"Zombie Land," Lawrence County

 I hate all things zombie.  But long before zombies swept the nation, a spooky little corner of Lawrence County has been known to locals as "Zombie Land."  And since the infamous two-mile stretch of unholy ground is so close to the convent where I'm retreating, I struck off on a drizzly November day to see if it really is as scary as legend purports.  The original so-called zombies (also known as "the bridge people") were apparently a hapless band of physically deformed adults who shared a group home in the wooded valley of the Mahoning River, just outside the depressingly dumpy village of Hillsville.  There was also supposedly a witch's house here, which has since burned down.  The body of at least one murder victim has been discovered here, though that was not a supernatural horror but a factual one; the killers were all three apprehended.

 Going north out of Hillsville on Churchill Road, where it crosses over US 224, the former St. Lawrence Roman Catholic Church stands at the top of a long descent into the valley of the Mahoning River.  This is the entrance to Zombie Land.  There's a shrine to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and it's said that if her arms are spread open, then it's safe to enter Zombie Land.  But if her hands are clasped in prayer, then she is fighting the demonic powers of the place, and it is not safe to enter.  Of course, her hands are always folded.

 The congregation of St. Lawrence Church simply outgrew its building and constructed a bigger one closer to the village.  The old church has been converted into apartments, but it doesn't seem that anyone lives there.  It would be a strange place to live--surrounded by a cemetery, with stained glass windows in your kitchen and bathroom, a legendary statue in your yard, and on the edge of the notorious Zombie Land.

According to all that I've read about the place--and there is a lot of written material out there--the road used to be gravel.  The trees used to encroach more.  And there were fewer houses back in the days when Zombie Land began to earn its evil reputation.  At the bottom of the valley, Churchill Road crosses the river and comes to a T on the other side of the bridge.  Turn to the right and take the road that follows the river.  This area might technically still be Zombie Land--I don't know--but it's way spookier than the Churchill Road portion.

But, hell, everything feels spooky in a borderlands November, and I think it's always November here.