A Lonely Road in West Milford
Clinton Road runs through West Milford in Passaic County, New Jersey, from Route 23 near Newfoundland to its northern end by Upper Greenwood Lake. It measures about 10 miles or 16 kilometers. The route tracks roughly north to south through largely undeveloped public land that belongs to the City of Newark watershed and to state forest. There are very few houses. A local police chief described the setting this way. “It’s a long, desolate stretch and makes the imagination go nuts.”
Traffic Lights and Sparse Homes
The road is a narrow two lane highway that is not part of New Jersey’s county route system. For years parts of it were unpaved. It linked two areas with minimal population and growth, which kept traffic low even at busy hours. At Route 23, two signals control a double intersection. Motorists can wait about five minutes in total. Planners gave Route 23 extended priority to reduce rush hour backups. The road takes its name from the former settlement of Clinton, located near the brook that the roadway crosses.
A Murder Case on the Shoulder
On May 18, 1983, a cyclist on Clinton Road saw a turkey vulture feeding on a body in the woods. The victim was Daniel Deppner. He had been wrapped in a green garbage bag before being dumped. Richard Kuklinski was later charged with the murder and convicted. The case placed a documented homicide into an area often discussed for unverified accounts. Publications noted that the discovery took place off this road in West Milford.
Ruins, Furnaces, and Reported Apparitions
The area has been the focus of repeated coverage by the magazine Weird NJ. The publication collected reader accounts about a ghost boy at a bridge over Clinton Brook near the reservoir. Readers told a tale of a quarter placed at midnight and said it would be returned.
Other readers described a Camaro that a girl was said to have crashed in 1988 and reported later sightings of that car at night after it was mentioned aloud. Hikers near Terrace Pond reported meeting two park rangers who were later described as men who died in 1939. A Travel Channel program reported claims of phantom trucks and floating headlights that would appear at night and then vanish.
One stone cone east of the road was called a Druidic temple in some accounts. Records identify it as Clinton Furnace, an iron smelter built in 1826 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. Newark’s water department fenced it to prevent injury.
Nearby stood Cross Castle, a Tudor style summer house built in 1905 by Richard James Cross for his family on land above the reservoir. Reports gave an estimated cost of 1.5 million, which is about 40.5 million in 2024. After a fire and years of decay, Newark’s water department razed the structure in 1988. The foundations remain and hiking trails still reach the site.
On a quiet 10 mile strip in West Milford, New Jersey, drivers talk of ghosts, phantom trucks, and a boy at a bridge.
One body was real.
In 1983 a cyclist found Daniel Deppner off Clinton Road.
The story of this road spans traffic lights, ruins, and a murder…🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/hcQapuiajT
— Fascinating True Stories (@FascinatingTrue) November 17, 2025