Ep. 92: Spider Gates Cemetery

Courtney takes us on a journey to Spider Gates Cemetery in Leicester, Massachusetts, exploring the legends and history behind this mysterious Quaker burial ground known for supernatural phenomena.

• Spider Gates Cemetery, formally known as Friends Cemetery, dates back to the 1740s
• The cemetery earned its nickname from ornate iron gates that resembled spider webs, though they were removed in 2022 due to vandalism
• Notable burials include Stephen Earl (famous local architect), Pliny Earl (inventor of the first working carding machine), and Marmaduke Earl
• The cemetery is home to multiple legends including the Hanging Tree, a vanishing cemetery that can only be seen once, and speaking graves
• Marmaduke Earl's grave features a distinct ring of dirt from visitors performing rituals to hear him speak
• The most famous legend claims Spider Gates is the "eighth gate to hell"
• Despite its spooky reputation, the cemetery is a peaceful, well-maintained place that prohibits paranormal investigations
• Visitors should respect cemetery rules and only visit during daylight hours

If you're looking to explore local legends or have suggestions for future episodes, let us know through our social media channels.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Spider Gates Cemetery
• 6:18 Friends Cemetery History & Background
• 10:41 The Origin of Spider Gates Name
• 15:16 The Hanging Tree & Cave Legends
• 17:18 The Vanishing Cemetery Mystery
• 20:09 Marmaduke Earl Legend & Other Observations
• 26:27 The Eighth Gate to Hell Theory
• 30:16 Cemetery Artifacts & Final Thoughts

Transcript

Courtney: 0:05

My computer just alerted me like popped up, and it said heat watch just issued. It's been hot since like May 1st. But also, I'm sitting here and I need everyone to understand what we're working with here. I'm sitting here in leggings, covered in skeleton keys, with a black hoodie on, and Hannah is here in her Halloween themed Moo Moo dress. Okay your flashlight and get ready to wander into the darkness with us.

Hannah: 1:04

This is Wicked Wanderings. Hello Hannah, hello Courtney, hello hannah hello cottony.

Courtney: 1:12

So today I have a very special episode. Okay, so lots of you know that I've been trying to kind of branch away from murder, which is challenging for someone who reads a lot about that kind of thing, but I've been trying to go into legends and lore about things that are in New England area. Obviously, bonus points if it's from Massachusetts, we're from Massachusetts. But I was having a really slow Sunday a couple weeks ago and I found myself in a little place called Leicester, massachusetts.

Hannah: 1:47

Leicester when is Leicester?

Courtney: 1:49

Leicester is. If you are following Route 9 from the Belcher Town, palmer area, yep, and you're going up into the Brookfields, okay, and then you're going to end up in Leicester before you go to Worcester.

Hannah: 2:00

So it's on the way to Worcester.

Courtney: 2:02

That's an area that I'm very familiar with. I went to undergrad at Worcester State University, so I actually never realized how close this place I was at and Worcester State University. So I actually never realized how close this place I was at and Worcester State University were. What was your mascot.

Hannah: 2:14

You don't know your mascot of your alma mater.

Courtney: 2:16

I only went there for two years. My other two years were at the University of New England in Maine.

Hannah: 2:20

What's the mascot for your master's? I don't know. I don't think either.

Courtney: 2:24

We have the same master's, I know. Does Bay Path have a Today's the session of Googling? Does?

Hannah: 2:30

Bay Path. Have a. All I'm thinking about is blueberries, but I know it's because of your drink.

Courtney: 2:33

Rory the Wildcat. Oh, and that is spelled like R-O-A-R-Y. Yeah, anyways Well.

Hannah: 2:42

I know my alma mater from my undergrad, so which was what Golden Bears? I rode the Golden Bear, just so you know Well, I.

Courtney: 2:48

Golden bears. I rode the golden bear. I'll just say it. I don't want to know anything else about that. I have pictures for proof. I think we will post those to our social media.

Hannah: 2:54

You want to see an 18-year-old, hannah, everybody.

Courtney: 2:56

I think if we can get two people to write into us, I will make sure that photo sees the light of day. It's worth it everybody.

Hannah: 3:03

On our Instagram 2008 style Woo.

Courtney: 3:07

But the place in Leicester, massachusetts, is none other than Spider Gates Cemetery.

Hannah: 3:14

I've wanted to go there so bad.

Courtney: 3:16

I was thinking about the Wanderers, because I believe it was one of Hannah's episodes, probably quite a few months ago, where we were talking about we were doing trivia from one of the books and Spider Gates came up, and so it's been on my kind of list of things I wanted to talk about and there was definitely some information that I kind of already you know, quote unquote knew, because we're talking about a local legend type of thing.

Courtney: 3:35

But there's definitely a lot that I didn't know as well. So prior to 2025, when we're recording this episode I had gone to Spider Gate Cemetery probably six years ago, six or seven, so I had been, but it had been kind of a while. So Spider Gate Cemetery is in Leicester, massachusetts. It is commonly known and its actual formal name is Friends Cemetery. Friends, yes, so it is Friends Cemetery. It's just known better in our type of community as Spider Gate Cemetery. Okay, it is a privately owned cemetery that is maintained by the Worcester Friends Meeting, which is a Quaker group sounds quaker which is how friends cemetery became its name so quakers are buried there.

Hannah: 4:18

Yes, interesting.

Courtney: 4:20

It's a very interesting place. The graves on site date back as far as the 1740s for the earliest burial, and really it's made up of a bunch of local families, mostly the Earl family and then the Southwick family, which must have been very prominent in the Quaker community back in that time. Some of the most noteworthy people there's three people that I'm going to talk about, but the first most noteworthy person to be buried in the cemetery is Stephen Earl Earl, and Stephen was a famous architect who designed several local buildings to that area. So the lester public library was one of his designs, bancroft tower was one of his designs and the boynton hall on the worcester polytech university or wpi campus in worcester were his designs okay, so he's probably like the most famous person who's buried there.

Courtney: 5:08

And then there's two other noteworthy occupants of the cemetery Pliny Earl, who created the first working carding machine in America, as well as his son, dr Pliny Earl Jr, who financed the cemetery's restoration at the close of the 19th century. So obviously he's big because he put money directly back into the cemetery. That's obviously been around for quite some time. What I found the most interesting from wandering around and looking at every one of the graves is it is very well maintained and the most recent burial on the grounds was in 2021. Well shit, yeah, I was really hoping to find some more information about that, like, maybe there's a way that somebody could be either grandfathered in because of connections that they had yeah or maybe the plot was purchased for them or agreed upon for them and that's why they're there, but it doesn't seem like anybody else close to that time.

Courtney: 5:54

There were some like early 2000s, but they were few and far between. There's not that many graves within the cemetery. It's very small.

Hannah: 6:00

I thought you weren't allowed to walk through it. I thought that was something you had told me before you can walk through it, you care?

Courtney: 6:06

Yes, you can. It's very. It's not traditional like a regular cemetery that we think about. I don't want to say regular, because it probably was very regular at the time, but it's not like one that you can drive into and you definitely can't.

Courtney: 6:17

There's no like paths within it. It's like one big grassy. Was there anybody there when you were there? No, it was just me. When you are going to the Spider Gate Cemetery from the street, it's completely unmarked. So you arrive on the street and you have to walk down a short wooded path. The cemetery entrance sits on the right side of the path, probably about like a third of a mile in. It's really not that far of a walk. The entrance is marked with stone walls that once held the gates and a sign announcing the grounds as the Friends Cemetery, along with a few policies that I thought the wanderers might find interesting. I actually took a picture of the sign which I'm going to describe here, and you'll understand why I'm not posting it after I read you the policies, not rules. The first one is no trespassing in the cemetery after dark, which seems pretty reasonable, I think most places. Plus, if you think about it, this road it's over by, like where the airport in Worcester is like right on that line of.

Courtney: 7:08

Worcester and Leicester, so it's very dark. There's not any overhead lights, even on the road that you would be on, so it would be like in complete darkness. The second rule is photographs may be taken for personal use only. Video, sound and other types of recording are prohibited. All recordings require prior written permission before use on the internet or publication of any kind. I would love who you would have to talk to to get permission for that. There's an email, really. There is an email directly listed on their sign as well, which I did think that for the purpose of our podcast, I might reach out, but I also didn't want to cause too much of like uh no, we don't want you to use that yeah the third rule and this is the one that I think is going to make you the most intrigued investigations of the paranormal are prohibited, specifically listed in the rules, interesting.

Courtney: 7:54

And then the fourth rule bicycles and motorized vehicles are prohibited. I feel like that's a no-brainer one though I don't even know how you would get one in there. Then there's a policy at the end that says and here I am quoting and here I am quoting the cemetery is surrounded by the city of worcester reservoir property which is posted with no trespassing signs.

Courtney: 8:13

The area is regularly patrolled and monitored. Violations of posted area may result in arrest. Okay, well, we don't want that, and so all of this sounds very like unwelcoming. But what I really love that they put at the top of their sign.

Courtney: 8:26

It says we hope you will treat the cemetery as you would the one where your friends and relatives are buried and I feel like that says a lot, because they are kind of telling you hey, these are all the things that we don't allow, these are all things that are prohibited. But at the same time it felt welcoming to like, not like hey, you can't come in here, right?

Courtney: 8:41

right it's just treat it with respect, which I don't think is too much to ask realistically. So by this point you're probably thinking why is this place called spider gate Cemetery? Courtney, this sounds like a very reasonable cemetery. It's small right, and it's Quaker, no-transcript. So Spider Gate Cemetery is the home to many, many legends and tales among Massachusetts locals and other enthusiasts of the paranormal. It earned its name as Spider Gates because the gates at the cemetery's entrance were once grand, dark and looked like spider webs. The art inspiration behind the iron gates that were installed in 1895 were actually a portrayal of sun rays, which personally, after reading about the sun rays, I can see the vision behind what they were doing. But on a personal note, I still see the spiderwebs, which could just be my inner love of morbid things in my morbid mind. But I think that to me, sunshine is bright, sunshine is delicate, and yellows and oranges, and to me, if you're going to talk about a black iron gate, it just doesn't.

Hannah: 10:00

Yeah, yeah, it doesn't scream sunshine. No, it doesn't.

Courtney: 10:03

And I think that also, it's just so many years of portraying in this dark, moody light. As a photographer, I'm like no, they're spider webs. Yeah, at some point the original gates were said to have been taken out without permission and that the gates needed to be replaced. So there is some question and, depending on where you look in the research, that the original gates from 1895 are not there and that they were swapped out for another set of gates and we don't know where those gates are no, it looks like, from things I could find, that those gates were taken without permission that's really sad it gets even more sad.

Courtney: 10:33

Oh jeez, sadly, as of 2022, the legendary and spooky gates are no longer on the premises that's just sad.

Hannah: 10:41

Like did they finally? Like you know what? There's no point.

Courtney: 10:43

It was very sad and I didn't do my reading beforehand because I like to. I like to go to the places before I've done any kind of research and just kind of feel it out and you know, take my pictures do my thing.

Courtney: 10:53

So when I went the first time I had gone in like 2019 I had seen the gates. I have pictures of the gates which I will post because I will, and they're beautiful. And so I'm like, oh my god, I'm so excited to see them again. I'm gonna take pictures, I'm gonna show them to the wanders, I'm gonna show them to Hannah. And then I got there and I was like there's no gates and so, logically in my mind, I'm like who stole the gates?

Hannah: 11:13

so I started looking into it I just want to say I appreciate that you want to see a place before reading it, especially a place like spire gate, because you want to get the feel for it, because I think we've seen stories before of people that are like I had no idea about all the stories behind this and I can tell you all the creepy things that I felt and it matches up or it doesn't match up with what people say.

Courtney: 11:35

Oh, absolutely, and one of the things that I think I mean. So I did my research and I came up with things after doing my visit and I didn't look back at the pictures I took, which is anyone who knows me is probably chuckling to themselves right now because I am awful at editing photos. Like I will take photos and years later someone will be like, hey, do you have those edited photos?

Hannah: 11:53

and I'm like no, I don't like I have, I will say wanders for her birthday this year. Yeah, the best friend here got her a cute little printer of her pictures. Has she used it yet? No, no, I'll use it tomorrow lies because I wanted her to print her beautiful pictures.

Courtney: 12:13

I'm horrible at it. I'm horrible at it and I think it stems from like a place of feeling like things are unfinished, so I haven't edited my photos by the point that I was doing the research. And then, as I was doing the research, I was like, oh, you know what, let me go back and like look through and see what I have that the wanderers might want to see on social media, and I will tell you when I get to the point. But there was a point where I'm so glad that I had taken the pictures before doing a deep dive, because there is a picture that I took that I'm shocked I was drawn to without understanding any of the legends love that we'll get there everybody stay, you know little teasers.

Courtney: 12:46

Stay on your toes. There have been many rumors surrounding the reasoning for why they're not there. Some were stating that the gates had been stolen or that they simply vanished.

Hannah: 12:54

Simply vanished, yeah, I mean you know, Gates, I guess, do that.

Courtney: 12:58

Yeah, yeah, I mean, I don't understand that one. It seemed far-fetched to me, but intriguing. The gates were removed in 2022 due to vandalism and graffiti that were sustained in the year.

Courtney: 13:08

So unfortunately, you know, maybe not the most exciting, but I'm glad that they were preserved. My inner historic preservationist was very excited. The Leicester Historical Society has them safely kept while they determine how to make them accessible and viewable to the general public and still maintaining their safety. So that was a really big piece. They wanted to make sure that they could keep them safe and there is some talk on different local newspaper sites. I saw where they're trying not monuments, but they're trying to do some type of historic preservation with other buildings. They're thinking about incorporating them there. So it would be a really nice tribute for people to be able to see them and have them still be protected, because they won't go back to the cemetery but right exactly, which is a little sad, and I'm sure that probably the friends meeting house doesn't feel great about that, but they were in danger there.

Courtney: 13:54

There's really no way to closely monitor them as much as they wanted to people suck they do, and it's unfortunate too, because when I had seen them in, you know, like 2019 or 2018, there was no damage to them. I mean wear and tear from being outside and being an iron gate, but nothing.

Courtney: 14:09

That was unexpected yeah, yeah, I can't imagine why graffiti would be something that you would see, and I was a little surprised to read that, because when I was there walking around, I always kind of take an inventory of is there any graffiti, is there any trash? Like? I'm one of those people who bring a bag with me and like pick up the trash and take it, but other than things that were supposed to be there, I didn't see any trash, and so maybe somebody is really keeping up on it. I'm not sure, but it was nice to see that it wasn't destroyed, because a lot of places like that tend to get left behind to the wayside, abandoned and forgotten. One of the things that I'm drawn to the most about Spider Gates is that, unlike most spooky haunted places that have one legend behind them, spider Gates has several different legends and stories which I always find intriguing, because the more you read, the more you find out.

Courtney: 14:56

It's kind of like a really big rabbit hole, which I think is something I say all the time on this podcast. I have a rabbit hole sixth sense, like I'm always finding the rabbit hole. The first one that I'm going to talk about is the hanging tree. Okay, there's a really large oak tree on the property that is said to be haunted by the ghost of someone who took their own life by hanging in the tree.

Courtney: 15:19

Some people have claimed that a strange white oozy substance has also been seeping from the ground and runes have been discovered in rocks just outside of the cemetery walls, which is just outside of where the tree is, and the tree is definitely very ominous. There are some people who were saying things like there was a rope that was hanging from the trees. I haven't been able to validate any of those things. Another one of those cases where some sources will say it's there and then people will go and do their blogging of it and say, ok, there wasn't anything. I wouldn't really expect there to be anything. I think it's a little juvenile maybe to think that the rope would still be there if that was the case, but there's definitely at least two trees on the property that come to my mind that could have definitely fit that bill that definitely are very ominous and dark.

Courtney: 16:02

The second story surrounds the cave. This one is probably the most far-fetched for me. There's a cave well, there's said to be a cave where a young woman was murdered years ago. In all of my research, no one has ever been able to locate or validate that a cave exists okay, let alone that there was a woman murdered in the cave. Nearby there is a river that is said to be the Styx River, which allegedly leads to the Underworld, which is the only thing I was able to kind of find and lump with that.

Hannah: 16:27

The Styx River. Dude, yeah, I love Greek mythology, so that's.

Courtney: 16:33

There's a lot of that and the more I'm getting into doing and I love that one of our wanders had kind of urged us to go outside of the path of just serial killers and true crime because I'm learning that I really enjoy legends and I enjoy the symbolism of different parts of it. Whether it's true or not, the storytelling part of it is is entertaining. Yeah, I think number three is one of my favorites. Okay, the Vanishing Cemetery. Ooh, and this one, I think, is it sounds so far-fetched, but also to me it almost seems like it could be the most reasonable.

Courtney: 17:07

So, you're going to have to bear with me, okay. So some people have claimed that a second cemetery appears across the street and can only be seen by an individual one time. So if you see it one time time, it will never be there again. If you listen closely, you can hear a demonic creature roaming amok in the woods. I added amok. I had to throw hocus pocus in here. It's unclear why the second cemetery can only be seen once. Like I've looked into why people hypothesize that I could never get anyone to relate anything back to. I was thinking you know the dimensions of hell or something, because everything else relates.

Courtney: 17:43

But there was a very interesting story and account from the Worcester Telegram, which is their local paper in Worcester and according to the Worcester Telegram one woman had gone to the cemetery with her daughter and it was kind of around dusk, I would say the sun was up, but it was coming down. It wasn't. They weren't violating any rules.

Hannah: 18:01

They weren't there at night.

Courtney: 18:02

But the sun was setting more and they were walking along. And this woman looks up and she sees a path that has more cemetery, more stones in it, and so they decided you know, hey, it's getting a little bit dark, we're not going to go wander there, but I'll come back tomorrow. So the following day, the woman and her husband, they come back to the cemetery in broad daylight and they follow the exact same path that she had taken the night before with her daughter, only to see that there was just path and river, no cemetery, no additional plots in sight, nothing. And she didn't really think a ton about it until she had gone home and was like, oh, that's so strange. What about this place? You know, what is this place? Kind of like how I did. I went and I looked and she was seeing all these people writing about the Vanishing Cemetery and she was like, wait a second, is that what I saw?

Courtney: 18:49

And something about it for me is, a lot of times with legends, you're reading accounts that don't have names to them or they were so far back that you can't see the article, and this one wasn't like that, so it made me think it could be somebody out for some attention. Sorry if you're listening, um, maybe, but I thought it was really interesting because to me optical illusion has always kind of been fascinating, like mirage, almost, like somebody thought you were comfortable, so they showed you and what would have happened if you had walked into the cemetery that doesn't exist, like in my mind.

Courtney: 19:21

I'm thinking okay, the legend says the cemetery is there, you can only see it once. What happens if you wander into it? Does it disappear? Do you get to go back out and then it disappears? Or you know, if you and I go I have so many questions every time I do legends. If you and I go and I see it, but you don't and you go back with Rob, are you going to see it the second time, right? Or are you not going to see it because I saw it and I told you about it, right?

Hannah: 19:45

Or do they only pick certain people?

Courtney: 19:48

Is it like a VIP club? Right? It's like one of those speakeasies is what I was thinking.

Courtney: 19:53

then you're in the speakeasy. Yeah, the fourth story and one that I have my own personal story for now, the Marmaduke Earl story. Okay, it's alleged that if you visit the grave of Marmaduke Earl, who is one of the patrons of the cemetery, at midnight and rest your head on the grave, he will speak back to you. So you just rest your head with your ear to it like you're listening, and rest your head on the grave. He will speak back to you. So you just rest your head, like with your ear to it, like you're listening. Some other variations state that you first have to ritualistically walk around it 10 times and announce Marmaduke. Speak to me.

Courtney: 20:25

Many people have tried this and it's unclear what anyone is expecting to hear back. And it is said that Marmaduke died at the age of 90. So I'm hearing all of this and one of the accounts that I was reading off of had said you know their version of the story and the research that they had put in, and they said it was evident to them that people were going there and people were trying this because of the way there was a ring around the grave like dirt instead of grass. Okay, and I had myself thinking I was like that's interesting. I do remember seeing a grave with a ring, but but I'm, I'm, I don't know if I took a picture of it because I didn't take a photograph of every angle of this place. And so I'm sitting there doing my research and I scroll back and I have the focal point of several photos, without knowing what I was doing is the central point of several photos that I took, without even realizing what I was doing.

Courtney: 21:19

And there is a ring around just his grave of dirt. Do you mind if I no go ahead? I was just trying to take like a aesthetic photo of all of the graves, and why is that the one that I went right to and took the pictures of?

Hannah: 21:34

It's a bigger ring than I thought it'd be.

Courtney: 21:36

Yeah, but you can tell in the picture it's very clear that the ring is around his gravestone, not around anybody else's. And that brings me to kind of what I was thinking like what makes a legend right? I've been doing a lot of thinking about that, especially doing research on several things like Camp Wendigo, like spider gates, the covered bridge, the covered Camp Wendigo like Spider Gates, the Covered Bridge, the Covered Bridge yes, I've been doing a lot of thinking about what makes a legend and so part of it's word of mouth.

Courtney: 22:01

Obviously, because a legend is a story that keeps being passed on through generations, but also it's the belief in what happens that carries it out, and the belief is kind of like the magic that keeps it going. Yeah, so the people. For me, seeing that picture it was a little like it made me stop because I was thinking, wow, I really didn't know anything about this and I was still drawn to that grave to take that photo. And I mean, I love being in cemeteries, as everybody knows. I love taking photos of cemeteries, but I didn't take a photo of every grave. I was drawn to that spot, I thought it was interesting how the dirt and the grass and I took all these pictures only to find out that there is a legend about it. And it kind of warmed my heart a little bit to see that people are going there. I'm hoping for the right reasons. I'm hoping they're abiding by the cemetery rules, because that's the least they could do yeah they're paying their respects in the way of a legend.

Courtney: 22:52

They're they're going and they're believing, and that's what's keeping the legends alive and that's kind of a beautiful thing. Yeah, I agree, it's not often in 2025 that people show camaraderie in anything and then to believe in something that seems so out of this world and defend it. Some of the people online it's great to see defending things and giving evidence. It just kind of warmed my heart and I think I'm becoming a local legends girl as well as a cover girl, cover girl being how I'm drawn to books, but I'm definitely drawn to the legends now too. Thank you, win from springfield, for urging us to branch out and try different things and intention too.

Hannah: 23:29

Like I think certain things will be shown to you. Yeah, because of intention, right. So like we were talking about that, like mirage graveyard in a sense, right, like if those people are coming to there with an intention like that's good, maybe that's what gets you into the vip club, right?

Courtney: 23:48

and I would have loved to. I wish that they had given her full name or some way to contact her, because I have a a sneaking suspicion that she's definitely an open-minded kind of person. Not many people could say to their husband like, hey, I'm going to go back and look for this cemetery nobody else saw, and they'd be like, hey, I'm going to go with you. Yep, you know, the world has a funny way of showing you things that you're prepared for.

Courtney: 24:07

Yeah for sure. It wouldn't be a list without talking about the most popular by far, which I actually think is the most far-fetched, but it is part of how spider gates became spider gates. The most popular by far is that the gates are the eighth gate to hell, with the other seven gates around the country. Some other people claim that the cemetery has seven additional entrances to hell that you must pass through first, in a very specific order, and if you go through the final or the eighth gate, it will open the gate to hell. I think that's the most commonly heard one.

Courtney: 24:38

I will say that story in particular. I did know before going because, again, like I said, I had gone like 2018, 2019. To me, that's the least interesting. I think a lot of people get really hyped up on that and I kind of skimmed over all of that in my research because I feel like anyone who's listening to this episode because, like ooh, spider gates, I know spider gates they already know about all of that who's listening to this episode? Because, like ooh, spider Gates, I know Spider Gates they already know about all of that.

Hannah: 24:58

I just think it's interesting knowing who the Quakers were Like. I'm not I don't know everything about Quakers, but I know some right. That doesn't sound like that would be the kind of place to have the eighth portal to hell, or whatever, or would it be ironic?

Courtney: 25:11

I mean, it definitely would be ironic probably wherever gates to hell would be if they existed, right, if they do exist, I don't know that people would get to have a say in where they go. And it's hard because it's kind of like the opposite of the way religion is for a lot of people. When you're thinking about like Christianity, those places of worship are put up by people. They're put up by everyday people and that's decided, that that's a holy place.

Hannah: 25:40

I don't know how Well, I think it goes back to intention.

Courtney: 25:43

That's true. Yeah, I guess we could argue that.

Hannah: 25:45

I mean, we think about all these asylums that we just love for the history, but there's a lot of bad intention in some of these asylums. Those could be definitely portals to hell right.

Courtney: 25:55

Everyone's hell is probably different too, when you think about it Everyone's hell is probably different.

Courtney: 26:07

Maybe we all have our own eighth gate mind blown. Mind blown, it wouldn't be a courtney episode if I didn't have an other category that I wanted to talk about. I feel like I'm always kind of trying to like lump everything in, but there's some things that just come up that are observations or thoughts that I can't find an appropriate place to pinpoint with everything else. So there is a really large flat space. So when you walk into the cemetery, you walk through where the gates used to be okay, and there's stones all around, kind of around like the outside, like a u, in the middle, ish, kind of to the left side.

Courtney: 26:31

So if you walk in straight to the middle and go about like seven to eight paces to the left, there's this very flat spot in the center of the cemetery that people allege was an altar of sorts, which, okay, okay, if you follow me for a minute, if you're thinking this is the eighth gate to hell, this is spooky, this place is devil worship. An altar makes sense. However, if you're thinking about it as a cemetery, it makes more sense to me that the flat space was actually the spot where the former friend's meeting house had been. Oddly, though, almost no grass kind of grows in that area and there are four really large pillars, one at each corner, that mark off the area. So to me it does seem like there would be a building there, like a very small kind of shed-like building.

Hannah: 27:17

I will say that there is a church that Rob and I are familiar with, so it's an Episcopal church, and there is a separate deed next door I are familiar with, so it's an episcopal church and there is a separate deed next door to it. That is part of the church but separate, because if the church gets sold to something else, this still remains a grave site, so it's a whole different entity in itself where cremated remains go and there is an altar there that is used for the services. So I don't know.

Courtney: 27:47

I might have to do some more looking into that.

Hannah: 27:49

It could have been an altar, but it also could have been an altar that was used in one way for good and then turned into something else.

Courtney: 27:57

Well, and that's kind of the same for a lot of things in modern life A lot of things that we use for good, people also turn around and use for the opposite reason too. I mean everything down to your cell phone. You could use your cell phone for good. You could call 911 and help somebody. You could also use your cell phone for bad and do something terrible, absolutely Not going to give anybody ideas, so don't give any examples on that one.

Hannah: 28:14

But also, looking at religion, christianity took a lot of what it is from paganism. That's true.

Courtney: 28:25

Yeah, so who knows? It's really a big gamble, and I think it's hard to when you talk about different religions and different cultures and groups, because there's so many different ideas. Yeah, and not only are there different groups who had different ideas, but there's also different groups in different eras, and now you're talking in different centuries we're talking the 1700s to current. It definitely is something that is kind of left up in the air it could have been an altar.

Courtney: 28:47

It could be a place where something once was housed, could be something where some in the future could be housed, yeah, but it definitely struck out to me and you know, both times I've gone there there hasn't been anything on that spot and I've been kind of drawn to it where I always think in my head. It's one of those spots where, if you're familiar with photography, you see something you're like, oh, that's wicked cool, but how am I going to photograph this? Because what I'm seeing in person with my naked eye is so I don't want to say beautiful, but beautiful in its own unique way, that I'm never going to capture this in a way that doesn't just look like, well, what is that?

Hannah: 29:18

and I am. I. I love photography. I'm not good by any means. I mean it's definitely something I need to work on. Everybody's good at photography it just depends on what you're trying to get the picture of but I've, you know not to be cliche, but I've seen a sunrise or a sunset right and I've tried taking pictures and I'm like this isn't doing it justice, never mind and then.

Hannah: 29:37

I just put it down, my camera down. I'm like I'm just gonna enjoy it for what it is, because sometimes you can't capture it. It's like it's this moment thing that you need to be a part of.

Courtney: 29:45

You just described why I can't edit a single photo beyond.

Hannah: 29:48

ADHD and motivation issues.

Courtney: 29:50

Because I'll go in and I think I nailed it, got the shot, and then I go in to look at it and I'm like what the fuck is that? That's not what we took a picture of. Or, my worst thing, I don't do a tripod, I hate the tripod. A tripod, I hate the tripod, I find it to be a nuisance and I'll take a picture and it'll be just slightly cockeyed to one side. One more notable, fascinating thing when walking around I observed many graves and spots that had coins resting on or near the graves. Okay, several sources online hypothesize that the coins are left to pay the ferryman that's why they put them on the eyelids.

Courtney: 30:20

I think that that makes sense, that one seems perfectly logical I also know about the eyelids, right, yes, okay they also had some, some of the gravestones.

Courtney: 30:29

Obviously the people must have been veterans. I saw quite a few like mini folded flags sitting down. I saw some very I don't know if they were put there as a photography prop or if they were put there and just flowers that had been forgotten about that looked a little bit decaying. I had also seen there was this little like. I can post a picture of this because you wouldn't even be able to tell where it was from. It's like this little black. To me it looks like a moon, like a little black moon gem just sitting on the ground.

Courtney: 30:57

I didn't take it I have a thing about taking things when I don't know but there was definitely a lot of care in the place and you could tell that whether it's the people who are maintaining it that are going in and they're leaving gems and things, or if it were people who are going there to visit loved ones, I mean I find it kind of hard to believe it would be that one, just because, based off of the ages of people who are there, I would think that the loved ones would be probably pretty elderly.

Hannah: 31:20

It could just be respect, like when I visited lizbeth's grave. It's true, you know, there were flowers and items left for her, because people just love her and her story and who she became and she's a legend in herself. So that could be it. But I also want to go back to the coins. I guess it would make sense if it was to pay the ferryman, because you talked about that sticks river, yeah, you know. So that would make a lot of sense.

Courtney: 31:43

I'm trying to think about how many bodies of water, but there's definitely at least one like river that comes through is it a pretty wide river or is it not like a stream, obviously yeah, it's a little bit wider than that and it's hard to because the I think it was the water district that's all up and down the sides and they do have signs that are like no trespassing, no trespassing you hear the water from the graveyard I'm trying to, I have to like picture myself while I'm there.

Courtney: 32:07

I know when you were walking up the path you could hear water running and I remember seeing it on the sides. Interesting, and there there was some evidence that kind of made me think that perhaps people were camping up there, but again, very hard to tell with a place like that. Was it somebody who's homeless? You're thinking how close they are to worcester. Was it somebody who was maybe violating some of the friends rules which, if you're listening to this and you're thinking about going, it's definitely a place that you can visit. But you know, at Wicked Wanderers we want to urge you to follow the rules and not test those boundaries just because if somebody went through all the care to maintain a place and put the rules up, you should be mindful of that absolutely, and I think there's so many other places that are okay with filming and being respectful and ghostboxing and stuff like that.

Hannah: 32:50

Like there are places that do allow that, so like, why try to desecrate it Right? Just so you could be the person you know. It's just it's not okay.

Courtney: 32:57

And ultimately, you can't do anything with that stuff. Anyways, I do think that if you were to email them, depending on what it was for, they would probably allow you to use it. I think it just comes down to wanting to have some kind of control over it. For a while, I remember it being a very, very, very hot spot for people to go to.

Hannah: 33:13

I mean, I'm sure there's like a fee and you have to pay for someone to be there with you or something Like I'm sure it's not like a free for all.

Courtney: 33:18

Probably, and I'm sure that they want to maintain what content goes out, because if you even like, let's say, you are very successful and you go out and you put this place on blast and you show everybody you going out and doing things inappropriately yeah now you're setting this example.

Courtney: 33:34

People look up to you when you have that kind of following and they're gonna be like, well, so and so did it. So now I'm gonna do it too. And obviously, hannah and I, we condone ghost hunting where it's allowed. We condone photographing things where it's allowed. It is certainly not a place that I would want to. I don't get a bad vibe. I just don't think you would catch me there at night willingly. I think like if you were like, hey, we're going to go, do that, I'd be like I'm good.

Courtney: 33:57

There's just so many stories for one place that makes me wonder if some of it somewhere isn't true place. That makes me wonder if some of it somewhere isn't true. Right, but it is a very fascinating place. You can definitely find a lot about it online. As always, you know, do your research, see if you believe what they say. If you're local to the area and you need help finding where to park, you can let me know. I don't want to put all that information out there, just out of privacy for them yeah but I had a really good time.

Courtney: 34:24

I was sad that the gates weren't there. That was definitely a big kind of downer for me. But you know, I mean the magic was still there. I still had a good time wandering around and making my new friend Marmaduke that now I know their name. I mean, I knew their name because it was on the stone, but I didn't know that they were so prominent as they were. So I had a good time researching this one.

Hannah: 34:44

Courtney, that was a good one, thank you.

Courtney: 34:46

Thank you, I'm sorry, I went without you.

Hannah: 34:50

We'll talk about that off the mic.

Courtney: 34:54

And if anybody has any local legends or things that they want us to explore next, I am open and ready to take some kind of direction from you guys.

Hannah: 35:03

And if anyone wants to see me on the golden bear, open and ready to take some kind of direction from you guys, I don't have anything else.

Courtney: 35:07

Anyone wants to see?

Hannah: 35:08

me on the golden bear.

Courtney: 35:08

Uh yeah, if you want to see Hannah riding the golden bear, we need at least two people to write in Lynn from Springfield, I'm counting on you, mark, I'm counting on you. I really want to post this picture of Hannah on the golden bear to our story, I think it'll be great content.

Hannah: 35:22

I think it will be too.

Courtney: 35:23

Maybe it'll get us the wrong kind of following, but I'm okay with it Until next time. Wanderers, Bye, guys.

Hannah: 35:31

Thanks for listening today. Wicked Wanderings is hosted by me Hannah and co-hosted by me Courtney, and it's produced by Rob Fitzpatrick.

Hannah: 35:39

Music by Sasha N. If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to leave a rating and review and be sure to follow on all socials. You can find the links down in the show notes. If you're looking for some really cozy t-shirts or hoodies, head over to the merch store. Thank you for being a part of the Wicked Wanderings community. We appreciate every one of you. Stay curious, keep exploring and always remember to keep on wandering.