 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(October 2016) |
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| Country | USA |
|---|---|
| Region | Michigan, Ohio, Connecticut |
| Details | Urban legend, hydrocephaly |
In the American folklore of Ohio, Michigan and Connecticut, melon heads are beings generally described as small humanoids with bulbous heads who occasionally emerge from hiding places to attack people. Different variations of the legend attribute different origins to the entities.
The melon heads of Michigan are said to reside around Felt Mansion, [1] although they have also been reportedly seen in southern forested areas of Ottawa County. [2] According to one story, they were originally children with hydrocephalus who lived at the Junction Insane Asylum near Felt Mansion. [2] The story explains that, after enduring physical and emotional abuse, they became feral and were released into the forests surrounding the asylum. The Allegan County Historical Society asserts that the asylum never existed, although it was at one point a prison; [3] however, the story has been part of the local folklore for several decades. Laketown Township Manager Al Meshkin told the Holland Sentinel that he had heard the tales as a teenager, noting that his friends referred to the beings as "wobbleheads". Some versions of the legend say that the children once lived in the mansion itself but later retreated to a system of caverns (or caves in a nearby hill left over from an abandoned zoo). Some versions of this legend say that the children devised a plan to escape and kill the doctor that abused them. It is said that the children had no place to hide the body, so they cut it up in small pieces which they hid around the mansion. Rumors exist that teenagers who had broken into the mansion saw ghosts of the children and claimed to see shadows of the doctor's murder through the light coming from an open door. The legend has spread throughout the region, even becoming the subject of a 2011 film simply titled The Melonheads, which is based around the West Michigan legend. [4] [5]
The melon head stories of Ohio are primarily associated with the Cleveland suburb of Kirtland in Lake County. According to local lore, the melon heads were originally orphans under the watch of a mysterious figure known as Dr. Crow (sometimes spelled Crowe, Krohe or Kroh or known as Dr. Melonhead). [6] Crow is said to have performed unusual experiments on the children, who developed large, hairless heads and malformed bodies. [7] Some accounts claim that the children were already suffering from hydrocephalus and that Crow injected even more fluid into their brains. [6]
Eventually, the legend continues, the children killed Crow, burned the orphanage, and retreated to the surrounding forests and supposedly feed on babies. Legend holds that the melon heads may be sighted along Wisner Road in Kirtland and adjacent Chardon Township in Geauga County. [7] [8] The melon head legend has been popularized on the Internet, particularly on the websites Creepy Cleveland and DeadOhio, where users offer their own versions of the story. [9] A movie, Legend of the Melonheads, released in 2010, is based on the Ohio legend and various other legends in the Kirtland area. [10] In the 2018 horror anthology movie The Field Guide to Evil, featuring eight stories from cultures around the world, the contribution from the USA is a rendition of the Melonheads where a man's son is taken into the woods and turned into a Melonhead. [11] The 2024 release The Melon Heads: House of Crow is based on the legend. [12]
Research shows that Dr. Crow likely didn't exist. [13]
Several variations of the Melon Head legend can be found throughout Southwest Connecticut, especially in Southern Litchfield County, central & eastern Fairfield County [14] and western New Haven County, Connecticut. In Fairfield County and Litchfield County, many tales can be found in communities such as Newtown, New Milford, Trumbull, Shelton, Stratford, Monroe, Easton and Weston. In western and central New Haven County tales can be found in towns like Seymour, Oxford, Milford, and Southbury. [15]
There are several primary Connecticut variations. [16] According to one variation of the myth, Fairfield County was the location of an asylum for the criminally insane that burned down in the fall of 1960, resulting in the death of all of the staff and most of the patients with 10-20 inmates unaccounted for, supposedly having survived and escaped to the woods. The legend states that the melon heads' appearance is the result of them having resorted to cannibalism in order to survive the harsh winters of the region and to inbreeding, which in turn caused them to develop hydrocephalus. Some retellings of this version substitute the asylum or prison with places of business or camp grounds and the inmates/patients with employees, staff or camp-goers. Individual variations will modify what town these individuals were originally from and where they end up. [15]
According to the second variation, the melon heads are descendants of a Colonial-era family from Shelton-Trumbull who were banished after accusations of witchcraft were made against them causing them to retreat to the woods. As with the first version of this legend, this variation attributes the appearance of the melon heads to inbreeding. [17] Melon Heads allegedly prey upon humans who wander into their territory. [18] Like the first version, individual retellings will modify what town the family was originally from and where they end up. [15]
A number of Connecticut-based legends of the melon heads have one characteristics in common: the inclusion of a secluded, rustic or single-lane (usually) dirt road running through the melon heads' wooded territory. Many towns in Fairfield County and New Haven County have rural and forested sections, and it is not uncommon for these forests to have rural roads running through them. These roads at times are associated with the local variation of the Melon Head legend and are said to be part of the Melon Heads' territory.
In a number of towns such as Newtown, New Milford, Shelton, Trumbull and Monroe, several legends place the melon heads' territory around a mysterious and mythical street commonly referred to as Dracula Drive. None of the towns that have a melon head legend have roads designated as Dracula Drive. Depending on what version of the legend is told, one of several existing streets are mistakenly referred to or coincidentally coincide with the Dracula Drive mentioned in the melon head stories. For instance, some legends place the melon heads' territory in and around Saw Mill City Road in Shelton as Dracula Drive. Some other roads mistakenly referred to as Dracula Drive include:
Characteristics of the legend evolve and parts of various versions of the legend affect other parts/versions of the legend. For example, some legends claim the melon heads would bite or consume whoever entered their territory. Also, the Melon Heads' territory commonly involves a secluded, rustic or dirt road running through it. This is one instance where elements of the legend interact over time and why some actual streets are mistakenly referred to as Dracula Drive by some locals. [19] [16] [15]
In Connecticut, some of the inspiration for a number of versions of the Melon Heads' legends may be attributed to the local surroundings and landmarks. Central Fairfield County is home to the now defunct Fairfield Hills State Mental Hospital as well as the Garner Correctional Institution, both located in Newtown. The care and treatment for adult male offenders with significant mental health issues throughout the Connecticut Department of Correction were consolidated at Garner Correctional Institution. Also there is the Federal Correctional Institution located in nearby Danbury. This part of Fairfield County has historically been a rural area filled with farms and forests. The proximity of several criminal and psychiatric institutions as well as their juxtaposition to rural areas of the county may have contributed elements to the legend of the Melon Heads. [15]
Stories about deformed country people who keep to themselves are common in legend. While the legend of the Melon Heads is more widely told throughout Southwest Connecticut, one of several other similar legends of deformed or mutated humans can be found in various locations of Fairfield and New Haven County. [19] [16] These legends have been told in overlapping communities where some individuals would tell versions of one legend alongside other individuals who would tell versions of another legend. Over time this overlapping of oral tradition may have allowed the cross-contribution of elements to each other. Some similar legends include:
Fairfield County is a county in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is the most populous county in the state and was also its fastest-growing from 2010 to 2020. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 957,419, representing 26.6% of Connecticut's overall population. The closest to the center of the New York metropolitan area, the county contains four of the state's top 7 largest cities—Bridgeport (1st), Stamford (2nd), Norwalk (6th), and Danbury (7th)—whose combined population of 433,368 is nearly half the county's total population.
Monroe is a town located in eastern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 18,825 at the 2020 census. The town is part of the Greater Bridgeport Planning Region.
New Fairfield is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 13,579 at the 2020 census. New Fairfield is one of five towns that surround Candlewood Lake, the largest lake in Connecticut. The town is located 55 miles (89 km) northeast of New York City, making it part of the New York metropolitan area. The town is part of the Western Connecticut Planning Region.
Area codes 203 and 475 are telephone area codes in the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) for the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The numbering plan area (NPA) is mostly coextensive with the Connecticut portion of the New York metropolitan area, and comprises most of Fairfield County, all of New Haven County, and a small portion of Litchfield County.
The Connecticut Post is a daily newspaper located in Bridgeport, Connecticut. It serves Fairfield County and the Lower Naugatuck Valley. Municipalities in the Post's circulation area include Ansonia, Bridgeport, Darien, Derby, Easton, Fairfield, Milford, Monroe, New Canaan, Orange, Oxford, Redding, Ridgefield, Seymour, Shelton, Stratford, Trumbull, Weston, Westport and Wilton. The newspaper is owned and operated by the Hearst Corporation, a multinational corporate media conglomerate with $4 billion in revenues. The Connecticut Post also gains revenue by offering classified advertising for job hunters with minimal regulations and separate listings for products and services.
The Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut is a diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, encompassing the entire state of Connecticut. It is one of the nine original dioceses of the Episcopal Church and one of seven New England dioceses that make up Province 1.
Stamford-Bridgeport-Norwalk is a metropolitan area in the U.S. state of Connecticut. The area is located in Southwestern Connecticut. In its most conservative form, the area consists of the City of Bridgeport and five surrounding towns—Easton, Fairfield, Monroe, Stratford, and Trumbull. This definition of the Stamford area has a population of more than 305,000 and is within the Stamford -Bridgeport-Norwalk-Danbury metropolitan statistical area, which consists of all of Fairfield County, Connecticut. The estimated 2015 county population was 948,053. The area is numbered as part of the New York-Newark Combined Statistical Area NY-NJ-CT-PA by the United States Census Bureau.
Hersam Acorn Newspapers was a family-owned weekly newspaper company based in Ridgefield, Connecticut, United States. The company published 19 weeklies in Fairfield and New Haven counties, Connecticut, and Westchester County, New York, and several shopper publications in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and Vermont.
Connecticut's 5th congressional district is a congressional district in the U.S. state of Connecticut. Located in the western part of the state and spanning across parts of Fairfield, Litchfield, New Haven, and Hartford Counties, the district runs from Meriden and New Britain in central Connecticut, westward to Danbury and the surrounding Housatonic Valley, encompassing the Farmington Valley, Upper Naugatuck River Valley, and the Litchfield Hills. The district also includes most of Waterbury.
The Pequonnock River is a 16.7-mile-long (26.9 km) waterway in eastern Fairfield County, Connecticut. Its watershed is located in five communities, with the majority of it located within Monroe, Trumbull, and Bridgeport. The river has a penchant for flooding, particularly in spring since the removal of a retention dam in Trumbull in the 1950s. There seems to be a sharp difference of opinion among historians as to just what the Indian word Pequonnock signifies. Some insist it meant cleared field or open ground; others are sure it meant broken ground; while a third group is certain it meant place of slaughter or place of destruction.
Duchess Worldwide, Inc., doing business as Duchess, is a privately owned and operated regional casual fast food restaurant chain that operates in southwestern Connecticut. Duchess was founded in 1956 by Harold and Jack Berkowitz in Bridgeport and based in Milford, Connecticut. There are 12 locations all in the Fairfield and New Haven counties of Connecticut. The restaurants feature an eat-in dining room, take-out service, and a drive-thru.
The Paugussett Trail is a 14-mile (23 km) Blue-Blazed hiking trail "system" in the lower Housatonic River valley in Fairfield County and, today, is entirely in Shelton and Monroe, Connecticut. Much of the trail is in Indian Well State Park and the Town of Monroe's Webb Mountain Park. The mainline trail is primarily southeast to northwest with three short side or spur trails.
The Lillinonah Trail is a 5.9-mile (9.5 km) Blue-Blazed hiking trail "system" in the lower Housatonic River valley in Fairfield County and, today, is entirely in Newtown. Most of the trail is in the upper block of Paugussett State Forest.
The Aspetuck Valley Trail is a 5.9-mile (9.5 km) Blue-Blazed hiking trail in the Aspetuck River Valley area of Fairfield County in the towns of Newtown, Easton and Redding Connecticut.
The Housatonic Range Trail is a 6.2-mile (10.0 km) Blue-Blazed hiking trail on Candlewood Mountain in the town of New Milford. The north-south axis of the trail parallels the Housatonic River through private land and land trust parcels. The Housatonic Range Trail is maintained largely through the efforts of the Connecticut Forest and Park Association, which provides online Blue Trail maps.
The Zoar Trail is a 6.5-mile (10.5 km) Blue-Blazed hiking trail "system" in the lower Housatonic River valley in Fairfield County, Connecticut and is entirely in the Sandy Hook section of Newtown in the lower block of Paugussett State Forest.
The Kettletown Trails are a 4.6-mile (7.4 km) Blue-Blazed hiking trail "system" in the lower Housatonic River valley in Fairfield County and are in the towns of Southbury and Oxford -- primarily in the Kettletown State Park and the Jackson Cove recreation area belonging to the town of Oxford.
Daniels Farm is a census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Trumbull, Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It is in the northeast part of Trumbull and is bordered to the northeast by the city of Shelton. The Connecticut Route 25 expressway forms the southwest edge of the CDP, and Route 111 forms the short northwest edge. The CDP extends south as far as Hedgehog Road, Old Dike Road, and Pinewood Trail. To the south is the Trumbull Center CDP.
