My 11 year old nephew loves scary stories, at least before he goes to bed that is. Anyways I am looking for BWCA related scary stories (i.e. ghosts, lone wanderer, etc). I say BWCA related as I feel that it really adds to the story when you are up there. Does anyone have any good ones? I tried searching past topics but I didn't come up with much other than finding black garbage bags and shelters in the middle of nowhere which are both creepy but not really stories. Though I might be able to add those in somehow.

Here is the one I have been using but I would like another one or two.

Back in the day, Native Americans lived all over in the BWCA. You can find their paintings on rocks and remnants of their teepees. Some say that you can even hear drums at night, echoes of the dead reminiscing about when they were alive. Now you might not know this but every year groups of people go missing in the boundary waters for no apparent reason. Large groups and small groups have all just disappeared. It doesn’t seem to matter how many people there are. Everything is left behind but the people themselves have just disappeared. Their tents, food, and equipment is all there but they are not. Even their canoes are still there which means that they didn’t leave in a normal way. That being said, Native Americans believed in a spirit called the Wendigo who has been said to take people in the night. I don’t know what for, only that nobody ever sees them again. It’s been said that they are really tall and have long dangly arms, and on its hands are long sharp claws. Their eyes glow in the dark. The whole body is covered in hair except for its head. The head looks like a giant deer skull with razor sharp teeth. So I wonder is it possible that a Wendigo still roams these lands? What else could it be that makes all these people disappear……..?

Then every once in a while bring it up again as the night closes in. Suggest some more ideas, like Bigfoot.

*I have recently heard that you can call a Wendigo out kind of like Bloody Mary. “Wendigo, Wendigo, come and get me Wendigo.” So I might try that also.

This reminded me of a song about the Wendigo:

Mary McCaslin

And here is a link to a story you might want to tell:

Legend of the Flying Canoe

Bloody Mary is a classic BWCA story.

There was a thread like this a while back and there were a lot of interesting stories shared. It was quite entertaining. Hopefully the same folks will chime in again.
I like how you say, 'here is the one I've been using'. That's awesome dude.
Ever take them on a snipe hunt?

Little Hairy Man on Ensign/Ashigan. Some Natives up there call him Memegweshi. There is an old old thread about him here.

Has anyone heard the story of the Wampus Cat roaming Wampus Lake?

So I have to look up Wampus Cat, Little Hairy Man, and find a way to work Bloody Mary in. I know nothing about the first two but BLoody Mary I think I can link that in somehow. Something like she was murdered in the BWCA and work a mirror in and then walk a ways into the woods with him with my compass mirror and say the phrase. That will for sure freak him out.

quote spottedowl: "There was a thread like this a while back and there were a lot of interesting stories shared. It was quite entertaining. Hopefully the same folks will chime in again.
I like how you say, 'here is the one I've been using'. That's awesome dude.
Ever take them on a snipe hunt?"

Snipe hunt lol no, I haven't even thought of that. That could be good.

quote overthehill: " Little Hairy Man on Ensign/Ashigan. Some Natives up there call him Memegweshi. There is an old old thread about him here."

These are my favorites, and I think there are several good threads about them.

This thread came up not long ago and I liked this tale.

I thought this thread was going to be about straight line winds, thunderstorms, tornadoes, bears, white caps, and such......Those are some of things that can make for scary stories for me :)

Windigo is an evil spirit. If it you hear it call your name it comes for you. Only way to kill a windigo is to become one yourself, and then you need the magic of an Ojibway midewan to make you human again, or else you become the Windigo. They have a heart of ice and a hunger for flesh.
Read it in a book....not sure if the legend is true but would make a great scary story for you..haha

Last summer my 19-year old son and I were staying at a resort north of Cook on the west end of Vermillion. One night we made a trip to Fortune Bay Casino and were returning to the resort at about midnight. My son remarked that the road we were on seemed rather remote, that we were the only vehicle on the road and that he was feeling just a little creeped out about it all.

I immediately thought of the "Midnight Special" scene from the beginning of the Twilight Zone movie and decided to have a little fun: A couple of miles down the road I started making up this tale about a "lost lodge" on Lake Vermillion that once existed around some point in a hard-to-find bay. In my story, the lodge had burned to the ground years ago and all of the guests there had been trapped and had died when they were burned alive in this fire. I went on that when you were near enough to where this lodge was, and when the conditions were just right, it was said that you could still hear the moans and screams of the victims as they burned to death. I stated that right then I thought we were actually not far from where the lodge once stood. My son gave me a funny look when I then put his window down to see if we could hear anything. After a brief silent pause, I very subtly veered my vehicle to the right just enough for the tires to catch the rumble strip. The resulting moan and vibration caused him to shriek out loud after which he proceeded to call me all kinds of names, knowing that I had just got him big time!

We still laugh about it a year later!

quote bottomtothetap: "Last summer my 19-year old son and I were staying at a resort north of Cook on the west end of Vermillion. One night we made a trip to Fortune Bay Casino and were returning to the resort at about midnight. My son remarked that the road we were on seemed rather remote, that we were the only vehicle on the road and that he was feeling just a little creeped out about it all.


I immediately thought of the "Midnight Special" scene from the beginning of the Twilight Zone movie and decided to have a little fun: A couple of miles down the road I started making up this tale about a "lost lodge" on Lake Vermillion that once existed around some point in a hard-to-find bay. In my story, the lodge had burned to the ground years ago and all of the guests there had been trapped and had died when they were burned alive in this fire. I went on that when you were near enough to where this lodge was, and when the conditions were just right, it was said that you could still hear the moans and screams of the victims as they burned to death. I stated that right then I thought we were actually not far from where the lodge once stood. My son gave me a funny look when I then put his window down to see if we could hear anything. After a brief silent pause, I very subtly veered my vehicle to the right just enough for the tires to catch the rumble strip. The resulting moan and vibration caused him to shriek out loud after which he proceeded to call me all kinds of names, knowing that I had just got him big time!


We still laugh about it a year later! "

Awesome

Good stories. I think I'll borrow them. Thanks!

It's all in the way you tell the story. This is a great campfire story, but as it goes along, the story teller continues to lower his/her voice so the kids keep leaning in closer and closer.

A family of two sons and their mother settle a homestead during the early 1900's in what is now known as the boundary waters.

Times are hard, food is scarce and they struggle to survive their first winter.

One day in the dead of winter, the boys come back from a few days out on the trap line only to find their poor mother frozen to death out by the wood pile.

The boys carry her body back to the cabin but soon realize they have a big problem. The ground is frozen, there's still several feet of snow and there is no way to bury poor old Mom. They can't keep her in the cabin because she'll soon thaw out and things will begin to get a bit smelly.

So they decide to leave her in the outhouse until the ground thaws enough that a proper grave could be dug. Of course, this is a little upsetting for the boys every time they go to "do their business" in the outhouse, but they manage.

After a few days, the older son is sitting out there next to Mom and notices that she still has her diamond wedding ring on her finger. He gets to thinking that as poor as he and his brother are, they could take the ring into town come Spring and trade the ring for well needed supplies.

Try as he might, however, he just can't get the ring off of Mom's finger. Finally in desperation, he grabs an axe and cuts her whole left hand off, ring, fingers, the whole works.

Later that night, the boys are awakened by the sound of the creaking cabin door opening.......In the dim light of the moon, they see the ghostly image of their mother standing in the doorway. But there is something wrong........Mom's head is missing.

Gathering up every bit of courage that he can, the younger son asks, "Mother, where's your head?"............."Gone"......the ghost whispers....."Gone"......(you, the story teller have to whisper the word "Gone.")

The next night, the ghost appears once more, only this time she is missing her legs. "Mother, where are your legs?", the younger son asks again..........."Gone.......Gone" the ghost replies in a whisper.

Again on the third night the ghost appears once again. This time she is missing her left hand. All that's there is a bloody stump......."Mother, where is your hand?" asks the older son this time.

(At this point the story teller leans forward as if to whisper "Gone" yet again, but suddenly jumps up, points his finger at one of the kids and yells as loud as he can......"YOU'VE GOT IT!!!"

Guaranteed, if told slowly and quietly, the kids get more and more wrapped up in the story as it goes along and jump right out of their skin at the end.

While you're camping, you can always tell the kiddos about the escaped lunatics from the local insane asylum, who saw a family camping, fell upon them and slaughtered and ate them. Hope that helps haha.

If you really wanna scare them, it's an old English tale, but you can tell them the story of Black Annis. Google it. The story scared people in England so much back in the day that they stopped making homes with windows for a while.

Black Annis

Scariest story for me:

Coming into Sawbill entry at end of our trip last year.

Right in front of us getting into two canoes were about 5 20-30 yr olds going out packing multiple fold up metal cots with mattresses along with other gear and wearing sandals and shorts. We asked were they were heading and yes they were actually planning to portage. Now that was scary!

This is an actual true story. Years ago I did a lot of whitewater kayaking. It’s an addicting sport, you see kayakers doing totally foolish stuff, they’ve got to feed that adrenaline rush.
We were paddling the banning rapids on the kettle river, it was early March, most of the river was ice. We were the first people on the river that spring. The fall before a man had drowned in these rapids while his family watched from shore. His body was never found.
We were joking about what we would do if we found his body. At the bottom of the last rapid I noticed what I thought was a rock, it was against the sheet of ice where the current slowed down. In those days whitewater kayaks were very tippy, get your balance a tiny bit off and you’d better be ready to do an Eskimo roll. I had a bomb proof roll but in that freezing water the shock of the cold could mess things up, that and the fact that the current could sweep me under miles of ice I was extremely cautious.
I paddled to check out the ‘rock’, it was the body of the unfortunate gentleman.we figured it was too dangerous for us to risk moving him. We called the sheriff from hinkley and gave him our report.
That night the sheriff called me. They did a search, even had helicopters. The body must have washed under the ice.
August of that summer there was a story in the papers. A fisherman caught what he thought was a sturgeon, it wasn’t. He landed my gentleman. I can’t imagine how horrific that must have been