NationStates Jolt Archive

Okay, I'm sitting here bored, considering going to bed, and thinking about a strange story from my home town. The stories follows as such:

From my hometown, there is an eerie place. A strange place. A place of mystery. A place called the Vergas Trails.

These trails are a set of paths and trails, many branching off into the thick woods, winding, twisting, turning, meeting, and meshing together. If one is not careful, it is entirely possible to get quite lost here. Abandoned shacks and old farmhouses dot the trails, and the fields around the trails. Infact, a small, abandoned cemetery can be found in deep within the wood.

I know of three stories involving the trails, the Hairy-Man of Vergas Trails, the Eight Pointed House, and the Haunted Cemetery.

The first story, the Legend of the Hairy-Man, is easily the most well known. Everyone in my town knows of the story, however there are many incarnations from the weird to the completely irrational.

The story was first told almost fifty years ago. As it goes, a man killed several teenagers as they were out in the trails one night(Likely drinking-that's what the trails have been used for for some time). A man snuck upon them, gruesomely killing all of them, retreating into the woods, living a hermit lifestyle to this date. He let his hair grow wild and unkept, and roams the trails. Many report seeing this man to this date, some chased as he yells incoherent jargon at them.

Another incarnation of the Hairy-Man is that he killed his wife and baby child. Much of the story remains the same.

And yet another incarnation of the story rises up from the Hairy-man. Apparently, some claim that he is a Sasquatch(I cannot make this up, there are people like this, and there was an actually an article about a guy who is currently trying to find one in the woods from my school's newspaper), roaming the woods. Apparently, sighting are common among townsfolk... yet no one can seem to get a picture. It is uncertain how many "live" there, or if it is a single individual, however. Somehow, the "Hairy-Man" story, with it's human-origins, somehow got twisted(Apparently in the 60's) to a Bigfoot story.

My next story involves the Eight-pointed house. Now, rumor has it, that around 30 years ago, a Satanic cult operated within the trails, calling an eight-sided building home. I have heard from several of the teachers of the local high-school of stories about sacrificial animals found within the trails, specifically near this eight-sided house. Not to weird, I know. However, one night, a fire caught the building, setting it ablaze. As it was deep within the woods, the fire department could not reach it. The strange part: Apparently the steel bolts holding many of the wooden beams together had almost completely melted in the fire. At the time, no one could really decipher how the fire could have gotten so hot as to melt steel, yet it did.

Finally, the story of the "haunted cemetery". This cemetery is located deep within the woods, and only the most well-traveled of the trails would likely find it easily. Hidden among the woods, the cemetary stands under the trees themselves, not within any clearing at all. There are several ghost stories involving the cemetery. The most common one is the "turning headstones". As this story goes, at a certain time at night, every night, the headstones will have their face and back change. Many people have claimed to have actually seen this occur, and all of whom claim not to be lying.

Another story is of people who can be seen in the cemetery from a distance, yet slowly disappear as you get closer. As you walk away, you hear *something* from the cemetery, along the lines of people whispering to one another. Once again, there are many whom have claimed to have seen this phenomena, yet none have gotten it on film.

So, anyone have any strange/creepy/scary stories from their hometown? Anything that makes the hair stand up on your neck, per chance?

Whoa - Seangoli's topical ANECDOTE thread?

Well, not from where I live now (Dublin), but from the area around my original home town (Bamberg).

Bamberg lives in a part of Germany known as "Fränkische Schweiz", with narrow valleys and rugged hills and limestone mountaines. Being set on limestone, there are a great number of caves in the area, some of them massive and quite impressive.
The story I'm about to tell centers arond such a cave, known as Jungfernhöhle (Virgin's cave), near the village of Tiefenellern. There has been a story in that village for centuries that on moonlit nights, one can sometimes see an open carriage driving through the village, with a coachman dressed in black and wearing a big hat so nobody can see his face. Inside the carriages, young women are sitting, all of them headless. The carriage will drive through the village and then up the path that leads to the cave, where it disappears.
Needless to say, the villagers traditionally stayed away from the cave at all times.

About 100 years ago, some young men in the area decided that if there's a cave and a ghost, there must be buried treasure. So they set out to explore the cave. They were more than a little surprised at what they found : there was no treasure, but old bones. Very old human bones, actually. Most importantly, they found about 40 human skulls, mostly female as it turned out later, all shattered by a blow to the left temple, and most having had their front teeth pulled out (the teeth were later found in ceramic pots deeper in the cave). The cave was a place of ritual sacrifice in neolithic times.

The interesting bit about that story to me is how long collective memory can go back... sure, the aspects changed over time, but there still was a diffuse memory in the village that gruesome things had once happened in that cave.

Edit : Found some further information in English : http://www.showcaves.com/english/de/caves/Jungfern.html

snip

all ways the virgins that have no luck

Well, I can give you two stories, one from my home in Nevada and one from here in Japan.

For Nevada, On the University of Nevada's campus the oldest building is Morrill Hall. There's a ghost resides in the 3rd story corner office that faces Mackay Science Hall. The story behind the ghost is that in 1919 when Morrill was still a classroom building, a graduating student failed a class that was held in that room and thus would not be able to graduate that year. The story goes that the night before commencement, that student entered Morrill Hall and went to the room where he had failed and hung himself. The next morning, his body was discovered by his classmates who had assembled on Quad swinging slowly from side to side in the window overlooking the Quad. Legend has it that at night, if you look up into the window of the building, you can make out the shadow of a rope pulled taunt by a weight, swinging slowly. The one time I went to look at night, I DID see a long, thin, shadow that swung as if pulled taunt by a weight. When I went back the next day to the actual office, I couldn't find anything that could have made that shadow.

As for Japan, supposedly there is a ghost that haunts the region around where I live. According to legend, at night a taxi will be flagged down by a woman dressed in a stylish dress, but wearing a scarf wrapped around the lower half of her face. She gives the driver a place that he has never heard of before and tells him that she will give him directions. The drive goes through town, city, and village, over narrow roads, and further and further away from any place the driver knows. The woman is described as stunningly beautiful, except for not being able to see below her nose. Finally, the driver will ask about the destination just to be told that it is coming up soon. The woman will then ask the drive, "Please tell me, am I beautiful?" The driver of course adjusts the mirror when he hears the sound of the scarf being removed... just to see the large gapping hole that runs from her neck up to her nose. Out of the bloody hole comes the mocking question, "Well, am I beautiful? Am I?"

Right about then with the driver obviously distracted, he doesn't notice the sharp bend in the road up ahead and the tall cliff that does not have a guard rail.

I grew up in Brazoria County, Texas, which has some great local stories, so here's a few for ya.

Brit Bailey's Ghost
One of the early Anglo-American settlers in Texas (the area is the site of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Three_Hundred) colony) was James Briton "Brit" Bailey. Brit was an infamous troublemaker who loved hunting and drinking, and settled in an area along the Brazos river now known as Bailey's Prairie. His wife hated drinking, however. In his will, he requested to be buried standing up, facing west, and with his hunting rifle, dog, and a jug of whiskey. After he died of Cholera in 1832, his wife made sure all that was carried out - except for the whiskey.

The area is now said to be haunted by Brit Bailey's ghost, who carries a lantern while searching for his jug.

The Lake Jackson Plantation
The Lake Jackson Plantation was established in 1840, by Abner Jackson, as a sugar plantation. The plantation was built on an Oxbow lake, surrounbded by what was essentially a fetid, mosquito-ridden swamp - good for growing sugar cane, but bad for the slaves. (The number of slaves who died working the plantation is not known.)

The plantation was initially very sucessful. However, Abner died in 1861owing a great deal of money that he'd been using to expand operations, and the Civil War did little to help his eldest son John keep up operations. But John managed to muddle through. John was supposedly quite a Simon Legree, and worked the slaves viciously.

When John's brother George returned from the war, he wanted his share, and John wasn't willing to hand it over. The dispute went through the courts, and was, by all accounts, quite nasty.

In December 1867, during an argument over the case, George short his elder brother, then beheaded him with a handy machete. John's head then either rolled down the stairs and into the lake or was thrown into the lake by his brother, depending on which version you may hear (see below for more details). George was never prosecuted for the murder.

However, he fled the plantation shortly afterwards, claiming that a large bird was attacking him in his bed. He died a few years later in Galveston, of TB.

The plantation was broken up by creditors. Later, a large part of the plantation was run under the Texas state prison farm system by what was to become the Imperial Sugar Company. Conditions were just as harsh for the convicts as they had been for the slaves. At least 3 convicts of the 30-40 who worked the plantation between 1875 and 1884 died either attempting to escape or while being punished.

Imperial Sugar continued to use the sugar milling facilities there until there were destoryed in the Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900.

Much of the old plantation is now the site of an upscale housing subdivision. However, there are a few remaining spots where ruins of the old plantation can be found - the cornerstones to the plantation house, the chimney for the old sugar mill, and the remains of the slave quarters.

There are numerous accounts of hauntings in the area. The most famous have to do with John Jackson's murder. There are at least three supposed haunting manifestations connected to the murder.

The first two depend on which version of the murder is being told. In the version where Gerorge killed his brother at the bottom of the outside stairs and threw his head into the lake, the site where the body fell has a bare patch of ground where supposedly nothing ever grows and the bare earth is said to have a blood red color. The other version has George commiting the murder at the top of the stairs, and the head rolling or bouncing down the fifteen steps into the lake. When this version is given, the claimed manifestation is that if you face the lake with your back where the old stairs were, you will hear the fifteen bumps of the head rolling down the stairs, followed by the splash of it landing in the lake.

The other manifestation is only supposed to be heard in December (the time of the killing). On particullarly cold nights, John can be heard splashing around in the shallows of the lack and calling out "Where is my head? Where is my head?"

There are also ghosts manifestations associated with the slaves and the convicts. The most common of these are hearing mysterious singing - either slave spirituals and work chants or convict work songs.

The final manifestation is the rarest of the stories told about the Jackson Planatation. Supposedly, a very large white bird can be seen in the area around the old house. This bird is said to attack anyone who gets near the old house site.

As for Japan, supposedly there is a ghost that haunts the region around where I live. According to legend, at night a taxi will be flagged down by a woman dressed in a stylish dress, but wearing a scarf wrapped around the lower half of her face. She gives the driver a place that he has never heard of before and tells him that she will give him directions. The drive goes through town, city, and village, over narrow roads, and further and further away from any place the driver knows. The woman is described as stunningly beautiful, except for not being able to see below her nose. Finally, the driver will ask about the destination just to be told that it is coming up soon. The woman will then ask the drive, "Please tell me, am I beautiful?" The driver of course adjusts the mirror when he hears the sound of the scarf being removed... just to see the large gapping hole that runs from her neck up to her nose. Out of the bloody hole comes the mocking question, "Well, am I beautiful? Am I?"

Right about then with the driver obviously distracted, he doesn't notice the sharp bend in the road up ahead and the tall cliff that does not have a guard rail.

Interesting, interesting. Kuchisake Onna usually has a mouth split from ear to ear instead of neck to nose. I haven't heard the neck to nose variant before.

My favorite yokai tend to be the tsukumogami, most especially the karakusa. The "cow demon" (http://www1.plala.or.jp/negoro/usioni.html) down in Wakayama's fun too.

Niles Canyon Road is a small twisty road that goes by a creek and a small forest and as such has your average dead hitchhicker stories where you're not supposed to look in the rear view or she'd be in your rear seat. No word on what would happen if you where in a two seater.

As for Japan, supposedly there is a ghost that haunts the region around where I live. According to legend, at night a taxi will be flagged down by a woman dressed in a stylish dress, but wearing a scarf wrapped around the lower half of her face.

Beautiful but flawed/deadly/horrific females seem to have a strong hold on the Japanese psyche. Long before Ju-On and The Ring, I'd read of a legend of a drowned young fisherman's daughter with a giant spider on her back who walks naked up to fishermen on the beach at night, only for them to be devoured by the spider (or something like that).

I'm sure there's a anthro. thesis in it for someone somewhere... :)

well:

the Grosvenor Center is said to be haunted by a monk (due to it being built on a monastery) apparently when the shops close at night you can see a monk cleaning up litter

and its perfectly acceptable to call someone mu'duck :eek:

Interesting, interesting. Kuchisake Onna usually has a mouth split from ear to ear instead of neck to nose. I haven't heard the neck to nose variant before.
I think it's a local variation that has to do with the shrine next to Matsumoto Castle, either that or the person telling me confused the English, both are possible.

My favorite yokai tend to be the tsukumogami, most especially the karakusa. The "cow demon" (http://www1.plala.or.jp/negoro/usioni.html) down in Wakayama's fun too.
Me, personally, I like the kappa (Of which there are a number hanging around here, supposedly), there's just something neat about a polite demon that eats people.

Niles Canyon Road is a small twisty road that goes by a creek and a small forest and as such has your average dead hitchhicker stories where you're not supposed to look in the rear view or she'd be in your rear seat. No word on what would happen if you where in a two seater.
Niles Canyon between Pleasanton and Fremont?

Niles Canyon between Pleasanton and Fremont?
No, between Fremont and Pleasanton.

Sorry.:p

Nice thread this is.

Uh... I'm sitting here typing out this message deciding whether I want to turn on the TV or not. Interesting story, eh?

Me, personally, I like the kappa (Of which there are a number hanging around here, supposedly), there's just something neat about a polite demon that eats people.

Aren't they the ones who love cucumbers so much?

It seems no matter where I go, I've got ghost stories floating around (no pun intended).

http://www.askyewolfe.com/Haunted-Georgia.html


See Augusta and Milledgeville. Typo alert on the Milledgeville thing -- it's "Sanford" not "Samford." I should know; they brought the building 'back online' (remodeled and reopened it)my sophomore year and I lived there!

Well I live in a town called Gravesend, an eerie name in itself. Stories have it that the current name orignated when the Black Plague came to England. As it spread and hit Gravesend people stopped burying the dead and instead threw the bodies into the River Thames. It is said that at a certain time of the year at night you can hear people crying on the bansk of the river.

Another story partly true:

Well in Gravesend, the Native American princess Pocahontas is buried in the grounds of St Georges church. This part is true as Pocahontas died of TB on her journey home but was brought to shore at Gravesend to be treated. Obviously she died. Some people say that late at night in the grounds of the church you can see a woman wandering the grounds as if she is lost. If you try to approach her, she looks at you and disappears.

I wonder how many of you are Lovecraft fans :D

Here in my state, there is a lake called "Lagoa dos Patos (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagoa_dos_Patos)" (Lake of ducks), which is the biggest lake in the country and second in Latin America. Its about 100km away from my city, Porto Alegre.

Some sailors say that by night, if you sleep near the shore, you can see white nymphs riding across the lake in white stalions, and if they see you, they come, sing and you lose control of yourself. They call you to the deeps and you end up drowning in the lake.

Also, many sailors say that there is a sunk city in the exact middle of the lake, and you can see it some days when the tide is low and the lake is dry. And that no one can get to the center, because either the wind starts to blow against you or the engines just stop working, like something is afecting it. And there are even some that say there is a whirlwind in the middle of the lake that sucks those that come too close, making them lost forever.

SNIP

I suggest you scuba down and look for treasure

most of the ghost stories I have heard around here tend to be the urban legend type, however there are a few really gruesome murder sites around, I have been to most of them, didn't see anything scary (although reading about the murders is quite chilling)

I did work as a waitress for a while at a local restaurant that used to be a speakeasy that is supposedly haunted. I never saw or heard anything really scary there, but others claim to have had "experiences".

Apparently some Drop Bears got loose from Dublin Zoo and are taking up residence in the trees around here.

Apparently some Drop Bears got loose from Dublin Zoo and are taking up residence in the trees around here.

yup still got them but we now how Big Cats in Australia
http://www.strangenation.com.au/Articles/bigcats.htm

Apparently some Drop Bears got loose from Dublin Zoo and are taking up residence in the trees around here.

OMG... I'll have to take the bus home soon! What'll I do if they drop on the roof???

Niles Canyon between Pleasanton and Fremont?
Yes!
No, between Fremont and Pleasanton.


No!




Actually, I think I've traveled it more in that direction than the other...

OMG... I'll have to take the bus home soon! What'll I do if they drop on the roof???

don't look away from them and don't feed them :p

OMG... I'll have to take the bus home soon! What'll I do if they drop on the roof???

Pray they can't get through the roof.

Oh, and where I just moved from-Bigfoot country. Or so says the guy operating the Bigfoot Museum...

Pray they can't get through the roof.

oh say that too
just look at them
http://images.wikia.com/uncyclopedia/images/thumb/c/c4/Dropbear1.jpg/180px-Dropbear1.jpg

At my hometown in Central Kentucky, we have a few folk stories, but only one good ghost story. About ten minutes east of town is a bridge over the Kentucky River, next to a limestone quarry and the site of two forts, one built by settlers, the other built in the Civil War. A bridge has been at that same place since the first pioneers built homesteads in the hills in that area, and accidents always plagued the bridge. You see, when a fog rises near town, a much thicker mist from the river covers the bridge, reducing visibility to near zero. In that mist, a person crossing the bridge could start at one end and never see the other, disappearing as though he had never set foot on the bridge in the first place. Workers from the quarry, travelers passing through, even soldiers from the forts patrolling the bridge would try to cross it during these mists, never to be seen again. People say that they just fell into the river, losing their footing in the fog. But no bodies would be found downriver, and others started to claim that the fog had voices in it, like men calling for someone to guide them forward.

The bridge was rebuilt several times, and now it is made of concrete and asphalt, but people still say that if you stop on the bridge when the fog is thick enough to block the sun, you can listen for the ghosts of the men that disappeared trying to cross it. The locals still call it Ghost Bridge for that reason.

I think it's a local variation that has to do with the shrine next to Matsumoto Castle, either that or the person telling me confused the English, both are possible.

Could go either way, but it'd be more interesting if it were a local variant rather than a miss translation. :)

Me, personally, I like the kappa (Of which there are a number hanging around here, supposedly), there's just something neat about a polite demon that eats people.

It's not just that they eat people - the fun is in the details. (For those unfamiliar, kappa are a Japanese water spirit/goblin. They suck your entrails out through your butt.)

Aren't they the ones who love cucumbers so much?

Yep. Cucumbers and sake. That's why cucumber sushi rolls are known as kappamaki. :)

I wonder how many of you are Lovecraft fans :D

Oh, I think there may be one or two running around here. :::waits for Cthulhu fhtagn to post:::

Apparently some Drop Bears got loose from Dublin Zoo and are taking up residence in the trees around here.

I though Drop Bears were protected and couldn't be exported.


And a few more good old stories, this time from scout camp. I grew up going to scout camp at Camp Karankawa, named after the local coastal Texas "cannibal" indian tribe. Camp Karankawa is near the town of Sweeny Texas, home to an oil refinery.

The most famous story from Camp Karankawa is Red Eye. Red Eye was a local Kawankawa warrior or chief, depending on the story, who was killed by Anglo settlers. He supposedly was shot in the eye. His glowing red eye wanders the woods of the camp, appearing as a warning of doom.

The refinery a few miles away supposedly was the site of an explosion that killed a local man who's ghost supposedly roams wide and far in the area - appearing as a horribly burnt body.

And for the last of this round, I present my favorite camp tale.

Acid Claw
The area I grew up in, costal SE Texas, has rather mild winters, with a few major cold fronts sweeping down accross the great plains and ending up in the area each year, dropping temperatures from the 50s and 40s down into the 20s in a matter of hours. On rare occassions, these "blue northers" drop snow.

The local scouts often take advantage of the mild weather for camping trips. On one of these winter camps, a troop was at Camp Karankawa when a blue norther hit. This storm was quite a bad one, at least for the local area, as it began snowing quite heavily. Most of the scouts were not well prepared for snow, and the adult leaders decided it would be prudent to break camp and go home.

However, two senior scouts were well prepared, and asked special permission to remain, in order to have a rare chance to experience snow camping. The scoutmaster agreed, and the two were allowed to stay.

By evening, the snow was falling quite heavily, and several inches had accumulated. But the scouts had the appropriate gear, and retired for the evening.

After having been asleep for several hours, one of the boys woke the other, telling him that he'd heard somone calling his name. The second scout told him it was the wind and his imagination, and nothing more, and to go back to sleep.

A while later, the second scout woke up, extra cold. He saw that his tentmate and his sleeping bag was missing, and the tent door was hanging open. He poked his head out to investigate, and spotted the empty sleeping bag a few feet away. He quickly dressed, grabbed his flashlight, and stumbled out of the tent to investigate.

The sleeping bag was torn in several places, but the most frightening sight was the claw print that was burned into the bag in acid.

Leading away from the tent and the campsite was a trail of similar clawprints. The scout began following them. However, the distance between the prints burned into the snow began increasing. At first, the tracks were about a foot apart, but soon they were more than a yard apart, and the distance between them was increasing.

Eventually, the scout lost the trail. His tentmate was never heard from again.

(Yeah I know - a bit cheesy. But that's campfire ghost stories for ya. I got bunches more where those came from, if you want.)

In New Jersey we have enough weird shit to fill a magazine twice a year since 1992. The most well known legend is the "Jersey Devil".

Here's a web site about JD. http://theshadowlands.net/jd.htm

Here's a website with some other stories.
http://www.weirdnj.com/stories/stories.asp

With all these stories something weird must be going on over here.

So... I live near Meadville, Saegertown, and Conneaut Lake. All within 15 miles of me and all had been established early on after the Revolution. They are very old towns with many picturesque old buildings and yadda yadda... There are several folk and ghost stories, I'll tell a few and if people want more I can easily get more.

The Pig People
On the outskirts of town near the interstate there is a hill (really a small mountain) named Pig People Hill. A story started back in the 1850's that on top of the hill was a group of statues (the number varies) of people dressed in normal clothing but all had the faces of pigs. It was also said that on a certain night, at a certain time (once again, varies) the Pig People would talk to you and sometimes tell you about the future.
I've been to Pig People Hill and never seen any Pig People.

Will You Let Me Out Yet?
In nearby Conneaut Lake there is an amusment Park (that sadly may be closed permanatly now) Its one of the oldest amusement parks in the world with one of the top 10 oldest rollercoasters in the US. The place is positively crawling with ghost stories. One of the stories told there is of a man who got locked in the parks security office, back in 1932. I that time the park had its own jail style facility for lock-up of drunks and things so that the police did not have to deal with them. A drunk man (unidetified as all these stories go) was locked in the security office and left alone for the whole night, in the morning they found him dead, supposedly from alcohol poisoning. The old security office does not stand any more, but they have a jail cell built there so that people can get thier pictures taken inside of it. Rumor has it that at midnight you can hear someone walking around inside the cell, if you approach you can hear a drunken voice say "Will you let me out yet?"

Yes!
*heh* Cool, I know the ghost you speak of then (Not to mention the road as my family lives in the area and we always drive it).

Aren't they the ones who love cucumbers so much?
Yup, they also have a shallow depression on top of their heads that's filled with water. The way to defeat a kappa is to stand bravily and bow to it. They are polite demonds, so they will bow back and spill their water. They can't attack until they get some more water.

Yup, they also have a shallow depression on top of their heads that's filled with water. The way to defeat a kappa is to stand bravily and bow to it. They are polite demonds, so they will bow back and spill their water. They can't attack until they get some more water.

When they are bowing why don't people just uppercut it? :p

Concord: NC

Concord - Concord Middle School - In the old Concord Middle School (not the new one) located on Gold Rush Dr. off of Neisler Rd. Teachers and other staff at the school have reported hearing footsteps in the halls at night when no one else is in the building. There are also reports of the sound of doors slamming shut when there is no possible explanation for this, although no doors have ever been seen shutting on their own. Also reports of strange sounds in auditorium. One faculty member working in the office late one night heard sounds coming from the hallway. She high-tailed it on out of there. No theories about the cause of the occurrences. Interestingly, though, everything started after a Catholic priest was brought in to perform an exorcism in the media center in 2001.

I actually experienced the door slamming shut noise, and I have heard footsteps, so this is true as far as I can tell. However, this was before 2001, so I think it was going on before the exorcism.

When they are bowing why don't people just uppercut it? :p
See the sucking your entrails out your butt part for why. ;)

See the sucking your entrails out your butt part for why. ;)

Sounds fun. :D :p

See the sucking your entrails out your butt part for why. ;)

Sounds like Chuck Palahniuk.:eek: