Back to the Hatchet: A Spooky Return to Hatchet Man Road

I had heard about the Legend of Hatchet Man Road years ago and decided to check this one out myself. Hatchet Man Road is a mostly dirt patch of 28th Avenue between M-40 south of Gobles and 9th street near Kalamazoo; crossing over Campbell Creek. But first, the legend:

Back in the 1980s, a man fearing an atomic bomb attack built a bomb shelter on his property in order to protect his family. As his growing paranoia got worse, he coaxed his family to move out of the home and into the shelter. Being cooped up with the fear of impending world-wide doom was just too much for this “family man” and he completely lost it. Thinking he was sparing his family from nuclear doom, he grabbed a hatchet and wiped them all out.

Since then,  people who travel down that road at night have had strange things happen to them and their vehicles. Certain visitors have claimed: “cars idle at high speeds, vehicles stall for no reason near the creek, a cd adapter flew out of the dashboard, flashes of orange, gold & red lights, human shadows crossing the road & peeking from behind trees, ghostly white shadows that appear & disappear in the woods, automobiles that appear & disappear, headlights that go nowhere, moans and more.”

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One person wrote that bright headlights chased him down the road; he pulled into a driveway to turn around and the pursuing vehicle had vanished. Well, that same thing happened to a buddy and me as we went down that road one night around midnight. Car lights appeared before us and parked on the bridge, as if daring us to come closer. Going in the opposite direction, car headlights appeared behind us, got right on us, and then vanished into nothing.

Things on this patch of road happen mostly at night but it's eerie enough just being there alone in the daytime.

Check out the photo gallery below for some images of our experience own that road.

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