The haunting arched walls of St Peter's Catholic Church and almost 100 tombstones are all that remains of the people who lived in these hills.
The church was built in 1845, and Dominican priests came to give the first mass. During the Civil War, iron ore was mined from this area to make cannon balls for the Union Army. According to legend, a plague struck and decimated the community shortly after the Civil War. The church fell into disrepair and was closed.
Another version of local history maintains that with the boom of the iron mines, so many Catholics moved into the area that a new church was built in nearby New Straitsville. New Straitsville's St Augustine Catholic Church was built in 1871, and the old stone St Peter's Church may have been abandoned. The 128-year old St Augustine Church was razed in 1990, leaving the ruins of the stone church the only visible sign of a once prosperous Catholic parish.
If you want to check this out the GPS Coordinates are 39.623341, -82.252779