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Michigan Legends?


atrainguy60

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Hello!  I’m from Michigan and am really interested in local myths and legends, particularly haunted or “bizarre” roads and bridges.  In Michigan, I’ve heard of Blood Road, Scripps Road, 7 Gables Road, Denton Bridge, Hell’s Bridge, the Paulding Light, and a few gravity hills.  I was wondering if there are any other creepy locations like the ones I just listed, or is that basically all Michigan has to offer?  

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Welcome to UM atrainguy :st

Yes, there is more. Mi has a goodly couple dozen or more roadside haunts and legends, a goodly smattering of other outdoor places of lore too. I'd have to go digging into my notes, haven't really looked at good ole Mi lore lists in a while.

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2 hours ago, atrainguy60 said:

Hello!  I’m from Michigan and am really interested in local myths and legends, particularly haunted or “bizarre” roads and bridges.  In Michigan, I’ve heard of Blood Road, Scripps Road, 7 Gables Road, Denton Bridge, Hell’s Bridge, the Paulding Light, and a few gravity hills.  I was wondering if there are any other creepy locations like the ones I just listed, or is that basically all Michigan has to offer?  

Hello fellow Michigander. You may be missing the best one of them all there, the Michigan Dogman.

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3 hours ago, atrainguy60 said:

Hello!  I’m from Michigan and am really interested in local myths and legends, particularly haunted or “bizarre” roads and bridges.  In Michigan, I’ve heard of Blood Road, Scripps Road, 7 Gables Road, Denton Bridge, Hell’s Bridge, the Paulding Light, and a few gravity hills.  I was wondering if there are any other creepy locations like the ones I just listed, or is that basically all Michigan has to offer?  

Hers one you may want to check out, French for “red dwarf,” Nain Rouge is a mythical creature that was originally seen as a protector of Detroit

Welcome to the forum

Peace

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A few...

Mackinac. The straights have a ghost ship, the bridge saw worker deaths and hears a phantom baby, and the island itself has a few spooky legends. Mostly ghostly.

Cheboyan Train Station Location- used to have a train station, now demolished. Train accident and ghost legend.

Petoskey, Hwy 31. A strange man on a three wheeled bike that disappears from your rear view mirror.

Old Presque Isle Lighthouse and Thunder Bay Lighthouse- haunted by a lighthouse keeper. Alpena Light House has a legend of a kids camp getting burned down and a menacing black phantom.

Atlanta has a camp legend of death too- only the legend has shifted locations over time due to the original site being demolished, and note the newer legend location is private property.

The wildlands of Oscoda are supposed to have all sorts of legends ranging from burial grounds to shipwrecks.

In the Interlochen, Chums Corner, and Mayfield area is a few. Hoosier Valley Road has a chain dragging man, East Mobile Trail has a creepy old lady, and Sawyer Road has a lady in white that carries a candle.

Hersey has a green lantern on 200th Ave.

Sanford has Meijer Hill/Wheeler Road. A fuller legend of a father going crazy and killing family in terrible ways and hiding the corpses in the house causing a ghost legend. A bit of a curse in that if you visit the place you are very likely to get into an accident or near miss on your way home. A phantom car that vanishes, sometimes more than once during your drive!

A bit south to Hemlock is Dice Road Bridge. Three girls offended a wizard by walking on his wifes grave, so he hung them off the bridge. It was handy since his front yard was near the bridge. Screams of men and women, phantom objects moving and unreal ropes swaying. A white car or waves of smoke/fog follow your car.

Forestville Beach has a ghost driver that you can hear them scream and vehicle hit the water at 11:30 every summer night.

Cass City way is Crawford Road Bridge, with a buggy accident leading to a ghostly lady that still raises her hand from the water and cries for help.

White Cloud has Dudgeon Swamp. Creepy inbred family, strange phantoms and voices, eyes and things in the trees and more. Spread out over a few different roads.

Nearby Croton Dam has a boy that died in the dam turbine, and his ghost brings good luck to those that see him.

And that's most of the mitten above Hwy 46. There's more south of that point, but I'm kind of typed out on this at the moment. I can post more later.

 

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Some more, starting out Grand Rapids way...

Hells Bridge off Friske road of course. Also out that way is the Rockford Dam Overlook, home to a ghost boy. Rockford RR Tracks has dark figures, strange sounds, and a pair of little ghost girls that might be seen or even give you chase. The Ada Witch has a large area out on 2 mile road.

Brewer and Cannonsburg out past Plainfield has a young lady that just stands and endures the elements, never hitching for or getting a ride. Pickerel Lake has a drowned child that wants to push you in the lake too.

Out by Alton is Whites Bridge and Fallsburg Bridge. Legends overlap between the two, of hung witches and suicides.

The Mill Street Railroad Tracks by Ionia hears screams from a long ago train accident.

Out by Saugatuck is the Junction Asylum, though it's debated as to it's existence at all, it's said to be demolished... and the spirits and strangeness still linger. And the ghost town of Singapore on the shores of the lake that may not have existed either.

Though The Yellow Motel outside Bravo is no more, legends of when it stood for Capone and his crew are still popular. As is the legend of when it was painted blue, it turned back to yellow by the next day. Today, tales of strange lights and orbs, black things that run in the woods, whispering voices and nefarious occult activities are said to still be happening.

South of Battle Creek are the Four Mile Road Fields, where a train that does not exist can be felt and heard on tracks that are not there.

Luna Pier has the sad Camp Lady of the Lake. First she lost her children, then a whole campground burned down, making the camp councilor kill herself in despair. The lady is said to be seen still, though the children are just screams. Objects get moved with no one there, and people have been pushed or attacked by the unseen.

The Ghost Trestle off Gorman Road outside Madison is purported to be the site where a wife and child were struck down by a train trying to get help for their burning farm that the farmer died in. Now it's supposed to be a place where one can contact the spirits with more ease than usual.

Church Road between Osseo and North Adams has another crazy farmer that killed his family. He still likes to chase off the living with his pitchfork and its rumored even public services are afraid to go plow snow there.

On Seven Gables Road outside Dansville there lived a witch. She cursed the land- if you hear a scream you must jump the fence. Last one over the fence is doomed to die. Later a man went insane there, burning his family alive before hanging himself from a tree by the road. Today the curse is worse.. it includes those seeking the house are likely to be in bad auto accidents, perhaps to die, or if they get too close to the pond, they are almost sure to drown.

Bancroft has Knaggs Bridge, site of smallpox wiping out the native population, more murder besides, and a legend of buried treasure that is still to be found.

Outside Vernon on Geeck Road is a Halloween appearance of a large orange orb/fireball at midnight.

Rosevear Park near Corunna has ghosts, moaning voices in the summer and fall, creepy fogs, witchcraft and sacrifices.

Millington Hills by Otter Lake sees it's legends spawn from the great fires of 1881. Indian burial mounds, screams and rythmic sounds.. howls and odd lights, shadow people and other shadow things, apparitions in white, faces in the woods. The feeling that someone is following you, menacing, sounds of pursuit literally chasing you, glowing green almond shaped eyes. It's bad in the daylight, but worse at night.

Drydens Casey and Rochester Roads had a bad accident of a car full of boys whos screams and crash can still be heard, and they seem to follow you if you walk down the road.

Shoefelt Road out by Clyde has a crazy old man that shoots a shotgun at you, and will circle your car and yell at you and shoot at your car.

And that's another section of the states road lore... still one more to go as we get into the areas getting closer to Detroit.

 

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23 hours ago, atrainguy60 said:

Hello!  I’m from Michigan and am really interested in local myths and legends, particularly haunted or “bizarre” roads and bridges.  In Michigan, I’ve heard of Blood Road, Scripps Road, 7 Gables Road, Denton Bridge, Hell’s Bridge, the Paulding Light, and a few gravity hills.  I was wondering if there are any other creepy locations like the ones I just listed, or is that basically all Michigan has to offer?  

Heres another interesting sighting in Michigan, it appears to be a Thunder Bird or Giant Bird sighting.

Heres a link to the sighting:  https://www.thecryptocrew.com/2014/08/new-possible-thunderbird-sighting-in.html

Peace

Edited by Manwon Lender
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And dinner is now in the instapot (Asian beef short ribs)... so time for the last chunk of the state.

North of St. Clair  is Pug Road Woods. If you catch a clear full moon night around Halloween right, you might be able to hear the terror and see the burning glow of a 1700's trader settlement that was attacked and leveled by the native peoples. To the southwest on Puttygut Bridge, you have a ritual... If you go there around 2 or 3 in the morning and roll down all your windows, shut off your car, and put your keys on top of you car, your supposed to hear a splash and see him walk in front of your car.

The Lighthouse in Marine City has the phantom light of a previous keeper.

Algonac's Morrow Road has an unfortunate lady that lost her baby in winter. Sometimes she is seen bloodstained, sometimes with her child in her arms... sometimes if you park on the bridge at midnight and honk your horn three times she will appear bloodstained and come to see if you have her baby. Strange orbs lead people astray and a green light chases others.

A child on Sterrit Street in Utica looks in the windows of homes at midnight, looking for her killer.

East of Milford is East Bruno Road, where the FBI looked for Capone and a serial killer dispatched eight girls. Things and people are seen running along the road and in the woods.. and sometimes appear on the road in your rear view mirror.

Brighton Womens Correctional is one of those now shut down places that was supposed to be the death of hundreds of incarcerated in miserable ways. Screams and shadows in the woods, sounds of people walking around your car if you park... and a few phantom hitchhikers to look for rides if you drive on.

Trowbridge Road Bridge of Bloomfield Hills is particularly grim. It is a very rich area an local kids that were depressed would jump off the bridge which was a 100 ft. drop to there death. Supposedly in one instance on a Sunday from 8p.m until 12 midnight every half hour on the hour a kid would commit suicide until midnight when the train came an dismembered their corpses. The kids would spray paint their names or something to be remembered by on the wall. A strange monks monastery is down the road as well, so more freaky going on. Currently it's also one of the most heavily haunted by police areas on this list- many curious have trespassed to see what the legend is, and been ticketed for it.

Lake Shore Drive in Lake St. Clair has seen many drownings.. and strange shadow people standing on the shores that may fade away as you watch them.

Lake Tacoma Bridge on Belle Isle has a lady in white that will beckon you into the woods if you park on the bridge and shut off your car engine.

Jefferson Ave before the tunnel into Canada in downtown Detroit has a little girl who since killed in an accident will knock 4 times under your car if you run over her ghost.

 The Crossing of Tireman and Evergreen seems to be afflicted with a curse of at least one bad accident every month, and no one knows why.

Birch Street has car lore. Calling out "I hurt your car" will make a car somewhere on the street fire up. Phantom cars and headlights and honks. Apparitions of car explosions. A killer of a mother and her children is said to reappear if you park in that spot.

Silvery Lane Park, AKA Levagood Park was a scene of a fight. And a shooter that shot everyone to end the fight. If you go there at the right time of year, at 7:45 PM, you will see him reappear and reenact his shooting.

Metro Commons Park has ghosts and a vengeance seeking little girl on Maple Street. Corrado Park has two ghost boys playing basketball, one died of a heart attack on court, the other hung himself from the basketball hoop. Rotary Park Woods has a host of little girls in white that roam and scream and dance about from fall to spring.

Clark Street has a dark man seen walking that will stop, turn to look at you, and point in an eerie way before he turns back again then vanishes.

A spot on Gyde Road has whispers and unseen hands pushing your car. Robson Road has a scary game of chicken. When the street is dark and no one is around you can put your car in park and turn your head-lights on get out of your car and stand in front of the car and you can see another car come towards you and drive right through you and your car and then disappear in seconds.

Denton Road and Bridge outside Canton is another moving legend. At night you an drive down this road and see weird blue lights flashing all over the whole road. the more noise you make the more lights come out. And if you get out of the car or turn off the engine you can hear metal chains or pipes grinding and also hear groans and growls. The lights are also known to chase your car off if you stop in the center of the bridge at night. The road has been reconfigured in that area and that the bridge no longer exists. That is not to say that the hauntings no longer occur.

Geddes and LeForge Roads had murders of college students in the late 60's into the 70's. Your trunk is prone to opening in the area, and there are sightings of victims of the killer, and in particular a disappearing nurse walking down the road.

Grosse Isle Wildlife Sanctuary has creepy feelings of being watched or feeling unwanted or menaced to get out. Ghosts of a hanged man in the fork of the road and a boy pedaling on his bike at night, only to disappear as you pass him. Dawnshire Park in the full moon will see you with two shadows- one your own, and the other of a axe wielding killer that once stalked the woods.

And finally Milans Milan/Oakville/Waltz Road. Legend has it a young bride and her new husband were in a terrible accident that left her dea. Since then if you go there and shut your car off you will hear the sounds of the accident... and sometimes you might see her walking down the road in her wedding dress when you least expect it.

And that's what I got for roadside legends in MI from my notes of yesteryear. I didn't add in stuff like cemeteries or a lot of private property locations that also have additional lore like witches graves, hell gates, and so on.

Another fun tale to add as well. In southwest Michigan there is a roadside legend that has mostly passed now. Kind of related to the dogman lore. It was a beast of maybe dogman, maybe bigfoot, but scary as hell that could chase you. Particularly out back on X farmers fields by X cemetery..... but hadn't been seen in years. I worked with an old farmer a few years back from the area that one day talk turned to my hobby of lore-tripping and so I asked him about it since he grew up in the area. After he darn near killed himself laughing and being amazed it was still a legend going around.... he told me a vastly amusing tale of some young guys playing a joke on one of their buddies they had a tendency to pick on a bit- it entailed an old gorilla halloween costume gussied up a bit and some good timing. Shortly after those fun times a lot of the guys went off to Vietnam.

One may wonder where this list came from, or why I have it... I compiled it off many books and websites, many of which don't exist anymore, like StrangeUSA. Still miss that site, it had lore mutations happen live in real time. Part of a project I've tinkered with off and on over a few years of several states. It's kind of folklore tracking- like how werewolf legends have tended to travel with Europeans that have the lore and settled in (and often changed with local lore), or how the great conflagration of the early 1880's hit Il, Wi and MI, and the traveling of the Chicago fire to other areas with similarities of legend. This particular project was looking a correlations of true events to the legends, particularly focusing on the era of the mafia and it's impact on lore. With a noting of true crime shifting and also other haunt shifts, just because those are always interesting.

The information in my notes is old so far as the legends can travel. At least a few years old. So might be some of the legends I listed are now truly out of date... I imagine my fun story is likely less than an old footnote at this point... and there may be new ones that have sprung up since then.

 

 

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Wow, thanks so much guys for the info, that is so much more than I was expecting!  I really appreciate you taking the time to type all that out, Rashore, it's a MASSIVE help!  It's really cool also that some of these are close to where I live.  I actually drive down Geeck Road by Vernon fairly often!  I never knew there's spooklight/fireball lore around it.  

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18 hours ago, atrainguy60 said:

Wow, thanks so much guys for the info, that is so much more than I was expecting!  I really appreciate you taking the time to type all that out, Rashore, it's a MASSIVE help!  It's really cool also that some of these are close to where I live.  I actually drive down Geeck Road by Vernon fairly often!  I never knew there's spooklight/fireball lore around it.  

You are welcome. If you want to try for that Halloween light, it's the stretch of Geeck north of M71 that is supposed to have it.

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