The Girl on Highway 365 - Woodson, Arkansas

On a stretch of road centered around Woodson, Arkansas, there come tales of drivers who come across a young girl hitching a ride to the town of Woodson, mostly around the month of June on rainy evenings. However, this no ordinary young lady as she is wearing a white gown that is stained with blood from her bruised and battered face with a cut on her forehead. 

The ghost of a girl wanders highway 365 near Woodson, Arkansas.  
Photo credit: © Aija Krodere | Dreamstime.com

Most drivers eager to help the seemingly injured girl, volunteer to take her home to nearby Woodson.  "It isn't far" she tells them.  "I will be fine once I get home".  In most cases, when they arrive at their destination, the drivers get out and go around to help the girl out of the car, the passenger seat is empty.

Upon inquiring within the house to see if somehow the girl slipped inside without being seen, they are informed by the people living there that the girl they are referring to is their daughter.  And that she and her boyfriend were on their way to the prom in May of 1973 when their car skidded off the rain slicked highway and they both died on the scene.

Drivers have spotted this phantom hitchhiker as far north as just south of Little Rock to below Hensley, AR.  So beware as you are driving this stretch of highway in the south eastern United States as you may encounter the girl on highway 365.

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The Crescent Hotel - Eureka Springs, Arkansas

In the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas in 1884, construction began on a grand hotel on West Mountain.  Eureka Springs, Arkansas was a popular spot known all over for the healing powers of its waters and the purpose of the hotel was to give these travelers a luxurious place to stay.  The building was completed in 1886 and hotel would become known as The Crescent Hotel. However, what people in Eureka Springs would not know is that it would become one of the most haunted hotels in America.

The Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas 1886

The hotel was a very popular place to stay.  It became known as "The Grand Old Lady of the Ozarks" and it was taken over by the Frisco Railroad around the turn of the century.  They leased the hotel until 1908 when the increase in car ownership plus the fact that the word got out that the waters of Eureka Springs did not have much healing power at all, marked the end of the hotel's hey day.  It was then that the building changed hands and became the Crescent College and Conservatory for Young Women.  It was basically a girls school for the upper class.  However, the school could not afford the operating costs and it closed.  The old Crescent Hotel then served as a summer retreat leased by various companies until 1930 when the more ominous history of the building would take over.

The Crescent Hotel was a popular place to come and stay to take advantage of Eureka Springs' healing waters

Dr. Norman Baker, became a self-made millionaire by inventing a pipe organ that did not require steam.  He professed to be a doctor and claimed to have invented various medicines or "elixirs" they turned out to be, that would cure people.  He was run out of Iowa after having been convicted of practicing medicine without a license.  In 1930, he moved to Arkansas and purchased The Crescent Hotel building and proceeded to convert it into a hospital for cancer patients, destroying much of the hand crafted wood work by painting over it in unusual colors.

Allegedly, Baker claimed that he invented an medicine made simply by using the water from the local springs and other ingredients that would cure cancer.  Many people afflicted with cancer flocked to his hospital to receive treatment.  As a result, many people died there.  Some say that he even did strange experiments on the dead and living.  When the experimental patients would die, he would attempt to hide it.

The infamous "Dr." Norman Baker believed to be responsible for many deaths or doing little to prevent the deaths of cancer patients in his hospital which was formerly The Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas

In 1940 the law caught up with "Dr." Norman Baker and he was sent to Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary.  He then disappeared into history.  The hospital building sat empty during the entire periods of World War II.  Afterwards however, investors purchased the building and set about restoring the building to it's former grandeur.  it flourished for several decades but became a little run down.  In 1997 it was sold and was fully restored.  However, the hotel guests are not the only ones staying at The Crescent Hotel.

The spectacular Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas stands out on the mountain side

Over the years many witnesses have spotted people wearing Victorian era clothing as if they were dressed for dancing in various places in the hotel including within mirrors, but mostly what is now The Crystal Dining Room.  This room previously served as the hotel's ball room.

Room 218 is said to be the most haunted in the hotel.  An Irish workman who fell to his death during the original 1880s construction.  His scream for help as he is falling has been heard within the walls of this room. His body came to rest where room 218 is today. Other paranormal occurrences such as doors slamming shut on their own have also occurred, believed to be caused by a poltergeist.

It is however, the many hospital patients who died in the hospital that is believed to haunt it the most.  Many have been seen wandering the interior of the hotel and there is not just a few.  Reports of many different ghosts and spirit are said to roam the halls of The Crescent Hotel.  In fact some say there are "legions" of ghosts roaming the premises thanks to Dr. Baker.  Also, more than one person has claimed to have seen nurses pushing gurney's and disappearing into a walls.

Phantom Brakeman of Gurdon, Arkansas (Gurdon Spook Lights)

Deep in the hills of Clark County Arkansas just south west of Little Rock near the town of Gurdon, there is a phenomenon that has been witnessed by hundreds, yet there is no explanation for what people have described as "spook lights" which is a common term for strange unexplained lights that have been witnessed by many.  Strange lights are actually common around the world and some refer to them as "will-o-the-wisp" or "fairy lights" among others.  They seem to mostly occur in wet areas or bogs after the sun has gone down.

Photo of the Gurdon spook light or what some call the phantom brakeman of Gurdon

In the case of Gurdon, Arkansas this story has a certain twist.  The light appears over and along the rail line.  Legend has it that in the 1920s, a railway brakeman, William McClain, was walking along the tracks as a train was passing.  He lost his footing and fell towards the train and was beheaded.  Others claim that the railroad worker got into a dispute and was murdered at this location.  However, no matter how it happened, a brakeman did die there and shortly afterwards, folks who happened to be in the hills began to see a strange light moving along the tracks at night.  The light would move from side to side as if it were a lantern being carried by someone walking along the tracks.  The lights appear to be bluish-white, white, or greenish in color bearing no reflection whatsoever. Many claim that this is the ghost of William McClain walking the tracks looking for his head.

It is believed that the light on the horizon in this photo is that of the Gurdon Spook Light or the Phantom Brakeman of Gurdon

The lights cannot be seen from any road and it takes a significant hike to get to the spot where you can see them.  This haunting has been studied, photographed, filmed, and investigated by many, and has been featured on TV documentaries.  However, over the past century, no one has been able to give a scientific explanation as to the origin of the spook lights of Gurdon.

Photo of the Gordon Spook Light