Dispelled Urban Legends

[brianjmyers]

I recently wrote an article for Tuning Fork TV about urban legends from Northwest Missouri. I've found that the urban legends from this part of the country are very much in line with many of the urban legends from across the US and Western Europe. I'm attempting a follow up piece to this, and was curious as to what urban legends do you think are native to your region? You may view my article for free at http://tuningfork.tv/?p=1866

Thanks for reading, and for the feedback.

[kiddglock]

I read your article with interest. I'm not trying to be offensive here, but I have to say that I didn't see where you debunked anything. Certainly you made some good points for the Urban Legends possibly not being true, but you didn't really present facts supporting your opinions.

In the first story about the "Klan House", how do you know the story only goes back to the 1960's? The Civil Rights movement, which you credit with having started the story (with no hard evidence that it did, just a guess) goes back to the 1950's. Certainly it was around in the 1960's but it didn't start then. As to the Klan's activities, it is a secret organization. At one time the Klan was extremely powerful in the United States and very active politically. They elected many United States Congressmen and who know's how many state and local politicos were in their pocket? The story goes back awhile and I don't take it to have to continue to take place although again, the organization is secret. If they are not powerful, why does the Southern Poverty Law Center have them on their watch list? I have no idea about evidence of homes wherever you're speaking of. I grew up in Kansas City but don't recognize the area of which you speak.

Actually, there was a case where citizens in northwest Missouri engaged in a very Klan-like activity...

http://www.nwmissouri.edu/library/courses/history/coltergunn.htm

At any rate, your thoughts in the article were interesting but hardly any less legend-like than the stories themselves.

[rashore]

I grew up in SE WI, lots of local legends.

Werewolves of course. I have a theory that traces back to European settlers with were stories meeting the wolves of WI, and legends grew from there.

Witches- those abound, probably in part due to traveling legends, probably in part due to some folks really acting weird.

Pentacle of death, because who does not like a little extra mystery to go with their witches?

Conflagration ghosts. Everyone knows about the great Chicago fire, less people know about the conflagrations of WI and MI that happened at the same time- I have a theory about ghost stories spreading around to those areas, mostly due to the Chicago ghost stories.

Vortexes and hell gates- those seem popular everywhere.

Scary ghost roads and hitchikers.

Occult practioners, geez, those are always all over the place.

Crazy serial killers- well, our area has produced a few of those, so I'm not too shocked at UL's that spring up from it.

Loonies on the loose- well, that too occasionally happened, but UL's blew up from there.

Haunted cemeteries and witch graves abound, so do crybaby bridges, cursed RR tracks where kids died and their ghosts save you...

UFO's, lights in the sky are popular.

All this kind of stuff is what got me into researching more than hunting. So much stuff, how could all of it be true? I started mapping accounts, and jeepers there's a lot of tales. Some of them are entertainingly false, like the Walled Lake Child Killer of MI- there was some crime in the area, and it got twisted into this crazy tale of an amusement park on cursed land and stringing kids up in a tree, and just, wow, UL to the max. Or doubled legends that aren't true, like Munger Rd and Powis Rd- neither one had a bus crash, yet both of them have the same haunt going on.

Then you get legends that have a true crime backbone, like Reynolds Cemetery- based off the Crouch murders, or cases like the Grimes sisters or the Sausage King.

[JasonPollock]

Very interesting story on local urban legends! It's always fascinating to see how urban legends differ from community to community, and what inspires them (local events, national events, pure fabrications).... Can't wait to hear more!

[Dragon Lover 21]

I know one that isn't true. A spider laying its eggs in human skin by biting them. My cousin believed this one until I looked it up and told her it wasn't true.

[WillowWolf]

I'm from Lower Michigan. We have,

Red Dwarfs

Dogman

UFO's

Lot's of Haunted Places

The Ada Witch

Many, many Native American legends

Bigfoot

Strange bouncing balls of fur

And my personal favorite, The Melonheads!

(And many more.)