Don’t Drive Down This Haunted Road in New York State

We're well into October now, which means the Halloween spirit is in full swing.

Haunted houses have been open for the past two or three weeks. If you're someone who loves to be outside, then a haunted hayride or haunted trail could be more your speed.

While haunted houses are always a fun attraction, there are quite a few places that are actually haunted...or at least said to be haunted.

Houses and asylums are usually what you think of when it comes to haunted places. They are scattered all over New York State. But did you know there's a haunted road in New York State?

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The backstory of the road is fascinating and has become folklore in Western New York.

The road in question is located in Evans (the Village of Angola). It's about 25 minutes south of the City of Buffalo. It's Holland Road but many locals refer to it as "Pigman Road."

The history of this legendary road is well documented by M.C. Hageman, who detailed how this road's history dates back to the Angola Horrow, which was a famous train accident which killed 50 people.

The last two cars of the train jumped the tracks due to two teenagers removing tiles from the tracks earlier that day. The tragedy happened over the Mill Street Bridge in Angola and resulted in improved train safety measures.

One of the boys who removed tiles that day in 1867 was Loring Derrecks, who later had a son in 1911 that was Williams Derrecks, who later became known as the pigman.

William Derrecks had a badly deformed face, which resulted in a severely split nose and clef pallet, which made it look like a pigman. He later lived on Holland Road and stories of a pigman grew, as he was said to be a hoarder and scare off kids and others with heads of pigs and goats on sticks on his property.

The 1960's and early 1970's is when the stories were at their height. The Derrecks home burned down in 1973 and presumably, William died in the fire, but stories of Pigman sightings continued.

Despite one man going missing around Holland Road in the early '70s, no reports of murders or deaths were reported there, despite the actual history turning into myths.

The thing about Holland (Pigman) Road is that it's small and has lots of overgrown weeds and grass. You can't easily find where Derrecks home was nowadays and the bridge down the road is only a one-way road. Authorities have advised people to not go there looking for a ghost hunt.

It's a road that people should avoid, unless you're a local who uses it as a shortcut.