There’s A Haunted Highway In Oklahoma, And It’s Still In Use

If we haven't talked about it before, most people give me a certain look when I mention that ghosts aren't real. Or, at least, that I don't think ghosts are real. To each our own, right?

That conversation always comes with stories of spooky experiences and the expectation of an explanation, and when I allude to overactive imaginations, it comes off as gaslighting. That's not my intention of course, but as someone with an overactive imagination, that's what makes sense to me. It's also why I don't watch scary movies lol.

That being said, in keeping an open mind, there are lots of things across the Sooner State that just can't be explained.

Did you know Oklahoma has a haunted highway?

It's not a haunted dead-end road in some abandoned corner of the state that nobody uses anymore. It's a legit highway people drive all day, every day.

I'm talking about Highway 20 out east of Claremore, and people have been telling the same strange story for decades.

Apparently, if you're lucky or unlucky enough, you'll come across a boy hitchhiking on that stretch of road.

The 1965 Hitchhiker Story

As the story goes... Way back in 1965, a woman named Mae Doria was driving along Highway 20 when she picked up a young boy, age 10 to 12 years old. She gave him a ride to Pryor, and when he asked to be let out in the middle of nowhere, she did. But, when she realized there were no houses or buildings in that area, she started to ask the boy if he was sure this was his spot, but he had vanished.

That by itself would make for a pretty good Oklahoma ghost story, but apparently Doria wasn't the first person to have the experience.

After telling somebody what happened, she reportedly learned that other motorists had picked up a young hitchhiker in the same general area, only to have him disappear before they reached their destination.

And this is where things get weird.

The Story Goes Back Even Further

Some of those stories supposedly go way back, nearly a hundred years ago from today.

There are versions of the story claiming the boy had been appearing along Highway 20 since the 1930s. There's even an old Daily Oklahoman account that described the stretch of highway east of Claremore as haunted and included the phantom hitchhiker story.

Do we believe it? Am I supposed to think some ghostly boy is hitchhiking rides around the Tulsa metro?

Eh... Ghosts aren't real. And any good ghosty hitchhiking story always involves the instructions to "tell 'em Large Marge sent ya."

The idea that it's some sort of prank, that maybe there's some real boy hitchhiking out there doesn't track either. Millennial hover-parents aren't letting their kids out of sight these days. And if you did see a child along the highway, while your instinct might be to stop, I'd bet a vast majority of people would chicken out and call the local PD instead.

I suppose that's the problem with a good ghost story. You don't have to believe it, but I bet you'll think of it the next time you see someone hitching a ride.