The last time I asked about investigating Pine Hill at night, I was told very firmly that no one can go there after dusk.

It’s an interesting location. I’m really not sure what to think of it. It’s lightly haunted in the traditional sense… as much as I can tell, anyway. Odd things happen there, and I’m not sure how many of them are actually ghostly.

However, I’m fairly certain that something paranormal is going on there, after dark, and I’d really like a chance to study whatever it is.

We know that Abel Blood lived the kind of life that generally doesn’t result in hauntings. The “ghost stories” are fun, but not likely to be true. However, the person who told me his first-person experience at Abel Blood’s headstone… his stories are always reliable. So, something is going on there.

A serious, complete, and scientific investigation the only way to rule out normal (but odd) influences that only look like hauntings, and establish what’s really going on at Pine Hill.

Until someone can do that, the stories and rumors will probably continue to present problems for the police and neighbors. When it’s against the law to go there to research after dark, the people most likely to visit Pine Hill at night will be people who have little respect for the law. Sadly, vandalism and theft are among the logical results.

I’m hoping that the town’s policies will change in the near future. Until then, I don’t go there after dusk and can’t recommend it to anyone else.

Sincerely,
Fiona Broome

thanks ryan b.

Thanks for the updates. Regarding Blood Cemetery in Hollis, NH (aka Pine Hill Cemetery), the town has been very aggressive about discouraging after-dark visitors to the cemetery. I’m sure the motion sensor lights are more practical than the rumored attempts by the police to scare visitors. According to stories I’ve heard, the police draped themselves in white sheets and hid behind the gravestones. When someone arrived, they’d jump up and make ghostly noises. (I’m not sure what “ghostly” noises are.)

Nashua doesn’t seem so hostile to the visitors who explore Gilson Road Cemetery and “Schoolhouse” cemetery next to the Royal Ridge shopping area. Then again, Nashua probably benefits from the additional tourists/visitors (at the very least, we’re buying extra batteries as ours seem to go flat) while Hollis doesn’t have businesses near Blood Cemetery.

And, to be fair to Hollis, several gravestones were stolen from that cemetery many years before I reported its ghosts at this website. So, that cemetery had problems long before ghost hunting became popular.

Hollis is a pretty town and Blood Cemetery has some great folklore, but for an interesting place to visit, Nashua offers far more.

– Fiona

(I’d heard rumors even before I taught a ghost photography class at one of Nashua’s high schools. Someone’s sister was terrible at keeping secrets… but you probably already knew that.)

Sure, it was around the time of April Fools Day, but maybe the spirits played a prank on you by not responding. Or, maybe the two relevant spirits aren’t actively haunting (or watching) their respective graves.

(Though I believe the person who told me he saw the finger pointed down, I’ve never encountered much ghostly energy around either of the graves involved. I also haven’t seen anything with glowing red eyes chase anyone out of Gilson Road cemetery, nor do I seriously think “Betty Gilson” appears on that road on foggy nights.)

But, if it wasn’t a joke, timing it around April Fools Day was a little foolish. I also didn’t appreciate being woken up in the middle of the night by some entity, insisting that I had to drive to Gilson Road to look at Walter’s gravestone. I mean, I have about 50 photos of it… it’s not as if I needed to see it again.

Having to report this to the police was no fun, either, because I was their first suspect, but I couldn’t get anyone else to help me restore the stones to their proper locations. (Even ghost hunters don’t like to move anything significant in a cemetery.)

I have never revealed what I knew about the prank, and I don’t intend to, ever. (You know that ISP numbers are recorded with each comment at this site… right? In the future, use an anonymizer when you’re saying something that could get you in trouble.)

Regarding your beliefs: Life has a way of revealing lessons when you’re ready for them. If you don’t believe in an afterlife now, that’s fine. When you revisit this question later, and I hope you take a more reasonable, scientific (and legal) approach. Or, you could just ask (privately, please) to join me on a few ghost hunts to see what really happens with the right tools, and when you know what to look for.

I can reassure you it was not.

switching the headstones was the only idea four mid-twenties males could think of to make sure a ghost or spirit would react.

but at last no paranormal activity was observed while the headstones were switched.

I mean if there is an afterlife and I was watching people disrespecting my burial site I would find a way to at the very least scare them off.
but this did not happen…therefor I will never believe in anything paranormal.

good-luck finding actual proof of any sort of an afterlife!

Your experiences are great. Thanks for telling us about them! They confirm many reports that we’ve heard, as well as our own experiences. The mist phenomena may be related to what I thought was a fluffy gray cat when I was there one late afternoon, but I have also seen the mist around a few other stones. It’s very odd.

The “Blood Cemetery” name issue is common in many communities. Locals seem to be fine with their neighbors using a nickname for a nearby location, but if anyone outside the community uses that nickname, a few people get very upset. It’s okay; almost everyone calls Pine Hill Cemetery by its nickname, Blood Cemetery. I only use the proper name as often as I do, because many New England towns had members of the Blood family, so there are a lot of cemeteries with “Blood Cemetery” nicknames, especially in Massachusetts and south central NH.

The 2002 prank — swapping Abel Blood’s headstone with Walter Gilson’s — was sad. I’m the one who discovered the swap and reported it. I’m still upset about it, because it pointed a finger (no pun intended) at Hollow Hill, since — at the time — mine was the only website talking about both of those haunted cemeteries. I understand that it sounded like a fun joke to a few high school students around April Fool’s Day.

However, the students who did it didn’t consider the long-term consequences for the families of the deceased, and the people who visit those cemeteries regularly, including ghost hunters. That prank is another reason why I don’t report as many haunted locations as I used to. Some of the best haunted public sites around New England will never appear in Hollow Hill articles, because I can’t risk the vandalism or notoriety that can spoil our research opportunities. The Abel Blood incident made that clear.

Those aren’t all the things I’ve experienced there, but I do know that I am very sensitive to things like this. It kind of runs in the family. So it doesn’t completely surprise me that these things have occurred in my presence. Just thought I’d share some of that.