Investigations Conducted By The Louisville Ghost Hunters Society:
THE
ELMORE RIDER By Rhonda Jurgenson
So, have you got an itch to take a little trip? What are you
doing March 21?
If you are interested exploring something paranormal in
nature, you may want to take a trip to Elmore, Ohio and wait
around for the infamous Elmore Rider to appear.
The Elmore Rider is a folklore legend with origins dating
back to 1919. As legends are apt to do, the story of the
Elmore Rider changes depending upon who the teller of the
story is. One version of the story goes along these lines:
A young man had been sent to fight in World War One and was
forced to bid a temporary goodbye to his girl back home.
Once the war was over, this fellow purchased a motorcycle
and drove to his girlfriend’s home to surprise her with his
return to the states. Upon arrival he was informed that his
girlfriend had met someone else while he was away fighting
and that they had recently become engaged. Irate from
hearing the news of her betrayal, he jumped on his
motorcycle and sped away.
Not too far from the girl’s driveway, the road took a sharp
turn and crossed over a bridge. In his fit of rage, the man
lost control of his motorcycle on this road and careened
wildly off the bridge to the rocks below. Authorities later
found his crumpled body and the twisted metal that was once
his motorcycle lying in the muddy rocks at the bottom of the
ravine the bridge crossed. His decapitated head lay a few
feet away from his body.
In the years that followed the crash of the Elmore Rider
there have been several claims of his return. Supposedly on
the anniversary of his death, March 21, the headless Elmore
Rider with his headlight glaring, drives from his
girlfriend’s house, down the curved road and then vanishes
at the midpoint on the bridge. Some people even claim to
have recorded his return.
This excerpt is from Troy Taylor’s “Ghosts of the Prairie”
website:
Richard Gill was a student at nearby Bowling Green
University and had an avid interest in the paranormal. As
March 21 neared, he and a friend decided to stake out the
haunted bridge. They brought along a movie camera, a still
camera and a tape recorder. They parked their car on the far
side of the bridge and then followed the procedure that,
legend had it, caused the ghost light to appear. He blinked
his car lights three times and then honked his horn three
times. Suddenly, the light appeared near the farmhouse and
flew toward the bridge, where it vanished.
Excited now, they repeated the experiment, this time
crossing the bridge with a string. This way, they would
learn if it was a physical object that crossed the bridge
rather than a supernatural one. They repeated the summoning
procedure and the light appeared again, following the same
course. The string remained where they had left it!
Now it was time for the next step ... one of them would
stand in the middle of the bridge as the light approached.
The light appeared again and Gill was puzzled when his
friend did not return to the car. He went to check on him
and found him in a ditch by the side of the road ... badly
beaten! He had not idea what had hit him and recalled
nothing other than watching the light approach.
Somehow, Gill convinced his friend to try one last
experiment. They parked on the same side of the bridge from
the direction the light came from and pointed their car in
the opposite direction. This time after summoning the light,
they started moving away from it. The light overtook them,
passed through the car and vanished … and Gill and his
friend kept right on driving!
What did the cameras and recorder pick up? The movie film
was totally blank, the still camera picked up only a light
source and the recorder picked up some sort of high-pitched
noise. Was it the ghost light? There was no way to tell.
It is said that if you stand on the bridge at the precise
time (know one seems to know what time this is) when the
Elmore Rider comes along, you will end up being injured in
some form or fashion but if you stand on the side of the
road, he will merely pass you by. At one point in the early
‘80s the bridge had become such an attraction, police would
actually park on the bridge at night to make sure no one
would stop to investigate. The police don’t have to worry
about that today though. It seems that the Elmore Rider
legend is beginning to fade away. I can’t even find out
precisely where the actual bridge is located. The most
popular location seems to be just across the county line in
Sandusky County near Lindsey. There is supposed to be a
bridge on Fought Road that crosses Mud Creek and this is
supposed to be “the” bridge!
Should you find yourself bored one night and decide to take
a road trip, maybe you’ll find out for yourself if the
legend is worth the drive. Be forewarned though … don’t
stand on the bridge or you may end up feeling the wrath of
the dreaded Elmore Rider!
Update:
From http://www.forgottenoh.com:
I've gotten word that the police used to park at this bridge
on certain nights making sure no one would stop and get out
to investigate, because it had gotten to be such a nuisance.
As of late no one seems to know exactly which bridge it is
-- something the local police are probably happy about.
But according to a few e-mails I've received, the bridge is
located just across the county line in Sandusky County, near
the town of Lindsey, at the place where Fought Road crosses
Mud Creek.
Although Elmore itself is actually in Ottawa County, reports
I have say that the bridge where the famous headless
motorcyclist rides is located in Sandusky County near the
small town of Lindsey--specifically at the place where
fought road crosses Mud Creek.
* The
Louisville Ghost Hunters Society Investigations are not always
public, we do confidential investigations of haunted residences which
will not be reported on our website.
If you have a haunted house, or a unexplained phenomenon that you
would like us to investigate - please do not hesitate to contact us,
and rest assured that your investigation will remain strictly
confidential (unless you wish to release our findings to the
public).
THE
ELMORE RIDER
