Werewolves

A VISIT TO WEREWOLF COUNTRY: Sasquatch Lake

There are a few different companies offering duckboat tours of the Wisconsin River out of the town of Wisconsin Dells. My lovely traveling companion and I went with the Dells Army Ducks. Each duckboat they operate is a repurposed military vehicle. (The DUKW, or “Duck,” was a military vehicle developed during World War Two for…

A Sendoff to a Stranger Summer

When I was a kid, the start of school would always mark the end of summer. For most people, the unofficial end of summer is Labor Day. The calendar says that summer ends on the autumnal equinox on September 23rd. I’ve always tended to see the year as being divided up by months, with each…

A TRIP TO WEREWOLF COUNTRY: Beast Beer

Though I lamented the way the town of Elkhorn had failed to capitalize on its resident monster, the Beast of Bray Road, without so much as a local business making use of the werewolf as an advertising mascot, I didn’t have to drive too far to find one that did, and did so with gusto….

A TRIP TO WEREWOLF COUNTRY: The Hodag, Part Three—Yes, Virginia, There Is a Hodag

The Ojibway Indians, aka the Chippewa, called it Mishebeshu or Mishipeshu or some other variation thereof. Another name for the creature is “Water Panther.” The physical descriptions of the Water Panther are varied depending on the location and the tribe in question, but there are certain constants, traits that tend to be repeated: a long,…

A TRIP TO WEREWOLF COUNTRY: The Hodag, Part Two—What the heck IS a Hodag, anyway?

According to a newspaper report from the late 1800s, which detailed the capture of a live Hodag, the beast has “the head of a frog, the grinning face of a giant elephant [sans the trunk—ED; also, aren’t all elephants “giants”, unless you’re talking about a baby or a pygmy?], thick short legs set off by…

A TRIP TO WEREWOLF COUNTRY: The Hodag, Part One

The people of Elkhorn, Wisconsin sure could learn a thing or two from the people of Rhinelander, Wisconsin some distance to the north. Whereas I was disappointed to find nothing at all werewolf-related around Elkhorn (though I *did* find some sweet Beast of Bray Road swag not too far away, but more on that in…

A TRIP TO WEREWOLF COUNTRY: Ed Gein’s Traveling Headstone

I wanted to go see the headstone but I simply didn’t have the time. But then it wasn’t the real headstone from Ed Gein’s grave. *That* headstone is under lock and key at the local police station, according to rumor. The one you can actually see, if the Internet reports are accurate, is a second…

A TRIP TO WEREWOLF COUNTRY: Ed Gein, Part Two

Ed Gein’s farmhouse was burned down long ago. Doubtless it was arson, though no one was ever charged with such a crime. Probably the police had no desire to charge anyone with such a crime. There were rumors that the house was going to be purchased and turned into a haunted attraction, a Halloween-style “spook…

A TRIP TO WEREWOLF COUNTRY: Ed Gein, Part One

Wisconsin has some legendary monsters: the Beast of Bray Road, aka the Wisconsin Werewolf, the Hodag, and Ed Gein among them. The latter, the only one of the three to qualify as human, is a celebrity, even if he’s infamous instead of famous, famous for all the wrong reasons. He served as the inspiration for…

The Micromoon

By the time you are reading this, the Micromoon may have already occurred (probably not), taking place on the night of Friday the 13th! The moon will be at apogee; that is, at its farthest point from the earth. But it will still be a full moon. It will just look smaller than normal. This…

A TRIP TO WEREWOLF COUNTRY: The Witch’s Tower

Whitewater, Wisconsin has a most colorful history, a history that inspired the name of local business Second Salem Brewing Company. The guy working the brewery the day I stopped by explained to me the town’s history and directed me to its most famous (or infamous) landmark, the “Witch’s Tower” of Starin Park. What it seems…

A TRIP TO WEREWOLF COUNTRY: Introduction

As I sit at the computer typing these words, I am just returned from a foray into Werewolf Country. And if you’re now wondering where, geographically speaking, Werewolf Country is located, just think about it. I’m betting you could figure it out. In recent years, what area of not just the United States but the…

A TRIP TO WEREWOLF COUNTRY: Driving Bray Road, Part Two

As I stated in the previous article in this series, Bray Road isn’t very long. I thus drove up and down in several times. I honestly lost count, just how many. Probably ten, maybe twelve. Several in the day and then I came back at night, after leaving the Walworth County Fair a few miles…

A TRIP TO WEREWOLF COUNTRY: Driving Bray Road, Part One

If you’ve only heard of Bray Road, near the little town of Elkhorn, Wisconsin, as it relates to the legendary Beast of Bray Road—a creature that has been seen numerous times by numerous people and fits to a T the proverbial physical description of a werewolf straight out of a Hollywood Horror flick—you’d be forgiven…

THE HUNT Part Nine

“I want you to know, you need to know, that I had a long conversation with the Sheriff last night,” Pete Corelli said. “Is that right?” Saint’s face remained unchanged but his eyes hardened. “I figured, once we were down in the cave, that’d be the perfect opportunity for you to kill me. Or Mr….

Jackalman (and the Thundercats)

I’m writing it the way they spell it, but it really should be “Jackal Man,” or even better, hyphenated like “Spider-Man.” “Jackal-Man” gives you an accurate idea of what the name is describing. “Jackalman” sounds like an obscure Jewish surname; which, if I remember correctly from the mythos of the cartoons, it may have been….

THE HUNT Part Eight

“Did you have to wear shorts?” Pete asked, not loud enough for anybody else to hear. “I wanted to be comfortable,” Arly said. “Why?” “You’re chumming the waters.” “What?” “You know, sharks. And those look good on you, too. They fit a little too well, if you catch my drift.” “Why are you looking at…

THE HUNT Part Seven

Nadie dreaded the winter. Each one seemed to get worse, though she knew that was just her arthritis. The cold got down deep into her bones and set her joints to throbbing. It seemed like she hurt most days of the year now, with a few weeks respite during the all-too-short summer. Out on the…

The Werewolf and the Hexham Heads

Have you heard of the Hexham Heads? (I love unintentional alliteration.) Hexham is a town in Northumberland, England. In 1972, allegedly, a pair of Hexham youths were pulling weeds in their yard (it would thus seem that the boys were brothers, since they would’ve been a mite young to be cohabitatin’ otherwise) when they unearthed…

How To Get Yourself Blocked 101

We maintain a zero tolerance approach to trolls here at this website and on our sister sites vampires.com and darkness.com. Troll messages are immediately deleted when we get them, which I am happy to report is extremely rare. Far more common are the rambling, pidgin English missives we receive wherein the writer pleads with us…

The Real Crime That Inspired TWIN PEAKS

Did you know that there really was a Laura Palmer? Even a monster-sized TWIN PEAKS mark like me didn’t know that, not until a couple’a years ago. I was surprised to read that a real-life crime had inspired the series. The mundane world equivalent of Laura was named Hazel Drew, and she lived not in…

Revisiting the Classics: THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS

A maneating dog and a horde of feral humans locked up in the cellar of an old house owned by an insane incestuous brother and sister? That qualifies it for mention on a site dedicated to werewolves, for sure. Released in 1991, THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS is both a black comedy and a fairy…

The Terrible Tully Monster

It is the stuff of nightmares to look upon—except it was only about a foot long. And it also lived some 300 million years ago. Unless, that is, cryptozoologist and journalist Ted Holiday was correct in his hypothesis that the Loch Ness Monster is really just a gigantic Tully Monster. His identification should hold some…

The Monstrous Minotaur

Everybody knows the classic myth, don’tcha? King Minos of Mycenae (modern-day Crete) was given a snow white bull from Poseidon, the god of the Oceans. He pledged to sacrifice this bull, but decided to keep it for himself instead. In retaliation, Poseidon made Minos’s queen, Pasiphae, fall in love with the bull. She and the…

THE HUNT Part Six

This man is not my father. Arly had repeated it to herself so often that it had become a mantra. He’s not my father. He’s not my father. He’s not my father. She needed it, she felt. Because Pete had scared her. Made her fear that she wasn’t quite as “recovered” and “whole” a person…