By Kris Soffa

The annual “Doomsday Cult in America Halloween Hike” to the Lost Cave of the Wissahickon brought out an enthusiastic crowd of history buffs and nature lovers for an evening of eerie storytelling and exploration in Wissahickon Valley Park.

Led by Kris Soffa and Spencer Nuss of the Friends of the Wissahickon, hikers retraced the path of the 17th-century German Pietists—known as the Hermits of the Wissahickon—who fled persecution in Europe and awaited the world’s end in 1694 under the leadership of Johannes Kelpius.

Kelpius was a brilliant scholar who led his followers to the Wissahickon area in what is now called “Hermit’s Glen” and the legend and lore that surround this mysterious figure has only grown over the centuries since.

This stone marker gives a brief history of th

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