Urban Legends

Post by **Slarti** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 9:40 pm

I LOVE urban legends, and while every place has the typical “Bloody Mary” or “Hook” stories, I thought it’d be cool to share some truly unique local urban legends or folklore! I think my favorite local legend is in Stull, Kansas, about 50 miles west of me.

Stull is a total blink-and-miss-it hellhole, that thanks to a prank played by the University of Kansas student newspaper got the reputation of being a REAL hellhole. Stull is supposed to be one of the earthly “gates to hell.” No kidding. It’s featured all over the Internet on sites such as Prairie Ghosts, Roadside America, nearbyWashburn University, and even the nearby city of Lawrence’s entertainment blogsite. Urge Overkill even wrote a song about it in 1992 and slapped a pic of the haunted cemetery/hell gate on the cover of the album. Just Google “Stull, Kansas” and you get a gazillion fun hits.

Though there are several variations and subsets of the story, the gist is this: There are gateways to hell sprinkled like Easter eggs over the earth where twice a year, on the Spring Equinox and Halloween, Satan likes to have a little party or something. Supposedly the Stull cemetery, specifically an old stone church in the cemetery, is one of those places. The causes for Stull hosting this VIP visit vary, but include that the people that founded the town were Satanists, Satan’s bride or son or dog or something is buried in the cemetery or that, hey, it’s Kansas – it’s just evil.

The whole thing started when a story about Satan’s local appearance ran in the KU newspaper right before Halloween, and every drunken Jayhawk who read it descended on the poor town and trashed the cemetery. This happened every year for years until the town and state police put a stop to it. Sorta. It’s been a tourist attraction ever since, and, yes, even I’ve been there. Sadly, Satan did not appear for me.

Post by **steyn** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 5:55 am

Sadly? Why in heaven's sweet name would it be sadly if Satan did not appear?

Crocodile Hunter · Post by **Crocodile Hunter** » Sat Sep 02, 2006 10:41 am

[quote]Alkuperäinen postittaja Slarti
and every drunken Jayhawk who read it descended on the poor town and trashed the cemetery. [/quote]

"Goddamn satanists!" *kicks several tombstones*

thylacine · Post by **thylacine** » Thu Oct 19, 2006 1:41 am

Satan likes to have a little party or something... I think that's scary, myself! I'm glad I wasn't invited.

Post by **fourpawsonthefloor** » Sun Oct 22, 2006 3:10 am

Albert is our little local 'ghostie'. I graduated from this school, where he hangs out. It doesn't hurt that its right across from the graveyard, which is actually a pretty peaceful place to sit and look over while you are eating your lunch.

From the ulumni website:
[quote] Does Albert exist? Custodians and others reported a mysterious ghost talking in the rafters of the High School auditorium that opened in 1954. Albert’s voice could distinctly be heard during the quiet hours when the theater was in darkness. Some maintained this was a ghost. Others suggested a fluke length of wire in the rafters transmitted radio reception. Albert was all the more real when ceiling tiles of the aging high school theatre used to occasionally drop on those below. Believers are convinced that Albert moved into the Sagebrush Theatre when it replaced the old High School Auditorium. [/quote]

I know people who have 'seen' albert. He's a bit of a pain in the ass, but he's not really mean - just...mischevious. He is particularly enamoured of dumping crap off the catwalks. For example, if the lighting people are up there with a cupfull of nuts and bolts, he'll knock that off when it wasn't on the edge and they weren't near it. If it doesn't give you the willies, then you can really look at him more like he's a brat.

Alas, I never did see him, though I am pretty sure that is a good thing. Paws likes her pants dry!

Paws

Post by **Slarti** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 8:00 pm

My old college town has a ghost legend like that – no basis in reality other than a cemetery in the woods. There’s a really pretty conservation area up on a river bluff that’s supposedly haunted. People love to go up there at night, get wasted and run around the woods. So, half the time, little groups of people will run into or hear <i>other</i> little groups, scream ‘ghosts!’ and tear out of there. It’s funny.