Detroit & Michigan myths, fables and legends

[Darknight]

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!

[Danny]

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

[Darknight]

YES!!!!!!

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

[DetroitPlanner]

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

[Darknight]

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!

[mikefmich]

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

[Dan Wesson]

Howzabout Jimmy Hoffa?

[Dan Wesson]

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

[TKshreve]

Then there's the tale of Turdy McButtDart BoogerBallz.

You may need to dig pretty deep on that one.

[rb336]

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

[JBMcB]

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

[7miledog]

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."

[GP For Life]

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

[401don]

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.

[Kathleen]

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

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

[NickCharles]

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

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

[Jimaz]

Great topic.

WeirdMichigan.com

[JBMcB]

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

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.

[compn]

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'

[compn]

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

[mkhopper]

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.

[PeachLaser]

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

[Roq]

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/

[Dan Wesson]

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

[warsaw7]

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?