Each Halloween, we like to revisit one of Montgomery County’s most enduring ghost stories… the supposedly haunted stretch of Game Preserve Road in Gaithersburg. A video of the road can be seen below.
With its winding pavement, dense woods, railroad crossings and proximity to Seneca Creek State Park, Game Preserve Road already has many of the ingredients of a classic scary-road story. Add nearly 150 years of reported strange encounters, local legends involving a headless Civil War soldier, phantom figures and stories of cars mysteriously refusing to start, and it has a case for being called the scariest road in Maryland.
Whether any of it is actually supernatural is another question. One of the most interesting parts of the legend is just how far back reports of strange activity in the area go. An account published in The Montgomery County Sentinel on March 17, 1876, and later shared by Montgomery Ghosts, described residents near Clopper’s Mill becoming alarmed by mysterious activity at the railroad bridge over Big Seneca Creek, just off what is now Game Preserve Road.
“The people in the neighborhood of Clopper’s Mill in this county have been very much excited for several weeks past by a mysterious occurrence which transpires nightly about 9½ o’clock upon the railroad bridge over Big Seneca Creek. It is reported by those who have witnessed the strange scene that about the hour named a lantern which is upon a post planted at the bridge is suddenly darkened, the light being entirely shut off and a flame like a flash of lightening shoots straight up into the air while another of a similar character flashes directly across the bridge.
We have not witnessed it as we know not whether it ‘be a spirit of health or goblin damned’ and do not care to trust yourself in the presence of such ‘questionable shapes’ but you who are not afraid of ghosts would doubtless be repaid for a visit to it. We hope that a solution of this affair will soon be discovered and a cause of terror be removed from the superstitions of that vicinity.”
The late local historian Jack Toomey previously explained that the bridge described in the Sentinel was very different from what exists there today. According to Toomey, it was a long wooden railroad bridge spanning the Seneca Creek valley. It was eventually replaced by a steel bridge and later by the viaduct that exists today, although foundations from the earlier bridges can still be found in the woods along the creek.
Another legend associated with Game Preserve Road centers on a Civil War soldier who was supposedly decapitated by a saber during a skirmish in the area. As the story has been passed down, fellow soldiers buried his body in an unmarked grave after being unable to locate his head.
Generations of local ghost stories have grown around the supposed grave. Some people have reported strange noises or glowing eyes in the woods, while others claim to have seen the figure of a headless soldier, sometimes riding a horse and sometimes appearing without one. Other stories involve phantom headlights, shadowy figures along the roadside and ghostly children supposedly pushing cars that stall near the bridges.
One particularly persistent legend claims that drivers who stop beneath an underpass and turn off their engine may find that the car will not restart. According to versions of the story, occupants then hear what sounds like hands touching the vehicle, supposedly belonging to a woman connected to the death of a baby in the area. We have not found a historical account matching that particular story, and it appears possible that elements were borrowed over the years from the better-known “Crybaby Bridge” legend in Westminster.
And then there are the stories readers have shared with us over the years. Some longtime drivers say they have traveled Game Preserve Road hundreds of times without experiencing anything unusual. One reader who grew up along the road joked, “Scariest thing there was me. I was a terrible, terrible teenager.”
Others aren’t quite as willing to dismiss its reputation. “I’ve heard so many different stories but never tried to find out,” one reader told us. “I actually avoid this road at night. Scares me.”
Another described two alleged encounters, including stopping a car near the bridge and experiencing what they said was a sudden drop in temperature followed by unexplained noises. On another occasion, the reader claimed to have seen a woman with long hair, apparently wearing a nightgown, walking up the hill with her head down.
Perhaps the most relatable response we’ve received summed up the legend this way… “Do I think this is real? No. Would I still go alone at night? Also no.”
Skeptics can point to plenty of earthly explanations. Game Preserve Road is dark, narrow and surrounded in places by dense woods. Shadows, wildlife, headlights, railroad infrastructure and a little imagination can go a long way, especially when a driver already knows the stories.
But unlike many local ghost tales whose origins are difficult to trace, we know people around Seneca Creek were talking about mysterious nighttime happenings at least as far back as 1876. Nearly 150 years later, the stories are still being told.
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