Urban Legends

[snowbelle15]

I have to do a project on urban legends/myths that we believe in. I thought this would be really cool project. This one might actually be fun. :p

I decided to do mine on the japense game called 100 candles. If you don't know what it is it's a game where you get 100 lit candles and you tell a personal story that deals with that paranormal, then you will blow out one candle. After that hundredth candle is blown out, there is suppose to be 100 spirits in the room with you.

So what are some urban legends/myths that you believe in?

[Alysser]

This is one for the people of my favorite state, New Jersey.

Here in Jersey we have an area called the pinelands. It was said that a mother who had 12 children lived there, and her husband was a drunk. She hated her life so she cursed her 13th child and he was born with the head of goat, legs of horse, and mixed with many other animals. He flew outta the chimney and has rarely been seen, but he still lurks somewhere in the Pinelands. I believe he's real, I think it'd be pretty cool to see xD

[Freedom]

I decided to do mine on the japense game called 100 candles. If you don't know what it is it's a game where you get 100 lit candles and you tell a personal story that deals with that paranormal, then you will blow out one candle. After that hundredth candle is blown out, there is suppose to be 100 spirits in the room with you.

Goodness, that would take a LONG time! :D

[Medusa]

Nearby is a small mining town called Rogues Hollow. A young daughter of one of the miners got pregnant and was afraid to let her father find out, so she was able to hide her pregnancy until the birth, at which time she threw the baby off the bridge. Legend says that at midnight you can still hear the baby crying so the bridge was named Crybaby Bridge. It's said that you can also see the young woman on the bridge crying for her baby.

There are many Crybaby Bridge legends all over the U.S. but this is ours. When I was writing freelance, I went there during the day and took photos and also went there at midnight w/an infrared camera, hoping to catch a spirit on film. I also took a video camera and a tape recorder. Nothing ever showed up in audio or video, except mosquitoes. Big ones. After an hour of swatting, I gave up and went home.

[kokopup]

in grew up in an area called BLUFF PARK , Alabama around 20 miles from Birmingham. I lived 1/4 mile from a place called 'LOVER'S LEAP'. i know that lovers leap is found in many areas across the country but this is the one I was raised with. The following story about this legend was taken from the Bluff Park web page.

http://www.bluffparkal.org/history.htm


Lover's Leap has several historical associations and an Indian legend from which the site takes its name. An Indian brave, supposedly grown weary of the attentions of an Indian princess, took her to the high crest where he stabbed her with a bone knife. Suddenly stricken with remorse, he gathered her in his arms and leaped off the bluff.

The other well-known story of Lover's Leap took place in 1827. Colonel Thomas W. Farrar, an Alabama legislator and lawyer, and his new bride, Seraphine, traveled from Cahaba to Elyton by wagon and stopped to camp for several days atop Shades Mountain. Farrar carved the first four lines of Lord Byron's "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" into a rock at Lover's Leap:

To sit on the rocks, to muse o'er flood and fell, to slowly trace the
forest's shady scene where things that own not man's dominion dwell,
and mortal foot hath ne'er or rarely been.

In the early 1930s the inscribed rock was removed and presented to the Masonic Lodge in Elyton, the oldest lodge in Jefferson County and named for Thomas Farrar. After a failed attempt to have the historic inscription returned, Thomas W. Martin, a long-time resident of the mountain, and George B. Ward arranged to have a replica carved on a rock at Lover's Leap.

[smokey the elder]

This is one for the people of my favorite state, New Jersey.

Here in Jersey we have an area called the pinelands. It was said that a mother who had 12 children lived there, and her husband was a drunk. She hated her life so she cursed her 13th child and he was born with the head of goat, legs of horse, and mixed with many other animals. He flew outta the chimney and has rarely been seen, but he still lurks somewhere in the Pinelands. I believe he's real, I think it'd be pretty cool to see xD

Isn't that the Jersey Devil? (No, not the hockey team!):p

[pomtzu]

Isn't that the Jersey Devil? (No, not the hockey team!):p

Yup - that's him. Every once in a while I hear on the news of another "sighting". I hope he stays in The Pinelands and doesn't decide to visit us here in Delaware!! :eek:

[Alysser]

Wow, how did I manage to forget the name? :rolleyes: Yes, it's the Jersey Devil. :D

[Flatcoatluver]

That sounds like a interesting legend, snowbelle15. I've always been interested in the parnormal.

Alyssa, Is there any "pictures" of this Jersey Devil?

[Alysser]

That sounds like a interesting legend, snowbelle15. I've always been interested in the parnormal.

Alyssa, Is there any "pictures" of this Jersey Devil?

Nope, no actual pictures, but I'm sure if you searched google you could find many drawings, sketchings of him.

[Scooter's Mom]

Nope, no actual pictures, but I'm sure if you searched google you could find many drawings, sketchings of him.

There is also a mention of the Jersey Devil in the latest Janet Evanovich novel, Plum Spooky. :)

[Suki Wingy]

I can't think of any myths or urban legends I believe in. The closest thing would be I think there is a chance that there are still a few thylacines left hiding in the forests around Perth.

[BitsyNaceyDog]

I can't think of any I believe in.

As a kid I lived in New York, a few miles from the "haunted" home of the Fox Sisters (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_sisters) and I was convinced that their story of living in a haunted house was true. Eventually I found out that the whole story was a basically one big lie the sisters got caught up in.

[snowbelle15]

Alysser, the jersey devil is spooky looking. I looked him up to see if there are any pictures and the drawing are creepy.

Flatcoatluver, I've always been interested in the paranormal. I think spirits or ghosts are pretty cool. ;)

I found another one while looking through some websites and this one is in Philadelphia at a prison that is supposedly haunted by the prisoners that died in there:

In Cell Block 12, visitors and workers hear meaningless, far away laughter resound in some of the cells. No source has been found.
Witnesses report seeing shadowy forms and ghostly figures in corridors and cells. Cell Block 6 has been the site of most of the spectral shapes.
A locksmith was doing restoration work when he felt he was being watched. He turned around to see who was there and saw no one. Moments later he had the same feeling. When he looked again, he saw a black shadow leap across the corridor. Others have said they feel someone is watching, but haven’t seen anyone or anything. The program director for Eastern State will not stay there overnight.

Creepy stuff, eh?

[Alysser]

I'm fascinated by the Jersey Devil, truthfully. I'm looking up a description right now and sketching my version of what he looks like. I'll post it later.

Another one of my favorites from New Jersey is Clinton RD. Before Cross Castle was knocked down it was even creepier then it is now. But anyway, this road is so scary. The KKK and Devil Worshipors do crazy stuff up there because it's such a remote area. It's a 7 mile stretch of road. There's plenty of ghosts stories, murders too. Weird animals have been seen their like a wolf with red eyes, which isn't entirely weird but they don't have RED eyes and they are not New Jersey. A hairy tall "thing" lurks up there to. My teacher grew up on Clinton Rd and said nothing ever happened to him, but it's a very weird place indeed. Someone even said they saw PANTS walking on the road!! :p Now, that'd I'd love to see. There's also a car, a black pick-up truck that follows you very closely sometimes, and if you flash your lights at it the people in it will kill you. o_0 It's in West Milford, my dad has offered to drive me up there but I've vowed to myself I will NEVER go on that road.

[lizbud]

Here in Indianapolis, we had the House Of Blue Lights. Teenagers would
dare each other to go there on Halloween. I went once, but stayed in the
car the whole time.:o I was the driver so we could all make a quick getaway.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_House_of_Blue_Lights

[Spiritwind]

I LOVE this topic. I always love to read urban legends and ghost stories.

When I lived in Ohio, I lived in an area that had A LOT of legends and ghost stories.... I'll post a few..

Most of these can be found on the website Forgotten Ohio (http://www.forgottenoh.com/page1.html)

I used to live in Logan, which was in Hocking County.

Wolf Cemetery is at the top of a hill in Haydenville, the Hocking County village most famous as "Ohio's last company town." Haydenville once existed solely as housing for employees of the local brick furnace, and the vast majority of the structures in town are built from the same brick they manufactured.

Wolfe Cemetery would be a pretty ordinary country graveyard if it weren't for the scary stories that center around it. They say that a witch or a warlock was put to death here and buried beneath a flat stone--flat to keep him or her in the ground where he/she belongs. If you touch the stone, which is supposed to have a large crack in it, it will be warm to the touch. If you stand on it, the witch's hands will seize you and pull you down.

http://www.forgottenoh.com/Cemeteries/wolfecem-metalfence.jpg
Picture from Wolfe Cemetery

Moonville Tunnel

http://www.forgottenoh.com/Moonville/tunnel2.jpg

"In the southeastern Ohio town of Lake Hope sits the MOONVILLE TUNNEL. This long forgotten railroad tunnel is one of the only remaining remnants of a small mining town that thrived for a short time. The town of Moonville was born in the late 1850's when the Marietta and Cincinnati railroad was built to transport the coal and iron out of the Ohio mines. Moonville was never a big town, at its height, there were probably never many more then 100 residents, and almost all of them were exclusively miners and their families. There was a row of houses along the railroad tracks, a sawmill, schoolhouse, post office, general store, and a saloon. In its early days the residents of Moonville worked in the Hope Furnace nearby, but later on they turned almost exclusively to mining underground. The coal and iron was then used in the Hope furnace, where weapons and artillery for the Union Army were made during the Civil War.

By the turn of the century the coal mines were closing and the town was dying. The last family left in 1947, by the 1960's all of the buildings were gone. The tracks have recently been removed along with the trestle that used to cross raccoon creek.
The Moonville tunnel is about 50 yards long and is very narrow, trains would go through at full speed and have very little clearance on each side.

The most well-known story is that someone who worked for the railroad, possibly an engineer or a brakeman was crushed under the wheels of a train. It's been said that he was a conductor murdered by a vengeful engineer who asked him to inspect underneath the train and then started it up. One source even said that he was trying to get the train to stop because Moonville was in the grip of a plague and was running low on supplies."

Many legends of moonville, people claim that while walking thru the tunnel at midnight people see the Moonville ghost as a swinging light in the tunnel.....but upon closer inspection, realizing that nobody was holding it.

There were at least four deaths near the tunnel, including a young girl who was killed by a passing train on the nearby trestle while going to visit a lover.




Hope Furnace

http://www.forgottenoh.com/Junk/furnacenew.jpg

"The Hope Furnace is located not far from Moonville, right beside Lake Hope. There was an entire iron works in operation here from 1854 to 1874, before the lake was created as part of Franklin Roosevelt's public works program in 1940.

Legend has it that a watchman fell into the molten iron, which couldn't have been a pleasant way to die. He is supposed to haunt the preserved brick furnace, still keeping watch, and is said to be visible on rainy nights as a silhouette against the ghostly fires of the furnace. "

Of course there are MANY MANY legends of Ohio University being haunted and perhaps being the most haunted campus in the US. Athens Ohio is supposed to be one of the most haunted places in the US. There is a legend that if you draw a line on a map from each cemetery located in Athens, OH it will form a pentagram with Ohio University located in the center. Many of the buildings now owned by Ohio University were once part of the Athens State Mental Hospital that closed down in the early 1980s... when it closed the university bought much of the land. It is said that patients or residence of the hospital now haunt the grounds where the hospital used to be.

"The Ridges"
http://www.forgottenoh.com/Ridges/ridges-hist6.jpg
Athens Asylum for the Insane