Every small town has that one story everyone knows but no one can quite agree on. In Cumming, Georgia, where my kids grew up, that story is Booger Hill. If you’ve never heard of it, just slide into a booth at the local diner, order sweet tea, and wait. Before the pie arrives, someone will lean across the table, drop their voice, and say, “Y’all ever been out to Booger Hill?”
Depending on who’s talking, the hill is haunted by the spirits of two men who were hung in the oak trees nearby, or maybe it’s just an optical illusion. But the part everyone agrees on? If you stop your car at the bottom of the road and put it in neutral, the darn thing rolls backward—up hill.
“Oh, that’s just gravity playing tricks,” some locals will say. “Physics.” The next person will swear they put flour on their bumper and found little handprints afterward. Not two male spirits, but kids. You can imagine how the gossip snowballs from there.
Naturally, my husband and I had to take the kids once to check it out. Picture us parked at the bottom of this lonely country road late at night, my husband pretending to clutch the steering wheel, and me acting like I’m about to uncover a clue in one of my favorite cozy mysteries. We had the kids slap some flour on the car, both the hood and the trunk, just in case, and Jack slipped the car into neutral. We all took a breath, and sure enough, the car started rolling uphill.
Slowly. Too slowly. Like somebody was pushing us along, just to see if we’d get spooked.
The kids did! And it was glorious!
Of course, Jack and I knew it was physics, but we wanted to play along with the haunted theme, so we still hopped out afterward to inspect. Sadly, we didn’t see any handprints, but we swore we saw smudges that hadn’t been there before.
Could it have been dust? Maybe. Maybe something else. You know how it is. Once the seed has planted, your imagination runs right off with it. Especially if you’re a kid.
Booger Hill is exactly the kind of thing paranormal cozy mystery towns thrive on. I can just picture it, Can you? A group of townsfolk debating whether it’s ghosts or gravity over biscuits at breakfast. A nosy sleuth poking around with her cat in tow. Somebody claiming to have seen a shadow near those oak trees. And of course, someone using the legend to cover up something a lot less ghostly and a whole lot more suspicious. Like murder!
Whether you believe in ghosts, physics, or just good old-fashioned gossip, Booger Hill is worth the trip. It’s the perfect blend of eerie and entertaining, just like our favorite mysteries. And really, isn’t that what we’re all after—a good shiver, a little laughter, and a story to tell afterward? So, if you’re ever in the North Georgia area, make the trip to Booger Hill and bring a bag of flour!
Just one word of advice: if you go, don’t let your car roll too far past the oak trees. That’s where the gossip gets real interesting.
