Payne Road: Paranormal Site Or Urban Legend
Jan 16, 2008 at 12:52PM A Team Blogsboro Exclusive!
Tina and I have been watching Paranormal State on A&E lately and enjoying it, so we were inspired to do a little investigating ourselves. We'd been reading about Payne Road up in Rural Hall on some local blogs devoted to spooky and spectral happenings and the supposed phenomena that occur when you visit the site. Having a spare afternoon (Tina was very clear that we visit (at least initially) in broad daylight), we decided to take a little drive.
It was a clear, sunny day, if a bit cold. We wound along SR 66 out of Kernersville, a stretch of road neither of us had ever had occassion to be on before: a lovely, scenic drive. It would be ever more picturesque when the many trees are in full leafage. We nicked the outskirts of Winston Salem and then on up into Rural Hall. Just over the Stokes county line we struck Payne Road. It was with just a trace of expectation (in not actual foreboding) that we might the right onto the fabled thoroughfare.
According to our sources, we were to look for an overpass (formerly a footbridge over a creek). There was only one along the stretch of Payne Road before it crosses Edwards and becomes Bolejack, and it didn't yield anything more spectral than some abandoned tobacco sheds and a fairly new stand of houses. Remote but hardly paranormal...
There were cars that seemingly appeared out of nowhere to follow us, as per the reports we'd read, but these were easily explained: the area's being built up considerably and people that live around there have to get to the convenience store in Rural Hall somehow. Once past the initial residential build-up on the 66 end, the road does possess the sort of typical remote, rural eerieness that stems from knowing you're a good piece from anywhere, but as far as anything even remotely preternatural or paranormal, we experienced precisely zilch...
There were dogs that appeared to stand silent vigil along the roadside. But so what? And on Edwards, near its 66 end (the whole Payne Rd/Edwards Rd segment loops back around to 66), there was a cemetery. But not old, and not a single Payne buried there...
So what does it all add up to?
We had a nice, pastoral drive. We got a tingle of anticipation and the usual, accompanying thud of disappointment. We're not adverse to going back. And if we had a small group to go with, we'd even try it at night. So consider this an open call for connoiseurs of the unexplained.
Cuz, after all, "there are more things on heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
So there. Nuff said.
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Reader Comments (3)
my friends and I travel down the road on occasion and dare each other to get out. one night when i tricked my counterpart into exiting the car i sped away up to the graveyard. I left him at the bridge, in pitch dark. on my way back my girlfriend was talking to him on the phone so we could try to find him easier. all of a sudden i had seen what i thought at the time to be my friend walking along side the road next to the bridge, i told my girlfriend to hang up because i had spotted him.when i got to the area the person i had thought to have seen was suddenly not there and calling back i realized that my friend was up the road . I saw and aspiraton that night
as i tried to write that comment my computer was acting up in strang ways and i couldn't type properly...what is going on here???
Hello,
My name is Joe Barton and I would like to give a little info on the truth about Payne road. I am now 27 years old but in my youth about the time I turned 16 and could drive there myself I spent a lot of time on this road due to my fascination with ghost and legends. First I’d like to comment on the truck that chases people out of the area. I have had that happen to me once and its true that I can’t explain where it came from r where it went but as soon as I crossed into Forsyth county it was gone. Next, as for the legend of the bridge, I tried this many times before the one lane bridge was destroyed and replaced with the over pass that is there today and it never seemed to work for me so I researched a little with the local residents. The original bridge built in the 1800’s was reported to have contained a very high amount of lead so, later years when curious tourist or mischievous teenagers would park their cars on the bridge and turn their engines off the lead in the bridge would drain the charge on their batteries. This trick was best known to be used by guys looking for some alone time with their girlfriends. Next as for the old house, my father used to take me and my sisters and some of the local kids down Payne road on hayrides in the back of his truck. I was very small at this time but I can still remember the hair rising on the back of my neck every time we passed by it. My Father would joke and dare me to walk over to it with him but we never got out of the vehicle. By the time I was able to go there for myself the old house had already been burn down a few years. A couple of my friends and I went to the store off of highway 66 that used to be called Vicky’s variety, (I’m not sure what it is now) and parked our vehicles. We walked the entire length of Payne road from stop sign to stop sign coming out in Rural Hall just before you cross the railroad tracks. It was a very spooky endeavor but nothing out of the ordinary happened. It was a weekend favorite to park our trucks on the bridge and just hang out on our tailgates, we would stop and get a pizza and just do whatever teenagers do, and there were never any incidents. There is a house on the Forsyth county side just past the graveyard where some man came out shooting a .22 caliber rifle in the air one night when we were parked in the graveyard hanging out. All off my experiences have never yielded any paranormal activity and most of the stories have been forgotten because no one passes them down anymore but I will always remember the thing I have heard about that road and will always be fascinated with it. One thing I have experienced to be true is that the KKK does conduct meeting there, I have never seen them for myself but we discovered evidence on one of our trips in the barns directly across from where the one lane bridge was. Also there were two bridges one to the right (down Payne) that is the one that killed peoples cars and the one to the left (down Bolejack) that used to be an old train trestle bridge. Many stories have been spread around about Payne road but I personally have never found any of them to be true (Except the weird truck.)
Anyways I hope this is helpful to you in your search and if you have any questions feel free to write back. It has been a very long time since I ventured down that road and a lot of it has to do with the state paved the entire thing now so its not quite as spooky but I might remember some other memories or facts later.
V/r,
Joe