Читать книгу Cincinnati Haunted Handbook - Jeff Morris - Страница 13

directions

This location is somewhat difficult to find. It is hidden quite well just outside of Delhi. The easiest way to get to this cemetery is to take SR-50 west from Cincinnati toward Delhi. Take a right onto Bender Road up the hill. Near the top of the hill is a retirement community known as Riverview Community. The easiest way to get to the cemetery is to park in the lot of the retirement community. Near the back of the lot, you’ll see a rusted metal sign hanging on an old shed directing you into the woods to the Darby Lee Historic Cemetery. Follow the path into the woods for about a hundred feet, and the small overgrown cemetery will be on your left.

history

The story behind this cemetery is quite inspiring. It was an important place along the Underground Railroad in the Cincinnati area. Since Kentucky was a slave state and Ohio a free state, the Ohio River was both a symbolic and physical barrier between slavery and freedom. Crossing the Ohio River was a major step on the slave’s escape to freedom, but often it still wasn’t safe for escaped slaves in Ohio. There were harsh penalties for anyone known to be harboring a fugitive slave, and the slave would be shipped backed to his or her former owner and would likely be punished severely.

It was therefore imperative that those operating the Underground Railroad work out a system letting the escaped slaves know when it was safe to travel. A man who lived near the location where the Darby Lee Cemetery is today would light a green lantern and play his fiddle when it was safe to cross the river. The fugitive slaves would see the green light on the other side of the river and hear the fiddle music and know when it was safe to cross. Today, the area where the fiddler would guide slaves to freedom is a cemetery. The fiddler was the first person buried at the site.

ghost story

People who have visited this cemetery at night report seeing strange green lights floating around the property. These green lights will either appear to be a green lantern sitting in the forest or will appear as a green glowing ball that floats through the cemetery. The lights always fade away before the witnesses can determine what they are. Other times, people will hear the sound of a fiddle playing in the darkness without any discernible source.

visiting

Several obstacles stand in the way of visiting this remarkable little cemetery. First of all, the closest available parking is within the property of the Riverview Community. While this is the easiest way to get to the cemetery, the property’s managers can ask you to move your car if you park there with the sole purpose of going back to the cemetery. They have always been incredibly accommodating to me and have never asked me to leave, but I have always visited the site during the day and have always kept a polite silence while I was at this cemetery so close to the retirement community.

If you are uncomfortable leaving your car in the lot of the retirement community, there are a couple of other options that are available to you. You can find a place to park down on River Road/SR-50. There is a building at the corner of River Road and Bender that if you walk up to the end of their parking lot, there is a trail that goes off into the woods. Your car will be towed if you park in that lot, but you can use the lot to walk up to this trail. Simply follow the long trail up into the woods. The cemetery will be on the right.

There is another trail up near the Mt Saint Joseph Motherhouse on the other end of Bender Road. If you park up near Mt. Saint Joseph College (you cannot park in the Motherhouse lot), you can walk past the Motherhouse cemetery to another trail that moves off into the woods. If you follow this trail, it will take you past the retirement community and to the cemetery.

While there is nothing suggesting that this cemetery closes after dark, there is another obstacle that stands in a visitor’s way after dark. This obstacle is that it is very hard to navigate the trail after dark. The woods are very thick in this area, and the trail is very skinny and difficult to find at times even in the daylight. You need to make sure that you have a strong flashlight and a strong sense of direction when traveling into these woods at night. My suggestion to you is that you find your way to the cemetery near dusk so that there is still some daylight by which to navigate the trail. That way you can experience the cemetery at night and possibly see those mysterious green lights. After you have finished your investigation, the easiest way out would probably be the nearby retirement community parking lot. Then follow Bender Road to wherever you had parked your car.