Monday Memories: The path to redemption was clear in 1950, but first they had to brave Devil’s Hole Road

The signs along the overgrown rural road in 1950 were direct. You better stop and think.

The only way to Salem Lutheran Church in Wood County was by Devil’s Hole Road.

In this Blade archive photo, Marilee Kneip, 14, and her sister Sharon Ann, 10, heeded the stop sign while walking to church. It was the ironic juxtaposition of the road signs that likely gave them pause.

Far from being a prop in some horror film, the road name is real, owing its origins to the Great Black Swamp, which confounded travelers to the area in the 1800s. In fact, the Devil’s Hole sign tempted people to commit theft. In the 1980s, The Blade reported the Wood County Engineering Department stopped replacing the road sign because it would quickly disappear.

The origins of the name remain murky, but the ‘Pioneer Scr