Ramblings and Ruminations: Old Ghost Bridge in Lincoln, Illinois

It is about a 10 minute walk (taking time to slap the mosquitoes!)  the road winds through some pretty dense trees with a few clearings that show the fields that surround the area.

(This picture is from Leigh Henson’s site as well.)

So we come around the corner and there it is…the last remnants of this old bridge.

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This is where I find out the great part.  This used to be a part of the famous Route 66 road!

(Much of the information to follow came from Leigh Henson’s award winning website: http://findinglincolnillinois.com/rte66atsaltcreek.html

Salt Creek ( which was called Onaquispasippi by the Native Americans- I know what you are thinking and I completely agree!  Salt Creek is SO much easier) is the largest stream in Logan County and has been important to this region.

Its history began with the Native Americans and even includes a land dispute settled on the banks of the creek by none other than Abraham Lincoln himself!  The churches in the area used it for their baptism rituals which back in the 1850’s included total immersion in the creek.

This photo was discovered in family albums of Eleanor Gibson, LCHS Class of 1937, and provided to Leigh Henson by his cousin Jerry, Eleanor’s son.)

The website also mentions a character by the name of Boone Hoblit (yes, my traveling buddy is a direct descendant!)  It seems that this Boone had a little shack that he lived in during the 1920’s at the bottom of Cemetery Hill.  (The shack would have “been located less than a hundred yards or so at the left of the scene shown in the photo above.”)  This Boone was described as having “one eye that was disfigured, he drank a lot; and he threatened passerby who came too close.”  The 1920’s were famous for the Prohibition and one doesn’t have to imagine too hard why Boone would be less than thrilled to have visitors to this area.

The following map was also on the Henson Website:

You will notice that there were several bridges built in this area. The one whose piers you notice in the pictures in the beginning of the story supposedly was from the 1942 bridge.

The following ones according to Henson’s website are from the 1922 Main bridge piers.

So, where (most of you are probably thinking) does the Ghost from Ghost Bridge come in?  I, too questioned this.  I imagined a great story of a love between a Native American girl and a local white boy where both families refused to accept their love and the young lovers took their own lives rather than be separated.  I even though that maybe the stories of Boone Hoblit making his moonshine to sell continued on after his death with him chasing visitors away from the road so no one would reveal his secret.  But this is not the case.

In my research I found no such story.  My buddy John even called the local library in Lincoln.  He was assisted by a very helpful librarian who gave him a website that she assured him would prove interesting.  Imagine his surprise when the website turned out to be of the ADULT kind! (seems that the Logan County tourism website had changed their address and did not inform their local library!)

That is what I meant in the beginning when I spoke of thinking I was in for one type of adventure and having a completely different one.  The cemeteries on either side of the old road are very beautiful and peaceful and Troy Taylor talks of another in close proximity, the Old Union Cemetery on his website.   But the reason that this particular bridge is called a Ghost bridge is because that is what the people who seek out such abandoned sites call them.

Even though there is no great story behind the name, I felt that this place deserved to be mentioned in my Ramblings and Ruminations.  As I stood there, with the light from the sun setting around me, it was easy to picture it as it once was.  It has that sense that places of the past carry with them.  The ability to, just for a second, transport us back. These places share their layers of history, from the days of Native American hunting and fishing, to the baptisms of the 1850’s, to the bootlegging of the 20’s and 30’s.  I hope you take the time to visit if you are ever in this area.

For more great tales of this area, please visit Leigh Henson’s website: http://findinglincolnillinois.com/rte66atsaltcreek.html

Kathi Kresol is the organizer of the Haunted Rockford Tours and Paranormal events through the Rockford Public Library.  She is also a team member of the Forest City Paranormal Society.  You may contact her at kkresol@rockfordpubliclibrary.org  or 815-987-6682 for information on events or investigations.