50 American Urban Legends, One from Each State
As if this country weren't already scary enough, lets take a look at some of the more popular urban legends from each US State. Take a dive into all the scary urban legends from each state and try not to frighten yourself too close before bedtime.
1.
ALABAMA: DEAD CHILDREN’S PLAYGROUND.Swings move by themselves as spirits of buried children come to play.
2.
ALASKA: KUSHTAKA.Shape-shifting creatures that are a cross between an otter and a man, the Kushtaka make noises that mimic children and wives to lure fishermen.
3.
ARIZONA: SLAUGHTERHOUSE CANYON.One day, a father failed to return to his cabin during the 1800s gold rush, and his family starved. The mother went insane, put on her wedding dress, and chopped her children up. Supposedly, you can still hear her cries for forgiveness.
4.
ARKANSAS: DOG BOY.A werewolf-like ghost walks on all fours and haunts his childhood home. Based on the sad story of a real man, Gerald Bettis, who was rumored to experiment on stray animals and reportedly abused his elderly parents.
5.
CALIFORNIA: THE DARK WATCHERS.Featureless dark silhouettes, often with brimmed hats or walking sticks, stare down travelers during twilight and dawn in the Santa Lucia Mountains. John Steinbeck briefly mentioned them in “Flight.” They should not be addressed or acknowledged.
6.
COLORADO: RIVERDALE ROAD.While traveling down the road during a full moon, one can see the hanging bodies of slaves on the trees.
7.
CONNECTICUT: ANNABELLE THE DEMONIC DOLL.The demonic doll in The Conjuring and Annabelle is inspired by a real-life Raggedy Ann doll supposedly inhabited by the spirit of a dead girl, which was given to two demonologists, Ed and Lorraine Warren, after some extremely malicious paranormal activity.
8.
DELAWARE: CORPSE LIGHT.A phantom light that crashed the ship Devonshireman on Christmas of 1665, and more than 200 men died. Allegedly, the light is a curse from a local Native American tribe after British soldiers slaughtered attendees at a wedding ceremony.
9.
FLORIDA: THE DEVIL’S CHAIR.According to local lore, if you sit in it, he’ll whisper horrible things in your ear, forever changing you, and if you leave a beer on his chair overnight, he’ll drink it, sometimes even if the can is still sealed.
10.
GEORGIA: THE CURSED PILLAR.After a preacher was told he couldn’t deliver a sermon next to the pillar, he declared that the whole town would be destroyed, and the pillar would be the only thing left standing. A freak tornado later destroyed most of Augusta, leaving the pillar still standing.
11.
HAWAII: NIGHTMARCHERS.The deadly ghosts of ancient Hawaiian warriors march over the waters, chanting and blowing conch shells.
12.
IDAHO: WATER BABIES OF MASSACRE ROCKS.Sit by the river and you can hear the sounds of babies crying — they’re the babies that mothers were forced to kill during a famine rather than see them starve.
13.
ILLINOIS: GHOST ELEPHANTS.A real-life 1918 train wreck of circus cars leading to troop deaths has popularized the legend that elephants had to be buried where they fell.
14.
INDIANA: THE GREEN-CLAWED BEAST IN THE OHIO RIVER.With hairy arms, clawed hands, and green skin, this human-sized creature grabs unsuspecting women.
15.
IOWA: VILLISCA AXE MURDER HOUSE.Based on real events, this 1912 case features a whole family (two parents, four children, and two house guests) being bludgeoned to death in their sleep.
16.
KANSAS: THE GATEWAY TO HADES .The stairs in an old demolished church open to the other side on Halloween and the spring equinox.
17.
KENTUCKY: THE KENTUCKY GOBLINS.The Kelly-Hopkinsville encounter was a supposed extraterrestrial appearance of small, goblin-like, green “hairless children” with three toes.
18.
LOUISIANA: THE ROUGAROU.A pale white werewolf-like creature prowls the swamps and often stars in stories to encourage children to behave, such as hunting down Catholics who don’t practice Lent.
19.
MAINE: COLONEL BUCK’S TOMB.After a woman became pregnant with Col. Buck’s son, he forced her out to take care of the babe alone, later having her burned as a witch. The son ran off with the witch’s leg that had rolled out of the bonfire, and he later cursed the colonel’s tomb, which now bears the stain of a leg, despite several attempts to clean, replace, or remove it.
20.
MARYLAND: THE GOATMAN.The USDA at one point had to formally deny the creation of the Goatman in their Beltsville Research Agricultural Center. The half-man, half-goat creature likes to chase down teenagers in Lovers’ Lane and distract drivers on Crybaby Bridge.
21.
MASSACHUSETTS: PUKWUDGIES.Tiny gray tricksters resembling humanoid porcupines that lure people off cliffs or trap them in sand.
22.
MICHIGAN: THE NAIN ROUGE.Detroit is haunted by a small impish hobgoblin who predicts misfortune and has cursed the city. He was seen in the 1805 fire, which nearly destroyed the whole city, the 1968 riots, and the 1976 ice storm. Today, a banishment parade is thrown yearly.
23.
MINNESOTA: WENDIGO.Anyone who resorts to cannibalism and tastes human flesh will become one.
24.
MISSISSIPPI: MERCRITIS.Supposedly, a horrible outbreak wrecked much of a rural Mississippi town and was later covered up by the government and medical community. If a man ingested too much lead, he would produce a smell that would cause a hormonal reaction in women, who’d descend into mad homicidal fits.
25.
MISSOURI: ZOMBIE ROAD.Stories about strange deaths along the road as far back as Native American times and drownings in the nearby river made it a fun haunted spot for teenagers for decades, but many of them have perished in strange accidents, too.
26.
MONTANA: THE PHANTOM HITCHHIKER OF BLACK HORSE LAKE.A Native American man with long black hair wearing an outdated, baggy jacket and jeans collides with cars, suddenly appearing on their windshield, only for him to vanish without a dent.
27.
NEBRASKA: RADIOACTIVE HORNETS.After the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the locals of Nebraska believed that mutant hornets from that area had grown to four times their normal size and were running rampant locally.
28.
NEVADA: THE SPITEFUL MERMAID OF PYRAMID LAKE.After a Paiute man fell in love with a mermaid, his tribe rejected her and told him to throw her back in. She cursed the lake, brought the settlers, and ignited a war. (Talk about spite!) In modern times, the lake has drowned locals, spiting them out as far as Lake Tahoe.
29.
NEW HAMPSHIRE: GOODY COLE.Eunice “Goody” Cole was blamed for numerous local tragedies and accused of witchcraft twice. Legend says the locals staked her heart to make sure she wouldn’t bother them, but they continued to blame numerous events on her.
30.
NEW JERSEY: JERSEY DEVIL.This creature is often described as a flying biped with hooves, but there are many variations. It has been reported to move quickly and is often described as emitting a high-pitched “blood-curdling scream.
31.
NEW MEXICO: LA MALA HORA.She drives people insane, and if you see her, either you or someone you love will die.
32.
NEW YORK: CROPSEY.This escaped mental patient with a hook for a hand would grab children in Staten Island, but the old legend became horrifyingly real when a killer named Andre Rand was caught in the 1970s.
33.
NORTH CAROLINA: THE VAMPIRE BEAST OF BLADENBORO.Gruesome deaths in the 1950s of mutilated livestock and dogs drained of blood led to reports of something vaguely feline and huge living near Bladenboro.
34.
NORTH DAKOTA: THE MINIWASHITU.The red bison-like water monster of the Missouri River travels upstream to break ice. Anyone who sees it alone in the daytime will go insane.
35.
OHIO: THE LOVELAND FROG.A humanoid, 4-foot frog apparently hangs out on the sides of roads in Loveland at night, and it will stand up on its hind legs, wave a wand over its head, and shoot sparks to deter humans.
36.
OKLAHOMA: THE MEN IN BLACK AT SHAMAN’S PORTAL.According to superstition, anyone who learns anything about what’s truly buried underneath the sand disappears.
37.
OREGON: THE BANDAGED MAN.The ghost of a logger who died in a grisly sawmill accident attacks cars and terrorizes teenagers. The smell of rotting flesh predicts a visit.
38.
PENNSYLVANIA: CHARLIE NO-FACE.Also known as the Green Man, rumors of a murderous faceless man roaming the streets at night were based on a real-life person who’d suffered an extreme accident that destroyed his face. He wasn’t, as it turns out, a murderer; he walked at night because he wanted to get fresh air and be left alone. The legends stuck, however.
39.
RHODE ISLAND: MERCY BROWN, THE VAMPIRE.Outbreaks of tuberculosis caused a vampire scare in 1892 when a full family contracted the disease; while most of her family’s bodies decomposed, Mercy’s body seemed to be frozen in time, making people suspect her to be a vampire.
40.
SOUTH CAROLINA: BOO HAGS.Gullah folklore tells us about evil souls who stay behind after death and become skinless, vampire-like witches who take other people’s skin for a “ride.”
41.
SOUTH DAKOTA: WALKING SAM.A 7-foot-tall specter whose job it is to collect the souls of suicide victims stalks lonely, depressed adolescents.
42.
TENNESSEE: SKINNED TOM.He ended up getting skinned alive by a beautiful woman’s angry husband and his bloody ghost hangs around Lovers’ Lane to punish cheaters.
43.
TEXAS: THE CANDY LADY.You know about the chupacabra, but have you heard about the lesser-known legend of an evil woman who lures children with candy? Candy left out on the windowsill is meant to lure children so a spectral woman can pull out their teeth, kidnap them, or stab them in the eyes. The story may have been linked to a real-life person, Clara Crane, who killed her husband by poisoning candy and was later released from an institution.
44.
UTAH: THE CURSE ON ESCALANTE PETRIFIED FOREST.Anyone who takes petrified wood from the state park risks bad luck, job loss, sickness, and accidents. Park managers claim they get dozens of packages every year sending back chunks of wood from regretful thieves.
45.
VERMONT: DEEP-FROZEN FOLKS.Frugal Vermonters facing extreme winters have been said to freeze their elderly and thaw them in the spring.
46.
VIRGINIA: THE BUNNY MAN.On Halloween many years ago, a bus of transferring asylum inmates crashed, with one of the inmates escaping. For years, skinned, half-eaten rabbits were found hanging from the trees near “Bunny Bridge,” even after the supposed culprit died.
47.
WASHINGTON: CADDY OF CADBORO BAY.While the legendary Bigfoot gets a great deal of attention in this state, you might not have heard of Caddy (short for Cadborosaurus), the local sea monster hanging out in Cadboro Bay.
48.
WEST VIRGINIA: THE WHITE THINGS.Mothman might be the more popular mystery, but rural West Virginia is also home to mysterious dog-like creatures the size of a lion with white shaggy fur.
49.
WISCONSIN: THE RHINELANDER HODAG.An ugly, stumpy critter with a spiked tale, the hodag features in Paul Bunyan stories and reportedly likes to eat bulldogs.
50.
WYOMING: THE PLATTE RIVER SHIP.Through thick mist, usually in February, a ship can be seen sailing the Platte River, its phantom crew frosted over. On the deck, you’ll allegedly see the body of someone you know or yourself.
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