According to one, lonesome article published on The Shadowlands website, a drunk man ran his truck off the bridge into the water and was never to be found again. The blurb said if you visit the bridge late into the night and sit with your car shut off and windows rolled down, you’ll hear the ghostly sounds of the truck splashing into the water and the man will appear in front of your car. For some reason, it also says you need to put your keys on top of your car. Who knows why. The cement bridge in St. Clair/Marine City runs over a small stream, so the idea of a truck hurdling off this very low bridge with shallow water and never being found is hard to believe.

I don’t like checking out stuff just because it appears on the Shadowlands index. Anyone can post things on there and I know people have posted sham stories on there just to see the people start saying they experienced something “paranormal” at the bogus location. But seeing it wasn’t too far away from us at the time, we figured it might be worth visiting.

The Mystery Light

We were all standing around on the bridge just talking, trying to look inconspicuous when cars would drive by. Of course a few people stopped to ask if we needed help and we just sent them on there way with a “no thank you”. I’m sure they drove away looking in their rear views mirrors wondering what the hell we were doing.

I happened to be staring blankly in the right place down the road when a strange light appeared in the distance further down the road. The bridge is on a dirt road and there are homes in the area but what was so bizarre about this light was how perfectly round is was and it didn’t seem to have any source that it was coming from. It moved a little bit and then just blinked out. We all saw the light except one person who happened to be looking the other way. There’s always one in the bunch.

After the light was gone, we sat there trying to figure out where it could have come from. One person hopped in their car and drove all the way down the road to where the light came from, but car lights didn’t explain what we saw.

Was it a ghost? Were we about to get abducted? We have no clue. We went back there a couple months later, but nothing happened that time. So does Puttygut have a mystery light instead of a drunk ghost? Or could it have been some hillbilly with a spotlight having fun with us? Either way, it wasn’t like any light we’ve ever seen. So if someone was having a good joke on us, I commend them because they fooled us good. But if it wasn’t a human, then there just might be something to Puttygut bridge.

 

We love getting reader story submissions about your experiences with places listed on our site. Email us if you have a story.

Reader submission - August 2010

I wanted to share my experience on the Puttygut Bridge with you, but first a little background info.

My friends and I are always finding "haunted" or scary places to go. Usually it's the cemetery in St.Clair or the one on Belle River Road in Marine City/ St.Clair. One night we wanted to do something a little more promising so I mentioned the Puttygut Bridge and how I heard it was haunted. We were all amped up and excited to go. It wasn't my first time there; I had been there two other times. I didn't tell my friend that because I didn't want to freak her out. When we arrived at the bridge it wasn’t that late. Probably around 8pm or a little later. We turned off the car, rolled down the windows, and put the keys on the roof. It was during the middle of the winter and snowy. It was a clear night and the moon was out so you could see everything. We were pointing south and my friend was looking left of the bridge and I to the right at the water. After about five minutes I thought I saw something but then I thought to myself, “OK, you're just freaking yourself out. But then the object got closer! It looked like it was walking across the water so I just kept staring at it and it kept getting closer. Calmly as I could (so I didn't freak my friend out) I asked if she could get her keys we needed to go. She asked why and I lost my composure and told her I saw something. She freaked out and we left. I looked behind us as we left and I something up the road was glowing. I've been back twice after that and one time nothing happened. The most recent time was the 4th of July night. It was around 2 or 3am. It was with a different friend, and we did as we were supposed to. This time the same thing happened except I didn’t see anything, I heard something. I heard a splash, then it stopped, then a few seconds I heard it again but it was closer and louder. I got freaked out and left.

Many of my other friends have also experienced the same things when they've gone out to the bridge.

 

  • Story by Amberrose Hammond