There’s an arboretum called the Bartlett Arboretum. There’s a bunch of trails through it, and there’s one trail that has a boardwalk that goes over a swamp. Years ago, there used to be a plaque on it that had “18.” Most likely a former trail marker, that one plaque stayed up for some reason. The local kids in the area started calling the area “Swamp 18.” Once you go down the boardwalk of Swamp 18, there are tall swamp trees, so you can’t see the person once they go more than ten feet down. The legend is once you go into Swamp 18, you don’t leave. Once you step into the water, it’s like quicksand, and it grabs you and pulls you under. Newer lore suggests that if you disappear into Swamp 18, you become a plank of wood on the boardwalk. And also that planks that fall into the swamp represent someone that has died.

Informant lives next to Bartlett Arboretum, so they find that they live in the prime area for these types of supernatural legends. Informant found the boardwalk really pretty during the day, but creepy at night, and the name made the area sound a lot creepier to them than it actually is. The newer lore was added by informant’s age group when they were in elementary school. Since the legends have come about, the Bartlett Arboretum has had a lovely renovation, but the informant says they don’t think the creepy legends ever left the public consciousness.