Chickie's Hill Mummy

 Chickie’s Hill Mummy

By Cole Herrold

In the world of the Fortean, there are tons of accounts that seemingly depict entities that are absolutely supernatural in origin. These entities do not fit the known and already extensive realms of Cryptozoology and Ufology but instead, seem to come straight from the Phantom Zone. One of these anomalous entities was reported on Chickie's Hill in Lancaster County. Chickie's Hill and the surrounding area is already a hotbed for Fortean phenomena from small diminutive hairy hominids known as Albatwitches to classical Bigfoot and supernatural Bigfoot encounters and countless ghost sightings and anomalous sounds; the area hardly seems like it could fit another mystery in its hills and mountain but of all these entities said to reside there in none could compare to a bizarre phantasmagorical entity that would be seen by a pair of witnesses in the area in 1946.

Harriet Horn would come face to face with a bizarre apparition on the most unassuming of days in 1946. Harriet, along with several of her friends and coworkers, were out enjoying a warm day on Chickie's Hill, and the group had decided to stop and enjoy a picnic. As the plates were being passed out and the mounds of delicacies were being placed around. Harriet realized that the group desperately was low on water and so, along with a male friend, hopped into his car and drove back down the hill to go fetch enough for everyone. As they were coming closer to the exit of the park, they noticed a bizarre figure standing near a group of trees. Harriet at first thought it to be a person but soon realized in abject terror that the figure was way too big and thin to be a person. As the car came closer and closer, she soon realized that what was looming in the woods was something that seemingly stepped out of the pages of an Edgar Allan Poe story. The figure which she now could tell was a person was a towering 16 feet tall. The entity was extremely bizarre as it was wrapped in long bandages from top to bottom and was seemingly devoid of arms or legs, or they were hidden by trees or wrapped tightly in the bandages to the point where they were not noticeable. All of this was bizarre and horrifying enough, but as she stared at the skeletal face, she noticed that protruding from the sides was a total of six knives that were placed three on each side. Harriet's companion, who was driving, was so encapsulated by this bizarre apparition that all he could say was "My God! What is that" and almost lost control of the vehicle as he gawked at the monstrous mummy. They continued to drive past the entity, leaving the creatures behind, and continued to drive a quarter of a mile before pulling off to the side of the road. The two sat there in utter disbelief, attempting to rationalize what they had just experienced when an eerie thought emanated in their brains. They left all of their friends and coworkers behind with that thing. The two, in an act of heroism, proceeded to restart their car and began driving back into the park and up the hill towards where their colleagues were continuing the picnic. All the drive up, the pair looked in the woods around for the colossal creature, but it seemingly vanished. As they returned to their friend's picnic, they rushed out of the car as fast as they could, uttering, "You gotta get out of here, we saw something terrible." With these words, all of the picnickers began grabbing what they could, leaving only some plates, food, and blankets behind. The group all traveled back down the road where some of the coworkers may have seen the bizarre entity. When the group returned to work the next day, everyone was quiet, and their silence seemed to speak volumes as to what they may have seen. Only one woman was not so quiet in a hushed tone she began to tell about a story she heard of a witch that lived on Chickie's Hill who was allegedly evicted from her home. This now homeless practitioner supposedly had placed a curse on the land and, in doing so, opened a door letting all sorts of strange entities loose on the Hill.

In 1969 Chickie's Rock County Park underwent a massive case of Ghost Mania. Chickie's Rock and Chickie's Hill is littered with several reported spirits from Native Americans, Amish folks, and the tragic souls of those who committed suicide on the rock, and during 1969 several teenagers reported seeing shadowy gray apparitions in the woods. This sighting which later was revealed to be a hoax, did not stop countless others from searching the forest for spirits; the search was so extensive that police officers were dispatched to manage the heavy flow of traffic that filled the park. Now while there were several hoaxed claims and ostensibly real encounters during this time span, there was one particular encounter that seems to mirror that of Harriet Horn in 1946; one of the ghosthunters, while out wandering in the woods, reported that they saw a spirit wrapped in bandages with a knife sticking from it.

Now there have since been no reported sightings of this entity, so it's difficult to glean any further information on this entity, and it's a type of creature that seems to have never been reported since then. Now with attempting to categorize this entity in a Fortean style, it's very clear that this is not a cryptid. There's nothing to imply this creature has any sort of physical biology to it in the same way a Bigfoot would. There's actually more possibility of it being a hoax rather than a biological entity.

The hoax possibility is seemingly much more plausible in this case than a lot of other cases of bizarre encounters. There is based on what can be gleaned from eyewitness testimony the idea that this creature may have been capable of movement, but it’s never seemingly described as ambling along, opening its mouth, or doing anything of the sort that would give the appearance of a sentient entity. So, from this lack of movement, there's a possibility that what was reported could have been some manufactured model or some form of an art installation that could have been made as a kind of prank. Now that said, while not impossible, I find it unlikely seeing the figure reported was about 16ft tall and to create a piece that big and set it up and then take it down all in the matter of a few minutes just for the chance of a hoaxing someone is highly improbable.

While a hoax cannot be taken off the table, other researchers have looked at other Fortean categories for an answer to this anomalous apparition. One of the most unlikely categories that some researchers have pointed to is that what was seen on Chickie’s Hill could have come from the world of Ufology based on a comparison to a famous case in Mississippi. Researcher Joshua Cutchin has hypothesized that the appearance of the Chickie’s Hill Mummy might be interconnected to the Pascagoula Abductors. The reason for this is that the Pascagoula Abductors were often described as having mummy-like skin and having bizarre conical knife-like protrusions that jutted out of their face. Now the Pascagoula abductors are only loosely similar to the Chickie's Hill Mummy; the size is entirely wrong, the Pascagoula abductors had arms and floated and had less projecting facial features, and that one was on the front of the face. Based on these glaring differences, I do not believe that they are the same or even a related phenomenon.

The most plausible category for this entity which is perhaps the most difficult to accept is that this is a supernatural apparition, either some sort of manifestation created via witchcraft or possibly the transmogrified spirit of a murder victim. Entities similar to the Chickie's Hill Mummy have been reported elsewhere, not only in the United States but around the world. One that I recently wrote about is the Anza-Borrego Desert Lantern Skeleton which was an 8ft tall skeletal apparition with an old lantern that hangs in its skeletal chest (see entry for more information). In Japan, there is a Yokai known as Gashadokuro, which is a colossal skeletal apparition that is fifteen times the size of a normal person. This entity is composed of the bones of individuals who had died of starvation and proceed in grabbing and biting the heads off anyone who encounters them. In Scotland, another skeletal type entity was reported the entity was seen at the wedding dance of King Alexander the figure bore no clothes or flesh this encounters exact date is unclear since the original reference to this was John Keel’s The Complete Guide to Mysterious Beings and he places the date to 1293 but this is impossible as King Alexander III the last of the King Alexanders died on March 19, 1286, and was married in 1251. King Alexander II, however, was married a second time in 1239 to Marie De Coucy, so there's a higher chance that this is the encounter Keel was mentioning. Similar sightings of skeletal apparitions have been reported in England and Ireland.

What are we to make of these skeletal specters? There is a typical belief that apparitions will frequently bear the marks or even the methods of their execution, such as the Ghost of Anne Boleyn appearing without her head or the Greenbrier Ghost who recreated her broken neck to show her mother how she was murdered. This does not seem to be the case with these entities, or if it is a part of why these entities manifest in the way they do, it needs to be more thoroughly looked into. If the Chickie's Hill Mummy was some murder victim and what Harriet and the other witnesses saw was the body wrapped up with the several murder weapons inserted in it, this would be the first case in which a murdered individual was 16ft tall. So, it’s doubtful that what was being manifested is a direct representation of the original form of whatever this entity is/was if this was at one point human. Perhaps much like Japan’s Gashadokuro, the entity was some sort of manifestation that is formed by multiple spirits or created by some sort of emotion. This could explain how the entity seems to be much larger than it should be if it was at one point the spirit of a living person.

While I've discussed the possibility that this could be the soul of some sort, be it a murder victim or something similar, there's another possibility that was offered by one of those who were picnicking on the hill. There have been several reports of alleged witches in Pennsylvania, and there have been about two that have been said to be in the area of Chickie's Hill. If we look at these tales of magic as possible, perhaps this apparition is some sort of demon, or magical manifestation that's sole purpose is to, in an almost Scooby-Doo-like way to scare away or cause mischief on those who would enter the area. Now I must say even though the apparition is extremely bizarre if this was to be the case, there should be more reports of this entity unless the curse had a supernatural period of time of activity and had reached its end. This is something that has happened before but from a Christian standpoint and with an equally bizarre entity. There was a period of time that the Jersey Devil was believed to of been exorcised from the Pine Barrens after a priest was paid to deal with the creature's shenanigans. Sightings of the creature during this time span were practically nonexistent, leading many to think that the creature was cast out of the woods. Perhaps that is what we see here, but in reverse, the curse was laid the apparition was free to roam the area for an allotted period of time, and then once that time was up, it had to return from wherever it came from. Yet all of this is simply speculation.

This anomalous apparition is an entity that, when I first came across it, completely encapsulated my thoughts. This figure is so bizarre that it truly is unique even when it comes to the colossal gallery of reported ghosts, cryptids, and aliens that are said to lurk on our planet. Just what was seen on the hill that day, I can only speculate, but its something so unique that it definitely needs to be brought to the attention of the Fortean community even though I’m sure well never come close to even getting a glimpse of what truly was lurking on that warm day in 46’ and seen that cold night in 69’.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Paranormal Entity

Location: Chickie’s Rock County Park, Columbia, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

Sighted: 1946/1969

Works Cited:

Beyond the Seventh Gate By Timothy Renner

The Complete Guide to Mysterious Beings By John Keel

The Inhumanoids By Barton Nunnelly

Cutchin, Joshua “Pascagoula or PA ghoulie?” Joshua Cutchin. December 20, 2016. https://www.joshuacutchin.com/single-post/2016/12/20/pascagoula-or-pa-ghoulie. Accessed October 26, 2021.