Stuckey's Bridge: The Ghost on the Chunky River

The iron bridge spanning the Chunky River southwest of Meridian has been a Mississippi Landmark since nineteen eighty-four, but its reputation rests less on its engineering than on its ghost story. According to local legend, a man known only as Stuckey ran a roadside inn near here in the eighteen hundreds, luring travelers inside and murdering them for their money before throwing their bodies into the river. He is said to have killed around twenty people before locals caught him and hanged him from his own bridge.

Ever since, drivers and late-night visitors have reported seeing the glow of a lantern moving along the riverbank, the spirit of Old Man Stuckey still walking his old route. The first bridge here dates to around eighteen fifty, with the current iron span built by the Virginia Bridge and Iron Company in nineteen oh one. Whatever the truth behind the tale, the bridge draws visitors every October who come looking for the light.