Ten miles of winding, virtually deserted road surrounded by dense and deserted forest, New Jersey’s Clinton Road is exactly the kind of dark and lonely place where one would expect to see something ghostly… something eerie… something un-natural…
The road’s bad reputation goes back to at least 1905, and in its time Clinton Road has been said to be frequented not only by ghosts but also by witches, the KKK, and even Satanists who are rumored to have held ritual sacrifices in the ruins of a nearby abandoned castle. Reports have it that the castle’s walls had satanic messages painted on them and that apparitions and hallucinations were common at the site, but as the authorities demolished what was left of the castle in 1988, it’s not as if we can go and check.
The most famous of the road’s specters is that of a young boy who haunts a bridge passing over Clinton Brook at the ominously named Dead Man’s Curve. While playing, the child supposedly fell from the bridge to his death on the jagged rocks below. Now, for some odd reason, he lurks under the bridge waiting to throw back any quarter that is thrown over the side of the bridge into the brook. Why he does this is a bit of a mystery, as is why anyone would be scared of a ghost that does something so innocuous. Perhaps the kid is allergic to metal, or against capitalism, or maybe just too stupid to come up with any other pastimes. Another version of the story claims that the boy was run over by a car and that he tries to push people off the bridge, but even that is supposedly done to save them from being run over — not that his good intentions make any difference once your brains are splattered all over the jagged rocks below.
The area’s other famous ghost is that of a teenage girl who died after crashing her Camaro in 1988 and who is now seen driving along the road late at night, presumably in a Camaro because, as we all know, kids never learn. This phantom is an easy one to avoid though, you just make sure to not mention her story while driving along and she and her ghost car will stay on the other side of the veil. The Camaro isn’t the only phantom vehicle spotted late at night, there are also reports of a red phantom pickup that pops out of the inky darkness and chases you off the road while screaming about commie bastards!
Then there are the strange and unspeaking people who stand around looking weird and staring at bystanders before vanishing into thin air, who i suspect are most likely just stoned Bon Jovi fans. Also seen in the area are red eyed wolves — which is to say dogs with car headlights reflecting off their eyes; cults of albino cannibals, which seems unlikely as even one albino is hard to find, much less an entire cult; levitating dogs; escaped monkeys; hellhounds that run at fantastic speeds and, once or twice, the Jersey Devil himself! In fact, the only thing not reported so far at Clinton Road is the Loch Ness Monster, and that’s probably only because the Clinton Brook isn’t deep enough to accommodate it!
