Category Archives: Legends

Narratives about belief.

Tombstone Ghost Story

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Waitress
Residence: Glendale, AZ
Language: English

“So me and my friend right. We took this trip to Tombstone and we did one of those ghost tours in I think it was a funeral home I’m pretty sure. It used to be an old funeral home in Tombstone. And she busted out this um what do they call it? A spirit box where they are just really loud. She had me and my friend stand up facing away from the audience, and there were these purple lights on us too, so you could kind of see if there was any shadows or movement or whatever from the ghost. And um apparently like people had told me afterwards that they had seen the ghost moving my hair cuz it was down and really long at the time. Anyways, with the spirit box, it just saying a lot of random stuff and all of a sudden all you could hear was it really clearly say BITCH! And then my friend just falls to the ground and grabs me and everybody fell.”

Context: The informant was about 14/15 and went on a birthday trip with her friend to Tombstone on Labor Day weekend. Tombstone is a well-known western town in Arizona, known for their ghost tours and mock shootouts. The ghost tour was in the basement of one of the stores which had been somewhat preserved from the time it was a funeral home. The host used a spirit box on her laptop, grid lights, and a barrel of offering which she had audience members stand in front of to invite spirits to touch them. The friend who collapsed claimed that she didn’t know what happened, similar to a short blackout, and she avoided any supernatural experiences for a long time afterward. The host ended the ghost tour after this incident.

Analysis: Although this ghost experience was somewhat institutionalized, the suggestibility of the experience and the host lead the informant into having a true ghost experience. Ghost boxes are devices that skip through radio channels, and the ghosts are supposed to highlight words in response to questions people asked. Initially, the experience had been fun for the informant, being told her hair was being moved by the ghost. This validated and strengthened the belief in the phenomenon in the moment. However, the experience took a turn when the ghost insulted them and her friend collapsed, suggesting that the ghost had pulled her down. With the ghost tour occurring in a wild west funeral home with many violent deaths, the host herself acknowledged the danger by concluding the tour after this hostile incident. Ghosts have been suggested to be especially tied to property and being hostile towards unwanted visitors, which could be a factor for the incident. 

The Jersey Devil

Age: 20

Story: The first time I learned about the Jersey Devil I was at a barbershop with my brother in South Jersey. My dad had just picked us up from school and my brother needed to get a haircut, so we went and I sat down in the waiting area and stared at the pictures on the wall, and the books on the coffee table. I was insanely bored there, and my stomach hurt, and I just remember that I did not want to be in that barbershop at all. That’s when a certain book caught my eye. It had a picture of what looked to be a horned goat, standing on two legs, with black devilish wings coming out from its back. This was the Jersey Devil.

I picked up the book, which turned out to be a picture book of “sightings” of the Jersey Devil all throughout New Jersey and I was just in awe, and a little terrified, of this “monster” that was potentially living in my backyard. 

After looking through the book for maybe three minutes, a man sitting next to me and my dad looked to me and said, “Be careful, don’t go into the woods at night…that’s when the Jersey Devil can get ya!” I remember laughing out loud, but inside, I was petrified. I also remember going home that day and looking up everything there was to know about the Jersey Devil. I read so many stories about the legend tearing up cars, terrorizing children, and ripping them from their families and flying into the woods with them, never to be seen again.

Even as I’ve gotten older, I’m no longer afraid of the Jersey Devil itself, but there’s part of me that will never stop believing that the Jersey Devil lives in the woods in my great state of New Jersey.

Analysis: This story is a phenomenal example of narrative folklore. The story of the Jersey Devil is one I’ve heard myself, and I too remember it terrifying me as a young kid. The fear and curiosity that this person had after learning of the legend is something I resonate with deeply. It’s powerful folk legends like this one which shows what can become when one connects it with someone’s sense of place and identity.

This story also, is the epitome of a legend or myth that unites a region. Specifically, in the Pine Barrens of South Jersey, the Jersey Devil has been a legend for over 100 years. From scaring children to giving parents something to scare their children with, this story has been reinvented and developed over many years, across many generations, and through many families. 

What I also find beautiful is how the Jersey Devil has become a symbol for New Jersey, almost a mascot for the state. How fascinating it is that a weird folk legend like this, can almost represent the weirdness of the state itself…

Roswell UFO Incident

Text:
A rancher found metal debris on his property in Roswell, and the local newspaper ran the headline that a flying saucer had been spotted. Many locals heard from one another that aliens have also been spotted. The very next day, government agents arrived in the small town and retracted all the debris. The news retracted their statement, saying it was a weather balloon.

Context:
The informant went to the Roswell UFO festival and learnt about the history behind this urban legend in person. They believe it started as a conspiracy of a Cold War surveillance project that detected Soviet nuclear tests, but to cover it up, another conspiracy was formed. 40 years later, the government released declassified documents that revealed that the crashed “flying saucer” was a spy balloon. The informant does not believe in this conspiracy themselves, but they know that this reveal just leads to a third conspiracy that the declassified information is the real cover up of alien spottings.

(Photo taken at the Rosewell UFO Festival from the Informant.)

Analysis:
The Roswell UFO Incident is the origin point for modern UFO conspiracy culture. A powerful symbol of distrust in government and secrecy. Like classic legends, it has a real event and press release; ambiguity or contradiction, and malleability—the story evolves over time with new “witnesses,” reinterpretations, and additions. Furthermore, Roswell serves as a folk counter-narrative to official authority, symbolizing the power of everyday people to challenge dominant truths.

Evanston Township High School Bowling Alley

Text:
There is an urban legend that Evanston Township High School (ETHS) suggests the existence of a hidden bowling alley within the school’s premises. This belief has been popular among students and community members, with many speculating about its location, particularly in the school’s basement.

Context:
The Informant is from the school and heard this from upperclassmen. It is a well known belief despite being proven wrong, they know school staff have debunked this myth. A maintenance worker clarified that there was never a bowling alley in the basement. He mentioned that the rumored bowling alley was actually located where the auto shop is now.

Analysis:
Urban legends like this thrive on ambiguity. The fuzziness of fact vs. fiction is part of the appeal. The bowling alley legend serves as a symbol of past eras, hinting at a more glamorous or strange history of the school. The basement becomes a mythic space, a metaphor for the hidden layers of institutional history that current students aren’t supposed to access.

Moth Man

Text:
In Point Pleasant, West Virginia, a bridge collapsed and killed many people. The rumor started that a Mothman has come to destroy it. One man claimed he had seen the Moth Man days before the incident, and it prophesied to destroy the bridge.

Context:
Informant from midwest and heard this more as a joke from their father as a child. They gathered most of the information about the Moth Man they know today from the mass media and internet.

Analysis:
Point Pleasant becomes a liminal space where the boundaries between the natural and supernatural dissolve. Mothman serves as a modern banshee-like figure—a being whose presence signals impending catastrophe. But for me, I know it from the internet and pop culture as a crypid. I was a little disappointed to hear the origin story about the Moth Man that it just destroyed a bridge and that is all the information we know about it. Their function is not only to scare or thrill but to provide cultural coherence in a chaotic, fragmented society.