Shades of Death Road is a two-lane rural road of about in length in central Warren County, New Jersey. It runs in a generally north–south direction through Liberty and Independence townships, then turns more east–west in Allamuchy Township north of the Interstate 80 (I-80) crossing. South of I-80 it runs alongside Jenny Jump State Forest and offers access to it at several points. In 2013, the SyFy channel's Haunted Highway series did a segment on the road.

According to Weird NJ, these rumors have drawn more visitors to the area, to the annoyance of residents, who have in the past gone so far as to smear the pole holding the street sign (pictured) at the road's southern end with grease or oil to prevent theft (Other signs along the road are in vertical type on poles and thus harder to remove and less desirable to display).

The road in New Jersey is not the only one with this unusual name. Another Shades of Death Road exists in Washington County, Pennsylvania north of Avella between Bethel Ridge Road and Cole School Road.

Location and route

thumb|right|Shades of Death Road in Independence Township

Shades of Death's southern end is at County Route 611 (CR 611), or Hope Road, in Liberty Township one mile (1.6 km) north of the junction with CR 617 (Mountain Lake Road) and two miles (3.2 km) north of where Hope splits off from U.S. Route 46 (US 46) at Marble Hill, just west of Great Meadows. From that point it meanders along between the base of the Jenny Jump ridge and the low-lying flatlands of the Pequest River valley. About half a mile (almost 1 km) north of the interstate, in Allamuchy, it turns to the east and enters those flatlands, continuing all the while to weave back and forth through some sharp turns, until it reaches its northern terminus at Long Bridge Road.

Legends and folklore

Weird NJ suggests several theories for the road's macabre name.

  • Some focus on the road's southern half, where the adjoining forest with its aged trees provides much actual shade from the sun on even the brightest days. Highwaymen or other bandits would supposedly lay in wait for victims in these shadows, then often cut their throats after taking what they had, or they would engage in fights to the death among themselves over women.
  • Or, it is said, the local populace would take revenge against these highwaymen by lynching them and leaving the bodies dangling from low-hanging tree branches as a warning to others criminally inclined. one was a robbery in which a man was hit over the head with a tire jack over some gold coins, a second in which a woman beheaded her husband and buried the head and the body on different sides of the street, and lastly one in which a local resident, Bill Cummins, was shot and buried in a mudpile. It was never solved.

Weird New Jersey writes that visitors to this stable site at night have reported extremely local fogs surrounding it and seeing apparitions in it, or sometimes even in clear weather,

Another legend tells of a bridge where, if drivers stop past midnight with their high beams on and honk their horns three times, they will see the ghosts of two young children who were run over while playing in the road.

See also

  • Haunted highway
  • Clinton Road (New Jersey)

References

  • Shades of Death Road at Weird NJ
  • - Southern terminus
  • - Northern terminus