Lost Lady of the Plains

Have you heard of the Lost Lady of the Plains? The Blueberry Plains, that is. If not, pay attention MMers. 

The Blueberry Plains around Route 99 in Kennebunk

This story comes from the Blueberry Plains in Kennebunk. This vast stretch of blueberry bushes is a great place to spend an afternoon if you're looking for a great place to get some authentic wild Maine blueberries. If you happen to be there around dusk, be on the lookout for an older woman who appears to be lost.

Artist's rendition of the
Lost Lady of the Plains

According to several witnesses, this woman appears to be somewhere in her mid- to late-sixties. She has short, white hair, and what appears to be a light blue sweater or light jacket and a pair of sensible, gray slacks. She approaches pickers with an empty pail and lost, longing look in her eyes. She has been reported to ask people, "Have you seen Wallace?" or "My husband. I can't find my husband. I... don't know where I am. I'm so scared."

Reports claim that this apparition is harmless. After a few moments of looking around, she'll wander off again, in a lost shamble, until she disappears among the blueberry bushes. Often times visitors of the Blueberry Plains will claim to hear a woman's voice, raised in a cry, distant as if carried by a soft breeze, calling, "Waaaalllaaace? Waaaalllaaace?"

No one knows who this woman is, but it is clear she is a spirit or ghost. No records of a woman going missing at the Blueberry Plains have been found and there are no reports of a man named Wallace losing his wife in the vicinity, but this phantom has been spotted among the blueberries for thirty years or so. 

One witness to the Lost Lady of the Plains, Karen Baker of Sanford, tried to snap a picture of the ghostly woman as she walked away.

Karen Baker's picture showing the Lost Lady of the Plains

"I swear she was standing right there. Right in the middle of the trail. I could see her plainly, wearing that blue jacket. Her sneakers were so white against the green of the bushes. But she didn't show up in the picture. That's when I knew for sure this wasn't some sort of hoax or tall tale," Karen said.

So, if you're ever out on the Blueberry Plains and you're approached by an elderly woman looking for her husband, Wallace, just kindly tell her that you haven't seen him, but you'll keep an eye out. 

And wish her well.

Stay safe out there, Maine.

No-Head Nellie

Usually our stories tend to be a bit on the... dark side, MMers, but today we've got a a heartwarming story for you. For this one we're traveling all the way to Johnson Mountain Township just south of Jackman. The story comes to us by way of Brock Easton who claims his great-grandfather had a dog with no head. As unbelievable as this seems, there are plenty of records of No-Head Nellie that seem to corroborate Brock's story. We'll try to stick to just the facts. 

Weston "Butch" Easton and his wife, Margery, 1938

Brock's great-grandfather, Weston "Butch" Easton lived in Jackman in the 1930s and 40s. One of the family dogs gave birth to a litter of pups and one of them was born with no head. Butch figured the pup was stillborn because of its deformity, so he was completely surprised when the headless pup began to crawl around. Butch immediately brought the pup to a local vet, who after his initial skepticism, did pronounce the pup as alive. He recommended that Butch put the animal down as it would never lead a full life. Butch refused. Instead, for the next fifteen years he raised No-Head Nellie and loved her as dearly as any animal companion.

According to Brock, who heard all of this from his grandfather, Butch's son, Carter, Butch took No-head Nellie on the road, showing her at local fairs and carnivals. Butch would feed Nellie through an IV injection, twice a day. Nellie could walk, run, wag her tail, even shake hands and roll over. If all this sounds incredible, it really is. To this day scientists have no idea how Nellie lived for fifteen years! But here's the proof. Brock has a picture he found in his grandfather's stuff. The picture was labeled 1947.

No-Head Nellie circa 1947

On top of that we were able to uncover a flyer from the 1949 Fryeburg Fair, and sure enough it mentions Butch Easton and his amazing No-head Nellie. Brock is working on going through the rest of his late grandfather's possessions, hoping to find more pictures from his great-grandfather, but he does recall his Grampa Carter (who passed away in 2019 at 92 years old!) telling stories of No-Head Nellie. He recalls his grandfather had a photo album full of Butch and Nellie's adventures, but so far Brock has been unable to locate it. He even remembers his grandfather telling him that Ripley's Believe it or Not at one point wanted to purchase Nellie's remains after she passed, however he was unsure whether the sale actually happened.

Brock Easton is attempting to put together a museum for No-Head Nellie. He says that if you or anyone you know has any information or possible pictures of No-Head Nellie, please contact him at: no-headnellie@yahoo.com. We'll keep our eyes peeled and hope you will too!

Help out Brock! Find some old pics of No-Head Nellie.

Stay safe out there, Maine! 

In the Potato Fields

This story comes to us from a new MMer named Andrea who lives up in Aroostook County. She lives in a small town nestled in a bend of the St. John River. Her family has always been potato farmers, and they plant fields upon fields of them every year. However she was always warned by her grandmother never to go out into the fields during the nights leading up to harvest. Andrea told us that she listened to her grandmother for most of her life and avoided the fields, until her teenage years when she and her friends stayed out just a little too late one night.

As they covered what was left of their bonfire for the night, Andrea parted ways with her friends and began to walk home through the potato rows. The moon was just bright enough for her to avoid tripping if she walked slowly. On her way home she was met with a whistling shriek, she stopped in her tracks as small shadows skittered in and around her legs. She panicked and began to run, more shrieks errupted as she ran. She stumbled and landed face first in a large mound of potatoes that had been freshly dug up. As she scrambled to pick herself up her hand found what felt like a potato but it had a strange leathery outer shell, and was warm to the touch. Upon picking up the object there was a symphony of shrieks and strange chittering sounds. She clutched the odd potato like object to her chest and ran back towards her house.

As she neared her house she turned back and saw several small creatures with large eyes following her. She quickly entered the house and closed the door. The next morning the only evidence of the creatures was the scratches on her front door no higher than her knee and the now cold object she had picked up. It wasn't a potato, nor was it a rock, she has no idea what it is but suspects its an egg of some sort. This was nearly twenty five years ago, but she still keeps the object as a reminder of her strange encounter in the potato fields.

Andrea sent us these photos of the object

If you are ever in norhthern Maine during the potato harvest, make sure you stay out of the fields at night, you never know if these little creatures will be around! Stay safe out there, Maine!

Rapid Fire - April 2021

It’s time for some more Rapid Fire, MMers!

• Speaking of Rapid Fire, there was a report out of Lebanon of a small lizard engulfed in flames. It was reported by local Bobby Newark that the old house on Mill Road was burned down by this “tiny fire dragon.” While this theory was quickly dismissed by the Lebanon Fire Department, Bobby swears up and down that it’s the truth. After all, he saw it with his own eyes.

• You know the paper mill up in Old Town? Well, when the wind is blowing just right, you can smell it from the University of Maine campus. Joseph Lundgren, a freshman residing in Cumberland Hall, reached out to us. “Yesterday the smell from the paper mill was so strong. Normally, it just smells like rotten eggs or sour milk. But today, it smelled like something else rotting. Like a corpse decomposing or something…” What is rotting at the paper mill, MMers? Is it just the paper, or is it something more...grotesque?

What's that smell?

• “Crinkle crinkle, little star, how I wonder what you are.” Today we had another report of a potential Crinkle Face in Maine. James Rideout, a Newfield resident, wrote this to us: “The other night I was looking through my telescope at some constellations. When I was looking at Orion’s Belt, I could have sworn that I saw the stars aligned in the shape of Crinkle Face. I only know about it from your blog, and I really hope that it’s just in my head.” We here at Malevolent Maine take Crinkle Face very seriously, and we want to warn you again of the dangers of Crinkle Face. While we hope that it was just James’ imagination at work, we can’t be 100% sure. God, we hope.

• Last, but certainly not least, MMers, we had a report lost in the mail way up from Presque Isle. The letter was supposed to be delivered in March, but we just received it this week. Harry Bordeau reported an interesting phenomenon he experienced while tapping his maple trees, as he does every year around this time. Here is part of Harry’s letter, “I tapped the tree as I always do, but that wasn’t sap. It was a gooey substance, kind of like that Nickelodeon slime, but it wasn’t green. It was an orange-yellow color, and it smelled like hand sanitizer or some cleaning solution.” While we don’t know what infiltrated Harry’s tree, we do know that there was a reported UFO sighting up in Presque Isle back in January. And while we don’t know what this unidentified “slime” is, we would be willing to bet it’s not from this world…

Is there sap in that tree?

Well, that's it for today, MMers. As always, feel free to send us any strange happenings from around the state. Stay safe out there, Maine!

Merchandise!

Good news Malevolent Mainers, we now have a Merch store! If you would like to rep Malevolent Maine and support us at the same time, please visit our store!

The Witch of Woodland Valley

Good afternoon, MMers! With summer rapidly approaching and the weather improving, we wanted to take some time to warn you about potential harm found in a seemingly safe hobby. As you may know, there is a disc golf course in Limerick called Woodland Valley Disc Golf. You may have even played a round there yourself at some point in time. However, what you didn't know is that there is an evil spirit that haunts the grounds. If you've ever played there, you may have experienced a chill crawling up your spine around the sixth hole on the Grizzly Bear course. The hollowed out tree that marks the hole? Well, that's not there by accident. 

Back in the early 1690s, long before Maine was granted statehood, a woman named Isabelle Houser was arrested, and later convicted, for practicing witchcraft. It was said that she used her powers to lure young boys and girls out into the woods, pierce their ankles with rusty nails, hang them from a tree, and slowly drain the blood and life force out of them until they expired. Many believed that this was Isabelle's way of staying young, as she was 102 years old according to local records, but she didn't appear to be a day over 70. Once she was convicted and found guilty of witchcraft, murder, and other unmentionables, it was decided that she herself should hang from the same tree she had drained so many children from. So, the noose was readied, and Houser was hanged until death. The locals decided to not bother taking her body down afterwards, as she "deserved to rot" for what she had done. Six days after Houser's hanging, the middle of the tree seemingly imploded on itself, leaving only the hollowed out trunk that exists now. Interestingly enough, the tree hasn't changed shape since those days. Some say that it has an impenetrable hex that can never be removed. 

After her death, there were numerous reports of strange activity in those woods. Some reported hearing cackling in the distance, others heard the cries of desperate children. If you got close enough, you might even be able to smell, even see, the fresh blood of innocent children dripping down the tree's bark. 

Britney Bernard in the Hollowed Tree

In recent years since the disc golf course's opening on those "hollowed" grounds, a trend has started in which players pose in the hollowed tree for a photo opportunity. In 2017 a local, Britney Bernard posted a picture to her Instagram of her posing in the infamous tree. Britney was found dead six days later, cause unknown. We tell you this today, MMers, to warn you while you are out in those woods. If you hear a strange noise, smell the scent of freshly spilled blood, or even feel something brush against your shoulder, you should pick up your disc and leave the grounds before it is too late. Stay safe out there, Maine! 

The Town That Wasn't There

Here's one right from the horse's mouth, MMers. Tom and Chris, two of our lead investigators here at Malevolent Maine, recently experienced a little firsthand unexplained phenomena of their own. They were driving to investigate  a claim about a so-called "witch tree" in Limerick (check back soon for the complete story). They were traveling along Route 5 when they saw signs indicating a town up ahead.

The map clearly shows no suck town exists.

"We're pretty familiar with the area," Tom said. "So the sign - you know one of those green signs that indicates the miles to the different towns - had a name we'd never seen before."

The sign indicated a town in between Waterboro and Limerick called Wilton Hills. This wasn't a town either of them had ever heard of before, and so they took a slight detour, following the signs that led them to this town.

"To be clear," Chris said. "This town is not on any map of Maine. Now, maybe that's not that unusual a little farther north or for those tiny little towns of only a handful of people, but this wasn't the case for us. This was a town that did not exist - could not exist - and yet, we were pulling up to their main street, just as real as the day." 

Our intrepid investigators found a thriving little town similar in size to say downtown Saco. There was a general store, diners, a barbershop.. They passed an elementary school, a fire department, pawn shop. You name it, the town seemed to have.

"It was quaint," Tom said. "Like the kind of little downtown you'd see in a movie or tv show."

The two got out and walked around for a bit. "We talked to some people on the street, just as normal as could be." They even went into a local coffee shop and got some java and a bagel. "The food was real. It tasted just fine," Chris said. "It was real good, actually."

Shocked and surprised by the town that had seemingly sprung up out of nowhere, the two made sure to take a lot of pictures.