Shades Of Death Road
Encyclopedia
Warren County, New Jersey
Warren County is a county located in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2010 Census, the population was 108,692. Its county seat is Belvidere...
, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
. It runs in a generally north-south direction through Liberty
Liberty Township, New Jersey
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 2,765 people, 980 households, and 750 families residing in the township. The population density was 234.3 people per square mile . There were 1,088 housing units at an average density of 92.2 per square mile...
and Independence
Independence Township, New Jersey
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 5,603 people, 2,146 households, and 1,489 families residing in the township. The population density was 282.4 people per square mile . There were 2,210 housing units at an average density of 111.4 per square mile...
townships, then turns more east-west in Allamuchy Township
Allamuchy Township, New Jersey
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 3,877 people, 1,692 households, and 1,133 families residing in the township. The population density was 188.8 people per square mile . There were 1,774 housing units at an average density of 86.4 per square mile...
north of the Interstate 80
Interstate 80
Interstate 80 is the second-longest Interstate Highway in the United States, following Interstate 90. It is a transcontinental artery running from downtown San Francisco, California to Teaneck, New Jersey in the New York City Metropolitan Area...
crossing. South of I-80 it runs alongside Jenny Jump State Forest
Jenny Jump State Forest
Jenny Jump State Forest is a state park in the U.S. state of New Jersey operated by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection's Division of Parks and Forestry...
and offers access to it at several points.
The road is the subject of folklore and numerous local legends. According to Weird New Jersey
Weird NJ
Weird NJ is the title of a semi-annual magazine and two paranormal travel guides that chronicle local legends, hauntings, ghost stories, folklore and anything considered "weird" in the U.S. state of New Jersey....
, these rumors have drawn more visitors to the area, to the annoyance of residents, who have in the past gone so far as to smear the pole holding the street sign
Traffic sign
Traffic signs or road signs are signs erected at the side of roads to provide information to road users. With traffic volumes increasing over the last eight decades, many countries have adopted pictorial signs or otherwise simplified and standardized their signs to facilitate international travel...
(pictured) at the road’s southern end with grease
Grease (lubricant)
The term grease is used to describe semisolid lubricants. Although the word grease is also used to describe rendered fat of animals, in the context of lubrication, grease typically applies to a material consisting of a soap emulsified with mineral or vegetable oil...
or oil
Oil
An oil is any substance that is liquid at ambient temperatures and does not mix with water but may mix with other oils and organic solvents. This general definition includes vegetable oils, volatile essential oils, petrochemical oils, and synthetic oils....
to prevent theft
Street sign theft
Street sign theft occurs when street signs are stolen, often to be used as decorations, but also sometimes to avoid obeying the law by claiming later the sign was not there. Although the theft often seems arbitrary, signs that are unusual or amusing tend to be stolen more frequently...
(Other signs along the road are in vertical type on poles and thus harder to remove and less desirable to display).
Location and route
Shades Of Death's southern end is at County Route 611, or Hope Road, in Liberty Township one mile (1.6 km) north of the junction with County Route 617 (Mountain Lake Road) and two miles (3.2 km) north of where Hope splits off from U.S. Route 46U.S. Route 46
U.S. Route 46 is an east–west U.S. Highway, running for , completely within the state of New Jersey. The west end is at an interchange with Interstate 80 and Route 94 in Columbia, Warren County on the Delaware River...
at Marble Hill, just west of Great Meadows
Great Meadows-Vienna, New Jersey
Great Meadows-Vienna is a census-designated place located within Independence Township and Liberty Township, in Warren County, New Jersey, United States...
. From that point it meanders along between the base of the Jenny Jump
Jenny Jump State Forest
Jenny Jump State Forest is a state park in the U.S. state of New Jersey operated by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection's Division of Parks and Forestry...
ridge and the low-lying flatlands of the Pequest River
Pequest River
The Pequest River is a tributary of the Delaware River in the Skylands Region in northwestern New Jersey in the United States.The Pequest, Native American for "open land", drains an area of across Sussex and Warren counties, consisting of ten municipalities....
valley. About half a mile (almost 1 km) north of the interstate, in Allamuchy, it turns to the east and enters those flatlands, continuing all the while to weave back and forth through some sharp turns, until it reaches its northern terminus at Long Bridge Road.
Legends and folklore
Weird New Jersey suggests several theories for the road's macabre name.- Some focus on the road's southern half, where the adjoining forest with its aged trees provides much actual shade from the sun on even the brightest days. HighwaymenHighwaymanA highwayman was a thief and brigand who preyed on travellers. This type of outlaw, usually, travelled and robbed by horse, as compared to a footpad who traveled and robbed on foot. Mounted robbers were widely considered to be socially superior to footpads...
or other bandits would supposedly lay in wait for victims in these shadows, then often cut their throats after taking what they had, or they would engage in fights to the death among themselves over women.
- Or, it is said, the local populace would take revenge against these highwaymen by lynchingLynchingLynching is an extrajudicial execution carried out by a mob, often by hanging, but also by burning at the stake or shooting, in order to punish an alleged transgressor, or to intimidate, control, or otherwise manipulate a population of people. It is related to other means of social control that...
them and leaving the bodies dangling from low-hanging tree branches as a warning to others criminally inclined.
- In the 1920s and 1930s there were three brutal murders along the road, one a robbery in which a man was hit over the head with a tire jack over some gold coins, a second in which a woman beheadedDecapitationDecapitation is the separation of the head from the body. Beheading typically refers to the act of intentional decapitation, e.g., as a means of murder or execution; it may be accomplished, for example, with an axe, sword, knife, wire, or by other more sophisticated means such as a guillotine...
her husband and buried the head and the body on different sides of the street, and lastly one in which a local resident, Bill Cummins, was shot and buried in a mudpile. It was never solved.
- The twists and turns of the road have led to suggestions that it has led to an inordinate number of fatal car accidentCar accidentA traffic collision, also known as a traffic accident, motor vehicle collision, motor vehicle accident, car accident, automobile accident, Road Traffic Collision or car crash, occurs when a vehicle collides with another vehicle, pedestrian, animal, road debris, or other stationary obstruction,...
s, and supposedly the reflective guard railGuard railGuard rail or guardrail, sometimes referred to as guide rail or railing, is a system designed to keep people or vehicles from straying into dangerous or off-limits areas...
s along the road indicate where that has happened. However, the road had earned its name well before automobileAutomobileAn automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
use became common in the area.
- Bear Swamp nearby was known as either Cat Hollow or Cat Swamp, because of packs of vicious wild catWild catThe wildcat is a small cat with several subspecies and a very broad distribution, found throughout most of Africa, Europe, and southwest and central Asia into India, China, and Mongolia. It is a hunter of small mammals, birds, and other creatures of a similar or smaller size. Sometimes included is...
s that lived there who frequently and lethally attacked travelers along the road.
- A final explanation points to the Pequest lowlands and nearby Bear Swamp, used today for sodSodSod or turf is grass and the part of the soil beneath it held together by the roots, or a piece of thin material.The term sod may be used to mean turf grown and cut specifically for the establishment of lawns...
farming. In 1850, malariaMalariaMalaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...
-carrying insects were discovered nesting in a cliff face along the road. They flourished in the nearby wetlands of Bear Swamp, causing annual outbreaks of the disease. The high mortality rates due to the remoteness of the area from effective medical treatment cut a swath through so many families that a street once called merely Shade or Shades Road due to its tree cover took on the name Shades Of Death out of black humor. The problem was so widespread, that in 1884 a state-sponsored project drained the swamps, ending the threat.
Reputed paranormal activity
According to Weird New Jersey, ghosts or other supernaturalSupernatural
The supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...
phenomena are said to have been reported at points along the road.
Ghost Lake
Ghost Lake (unnamed on U.S. Geological SurveyUnited States Geological Survey
The United States Geological Survey is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, and the natural hazards that threaten it. The organization has four major science disciplines, concerning biology,...
maps) is just off the road, in the state forest south of the I-80 overpass
Overpass
An overpass is a bridge, road, railway or similar structure that crosses over another road or railway...
. It was created in the early 20th century when two wealthy local men dam
Dam
A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are...
med a creek that ran through the narrow valley between houses they had just built. They gave it its name from the wraithlike vapor formations they often saw rising off it on cooler mornings. They further named the pass Haunted Hollow.
Weird NJ writes that visitors have told them that no matter what time of night they visit the lake at, the sky above it always seems as bright as if it were still twilight
Twilight
Twilight is the time between dawn and sunrise or between sunset and dusk, during which sunlight scattering in the upper atmosphere illuminates the lower atmosphere, and the surface of the earth is neither completely lit nor completely dark. The sun itself is not directly visible because it is below...
and several have reported ghosts in the area, especially in a deserted old cabin
Log cabin
A log cabin is a house built from logs. It is a fairly simple type of log house. A distinction should be drawn between the traditional meanings of "log cabin" and "log house." Historically most "Log cabins" were a simple one- or 1½-story structures, somewhat impermanent, and less finished or less...
across the lake from the road, supposedly victims of the murders once believed to have given the road its name.
The Fairy Hole
To the right of Ghost lake, there is a small cave, once used by LenapeLenape
The Lenape are an Algonquian group of Native Americans of the Northeastern Woodlands. They are also called Delaware Indians. As a result of the American Revolutionary War and later Indian removals from the eastern United States, today the main groups live in Canada, where they are enrolled in the...
Indians. Weird NJ says that though the cave is now easily accessible, and also covered in graffiti, archaeologists who surveyed the area in 1918 found pottery shards, flint, and broken arrow heads. From their findings, the archaeologists concluded that "The Fairy Hole" was not often visited. It may have been used as a simple resting point for traveling or hunting Lenape, but with its close proximity to several known burial sites, it is said to be a sacred or religiously important site. This survey was conducted before the creation of Ghost Lake.
Lenape Lane
Lenape Lane is an unpaved one-lane dead-end street about three-quarter mile (1.1 km) in length running eastward off Shades just north of I-80. It ends at a farmhouseFarmhouse
Farmhouse is a general term for the main house of a farm. It is a type of building or house which serves a residential purpose in a rural or agricultural setting. Most often, the surrounding environment will be a farm. Many farm houses are shaped like a T...
for which it is little more than a driveway
Driveway
A driveway is a type of private road for local access to one or a small group of structures, and is owned and maintained by an individual or group....
, but halfway down there is space to park or turn around next to a wooden structure described as looking like an abandoned stable
Stable
A stable is a building in which livestock, especially horses, are kept. It most commonly means a building that is divided into separate stalls for individual animals...
.
Weird New Jersey writes that visitors to this stable site at night have reported extremely local fog
Fog
Fog is a collection of water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. While fog is a type of stratus cloud, the term "fog" is typically distinguished from the more generic term "cloud" in that fog is low-lying, and the moisture in the fog is often generated...
s surrounding it and seeing apparition
Paranormal
Paranormal is a general term that designates experiences that lie outside "the range of normal experience or scientific explanation" or that indicates phenomena understood to be outside of science's current ability to explain or measure...
s in it, or sometimes even in clear weather, and also claimed the air is sometimes unusually chilly, and feeling general unease in the area for no immediately apparent reason. An additional legend claims that sometimes nocturnal visitors to Lenape see an orb of white light appear near the end of the road which chases vehicles back out to Shades Of Death, and if it turns red in the process, those who see it will die. This may be due to an old tree near the end of Lenape that was never cut down when the road was built. As a result, the road forks right before the tree, and a big red reflector has been nailed to the tree to warn drivers. Another legend says that if one circles around the tree and drives down the road again at midnight, a red light will shine and the driver will never survive.
Others
There are some legends concerning a Native AmericanNative Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
spirit guide who supposedly takes the shape of a deer
Deer
Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...
and appears at various points along the road at night. If drivers see him and do not slow down sufficiently enough to avoid a collision, they will soon get into a serious accident with a deer.
Another legend tells of a bridge
Bridge
A bridge is a structure built to span physical obstacles such as a body of water, valley, or road, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle...
where, if drivers stop past midnight
Midnight
Midnight is the transition time period from one day to the next: the moment when the date changes. In the Roman time system, midnight was halfway between sunset and sunrise, varying according to the seasons....
with their high beams on and honk their horns three times, they will see the ghosts of two young children who were run over while playing in the road. This legend actually refers to a bridge over the Flatbrook on Old Mine Road
Old Mine Road
Old Mine Road is a road in New Jersey and New York said to be one of the oldest continuously-used roads in the United States of America. At a length of 104 miles, it stretches from the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area to the vicinity of Kingston, New York.Among the theories regarding the...
, not far from Shades of Death. The bridge is no longer accessible by car as a newer, larger bridge has been built next to it. You can still access the original bridge on foot.
Polaroids
Weird NJ claims that during the 1990s some visitors found hundreds of PolaroidInstant film
Instant film is a type of photographic film first introduced by Polaroid that is designed to be used in an instant camera...
photograph
Photograph
A photograph is an image created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are created using a camera, which uses a lens to focus the scene's visible wavelengths of light into a reproduction of...
s scattered in woods just off the road. Weird NJ published samples, saying that most images showed a television changing channels, others showed a woman or women, blurred and somewhat difficult to identify, lying on some sort of metal object, conscious but not smiling. The magazine claims that the photos "disappeared" shortly after local police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
began an investigation.
External links
- Southern terminus - Northern terminus