The legend of Black-Eyed Children, or B.E.K., is a modern urban legend of mysterious, ghastly, ghostly evil children who appear late at night with solid black eyes. It apparently first dates from Texas folklore in the mid-1990s. It is the ominous horror scare of the obstructed gaze of deep black eyes from young kids as images of demonic and devilish possession. Although a relatively “new” legend, they have been reported worldwide.
The original Texas legend was told by Brian Bethel, who claimed to have met the black-eyed children when he was out paying his cable bill in 1996 while living in Abilene, Texas. He stated he was sitting in his car outside a strip mall writing his check, and then a group of teenagers, wearing hoodies and possessing black eyes, came standing in his car – they asked him for a ride to their mother’s house to get money for movie tickets. However, the movie was already running, and the teenagers sounded older than the kids. He was scared and sped away when, looking back, the kids disappeared. He wrote about the encounter and published it in the Abilene New Reporter.
Many scholars say this urban legend has evolved from demonic descriptions of possessed children or could be examples of death personified as children. Children have also been an image of dark fae or fairies, shorter-statured humans with dark black eyes. They often have pale skin and appear to people in cars or homes, wanting to be in the vehicle or home.
The eyes are solid jet black, with no pupils, white, or iris, just totally black. The kids are often school-aged, ranging from kindergarteners to high schoolers. Often, their clothes are outdated, and they speak in a monotone voice, more mature than perceived age. They often repeat the same phrase and insist on being let inside the house or the car the appears before. They start innocent and evolve into more aggressive in their actions. Like vampires, they must be invited in to have power over an individual. When denied, they wander off. The accounts of these children allowed in led to the disaster unfolding, ranging from tragedy to destruction, cancer, and curses.
In Irish lore, these creatures are sometimes compared to changelings. Changelings in Irish faerie lore are fairy babies swapped for human children and are often riddled with evil actions or destruction. Water baby legends from Lake Tahoe, California, also share imagery and actions, such as when they cry to lure people to their deaths.
References:
Bethel, Brian 2015 “Brian Bethel recounts his possible paranormal encounter with BEKs”. Abilene Reporter News. December 8, 2015.
One of the most common Fae species known in folklore … “Changelings” are faerie creatures that replace stolen human children. These are sometimes called an “auf” or “oaf.” In fairy lore and myth, there are many tales about fairies stealing a human child and substituting it with a misshapen fairy baby known as a “changeling.” Sometimes, they are replaced not by fairies but by demons, trolls, nereids, or spirits. Sometimes, they replace the child with a piece of wood that appears to be alive under a glamour for a short period of time.
Adults have been reportedly taken and replaced as well, especially in Ireland, Scotland, and Scandinavia. There is also the historic-day event of a man murdering his wife, Bridget Cleary, in Ireland. because they believed she was replaced by a changeling.
Throughout world lore, fairies, for some reason, like to kidnap human adults and children. Some claim the abducted human children are given to demons, faeries, or the devil or imbued into faerie races to strengthen their stock. Sometimes, newlywedded wives and mothers are taken. It is believed that some nursing mothers were kidnapped to provide milk to fairy children.
In the United States, there was an attested case of Miss Kittie Crowe who was believed to have been taken from fairies in 1876. It has been rumored that King Charles I of England (1600-1649) was a changeling as a nursemaid claimed a hooded figure appeared at his bedside and cast a cloak over his cradle with him in it.
The most targeted human victims are usually unbaptized babies, blonde-haired children, those with blue eyes, pretty girls, women touched by the fae, those found walking in a fairy ring, those wandering near fairy mounds at night, and anyone who sleeps under a hawthorn bush. In Catholic folklore, there is a widespread belief that infants are susceptible to demonic possession, which is why baptism is very important.
Changeling Traits
When a parent discovers the baby in their crib is not their own, for whatever reason, certain telltale signs signify it is a fairy surrogate. These changelings could have a deformed appearance, a wizened look, appear thin or weak, sickly or ailing, and not stop crying.
Adult changelings appear to have a voracious appetite, are aging, exhibit unfamiliar behavior and trickery, love dancing and frolicking outside when thinking they are alone not being observed by others, and often comment on their own age.
There is a myth in Ireland that a left-handed child is not human but rather a changeling. A child with a caul (remnant amniotic membrane) across their face was a changeling in Scotland.
Changelings are described as creatures that look like the humans they replace but are often sickly, aged, withered, or just “off.” Sometimes, they possess physical features rare in humans, such as an infant having a beard or long teeth. They come off as being more intelligent or gifted than those usual for their physical age appearance.
Sometimes, if a changeling is raised as a human child and is never detected, they will forget they are fae and continue living a human life. Those that do remember may return to their fae families leaving the human family without warning, while the abducted human may never return.
Around the World
While predominantly ascribed to the legends and lore of Celtic countries, their existence is described worldwide. In European folklore, they are seen as deformed or imbecilic offspring of fairies or elves. The Welsh call this fairy race the “cipenapers” (a contraction of kidnappers). In world folklore, there are many creatures similar to the “changeling.” Many of these are described as creatures left by spirits. They are mentioned in African, Asian, Germanic, and Scandinavian folklore.
In Scandinavia during the Medieval period, trolls were believed to trick humans into raising their offspring. They often targeted unbaptized children since those baptized were protected from trolls. In Scotland, it was said the replacement children gave fairy children a tithe to Hell as discussed in the infamous ballad “Tam Lin.” In Germany, they are called Wechselbalg, Wechselkind, Kielkopf, or Dickkopf. They are said to either be the devil, a female dwarf, a water spirit, or a Roggenmuhme (Rye Mother – a demonic woman living in cornfields and stealing human children). In the Anglo-Scottish border region of Scotland, it was believed that the faeries living in the “elf hills” would spirit away children and adults, taking them back to their world, and a simulation of the victim, usually by an adult male elf left to be suckled by the mother. The elves would treat the human baby well and raise it as one of their own.
In Poland, the Boginka or Mamuna was a Slavic spirit that would exchange babies with changelings that often possessed abnormally large abdomens, small or large heads, humps, thin arms/legs, hair body, and/or long claws. In Spain, it is often a nymph called Xana who would appear to travellers to help them. These little female fairies were born with enchanting beauty and would often deliver babies for humans that they’d swap with fairy babies because Xana could not produce milk. The Igbo people of eastern Nigeria believed that women in the tribe who lost numerous children were being tormented by a malicious spirit known as an ogbanje that reincarnated itself over and over.
Social scientists such as folklorist D.L. Ashliman claim that this myth illustrates the aspect of family survival in pre-industrial Europe. Families then relied on the productive labor of each family member to subsist, and there had to be a solution for those family members who drained the resources. Since changeling’s appetites were known to be voracious, they were seen as a threat to the family. Infanticide was sometimes utilized as the solution to this dilemma.
Some scientists claim that the “changeling” accusation would often be used to explain deformed, developmentally disabled, or neurodivergent children. Various legends have claimed those with symptoms of spinal Bifida, cystic fibrosis, PKU, progeria, Down syndrome, homocystinuria, Williams syndrome, Hurler syndrome, Hunter syndrome, autism spectrum disorder, Prader-Willi syndrome, and cerebral palsy were symptoms of a “changeling.”
As parents had higher expectations of childbirth and when children were born with ailments, they preferred to find a demon to blame for the ailment. Regressive autism has been compared to the marks of a changeling child. Before autism was defined and understood, it was very common for children possessing autistic traits to be labeled as elf-children or changelings because of their strange, inexplicable behavior. The obsession that faeries seem to have with an impulse to count things is now a trait found in autistic cases.
A network of humans today, known as “Otherkin” sometimes identify as being “changelings” (or elves, fairies, faeries, aliens, and were-creatures) often because their life experiences exist with feeling out of place in this world so much that they self-identify as being not human.
In movies, music, books, magazines, art, and literature there has been much focus on “changelings” and its phenomena.
Throughout the world, in folklore, there is a method of detecting changelings, such as eggshells. Arranging empty eggshells around a fireplace or hearth, a changeling can’t help but get up and examine them. They will peer into each other, saying, “This is but a windbag; I am so many hundred years old, and I have never seen the like of this.” Another method is for one to pretend that they are brewing water into the halves of eggshells. The changeling is said to jump up and declare, “I have seen the egg before the hen, I have seen the acorn before the oak, but I have never seen brewing in an eggshell before!” thereby revealing its age such as “I’m 1500 years old in the world and I’ve never seen a brewery of eggshells before!” Other methods are causing it pain or making it laugh. Many child abuse cases in Ireland have excuses that it was done only to reveal the changeling inside. In German and Irish lore, a changeling can be revealed by tricking it to believe its being heated or cooked in a oven. Also whipping, hitting, or abusing the changeling will sometimes force it out.
Füssli- Der Wechselbalg-1780
When a changeling reveals itself, lore states it’ll disappear up a chimney, and the real baby will be found alive and well outside the door or sleeping in its cradle.
Many spells and prayers exist to protect a child from a changeling. One method is leaving pieces of iron beneath the cradle, making rowan wood crosses with red thread, using St. John’s wort, or wrapping a child in its father’s shirt. Keeping an inverted coat or open iron scissors near the bed is also said to deter them. A red ribbon tied around the baby’s wrist or wearing a red hat would prevent an abduction in Poland. Not washing diapers after sunset, not turning one’s head away from a sleeping baby, and keeping a baby out of moonlight would also be protective measures.
In Cornwall, the magical stones known as the “Men an Tol” are believed to be guarded by a faerie who can return stolen children when the changeling baby is based through the stone.
  This article is a work in progress. Please return for more lore.Â
My Little Pony Friendship is Magic – children’s television series featuring shape-shifting pony-like creatures called changelings.
So Weird – Disney Channel episode “Changeling” features a child swapped with a changeling.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – race of shape-shifting aliens called “changelings.”
Supernatural – Season 3, “The Kids Are Alright” features changelings.
The Changeling – 2023 Horror fantasy television series by Kelly Marcel and Melina Matsoukas.
The Daisy Chain – 2008 movie about a little girl believing she was a changeling.
The Hole in the Ground – 2019 movie based on changeling folklore.
The Moorchild by Eloise McGraw is a story about a half human – half folk child exchanged for a human child.
The Watchers (PG-13: 2024): Set in Western Ireland, a human woman with changeling aspects gets trapped in the woods only to join three others also captive in a bunker where they have to entertain changelings at night, using them for a plot to escape their imprisonment beneath the surface and within the forest.
I’m always fascinated with films that embrace the age-old faerie lore and embed it into current times. This film does just that. Another stunning mysterious tale from the Shyamalan lineage, this time by his daughter … and lives up to the power of the Shyamalan collection. Taking place in the land of legends and fairy lore … western Ireland, a young artist gets stranded in the woods discovering three others who too, are trapped. They have to hide in a bunker every evening and daylight provides little time to find an escape before darkness falls. Strange phenomena cloaks their every move and soon its discovered that the species of Changelings of the Fae imprisoned under the earth has a plot for their escape. True to descriptive nature of changelings and dark fae, this film embraces the most horror filled nightmares surrounding them. It leaves room for a sequel, which I can only hope manifests into reality. Review by Oisin Rhymour, 5 stars out of 5.
By far the most enticing thrilling enchanting movie I’ve watched this year sofar (2024), definitely atop my all time favorites. The Lure, which i stumbled upon on some streaming channel I can’t remember which one … I was instantly mesmerized by this foreign horror musical drama featuring one of my favorite fae species … Mermaids. Anyone who knows me, knows I’m overly obsessed with Faerie lore. This movie embraces fae living amongst us in the 1980’s time period. Not only that, but the 80’s/alternative music atmosphere drives me home to my era, with even more excitement. The story shows the tale of mermaid sisters named “Silver” and “Golden” who become enchanted by the song of “Figs and Dates” band members partying on the beach – they make friends and become adopted by the cabaret club the band operates within. Its a twisted love story beyond the “Little Mermaid” obsession with a human and going through a twisted operation to gain human legs permanently. The sister doesn’t understand and decides to listen to her natural desires -devouring the flesh of humans in the city. While this pitstop was meant only as a stop-over for the sisters new life in America, they become trapped in Warsaw. The music, sex, horror, the gore, comedy, drama, and the art-house madness makes it a uniquely enchanting mermaid tale. Review: 5 stars out of 5 by Oisin Rhymour
Christmas morning 2023 I trekked out to a real-life Witch hunt or Changeling location. Was I to meet the Fae in the legendary ringfort or simply come to a dead end? A dead end it was, of course. The Ringfort I believed was the location of the body swapping was on private property, and there was no way to find a way in with the time I had available. We’re talking about Ireland’s infamous last burning of a Witch or killing of a Changeling: that is the 1895 murder of Bridget Cleary in Ballyvadlea, Ireland. Her body was dumped in a shallow grave in a bog then relocated to an unmarked grave in a local cemetery. I casually explored a few graveyards, but could not find the grave – the grave and marriage photo is from historical archives.
This is a tale of folklore merging with national identity, as often is the case with folklore and a nation.
Folklore is complex, it is the beliefs, customs, stories, and practices of a culture, depicting the cultural process and history of a people. It has no single definition. It does define national identity, especially in the case of countries like Ireland and the United Kingdom so riddled with legends and lore. It depicts the daily life stories of a people. Ireland manifests stories of leprechauns and fairies. In the 16th century, the traditional political and religious autonomy of the Irish was overthrown by English colonization. This was followed closely by the Great Famine in the 1840s. The Irish belief system was challenged as was its national identity. As Ireland strugged with its own self-government afterward it braved balancing a new state of affairs and horrors to deal with. As the famine ravished rural Gaelic areas with death and emigration, the traditional culture was demised under industrialization and English customs. They did share the belief in fairies with the United Kingdom. If anything cultural the Irish are famous in the world for their belief in the Fae.
As the lore was passed on orally through the generations finding its way into literature and defining the landscape, many superstitions regulated how the Irish would function in its new world and boundaries.
Particular reverence and avoidance were made of fairy trees especially hawthorns and ancient ring forts deemed fairy forts – all as places where the Fae relocated, and portals to their dimensions existed. No elder would disrespect the fairies or have to pay the price if they did. Roads were re-routed to avoid fairy trees, farmers left the ringforts in their fields to be avoided, and corners of houses were removed so as to not overlap a fairy path.
If the fae were angered, they were often hostile, mischievous, and troublesome – lashing out with curses, sickness, misfortune, and sometimes death. Of the Genus “Fae” there were thousands of different kinds of species in Irish fairy lore – all possessing their own supernatural aspects, characteristics, and traits all rooted to the ancient Celtic and Gaelic Pagan Gods and Goddesses.
The fae was normally invisible to most of the human species living in the air, swimming in the seas, underground, or in the woods. They sometimes were human sized and othertimes minute. Some resembled humans living life parallel to humankind while others replaced humans. The fae was known to steal children and young adults replacing them with rotting withered changelings as a replacement. It has been said, that humans who spend too much time with the Fae may lose sense of time, have hundreds of years pass before they return to this dimension, othertimes are curses, waste away or die after their return.
Often the changelings are moody, evil-minded, sickly, or just not right in the head. Their behaviors are noticeably intolerable – such as sickly babies who never stop crying, and adults who no longer communicate or become anti-social. The only way to get rid of a Changeling and bring back the stolen human was death by fire. Or so the belief at that time dictated.
Such was the case with the good-spirited young woman named Bridget Cleary who was burnt to death by her husband Michael in hopes that she would be returned to him. This gave birth to the folk rhyme “Are you a witch or are you a fairy, or are you the wife of Michael Cleary?”
Bridget grew up in Ballyvadlea, 11 miles from Clonmel, in a very small village – daughter of local farmer Patrick Boland, she was educated by the local nuns and apprenticed to a dressmaker in Clonmel. She married Michael Cleary the local Clonmel cooper at age 18. She oddly lived on a fairy rath (fairy fort) and traveled within the fairy landscape selling eggs to supplement her dress-making income. She often went up on the local fairy fort atop Kylenagranagh Hill to deliver to the local seanchai, Jack Dunne.
Early March 1895 after a bitterly cold day she caught a chill returning to her cottage bedridden for many days afterwards only worsening in health. She was visited by friends and family, even her customer Jack Dunne, who upon seeing her stated “that is not Bridget Boland.” Her husband Michael heard this and steadily became convinced the woman sick in bed was a changeling. Jack recommended the local “Fairy Doctor” named Denis Ganey to come to see her – he was unable to in person but sent Michael an herbal concoction mixed with milk that would restore the real individual.
Threatening the changeling with fire and persistent questioning could also reveal the Changeling. March 14, 1895 neighbors Minnie and William Simpson came to visit Bridget they encountered a frightful scene of Jack Dunne and cousins Patrick, James, and William holding her down on the bed, forcing the concoction into her while she screamed of its bitterness. The next night, her cousin Joanna Burke visited to find Michael and Bridget fighting and telling Joanna that her husband was trying to make “a fairy of her” only to be stifled by Michael. He kept asking her if she was his wife. He lost control, tore off her clothes, and brandished a brand from the fire into her face.
Guests were locked into the cottage, and Bridget’s head struck the floor, and moments later her chemise was afire. Michael fed paraffin to the blaze, sat in a chair, and watched her burn saying “She’s not my wife. She’s an old deceiver sent in place of my wife”. Her burnt body was buried on adjacent land, and all swore silence, rumoring her disappearance, that she had gone with the fairies. All believed she would reappear at the Kylegranagh ring fort racing among the fairies on a white horse – and if the men were quick, could cut the cords tying her to the horse so she could return to them.
The horrible murder took place in southern Tipperary in Ballyvadlea near Clonmel, Ireland – around the Spring Equinox of 1895. In the small village of nine houses and a population of 30 – the world was rocked with headlines about the savagery of the Irish as it was told she was “slowly roasted to death because she was, in her relatives’ belief, bewitched”.
March 22, 1895, the local police discovered the charred remains of a woman in a boggy field within a shallow grave outside of ballyvadlea – severely burnt, naked, a few strands of her undergarments and black stockings. Her head was hidden within a sack. It was Michael’s wife Bridget Cleary. It was discovered that she was abused and murdered by her husband and father as well as other family members. Within the court, it was conspiracy-ridden with tales of changelings and kidnapping by the Fae. All ten in the house were arrested, men involved were given sentences ranging from 6 months to 20 years. Michael was sentenced to 20 years and upon release moved to Liverpool, then to Canada. The news classified it as a “witch burning case” (Glasgow Herald, July 5th, 1895) rather than a fairy burning for sensationalism, and therefore marked as the last witch burnt in Ireland.
References:
Bourke, Angela 2001 “The Burning of Bridget Cleary”. Penguin: New York.
Cork Examiner 1895 various articles March 23, 25, 27, 28, 29, 30 and April 3, 5, 6, 1895.
National Monuments Service 2023 Archaeological Survey of Ireland: ESRI Heritage Historic Environment Viewer at https://heritagedata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=0c9eb9575b544081b0d296436d8f60f8
Irish Place undated “The unmarked Grave: Brutal Murder or a Faery Killing the Slaying of Bridget Cleary” website referenced 12/24/23 at https://www.theirishplace.com/heritage/brutal-murder-or-a-faery-killing-the-slaying-of-bridget-cleary/attachment/the-unmarked-grave-of-bridget-cleary/
Irish Times 1895 Articles March 26, 27, 28th; April 2, 3, 6, 8th, 1895.
Kilkenny Castle undated “Folklore and Fairies and the Question of National Identity”. Website referenced 12/25/23 at https://kilkennycastle.ie/folklore-and-fairies-and-the-question-of-national-identity/
Munster Express 1895 “Johanna Burke’s testimony”.
Phil Cleary undated Bridget Cleary Murdered in 1895 in Ballyvadlea Just Another Little Murder. Website referenced 12/25/23 at https://philcleary.com.au/bridgetcleary/
Salaman, Redcliff N 2000 “The History and Social Influence of the Potato”. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.
Unknown 1895 “Witch-burning at Clonmel”. Folklore: Vol 6, no 4, pages 373-384.
Wilde 1979 “Irish Popular Superstitions”. Dublin.
Wildfire Films 2006 “Fairy Wife: The Burning of Bridget Cleary” TV Movie, director Adrian McCarthy and writer Angela Bourke. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0989816/
Suspected Ringforts:
Kylenagrana – Explorations around Eastern Ireland. Monday, 25 December 2023. Adventures in County Kilkenny and Tiippencary, Ireland. Photos by Thomas Baurley, Techno Tink Media.
So, while on an archaeological survey project in Ohio, I investigated local myths, legends, and urban lore. One of the sites of interest to pop up on my radar was the government take-over eminent domain of a town formerly known as “Boston, Ohio”. It is now fabled in urban legend and called “Helltown.”
I dismissed visiting because, according to Atlas Obscura, all town remnants had been bulldozed and flattened; there’s nothing to see there since 2016. It would have been a 4-5 hour round-trip excursion, so I decided not to go. Plus, rumors of a toxic dump are just not something my asthmatic ass needed during a pandemic. So, it was boxed away in my mind as a lost ghost story.
Then, upon returning to the Pacific Northwest while looking for something to watch … the pseudo-documentary by the Travel channel of Series 1, episode 1: Helltown, popped up on Amazon Prime. It was free since I was subscribed to Discovery Channel, so why not? It was the Blair Witch Project in a different light: the utterly false story, narrative, and made-up mythology based on actual urban lore and legend. No more than one episode was released in 2017. I assume they took a real video of the location before the Park System razed it.
Helltown, Travel Channel’s Documentary?
In 2017, the Travel Channel released a documentary/docudrama to explore the different theories and facts around what had happened to Boston, Ohio, in 1974 and why it was called “Helltown.” It’s true that in 1974, President Ford ordered the evacuation of Boston, Ohio. No one knows why, but the official story was for the preservation of natural beauty to turn into a National Park. There was a chemical spill, but that’s all that is known. Locals claim the Wendigo ran around the site, that there was a satanic cult operating in the town, that there were mutations caused by the spill, that it was a hangout for serial killers, and that it has a crybaby bridge. None of these stories have proof of them. So what did happen?
The docudrama by the Travel Channel claimed “Boston, Ohio,” aka “Helltown,” was inhabited by the “WW” cult that worshipped the wendigo. While the government was clearing the town in the 1960s, there was a Waco-style shootout between the Feds and the cultists, leaving 14 dead. In 2016 a local teenager investigating “Helltown” was attacked on a YouTube live stream and eaten by a Wendigo. According to Snopes, none of this occurred.
The Documentary followed stories of a military cover-up of a mutation causing a chemical spill, forcing the government to evacuate the town for a clean-up and restoration. At the same time, an Irish Catholic turned Pagan turned Satanic Cult started animal sacrifices to a wendigo in the woods, and a shoot-out happened between the military and the locals, leading to death. Not to mention the story of the all too common missing kids. The Docudrama included supposed interviews, re-enactments, fake newspaper articles, fake YouTube videos, and fake professors—all hogwash and “Blair Witch Project” style shock-journalism.
The local legends
All too famous in local lore, Helltown, Zombieland, and many stories run everywhere – especially during Halloween. Every state has satanic ritual stories, as do their intriguing crybaby bridges, missing children, and mutations. There is no evidence of missing kids or Waco-style shootouts between the Feds and cult members. The Army didn’t kill locals. No bear was dead. No teenagers were attacked or eaten by said bear. These parts were created by the “Helltown” docudrama. The locals, however, pre-filming, did have their legends and ghost stories. The 20-second-long YouTube video supposedly uploaded in 2016 depicting a girl screaming amidst flashing lights was faked.
The Satanic Church
There was a local church in Boston, Ohio, that had some upside-down crosses in its architecture, belonging to a typical Gothic style. There were no Satanists operating out of the church or in the town. It was a Presbyterian Church called “The Mother of Sorrows.” It was not formerly an Irish Catholic Church, as the fake documentary dictated.
The Crybaby Bridge
Every town has them. It’s a local bridge where one claims late at night, and you can hear babies crying, either coming from the bridge itself or the nearby woods. Some claim that tiny hand prints would appear on your car windows or hood.
The Murder Bus
Before the town was demolished, there was a graffiti-laden old school bus that locals claimed housed “serial killers.” It was, however, just an abandoned bus that a local family lived in while building their home. There is no evidence of actual serial killers living there.
The End of the World
Many dark roads, especially those with ledges along them, have this nomenclature. The one in Boston, Ohio, was a steep section of Stanford Road, so it could look like someone driving it was dropping off at the “End of the World.”
Mutations
Because the local Krejci Dump was known to have chemical contamination, numerous stories flooded the area with tales of mutated giant frogs, the Wendigo, mutated glowing people that were zombie-like, or glowing head creatures wandering the woods. The dump is genuine. The chemical spill was a problem. The National Park bought the landfill for their waste, but local rangers got sick and suffered chemical burns due to the heavy metals and chemicals in the ground. It was closed and cleaned up by 2015 after it was declared a Superfund site.
The Wendigo of Boston, Ohio
The local Algonquin tribes did have lore about a humanoid creature with deer antlers that would eat humans. The creature lives around the Great Lakes and/or Nova Scotia. However, there has been no scientific documentation of its existence nor real records of sightings in this area outside of what the docudrama claimed.
Real History:
The area’s original inhabitants were the Delaware or Lenape people, an Algonquin tribe known as the Mingo, who had a village next to Clear Creek in Ohio. There was bloodshed between the Euro-American settlers and the local Native Americans, and it was quieted with the Treaty Of Easton. They left in 1755. The settlement was re-founded in the 1770s by the Lenape and was called “Clear Town” after the “Clear Creek” it was established. Some claim that the German word for “Clear” is “hell” and it was nicknamed “Helltown”.
They abandoned the village in 1782 after struggles with Euro-Americans and Colonial American troops. The Gnadenhutten Massacre of 1782 occurred, killing 96 Lenape. After the bloodshed in 1782, the village was abandoned as it supposedly sits along a battle trail that stretched from Sandusky through the Cuyahoga River valley. After struggles vanished, Euro-American homesteaders settled the area and built the town of “Boston, Ohio”. According to archaeologists, in the late 19th century, the village was a high mound composed of sandstone rocks and packed earth. Supposedly, Lenape graves were buried there, but a local farmer plowed over them in 1881. The only artifacts recovered were an iron tomahawk, two iron knives, stone arrowheads, a stone ax, a gunflint, and some brass mountings from a musket.
The town was named after its township and officially settled by Euro-Americans in 1820. In 1821, it was home to a sawmill called Boston Mills. A post office was established in 1825 and remained in operation until 1957.
Congress passed Public Law 93-555 in 1974, permitting the U.S. Government to establish the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area. The government purchased the town of Boston and relocated its residents out of the area. This eminent domain action condemned hundreds of homes and businesses, closing the town of Boston. After clearing the town, the Government fell behind on the development of the National Park. This left the area a ghost town with abandoned buildings and empty streets.
Locals came up with their conspiracy theories, claiming the government felt the site was haunted, a wendigo was killing people, serial killers were hiding in the area, and a toxic spill was causing mutations. The government demolished the last structures in 2016. President Gerald Ford claimed the area needed to be turned into a National Park to preserve the environment, taking large swaths of land surrounding Boston, Ohio. However, while by 2016, they finally demolished all remnants of the town, they didn’t turn it into a park for over half a century after taking it from its residents. The U.S. government took it from the indigenous tribes and then took it from its people.
Visiting Helltown
According to Atlas Obscura, nothing exists in Boston, Ohio. It is, however, in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and, therefore, easy to visit, though there is nothing to see. It is in the Boston Township just west of Brandywine Falls. Travel to Brandywine Falls, exit 271, and find the “road closed” sign.
Case, H.B. “Description of Mounds and Earthworks in Ashland County, Ohio.” In Miscellaneous Papers Relating to Anthropology. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1883. p. 74.
Didymus, John Thomas 2019 “Is Helltown Real or Fake? Was Ohio Teenage Girl Killed in Wendigo Attack?” Monsters and Critics 23 September 2019.
Evon, Dan 2019 “Does Helltown Film Document Weird Happenings in Abandoned Ohio Town?” SNOPES. Website referenced: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/helltown-document-real-events/ on 5/19/21
IMDB 2017 Helltown, Season 1, Episode 1 viewed on Amazon Prime.
Urbex Underground n.d. “The Actual Truth About Helltown Ohio”. Website referenced 5/19/21: https://urbexunderground.com/helltown-ohio/
Multnomah County Poor Farm (Now McMenamins Edgefield) Troutdale, OR
photo by Ian Poellet – via Wikipedia. The Multnomah County Poor Farm (built 1911) in Troutdale, Oregon,
Deep in the heart of Troutdale was an early 1900’s farm that housed the homeless, sick, poor, and unfortunate. It was a place for those desperate to come and stay in exchange for work. Legend has it, many died while working the farm, and the place had a continual flow of people. In 1990, the Portland chain McMenamins built a hotel, brewery, and venue atop the property and have had claims of strange happenings ever since. Room 215 is claimed to be the most haunted room on the property. The front desk has a log of strange happenings at the property.   www.mcmenamins.com
Bibliography:
Tindrick, Ryan 2014 “11 Scariest Haunted Places in Oregon”. Website referenced 10/10/15 at http://articlecats.com/index.php/11-scariest-haunted-places-in-oregon/
There exists an urban legend or ghost story of a little girl and boy apparitions walking along the road outside of Salem, Oregon. Legend has it the little girl was killed while walking across the road and ever since she’s haunted the roadway with her brother. Some say they see a ball rolling across the street with a girl chasing it, and a little boy waving them to slow down.
Bibliography:
Tindrick, Ryan 2014 “11 Scariest Haunted Places in Oregon”. Website referenced 10/10/15 at http://articlecats.com/index.php/11-scariest-haunted-places-in-oregon/
There is a mysterious legend along with the coastal highway 101 on the Oregon coast – that of an apparition of a man walking along the highway covered in bandages. He is often seen on the side of the road or in one’s rear-view mirror. Some have claimed to see him in their backseat through their rear-view mirror. When they turn to look in person, he’s not there. The reports of this apparition go back to the early 1960s.
Most claim that the best way to see him is to go down the older highway 101 that runs parallel to the main highway through the forest. This is now an abandoned road not in use, and it is said to travel at night, as very few reports seeing him in the daylight. Some call this “The Bandage Man Road”. Most notably where Highway 26 intersects with Coastal 101. He is said to vanish just before reaching the town. His name is “The Bandage Man” because he’s a man with a bandaged face.
Almost a ghastly mummy, he’s wrapped in bandages and apparently haunts the Cannon Beach community, based on urban lore. He’s described as a bloody figure of a man, covered in bandages drenched in blood, and the stench of rotting flesh follows him. He’s been said to jump into vehicles passing on the road out of Cannon Beach, especially into pickup trucks and open-topped vehicles, sedans, station wagons, and sports cars. He’s been claimed to have broken windows and leaving behind bloody bandages in his aftermath.
Some claim he is the unrestful spirit of a lumberjack who was sliced and diced in a sawmill accident nearby. He is said to have killed people along the highway and to have eaten the dogs of neighboring communities.
One of the original tales is about teenage kids “Parking and sparking” along the Bandage Man road. The boy had an old Chevy pickup and they were kissing when they felt the truck bounce with something moving in the back bed. They looked out the window to see a man in a bloody bandaged face with weird eyes. He began banging on the glass and top of the cab. The kid revved his engine, put it in gear, and raced away in terror to Cannon Beach to the safety of their parent’s service station in the greenhouse. He was gone.
The bandaged man has also been reported to be seen along the route from Lincoln City to Seaside. Some tag on that Bandage Man was a criminal shot by the police along the highway – he was transferred from the hospital to the jail, escaped, ran into the woods, and never seen again.
In the area are also tales about flying pots in Seaside, a haunted hotel in Nehalem Bay, and many mysterious apparitions in Astoria giving a great backdrop for films like Goonies, The Ring 2, and The Fog as well as inspirations for Lovecraft film Cthulhu.
Bibliography:
Alexander, Stephen 2014 “Haunted Oregon – Interesting before scary” Portland Tribune. Website http://portlandtribune.com/pt/11-features/229134-92235-haunted-oregon-interesting-before-scary referenced 10/12/15.
Hagestedt, Andre 2006 “Oregon Coast Ghosts, and Other Paranormal Legends” Website http://www.beachconnection.net/news/ghost1006_0174.htm referenced 10/12/15.
Shadowlands 2015 “Haunted Places in Oregon” Website http://www.theshadowlands.net/places/oregon.htm referenced 10/12/15.
Tindrick, Ryan 2014 “11 Scariest Haunted Places in Oregon”. Website referenced 10/10/15 at http://articlecats.com/index.php/11-scariest-haunted-places-in-oregon/
Sluggo 2009 “The Bandage Man of Cannon Beach” website referenced http://sluggosghoststories.blogspot.com/2009/10/bandage-man-of-cannon-beach.html on 10/12/15.
Unexplained Mysteries 2015 “” website http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=81120 referenced on 10/12/15.
It is also believed that the Cave of the Cats is the actual physical birthplace of Queen Medb. The legend states that the Fairy Queen/Goddess Étain who was fleeing her human husband with her fairy lover Midir came here. Midir wanted to visit a relative named Sinech (the large breasted one) who lived in the cave. Within the cave was said to be a great otherworldly palace where a maidservant named Crochan Crogderg (“Blood Red Cup”) lived, and she had granted Midir and Etain entrance. It was here that Crochan was believed to have given birth to a daughter named “Medb“.
