This is a simple local ghost story that I have grown up
hearing. It happened near a small town called Milford.
There are a couple of different versions of it, but this is
the one that I was always told.
It was very late in the evening when a young couple got
into their buggy and headed for their home in the country
outside of Milford. It was quite aways away and, as a
result, they were still on the road long after darkness
fell. It was springtime and had been raining earlier in the
day. Just after the sun had finally set, a thick fog rolled
in over the plains, and the road became hard to see.
The
red lantern on the couple's buggy did little to dispel the
thickening gloom, and once or twice the husband accidentally
led the horses off the lane a step or two. There was an old
wooden bridge they had to cross along the way. Unfortunately
the spring rains had caused the creek under the bridge to
flood. The horses stepped onto the bridge and started to
cross. At that very moment, the bridge gave way. The
rushing water swept the horses and the husband (still
holding the reins) away. The soaked young woman managed to
escape death and, frightened and cold, frantically began
searching for her husband with the buggy's red lantern,
which had somehow managed to stay lit. While she was
searching, the temperature dropped very rapidly (as it
tends to do around here). By the time she was found the
next morning, she was nearly mad with fever, fear, and
exhaustion. She was taken home where she later died of
exposure. The young man's body was never found.
The Milford Light is seen mostly on foggy nights in the
spring. You travel down Old Lantern Road and stop your car
a few yards away from the bridge. Put the car in park and
turn off your headlights. Never, ever shut off the car's
engine or get out of the car.
There has never been any specific time that the light shows
up. Some people get to see it, many do not. Those who have
seen it sometimes waited for as long as an hour before it
showed up.
If you're one of the lucky ones, in a few moments, a red ball of light will show up just on the other
side of the bridge. It moves around aimlessly for a bit,
then, when it "sees" you, it starts to move toward you very
rapidly. This is the time to leave. People who do not leave
or who shut off their car (when I say it comes rapidly I
mean it), have reported it going straight through the car,
leaving bubbled paint across the hood, roof, and trunk.
Even when you leave, the light often attempts to chase you
down. As far as I know, no one has ever left the car once
the light was seen, in fear of being burnt (after seeing
what it does to paint, I can see why).
There has been no logical explanation for the Milford
Light, even though it has been investigated more than once.
A group of graduate students from the nearby University of
Illinois once investigated and made a report about the
light. I have never found such a report, but people still
claim it exists. Many people believe that this odd light is
the ghost of the young wife still looking for her husband.
Contact me here: Manda_b82@yahoo.com
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