Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainLancaster County's White Werewolf Burying Ground
Old River Rd near Rowenna, Marietta, PA
Research updated May 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
No formal entry fee; the cemetery sits on a quiet stretch of Old River Road between the Susquehanna River and a wooded slope.
Access
Limited Access
Small wooded plot with uneven ground and old field stones
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1700 · Pennsylvania-German Settler Family Cemetery · Lancaster County Folklore
Hans Graf — sometimes anglicized to Hans Groff — was a Swiss Mennonite immigrant who settled in the region that became Lancaster County in the early 1700s, part of the William Penn-era colonial migration. The Graf family was among the founding Pennsylvania-German settler families of the county, and members of subsequent generations are interred at the small Old River Road cemetery between the Susquehanna and a wooded slope west of Marietta.
Hans Graf himself is reportedly not buried at the cemetery that bears his name; the plot holds several generations of his descendants. The grounds are unmaintained beyond occasional family clearing and have no formal interpretation, signage, or preservation status. The cemetery's place in regional folklore substantially exceeds its formal historical recognition.
Sources
Hans Graf Cemetery occupies a distinctive position in Pennsylvania Dutch country folklore. Local tradition collected in Uncharted Lancaster and other regional sources holds that several Graf descendants were killed in the eighteenth or nineteenth century on accusations of being werewolves — a folk-belief category active in Pennsylvania Dutch communities during the period. In response, the story goes, Hans Graf laid a perpetual protective curse on the cemetery, leaving a guardian white wolf to attend the family's graves.
The most-told variant of the lore is the seven-circuits curse: anyone bold enough to walk seven times around the cemetery under the light of a full moon will not survive to dawn, hunted down by the guardian wolf. Less catastrophic accounts describe a white wolf or ghostly canine that howls when visitors arrive at night and continues until the visitor leaves; nearby local dogs are reported to join the white wolf's calls.
Additional reports describe glowing orbs captured in nighttime photographs, brief shadow figures moving among the older field stones, and the impression of being watched. Lancaster County ghost-hunter Rick Fisher has investigated the site repeatedly; his findings circulate in regional reporting but have not been published in peer-reviewed paranormal investigation. The cemetery's status in regional folklore is well-attested even though the historical anchor for the werewolf accusations is undocumented in surviving Lancaster County court records.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Visit the small Graf family plot on a quiet stretch of Old River Road between Marietta and Rowenna. The cemetery holds members of one of Lancaster County's earliest Pennsylvania-German settler families. Approach respectfully; the site is not actively interpreted.
Some links on this page may earn HauntBound a small commission when you book, at no extra cost to you. Our editorial picks are independent. Full disclosure
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Free Guide
11 verified stops, rated for families, mapped in order. Free.
One email to confirm, then the guide link. Unsubscribe anytime.
Atlanta, GA
Historic Oakland Cemetery was chartered in 1850 as the six-acre 'Atlanta Cemetery,' renamed Oakland in 1872, and expanded to 48 acres. Approximately 70,000 people are interred, including roughly 6,900 Confederate soldiers (3,000 unidentified), four Confederate generals, six Georgia governors, 27 Atlanta mayors, Margaret Mitchell, golfer Bobby Jones, and Maynard Jackson, Atlanta's first African American mayor. The cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 28, 1976.
Forest Park, IL
Forest Home Cemetery in Forest Park, Illinois, grew from two adjacent cemeteries — German Waldheim (established 1873) and Forest Home (1876) — which merged in February 1969. The 220-acre site was chosen as a non-denominational burial ground, a policy that made it the only Chicago-area cemetery willing to accept the bodies of the Haymarket defendants in 1887.
Aerial survey · USDA NAIPCarlisle, PA
The Carlisle Indian Industrial School operated from 1879 to 1918 as the U.S. government's flagship off-reservation boarding school, founded by Lt. Richard Henry Pratt (later promoted to captain in 1883) under the assimilationist slogan 'Kill the Indian, save the man.' More than 10,000 Native American children from dozens of nations were sent there. At least 180 students who died of disease and hardship are buried in the school cemetery, relocated in 1927 to its present site along Claremont Road on the Carlisle Barracks grounds.