Читать книгу Cincinnati Haunted Handbook - Jeff Morris - Страница 28

directions

The area known as Peaceful Valley includes land along SR-28 and the area just south of it along the Stonelick Creek. To get to SR-28, take I-71 north to I-275 east to exit 57. Head east along SR-28. When you get to SR-132 in the city of Goshen, turn right. Follow this road (it becomes Williams Corner Road) until you get to a road called Stonelick Williams Corner Road. Turn right; the haunted bridge will be down the road a little ways.

You can also take the US-50 Milford exit off I-275. Take 50 to the east until you get to Stonelick-Williams Corner Road and turn left onto the road. This way you get to the haunted bridge quicker, but you skip the rest of the Peaceful Valley.

history

There’s not a lot of dark history from the area to account for the ghostly activity here, but many rumors exist of extensive cult practices performed near Stonelick Road. The covered bridge, which sits on this road, was built in 1878, making it the most recently constructed covered bridge in Clermont County. The area is quite rural with few houses around.

ghost story

Despite the lack of documented tragedy on which to base a ghost story, Peaceful Valley does not live up to its name. It is a scary place to go.

One of the stranger ghost stories involves a small farmhouse near the covered bridge. Legend says that as you drive by this farmhouse, there will be an equal number of lights lit as there are passengers in your car. No one is quite sure exactly which house it is supposed to be, but I guess you could look for the farmhouse that has the equal number of lights as passengers in your car and find it that way.

The bridge is also said to be haunted. People will see figures and hear voices on it. According to legend, you need to stop your car on the bridge for many of these strange things to occur. The most famous legend is that if you turn off your car on the bridge and flash your lights three times, you will see a man hang himself in a nearby tree. The legend says that you will not be able to restart your car until the man appears.

Most of the reports from the area involve the cult that is said to practice in the area. They are said to hang out near the bridge, and if they catch you stopped on or near the bridge, they will chase you away in a pickup truck. They will ride the pickup truck right up on your bumper with the high beams on, and then will mysteriously disappear without any apparent place to turn off. Sometimes, these cult members supposedly open your doors and try to drag you out of your car.

visiting

It is legal to be in this area after dark, but it is probably not legal to stop on the bridge and flash your lights. There are cameras positioned all over the bridge, and there are many police officers who patrol the area nightly, making sure that people aren’t creating disturbances or breaking laws. Sometimes these officers will simply chase cars out of the area without turning on their lights or sirens. This could explain some of the stories where people are chased from the valley by vehicles.

However, there could be further danger than being chased away by cops. People have reported that when they are stopped on the bridge, unseen figures will open the car doors and reach in to try to grab the people and the keys. When the assaulted car starts to flee, the pickup truck will chase them for many miles around the city.

I’m not one who jumps easily at ghosts. I looked at the farmhouses in the area by the bridge and sure enough there was one with two lights on and there were two people in the car. I don’t know if it was the right one or not, but it didn’t scare me. When I stopped on the bridge, I wasn’t scared of ghosts, despite the strange stories of voices and figures. But when I was on the bridge, my windows were most of the way up, I triple-checked to make sure that my door was locked, and, even though the legend dictates that the car needs to be off to find the hanging man, I kept the car on in case I needed to make a quick escape. Maybe that’s why I didn’t see the hanging man.