In Central Arkansas there’s a chilling ghost story that’s commonly told around Halloween. It’s the tale of the vanishing hitchhiker.
According to the legend, travelers on the dark road of Arkansas Highway 365 sometimes encounter a young girl walking in the pouring rain in a torn white dress while crossing one spooky bridge.
Some say they have stopped to give the young girl a ride. Those who stop say they pick the girl up and driver her to a nearby home. However whenever they arrive, the drivers discover the girl has suddenly disappeared.
Those that choose to knock on the front door of the home the young girl takes them to learn from a woman who answers that the young girl used to live at the home, but was killed in a car accident, and regularly hitches a ride home, according to the legend.
Another branch of the legend includes a man who gives the young girl his jacket when he picks her up.
According to that story told on Arkansas.com, “A young man was driving down Arkansas 365 south of Little Rock when he saw a young girl on the roadside. He offered to give her a lift and draped his coat over her shoulders because she was cold and soaked from the rain. She gave him directions to her house. When they arrived, the young man got out of the car and walked around to the other side to help her out of her seat — but, no one was there.
Confused, the young man walked up to the house and knocked on the door. A woman answered and he explained what had just occurred. She said, “That young girl is my daughter, who was killed years ago. She hitchhikes back home once a year.”
The young man then drove to the cemetery to see the young girl’s grave. There he found his coat draped over her tombstone.”
However this story is not limited to Highway 365. Other legends have the story going through Jefferson and Pulaski Counties, typically on dark and frightening roads.
