Every town has its haunted places. Whether a dilapidated house or a dimly lit cemetery, there's at least one area where the faint of heart won't venture beneath a full moon.

In Summerville, that place is Sheep Island Road, commonly known as Light Road by the locals. Tucked away behind the new Azalea Square Shopping Center, it runs by some old houses and a neighborhood before crossing over a bridge and turning into a dirt road.

This unpaved section, a popular location for off-road truck driving by day, is best known for what happens there at night. It's not uncommon to see camouflage-clad high school students out there "mudding" in their Confederate flag-emblazoned vehicles, but only the most courageous will stay out in the slop after the sun sets.

"A ghost will chase you down because he doesn't want you to see what's at the end," explains Alysse Ard, a senior at Summerville High School, in reference to the mysterious happenings on the dark road.

To most people, this "ghost" appears as a spot of light far in the distance, hence the road's nickname.

Legend has it that a railroad line used to snake past the area. One night, as a train passed through the area, the conductor accidentally fell onto the tracks, and the train wheels severed his head. His wife, catching word of her husband's grisly demise, grabbed a lantern and went into the woods to search for his remains. She never found the body, so she lingers to this day, carrying her lantern at night, waiting to be reunited with her husband.

As with all urban myths, this story has its variations. Some say the decapitated conductor himself carries the lantern, searching the woods for his own head.

There also are plenty of bizarre stories about paranormal happenings on Light Road.

"It (the light) starts out way down the road," says Summerville High School senior Joe Shakibanasab. "It starts coming toward you and getting bigger and bigger. Before you know it, it gets right up on you, and it's like a blinding light. It sends a shiver down your back."

Joe says he has seen the light three times in the past two years, and he is one of many who claim the light has approached them.

"I've heard of the light circling around people's trucks before," says Summerville High sophomore Sebastian Tillman, who says he has seen the light about seven times.

Many people who say they see the light are too frightened to do anything but stomp the accelerator and high-tail it back to civilization, but those who stick around claim to have witnessed even stranger happenings.

Some say they can hear the rumble of a train nearby, even though there hasn't been a functioning railroad near Sheep Island Road in years. Some say the light changes colors - usually from white to red. Others claim they can hear a woman's voice or smell something rancid as they go farther down the road.

One thing that most witnesses agree on, though, is that the light catches them off guard.

"I went out there looking for it and I forgot about it, and that's when it came," says Joe. "I'm never really superstitious, but it only seems to come when you stop looking for it or you forget about it."

Ever the skeptic, I drove out to the deserted country road on the night of Oct. 8 to investigate the supposed phenomenon. I felt part of a cliched horror movie scene, driving a rusty old Buick into the unlit wilderness.

The atmosphere only grew more eerie as I arrived at the end of the pavement and turned the car around, preparing for a speedy getaway if necessary.

The time on my cell phone read 10:30 p.m., and I felt the chilly sting of drizzling rain as I opened the car door and hopped onto the trunk.

I gazed intently down the long corridor of trees, and for a few minutes I saw nothing. No crickets chirped, no stray dogs howled and all I could hear was the pitter-patter of the rain on the ground and the gradually quickening beat in my chest.

Without warning, something massive crunched its way down the rough pavement from behind me, blinding me with its bright light before rushing past. Realizing it was only some Southern boy out for a late-night mud run in his truck, I relaxed a little.

After this false alarm, I returned to the driver's seat, turned on the ignition and locked the doors ? twice. Keeping an eye over my shoulder, I popped a Jack Johnson CD into the stereo to help relax my frayed nerves. By this point, I had only been in the woods for a few minutes, so I decided to stay and watch a while longer.

As the car's ancient speakers serenaded me with an acoustic guitar lullaby, I felt my eyelids return to their normal positions. I stretched my arms and back, then I flipped on the rear defog switch as I settled into a comfortable position. About 10 minutes later, after glancing through my windshield, I saw something. Off in the distance: a tiny, white circle of light was hovering.

A slew of questions collided at once in my mind. Was that the lantern? Was it just some joker with a flashlight? Was it coming my way?

The light lingered for a few minutes, and it did seem to come a bit closer before disappearing as abruptly as it had appeared.

Many have tried to rationalize what they have seen on Sheep Island Road.

"It might be a little bit of swamp gas," theorizes Sebastian. Still, he has his doubts. "It might just be my imagination and fear, but it gets really bright."

Others claim the light is nothing more than a reflection off a far-away stop sign.

Brandon Machajewski, a sophomore at Summerville High, thinks it is nothing more than the distant taillight on a pickup truck.

One of the lights could easily be burned out, caked with mud or obscured by the rough terrain, so his theory makes sense. Also, it would explain why some people see the light turning red: brake lights.

"All it is, is a dirt road with a bunch of mud holes," he says, dismissing any notions of the supernatural.

Perhaps.

While downtown Charleston is famous for its rich collection of graveyards and ghost stories, Summerville has a haunted place of its own: muddy, distant and perpetuated by generations of believing high school students.

Paul Bowers is a senior at Summerville High School. Contact him at paul@thebowershome.com.