North American Monsters

A Contemporary Legend Casebook

David J. Puglia

• Publisher: Utah State University Press
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781646421602
• Topic: Sciences sociales
• Subtopic: Sociologie

Mining a mountain of folklore publications, North American Monsters unearths decades of notable monster research. Nineteen folkloristic case studies from the last half-century examine legendary monsters in their native habitats, focusing on ostensibly living creatures bound to specific geographic locales.A diverse cast of scholars contemplate these alluring creatures, feared and beloved by the communities that host them—the Jersey Devil gliding over the Pine Barrens, Lieby wriggling through Lake Lieberman, Char-Man stalking the Ojai Valley, and many, many more. Embracing local stories, beliefs, and traditions while neither promoting nor debunking, North American Monsters aspires to revive scholarly interest in local legendary monsters and creatures and to encourage folkloristic monster legend sleuthing.

1

The Boondock Monster of Camp Wapehani

James P. Leary

https://doi.org/10.7330/9781646421602.c001

Preface

AS A FIRST-SEMESTER DOCTORAL STUDENT, JAMES P. LEARY ENROLLED, against the better judgment of his peers, in legend doyenne Linda Dègh’s legend seminar. For his term paper, which Dègh would later publish in Indiana Folklore, Leary recalled his days as a Boy Scout in his native Wisconsin and the stories of the Swamp Man that haunted Camp Phillips. Supposing his was not the only camp threatened by monsters, he searched the Indiana University Folklore Archives for reports of monstrous camp denizens, where he found variants with recurring motifs: looming, murderous dark-woods creatures who could be avoided by steering clear of particular off-limits areas. Leary hypothesized that such legends functioned to warn of dangerous areas and inhibit wayward campers (of which he presents several frightening and hilarious examples). Not satisfied with archival materials alone, though, Leary began interviewing local scoutmasters and spending time around campfires.

At Camp Wapehani, he learned his supernatural Swamp Man of the 1950s had become the mortal lunatic Boondock Man of the 1960s, who then vanished entirely in the 1970s. Here, Leary’s research question came into focus as his interests turned diachronic. How and why do camp monsters change, and when do they die off? Leary’s research method relied on chronicling, via interviews, the Boondock Monster in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, with the ultimate goal of explaining its disappearance. Documenting the change over time, Leary’s presentation relies heavily on verbatim interview transcriptions, a practice that later folklorists would deem essential to legend study.

Leary found camp legend content corresponded closely with the preoccupations of particular decades, explaining the monster’s transformation and eventual disappearance as the legend’s response to contextual and environmental changes. The legends, by avoiding precise monster descriptions or set narratives, were adaptable to contemporary needs and circumstances. By alluding to the Boondock Monster rather than insisting upon it, scoutmasters allowed campers to do the heavy intellectual work in forming the “reality” of the monster. Leary’s essay proves exemplary not only as a diachronic study of a camp legend but as an interview-based examination of how monster legends form, spread, thrive, and expire.

Essay

In the summer of 1962 I was a Boy Scout attending Camp Phillips which is situated west of Haugen, Wisconsin. During my tenure in the camp I encountered various fragmented narratives concerning a creature called the Swamp Man. Apparently he was a human who, for reasons never fully explained, decided to lead a hermit’s existence in the swamps surrounding the camp. Somehow, either through a pact with the Devil or as the result of some supernatural event, the Swamp Man metamorphosed into an immortal being. It was his custom to roam the fringes of campsites at night in search of wayward Boy Scouts who, if caught, were carried off, never to be seen again.

The Swamp Man’s story was never fixed, nor was it ever officially told around campfires; rather it was spread through conversation and allusion. Generally older Scouts dropped oblique references to the Swamp Man in the presence of younger boys. Supposedly various artifacts and documents concerning the Swamp Man—articles of clothing, photographs, newspaper clippings—were kept in the camp’s main office. Only experienced Scouters were privy to these articles.

As I recall, fear of encountering the Swamp Man effectively kept us from wandering the woods at night. Our behavior was further altered as we, too, joined in speculations about the Swamp Man. We even matched our conjectures with actions as, one night, we locked a resisting fellow camper in the latrine that stood on the swamp’s edge as bait for the Swamp Man. Of course, no monster appeared and, after a few hours, our victim’s angry demands for release were complied with.

However, my experiences with the Swamp Man led me to suppose that similar monsters might be present at other camps. A survey of materials in Indiana University’s Folklore Archives bore this supposition out. Some ten entries deal with monsters which supposedly attack young campers.

Invariably told by Scoutmasters and older Scouts, these narratives have certain common elements. They all say that some kind of terrible creature exists in the dark wood; it is usually stated directly or implied that one should avoid this area and that failure to keep out of the monster’s domain leads to dire consequences. These narrative elements suggest Alan Dundes’ motifemic sequence “Interdiction, Violation, Consequence”;1 a basic structure which suggests that the legends might function primarily for admonitory purposes. Another dimension is added by postulating that underlying this form is the legend-teller’s desire to control potentially unruly campers. My own experience with camp monster legends tends to corroborate the hypothesis that this was indeed their major function.

It was with this knowledge in mind that I contacted Dr. Larry Steele, a local Scoutmaster, on 1 October 1973. Steele related to me a long account of a creature which inhabited the swampy regions around Camp Wapehani, just west of Bloomington, Indiana, in the mid-1950s. The creature was known to Steele as the Boondocks Monster.2

During the weekend of 5th-6th October 1973, local Boy Scouts converged on Wapehani and from older Scouts and staff members I gleaned texts which concerned the monster in the mid-1960s. Already certain differences were apparent between the two sets of narratives. The monster of the mid-1960s had changed from a supernatural being to a demented human: the “Boondocks Man.”

I was eager to discover how contemporary Scouts conceived of the creature and so I arranged to spend time around the campfire with Bloomington’s Troop 118. To my surprise, none of the dozen Scouts, whose ages ranged from twelve to fifteen, had even heard of any bizarre creature roaming the swamps around the camp. What developments had obliterated its presence?

In order to explicate this mystery, I intend first of all, to present the monster as he appeared in each decade, and, secondly, to set forth possible explanations for the Boondocks Monster’s devolution. Such a discussion will not only examine the use of monster legends as a means of social control, but will also necessarily relate directly to the processes of legend formation, transmission and sustenance.

The Monster in the Mid-1950s

Actual descriptions of the monster occurred at various times during my conversation with Dr. Steele. I will summarize them in the interests of clarity: the monster is a supernatural creature, possibly from outer-space; he leaves enormous footprints in swampy areas around the camp, but avoids the dry ones. If any venture into his realm, they risk their lives. (1) (Numbers refer to informants in the appendix.)

The Monster in the Mid-1960s

When they were building the lake, this dude takes, this bulldozer down there and he gets it stuck. So he freaks out and he went crazy and he just lives down there in the swamp and is human, y’know. And he’d creep around at night and grab campers and take ’em back there and eat ’em . . . or somethin’ . . . I don’t know what he’d do with ’em . . . it used to leave seaweed, well you know, this kind of water weed in front of their tent or in their hair when they woke up. (6).

I can tell you about my tangle with the Boondocks Man. I was out one night swimming with a couple guys—skinny dippin’. Anyway there was this big thing . . . we saw it comin’ through the water, it looked like a big turtle. And we were swimmin’ toward it—galump, galump through the water. This guy with me was thinking he was pretty brave and so he said “I’ll grab that turtle.” So then he swam over toward the dark spot and it pulled him down into the water. He was never seen again. Happened right out there. (4)

The Monster in 1973

As stated previously, contemporary Scouts told no tales concerning a creature in the boondocks. However, they did tell several legends which were related to the camp and their camping experience.

INFORMANT: A long time ago there used to be—this guy and his wife used to live around here and they were trappers. And sometimes they’d see the Indians. The lady’s husband would sometimes go away for a month or two. And one time he went away, he was gone for about three months and he still hadn’t come back and she’d thought that he’d been scalped by Indians. And then that lady would come every night—is it a Tuesday or a Thursday—she’s supposed to come to this area and scalp somebody each night or something like that. (8)

COLLECTOR: Yeah, what does she do that for?

INFORMANT: Well, it’s supposed to be some spirit of revenge or something.

COLLECTOR: Does that sound silly to you?

INFORMANT and Others: Yeah.

At this point there was general laughter and several scouts said “Tell him about Draper Cabin. Haw, Haw.”

Well, Draper is out at Morgan Monroe and we go campin’ there a lot in the winter. And they have remains of an old dam where it used to be, where it dams up this creek. This guy used to do a lot of trapping and fishing out there and, anyway, one night his grandson was staying with him. They just went to bed and his grandson lays closest to the lagoon and they heard steps out in the leaves, walkin’. He looked up above the window where his grandfather was sleeping and there was this monster just broke the window—he reached in and grabbed him and dragged him out. When the boy saw that he opened the door and took off running real fast. Ran out to some highway close to there—five or six miles. They said he was in a daze. Some guy picked him up—took him to the police station. Three, four days before they could get him to talk.

Anyway he told ’em what had happened and where it was at and they went out there and checked it. They found this type of algae out on the glass of the window that was left. And then they saw where he’d been drug into the lagoon. So nobody went out to that place for about two or three years. Then a few Scouts—they didn’t believe it—so they thought they’s go out and fix the place up. That night, after they’d got it cleaned up, they decided to sleep in it that night. So during the night one kid had to go out to the restroom, so he told his buddies, “I’ve gotta go to the restroom, I’ll be back in a few minutes.” So he went out lookin’ for it. His friends lay there about an hour, but he never did come back. So they told the Scoutmaster and went out lookin’ for him and all they could ever find was his shoe left on the bridge that went out over the lagoon. So after that the police, they didn’t know what to think. And they said there hasn’t been nothin’ goin’ on there ever since. (9)

Scary stories did not hold the interests of the Scouts for long. After telling a few they shifted to a more preferred genre—“dirty jokes.” Among the jokes told around the campfire were several which may well be classified as humorous “negative legends.”3 Here is one:

There were these guys in this house y’know. They were building this house and so forth. It was really late at night and, it wasn’t really rainin’ or nothin’, but they didn’t decide to go home. And so, they decided they’d stay the night. When they did they heard this noise; says (sung) “When the wall rolls over we will all be dead.” And so they just don’t worry about—they act like they didn’t hear it. They’re all sleepin’ by the side of each other—they’re actin’ like they’re asleep. And it says again (sung) “When the wall rolls over we will all be dead.” Now they all knew that everybody heard it. So they were just sayin’ “Do you hear that? . . . yeah, yeah, yeah” and all this. So they heard it again and said we’d bett...