The Ghost of Oxford Milford Road
The storyteller: Writer and editor Brad Culp
When Brad Culp was a student at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, there was a rumor that the town was one of the most haunted places in America. When Culp started an on-campus magazine, he couldn’t wait to write about several of the area’s most famous phantoms. Not long after his story published, though, he kept finding himself thinking about one ghost in particular—the ghost of Oxford Milford Road.
As the story goes, many decades ago, probably sometime in the 1940s, there was a young man courting a young woman in a rural part of town. Because the woman’s parents didn’t approve of the match, each night he visited under the cover of darkness. After her parents went to bed, the young woman would sneak out of her farmhouse and flash the lights of her parent’s car three times. Then her young suitor would ride his motorcycle down the road.
“One night he took the turn right before her house a little too sharp,” says Culp. The motorcycle went one way, he went the other. His injuries were so severe that he did not survive. Rumor has it, however, that his lovestruck ghost still haunts this stretch of Milford Road.
Curious, Culp, his girlfriend (now his wife), and a friend decided to head out there one night to see if they could verify the tale. His girlfriend was worried she’d be completely freaked out. “She believes more in that stuff than I do,” Culp says. But he was mostly concerned that his suspicions—that none of this was actually true—would be confirmed. On this particular night, as Culp passed the abandoned farm, an idea came to him, and he pitched it to his girlfriend (how could she not say yes?). Though reluctant, she relented, and Culp turned a short way into the farmhouse driveway.
He killed the engine and flashed his lights three times. “No joke, there was a single headlight that appeared three-quarters of a mile down the road,” Culp says. “You saw it start to come, going pretty slow. It kept coming and coming. My wife was freaking out. It was coming closer and closer.” As a collision seemed imminent, Culp turned on his car’s lights. He expected to see a kid on a bike, bailing out from his prank now that he’d been caught. “But there’s nothing there. The light is just gone,” he says.
They got out of the car. They walked around, trying to figure out what it was they could have seen. “To this day, we still talk about it. I saw something I cannot explain,” he says. If you get him and his wife around a campfire, they’ll swear up and down that the story is true. And if you’re ever in Oxford, Ohio, consider parking for just a few minutes on Oxford Milford Road at night to test your own nerve.
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Just a small tale.
Great story.
There are so many good ghost stories.
Thank you.
Ohio seems to have more than its fair share. I run across a lot of them when I am reading.
Good story. I love ghost stories.
As a kid I always watched Scooby Doo when it came on.
Thought it would be cool to investigate things. Haha
Thank you. I love spooky tales. I don't like gross - but spooky I love.
Me too. I love a good scare and the slasher movies with just blood and gore doesn't do it.
I know what you mean. Give me some old time Vincent Price.
I can't stand slasher movies. That's just blood and gore for the sake of blood and gore.
They're for the stupid who don't want to think about what might be around the corner. The best ghost movie I ever saw was the one with Bruce Willis and that kid that said "I see dead people"
Cannot remember the name of that movie
The Sixth Sense
I did like them in the beginning. I remember the first time seeing Friday the 13th I was a kid. It was new I guess.
Now like you said though, it is just gratuitous.
It's the suspense I appreciate. Like in Alien, my all time favorite Sci-Fi movie, I considered a horror movie as well. It was the suspense, only seeing the alien in quick flashes, for the most part, until the end.
There is always one person that says, I knew he was dead the whole time...
It was the same for me when I was younger - it was a bit different then I think.
Thank-you. I hate when I forget simple things like that
What the what now?
That was a good one. Also "The Others" with Nicole Kidman was awesome.
That was a good movie
I actually did know. My hubby & I were sitting in the theater and I whispered to him that he was dead & he got so angry at the end - said he hated watching movies with me. However, I did not see the ending of The Others at all. That took me by surprise.
When that ring dropped from her hand at the end it all came together for me. One of my favorite endings to a movie
My other favorite was the first Star Trek:TNG movie when they meet the Visitors for the first time. I whispered to my husband "I bet it's the Vulcans". It was and he was mad I spoiled the ending for him
There's a place about a 90 minute drive from my house that's called Gurdon. Apparently there is a phenomenon called the Gurdon Lights. People see them on the rail road tracks. Some think it's a dead rail way man trying to find his way home and some think it's related to UFOs
I have actually read about that in one of the many books on the ghost subject.