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The Untold Story Of The Gates Of Hell Of Riverdale Road - Colorado · Mystery Archives Episodes

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Along a section of Winding Rd. tall rusted gates harbour dark
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secrets. Not an adventure for the weak,
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this place is known for an abundance of evil activity.
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As the weary wander through the rusted iron bars, the souls of
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the damned whisper. Some will visit with wonder and
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others apprehension, and for good reason, for this place has
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spawned many legends. Stories of satanic cults,
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sacrifices, demonic possession and a wide range of terrifying
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apparitions have allegedly revealed themselves.
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But are there any truth to the rumors?
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What are these bone chilling stories?
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What is it about the stretch of Rd. in Thornton, Co that has
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made it so infamous? That is what we will discover
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here on this episode of Mystery Archives as we explore the gates
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of Hell of Riverdale Rd. of Colorado.
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All information provided is purely speculative.
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I've tried my best to find any and all information I could to
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the best to fit the stories and or see possibly where they could
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have come from or if there's any truth to them.
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Riverdale Rd. an 11 mile path located between Thornton and
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Brighton Co, has been a supposed hotspot for paranormal activity
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for decades. The earliest rumors tell us of a
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nearby Native American burial ground.
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When it was in use, it's said that the tribe placed a curse
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upon the land to affect those who would disturb their dead.
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And as we've heard numerous times before, you don't mess
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with Native burial grounds. Nothing good ever comes of it.
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More on this later. Over the years, strange
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entities, those seeming to be half human and half animal, have
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been known to permeate the path ahead.
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Could these creatures have been the very feared skinwalkers of
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native folklore? Not all is evil with this rumor,
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however. There are both good and evil
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forces at work. They say that if you see a Gray
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fox along the road, then a benevolent entity has graced
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your trip. But if a coyote is what you see
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instead of a Gray fox, the path ahead is an ominous and
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malevolent 1. We will certainly dive back into
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all of these rumors later, but the lore doesn't end here.
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It was nicknamed Closer to modern Times for a variety of
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stories over the decades, and those of which I'll cover now in
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no particular order. Many people were lynched upon
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the trees surrounding the road and many as sacrifices, some
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allegedly of former slaves by racist groups and others
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sacrifices committed by residents of the local community
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long ago. Whether the groups were one and
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the same cannot be distinguished.
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The Gates of Hell was once supposedly the home of a commune
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of Satanists. Satanists who would do anything
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to keep their black church and its practices the secret.
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If anyone questioned the leadership, or if an outsider
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got too close to the truth, they would simply go missing.
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On the North End of the road, not too far from Hwy. 7, there
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once stood a large house, probably what most would
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consider to be a mansion. But the ruins of this building
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too harbor sinister secrets. Built by a very wealthy man for
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him and his family, the home was once quite the marvel to gaze
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upon, but the ability to look upon the structure would be
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short lived. Shortly after moving his family
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in, once construction was finished, the man began to
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change, growing colder, more distant and stranger.
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Located back behind the home was an underground cellar and taking
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the blood from the lives of those who had gone astray.
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It is here that they say he used black magic, writing strange
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symbols on the walls with their blood in order to try and
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conjure spirits and demons, perhaps in order to gain power
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and wealth. Behind the cellar is an old
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burnt tree, which has some lore of its own as well.
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This was where some victims were supposedly hung and burned at
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the stake, leaving charred remnants.
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One fateful night, as his family slept, the husband of the family
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crept up the stairs with an axe and without the others knowing,
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he went room to room, slaying his wife and his children as
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their blood coated the floors of the house.
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This diabolical man, seemingly demon possessed, then took fuel
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and dumped it all throughout the house, lit it a flame, and then
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stepped outside to revel in pure madness and what he had just
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done. Was it him or a demon inside of
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him? This will perhaps never know,
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but he apparently once the home was partially engulfed in flames
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and took a rope, fastened it to the charred tree behind his
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cellar and ultimately hung himself, his feet dangling
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inches above the ground as the home behind him was reduced to
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burnt rubble. Other versions of the story say
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the man disappeared and was never seen or heard from again.
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A pale white figure of a woman is said to haunt the grounds
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now. Can be heard screaming some
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nights when the wind is still. Those that visit the Gates of
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Hell area have reported, as previously mentioned, seeing
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strange animals, but they also report seeing and hearing
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stranger things as well, disembodied voices, the feeling
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of being watched, and the sensation of icy hands poking
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and touching them. Another very strange phenomenon
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that's said to exist is bloody human hand burns materializing
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on the street signs with no rational origin.
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This place, like many, seems downright terrifying in my
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opinion. But is there any truth to any of
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these stories, or are they just that, stories?
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Well, here's what I found. Following what we covered in
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order, Thornton Co was indigenously inhabited by
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several Native American tribes, most notably the Arapaho and the
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Cheyenne. Each tribe had very different
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burial methods. The Arapaho usually buried their
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deceased on the same day that the person had died.
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The body was dressed in their finest traditional clothing and
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a spacious grave was dug into the ground.
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The person was then buried with some of their personal
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belongings, such as clothing and blankets.
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Stones and other items would be placed on top of the grave to
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mark its significance and who was buried there, arguably
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fairly similar to how the West buries people today.
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The Cheyenne, however, had a very different method.
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It's unclear how long it took them to typically lay someone to
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rest, but their funeral customs were that they would wrap the
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deceased in shawls and blankets. It would proceed to the
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designated burial ground, and during the procession a
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bloodletting practice would take place where ponies would
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typically be killed. They are interesting to me in
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numerous ways, but they wouldn't bury their dead.
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They would instead build a scaffold of sword and lay the
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dead on top of it. This was done in the belief that
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it would accelerate the soul of the departed's passage into the
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afterlife. For practical reasons, it is
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believed that they did this in order to prevent wild animals
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from pillaging the corpse, which very well may have been the
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case, but typically the bodies would stay and sometimes decay
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and eventually fall back down to the ground.
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Now, curses did exist for both tribes, but I couldn't find any
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that specifically referenced burial sites and almost all
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people's beliefs. Disturbing the dead is
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considered very taboo. Could it perhaps be our
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collective regard for the eternal rest of those who have
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passed that have led us to the belief that a burial ground
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could indeed be cursed? Also, skinwalkers, which are
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still feared to this day, were created when a person committed
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a heinous act like the killing of a family member, and this
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would grant them supernatural powers, allowing them to
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shapeshift from a human to an animal at will.
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They often become coyotes, wolves, foxes, or bears, though
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they can transition into any animal.
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Both coyotes and foxes are allegedly the omens along the
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road containing the gates of hell.
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When it comes to the supposed lynchings that took place, I
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found this in Colorado. It was a cheap way to execute
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criminals, and the majority of those that are documented,
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roughly 175 cases, were mostly the results of court rulings at
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the time all over the state and the time being the early 20th
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century. As far as if formal slaves were
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lynched, this very possibly could have taken place, but I
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couldn't find any that were directly linked to Thornton.
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In total, there were five events that were explicitly tied to
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race, but many took place again in the early 20th century,
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albeit as horrific as they were. After 1919, lynch mobs
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occasionally flared up to dole out public justice, but as more
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people moved to the state, attitudes towards this type of
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behavior and action began to change.
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Therefore, public opinion as well as opinion of the courts
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moved away from this method of execution.
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When it comes to the apparent satanic coal commune that
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supposedly lived there, I couldn't find any evidence of
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them no matter where I looked. But obviously, if I was a secret
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cult and I was good at my job, I wouldn't have any evidence of my
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bloodthirsty existence on the Internet either.
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This now leads us back to the mansion where the name came
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from. The name Gates of Hell came from
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the old and rusted iron gates of a burned down mansion, A blaze
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that was the result of a madman who took his family out.
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Now there is proof of the mansion, who bought it, and what
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happened that caused it to burn down, but the truth is certainly
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less spooky than the legend. Before I dive into it, I wanted
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to also mention that it's more than likely that the charred
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tree was the result of either the original fire or of a
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lightning strike taking place. The mansion was originally named
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the Volbert House, built in 1864 by a man named David Volbert.
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This two-story brick house was a fine structure of dignity.
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David, who was a very successful prospector along with his wife
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Catherine, had two daughters and a son.
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However, even though fitting the time frame when the madman story
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supposedly took place, David didn't go crazy and harm his
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family. He actually would go on to pass
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away, presumably within the home, at the age of 75.
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What happened to his family members is unclear, but they
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most likely moved on and passed away from natural causes.
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The home, as far as I can tell, sat vacant from the early 1900s
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until 1975. This is when a man named Doctor
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Hugo Roddick and his wife Ori and Sally Rodig purchased the
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home, working hard on behalf of the Adams County Historical
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Society. The couple would go on to
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restore the home and live there for a short time, designating
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its status as a historical monument.
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Things seemed normal for the Rodigs until 1:00 AM on November
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28th, 1975. The home, which stood at 9190
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Riverdale Rd. became engulfed in flames.
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It's unclear whether or not the couple had any children or any
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that lived with them at that time, but the Roddick's would
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make it out of the blaze very much alive.
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And although the origin of the blaze was undetermined, the
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authorities at the time did determine that arson did not
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seem to be at play. Doctor Roddick would go on to
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live and ultimately passed away at the age of 102.
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It seems as though the Madman Mansion story, as I've come to
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see it, could possibly be a fictionalized amalgamation of
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both of the real stories surrounding the Volbert House.
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The ruins of the home as well as the original gates have since
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been demolished and the Pelican Ponds open space now sits in
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their place. Sometimes the truth isn't as fun
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as the legends that surround an area.
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And perhaps there could be more truth in some of these tales.
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Perhaps the area itself is where the veil is thinner between our
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world and the next. It's hard to say, but one thing
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is certain, the folklore of America's vast, creative and
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entertaining. And it's incredible to see so
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many stories spawning from seemingly such an insignificant
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place like a winding stretch of Rd. in the middle of Colorado.
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But what do you think? Do you have any stories about
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the Gates of Hell? Do you have any stories from
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your local community that have become legends?
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Make sure to let me know down in the comments below.
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Anyways, love you all. Thank you for allowing me to do
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Mystery Archives. Remember the police.
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Stay safe out there and take care.
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I'll see you next time.