Haunted Bridge

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The 1885 story of the haunted bridge begins with Tom Jones and his widowed sister Elizabeth Taylor, who were fighting with their neighbors over their cattle getting into their neighbors’ crops. Tom and Elizabeth felt unsafe over the turmoil and bought a shotgun. Soon after, some men were cutting trees in land Elizabeth said was hers, and after a mighty blast, one man was without a head and Elizabeth was seen running away from the scene. The angry townspeople hanged Tom and Elizabeth at the Little Blue River. The Haunted Bridge, which now stands over the river, is rumored to be haunted by their ghosts.

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Geographic Information

Address:
Road C
Spring Ranch, NE
United States

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GPS:
40.4048719861292, -98.24074745090911
County:
Clay County, Nebraska
Nearest Towns:
Deweese, NE (6.4 mi.)
Glenvil, NE (6.9 mi.)
Fairfield, NE (7.3 mi.)
Lawrence, NE (7.9 mi.)
Ayr, NE (10.7 mi.)
Blue Hill, NE (12.0 mi.)
Clay Center, NE (12.7 mi.)
Edgar, NE (14.4 mi.)
Hastings, NE (14.7 mi.)
Harvard, NE (16.6 mi.)

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Comments (26)

  1. Me and my buds went by a house built in 1901 and we saw a man inside the house in the attic window. We looked back at the window and all we saw was the shadow of someone!!

  2. I used to live in that area. If it is so historical why did they do nothing to preserve the town. In fact, 90% of the trees in the area have been removed. All that is left ate maybe a few markers of where things used to be. There is nor ever has been any “paranormal” activities in the area

  3. My son had a weird experience at the spring ranch cemetery about a year ago. He and his college roommate were home for the weekend to bird hunt. They were hunting in the vicinity and it was getting dark. My son told his friend the story of spring ranch, the lynching of Elizabeth Taylor and Tom Jones, possible hauntings, etc. and of course, the friend wanted to see the place. My son has a ghost detector app on his phone and as they crossed the bridge to head up the road to the cemetery, his phone began to show dots on his phone, which is suppose to indicate ghosts. As they entered the cemetery, they stepped out and my son told his friend about the vandalism to the head stones that had occurred in the past. All of a sudden, the ghost detector app said “very bad” and then moments later, it said “Get out”. This freaked them out so they jumped in his truck and as they headed down the road, his headlights kept blinking on and off and continued to do so for about a mile down the road. There is probably some logical explanation to these events such as a short in the wiring in his truck, the ghost detector app has GPS in it which knew it was located in a cemetery, etc. As for me, it made a paranormal believer out of me plus it’s a fun story to tell on Halloween!

    • We used to go on Thursday road trips with college friends back in 2001-2002. I’ve also heard the “get out” with my own ears. The ground there is so soft and there was literally no sign even telling us we were driving into a cemetery.

  4. The bridge by the cemetery is not the old one. We went last year and found the real the real bridge spot that was torn down. It was at night and very eerie.

      • It’s further from that. My farm is built around it. Our hunting ground. When my grandma was a little girl she used to walk across this bridge and there were parts of the rope still hanging on this bridge 30 years later

        • Do you have a more specific location? I have been doing some research in an effort to separate fact from fiction. There are not many accessible primary sources so any information would be greatly appreciated!

  5. I went there with a few friends about a year back. It was about midnight and we were hanging around the bridge looking for anything and everything paranormal. My roommate and our other friend decided they wanted to continue down the gravel road more while the rest of us felt it would be safer and better by the bridge. After a few minutes one who had stayed with us said he felt something was off; so he went to catch up to them and see what was happening. Meanwhile (the other friends who had continued down the road) were apparently walking when one of them suddenly fell ill and threw up. The friend who had the ‘feeling’ ended up having to carry the ill friend back. When we were all united again the tension was intense as the two who had continued down the road and got sick claimed they “felt nothing and wanted to go back”. On the ride back to town there were several patches of fog no higher than two feet, and the radio was skipping like a CD and playing parts that weren’t in the song. Needless to say it was a pretty creepy night.

    • Is this the cemetery where they say a headstone stays warm? I remember back in college going to a cemetery out south of Hastings in the dead of winter where there was one headstone that had no snow around it. Seemed odd considering there was a fair amount of snow on the ground.

  6. I went there one night around 1am and I heard a faint screaming. So I got out of my car and just over my right shoulder I heard a person choking. I got back in my car and turned my lights off and just in front of my car, I saw red eyes looking at me. I freaked out and sped away and I haven’t visited since.

  7. dylan freeburg  |  

    Never bought into much about paranormal activity. Mostly headcases trying to create a gripping story blah blah blah.. I went there expecting nothing. We walk onto the bridge it was erie for sure I’m not denying that. One thing that has stuck with me is that I got this odd feeling the entire place is being protected. When we walked into the bridge..all of a sudden a bird or two landed on the bridge with us. Then came another and another and a couple more. Well that was weird let’s get the fuck out of here.. of course my friends wanted to stay a bit longer. That’s when we saw head lights coming towards us. That convinced them.. we ran back to the car we got chased out by a truck that was clearly protecting it for whatever reason. He may have owned the land but either may I will not be returning.

    • There videos on YouTube of ‘ghost hunters’ picking up activity out there. They aren’t even on the right bridge. I would know because the bridge they were on was on my parents place. And it’s not even the right one. It’s all bullshit. I want lie tho. There’s some weird stuff that will happen there

  8. We used to go down there a lot from Hastings in high school. We were always trying to freak each other out. We were to the very south of ‘town’ when a strange shape ran toward us, stopped, and limp-ran away. We all just silently got back in the car and drove out of there. It was one of the most unexplained things I’ve ever come across. It was like a tall, skinny person with very long arms and short legs. No sound, no expression yet some kind of plain face. Too weird.

  9. I’ve been to Spring Ranch multiple times and the only paranormal experience I can I’ve felt or witnessed is the temperature change in the cemetery vs being out of it or near the bridge. This last Thanksgiving I was in the cemetery and hear voices coming a far from the bridge location which is near the path to the cemetery. Can’t confirm if it was paranormal or farmers and couldn’t understand what was being said. Long drive but worth it. Got tons of pictures if anybody is interested. I posted the Graves of Tom Jones and Elizabeth Taylor.

  10. ElizaBeth ElizaDeath  |  

    Hello all!
    My grandmother was raised in McCool Junction & her mom (my great-grandmother) would pay yearly visits to her mother (my great-grandmother) who had been committed to an asylum during the 1910s-1920s, maybe 1930s. Our family doesn’t have much information. Does anyone know if they’re aware of a sanitarium in the area that existed back then? Or if it had been absorbed by another, more modern hospital? Thanks in advance!

  11. My great-great-grandfather was among the early settlers of Red Cloud and bought land and farmed on River Road south of town. My great grandfather and later a grand aunt farmed the land after he died. The house he built still stands although it’s been abandoned for several years. Anyway my dad and I visited in 2013 and went inside the farmhouse. I took several photos. Later that night when I looked at them, I saw that some of them have ghostly images. There are faces in a dangling wooden window casement. There is a woman’s face and partial body standing in the front of the house near a decaying screened porch. There is a little boy’s image looking directly at me (and it’s in color) on a piece of wood from the old porch leaning against a tree. That same piece of wood appears in other photos with no image. There are light beams from the ceiling (even though the second floor above is intact with no holes) and images in the old living room on the walls. This place is definitely haunted! I’ve attached a picture of the house below so you can see where it is since I don’t know the address.

    • Hello paused do you and your family allow ghost hunters in this home. It would be awesome to check this place out.

      • I don’t own it or live in Nebraska. It’s been vacant for years, although someone else owns the land. It’s on River Road south of town. I believe it’s part of the Lewis farm, but not positive.

  12. +Elizabeth: I can’t say if there was a “sanitarium” as they were properly called anywhere near McCool Junction, but I know my late Mom….who would be about 90 if she were alive today….worked at a big one in Norfolk that definitely was around in the time-frame you mention. It was huge, and had “clients” from all over Nebraska. The buildings are still standing…I drove by them in 2017. Perhaps there are records still available that you could access. Good luck!

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  14. Went there with a few friends one night and we weren’t expecting much cuz a lot of the supposedly haunted places in Nebraska just seem like urban legends but this bridge wasn’t the easiest to find so that gave me somewhat hope something might happen. We arrived at the bridge and we all got out and started walking across the main bridge, kinda just joking around and talking then we crossed some gravel and walked across the second smaller bridge type thing and as soon as I step off of it we all heard a high pitch scream, sounded human but not human at the same time if you know what I mean. We all just froze looked at each other and booked it back to are car. The next day I decided to look into the bridge more and found out people call it the “screaming bridge” gave me some major goosebumps.

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Disclaimer: The stories posted here are user-submitted and are, in the nature of "ghost stories," largely unverifiable. HauntedPlaces.org makes no claims that any of the statements posted here are factually accurate. The vast majority of information provided on this web site is anecdotal, and as such, should be viewed in the same light as local folklore and urban legends.