The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
By Jay Gravatte

Imagine driving through a serene isolated lane late at night, the moon is full in the sky. It is the only light illuminating the area, and as you drive the trees all around you cast a shadow on the road obscuring the road ahead, you have nothing but your headlights to guide you now. Silence is all you can hear….

Sleepy Hollow Road is just that, a solitary place that at night time is as dark and foreboding a place as you can imagine; an area eerie enough to ward off even the most adventurous soul. Sleepy Hollow itself is located near the eastern edge of the border between Jefferson and Oldham Counties in Kentucky.

There are a few stories and urban legends attached to the area. Among them is that of the black hearse, it is said to begin to follow you as you travel along the road, it appears suddenly from out of nowhere. The hearse will continuously increase its speed, thereby causing many drivers to run off the side of the road and plunge into the thirty-foot ravine that borders Sleepy Hollow Road.

There is also Cry-Baby Bridge, once an old fashioned covered bridge stood here for years, now replaced by a bridge of steel and concrete. It is on this spot, that tales of settlement women discarding their unwanted or sickly children into the creek below took place. As legend goes on to tell on nights when the moon is full and high and clear in the sky, you can stand on the side of the bridge and hear the cries and screams of the innocent souls.

Another of the lesser known of the three stories of Sleepy Hollow is the “Devil's Point” which in the 1970's and early 80s was rumored to be the area where satanic rituals were held. Many residents that live in the area have claimed to have heard chanting and screaming coming from nearby. The area is also rumored to have been populated by bonfires and figures in dark robes.

Interestingly, there have also been reports of drivers going through this stretch of road and having experienced what they described as time warps. For example, someone driving into the hollow at 11:00 p.m. might find themselves exiting the stretch several hours later.