Detroit & Michigan myths, fables and legends

I am looking for a source or sources [[or just your own knowledge) for Detroit [[and Michigan as a whole, in fact) myths, legends, folklore, tall-tales and whatnot. From all over the state - the Mitten, the UP, legends from the Great Lakes. Things that are true, fiction, inspired by truth, even published stories set in Michigan.



I am writing a story with a supernatural thread running through it, set in Michigan, and I want to use as much of the local legends as I can possibly get in there, even if it is just a small throw-away comment. I'm not particular about where these myths come from - Native American, Revolution, Civil War, gangsters, unions, car manufacturers. They can even be purely historical things - like the Edmund Fitzgerald - which have a sort of mythological, legendary quality to them.



I'd like to know about them, please - post them here, with a link to something I can read online if you can find it.



Thanks in advance for any help!

How about the story of Nain Rouge! It really haunt Detroiters and curse them all!

YES!!!!!!

Thank you! That is JUST the sort of thing I was looking for!

The purple gang and whiskey runners were legendary, but I am not sure thats what you mean.

No, that is also the kind of thing I want - I have some references to the Purple Gang and the prohibition-era smuggling etc. on my docket to read. Thank you!

Knock-knock road, & Luke the Spook. Former in Wayne Co. [[Grosse Pte) later in Macomb Co.

Howzabout Jimmy Hoffa?

I remember when I met the Boogie Man one night on Cody St 48212....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VaXTlQm_JA

Then there's the tale of Turdy McButtDart BoogerBallz.

You may need to dig pretty deep on that one.

There was a "deer man" up north - a man with antlers seen running next to cars

Check out any of the old sanitariums and you'll find ghost stories. There was one in Pontiac, and on Michigan Ave near Garden City, and the famous Northville Regional Psychiatric Hospital as well.

I can't think of any particularly popular legends in the area - there are books of Michigan based ghost stories, but most are of the typical haunted-lighthouse or haunted-hospital variety.

Probably the closest thing to a real horror-story style legend is the family that was murdered in their cabin while on vacation up in Good Hart. The one suspect in the case committed suicide without admitting guilt. Happened in the late 60's, still unsolved.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robison_family_murders

How about the legend that a Department of Corrections warden let some Purple Gang inmates out to conduct a hit on a state senator in 1945.


http://ninjapundit.blogspot.com/2013...or-warren.html

"In 1945 rising Michigan senator Warren Hooper was gruesomely gunned down in his car in gangland style characteristic of the notorious Purple Gang. State power broker Frank Donald McKay was the suspected of ordering the hit, but not until the 1985 was evidence uncovered that showed that McKay had sent an order with the help of the prison warden who released gang members from prison long enough to do the job.

The Purples were a Jewish gang with roots in Eastern European immigrants that was dominant in the liquor racket and were responsible for some 500 murders including the St Valentines Massacre and suspected in the Lindbergh kidnapping. Investigators determined that Hooper was to testify in a grand jury about corruption in the state government, They focused on state power broker Frank Donald McKay who was known to take care of both his friends and his enemies, and had connections with the gang. Four men were convicted of conspiracy to commit murder in August of 1945 and sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison each, but they were in prison at the time. McKay and no one was ever charged with the actual murder of Hooper."

http://www.grossepointenews.com/Arti...oup-Garou.html

There is the legend of whether Ty Cobb really killed a man near Tiger Stadium. He and his wife were attacked by 3 men and Cobb and his biographer have changed the story several times about whether Cobb beat one guy to death with the butt of his gun after suffering a knife wound.

Check out Marie Hamlin's Legends of Le Detroit....

http://books.google.com/books/about/...d=eFw6AAAAMAAJ

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Originally Posted by JBMcB

Probably the closest thing to a real horror-story style legend is the family that was murdered in their cabin while on vacation up in Good Hart. The one suspect in the case committed suicide without admitting guilt. Happened in the late 60's, still unsolved.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robison_family_murders

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I'm glad to see that someone else remembers that story, one of the strangest Michigan mysteries of which I know.

Great topic.

WeirdMichigan.com

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Originally Posted by NickCharles

I'm glad to see that someone else remembers that story, one of the strangest Michigan mysteries of which I know.

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My family had been renting a cabin in Good Hart from a friend since the 50's. My grandparents were up there around the time of the murders. They would talk about it from time to time.

the ole urban legend about not flashing your lights at cars.

http://www.snopes.com/crime/gangs/lightsout.asp
links to a detroitnews article from 1998 about it.

a lot of stories seemed to go something like 'my cousin's friend...'
dont forget to put in 'i swear its true' or 'swear to god'

henry ford built an entire middle-class city in the middle of the jungle in brazil.
it didnt work out too well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fordlândia

Wasn't there an old story about an older cemetery in Farmington? Where if you drove in and stopped in a certain area at night, you would eventually start slowly rolling as if being pushed out.

Stories about the "tunnels" beneath the old Northville Psychiatric Hospital are almost legendary. I drive past there every day and for some reason it creeps me out more now than when it was open.

This may fall more into the theoretical realm than legend, but if you are writing a supernatural story then this might fit right in. I came across this while researching Carolina Bays and the theories behind them. This one seems most plausible to me. This theory states that a comet hit where the Saginaw Manifold is located today. The 'splatter' from this impact formed the tens of thousands of Carolina Bays around the Southeastern US.

Here's a link to this theory... http://cintos.org/SaginawManifold/Di...ays/index.html

The old state mental asylum in Traverse City, MI is said to have a portal to hell [[under the Hippie tree). Pic of said tree:

http://www.flickriver.com/photos/jfactor1/437945434/

Let's see...

the Paulding light in da UP

Ojibwe legend of the Sleeping Bear

The ghost of Coleman Young wandering Elmwood Cemetery [[caveat: I made this one up)

Bloody Bones guarding the basement every December a few weeks before Christmas

And of course every Northern State's favorite son Paul Bunyon

The Elmwood Cemetery is the perfect place to get in the mood.

Bloody Run Creek, Dracula's Tomb and my favorite Epitaph that has stuck with me over the years,

The Reverend
Manassa J. Hickey
Killed by the Indians
1811- 1850

M1 Rail hehe! Too soon?

What about the tunnels in Grosse Ile that were operated during Prohibition?

The doll in the window of a house in Wyandotte with a red painted driveway?

Holy Shhpit! I wish I knew about this thread earlier, and now it's Halloween time. Okay. Yeah, many of us know about the Northville and Eloise Asylum tunnels and the Whitney being Haunted, but humor me as I throw out these. For starters, I should add that I've never seen an actual apparition/manifestation, but have witnessed poltergeist activity.

First off, the Easttowne Theater I once worked at was haunted [[Urban Ghosts has a posting from April of this year-shows those old, lush red chairs we often used). It was built by crafty-types in the '30's and had many sealed off basements and sub-basements [[even an inaccessible bowling alley) going down quite a Poe-like stretch into the deep earth, according to what one engineer [[who later wrote a book on the Train Station) decoded from the blueprints. Our very rational Hoosier treasurer saw apparitions in the mirrors of the theater dressing rooms. Me, it was poltergeist activity.

Many swore the 655 house a few doors down from the Wayne State Mortuary Science Building was haunted. Yeah, Children REALLY Shouldn't Play with Dead Things [[and I'm glad to say I was never a party to any of that!). I, personally, only saw a hypnagogic [[or is it pompic?) vision of some relevance.

The razed Butcherhouse on Joseph Campau and Hunt was very haunted. It was a slaughterhouse on the far reaches of Eastern Market, was a hide-out for the Purple Gang [[where they utilized that chute going down to the basement for other reasons), and later, a hang-out for the Panthers in the '70s where a fatal shoot-out with cops occurred. I've had to abbreviate this post from my previous one, otherwise, I'd go into all of the details and feelings of these locations [[including the "Beware of the Troth" warning on the basement door of the Butcherhouse).

Oh, and as laughable as it may seem, the Fairlane Towncenter was haunted. Many folks who working there swore they saw a tall, thin man in black stalking about the back of the stores, areas in back, in the veinous, shadowy corridors throughout. I never saw that, but I did witness a lot of poltergeist activity there. I'd go into the feelings one got from all of those places or all the other attached phenomenon, but I guess I over-extended my "quick-post". I should add that of the four I mention, only the Fairlane Towncenter remains, for now.....

Oh, really quick. I still recall how the Theater was in the day, and when I see those pics on Urban Ghosts.............I guess all roads do lead to Silent Hill.

How about Police Chief Craig's carjacking?

My cousin told there were once wild grizzly bears living the woods of Palmer Park. My cousin was walking with two of the friends to northern wooded area of Palmer Park. My cousin told his friends that he not walk with them. Instead he went home. Later his friends went missing. Detroit police went by his house and ask some questions. He told them that he went back home while his friends walk further into the wooded forest of Palmer Park. The Police search over the northern forests of Palmer Park. There bodies were never found. But evidence of bear tracks or some other wild freak creature was found in the ground!

The DSO building is believed to be haunted by Russian pianist Ossip Gabrilowitsch, who became the musical director in 1917. Not only have visitors and employees heard unexplained footsteps and voices and felt cold spots, the apparition of Gabrilowitsch has been seen backstage and in the offices.
Detroit’s Masonic Temple has more than 1,000 rooms, plus secret passageways, hidden staircases and concealed compartments under its floors. Of course, a building like this has to have a ghost! This one’s is thought to be George D. Mason, who went bankrupt while funding its construction and, when his wife subsequently left him, committed suicide by jumping from its roof. Security guards have spotted his apparition climbing up the stairs to the roof.

Google "The Sheeny Man". Also, some epitaphs found in Elwood Cemetery might work for your project.

Check out the story of Anton Bubka, from The Leland Report, at http://www.lelandreport.com/Default....ate=10/31/2013

There were a number of reported sightings of the Pig Lady on the east side in the neighborhood around Stephens Elementary School in the late 70s and early 80s.

Ray Oyler's batting average?

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Originally Posted by G-DDT

Holy Shhpit! I wish I knew about this thread earlier, and now it's Halloween time. Okay. Yeah, many of us know about the Northville and Eloise Asylum tunnels and the Whitney being Haunted, but humor me as I throw out these. For starters, I should add that I've never seen an actual apparition/manifestation, but have witnessed poltergeist activity.

First off, the Easttowne Theater I once worked at was haunted [[Urban Ghosts has a posting from April of this year-shows those old, lush red chairs we often used). It was built by crafty-types in the '30's and had many sealed off basements and sub-basements [[even an inaccessible bowling alley) going down quite a Poe-like stretch into the deep earth, according to what one engineer [[who later wrote a book on the Train Station) decoded from the blueprints. Our very rational Hoosier treasurer saw apparitions in the mirrors of the theater dressing rooms. Me, it was poltergeist activity.

Many swore the 655 house a few doors down from the Wayne State Mortuary Science Building was haunted. Yeah, Children REALLY Shouldn't Play with Dead Things [[and I'm glad to say I was never a party to any of that!). I, personally, only saw a hypnagogic [[or is it pompic?) vision of some relevance.

The razed Butcherhouse on Joseph Campau and Hunt was very haunted. It was a slaughterhouse on the far reaches of Eastern Market, was a hide-out for the Purple Gang [[where they utilized that chute going down to the basement for other reasons), and later, a hang-out for the Panthers in the '70s where a fatal shoot-out with cops occurred. I've had to abbreviate this post from my previous one, otherwise, I'd go into all of the details and feelings of these locations [[including the "Beware of the Troth" warning on the basement door of the Butcherhouse).

Oh, and as laughable as it may seem, the Fairlane Towncenter was haunted. Many folks who working there swore they saw a tall, thin man in black stalking about the back of the stores, areas in back, in the veinous, shadowy corridors throughout. I never saw that, but I did witness a lot of poltergeist activity there. I'd go into the feelings one got from all of those places or all the other attached phenomenon, but I guess I over-extended my "quick-post". I should add that of the four I mention, only the Fairlane Towncenter remains, for now.....

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Personally I would love to hear more, this type of stuff fascinates me to no end! I want to hear stories about the Butcherhouse and Theater's creepy ass basements and such. That's the stuff you never hear about when you read urban exploration blogs or people recounting their party times.

Thousands of crude balloon bombs were launched by Japan during WWII. Only a few made it to the US, mostly to the west coast. One, however, landed and burned a barn in Farmington Hills just south of Eight Mile.

How about "knock-knock" road in Grosse Pointe Farms?

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Originally Posted by GP For Life

http://www.grossepointenews.com/Arti...oup-Garou.html

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The paw print from La Loup Garou is still on the big boulder in front of the water treatment plant at Kerby and Chalfonte [[the boulder was moved from the lake ages ago).

Isn't there a haunted house on Harsen's Island? I have a vague memory of A story about this nothing special house inland that if you start drinking beer or such in the kitchen, you will feel rage coming from the ghost.


The Farmington Hills cemetery has a spot where if you stop and put your car in neutral it will roll uphill.

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Originally Posted by Bobl

Google "The Sheeny Man". Also, some epitaphs found in Elwood Cemetery might work for your project.

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The sheeney man hit a cord. When I was young a horse and cart would go down the alley in GPP. They were also called rag men, I had zero clue that sheeny was a racist term for Jewish people All I knew then was a horse going down an alley seemed so cool.

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Originally Posted by esighed

Detroit’s Masonic Temple has more than 1,000 rooms, plus secret passageways, hidden staircases and concealed compartments under its floors. Of course, a building like this has to have a ghost! This one’s is thought to be George D. Mason, who went bankrupt while funding its construction and, when his wife subsequently left him, committed suicide by jumping from its roof. Security guards have spotted his apparition climbing up the stairs to the roof.

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Mr. Mason must have been a very spry 91 year old to climb to the top of the Masonic Temple.

The bizarre and phenomenal side of The state of Michigan.

http://www.michigansotherside.com/in...ock-knock-road

Dang, Motz, I really do want to go into this-even with the holidays. However, I tried three times to elaborate and got thwarted; so, maybe it wasn't something really to open at this time. Besides, if I'm not speaking nostalgically [[which some nihilists on discussion sites like this seem to deem it as some sort of of self-indulgent prattling-yet, than again, 'to live is to remember", as the French say), then I can't help but throw in some things that may incriminate some of the not-so-innocent participants who got me caught up in their schemes. Furthermore, it's just talking about eerie subjective experiences about phenomenon with no objectively witnessed or established basis, and the last thing I want to do is discredit myself by delving into the nitty gritty about "weird vibes", possessions, serendipitous occurrences, or other phenomenal disturbances that have occurred to me in Detroit and abroad. All I can say is I'm a Catholic of sober mind [[now), explored many realms of consciousness, I've survived a weird life, and there's way too much hanging over me to discredit me. The open mouth invites the foot. So, what am I to do? I'll get back to it another time....

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Originally Posted by G-DDT

Dang, Motz, I really do want to go into this-even with the holidays. However, I tried three times to elaborate and got thwarted; so, maybe it wasn't something really to open at this time. Besides, if I'm not speaking nostalgically [[which some nihilists on discussion sites like this seem to deem it as some sort of of self-indulgent prattling-yet, than again, 'to live is to remember", as the French say), then I can't help but throw in some things that may incriminate some of the not-so-innocent participants who got me caught up in their schemes. Furthermore, it's just talking about eerie subjective experiences about phenomenon with no objectively witnessed or established basis, and the last thing I want to do is discredit myself by delving into the nitty gritty about "weird vibes", possessions, serendipitous occurrences, or other phenomenal disturbances that have occurred to me in Detroit and abroad. All I can say is I'm a Catholic of sober mind [[now), explored many realms of consciousness, I've survived a weird life, and there's way too much hanging over me to discredit me. The open mouth invites the foot. So, what am I to do? I'll get back to it another time....

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Do it...now. :)

I am scared that once I pass,my ghost will be seen wandering the downriver area...looking for a job. :eek:

[[mopey voice) mmokay...regarding the Butcherhouse: I first went there after taking a desperate break from the Theater and being invited to a "bumpin'" party by some addict. Turns out only five other persons were there, and one of them was a D.J. I knew from Windsor. I stuck with warm cans of beer while others huffed Nitrous some kid brought. The other D.J. was taking turns on turntables or snogging on the only girl there when the Nitrous Kid wasn't all over her.

At one point, I gave in and took one hit off a balloon [[had been over 4 years since I'd touched the stuff-folks at the punk rock house were having seizures from the crud we got at Dr. F's
emporium in Inkster). The Nitrous Kid giggles and jovially goes into a story about how he first met the D.J. at an event where the D.J. and his friends beat him down and took away his tank. The D.J. stands up and says "Oh, I beat up, did I?" "Oh, yeah-giggle-you toootally kicked the cr*p out of me-giggle." says NK. "Oh, yeah. Did I do this?", and then the room goes into an odd strobe-like effect I've never seen before [[as if some paranormal editor were tampering with the frames), as this D.J. winds back and swings slowly as [[like being underwater) if he were mock punching, and gets the Kid in the stomach. As the Kid doubles over slowly in an almost mock take, the room is still strobing and everyone's face is contorted into an odd Bruegel-esque peasant cackle. "And did I do this?" says the D.J. as he brings up his knee [[slowly) and gets the Kid in the face who reels back.

I'm the first to bolt up and go "Whoa!", and everything snaps into focus. The lights are suddenly up, my Windsor friend cuts the music low, the Nitrous Kid bolts out of he room, and the other D.J. slowly sits down clutching his head saying "Wh-what just happened? D-did I do that? I Can't believe I did that. I can't believe I did that." The Nitrous Kid comes back with his white T-shirt off soaked in blood held up to his face saying in a nostril-pinched voice "You're an *ssh*le, Ma-an. You're an *ssh*le. I'm calling you *ssh*loe from now on." I run out into the other room to have a smoke with my Windsor friend. We're both trembling and agreeing that the whole vibe is whacked, off, and out-of-sorts like never before. When the junkie who invited me asks if I'll drive the kid to the Hospital, I pull a classic d*ucheb*g move and haul out of there. I was under way too much stress at the time, had mild, cheap beer on my breath, and if this wasn't a set-up, there was something all around not right.

One can chalk that up to a discreditable experience fueled by chemicals, but wait, folks, there's more.....and remember you asked for it from Tales of the Eerie and Insipid.

A few months later, some Eastside Kid who used to do security for us at the Theater acquired the house. His sober girlfriend had a screamin' freak-out alone and upstairs the first night they moved in, and we never heard from her since. Many folks felt disturbances in the mainroom [[where the D.J./"possession" occurred); one girl [[who moved to Ann Arbor to be a fashion expert-Kudos, to you, wherever you are) was down there spinning music alone when she claims she distinctly heard a voice on the headphones tell her to leave immediately. Every person who would come in the main doorway that led to the stairs going up, would feel an overwhelming urge to bolt half-way up the stairs and not look back. That supposedly is where a Panther got killed by cops in a shoot-out, but not before urgently ushering folks upstairs to safety.

Eccentricity haunted that place. A weird self-proclaimed "fruit pie the magician" type came by after a techno party with some bizarre devil totem on stick, which he left. Everyone banded together with brooms to gather the ugly thing up and toss it out the window. Corrupt cops busted the place during a private Memorial Day party and were openly threatening teenagers with violence [[right after that, there was some controversy of the guy involved with the Firehouse supposedly found dead in his room locked from the outside-or was it faked-or some shpit.) Yet, despite that, we had "Grandma" who lived across from us and went to the church nearby; she'd make us pots of food and give us words of encouragement

The worst was the basement I only went down into twice. The door was almost always locked with "Beware the Troth" spelled out in masking tape on it. The basement immediately gave anyone who went down into it the feeling the Windsor D.J. and I got that one night-all out-of-sorts-ugly-incomprehensible. The floor has poured in uneven, rough cement taking up half the originally intended height [[making one crouch a lot) and mostly near the coal chute, as if it were hiding something. The junk scattered about were like some composition in Surrealism designed to evoke desolation: an upside down Stop sign, a warped, sealed oil drum, some rusted chains, pulleys, and hooks hanging in a corner in a chamber where a loose wall had crumbled down into a pile of bricks, oh, and a discarded, battered drum kit. No one ever felt like touching anything down there. Difficult to explain it: you look at it, you just attempt to make comprehension of what should be simple to understand, but it just doesn't make sense, you feel all displaced, and anyone there just wants to leave as soon as possible. I guess that's called the "OZ effect".

There is a relatively recent "haunting" story that involves a playground slide that is supposed to glow at night. The location is hazy to me, but it is in the 12 or 13 and Gratiot area at a school or park. I guess a kid was killed on the slide in some manner and the legend just grew. I think if you grew up in Warren, SH, or Roseville in the 90s, you probably have heard of it.

Thanks so much G-DDT! I really appreciate you writing these up, I love reading personal anecdotes like this! :)

I would add a reference to the Oakland County Child Killer - it was very scary at the time. I was the in the same age range as the victims. We were all pretty freaked out.

Folks talk about the Weeping Woman of Indian Village. I know nothing about that, but...[[anecdote coming-and this one will catch in your throat) after the old punk rock house on W. Alexandrine burned down-which claimed the lives one mother cat's kittens, the guys there moved to Indian Village. The surviving mother cat developed a habit of taking loose socks from people's rooms, carrying them in her mouth like a kitten, depositing them there at the foot of the staircase, and letting out a series of mournful yowls while looking up-as if to say "Take this instead. Take this instead. Just bring my babies back."
You may cry now...

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Originally Posted by Dan Wesson

The ghost of Coleman Young wandering Elmwood Cemetery [[caveat: I made this one up)

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The ghost of Coleman Young was awaiting a bagman carrying South African Krugerrands. Legend has it that the bagman strongly resembled young Kwame.