Local Legends

[IggytheBorg]

Been mulling over the Jersey Devil Posts in Tim's GA thread. I've always been fascinated by the legend of the Jersey Devil, being the horror fan that I am. I also think it's extremely cool that our hockey team went w/ the name "devils" rather than one of the other choices they had (I forget what they were, but they sucked & had nothing to do w/ Jersey).

So I got to wonderin': Are there similar moster/ghost/supernatural legends where any of the other BDR's come from? What are they, in a nutshell?

[Lisa]

I also think it's extremely cool that our hockey team went w/ the name "devils" rather than one of the other choices they had (I forget what they were, but they sucked & had nothing to do w/ Jersey).

"The NJ Crack Whores Passed Out Under The Boardwalk" didn't quite have the same ring to it.

[Matt]

There is/was a sorority house on the U of M campus that had a ghost. It's a bit of a legend down there in the Greek system, and I definitely felt a 'presence' of a sort when I stayed over one night (my girlfriend was a sister there). Pretty creepy.

[IggytheBorg]

The seal of Union County, NJ, where I live, is a picture of a British soldier gunning down Rev. Caldwell's wife on the front porch of her home. This cheery design decorates a rug on the floor of the County courthouse entrance hall, and many of the courtroom doorknobs inside, as well as other County buildings in various forms. Anyway, apparently her spirit is said to haunt the courthouse. Which is a neat trick, since it wasn't built until the early 20th century. I think it's built on the site of the original courthouse from the Colonial era, which might explain it. But she wasn't killed on that spot, so I still don't readily see the connection. In any event, I've worked in that courthouse for 7 yrs and haven't seen or felt anything. I think an episode of Ghost Hunters was filmed there late one night, but I haven't seen it so I honestly don't know the results.

Come on, none o' the rest o' you motherfuckers has any local occult lore to share?

[BillyG]

Oh I have plenty.

Patterson Road. This is about 10 minutes from where I lived starting in 5th grade. It's a long, creepy, poorly kept road. Anytime there is a decent rain it floods, and the road is shut off. It has no lights, and each side of the road is covered in dense forest. There are two creeks that run across the road, with a small bridge at each. If you stop on the second bridge and turn off the car there will be knocking on your car. Not just car settling noises, but real knock knock knock LET ME IN knocking. There is also a graveyard from the mid 1800's off the road in the forest. It's treacherous as fuck, filled with all kinds of animals, snakes, not to mention the fact it's a wild ass forest area. The area was previously the town of Addicks, but was taken over in the 1920/1930s by what would eventually be the Corps of Engineers to make a flood control reservoir. The only remaining building is a church at the corner of Highway 6 and Park Row. Everything else was destroyed. You can also see in a few areas off Patterson roads that go to nowhere. That start and stop in the middle of the forest or in one of the few clearings at each end of the road.

Let me tell you. Do not go to this graveyard. Creepy as fuck. And it's not the kind of terrain you want to go crawling through. Stupid high school kids do stupid high school things!

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=patter...N&hl=en&tab=wl

[BillyG]

Jefferson Davis Hospital. Now artists lofts right outside downtown Houston. If you ask me, anyone living there is a fucking lunatic. There is a ton of info on Jeff Davis online, so feel free to search around for any of the million articles. It was completed in 1924. But it's named after a Civil War figure you say. Oh yes. Did I mention it had been a graveyard? Twice? The majority of the bodies coming from soldiers during the Civil War (Texas was pretty much incognito during the Civil War fighting, but we had hospitals that functioned so people came here for treatment) and also many people buried there died of yellow fever. There is also the belief that the area was a Puritan settlement as early as the 1600s and that plague hit the settlement and bodies were tossed here because it was outside of the city (and outside of the city is lulz if you look at a map of Houston now).

So, the place was also considered haunted. There have been many investigations at Jeff Davis. The really scary stuff don't include ghosts. Before being renovated Jeff Davis was a beacon for homeless, drug addicts, drug dealers. As I said before, it's literally right across the freeway from downtown Houston. It had a roof that kept the sun off the homeless. Addicts could come here and use, dealers could come here and sale, and despite being just a couple blocks from HPD HQ no cop was going to fuck with them.

Oh, until some kids got killed. Jeff Davis was an obvious attraction for any teens on a boring Saturday night. HPD made it quite obvious to the middle class kids that Jeff Davis was not a place to be. Lots of kids didn't listen. And a few kids were killed there. This isn't an urban legend, but pure fact. They wanted to explore, and ended up killed by a homeless drug addict. I'm sure if you're interested in the whole story you can Google some Houston Chronicle stories from it.

So yea, artists lofts now. Big, pretty, in a trendy area of town. Built on the bodies of people from as early as the 1600s to the late 1990s.

[Nathan]

http://www.forgottenoh.com/Counties/...erycounty.html

[IggytheBorg]

Knew the texans wouldn't let me down.

[Lisa]

Hence the saying, "Don't Mess With Texas". They'll build apartments on top of your ass.

[Abraham Smashington]

[Lisa]

(*Poltergeistfistbump*)

[Abraham Smashington]

Man Jo Beth was hot in that flick.

[Timothy225]

The Atco Ghost -

In the town of Atco, off of Burnt Mill Road, on a dead end street, legend tells of a small ball playing with a basketball he received as a present at night. A drunk driver hits and kills the boy and tries to escape. However, it being a dead end road, the driver has to turn around and pass the corpse of the boy he just killed.

Story goes that if you drive up around midnight on that street, when you get to the end of the road, do a u-turn and flash your headlights in a certain area of the street. The child's ghost will appear, crossing the street and dribbling his basketball.<object height="385" width="480">

Oh, and to throw in some mood when reading this thread:
<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/o6T0ZnBnQUQ?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="385" width="480"></object>

[BillyG]

Former 101 KLOL Studio

Rock 101 KLOL was the legendary Houston rock station. Well, until Clear Channel bought them, continually castrated them and their playlists, and eventually turned it into a Latino station without any notice leaving Houston with exactly ZERO true rock stations and 17 Latino stations. Bitter? Nooo not me.

The original 101 KLOL studio was in a house in Montrose, one of the coolest neighborhoods in Houston. It was long claimed to be haunted, even before the studio took over the house. DJs often claimed seeing ghosts and experiencing paranormal activity in the home. Mishaps on air were often explained with a wave of the hand and "well you know how it is living with ghosts" joke. One year a local newscaster did a round of Houston Haunts leading up to Halloween. Of course, being the ghost obsessed 10 year old I was (still am) I watched it every day.

It started off typical enough. Interviews with the DJ's about bumps in the night, mics cutting off, cords being unplugged, typical but explainable things. The cameraman was set up in the studio interviewing one of the DJ's, and the newscaster was standing there with the mic. The newscasters mic cut off, and the sound crews bag that was sitting in front of the camera on the DJ's desk went flying off and into the wall. Could it have been trickery? Of course. But everyone was in shock. The sound guy ran over and grabbed his bag to check it out.

Everyone in shock decided to move the interview downstairs in the lobby, lest they piss off the ghost further. The DJ was not shocked. They stepped outside and were going to use the elevator. An elevator had been added long before to make moving equipment upstairs to the studio easier. When the DJ started to head for the elevator the doors opened wide for everyone.

The interview continued downstairs. This interview was done on Channel 13 KTRK. I can't access Youtube at home, but if anyone wants to search go for it. Again there is info about this haunting online.

[BillyG]

Woman Hollering Creek

This creek is outside of San Antonio. Woman Hollering is not a nickname, it is the official, blessed by the State of Texas name. It's a fairly large creek, and during a heavy rain might be considered a small river. Long ago when Texas was fighting for independence it was a place of MURDER!!!!! (insert evil laugh)

The legend is that a woman that escaped Mexico and the oppression of one General Santa Anna was thrilled to be in Texas, and away from the immediate power of the Mexican Napoleon. When word came up from Gonzales that Santa Anna had just wiped out the town for not turning in their cannon used to fend off Indian attacks the woman panicked. She was sure that Texas would not become independent and Mexico would continue to rule. Her children could not live to know the oppression of Santa Anna's military regime. Before the Mexican army could arrive in San Antonio she took her children down to the creek that supplied their farm with water.

You can guess what happened next. Water - 2. Babies - 0. After the defeat in San Antonio she believed she did the right thing. Texas would surely fall under Mexican rule forever. Of course, she didn't take into account one badass motherfucker by the name of Sam Houston. When word reached San Antonio that Houston had a cross dressing Mexican general surrendering to him despite being shot and sitting under a tree the woman knew she had been wrong. Texas was free.

And she killed herself at the creek where she killed her babies. Now she walks the creeks crying out for her missing children. I recommend stopping at the creek and walking down to the banks at night and listen for the crying out by a Mexican lady for her little mijas.

(seriously love this thread)