Cossart Road is a long curvy and narrow road that is located just above the Delaware border in the town of Chadds Ford, PA. The road has such a haunting history that it is now known as “Devils Road.” Even more, it is so famous, that the woods surrounding it were used to shoot the blockbuster movie The Village.

The legend of the road begins with the story of a mansion located within the forest, known locally as the Cult House. Once owned and operated by the wealthy DuPont family, the stone mansion did house a cult of some kind. As the locals told us, it was common for the DuPont family members to marry their cousins in the house, so that the family’s wealth would stay in the family. Other dismissed the notion entirely, pointing to the fact that the house was home to Satanists and KKK members who only wanted to rid the world of what they considered “impurities.”

Over time, the trees devoured the bodies and took the shape of the child's skull Click to Tweet

The strange thing about the cult house is that there are natural wonders located on and around the house which cannot be explained other than the works of “dark magic.” For one, a stretch of trees located on the road grow (were not cut) to face away from the home, opposite of the natural order of growing towards the sun. This odd phenomenon with the trees stops occurring about a quarter mile past The Cult House’s location. Other trees in the area resemble skulls and were rumored to be the dumping locations of DuPont babies who were born disabled. Over time, the trees devoured the bodies and took the shape of the child’s skull.

Many people have made their way to Devils Road to uncover the mystery behind the road and the DuPont family. Although the land is private property and the forest is littered with No Trespassing signs, it doesn’t stop people. Those who usually make it tell one of two stories. They are either chased out by guards carrying large bright flashlights and driving huge black trucks. Or they see and hear things that cannot be explained. These voices are thought to be the demons called upon by the family to guard their secrets and fortune; or the devil himself. Over time dead animals and crosses have been found, and spray painted symbols litter the trees, a result of sick minded vandalism.

In 2003-2004 the director M. Night Shyamalan chose the location to film his movie The Village. The filming location choice was inspired by the legends associated with Cossart Road. Used to inspire the actors to feel a true sense of fear, the resulting movie was strange and only increased the curiosity locals had about the woods and the road.

Today the road is still visited by teens and adults alike in the hope of capturing a ghost, a disembodied voice, or to discover the secrets of the DuPont family.

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New Investigator

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Helpful for beginners and novices.
1 year ago
Ben dover

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I’m a local and drive by the road every day. I never new the backstory.
1 year ago
Anonymous

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This road was my favorite shortcut between rt 52 and rt 100. Having lived in CF I traveled it hundreds of times, both day and night. The Scariest thing that happened on this road was the Film The Village. It is a natural rural road of some beauty.
2 years ago
Russ

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It’s probably been about 20 years but when we went, we noticed the trees bending away from the road, saw the skull tree and then we saw people come out of this house dressed in robes all walking single file like they were doing some kind of ritual. We got out of there asap
2 years ago
Air love

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Know one mentioned the little people village that sits on or by the road
3 years ago
Preston

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Drove this road 30 years ago when it wasn’t as known. Very scary at the time because I was a teenager. All of the DuPont history, and houses, and trees, and roots that look like a skull are true. The best part, the skull, was removed a few years ago due to the amount of car accidents, so it that’s a bummer. I took my young girls during the day shortly after watching IT at a near by theater. Would you believe halfway through there was a sewer grate with red balloon tied to it!!!! Kids LOST their minds, and I wasn’t happy either. The True history is incredible.
3 years ago
Preston

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3 years ago
haha

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it was lame. the guys in the truck arent even scary
3 years ago
Ben

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Look up Bruce Johnston and the film “At Close Range” starring Sean Penn. Based on crimes in the 70s that took place in the area. 3 murder victims were buried along this road.
In my experience, only a night time drive does the road justice, and even then, the best scares are typically explained by others causing mischief. Plenty of people I know drove it with friends in separate cars–inexplicably having a third car slip inbetween them.
4 years ago
jared

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many people go down this road, a lot of locals including my friends have gone down this road numerous times but never seen anything paranormal or anything like that. but i had a very different experience the first time i went down. what my girlfriend and i saw will forever be engraved in our memory… so the first time we went down it was on a saturday night at around 9:30 10ish pm so it was dark and about 4 minutes into the drive our driver (one of my friends) immediatly stopped the car and was panicing saying “i saw someone run across the road, i saw someone run across the road” so at this point me and my girlfriend are in the back seat all the windows down and none of us believed my friend AKA the driver at first. so we continue down the road and as we were slowly driving past where our driver supposidly saw the “person” me and my girlfriend and i cannot stress this enough i have no reason to lie but we stared this girl in the eyes for about 4 seconds before screaming “GO!GO!GO!’ and let me just describe this girl.. she was most likey somewhere around the age of 18-19 yearso old, she had long black silky hair like it hasnt been washed in weeks, pal white skin, skinny langthy arms just crouched behind a little wooden fence next to the road like something straight from a horror movie. so after that we booked it to the end of the road and as we were approached the last half mile of the road maybe, this big truck suddenly turns its highbeems on like 5 inches away from our car just following us flashing there lights on and off blinding us and trying to run us off the road. once we got to the end of the road we whipped a left turn and the truck did the same almost hitting another car on the other side of the road so we get out of there and go to a local sunoco down the road and we get our friends in another car to come with us again to go check on that girl to see if she was ok. so we go back again that same night like 30 minutes later but on the way back right as we were turning on the road a car got inbetween us (our car and my other friends car) so we pulled over to let the car infront of us, it was a blue minivan/suv with two elderly people in the front. so we let them pass and wait for our friends to get behind us to continue down the road insearch for this girl. we never found her but thats not where the story ends.. we continued down the road and we stopped at this bend right next to the dupont mansion driveway and at this bend all we saw were really bright lights coming from the other side so we proceed with caution. passing the bend we stopped again right infront of the dupont mansion driveway. dead center in the road were two big trucks on both sides blocking off this blue minivan/SUV with they’re lightbars on and highbeems blocking this car from going and than the truckers got out of theyre cars and proceeded to walk to the suv and open theyre drivers doors and actually take take the people out of the car. at this point everyones freaking out so we pull into the upont mansion driveway to turn around and as we’re stopped me and my girlfriend were screaming out the window “ARE YOU OK? ARE YOU OK? they all just stopped and didnt say anything back. and mind you we were only like 30 yards away from these people so they obviously heard us screaming at them. this honestly is a thrilling and scary place to go even if you dont see anything theres always just an erry feeling in the air and id 10/10 suggest going if your a local
4 years ago
Doug Walters

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Very beautiful yet uneventful drive. The trees are bent, which to some people apparently can ONLY mean it’s haunted. Some signs are vandalized, which simply MUST mean the devil is at work. There are some stone ruins (house? Church?) near the road which are a telltale sign of….?
Hell…this road is about as haunted as Route 1 between Kennett Square and Chadds Ford. Absolutely nothing to it. Drive it for its beauty, but other than that….that’s it.
4 years ago
Doug Walters

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Very beautiful yet uneventful drive. The trees are bent, which to some people apparently can ONLY mean it’s haunted. Some signs are vandalized, which simply MUST mean the devil is at work. There are some stone ruins (house? Church?) near the road which are a telltale sign of….?
Hell…this road is about as haunted as Route 1 between Kennett Square and Chadds Ford. Absolutely nothing to it. Drive it for its beauty, but other than that….that’s it.
4 years ago
Chesco Paranormal Investigator

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This what my research has revealed– one family prominent in national GOP politics (including a former DuPont exec) owns huge parcels along this road. The Village was filmed on local conservancy property. I believe the alleged Cult House sits on this family’s property behind 200 Cossart Rd (owned by member of this same family). Checking google maps, it’s clearly a former estate which now lies in ruin. It can be best viewed using the 3D feature.
4 years ago
Helix

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I took this road looking for paranormal activity many times (35+ years ago). Now my teenager wants to drive it with friends. I’ve driven it at night. I’ve driven it in the day. There isn’t a single thing paranormal about this road. The trees do grow away from the road, however there is a very steep embankment on that side. I’ve always thought the trees probably lean because of the embankment and not “grow away” from the road as people make it seem. The fog is real. The road runs through the dank woods and there is a stream nearby. Of course there’s going to be fog lol.
4 years ago
Justme

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I went down this road and it’s creepy asf and one point it got extremely foggy and we cauldnt see a thing I was high asf and we were going down this road me and my two friends and we chose this road obviously cause of the shit we heard and it was actually scary asf it’s so dark their is no lights going down the entire road it’s scary but it’s a great experience and I do recommend visiting just be careful
4 years ago
Kld

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Fxzing scary.
4 years ago
Chaddsforddays

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Went on a hi ride dare down cossart road at night time. Me and three friends. We had all heard the rumours about supposed kkk, witchcraft meetings and baby eating trees. So the goal of the dare was to go and start a bonfire in the field (weren’t we clever kids?) and park up at the gates to walk up to the field. About 2 minutes after we got out of the car a clear farmer came almost all the way up to us on foot. I am sure he said something but thanks to the rumours of the area and how blazed we were, our paranoia had won. We bolted.
Maybe it’s the hype (placebo effect) but when you go down that road, especially near those trees that seem repelled by something, there is a very spooky feeling.
I heard stories of witches sacrificing children in the area. There is a lot of trees with spray paint on them too but i think they are codes for environmental workers.
I am forever the skeptic so it’s probably nothing. Can’t remember if I had heard the legends prior to The Village. I don’t recognise any of the location in that movie.
4 years ago
Dagger dick

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If you’re looking to just drive down a creepy dangerous road at night it’s fun. The trees pointing towards the road are pretty sick but there is no cult house nor paranormal activity here.
5 years ago
Anonymous

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Anyone that thinks the scariness of this road was hyped up for the Village movie must be too young to have known that decades before the film was made, this was a very scary destination. Now it’s not scary because almost everything that made the road scary has either been removed or does not hold the same effect without the other scary elements.
5 years ago
Z-Man

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I’ve been on this road many times. That being said I just farted. N that’s scarier then that road.
5 years ago
Bea M

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This whole thing hilarious. I think I only found out about “Devil’s road” because of a late night YouTube click. I have lived in Chadds Ford since I was about 4 years old. There isn’t anything haunted or evil about cossart road. I think the only reason these stories popped up was for M. Night Shamylan’s film The Village. It was filmed in a field nearby. It’s true that there was a lot of intermarriage in the DuPont family nearby, just like most American Royalty families. It’s one of my favorite roads and it’s really a gorgeous drive in the spring especially.
6 years ago
Chris

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I have visited this road many times and I can tell you there isn’t really anything in the daytime, but at night when coming home from work you will notice these black SUV vehicles tail gating you throwing on their high beams at you. One time I was pissed and stopped got out and knocked on the window. Found out they are really guards hired by people to keep people out. There is absolutely no signs that says private property. The road isn’t private property. The only thing that is private property is the land. I’m a bouncer that works in philly and I can tell you I won’t tolerate anyone throwing high beams on me at night. Next time I won’t be as nice. As far at paranormal stuff going on at night, it does get creepy but very mild. Sometimes I think it’s kids trying to scare people. If you want to investigate be my guest but nothing really extreme. Oh yea and I have seen recent activity going on at that church building or Colt House that you see far away from the road. Times at night I can see light and people walking around in white hoods near the white building or whatever you want to call it. Anyways be careful when going on Cossart road you got psychos walking around.
6 years ago
Steven Mincer

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I have lived in Chadds Ford all my life and taken that road 100s of times at night. Nothing ever went down other then when they filmed the village and then it was only security guards chasing us bastard kids away. I even walked down it at night no problems.
6 years ago
F

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I have been on this road many times. The road is creepy and get eerie feeling when on it. We seen white hooded people and other weird things. We have heard babies crying and it be night.
6 years ago

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Haunted Places, Legends and Ghosts

Cossart Road (Devils Road) : Chadds Ford, PA

Cossart Road (Devils Road) : Chadds Ford, PA

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