The cemetery along Hell Highway

by Peter Jakey, Managing Editor

This story may start like a typical Halloween tale, but may be more of a worthy candidate for the next edition of ?Weird Michigan.?

A resident of M-211 found herself awakened by the sound of brakes bringing a vehicle to a stop along the side of the road.

The vehicle contained curious sight seekers and visitors interested in taking snap shots of something truly unique: a road named Hell Highway, an unpaved spur that doesn?t go much more than one-third of a mile east off of M-211.

What makes this street truly unusual is the landmark cemetery, which runs alongside. The cemetery, which contains the final resting places of many of Presque Isle County?s early pioneers, is named the North Allis Township Cemetery.

But above the fading names on the antique, rectangular shaped gravestones sticking high out of the ground, is the like-new Hell Highway sign.

There is an assumption the road?s name has something to do with fire and brimstone. It would be easy to assume, but those would be thoughts probably conjured up by Lucifer himself.

THE ROAD got its name from the Hell family, who lived at the end of the dead-end road for decades. The only connection with the name Hell and fire is Onaway?s history books.

In one account of the Lobdell Emery Manufacturing fire of 1926, Stephen Hell was believed to have perished in the blaze, but was later found in his boarding place. The sands of time are too thick to determine if Stephen Hell, the former sexton of the North Allis Township cemetery, who would have been 15 at the time, was the person the story was referring to.

Hell, a World War II veteran died November 23, 1991 at the age of 80. The man who took over for him as sexton, Peter Middaugh, buried him. The Hell house has since been razed, with the homestead now being occupied by Steve Robbins and his family.

Local historian Newt Chapman, who delivered mail to the family in the 1960s, said Hell was a quiet man, who lived a life separate from his name. He wasn?t raising it, nor living on the highway to it.

?I think that was put in later,? Middaugh said of the road.

THERE ARE only a few homes dotting the sides of Hell Highway, with mostly fulltime residents and a few seasonals. Chris McGrath lives across M-211, and has a clear view of the street sign and the cemetery.

?I?ve seen lots of people stop and take pictures all of the time,? said McGrath on a dark rainy late October afternoon. ?They will take a picture of the Hell Highway sign and then turn and take a picture of the cemetery. It?s kind of funny.?

Longtime resident Edith

Reiger?s most vivid memory of the Hell family was Stephen?s mother, who would walk to Holy Cross Lutheran Church four miles away. ?People would offer her a ride,? said Reiger, and she always refused. And if her (Reiger’s) family were to decide to bury her in the township cemetery, it wouldn?t bother her in the least. ?I don?t care what you do with me when I?m gone,? Reiger told her family with a hearty laugh.

Middaugh said he?s never noticed anything unusual at the cemetery, unless one wants to consider the price of a plot increasing from $5 to $10 when he started as sexton to $100 to $500 today.

There?s nothing sinister nor scary about the cemetery or road. It?s more water cooler fodder than a gateway to a place God-fearing people spend their lives trying to avoid.