As It Turns Out, Hell Is A Place On Earth (& It Does Freeze Over)

It would appear if there is a hell on Earth, it's in Ohio. Some places have interesting names - Earth is a tiny forgotten town that has seen better days in western Texas. It would also seem that Ohio is home to not one but two Hells - and their histories really do show that they are Hell!

Hell Town is the name of a long-abandoned Native American village on Clear Creek near the abandoned town of Newville in Ohio with a very dark history. While Helltown is a Satanist and ghost-ridden city neighboring the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

Hell Town Near Newville, Ohio

According to Wikipedia, Hell Town was a Lenape town. The Lenape are a Native Indian tribe of the Northeastern Woodlands and their historical territory included present-day northeastern Delaware, New Jersey, and eastern Pennsylvania as well as present-day New York City. They belong to the Delaware Nation, Delaware Tribe of Indians in Oklahoma, the Delaware of Six Nations in Ontario, and others.

Fun Fact: The Lenape Have A Matrilineal Clan System
Treaty of Easton of 1758: Required The Lenape To Move West Out of Their Homelands To What is Today Ohio

The Lenape were removed from their homelands at the end of the 18th century by the colonies. Later the fallout of the American Revolutionary War and the United States' independence pushed them farther west. In the 1860s, most of the remaining Lenape in the eastern United States were sent to the Indian Territory in what is today Oklahoma where most of them live today.

Lenape Settlement and Abandonment of Hell Town

The village that is Hell Town today was originally settled by another Native Indian tribe - the Mingo tribe belonging to the Eastern Algonquian group. But the Mingo had abandoned the site around 1755 and following their expulsion following the Treat of Easton in 1758, the Lenape refounded the settlement in the 1770s.

Settled: Hell Town Was Settled by The Lenape In The 1770s and Abandoned In 1782
The Name: Is German for "Clear Town"

The name for the village was Clear Town named after the clear stream nearby. But for some reason upon learning that the German word for "clear" is "hell", the Lenape renamed it Hell Town.

The town wasn't inhabited for very long and was abandoned in 1782 because of repeated clashes with Colonial American troops and settlers. The Lenape were treated harshly because some of them had sided with the British in the American War of Independence.

Tragically in 1782, the violence came to a crescendo in 1782 with the Gnadenhutten massacre where the American militia killed 96 Lenape.

A number of Lenape existed persisted at the site after the Lenape abandoned it until 1881 when local farmers plowed them.

Ironic that the town with such a sad history filled with Native American expulsions would have a seemingly appropriate name like "Hell Town" even though it doesn't actually refer to hell at all.

Helltown By Boston, Ohio

Then there is the other Hell in Ohio. It is called Helltown and is known for its tragic history and toxic chemical spills according to the Keating Firm Law. It is nestled in the Cuyahoga Valley in Ohio and parts of it are in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. It is regarded by the locals as "Helltown" and no people live in the area.

Haunted: It Is Said to Be One Of The Most Haunted Places In America

In the center of the town is the tiny white church some say the church is a place of worship for Satanists still lurking around the areas of closed-off roads. Others think the town was evacuated after a chemical spill that resulted in bizarre mutations of the residents and animals.

There are even stories of an abandoned school bus that was going to the nearby ski resorts of Boston, Ohio. But on hearing that a young boy in Helltown needed help, it headed into the town and met its fate. Today, the bus sits as a warning to those thinking of venturing into Helltown.

Helltown is one of the most haunted places in the United States and home to six or seven different legends.

Another of the most haunted places in America is the Queen Mary cruise liner in California. Alternatively, one can visit the real-life haunted house used in the filming of the 2013 movie, The Conjuring.