Clinton Road
Throw a coin into the water from a bridge on this New Jersey road, the story goes, and a ghostly boy will throw it back.
What was reported
Clinton Road runs for about 16 kilometres through dark woods and reservoirs in northern New Jersey, with few houses along it. It has a reputation as one of the strangest roads in America, with stories of phantom cars that tailgate drivers and vanish, strange creatures, and gatherings in the woods.
The most famous legend is of the ghost of a boy who drowned under a bridge at a bend called Dead Man's Curve. If you drop a coin into the water, it's said, he'll toss it back, or it will be found on the road the next morning.
Explanations offered
The road's legends were collected and popularised by the magazine Weird NJ from the 1990s. Its remoteness and the ruins of an old castle-like house nearby made it a natural setting for scary stories, especially for teenagers daring each other to drive it at night.
- When
- Told since the 1970s
- Where
- West Milford, New Jersey, USA
- Witnesses
- Drivers, teenagers and a magazine about New Jersey oddities
- Status
- Urban legend
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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