Horatio Baltz

Vietnamese-American Filmmaker & Photographer
Currently in New Orleans & willing to travel








The most common legend attached to Constitution Drive is that of a railroad worker who, leg severed by a passing train, crawled the lonesome gravel road before inevitably bleeding to death. It is said that at night, his ghost wanders Constitution Drive with 2 crimson-eyed dogs leaving a long tail of blood behind him.

This recording of the whistling was made at around noon on a sunny day. Also audible is the dripping of the natural spring.

The road itself is an unpaved single lane that stretches a little under 3 miles along the Lehigh River, connecting Allentown and Bethlehem and straddling the Allentown and Salisbury Township line. The road is primarily located in the Lehigh Uplands Preserve, a large swath of heavily wooded and desolate land on the side of Lehigh Mountain. A defunct local rail line runs parallel to the road, and clear, cool natural spring water bleeds from the mountain side.

Though undoubtedly a curiosity given its desolate and foreboding landscape, Constitution Drive's lore is not singularly steeped in the campfire Boogeyman. The same desolation that gives rise to these Boogeyman legends has also given rise to some very real criminal activity at the location. The occurrences of rapes, murders, and lynchings on Constitution Drive are not necessarily common, but have absolutely occurred.

And then there is the peculiar occurrence of the whistling. Locals have described a relatively high pitched squealing or droning that seems to emanate from the woods enveloping Constitution Drive. Some have described it as a melodic orchestra of flutes, others have likened it to the gentle swinging of disembodied wind chimes far, far off in the distance and shrouded by thick wood.

Months at a time, Constitution Drive may remain eerily silent with the exception of the cool drip of the mountain's spring water and the warbling of birds. The whistling inevitably returns. Sometimes subtle and melodic, other times cacophonous and maddening. A few say it is the mournful trill of the felled railroad worker. In that case, what tune is he whistling?