Hexenkopf Rock

OVERVIEW

A rocky outcrop on Hexenkopf Hill (646 ft) in Williams Township, Northampton County, whose profile, from the road, resembles a witch's head and whose mica glitters by moonlight. The name is German — the language of the township into the nineteenth century — and the reputation comes from braucherei, the Pennsylvania German folk-healing practice known as powwowing: the healers of the township were said to transfer illness out of the sick and into the rock.

HISTORY

Witchcraft accusations are on the local record into the 1860s — a widow charged by a neighbour with cursing his horse. The hill is private land and a local landmark.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

Tradition holds that the rock is where the transferred sickness went, that witches gathered there, and that the hill glows; walkers report the glow and a feeling of being watched. Saucon Source and the canal-history society have written the tradition up; it is folklore with a documented practice behind it.

VISITING

Private land; the rock is visible from Hexenkopf Road. Do not trespass.