Driving Down This Haunted Iowa Road Will Give You Nightmares
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dpaulson
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Iowa is home to many haunted roads, bridges, houses and other urban legends. The Highwayman legend is rooted in Iowa’s Colonial history and tells of a haunted, lonely stretch of Interstate 80 that runs from Mitchellville to Des Moines and is haunted by a ghostly apparition fully dressed in Colonial garb.
Des Moines’s colonial history dates back to the 1600s, when Trappist Monks lived by the Des Moines River while trying to convert Iowa Native Americans to Christianity.
Then, French Colonial explorers went up and down the rivers around what is now the city of Des Moines.
These French Colonial trappers made their living buying and selling pelts.
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This legend states that an apparition who is supposedly the ghost of one of these fur traders has been spotted by several people on a stretch of Interstate 80 in the few miles between Mitchellville and Des Moines.
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Many people who reported seeing it said they first mistook the ghost for a Colonial reenactor or someone dressed in costume, but upon looking more closely, the figure is said to glow and then disappear under car headlights.
If you want to learn more about Iowa’s spooky past, you might want to Meet 12 Ghosts From Iowa And Hear Their Bone-Chilling Stories.
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