This is a conclusion to my last post from the works of Brad Steiger, Real Ghosts, Restless Spirits, And Haunted Places. This next story take place in Britain.
Salisbury
In October 1959, Charles Collins, a salesman for an industrial engineering firm, was returning to London when he decided to spend the night at the Spread Eagle, a small eighteenth century coaching inn on the Western edge of Salisbury. Around midnight, Collins suddenly had the urge to get out of bed and look out the window. As he looked over the yard, he saw a man in eighteenth century costume ride through on a horse. He wore a mask and carried a pistol. Collins was captivated by the sight - until the man suddenly vanished.
In the morning, the landlord unhesitatingly told Collins that he had seen the ghost of a highwayman named Richard Savage, who had been hanged in 1730. Tradition said that he had sought refuge at the Spread Eagle, but the landlord turned him away. Ever since, he had returned to the inn to haunt it.
Historical records of the phantom highwayman go back to 1850, and the ghost has been seen on the average of once every five years. In 1962, Savage's spirit was seen by three American tourists staying at the inn.
Now we come back to North America. I've always been chilled at the idea of people messing around with Native American/Canadian burial sites or anywhere where you find ancient artifacts and refrain from reporting it or even caring. This has happened numerous times when corporations turn their heads to what lies beneath their newly purchases land so they can build and prosper as quick as they can. And I'm sure many of them live to regret it. This next story, albeit a subtle consequence, still raises the hair on the back of my neck.
The Spirits Of Pocahontas Parkway Toll Plaza
Over the years I have received numerous reports from truck drivers who make long hauls across the Plains states and who say that they have seen strange things. Most often, in addition to phantom hitchhikers of varying descriptions, they attest to having encountered spirits from the past - ghostly wagon trains, small bands of Native tribes people, stage coaches, and Pony Express riders.
On July 15, 2002, the driver of a delivery truck reported seeing three Native Americans approaching the recently opened Pocahontas Parkway toll plaza on state Route 895 in eastern Henrico County, Virginia. In a report filed by the toll taker to whom he related the account, the driver remarked that he had seen three breech-clothed warriors carrying torches walking in the middle of the highway. He blasted his horn to warn two more torch-wielding men who were clearly illuminated by his headlights. He wondered if some tribes-people were staging some bizarre kind of protest against the parkway.
The toll taker took the driver's report and added it to the list of stories from motorists who had seen strange and unexplainable phenomena. She knew that although she would report the incident to state troopers who would be right on the case, they would find no Native Americans parading with torches in the area.
Troopers who patrol the graveyard shift along the Pocahontas Parkway told Chris Dovi of the Richmond, Virginia, Times-Dispatch, that they had responded to dozens of calls similar to the one the delivery truck driver made on July 15. The first was on July1, then two nights later, when plaza workers reported hearing Indian drums, chants, whoops, and the cries of what seemed to be hundreds of voices. From time to time there would be seen the vague outlines of people running back and forth in the darkness.
Virginia state police spokeswoman Corinne Geller visited the toll plaza late on night in July and said that the high pitched howls and screams were real. She told Dove (August 11, 2002) that the sounds were not the kind o screams that a person in trouble would make, 'but whooping. There were at least a dozen to 15 voices. I would say every hair on my body was standing up when we heard those noises.'
An engineer working nights to complete the construction of the bridge in Parkway Plaza said that he and a group of workmen had seen an Indian sitting astride a horse watching them from below on the interstate. They were about to tell him to move on, that he wasn't allowed to ride a horse on the interstate, when both rider and horse disappeared.
Deanna Beacham of the nearby Nansemond tribe confirmed that none of their tribal members were engaged in any kind of protest against the Plaza. Although, she would not admit to a belief in tribal spirits roaming around near the plaza, she said that there were many rivers, streets, roads, and communities with Native American names in the region, so why shouldn't people see physical manifestations of that impulse.
Dennis Blanton, director of the College of William and Mary's Center for Archaeological Research, conducted a dig at the site of the bridge's construction at the plaza. According to his group's findings, there were artifacts scattered all over the site, dating back 5,000 to 6,000 years. Edward Halle, an area historian, agreed that the Pocahontas Parkway location had been home to tribespeople for a long time.
An area resident, who owned a business less than a mile from the toll plaza, said that 'hooting and hollering' had been heard near the place for years and that the local Native Americans had long declared that there were many spirits there. In his opinion, the plaza had been built on an Indian burial ground.
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