This site earned a bibliography credit in Troy Taylor's book, "Out Past the Campfire Light : Hauntings, Horrors & Unsolved Mysteries of The Great Outdoors." (One of my pix was also in that book & online, although not credited to me.)
This is also the site that Greg Myers, Director of Missouri Paranormal Research called, "A major part of the inspiration of us researching that area and doing our first permissible night time investigation back in 2005."
UPDATE 7/19/08: I finally watched the "Children of the Grave" documentary & I absolutely loved it! The only things I'm confused about is what are they considering the "main entrance" vs the "rear entrance"? Also, I'm still not sure what they mean by an old mental institution...Are they talking about the LaSalle Institute or something else? If anyone knows, please email me.
UPDATE 7/6/08: This is the first update I've done to this site in literally YEARS...When I started this page there were only a few references to Zombie Road on the entire internet but in recent years, the legend of Zombie Road has EXPLODED in popularity, probably due in large part to this "Children of the Grave" documentary that was on the Sci Fi Channel...I have yet to see this but I understand it talks a lot about a suppossed nearby mental institution with an escaped inmate nicknamed "Zombie"...This sounds kinda bogus & cheesey to me & I've never heard this before but it should be pretty easy to either verify or dismiss...Does anyone know if there ever was such an aslyum with an escaped inmate nicknamed "Zombie"? Are they talking about that creepy monestary or whatever it is called LaSalle Institute,which I always heard used to be an insane asylum but never was sure if that was true or urban legend? lol
By the way, I have in recent years become convinced that the Castle Wood and Meramec River area there are AS haunted if not MORE than just Zombie Road. Gangsters like Al Capone were involved with the Castlewood clubhouses during Prohibition...And people die all the time in Castlewood Park: fall off cliffs, hit by trains, a man was killed 2 years ago there during that summer storm that knocked half a million St. Louisans out of power when a 74 mph wind uprooted a tree and hit him on the back of his head!(I kid you NOT) not to mention the COUNTLESS drownings in the Meramec River (such as the 5 kids 2 years ago)...The Indians didn't call it the "River of Death" for nothing!
All of this has me thinking, a full scale book is in order...I'm thinking I'll call it something like "The Ghosts of Zombie Road, Castle Wood & the River of Death"...Maybe someone like Troy Taylor could help me with this project...HINT HINT lol
One last update thing, I have a video I took on my 2003 field investigation of Zombie Road. I will soon be making a YouTube video of the highlights of that video.
Urban folk legends abound on Lawler Ford Road. Better known as Zombie Road, this eerie road has been around for about 150 years since it started as a horse and carriage road (& some theorize could have been an American Indian path even before that).The road is located in Wildwood (formerly Ellisville and Glencoe) in West St. Louis County, MO. To get there, take Manchester Rd. West to Old State Rd. S (left), go 1 mile and turn left on Ridge Rd. Turn immediately right into the parking lot at Ridge Meadows Elementary School. Walk 20 feet to the left of the school and you are standing on Zombie Road. The Lawler Ford sign is no longer there. (see map)
The road is about 2 miles long through a valley of forest hills and deadends near the Meramec River in the Glencoe area where Old State Rd. meets Hwy 109. This is where there used to be a regular railroad track and now has a mini railroad ride for kids. This is the beach area where they say "all the shit goes down". There are dalipidated and flooded out houses and shacks in this area.
The main folk legend is that the road is haunted by a man killed by a train in the 1970's.(My research found that a woman named Della Hamilton was killed by a railroad car in the 1870's, 1876 to be specific) Another tale involves a boy who fell off the river bluffs and was left to rot by his friends. There's a similar tale of a Parkway West High School student who was left to die by his buddies in the 1970's after an OD can-sniffing incident...Other tales involve an old woman with a gun in a house near the end of the road who yells at passersby. I've also heard the ghosts may be that of Native Americans. Adding to all this is that modern-day witches and devil worshipers hang out in the area!
"Everyone who has been to Zombie Road knows the feelings there."
-Ghosthunter 79
"That whole road will give ya the creeps. Constant feeling of being watched or even like someone is walking right behind you."
-Shadowgal17
"I just felt that sour feeling again in the pit of my stomach, and I felt that we shouldn't be there- that something just gross, happened on the earth. Something inside me said, 'You're not suppossed to be here'..."
-Nicole, 1987
"You go down there sometimes and it's fine, it feels like there's no problem there...But when you go back other times it seems like a force is pushing you out, you don't want to be there."
-Paranormal researcher/Zombie Road buff Joe Immethum
"The man who was killed was actually my best friend. It wasn't lightening that hit the tree but a 74 mph wind gust that uprooted it and hit him in the back of his head. His name was Kent Cross. There's also a civil war POW camp near Sherman, MO that feels creepy. Its located near the Kaes House in a cavern. "
-Anonymous email I received, 7/26/08
"I have a friend who went down Zombie Road in the past heat of our 95 to 100 degree days of late and said parts of the trail were actually cold! It is very creepy and, yes, the strange things are real."
-Dan Meyer, 7/28/08
"I would like to share my personal experience with Zombie Road.
Last night me and five of my friends told me about it and I had never heard of it before but I decided to go anyway. Once we got there, we all partnered up walked past all the trees and passed the gate. One of our friends saw something move and we ran back to the car.
After we regrouped....we tried for a second time. So again we went on the dark path down the road. This time we went a little further but my other friend wanted to be brave and explore the path alone so he went deeper and deeper into the forest until he was out of our sight. Every now and then we would inch down the road to make sure he was ok. While the 5 of us were standing there, we started hearing voices but just convinced ourselves that it was somebody in their yard talking or just trying to scare us. As we continued looking into the dark shadows waiting for our friend...we started to see a black figure and we called his name and told him to hurry up and come on then he started running. Once he reunited with the group, the dark figure of a person was still standing down the path which was the same one that we thought was our brave friend. We looked at each other and ran once again to the car.
10 minutes passed and we decided to make the third time a charm and try to do it again just to see if what we saw was real. So before we even got to the gate I saw a white trash bag in the shape of a person lying on the right and I thought to myself that it wasnt there the first two times we went in there but I just blew it off so I wouldnt scare anybody. So I looked at my friend behind me to see if anybody saw the same thing I saw and her eyes got big realizing that I saw it too. She shook her head frantically basically telling me not to say anything.
We continued down the path, this time going deeper into the woods than the other two times. Once again our adventerous friend decided to wander off and explore the forest. And again we waited for him because everybody saw the same thing but just didnt want to say anything until we got back to the safety of the car. We called to him to come back because it was an eerie feeling of a presence or someone watching us so we all turned around and all at the same time we all saw this white shadow that looked like the "plastic bag" in the shape of a woman standing at the entrance where we had to exit. All 6 of us stood there scared to death....
It was only for a second or two but at the time it seemed like forever. We all darted for the car and sped off into the night discussing our experience in the car.
It may sound crazy but I PROMISE you this is true."
-Danielle, 2008
IF YOU HAVE ANY INFORMATION ABOUT ZOMBIE ROAD, PLEASE EMAIL ME AT johntrower@lycos.com
