Fun Fact # 214
The Culvert Crawlers
In 2016 sightings of “pale hunched creatures” emerging from culverts late at night spread through much of downtown Rockford and soon people began hearing noises of scrapping from the floors of business. However, this was not the doings of orcs or some other creature of the dark but inspectors and police looking through the old tunnels under Rockford. Since the 1880s Rockford has had tunnels built for many reasons (6 major systems and an unknown number of lesser systems), but by far the most famous is the Steam tunnels which used to heat much of downtown Rockford and has 11 entrances still standing. These tunnels are best avoided however as some have asbestos, others are flooded with gas but most infamous is the fact it's been used by many criminals to flee police, only to die in tunnels forgotten, or in one case emerge from a previously unknown entrance, only to find himself in the courthouse basement.
(One of the steam tunnels under Rockford IL. courtesy of “The Rockford Cryptid Report” on Twitter)
Fun Fact # 215
The Oozeman
All across northern Illinois there have been sightings of a black ooze which either emerges from cracks in the ground forming the imposing shape of a tall human before spreading wings and flying off carrying small animals. This is the Oozeman, better known as the Chicago Mothman, and unlike the others previously mentioned this week, I have no explanation for this. It is one of the most prolific of all the Illinois cryptids (152 sightings this year so far) save perhaps for the Thunderbird (210). So when Halloween comes calling this October, I wish you all a Fang-tastic night.
Fun Fact # 116
Haunted Rockford
It has often been said that Water, and Limestone are great conductors of spiritual energy allowing for stronger Hauntings. Now admittedly I don’t believe in Ghosts but it may explain why Rockford is one of the cities with the largest number of officially haunted places in the US. Thanks to this, local Historian Kati Kristol created a group “Haunted Rockford '' In order to organize tours, connect local spirit hunter groups and list all of Rockford’s haunted attractions in one place. Now they are the premiere ghost hunters in Illinois, being responsible for organizing the “Illinois Paranormal Conference" every october.
Fun Fact #117
That's the Spirit!
In1865, Robert Tinker came to Rockford after concluding his tour of Europe in order to build his home on a limestone bluff overlooking the Kent creek. It also happened to be near a curiosity of his: an Indian burial mound dating back to 1300 AD. Now here he lived for many years building his family and when the railroad bought the home he made for his wife as a train stop he tried to turn his Victorian Swiss home into an attraction for passengers passing through. Finally his family gave the Cottage to the Rockford Park District who turned it into a museum in 1943. However it is said his Ghost and those of his family still haunt the grounds, seemingly still trying to make the place a tourist attraction. Once a year the grounds are also home to the Illinois Paranormal conference.
Fun Fact #118
Theater Wraiths
The Coronado Theater, built in 1927, served as the home and workplace for Willard Van Matre and his wife. They wound up loving it there and spent the rest of their lives there keeping the shows running before the Kerasotes Theater Organization acquired it upon their death. However there was a small bump in the road, as the Matres never left, apparently they really liked the Coronado and have returned from death to haunt it. They do hold occasional tours in attempts to see the ghosts and what they’ve found is there are many more ghosts in the coronado but the surefire way to get Mr. Matre to appear is to bring candy inside the lobby as he had it banned when he ran the place. In short, that's one ghost who must really hate Halloween (or at least their trick and seat every year for kids).
Fun Fact #119
Honored Memory
The leader of The Grand Army of the Republic (veterans of the Civil war from the Union side) Tomas G. Lawler submitted a proposal for a hall to be built near his home in Winnebago County to honor those who had died defending the country. This building would be built in Rockford as the first Veteran’s Hall in the US and at its opening President Theodore Roosevelt said in his speech “that the walls will speak of the heroism of those who have died and will die defending this good country.” Now the place is haunted by Lawler’s Ghost who speaks the names of those engraved upon the building's walls. The other ghost is that of Miss Daemon, who learned of her son’s death in the first use of Mustard gas while within the building. Her anguish tired her spirit to the building where she still wanders in shock of her son’s passing. As for the building’s legacy, Theadore Roosevelt used the idea behind Veteran’s Hall No.1 to help inspire the construction of more around the US which help veterans to this day, and telling this to Mr. Lawler’s ghost apparently makes him smile.
Fun Fact # 120
Kindness Repaid
Rockford used to be renowned for its ability to rehabilitate the drugged, raise the poor from poverty and treat the mentally ill. It even used to advertise this attracting many from all over the US looking for a genuine chance to get better, and for those that arrived they found many programs and homes, but the ones with the worst mental afflictions were sent 2.5hours north to Sheboygan Asylum. The Asylum was well funded by Wisconsin and regular large donations from many, especially from Rockford, yet it had staffing trouble so they couldn't properly watch all the buildings occupants who got up to a lot of mischief, including burning down the building once.
The reputation of its occupants gave writer Dennis O’Neil the idea that Batman's Villains might be sent to a dark version creating the fictional Arkham Asylum(though his artist used Connecticut Asylum for the architecture). If you want to meet some of Sheboygan's occupants who gave it this reputation, they still apparently haunt the building, continuing their misbehavior to this day.
Fun Fact #221
Samhain
Originating more than 2,000 years ago, the Celtic Myth of Samhain is the most important of the four fire festivals. The day marked the end of the Celtic year and when the barrier between the Otherworlds was at its weakest. On this night souls of the dead would return to visit their former homes and try to switch places with the living, sending them to return to the dead in their place. However, this also presented the opportunity to predict the future in the fires by tossing a stand of your hair into fire. If it did not produce a foul smell then you’d have a chance at finding your love in the next year. THis Tradition would overtime become known as All Hallows Eve, or Halloween.
Fun Fact #222
Embers of Defense
With spirits of gloom upon the air, doom awaits for those who don’t prepare. Being a fire holiday traditionally a great bonfire was lit and kept by the people of a community for the entire day of Halloween. Those people would huddle by the shelter of the smoke warding off bugs, flies, and ghosts, while predicting their futures. Then as night would approach the druids would give everyone embers hidden in hollowed out turnips to keep them safe through the night. Later Irish Immigrants would bring Samhain to the US but lacking turnips they switched to something more fruitful: Pumpkins. Creating the Jack-O-Lanterns we know and love today.
Fun Fact # 223
The Dullahan
Inspired by the poem “The Chase” Washington Irving would begin writing the first true American Folk Tale. He took from the Poem the idea of a sadistic hunter being hunted by Hell Hounds and replaced it with an innocent School Master Mr. Ichabod Crane Getting chased by a Dullahan. In Irish myth they are headless omens of death who ride their horses into battle, but he added the lantern of Samhain to stand in for its head. This story would be one of 34 essays he’d compile into “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and would go on to become one of the first true American myths and is still regarded as one of the scariest.
One last interesting thing to note: After its publishing Irving would be visited by a handful of South American warriors who were looking for this Dullahan, and he told them that it was just a story sending them on their way.
Fun Fact # 224
The Faery Host
In old tales from the Celtic, Scottish and Irish, it was said that if one was in dire trouble they could call upon the spirits who had trapped themselves in the land of the living and they would make war upon their enemies. This mercenary army of spirits was known as the Faery Spirits (The Aos-Si), and among their ranks are said to be the shapeshifting Pukah, Wargs (large, cunning wolves capable of speech), Grimdaw (Crows of monstrous size), and The Headless Dullahan who ride their black, flame eyed horses into battle. These forces are led by the headless Lady Gwyn and her demon pig. However these forces aren't just the stuff of legend and nightmares, but have been blamed for real disappearances of men and armies, across Ireland, Scotland, Northern France, and even The New World.
Fun Fact # 225
The Legion of Hell
In 1814 a group of south american raiders known as “The Legion of Hell” had the revolutionary Simon Bolivar trapped in the mountains but they had a problem. Being Cavalry their horses were unsuitable to the terrain, but they had a solution. An Irish Druid offered to summon an army to fight on their behalf and finally kill the Spanish Rebel. Thus the Faery Host came to south america and began heading to their journey, taking any children they found along the way. The Legion would not allow the harm of children however, and so waged war upon their would be allies, setting great fires to kill the Irish monsters.
Having been alerted to the armies in the valley by the fires in the night, Bolivar saw the Irish monsters and had the dam broke flooding the valley. This battle would be the end of the Legion of Hell of which only a few survived, and if rumor has it they became monster hunters after this incident. SImon would go on to Liberate the country New Grenada. If you read the historical account though Simon only flooded the valley and no monsters were ever present (its what I believe). Still why pass up a story about that time Hell went to war in the Napolionic wars?
Fun fact # 226
Huodini’s Pastime
Eric Weisz, better known as Harry Houdini was once a world famous escape artist, but did you know there was another side to the man? You see he had a bit of a thing against Magicians, Hudini earned his escapes but magicians were liars. Thus he started his favorite hobby of donning disguises and debunking these con artists in front of newspaper publications. He became so good at this, that his best friend, Sir A. C. Doyle, became convinced that Huodini was actually the most powerful magician of all time and was blocking spirits during his “Debunking”. To humor his friend he said that when he died he would try to communicate the words “Rosebelle Believe” (His favorite song) and a secret code he’d share with his wife.
Thus, on the anniversary of Huodini’s death, “The Society Of American Magicians” has the largest gathering of magicians in the world for a seance held every October 31st in Chicago Illinois. This gathering is also why many retired magicians live in Belvidere Illinois, as it's within driving distance to this event and they get to join the largest community of Wikins (a religion around witchcraft) in the US.
Fun Fact # 227
Huodini and Holmes
Harry Houdini –world famous escape artist– was friends with a man named Aurther Conan Doyle. This friend of his however had a love of crime and so began researching how crimes were committed but was shocked by how few crimes were solved by the police of the day. Thus he set about writing a book series of how he thought police should catch criminals creating the character of Sherlock Holmes. After the first book he started consulting Houdini who used his methods of finding small details to assist in his escapes to inform the author how Holmes should look for details.
The character Sherlock Holmes would go on to become one of the most influential characters of all time, laying the groundwork for the style of investigating used by modern police.
Fun Fact #229
Info hazards are pieces of information which could be dangerous if they fell into the wrong hands like nuclear codes. However it's very hard to contain an info hazard once it gets out, such as the elements and processes needed to create most of the world’s neural toxins have been available since the early 1990s. Another example is how the DNA sequences for most of the known viruses in the world are publicly available on the World Health Organization's very own website, which could be used to genetically modify harmless viruses/bacteria to mimic more dangerous versions creating a bio hazard.
Fun Fact #228
Houdini’s Murder
The death of Houdini was an accident when his appendix broke after having sustained multiple blows to the lower abdomen. Houdini’s wife then announced that on the 100th anniversary of his death she would reveal Houdini's Journal which documented how he pulled off his famous escapes to the public. Although she herself is now dead the Houdini estate has promised that on october 31st 2026 they will reveal the journal to the world. Yet, many countries have asked them not to for fear that knowledge of how to break out of almost any situation, would be an Info hazard. This is because even just thinking they could escape –whether true or not– might make people commit crimes they might not have otherwise attempted, potentially leading to a surge in crime.
Fun Fact #229
The Lost Girl
The Last of our Halloween themed fun facts is on that of Rockford’s most active ghost “The ghost girl” who primarily wanders Samuelson road and 6th street, and is most active the week following Halloween. She is not like other ghosts however as she can actually touch people, pick up objects and likes to hand out flowers. She is also known to wander in East Highschool in rockford, and it’s suspected that she does this to visit another local ghost –that of 17year old Frank Baehr.
Frank went to Rockford Highschool and wished to go into engineering (even spending an afternoon with Rockford resident Amos Woodward to ask him about what it takes to be an engineer). However, tragedy struck in 1907 when he drowned in the Rock river. Now he’s known to visit Rockford area highschools and whispers answers to students taking tests; unless they’re taking a math class around algebra, in which case he wishes them good luck.
Fun Fact #230
The Blood Beaver Moon
Lunar Eclipses are cool for a number of reasons but they have had a long history of scaring past cultures. This is because as the earth moves into place the only light to reach the moon has to pass through the Earth’s atmosphere, redshifting the light. While many cultures have had a fear that blood moons starting the end days, the Hungarians have a different tradition. They take it as the perfect excuse to drink Egri Bikavér also known as Hungarian Blood Wine as it's made from Bull’s blood.
Fun Fact # 231
Lorem Ipsum
There is a placeholder text called Lorem Ipsum which is made to resemble a real writing system and is used by Movies, Graphic design and graphic Design. However it's not Gibberish, but rather a randomized version of De Finibus. When translated from Latin it is essentially one very upset Roman complaining about how no one nowadays puts work before pleasure and thus steer their lives into pain. I guess some things never change.
