Off in the cornfields of Delaware County, about 20 miles northeast of campus in the small town of Dunkirk there is a gravel country road known to locals simply as Blood Road.
"It's one of the creepiest things I've ever seen," said Ryan Coleman, a high school senior and lifetime resident of Dunkirk.
As the legend goes, a farmer and his son would drive out to the fields every morning. Every afternoon, on the way home, the boy would jump out of the back of the truck. The father got so fed up with this that one day he decided to tie a chain around the boy so he couldn't jump out. On the way home the truck hit a bump in the road, and the boy fell out of the truck. The father couldn't hear his cries over the roar of the engine, and the boy was dragged to his death.
Drive north down the road about a half mile until a bump is reached. Soon after there will be a farmhouse on the right. Turn around and be prepared.
"It looks like blood in the middle of the road," said Coleman. "You only see it when you head back down the road."
The story, which is largely passed by word of mouth, has enticed thrill-seeking Ball State students for years.
Senior Shari Denny said she and a group of friends made the drive to Dunkirk last Halloween, using directions that had more landmarks than street names.
"There were three other people in the car with me," she said. "And we all saw it; we all saw the streaks of blood."
Even professors have checked out the haunted road. For criminal justice professor Tina Edwards-Willey, her first trip to the site wasn't at all what she expected.
"I thought it was just like any other ghost story," she said. "I didn't think I was going to see anything, but there is definitely something there. You can definitely see red streaks in the road. What is it? I don't know."
Edwards-Willey said she could only see it on the return route, and that it wasn't visible through the rearview mirror.
"Something is amiss out there," she said.
Not everyone believes the folklore, though. Take the Terrell family. They live in the farm house on the right, just past the bump, at which cars are supposed to turn around.
"You want to know what really happened?" said Theresa Terrell. "Someone spilled fertilizer. It was about ten years ago. One of the farmers came down the road with fertilizer in the back of their truck, hit the bump and accidentally spilled fertilizer on the road. They dye it red so they can see where they have worked."
She said the legend was perpetuated by the fact people do actually see the red stain, and, oddly enough, only when heading south down the road.
"I think it's the way the shadows hit the ground in that area," Terrell said.
Terrell said that for the last ten years, because of this phenomenon, her driveway has been the turnaround for dozens and dozens of cars trying to get a glimpse of the legendary Blood Road.
The late night traffic decreased after the county paved over that section of the road about two years ago. But, mysteriously, the stain came back in the same spot, just over the bump.
"Another truck must have hit the bump and spilled more fertilizer," she said.
The roadBlood Road is on County Road 700 just off the Eaton Pike outside of Dunkirk, Ind.
The story
- Farmer and his son would drive out to the fields every morning.
- On the way home, the boy would jump out of the back of the truck.
- The father decided to tie a chain around the boy so he couldn't jump out.
- The truck hit a bump in the road, and the boy fell out of the truck.
- The father couldn't hear his cries over the roar of the engine, and the boy was dragged to his death.
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