So, if you drive out into the mountains in Bedford county you come to this very remote area. Aside from a ski resort and some state park infrastructure here and there it's pretty isolated. Only 40 minutes or so from Altoona or Johnstown but you have to work to get out here.

You wind around ridges and through valleys, woods, farms, and the odd tiny village for quite a while and then take a very long dirt and/or gravel road in various states of upkeep. Keep going for a few miles and you come across a small pull off, and a sign.

In 1856 this area was pretty wild, and one spring day two children, brothers ages 5 and 7, disappeared. Their dad had gone off into the woods to see why their dog was barking. When he returned they were gone.

The dad looked for them and not finding them enlisted neighbors. Within a few days there were apparently hundreds if not thousands of people from the wider region out combing the mountains.

A guy wrote a book about this whole series of events in 1888 that chronicles how weird things got, which if you have the time and inclination to read this extremely dramatic and maudlin retelling of things, you can find here: