P.R.I.S.M. Marvin Parnell Research Local Lore. Orleans Bridge. 08/17/2012 Orleans bridge (The old steel bridge) is located about 4 miles N/NE of Eudora Missouri Dirt roads are the only route to it; It is currently closed due to safety issues however just a few Short years ago it was operable. A friend and myself had our own experience one night while night fishing. That is what brought the Lore to our attention. A friend and I were out fishing for catfish late one night, and sometime around 01:00 – 01:30 we heard what sounded like a horse and buggy driving slowly across the bridge. (the bridge at this time was still open.) we looked that direction as the bridge was only about 50 yards from where we were fishing, and shined our flashlights that way but couldn’t see anything. soon it sounded as if the horse and buggy had stopped and we could here what sounded like a woman sobbing? and then you could hear a baby crying. there was what seemed to be some shuffling and then a loud scream that gave us chills. then we heard a splash in the water and the baby stopped crying, in fact all the noises stopped. My friend and I actually thought that someone was up there and just threw a baby in the water, we ran up to the bridge but could see nothing, there wasn’t even any ripples in the water. A few weeks later we were at May’s Mart in Walnut Grove talking to some of our other friends about what happened and a couple of older gentlemen, (who are usually there in the mornings drinking coffee and talking about the crops and the weather) said “are you guys talking about Orleans bridge down by Eudora”? we said yes we are. They then began to tell us a story that they had heard. They were not sure if it were true but the story they told seemed to line up perfectly to what we had encountered. Way back in the Way back. A young couple had gotten pregnant. The man was not happy about it as he didn’t want a child but the mother did and the father had always thought he had been tricked. Late one night the child became very ill and they had to go to the doctor late at night. The father of the child was apparently furious about it. the couple had been arguing the entire way and the father came to a stop on top of the bridge. P.R.I.S.M. Marvin Parnell Research Local Lore. Orleans Bridge. 08/17/2012 He grabbed the baby and threatened to throw the child off into the river the mother began to cry and scream out and she hit the father. At that moment the father threw the baby off into the river. He was later convicted of Murder. Now I have found no evidence of this story to be true, it just seems odd to me that the old men had that story and it fit so well to what we had experienced that night. Either way I feel that it is worth investigating and it would be nice to find some sort of arrest record or newspaper article to confirm the stories truth.
