Two TRUE Appalachian Horror Stories That’ll Keep You Off the Trails

Real Encounters in Dutchman’s Hollow, Pennsylvania

👀 Watch the full story with maps, photos & narration on YouTube:
👉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVT-JD3WJY4

🏞️ The Dark Side of the Appalachian Mountains

The Appalachian Mountains are a Pennsylvanian treasure—rugged, beautiful, and steeped in history. From the rolling hills of Lancaster County to the dense forests of the Susquehannock State Forest, these mountains are where families hike, hunters roam, and stories are born.

But not all stories are warm and fuzzy.
Some are dark.
Some are true.
And some are the kind of stories that keep people off the trails for good.

My name’s Jake Miller, born and raised in Lancaster County. These are two horrifying encounters I had in the backwoods of Pennsylvania—specifically in a place locals call Dutchman’s Hollow.

And trust me: it’s a name you won’t find on any trail map.

📍 Dutchman’s Hollow: The Place That’s Not On Any Map

If you’ve ever driven up Route 15 past Harrisburg, you’ve probably seen signs for Susquehannock. It’s a sprawling forest—over 265,000 acres of oaks, pines, and mystery.

But Dutchman’s Hollow?
That’s off-grid.
Ask any old-timer, and you’ll see the smile fade from their face.

My granddad warned me for years:

“Stay clear of the Hollow, Jake. People go in… sometimes they don’t come out.”

🧭 First Encounter (June 1990): “We Should Have Turned Back”

At 22 years old, fresh out of Millersville University, I had no job, too much curiosity, and a friend named Tom who loved weird stuff as much as I did. One weekend we set out with:

A Polaroid camera
A six-pack of Yuengling
A plan to find Dutchman’s Hollow

We found an old logging path choked with briars. The deeper we went, the quieter the woods became.
No birds. No squirrels. Just a cold stillness.

Then we found it:

A stack of stones—too perfect to be natural.
A rusted tobacco tin buried nearby.
Inside, a yellowed note with one word: “Hess”

And then: snap.
A branch cracked.
We turned—just in time to glimpse something tall, pale, and wrong behind a tree.

“Don’t talk. Just go,” I muttered.
We walked fast. Then we ran.
Whatever it was, it didn’t chase us.
But we knew—we weren’t alone.

📰 Who Was Raymond Hess?

The name in the tin haunted me.

Back in Lancaster, I hit the public library.
I found an article from 1977:

Raymond Hess, a 34-year-old logger, vanished in the Susquehannock State Forest. Two weeks later, he was found wandering barefoot on Route 74, dazed and rambling about “something in the Hollow.”

People said he changed—jumpy, paranoid, muttering to himself. By 1979, he’d left town, destination unknown. But then something else gave me chills:

📌 1990 (the year we visited):
A small piece in the Intelligencer Journal reported 12 hikers missing in Susquehannock since the 1970s.

🕯️ Second Trip (July 4th Weekend): “This Time We Saw It Clearly”

I couldn’t shake it. But Tom was done.

So I brought my cousin Sarah—a nursing student and a horror junkie who laughed off everything.
We were prepared this time:

A real camera
A hunting knife
Flashlights
And a stupid sense of confidence

What We Found:

The same stone pile—but now there were three, arranged in a triangle
An old foundation, blackened by fire
A silver locket, tarnished and eerily heavy

Then everything changed:

The air got thick.
A low vibration hummed through the trees.
Sarah froze and pointed.
“It’s back.”

50 yards out, half-concealed by trees, was the same figure:

Tall
Gaunt
Eyes like deep pits

We didn’t wait.
We ran.
The camera disappeared in the panic—but Sarah held onto the locket. And the thing didn’t chase us… but we felt it watching us the whole way out.

⚠️ What Locals Still Whisper About Dutchman’s Hollow

In my digging, I learned more:

Dutchman’s Hollow was supposedly settled by two families in the 1600s: the van der Heides and the MacDuffs
Both families vanished by 1806
Some say their descendants never left the forest
The name “Hess” appears in local police reports tied to unsolved disappearances

And those stone cairns?
They’re not trail markers.
They’re warnings.

🚨 Final Advice for Hikers in Susquehannock

I’m not saying ghosts are real. I’m not saying Dutchman’s Hollow is cursed.
But I am saying this:

Stick to the marked trails
Don’t answer voices calling your name
And if you see stacked stones, turn around

Want to hear more?

See the map of where we found the locket
Hear real interviews with locals
And get the full backstory on Raymond Hess

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