In honor of the spirit of Halloween I figured this would be a fun thread. What are some of your favorite ghost and monsters stories around where you live? Ever go to any of them?
Ooooh, I like these! Here's legend from the Deep South that I thought was pretty creepy. It's a legend called 'The Singing River' and it goes like this: Basically, hundreds (if not thousands) of years before the Europeans arrived, there were two Indian tribes named Pascagoula and Biloxi and they were at war with each other. Why? Because the chief of the Pascagoula tribe had married the princess of the Biloxi tribe when she was already betrothed to another man! Understandably, this pissed off the Biloxi Indians so they began trying to kill the Pascagoula Indians. The couple, knowing there was no way to stem the onslaught decided to commit suicide by walking into what is now the Singing River, holding hands while, yes, singing. The whole Pascagoula tribe went in along with them, all holding hands while singing. To this day, it is said, you can still hear their singing as you traverse the river. This legend is so well-known in the Deep South that multiple authors have written stories based on the legend.
I grew up in upstate New York, just a ways up the Hudson River from Sleepy Hollow. Of course, the Catskills had plenty of local witch legends too. Thing was, though, I was never really into shivery stories. I was more likely to break into gigglesnorts than a cold sweat. I don't know why, just the way I am.
When I lived in a city (this myth was common to all), there was a story of some guy finding rats in his toilet, even though he lived on like tenth floor. The damn critters climbed up the pipes, apparently...
We have a few famous NW stories. There's Ogopogo the Okanogan Lake monster that's our version of Nessie. Bigfoot has been mentioned. The very first sighting of "flying saucers" happened over Mt Rainer. And of course there's DB Cooper's money that was found near the OR-WA border. But also there was a body found in Washington home of D.B. Cooper parachute packer. I've stayed in the tower room twice in the haunted Manresa Castle. And on one of those times there were mysterious very loud footsteps late at night in the attic over our room and the door to the attic was locked. I found this cute site with a Google search: Legends of the Pacific Northwest by 7th graders at Forest Ridge of the Sacred Heart in Seattle, Washington
I live in Puerto Rico, birthplace of el chupacabra! Puerto Rico is also a USO hotspot. (UFO's that come up out of or dive into the water) http://elbohemio.wordpress.com/list-of-uso-sightings-in-puerto-rico/
There's a couple of ghost stories around here, as you might expect from an on town in England. The two most famous though are the Woman In White who supposedly haunts a local factory where she died in a WW2 bombing raid, and the poltergeist in a local restaurant that is apparently the ghost of a previous owner who was a temperance campaigner and has haunted it since it started serving alcohol.
I live in one of the most remote, medieval and isolated counties in England, Northumberland, so of course there is a wealth of urban legends and ghost stories. The one closest to hand is just a mile away, the story of the White Woman of Creswell Castle. Apparently some nobleman who had a son and daughter, and lived in the castle unknown number of years ago. The daughter fell in love with a local lad, which her father and brother objected to. On one foggy night her lover was asked by her brother to meet him on Durage bay, to talk to him - and then the lover was murdered by the brother and was thrown into the sea. The daughter, as it happened, saw the whole thing, and in distress she ran to Creswell castle, climbed to the top and threw herself from the battlements. People say on a foggy night you can see her walking the beach, searching for the spirit of her beloved. I've just noticed you could make a great poem of this in the Anglo-Saxon alliterative style. Around the market towns of Morpeth and Alnwick there are plenty of ghost stories too, as they are both ancient trading towns. There are also plenty of books on the subject of Northumbrian ghost stories, urban legends and myths of 'wryms' or dragons.
