Tucked away in the little town of Saugatuck, Michigan, hidden amongst the sand dunes and trees of the state park live the Melon Heads. The local legend says there used to be a hospital in the area that treated people with a condition known as hydrocephalus, which causes the head to swell to large proportions. The doctor would experiment on these unfortunate souls until they were barely able to function. When the hospital closed down, the patients were released and left to fend on their own and many say they banded together in the woods around the Saugatuck area.
After exploring the legend from the safety of my computer chair, I discovered that not only are the Melon Heads living in west Michigan, they also have some distant cousins in northern Ohio. The stories that come from Ohio tell of feral, vicious little creatures that will kill your dog, attack and potentially eat you, or run along side your car at Cheetah-like speeds.
The Ohio Melon Head legend has many slight variations of the same story. All versions involve a Dr. Crow who by all accounts was a cruel and sadistic man. The legend says that he ran a hospital in the late 1800's to help children who suffered from hydrocephalus. Instead of treating them, he tortured the helpless victims by injecting more fluid into their brains and conducting other experiments on them.
Tom Maat of Michigan’s Otherside and the Great Lakes Paranormal Research Organization, grew up in the Holland/Saugatuck area and remembers first hearing about the Melon Heads more then thirty years ago when he was around sixteen years old.
“Just before you got to the Felt Mansion,” said Tom, “the Melon Heads lived on top of a big hill in an area. The hill had a stairway going up it and a windmill sat on there used supply water to the nearby Felt Mansion when it was a seminary. The area was a popular make out spot because it was in the middle of nowhere. People said the Melon heads would roam around those woods at night.”
Tom remembers the story saying the Melon Heads came from a hospital that was nearby, but no record of a hospital exists in the area. Nowadays, this mythical hospital gets confused with an even more mythical place called the Junction Insane Asylum. People like to confuse the old minimum security Dunes Correctional Facility, now torn down, with this legend, calling it the Junction Insane Asylum. According to some people, this was the place where the Melon Heads were kept. When I first started ghost hunting, I worked with a group who tried looking for the Junction but came up with nothing. There are no historical records or any documentation of any sort supporting the existence of this place. It’s pure legend.
The Melon Heads Legend Solved: A Battery Powered Reel-to-Reel
As teenagers, bored and armed with a battery operated reel-to-reel complete with creepy sounds recorded on it, Tom and his friends would hide out in the woods, waiting for cars to pull up and park. The unsuspecting couple in the car making out wasn’t ready for the eerie sounds that would come from the nearby dark woods. Most likely, the couple would freeze up and question each other about the noises, hesitant to look outside into the inky black surroundings. At the right moment, Tom and his buddies would come tearing out of the woods and start banging on the car windows, causing the terrified couple to flee the parking lot in a frenzy of squealing tires.
Surprisingly, Tom noted that they never got their butts kicked to Lake Michigan and back. And for all we know, those couples Tom and his band of merry “Melon Heads” terrified are the ones still telling people to this day that the Melon Heads are out there, waiting to pounce on unsuspecting cars.
Is there any truth behind this legend? Probably not. But do you still care to drive your car into the territory of the Melon Heads on a dark night? Maybe as you cuddle up to your sweet heart, you just might find yourself being stared at by a bulbous headed creature…or, it might just be Tom, 35 years later, still hanging out with his now vintage reel to reel, playing scary sounds from the woods.
So keep your dogs on a leash, steer your children away from the woods of the Melon Heads and keep an eye peeled for a big headed creature running along side your car. And if you do see one, please try to stay calm so you can at least get one good photo to send to Michigan’s Otherside. After the photo is shot, feel free to start screaming.
The Melon Heads: Discipline For Children
Tom would tell his daughters “don’t go out in the woods", or "behave because the Melon heads will grab you and take you back to their camp.”
It turns out that other parents have tortured their children the same way…
According to the website Creepy Cleavland, one email account of the Melon Heads tells of some parents acting as if their car had stalled out in Melon Head country to scare their kid. The kid was terrified and the parents thought it was a riot.
Internet Rumors About the Melon Heads!!!
One thing about legends and the Internet is how mixed up things start to become. I've been seeing certain postings and articles about Dr. Crow being connected with the Felt Mansion. The legendary Dr. Crow is in no way connected to the Felt Mansion in Saugatuck, Michigan. Dr. Crow is part of the northern Ohio legends and as far as anyone can tell, is also a made-up figure.
The Melon Heads strike again! This version was shared by a Michigan resident.
This legend has made it's way up to my neck of the woods too. A little different though. In southwest Michigan the Melon Heads are said to be located behind the Cook Nuclear plant in Bridgman.
It has two different stories of how they got to be there. The first is that there was an insane asylum in the woods before the power plant was built and there was a fire that burnt the asylum to the ground and the melon heads escaped and have been living in the wild ever since.
The other story says that there was a group of people that lived behind the plant in the woods. After exposure to the radiation, they began to have water swelling of the brain, and out of embarrassment and shame they stayed in the woods to be left alone by the public to live their lives. The nuclear plant and all surrounding property has been closed off to the public since the 9/11 attacks, but you used to be able to drive back into the woods and explore. It was a big past time for teenagers to scare the bejesus out of themselves and their dates. I have been told that the whole area back there is like a maze, and unless you know the area well, it is very easy to get lost in. I suppose that just adds to the scare factor. So I would say that the Melon Heads from my area are just urban legend. But it always makes for interesting conversation, especially when talking with those who have been there and claim to have seen one.
Seen a Melon Head? Did you grow up with the legend? Write to Michigan's Otherside and tell us your stories!
Check out the website www.creepyclevelnd.net for accounts of Melon Heads
Written by Amberrose Hammond