If the area just west of Morristown is the most haunted place in Belmont County, Egypt Valley is the hotspot. I personally know if atleast 5 differnet paranormal stories. The most famous story is the story of Louzia Catharine Fox & Thomas Carr. This story holds real significance for me because family legend states that she is a distant relaitive of mine. The story goes that Louzia was 13 years old and engaged to Thomas Carr. Thomas Carr was described during his sentancing as “petulant, ill-natured, irritable, of a nervous temperament and possessed of a heart fatally bent on mischief “
It is said that both Louzia & Carr haunt Egypt Valley. I have not heard any stories of where Carr has been seen but Louzia has been seen weeping near or grave at Salem Cemetary or walking near the marker about a mile away where she was murdered. The grave is in Salem Cemetary along with her family. That makes this grave yard really intresting for me because it would be a chance to attempt to find proof and connect the dots as to if I am related to Louzia.
In additon to the ghosts of Louzia & Carr, there are several other haunting stories. Near the murder site is a phantom house that disappears as you approach it. The kicker is that it has 7 red candles in the windows. While that is one of the tamer hauntings, there is a story of a truck drive who dozed off near Circle Cemetary. In the accident that followed the trucker survived but his arm was never recovered. The story goes that the arm roams the Circle Cemetary using it’s fingers as legs. It is said that you can hear the fingernails clinking over the gravestones. Also near the circle cemetary there is said to be “devel dogs”. Demonic spirts in the form of dogs that possibly guard the cemeatary. Getting back to the Salem Cemetary, it is said that there are unmarked graves that belong to witches, and that if you walk around the graveyard 6 times, you will disapear. Lastly, there was a story of the area being used for wichcraft or other similar practices. I have heard in recent years that the locals have driven thse parties off. While attempting to go to the grave of Louzia in the middle of the night around 97 or 98, myself and friends, who were traveling in several cars, had our path blocked by a truck on a dirt road in that area. After seeing that the truck refused to let us get past even after backing up to a wide spot and waiting, we decided to leave. At the time we thought there may be some activites going on that we may have not wanted involved with, but in retrospect it may have been a case that it was just locals thinking we were up to no good.
I have also read mention of “The Old Egypt Cemetary”. From the descriptions I’ve read, it sounds similar to the Circle Cemetary, how ever I have yet to get any confirmation.
On 12/29/2004, I took a trip into Egypt Valley. At first it was to confim that the road I suspected of being county road 100 was indeed that road. After driving several miles in I decided to atleast find a landmark. The first one I came to was the Salem Cemetary. The trip in was different than I expected. The roads just seemed like dirt roads in other parts of the county. I saw the usual trucks parked along the side of the road which didn’t suprise me as it is still technically hunting season in one form or another. What suprised me was the road signs that were there in contrary to what other websites had said. I even saw a sign point out the road to the cemetary. What was odd, was I missed the sign until it was too late to turn, so I had to go up the road and turn around. When I first went past there were 3 trucks sitting there, and 2 were pulling out. When I got turned around there was still one truck at the cross roads. There was atleast 1 person in it that was using a roll or paper towels as a pillow on the side window of his truck. As I drove up the road, about 1/4 of a mile from the Salem Cemetary, I saw another truck pulled into a wide spot. Beside the truck was a rifle on a bipod with a scope. Last time I checked, gun season was over in Ohio, and you weren’t allowed to hunt with rifle’s to begin with. Things went smoothly, and there were no confrontations. It makes me wonder about the stories that I heard about locals guarding the cemetary during hunting season.
This is a shot from the ridge that “The Med” sits on of part of Egypt Valley. I can make out two roads, one arcing from left to right in the center of the picture and one that is making a hard curve to the right and above the first road. I want to say this is US 40 and County Road 100, but I cannot be sure.
This picture was taken from US 40 before you go down the hill to the end of 40. I parked in the parking lot of an industrial tire place. Once again you can see Egypt Valley unfold below.
By far this was the freakest part of my trip into egypt valley. I have never been into Egypt Valley that I can personally remember, but I have driven through this before. From what I can best tell, this is the remnents of an old rail road bridge. Either I have been here before and do not remember, I have seen a similar set of ruins, or something is going on. Even the grafitti seemed familiar. This structure is just off of US 40 on county road 100. Fred emailed me to share some reasearch he has done. The piers above are part of a B&O; spur that went to a prep plant when they were digging for coal in Egypt Valley. A ‘Prep Plant’ is where coal is washed, sized and generally made ready to be used once it is dug out of the ground. He also said that the guy with the rifle and bipod was most likely hunting/shooting coyote’s. Fred is currently looking for information on the town of “Egypt”. It appears it was there at the turn of the century, and had a post office. The post office closed in 1905, but it is unclear how long the town lasted after that. If anyone has any further information, please feel free to drop me a line and I will pass the information along or put you in contact with this gentleman.
9/9/2006 Myself, Beth, and two other members of Grave Addiction took a trip out to Egypt Valley. We hit the Murder Site, Salem Cemetery, Circle Cemetary, the area where the bridge is out on Salem Ridge Road, the town of Egypt, Ohio, Hendrysburg Cemetery, Union Township Cemetery, and Pioneer Cemetery. Sadly, our search took us the wrong way hiking through Egypt Valley. After another search of maps, I think I have the area narrowed down to about 6 1/2 acres of land. I’ve also been in contact with the St. Clairsville Public Library which has some maps of the turn of the century of that part of Belmont County.
In addition, I want to start researching the strip mining of Egypt Valley. So far I have some images of the GEM of Egypt.
Update: On January 16th, 2009, I spoke with a lovely lady named Helen who provided me with a host of information. She mentioned that she had spoken with a very reliable gentleman who said there was an indian buiral ground in Egypt Valley, and he knew it’s exact location. She said if she finds anymore information, she will let me know.