GHOST LIGHTS OF MAPLE LANE
In times gone by, before
1880, there was an old peddler who had a wagon and who sold his wares in and
around the hamlet of Monterey in the Town of Orange in Schuyler County. There
were lanterns attached to the well-equipped wagon so he could vend his products
after dark. His route encompassed various remote dirt roads around the
countryside including Maple Lane which was a narrow, steep path of a road that
rambled up a local hillside.
Along Maple Lane there were
several farms that were quite distant from each other and to which the old
peddler traveled to sell his goods. It was in this remote area this elderly
man was, supposedly, murdered and his goods stolen. His wagon and
his team of horses were never found and it was supposed his body had been buried
somewhere in the nearby woods off Maple Lane.
According to the local legend that
soon arose after his disappearance, lights were seen on that particular hillside
usually in the very late evening. These lights rocked to and fro as if
they were still attached to the peddler’s wagon as it wound its way up
the difficult terrain of that hillside.
The lights would make their
appearance for a short while before disappearing behind some trees along the
road and would then reappear rising ever higher on the hill. After reaching
a point nearly three-fourths of the way up Maple Lane, the lights would disappear
completely.
Locals, some of whom were very superstitious, considered this last disappearance
as an omen indicating the peddler had reached his burial place.
Through the years these lights would
randomly reappear only to disappear again, and the Maple Lane area was thought
to be haunted.
In the 1940s, long after the peddler’s
murder, a Mr. Rutledge owned a modest farm on the upper part of Maple Lane
where he had a large apple orchard. He was considered to be an upright
and honest man, not given to lying. Although his neighbors had
warned him not to travel down Maple Lane after dark for fear he would come
face to face with the ghost of the old peddler, Mr. Rutledge scoffed at this
idea. One evening, it seems, he had to do business in Monterey,
probably taking some apples to the local store, and, so, hitched up his team
of horses for the 2 mile trek. Nearly halfway down Maple Lane he
quickly halted his team after spotting 2 lights in the dark far ahead of him. They
were swaying to and fro as if on a wagon struggling to make its way up the
steep path that was Maple Lane. As they approached nearer to him,
almost frantically he got his team turned around and headed directly back to
his farm.
It is a widely known fact that Mr.
Rutledge talked about his encounter with the ghost lights although he had,
in the past, been a man who did not believe in ghosts. Whatever it was
he saw that night, he could not rationally explain it to himself. One
thing is certain; Mr. Rutledge would never again travel down Maple Lane after
dark.
This tale of the murdered peddler was
still being told around the hamlet of Monterey as late as the 1970s. Maple
Lane is now surrounded by State owned land and borders land owned by the Camp
Monterey Correctional Facility. It cannot be approached at its southern
end but one can travel the Pine Creek Road from Monterey to its intersection
with the Sugar Hill Road. A right hand turn at this intersection
will take the driver up a steep hill and to where Maple Lane crosses the Sugar
Hill Road. Another right hand turn puts the driver on the northern end
of haunted Maple Lane. Drive slowly down it in the very late evening
if you dare.
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