The Road of Seven Bridges

Jan 19, 2023

🎵 “Well, somewhere in the Black Mountain Hills of Dakota there lived a young boy named Rocky Raccoooo-oon—" 🎵. Ahem, sorry, I won’t make you listen to my singing 🫣… but bonus points if you know which song that is! Ok, so, we may not be discussing Rocky in this post— I mean, he’s a fictional dude. And we talk about real stuff here, ok guys?! 😉 — but we are going to talk about some other South Dakota natives. And I’m not talking about Lil-Magill-Nancy, or whatever her name was… (eh? ya see what I did there? Again, kudos if you’re picking up what I’m throwing down here), but rather some of the locals of the town of Brandon, South Dakota.

So, Rocky Raccoon is a jokey old song by the Beatles where Rocky loses his girlfriend “Magill” (who is nicknamed “‘Lil” and who is known to everyone else as “Nancy”. I know. Don’t ask me, I didn’t write the song.) There is a different song, by the Eagles, called Seven Bridges Road— I bet you didn’t know you were going to learn some music trivia today, did you? And this post is NOT about that song. It is, however, about a real-life road in South Dakota that was nicknamed “Seven Bridges Road” in the 70’s, and is now known simply as “Spook Road”.

Now, for the question of the day: So, does this road HAVE seven bridges? Nope. Does it have six? Maybe. Well, does it have five? It might! Four??...

Well, it seems that no one in the area is really sure. In fact, it is something that is highly debated among the locals.

So, what exactly does all of this have to do with a couple of songs by the Beatles and the Eagles, you ask? Welp…nothing really 😬.  Except for that I did get the Rocky Raccoon song stuck in my head the other day. So, I decided to google weird places in the good ol’ state of South Dakota—every state has something weird and creepy in it— and I page-landed upon none other than Spook Road.

And hold on to your travel coffee mugs ladies and gents, ‘cuz this haunted road ride is a doozy.

Spook Road is known as the scariest place in South Dakota. And I know what you’re thinking, it’s South Dakota…what exactly are the metrics here? But trust me, after reading the rest of this, you’ll be thinking, huh. Do you mean South Dakota, orrrr the U.S…? ‘Cuz, yeah, it’s seriously creepy.

So, for a little background info: Brandon, South Dakota is a suburb east of Sioux Falls. It’s the 13th largest city in South Dakota (I know: Again, Dani, the relative metrics, please?) With a population of just over 11,000, it’s not a teeny place by any means. And those 11,000 residents, along with many other South Dakotans, will tell you not to travel on 264th Street (what it’s legally called), with its dark canopy of trees, curvy expanse, and dark bridges, once the sun’s gone down. It’s also widely rumored that scores of people have either taken their lives on the Spook Road bridges or have been hung (read: executed) from them. Eek. It’s a gorgeous drive though—according to everything I’ve read—during the day— but at night, it is a seriously haunted stretch of dirt.  

So, now for the actual legends around it: for one, as forementioned, no one can quite agree on how many bridges or intersections it has. And not because they’re just really bad at geography or counting in Brandon, South Dakota or anything, but because, they claim, the number of bridges and intersections change when driving from one direction to the other. One group of people in Brandon will tell you that you will cross five bridges going one way, and four bridges going back the other way. Others claim it is actually seven bridges (hence it’s old nickname, “Seven Bridges Road”— again, no relation to the Eagles song), one way and six on the way back. Either way, like… what?!… If you ask me, roads should NOT be going around changing their dang landmarks. And if a self-altering road isn’t enough to give you the willies, try one where you inexplicably feel like you’re being watched the entire time. Or one that has a cemetery…sometimes? Like the bridges and intersections, some people swear that Spook Road runs past a cemetery on its route, while others resolutely hold their stance that it does not. Additionally, folks have reported sightings of a ghostly man who sometimes appears on the road itself and other times appears hanging by the neck from a tree. Again, eek.

Oh, and one more thing: apparently, people practice witchcraft and the occults there. Between that and the hangings, I guess if I were a road, I’d be pissed off too.

So, that there is Spook Road in Brandon, South Dakota.  What do you think? Time for a joy ride? I’m game if you are! 

Have a good day, my frands, and may your roads always run the same way in one direction as they did the other… or something like that. ☕️

[ 🧡DT]


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The Stuff of Dreams