The Road to Hell-Dorado: Helltown, Ohio

Years ago, I was reading the book Weird Ohio. One section discussed the mysterious happenings of a town called Helltown. The book also discussed hauntings, cult activities, and strange reasons involving the government that created the Boston Mills ghost town. A saw mill was built in 1821. Over the years a post office was built and private residences were set up. In 1974 the Cuyahoga National Parks purchased property from residents. Homes were left abandoned till demolished in 2016. Somehow this blew up into weird conspiracy theories of ghost stories, government cover ups, and Satanic rituals. 

Over a decade later, I moved to Kent, Ohio, to attend college. When I looked it up again, I realized I was much closer to Peninsula, Ohio.

The first time I went there, I visited the Boston Mills cemetery, where there are alleged ghost stories. I walked down the road, where there were private residents. I explored around, but I never got a haunting vibe. What was most interesting about this cemetery was that there was a big hill that went up to the tombstones. Many of the tombstones were dated back to the 1800s. The more recent graves were at the bottom of the road. 

There is a house with a store with displays about the Lake Erie Canal. Next to the house is the M.D. Garage with a Pure Oil sign advertisement, which stands but is no longer open for business. It’s popular among photographers, including myself. I remember taking photos for a photography class. If I can recall, another classmate of mine used the location for one of their projects. 

Along the bike trail was an empty canal with tall grass covering the bottom instead of water. I went down there and took excellent shots from below.  

Over the next few years, the barns bothered me, and I never saw them. I used Google Maps to locate the empty road, but I had an issue finding it. This is when I started to wonder if it eventually got demolished. Fortunately, this was not the case.

I looked up YouTube videos of people who explored there and showed them walking onto a trail.  

In September 2023, I went to Boston Mills to get barn pictures. That day was a lovely, sunny, bright day to take photographs. This time, I knew Stanford House had public parking behind the barn. I parked there and walked past the barriers down the lonely road. 

There was nothing that would indicate cult activity. If there was, it was something edgy, like a teen spray painting on the inside. The barn had a ton of graffiti, some with obscenities and others with Cold War references. 

There was a set of stairs that went up to the second floor. I dared not venture up there because the rotting wood I spotted suggested it was a bad idea. There was another barn beside it, but I did not go there. I plan to go to the other barn sometime in the near future, where I will do a follow-up story if I find everything interesting. 

Peninsula, Ohio, has become a very special place to me. While I might not have seen anything strange or paranormal there, I know the place as somewhere I go when I want to take outdoor photos. There are a few things from Helltown that I haven’t encountered yet.