“She may even peek at you through the bars.”

In a small cemetery in Marion, Kentucky, there is a child’s grave surrounded by a metal fence. Her name was Mary Evelyn Ford. She was only five years old when she died in 1916, but the story told about what happened to her is much darker than anything written on her death certificate. For generations, people have claimed Mary Evelyn was a witch, that she was burned alive with her mother, and that her grave had to be reinforced with steel and concrete to keep her from ever getting out.

The story begins with Mary Evelyn and her mother being accused of witchcraft. Townspeople supposedly dragged the two away and burned them at stakes over piles of wood. Their screams were said to have terrified the people watching, but killing them created another problem. The townspeople began to fear that Mary Evelyn and her mother might return.

Her mother was buried somewhere else, but Mary Evelyn was brought to Pilot Knob Cemetery. This is where the story becomes especially strange. Her coffin was supposedly lined with steel before being lowered into the ground. Concrete was poured over the grave, and a heavy metal fence was placed around it. Crosses were incorporated into the enclosure, all supposedly intended to keep the little girl exactly where she had been buried.

The grave is still surrounded by that fence today, and once you see it, it isn’t difficult to understand how the story grew. Mary Evelyn’s grave looks different from the others around it. The metal bars create a small enclosure around the headstone, almost like a cage, and visitors have spent years peering through them looking for something on the other side.

One of the oldest warnings is not to lie down on Mary Evelyn’s grave. People say that anyone foolish enough to climb inside the enclosure and stretch out over the burial site risks being pulled downward. Others describe feeling something holding them against the ground, making it difficult to stand back up. Whatever you do at Pilot Knob, the rule is simple: don’t lie on the witch’s grave.

Mary Evelyn herself has supposedly been seen around the cemetery. Visitors have described the figure of a little girl appearing near the grave before disappearing, while others claim to have noticed small footprints where no child had been walking. Some people looking through the bars have even reported seeing a child’s face peeking back at them. Paranormal investigators have recorded what they believe are the sounds of a young girl’s voice, sometimes answering questions from somewhere around the grave.

But Mary Evelyn isn’t the only thing people claim is at Pilot Knob.

Something darker has become part of the story. It is usually called the Watcher, a shadowy presence associated with the cemetery and the woods surrounding it. One version connects the Watcher to the spirit of a man who was murdered near an old swinging bridge. Whatever he became after death, he is said to move through the cemetery and the surrounding trees, always trying to reach Mary Evelyn.

People describe seeing a dark human-shaped figure standing at a distance or moving along the edge of the woods. Sometimes it seems to watch visitors without approaching. Other times, people have reported the feeling that something is following them as they walk through the cemetery. Mary Evelyn may be the reason people come to Pilot Knob, but the Watcher is often the reason they start looking over their shoulders.

I understood that feeling when I visited.

I’m not someone who scares easily in cemeteries. I’ve spent plenty of time walking through old graveyards, photographing headstones and exploring places with much darker histories than Pilot Knob. But from the time I arrived, I had the uncomfortable feeling that I was being watched. It wasn’t one particular sound or something I could point toward. It was simply there, and it stayed with me while I walked around the cemetery.

The woods surrounding the property didn’t help. No Trespassing signs were posted around areas beyond the cemetery, making it very clear that visitors weren’t supposed to wander off looking for whatever might be hiding among the trees. I didn’t need much convincing. If the Watcher wanted to stay in the woods, I was perfectly happy to let him.

Then there were the flies. They seemed to appear in swarms, buzzing around the cemetery while birds circled overhead. Neither is particularly supernatural on its own, especially outside in Kentucky, but combined with the feeling I’d had since arriving, they made the place feel even stranger. I never saw a little girl standing beside Mary Evelyn’s grave. I didn’t see a dark man watching from the trees. But I also never managed to shake the feeling that something was paying attention to me.

And no, I didn’t lie on the grave.

Behind all of this folklore was a real little girl. Mary Evelyn Ford was born May 9, 1911, the daughter of James Ford and Mary Rebecca Davis Ford. She died on May 31, 1916, only a few weeks after her fifth birthday. Her death certificate gives a medical explanation for her death, describing a severe abdominal infection resulting from digestive complications. There is nothing there about witchcraft, an execution, or a child being burned alive.

But death certificates don’t always have much power over ghost stories.

More than a century later, people still travel to Pilot Knob Cemetery to stand outside the metal fence surrounding Mary Evelyn Ford’s grave. They still peer between the bars looking for a little girl’s face, listen for a child’s voice, watch the woods for the dark figure that supposedly waits there, and warn each other not to climb inside and lie down.

I didn’t need anyone to warn me twice. Even now, I am looking over my shoulder as I type.