It’s that time of the year again. Today we once again share the story of “The Headless Horseman of Game Preserve Rd.” 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 tale has been shared across generations, with numerous accounts recounting the mysterious unmarked grave of the headless man. Some have reported eerie sounds and sightings of apparitions with glowing eyes. Others claim to have glimpsed the figure of a headless soldier—sometimes mounted on a horse and other times on foot. Meanwhile, many travelers along Gaithersburg Road have driven by repeatedly, insisting they’ve never encountered anything unusual. Here are a few responses to this story from years gone by:
“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 claims that if you drive into the underpass and turn off your engine, you won’t be able to restart your car and will hear the sound of hands touching your vehicle—believed to belong to a woman who allegedly took her baby’s life in the area many years ago. However, since there are no matching stories to support this legend, it’s likely that it was inspired by the nearby “Crybaby Bridge” in Westminster. Watch NBC4’s video on Game Preserve Rd below: