If anyone has any information about this haunting, please email zonker@osh.auracom.com or obiwan@ghosts.org.
Has anybody in your society ever heard of the Ghost of Scugog Island?
Here's as much background as I can give you: (Please feel free to post the following italicized information on your site.)
"Scugog Island is a large island in Lake Scugog-- large enough to contain a number of farms and a couple of villages. You can get there by car: take Ontario Highway #7 east out of North Toronto, Ontario, Canada about 60 km's to the town of Port Perry, Durham Region. Pass through town on #7, across the Lake Scugog Causeway out to the island.
The story behind the ghost, as I have heard from the locals is thus:
On or about Hallowe'en, 1963, a teenage boy about 16 or 17 was riding home from his girlfriend's house one night through a farmer's field. He was riding a motorcycle, generally believed to be a Harley-Davidson "enduro"-style dirt-bike, equipped with both a head-light and tail-light. The rider failed to spot a taut length of barbed-wire, which de-capitated him.... or so the story goes. (I have never been able to substantiate it; this is the local legend)
The ghost appears in a farmer's field on Scugog Island. The field is at the bottom of a dirt road, which ends at a t-intersection at one of the concession roads. Go north on the dirt road about 1000 yards from the t-intersection, turn the car around so that you face south. Cut the motor, turn off all the lights (You'll see the ghost better that way, and it is a courtesy to all the other local ghost hunters). Then, wait.
In the farm field at the bottom of the road, the ghost will appear as the headlight of a motorcycle bouncing over rough terrain. It will be moving towards you, which is to say north and east. Suddenly, the headlight will "seem" to go out, you will see the flash of a red tail-light, and that will be it. The apparition comes and goes in about 60 seconds.
The headlight appears to be pure white, not unlike a standard HMI light. It does not throw a beam, and the purity and quality of the light seems to be unaffected by rain, snow, or fog.
I have attempted to photograph the apparition several times, but have never been quick enough on the draw to catch it. I have seen a photograph, however, published in my hometown paper, the now-defunct Oshawa Times (Thompson Newspaper Chain) in the summer of 1982. The apparition looks like a small, white hole with perfectly clean edges, in the night photograph.
Local authorities have tested every conceivable theory, including shutting down traffic in both directions on Ontario Highway #35 (to the south and east of the site) to stop potential reflections from the lake which may be the cause. None of them have ever even come close to explaining the apparition.
As far as ghost appearances go, you can practically set your watch by this one. It can be seen up to 275 nights a year, generally between the hours of 2300h and 0200h. The apparition can appear anywhere from one to ten times a night (the luckiest I have ever been is four appearances in one night, and I have only been dissappointed on one night). Best time of year: The month directly before Hallowe'en, and the month directly after. (N.B.: on Friday and Saturday nights, the local teenagers go up there for bush parties, so beware of rowdies and skeptical Durham Regional Police patrolmen.)
Getting close to the apparition is difficult. A friend went hunting one night in a 1971 Chevrolet Nova packing a 396cid V-8 racing engine; this car had quarter-mile numbers that would turn the NHRA green with envy. Upon sighting the ghost, he slammed the car into gear. At 140 mph, he still couldn't get close enough to the ghost to get a good look at it. However, one night I was up with a car-load of friends. After about an hour, another car-load of spectators gave up, and left by driving south towards ground zero. When they reached the stop sign at the t-intersection, the ghost appeared right in front of them. Judging by the panic of brake lights, reverse-lights, and the spinning of tires, these people must have gotten a really good look. Unfortuantely, they didn't stick around to answer my questions...
Our ghost-rider doesn't seem to have a name, and the 1963 fatality doesn't seem to have been reported in any of the newspapers of the time. All I know is what me and my friends have seen with our own eyes on any number of occasions.
Michael Charles Cole
Oshawa, Ontario, Canada
That's as much as I can tell you. Should any of your members or website visitors know anything else, please contact me by e-mail.
Thanks!
This story has become part of Durham's "urban legends". I was teaching a Native Studies course at a Durham Regional highschool recently and our students were given the opportunity to correspond with a group of highschool students on Baffin Island. Part of their assignment was to relate "legends" with which they were familiar. Of a total of 14 students, I had at least 5 retellings of the "Skugog road ghost". Additions to the story which were included in the writings I recieved included an eerie voice and seeing a headless corpse. I hope that you find this information useful or at least marginally interesting.
More information on www.ghosts.org:
Here is a short article from a reader about the light.
Another article with a book reference.
Evelynne Ritter had ancestors who were born on the island.
A possible explanation for the mysterious lights.
Here are some directions on how to get
to the viewing spot.
For more information on ghostly lights in general, check out the
Ghost Lights Page.
Links to other sites:
Ontario's Ghost Road is an informative site dedicated to the Scugog Island ghost.
If you would like to contribute an article about a haunting,
please email obiwan@ghosts.org. All
author information will be kept intact.
