In the small farming community of Exeter, located in Tulare County, there is a rural road that has it's own ghost. The road is called Bardsley Road and supposedly the spirit of a headless motorcycle rider can be seen riding up and down it late at night.
Legend has it that sometime during the 1950's a motorcycle rider was killed on Bardsley Road. A few teenagers wanted to play a prank on one of their classmates. At night time they decided to string a rope across a road they knew he traveled on to get home, at what they estimated to be chest height. As he rode down the road, when he hit the rope he would be knocked off his bike. Or at least that was the plan. Unfortunately they misgauged the height of the rope. When the rider hit it, instead of it coming in contact with his chest, it hit him at the neck decapitating him and killing him instantly.
Apparently the rider never really left the road where he would always ride. Soon after his death, reports of seeing a bright lighting speeding up and down the road were common. Some even said they heard the sound of a motorcycle engine accompanying the light. And a few even said they saw the now headless rider on the road.
When I used to investigate haunted places around the Valley, this story had always peaked my interest and I had talked to a few people about it. One woman told me the story of how she and a few friends were having a bon fire party in one of the vineyards that lined the road. It was about 1:00 am when they saw a bright light coming down the road towards them. Thinking it was the sheriffs trying to break up their party, everyone took off running in separate directions. As the woman is running down one rows of vines, she sees the light following her. As it gets closer she can hear the roar of a motorcycle engine. Having heard of the story of the headless rider, now terrified she ducks under the vines and runs into another row as the ghost rides past her and then disappears.
No one knows why the spirit of the motorcycle rider continues to ride up and down the road. Perhaps he doesn't know he is dead and is trying to find his way home, like he did the night he was killed. Or perhaps he is looking for the people responsible for his death and will ride up and down it until he does.
19 comments:
ok, THAT is weird.
I know. It's probably just an urban legend, but still pretty weird. I've always wanted to go check out the road late at night and see if anything happens.
Actually I'd heard that story is associated with Marinette Avenue (also known as Avenue 288) - an east/west country road that runs just north of Exeter. The legend there is that a motorcycle rider going down Marinette was struck by a train while crossing the railroad tracks that run north out of Exeter (specifically just northeast of the Exeter cemetery (the line is now abandoned and removed)). The story from that point on is similar - people see the headlight of the motorcycle going up and down the road on dark nights.
Bardsley Avenue also an east/west road (also called Avenue 224) though it's about five miles south of Exeter. I'd never heard of the story associated with it. In any event it sounds like this motorcycle ghost story is ripe in the Exeter area.
Speaking of haunted roads I've heard stories of Creek road in Ohai,CA. There are 3 ghosts that haunt that road: a headless motorcyclist, a hitchhiking bride, and most terrifying of all the "char man" a ghost of a man burnt to a crisp and accompanied by the smell of smoke and burning flesh. He is often reported to chase anyone walking along the road at night
i live in tulare county & these back roads all have different stories like the ghost rider from exter to a witch burning area which a house sits over. The story goes back to the 1800's which i think a pregnant woman persum to be a witch was burn. Now a house sits over the area and in the house ( if u record sound) u can hear a woman scream then a baby cry
It's actually just about 2 miles east of Tulare. My dad was the farm manager of the pace down the road and would tell us the story every time we had to go out there at night.
Bardsley road is in Tulare, ca not exeter, that is where this story originated.
Took place in the 60's in Tulare, CA it wasnt a prank but an Accident he was a friend of mine we went to Tulare Union..
Thank You! This legend is from Tulare not Exeter. We heard this story when I was a little girl in the 60's. My parents had friends who lived in the Matheny Tracks. You had to go down Bardsley to get there and it was dark and scary, at least for us kids.There was also a song about The Ghost of Bardsley Road.
There is also Lizzy's Grave across Hwy. 99 from the old Tagus Ranch. Teens used to go out there and scar each other. There was a ditch and big trees with hanging branches on the way to it.
AND lastly, the Wizards Castle in Tulare off D St(I think). You have to go down a dark alley. It actually looks like an old playhouse, but fun for a scare.
yes, Tulare, not Exeter! I heard stories all the time from my sister who was in high school in the early 60's. I remember her telling me about accidents caused by a scare from the ghost. Does anyone remember a story about the ghost vandalizing the Nazarene church on Bardsley in the 60's? I was very young at the time and can't remember the whole story.
One night about 10 years ago I was in tulare headed down bardsley on my way home. It was bout 1 in the morning I seen an african american woman in a beautiful red dress she was glowing as I passed I looked in my rearview mirror. She was there but she had no face. Still gives me chills everytime I think about it.
I remember back when I was in high school my senior year in 1977 hearing about a black girl that was killed on prom night in Tulare following an argument with her father........on bardsley
Yes, after seeing the more recent article about the Delano ghost, saw this one. From Tulare, and remember Dane Sturgeon, and the song that came out then,'The Ghost of Bardsley Road. It was about Bardsley Road in Tulare....remember being scared as a kid as we had friends who lived on the Road...and the stories
Do I remember the details? No...
My dad also used to tell us kids about the Bardsley Road Ghost! Always scared us! He used to talk about the Sand Pits out on Bardsley, East of Lovers Lane in Tulare CA.
The story of the man who wrecked his bike happend in Exeter by Rocky Hill, not Tulare.
I always associated the headless motorcyclist story with the incident on marinette rd. at the train tracks in Exeter and not bardsley rd. Two different areas!
Please can anyone else give more info on this.
LOL - The Ghost was my dad. He went to Tulare Western. I sat on the bikes while growing up. It was a prank back in the day.
I lived in Farmersville for 15 years and remember hearing about "the light" on Marienette in Exeter. I even delivered pizzas throughout Farmersville and Exeter for 5 of those years. Bardsley is in Tulare, not Exeter. But yeah, it was an urban legend about a kid that died on his motorcycle in the 50s or something. We always tried to look for it during our high school years. After cruising Mooney in Visalia late Friday and Saturday, we would take Walnut which turned into Ave 288/Marienette. My friends claimed to see a single red light in the distance, but I never did, and I was riding in the same car as them. Of course we smoked weed a lot back then. Before, all you had to do was drive down the road to see it. Then, after a while, you had to go inside and circle the Exeter cemetery (which was on the same road) to see it. I've tried it all. Never saw it. Now I wanna go back and drive down Bardsley in Tulare and see if its true!
If you lived in Tulare in the early '60's you probably remember the story of the Ghost of Bardsley Road. I've heard from a relative that this story goes back to at least the '40's in some iteration or another. In the early '60's, there was sort of a fever pitch of interest in it. There was the kid who died out there. My brothers, who went to Union at the time told me a strange story from out there at this time. A boy who lived on Bardsley in an old farm house had been to a football game at Tulare Union one Tule foggy night, and had come home late. The Tule fog really dampens down sound and it's just weird stuff. Anyway, he came in the front door of his family's old farmhouse, where all the lights were off, and on the left side of the entry was an old parlor. As he threw his keys down on the entry table, he noticed that there was a dwindling fire in the parlor fireplace, and his dad standing facing away from the boy in front of the fireplace in the dark. The kid said hi to his dad as he walked towards his bedroom, and then from the far end of the house he heard his father's voice asking if that was him coming home? He turned back towards the parlor and there wasn't anyone there. Lots of people have Bardsley Road stories. My sister gave me a couple of letters I'd written to her at this time, when I was about eight years old, and one of the letters was about the incidents out there and what people in town were saying. Bardsley was out in the sticks in those days. I don't know what it's like now, having not been there in many years.
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