Local urban legends by BA, Julia, Sean and Kiernan
It's October. We could all use a little fun, so we scared up urban legends local to all of us!
BA Tortuga's Dallas area legend
So, the DFW area is chock-full of haunted shit. Seriously. Look it up. SO much fun. (I wanted to tell y'all the ghost children on the railroad tracks so bad, but that's San Antonio, so we'll have to come up with another reason to tell that one.)
My favorite Dallas spooky place? White Rock Lake.
OMG. The Lady of White Rock. She's been around forever, but the first written account of her was in 1943 by Anne Clark in "The Ghost of White Rock," from the Texas Folklore Society's 1943 publication, Backwoods to Border. It read:
One hot July night a young city couple, having driven out and parked on the shore of White Rock Lake, switched on the headlights of the car and saw a white figure approaching. As the figure came straight to the driver's window, they saw it was a young girl dressed in a sheer white dress that was dripping wet. She spoke in a somewhat faltering voice.
I'm sorry to intrude, and I would not under any other circumstances, but I must find a way home immediately. I was in a boat that overturned. The others are safe. But I must get home.
She climbed into the rumble seat, saying that she did not wish to get the young lady wet, and gave them an address in Oak Cliff, on the opposite side of Dallas. The young couple felt an uneasiness concerning their strange passenger, and as they neared the destination the girl, to avoid hunting the address, turned to the rumble seat to ask directions. The rumble seat was empty, but still wet.
After a brief, futile search for the girl in white, the couple went to the address she had given and were met at the door by a man whose face showed lines of worry. When he had heard the couple's story, the man replied in a troubled voice. "This is a very strange thing. You are the third couple who has come to me with this story. Three weeks ago, while sailing on White Rock Lake, my daughter was drowned."
Eee!
Tons of people have reported seeing her and even worse (better?), tons of people have drowned in the lake, including a plane crashing into the lake.
Now for the best part? THE GOATMAN! OMG!
THE GOATMAN HAS BEEN SIGHTED AT WHITE ROCK LAKE!!!
7 feet tall, hairy, huge horns.
THE FRIGGIN' GOATMAN, Y'ALL!
What more could you possibly need?
Kiernan Kelly
The Jersey Devil
Growing up in New Jersey, I heard lots of urban legends and ghost stories, but perhaps the most famous of them all is the story of the Jersey Devil. There’ve been several movie adaptations (none of them very good), but here’s how I always heard the story.
The Pine Barrens are located along the southern Jersey shore, just south of Toms River. They are exactly what they sound like – a long stretch of forest barren of anything but tall, skinny pine trees and brambly underbrush. Sometime in the mid-to-late 1700s, there lived a woman known to the locals as Mother Leeds, who made her home in a rickety shack in the Barrens. No one knew who Mother Leeds’s husband was, but most believed she was a witch who was wed to the devil, himself. In any case, Mother Leeds gave birth to twelve children, all of whom were born after long hours of bone-shattering labor. The twelfth child left her so weak, she barely survived. When she found herself pregnant with a thirteenth child, she cursed it, calling for the devil to take it.
Evidently, the devil heard and accepted her child as his own, because the child was born with bat wings, horns, and hooved feet. As soon as the baby was born, it attacked the midwife and tore her throat out, then flew up the chimney and out into the night.
Soon after, children began to go missing from nearby towns and farms. Often all that was found of them was a piece of bloodied clothing…and the print of hooved feet in the dirt.
Lots of people claim to have seen the Jersey Devil, and there are many theories seeking to explain the origin of the story. The most prevalent one is that sometime in the 1800’s, a family of squatters made a home deep in the Barrens, eking out a living by scratch farming and begging. Then the parents died, one after the other, either through an accident or illness, leaving their children to starve. The children went mad, and driven by desperation, began killing whoever they could catch and eating them. Thus a clan of interbred, mutated cannibals was born, and their descendants still live in the Barrens to this day.
Shiver.
Sean Michael
I grew up in Montreal, so I chose a ghost story from there.
This story harkens back to 1879.
One night, prostitutes Mary Gallagher and Susan Kennedy picked up a dock worker and took him home to Susan’s place where they drank three bottles of whiskey between them. Supposedly flying into a jealous rage when their customer showed Mary too much attention, Susan killed her and then cut her head off.
Police were called in by neighbours who heard a loud thud and the sounds of chopping and chiselling. When they arrived, the cops found Mary’s head by the stove and a blood-splattered Susan in her bed. Susan was convicted and sentenced to 16 years in jail.
Every seven years, on the night of June 26 – when Mary was murdered – crowds gather outside of what used to be 242 William St to watch for Mary’s ghost. They say she’s looking for her head. The next sighting is expected in 2019.
Julia Talbot
I thought about la Llorona, because she's a New Mexico staple, but I chose the Boy Scout ranch instead.
This paranormal story involves the Urraca Mesa in the Philmont Scout Ranch (owned by the Boy Scouts of America). The mesa is creepy for quite a few reasons. First, compasses don't work there. Second, it's been struck by lightening more than any other location in New Mexico. Third, it's widely believed to be a gateway to Hell by Navajo tradition.
According to Navajo beliefs, the mesa was once a battleground between humans and the supernatural forces of darkness. This violent battle opened up a portal to hell, and only certain protective cat totems stand in the way of it opening entirely.
Visitors of the area have seen strange creatures. They've also heard creepy voices, and they've even seen a floating blue light above the mesa.
http://www.seanmichaelwrites.com
Julia’s is http://www.juliatalbot.com
BA’s is http://www.batortuga.com
Kiernan's is www.KiernanKelly.com
Facebook:
Sean -- https://www.facebook.com/SeanMichaelW...
Julia -- https://www.facebook.com/juliatalbota...
BA -- https://www.facebook.com/batortuga
Kiernan -- https://www.facebook.com/kiernan.kelly
