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The Friends Cemetery is located on Earle Street, a private road, in Leicester, Massachusetts (Worcester County).

The Friends Cemetery is still active. It is owned and maintained by the Worcester-Pleasant Street Meeting. Like all Quaker cemeteries, the gravestones are simple, and most are the same shape and size. The grounds are in excellent condition, but there were some fallen tree branches on the ground from the bad ice storm that hit the area the month before I visited. Fortunately, it appeared that no monuments were damaged.

The Friends Cemetery is better known as Spider Gates Cemetery, and it is supposedly one of the most haunted locations in Massachusetts. Rumor has it that it is the Eighth Gate to Hell, named for the eight iron gates with a spider web pattern. If you pass through all eight gates, you'll be pulled into hell. Creepy story, but it would be more realistic if there were actually eight gates :) There is really only one. Other stories involve a hanging tree, where a teenage boy killed himself in the 1980's. There is no proof to back up this story either. There is also a raised area near the center of the cemetery, which is called "the altar." If you listen to the stories, satanists use this area for their evil rituals. In reality, this is where the old meeting house used to be located. Even though there is no evidence to support any of these stories, visitors to the cemetery report seeing strange lights, hearing strange sounds, and some claim they have even been chased away by the satanists or ghosts.

I did not experience anything creepy when I visited the Friends Cemetery in early 2009. It is a beautiful graveyard though. Just be sure to visit during the daytime - the area is heavily patrolled by the local police.

Many thanks to Ta Mara C. for visiting this cemetery with me!

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