HAUNTED MICHIGAN: The Legend of ‘Knock-Knock’ Road

If a driver carelessly and accidentally runs down & kills somebody on the road and is never caught, do the spirits of the victims seek retribution? In this case, YES. Here's the tale of a Michigan road that has people cruising it in search of a certain spirit...

Imagine driving down the road late after midnight. You come to a stop sign - or stop light - and there's no one else in sight.....except for a slovenly little girl who stands at the side of the road, staring at you with deep, dark eyes. Was she abandoned? Did she run away? Is she lost? Why does she appear to look somewhat...foreboding? Feeling somewhat uncomfortable and not knowing why this little girl is standing alone alongside the road, you may happen to glance away for a split second...only to hear a rapping on your driver's side window. It's the little girl who seemed to move way too quickly from the roadside to carside. She eyes you intently as if she's trying to identify you. After a few unnerving moments of this, she backs away from the car and disappears into the night. Wait...did she actually disappear or just slink back into the darkness? 

That's what may happen to you if you drive down "Knock-Knock" (Strasburg) Road in Detroit near the Pulaski, Osborn & Von Steuben area.

So what's the story? Why does this little girl stare you down as if trying to figure out who you are?

The legend began back in the 1940's when the story went around that a little girl was killed by a careless driver (some say she was riding her bike in the street, others say she was walking home from school)  and now her ghost stalks drivers who come down that road, searching for the driver who killed her. To this day, those who are familiar with the story drive down Strasburg Road at all hours of the night, hoping the little girl will come rapping at their car window.

And then there's the OTHER version of the tale which says a car full of teenagers were out joyriding and crashed into a telephone pole; their poundings on the car windows and sides went unheard by neighbors and all the teens were burned to death. People can't seem to agree if the female ghost is a teenager or a pre-teen.

Want to go to Strasburg Road around 3 or 4am - all alone - in search of this apparition? BE MY GUEST. As you'll see in the photos below, there are plenty of abandoned, creepy houses in various blocks along the street...quite a contrast to the rest of the neighborhood blocks, which seem to be well-maintained.

Strasburg Road runs between 8 Mile Road and East McNichols Road and goes right thru the suburbia neighborhoods of Pulaski, Osborn & Von Steuben...but don't let the street lights give you any feeling of security...you're on your own that late at night.

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