Haint.Blue | Forgotten Folklore

We Got The Beast: Marlin Perkins Cures Cats and Searches for Snowmen

Norden Laboratories - Vinyl 7” - 33 1/3 rpm - 1961 Tracklist A – Does The Abominable Snowman Exist?* B – The Facts About Felocine...

Haint.Blue Episode 1 - Hex Valley

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Haint.Blue Episode 2 - The Ball

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Haint.Blue Episode 3 - Gravity Hill

Happy birthday to our very own @markmayrobots 🤖 Wishing you a year of wonder, adventure, and many Tudor’s biscuits 🛣️🎒🔦👣 Your dear pals, Regina and Brian 🖤

Happy Friday the 13th! You can read back issues of The Thirteen Club zine at @yoursthirteenly and at https://www.haint.blue/the-thirteen-club

Morituri te Salutamus!

55th anniversary of the Silver Bridge Collapse Point Pleasant, WV
December 15, 1967

At approximately 5:00 EST a crack in one of the eye bar links that supported the bridge failed causing a chain reaction and toppling the 31 bumper to bumper vehicles packed on the bridge into the icy maw of the dark Ohio River. 67 people were knocked off the bridge most into the cold waters along with their vehicles. 21 would be rescued and 46 would perish. 44 of the victims who lost their lives would be recovered, the bodies of Kathy Byus and Maxine Turner were never recovered.

The events of this evening would rip apart a community and leave a lasting impact. In a twist of irony the bridge collapse would become synonymous with the legend of the Curse of Chief Cornstalk and mysterious bird like creature today known all over the world as Mothman. In reality the events of the Mothman continue to this day and had little to nothing to do with the events of the bridge collapse. Gray Barker and John Keel who both wrote period books on the strange events in Point Pleasant both used the bridge collapse as an exit strategy on their books. Hollywood would follow suit in the 2002 screen adaptation with the bridge collapse being the climactic ending.

Fifty-five years ago today - at 4:58pm on December 15, 1967, while full of rush-hour traffic - the Silver Bridge in Point Pleasant, West Virginia collapsed. Forty-six people died in what remains the deadliest bridge disaster in American history.

Read more about the disaster, it’s surprising musical history, and it’s link to a dark moth-monster entity:

https://www.haint.blue/post/disaster-ditties-demonic-demolition-the-silver-bridge-disaster-memorial-album

Ninety-four years ago tonight, on the night of November 27, 1928, a troubled trio - who believed they had been hexed by local powwow/folk magic doctor Nelson Rehmeyer - bound, beat, and murdered the man in his home in an attempt to remove the witch curse.

https://www.haint.blue/post/a-long-lost-friend-murder-and-magic-at-southern-pennsylvania-s-hex-house

Christmas tree of Cryptid Ornaments by our own @markmayrobots Catch him 11/26 at Bazaart at American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, MD.

Marlin Perkins of “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom” fame describes his search for the Abominable Snowman, or Yeti, in the Himalayas with Sir Edmund Hillary…as they got sidetracked while working on a new feline distemper vaccine.

Read the full story at https://www.haint.blue/post/we-got-the-beast-marlin-perkins-cures-cats-and-searches-for-snowmen

Happy Mothman Day

November 15, 1967: Mothman would make the news has he was first sighted by two couples on a gravel road in the deserted munitions factory outside of Point Pleasant, WV.

Mothman’s popularity in Japan is evident in these Japanese exclusive blind box and capsule machine prizes.

Fifty-five year’s ago today, on October 20, 1967, Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin rode into Bluff Creek on horseback and allegedly filmed an adult female Sasquatch as she fled toward the woods. This bag contains sand/gravel/dirt collected from that site.

Albatwitch festival 2022 was a blast! Mark your calendars October 14th 2023!

Flying Dutchman

Albert Pinkham Ryder, Flying Dutchman, completed by 1887, oil on canvas mounted on fiberboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of John Gellatly, 1929.6.95

“Records of the Royal Navy tell of mutineers being terrified by a real ghost ship after rigging their ship to appear as the Flying “

Ghost Hunter, Fortean explorer, and noted author Rick Fisher shares some tales of famous ghost ships.

Read more at:

https://www.haint.blue/post/ghost-ships-doomed-to-prowl-the-high-seas-or-will-they-someday-find-eternal-rest

Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp, Elmore’s Butterbean Shed, Lee County SC-July 14, 1988

Christopher Davis on his way home from his late night shift at McDonald’s was waylaid by a flat tire near the location of Elmore’s Butter Bean Shed on Browntown Road.

In the words of Mr. Davis:

“The Moonlight was out and I saw a red-eyed devil”

“I had finished fixing the tire and was putting things in the trunk. I turned around and saw a red-eyed Devil. He was about 30 yards from me, in the field. It had real long arms. When he would run his arms would swing. I ran to the driver’s side and got in. When I was sitting in the car I saw him from the neck down. I pulled off, and after about two yards he jumped on the roof. I could see the creatures three fingered hand through the windshield. I saw hands, rough looking, black finger nailed hands. After he fell off the car he grunted. A deep grunt. He grunted one time. The creature fell off.

Subsequent sightings, damages to other vehicles, police investigations, and some foot prints would be uncovered.

Fortunately the foot prints, the sign from the butter bean shed and actual beans collected from the location are on display at the South Carolina Cotton Museum. For a few dollars you can purchase a bag with some of the beans.

75th anniversary of the news of a reported crashed saucer near Roswell, NM. In the next few days a correction was issued stating that it was a crashed weather balloon. Whatever it was it became one of the most famous headlines in terms high strangeness.

The State of Georgia Bureau of Investigations has demolished what was left of the Georgia Guidestones after a bombing on July 6th. While the guidestones caused controversy in some circles we are sad to see this enigmatic roadside monolith gone from the roadside. Luckily Dutchy is still nearby.

At approximately 4 AM EST an explosion was detonated at the Georgia Guidestones near Eberton Georgia. While the investigation is underway we reflect on @markmayrobots visit last summer to these mysterious monoliths.

Big Mine Run Geyser, the only geyser on the Eastern part of the United States. Technically water trapped in long abandoned coal mines breaks the surface under pressure at this former air shaft. The orange colored soil is caused by acid mine drainage, heavy metals have been absorbed by the groundwater creating a sulphuric acid.

It’s Friday the 13th, so watch out for black cats, broken mirrors, and other harbingers of doom - join @yoursthirteenly for your superstition fix and read all their past zines at our link in bio.

118 years ago this week, the Great Baltimore Fire was burning. This letter, written while the city was still smoldering, gives the harrowing firsthand details:

“Baltimore, Feb. 9 1904

Dear Sister,

Another day gone only adds to the horror of the fire. It is still raging along the banks of the Chesapeake, devouring house after house in the thickly settled Italian and Bohemian districts, but it is not as bad as it was during the day. We hope the firemen will have it checked by tomorrow night.

You cannot imagine what it is like. No pen can describe the appalling grandeur of the scene after dark. It seems just like hell loosed on Earth. The awful sheets of flame shoot up like a huge blanket 5 or 6 blocks long. There are over 1,500 buildings destroyed and the number may reach 2,500 before the fire is put out. The money loss will be over $200,000,000 it is estimated at the figure at the present time. There are over 25,000 people out of work on account of it. I was up on Federal Hill today for a few minutes and as far as you can see there is nothing but buildings of all sizes and kinds in flames. The papers now state that it is the greatest fire of modern times. I never want to see another like it in all my life.

The fire started on Sharp Street three blocks south of Baltimore Street and ate its way to Baltimore Street, crossed the street and went two blocks north and then started east, burning for five blocks wide for a mile, and then took a south cut for over another mile. The firemen dynamited several blocks in the hope of checking it, but it seemed to add fuel to it. Nothing but God alone could stop it. Everything seemed to burn.”

GREAT BALTIMORE FIRE - 118 years ago this week, the 3rd worst fire in an American city broke out. The inferno burned for 30 hours, was battled by 1,231 firefighters, destroyed 1,500 buildings across 140 acres/70 city blocks, and left 35,000 people unemployed. Most unbelievably, there were no deaths attributed directly to the terrible blaze.

It was 118 years ago today - on February 7, 1904 - that The Great Baltimore fire was sparked.

According to the headline in The Baltimore News the following day: “More than seventy blocks in ash. Area mile in length and quarter of a mile in width swept by one of the worst conflagrations in history of the world. Flames reached Jones’ Falls this morning, leaped across stream, then plunged into the heart of the lumber district of East Baltimore. Gov. Warfield declares the day a legal holiday and extension of proclamation looked for. Smoking, unshapen ruins mark what was once the pride of Baltimore’s business world. Impossible to estimate loss; but it is thought that $100,000,000 will cover it.”

The Haint Blue tribute Pinewood Derby Car by in house artist and resident third grader Thomas May. Featuring a distressed painted body, metallic blue flames, a tungsten steel skull and glow in the dark wheels. Inspired by Whisps and swamp gas we hope he places in the race!

Happy Groundhog Day!

Haint.Blue is fortunate enough to have two weather prognosticating marmots on staff!

Havre De Grace Hattie, Havre De Grace Maryland, and Rocky Dexter, Rowland Academy Middle School, Harrisburg Pennsylvania.

The esteemed handlers of these two fine whistle pigs have confirmed with our stiff rodentia and have determined that they have not seen their shadows! Spring will come early this year! Granted neither bothered to turn their head and simply stared at the camera.

Let’s leave the prognosticating prowess to the professionals. Dover Doug, Puxatawny Phil, Octoraro Orphie, just not the recently deceased Miltown Mel, yet he could join the taxidermy ranks.

Only known photograph of The Poe Toaster - a mysterious stranger who, from the 1930s through 2010, would leave three roses and a bottle of cognac on Edgar Allan Poe's grave every year on the anniversary of author's birthday (January 19, 1809). This photo appeared in a 1990 issue of Life Magazine. The spectral visitor has since abandoned its haunt and the tradition has been replaced by a less spooky and more family friendly tourism event.

Jersey Devil- flap sightings 1909

The Jersey Devil aka Leeds Devil is a creature of mysterious origins dating back to 1735 in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey. Cryptid or fabrication of a feud with kite flying syphilis ridden Benjamin Franklin. Like Franklin and his “key experiment” the Devil would get it’s name and origin story mixed with fact, fueled by imagination, and spread like manure over the centuries.

Mother Leeds upon finding out she was pregnant with her 13th child “declared the child would be the Devil!” Upon the child’s birth a beast was born, unfurled it’s bat like wings, beat the onlookers with its tail and subsequently flew up the chimney and into the night sky to terrorize Southern Jersey for the next 200+ years.

In 1909 starting January 16th and extending till the the 23rd the Devil would make its way all over the Mid Atlantic. Crossings the imaginary state lines that Cryptids do not regard, terrorizing Pennsylvania and treks as far as Western Maryland; a play date with the Snallygaster?

America's Stonehenge: A Mystery Set In Stone

Theories on who built in this area range from Native Americans, to Celts, Norseman and various other European populations. To date there are more questions than answers when it comes to this location and what it was actually used for. William Goodwin believed the site to be linked to Irish monks who visited long before Christopher Columbus arrived on our shores. He purchased the site in 1937 and dubbed it “Mystery Hill”

https://www.haint.blue/post/america-s-stonehenge-a-mystery-set-in-stone

America's Stonehenge: A Mystery Set In Stone

There are large stones that align with solar and lunar occurrences and form a type of calendar. There is an area called “The Sacrificial Table” with grooved scores around the edges to collect and drain off liquid. Was this used to make soap, used as a cider press or for a water and crystal ceremony?

https://www.haint.blue/post/america-s-stonehenge-a-mystery-set-in-stone

America's Stonehenge: A Mystery Set In Stone - Most people have heard of the Neolithic stone monument located near Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, known as Stonehenge. But did you know that we have what may be our very own group of historical stones right here in the United States?

Originally known as Mystery Hill, America’s Stonehenge is located in Salem, New Hampshire. It is a thirty acre area consisting of rock configurations, caves and chambers with its origins the source of much debate.

Read the full story by @mansion_of_the_moon at https://www.haint.blue/post/america-s-stonehenge-a-mystery-set-in-stone

“Silver Bridge” Gray Baker, Saucerian Books, 1970

Published in 1970 “Silver Bridge” would take the title of the bridge from Point Pleasant, WV. Along with a illustration of the same Silver Bridge for it’s first edition dust jacket.

The book would be the first of it’s kind dealing with the events leading up to the Silver Bridge Collapse and the encounters with people from space?, strange lights, Men In Black, and of course the Mothman which the book is dedicated to.

For many years out of publication, it seldom dropped below $100 for a first edition, a period book, a staple of UFO lore, and most importantly the first book.

While the book deserves a serious deep dive the nugget often overlooked is John Keel actually wrote an entire chapter for Silver Bridge without taking credit.

While researching Mothman in 2000, I tried to check out the copy at the Huntington WV public library and was told by the librarian in charge of books in the special collections that “the book had nothing to do with the bridge collapse and was all about UFO’s written by a crack pot.”

eBay has a first edition listed for $495 while Amazon is asking $1424.95!

First edition from the collection of @markmayrobots

Silver Bridge, Point Pleasant, WV 1928-1967 Memorial albums by various recording artists.

The Silver Bridge Disaster as it would be called tragically took 46 lives and tore a hole in the community.

A slew of albums about the disaster were created by a variety of recording artists in the proceedings months.

Brian Goodman @baltimorebonesbrigade shares an in depth review of some of the albums. https://www.haint.blue/post/disaster-ditties-demonic-demolition-the-silver-bridge-disaster-memorial-album

Records pictured courtesy of @markmayrobots

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Haint.Blue Episode 1 - Hex Valley

Haint.Blue Episode 1 - Hex Valley

Haint.Blue Episode 2 - The Ball

Haint.Blue Episode 3 - Gravity Hill

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