From the Montgomery County Sentinel in 1876: “As the story goes, during the Civil War a soldier was decapitated by a saber in a skirmish around what is now Game Preserve Road. After the fight, his fellow soldiers hastily buried him in an unmarked grave, even though they couldn’t find his head to bury with his body.”
The story has been passed down for many generations and many have told tales about the supposed unmarked grave of the headless man. Some have recalled strange noises and apparitions with glowing eyes. Others have seen the figure of a headless soldier (sometimes on a horse and sometimes without it), while many have driven down the Gaithersburg, Maryland road several times and have stated they’ve never noticed anything out of the ordinary. NBC Washington’s Melissa Mollet highlighted the 150-year-old road in a video last year (available below).
Karen Yaffe Lottes, co-author of “In Search of Maryland Ghosts: Montgomery County”, writes that in the same stretch of railroad that runs through the area, there are also records of freak accidents involving beheadings. “In May 1973, a railroad brakeman stuck his head out of the train just as another passed by in the opposite direction. A loose boom from the other train struck him in the head, killing him on the spot. In May 1982, another man lost his head while fleeing the police when he tried to hop a car on a train headed south for Washington”, per CNSMaryland. Below you’ll see a few responses to the original story in years past:
“We called this the scary road and would hesitate to drive on it at night. There’s just something creepy about it, especially when you get to the bridge.”
“I’ve never seen anything and i used to drive this road every day/night.”
“Grew up on this road. Scariest thing there was me. I was a terrible, terrible teenager.”
“I’ve heard so many different stories but never tried to find out 😂 I actually avoid this road at night scares me”
“I’ve experienced weird things on this road twice. We turned off the car once right below the bridge and it got super cold extremely quick. Then we head noises we immediately turned on the car and left. The second time we saw a woman walking up the hill long hair what it seem like a nightgown looking down as she was walking scared the hell out of us”
“Do I think this is real? No. Would I still go alone at night? Also no.”
Another legend stated that if you drove into the underpass and turned off the engine, you would be unable to restart the car and would hear hands touching your car– the hands of a woman that supposedly killed her baby in the area many years ago (no stories match this legend, so it was likely borrowed from nearby “Crybaby Bridge” in Westminster).