Avon’s Haunted Bridge: The truth behind the tales
AVON, Ind. (WISH) — There are several landmarks throughout Indiana that get extra attention around Halloween for their supernatural reputation.
In Hendricks County, an Avon bridge is the most notorious. It’s a huge bridge with distinct archways towering over County Road 625 East, just south of Highway 36.
Standing for more than 100 years now, the bridge has stories just as old.
“If you go by on Halloween night you’ll hear her scream. Yes, you will. The train goes by, you will hear that,” Harriett Muston said.
The bridge is known as Avon’s, but it has a history much longer than the young town just established in 1995.
“My mother’s name was Barker and they came here in 1831,” Charles Muston said.
Muston’s family is entwined in Hendricks County history. He and his wife Harriett even provided a picture of the haunted bridge from 1910 to the Avon-Washington Township Library.
“Some of those stories gave you that feeling about, boy, this sure is a spooky place,” Charles said.
The area surrounding the bridge was quite undeveloped when it was built in 1906. But today, it sits in the heart of Washington Township Park with a busy road running underneath. It’s a place to enjoy nature. On a nice day, you might see someone fishing in White Lick Creek and many people walking the paths nearby, but the bridge’s reputation remains.
“There are always people who love to make it into a way to celebrate Halloween, to make it kind of mysterious, to give their local area a little more pizzaz,” Susan Truax, local historian, said.
“There was a worker who fell. Sometimes it’s an African-American, sometimes it’s an Asian, Chinese is usually what they say. And they fell into the cement, they were not able to get him out and so he was buried alive,” Truax said.
Another story is about a mother and her baby who were walking along the bridge.
“In those days it wasn’t easy to get around, so she was walking down and here comes the train. She says ‘Oh, my goodness. What am I going to do? What am I going to do?’ What is she going to do with the baby? And she said ‘I’ll just put it right here,’ and well as she was putting the baby down, it fell to the ground and she fell and she screamed,” Harriett said.
Truax has searched for facts linked to the legends.
“And I could find no accident that said that a worker was killed, so I don’t think so, however, there are some people who insist that it was true and not everything was reported in the newspaper,” Truax said.
The Muston’s do believe there is some spookiness to the area. They said the bridge shows up as a blue-green color if you visit it late at night.
“I did not ever go up in the haunted bridge, I was too afraid to go,” Harriett said.
“When the trains go over it, it does make a sound that sounds like somebody’s screaming or somebody’s moaning, so that lends to it a lot,” Truax said.
Many people fear hearing that scream or moan as they drive under the bridge, so it is common for drivers to honk as they pass through.
And Charles believes it’s good to keep telling the stories, so that the history of this possibly haunted spot does not fade away, like a ghost.
“It’s like a thread and needle. It gives you a little book of history mentally in your head that you can relate to,” Charles said.
If you do want to visit the bridge, the safest way to do so is to enter Washington Township Park and follow the signs toward the pavilion.