Ok if this looks familiar, it is This is the old Gates of spooky Hollow cache, moved across the road. The Nature reserve across the road had some concerns about cachers going off the trail and disturbing the wildlife. Small container room for some trackables, log and pen included.
The drive into Normandale from Highway 24 goes from scenic to dramatic in a hurry. The change is so ominous that Norfolk decided long ago to give it an appropriately ominous name. Our forefathers called the 1.2-kilometre stretch in question Spooky Hollow. The name is old and derives from the fact that people entering from either end feel like they are being swallowed up by the forest. Stories abound about Spooky Hollow. Many are related to a fire there more than 100 years ago. Spooky Hollow was once served by a hotel. The hotel burned, that much is true. But the story behind it has become embroidered in the retelling. One story holds that someone died in the blaze. If you want to hear the victim’s agonizing screams echo in the distance, go to Spooky Hollow at midnight on Halloween, strike a match, and listen carefully to what happens as the flame burns down. Sisters Bonnie Casselton and Patsy Holmes, both of Walsh, have heard variations on this theme. They should know. During the Depression, the pair were raised along with eight brothers and sisters in the only house in Spooky Hollow. The story they’ve heard most often is that about a traveling salesman who was murdered and dismembered at the hotel. Legend has it his ghost can be seen at night riding through the hollow aboard a spectral horse, searching for his missing head. The stories were amusing, but the family never took much stock in them. The sisters remember a time when superstitions were stronger than they are today. In the past, some genuinely feared Spooky Hollow. Fear, however, was never a problem for the family. In fact, the sisters remember Spooky Hollow being a lovely, enchanted place, much like it is today. “Good heavens no – it never entered our minds of it being spooky or anything,” Casselton said this week. “My parents used to keep a big garden and we used to sleigh ride down the hill. We had a good old time. People used to drive down there and lock their doors when they passed through. It was just crazy.” There were disconcerting moments. Holmes was born on the family homestead. She was born in a room at the front of the house where her mother – Erie Cornell – eventually died. Her brother Larry also died in the same room after suffering a heart attack. “My father (Stuart Cornell) used to tell me I was the only real spook he knew,” Holmes said. “When I lived there, I had no spooky experiences.” The Cornell family owned the property from about 1935 until 1975. Today, much of Spooky Hollow is owned and managed by the Hamilton Naturalists’ Club.
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Congrats to geoyetty on FTF