Purple Head Bridge

**Theories** |  · Ghost

**Purple Head Bridge** (real name **Stangle's Bridge**) is a purportedly-haunted bridge near Vincennes, Indiana that runs across the Wabash River. It is rumored to be haunted by the ghost of a decapitated Native American Shaman.

## Manifestations

* A purple/blue disembodied head rising from the water

## Background

During the bloody years of the French and Indian War, and in the early days of settlement thereafter in the land that only later came to be called Indiana, skirmishes between white settlers and Native Americans were fought continually along the banks of the Wabash, leaving many dead on both sides. And as is the way with war, many a time bodies of those fallen would not receive proper burial.

So it went for one particular shaman of one of the local tribes. Killed in one of the early outbreaks of fighting, his body, despite the best efforts of his own people to get it back out of the captured land, did not receive proper burial, and his soul was not properly sent into the next realm. According to local Vincennes lore, if you make your way out across the bridge and wait near the center of the precipitous drop, the bloated purple head of the lost shaman will appear before you, lumious and pale, begging and pleading to be properly buried and released from his earthly imprisonment. The shaman's head has been seen by many witnesses over the years, but the color does not always ring true. One witness who encountered the shaman's head swore that it's actually blue. (HauntedUSA.org)

## Notable Accounts

* Account #1
 *I was at "Purple Head" with a few new acquaintances on the night of Thursday October 7, 2004. One the persons there was a "chaneler" named Keanon. He had a pendulum and was asking politely for some of the "spirits" to show themselves. After about 5 minutes or so of him chanting and asking 4 orbs appeared (2 white, one red, and one dark blue) with a figure of a girl. Keanon told us that one of the orbs was the spirit of an Native Medicine Man that was shot with his own arrow and not given the proper burial. The girl, he explained, had drown after her car somehow flipped off the bridge and landed top down. After the orbs and the girl appeared, Keanon told them that we meant no harm and that we come in peace. He chanted for a while longer with the pendulum swinging violently (he wasn't moving his hand or arm at all). The rest of the group that was down on the banks of the river were watching the pendulum. I got the kind of chills that someone was watching, so I turned around and the girl was about 10 feet away from me, towards the bridge. Keanon said that we should go ahead and get back to the car in case anything should start going wrong. As we were walking back to the cars, I felt something cold tap my shoulder. I turned around and the girl was less than 3 feet away with her finger over her mouth like she was telling me not to talk. That is when I started feeling a little scared. Keanon drove us up to the road in front of the bridge and I got out and got into the car that I had came to the bridge in. As we were driving back to the University some of the people in the car started recounting there encounters with the paranormal. I told them a story about how my great grandfather's spirit had came and touched me as I was sleeping 3 days after I had been born. (that was a week after he had died). After I finished the story, a shot of pain shot through the back of my head and went through to the front of my head. That is where I don't remember anything until we were already at the college and 4 people were holding hands in a circle around me and Keanon with his hand to my forehead, chanting. After that, I started hearing someone whisper my name and I also had a dream as if I was that girl. I can still see it vividly. Driving across the bridge, falling into the water, and not being able to breath.* [sic] (angelfire.com)

## Trivia

* This legend could also be categorized as a Location.