Definition of a legend: a nonhistorical or unverifiable story handed down by
tradition from earlier times and popularly accepted as historical.
What is an urban legend? Urban legends are incredible
stories – sometimes scary, sometimes funny – which
have a tantalizing bit of plausibility to them. Urban
legends contain many folkloric elements and they spread
quickly through a community or society. The tales are
usually told dramatically, as if they are true stories that
have happened to a real people, although they may in
fact be fictional. Local touches are often added to the
legend. A storyteller might say: “This really happened
last year to my cousin’s friend in Chicago.” Urban legends
often carry a warning or have some significance that
motivates the community in preserving and propagating
it. For example, the Hook Man story (see below) is often
used to warn teenagers against parking in the local
Lover’s Lane.
Shoe Tree-Belding, MI
At the edge of a farmer's field just south of Belding, hundreds of
pairs of shoes hang like fruit from the tree.
Legend has it that a young boy who worked the field during the
Depression went without shoes for several winters and lost his feet
to frostbite. Infection set in, killing him while he was still in his
teens. Before he died, he cursed the fact that such a basic necessity
didn't grow on trees. On the first anniversary of his death, a pair
appeared on one of the low hanging branches.
Since then, every year, more and more shoes have appeared on the
tree. It's said that his ghost can be seen each night as the sun sets,
watching over his crop of shoes.
I lived in Ionia for some time. It's a nice
town with an adorable history. This
description conflicts however with that of
West Washington street. Which is where I
lived. On which I endured in a tall yellow
house that may be home to some 200
individuals.
Each very active and some even are
demonic. The most active ghost being a
young civil war veteran who whispers and
shouts ''get out'' nonstop and a demon who
loved to create chaos inside the household.
The most scary thing though is a persistent hammering at the bottom stair of the
staircase to the upper bedrooms. It started when I nearly broke my toe on a nail on that
very step. My dad said he would hammer it in for me.
That very night I heard a hammering. It went on all night. The next morning at
breakfast my dad asked me what the hammering noise was. Everybody in house was
accounted for including all pets. The most logical explanation being my uncle who
lived there and who passed away almost exactly a year ago to that date.
The hammering sounded every night up to and including the night we moved out.
Whites Bridge
Superstation:
Make a wish.
Hold your breath
until you reach
the end of the
bridge, your wish
will come true.
Minniehaha aka Mini-mini Haha aka Minnie Haas
I don't remember much of the story now but where I grew up in
Ionia, Michigan we had a haunted graveyard and the lady who
haunted it was called Mini Ha-Ha. There are tales of bleeding
statues and ghosts and goblins all around that area where the
cemetery, called Highlands Cemetery, sits at the top of a hill.
When I and my husband grew up in Ionia it wasn't nothing to
enter a conversation with our friends on the going's on in that
cemetery the night before. Most of the stories were actually
thought to be true by the locals. I know you never got caught going
into that graveyard at night for sure. I've included a site that I
found on the web that has some into about her but you can get
more from the Ionia Library there. I'm sure no one else would have
a story like this one so you could abridge it by making it a different
place and the names different a bit and then it would be your own
tale.
Minnie
Haas
1853-1932
Michigan Reformatory ,Wall Street, Ionia, MI
And I wish someone would have told me that the
Michigan Reformatory was haunted when they
handed me my cell assignment. For example, on
back of the slip of paper reading, “I-4, cell 7,” I wish
there could have been the following summary of
what was about to come: You’re going to hear a soft
trombone playing at night on the small, tree-lined
knoll across the parking lot. And when you take
that late night job pushing laundry carts down to
the quartermaster, along that long, dark “execution
walk” hallway, you’re going to see Sonny through
the window of the door in the pitch-black waiting
room of Health Services. He’ll be sitting in a soft
glow of his own post-life energy with his head on
backwards, his trombone lying on the floor. None
of the other three guys you work with will see him,
of course.
Belding Library, Belding
In the children's section of
the library, people have
reported hearing a ghost of a
girl laughing, books fall off
the shelves, and some people
even have felt like a spirit
had wanted them out of the
building. They would get an
uneasy feeling.
Lowell, Mi
A poor farmer and his wife were expecting their 5th child. The
farmer knew that he and his wife could not provide for this
child because crops had been bad that year and he could
barely feed his family of six.
When the wife went into labor the farmer called for the doctor.
Unknown to the wife, the farmer and the doctor had already
made arrangements to get ride of the baby. Their plan was to
take the baby from the room immediately after the delivery
and tell the wife that the baby died during birth.
When he left the farmhouse that night, the doctor took the
baby to a nearby covered bridge and dropped him over the
side. The wife never found out about what the farmer and the
doctor had done.
It is said that on a cloudless night during a full moon you drive
your car across Fallsburg Bridge and park it in the center. Get
our of your car and sprinkle baby powder in a circle around
your it. Then get back in your car and turn the engine and the
lights off for 10 minutes. You will hear the soft sound of a baby
crying. When you get out of your car there will be baby
footprints in the circle of powder.
Oakhill Cemetery is located in
Section 24 on Yeomans Street in
Ionia. This cemetery is Ionia's
first cemetery. Many of Ionia
County's founders are buried
here. There are over 1,400
transcribed burials for this
cemetery from the early
1800's. In addition, there are
many more unmarked burials.
Years ago, there was an
accident at Oak Hill Cemetery.
Five kids went in at night-no
one knows why. One of them
urged the others to leave
several times but they did not
listen. By 3 am, four were dead.
The last kid survived in the
scatter but refused to explain
what had happened or how
he’d survived. On the first
Saturday of every month
between 2 and 3 am- it is
rumored four kids will walk to
the gate and beckon you to
guide you safely through.
Legendary Dogman seen in Ottawa County?
Several times in the past decade, West Michigan newspapers have reported
on a strange canine-like creature people claim to have seen in woodlands
— not the legendary Chubacabra, but the Michigan Dogman.
Some eyewitnesses are convinced they have seen it — like one
man who posted his opinion on an Internet message board.
“If you also live anywhere north of Grand Rapids in Michigan,
how can you not know about the Dogman? It is one of the
largest legends in the area and the story has been around for
years,” he wrote. “It seems to me it is more than just a huge
fantasy.”
The Dogman is reported to have a canine-like head, humanlike body, reflective eyes and walks upright.
According to one Ottawa County resident, a creature fitting the
description of the Dogman appeared in Grand Haven from
1993-94. “Ben,” who was a young teenager at the time, claims to
have seen the creature not once, but three times. He believes
each time he was seeing a different creature, in what could have
been a pack taking refuge in a Grand Haven Township park.
In 1993, after dark, Ben was hiking the trails in Hofma Nature
Preserve with as many as four friends when, passing the float
bridge near the center of the preserve, they heard a sound to
their right. Ben spied what resembled a dog standing behind a
tree on a ridge above, approximately 70 feet away.
“I
thought it was just a dog walking along, then it stood up on its
hind legs,” Ben said. “One of its feet gripped a branch on the tree.
Our eyes met and we just stared at each other for about five
minutes, then it ran off.”
According to Ben, the second encounter occurred in December that
same year in the driveway of his family’s home on Lakeshore Drive.
Ben went outdoors in the cold to start his mother’s car.
“I only made it as far as the front bumper of the car,” he said.
The creature then rose up from behind the vehicle.
“It stood up on its hind legs, it had yellow eyes,” he explained. “I’m 6
foot, 8 inches tall, and it was staring down at me. I froze and began
crying out.”
The creature took three incredible leaps and disappeared into the
brush as Ben's family rushed out to the driveway.
According to Ben, his third encounter with the creature took place in
1994 when he and a cousin were walking after dark in the direction of the
beach from Lakeshore Drive along the edges of dunes. As the two
watched a deer standing in a clearing, an enormous dog-like creature
rapidly snatched the animal and carried it off into the brush.
“We went down to the spot, and you could see where the deer tracks
ended,” Ben said. “They vanished, leaving only tracks from that thing.”
There is also a tale that in early 1994 a car on Lakeshore Drive was
involved in a collision with a large animal. It is said the occupants of the
vehicle were uninjured and police determined it was a deer strike. The
tale includes a witness that claimed gray fur covered the grill of the
wrecked vehicle, but no blood or animal carcass was found. It was said
the driver couldn’t explain what he hit.
As fantastic as the tales are, area folks have told similar stories for more
than 50 years.
One of merit is from Robert Fortney, who may have encountered
the beast as he stood on the banks of the Muskegon River in 1938. It
was reported that a large black “dog” reared up on its hind legs and
stared at Fortney, who shot at the creature, which then fled.
“I wouldn’t want to call it a Dogman,” he reportedly said, but relayed
that he did not know what to call the canine that walked like a man.
What many have pointed to as the best evidence supporting the
existence of a Dogman was the Gable film, a video transfer of what
was claimed to be a mid-1970s home movie showing the creature.
However, the film was proven to be fake in 2010 — even its creators
admittedit was a hoax.
Dogman in Grand Haven? It's hard to imagine, but at least it keeps
the legend alive and barking.