explored &
photographed by: Shady
One of our goals on this journey was to
find the creepy Tomb of 12 Nuns- our next stop.We had tried, and failed, once before
(foiled by a combination of bad directions, darkness, and upset-tummied-ness). This time,
we were determined. I really had no background information on it or specific directions
for it. I only knew it was in the woods, behind some baseball fields, somewhere,
in Warren. I also knew that this was the old Hofheimer family tomb that lies behind what
used to be the family mansion (which is now a municipal building), so that narrowed it
down somewhat. We found the general area we were seeking, parked the truck, and headed
into a dark trail leading into the woods... |
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The Scoobies
strolled through a gorgeous, lonely stretch of forest. I wandered off into the thick
tangle of woods and found a cool plastic rocking horse-head-thingy, a toy boat, and a
collection of glass vases. Then I wound my way back to the trail, where Cheech pointed out
a deer that was standing still just a few mere feet away from us. Unfortunately it bolted
before I could even lift my camera! Many miles (and many Blair Witch jokes)
later, we had pretty much given up. We had reached the end of the trail, and hadn't seen a
sign of any tomb anywhere. We thought perhaps it went the way of the Dover
Mental Cage, and were headed back toward the parking lot and the truck. Suddenly, I
just got that feeling. You know, that feeling? I peered over my shoulder, back
into the trees, and lo and behold... I saw a glimmer of white! I changed direction and
headed right for it... with each step closer I could see that I had found that we had been
looking for... |
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And in a
sunlit clearing, shielded by towering trees- the Tomb of 12 Nuns. This old tomb has been
the stuff of chilling local lore for decades now. Nobody seems to know exactly where the
name came from, as the tomb had nothing to do with nuns?? But hey- it's a cool name, no?
It seems as though someone has been fixing the old Tomb up; they have removed all the
graffiti, restored the missing part of the roof, and cut back all the surrounding foliage.
It's still pretty darned spooky, though. You can just picture bodies resting on the wooden
slabs inside. While we were poking around at the Tomb, we ran into a kid named Ryan, who knew a lot about the
Tomb and other Warren weirdness. He was cool enough to chat with us for a few and pass on
some of his knowledge of local lore, and even pointed out the spooky "hooded man on
horseback" figure within the Tomb's walls to us (check out the pic, above, second
from left). He also told us something about the rumor of an old flooded mine shaft
somewhere in the area. Since I knew that Nathan Hofheimer was a patriarch who owned a
copper mine (as well as founded General Motors), I did a little research and found out
that this legendary flooded mine shaft does exist! It's somewhere on the
Hofheimer estate, and it was flooded on purpose and turned into a beautiful botanical
garden with water ponds and stuff. Neato! However, it was long
ago abandoned and left to ruin. At one point, a committee actually
cleaned the gardens up and refilled the ponds, hoping to make it a
historically preserved site. Unfortunately, the water supply was reduced
and the ponds dried up to mud.
After the Tomb, evening was descending, tummies were growling,
and the Scoobs were threatening mutiny against our driver if he didn't find
something to eat, fast... so, we ended up at Chi-Chi's chowing down on some muy rico Mexican food, mm mmm, and bulls**tting
about all the wacky stuff we had seen throughout our trippy roadtrip. It was a great
ending to a Scoob-tastic adventure, and yep- we are already planning the next one...
<---LAST STOP- SATANIC CHURCH
MORE
LOST ROAD TRIPS--->
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