Legends of Hexenkopf Hill Live On
Where the Witches of Pennsylvania Still Whisper in the Wind
By Lux Ferre – Occult World Magazine Archives (Originally reported by Madeleine Mathias, The Philadelphia Inquirer, February 25, 1987)
Welcome, dear readers of Occult World, to one of America’s most enduring landscapes of superstition — a place where German folklore, witchcraft, and whispers of the Devil once blended beneath the moonlit sky.
In Williams Township, Pennsylvania, six miles south of Easton, rises Hexenkopf Hill — “Witches’ Head” in the dialect of the early German settlers. Its mica-laced rocks glow eerily in the moonlight, and its name has carried the weight of witchcraft, powwow magic, and ghostly legends for over two centuries.
The Farmer, the Demon, and the Endless Chase
Among the oldest tales told around Hexenkopf is that of Farmer Brown, a determined man with a wooden leg who tried to chase a demon from the hill. According to local lore, the only way to drive out a demon is to pursue it relentlessly — but Brown met a tragic fate.
The farmer slipped on the stony slope and fell to his death, leaving the demon to roam free. Some say his spirit still limps after it, condemned to an eternal pursuit. On certain misty evenings, locals claim they hear the tap-tap-tap of his peg leg echoing among the rocks.
Others speak of a headless man and his headless black dog, of a white fox that cannot be caught, and of phantom soldiers who ride down from the ridge on moonlit nights.
To the people of the Lehigh Valley, Hexenkopf Hill is more than a place — it is a living echo of Pennsylvania’s colonial fears and faiths, preserved in the rocky soil and the imagination of those who still look up at its glowing crown.
A Hill That Refuses to Be Tamed
Even now, the summit glows faintly under the moon — a trick of mica and phosphorescent lichens that shimmer like starlight. The geological structure itself was born from ancient volcanic forces: molten stone thrust upward, cooled, sank beneath the sea, and rose again.
The hill rises 500 feet above sea level, its slopes covered with wildflowers, ferns, and thick underbrush. In summer it is green and dense; in winter, it is bare and spectral.
For generations, attempts to tame Hexenkopf have failed. One doctor tried twice to build a home near the summit — both times, when the house was nearly complete, it mysteriously burned to the ground. Utility workers attempting to set telephone poles could never keep them upright.
The land’s reputation remains so potent that even modern developers hesitate. Isadore Mineo, then head of Northampton County’s Parks Division, envisioned the hill as a protected park, fearing that any attempt to subdivide it might provoke its darker legacy.
The Witches’ Rock and the Powwow Doctors
The legends of Hexenkopf are deeply rooted in Pennsylvania German powwow magic — a blend of Christian faith healing, pagan herbalism, and protective incantations practiced from the 1700s into the mid-20th century.
One of the earliest local practitioners, Johann Peter Seiler, arrived in 1743 and became known for curing the sick with charms, prayer, and herbal remedies. His son, Peter Saylor (the name later anglicised from Seiler), made Hexenkopf infamous.
Believing that illness was caused by “evils” lodged in the body, Saylor’s method of healing involved transference — casting those evils into a physical object, most often the rock on Hexenkopf Hill.
From that moment, the site became known as a receptacle for dark forces. Whether Saylor chose the rock because it already had a sinister reputation, or whether his practices gave rise to it, no one can say. But the belief spread quickly: Hexenkopf was a hill where witches gathered, where sickness and evil were sent, and where the Devil himself might appear.
Witches, Walpurgisnacht, and Lost Maidens
It was said that on Walpurgisnacht — April 30, witches gathered upon Hexenkopf to plan their deeds for the coming year.
They danced by firelight, initiated new members, and consorted with the Prince of Darkness himself.
Local men told stories of their wives leaving sticks in their beds so their husbands would not notice their absence as they flew out to the hill on broomsticks.
Other tales tell of maidens who vanished into the woods and were never seen again, of a Dutch girl taken by spirits or perhaps by Indians, glimpsed years later sitting on a rock with three old women before vanishing into a fissure in the mountain.
Even in the 1940s, residents spoke of witchly signs: a woman whose horses were found exhausted each morning, as though ridden all night — until one night she followed them, returning home in madness.
The Science Beneath the Superstition
The strange glow of Hexenkopf’s rocks once convinced settlers that supernatural fires burned beneath them. In truth, the glow came from mica crystals and light-reflective lichens that caught the moonlight and shimmered like flame.
The area’s peculiar acoustics also fed the legends. “If you stand on the bald section of the hill,” Mineo explained, “the sound is distorted — you’d swear that something is flying below you.” In reality, the “wings” were echoes reverberating from the Indian burial caves beneath the ridge.
Still, in Pennsylvania Dutch culture, Hexenkopf remained a site of demons, witches, and powwow cures well into the 20th century. The last known powwow doctor in the region died in 1955, closing a chapter on one of America’s oldest surviving folk-magical traditions.
A Living Archive of the American Occult
For students of folklore and occult history, Hexenkopf Hill stands among the great haunted landscapes of the United States — a place where geology, belief, and human imagination merge.
At OccultWorld.com, we preserve these tales not merely as curiosities, but as cultural records of how early Americans negotiated their fears of disease, evil, and spiritual imbalance through ritual and story.
Hexenkopf Hill remains both a sacred and haunted place — a reminder that even in the age of reason, the mountains can still keep their mysteries.
Explore More on Occult World
- Powwow Magic and Pennsylvania Folk Healing
- Walpurgisnacht – The Witches’ Sabbath of Spring
- Haunted Hills and Sacred Landscapes of North America
- Hex Signs, Protection Charms, and Pennsylvania Dutch Witchcraft
Sources
- The Philadelphia Inquirer – Madeleine Mathias, “Legends of Hexenkopf Hill Live On,” February 25, 1987.
- Ned D. Heindel – Hexenkopf: Mystery, Myths, and Legends, Bicentennial Edition, Williams Township, 1976.
- Northampton County Parks Division Archives, Geological and Folklore Reports (1980–1987).
- Occult World Folklore Archives – “Witchcraft and Powwow Traditions in the Lehigh Valley.”
