Just outside of the city of Syracuse, NY there is a hamlet that was once shown on the map as Cedarvale, NY (sometimes you will still see it listed). The main road through this area is Cedarvale Road. Part of this road is very curvy, and in fact is called the 13 Curves which it actually has. Curve number 7 (either way) is called Dead Man’s Curve.
According to the local legend, many years ago (likely in the 20′s or 30′s) a newlywed couple was driving down this road, on their way to a friend’s house on Otisco Lake from their wedding reception.as they started to round Dead Man’s Curve, the car stalled. The new husband, being the chivalrous type, told his new bride to wait in the car while he walked on down the road to the local post office/general store to ask for help.
The Bride waited in the car and dozed off for a little bit. When she woke up, it was dark, and she could not figure out what woke her up. Then she heard a scratching on the roof of the car. She wanted to know what was scratching the roof, but was afraid to get out of the car alone at night. At some point, she managed to doze back off and was awakened in the morning by the police tapping on the window. They escorted her out of the car not saying much of anything, and while they were leading her away, she turned around to look back, and saw her husband, hanging by his neck by a rope over the limb of the tree they had parked under.
As the story goes, she had a complete breakdown at this point and spent the next few years in the local asylum, until she died, some say, of a broken heart and broken mind. A few years later, a local farmer driving through the area saw a woman standing on the side of the road at the seventh curve of the 13 curves. She was wearing a wedding dress. WHen he stopped to ask if she needed help, she just vanished. People report seeing the Woman in White on dead man’s curve to this very day.
