t’s chilly, barely 45 degrees. The cemetery is hidden from the road by thick woods, but a clearing opens after a 200-foot walk up a narrow, muddy path. A few feet in front of me lies a tree that has fallen across the clearing. The moon is bright, illuminating the gravestones that are scattered haphazardly beyond the fallen tree.

There are no signs of the glowing orbs people claim to witness in this place, but I could have sworn I saw a glowing red pinpoint far off into the woods to my left as I walked up the path leading to the cemetery.

I can hear the whisper of a nearby stream, and the leaves falling to the ground all around me sound almost like footsteps. Suddenly, there’s a loud noise in the woods behind me. It sounded like something heavy falling to the ground.

???

Every once in a while, Gilbert Hayward of Mayville helps maintain the Poor House Cemetery off Meadows Road outside Dewittville. Adjacent to Landmark Acres, a dairy farm owned by Gerald Perry and his son Bob, the cemetery dates back to the days of some of Chautauqua Lake’s earliest settlers.

It also boasts a notorious reputation.

‘‘I don’t know how much stock I’d put into it. The imagination sort of plays tricks on you,’’ Hayward said. ‘‘It’s just sort of a feeling that I can’t put into words.’’

Though Hayward said he has never witnessed anything out of the ordinary there, the cemetery has an unfavorable reputation and is sometimes cited as one of the most haunted places in Chautauqua County.