Tales of strange people bonded together in self-policing communities are common throughout the States, and indeed, throughout the world. Pennsylvania is no exception. These communities can include anybody out of the ordinary, but the particular favorite candidates for such campfire scare stories are albinos. There’s nothing like a lack of pigmentation to send the overactive imagination into a tailspin. Pale skin and pale blue or red eyes are the stuff of vampires, and indeed, some believe that the albino’s discomfort with bright light may have led to many of the tales of night-walking bloodsuckers.
But if any communities of albinos do exist in the mountains of Pennsylvania, let’s inject a sense of civility into the proceedings here. Driving around people’s homes by night with the intention of disturbing them is a form of persecution. Let’s treat these stories as what they are: good fun, and not a call to single out any group for unpleasant treatment.
Child-Stealing, Rock-Salt-Shooting, Circus-Escaping, Inbreeding Clan
Every rural area in the country seems to be inhabited by a reclusive band of albinos. We here in Sellersville, PA, have our own. These cannibalistic, child-stealing, rock-salt-shooting, circus-escaping, inbreeding clan of albinos are said to live high up in the woods on Haycock Mountain and were the stuff of legend in my childhood. They’re said to waylay unwary travelers and eat them. They supposedly sometimes raid local farms for livestock and leave gruesome evidence behind. Local police know of their existence and are scared to go up the mountain.
They live in a huge concrete house with no windows, and throw firecrackers at passing cars in the middle of the night. They hide in trees and drop down onto unsuspecting hikers, dragging them away to become dinner for the rest of the clan. They block back roads and perform unspeakable rites on moonlit nights. They cavort like fairies amongst the trees, frightening passers-by with their unnatural complexion. Sightings of them flitting from tree to tree and being mistaken for errant specters even supposedly gave one local road its name: Ghost Mountain Road.
My own investigations into this have turned up plenty of stories and supposed eye-witness accounts, with some proof in the form of rock-salt residue blasted into the cheap paint jobs of local high schoolers’ Camaros. But, of the albinos themselves, not a trace. Although I did find two abandoned houses, one with all the bathtubs and sinks filled with a mixture of mud, leaves, and what may once have been water. A search of local newspaper archives has revealed a depressing lack of corroborating evidence here. But hey, not all the news gets reported, y’know? –Amy McCormick
There’s a place we call Ghost Mountain [actually Haycock Mountain], near an old covered bridge where local legend has it that someone had hanged himself. It’s also said that if you turn your car on and off three times, your car will cease to start. You can really get a sense of bad vibes around that area. There is a house near there where albinos live. The story with them is that if you dare go on their property they will chase you away with a shotgun in hand. A couple of my friends found this out to be true. –Melissa
The Albino House… I never saw the actual albinos myself, but did see the house. It’s pretty strange. You have to go down a dirt road and just before you reach a cool old-timey red covered bridge. On the way to the place down the bumpy dirt road are little doors in the side of a hill, strange tunnel complexes, hobbit holes and other freaky stuff. It turns out they are really root cellars, but who the hell knows what a root cellar is anymore? –Marko
There is a place where I like to take my friends to that are new to the “ghost” scene. It’s called Ghost Mountain and it is in Bucks Co., past Palisades H.S. It’s a pretty cool place. It’s a dirt road and once you turn onto the road you see this in which sometimes you can see an elderly lady upstairs knitting. But the great thing about her is you can see right through her! Across the road from the house there is a wine cellar that goes into the side of the hill. Each of my friends have different stories of what they have seen when they’ve open it. The different stories are that they see a huge dark shadow standing right there when they open it, the shadow was sitting in a chair with his head down.
There is the covered bridge. Go over the bridge, turn your car off, beep the horn three times, turn your headlights on and you are supposed to see a man hanging there. I’ve only seen it once. –Jenilee
