Mistaken Identity:
A coal miner suspected his wife of being unfaithful and felt certain he knew the man who had stolen her heart. In a jealous rage, he killed the man. In a brutal case of mistake identity, the victim was innocent of the affair. Legend says that the slain miner wanders the holler looking for his killer.
Mistaken identity is basis for the legend but a real life mystery of unknown identity played out on Red Dog Road over the span of 4 decades.
Historical Context: Red Dog & Working Near Home
The term Red Dog has nothing to do with canines. Red Dog is a combination of low quality coal and shale. While it isn’t useful for any coal-related purposes, it makes primitive roads more passable as a ground cover.
With transportation options limited in the early part of the 20th century, mining companies built camps surrounding their mines for their workers. Miners lived in close proximity to their workplace and to one another.
Paranormal Activity: Lights at Night
Witness reports primarily center around two tales of lights on the mountain. Some have seen a single light moving down the road as though it were the carbide lamp of a miner’s hat. This is said to be the murdered miner moving on the mountain.
Others report having seen a group of lights as though many miners are together floating up the side of the mountain. Their path takes the same course as a line that was used to move coal off of the mountain. The weight of cars loaded with coal would would cause them to descend the mountain while rotating empty cars back up. Miners would sometimes ride in the cars for a quick trip off the mountain. Are their spirits still traveling together on the mountain where they lived and worked?
An Unknown Girl
While the legend of the coal miner can’t be proven, Red Dog Road become central to a real life mystery in 1969. A young woman was found murdered in the mountains of Harlan County. No one could identify her and she was buried in a cemetery high on Red Dog Road where she remained under a marker reading “Unidentified Girl” for almost 50 years. In 2016, her body was exhumed and DNA identified her as Sonja Kaye Blair-Adams. While the mystery of her identity is solved, her killer has never been captured and her case remains open. You can read more about it here.
——Evidence—–
Below you will hear a true story of a Red Dog Road mystery:
The road is rugged so we recommend a 4-wheel drive if you venture up the road.
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