History & local legend
Margaret Hollow Road in Wyoming County is associated with the unsolved killing of Margaret Martin, a young woman from Kingston. On December 17, 1938, she left for what she believed was a job interview. Four days later, Anthony Rezykowski and Stanley Shalkoski were searching for muskrats near a creek footbridge when they noticed a hand protruding from a burlap sack in the water. Martin’s body was inside.
A separate local ghost tradition describes a woman seated on a bridge along the road, looking down at the stream and slowly shaking her head. She does not acknowledge the people who see her. A burlap sack appears in versions of that story as well.
The road’s name and the sack connect the folklore with Martin’s case. Her body was found at an older footbridge in the area.
Sources
- The Shadowlands, Root Hollow / Margaret Hollow Road, seated woman and burlap sack
- Exploring Historic Crimes in NEPA, Who Killed Margaret Martin?, December 1938 newspaper clippings, Martin Creek and the Creamery Road approach
- Edward Lewis, Times Leader, Cold Murder Cases Live On To Haunt Us, detective’s recollection and unsolved status
- OpenStreetMap, Margaret Hollow Road
- OpenStreetMap, Martin Creek at Margaret Hollow Road