A year ago a mysterious marker appeared on a Ledyard highway. It's placed at the entrance to Stonybrook Road from Route 12 going north in the Glenwoods area, a narrow white pillar reading "Deadman's Curve."

My friend Brad, a Gales Ferry resident, is puzzled. He wonders who put it there.

I consulted Jan Bell, longtime Ledyard municipal historian. She hadn't seen the marker but she was familiar with Deadman's Curve.

About 1957, Billings F. S. Crandall sold 400 acres of land to developers. This later became Glenwoods, Jan said. Before that, when her family moved here from New Jersey in the 1930's, she remembers the Military Highway, a road which ran along the Thames River in Groton right through the Sub Base into Gales Ferry Village.

The road went over the hill and past what is now Dow Chemical to the present Stonybrook Road, all part of the original road to Norwich. In the interests of security, a new wider Route 12 was constructed before or during World War II to improve traffic flow and keep civilians out of the base.

Jan said that where the old road crossed Mill (or Billings-Avery) Brook the route turned sharply at a right angle by Glenwood Pond. Neighbors called this "Deadman's Curve" because of the plethora of fatal accidents there.

Sailors were known for getting into accidents along Military Highway in their haste to enjoy their liberty. Over time, large stones and boulders were placed at this sharp curve to keep speeding cars from plunging into the pond. But through the years many navy men lost their lives while racing down the highway, and there were civilian casualties as well.

Cal Brouwer, Ledyard's amiable and efficient town clerk, hadn't heard about the sign but he checked it out and said it looked brand new. Brad sent me a fine photo of it, standing near the usual green and white metal street sign for Stonybrook Road. He wondered if it might have been placed by submarine veterans in memory of those lost sailors.

The question is still unanswered. Steve Masalin of the Ledyard Highway Department says it is a privately placed sign, put there by a person or persons unknown. It wasn't simple, placing this sign by the roadside. It is made of wood and neatly lettered, resembling official highway signs, and a proper hole was dug for it.

Did the unknown poster need permission or can anyone place a sign by the road?

Steve said that in Ledyard there are certain restrictions for roadside signs governed by police and traffic requirements, the highway department or by zoning regulations. But sometimes a sign may appear mysteriously without formal permission.

We may never know who placed this memorial to those who died on Deadman's Curve. Perhaps we should respect the donor and his novel way of commemorating the young lives snuffed out on that Ledyard highway. Let him remain anonymous.

carolkimball0647@yahoo.com

Reading the signs in Ledyard