im from Ruidoso NM, and there is this story about hale lake region, say that all electronic in you car will shut down and you will be stranded for the night. here is the story

Eye witnesses report many strange activities in Hale Lake Just outside of Ruidoso Downs. It is said that this is where a Settler, Indian dispute first took place. If you go there at night be sure to take friends. As you drive up the radio the heater and anything electrical will not work on your car. Be prepared to stay the night. If you drive down in the middle of the night the brakes on your car will not work. There is not a lake there, but rather a small pond. Many people have claimed to see faces in their campfires. Other reports include War Paint on their vehicles. Vehicles dieing in the middle of the night, and starting up in the morning with nothing apparently wrong with them. Illuminated Gates have been seen, as well as many reports of a man wearing all leather on horseback that many have thought they run over only to look back as the dust cleared to see him in their rearview mirror. The dreams that people have while camped there are probably the most interesting aspect of the whole place though.

i have tryed and never had a problem with my car so who knows

I am from Middle TN area and here are few legends from my area:

The White Screamer
In the small town of White Bluff there's a famous hollow where the White Screamer dwells. No one knows exactly what it is or its origin. It's said to be a white misty form that wails and cries and screams enough to make any person go insane, thus gaining its title of "The White Screamer". It has also been noted that if one ventures to the spot where they might've seen the White Screamer, the grass will be burned away. Alledgedly, around the 1920's a young man built his family of a wife and seven children a home and farm down in the hollow, and every single night they'd wake up to the sound of this awful crying and screaming. So, finally, after this young man has had enough, he grabs his shotgun and runs out into the night off to find whatever beast is making this awful noise. He climbs to the top of one of the surrounding hills to see if he can spot it, and then hears the sound of screaming... only it's the voices of his family and children. By the time he can climb down this hill and get back to his house, he finds his whole family dead.. and pieces of their body thrown around on the ground and the floors of the house. You can still drive down into the hollow and see the foundation of the house and graves of the members.


The Bell Witch
The John Bell family moved from Halifax county, in North Carolina, to a small town in Tennessee called Adams. The family prospered well for many years (approx. 12 yrs), and made many friends.

At this point the family was called upon numerous times by the "witch" by means of scratching sounds, beating on the walls, and by pulling the bed covers from the family. It especially liked to bother Mr. John Bell and his daughter Betsy, whom it would physically abuse. The family kept this a secret for about 1 year, and when they could no longer take it they called in the family pastor whom when approached about the subject readily agreed to spend the night with his wife at the Bell home. As soon as the lights were out and everyone was in bed the "witch" went to work on the family as usual, treating the pastor with the same acts. As time went on the Bell family let it be known to the whole community of Adams, because they were all friends, hoping that maybe between some of the people, maybe someone could help.

Too make a long story short, many prominent people in American history have visited the Bells at the home to witness the deeds of the "witch", of which every thing they imagined happened. Including president Andrew Jackson. Several so called witch hunters and witch doctors came and tried, without any luck, to expel the "witch", or prove it to be a fake. It apparently tormented John Bell to his death.

The time period for all these events was from 1812 until the 1870's, with several events occuring into the 1900's. The last known report that I am aware of are from some soldiers from the nearby military base in Clarksville, Tn. in 1973. Three soldiers went to the Bell Witch Cave is now a tourist attraction, and entered with the owner. One of the soldiers, who claimed not to believe in the Bell Witch legend let it be known in the cave for all to hear. Almost immediately the soldier was pushed to the ground by some unknown power and started gasping and calling for help from his friends. They thought he was just joking around at first and refused to help, but it went on so long that they had to help him. Between the two men who were there with him, neither of them could get the soldier up to his feet. When one of the men reached for his comrades collar to jerk him up, he felt a presence keeping him away from his friends neck. Eventually the man was allowed to get up and leave, never to return to the cave, or even the town of Adams.

Hi I'm from Colombia and here there are loads of myths and legends I'll only talk about 5. I'll to simplify each one.

1. La llorona (The crying lady): It's the legend of a woman who lost her 2 children, the death of the kids varies, they could have drown in the bath tub while the mother was busy, she could have killed them and so on. The point is she feels guilty for their death so she kills herself and wonders the street crying at night looking for them and If any child is out of bed at that time she will take him with her thinking it's her son or daugther. Legend has it that if you hear her cry from far she's near you and if you hear her close she's really far away. I personally have only heard her once.

2. La novia de la autopista (The Freeway bride): This one it's about a lady that died in a car accident on her way to the reception.So she hitchhikes her way to the place but when she gets close to the location she disappears from the car causing the driver to panic and possible lose control of the car. Here in my city, there's a country club were the people usually have their parties and such, to get there you have to pass a cemetery, so the legend says the you will see her near the cemetery. A very good friend of mine and her boyfriend actually pick her up, she knew it was her and she thought that if she gave her a ride she might be able to rest in peace. Boy, she was wrong, as ussual the bride disapeared and her boyfriend got so freaked out that the almost crash into a electrical pole.

3.In my University, there's a rumor about a girl that comitted suicide and at night she aproaches any student thats stays really late and asks him or her to accompany her to the exit because she scared but apparently as she passes the place she died she says" I died here" and the student turns around she's gone.

4. La patasola ( The one-leg woman): It's the legend of a woman that cheated on her husband with his boss, so his husband set a trap for them and to confirm she was cheating on him. When his boss reached the husband's house and kissed his wife, the man lost it and cut the man's head and when his wife attempted to flee he cut her leg so she hopped into the woods screaming for help and cursing herself for having dishonored her children and disrespected her husband. Since then she can be heard in the woods asking for help and when the hunters or passerbys go to her they find a horrible one-legged woman thats attacks them and sucks their blood crushing them with her sharp teeth.Other say it's a beautiful woman that lures the men into the woods and they are close to her she turns into a horrible creature. The only defense against her is to be surrounded by domestic animals ( horses, cows, chickens, dogs) because they remind her of her husband who took care of the animals, so she gets scared and runs away with one leg.

5.El hombre Caiman ( The alligator man) : This is the legend of a man who fell in love with the town's principal businessman's daugther, and she of him. Her father forbidded him to see her, so the man agreed with the girl that they would meet in the river when she went to take a bath. He would wait eating rice in a restaurant near the river, whe he saw her aproach the river he would go into the river and as he entered it all the rice he had eaten changed him into an alligator so he would swim to her without anyone noticing it. The days passed and the townsmen got worried the alligator would eat the people that bathed on the river so they set out to hunt him, but he ate all the rice he could find and took the girl and left the town.
A variation of the tale is that a witch gave him 2 potions, one to make him an alligator and go see his beloved and another one to turn himself into a man and because of his tiny paws he couldn't drink the potion and broke the vase, so he would stuck in that form for the rest of his life. And he took the girl he was in loved with and flee the town.

SO What do yo think of them???
Let me know and I'll post some more.

Great Thread BTW!!!!

Norwegian viking checking in.

I live in the northern parts of Norway (I could put up a pic of a map to show you where, if anyone would be interested). Anyway, as for local legends..

There's the classic one about the guy that suddenly appears in the backseat of your car, but that's older than Metusalems grandfather, and obviously poppycock and balderdash.

Now for the more interesting stuff:
There's a remote valley up here, quite a bit from the nearest populated area. To get there, you can either walk, or use a boat to get ashore. Anyway, in this valley there's a square area where nothing grows (and I know this to be true, as my grandfather told me he'd been there and seen it himself). The story goes that in the early 1600s there lived a priest in the nearest town. He had a copy of Svarteboka (lit. 'the black book', a book that was believed to contain blasphemous secrets and black magic spells), and he used it to get the devil to work for him.

Late in the evening, the day before Christmas eve (the 23rd, as Christmas is celebrated December 24h in Norway), the workers at the rectory complained to the priest that they were running out of firewood for Christmas. The priest told them that he'd fix it, but whatever sounds they might hear during the night, they were strictly forbidden to go outside. During the night, everyone at the rectory were awakened by thundering noises outside, but they stayed inside. Except for an old, nosy little woman who went outside. The morning after, they found her crushed to death under a pile of trees that had been torn out of the ground, roots and all. The story goes that the priest had summoned the devil to fetch him firewood, and for all the services the devil had done the priest over the yearsm he had been promised his soul as payment. And it was said that one day when the priest was walking on the docks of Bergen, he suddenly disappeared. The only thing left were his boots.

As an addendum it can be noted that his wife paid the church in Bergen 200 spesidaler (the old Norwegian currency, and 200 spesidaler was a considerable sum in those days) to have them deliver 500 kilos of flour to the poor and needy in my municipality until Judgment day. Why did she do that? I don't know, but it's been claimed that she did it because of her bad conscience regarding what her husband had done.

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Although this isn't strictly supernatural, my grandfather also told me that there was supposed to be an old cave at an island nearby (the island where he grew up), which contained something that resembled stone benches and a stone altar. He theorized that it might have been used by the vikings as a sort of holy place. Sadly, they rolled a huge rock in front of the cave entrance when he was a child, to avoid sheep entering the cave, and to avoid kids going in there, as the cave could collapse.

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Also, there's supposedly a place nearby where my grandfather lives during the summer that is haunted. There's an old foundation there, the rests of the house that once stood there. It's said that a girl who worked at the farm there was impregnated by the farmer, and to avoid the shame, she gave birth to the baby early in the morning, before she went out and milked the cows, and proceeded to kill the baby. She's supposed to have hidden the baby in a huge pile of rocks in the nearby mountanside, and it's said that if you go there at night, you can hear crying from the rocks, and dogs will go crazy if you bring them close to the remnants of the farm at night.

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There's a huge rock on a small penisula here. It's said that once there was a girl who was working at the parish on the island with the cave. She was supposed to take care of the proests children one night, but due to an accident, the house caught fire. The woman managed to escape with her baby daughter, but the priests children died in the fire. The woman became an outcast on the island, and managed to get to the mainland. This was Christmas eve, it was freezing cold outside, and the woman had nowhere to stay. She went around to all the houses nearby, asking to be let in. But everyone had heard about what had happened, and refused to let her in. She hid underneath the huge rock, trying to comfort her daughter. The next fay they were found frozen to death. You can supposedly hear a baby crying if you get close to the rock at night.

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I've never seen or experienced anything paranormal myself (although there's a somewhat entertaining story about when I once woke up in the middle of the night and thought I saw a ghost), but I have friends and relatives who've seen ghosts and strange lights in the sky. Might tell if people are interested

wuz realli good ma dudes lising i live in da state of jersey and dere isz been saiid dat there is a hunted tunnel in da town of fairview back in the days this town was made up of 75% Cementary nd 25%factory now is a town where dere is some stores and schools and they say that bak in da daiis there was this tunnel da traveled from edgewater ended in fairview and went on to pennsylvania and they say that one day the train hit a little girl no1 new until they reached pennsylvannia and they say that her spirit was trapped in da tunel located in fairview i went on to da tunel on day and i actually felt her presense isz was cold and creepy but i do belive dat there isz some kind of spirit in dat tunnel

I live in the Blue Mountains in Australia.
The urban legend from around my place is the black panther that escaped from a circus or something like that and now lives in the bush.

Apparantly there have been sightings, and even news reports on it.

these tunnels are they going somewhere? Where is this Holy Cross?

Yea right!!

Theres this house on a hill, well its not just a single house, its a neighbourhood on that hill. My parents used to lived there like 20 years ago or so. My dad said when u sleep, some1 will carry you and bring you outside, at the parking lot, while your asleep. i dont know if this true or not, since im not born yet at that time. but the house is now a popular massaging spot.

i dont know either that "some1" is a person or a poltergeist or this is just a simple prank. either way, the house looked pretty scary.

sleepwalking? idk lol

Down South there are reports, videos and photos of gigantic cats roaming the countryside. No one knows how they got there or what they are, but they're definitely there.

On the other hand, at school there used to be these toilets that were closed because people vandalised them, as they were not in the centre of the school. People said that they were closed because a girl hung herself in there and if you went in she'd start rattling the pipes and try to kill you. The stupid thing was, was that people actually believed this. The toilets got reopened like, two years ago, and redone, and I was in the one of the stalls one day when I heard these two girls come in, one to wash her hands, and the other was like, 'Please hurry, these loos give me the creeps - she'll come and get us if we aren't careful'. I laughed.

The only other thing I can think of is the Nit Tree. When I was in primary school, my entire year level believed that there was this tree that we had to pass under on the way to the pool that gave you nits if you didn't hold something over your head. Ahhh, the ignorance of childhood.

Cool

I know we have a Goatman legend here in Baltimore and I know we also have one of those gravity/ghost-kids-pushing-your-car points somewhere near the city. I've never gotten a chance to investigate either, but I hope to in the future.

the only legend i can think of for my area which is hagerstown maryland by the way is well theres this hill somwhere around here thats supposidly haunted by the ghosts of civil war soilders and the legend is that if you park your car halfwayup the hill instead of rolling down the hill it will go up the hill becouse the ghosts will push it and if you get out you can apparently see the ghosts pushing your car up the hill. thats about it i think its a pretty boring place up here.

I live in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. These extremely long, narrow and deep lakes were created at the end of the last Ice Age when the glaciers were retreating. The Native Americans in our area were (of course) aware of the unusual shapes of the lakes. Their take on it was that when God created this piece of land it was so beautiful that He signed it with his hand print.

When European settlers arrived in the area they immediately began burning forests and clearing room for fields and pasture. Obviously, the locals found this highly offensive. They didn't want to kill people on God's special plot of land, but they felt that they had to issue a message.

One morning the European settlers awoke to find that all of their horses had been killed and decapitated. The heads had been mounted on posts surrounding their camp and were facing towards the center. This is a true piece of history and there are two town names in our area commemorating the event: one is "Horseheads" and the other is "Painted Post". It was 100 years before the Europeans tried settling there again.

I live here in Dallas and we have "The lady of the Lake". Some young girl died in a car crash and drowned when the car she was in crashed into WhiteRock Lake,She has been seen at night looking for a ride home and if you pick her up to take her home she dissapears and leaves a wet spot on your seat and you all freaked out.

In Rochester, we have a "white Lady" that haunts the area where an old vacation resort was in the 1920's.

so a bunch of us go there with this con man pretending to be a medium, and he says that he senses the white lady over there--- and points into the darkness. Of course, everyone starts flashing pictures...and of COURSE, there are some floaters, which everyone knows to be reflection and light refraction from the other flashes going off. But this clown claims it's the spirits that he sensed, and people were gullible enough to buy it.

Unbelievable.



I've heard that. I'm in upstate central NY too.

Not to far from where I live is a place called Spider Gates cemetary. It has a lot of wierd rumors about it, especially on the internet

One local legend in my area is man called 'Bill Ripley'.. a man said to be half gypo..half ape-like creature.

Wow good topic, okay i got a couple of ideas... but maybe i'll get back to those later if people are interrested.

Anyways, i'm going to tell you all about a Dutch legend, wich's name probably will sound familliar to some if you've watched Pirates of the Caribean 2&3 (or maybe you'll reckognize the name from Spongebob Squarepants )

The legend about; ''The Flying Dutchman''


To be honest i had to look it up again because i read the story only once, oke here it goes;


As you all may already know, The Flying Dutchman was a cursed ship, though it wasn't always like that, the captain of the ship was named Willem van der Decken, known for his courage.
When his ship was docked at ''Tafelbaai'', South-Africa near Cape of Good Hope (this legend takes place during the time of the East-Indian Trading Company) a huge storm started to take place, because of it the captain couldn't sail his ship for a couple of days, wich filled him with anger. It would be time for Easter the next day, a holy day on which ships were forbidden to sail. Despite this the captain decided to sail his ship, and for that reason God cursed the man and his ship.
The ship turned black and the sails became the colour of blood, the captain was doomed to sail his ship alone for eternity. Comming accross the Flying Dutchman meant bad luck to any ship.

Captain Van der Decken sent letters to his wife and kids, who where already dead, and gave those letters to other ships wich were supposed make sure the letters would be deliverd, but some nailed the letters to the masts of their ships as they believed it protected them against bad luck. This only made the cursed captain angry causing him to crash the Flying Dutchman into the other ship and destroy it. Also it was said that every 100 years the captain was allowed to set foot on land to find himself a woman that he could take with him on his eternal voyage.




There you go, hope you liked the legend, i was trying to tell it as good as possible and translate into english, it isn't literarely translated word for word and i may have let stuff out that i didn't consider important, But this my legend for this topic

Well I'm from 'Exmoor Beast' country, but I'm not even sure if that can really be called a legend. It's pretty clear that there is a small population of big cats living in the wild around here, most likely due to animals released after the Dangerous Wild Animals Act came into affect in 1976... people keeping these cats couldn't afford the license and let them out into the wild.

I live in a small town in western Arkansas... Well, actually I live a little north west of the town, but nevertheless... People always said if you camped out at this old abandoned boyscout camp you'd see all kinds of creepy stuff... Some of the reports, like warps in space/time, apparitions, strange lights, invisible people, shadow figures, etc. remind me of the skinwalker ranch thing... But I've only experienced one thing there... I was in a flatbottom boat and I was paddling into the old swimming area (it runs right by the camp) and out of nowhere my boat just capsizes (which is wierd cause I wasn't standing or anything, and mind you this was a FLAT BOTTOM boat.) anyways... I am sputtering and spitting in the almost 40 odd feet of water, and I realize I can't get to my boat... My leg is being grabbed by something.... I finally get free and the boat goes over the 10 ft tall concrete dam. Never went there again.

Water troll

Water gremlin, gosh.

My dad grew up in a small village in northern parts of Sweden. Back in the 1950s and so on there were a lot of farms in this area before it was all modernized and computers came and no one bothered to care for the crops and the cows and the horses anymore. I've heard tales from a close friend who grew up there which say that a gnome (or a little person, whatever you may call it) used to walk between the farms and make sure the cattle was alright and that nothing bad happened to it. But as everything got more and more modern he vanished and hasn't been seen since. This village is not necessarily in the woods but on the outskirts of a forest and the old Sami people further north have loads of urban legends about creatures and so on in our woods.

I live In Ontario Canada in a town called picton and there is an old courthouse where they used to hang people so me and my friends thought it would be fun to break in there and spend the night so we did and around 11 pm we heard a banging sound from upstairs and went up to look but nothing was there so we got bored and left a few years later i went on a school trip there and found out that the banging was the ghost of a man who killed himself in the cell by smashing his head off the wall over and over again the night before he was going to be hung

Well i got one there is supposed to be a ghost dog in my area and this thing is huge cause i saw the thing i didnt know what was going on it was kinda friendly i pet it it went one way i turned around it runs past me i walk like 2 steps turn around the things gone no owner no nothing i was freaking out. And I moved somewhere for a short time when my parents were divorced we moved alot in that area it was said to be haunted i didnt like being there i got a weird feeling and we left kinda early my mom has seen ghosts maybe she saw something or heard something.

I've read or heard of this story before,and her ghost is associated too I believe with some manor house in the area,but I forgot the name.I think I saw this story in a book on haunted manors,which i sent to my sister.
Apparently this is a true story.Say it's not associated with Burton Agnes Hall by any chance and it's famous screaming skull?
I think the lady that was attacked was names Anne Griffth or Agnes Griffth.Will have to check on this.

inmy school theres a legend about a girl called camilla trenton she was severely bullied and she hung herself on the tree near the woodlnd area at the back of the school so anyways if u go there at night u will apparently hear her crying and if u dont leave she screams at u i think its all a bunch of bs cus ive asked teachers about her and other ppl but they dont know about her but i still wouldnt go there incase its true

Well, there's this one rumor going around my neighborhood (I'm not sure if it's real and I really don't want to find out) and they say there's this particular street that if you go there when it's dark (possibly around 9:00 p.m.) that things that aren't "normal" will happen.

The details are very vague because I forgot about it and it didn't really have a lasting effect on me. But I really doubt it's true because...well... I just don't want to think about if I'm strolling around at night. xD

after 12 pm these "super humans"come out.they can run fast,are very hyper,and will scatter like roaches if you shine a bright light on em.

o,wait.those are just crack heads

This is not so much a legend--it did happen, however I'm a little fuzzy on the details. If anyone from Australia has info, please reply in this thread.

Anyway, on the Gold Coast of Australia, just outside of a town called Kingscliff, two men (who were from up the coast) picked up two adolescent boys, and they hung out for the day. It got to pretty late at night before the boys started getting worried. The men said earlier they would drop the boys at home...instead they took them to a deserted part of the bush near the beach, and made one boy dig a grave for the other boy and burying him alive. Then the men let the first boy go.

This happened about twenty-five years ago. My parents drove part the section of the coast where it happened, the day after it happened, saw cop cars around and so on, but at the time had no idea what had happened. The incident was written up in one of those History of Australia's North Coast type history books we have lying around at home. Pretty shocking, especially for an area of the Australia that is pretty blah for the most part.

On a slightly different note, how many Aussies are posting on this board? I've only seen a few.

actually, i live in florida, right by pensacola, and i was playing guitar with some friends in my room and we did something with my amp, i cant remember, but i do remmeber picking up german voices and listening to it. it was creepy as hell

A street near where I live is a sort of ghetto area, its populated by gangs etc and supposedly a horrible massacre went dow a few years back. Now if you go there on Thursday or Sunday, at 3:00am they say it is always misty and that as soon as it becomes 3:01am people appear out of the fog and start walking around, and as soon as 3:10 comes, they are gone and the mist thins until it disappears entirely.

Another nearby street aparentally has heaps of weird stuff happen, involving sharks swimming in the air and a feeling of being in water.

Hey guys! I live in Appleton,WI and we have a few legends round' here.

1) At peabody park there is a tombstone that supposedly drips blood and glows at a certain time at night. A witch by the name of Kate blood is buried there, and the grave is deep down at the end of a trail in the woods.

2) Also, there have been reports of Werewolves in the area reported bt cops on patrol. This was on the travel channel's places of mystery i believe.

3) Downtown the Zuelke building supposedly haunted.

Links-------kate blood

werewolves

zuelke building

this one is from when i use to live in tijuana,baja clifornia.there was this one trucker that his wife was having a baby and he was on his way to take some money to his wife in mexicali on his way there it was raining was was getting worse,well to get to his wife he had to pas through the rumorosa which is a road thats rally messed up and dangerous,but i think that their fixing it,but any ways he crashed and died.as time went on his baby was born it was a girl, and in the place where he died in the rumorosa,starnge things started to happend to other truckers that would pass through there,every time a trucker would pass by a man would apear on the side of the road asking for help any one thas would not help him would just dissaper into dust and this keept on happening untill one day one trucker stoped and help the trucker
asked the man what he needed the man wouldnt answere and the man started to feel a chill ,and the man said i need help could you please take this money to my wife
i need to stay hear to fix my truck,the trucker accepted to take the money to the mans wife when the man gave the trucker the money and address the felt freezing cold,
then the man just disapered and the trucker was on his way,when the trucker got to the mans wifes house he knocked on the door and a lil girl about six years old and then the mom came to the door,the trucker told the lady heres this money that your housband sent you the lady looked at the trucker kind of scared and told him that her houdban had been dead for 6 years,the trucker froze for a while then just left, and since then everytime he passes through the rumorosa he goes as fast as he can.
some say that sometimes theirs a man trying to fix a crashed semi- truck on the rumorosa

There's Pigman, don't know much about it but there's some stories floating around.

Hell's Kitchen and Key's Castle is a mixture of legend and reality. There does seem to be hauntings associated with it and th murders are real, but some aspects were added to make it seem even spookier. For instance, one story tells of a Union soldier who was mortally wounded and died on the prch of the old rectory and now he haunts the site. The rectory was not built until decades after the Civil War.

Most of the legends tend to deal with hauntings, such as a Civil War soldier riding a horse along the railroad tracks.

War ghosts? Where I used to live near Waitangi there was once a violent killing of a young Maori man, out of racial hate. His sad death song supposedly can be heard high up in the mountians where his body was disposed of, crying out for his lost love.

I live in a home that was constructed in 1596 and is the legend of our village in Mexico. The house was constructed by Indian slave labor by the Marquis de Aguayo, a nobleman from Spain. His wife waited in Spain until the house was completed and then came by boat to the port in Veracruz where they unloaded the carriage she brought with her and bought horses for the long trip on the Camino Real northward.

In those days the Spaniards were completely dominant of women. As some historic tales recount, the Marquis had taken a liking to an Indian girl and was not too enthusiatic to have his wife arrive. She did, however, and a couple months later she was pregnant. He sent her to the home of a relative who also lived in the village so that the other women could "look after her." A fine excuse to renew his fling with the Indian girl.

The wife, Catalina, had a boy and returned to the home. That did not please the Marquis very much either. So one one night he got very drunk and told her that he didn't want her or the baby there. He threw the baby against the wall and killed it.

Catalina lived in the house for several more years and was deeply loved by the Indians working there and in the fields beyond the house. She continued until some emergency in Spain caused the King to call for the noblemen living in Mexico to return. The Marquis left and Catalina sent four Indians she could trust to take a shortcut and intercept the Marquis and kill him.

That done, she lived in the house the rest of her life. Now, the people claim, she walks here by night. During the restoration of the home, it was discovered that an old door had been closed with adobe bricks. That was not uncommon in Mexico since the ex-president, Perfidio Diaz, one taxed homes according to the number of windows and doors they had. When the adobe was being removed to discover the door, a small canvas bag was found within the adobe bricks and it contained the mummified remains of a baby. I have little doubt that it was Catalina's baby.

Does Catalina still walk here? Everyone says "yes." I have heard steps. I have seen strong winds inside of rooms while there was no wind outside. I have encountered very cold "spots" where you could see your breath in mid-summer.

If she is here or not is of no importance to me. She does not bother me and I welcome her if she is here. After all, she has more rights to the place than I do.

I want to add that I have written several books but one that I wrote in 1986 has become an urban legend.

Wikileaks claims that a group of politicians protested the content of my book and forced the publisher to take all the books out of the stores and return them. Once returned, they were all burned.

Nothing could be more untrue. It simply never happened but I wonder how such tales originate.

The giant snapping turtle of McQueen's pond.

A hundred miles west of Omaha, outside the sleepy village of Silver Creek was a swimming/skating pond, off Prairie Creek. The story was told of Bill Hunter, swimming across McQueen's pond one summer's night when he encountered Old Snapper. Occasionally swimmers in the pond report warm water, and folks thought there might be a warm-water spring in the pond.

Bill was to be a junior in high school that fall. He had been sparking Sheryl for a couple months, now, and the couple found themselves, late one night, parked along the beach at McQueen's pond. Bill was the star of the HS football team. Silver Creek was a small town, and Bill's was an exceptionally small class. The team struggled to field a decent team in 11-man HS football. Their starting team, the best athletes, played both offensive and defensive positions. Bill was a devastating running back and a worthy linebacker. Sheryl was a quiet farm girl, and mighty pretty.

Sheryl had left Methodist Youth Fellowship choir practice with Bill. They'd had a soda in the downtown cafe, then went for a ride. The sun was setting, and it was twilight when they parked alongside the beach at McQueen's pond. Bill had been plying Sheryl with Nehi Orange sodas and movies in nearby Columbus. Bill's radio played AM radio, a rock 'n roll station from Oklahoma. They embraced, kissed, and made out. The radio played the hits of the time: Grass Roots, Beatles, Three Dog Night, and Harry Chapin.

Bill stopped, got out, and opened the trunk. He got out a towel and led Sheryl, the two of them giggling, toward the water. He spread the towel, a large beach towel, onto the sand. It was 84 degrees Farenheit, and a humid Nebraska twilight. They lay and looked over the pond. They talked, softly and intimately, and they were swept into love's clumsy advances, young and awkward. They kissed passionately, deeply, and knowing opportunities were fleet and rare. Carefully and slowly, both felt flesh their bodies had never encountered. It was a fervent and beautiful thing. Clumsiness gave way to grateful familiarity. Clothing was loosened. Night had fallen. They could hear any vehicles from nearly a mile.

Bill was warm. Sheryl's body was pressed against his, and they were bare from the waist up. He was starting to perspire, and was embarrassed. Both their hands were working overtime, and Bill teased Sheryl, "Let's go for a swim. Heck, we can skinny dip! C'mon!" He rapidly stood, shucked his jeans and shorts, and ran and jumped into the beckoning, cooling water.

Sheryl stood, removed her clothing, then knelt upon the towel. She was steeling herself for what was to come. "You go on and take a swim for a while," she called to him, trying to calm her thoughts. Bill grinned a silly, involuntary, knowing smile, and turned and drove off toward deeper water. He was exhilarated, and drove hard with both legs, made powerful arm and leg motions to propel himself toward the calm waters of the quiet pond. Dragonflies and mosquitoes hovered low, so Bill's breathing was careful, so as not to inhale the bugs. Bill's naked genitalia dangled in the dark waters, silhouetted in the light of a low, rapidly rising full moon. Bill was thrilled, and eagerly anticipating Sheryl cavorting nude with him in the pond's waters. Youthful enthusiasm brought a pounding to his ears. Bill inhaled deeply, and smiling, let out his breath with audible satisfaction.

It was at that moment, a predator, having been alerted by the sudden movement above, arose from its resting place on the bottom. Its kind had been been snatching prey for scores of millions of years. Its reptilian brain sensed the movment above, and anticipating prey, quietly rose from the sandy bottom. The prey's rapid movements slowed, then went still. The prey slowly moved ever closer. Sand and detritus washed from the back of the creature, off the convex shell, and it snapped its jaws in preparation and stimulus.

The prey had stopped, and slowly spreading waves cascaded outward. The two-hundred pound, five foot-shelled snapping turtle of McQueen's pond sized up the distance, and floated upward silently, closing the distance to the prey. The prey's limbs moved in somnambulant slow motion. Old Snapper came within striking distance, and suddenly lunged with all four webbed feet and its stubby tail. At the peak of the lunge, the giant snapper's long neck snapped forward, its sharp, horny jaws snapping/cutting off the intended appendage. Gulping down the large bite it had taken, Old Snapper slowly submerged to again take station upon the bottom.

Above, the prey thrashed and bled. With a reptilian dim regret, the creature watched the prey thrash toward the sloping beach. It had hoped the prey would expire from the attack, to be dined upon at leisure.

On the shore, Bill Hunter staggered onto the sand, and fell, prostrate. His hands were pressed firmly to his midsection, around his genitalia. Blood seeped unremittingly through his clenched fingers. "What happened?" screamed Sheryl.

"Uh, I don't know! What the hell happened? God, I can't stop bleeding. Where's my ****? I think I'm gonna die......"

The autopsy doctors determined Bill's genitalia had been sheared off cleanly, without further damage to the surrounding tissue. And although one of the doctors mumbled drunken statements in his final years, no cause of Bill Hunter's death was ever assigned. Sheryl was hospitalized, and later became a nun, from what I heard.

Me, I don't know if the story bears any truth. All I know, I never spoke to anyone. They wouldn't believe it, anyway. They'd look at me funny for the rest of my life. So I never mentioned the time I was fishing, had my baited line in the water, but was more interested in the novel I was reading. I was aware of the several Canada geese floating in the distance, toward the middle of the pond. Suddenly the geese leapt into the air flailing their wings to gain altitude.

Except for one goose, who remained floating on the pond. It acted oddly, swimming convulsively in a circle. I was a little startled, with the geese flailing into flight, and didn't immediately notice the remaining goose. Its very odd behavior compelled my notice. I looked on for a couple seconds, fascinated with the wounded goose when a small wake arose from twenty yards away. I made out the leading edge first, seeing the powerful strokes of the front feet, the ribbed spine of the gigantic snapper's shell. The sharp, aquiline features of the creature's open jaws. It inhaled the remains of the struggling goose in one gulp, leaving only a couple feathers hovering in the disturbed air. I looked on with incredulity. I blinked my eyes, my mind struggling to grasp what they'd witnessed. It was as large as a man! It was gigantic! And I saw its open jaws silhouetted against the bright surface of the pond beyond the creature.

I thought most of my life about Old Snapper, trying to tell folks what I saw. I've come to recognize the look of disbelief. The gin helps me forget what I saw, and that folks don't believe me. But I don't care. I saw what I saw. And even though I live on the move, without a home, I try not to embarrass Mom. So I live without very much money. I live under bridges sometime, and sometimes in a little metal lean-to, in Mom's back yard. But I refuse to ever bathe in McQueen's pond, ever again. I know what I saw, and it was Old Snapper. It killed Bill Hunter.

Dude!

Insane!

That story had it all;

Sex

Gratuitous Gore

The element of truth

And, A Super-Scary Monster!

Excellent dude!

Sasquatch !!

Washington State blah blah { if interested } http://www.legendsofamerica.com/WA-Mainpage.html

What about your Washington state water warnings?

Im from Kilmallock, Ireland. There is this one legend that alot of people in my town keep repeating. Its if u walk down the country roads at night a man with a black dog will stalk u and try and kill u. It was probably a tale to keep childern in at night.

The man with a black dog. My older siblings warned me of The Boogie Man. It scared a young boy. The man with the black dog could be the Boogie Man, now I've scared myself, damn it!