Toad Road...

I live rather close to a place known as Toad Road. This is a place with many stories surrounding it. It is said to be haunted by ghosts, and that the Seven Gates of Hell are there. You must pass through all of them to be safe.

Her is the one story about it:

Toad RoadThe house on Toad road is another house where years ago a mother, father, and baby lived there in a farm house in the middle of a field and the mother killed her baby in the basement one night and then went upstairs to the living room and hung herself from the rafters and the house was vacated and left that way and is currently still standing. Some have reported seeing the noose still swinging from the ceiling and a basement light on. On certain nights. August, 2004 update. The farmhouse in the middle of the field where the mother hung herself has been torn down by whoever owns the land. The barn behind the building which did stand for a time after the house was torn down has also suffered the same fate. The only structure left standing on the field is an old outhouse looking building. This is on toad road in York County. Get permission before exploring this area.

Another story:

"In most respects York is exactly what you'd expect of a rural Pennsylvania town—a quiet place in the heartland of the state. Don't be fooled—there is a mysterious history and a dark underside of york. One site within the city limits of the town speaks to a sinister episode that betrays the city's tranquillity. It is a story of death. It is story of despair. It is a story about attempting to breach the very boundries of hell itself. It is the story of Toad Road. Street Sign You will not find Toad Road on the map of York, because its name has been officially changed to Trout Run Road. This was done to dissuade curiosity-seekers from putting themselves in harm's way and to hide the grisly incidents that once occured along the thoroughfare. In the 1800s a colossal mental asylum stood in the woods of York off Toad Road. This was a hellish place and the home of only the most deranged, most unfortunate souls. The asylum was many stories high and contained hundreds of rooms. Buried in the desolate Pennsylvania woods, it was viewed as the perfect place to ship the insane from all across the state. There was one major problem with this location, however; it was miles away from civiliztion. While viewed as a blessing by those who didn't want to face their fears, this also meant that the asylum was not easily accessible. This led to a great tragedy when it caught fire one day. Because of its remote locale, firefighters were unable to get there in time. Many of the patients burned to death in the upper floors of the building, and hundreds of others fled into the surrounding woods. The scene was true chaos—some of the most deranged and dangerous people in all Pennsylvania had disappeared into the woods as an inferno spread throughout the area. When officials finally put out the fire, they set out to capture all of the inmates. Scared by the reputations of the asylum's inmates and unsure of how to handle the situation, the search party was extraordinarily aggresive, beating into submission some of those they found and killing others. It's clear why no one in York acknowledges this publicly. The town changed the name of the road, stopped talking of the hospital, and tried to put the tragedy behind it. Unfortunately, this would be impossible. Pathway The psychic impact of these horrible events forever cursed Toad Road. People today say that the area is so cursed that it is the location of seven gateways to hell. York officials had constructed seven barriers along the paths to the former site of the asylum. Most adventure-seekers never even locate the first one.

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For those who manage to find the path, it is said that, by the fifth barrier, the sense of evil and overpowering feelings of death will turn back even the bravest explorer back. Apparitions are often seen along these paths. Strange noises and menacing screams are heard frequently. Legends say that if one did manage to get past all seven gates, they would be standing upon the burned remains of the mental hospital, a bona fide passageway to hell itself."-Marcus Malvern Jr.

It is a rather scary prospect to be living so close to such a place. I have heard people speak about it before, and I have visited the first gate before, though never gone through it. I have gotten an odd feeling standing beside it, and since I am a bit sensitive to those kinds of things (those not nearly as good as some) I believe that there is really something bad going on there, though I know not what. As I have said before, I live VERY close to said place, so I would like some outside input to help my unease.

I just did a small dig. Apparently the legend has to do with the location of an asylum or institution to the mentally ill. These "Gates" are supposedly reffering to the seven gates of access to gain entry to said place.

Now this is just one account of said legend.Having said this I do not personally know much if anything at all about this case study.

The parts I do now know however have to do with various accounts of this story of hundreds of people escaping or perhaps being let loose into a near by woods where the authorities or nearby villagers hunted them down and killed them,another version of this story is that the escapists found refuge in the woods and preyed on near by villages.

The part of the seven gates has to do with a tale of toad road and the asylum being at the end of the road and the seven gates leading up to the place.The location of the asylum is said to differ in many of the different accounts of the story.Such as it was in a church or an institution ,or in a different place then toad road, the date of which these events occured differs aswell

It is said that there is barely any evidence if any at all that an insitution or sanitarium exsisted ever in York.

Now There is much controversy as there is alot of myth telling and supposed dread tales behind this story.I have also seen much to counteract all of it here are a few blurbs on the area on this page.

release-me.net...

heres another look into it (quote) 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. (quote)

found here www.deliriumsrealm.com...

at any rate many accounts detail that there was no mental institution.So one must ask what are these tales truly based on.

There seems to be potential for alot of activity dealing with what many call ghosts or curses or many other things supernatural.i hope this helps a little.

Scarecrow

[edit on 7-1-2009 by toraylin]

[edit on 7-1-2009 by toraylin]

That is a very interesting story. If the asylum and farm legends are not true, then I wonder what is located there which might give you an odd feeling... There are a variety of locations in my area that give off strange feelings. If you explore the area in greater depth, I would advise be cautious. Not only from potential supernatural threats, but from the very mundane ones which might be encountered in such places.