Gates of Hell In South Jersey?
posted by Krista | 5/10/2007 7:03:28 AM | Permalink | 
Stumble It!
Here's a silly video making fun of John McCain's comment that he'll chase Bin Laden to the gates of hell. And were might they be? According to Daily Show Senior Correspondent, Assif Mandvi, those gates of hell are in South Jersey.
Funny, I always thought the (Seven) Gates of Hell were in Hellam, PA - which is right by my hometown of York. The name's meaning is "Hell Town" because there's a sulfur pit on the town's outskirts.
If you pick up the Weird Pennsylvania book, you can read more about this local legend. Rumor had it that if you were to walk though each of these seven gates in order, you'd go straight to hell, but that no one ever made it passed the 5th gate. To make things more difficult, gates 2 & 7 are invisible during the day.
Personally, I've only ever seen the first gate (but Hellam is a creepy place). The others, supposedly are "hidden" or have been torn down.
Why these gates? According to legend, there was once a mental asylum of the beaten path on Toad Road. The asylum was so out of the way, that when the building caught fire, it was difficult for firefighters to get there quickly. During that time, several patients burned to death while others escaped. The patients were known to be brutal, so when a search party went looking for the missing people, they beat and even killed many. That act of violence cursed the road.
Did Toad Road and its asylum exist? Who knows. Modern maps show no such road - though some legends claim that "Toad Road" was just a nickname.
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