Webblog

I grew up in East Grand Forks, MN and just north of this is a small township called Sherack. This town consists of a grain elevator, a house and a small building that serves as the townships head quarters. As you drive close by this town there is a grove of pine trees that stand out because they are on the end of a field, and supposedly there were grave sites found in this area so they left the trees to grow. The tradition is for kids to drive out to the grove of trees at night and see what will happen as they wonder the grave site. But the real story has to do with the highway that runs by these trees.

Legend has it that there is an eternal hitch-hiker on this road. The story goes that a long time ago there was a man that became missing, leaving behind his car on that road and no other evidence of him being in the area. Now, every once in a while a hitch-hiker can be seen wandering the road waiting for a ride. It is said that someone picked him up once, the man said nothing but just pointed for the driver to go down the road. The driver drives into a cloud of fog and as soon as it becomes too bad for the person to drive they eventually turned around to check on their hitch-hiker passenger and he faded away out of the car and into the fog never to be seen again.

There are a few variations on this story, one being that it is winter and snowing already so the driver felt compelled to pick up the hitch-hiker despite the hitch-hiker not looking friendly, and the driver eventually drives into a blizzard instead of the fog. There is also a connection to the grave site in some stories, where the hitch-hiker isn't a lost man, but a man that was buried in the grave site and is looking for a ride into the after life...but the fog or winter storm that makes him fade away is deaths way of keeping the man in the grave site area.

I think that this story may have been created for a couple reasons. The biggest one I can see is the idea of bringing out the history of the grave site, and setting claim that their have been people living in the area for a very long time. Another might be that despite what might appear to be a dangerous situation, people in the area are generous and willing to pick up a hitch-hikers. I can neither confirm or deny that these stories are true based on my personal experiences.