Salem remembered the hangings. The exact place took centuries to settle.
Proctor's Ledge was confirmed in 2016 through records, maps and sightlines. The evidence points below the hill, not to its summit.
Nineteen people were hanged during the Salem witch trials in 1692. Researchers confirmed Proctor's Ledge as the execution site in January 2016. Historian Sidney Perley had proposed the location in 1921.
The later work reconsidered historical records and what witnesses could have seen from surrounding homes. It places the site on the ledge below Gallows Hill. The museum explains the route from the earlier identification to the modern memorial. The accused people's surviving records are a deeper path into what actually happened.
The question still open
How did testimony become a death sentence? Read the trial records, not a supernatural retelling.
Who is telling you?
The Gallows Hill Project researchers; earlier historian Sidney Perley; Salem Witch Museum's account of the site.
Follow the money
The museum is a visitor attraction. The independent university archive below lets you read surviving documents directly.
Go to the sources
- The museum's account of Proctor's Ledge
- University of Virginia: Salem Witch Trials Documentary Archive
Record reviewed October 11, 2026. The date above belongs to the record, not today's edition.
Connected stories
- Read the accusations that sent people to the gallows.
The surviving records behind the accusations
Never Stop Digging.