Sim Smith's Bridge Investigation

This single span Burr Truss covered bridge structure was built by Joseph A. Britton in 1883. The bridge is 101 feet (31 m) long, 16 feet (4.9 m) wide, and 14 feet (4.3 m) high; it is also known as “Leatherwood Forge.”

It was named for a local land owner, Simeon Smith. He lived in the county since 1885 and has retained the same property through 1990. The now abandoned “B&O Railroad” branch once ran through the Smith property near the current bridge.

It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.

Address: 4966 W. 40N near Montezuma, Indiana 47862

One story from 1890 states that many have waited on one side of the bridge for the horse and buggy they could clearly hear approaching from the other side. It never appears, even though witnesses often leave their own buggy looking for the phantom coach.

In another story two local high school students went there to investigate this story at night. At first they found nothing more than a glow worm. Then on the other side they both saw an Indian carrying a papoose. She was about eight feet tall! They both ran to their cars but when they drove over the bridge, she was gone.

The Ghost Research Society investigated Sim Smith's Bridge August 5, 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: Only hand-held equipment was used here due to the possibility of cars crossing the bridge and having to quickly remove the equipment. Equipment used was the Ovilus X, digital recorders and cameras and some Nightshot IR camcorders.

Experiments performed: A short EVP session was performed here using the Ovilus X in both dictionary and phonetic modes.

Personal experiences: No personal experiences were encountered or felt while on the bridge.

Evidence collected: No EVPs were collected during the short six minute Ovilus session.

Words spoken by the Ovilus X in dictionary mode: two, compare and done.

Conclusions: This was a very cool covered bridge out on a very rural country lane. We did disturb a nearby dog that barked for a bit and we had to quickly move our equipment to one side as a car came by. As we were moving the devices, the Ovilus X said, “Done.” We all thought that was pretty interesting as we were “done” with the EVP session due to the car crossing the bridge. No further words came through the Ovilus and nothing intelligible in phonetic mode. I would have liked to have spent more time here especially of the fact that visual apparitions have been reported in the past and possibly even residual events.