There's an empty church on
Buckingham Mountain where it is said you can race the devil. The race begins
alongside Mount Gilead Church and ends in the graveyard behind it. The rules of
the race vary on who is telling the legend. You never see your demonic opponent,
but you can tell by the wind if you've won the race. If you feel a gust of wind
before the end of the race, it's the devil going past you and you lose. If you
feel a gust of wind after the race, it's the devil coming in behind you and
you've won. If you feel no wind at all, the devil was ahead the whole time.
Some people say winning the race brings one year of good luck and losing brings
a year of bad luck. Some even say that losing brings death and cite a local folk
story as proof.
Years
ago, a local student died at a party from internal burns after a botched trick.
The boy was trying to breath fire and instead of exhaling, he inhaled and the
flames burned his lungs. Many locals insist that this happened a day after the
boy raced the devil and lost.
The
legend itself could have many origins. Some claim it to be an old folk story
told by Albert Large, an old hermit who lived in the area in the 1800s. It's
also being said that a lot of black magic was performed inside the church and
that is why the God cursed the church.
Story courtesy of Weird Pennsylvania
We heard
about this place on the news about two or three weeks ago (The link is above).
We originally went checked the Weird PA book to read about the gravity Hill and
while we were looking for that, we stumbled across this legend. Our two videos
show Beef and Logan explaining the legend and running the race. It also shows
the exterior of the church and cemetery. There wasn't much in the way of
paranormal activity, but the road definitely had a "You shouldn't Be here" kinda
feel. Being in the cemetery though was the creepiest part. Now, we aren't going
to tell you who won the race, you will have to watch the video to find out.
