Posted on 08/04/2019 10:52:36 AM PDT by robowombat
Did they eat ergot infected bread?
Thanks Tennessee Nana. Sounds like a food poisoning problem, or, perhaps the white-privileged residents were acting out because of their guilt over not living in African American River Falls.
I dont know avgreat deal about Black River Falls so I cant say much more other than to add that there were a number of areas across the northern part of Wisconsin that reported some pretty strange events back then. The effects are evident even today.
Belgians were the primary settlers in the immediate atea near where I live today. To this day some farms have a shrine like a mini church at what would be the front left corner of the property to a person standing on the front porch.
Of course, if you’re snowed in or something you could pop in there to appologize for not making it to mass or to do some late night praying for a sick one without waking the family but thats not why they were originally built.
The short version is that about this time there was a proud man that was expecting a huge sum of money but it was given to a very pious local priest instead. The proud man cursed the priest but God deflected the curse and it bounced back. For the rest of the proud mans life he was followed by human faced pig demons that tormented him. To interact with or cross the path of the proud man could occasionally cause one of the pig demons to follow one home. Without the shrine designating your property as belonging to one of The Lord, yhe demons could infect your home and call allies to torment your family too.
Just a ridiculous local legend about a local priest I suppose...but if it was, why did the human faced pig demons subsequently appear in Tennessee?
I have gotten the same vibe, along with a sort of condescending mockery anytime they divined (from my car's plates or my telling them) I was from Iowa.
WRT Michael Lesy's book, it is sort of a creepy tabula rasa for people who want to take a bygone culture's norms and make them seem weirder than they were. In 1890 one probably didn't have to look too far to find rural and small-town lunatics who managed to avoid detection or being committed, just like most of America today... but today a judge or an advocacy group would make sure they stayed out with the masses until they did something atrocious or frightful and then the media would blame guns, edged weapons or hand tools, or white guys, or Republicans.
‘....but today a judge or an advocacy group would make sure they stayed out with the masses until they did something atrocious or frightful and then the media would blame guns, edged weapons or hand tools, or white guys, or Republicans. .”
Excellent points!
Orf on Sienfeld?
bkmrk
Don’t drink the water.
Could just be someone starting a bunch of tall tales to bring in tourists or to write a book. There are some wild stories online about our hometown which are total hooey but the little nothing town is trying to get tourists. We just shake our heads...
Behold the power of cheese.
But I bet the local diner serves damn fine coffee.
“...condescending mockery anytime they divined (from my car’s plates or my telling them) I was from Iowa...”
How ironic...I had Iowa plates at that time too (Dubuque)! Even had the air let out of all 4 tires one time for that reason. Lots of low life white trash punks who imagined they were tough.
Quite possible, but the name Black River Falls hints at more fundamental causes.
I swear they still believe that anyone from W of US Hwy 63 has a prehensile tail and cheated on their driver's license test.
"Best job I never got" was one in what is now a suburb of Milwaukee (but not far enough out to be nice anymore). God takes care of drunks, fools and me.
I’ve always thought the reverse was true in Maine. The areas around Portland are screwball central while the outlying areas (and it is a pretty big state and very rural) are largely rural “Mayberry” type places.
"How bad's the coffee? How good's the pie?"
I think hes a pig faced human, these are human faced pigs though Im sure a platoon of either chasing one about is disconcerting.
Thats ridiculous. We all know that you cheated but since at least the 40s Iowans are all disbudded and docked before they leave the nursey.
Hotel Hell, Maribel, Wisconsin is just such a fabrication though the motivation is unclear as I cant imagine anyone being close enough or connected enough to make money off of it. The owner doesnt and has wasted the last 20 or 30 years trying to chase people off. I think it was likely just some high school kids telling stories in the early days of the internet and it just kept growing in the retelling.
In real life it was a nice little place stuck in time. It was a health spa like the healing bads (healing spring) of Germany. The proprty was a retirement home for old priests and monks at some point. I knew it as an old hotel with a tiny but fancied up bar. It was a convenient beer and bathroom break on the old highway. Its only claim to fame, like so many places in Eastern Wisconsin, was that Al Capone supposedly stopped here for his beer and bathroom breaks too.
During a bad dip in the economy it mysteriously burned down along with a bunch of other bars and restaurants. It stood for 20ish years as nothing more than an interesting shell people would look at on their way to the caves in the park behind and below.
Then the stories started. Blood sacrifices opening demonic portals and infernal gateways, the whole nine yards. This stupid story is all over the internet now being copied from site to site and is now even being published as fact in books covering the paranormal.
Healing spring wac supposed to be mineral bat but Im guessing you knew that.
I sware this fone seemz to make speiling changes after I hit post.
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