Folklore Profile: The Lake Superior God of the Waters (AKA: The Great Lakes Merman)

December 01, 2020 / adam benedict

It is believed that there are upwards of 6,000+ shipwrecks within the five lakes known as Superior, Huron, Michigan, Erie, and Ontario. Their beds have become the final resting place for an estimated 30,000+ mariners, many of which have never been recovered. The sheer number of souls that have been lost within these waters can easily get one thinking of the possibility that there may be something more going on within these lakes than originally thought. That there may be a force at work under the water that decides the fate of those who dare to interact with it. Something magical, something supernatural, something Godlike. Something, as crazy as it is to believe, like a Merman.

2 Likes

categories / water, 2020
tags / lake superior, mermaid, merman, great lakes, venant st. germain, manitou, canada, minnesota, north dakota, 1700s, 1800s, ojibwe

Missing Profile: U.P. and Vanished

November 01, 2020 / adam benedict

While nobody ever wants a case involving a missing individual to grow cold and go unsolved, it must be recognized that there is something inherently fascinating about the ones that do eventually get designated as such. To know that there is an individual out there who has remained missing regardless of the consistent efforts made by multiple people and agencies to find them and bring them home, well, it’s just downright spooky and unsettling. What happened to these people and where did they go? Did some choose to vanish and start a new life somewhere else? Or did they meet a tragic end at the hands of some vile individual? Only the missing knows the truth.

1 Likes

categories / land, 2020
tags / missing children, michigan, wisconsin, menominee iron range, commonwealth, florence county, keweenaw county, allouez, missing, upper peninsula

Folklore Profile: The Mud Bay Ghost of Door County

August 01, 2020 / adam benedict

What did Mr. Cady and Mr. Peterson encounter that day on the 23rd of March, 1887, was it truly a ghost as they believed? Could it really have been the spiritual echo of an old French logger from back in the day who died nearly a century before? Or could this have been a perfect storm of random occurrences that made a run of the mill encounter between strangers ultimately seem supernatural?

1 Likes

categories / 2020, land
tags / folklore, ghost, door county, wisconsin, mud bay, moonlight bay

Folklore Profile: The Fond du Lac County Night Rider

July 03, 2020 / adam benedict

Originally thinking the sound was coming from the sky above, John looked all around for the source but was unable to find one. As the noise continued to grow louder, the young man stood motionless and focused his hearing on the direction in which he believed it was coming from. Not long after doing so, he discovered that the sound appeared to be moving up the very path he had just walked. In an instant after that realization, everything he had ever heard about The Night Rider flooded back into his head.

3 Likes

categories / 2020, land, air
tags / fond du lac county, wisconsin, folklore, ghost, night rider, thunderbird, alien, infrasound

Cryptid Profile: The Mysterious Monster of Elkhart Lake

May 01, 2020 / adam benedict

Way back in the 1800s and well into the early 1900s, Wisconsin offered some of the nations best lakeside resorts outside of those on the coasts. Many historically recognized families of wealth and power, as well as many infamous mobsters and crime bosses, flocked to Wisconsin in order to relax, fish, swim, camp, hunt, and of course, spot a lake monster or two. You know, the typical stuff one does while on a vacation.

1 Likes

categories / 2020, water
tags / wisconsin, elkhart lake, Sheboygan County, charles e brown

Folklore Profile: The Murdered Ghost of Blanche Montgomery

April 07, 2020 / adam benedict

In 1904, in a community located halfway between the towns of Warrens and Scott, both of which are located within Monroe County, WI, an abandoned farmhouse began to exhibit multiple forms of strange phenomena.

Some residents in the area reported seeing odd lights emanating through the broken windows late at night, while others claim to have heard spine-tingling sounds echoing throughout the empty dwelling. Some even went as far as to state that upon investigating the bizarre lights and sounds, they had witnessed the nearly full human form of a ghostly woman running through the home.

2 Likes

categories / land, 2020
tags / wisconsin, la crosse, waupun, monroe county, ghost, samuel montgomery, blanche montgomery, warrens, supreme court, folklore

Folklore Profile: The Monster of Lake Michigan

March 01, 2020 / adam benedict

“…that famous “sea serpent” has bobbed up in Lake Michigan. ‘We were about four miles off shore,’ said Capt. G.E. Stufflebeam of the S.S. Theodore Roosevelt, Friday night, ‘when Donald Steele, the lookout saw it.’ ‘I ordered two floodlights thrown on the creature, and there he was wriggling and twisting around and going faster than the ship. We kept it in sight for five minutes. The passengers on deck cried out, ‘what is it,’ but I didn’t know nor did H.J. Cook, former steamship line official who was with me. ‘It flipped its tail and the creature - about 60 feet long - started toward Benton Harbor, Mich.’ That’s Captain Stufflebeam’s story and he said he’ll stick to it…”

3 Likes

categories / water, 2020
tags / wisconsin, illinois, chicago, milwaukee, lake michigan, charles e brown, cape coral, florida, shark

Cryptid Profile: The South Skunk River Monster Battle of 1884

February 01, 2020 / adam benedict

Spotted roughly a mile away from the farm, one of the men spotted what appeared to be the back of a large creature slowly moving through the water. Immediately recognizing that what he was witnessing was not a normal animal, the lone gunman shouted for every available man to hurry towards his location. With rifles loaded and aim taken, several men fired multiple shots at the creatures back as it moved slowly through the water. Yet after the smoke had cleared, it was apparent that none of the shots had managed to pierce the thick skin of the creature. What it did do though, was cause the large creature to change direction and move slowly towards the bank of the river. The same bank in which they were all standing.

2 Likes

categories / land, water, 2020
tags / iowa, skunk river, 1800s, oskaloosa, the goldfinch, al swalm

Folklore Profile: The Mini Mastodons of Wisconsin

January 03, 2020 / adam benedict

What if everything we know about the Mastodon was true just up until the end when it is believed to have gone extinct? Would people be able to accept that? Maybe they didn’t go extinct nearly 110 centuries ago as scientists believe. Maybe they changed with the times and kept on evolving to bypass their fate. Is it possible that they were able to change so much, that they literally slipped into the cracks of our world and disappeared into the unknown?

6 Likes

categories / land, 2020
tags / folklore, wisconsin, mastodon, boaz, the great depression, anderson mills, richland center, mini mastodon

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