After hearing numerous reports of unexplained activity occurring in a quiet secluded cemetery, Fringe Paranormal decided to investigate the claims for ourselves. Did our intrepid team of investigators stumble upon restless spirits of the undead? Are the claims of blood chilling experiences in the area true or are they simply the workings of the human mind? Join us as we investigate Buck Cemetery..
Investigation Date: June 26, 2009
Investigation Duration: 10:00pm-12:00am
History and Claims
Buck cemetery is located just outside of Archbold, Ohio near the small town of Evansport. This small burial place for the dear departed is off the beaten path 500 yards off of a dirt road. If you did not know about this cemetery or did not do your homework you may very well never be able to locate it. The path to the cemetery is closed off by an iron gate arm which is easily surpassed. After a 500 yard trek through a heavily forested area, the burial plots come into view through an opening in the dense foliage. The cemetery was founded in the 1800’s and performed its last interment in 1955. This abandoned location is in bad shape with broken grave stones and unkempt grounds.
Reports abound of a strange eerie light at the end of the path which disappears upon reaching the entrance to the actual cemetery. The rare visitors to this location have reported an apparition hovering above them as they first enter. It is said that the apparition is that of a Mr. Buck. It is claimed that he was either a caretaker/cemetery guard or a horse thief who was hanged on the property..
Investigators Present
- David B
- Don C
- Peggy D
- Todd P
- Kelly S
- David T
- Jake T.
| Investigation Conditions | |
|---|---|
| Temperature °F | Avg. 56.6 High 74.3 Low 41.9 |
| Humidity | Avg. 64% Max 85% Min 39% |
| Barometric Pressure | 30.40 in. |
| Wind | 1.6 mph WSW |
| Precipitation | 0.0 in. |
| Dew Point ºF | Avg. 43.5 High 50.3 Low 36.6 |
| Geomagnetic Field | Quiet |
| Solar X-Rays | normal |
| Moon | Waxing Gibbous 75% of full Age: 33% |
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The investigation
It was a warm clear night when Fringe investigators arrived for our first real investigation under our new moniker. Buck cemetery is a desolate, forlorn cemetery situated off of a seldom traveled dirt road. Arriving at the site, one is greeted by a path leading to the cemetery. This path is blocked by an iron gate. This obstacle is easily overcome by simply stepping over and through a small opening to the side. The investigator is then required to walk a distance down a dirt path through a heavily forested area. It has been reported that people walking this same path have seen a light at the end of the path which disappears by the time one reaches that point. Having walked this path, it is easy to debunk this so called eerie phenomena. Quite simply, the actual cemetery is a wide open area which emerges from the dense foliage. A “light at the end of the tunnel”. By the time one reaches the entry point ones eyes have gradually adjusted to the gradual influx of light. Keep in mind that any light in this instance was moon and star light. Upon emerging from the woods several members took note of the area above the entrance. No apparition or anything unusual was noticed.
At night, Buck cemetery can be a foreboding place. This could be the setting for a bad horror film. Fortunately for all involved, team members were not picked off one by one until one lone survivor remained. The Fringe investigative team roamed the grounds performing EMF readings and conducting EVP sessions. Nothing out of the ordinary was encountered. In addition to the previously mentioned lore about Mr. Buck there has been some talk among the locals that Mr. Buck murdered his wife and children and was killed by the towns people in retribution in the cemetery. Having found the actual gravestone of Mr. Buck we can state with confidence that such stories are highly unlikely. Mr. Buck actually preceded his wife and children in death. This would also put to rest claims that he was a hanged horse thief or cemetery guard/grounds keeper. Mr. Buck was simply a normal everyday person who bought a plot at the cemetery and was buried there along with his wife and family. After our discoveries, we decided to call it quits at about 12:00 am. We turned off our digital recorders and headed back through the dank dark woods towards our cars. We were finished with the spirits of the dearly departed at Buck cemetery but perhaps they weren’t quite finished with us.
As the team stood at the front gate to the path talking, Don heard a faint noise as if someone was speaking. Todd was standing to his immediate right side. Thinking that Todd had accidentally pushed the play button on his digital voice recorder, don thought nothing of it. Shortly thereafter it was heard again. Peggy commented that she too was hearing something. This happened several times. What several team members heard was akin to a radio transmission. The sound itself seemed to be coming from Todd’s area as previously mentioned. Todd confirmed that his cell phone was not responsible and that his recorder was not playing. While we cannot actually define this as a paranormal experience, it is, nonetheless, interesting to note. There is nothing in this area. No speakers of any kind. There were no other groups or vehicles in the area at the time..
Conclusion
Buck cemetery is a creepy place. However we cannot confirm any paranormal activity in the area.
Most of the claims of activity have been debunked to our satisfaction. We should also note that this was an important learning experience. During future investigations, Fringe will keep at least one digital recorder running until we have physically left the site.
Visit Buck cemetery Findagrave.com
Buck Cemetery Photo Slideshow
Prepared for Fringe Paranormal by Don C
For those with an interest in genealogy regarding Buck cemetery we have more photos upon request of tombstones. As always we ask all visitors to treat locations with respect and leave them as they found them
Update: sometime after this investigation I returned to Buck cemetery. I noticed that they were in the process of replacing some old, damaged, and broken stones with new ones.
Fringe Paranormal 
My parents bought the house outside of Evansport in 1995 and had it moved a few miles onto Route 66. I started trespassing in the cemetery with friends in 96-97, but I already had a history there back to 1986, when my father took me there to test a new pistol and I’d hunted groundhogs there from the river around 92-93… Dad had always teased us that it was haunted, but he didn’t seem to believe that… By 96-97, I began getting strange feelings from it. The stone road was very dusty, and we’d always see several black dogs running in the dust, but they’d always be gone when we reached the cemetery. We’d heard stories of wild dogs chasing deer, and we didn’t pay much attention to them… In the summer of 98, one of my disrespectful friends broke some tombstones back there. The next time we went back, one of my other friends felt something grab his hand on the way down the lane to the cemetery. Of course, we ran, and things seemed to change after that… My father was an atheist who’d never believed in paranormal things up to that point, but he stopped drinking beer for whiskey, due to my mother working in Evansport bar, and his outlook changed. He began seeing the dark figured man who he believed was John Buck. He’d wake up in the spare bedroom fighting with this figure, and say it told him to “go to the tree”… I’d heard of the tree. Some Evansport locals said they’d seen a rope hanging from the tree that Buck was supposedly hanged from. Some even said an old book named the cemetery as a “gate to Hell”… This went on for over four years. My dad even said he went there to shoot himself in the summer of 99, but unfortunately, we didn’t really take him seriously… or we just didn’t want to face it… Early the morning of January 3, 2002, I heard the loud muffler of my dad’s truck outside of my fiancee’s parents house. I had trouble sleeping and left around 9 a.m. while she was at work. When I saw he wasn’t home, I checked two of his closest friends houses and my mother’s before I went to the cemetery. I suppose I knew what I’d find once I saw his truck parked in front of the gate, but I don’t think I’ve ever remembered it all entirely, as I was genuinely afraid… I remember snagging my sweatshirt sleeve on the gate post, and began feeling the sensation of being pulled as I ran up the lane. Dad was lying in front of the trees to the left of the cemetery, with the same .357 magnum pistol next to him, that we’d tested there over 15 years before… I didn’t see the small bullet hole in his heart through a black portion of his camouflage coat initially, and I tried to pull him up, but he was frozen to the ground. Then I looked in his eyes, only to see my own distraught reflection. I opened the pistol to find one bullet fired, which is probably why the sheriff department investigated me… My fiancee didn’t know the cemetery, but when we went back to get his truck, she also felt the pulling sensation as she backed it out. Years later, we found that Buck’s wife had inherited the original house that was on the same plot, and they’d lived there before my parents’ house was built in 1897. The house was destroyed by a strange electrical fire Thanksgiving 2008, ironically seven years after Dad openly worried that it might. It was rebuilt in 2009, and eventually lost after my mother passed away in 2016 and my sister’s fiance backed out of taking the house over. In between that time, I heard a story from another woman who hadn’t known my father died there. She said they’d go there at night, face away from Buck’s grave, toward the river, and they’d hear a shotgun blast… Since then, I’ve thought that somehow Dad’s .357 might’ve sounded like a shotgun to those kids from Napoleon. And I can see the Smith & Wesson from where I’m sitting now… I keep it, not because it killed him, but because it’s his favorite one. I keep it as a reminder, in hope that it never happens to anyone in my family again. And that was the last time I saw Buck Cemetery.
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My nephew and his wife went to Buck cemetary years ago and took their digital recorder. After they left,played it back. In a young womans voice you could here her plain as day, say hello. I too heard it.
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In the early 90’s, two friends, my wife and I made two trips to Buck Cemetery. All of us were adults at the time. The first time, we saw the lights, there was two, but they were inside the cemetery itself. Our second trip, however, yielded more than just the lights. The lights glowed briefly as a black form chasing us back to the car.
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Very interesting. Thx for the photos. I’m doing research for a song I’m writing about Buck Cemetery. I used to live less than a mile away from there. My brothers and I used to ride our bikes there and walk around. We never had any paranormal experiences but we heard all the stories when we were kids.
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I was at buck cemetery and I took random pictures when we were walking down the path and in one of the pictures there was a green orb like thing shooting downward from the trees and it looked as if the bottom of the tree was on fire. It was pitch black when I took the pictures and this is the only one like it. Creeped me out!
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I was interested to see this because I went to Buck Cemetery with a group of friends as a teen and I’ve never been able to remember where it was. I remember at the time that it was in pretty bad condition, and that it was the kind of place I would love to investigate during daylight hours so that I could actually read the names and inscriptions. I also remember that we didn’t have any paranormal experiences of any kind.
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I went there with a group of friends when we were about 16 and it was around 2am. We all are sensitive to paranormal energies and we knew as soon as we stepped over the gate that there are spirits in Buck Cemetary. We saw a little girl playing around a tree, a man in a dark suit and hat walking the length of the road. There is something evil out there too, but we didn’t try to investigate.
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My Dad was back in Buck Cemetery as a young adult (he would now be 73 years old) and he said there was a LOT of activity while he was there! I would never go back after his stories!
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My brother Gene Hageman got the whole Hageman family to go out to Buck’s cemetery and we rebuilt the grave stones. We had rumors kids would go out and party there and destroyed some of the graves. We were on it for a couple days during daylight hours and never heard any noise thru the day but I would look into the drive down the path at night
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I went to buck cemetery with my ex-husband’s brother Frank and some friends when we were teenagers. We drove down the path before they had the gate and this dark suited man appeared on the left side and just stood there. We were so scared we turn around and left. This was way back around 1975.
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I went to Buck Cemetery with my older brother back in 1981 when I was 13 years old. It was around 3:00 a.m. when my brother and I were approaching the cemetery and we were turned away by a round single eerie looking light that chased us all the way out of and to the end of the dirt road. This light just mysteriously disappeared. This has freaked me out and to this very day, I’ve never returned to this haunting place.
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