[throwaway7312]

It would seem like the likeliest scenario for a future dark age is neighboring towns (or tribes, I suppose) tell tales about how everyone who goes into area X eventually dies not long after.

Every few generations some brave, ballsy kid shrugs off these old wives tales, goes and camps out in area X, and gets ill and dies not long after. The legends endure... at some cost.

Of course, it depends how strong the radioactivity/toxicity is. If it leads to cancer 30 years down the road, and no immediate signs, then it gets a lot messier.

[JumpCrisscross]

> how everyone who goes into area X eventually dies not long after

Nuclear waste generally isn't this scary. Exposure causes death years, maybe even decades, afterwards. Enough time for cause and effect to get muddied.

[rbritton]

This is kind of the plot of The Chrysalids [0].

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chrysalids

[askvictor]

Iirc Australian Aboriginals have mythology about regions high in uranium, and tend to stay away from them. Unfortunately I don't have a source for this.

[korethr]

And so rises the legend about how the ghosts of the priests from the Before Times placed a curse on area X, and haunt the lines of those who violate their sacred grounds to this day.

[andrewflnr]

People are actually pretty good at noticing that sort of correlation, to the extent we find false ones all the time. I feel like your "cancer in 30 years" scenario is pretty stable.