Ghosthunting Kentucky. Patti Starr
Council and State Historic Preservation Office and spoke to Patrick Kennedy. He was extremely helpful in providing me with the facts about the Colville Covered Bridge. It was built in 1877 by Jacob Bower, and it traverses over Hinkston Creek in Bourbon County. The bridge featured truss construction and a multiple king post style with a single 124-foot span. During this era the Kentucky wilderness was covered with an abundance of poplar trees, so the truss structure was built with poplar timbers. After many years, the bridge was in dire need of repairs and was restored by Louis Bower in 1913. His son, Stock, restored and raised the bridge to its present height in 1937. Sadly, the rough-hewn structure that served its community so well was dismantled in 1997 and had to be totally rebuilt. It didn’t open to traffic again until 2001.
I contacted Eddie since he knew about the ghost stories connected to the bridge, and he had conducted several ghost investigations there. I asked him to tell me some of the ghost stories he’d heard about the bridge.
Eddie said, “Back in the 1930s or so, a young woman and her boyfriend were driving home from their high school prom. It’s not clear if they had been drinking or if they just weren’t paying attention, but for some reason, the young man lost control of the car just before entering the covered bridge. He swerved and the car plunged into the waters below. The next morning it was reported that the two of them had drowned. Some time after their deaths, stories about travelers seeing mysterious and unexplained lights coming from underneath the bridge started to surface. These stories started rumors about the bridge being haunted. Curious youths began to come to the bridge to see if they could witness these bizarre lights appearing around the bridge. They would wait until dark and then drive their cars to the center of the bridge to see what would happen. After a while they would notice what looked like car headlights coming up from behind their car. When they turned around to see the lights, the lights would disappear. Moments later lights would shine through the bottom of the bridge as if a car had gone into the creek, and the car lights were shining up through the water.”
I asked Eddie what kind of evidence he recorded during investigations at the bridge. “I love to come here and get EVPs,” he said. He told me about one of his investigations where he parked his truck in the center of the bridge to see if he could witness the lights. His mini audio cassette player was recording in the seat beside him. As he patiently waited for something to happen, he thought he heard a rustling sound that seemed to come from behind his seat. He glanced in his rearview mirror and thought he saw something behind him and, for a split second, thought about getting the heck out of there. Then he asked, “Is there a sweet spirit in this truck with me?” He waited a few seconds, to give the ghost time to answer, and then he rewound the tape in his audio recorder to see if the ghost had answered. He played back the question, and within a few seconds he got a very breathy “Yeessss.” It sounded like a female’s voice, so he thought he might have captured the voice of the girl who had drowned on her prom night.
This experience ignited Eddie’s desire to find out all he could about the bridge. He began to ask people in his community if they knew of any death associated with the bridge. He was told by one of his friends that in the 1970s, a teenager had hanged himself in the middle of the bridge from one of the high rafters. The father of Eddie’s friend was ten years old when he heard police sirens heading out to the bridge one evening. Then he found out the next day that the police had discovered a teenage boy hanging from the rafters. Another story that Eddie uncovered was about an elderly lady who was walking across the bridge and fell ill and died before she could get across. Her name was Ms. Mitchell and the date of the incident was 1933.
Feeling confident that he had enough information to try another EVP session, Eddie and a friend went back to the bridge. To his amazement, he captured sixteen EVPs during his question session. Each time he would ask a question, he would stop the recorder to see if there was an answer. He continued this procedure for a couple of hours, and even though he did not get a response to every question, he got a lot more than he had anticipated. One of Eddie’s first questions was, “What was the name of the boy who hung himself in 1977?” After a few seconds he played the recorder back and heard a whisper that sounded like “Jonathan.” He stopped the tape and pressed record again and asked, “Is your name Jonathan, yes or no?” Again, he listened to his recorder to see if there was an answer and got another whisper, “Yes.” He continued with five more questions but didn’t get any more answers. Patience is one of the biggest assets a ghosthunter can have, and Eddie was quick to learn this lesson.
Eddie was pleased with the results he had gotten with this investigation and decided to return another night. On his return, he didn’t get any responses during his EVP session until he started home and decided to ask questions while his friend drove the truck. He asked, “Are you inside the car or outside?” He got a response, “Outside.” He continued and asked, “What side of the car are you on?” The response was, “Your side.” Eddie was a little creeped out about this and wanted to find out who this ghost was. He asked the entity to identify itself but after about three more attempts, there was no response. With his patience growing thin he commanded, “If there is someone here, say something or forever hold your peace.” He was shocked at the reply: “Get out of the car.” He explained to the ghost that he was not getting out of the car and continued with more questions, but didn’t get an answer until he started to ask some questions about Ms. Mitchell. He found out through the answers that were coming through the recorder that Ms. Mitchell had been riding with them in their truck when they would leave the bridge for home. She admitted that she liked talking to Eddie but also wanted him to take her back to the bridge.
Once I had collected my information about this haunted location, Chuck and I drove to the Colville Bridge by the way of Paris Pike, one of the most scenic roadways in the Kentucky Bluegrass Region. This quiet route affords spectacular views of horse farms amidst the historic rock fences that line the road for twelve miles. These classic natural beauties reminded me of the stone fences I passed as I traveled the roadways while I lived in Scotland, and there is good reason for that. The rock fences of Kentucky were first constructed by Scotch-Irish who brought this tradition of dry stone masonry from their country and used slave labor and Irish immigrants to build these barriers. What I find so amazing about these fences is that they are constructed without using any mortar. The secret lies in the skill of how they are stacked, so that the force of gravity and frictional resistance holds them in place. If they are built correctly, these fences will be resistant to fire, water, insects, and earthquake and can last up to 150 years.
A blanket of shadows formed around us as we entered the blackness of night along the country road. We turned off onto a more primitive road, and shortly the headlights revealed a bright white-and-green covered bridge directly before us. Why was it painted white and green? I learned from Patrick that when these bridges were built, it was decided to give each state its own bridge color. Kentucky chose white and green.
We pulled off the road and stopped before entering the bridge. I grabbed my flash light and left the car to go stand in the middle of the bridge. It was a cool October evening with a slight breeze that carried the scent of the water below. There was no moon that night so the only light that brightened my path was the torch in my hand. Chuck called out from the car, “Hey, Patti, don’t go too far, I don’t want to lose sight of you.” I yelled back, “I’m okay, don’t worry about me!” and at that moment I felt a slight touch on my shoulder. I jerked around and flashed the light towards where I was standing. Nothing was there. Just about that time, a set of headlights came up behind me, and as I turned I could see that it was the rest of my investigation team. I had decided to invite Pete Eclov and Mary Beth to join us at the bridge. They were two of my newer ghosthunters and needed to get more experience in the field. I knew their expectations would run high, which, to me, seems to render better results on a ghost investigation. It sure did pay off because we started to get results as soon as we began gathering our data.
Patti captured this spirit orb hovering near Chuck Starr and Pete Eclov as Pete recorded an EVP that says, “Yes,” when Patti asked if Ms. Mitchell was present.
After we had discussed some of the bridge legends, which included the teenage couple who drowned under the bridge and Ms. Mitchell, we decided