For decades, there have been countless stories around strange activities occurring on this road and also on the bridge. Some say that if you turn your car off on the bridge, you’ll have to push it off. Legend has it that if you turn off your car on the bridge, it won’t start back up. Other people mentioning here a baby cry, some say they hear a woman scream, others see apparitions and of course the most bone chilling and creepy of all, fingerprints from children appearing on the window.
Rural Hall is located in the northern part of Forsyth County, which is located in northwest North Carolina. According to Census bureau, today the town is 2.9 square miles and has a population of about 3500. The city itself is a proud city, with a rich history dating back to the late 1700s when settlers began arriving from Bethania.
Now, what’s really intriguing about this mystery is that so much surrounding the origins of this road are unknown. No one really knows how this legend began, when and why on this road. It’s clear though that the legends and mystery go back to at least the 1960’s and continued for decades. Every year, teenagers from nearby Winston-Salem NC venture up to this road in order to experience the Haunted Payne Road, and its infamous Bridge.
There’s even confusion around the road itself. Today the events and the bridge all occurred on Edwards Road. There appears to be controversy surrounding this as there is a nearby road named Payne Road. Some claim that Payne Road changed its name years ago. Others claim Edwards Road has always been Edwards Road. There doesn’t appear to be a smoking gun to solve this question.
There are various legends behind why this road and bridge are haunted.
Theory #1
In the 1930’s a man named Edward Payne lived on Payne Road, which today is Edwards road. The legend says He went crazy, tied his wife to a chair and then proceeded to kill his kids by slitting their throats starting with the oldest. As he got to his youngest kid, an infant, he hesitated and meanwhile his wife got free and escaped with the child. She ran off behind the house and crossed a bridge where Edward would soon catch up and kill both the wife and the child. After this, Edward hanged himself by the bridge or just nearby it.
Theory 2
Plantation Owner. The Legend goes like this. There was a plantation owner named Mr. Edward Payne. He had 4 daughters and discovered that one of the slaves had impregnated one of his daughters. Furious, he has the slave executed. After some time, another one of his daughters was impregnated by another slave and this point he essentially went crazy. He slaughtered all his slaves, his entire family and burned the plantation down.
Still property records and other records don’t show a man with four daughters in this area, and certainly not a record of man killing his entire family.
Milus Edwards
Perhaps the legend comes from another source, the suicide of Milus Frank Edwards. Mr. Edwards, apparently, had made threats before on his own life and blew himself up with dynamite in pick-up truck. Even though he killed himself at his home, his home was only two miles away from the haunted bridge. And what’s telling with this story, is that Mr. Edwards had 4 daughters.
Charles Lawson
Perhaps the legend comes from the Lawson Family murder case. This occurred in Germantown NC, only 5 minutes away from Rural Hall. In the year 1929, on Christmas, Charles Lawson in a senseless rage, killed all his children and his wife. A few hours later he would kill himself in the woods behind his house. Various theories exist as to why Charles did this heinous act. These include suffering a head injury. Another popular motive includes that Charles impregnated and sexually abused his eldest daughter Marie, who was age 16 at the time. There’s been several books written on this.
The mystery around Payne Road leaves all sorts of questions that will probably never be answered. How did this legend start? Was the shear remoteness and darkness of Payne Road a contributing factor to how this legend begins? Or did an isolated strange event or series events occur?
What we know is that based on the number of odd reports, some strange events definitely occurred there, and the mystery remains unexplained.
Today, Payne Road, or really Edwards Road is much different than past years. The road used to be not well kept up and had gravel. Years back, surrounding abandoned Buildings added to the spookiness as rumors of devil worshippers and other occult practices were rampant. Today though the Bridge is gone, and the creek under the bridge has been culverted. It’s hardly a place you would think of as spooky. Still some people swear to stay away while others claim nothing exists there now or in the past.
