The Ghost of Bardsley Road: An Update to a Tulare County Legend

There are some ghost stories that seem to have always existed.

The Ghost of Bardsley Road is one of them.

For years, stories have circulated around the Exeter and Tulare area about a mysterious figure appearing along Bardsley Road. The most familiar version tells of a motorcyclist who was decapitated in a gruesome accident and whose spirit supposedly returned to haunt the road. Some versions say motorists have encountered a strange light or the apparition of a headless rider traveling along the road at night.

But digging a little deeper into the story reveals something considerably more interesting.

The legend may be much older than the story most people know today.

A Ghost Story From 1940?

One of the most intriguing accounts comes from The Dig, the student newspaper of El Diamante High School.

According to an article published in 2020, the story of the Bardsley Road phantom can supposedly be traced back to around 1940. The article claims that two high-school boys originally invented a story about a "phantom on Bardsley Road."

Their version involved a headless figure riding a snow-white Honda motorcycle. According to the article, the boys' original story was not intended to be taken particularly seriously, but it eventually became a local legend as more details were added over time. (El Diamante's The Dig)

There is an obvious problem with that account, however.

If the story really dates to 1940, the reference to a Honda motorcycle is difficult to reconcile with the history of Honda's American motorcycle presence. That raises the possibility that the motorcycle detail was added to the legend later, or that the 1940 date refers to an earlier version of the story.

Either way, it suggests that the story we know today may have evolved considerably over time.

The Legend Grows

As the story was passed from person to person, additional details apparently became attached to it.

One account published by The Dig describes a man who supposedly drove toward Bardsley Road, swerved, and crashed his automobile into a house. When medical personnel arrived, the vehicle was badly damaged, but the man reportedly had no visible injuries.

He was dead. (El Diamante's The Dig)

According to local folklore, the Bardsley Road ghost became associated with traffic accidents. A preserved discussion of Tulare County folklore quotes Tulare Historical Museum curator Ellen Gorelick and another local source discussing the legend. It describes a belief that motorists who saw the ghost were destined to have an accident.

But there is an important distinction here.

These accounts document the legend, not proof that a ghost caused any accidents.

The Ghost Becomes a Song

Then something happened that makes the Bardsley Road story particularly unusual among local ghost legends.

Someone wrote a song about it.

Dane Sturgeon's Wild 'N' Tender was recorded in Los Angeles in 1967, and its first track was "The Ghost of Bardsley Road." Yoga Records, which later reissued the album, confirms the recording date and the song's inclusion on the original album. (Yoga Records)

The existence of the recording is independently confirmed by WFMU, which has featured the song in multiple radio programs and identifies it as a 1967 LP recording. (WFMU)

In other words, by 1967 there was unquestionably a song called The Ghost of Bardsley Road.

The legend had made its way into recorded music.

But What About the Headless Motorcyclist?

This is where things get murky.

The version of the legend most commonly repeated today claims that sometime during the 1950s, teenagers stretched a rope across Bardsley Road as a prank. They supposedly intended to knock a motorcycle rider from his bike.

Instead, according to the story, the rope struck the rider in the neck and killed him.

His headless ghost supposedly returned to the road.

A 2011 account of the legend describes this version in detail, including reports of a bright light traveling along the road and witnesses who claimed to hear a motorcycle engine accompanying it. The account also includes a story from a woman who claimed to have encountered the light and heard the motorcycle while at a bonfire near the road. (Discover Ghosts)

But there is a problem.

I haven't found a contemporary newspaper report documenting the alleged motorcycle death.

That doesn't prove the story is false.

It does mean that the famous rope-and-motorcycle story should currently be treated as folklore rather than established history.

And that distinction matters.

A Legend With a History of Its Own

The most interesting thing about Bardsley Road may ultimately be the story's evolution.

We have an account claiming the legend existed around 1940.

We have later versions involving a motorcycle accident and a headless rider.

We have stories about unexplained lights and automobile crashes.

And we have something remarkably tangible: a song called The Ghost of Bardsley Road, recorded in 1967.

The legend was also still being discussed locally decades later. The preserved Tulare County folklore discussion specifically references the song and quotes a Tulare Historical Museum curator confirming that the museum had a copy of the recording. 

And the story hasn't disappeared.

Whether there was ever a headless motorcyclist traveling Bardsley Road is impossible to establish from the evidence currently available.

But there definitely was a story about one.

And that story has been circulating for generations.

Have you ever heard the Bardsley Road story?

We're particularly interested in hearing from anyone who grew up in Exeter, Tulare, or the surrounding communities and remembers hearing the story from older family members.

If you know a different version of the legend, we'd like to hear it.

Sources

• El Diamante High School, The Dig - "The Ghost of Bardsley Road," published March 3, 2020. This is the primary source for the reported 1940 origin story and the early account of the phantom. (El Diamante's The Dig)

• Yoga Records - documentation of Dane Sturgeon's Wild 'N' Tender, including the 1967 recording date and "The Ghost of Bardsley Road." (Yoga Records)

• WFMU - independent radio archives documenting "The Ghost of Bardsley Road" as a 1967 Dane Sturgeon recording. (WFMU)

• Discover Ghosts - 2011 account documenting the later version of the Bardsley Road legend involving the motorcycle, rope, mysterious light, and alleged eyewitness encounter. (Discover Ghosts)