Ghost Riders

I know these places that are strategically located according to water, firewood, abundance of food and accessability.
There are now ranches in these places and are all privately owned but before the ranches, they had a lot to offer and the people of old took advantage.
Now the owners and families of these ranches have been living there for a long long time and have experienced some fairly weird happenings as I have talked about before.
Here's the latest. I was talking with some ranchers who are in different locations about strange goings on in their areas. A common occurance seems to be the sounds of men, metal, wagons and horses riding by their ranchos in the night. And more than once in both places. Except upon investigation, no tracks of wagons or horses anywhere around.
But, because of their locations, they would seem like the perfect spot to head to if you were trying to hide something from someone. Especially if you didn't have four wheel drive!
And from what I hear, there was a bunch of stuff to hide back in the old days. I just wonder what it was and why they are still riding by.