The canyon family whose house had no windows. The hollow clan whose name was struck from every book. The swamp people nobody traded with. The pale folk found beneath the mountains. You have heard the legends. These are the records behind them.
Deep in the canyons of Utah, Colorado and Arizona, some families lived where no road went. The deputies who rode in wrote down what they found — and the county burned the records.
Every valley in Appalachia had one family nobody spoke about. Ten clans so feared that their names were struck from every county book — and the few who went up the ridge and came back.
In the swamps of Louisiana and the Carolinas, some families traded with no one and never went hungry. Ten bayou clans — and what the river pilots refused to talk about.
They were found beneath the Ozarks, the Smokies and the Kentucky hollows — pale, silent, speaking a language no one could name. Ten accounts of the people under the mountains.
Four illustrated volumes — 519 pages — each with its complete audiobook. Forty accounts: the canyon clans of the West, the hollow families of Appalachia, the bayou clans of the swamps, and the tunnel folk found beneath the mountains.
Legends and accounts retold from old county records; families and places are fictionalised.
The Canyon ClansThe Last SurveyorThe Hollow FamiliesHellgate HollowThe Bayou ClansFires on the WaterEvery corner of the old American backcountry has a story the locals still lower their voices for. A family at the end of a canyon that no one visited twice. A clan in the hollow whose name you did not say after dark. People in the swamp who never came to town and never went hungry. Pale faces seen at the mouth of a cave, watching the lantern light.
Somebody always wrote it down: a deputy's report, a census taker's notebook, a county clerk's ledger, a preacher's last letter. Most of those papers were burned, sealed or lost. The Hollow Records gathered what survived. These are the Hollow Clans — forty accounts, retold from the records for the first time.
“Don’t go up that ridge, and if you do, don’t eat what they give you.”The Hollow Clans
We retell each account the way the record tells it, carefully and in order. The families and places are fictionalised. We do not ask you to believe anything. We ask you to read it the way the people who wrote it down hoped someone would.
Most backwoods legends arrive as a thirty-second clip with loud music and a blurry photo. These books are built the other way round.
Every contents list below is the real table of contents of the finished book. Each volume comes as an illustrated PDF and as a complete audiobook in the same voice.
Deep in the canyons of Utah, Colorado and Arizona, some families lived where no road went. The deputies who rode in wrote down what they found — and the county burned the records.
Every valley in Appalachia had one family nobody spoke about. Ten clans so feared that their names were struck from every county book — and the few who went up the ridge and came back.
In the swamps of Louisiana and the Carolinas, some families traded with no one and never went hungry. Ten bayou clans — and what the river pilots refused to talk about.
They were found beneath the Ozarks, the Smokies and the Kentucky hollows — pale, silent, speaking a language no one could name. Ten accounts of the people under the mountains.
All 24 illustrated books across 4 collections — and every one of them with its complete audiobook: 6 hours of listening.
The Hollow Records collects what the backcountry left behind: sheriff's reports, county ledgers, asylum registers, old photographs with a name on the back. Some arrive as a single page, some as a trunk after a funeral. We read every one, and we retell the ones that stay with us, carefully and in order.
That is the only rule of these books: keep to what the record says, protect the names and places, add nothing for effect, and never tell you what to believe. Alongside the clans, three collections open the sealed wards, the warnings of the old trappers and elders, and the photographs nobody looked at closely enough.
— The Hollow Records
They are legends and accounts of the old American backcountry, retold as stories. The families, institutions and places are fictionalised; the regions, years and way of life are real. We present them as stories, not as proven fact — you decide what they mean.
For every book: an illustrated PDF (it opens on any phone, tablet, computer or e-reader and prints cleanly) and a complete audiobook as an MP3 that plays in any music app. Your download page appears the moment your payment is complete, and we email you the link to keep.
Because they are digital: no printing, no warehouse, no shipping, no bookstore taking half. Bought separately the four volumes come to $60.99; the collection is priced so that the whole file is the obvious choice. The launch price holds while the counter at the top of this page is running.
Yes. Every volume stands on its own — The Canyon Clans at $9.99, and the other volumes at $17 each. The collection simply costs less than buying two of them.
Every title we publish — 24 illustrated books across 4 collections — each with its audiobook, for one payment of $97 instead of $660.79.
They are dark, but never gory. What frightens is what was found, what was written down and what people refused to say — the kind of story that stays with you after the lights are off.
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4 illustrated volumes and 4 audiobooks — $29.99 instead of $60.99.
Every book comes as an illustrated PDF + complete audiobook
Deep in the canyons of Utah, Colorado and Arizona, some families lived where no road went. The deputies who rode in wrote down what they found — and the county burned the records.
Every valley in Appalachia had one family nobody spoke about. Ten clans so feared that their names were struck from every county book — and the few who went up the ridge and came back.
In the swamps of Louisiana and the Carolinas, some families traded with no one and never went hungry. Ten bayou clans — and what the river pilots refused to talk about.
They were found beneath the Ozarks, the Smokies and the Kentucky hollows — pale, silent, speaking a language no one could name. Ten accounts of the people under the mountains.
All 4 volumes + 4 audiobooks — 519 pages, 0 hours of listening.