Today, however, development has encroached, leaving only the unbuildable "hollow" region where the town once stood. Although I had never been there, I posted something in the earliest days of my website and got a lot of response about it, which made me curious to go. The only information I had on Rogue's Hollow came from my reading of Russell Frey's 1958 book, Rogue's Hollow: History and Legends. It is also mentioned in Chris Woodyard's Haunted Ohio, but her sole source is this book.
Rogue's Hollow was called "Ohio's Sleepy Hollow." It was reputedly haunted by everything from ghostly miners to giant snakes to the devil himself. Russell Frey's book, although self-published and a little rough, is an interesting read. Since it's so incredibly hard to locate, I decided to scan the entire book and place it online. The legality of this is somewhat up for debate, so if you'd like to pursue copyright litigation against me, e-mail and I'll give you my contact information.
I ended up visiting Rogue's Hollow in early April of 2000 with my friends Hoss and Jesus. The trip was fun, but what we discovered was a little disappointing.
First of all, it was raining. Thanks to some excellent directions I found the area without much problem. The former town is marked by the Rogue's Hollow Historical Society building, where somebody apparently lives, judging by the TV lights flickering upstairs. We walked up a closed-off road and then along the ridge, finally descending the slippery embankment into the Hollow.
No ghosts showed themselves, although we looked and listened. There was a nasty-looking tree with a low-hanging branch behind the Historical Museum, and Hoss theorized that this was the branch where the devil sat when he spooked horsecarts back in Rogue's Hollow's heyday. Maybe it is.
