Cossart Road

Cossart Road is a strange place. The urban legends surrounding the road circulate continually. Supposedly, there was an evil cult working out of one of the houses along the road. For years, folks told stories about trees bending away from the roadway. They are straining to get away from the evil of the ‘cult house’. There was even a tree that had roots resembling a skull! One popular legend about the ‘cult house’ suggests that the Du Pont family secreted the horrific results of their inbreeding in the house. And thrill-seekers who travel the road at night are chased by trucks with their lights off.

In February 2000, the Review (University of Delaware) looked into the mystery of the Cult House.1The Review, 2/4/2000

The massive stone manor is situated on a sloping, snow-covered hill about two football fields away from the road. It is almost completely hidden by thick evergreens, planted by the owner to deflect attention.

It’s rumored that the windows of the mansion are shaped like crosses.

H.G. Haskell, a class of ’84 university alumnus who has lived along the road all his life, says the majority of rumors regarding the Cult House and Devil’s Road are just that – rumors.

He says he first heard about the spooky tales nearly 15 years ago, and they have escalated ever since.

“Four or five years ago, it started to get more serious,” Haskell says. “That’s when the graffiti on the trees started.”

He says before the “Road Closed” barrier was erected, nearly 200 vehicles a night would drive down Devil’s Road.

Haskell and the other residents decided to hire a security guard to patrol the road, which could account for the rumors of security trucks chasing drivers.

“One time, [the guard] found people in KKK hoods,” he says, but Haskell says he thinks it was probably a fraternity prank.

Haskell adds that cars from the surrounding properties were stolen and set on fire and that a burning cross was found at one end of the road.

In addition, decapitated baby dolls have been found nestled in the hollow of the Skull Tree.

These incidents were what led the residents to ask the township for assistance. Though the amount of traffic radically decreased after the sign was put up, Haskell says he’s still wary about the safety of himself and the other residents.

“I still won’t let my children ride their bikes on that road,” he says.

Haskell says the rumors about the Cult House and Devil’s Road can all be easily debunked.

The trees lining the road grow at an angle, he explains, because they have been trimmed to avoid the power lines that run along the road.

Although he confirms the Cult House does indeed have windows with crosses, he says that it is a fairly common occurrence in many windowpanes.

And above all, he says, there is nothing mysterious about the owner.

“The owner used to be a little old lady. She lived by herself in a wing of the house. She was a du Pont,” he says. “She died about four or five years ago.”

The current owner, he says, is an elderly gentleman whom he and the other residents have all met.

“There is no cult,” he says.

Though Haskell debunked the cult aspect of the house and the area, he did mention that there had been a du Pont connection at one point.

Pinpointing which property is supposed to be the ‘cult house’ is a challenge. Though many of the stories talk about such a house, none of them give an address. Some stories about the area mention a gatehouse connected to the property, but none of the properties along the road seem to have such a building. However, up on one of the roads that connects to Cossart road to the north, there is a property that has a gatehouse. And, yes, some du Ponts lived there.

At one point, most of the land north of Cossart road had been owned by a family named Bissell. A Bissell married into the du Pont family and the descendants lived in some of the houses north of Cossart road. But the du Pont family is not likely to be the cause of any spookiness along the road.

Though the du Pont family is certainly fascinating, let’s move on. There is a far better reason behind the spookiness of Cossart road.

In the late 1970s, a notorious gang of thieves, known as the Johnston Gang, were operating in the area. Their crime spree finally came to an end in late 1978, when members of the gang were apprehended. Some of them were willing to talk to the authorities. As a result, the bodies of three of their victims were found, buried on a farm along the south side of Cossart road. If anything is likely to cause the eeriness of the area, that would be a very likely reason!

Notes & Sources

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    The Review, 2/4/2000

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