HGB Ep. 610 - Legends of Feathered Terrors

Moment in Oddity - High Hopping Wallabies

At History Goes Bump, we love everything weird. From stories of hauntings, to sightings of cryptids and aliens, and even strange animal encounters. So when our listener Michael Rogers posted about a kangaroo that broke into a pot farm, I had to know more. The high jumping bandit had supposedly broken into a grow farm in Australia and ate so much of the crop that it took the poor creature 4 days to sober up! Well, that story is not true, however, a story that IS true is that of unusual crop circles that were being found at a poppy farm in Tasmania. Tasmania is the world's largest producer of legally grown opium for the pharmaceutical market. Opium is produced from poppy flowers. The mystery of the crop circles was revealed when intoxicated wallabies were found in the fields, high as kites. Wallabies are marsupials and basically look like a smaller version of a kangaroo. The critters had been breaking into the poppy fields and eating the heads of the flowers. They would get so high that they would erratically hop in patterns before their ultimate crash. Although the crop circles were not as precise as ones we have seen on television shows that some people believe were left by visiting aliens. The destruction concerning the poppy popping pests was such a big deal that Tasmania's attorney general stood before parliament to address what might be the world's most unusual agricultural crisis. Thankfully, there was no long term damage suffered by the wallabies once their highs wore off. But farmers watching their pharmaceutical crops become makeshift dance floors for high-hopping marsupials, certainly is odd. 

Legends of Feathered Terrors

Can there be anything more terrifying than a monster that can swoop down out of the sky and attack? Perhaps even pick you up? Probably the most famous scary flying creature of American lore is Mothman, but the pterodactyl would have to be the most petrifying flying monster in the history of the world. But to be sure, neither of these creatures have feathers. They seemed to fly with bat-like wings. However, there are a class of feathered fiends that could give both of them a run for their money. Join us for legends of feathered terrors!

Kelly, there are some pretty scary birds that live in Antarctica and they are called skuas (Skew uh). These are dark-feathered birds that resemble seagulls. Now, while I have had a seagull dive bomb my sandwich on the beach a time or two, seagulls are not really anything to be feared...maybe, we'll get into that in a minute. The skua is quite different as Antarctica's top avian predator. King George Island in the South Shetlands is home to the brown and south polar skua. Scientists who study and tag the birds have found out the hard way that these birds will guard their nests at all costs. And like a scene straight out of Hitchcock's "The Birds," the skua fire off alarm calls that alert the other parent that there is a stranger and they both dive-bomb the scientist, pecking at the head and face. They scream the whole time and have no mercy. Now honestly, any bird with sharp claws and beaks can be scary and attack. And there once was a violent attack by a group of birds that gave Alfred Hitchcock inspiration for his movie. There was a mass bird attack in the seaside town of Capitola in California on August 18, 1961. The event was described as, "Capitola residents awoke to a scene that seemed straight out of a horror movie. Hordes of seabirds were dive-bombing their homes, crashing into cars and spewing half-digested anchovies onto lawns." There was a cause for this behavior from the birds that wasn't known until more recent times. Toxic algae. But it really doesn't matter what caused the birds to become crazy attacking birds, the fact is that they became feathered terrors.

Terror birds are said to go back about two million years and they had been the apex of predators in South America. These were large, flightless birds that were carnivorous. Terror birds are technically known as Phorusrhacids (For us rock ids) and they ranged from three to ten feet in height and could hit weights up to 770 pounds. They were believed to have highly flexible necks that gave them the ability to strike fast and hard. And their tightly fused beak could cause a lot of injury by pecking. Could some of the reports of large birds in more recent decades be connected to these ancient large birds? 

A man name John Bolduan was camping at a resort near Webb Lake in Wisconsin in June of 2005. He enjoyed bike riding, so set out on one of the bike paths. He came to a grassy field and he noticed a bird that looked similar to a Sandhill Crane with silver feathers, but the bird seemed to be really large. John set his bike down quietly and crept through the grass to get a better look. He told Linda Godfrey in her 2014 book American Monsters, "At first I thought it was an emu, an Australian bird that can get up to six or seven feet tall that some farmers in the area were raising, but as I got closer, I knew it wasn't an emu." He spooked the bird and it took off and John said, "The size was then truly apparent as it flew away. The wingspan I estimate must've been eighteen feet. It was at least three times as large as any eagle I had ever seen. It was gawky as it flew away, the flapping of those huge wings was slow and seemingly laborious. The wings seemed to roll as they flapped, like dropping a big rock in water and seeing the waves roll from it. It was not graceful. Not only was the wingspan large, but the wing itself must've been two feet wide as it flopped over the horizon. It almost looked like the size of a small airplane or ultralight aircraft - in fact, there is a small airstrip there where small planes take off and land, and this bird was the size of a Piper Cub as it flew over the trees." John estimated the wings were as wide as the road, which was twenty feet across. Was this some form of mutation of a crane? John was positive of what he saw and he never saw it again. Nor did anyone else report the Webb Lake Big Bird.

Native Americans told stories of Lake Monsters fighting with giant avians. These giant birds were referred to by Native Americans as Thunderbirds. Some of these myths claimed that Thunderbirds could carry off humans and even whales. Many of these stories came out of the Pacific coastline and the Great Lakes area and the reason they were referred to as Thunderbirds was because when they flapped their wings, it sounded like thunder. Native Americans even created myths that lightning came from their eyes and rain was water falling off their backs. These became a sort of trickster spirit as well. The Lakota of the Black Hills called them Thunder Beings. They felt they had a divine nature. Depending on tribe, thunderbirds could be good or bad. Could these Thunderbirds have survived through the years? 

The Mukwonago Chief reported in November 24, 1916 about a Battle With Giant Eagles, "California Deer Hunters Had Fierce Fight Before Overcoming Two Monarchs Of The Air. Attacked by two monster eagles while deer hunting in the Malibu district, Doctor Kingsbury of Ocean Park, G.M. Wilson, a rancher, and Policeman Harry Wright of Santa Monica, fought two hours before they were able to kill the birds, writes a Los Angeles correspondent. Shrieking and screaming, the eagles tore at the men with their claws, tearing Wright’s clothing in many places and inflicting a flesh wound on Kingsbury’s right shoulder. The fight began with only one of the birds. Then men were hunting on the Williams ranch with two dogs. Suddenly a huge eagle swooped down and grabbed one of the dogs. It circled 20 feet in the air with the dog in its talons before the men could fire. The first shot missed, but the second shot from Kingsbury’s gun brought the bird down. As the three men rushed forward, the eagle dropped the dog and struck out at Wright, screaming all the while. Its screams brought its mate, the latter making an attack on Kingsbury and sinking its talons into his shoulder. Williams shot and killed the bird that was fighting with Wright and then the two rushed the remaining eagle. It started to fly away and then came back. The men began shooting at it, driving it a little further away with each shot. For four miles they chased the bird before finally killing it."

In 1977, there was a report out of Lawndale, Illinois that a 10-year-old boy named Marlon Lowe had been attacked by two large birds while he was playing outside. One of the birds actually picked him up and carried him over 30 feet before his mother realized what happened and she ran after the bird and it eventually dropped her son. Not only did the mother witness this attack, but several other people were nearby and saw it. These witnesses described the birds as having a white ring around their necks and large black bodies. Their bodies were four-and-a-half feet long and each of their wings were four feet long. These birds were nicknamed Bigclaw. A man claimed that when he was a kid he saw the same birds that grabbed Marlon a couple days before the incident. He was hiking with a couple of friends along Spring Creek near Lawndale and they noticed these birds dropping from the air close to them.   

One of the most well known reports of a large bird in America was reported in the Tombstone Epitaph on April 26, 1890. Two gunslingers claimed that they shot a large bird out of the sky. They described it as having no feathers and a head like an alligator. The story went that the bird was dragged back to town and photographed, but that seems to be a total legend as the issue on file at the Library of Congress reveals no picture. If this really happened, the bird sounds like it was some kind of pterodactyl. One of the men told a reporter back in the 1930s that he was one of the men who shot at the monster. He said that the story had been misreported - or maybe they lied - but they didn't hit the bird. They merely spooked it and their terrified horses took off with them on board. So there was no bird brought back to town. 

Cryptozoologist Loren Coleman wrote of a couple of large bird encounters in his book "Curious Encounters: Phantom Trains, Spooky Spots and Other Mysterious Wonders." He wrote about a sighting that occurred on April 10, 1948 in Overland, Illinois. Three people said they saw a large bird that seemed to be the size of an airplane, flying over them. There was a similar sighting shortly after that in Alton, Illinois where a father and son claimed to have seen a giant bird with a body the size of a Piper Cub airplane.

Marco Polo wrote stories of a creature called a Roc in his Book of Travels. The Roc also appeared in the book Arabian Nights and was a creature from Middle Eastern folklore. This bird was so large, it blocked the sun when it flew during the daytime. Polo wrote that the wings were as big as palm leaves and that it was white in color. The bird laid eggs that were over 150 feet in circumference. One of its favorite prey was elephants, which it carried high into the sky and dropped to kill them. In Arabian Nights, Sinbad is carried away by a Roc after he has a shipwreck and he is placed in the Roc’s nest on top of a mountain. In the nest is an egg that is as large as 148 hen’s eggs. Sinbad escapes by lashing himself to the Roc’s leg with his turban. He flies high in the sky with it and manages to get away when the Roc flew near another island. In another story in the book, Rocs destroy ships by picking up huge boulders and dropping them on the ships. 

There was a recent sighting in South Greenburg, Pennsylvania reported on Lon Strickler's Phantoms & Monsters website, "There was a sighting of a monstrous bird in South Greensburg just as it was getting dark, four people were sitting around in the yard having a barbecue and enjoying the beautiful weather when suddenly, their attention was drawn skyward by a sound like a 'swish' or a 'swoosh' or as one witness stated, 'like the air coming straight down.' Several of the observers at almost the same time yelled out some exclamations including one man who said, “What the hell is that?” 

They were all startled to see a tremendously large bird that was flying over a tree in the yard about 30-40 feet overhead. The man who was going the cooking turned and looked up to see the creature fly above him at a distance of about 40 feet away. As the bird passed the tree, it veered slightly to the right and went straight down the road ahead maintaining its low-level path. When first observed the massive wings of the creature were in an upward position and were beginning to drop slowly, almost as if they were rolling to the bottom. The swoosh sound could be heard when the wings were moving. The powerful bird had flown about 125 yards down the road, at which time the wings were coming back up. The creature was observed as it continued to move steadily down the road, passing just above the rooftop of a house with its wings flapping slowly and steadily about 3-4 times until it reached a group of trees about ¼ miles away, where it was lost from sight. It took about 20 seconds to go the ¼ mile distance. As it passed over, it appeared as though it was peering below, with its head and beak positioned downward. It was estimated that if the bird was on the ground it would stand between 4 ½ to 5 feet tall. The entire body was the same dark color, either darkish brown or black. The body width was about 25-30 inches wide. One witness said the body, “was very bulky and husky.” The head was oval-shaped, and the beak was short for the size of the animal, about 8-10 inches long. The tail was about 2 feet long and came out wide to a point. It was the size of the wingspan of the creature that impressed the witnesses which they estimated at 10 feet or more in length. When asked why nobody thought to take a picture, they pointed out that while there were cell phones lying there with camera functions, all involved were mesmerized by the encounter. One witness felt as if he was almost ‘in shock’. It was later learned that another witness who lay along the road where the big bird flew over also reportedly saw the creature. One witness has been a long-time hunter and is very familiar with birds native to the state and is certain that he saw something quite unusual. The area where these observations have taken place, while surrounded by some wooded locations, is well populated, and nearby Route 119 is a highly traveled roadway."

Clinton County in Pennsylvania has some recent stories. This is towards the center of the state and is a place of rivers and valleys. Two people reported seeing a “large bird with a very long beak” in the summer of 2010 near Coudersport Pike. Then in June of 2012, two girls said they saw a Thunderbird while camping in Chapman Township and this bird had a 14-foot wingspan. There were no feathers on its head. The youngest of the two went running screaming into the cabin when the bird swooped low over her. The other girl said, "I know people think I’m strange when I talk about it, but it was real."

The Pennsylvania Wilds website continues the stories of sightings in Clinton County with this, "The biggest champion of the Thunderbirds was Hiram Cranmer, a retired postmaster who lived in Leidy Township, Clinton County. Cranmer was a sort of connoisseur of the weird, often discussing ghosts, UFOs, and monsters. He claimed to have seen his first Thunderbird in 1922, and four others after that. They had a tendency to inhabit northern Clinton County and southern Potter County, which, to be fair, is a pretty remote area. A large flock of Thunderbirds could be pretty easily hiding up there. Once, there was even said to have been a photo of a Thunderbird. According to the story, some men managed to kill one, nail it to a barn, and take a black-and-white photo while they posed in front of it. The photo, now missing, has become known as the “Lost Thunderbird Photo,” and is itself a story of legend. It may have ended with Cranmer. Researcher Ivan Sanderson claimed to have left the photo with Cranmer when he visited in 1963. Cranmer died when his house burned down in 1967, possibly taking the Thunderbird photo with it. In Lyman’s book, he hints at this as well, mentioning that the photo 'burned in a home.'" 

Pennsylvania seems to be the most popular place for large avian monsters when it comes to more modern sightings. Someone living in Greenville, Pennsylvania had noticed a large shadow passing over them and they thought this was from a small aircraft, but they looked up and were startled to see a grayish-black creature soaring overhead. And this wasn't a quick sighting. The bird hung around for 20 minutes. The witness said the wingspan was around 15 feet with a body of about 5 feet. A neighbor saw the same bird the next day and said it was "the biggest bird I ever saw." A month later, it is believed this same bird was seen in Erie County, Pennsylvania. The report had the same wingspan and described the bird as being "dark gray with little or no neck, and a circle of black under its head. Its beak was very thin and long—about a foot in length." 

Someone going by MP reported to Lon Strickler, "You know that Indian folklore in part tells the truth. I'll explain. Back in December 2001 to be exact, I went on a cruise to the Caribbean. It was a Royal Caribbean cruise. On our third or fourth day, we landed in Puerto Rico. One hour into port, a group of ten of us got a tour guide for just about an hour. Well, the tour guide was explaining spots of interest on the island, but since it was like a rainy-overcast day, he said that it wouldn't be possible to visit those sites. He took us to the beach in San Juan. We all got out, the sun was out just for like 20 minutes. I was married to my ex-wife at the time and I was taking pictures of her just a couple feet from our tour bus. Well, I saw the clouds coming in, the cloud was shaped almost like an arrow, and at the tip of the arrow were two giant birds. They both had white rings on their necks, one was way larger, and the other one was about the size of a Cessna propeller airplane. I yelled to the tour guide to look up at the clouds and repeated to all the members to look up, but by that time, the two giant birds went straight up higher than the clouds. Then the rain came down and we quickly got into the bus. Nobody believed me. I took pictures of the cloud. I still have them, but the birds weren't in the view. Indian legend says these birds bring rain clouds to villages that are in need of rain for planting their harvest. In a way the Indians were right." 

A man named JD had called Lon Strickler with this unbelievable report. It's the largest modern day one we have heard and this near an airport in Virginia. He later wrote this statement and sent it to Lon, ""On Monday Dec 15th at 6:45 PM (dark) I is was traveling on the Airport Rd near the New Kent Co., Virginia Airport. This section of road went by the New Kent trash collection center. The road is bordered by woods on both sides.

As I approached this location, I noticed something large and dark on the road very near the trash collection lot. I hit my brakes and came within 50 feet of what appeared to be a huge bird. Like I told you on the telephone, when I say huge, I mean something of unbelievable size. First of all, it had the overall shape of an eagle. It definitely had talons which were lighter in color. It also had beak which seemed too large and long for it's face. The overall color was dark, I'd say black. The height was at least 8 feet, probably more as it bobbed up and down. It may have been eating something when I approached it. It's head moved toward the direction of my car and made a grunting sound. It turned away from me and the long tail with feathers swung around in my direction. The wings, which extended across the road, unfurled as it lifted off the surface. The wings were massive, but like I said reached past the width of the road. I told you 25 feet on the telephone, I still believe that is a correct estimate." 

CNN reported back in 2002 about a massive bird sighting reported out of Anchorage, Alaska, "A bird the size of a small airplane was recently said to be seen flying over southwest Alaska, puzzling scientists, the Anchorage Daily News reported this week. The newspaper quoted residents in the villages of Togiak and Manokotak as saying the creature, like something out of the movie "Jurassic Park," had a wingspan of 14 feet - making it the size of a small airplane." 

A resident named Moses said the bird made him think of an old Otter plane, but when it banked, he could see that it was a bird. Scientists were skeptical of the size. They assumed people were seeing a Steller's Sea Eagle, which can be quite large, but they are native to Japan. So if that is what this was, it was far away from home. Of course, their wingspan reaches 8 feet, which is far off the mark of 14 feet. And no witnesses reported the color of the bird being black and white like the Steller's Sea Eagle. A Raptor Specialist named Phil Schemf said, "I'm certainly not aware of anything with a 14-foot wingspan that's been alive for the last 100,000 years." Some time later, a local pilot saw the same bird and said, "The people in the plane saw him. He's huge, he's huge, he's really, really big. You wouldn't want to have your children out." 

Linda Godfrey had this great passage on Texas Monster Avians from the 1970s. (pg.28) 

Most cryptozoologists are very strict in their definition of a Thunderbird and so many don't believe a Thunderbird has ever been seen. In order to be classified as a Thunderbird, the cryptid must be between four and eight feet tall with a wingspan of fifteen to twenty feet And they are dark in color. Whether a bird hits that mark or not, it is clear that some species of birds are much larger than their counterparts and have lead to some terrifying interactions. Did or do any of these feathered creatures exist? That is for you to decide! 

HGB Ep. 466 - Legendary Roads

Moment in Oddity - Sultan Kosen

Some of you may recall us talking about Robert Waldlow, also known as the Alton Giant or the Giant of Illinois. He still holds the record for tallest man at 8ft 11in to this day. However, there is a current day giant by the name of Sultan Kosen (Sul-TAHN KOH-sen), who is a farmer and hails from Turkey. Sultan recently celebrated his 40th birthday at 'Ripley's Believe it or Not' in Orlando, just down the road from us. Sultan stands 8ft 3in tall. In 2010, he underwent a procedure at the University of Virginia medical school for a tumor on his pituitary gland. Sultan was also put on medication to control his excessive growth hormones. This protocol effectively halted Sultan's continual growth. If he had not had access to modern medicine there is no telling just how tall this man may have grown to be. To date there have only been ten reliable cases in history documenting a person reaching 8 feet tall or more. Sultan stated, "After that day,(describing the day he was announced as the world's tallest living man), I was born. Before that, I was a very silent person. Now, I can talk. I'm happy. I'm funny. I enjoy my life." To date, Kosen has visit 127 countries and it's heart-warming to hear how his newly found fame has enriched his life. But one must concede, that being able to palm and dunk a basketball into a regulation height basket, without even standing on ones tippy toes, certainly is odd. 

This Month in History - Gone With the Wind premiere

In December, on the 15th, in 1939, Gone With the Wind premiered in Atlanta at Loew's Grand Theater. This star-studded event was a notable occasion in Atlanta, Georgia's history. The gala hosted Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable, amongst many rich and famous. It is estimated that around 300 thousand Atlantans and visitors lined up for seven miles to view the limos transporting the stars to the theater. It has been said that after the Hollywood press preview, Producer Selznick was quoted saying of the movie, "At noon I think it's divine, at midnight I think it's lousy. Sometimes I think it's the greatest picture ever made. But if it's only a great picture, I'll still be satisfied." One thing is for certain, despite that May-December romance between Scarlett, at a mere 16 years of age to Rhett's 30 something, the movie is iconic. We are positive that there are very few people of a certain age that don't know that oh-so-famous line. "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn." 

Legendary Roads

We all know that certain road. The one that everyone claims no one should drive along at night. There are rumors of haunted houses, witches, zombies, cannibals and cryptids along these roads. And it seems that every state has one or more of them. Most of these lanes are cloaked in darkness and twist and turn dangerously. Many aren't paved. Roads just seem to attract spirits. Is it because of the accidents or the locations dotting the road side? It's most likely a combination of the two. On this episode, we are going to feature some legendary roads.

Clinton Road 

Clinton Road is located in West Milford, New Jersey and runs for ten miles. The road was named for a settlement that had once been here. This road once had an entire issue of Weird NJ dedicated to it if that tells us anything. The area along the road is mainly undeveloped with few houses and mostly publicly owned woods. Parts of it had been unpaved for years and it receives little maintenance. This makes it the perfect spot for legends and it has many of them. There is a reservoir that is fed by a brook and a bridge goes over this brook. It is said that if you throw a coin into the reservoir from this bridge or if you put a quarter in the middle of the road where the yellow line is at this bridge, the coin will come back to it. And its brought back by the spirit of a boy who is said to have drowned in the reservoir. But be careful not to look over the bridge because the ghost boy might push you in thinking he is saving you from being run over by a car. Many of these roads claim to have Satanic activity occurring along them and Clinton Road is no different. One of the places they like to gather is at Cross Castle. This was built in 1905 by Richard J. Cross, but no longer stands as it was burned down in 1919. There had been a few stone walls still intact, but they were torn down in 1988, so only the foundation remains. People claim to see strange lights along the road that have even followed cars. This is sometimes blamed on phantom vehicles like a truck or a Camaro that follow the cars. There have also been reports of UFO activity. Something that isn't a legend is that on May 14, 1983, the body of Daniel Deppner was found by a cyclist using the road. Daniel had been wrapped inside a green garbage bag. His murderer was Richard Kuklinski who was eventually charged and convicted of his murder.

The Dead Zone 

The Dead Zone is a part of a major interstate in Central Florida. Interstate 4 snakes from West to East across Florida and is used by millions of tourists every year. A small section of road is a bridge over the large St. John's River. It is this bridge and a portion of the area at the end of the bridge that has been dubbed "The Dead Zone." The Dead Zone is said to be haunted by four souls who received an improper burial and were unceremoniously built over when the interstate was installed. Could it be their vengeance that has caused this stretch of road to not only be haunted, but to be a dangerous place to drive?

Sanford, Florida was established in 1877. The original people to settle here were the Mayaca Tribe. European settlement nearly decimated the tribe and they left. These earlier settlers brought with them indentured servants from Sweden and it would be these immigrants who would do most of the hard labor to grow the vast orange groves that Florida would become famous for in the future. The colony that was built near the future I-4 was fairly small. The settlers called it Saint Joseph’s Colony, and it was a religious settlement led by Father Felix Prosper Swembergh. Ten years after it was established a large fire destroyed most of the settlement. Life got even worse for those who decided to stay and rebuild. An historic freeze wiped out the orange industry that year and Yellow fever swept through the few families still at the colony. The site was abandoned, leaving behind a farmhouse and the graves of those hit by the Yellow Fever epidemic. Father Swembergh had been sent to Tampa before the disease killed the last of the colonists. He himself contracted the dreaded disease and died while in Tampa. This left no one to give last rites and a proper burial to the last few colonists who died of the fever. This included four people who were considered to have no absolution when buried.

Several years later, a farmer named Al Hawkins bought a large portion of the former colony's land and he began clearing it for farming. As he did that he came upon the headstones of the small family graveyard. There were four small wooden grave markers that were nearly rotted away. He felt that the right thing to do would be to build a little fence around the graves and leave that plot of land alone. He called it "The Field of the Dead” and it was left alone until Al died in 1939. His widow still owned the land when the state decided that it needed to build an interstate to service all the tourists coming to town. In the 1950s, she sold the land and surveyors came out to start marking off the area for the interstate. They found the graves sitting right in the middle of where they planned to put the super highway. Obviously, when money is to be made, four old graves don't amount to much and it was decided to remove the headstones and build over the graves. And as you can probably already guess, they didn't bother moving the bodies. One of the engineer even remarked,“It’s not an ancient Indian burial ground, they’re just a few old bones." We all know that disrespecting bones is usually not a good thing.

Construction began and the graves were plowed over, leading to the legend about a curse that seems to be connected to I-4 and has lead to it being nicknamed "The Dead Zone." Hurricane Donna would be one of the most deadly hurricanes to hit Florida and it crossed right over the middle of the state on the day construction began. Many people were killed and millions of dollars in damage to property occurred. The interstate construction zone was completely flooded and it would be months before the building could continue. The interstate was finally finished and has become a popular way for people to travel across the state. The section that runs over the St. Johns River though is considered to be one of the most haunted sections of highway in America. At the end of the bridge is reputedly where the four graves where buried over. There are rumors and legends of people seeing ghostly apparitions wearing pioneer era clothing standing on the edge of the highway. One trucker reported, "He was wearing odd clothes, kind of tattered and certainly out of style - he wore a round hat with a wide brim, like the actor in Little House on the Prairie. But the thing I remember most was his color...He looked as if a bluish light was being shined on him, and when I passed him, I looked back, and would you believe it? He was gone!" The trucker described the apparitions eyes as being empty sockets.

Many drivers report pulling over for sickly looking hitchhikers who just disappear. Drivers also have claimed to have weird electrical disturbances. Ghostly voices have been heard coming over the radio and these sometimes are even heard through CBs and cell phones. People claim to hear voices crackling over the static of the radios and the voices call out “Who’s there?” or “Why?” At other times, the eerie echo of girls giggling comes across the radio. There is much disruption of cell signals and radio waves in the Dead Zone as well. Some might claim that these disruptions could be because of cell towers, but there are no cell phone antennas or even radio antennas in the area. This is a swampy marshy area along a very large river and not a good place for such things to be located.

Add to the weird ghostly experiences, the rumors about the curse. There is an unusually high number of traffic accidents on this section of road. We've been across it many times without incident, but we can attest to the fact that this is a straight and wide bridge and so accidents should not be common. In other words, this is not a particularly dangerous patch of road when it comes to the engineering. Between 1995 and 1997, there were 44 crashes that injured 65 people on this stretch of I-4. Add those numbers together, and you get 109 — the exact age of the graves in the year 1996. Coincidence? We don't believe in those around here. But most troubling is the fact that since 1963, 2,000 accidents have happened on this section of road.

Annie's Road

Annie's Road is officially known as Riverview Drive and located in Totowa, New Jersey. This road runs 20 miles along the Totowa side of the Passaic River and can be a dangerous road with tight turns and a steep hillside on one side of the road and the Passaic on the other. The road is remote and heavily wooded. Obviously, it gets its nickname from a woman. Annie appears as a Woman in White and her story is that she and her boyfriend were driving home after a party in the 1960s when they got in a fight. Annie's boyfriend kicked her out of the car on Riverview Drive and she got lost. Then she was struck by a large pickup truck, her dress was tangled up in the truck and she was dragged for awhile on her face and then died. Another version that is closer to the truth is that Annie was walking home from prom along the road and was hit by a vehicle. Every year after that, people started seeing what looked like red paint on the road. Annie is said to be a ghost that tries to distract drivers so they crash their cars. And there have been severe auto accidents here.  People also claim to see orbs, strange fog and they claim to hear disembodied screams. Electrical things experience failure on the road too. 

Moody's Road

Moody's Road is home to Moody's Light and runs between the towns of Rensselar and Francesville in Indiana. Moody was a farmer who came home one day to find his wife and two daughters murdered. The police were not able to find the murderer. This left Moody depressed and he searched the property every night for the killer by carrying around a lantern. Eventually, Moody ended his life at the end of a rope from a tree near the farm. From that time, people have claimed to see a mysterious floating light on the property, especially on the road. Another older story claims that two brothers were going down the road in their horse and buggy when one brother fell off and was decapitated by a wheel. The brother used a lantern to search for the head and it is still seen today, especially when the corn fields are cleared.

This story was shared on the angelfire webwite, "We visited Moody Road on April 11, 2003. It was 50 degrees outside with clear skies and quite breezy. We really had know idea what this light was going to look like. We had never seen a picture of it and the stories that we had heard is that it chases you and it moves from side to side. So we started off at the intersection of Meridian and Division facing South. We flashed our lights three times and drove the 1.5 miles down to the end of Meridian. We turned around and found this tree stump (it was hard to find, especially at night, it's right past the tree that is still there on the same side). We parked at the tree stump and flashed our lights three times again. Then we looked North and we saw this orangish light. It looked like a street light. And we thought it could be except it would go away and then come back every so often. The light would go from orange to red and from big to small. It never got any closer or any farther away from where it was at. Thinking ahead and being smart (like always) we brought a pair of binoculars to get a closer view of the light. When we looked though the binoculars we could see three different lights. Then it would be four, then sometimes it would be two or one and then sometimes nothing. When we didn't use the binoculars the three or four lights look like one single light, just brighter. People have said that the light is just lights from the cars going down Highway 49 (since Highway 49 is a about two miles almost directly north of Meridian Road) and some have even said it's swamp gas. We drove down to the end of Meridian so we could get the best look at the light. It still seemed to be pretty far away. Since that was as far as the road went we got the best picture we could of the light. We still have know idea what causes this light. We are pretty sure that it isn't a ghost, but other than that we really have know idea. We might have to go back there and find out the real cause of the light.  

Username Jnormanii wrote on the Ghost Village website, "I've been there a couple of times. That tree that Moody supposedly hung himself from is now a stump that has satanic symbols carved into it. Satanists used to hang animals from that tree so they cut it down to a stump. The first time I went there was like a scary movie. We had trouble finding the place because all of the roads there look the same. All gravel roads with corn fields on each side. We got to this old church that was converted into a home to ask for directions. This old woman answered the door and we asked how to find Moody's Road. In an eerie voice she said "oh, you don't want to go there. That place is evil." Then either her sister or friend came and said "yeah, that place is evil. You don't want to really go there, do you?" So they gave us directions but again warned us. There's this gravel road called Moody Road. You get about a hundred feet or so away from that stump. It is suggested to flash your lights three times but both times I've been there we didn't need to. There's a soft incline about 150 yds ahead. First there was a yellowish light that looked to be coming from an old fashioned lantern. It would get closer slowly. Then we saw another light. A green one that was also coming closer very slowly. The lights came over that little hill in the road. We tried to chase down that light but as the legend says, you can't catch it. At the end of the road is absolutely nothing. There's a dropoff into a field of nothing and there is no source for that light that can be explained. Whether or not the legend is real, the lights definitely are."

Sandhill Road

There is a stretch of Sandhill Road between Olive Avenue and Charleston Boulevard in Las Vegas that is said to be the most haunted road in Nevada. There are underground tunnels here under Highway 85 and claims that a dead couple haunt the tunnels, whispering and moaning throughout. They were said to have died in an accident at the tunnels. The apparition of an old woman chases cars down an adjacent dirt road. People who visit the location feel nauseous.

Ortega Ridge Road

Ortega Ridge Road is located on the Central Coast of California between the Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean and is home to Las Tres Hermanas. These three women, specifically nuns, go back to California's Gold Rush. Legend claims they were killed by highway bandits on the road. Drivers who have seen the nuns describe them as wearing nun clothing with their hands folded in prayer and their eyes have a bluish glow, which counters their pale white faces. They walk along the street.

Zombie Road

Zombie Road is located in the city of Wildwood near St. Louis, Missouri and is known technically as Lawler Ford Road. This is actually a series of trails now and impassible by cars. Many years ago it had been paved, but eventually just became dirt and gravel. This road was laid to give access to the Meramec River and railroad tracks that ran along the river. The Glencoe Marble Company worked the limestone deposits in the area, meaning this place is surrounded in limestone. This road has always been considered a spooky place and has always been dark because of the dense woods. The nickname for the road came from a killer named the Zombie who was said to live in an old shack by the river. Legend claims he would attack young lovers who made their way down the road as it became the local Lover's Lane. Another story claims a man was killed by a train in the 1970s. People claim to see his apparition covered in blood. There is no record of this, but a woman named Della Hamilton stepped out in front of a train and was killed in 1876. Reports of a forlorn female spirit may be her. People are said to disappear in the woods. The wet spirit of a little boy is sometimes seen near the road and stories claim that he died when he fell from a bluff and drowned in the river. Native American spirits are seen and of course, we have our escaped mental patients here too, and we're sure one of them has a hook for a hand. The stories for Zombie Road go on and on, but some people really have had unexplained experiences here.

Allex Matuszek was walking along the Meramec Greenway in 2013 with her aunt when they experienced something she couldn't explain. It was night and the two women heard a sound they would never forget that resembled a high-pitched squeal that a teenage girl would make and then Allex felt a sharp pain on her leg. The two women ran out of the woods and when Allex got home, she discovered scratches on her leg. The strange thing was that she was wearing layers of clothing and none of the clothing was torn. She said, "I don’t know any physical possible way I would have gotten scratched without there being some kind of marking on my half-chap leathers or markings on my pants or socks. No tears, no nothing."

Haynesville Woods 

Haynesville Woods is officially known as Route 2A and is located in Aroostook County in Massachusetts. This is a curvy road that can be treacherous to drive down. For years, semi trucks loaded with potatoes would make their way down the road, but loads of accidents, especially in winter, have made other roads look much more appealing. This one has been dubbed a death trap. A song has even been written about it by country singer Dick Curless called "A Tombstone Every Mile." There are a couple of ghosts seen here. One is a little girl spirit who is said to belong to a ten-year-old who lost her life when she was walking along the road in the 1960s and was hit by a semi-truck. There is also the apparition of a screaming woman who people claim is yelling at cars that her husband is trapped in a car. The story goes that she and her husband were in a car accident that killed them both. 

Stagecoach Road

Stagecoach Road in Marshall, Texas is a an old red dirt road that is pretty creepy because it is overgrown with branches that block the light. As the name indicates, this was a road for a stagecoach line that ran from Shreveport to East Texas. People who drive the road at night claim that the apparition of a woman in a long white dress is seen walking across the road. There is also a ghostly stagecoach that makes its way down the road and disappears. And the church near the road that has the historical marker for the road is nicknamed Devil's Church. And there are cryptids like Bigfoot, Goatman and even the Chupacabra. In 2018, a woman named Stephenie Watson wrote on Facebook, "So last night, we took a Jeep-Run down Stage Coach Road Marshall TX to Karnack TX and in no way did I have any idea until this morning what many have said about this road. I only recorded a small bit just for memory purposes, and this footage does not justify, by any means, how dusty it was. This morning we went out to clean the Jeep and we are blown away by the child's handprint on the driver's side. At no point was a child anywhere near our vehicle during the ride to have touched it, especially not during the dusty parts of the drive. (We washed and dried our Jeep before the ride!) I am now doing my research and I am finding that not only has this happened to others, but many claim to have witnessed more than just handprints."

Prospector's Road

Just off of Highway 49 there is a road called Marshall Road and Prospector Road comes off of that road and runs for about three miles from Coloma to Garden Valley. Prospector's Road got its start during the Gold Rush in the 1800s and several miners lost their lives along it. One story claims that a drunk miner bragged about his claim in a saloon one night and he was later ambushed that night by a couple of other miners who heard the boast. They murdered him to get his claim. This miners ghost is said to haunt the road and has been seen by both drivers and hikers. Witnesses describe him as being tall with a scraggly beard and torn clothing suitable for a miner. He hovers above the ground and is semi-transparent, which is how people know this is a ghost. The spirit sometimes says, "Get off my claim." The apparition has caused a couple of accidents on the road and local homeowners even claim that he enters their homes on occasion. He likes to spook pets, leave the front door wide open and move objects around.

Jack Cole Road (Suggested by Emilee Duke)

Jack Cole Road is located in Hayden, Alabama. This is said to be incredibly haunted and that's not surprising since there are at least sixty-eight recorded deaths connected to the road. And there are many legends as well with many people claiming that the road is cursed. The road is unpaved and surrounded by woods, but once had a hospital located near the half-mile stretch of road. A cholera outbreak left sixty people at this hospital dead. At least that is what is claimed by locals, but their is no indication that a hospital was ever here. There was a log cabin here and some hunters once found the mummified body of a female inside. Rumors started that she was a witch and that is why the road was cursed. Ghost lights have been seen on the road and people claim to see them dart among the trees. A cryptid described as looking like Bigfoot or a half-man, half-wolf has been seen. One of the other deaths was said to be a local fruit grower who was hit in the head with an ax and left at the end of the road in the 1960s. His killer was never caught. Some other events are fairly current. 

In 2003, a famous civil rights photographer who lived along the road claimed that he saw strange things in his house and he was later found dead in his home. No details can be found like who the photographer was or what he died from. And in 2015, a 52-year-old woman named Lisa Weaver who lived along the road, went missing. Her home burned to the ground and people thought she had burned up in the fire, but after firefighters went through it, Weaver was nowhere to be found. The remains of her three dogs were found in the debris. Even stranger was that Weaver was disabled and would have been unable to just runaway. On top of that, her son had texted her right before the fire started letting her know he was on his way home and she had texted him back. There was no indication that she was leaving the house. The cause of the fire remains unknown and Weaver is still missing. Don't bother trying to check out this cursed road as a sinkhole opened up on it, making it impassable.

U.S. Route 44 

A stretch of U.S. Route 44 through Rehoboth, Massachusetts is home to a hitchhiking ghost. This spirit is said to be six-feet tall with red hair and a beard and he is wearing a flannel jacket. Sometimes he appears just along the road and other times he pops up inside of cars. His most terrifying appearance is when he just shows up in the middle of the road in front of a car leaving the driver thinking that they have run him over. One driver said that he was doing about 40 mph when all of a sudden the face of the redheaded man was pressed against his windshield and then just vanished. Sometimes people just hear his disembodied laughter. Nobody knows his story. Drivers also claim to have technical difficulties in their cars when going through this patch of road with radios just picking up static or cell phones losing power. Strange mutated animals are said to have been seen along the road as well. 

Owaissa Street

Owaissa Street is in Appleton, Wisconsin and runs along Riverside Cemetery. The most seen ghostly activity reported here claims that the ghosts of past mourners dressed in old-fashioned clothing are seen on the road. Legends claim that people see the spirit of Kate Blood here and that she had been a witch, but there is nothing that backs up that claim.

Archer Avenue

Probably one of the most famous haunted roads is Archer Avenue, which is located near Chicago, Illinois. This is a road that Diane has actually been on as she searched for Resurrection Mary. The road runs seven miles between a church and Resurrection Cemetery, which is reputedly the final resting spot for Resurrection Mary. Diane got to see and photograph the Willowbrook Ballroom before it burned down in 2016. The site has been set aside for condminiums, but those have never been built and so there is only an empty parking lot here now. This glorious dance hall started off as an open-air pavilion that opened in 1921 as the Oh Henry Ballroom - and yes, it was named for the candy who bought the rights. It was destroyed by fire in 1930. The ballroom was rebuilt as an enclosed facility and became even more popular, hosting the likes of Ozzie and Harriet Nelson, Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, Guy Lombardo, Jimmy Dorsey, and the Glenn Miller Orchestra. This was the last place that Resurrection Mary was seen alive. She had gone to a dance at the ballroom with a young man, but the couple quarreled and Mary ended up walking home. She was killed in a hit-and-run. Now drivers on Archer Road claim to see a young woman walking along the road in a dress from the 1930s. Some people offer her a ride, but she usually disappears shortly after getting into the car. 

But that's not the only haunting going on along this road. There are claims of phantom monks along the road. They are thought to be connected to the St. James at Sag Bridge Church, which is located at 10600 Archer Avenue. The site was originally a French fort because it sat on a hill with the church being founded in 1833. Drivers claim to see figures roaming the field near the church and chanting in Latin while carrying candles. The church never had any monks, so we're not sure where this story comes from. But there is another haunting tale connected to the church. This story dates back to September 30, 1897 and was reported in the Chicago Tribune. The tale features two musicians, Professor William Looney and John Kelly, whom had performed at a former dance hall along the road and they decided to overnight at the hall. They were awakened in the middle of the night by the sounds of a horse and carriage on the dirt road outside. The Professor looked out a window and saw the carriage come up the road to the entrance way where it stopped and then turned around. He then saw a girl in a white robe appear out of nowhere and she got into the coach with the driver. The coach pulled away and then disappeared. People believed this was the spirit of a girl who was a housekeeper at the rectory and she had fallen in love with an assistant to the priest in the early 1880's. The couple decided to elope and he came along with a wagon and horses to pick her up. She called out to him and spooked the horses who bolted as she was trying to board. The wagon overturned and killed the couple. They were buried together in the church's cemetery.

Boy Scout Lane & Bloody Bride Bridge

A bridge along Highway 66 in Stevens Point, Wisconsin is known as Bloody Bride's Bridge. Local legend claims that a bride was killed in an accident here and that her apparition now haunts the road. Just off the highway is Boy Scout Lane where allegedly a troop of Boy Scouts disappeared. There doesn't seem to be any truth to the story, but that doesn't stop people from telling that story or any of a number of other versions. There's the one that claims the Scoutmaster killed the whole troop. Or the one that says the bus driver did the deed. And then there's the dropped lantern that caused a fire that killed the troop. But again, there's no proof. The land was once owned by the Boy Scouts of America and they had plans to build a camp, which is why the road got the name, but the camp was never built. People claim to hear the disembodied laughter of children in the woods and to get an overwhelming feeling of being watched. Disembodied footsteps are heard and the unnerving snapping of branches.

Shades of Death Road

Shades of Death Road is a two-lane rural road located in Warren County in New Jersey. This road is seven miles long and is always dark because of all the low hanging branches. And those branches may be why this road is haunted. They were used for lynchings. Because of all the deaths along the road, it went from being called Shade Road to Shades of Death. The area was also the scene of an epidemic of malaria in the 1850s that killed many people. The road is plagued by tons of tales. There is Ghost Lake along the road where people have had sightings of mysterious, moving bodies near this lake. A small cave near the lake is called The Fairy Hole. Shards of Lenape pottery have been found in it leading archaeologists to believe that the cave was used for overnight stays while traveling and that possibly a burial or two may have happened here. The spirits of Native Americans have been seen near the lake. Cat Swamp is said to be home to a pack of vicious cats. Lenape Lane runs eastward off of Shades of Death and apparitions are seen along this road that is always enveloped in a weird fog. An orb of white light appears at the end of the road and has been known to chase cards out of the lane and back to Shades of Death Road. And a strange story from Weird NJ claims that in the 1990s hundreds of Polaroid photographs were found scattered in the woods near the road. The pictures featured the blurred image of a woman looking in distress. The local police began an investigation that never found anything and the pictures mysteriously disappeared.

Kelly Road

Kelly Road stretches for two miles in Ohioville, Pennsylvania and is also know as "Mystery Mile." Legend claims that Native Americans cursed the road after the land was taken from them. The road curves through dense forest patches and is said to have a bad aura. Strange sounds are heard, mysterious figures are seen and docile animals are said to become vicious when on the road. An its not just animals. People suddenly lose their temper on the road.There are rumors of cult rituals in the woods near the road too.

Jeremy Swamp Road

Jeremy Swamp Road is in Southbury, Connecticut and is responsible for causing many cars to stall. When drivers get out to check under the hood, the weirdness really gets started. There are stories of people simply disappearing. Tow truck drivers arrive on scene and can't find the drivers. Legends claim that these people have been attacked and carried off by Melon Heads, which are cryptid humanoids that also make appearances in the lore of Ohio and Michigan.

Route 666 

U.S. Route 491 sounds like a pretty tame stretch of road until one hears the nickname, the Devil’s Highway. The highway has that nickname because when it was first established, it was actually Route 666. The route got that number because it was the sixth branch of historic Route 66. It was established in 1926 and ran for nearly 200 miles. The name change came in 2003 when the states of Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico decided they wanted to get away from the stigma of having it as the number of the beast in the Bible. That didn't change the reputation of this Highway to Hell. People still claim to see ghosts along the route like faceless hitchhikers and some witnesses have even seen hell hounds who will chase the cars. Hell hounds are supernatural dogs that represent death in some cultures. There are also claims of skinwalkers. There is other strange phenomenon like orbs, UFOs and time loss. There is good reason for this road to be haunted. There have been numerous accidents along it. The ghost of a girl in a white nightgown is seen. A flaming semi has been seen that just disappears. Another female ghost runs out into traffic and disappears once hit. And the stories go on and on.

Road trips are a ton of fun. For some like us, including a haunted road on the route is even more fun. Could some of these legends we shared with you be true? Are any of these roads haunted? That is for you to decide!