Haunted Highways, Part 1 of our Halloween countdown
Clinton Road is a 10-mile stretch of two-lane blacktop in West Milford, New Jersey, about an hour northwest of Manhattan. During the day it’s a pleasant drive past a reservoir. At night, if you believe the people who grew up near it, a pickup truck sometimes appears in your rearview mirror, rides your bumper for a few miles and then isn’t there anymore.
It’s the first stop on Haunted Highways, our run of roads people refuse to drive after dark, counting down to Halloween. The video is below. The rest of the story is under it.
Ten Miles of Not Much
There isn’t a lot out there. Clinton Road runs north from Route 23 toward Upper Greenwood Lake, through state forest and reservoir land. There are a handful of houses, no streetlights and very few places to pull over. The curves are tight enough that you rarely see more than a couple hundred feet ahead.
Weird NJ magazine started printing readers’ Clinton Road stories decades ago, and the road has been on just about every “most haunted” list since. The Travel Channel showed up eventually. So did a lot of teenagers with flashlights.
The Truck
Here’s how it usually goes. You’re alone on the road at night and you notice headlights way back in your mirror. A minute later, they’re right behind you.
It’s a pickup, and it stays glued to your bumper through every curve. You speed up, it speeds up. There’s nowhere to let it pass, so you just keep driving.
Then the road ends. You check the mirror and there’s nothing back there.
Everybody who tells it adds something. In some versions the headlights sit too high off the ground, like there’s no truck under them. In others it’s three or four trucks in a line.
The Rest of the Lineup
The truck has company. A few of Clinton Road’s other regulars:
- The boy at the bridge. Toss a coin off the little bridge by the reservoir and, the story goes, a drowned boy throws it back.
- A ghost Camaro that shows up on the road, then doesn’t.
- Phantom park rangers who stop cars and tell people to move along.
- “Wolfie,” a hellhound that supposedly lives in the woods.
- A Druid temple. For years, visitors swore the stone tower off the road was a pagan altar. It’s an old iron furnace.
What Actually Happened Here
Some of it is real. In 1983, a body turned up along Clinton Road. It belonged to a victim of Richard Kuklinski, the mob contract killer the newspapers called “The Iceman.”
As for the truck, nobody has ever documented it. What the road does have is blind curves, deer and locals who know it well enough to take it fast. Get stuck in front of one of them on a dark night and it’s not hard to see where the story came from.
We’re still not driving it at night.
Want the whole history of the ghost truck? Read our deep dive: Clinton Road’s Ghost Truck Allegedly Rides Your Bumper in the Dark, Then Vanishes.
Your Turn
Ever driven Clinton Road after dark? Did anything follow you? Tell us in the comments.
Next on Haunted Highways: the bride drivers swear they keep hitting on Blue Bell Hill. Follow @autowirenews on Instagram so you don’t miss it.
Featured photo: Macavei Alex on Unsplash
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