Think your street is scary?  We bet it?s got nothing on our Streets of Fear.  We?re kicking off our new web series with an in-depth look at the first episode?s street, Mount Misery Road in Long Island.  Now, when you?ve got a name like Mount Misery Road, the scares just have to follow!  But even though the area is known for ghostly sightings, lights in the sky, and strange creatures, the name of the place actually comes from the land itself?

Today, Mount Misery Road is divided into two parts (North and South) by the Northern State Parkway in New York, with a south end holding private homes and a north end holding businesses, a day camp, and wooded areas.  Not too miserable, right?  Well, in the early days of Long Island, the settlers found the land hard to navigate, hard to harvest, and hard to wheel wagons over, so their misery with the land gave it its name!

Now, what?s in a name?  Apparently a lot.  And from the beginning it seems like Mount Misery Road lived up to its moniker.  Some Native American tribes regarded the area as a bad omen, and both Native Americans and early settlers who went into the woods saw strange lights in the skies above ? and mutilated animals!  UFO sightings and claims of people being visited by ?men in black? still envelop the area today, and the frequency of claims of floating lights, disk-shaped objects in the sky and black helicopters have made this area a hot spot for otherworldly conjecture.  But you don?t have to strain your eyes on the sky to have a strange experience at Mount Misery, you just have to take a walk through the woods.

Locals report seeing the West Virginia legend The Mothman in the area, or at least a similar creature.  Various reports indicate that a strange, flying, man-sized creature with moth-like wings and glowing red eyes has been sighted on or above Mount Misery.  This same creature has been seen in various places all over the country, but perhaps the famous Mothman was attracted to all the paranormal activity in the area.  And though the Mothman is a bizarre phenomenon, not all strange activity from the area has been paranormal.

Local legend asserts that in the early part of the 20th century, travelers passing through the area went missing.  Some people reported seeing a disheveled-looking man walking through the woods with a basket full of severed heads!  The missing travelers were never found, and the reported man was never captured.  Local legend also believes that a military testing facility was built deep in the woods during World War II.  Some believe that psychological warfare experiments took place at that testing facility, and cries from patients apparently could be heard during the time.

Haunting as these stories and creature sightings are, the area is best known for its reported ghost sightings.  Some claim they?ve seen the man with the basket full of heads, who first appeared over ninety years ago, walking through the woods today.  This shambling specter doesn?t roam alone, however, as sightings of a woman dressed entirely in white have been also been reported.  As explained in the book Weird New York, by Chris Gethard (Sterling Publishing Co., 2005), there?s a history to this spirit, whom the locals have named Mary.  According to legend, Mary was a patient in a mental institution constructed in the Mount Misery area.  In a bout of severe depression, fable holds that she burned down the institution.  These days, not only can her floating spirit be seen in the woods, but locals and visitors have claimed to hear screams late at night and smell a distinct burning scent!  While all these hauntings may give you the creeps when passing through, try not to break the speed limit ? you may end up pulled over by the ghost of a police officer! Also mentioned in Weird New York, drivers reported being pulled over by a patrolman who looked perfectly normal?until he turned around.  The drivers reported seeing a giant, gaping hole in the back of his head ? apparently the result of a gunshot wound.

With all these hauntings and oddities, one might wonder just how strange Mount Misery Road really is.  Is there something intrinsically supernatural about the area?  We can?t be sure, but there?s one thing we know: this is definitely a Street of Fear!

Check out our very first Streets of Fear right here, and stay tuned next week, as we uncover the ghastly secrets of Purgatory Road!