"It's a stretch of road, up north in Maine that's never ever, ever seen a smile…"
Those words from the song "A Tombstone Every Mile" refers to the isolated highway in Maine that most folks called the Haynesville Woods. Country singer Dick Curless recorded this song in 1965 and it proved to be his biggest hit.
For many years, this section of Route 2 has made its way through some lonely and remote parts of Maine. Truck drivers and motorists alike dreaded traveling through the Haynesville Woods, especially during the cold and snowy New England winters. The place naturally developed a sinister reputation.
A native of Maine, Curless was one of the few country stars to come out of the Northeast. He was also a former truck driver who knew all too well the dangers of traveling through the Haynesville Woods. The song talks about all the truck drivers and others who were killed in accidents along this stretch of road, hence the title "A Tombstone Every Mile."
Any place that could inspire a song like this one must be scary. And it is probably haunted by those who didn't make it out of there alive.
For many years, people living in that section of Maine talked about seeing a woman in white walking along the road at night. She would appear out of nowhere in front of a tractor-trailer and ask the startled truckdriver for a ride. She would tell the driver that she and her husband had just been in a terrible wreck and they needed help. Those drivers who encountered the mysterious woman said later they could feel a weird chill when she got into their trucks. As they exited the dark Haynesville Woods, the woman would then vanish without a trace, according to a Web site.
The story behind the ghostly hitchhiker was that a newly married couple traveled through the Haynesville Woods one dark night. The husband was drunk and driving and the car crashed into a telephone pole. He died instantly. It is believed that his young wife crawled out of the wrecked car and she froze to death in the snow.
Folks living in that part of Maine believe that the young bride still wanders Route 2, desperately looking for someone to help her.
In another version of the legend, the ghost of a little girl wanders the road between Houlton and Haynesville. Like the young bride, she would try to seek help from truckers and other motorists traveling through there. But in some instances, she would suddenly appear in the passenger or back seats of cars and then just as quickly vanish into thin air.
Some people have talked about driving through the Haynesville Woods at night and seeing a red flashing light off in a distance. It would come closer and closer to their vehicles. Then, a white cloud would float over their vehicle and the flashing light would disappear.
Records from the state of Maine show that two girls, both 10 years old, died on Aug. 22, 1967 in the town of Haynesville. One Web site suggests that the ghosts of these girls could be the ones now haunting that lonely stretch of road "that's never ever, ever seen a smile."
Contact Mike Conley at 652-3313, ext. 3422 or e-mail nconley@mcdowellnews.com.
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