1 Urban Legend from Each State | Mental Floss

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Legend has it that travelers driving on Highway 365 in Central Arkansas around Halloween
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have encountered a young girl in a torn white dress. When they offered to drive her home, things got really weird really fast
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Once the young girl was in their car, the driver draped their coat over her shivering shoulders
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and set off to the address she gave them. But when they got there, she had vanished into thin air
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Puzzled, they knock on the door of the house. The woman who answers tells the driver something like
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That girl is my daughter, who died many years ago. She hitchhikes back home around this time every year
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For some reason, perhaps to check if the story is indeed true, the driver goes to the cemetery to see her tombstone
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where they find their jacket draped over the young girl's grave. Hi, I'm Erin McCarthy and this is The List Show
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Today we're covering urban legends from all 50 states, ranging from creepy cryptids to deadly curses to some stuff you might have seen on Facebook
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Let's get started. Merriam-Webster defines urban legend as an often lurid story or anecdote that is based on hearsay
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and widely circulated as true, which is why you often see the same types of urban legends popping
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up all over the place, with distinct local details providing flair. Take our vanishing hitchhiker
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for example. In Hawaii, that hitchhiker takes the form of Pele, the goddess of fire and volcanoes
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who is said to appear as an old woman walking along the road. She gladly accepts a ride
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and then vanishes from the back seat. In Pennsylvania, the hitchhiker is a man in
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white who once again disappears from the car when they reach his destination. Sometimes the hitchhiker makes a prophetic statement before going poof
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In some places, the hitchhiker is combined with another urban legend, La Llorona, the spirit of a weeping woman who cries because she drowned her children
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And in Utah, the tale is combined with the Mormon religion's three Nephites
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Versions of the vanishing hitchhiker tale involving a car go back to the 1930s
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but accounts including carriages, horses, and even two people just walking somewhere
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date back as far as 1876 and appear in places as far flung as Russia and Korea
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According to folklorist Jan Harald Brunvand in his book The Vanishing Hitchhiker
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American Urban Legends and Their Meanings, urban legends are essentially modern folklore
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realistic stories concerning recent events or alleged events with an ironic or supernatural
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twist. They are a unique, unselfconscious reflection of major concerns of individuals
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in the societies in which the legends circulate, at the point in time when they're told
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Importantly, in addition to being spread through word of mouth, they're often spread by the media
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Because of all of this, urban legends can be pretty repetitive. So we've tried to dig a little
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deeper for most of the stories we're featuring here. But we're also going to talk about some of
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the classic urban legends you probably know, whether you heard them through the grapevine
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found them on social media, or discovered them via the classic 1998 film Urban Legend
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and its 2000 sequel, Urban Legend's Final Cut. Both movies that I enjoyed a lot
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Now back to the States. When you think about a mythical stairway to hell, chances are you don't picture it in
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North Dakota. But according to Urban Legend, that's precisely where it's located
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In Tagus, to be exact, at the ruins of an old Lutheran church
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Go figure. The church burned down in 2001, but it's been rumored to have been a hotbed for satanic
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activity involving everything from cannibalism to human sacrifice. Its reputation was so notorious
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that Charles Manson supposedly claimed that if he ever got out of prison, that's where he planned
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to go. As for the stairway, it was said to be underneath the church, and although now there's
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just a memorial to mark the site, some claim that if you get close enough to it, you can hear the
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screams of the damned as they descend deeper into hell. It's all pretty creepy stuff, but the town
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of Tagus is interesting too. It was founded in the early 1900s, but has since become a ghost town
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You can still visit it, and those who have, have reported feelings of simmering dread
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as they walk past the vacant houses and rusted out cars that are all the remains of the old
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community. Just be careful not to rouse the hellhounds. Those are said to roam the empty
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streets too, snarling and snapping at whoever dares to overstay their welcome. Why visit a
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ghost town when you could catch a late night cruise on a ghost ship instead? Over in Wyoming
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there's said to be a haunted liner that sails along the North Platte River. Known as the Ship
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of Death, it appears after a thick, ominous mist rolls over the water, and both the boat and the
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crew are said to be covered in frost. According to legend, if you spot it, it means that someone
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you love dearly will die the very same day. The crew supposedly appears on the deck, gathers around
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a canvas sheet that's draped over a body, and slowly draws back the canvas to reveal the identity
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of the soon-to-be deceased. The ship was supposedly first sighted back in 1862 by a trapper whose wife
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or fiancé died shortly thereafter, but eyewitness accounts of this supernatural vessel go well into
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the 20th century, and it's said to appear about every 25 years or so. On the plus side, at least
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it's not a carnival cruise. Here's another chilling ship tale. The La Grifon set off on its maiden
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voyage in the Great Lakes in 1679. During the trip, it stopped so its crew could trade with the local
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Native American tribes on an island in Lake Michigan. It was later supposed to set sail to
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a French military fort, but the Le Griffon never arrived there. It was likely the first of many
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ships to have gone down in the Great Lakes. Though people in recent years have claimed to have found
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its wreckage, no one actually knows what happened to the ship. People have proposed the typical
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theories—ransacking, a mutiny, or a storm. But some believe a local prophet's curse is what doomed
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the ship and crew. The winter of 1697 was rough in Maryland. Crops failed, livestock died, and
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people perished from the flu. But, as the story goes, instead of blaming the weather or a stroke
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of poor luck, the townspeople pointed fingers at Maul Dyer, a former indentured servant. She was an
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elderly woman often spotted begging and foraging around the fringes of society. The people decided
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she was a witch and was to blame for all the misfortune their town had recently suffered
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Shortly after Dyer was driven out of town, her body was found frozen to a boulder
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It's said that her handprint remained on the rock long after her corpse was removed
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and anyone who touches the stone is said to fall ill. People have suggested that Dyer inspired the Blair Witch Project
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Colorado's Riverdale Road doesn't sound like a place you want to find yourself anytime soon
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It's apparently host to a phantom jogger who taps on car windows, demon dogs, and demon children
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a phantom Camaro with a busted headlight that challenges other drivers to a death race
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And, oh yeah, the gates of hell. There's also a phantom woman in white who is said to be connected to a tragedy in 1975
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in which a mansion on the road was burned down by a crazed man with his entire family inside
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The man supposedly vanished, and near the ruins you can apparently still hear the screams of his family
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Research has cast doubt on whether or not anyone was actually inside the mansion at the time of the 1975 fire
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but I'll be avoiding that route on Google Maps anyway, thanks. Let's head over to the Bluegrass State, which is home to its own terrifying road-based legend
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Kentucky's Sleepy Hollow Road is a two-mile-long thoroughfare said to be haunted by a ghostly
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hearse that materializes out of thin air and aggressively tailgates drivers, trying to
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force them off the road and into a ravine. We've also mentioned Kentucky's best-known creature, the Pope Lick Monster, a half-man
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half-goat who lives under a bridge in Louisville, in our video about cryptids, if you want to
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check that out. And just one more bad road for good measure. In 2016 emails and Facebook posts began popping up in the Ames Iowa area warning women drivers to beware of stopping should they see what appeared to be a body in the road The posts went a little something like this Bizarre punctuation and spelling mistakes very much original Warning women A co was driving back from Ames and saw something
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laying in the road about the Jefferson area. As she got closer, she noticed it was a body
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She kept going and called 911. The officer called her back later and said she was lucky she did not
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stop because there was two guys waiting in the ditch to mug her. I also had a man try to flag
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me down between Boone and Ogden. So if this happens to you, don't stop and call 911. They are also
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using dolls in car seats to get women to stop. Repost this to warn others. This is real, Iowa
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people. Repost it from a friend. Watch KCCI News tonight. The Ames Police Department took to Facebook
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to let residents know that this warning was actually an urban legend that might have originated
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in South Africa in the 1990s. We encourage you to call on suspicious activity and use common sense
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when things don't seem right, the post read, but this one is an urban legend
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Down in Mississippi, the most legendary urban legend there has become something of a cornerstone
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of American folklore. Robert Johnson was a blues singer in the 1930s. He made a local name for
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himself and he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 when people began
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recognizing his contribution to the music scene decades after his mysterious death
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His career may now be seen as somewhat legendary, but how he got that talent is a bona fide urban
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legend. It's said Johnson met the devil at a crossroads and sold his soul to him in exchange
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for his guitar skills. Could a video game actually make you go insane? And more importantly
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would you still want to play it, even if you knew it could? According to legend, Polybius made its
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way into Portland, Oregon arcades back in the fall of 1981, and the all-black cabinet soon
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caused quite a stir. Rumor has it that two teenagers went missing shortly after playing it
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while others who tried it out quickly became addicted, falling into trance-like states that
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prompted nightmares, seizures, amnesia, and even hallucinations. Some players believe the game was
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sending them subliminal messages, and to make matters worse, claim to have seen men dressed
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in black suits removing data records from the machines instead of quarters. Polybius supposedly
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disappeared from arcades about a month later, and was never spotted again. While many believe the
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original game never existed in the first place, some speculate that MKUltra, the CIA's real-life
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Cold War-era mind control project was behind the whole thing. Either way, it still probably wasn't
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worse than the Atari ET game. The Rougerou, which we covered in a previous video, isn't the only
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cryptid prowling around Louisiana swamps. The state is also home to the Grunch. What the Grunch
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is exactly is unclear. Some say it's a goat-like monster, while others claim it's a group of half
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human creatures. The name comes from Grunch Road, which, according to the legends, was a swamp road
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that has since been paved over. The Grunch, whatever it may be, is said to hunt those who
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park near its namesake road. If you see an injured goat wandering around the bayou
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don't stop. That's how the Grunch lures in its victims. Stull Cemetery in Stull, Kansas is famously home to a gateway to hell
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which we mentioned in our video of spooky Halloween stories. Side note, why are there so many entrances to hell in the continental United States
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So for this video, we're going with another urban legend, The Hamburger Man of Hutchinson, Kansas. Tales about the Hamburger Man first cropped up in the
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1950s, when hikers started to go missing in an area known locally as Hamburger Hill
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It's said the Hamburger Man was a farmer turned serial killer who had been disfigured in a fire
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These days, he's a half-ghost, half-monster. Either way, he purportedly nabs his victims
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drags them back to his cabin deep in the woods, and grinds them into hamburger meat
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Happy hiking! Let's get off the mainland for a minute. Morgan's corner on Nu'uani
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Polly Drive in Oahu is supposedly haunted, and it was actually the site of a real-life murder
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In 1948, two men escaped from her prison and murdered a widow in her bed
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Morgan's Corner is also said to be near the site of an urban legend that many of you might recognize
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Here's how the story usually goes. A boy and a girl are parked under a tree at Morgan's Corner late at night, but when
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the time comes to head home, the car won't start. So the boy leaves to go get help, despite the fact that the girl does not want to be
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left alone. She starts to hear all kinds of strange noises like thumping and scratching on the roof
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and she's so scared she hides on the floor of the car until morning. The police eventually arrive and take her out of the car, warning her not to look back
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When she does, she sees her boyfriend hanging from the tree, toes scraping the roof of the car
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In The Vanishing Hitchhiker, Brunewund says that this particular tale, which was popular among teens, was first collected in 1964 from a student at the University of Kansas
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In some versions of the story, the boyfriend has actually been decapitated and is hanging
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upside down. Instead of his toes scraping the roof, the girl hears the drip, drip, drip of his blood
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on the roof all night long. And when the police come and she turns back and sees her dead boyfriend, her hair turns white
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The tale is apparently related to another older urban legend you might be familiar with
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the Hook. In the 49th State of the Union, some of the urban legends are a bit less gruesome
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The year is 1938, and Otto Geist has a problem. Residents of the town are pilfering the mammoth tusks he has acquired as part of his many expeditions
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for the University of Alaska Fairbanks. In a desperate attempt to save at least some of the stash
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Geist and his students take as many as 30 of the tusks and bury them somewhere in the area
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Or maybe, as other versions of the story have it, Geist is actually experimenting with preservation of the tusks
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Either way, he apparently didn't make a note of where the cache was. And since everyone involved in the burial is long dead
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the location of the tusks has been lost to time. That's the legend, anyway
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Multiple searches over the decades, through both archives and in the field
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have unearthed some tantalizing clues, but so far, no tusks. Which, if found, could be worth up to a million dollars, depending on their condition
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You've probably heard about the Bermuda Triangle before, but did you know that there's another one said to be located right in Oklahoma
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Reports of strange events in Beaver Dunes Park go all the way back to the 16th century
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when three Spanish conquistadors supposedly vanished in a flash of green light
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as they searched for gold in the dunes. Over the years, there have been other strange disappearances too
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Some believe that people slip into another dimension, while others suspect a UFO crash might be to blame
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as military personnel have allegedly been seen digging inside the dunes. Native Americans were said to have avoided the area completely
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and refer to it as the Shaman's Portal, but so far, no conclusive explanation has ever been given
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for the bizarre events that are rumored to happen in the 520-acre park. Stories about a vampire
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lurking in Richmond, Virginia's Hollywood Cemetery have been around since the 1920s
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but this nightcrawler isn't exactly of the Bela Lugosi variety. Rumored to dwell in one of the
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graveyard's hillside mausoleums, the so-called Richmond vampire may be related to a worker on
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the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad's Church Tunnel back in 1925, when it tragically caved in
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burying several men alive. One of the workers, a fireman named Benjamin Mosby
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reportedly managed to dig his way out, but had broken teeth and severe burn injuries that were
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so bad, eyewitnesses claimed his skin had fallen away in flaps, and he ultimately died at a nearby
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hospital. It's right about here where this grisly tale takes a sharp turn toward the strange
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According to local lore, the Richmond vampire also emerged from the wreckage with broken teeth
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that looked like fangs and bloody skin hanging from his bones. He was supposedly chased by the
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rescue team and fled to the graveyard where he scared off his pursuers by screaming curses at them It not exactly the kind of defensive move you expect from a blood creature of the night which is why some Virginians believe it wasn a vampire at all but instead just an account of what really happened with Mosby after he escaped the tunnel
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Considering that Mosby was buried in Hollywood's cemetery and the undead creature's description
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at least somewhat matches the accounts of Mosby's injuries, they may be onto something
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Ohio is home to another classic monster tale. Turns out you don't have to go to London if you want to see a werewolf
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in the summer of 1972, you could have just gone to Defiance, Ohio. Starting in late July of that
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year, police received multiple reports that there was a large beast resembling a werewolf on the
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loose. One witness, a local train crewman who supposedly spotted the creature with a co-worker
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early one morning along the town's railroad tracks, claimed it had fangs and hairy feet
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and that it ran from side to side like a caveman in movies. There were other early morning sightings
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too, including from a driver who said it ran in front of his car and then disappeared. Others even
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said they saw it holding a 2x4. The police actually took all of this seriously, but told
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the press they suspected it was just a person wearing a costume or a mask. The so-called
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creature was never found, and after that summer it all but disappeared. Still, if you're
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in the area during the next full moon, you might want to think twice before taking a midnight
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stroll, just in case. If you're in Philly, a one-way ticket to nowhere could be easier to come by than you
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think. Legend has it that there's a bus in the city that doesn't have a destination
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or show up on any transit maps, but it appears when people are down on their luck
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and looking for a way out. You reportedly have to wave the bus down to make it stop
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and you only have one chance to catch it, or else you'll never see it again. The ride can last for hours, days, months
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or potentially even years, because once a passenger sits down, they're said to fall into a deep state of reflection
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and don't emerge from it until they've faced their demons and figured out how to fix their problems
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at which point they just tug on the cord. Then the bus, which locals call zero, drops them off exactly where they first got picked up
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And with any luck, their next destination is a much happier one. Speaking of cities, if you're heading up to Providence, Rhode Island, and you're feeling a little thirsty
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you might be tempted to take a sip from the fountain outside the Providence Athenaeum
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which is emblazoned with the message, But before you do, you might want to know about the little curse that's involved
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You see, the nearly 200-year-old Athenaeum was once a favorite haunt for some famous writers
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including Edgar Allan Poe, who spent time there when he visited the city back in 1848
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But before he left, Poe allegedly put a hex on the fountain. According to legend, if you drink
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from it, you're either bound to return to the city or you'll never leave it again. The curse
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kind of varies depending on the source. One thing everyone can agree on, though
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is that this story probably isn't true, given that the Gothic Revival-style fountain wasn't
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built until 1873, a full 24 years after Poe's death. Okay, so lately we've talked about werewolves
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and cursed fountains and a ghost town that was apparently pretty high up on Charlie Manson's
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dream vacations list. But you know what we haven't really talked about lately? Love. So to do that
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we're going to head to Tennessee because nothing screams love like an urban legend from the 1920s
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involving a guy getting skinned alive for accidentally falling for another dude's wife
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Am I right? According to the Skin Tom legend, after Tom got his skin peeled off at a local
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lover's lane by his girlfriend's angry husband, he turned into something considerably less romantic
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Although some versions of this tale do vary, police supposedly never found Tom's body
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and it was only after following a trail of blood into the woods nearby that they found his skin
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hanging from a tree. Even though Skin Tom is said to be just a skeleton at this point
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he supposedly haunts other lover's lanes along the Tennessee and Kentucky border
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and he carries a long hunting knife, just like the one that was used to take his flesh off
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But before you get too spooked, you should know that he only goes after cheaters, and mostly people who have claimed to have seen him say he just stands around their cars and glares
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like the ultimate creeper. Idaho's Payette Lake is said to be the home of the Nessie-like creature known as Charlie
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but that urban legend is child's play compared to the water babies of Massacre Rocks near Pocatello, Idaho
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According to legend, there was once a terrible famine in the area. and some members of local Native American tribes opted to drown their infants rather than let them starve
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In the tamest version of the legend, you merely hear these babies crying when you sit near the water
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But in others, those babies actually survived by growing gills. Supposedly, they still lure unsuspecting people to their deaths
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We don't know exactly how many people died while working on the Hoover Dam. Some estimates put it at 112, while others say 96
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We can, however, say with certainty how many people are buried in it. zero. Though it's claimed that there are corpses concealed within the concrete
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no one is actually buried in the dam. Pouring the concrete was a precise, multi-person job
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so it would have been impossible for someone to stuff a dead person into it without anyone
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noticing. But that hasn't stopped this urban legend from spreading all across the Silver State
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Up until a few years ago, people in Augusta, Georgia, had to beware of a 10-foot-tall pillar
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on 5th and Broad Street that was said to be cursed. Legend has it after an evangelist was
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forbidden from preaching there, he threatened that a great wind would destroy the place except
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for one pillar and that whoever tried to remove this remaining pillar would be struck dead
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in the words of Yearbook of the City Council of Augusta, Georgia of 1977. Soon, a storm or a
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tornado, reports vary, did just that. Supposedly, several attempts to remove the pillar ended with
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people dying in horrific ways. Eventually, it was said that anyone who so much as touched the pillar
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would meet an unpleasant end. The pillar got a taste of its own medicine in 2016, when it was
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destroyed by a vehicle collision for the third time. It hasn't been rebuilt, though apparently
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a stump, which locals are still wary of, remains. As the saying goes, everything is bigger in Texas
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and the same is true for its urban legends. The Lone Star State has its fair share of myths you've
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probably heard of before, but La Lechuza is one that might have flown under your radar
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and in more ways than one. La Lechuza, or the witch owl
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comes from Mexican and Tejano folklore and it's said to be a woman who can turn herself
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into a giant seven foot tall white owl with a 15 foot wingspan and glowing red eyes
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The creature prowls the Rio Grande Valley at night. In some versions of the tale
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she's a witch who was murdered by local villagers for practicing black magic. But in others, she's just a mom
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looking to avenge the death of a son. Some believe there can be more than one
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and that the owls are real owls that have just been drained by witches
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to carry out their evil spells. According to most versions of the story, though
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the Lalachusa can draw people in by sounding like a crying infant, and that's when it strikes
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It's said to be powerful enough to snatch up grown men and carry them off into the night
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If you wanna survive, praying might help, or you could just stay inside your house until morning
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because that's when the Lalachusa reverts back to its human form. Speaking of terrifying women
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let's head down to John Denver's favorite state. The Mothman isn't the only urban legend
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you'll hear about around here. Screaming Jenny is another creepy one supposedly dating from the
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mid-1800s. According to the tale, a young woman with no family ended up squatting in an old
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storage shed along the Harper's Ferry Railroad Depot. One cold autumn night, she lit a fire
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inside to warm up and ended up accidentally setting herself ablaze. Panicked and shrieking
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she ran outside and headed straight for the railroad tracks, hoping that someone would see
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her and put out the flames. But because she was essentially a ball of fire at that point
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she didn't notice there was a train coming right at her until it was too late About a month after Jenny untimely passing another train operator passed through the area and claimed to see a giant ball of fire along the tracks He also failed to stop the train in time but when he got out there was nothing there No fire and most importantly no bodies either
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Residents of Harper's Ferry to this day claim that you can still spot screaming Jenny on the
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anniversary of her death, engulfed by flames and desperately trying to find someone who will help
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her. Not all urban legends have to be doom and gloom. Take the ones surrounding Indiana's
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iconic car race, the Indy 500. According to one urban legend, a tourist driving through town got
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caught up in the race traffic and ended up in the race's infield. According to another, a rabbit on
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the track means good luck for the racers. If you are looking for a creepy urban legend, though
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feel free to read up on The House of the Blue Lights, in which millionaire Skiles Edward Test
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was said to have kept his dead wife encased in a glass coffin surrounded by blue lights in his house
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The only problem with that one? All three of Test's wives outlived him. I don't know about you
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but I'm ready for another scary ship tale. When the Carol A. Deering wrecked along the coast of
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the Outer Banks in the winter of 1921, the ship was mysteriously empty. No one knew what happened
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to its crew. People suspected a mutiny or perhaps a crash with another ship. Then, that spring
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a message discovered within a bottle stated that the crew had been captured by another boat
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leading people to believe pirates were the cause. News then spread that Bolsheviks were to blame
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and that the ship was caught up in their plot to steal ships and crews and smuggle them to Russia
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That theory was later debunked, however, and the person who discovered the message in the
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bottle was revealed to have written it in an attempt to get a job at the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse
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To this day, no one really knows what happened to the people aboard the Carol A. Dearing
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But if you're thinking, that doesn't sound that urban legend-y to me, let me just say
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two words. Bermuda Triangle. Yeah, there we go. Supposedly the ship passed over that area of the ocean
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In March of 1985, a terrible accident occurred on a bridge just outside of Siren, Wisconsin
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It was snowing when Richard and Rose Kringle, who were traveling in their pickup with their
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eight-year-old daughter Jody, reportedly hit a patch of black ice, which sent their vehicle
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through the bridge's guardrail and into the swampy creek below. All three tragically died as a result of the accident, but that's not where the story ends
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In the years since, locals have claimed that strange things tend to happen when they attempt
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to cross that same bridge. Beyond feeling uneasy, folks have claimed that their car radios fade out
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and then a young girl's voice comes through screaming, Help me, mommy! I can't get out
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Many point to the Kringle accident and believe it's the ghost of little Jodi cutting in over the airwaves
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If that's not enough to give you the shivers, I don't know what is. An abandoned water treatment plant in St. Charles County, Missouri
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had a pretty dark reputation before it was demolished. It's said a satanic cult would gather there during the weekends and decapitate chickens
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Poles did find traces of satanic symbols around the property, but they believe it was likely
25:22
from local teens trying to imitate the rituals that allegedly took place there
25:26
An abandoned factory dubbed the Cataclysmic Domes near Franklin, New Hampshire was rumored
25:31
to be another site for satanists. People said the graffiti adorning its walls were a sure sign of the occult, but as it
25:37
turns out, some of the illicit artwork and the site's ominous name came from a local
25:42
band called the Cataclysmic Domestics who graffitied the site in the late 60s while taking
25:47
pictures for their album cover. You probably know the Jersey Devil, but do you know the spook
25:52
rabbits of Harmony Township? They're more killer rabbit of Carabinog than Peter Cottontail. In the
25:58
late 1800s, locals were alarmed when their hunting dogs returned home covered in blood and scratches
26:03
Naturally, they blamed killer bunnies, which for some reason seemed to be unhuntable. And even
26:08
though one level-headed person proposed that it was probably just thorny shrubs and brambles that
26:13
scratch the dogs, people still insisted the murderous spook rabbits were to blame
26:18
You might remember Homie the Clown from In Living Color. For Chicago kids in the 90s
26:23
he was the boogeyman. In 1991, kids in neighborhoods across the city reported a man
26:27
dressed as Homie trying to lure them into a vehicle, which was variously described as a
26:32
red, white, brown, or blue van with the words ha-ha written on the side, with candy and cash
26:38
Police took the reports mostly seriously, with one officer telling the press
26:42
if you're a clown going to work, you're going to get stopped. The Chicago Tribune noted that the
26:46
reports, which came mostly from kids, were tumbling out from different parts of the city
26:51
like clowns falling out of a Volkswagen. Thanks to the discrepancies in the reports
26:55
police theorized that there might have been one or more phony homies roaming the streets
27:00
according to the Tribune. No real homie was ever apprehended. Vermont is known for its cold winters
27:06
but back in the day, those terrible storms could drive folks to do some pretty questionable things
27:11
Case in point, the legend of the frozen hill people. According to the tale, Vermonters who were strapped for cash back in the late 1800s and
27:18
looking for a way to save money on food and heat would drug their old and sickly relatives
27:22
and toss them outside in the snow. Those people would freeze, of course, but then, come spring, their relatives would venture
27:29
outside and just thaw them out until they were good as new again. The story gained some traction thanks to an article that was published in 1887 on the
27:37
front page of the Montpelier, Argus, and Patriot newspaper. from a reporter who claimed to have found an account of this gruesome ritual in his uncle's diary
27:45
Beyond that, there's really no evidence that any of this ever took place. But if the Vermonters' heating and grocery bills were as bad as ours have been the last couple of years
27:53
there might be a grain of truth to it somewhere. You won't find Langville, Montana on any maps
27:59
That's because Langville doesn't exist. But since the early 2000s, people have been convinced the small town was once real
28:06
It's said the whole town mysteriously disappeared overnight, with all traces of its history vanishing with it. Some also say the town and its residents
28:13
were turned inside out, but no one really knows what that even means. Hikers in the mood for a
28:19
great climb in South Dakota have been heading to Garrison for years, where the cliffs over
28:23
Split Rock Creek offer a great view of the waters below. Known as the Devil's Gulch
28:28
the 18-foot canyon has a staggering 60-foot drop, and it's said to be here where the legendary
28:33
outlaw Jesse James made one of his most daring escapes. After attempting to rob the First National
28:38
Bank in Northfield, Minnesota in 1876, which some have claimed was the largest bank west
28:43
of the Mississippi, James and his posse took off. They were pursued for weeks, until James reportedly ended up cornered at the Devil's Gulch
28:50
Rather than be captured, he and his horse leapt across the 18-foot gorge and somehow
28:55
made it to the other side. Although it seems unlikely that anyone could survive a jump like that, many locals do believe
29:01
it could have been possible, provided he had a really good horse. Because of that, the legend of Devil's Gulch remains a big part of the lore surrounding
29:08
James and the notorious Northfield raid. Roswell isn't the only New Mexico site with an extraterrestrial reputation
29:14
Above ground, Dulce, New Mexico seems like a typical town, but people are convinced that
29:20
there's something far from ordinary lying beneath it. As the legend goes, the area sits right next door to a giant high-tech underground facility
29:27
full of aliens. It's said people use the multi-level bunker to conduct all sorts of experiments, including
29:33
some on alien human genetics. People have reported seeing strange human-animal hybrids and have claimed
29:38
that someone was using cows to incubate human babies. According to one conspiracy theorist
29:43
there's even a full-on human-alien war happening beneath Dulce. And of course
29:48
locals have reported numerous UFO sightings. Back in the summer of 1988, a 17-year-old from Lee County, South Carolina
29:55
reported to local police that he'd seen something incredible after stopping near a
29:59
local swamp to change a flat tire. That thing? A seven-foot-tall creature that he claimed had
30:05
searing red eyes, three-clawed fingers, and snake-like scales, and which then reportedly
30:10
chased after the kid and attacked his car. The Lizardman became something of an overnight
30:15
sensation. As reporters flocked to the area and local vendors sold everything from t-shirts to
30:21
bumper stickers and blow-up dolls inspired by the reptilian humanoid, other sightings started to pop
30:26
up all over the area, with more witnesses coming forward to claim they'd been chased by the creature
30:32
and had their cars mauled too. Although the mystery Lizardman was never found or captured
30:37
the legend lives on, inspiring festivals, books, and enduring interest from within the community
30:43
many of whom still maintain that there's something wicked lurking inside that swamp
30:47
More reptiles! New York City is famously full of rats, and also giant albino gators
30:53
at least according to a popular urban legend. For decades, people have reported seeing the reptiles slinking around the sewer system
31:00
They're said to be particularly vicious beasts that feast on rodents and attack sewer workers
31:04
who must carry firearms for protection. It's true that people have spotted the rare gator on the loose around the city over the last century
31:11
In fact, one was pulled from a lake in Brooklyn's Prospect Park in early 2023
31:15
But they're usually illegal pets that people dump once they get too big. The rescue gators didn't even come from the sewer system
31:21
The water is too cold and toxic for them down there, and a diet of city rats and raw sewage
31:26
would be dangerous for them as well. That said, according to Brunvind, there has been at least one reliable account of a full-grown
31:34
alligator dragged from a New York City sewer. The incident occurred in February 1935
31:39
Teens were shoveling snow into a manhole on East 123rd Street when one of them spotted
31:44
the gator. After the kids pulled the gator from the sewer, it got understandably cranky and snapped at them
31:50
at which point they killed it. Reptiles slain by rescuers when it gets vicious, the times proclaimed
31:56
Whence it came is a mystery. If you're out on a boat on the waters off of Delaware's Cape Henlepin State Park at night
32:03
you might think the blinking light you're seeing is a lighthouse, but you'd be wrong
32:07
There's no lighthouse there. Instead, that is a ghostly corpse light that, according to legend
32:13
is meant to lure British ships to their doom. It's said that hundreds of years ago, British soldiers raided an indigenous wedding ceremony
32:20
killing most of the tribe. Those who survived cursed the land, creating the corpse light
32:25
The first victim was supposedly the Devonshire man in 1655, though I couldn't find any evidence of
32:30
that ship sinking there in my research, followed by the De Brac in 1798, which definitely did sink
32:36
there. And shout out to the Catman of Long Cemetery. This is apparently the ghostly former caretaker
32:42
of the graveyard who, in life, had cat-like features and still watches over the grounds
32:47
According to legend, he chases rowdy teens out of the cemetery. And if you knock three times on the rear cemetery wall, he'll mess with your car so you can't leave
32:58
In his 1938 story, Flight, John Steinbeck wrote, When thou comest to the high mountains if thou seest any of the dark watching men go not near to them nor try to speak to them The dark watching men he referenced are an urban legend that has long spooked people traveling through California Santa Lucia Mountains Hikers traversing the area when the sun is setting
33:18
have reported seeing the 10-foot-tall silhouettes of creatures wearing long capes and tall hats
33:23
that seem to be watching them. There are claims of varying levels of dubious validity
33:28
that local indigenous tribes spoke of them, and the Spanish colonizers dubbed them
33:33
Los Vigilantes Oscuros, the dark watchers. Explanations run the gamut from hallucinogens to pareidolia to hikers' own
33:41
shadows. Regardless, visitors to the Santa Lucia Mountains might want to keep Steinbeck's words in
33:46
mind. No one knew who the watchers were nor where they lived, but it was better to ignore them and
33:52
never to show interest in them. In the early 2000s, a story about a teen boy with autism
33:57
stealing a penguin from Boston's New England aquarium spread through the region. The boy
34:01
allegedly snuck into the penguin pool somehow and hid a penguin in his backpack or under his jacket
34:07
He smuggled the bird home where his mom found him playing with it in the tub. Of course
34:11
nothing like that happened. No one stole a penguin from the New England Aquarium. But weirdly
34:17
it wasn't the first aquarium to be wrapped up in such a tale. Over the years, stories of a boy or
34:22
man with disabilities stealing a penguin from an aquarium have popped up elsewhere too. Perhaps
34:27
Perhaps you've heard of the melon heads, small cannibalistic humanoid creatures with
34:31
outsized heads said to roam lonely roads in Ohio, Michigan, and Connecticut
34:36
These strange creatures aren't Connecticut's only cryptids. The Winston Wild Man is the Constitution State's answer to Bigfoot, and he first popped up
34:44
in newspaper reports in the early 1890s. He apparently accosted a man picking berries, slept on a local's porch, and spooked passengers
34:51
of a coach who spotted him on the road. Someone who encountered the Wildman firsthand said that
35:12
on everything from a gorilla that escaped a traveling circus, to a hoax by a local editor
35:17
who needed to sell newspapers. The Winstead Wildman was apparently spotted as recently as the 1970s
35:23
Let's go to the appropriately named Superstition Mountains near Apache Junction, Arizona
35:28
for our next urban legend. In 1891, Jacob Waltz, aka the Dutchman, died in his 80s, leaving behind rumors of a hidden
35:35
mine somewhere in the mountains stuffed with treasure. The fact that Waltz had high-quality gold in a box under his bed seemed to lend credence
35:43
to the legend, and he supposedly described a map to the treasure to his neighbors
35:47
But despite thousands of eager treasure hunters hunting for it, no one has been able to find
35:52
the Lost Dutchman Mine, and people have literally died trying. The geography of the land is confusing
35:59
temperatures vary hugely between day and night, and there's no cell phone service. Most recently
36:05
a 35-year-old from Denver who was obsessed with locating the mine vanished after heading into
36:09
the mountains to search in 2009. His remains were found in 2012 at the bottom of a cliff
36:15
In 1833 Connecticut native Charles R Boyington moved to Mobile Alabama where he began rooming with another man at a local boarding house Not long after that Boyington roommate was discovered dead of a stab wound in the local cemetery and Boyington was the prime suspect Despite the fact that there was little
36:32
evidence to convict him, and that he never wavered on his innocence, Boyington was found guilty and
36:37
sentenced to hang. Before he went to the gallows, Boyington proclaimed that an oak tree would grow
36:42
from his heart and prove his innocence, and sure enough, an oak tree did grow over his grave
36:47
Later, two people confessed to murdering his roommate. The tree is still around today, and it's said that whispers and crying can be heard coming from around it
36:55
Honorable mention to Huggin Molly, a giant, seven-foot-tall woman clad all in black
36:59
who is said to approach kids out in Abbeville, Alabama after dark
37:03
hug them tight, and scream directly in their ears. That'll teach him to listen to mom and dad
37:08
A monument to Colonel Jonathan Buck, founder of Bucksport, Maine, features an odd stain
37:14
According to local legend, it's the mark of a woman he sentenced to death
37:18
Some versions of the tale say she was a witch, while others claim she was pregnant with his
37:22
child. Either way, Buck had her killed. In some versions, the woman somehow lost her leg before
37:27
dying, and a leg-shaped water stain now permanently blemishes the town's monument to its founder
37:33
In 1898, a Swedish immigrant named Olaf Umin made a startling find in Minnesota
37:38
an old stone slab covered with runes. He and his son first suspected it was some sort of
37:43
Native American artifact, but they later realized it was left behind by some 14th century Scandinavian
37:48
explorers. The text read, we are eight Goths, Swedes, and 22 Norwegians on an exploration journey
37:55
from Vinland through the west. We had camped by a lake with two scaries, small rocky islands
38:01
one day's journey north from this stone. We were out and fished one day. After we came home, we
38:07
found 10 of our men red with blood and dead. AVM, Ave Virgo Maria, or Hail Virgin Mary
38:13
save us from evil. We have 10 of our party by the sea to look after our ships. 14 days journey from
38:18
this island, year 1362. And though we now know that Scandinavians did set foot in North America
38:24
prior to Christopher Columbus's arrival, they certainly didn't leave behind the runestone
38:29
Multiple tests performed over the last century revealed the odd artifact to be a hoax
38:33
probably created by Uman himself. Some people, however, remain convinced the Kensington Runestone
38:39
is the real deal. If you're planning to visit Utah's Escalante Petrified Forest anytime soon
38:45
there's one really important thing that you ought to know. There's said to be a curse that befalls
38:49
those who take things from the park. Visitors who have nabbed illicit souvenirs have claimed that
38:53
all kinds of unlucky things happen to them afterward, from strange accidents to breakups
38:58
and terminal illnesses. And that's really just the beginning. In fact, it happens so often that the state park gets dozens of letters every year from
39:06
remorseful former guests, desperately hoping that if they just send back whatever it is
39:11
they took and it's returned to its original spot, the curse can finally be broken
39:16
Some even claim this works and is the only way to lift the curse
39:19
It could all be just a coincidence, but then again, why risk it
39:23
Now it's time for one of my favorite combinations of words, radioactive mutant murder hornets
39:29
In 2013 a website published an article saying these deadly hornets were on the loose in Nebraska The hornets it claimed were affected by radioactive debris from the 2011 Fukushima power plant disaster The nuclear material caused the wasps to become enormous aggressive
39:44
and contain venom that was 2,000 times more powerful than a normal hornet
39:49
There were no radioactive insects going on killing sprees in the state, though
39:53
The article that started the whole rumor was published by the National Report, a site that publishes fictional news stories
40:00
News of the Hornets snowballed from there. A lot of the urban legends we've mentioned so far are spooky
40:06
but for this one, we're going to mix things up a little bit and give you a fun one. If you've ever eaten at KFC before
40:11
you probably know about Colonel Sanders and his legendary secret recipe. Let me just stop right here and say that we're not going to be addressing
40:18
the widespread urban legend about the unfortunate people who buy some KFC and end up biting into a fried rat
40:24
Or the one about how the chain supposedly genetically engineers mutant chickens with
40:28
extra legs and exactly zero beaks. No, we're talking about Sander's secret blend of 11 herbs
40:34
and spices. All things considered, you wouldn't be wrong for assuming he created the recipe in
40:39
Kentucky. But actually, many folks believe he developed it while he was living and working in
40:43
Seattle at an old roadside restaurant back in the early 1940s. Though there's literally no
40:48
evidence for it, this urban legend would be a big blow to Kentucky if true. The colonel
40:53
who back then was just known as Harland, stayed in the city for about 10 months
40:58
and apparently his co-workers weren't too crazy about him. They complained that he was more
41:02
focused on some finger-licking good fried chicken recipe than on doing his actual job
41:06
but locals did say he made a mean spaghetti. Anyway, eventually he moved back home
41:12
started calling himself a colonel, and the rest is fast food history. To be fair
41:17
Washington fried chicken just doesn't have the same ring to it. And last, but mostly least
41:22
Florida. Perhaps you've heard the urban legend that after Walt Disney died in December 1966
41:28
his body was cryogenically frozen and stored somewhere on the grounds of Disney World
41:32
possibly under the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. This urban legend is so pervasive that it actually
41:37
launched another urban legend. In 2021, rumors began circulating on Facebook that Disney's body
41:42
would be thawed out that December in an attempt to resurrect him. Both of these tall tales are
41:48
impossible because Disney wasn't frozen. He was buried in Glendale, California's Forest Lawn
41:53
Memorial Park after his death. But they're not the only Disney-related urban legends
41:58
Shortly after Space Mountain opened in 1975, rumors began circulating about the ride. Some
42:03
were vague, referencing a mysterious tragedy. Others were quite specific, saying that a rider
42:09
had stood up on the ride and been decapitated. Disney officials tried to track down the source
42:14
of the rumor, but were never able to. There was apparently one minor incident on Space Mountain
42:18
in those early days. Some cars bumped together, and the ride was shut down for a few weeks
42:23
But no one was ever decapitated. Disney officials said it's not even possible to stand up while
42:28
you're riding. See you next time

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