Ed Collins (Collings) Bridge Investigation

Burr Arch Bridge, 80 feet (24 m) long over Little Walnut Creek. Built 1922 by Charles Hendrix. This was the last covered bridge to be built in Putnam County. Ironically it replaced a concrete bridge washed out in high water. It spans the Little Walnut Creek. It is also called “Baby Bridge” due to its length and age.

There is another story that it was also referred at Edna Collings Bridge and that it was built by her father, James Collings, was christened after the marriage and birth of James and Sarah's fourth child Edna.

Address: GPS 39°43’645”, 86°58’596”, W Co Rd 450 N, Greencastle, IN 46135

A young girl used to play in the creek with her dog in the 1920s. When her parents would come to pick her up, they would honk three times as a signal for her to meet her parents and go home. One day after frantic honking the family dog came up alone and eventually led her parents to her body in the stream. It is said that if you come here around Midnight and honk three times, you will see an image of the dead girl within the glow of your headlights running down the bridge towards the sound of the car horn.

The Ghost Research Society investigated Edna Collins Bridge August 4, 2018 and the team members included: Jim Piscopo, Mike Rosario and Dale Kaczmarek, with help from Jason Snider, Jason Dickerson, Riley Miller and Courtney Bowen from Crawford County Illinois Ghost Hunters

Equipment setup: A few Nightshot cameras were set up facing the bridge with the beams from headlights as additional illumination in the case the apparition of the girl showed up. She didn’t however. The X-Cam SLS device was also used her in an attempt to discover any ghostly figures.

Experiments performed: A Phasma Box session was conducted on the bridge as well as our team honking the horn three times with no success.

Personal experiences:

Dale Kaczmarek: Almost ten years ago, August 9, 2008, members of the Ghost Research Society first explored this bridge in broad daylight. It’s much spookier at night and quite well-known by locals as evidenced by the large amount of cars that went through the area in search of the ghostly girl.

There were some sounds of water splashing that was heard by a few but that could have been any number of aquatic life that use the waterway as their home.

Evidence collected:

Come here Collins.MPG – while conducting a Phasma Box session on the bridge, a female-sounding voice said, “Come here.” (This makes sense if you agree with the story of the little girl being picked up by her parents. Maybe they are still there and saying, “come here.”

Conclusions: This was my second visit to the Edna Collins Bridge. The first visit was almost exactly ten years ago with other members of the Ghost Research Society. That time, however, the visitation was during the day and no EVP sessions were attempted due to the almost constant traffic during our time there.

This was always a creepy area to visit, especially at night. The one thing that was a bit humorous during our nighttime visit was the only care that crossed the bridge that evening was playing, very loudly, the theme from the movie Ghostbusters.

Whether or not you believe in the legend of the little girl, it is still an interesting place to visit because it is covered bridge and is in very good shape still.