The USA is enormous. Enoooooormous. And there are so many goddamn places in it. Think about it — even if every state only had 10 places worth knowing about, that would still be 500 places. But there are so, so many more than that — tiny-ass hamlets, big-ass cities, giant-ass woods, enormous-ass canyons and everything in between.
Places need stories. They’re what turn somewhere from a geographical feature to somewhere you can come from. It’s no wonder, then, that a lot of these too-many places have developed myths and legends — tales of cryptids, tragedies and murderers eternally tied to specific spots.
Most of them are almost certainly nonsense, but if you find yourself in an overgrown forest at night, engine spluttering, shadows taking on unsettlingly predatory shapes, they don’t necessarily feel it…
Ojai, California: Watch Out for the Char-Man
Jonestown, Pennsylvania: Reflect Upon the Boy in the Bathroom
Iowa City, Iowa: Don’t Make Out Under the Scary Angel
Cannon Beach, Oregon: Domain of the Bandage Man
Bladenboro, North Carolina: Beware the Beast
Grunch Road, Louisiana: The Inbred Woodfolk Will Drink Your Blood
Cumberland, Rhode Island: Listen out for Fingernail Freddy
Sabattus, Maine: The Well to Hell
Quitman, Arkansas: Don’t Get Fetched by the Arkansas Dog Boy
Valentine, Nebraska: The Clarinetist Who Can Annoy You from Beyond the Grave
Slaughterhouse Canyon, Arizona: Fuck That Mother
Brazil, Indiana: The Death-Foretelling Undertaker
Pope Lick, Kentucky: Resist the Lure of the Goat Man
North Adams, Massachusetts: The Tunnel Full of Pissed-off Spirits