- There are famous urban legends, including Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster.
- However, there are also plenty of local myths that have not made it into mainstream pop culture.
- Keep reading to find out the creepiest urban legend that takes place in your state.
NEW HAMPSHIRE: The witch of Hampton, Goody Cole
NEW MEXICO: La Mala Hora
La Mala Hora, which translates to The Evil Hour, is an entity you don’t want to run into on a dark road. Legend says it first appears as a ball of black energy, constantly moving and changing its size and shape. If you look at it, it will drive you insane and will slowly kill you.
At other times, it appears as a scary-looking woman. It’s said that if you see her at a crossroads, you or someone in your family will die.
NEW YORK: Cropsey
The story of Cropsey has many iterations, The Lineup reported, but it generally tells the story of a man who stalked a sleep-away camp/psychiatric facility/children’s hospital, had a hook for a hand, and killed children who were wandering alone at night. Almost anyone who went to camp in upstate New York has heard about Cropsey.
Things took a more sinister turn when a documentary posited that Cropsey was actually real: a convicted child kidnapper named Andre Rand, wrote The New York Times.
NORTH CAROLINA: The beast of Bladenboro
In the 1950s, multiple dogs were found dead and drained of blood in the North Carolina town of Bladenboro, according to North Carolina Ghosts. People believed a vampiric beast was in the woods, and they tried to hunt the animal.
Today, the town of Bladenboro has embraced its history, and residents actually hold a Beast Fest every year. While some people are convinced the beast was probably a particularly large bobcat, it’s never been confirmed exactly what was stalking their town.
NORTH DAKOTA: White Lady Lane
The story of White Lady Lane is a tragic one, according to Only In Your State.
The legend states that a young woman became pregnant out of wedlock, and her religious parents forced her to marry the baby’s father. The baby ended up dying after their wedding. The girl, so upset about her baby and her forced marriage, hanged herself from a bridge in her wedding dress. Locals claim to still see her ghost hanging from the bridge.
OHIO: The werewolf of Defiance.
During the summer of 1972, the people of Defiance said they were being terrorized by a werewolf, per Mysterious Universe.
The sightings always happened at night, generally by the train tracks. A couple of women said it would try to get into their houses by rattling the doorknobs. The animal was said to be huge, hairy, and dressed in rags.
But after summer ended, the beast disappeared, never to be heard from again. But the story lingers.
OKLAHOMA: The mysterious Shaman’s portal
The mysterious occurrences in Beaver Dunes Park have been attributed to the fact that it was built upon ancient Native American burial grounds, which is why it’s called the Shaman’s portal, according to Only In Your State.
It’s also known as the Oklahoma Bermuda Triangle.
Mysterious things have happened in the park, starting with the Spanish conquistadors who went missing while searching for gold in the 1500s. Since then, paranormal activity seekers have flocked to the dunes. Some people claim that a UFO crashed there, and a group in the ’90s who tested the soil said it was “abnormal.”
OREGON: The Bandage Man of Cannon Beach
The Bandage Man is the American version of a mummy, wrote the Cannon Beach History Center and Museum.
He is rumored to be the ghost of a logger who died in a sawmill accident and now terrorizes teenagers who hang out at a deserted area of a highway near Cannon Beach. Stories say that he knocks on car windows to try to get in and smells really, really bad.
PENNSYLVANIA: The bus to nowhere
In Philadelphia, there’s rumored to be a bus that doesn’t have an end destination, according to Only In Your State. The story says that the bus only picks up passengers who are at their lowest moments and need to get away from their problems. Once the passenger is ready to face the world, they can get off the bus.
But the passenger has no idea how long they’ve been on the bus for — it could have been hours, days, or even years.
RHODE ISLAND: The Devil’s footprints
There is a rock on Devil’s Foot Road that appears to show a normal human footprint and a cloven hoof, according to a Medium blog about New England folklore.
The story goes that a Native American woman murdered a white man and fled the scene of the crime.
While running, she was stopped by another man. She cried out for the Devil to save her, but the man admitted that he himself was the Devil and stomped his feet on the ground to prove that he had a cloven hoof, which the rock still shows to this day. You can see it on Waymarking.
SOUTH CAROLINA: The death of Julia Legare
In the 1800s, the Legares were a well-to-do South Carolinian family that had homes on the mainland and on Edisto Island. The daughter, Julia, got sick, was pronounced dead, and was buried inside their family mausoleum, according to Edisto’s website.
Years later, another member of the Legare family died, and when their tomb was opened up, the remains of Julia were found outside her coffin. The story says that Julia had been in a coma, and had woken up to try to escape her tomb, but sadly died.
After the first reopening of the Legare mausoleum, the door couldn’t seem to stay shut. The Legares tried multiple different doors, and every single time, the door was found open. People believe that Julia’s ghost didn’t want to be locked in that tomb any longer.
SOUTH DAKOTA: Walking Sam and the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation
Purportedly over 7 feet tall and very slim, Walking Sam is said to appear on the streets of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation at night, and he tries to convince teenagers to take their own lives, per Hot 104.7.
Whether Walking Sam is real, something tragic is going on at the reservation. From December 2014 to May 2015, there were 103 attempts by people to end their lives at Pine Ridge, reported The Daily Dot.
TENNESSEE: The boy in the bathroom at Pine Haven School
The Pine Haven School, located in Jamestown, is old and abandoned, and according to Urban Legends Online, it’s said to be haunted.
A tragic story supposedly took place there, where a boy was cornered by a group of bullies in the bathroom and shoved into a mirror, which shattered and killed him.
To avoid getting caught committing murder, the bullies decided to bury the body underneath the floorboards. Today, people say that if you go inside the school, you can see the reflection of the boy if you look in the mirror.
TEXAS: The Candy Lady
According to Urban Legends Online, in the early 1900s, children in an unnamed rural town in Texas started to disappear, and the residents blamed the Candy Lady.
The story says that she would go around leaving candy on children’s windows, eventually luring the kids out with notes attached, promising more candy.
The story picked up steam when a farmer reportedly found rotten teeth on his farm and later found the body of a boy with his pockets stuffed with candy.
UTAH: The curse of the Escalante Petrified Forest
While it is illegal to take anything from Escalante Petrified Forest State Park, a legend says that anyone who takes pieces of petrified wood from the park will be cursed with bad luck, sickness, and accidents, KSL reported.
Park manager Kendall Farnsworth told KSL in 2014 that he gets about a dozen packages every year containing a piece of wood from the park and an apologetic letter detailing the sender’s misfortunes.
VERMONT: The frozen people
First appearing in a diary that was published in the late 1800s, the legend of the hibernating older people recounts the tale of a poor family outside Montpelier who couldn’t afford to feed and clothe the oldest members of their family, so they froze the people and buried them, wrote Vermonter.
Legend has it that when spring rolled around, the elders thawed out and were just fine.
VIRGINIA: The Bunnyman
The Bunnyman’s legend starts with what every good urban legend begins with: An insane asylum.
As reported by WAMU 88.5, the people of Clifton were so up in arms about the asylum that they were able to get all of the patients transferred. The patients were being moved on a bus that crashed, and the police were able to catch all the patients except one — the Bunnyman.
According to the tale, the Bunnyman lived in the woods and sustained himself on woodland creatures (like bunnies), but eventually, he attacked humans.
Some people reported being attacked by a man with a hatchet. Other tales say that groups of teens would see a bright light and then would wind up dead and strung up over a bridge, the Washingtonian reported.
WASHINGTON: Bigfoot
Bigfoot is an internationally recognizable name, and has been spotted all over the country. But, Bigfoot has been spotted the most in Washington state, according to an online database compiling all Bigfoot sightings.
Bigfoot is essentially a gigantic ape-like creature who is either a ferocious beast that attacks loggers and hikers, or a gentle giant who wants to be left alone.
Either way, there’s something creepy about an undiscovered species of animal wandering around the Pacific Northwest, evading capture.
WEST VIRGINIA: Mothman
In 1966, stories say that West Virginia was visited by an insectoid flying creature with bright red eyes who resembled both a moth and a man, according to Atlas Obscura. He was spotted flying around the town of Point Pleasant, along with shining lights and the equally conspiratorial Men in Black
Mothman’s origins have been said to be supernatural, alien, or a government experiment gone wrong.
But Point Pleasant has embraced the monster, erecting a statue, creating a museum, and even dedicating a festival to him. In 2002, a film starring Richard Gere, “The Mothman Prophecies,” was released.
WISCONSIN: Boy Scout Lane
The story of what exactly happened at Boy Scout Lane varies, but they all end with the same conclusion: a group of Boy Scouts dead on the road.
In some stories, McDowell News wrote, there was a bus crash with no survivors, or they were murdered by their bus driver, or they just mysteriously vanished into the woods one by one.
Visitors have reported seeing a swinging body in the trees, feeling like they are being watched, and finding child-size handprints.
WYOMING: Devils Tower
There’s no scientific consensus on why Devils Tower looks the way it does, but multiple Native American creation stories attribute the landmark’s shape to a tragedy.
According to the various stories, two boys were attacked and chased by a large bear, so they ran up the rock formation. The bear tried to follow, but couldn’t make the climb and left scratches all the way down the rock as it slid down, according to Rapid City’s tourism website.
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