This is a strange, but totally true first-hand account!
Back around 1970, I was a high school teenager with a hand-me-down car, a girlfriend, and a craving for a little night time excitement. It didn't take much to be more exciting than the usual Friday night action in our small, Illinois canning-factory town. I heard from some of the older guys on our football team about a great place to take your girlfriend "parking". They said it was spooky, dark, and a sure-fire way to get a girl to cuddle up close to you after a date.
They told a scary tale of some old farm couple that disappeared one stormy night and of a disembodied "light" that was always seen floating around the road out there. That sounded exciting enough for me!
The location itself was pretty spooky. It was a 30-minute drive to the dark, country road about eight miles northwest of Milford, Illinois. All I remember is there was something like a small, natural gas relay pump or station close by the road junction a few miles north of Milford on highway Route 1. I turned heading west onto an asphalt-and-rock country road.
After a few minutes driving west on this dark, winding road, my girlfriend was quiet and clinging to my side. As we drove to the parking spot, I told her the mysterious story of the old farm couple; so she was already a bit spooked by the time we arrived.
The story of "Lantern Road" (as the road is nicknamed by the locals) tells of an old farmer and his wife back in the 1920's or 30's who lived along this stretch of country road with their two dogs and a herd of dairy cattle. Early one summer evening, a bad storm started to blow in so the farmer told his wife he was going to the pasture to shoo the cattle into the barn for protection. Shortly after he left, the storm got really bad... strong winds and heavy rain with hail. After an hour of this, it became dark and the farmer still did not return. The old woman worried and waited a bit longer as lightning crashed and the winds howled all around their farmhouse. Still the old farmer did not return. She then put on her rain slicker, lit an old kerosene lantern, and headed out into the fierce storm with her two dogs running ahead of her. The old lady was determined to help her husband find his way home.
It was not to be. Neither the old farmer, his wife, or their dogs were ever seen again. It is said that most nights you can hear the ghost dogs howling in the distance.. and then see the lantern light floating as the old woman's spirit still searches for her long lost husband.
Well, that was the old legend of Lantern Road as passed down through the years. Now it was our turn to park and wait for the "lantern".
After winding down a gulley area and crossing an old bridge over a small creek, the road leveled off and was straight as an arrow for a couple miles. There was an open plowed field to the north of the road, but on the south side was a long row of big, dark trees overhanging the roadway. That was eerie enough, but to top that, there was an old abandoned farmhouse just down the road. Was it THE farmhouse... I don't know, but it sure made it spookier for our first time there.
Now the reason it is a good place to go "parking" with your girl is because, as legend goes, you must park your car, shut off the engine and all lights and make no noise! Then you sit, watch and wait. After several nervous minutes of watching for the lantern, we began to "make out" in the front seat (since there was no known restriction against it in the Lantern Road "rules").
I checked the road every few minutes just to be sure we didn't miss anything.
Then suddenly, I saw something down the road! My girlfriend sat up quickly and couldn't believe her eyes either.
There it was... just as the guys had described it! We watched as it began as a small, dull red glowing light that looked to be about a half mile away from us. It sort of floated and weaved a little as it moved closer and turned red-orange, then an even brighter glowing orange when a quarter mile away.
The light, orb, lantern or whatever was coming right down the road toward us... turning yellow-orange and bright yellow at a hundred yards away! It was hypnotic as it floated toward us, getting larger and brighter as it changed color now to a brighter yellow-white light... it was about 50 yards from the car and still coming! At about 20 yards, we could see that it was a bright, glowing white orb of light that sort of flickered like a lantern fire would have. And there was nothing at all around it... nothing holding it or supporting it... and no sounds either!
That was enough for us!
I started the car and turned on my headlights. The floating light went out immediately and totally disappeared. We quickly left the area and headed home to tell our friends, certain we had seen the ghostly lantern of Lantern Road!
That wasn't the end though. Over the next several years, we (my girlfriend and others with me) visited Lantern Road a half dozen more times with similar results almost every time. Sometimes it would come down the road in front of or behind us... sometimes over the plowed field... and even once it came from between the dark, overhanging trees beside us.
And we ALWAYS chickened out before it actually reached the car! (There had been an urban legend that some teenagers out drinking one night, got brave, shot a .22 caliber pistol at it, and then let the lantern light pass right over the top of their car! They freaked out as it went over the roof of the car, they started the engine and took off fast for home. When they got out of the car they looked at the roof and a 6-inch wide stripe of burnt and blistered paint went right down the middle of the car roof!)
I don't know what it is, but even in the late 1980's I took friends there and we saw it again!
So, whatever or whoever it is, the legend of Lantern Road is alive (?) and well as far as I'm concerned... I do believe!
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