Michigan Myths and Legends

From tales of pirate treasure to Jimmy Hoffa’s mysterious disappearance, Michigan Myths and Legends makes history fun and pulls back the curtain on some of the state’s most fascinating and compelling stories.

Most people have heard about the Bermuda Triangle, where ships and people disappear without a trace—but few have heard about the equally deadly Great Lakes Triangle, where one-third of all unsolved sea and air disasters in America take place. Night after night, curious onlookers congregate on a remote hill near the Michigan/Wisconsin border to watch for mysterious lights that rise out of the ground, hover, and then disappear. Are the orbs merely optical phenomena created by headlights of passing cars? Or are they spirits returning to haunt where their earthly bodies met their demise? In the mid-1960s, the number of reports to the US Air Force of UFO sightings spiked across the country. Were people seeing unfamiliar technological innovations in aircraft? Had the rising popularity of the new-fangled television’s sci-fi programs sparked Americans’ imaginations? Or were extraterrestrial beings actually responding to signals from newly constructed deep-space radio transmitters?