledges into the stream where the water swirls into a bowl-shaped gorge. People told stories of this being as deep as hell. The pockets and tunnels were formed from scouring glacial meltwaters thousands of years ago.
In Scott County, Virginia, the Bathtub is a scour pool in the Devil’s Fork of Stony Creek. It’s not the easiest spot to get to and the water is far from hot. Many photos of the location have circulated on social media but these seem to be from the Ohio location, or from some other feature entirely, leading many to be disappointed when they reach this particular tub. The overabundance of visitors prompted by social media has caused local problems and threaten the natural area. The South Dakota version of the devil’s tub is much more secluded. With high rocky cliffs nearby, the water cascades in a chute called “the slide” and swirls into the tub.
According to Wikipedia, there are no less than 105 different locations of the Devil’s Canyon in the United States alone including Utah, Oklahoma, and California. Areas with this designation are typically steep, remote, and have plentiful snakes as residents. In Lincoln National Forest, New Mexico, Devil’s Canyon, so far as anyone knows, is so named because of the pinnacles – needles and balanced rocks that form the canyon walls and resemble distorted human forms. A 2017 TV show called “Devil’s Canyon” is based in British Columbia. It is the story of three gold prospectors seeking treasure in the canyon where they believe large deposits have escaped exploitation by big mining companies. But the rough, isolated terrain, bad weather, and wild animals make it an unforgiving location to explore.
A rock formation where the lower strata is more eroded and weathered leaving a larger slab perched precipitously on top are called “tea tables”. Such formations are a variety of hoodoo. Notable examples of Devil’s Tea Tables exist in Athens County, Ohio and in Illinois’ Shawnee National Forest. These features appear to lean in every direction, so whatever side you view it from, it looks like it will fall on you. A tea table feature in McConnelsville, Ohio collapsed in 1906. Explorers who came across the gravity-defying features often attributed their origin to supernatural forces.
Devils Tea Table, McConnelsvilleNot necessarily natural are the standing stones in North Yorkshire, England, called Devils Arrows. Legend has it that the Devil himself threw the stones into the ground as arrows to attack Christians in Aldborough but they fell short. The prehistoric monuments likely were constructed as part of a ritual landscape. Similarly, the Devil’s Quoits in Stanton Harcourt are also part of a Neolithic-age stone circle. The legend here is “the Devil once played quoits (a game) with a beggar for his soul or, alternatively, that it was a Sunday and God rebuked him whereby he flung the stones in anger. Many stone circles and henges in the UK remain imbued with New Age and mystical significance.
The most famous Devil’s Gulch, in Garretson, South Dakota, is rife with legends. This 18-20 foot chasm across blocks of quartzite is said to have obtained its name from strange noises made by the winds as they blow through. Split Rock Creek below is associated with a “bottomless pit” in the stream bed. (If it’s bottomless, how does the stream flow over it?) A Native tale tells a different origin story. They called it “Spirit Canyon” and that it was formed when two warriors fought. When the spirit warrior’s tomahawk hit the ground, it split the land forming the gulch. But the most famous legend, now marked on the spot, is that outlaw Jesse James made a getaway by leaping the gap on his horse. The location is now a park and also has Devil’s Falls and the Devil’s Stairway nearby.
When Satan needs a rest, he chooses Devils Throne, a summit in Idaho County, Idaho. It forms part of the Seven Devils Mountains. Or the Devil’s Chair in San Gabriel Mountains is part of the Devil’s Punchbowl.
What is really haunting the Devil’s Swamp in Scotlandville, Louisiana are nasty chemicals that have been poured into it, destroying the ecosystem over the years leaving ghosts of those animals (and people) dead from pollution. Beware when visiting this toxic stew. The Seven Devils Swamp natural area in Arkansas, however, is a healthy and diverse ecosystem.
Part of the Craters of the Moon National monument, Idaho, Devil’s Orchard has trees and vegetation growing from the flood basalt lava flows of the Snake River Plain volcanic province. The Orchard is a group of lava-transported cinder cone fragments that were once part of the North Crater cinder cone but broke off and were carried away by a new lava flow. The place is described as “otherworldly” with the black rocks providing no shade. Shoshone legend speaks of a serpent on a mountain who, angered by lightning, coiled around and squeezed the mountain until liquid rock flowed, fire shot from cracks, and the mountain exploded. Craters of the Moon National Monument was proclaimed on May 2, 1924 by U.S. President Calvin Coolidge to “preserve the unusual and weird volcanic formations”
Devil’s Orchard, IdahoIn the Big South Fork National River and Recreation area in Kentucky/Tennessee, legend has it that a band of brothers looking for salt drilled a well so deep that it hit oil. They became concerned that the well was so deep, it might reach Hell. Finally, they did strike something, but instead of salt brine coming out of the ground a black, smelly, sticky liquid came oozing out of the pipe. These explorers did not know what oil was, and since they were of a religious nature, they were disturbed about the new-found product. When they saw how this black substance burned, they called it Devil’s Tar. One of the crew was sent downstream with a sample but his raft overturned at the rapids. Later, he told the story that the devil himself, angry at the invasion of his domain, leaped from one of the rocks onto the raft sinking it. The rapids were named the Devils Jump.
Two other Devil’s Jumps occur in England. Three little hills near Frensham are said to have been thrown up by the Devil taking three enormous leaps. The Devil’s Jumps in Churt, county of Surrey, (also known as Devil’s Three Jumps) are a series of three small hills made of “ironstone” making them resistant to erosion. The devil made his mark all around this area, according to legend, as several local landmarks play into the story of his visit. For example, the tale goes that Devil made off with the cauldron of the witch, Mother Ludlam. As she chased him, the Devil’s leaps kicked up hills now known as the Devil’s Jumps. He left the cauldron on Kettlebury Hill and also left a valley known as the Devil’s Punch Bowl.
Another tale tells that the Devil amused himself by leaping from the top of each hill to the next. This annoyed the god Thor who picked up a boulder and threw it at the Devil, causing him to flee. The boulder remains at Devil’s Jumps. The same story is told of the Devil’s Jumps near Treyford on the South Downs in West Sussex though these are barrows upon which the Devil jumped. Other round barrows in Stoughton are also called the Devil’s humps.
Similar to the Jumps are the Devils Footprints – grassy meadows that top some peaks in the Appalachian mountains, particularly in the Great Smoky Mountains. These peaks, also called “balds” are where trees won’t grow, legendarily because the devil himself stepped there. More realistic theories are that the treeless patches are the result of past clearing, animal grazing or burning. Or that the soil, climate, or biota prevents trees from growing. It’s not clear why some summits are bald where others are not.
Apparent “footprints” in rock appear at Devils Foot Rock. Many colorful tales are told of the Devil himself leaving the prints as he pursued maidens or stomped in frustration.
Devil’s Promenade in extreme southwestern Missouri is the site of a regionally noted “spook light”. The locals named the four-mile-long gravel road on the border between southwestern Missouri and northeastern Oklahoma west of the small town of Hornet, Missouri. Hornet is famous for the Hornet Spooklight (also called the Joplin spooklight) – a seemingly unexplained light that appears in the distance. Some have explained it as normal lights from cars or trains and others insist it is paranormal in nature. The bridge along the Devil’s Promenade was originally a rickety wooden bridge. Legend had it that “anyone who walked back and forth across the bridge five times (or seven or three depending on who you ask) very slowly and asking for the Devil to appear, he would either answer three questions, grant three wishes or of course, kill you. Again this depends on the version you hear.” A concrete bridge was constructed and the story seems to have diminished. One story of the light’s origin was that it is the Devil swinging his Jack-o-lantern. Other stories, according to the Prarie Ghosts website, says the light represents the spirit of two young Quapaw Indians who died in the area. Another claimed the light was the spirit of an Osage Indian chief who had been beheaded on the Devil’s Promenade. As with many spook light stories, the light represents a torch carried by the ghost as he searches for his missing head. The torch motif also shows up in the version of the legend that a miner is searching in vain for his missing children by lantern light. Tellers of these tales claim that the lights and legends existed in Native lore prior to the construction of this road.
Many impressive masonry structures are named the Devil’s Bridge and have associated lore to go with them. The bridge in Sedona, Arizona, in the Coconino National Forest, is a large natural sandstone arch. In Massachusetts, the Devil’s Bridge is a shallow reef running northwest off the northwest corner of Martha’s Vineyard. This hazard to ships was supposedly created by the mighty giant Moshup. The local Wampanoag tribal history tells the tale:
Moshup was building a bridge to Cuttyhunk with heavy boulders when a giant crab latched onto his foot. In his pain and anger, he gave up leaving a treacherous shoal instead. The area has been the site of several shipwrecks.
In North Carolina’s Pisgah National Forest is the Devil’s Courthouse. According to Andrea Lankford:
By bradploeger – originally posted to Flickr as Devil’s Courthouse, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4237496“Cherokees believed an evil spirit [or giant} named Judaculla held court on top of this bare rock summit with a 360 degree view of three states”.
Whiteside Mountain in Jackson County, North Carolina also has a feature of this name. The bare overhanging rock is windy and dangerous.
The Devil’s Apronful cairn consists of a heap of rocks and boulders near Pendle Hill in Lancashire, England. Several natural boulders were used to construct the mound which provides an impressive view both now and back in Bronze Age times. The thousands of rocks of gritstone and sandstone are scattered in a roughly circular area. The area however is mostly limestone. It’s been suggested that the stones were glacial erratics and the stones were gathered by farmers to get them out of the fields. But there are more fantastic origin stories. The Devil was annoyed with people at Clitheroe Castle in the west. To do away with it, he filled an “apron” (quite the visual) with rocks to pitch at them. Most missed and in his rage he dropped the rest on this south side of Pendle Hill, creating Apronful Hill. For the similar Apronful in Yorkshire, the tale is that the Devil was collecting stones in his apron in order to build a bridge or fill in the ravine when his apron string broke (or he tripped) and the stones fell out. The Devil’s Apronful sites were disturbed by curious visitors and looters but are now protected.
The Devil has two “Hopyards”. One is a State Park and public recreation area in East Haddam, Connecticut. There are several ideas about how the place got its curious name. One is that it refers to supernatural origins for the naturally occurring potholes in the area. These potholes were formed by the grinding actions of stones moved downstream by the current when trapped in an eddy, wearing a depression in the rock. To the early settlers the potholes were a great mystery, and as with many “devilish” features, they explained them with references to the supernatural. They thought that the Devil has passed by the falls, accidentally getting his tail wet. This made him so mad he burned holes in the stones with his hooves as he bounded away. A sign in the park tells of the legends regarding the name. Another site with this name is in New Hampshire. This is a boulder-filled ravine where you can sometimes hear water running.
Devil’s Dyke (or ditch) near Bleaklow, in Sussex, England is a deep gully supposedly cut by Satan’s claws when he became enraged at the loss of a prospective soul. Other tales say it is his unfinished ditch as he bet St. Cuthberth he could dig it in one night and flood the town. The tourist-attracting feature is really the result of mass wasting and river erosion into a dip-slope valley. The V-shaped dry valley, the deepest in England, was born from the cold climate of 14,000 years ago when this area of chalk bedrock was covered in snow. During warm seasons, the upper layers of soil and weathered rock slid away with the thaw. Finally, an ancient river carried the material away at the end of the Ice Age. That river is now gone but its valley remains. The high hill showed the surrounding terrain and was used as a defensive position as well as being an impressive location to hold special events. Remains of an Iron Age fort have been found here. The location is managed by the National Trust and is a recreational area. A trail supposedly leads to the alleged burial site of the Devil and his wife. In 1900, a sound called The Howling Terror was heard echoing in the valley. It wasn’t demons but the testing of a new invention called the megaphone being used at the amusement park on the top of the Dyke.
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The information provided here is based on a cursory search of these sites and the entries will be expanded as I discover new source material (or visit them!). Please contact me with your corrections, information (preferably with solid references), and photographs and I will gladly add them to the page. Or, leave your contribution in the comments. Thanks!Book References
Coleman, L. (2001). Mysterious America (Revised edition). Paraview Press.
Lankford, A. (2006). Haunted Hikes. Santa Monica Press.
#devil #devilPlaces #devilsBackbone #devilsElbow #devilsGarden #devilsPlayground #devilsPostpile #devilsRacecourse #devilsWindpipe #devilsLake #mountDiablo #satan
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#musica #rock #rockmusic #progressiverock #symphonicrock
#YES 💀🎸🤘🎸💀
El 28 de noviembre de 1974 se publicó el álbum «Relayer» de la banda británica "Yes", que cumple 51 años.
«Relayer» es el séptimo álbum de estudio del grupo británico de rock progresivo "Yes" , lanzado en 1974 por 'Atlantic Records'. Es la única grabación de estudio en la que participa el teclista *Patrick Moraz*, sustituyendo a *Rick Wakeman*, quien había abandonado "Yes" el año anterior.
Después del ambicioso álbum conceptual «Tales from Topographic Oceans», *Wakeman* salió de "Yes" para proseguir su carrera como solista. La banda audicionó a varios sustitutos potenciales, incluyendo al teclista griego *Vangelis*, pero terminaron eligiendo al suizo *Patrick Moraz* como reemplazo con el álbum en plena producción.
Con «Relayer», "Yes" retomó el formato de «Close to the Edge» (una extensa canción épica en un lado del LP, y dos piezas de nueve minutos en el otro), pero con un estilo musical muy diferente. «The Gates of Delirium» es una composición sofisticada de 20 minutos inspirada en la famosa novela de *León Tolstói*, «Guerra y Paz». La pieza es un soberbio óleo que expone en 3 partes los elementos del conflicto bélico, con arreglos musicales que grafican escenas de batalla. La exposición temática de *Anderson* es seguida de una sección instrumental en la cual puede oírse la guitarra de Howe emulando musicalmente la pirotecnia bélica mientras el bajo de *Squire*.
«Relayer» constituye una obra única en el rock e instrumentalmente adelantada a su tiempo, tanto por la imaginería de la guitarra como por el uso instrumental del bajo como una voz rítmica y melódica impresionista, en un estilo que posteriormente fue seguido por diversos grupos, entre ellos "Dream Teather" . Al mismo tiempo, la técnica compositiva que subyace a esta obra requiere un acabado cuyo proceso es sumamente complejo. Luego, a la par del trabajo instrumental, la sección final, «Soon», constituye el perfecto cierre emotivo de la pieza, a la vez de haberse convertido en un clásico en sí misma de la banda. En efecto, esta sección final de la obra en la que la agresividad de los primeros 16 minutos es sustituida repentinamente por una melodía suave y letras sobre paz, fue lanzada en los Estados Unidos como un sencillo titulado «Soon» a principios de 1975. «Sound Chaser» es una pieza mayormente instrumental y cercana al jazz fusión de esa época , que remite al trabajo de grupos como "Return to forever" . «To Be Over» es la canción más tranquila del álbum, con arreglos complejos de guitarra y sitar.
La complejidad musical de «The Gates of Delirium» no fue comprendida en su momento, lo que se evidencia en las ambiguas críticas de algunos medios: la reacción de la crítica hacia «Relayer» fue relativamente tibia, después de la controversia levantada por su predecesor. Sin embargo, el disco fue un éxito comercial, alcanzando el puesto N° 4 en las listas de popularidad del Reino Unido y el N°5 en Estados Unidos.
Es curioso que actualmente se comprenda mejor esta obra, tanto por su innovación, la libertad musical que profesa, el virtuosismo y, por sobre todo, la forma en que el contenido es desarrollado comunitariamente. «Relayer» sigue siendo un hito y una referencia obligada de muchos músicos actuales del progresivo, del heavy metal y del metal progresivo, lo cual nos señala que en efecto se trata de una obra maestra tardíamente reconocida.
El arte de tapa fue realizado por *Roger Dean*, quien creó un formato de portada similar al de «Fragile», con dos pinturas adicionales y una fotografía de la banda en el interior.
- Tracklist:
Todos los temas escritos por "Yes" .- Lado A:
1) «The Gates of Delirium»- Lado B:
2) «Sound Chaser»
3) «To Be Over»- Bonus tracks 2003:
4) «Soon»
5) «Sound Chaser»
6) «The Gates of Delirium»- Integrantes:
▪︎ *Jon Anderson*: vocales.
▪︎ *Chris Squire*: bajo, vocales.
▪︎ *Steve Howe*: guitarra y vocales.
▪︎ *Patrick Moraz*: teclados.
▪︎ *Alan White*: batería. -
By Grin Reaper
Billed as blackened folk metal and boasting a sound that will remind listeners of the aughts-era Darkthrone, Änterbila1 returns with sophomore album Avart. Three years removed from their self-titled debut, the foursome from Gävleborg County, Sweden, retains the core sonic principles of Änterbila and dunks them into the muck, invoking a darker, grimier aura. Where the plight of peasantry informed Änterbila’s sensibilities, Avart looks to national folklore for inspiration. Rather than interpreting that folklore through the eyes of those who passed the stories on, though, Avart revisits lore from the perspective of the other side, the witch to Grimms’ Hansel und Gretel, imparting a sinister edge to the music. Is Änterbila’s latest platter sharp enough to brandish, or does it need more time with the honing rod?
The marriage of black and folk metal can take different forms, with folk infusions coming from instrumentation, melodies, and/or folk and pagan themes. Änterbila offers all of them, but presented disparately as stark components rather than fused together as an interconnected whole. Bookend instrumentals “Låt till Far” and “Eklnundapolskan” feature strings, a bagpipe, and choral harmonies between them, not unlike Saor or Summoning. These tracks conjure rustic firesides with an air of excitement as strange tales are told around them. Avart’s other six tracks are categorically different, hovering between pagan-leaning, late-eighties Bathory (“Kniven”) and the punky pluck of early Vreid (“Jordfäst”). I even catch a whiff of Bizarrekult (“Årsgång”) in the midst. None of the flavors are bad on their own, but without more cohesion, they’re a bit confusing on the same plate.
Avart is a lively affair, with snappy licks, punky riffs, and burbling kick rolls that whisk listeners through half an hour of sprightly black metal. Bandleader and founder Jerff wields axe and vocal duties, with Raamt abetting in six-string antics. The guitars trem pick their way through Avart, embracing an unadorned style that takes a few simple melodies, interchanges them every now and then, and rides through four or five minutes. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this stripped-down approach, but without more distinctive hooks or emotive vocals, the songs bleed together. Drop me in the middle of any of the songs, and I’ll have a tough time naming which one it is unless Jerff repeats the title several times (“Kniven,” “Jordfäst”). Another issue Änterbila grapples with throughout Avart is repetition. Even with such a compact runtime, there’s not always enough substance to justify track lengths. “Jordfäst” could explore its ideas in two-thirds the time, for example, but instead pushes them past optimal duration. As it currently stands, there’s enough material for a solid EP, but relentless refrains without variations make shallow wells, and drawing from them too often becomes tedious.
Änterbila’s strengths lie in creating a dangerously charming atmosphere and not overstaying their welcome. Avart’s old school production underscores its low-fi mood, perfect for settings of yore where things lurking within shadows go bump in the night. Even though the mix isn’t polished, it ably captures Svaltunga’s punchy bass and drummer Monstrum’s quadrupedal onslaught. There flows an energy in the music that crackles with roguish vigor, and it’s here that Änterbila excels. It’s a shame lyrics weren’t included as part of the press kit since dark folklore provides such fertile ground for music. Understanding what the (presumed) native Swedish translates to could have heightened my appreciation for what secrets Avart holds. Still, the runtime is trim and helps deflect some of the monotony of simpler song structures, keeping the overall package easily digestible.
Änterbila possesses all the ingredients for a rollocking good time, but fumbles with the recipe. The folk metal tag is a bit misleading, and given that the folk elements are so well-executed in the intro and outro, it’s disappointing that Änterbila didn’t incorporate them throughout the entire album. Doing so could have thwarted the uniformity across the remaining songs, adding dynamism and a through-line that brings everything together with reinforced congruity. Every time I spin Avart, I hope to find something I’d missed previously, because I want to like it more than I do. Avart seethes with potential, and while I don’t regret any of the time I spent with the album, I don’t expect to return to it, either. Hopefully, the next iteration delivers on the promise Änterbila has established here.
Rating: Disappointing
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Nordvis Produktion
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: November 14th, 2025#20 #2025 #anterbila #avart #bathory #bizarrekult #blackFolkMetal #blackMetal #darkthrone #folkMetal #metal #nordvisProduktion #nov25 #review #reviews #saor #summoning #swedish #vreid
-
By Grin Reaper
Billed as blackened folk metal and boasting a sound that will remind listeners of the aughts-era Darkthrone, Änterbila1 returns with sophomore album Avart. Three years removed from their self-titled debut, the foursome from Gävleborg County, Sweden, retains the core sonic principles of Änterbila and dunks them into the muck, invoking a darker, grimier aura. Where the plight of peasantry informed Änterbila’s sensibilities, Avart looks to national folklore for inspiration. Rather than interpreting that folklore through the eyes of those who passed the stories on, though, Avart revisits lore from the perspective of the other side, the witch to Grimms’ Hansel und Gretel, imparting a sinister edge to the music. Is Änterbila’s latest platter sharp enough to brandish, or does it need more time with the honing rod?
The marriage of black and folk metal can take different forms, with folk infusions coming from instrumentation, melodies, and/or folk and pagan themes. Änterbila offers all of them, but presented disparately as stark components rather than fused together as an interconnected whole. Bookend instrumentals “Låt till Far” and “Eklnundapolskan” feature strings, a bagpipe, and choral harmonies between them, not unlike Saor or Summoning. These tracks conjure rustic firesides with an air of excitement as strange tales are told around them. Avart’s other six tracks are categorically different, hovering between pagan-leaning, late-eighties Bathory (“Kniven”) and the punky pluck of early Vreid (“Jordfäst”). I even catch a whiff of Bizarrekult (“Årsgång”) in the midst. None of the flavors are bad on their own, but without more cohesion, they’re a bit confusing on the same plate.
Avart is a lively affair, with snappy licks, punky riffs, and burbling kick rolls that whisk listeners through half an hour of sprightly black metal. Bandleader and founder Jerff wields axe and vocal duties, with Raamt abetting in six-string antics. The guitars trem pick their way through Avart, embracing an unadorned style that takes a few simple melodies, interchanges them every now and then, and rides through four or five minutes. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this stripped-down approach, but without more distinctive hooks or emotive vocals, the songs bleed together. Drop me in the middle of any of the songs, and I’ll have a tough time naming which one it is unless Jerff repeats the title several times (“Kniven,” “Jordfäst”). Another issue Änterbila grapples with throughout Avart is repetition. Even with such a compact runtime, there’s not always enough substance to justify track lengths. “Jordfäst” could explore its ideas in two-thirds the time, for example, but instead pushes them past optimal duration. As it currently stands, there’s enough material for a solid EP, but relentless refrains without variations make shallow wells, and drawing from them too often becomes tedious.
Änterbila’s strengths lie in creating a dangerously charming atmosphere and not overstaying their welcome. Avart’s old school production underscores its low-fi mood, perfect for settings of yore where things lurking within shadows go bump in the night. Even though the mix isn’t polished, it ably captures Svaltunga’s punchy bass and drummer Monstrum’s quadrupedal onslaught. There flows an energy in the music that crackles with roguish vigor, and it’s here that Änterbila excels. It’s a shame lyrics weren’t included as part of the press kit since dark folklore provides such fertile ground for music. Understanding what the (presumed) native Swedish translates to could have heightened my appreciation for what secrets Avart holds. Still, the runtime is trim and helps deflect some of the monotony of simpler song structures, keeping the overall package easily digestible.
Änterbila possesses all the ingredients for a rollocking good time, but fumbles with the recipe. The folk metal tag is a bit misleading, and given that the folk elements are so well-executed in the intro and outro, it’s disappointing that Änterbila didn’t incorporate them throughout the entire album. Doing so could have thwarted the uniformity across the remaining songs, adding dynamism and a through-line that brings everything together with reinforced congruity. Every time I spin Avart, I hope to find something I’d missed previously, because I want to like it more than I do. Avart seethes with potential, and while I don’t regret any of the time I spent with the album, I don’t expect to return to it, either. Hopefully, the next iteration delivers on the promise Änterbila has established here.
Rating: Disappointing
DR: 9 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Nordvis Produktion
Websites: Bandcamp | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: November 14th, 2025#20 #2025 #anterbila #avart #bathory #bizarrekult #blackFolkMetal #blackMetal #darkthrone #folkMetal #metal #nordvisProduktion #nov25 #review #reviews #saor #summoning #swedish #vreid