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CHAPTER 8

Shades of Death Road and Ghost Lake

LIBERTY, INDEPENDENCE, AND ALLANUCHY

SHADES OF DEATH ROAD IN WARREN COUNTY winds above the fertile sod farms of Great Meadows. The road was originally called Shades Road because of the tall trees that line it and, in full bloom, create an amazing, shady canopy. It’s a beautiful drive for five miles on a sunny Sunday afternoon, yet it takes on a more foreboding atmosphere at night.

There are many tales about this stretch of road. The first is that the ghostlike wisps of fog so common on the road are the spirits of the Indians who died along it. True, the Lenni Lenape Indians staggered home from their battle at the Delaware with the Iroquois of New York. Those who did not die in battle succumbed to malaria from the mosquitoes that bit them while they traversed this route. The fog, however, is simply an atmospheric manifestation of ground and water warmed during the day colliding with the cool night air.

The deadliness of the road became well known to the locals. People avoided the area for fear of contracting malaria. This made it a perfect refuge for the criminal element. They would rather contend with a disease than be captured and brought to justice. In the 1800s, a man and his horse were found dead on Shades Road, apparently the victims of a robbery. In the 1930s, another robbery victim was bludgeoned to death with the jack handle of his Ford Model T. In both cases, the murderers were never caught.

Ghost Lake was created by a dam that was built between adjoining properties owned by William Crouse Jr. and Leon Hull in the 1940s. Therefore, the tale of Indian spirits rising from the waters of Ghost Lake cannot be true, given the obvious glitch in timing. Crouse and Hull chose this area to build their stately homes specifically because of the addresses, which by that time were officially on Shades of Death Road. They realized that the negative reputation of the road gave them the benefits of privacy and solitude. They not only named their newly formed lake “Ghost Lake,” but they also called their properties “Haunted Hollow” and the mountain “Murderer’s Mountain.”

While I’m punching holes in the romantic ghost tales, let me continue with the one about the ghostly bride and groom whose spirits are seen rising from the depths of Ghost Lake. It’s a great campfire story of the bride and groom rowing out to the center of the lake on their wedding night for a private moonlit toast of champagne. The bride got tipsy and fell into the lake. The weight of her wedding gown pulled her down and held her below the water. The groom jumped in to save her and drowned as well. (There is no documented proof that anyone ever drowned in Ghost Lake.)

I first came to investigate Shades of Death Road with a group of NJGHS members back in the summer of 2000. It was a perfect night, not too hot, not too cool, and not too humid. The sky was clear, and there were so many stars compared to Union County, our home base.

Ghost Lake

After traveling out Route 22 West and then up Route 31 North, we were on the county roads leading to Shades of Death Road, which is off of CR 611/Hope Road. The sun was setting as we pulled onto Shades. We wound our way over the road, going slowly to maintain the caravan of investigators and to look and listen for anything out of the ordinary. Finally, we arrived at Ghost Lake, and one by one we pulled into the gravel and dirt parking lot.

As we got out of our cars, we gathered to go over the investigative protocols and test our equipment and load fresh batteries. By now it was completely dark. Since we weren’t familiar with the place, I did not allow the team members to go up the trail to look for the caves or the abandoned cabin in the woods. The group split into three teams of two investigators each and fanned out around the lake and parking area.

I was tracking the temperature with my thermal scanner while monitoring the other team members. My concern for my team members’ safety went beyond the paranormal. I was worried about bears, as the area is known for its black bear population. I continued working my way from one group to the next measuring the temperature and activating the audio recorder for EVPs.

I made my way over to the entrance of the parking lot. Joe was filming with his new Sony NightShot camcorder. He took a break to show me what he had captured thus far on his digital still camera. There were a couple of decent orb pictures. He then resumed filming. I was standing next to him and scanning the temperature in the area. It was averaging around seventy-five degrees. Suddenly the temperature began to drop on the digital readout of the thermal scanner. Before I could announce this, Joe exclaimed, “I just got one! Did you see that? It just went right past the lens!”

I couldn’t believe how fast the temperature dived twenty degrees. I showed Joe the readout of the scanner and how it was displaying a temperature of fifty-five degrees. As he began to rewind the video to the beginning of the orb flying by, I watched the thermal scanner register the climb in temperature back to seventy-five degrees. Joe showed me the footage, and sure enough, there was an orb that zoomed across the bushes and brush in front of us. He then slowed the playback speed so we could see the orb moving in slow motion. It was truly amazing. Not only did he have it on video, but I had the temperature drop documented to further support the event.

Other team members gathered around Joe as he showed the footage again. We were so excited we didn’t notice the patrol car that had pulled into the parking lot. The officer got out of the car and asked us for identification. I explained to him that my ID was in my car and asked him if I could retrieve it. Meanwhile, other team members began explaining to him that we weren’t looking to get into trouble: we were simply ghost hunting.

I knew they meant well, but my heart sank when they started telling the officer about the ghost hunting. All I could think was “Here we go. He’s going to write us off as psychos.” I returned with my identification and explained to him about the NJGHS. Fortunately, he was receptive. It turned out that he was a Conservation Officer and was on duty to patrol the area. He said they had a lot of problems with teenagers going up to the lake to party in the cabin in the woods. When he saw the flashing lights of our cameras, he pulled in expecting to find a rowdy bunch of drunken teens.

Joe stepped forward and showed the officer the video of the orb he just captured. This actually fascinated the officer. I explained to him the temperature drop I had at the same time the orb occurred. The officer gave me his business card and asked that if we were to come up there again to investigate, that we call him first to let him know. He said that technically we were in violation of being in the park after dusk, but he would make an exception since we weren’t damaging the property and were cooperative with him.

I have been back up to Shades of Death Road several times since moving to this area. My second husband and I had a hearse named “Morticia,” a 1989 Eureka high top, and I revived the Morbid Mobile Tours to employ it for the original tour in Union County and this new one in Warren County. We had a special midnight tour on Shades of Death Road on Halloween in 2005.

At 11:45 p.m., we picked up a group of tourists at the Hackettstown train station and proceeded to Shades of Death Road. The six tourists were having a great time in the back of the hearse. “Urnie,” our medical-issue skeleton and mascot, sat up front between Steve, who was driving, and me. I narrated the history of the road over the radio while heading toward Ghost Lake. Once we the lake was in view, I told the legends and truth about the man-made lake.

Steve noticed police cars in the lot by the lake, but figured we were fine as we were not stopping or pulling in. We continued to the end of the road and made a U-turn to come back once more on Shades of Death. As we passed the parking lot of Ghost Lake, Steve noticed the cop cars exit the lot and begin to follow us. Sure enough, their lights came on and we had to pull over. By the time the officer reached Steve’s window, I had the insurance card, registration card, and brochure of our tours to hand him. Steve handed the officer the credentials and explained that we were just driving down the street as part of our Halloween Midnight Tour. The officer pointed his flashlight to the back of the hearse, and saw the people sitting there. I think it scared him. He took a step back and said, “Oh, you’re on a tour now? You’ve got people back there?” We assured him that they were there because they wanted to be. He laughed and yelled to his partner in the other squad car, “They’re on a tour! They got people in the back of this thing!”

The officer, thankfully, had a sense of humor and explained he was relieved. He said he and his partner were not thrilled at having to pull over an older hearse at midnight on Halloween on Shades of Death Road. He kept the brochure and let us go on our way to complete the tour, which we did by cruising through the Union Cemetery in Hackettstown looking for the ghost of Tillie.

Even though you now know that the ghostly apparitions are either legend or natural atmospheric conditions, it’s still worth a ride on Shades of Death Road. I would suggest driving it in the daytime to get familiar with the bends and turns of the road. There are no streetlights save for those at either end of the road. It is possible to crash into a boulder if you’re not paying attention or going too quickly. Haunted motoring!