Here's a weird thing about me:
I simultaneously love and hate scary stories. As a kid, I watched the entirety of The Sixth Sense with a hat over my eyes, and that's THE SIXTH SENSE (I've since been told it's not actually scary). My friends still make fun of me for the time I jump-screamed during the Flushed Away trailer, which, if you're not familiar, is 100% a kid's movie about a rat that gets flushed down a toilet. I just re-watched the trailer and cannot figure out for the life of me what was so scary back in '06.
TLDR: I'm an absolute baby.
But like I said, I also happen to adore scary stories.
Even though I can barely sit through a scary movie, I delight in having them summarized to me (just this morning, my husband walked me through the entire plot of Barbarian, and I was RIVETED). It's odd, but I love creepy historical factoids and genuinely enjoy visiting cemeteries, despite my ~sensitivities.~
So when I asked the BuzzFeed Community to share the local legend, dark secret, or old lore of where they grew up, I was beyond excited to read so many spooky stories.
And now without further ado, please enjoy a sampling of those submissions with 13 of the most spine-chilling stories below.
(And at the end, I've included four more whimsical factoids to cleanse your pallet in case you're anything like me, i.e., a total scaredy cat.)
1."I grew up in a small town, the Pine Barrens, home to the infamous Jersey Devil. The legend goes that the Devil was the 13th son of the Leeds family. When he was born, the mother had had enough of children and cried, 'Curse this child to the devil!' The baby sprouted wings, a tail, and hooves and flew out the chimney, forever to haunt those who were lost in the Pine Barrens."
"It wasn't unusual as a kid to go looking for the Devil with your friends. I can't say we ever met him, but we did find the Leeds family graves. Of course, large parts of that area are named after them. Still, it's a fun area if you like spooky."
2."The Haunted House with the Black Window in my hometown of Halifax, NS (Canada). Every time the windowpane is replaced in this old haunted mansion, it automatically turns black and opaque. There are two theories shared on the streets of Halifax..."
3."The most haunted restaurant in the country (USA) is a short drive from my hometown — Ashley’s Tavern in Rockledge, FL. There are tons of reports of seeing a young woman, believed to be the 1934 murder victim Ethel Allen from Cocoa, in the bathroom. People feel something push them as they go down the stairs. Music plays randomly. Glasses move or break. Ghostly figures appear in photos. Luckily, it’s a protected site, and it is a damn good place to eat. It’s practically on the railroad tracks, so the whole place shakes when trains pass. Really feels like what you want out of your haunted sites."
4."When I was a kid, we played at Hillside Park in Andover, NJ. It had the typical playground equipment, tennis courts, and a two-story banquet hall that hosted weddings, Halloween Balls, etc. There were also old, dilapidated cabins out in the woods of the park. It was a great place for kids to spend the days exploring."
"As an adult, I now know Hillside Park used to be Camp Nordland, a resort owned and operated by Nazi Sympathizers to promote their values. Also, the father of my fifth-grade teacher, Mrs. Roseman, helped close it down."
—Steven, 53, Jacksonville, FL
5."St. Francisville, IL, is a tiny farming community right on the border of IL and IN. There is a beautiful historic railroad trestle called the Wabash Cannonball Bridge. Today, it has been converted to car traffic, and it's creepy enough to drive over the rickety structure. Legend says that if drivers go to the bridge at midnight, turn off all car lights, and honk the horn three times, a floating purple head will appear somewhere on the bridge or in the rearview mirror. Thus, the legendary name Purple Head Bridge."
6."I lived in Freeport, IL, during the horrible polio epidemics of the mid and late 1940s. The rumor was that eating green apples and drinking ice water caused polio. My husband grew up in Marin County, CA. The rumor there was that eating cherries and drinking cold milk caused polio."
—Anonymous, 83, Alabama
7."Belle Gunness was a local Norwegian farmer in LaPorte, IN. She advertised for help on her farm, preferring men without close family ties. She murdered these men and stole their belongings. She was discovered when a brother of one of these men came looking for him. Her home burned down, and it is thought that she escaped to California."
"Upon excavating after the fire, numerous children's and male skeletons were found buried on the property."
—Anonymous
8."I'm from a small town in New Jersey called Paulsboro, and there is a house on Beacon Avenue completely COVERED in statues. Literally, cheek to cheek, with a huge Neptune statue in the front. The lore here is that law enforcement completely dug up the yard before all the statues were added. In 2002, the front yard was dug up while authorities searched for the brothers' 82-year-old mother, Ethel, who had disappeared. The cops believe the ill woman died of natural causes, but her body was never found. Meanwhile, her social security checks were still being cashed by the twin brothers, so naturally, people assumed they killed her. Some say she haunts the grounds, and many people were told as children never to walk past the house or they would immediately feel sick, disoriented, etc."
9."One from the UK here. The legend goes that an underground tunnel leads out from the basem*nt of one of the pubs to the forest. A former landlord killed his boyfriend and took him out that way to be buried. It's often added that a passing scout troop offered to help with the digging, unaware of what the hole would be for."
10."I'm from Crenshaw County, Alabama, and we have Mary Daniels Bridge in Honorville. She was supposedly a witch and drove off the bridge either with her baby or because her baby died. Allegedly, you can hear a baby cry if you stop on the bridge at night, but it could just be a bobcat cry, considering the area it's in. There is a cheap documentary about it as well."
(I think this might be the documentary??)
11."Bellevue is a small town halfway between Toledo and Cleveland, Ohio, known as a historic railroad town. There is a large railyard there, and growing up in the 80's, you would hear about a kid that would go missing every so often. The rumors were that it was a group of murderous hobos, transient train hoppers, who would snatch up children as their trains were parked in the railyard. Since the trains were only parked for a short time, the hobos would take the children on the trains, and they would be gone forever."
"The legend was that as some of the older hobos died, they would train some of the children to be hobos as they aged, replacing their numbers. Someone always knew someone who knew someone who knew the kid that was supposedly taken. But it never seemed to happen to any we actually knew.
So maybe it was just a scary story started by grown-ups to keep us kids away from the train tracks? Hmmmm."
—Matt, 50
12."The pirate Jean Lafitte frequented our local waterways and buried hidden treasure on Contraband Bayou, which runs through town! A prominent founding member of Lake Charles suspected his wife was having an affair with Jean Lafitte. The wife was shot by her husband over the alleged affair, but her life was saved when her brooch stopped the bullet. The husband ran off and was never heard from again."
"To celebrate this local legend, a pirate-themed festival called Contraband Days, later renamed the Louisiana Pirate Festival, has been held for the past 66 years. The festival kicks off with a local group of pirates—yes, actual people dressed like pirates—taking over the city and making the mayor walk the plank into the lake. The festival usually lasts 1-2 weeks and includes a carnival, local food vendors, live music, and entertainment, concluding with a fireworks show on closing weekend."
—Anonymous, Lake Charles, LA
13."Back in the 80s, there was a circus in town. They were using their elephant to help raise the big top when it hit an electrical line. It electrocuted the elephant, which caused him to fall on his trainer and also kill him. The elephant was so big that they decided to bury him where he was, behind the Piggly Wiggly, which is still operating today."
And now, four ever-so-slightly less disturbing pieces of local lore for my fellow macabre enthusiasts with sensitive souls...
14."In my small town of Lajitas, Texas, the mayor is a beer-drinking goat named Clay Henry. He also takes bribes. He was actually elected mayor."
15."In my neighborhood in Texas, the first thing I learned after moving was how HEB (a grocery store) stood for Howard Edward Butt."
16."The town where I grew up has a cryptid that is a giant turtle. It was seen in the late 1940s and was supposedly as large as a dining room table with a head as big as a child's. It was supposedly covered by newspapers in Chicago at the time. Due to this, my town's nickname is 'Turtle Town USA.' We also have a fair called 'Turtle Days' each year."
—Anonymous,Churubusco, Indiana
17."In my town, there was a phantom bunny-cat mix. It would hop around through the neighborhoods, spooking people. You couldn't tell if it was a bunny or a cat. It was a weird hybrid that had us all talking."
Alright, those are the local lore stories for today, folks! While you're here, please share any of your own hometown lore in the comments, or if you would prefer to stay anonymous, you can submit your story via this Google Form. Your responses could be featured in a BuzzFeed Community post!
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and clarity.
