Old Redfield Road

This stretch of road in Grant County is said to be one of the most haunted roads in Arkansas. A cemetery along the road adds to the area's eerie atmosphere.

Old Redfield Road runs deep through the forested lowlands south of Little Rock in Grant County, Arkansas, originally serving as one of the major thoroughfares through the small town of Sheridan. The road passes through dense woodland and alongside an old, deteriorating cemetery that has become the epicenter of decades of paranormal reports from local residents and passing motorists. The combination of isolation, dense tree cover, and the proximity of forgotten graves has generated one of the most persistent haunted road legends in the state.

The most dramatic account involves a headless phantom that springs from the woods along a particular stretch of the road and chases vehicles for approximately a quarter of a mile. According to witnesses, the figure keeps pace with the vehicle no matter how much the driver accelerates. If the vehicle is a pickup truck, some accounts claim the phantom leaps into the bed and hitches a ride to a specific point before disappearing. The legend behind this apparition holds that a workman employed by one of the area's timber companies suffered a fatal accident on the job that decapitated him. His body was recovered, but his head tumbled down a hillside into thick underbrush and was never found. The headless spirit has been running along Old Redfield Road ever since, searching for what it lost.

The cemetery alongside the road generates its own distinct category of phenomena. Visitors have reported hearing disembodied voices singing old hymns, their words carrying through the trees despite no living singers being present. Gravestones in the cemetery have been reported to glow with an unexplained luminescence, and some witnesses claim markers appear to shift position between visits. The ghost of a decorative-saddled horse has been seen being slowly led by a phantom Civil War soldier toward the back of the cemetery, a silent procession suggesting a burial detail or the transport of a fallen officer. At night, the sound of heavy wagons resonates throughout the cemetery grounds -- wooden wheels and iron rims grinding along dirt that no longer sees such traffic.

The electronic malfunctions reported on Old Redfield Road are among its most consistently documented phenomena. Electrical items including car radios, flashlights, and other battery-powered devices suddenly go dead when approaching the cemetery area, then resume normal function once past it. One visitor reported that the hood of their car flew open without explanation while driving past the graveyard. Passing motorists have described seeing figures in their rearview mirrors -- shapes standing in the road behind them that were not visible when they looked forward.

Apparitions have been spotted walking along the roadside and into the cemetery by multiple witnesses over the years. The activity is not confined to any particular season or time of day, though nighttime encounters are the most frequently reported. The road remains open to the public, though local residents who have lived alongside it for years treat the stretch near the cemetery with a matter-of-fact wariness that comes from sustained proximity to something they cannot explain.