Investigation Team: Dave Miller
Date: June 21, 2026
The Herbert & Patricia Wagers’ Memorial Park in Camden, Ohio—gets its eerie nickname from a dramatic, rocky limestone ridge that towers over the winding Paint Creek. The steep, narrow ridge has been known as “Devil’s Backbone” since the late 1870’s. Along the hiking trails are beautiful wildflowers, native pants, tree canopies and the flowing creek.
The Urban Legend associated with giving this preserve a mysterious, haunted reputation is threefold.
First, you have the missing skunk mystery just as the park historical marker states. In the early 1900’s, local residents had a get rich quick scheme to raise skunks beside the creek to sell their pelts only to return in the spring to find that almost all their skunks had mysteriously disappeared. Did they breed on their own in the preserve and become giant size?
Also, two mysterious, unsolved murders occurred on the land. In 1887, Herbert Howard was found murdered at his backbone farm. That murder remains unsolved to this day. Then there was the murder of Franklin Bourne on the same farm in 1912. A fellow farmhand was convicted of the murder but maintained his innocence until the day he died.
Thirdly, a history of Bigfoot sightings has been reported at the park. One example, back in 1977, two teenage boys saw a huge brown figure walking in the area.
Add to these two incidents, you may be hiking on park land where bodies of Native Americans were buried. Chief Little Turtle of the Miami Tribe warned settlers not to disturb the land as it was a sacred burial ground for the Miami Tribe. Is the land cursed?
For several springs, locals reported seeing two mysterious dark-haired men roaming Backbone’s hillside, but no one could ever get close enough to talk to the men. Many locals believe that the mysterious individuals are “ghost scouts” to administer the Chiefs curse.
In summary, there are many urban legends associated with this nature preserve. One thing is for sure, down along Paint Creek you can turn over rocks and find many fossils on the limestone ravine.
