It is two pm on a Saturday afternoon on Crows Crossing Road, traffic here at this hour is almost non existent, all except for a small green sports utility vehicle owned by a curious young couple that have stopped to sight see near a small historic settlement of buildings known as “Bickers Bend.” it is historic because it predates 1880 and although it is now abandoned at one time nearly 750 people lived here. Now in silent ruin few even stop to take notice of its past life, and as David and Marsha Middleton start to explore its dilapidated buildings, they are completely unaware that the soul resident here has been watching there every move since they arrived. They slowly and without the slightest caution move at will around the settlement, and it isn’t until Marsha Middleton sees the silhouette of a man watching them from the first clearing of trees, that David Middleton begins to wonder about the strange feeling that has come over him. But still he cannot resist the temptation, as against his better judgment he and his young bride slowly move forward to investigate.

Hangmans Noose.



Chester Miller was always thought by the residents of Bickers Bend to be touched in the head in some way, never mind that he was always there when someone needed help or that all of the children of the area loved Chester’s slow, shy but kind demeanor towards them, he just never seemed to fit in until there was a need to be filled. It is on the morning of the 29th day of October eighteen hundred and seventy nine. Chester Miller is on his way home to his cabin in the woods when a young girl named Sadie Turner strikes up a conversation with her friend Chester on her way to the Apion school house. They are walking along and Chester tells her about his latest fishing trip until finally he turns down the path to head home, Sadie Turner never shows up for School, and the School teacher is worried, she tells the class to stay inside while she goes to Look for her, when she can’t find her she alerts the townships constable, and it isn’t long before suspicion is raised, when a woman that had spotted little Sadie talking to Chester points an accusing finger in his direction. Though the Constable advises against jumping to hasty conclusions, when the young child isn’t found that morning, a group of six men including Sadie’s father head into the woods to get Chester Miller. He is questioned repeatedly of the girls whereabouts but when he says that he doesn’t know he is beaten to the ground and kicked several times, when he maintains his innocence he is drug to a tree near his own cabin and hung by the neck by the angry men until he is dead. Two hours after Chester Miller is hung to death, the child is found sleeping in a small clearing beneath an oak tree no more that one hundred yards from the Bickers Bend Township. They have hung an innocent man.

Shortly after the murder of Chester Miller, the odd occurrences begin, a freak lightning storm strikes Chester’s cabin in the clearing where it stood, though it is surrounded by several Oak trees it is the only thing that burns to the ground. Days later the first of Chester’s Six murderers falls to his death down into a deep ravine while hunting, his neck was broken on impact, the person with him said it looked as though somebody pushed him even though no one was there. A strange odor that smells of rotting flesh permeates into the School house and force’s its abandonment. Two others die in their sleep, the living conditions fall into a steep decline until finally people in fear of the township being cursed, begin to move away, by the turn of the next fall nearly one year after Chester Miller’s murder, the last family moves away from Bickers Bend, it is the Turner family. Three miles down the trail Sadie Turners father begins to complain about having difficulty breathing, he dies before help can be found, no one is able to explain the rope burns that are found around his neck. In the years that follow on almost every occasion that people have to visit the abandoned settlement people to the present day have complained of unexplained dizziness, violent headaches, spasms and shortness of breath. The stench of rotting flesh can still be smelled in the empty school house. Soon after the township was abandoned the trail that would become Crows Crossing Road would be fully formed, in the beginning by the people of Bickers Bend, who forged this trail because of the murder of an innocent man who refused to die Quietly.



Present Day, the Middleton’s have traveled a full thirty yards into the clearing following the ghostly figure. It is mere seconds later when they are both over come by the stench of rotting flesh, Marsha falls into a heap on the ground while David rushes to her aid, before feeling the slight discomfort of his shortness of breath. They both clearly see the figure of a man silently watching them from the woods.. They quickly regain their composure and flee the settlement to return to the road where their suv is. They get in and David starts it, slams it into gear and stomps on the gas. They slowly return to normal as they leave behind them Bickers Bend. And even though neither of them can explain the freakish rope burns around the neck of David Middleton’s bride, Mrs. Marsha Turner Middleton, they both survive.. And now peace has returned here, to the place where the Crows live with the spirit world, and fly free, here on Crows Crossing Road.

Scratch © Copyright A.B.T. 2006.

It is midnight on Crows Crossing Road near the place the local’s call turn twenty three, delivery truck driver Mason Briggs knows all too well about the history of this well traveled road, and usually he tries to avoid it at all cost. He has heard too many people tell too many tales about the woods and the goings on there along the entire length of this particular road. This night Mason Briggs travels it alone, and he travels it only because he is behind schedule, and he has to make up valuable time. Near the turn Mason hears a slight thumping noise and can feel the steering wheel of the delivery truck pulling to the right. He has a flat tire and is forced off of the road onto the shoulder. When he gets out of the truck the cold frosty air and the thick fog laying in the trees immediately take hold of his imagination, and he sees of all things two young children standing silently at the edge of the woods, he grabs a flashlight from the cab and calls to them, but they do not respond. They turn instead, and walk back into the woods, and against his better judgment, he follows them. After this night Mason Briggs will have his own tale to tell. If he should survive it.

At Quicks Crossing.

It is the late fall of nineteen hundred and thirty four, and along the banks of the Saddle Horn river lye’s the small settlement at Quick’s crossing. America and much of the world have fallen into the great depression, but the simple folks at Quick’s have barely noticed, there are seven small families here, and they mostly live off of the land, while the rest of the world seems too busy struggling with failing economies to even notice them. The children here are home schooled and life is simple, the fathers hunt and kill small game to feed their families while the mothers all tend to the children’s education and the chores. Avery Tuttle has recently lost his wife to illness and is left to raise their two daughters alone, and although the other mothers help with their schooling and others chores when they can, he is forced to do most of it by himself, it is on a Saturday morning when Avery heads down the winding path that leads to the Saddle Horn, he is off to catch fish for the days meals and has left his two daughters in the care of neighbors. He arrives at the Saddle Horn at about seven thirty in the morning and begins to fish, one half an hour later he begins to notice the already dangerous currents of the Saddle Horn picking up speed, the first storm clouds roll in at about eight am and Avery can feel it in his bones, that this will be no ordinary storm. Before he can get half way back up the trail a total downpour ensues and he hurries himself to get back to the settlement to check on his daughters, something doesn’t feel right. And when he returns he finds that an argument about having too many children already to care for, has ensued between the neighboring husband and wife and Avery’s daughters have wandered off in the commotion to try and find their father. And are now lost in the storm.

Now Panic stricken the entire settlement is searching in and around every building for the two lost children, but they are no where to be seen. Minutes turn into the first hour, and Avery decides to head into the woods in the middle of the storm to try and find them, while the rest of the settlement keeps searching in the local area. He travels back down the path towards the Saddle Horn to see if they are there, but the angry river is rising over its banks and is quickly growing into a raging flood zone. When he is almost to the end of the trail he finds one of the girls dolls that they had with them when he left for fishing that morning, and Avery feels his heart sinking, as his panic rises.. He begins yelling out the girls names but receives no answer in return. He moves closer to the rivers edge hoping against hope that he will find them safe, but the very spot that he stood fishing a short while ago is now completely under water and he sees nothing but the downpour of rain as the angry Saddle Horn continues to crest the top of its banks. Avery Tuttle and his two children are never seen again. Throughout the years that follow, many have sworn to have seen the two girls wandering the woods looking for their father, lost almost frightened and alone, while others that have braved these woods along the now peaceful Saddle Horn have said that they have seen Avery himself tirelessly searching for his lost children.. Stories evolve about people following the children into the deep woods and they themselves becoming lost, never again to be seen by human eyes, some say the children lead them to the river and the people fall victim to the Saddle Horn and its treacherous under currents. Leaving the children and Avery to wander the woods, tirelessly awaiting the day, when they are reunited.



Having realized that he has witnessed something that his rational mind could not begin to explain, Mason Briggs runs from the woods scared senseless, thirty feet from his delivery truck he stumbles and falls, it is when he sees light in the sky that he realizes that it is almost dawn and he has been in the woods for nearly seven hours. When he returns to the delivery truck he finds that his flat tire is no longer flat, and the spare has been removed and replaced with the blown out tire, a lug wrench lays on the road near the back of the truck, and as the frightened truck driver gets in the cab he sees at the edge of the woods the form of a man who stands silently watching him leave, before disappearing back into the woods. Mason Briggs now has his own tale to tell, yet another ghost story for the growing collection, here on Crows Crossing Road.

SCRATCH...© Copyright A.B.T. 2006

It is 10:35 am on Crows Crossing Road, it is on the eastern end near junction35 where a young couple that are hitchhiking through the area have found themselves. It is a fall and as usual, it is cold and brisk, and a slight mist hangs in the morning air preventing the sun from warming them, they are both carrying backpacks that have become a bit heavy and they are looking for a place to stop and rest. The young woman has spotted a building sitting off in the woods by itself, its allure is over whelming to the curious young couple and they go to investigate it further. The house is old and abandoned and there is a small barn down the hill behind it. The young man thinks out loud that this was once a farm of sorts, and they decide to stop and rest here for a time. Unaware that This farm. Has a history.

Caulfield Farm..



It is in the summer of nineteen hundred and sixty seven, and young Annie Bartholomew has agreed to become the bride of one Aaron Caulfield. She is twenty four years old and even though, he is seventeen years her senior the couple wed and she takes her place by her new husbands side at his small house at Caulfield Farm. By the turning of the first fall she begins to realize that the life of a farmer is not one of romance, but of back breaking work that requires a large amount of dedication and time. By the turning of her second fall there she has become a bitter and lonely woman, and has lost interest in helping her husband with the business of running the farm and he has fallen behind with the chores. Caulfield Farm is slowly slipping into ruin and desperate to prevent it Aaron Caulfield has taken to hiring drifters that he picks up on Crows Crossing Road to help him. The first ones name is Andrew, he is tall, young, blonde and muscular, and it doesn’t take Annie Caulfield long to notice. The first time that Aaron Caulfield leaves them alone for the morning, young Andrew finds himself between the thighs of Annie Caulfield’s naked body, the pair begin a torrid affair that lasts three weeks before Andrew becomes fearful of discovery and leaves in the middle of the night. Annie becomes distraught over Andrew, and begs Aaron to find him, but Aaron Caulfield has already hired another drifter as a replacement.

That same night Annie steals her way into the barn where the drifter sleeps and slips out of her dress and lays on top of him, without a word spoken between them they make love and immediately afterwards Annie thinks of Andrew and immediately becomes fearful that her new lover will leave her too, so she returns to the barn that same night and murders him while he sleeps with a small sledgehammer. She buries him in the barn in a shallow grave. Fall turns into winter at the farm and Aaron Caulfield has hired all in all seven different drifters along Crows Crossing Road, all that have met with the same desperate fate. It is winter. and Aaron Caulfield while working in the barn alone, has discovered the first body. Alarmed by the gruesome sight, he decides to confront his wife with this evidence, but never gets the chance. Annie has been watching Aaron dig up the first body.. And he never leaves the barn alive. The following summer the resident’s that live around junction 35 just off of Crows Crossing Road have all heard about how Aaron Caulfield had deserted his young wife and left her alone to run the farm. People feeling sorry for her bring her food and offer condolences, but as with everything The visits to Caulfield Farm become fewer and fewer. And by winter Annie Caulfield lonely and desperate commits suicide to be with her lovers. Her body was discovered by a neighbor along with a note that simply read.. “I love You Andrew.” no one has ever lived in the house since.



Present day, the young couple has ventured to the very doorstep of Caulfield Farm before stopping, they look around at their surroundings and the young man thinks better of resting here, they decide to head back to the road to try to hitch a ride. As they leave the young girl sees the silhouette of a woman that has been watching them from the window of the farmhouse. But when she tries to show her boyfriend, the woman disappears from view. They continue on their way and soon catch a ride away from the place with the strange chill that clings to the air, and carries with it the faint whispers of lives long since past. And where the crows fly free, with all of the spirits. Here on Crow’s Crossing Road.

Scratch..© Copyright A.B.T. 2006.

Legends here have grown through the years, talked about by the locals on various circles along its entire length,in carefully guarded whispers of hauntings,of spirits walking in woods, abandoned farmhouse's and small settlements along its entire length, come to a new eerie life as the sun sets and the moon does it magic.. the spirit woods.. the home of a thousand tales.. each waiting to be told.



Long before the faint hum and the flickering of the bright neon lights of the Darkside Tavern illuminated the dark cold night sky here at the intersection at Black Leaf Trail, there were the seemingly endless rows of trees and deep woods that lined both sides of the one hundred and twenty five mile stretch of two lane blacktop that we know as Crows Crossing Road. A magical place as we have come to know it, where reality molds with the imagination, a place where the voices of the spirit world speak to the living. telling their tales of life and love lost and found, a place of eternal longing and searching, for answers to life’s endless questions.. Where to in its dark cold wood, lies deeper secrets, sometimes dark secrets. That don’t want to be disturbed.. These are the stories of Crow’s Crossing Road.. The one hundred and twenty five mile stretch of Haunted highway traveled only by the stoutest of traveler’s.. within it each mile with its own dark secrets to share.



the journey begins here.. every inch.. every foot.. every yard.. every Haunted mile.. each with its own tale to tell.. these are the stories of Crows Crossing Road.. happy Traveling..