I posted this a couple years ago, but it is cool, so it deserves a re-post.
* * * *
Clinton Road, in New Jersey, has been voted the most haunted road in the world. There was never a doubt in my mind. I lived close to there for many years and often ran on the road. What a rush! The greatest thing a horror author can experience is that prickly feeling on the back of your neck when
something is out there. I have written many stories about the horrors along this road and plan to write a novel based on the legends and what I have personally experienced.
From Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clinton_Road_%28New_Jersey%29
Clinton Road (New Jersey)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A typical stretch of Clinton Road
Clinton Road is located in
West Milford,
Passaic County,
New Jersey. It runs in a generally north-south direction, beginning at
Route 23 near
Newfoundland and running roughly 10 miles (16 km) to its northern terminus at Upper
Greenwood Lake.
The road and the land around it have gained notoriety over the years as an area rife with many
legends of paranormal occurrences such as sightings of
ghosts, strange creatures and gatherings of
witches,
Satanists and the
Ku Klux Klan. It is also rumored that professional killers dispose of bodies in the surrounding woods—with one recorded case of this occurring.
[1] It has been a regular subject of discussion in
Weird NJ magazine, which once devoted an entire issue to it. In the words of a local police chief, "It's a long, desolate stretch and makes the imagination go nuts."
[2]
There are very few houses along the road and much of the adjoining property is undeveloped publicly owned woodlands (either
City of Newark watershed or
state forest) and the road itself is a narrow two-lane highway that receives little maintenance, is not part of New Jersey's
county-highway system and was until fairly recently unpaved for some of its length, connecting two areas of minimal population and growth and thus having little traffic even at the busiest times of day.
It is also notorious for having the country's longest
traffic light wait.
[3] This occurs at a double intersection where Route 23 crosses the road. The two lights can cause motorists to wait for 5 minutes in total. The lengthy wait was a result of traffic planners giving increased priority to Route 23 to reduce the tailbacks during rush hour.
[4]
History
The sign for Clinton Road at
Route 23, its southern end.
The road, like the
reservoir and
brook in the area, gets its name from the now-vanished settlement of Clinton, which was located about where the road crosses the brook.
[5]
Legends and folklore
There are several tales regularly told about different areas along or near Clinton Road.
[6]
- The ghost boy at the bridge: At one of the bridges over Clinton Brook (Dead Mans Curve) near the reservoir, if you put a quarter in the middle of the road where the yellow line is, at midnight it will supposedly be promptly returned by the ghost of a boy who drowned while swimming below or had fallen in while sitting on the edge of the bridge. In some tellings an apparition is seen; in others the ghost pushes the teller into the water if he or she looks over the side of the bridge in order to save him from being run over as he was in life.
Besides the ghost boy, there have been other ghosts described by
Weird NJ readers. One claims to have seen a ghost
Camaro driven by a girl who supposedly died when she crashed it in 1988 (any mention while driving the road at night is supposed to trigger a manifestation).
[7] Another claims to have encountered two
park rangers one night while camping with friends near
Terrace Pond, a
glacial tarn on a ridge accessible from the road by hiking trails, who in the morning turned out to have been the ghosts of two rangers who had died on the job in 1939.
[7]
The 18th-century smelter mistakenly believed to be a Druidic temple.
- The Druidic temple: A conical stone structure just east of the road south of the reservoir was said to be a site where local Druids practiced their rituals, and horrible things might come to pass for any intruder who looked too closely or came at the wrong time.[citation needed]
The building is actually an iron
smelter left over from the 18th century when the ore was common in the area and needed for the
Continental Army in the
American Revolutionary War. It was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places as
Clinton Furnace in 1976.
[8] It is currently fenced off by the Newark water department to prevent any entrance and the liability for injury that might result.
- Ghost truck: There are accounts of phantom vehicles: pickup trucks or even floating headlights not attached to any vehicle that supposedly appear from nowhere in the middle of the night and chase drivers to the end of the road, then disappear.[9]
- Strange creatures, from hellhounds to monkeys and unidentifiable hybrids, have allegedly been seen at night. If not of supernatural origin, they are said to have been survivors of Jungle Habitat, a nearby attraction that has been closed since 1976, which have managed to survive and crossbreed.[10]
- Some visitors to the area report also seeing people dressed weirdly at odd hours who simply stare at those who see them and do not speak. Sometimes these people disappear or are apparently not seen by those present.[11]
- Lastly, some travelers have reported a feeling of uneasiness or mounting dread as they drive down the road, sometimes so great that they have to turn back.[12]
Cross Castle
In 1905, a man named Richard Cross built a
castle on high land near the reservoir for his wife and three children. Later in the 20th century, it fell into ruin after a fire had destroyed part of it and thus became a popular destination for
hikers and local teenagers looking for secluded locations to camp out and have parties.
[12]
It was also widely believed to have played host to gatherings of
Satan worshippers and their
sacrifices. Several past visitors have written to
Weird NJ telling of strange occurrences in or near the castle site, such as people going into
seizures and
bruises appearing on their bodies afterwards, or having strange, disturbing visions. Writings that suggest Satanism have been reported as appearing on the castle's interior walls, particularly in areas that were supposedly inaccessible.
[12]
Newark's water department razed the castle as an
attractive nuisance in 1988, but the
foundations remain and several hiking
trails can still be followed to the site.
[12]
The Iceman
One day in May 1983 a
bicyclist going down the road noticed
vultures feasting at a spot in the nearby woods. He investigated and discovered it was a human body.
An
autopsy found that the man had died of foul play but also something initially puzzling:
ice crystals in
blood vessels near his
heart. His interior organs also had decayed at a rate far slower than his skin. Pathologists concluded that someone had frozen his body after death in an attempt to mislead investigators into believing he died at a later time than he actually did.
The man was identified as someone on the periphery of
Mafia activities in nearby
Rockland County, New York. The investigation ultimately led to the 1986
arrest of
Richard Kuklinski, a New Jersey native involved in Rockland organized crime who confessed to being the killer of not only the victim at issue but a veteran
hit man for the mob. He claimed to have killed over a hundred others and similarly treated their bodies, which earned him the nickname "The Iceman." He pled guilty to five of the murders and received two life sentences, which ended with his death in March 2006.
[1]
Other realities behind the stories
Reports of Ku Klux Klan activity in the area may come from the presence of the
German-American Bund, which maintained some camps in the area in the years prior to U.S. entry into
World War II. A number of local residents also were reportedly Bund members.
Weird NJ has also published an e-mail from a correspondent who had claimed to have been a practicing
Wiccan and said that he and fellow adherents built shrines in the area and practiced casting spells, which he said accounted for some of the stories people told. He claimed there was a lot more of this activity than the magazine's editors knew about.
Here are the top five most haunted roads in the world.
5. Belchen Tunnel, Switzerland – The ghost of an old lady is known to haunt this Swiss road. One report said two women picked her up and she warned them something dreadful was going to happen. Then, she disappeared.
4. Stocksbridge Road, UK – Also known as the Killer Road, has been home to many ghostly sightings. Some security guards witnessed children playing on the road late one night, but when they disappeared before the guards could reach them. And the ghost of a monk has been known to appear on the road's bridge.
3. Highway 666, USA – Travelers on this haunted American highway have had reported speeding ghostcars, packs of devil dogs and a flaming, demonic semi truck that seems to drive right at the spooked traveler.
2. Tuen Mun Road, Hong Kong – Locals blame the high number of car accidents on the sudden appearance of ghosts in the middle of the road. A person will appear in an instant forcing the driver to swerve and crash. They say with every new carfatality, a new ghost will haunt the road.
1. Clinton Road, New Jersey – When visiting this haunted Garden State road, make sure you toss a coin into the river at the Old Boy Bridge. The ghost of a boy who drowned will throw it back. There have also been sightings of UFO's, mutated circus animals and mysterious glowing eyes.
How fitting that New Jersey rocks the charts!
Blaze McRob
