Strange creatures in Northern Ohio? Little people? Fact or Fiction? Help us unravel this fearful legend...

Webmasters Note: I'll admit that while I've never been to the area myself - the Melon Heads page here on Creepy Cleveland, has created the second highest number of emails I receive. Most emails are people asking for directions (which I've talked about on the front page. Besides, I don't think I could get anyone to agree on one particular address anyway...) Seems like a lot of rumors and stories are pretty well known after all. Anybody else care to share? Got pics? Let us know...
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The Infamous Melon Heads
Chagrin River
Melon Heads - The Kirtland Cemetery Connection
The Melon Heads of Ohio


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Melon Heads Encounter - Contributed by Jeff B

vgruttadauria@apz-applied.com

My name is Jeff B.and I used to live by the woods on Wisner Road near the Lundgren barn. When I was ten years old I had a brief encounter with a melon head. It was an early Autumn night around 10:00pm when I heard my dog bark and I ran outside to see what was going on. When I went outside to see what the commotion was all about I found my dog lying there bleeding. I looked towards the woods and saw what I believed to be a small figure with very pale skin and a large head. When the creature saw me it ran into the woods. I went out the next morning and followed the tracks but they stopped near a creek. I am now older and very skeptical about events like this but when I saw your web site I was not the only person who experienced something like this.

Melon Heads - Contributed by Miss S

boo@beol.net

Okay - I read all the Melon Heads stuff on your site. I thought this thing died out long ago... Anyway, I grew up on the street that the supposed Melon Heads live on. I am 29 now but when I was in high school it was a big deal to drive by and bother them and then everyone told horror stories about it. Well, newsflash - they are not Melon Heads. I used to babysit the kids and hang out at their "scary" house. Sorry to burst anyone's bubble. Perhaps there is more than one Melon Head story in the Chagrin area?? No one mentioned the giant stone eagles that guarded the driveway of the house, which surprises me. The house used to be a stagecoach stop back in the old days as a stop between Pittsburgh and Cleveland. The stone eagles had to be moved to Chardon I think. They were causing too much trouble for our neighbors. They were creepy.
Also, all the graffitti on the bridges that say '777' and 'God' and 'The Melonheads are Devils 666' etc. was not mentioned either unless I missed it. Having said all that, I don't know about this Dr. Crow person. That name is new to me. Perhaps he is a Melon Head but the others are not. How many stories on this are floating around?
I told my dad about this site and he is interested too. He said he will check into the Dr. Crow connection to see if he lived at the same house. I would still like to believe there are Melon Heads out there... its just not my former neighbors!

Melon Heads 1964 - Contributed by Paul Intihar

pavel314@home.com

At Wickliffe High School in the mid-60's, we heard a different version of the Melon Heads story. Some kids were driving around one day and saw a melon head watching them from the side of a country road. They stopped and the melon head ran into the woods. They followed deep into the woods and came to an old farm house.

On the porch sat a middle-aged couple and several melon heads. The kids asked what was going on and the man explained that he had been a nuclear scientist during World War II. After the war he married but the exposure to radiation caused all of his children to be born as melon heads. The government gave him a lot of money to keep quiet and bought this secluded farm house where they could live out their lives away from prying eyes. He asked the kids to tell no one what they'd seen and never to return.

Someone told this story at a party in the Summer of 1964. Someone else thought they knew where the melon heads lived, so we all crammed into cars and headed out to find them. We got stopped by the police in Waite Hill. When they found out where we were going, they gave us a stern lecture that there were no such things as the melon heads and that we should tell all our friends that there were no melon heads. We were taken to the police station, where we had to call our parents to come and get us.

We all agreed that the police were so intense in trying to convince us that there were no melon heads that there had to be melon heads. If not, why were the police so upset that we were looking for them?

Contributed by Justin Vargo

ImpactPlayr@aol.com

Now onto the Melon Heads...

The story as I have heard it is that Dr. Crow (possibly spelled Crowe, I have seen it both ways) was a doctor whom practiced medicine out of his house in the early to mid 1800's. Anyway he had either been given these kids with mental problems or he had kidnapped some kids (again I have heard it both ways). He then ran experiments on these kids; injecting their brains with water. This caused the kids to become even more nuts and their heads to swell up like melons. Any way he kept them locked away in cages in a green barn next to his house. Now at this point the story gets a little fuzzy...either the barn burnt down in an accident and a few of the melon heads escaped, or the barn is still there (I have yet to visit the old crow house, so I don't know if the barn is still standing or not. I am more inclined to believe it burned down) anyway, these melon heads still roam the area out near the Holden Arboredum ( Windsor Road from what I have been told). Supposedly they come out only at night and if it is a full moon they are extremely viscous and will attack any humans they see. However they have a hard time seeing. If you wear dark clothes blacks, reds, dark greens/blues You will be safe....but if you have on any bright colors or white, you are a prime target. Usually they just attack deer and other forest animals for their food, but on those rare full moon occasions they will attack and rip a human limb from limb if they find one. This is the story I have heard from numerous sources. I have gathered many stories from people who have been out there - and from just people who know the myth.

Webmaster Note: Justin also emailed a request:

...have a few quick questions that I'd like to ask you if possible:

1. Do you know anything about the haunted school in Kirtland?
2. How about the church with upside down crosses all over it?
3. Do you know about the witches grave in the Mentor / Kirtland area?
4. Can you please post a request on your site for me asking that if anyone has any info on these subjects especially the Melon Heads to e-mail me.....

thanks

Webmaster Note: Needless to say, if you respond to Justin, send Creepy Cleveland a copy!

Contributed by Jay

KinGFi1822@aol.com

Hey! I got some Melon Heads info...

Remember me? I sent you a story a while ago, about the Chagrin River. Anyway, I know lots about the Melon Heads myth. I guess that they are just here. I know the Dr. Crowe story is sorta true, but there are some facts missing. First of all, Dr. Crowe did exist, but he lived in the 1940s and was a dentist. There could have been another Dr. Crowe, though. Second, full moons have nothing to do with their nasty behavior. I know this from experiences with them, and from experiences that others have had. My first out of the three experiences that I have had with what I think were melon heads was on the East Branch of the Chagrin River. That story is here: Chagrin River. The second was at the same place, about two months ago. My brother and I were driving along Mitchell's Mills, and I saw a quick flash out of the corner of my eye. I looked right, and saw something (It was very blurry, though) by a tree. I was so scared I screamed and my brother looked out of his window. " What the hell was that?" he said, I guess he saw it too, because he turned around at the spring and we headed back up.

And I gave the wrong directions in Chagrin River. M. Mills is off of Mentor Road. Mentor road is off of Auburn. Man my directions were off. Hey I'm a kid what do you expect??? :-)!!!

Thanks Tons!!
Jay

Contributed by bigape2000@aol.com

bigape2000@aol.com

Doctor Crow owned quite a bit of land out in the Kirtland Chardon area, running (from my understanding) from his house at Shadybrook out to Wisner Road. Shadybrook is now the headquarters of the Lake County Historical Society. I was in the house before they took it over and it's quite creepy. The Dr. Crow legend that I originally heard as a child had him having servants or people living on the property who had enchephalitis (water on the brain) or some similar condition and were called "Melonheads" by the locals. No account had him being a nice person. Several stories were told about devil worship or arcane practices and I do remember a room in Shadybrook with a big bay window and a window seat that looked more like an altar. I was very young and it was night, though, so I got out of there pretty quickly. My earliest "story memory" has him dying in a fire in his office, although I seem to remember coming across something a few years ago that didn't jive with that. It's been a while since I was messing around with that, so I can't remember the source.
Anyone remember the chained house that was out near that area until a few years ago?

Contributed by Quicksilver@cornerpub.com

Quicksilver@cornerpub.com

I'm 20 years old and I'm very familiar with the Kirtland area due to riding horses out at the Holden Arboretum and having many close friends who live out there. I have been to where the melon heads "supposedly," reside at, on Wisner Road. My friends have actually taken me there a couple times at night. The first time they took me there I got bad vibes because I'm one of those people that pick up on them. We were at the bottom of the driveway in the car and my friends said something about the duck tape and pentagram, having been there on a tree the time before, was now removed. I don't like being somewhere, where there are signs of evil so, needless to say I got kinda freaked. My friend's boyfriend said he'd drive up there if I wanted, but I said no .It had been a rainy day anyways, and the driveway leading up to the "melon heads," was very muddy. We were not in a four- wheel drive vehicle at the time either. My friends also have talked about when you go up the driveway there are strange mounds on a path to the left of the driveway, almost like something is buried there. But, we were not about to go dig them up and find out. Though I never did get to see these mounds, since a a log was put there so you couldn't drive down the path to get there.
Another weird tid- bit they told me was when they drove up to the house one night they saw candles from a distance in the form of what they thought to be a circle. There were cars parked in the driveway at the time with boxes on them. They dared one of my friends to get out and take the box. So he jumped out of the car and went to look what was in this box, what he found in it was a small cauldron. Sounds more like witchcraft or satanic rituals caring on up there instead of melon heads, if you ask me.
Another time, we went to the melon heads was on April Fool's Day. Again, we couldn't go up the driveway because a vehicle was sitting at the end of driveway facing into the direction of on coming traffic (plus right at the foot of the supposed melon heads' driveway is a dead end so it wasn't like he had to worry about moving out of the way for vehicles to get through). It was a truck and it flashed us twice with its headlights, meaning get out of here. We don't know who was in the truck it could have been a ranger or someone assigned to watch the driveway since it was April Fool's Day.
The last time I went up to the melon heads with my friends, they FINALLY got to take me up the driveway. As we drove up my friend's boyfriend pointed to the left where the mounds were. As we got closer to the house we noticed the house was lit up on the inside. As we drew closer all the lights went off. But, that was all I saw.
My dad rides his horses up at the Holden Arboretum (and sometimes I'll join him for the ride) and laughs at the legend of the melon heads. He says Holden Arboretum actually owns the house and an old man resides there. When you ride at the Holden there are actually paths near the house where the melon heads are said to live. My Dad thinks it is all a bunch of BS although he hasn't really gone poking his nose around there to find out what lurks there. I have heard MANY different versions of the melon heads, including all the ones on your web page. As you're driving on Wisner Road to get to the "melon heads'," home, you must first cross a small bridge also known by thrill- seekers as "Cry- Baby Bridge. Legend has it that a orphanage used to be somewhere in the where- abouts near this bridge and burned down. It is said, if you (meaning by yourself) drive up onto the bridge at night and turn your car's ignition off you can hear the sounds of small children crying.
Personally, what do I think about the melon heads? I highly doubt they exist, even though it would be cool if they did. Though, I don't know what sicko would wish these little flesh eating men/ children running around attacking human beings as a source of food. That all just sounds a little too disturbing to me LOL. What I think is going on up there is some type of sick witchcraft or satanic crap, just by the things my friend's have told me. Like I said I picked up on bad vibes going up there, evil stuff. That is all I there is to it. If you would like to go find out for yourself the house is on Wisner Road at the dead end point. There to your right, a driveway will be and it will swing up a large hill. I will caution you though, there are no trespassing signs, so if you do, don't get caught.

Webmaster Note: Quicksilver also had a few tidbits about the alleged haunted church in Kirtland that Justin asked about a few posts earlier...

Now, for the church with upside down crosses. Yes, I have gone by it, again with the same friends. It was very creepy and eerie looking. The only info my friends had to give me on it was that it used to be a small school. The upside down crosses appear on the over- hang of the porch. I guess you would never really notice them unless someone pointed them out to you. I don't really have an opinion on this because I don't know much about it or its history, I'm going to try and dig up some more information on it in the mean time though. If I had to have an opinion on it now though, I would have to say some very foolish architect/ builder constructed this church/ school, what have you, and didn't even notice that he put these upside down crosses there. If you are interested in seeing this place it is at the bottom of Booth Rd. and Rt. 615.
If anything though, I would suggest looking into the Lundgren Barn's eerie past located on Rt. 6 almost directly across the street of Lake Farm Park. Jeffrey Lundgren (who is now on Death Row) was part of the Mormon church, until he broke off from it w/ a couple of followers leading them to believe he was a prophet of Jesus Christ. His followers, and him lived in an old farm house with a large red barn next to it. One of the families wished to with draw from the cult later on in time. I guess Mr. Lundgren wasn't to thrilled with this and he killed the family (including the children) by shooting them. When he was shooting them he sent his son outside to run a chainsaw to cover up the gun shots. After killing the family they took the bodies and buried them in the barn floor since it was dirt. Of course he was caught and latered sentenced to death. My friend's friend's uncle owns the house now (did ya catch that part), last I knew anyways. But, I know the family has encountered some explained things in the barn.

Contributed by ~*!Tony The Tiger!*~

linkin_park788@hotmail.com

hi. my name is Tony, I'm 13 (yes I'm young) and a have just recently had an experience with the melon heads. it was on october 5 2001. my step-father,mom,step-brother,and me where driving down Chilocothe Rd.(might be misspelled) in Chardon. we had been driving up and down roads in the same area for almost an hour, with no luck. we were just about to go home when we came up on Chilochthe rd. so we decided to go down it. as we went it got very cold i mean very very cold,like january cold. and we came up on this stretch of road that had fields on both sides and an irrigation ditch running parallel with each side of the road. just then, i look out my window and i saw him. a melon head, he or "it" was running along next to the ditch. since the ditch was to wide to jump over, it was coming close (like it was about to jump) then pull away. at the time we were going bout 45-50 mph. the melon head was actually keeping up with us. actually it didn't look anything like I've herd stories about. as much i could see, he looked about the same height as me (5'7") it was wearing brown pants which were very ripped up and where the seams would be, it was held together by what looked like corn husk or some type of strong material. it had a white shirt with brown and red stains all over it (hoping that the red stains weren't blood) it head was a very light-brown tint. it had two holes in the sides of its head which think were ears. its head was swelled up and its eyes where very big looking. just as we turned a curve it jumped into the woods. so that is my story of the melon heads. if any 1 has n e info on....
*The witches grave (in the same area im told?)
*the satanic church(also in same area)
...plz! email me with sum information

thanks!

Contributed by Ben Dawg

loewfat@hotmail.com

hey,
my name is Ben, and i live in Hudsonville, michigan. i have heard about melon heads before, but i thought they were only around west michigan. anyway, i haven't experienced them personally, but i have heard stories. first of all, hudsonville, is about 20 miles south west from grand rapids. now where the melonheads are located are in the county of allegan, more specifically the allegan woods. there are many stories about the allegan woods. the most serious, true, storie was a survivalist murdered someone and was living off the land in the allegan woods. this person has been on the fbi's most wanted list and was seen twice on americas most wanted. the ku klux klan, satanists, other cult groups, and melonheads are to be found in the allegan woods. im not saying melonheads are 100 percent true, but there is for sure a possibility. if you go into the allegan woods, you will find some weird things. you can find weird carvings in trees, cats hung by nooses with their stomach's ripped out, animal skulls in trees, and i saw first hand in the middle of the woods a pentagram made out of stones. anyway, on to the melonheads. the story of allegan goes something like this: there once was this kid with a giant head, everyone at school mocked him and called him melonhead [thus getting the name]. the parents were really weird and they ended up moving into the middle of the woods. for some reason they started to inbreed and therefore further screwing up their kids with the inbred genetics. they have a grudge against normal society, so they are violent towards people. i hear they make a loud, high pitched scream right before they attack. i have never seen a melon head, but i have heard stories of people driving down two-tracks and melonheads running out of the woods chaining off the trail with a chain. it is also a fact that a young virgin girl was sacrificed at a campground in the allegan woods, known as the horsemans campground, or silver creek. this is true because it was on the news about 10 years ago. they never found out who did it, but some believe it was melonheads, while most believe it was satanists. the melon head story in west michigan is dying fast, with only few still believing. i have also heard that a melonhead actually wrote a book about his existence and his life and why they do the things they do. i have yet to see the book or hear what the pages contain, but i hear that it was written. the hot spot for melon heads near one part of the allegan woods contains an abandon jail and an abandon insane asylum almost right next to each other. if these have anything to do with the melonheads, i wouldn't know. also, one more thing before i end this long email. me and some friends went to horseman's campground to camp at the place where the virgin was sacrificed. we didn't see anything unusual, but we did end up talking to some locals. they said that by the insane asylum and jail, there were caves in the sides of the hill leading up into a trail into the woods. they said the caves were constructed in the 60's due to the cold war. the locals also said that melonheads inhabited these caves for a period of time. i personally tried to find the caves, but didn't find anything, although i did find this weird imprint in the ground. it was also said that the local government put brush over the cave entrances and sealed them up to block any civilians from trying to get inside them. well, thats about all i know about the melon heads in this area, im glad to hear that the legend lives somewhere else in the country. although the legend is fading fast, the few that still believe will carry it on for a while and hopefully someday bring it back.

-ben

Contributed by Charlotte Szapowal

cszapowal@msn.com

ah the old melon heads. i have lived in Chesterland for 13 years, and Chardon for 1 year, both are next to Kirtland. I have always believed in ghosts and paranormal. A good friend of mine has lived in Kirtland his whole life and always told us the different stories about ghosts and whatnot. I had never been to the "melonhead" house, so we decided to go one night. There was about five of us in the car and we went on our way to Wisner rd. We drove down the road and got to the end where the house is. It must have been about 11 or 12 at night. Sure enough, there were other kids there, so we didn't get out because they were being stupid. we turned around at the end of the road and started talking to them. The kids started walking up to the house when off to the side of the road there was a horrible scream from a woman. my husband and i both heard it, but nobody else did. It was weird. Anyways, a car came down the road towards us and stopped off to the side of the ditch by the house. We thought it was the cops, so we started driving, and the car quickly turned around and left. We sped up to see who it was and the car literally vanished in mid air. However, i don't think it had anything to do with the melon heads. I think it's all in the whole spirit of Kirtland. From what i understand, the "melon head" house is someone's summer home now. That is why you get in trouble for messing around there. My sister was there once during the day, and there were people there cleaning and what not. Anyways, maybe it's true, but i have yet to see one myself. However, don't go and ruin someone's summer home if it is in fact that. Make sure you go there with an open mind and don't get discouraged if you don't see anything. Also, respect other's property. It's not yours so don't go spray painting it and breaking things.

Contributed by Bellaginag@aol.com

Bellaginag@aol.com

I have tried many, many times to find these places in Kirtland that are haunted such as the melonhead house, witches grave, haunted church, etc. My friends and I saw cry baby bridge however and we sat on it for a few minutes in our cars but heard nothing. There's stories though that say you have to walk there and actually sit there for a very long time in order to hear anything, so I don't know. My friend's uncle owns land by Penitentiary Glenn and when she was little her aunt and her were driving down kirtland/chardon road and she saw a melonhead walking along side of the road. She didn't know about the melonheads at the time but her aunt said "look there's a melonhead" and told her the story of it. She said it was really creepy b/c he looked pretty scary. We've tried several times to try and find the witches grave but no luck. Another of my friends, her neighbor knew where it was but we ended up sliding off the road in the snow and into a ditch. We were stranded on Kirtland/Chardon road in a ditch for 2 hours, needless to say we didn't get to go to the witches grave.
I have a new story, however, that I haven't seen anyone mention yet and that is of the woman who walks RT 306 by Kirtland/Chardon road. She walks by a cemetery on 306 and there's a big white church next to it. My friend I work with was driving on 306(she lives in Kirtland) at like 2-2:30 in the morning and saw a woman with a hood up walking in that area and she didn't think anything of it until she looked in her rear-view window as she passed her and saw that she had no legs!! She then recalled the story and was really freaked out.
If anyone has any additional information on these places I've mentioned I'd love to hear it and also if you have any questions you can e-mail me.

Contributed by Crazy Town

opticonvapor@hotmail.com

my name is mark. around early june 2002 my friend, and i were getting alittle stoned and telling ghost stories. My one friend brought up the story of the melonheads out in kirtland. This was the first time I had ever heard the story, and i thought it was complete bullshit. But since we were already in Chagrin Falls, we decided to go and check it out anyway. We got to Wisner Rd. around 1 am and the entire road was really foggy, more than the other roads. So anyway, we stopped at "Crybaby's Bridge" and waited to hear some cries. About three minutes went by with us sitting in the car with all the windows down and the engine off in the darkness. We didn't hear any noises, but we all saw something that freaked us out much worse. I was in the car, looking out over the right side of the bridge when i saw a dim flash of reddish orange light. the first time i saw it i just ignored it, figuring it was some sort of water bouy (spell that right?). about 20 seconds later i saw it again only it had moved about 7 feet to the left in the darkness over the water. I told my friends what i just saw, thinking that i was just stoned, but they saw it too! We looked again and this time the light was moving onto the river's left bank coming up towards the bridge! Needless to say we got the fuck outta there. You might be saying to yourself "why did they freak outover some lights?" Let me explain. while we were sitting on the bridge, it was so quiet, you could hear a pin drop, so we would've heard it if there was some one wading through the water underneath the bridge holding a light up. There was no noise, just the dim flash of red lights.
A couple nights later, we returned to Wisner Rd. and the dead end with the bridge. My friend was driving and i was in the passenger seat and my other friend was in the back seat. We again parked on the bridge with the engine off listening or trying to see something again. My friend in the back was getting skeptical that there wasn't anything out there, so jokingly he exited the car and began to take a piss over the bridge. After a few moments he jumped back in the car with a freaked out look on his face. We asked him what happened, and he said that as he started to piss, he heard a man's voice from under the bridge say "grow up." then he heard the sound of a second person pissing into the water when he was done! we waited in the car for about another minute until my friend who was driving peeled away. I asked him why did he leave and he said he 1st heard the sound of someone walking on the bridge behind his car, and it paused then he heard it again, only closer, the third time it was right behind his car but too dark to see if anyone was there. So i still think the whole melonhead stuff is a bunch of BS, but there is definately something creepy going on at the back of Wisner Rd. I would never go alone. any questions or comments email me @ Opticonvapor@hotmail.com

Contributed by Justin

justin_bartrug@hotmail.com

Well my story starts like most the others on the page, me and some friends Justin, Mike, George and Bill all went to Wisner Rd. Which is on it's own scary to go down. It's a dark road with forest on each side. But at any rate we get to the dead end of the road and we stop. We got out of the car and started to walk up the driveway, why I don't know? But there was a large tree laying in the middle of the drive and as we walked up we got a bit scared when we seen what looked like a sheet with a red light behind it. (This I was told recently to mean they will chase you if it's on) So we turned around and started walking down when all of a sudden what sounded like a pack of wolves started howling, at first in the distance then like they were on top of us. Needless to say we were out of there, jumped in the car and left. But that didn't stop us from going back only this time My brother Shane came along with the rest of us. We all drove sepratly but when we got to the dead end we piled in my car 5 in a Ford Escort and went up the hill. Needless to say the log was gone and we were there only a week ago. We got to the top of the hill and on the right sat the house. The drive goes left towards the top, straight, or to the right into the house. We went into the house drive when all of a sudden about 4 figures came flying out of the house and ran toward the car. We had a video camera which didn't pick up anything but we couldn't see anything to well either. They looked taller than 3' but we backed out hit a stump and started flying down the hill. All the while in the rear view I could see flash lights coming down the hill. I stopped at the bottom to let my brother out and he jumped in his car. As I sped off I could see they were coming down the hill where there is no drive flashlights bouncing. Needless to say I am going back there and this time me and Bill are taking a night vision camera. So expect some pix soon!!
Oh, if anyone out there has directions to the witch's grave please give me an e-mail. Thanks and keep an eye out for those pix.
Justin

Contributed by Sally

ghostlylady@hotmail.com

Hi,

I know that the Melonheads seem to be a big draw to websites these days...but i still think that it is kind of irrisponsible to keep getting kids excited over things that are and always have been urban legends. When i was a kid some 30 or more years ago, we all went looking for the melonheads too. But, these days most kids don't seem to understand that private property is PRIVATE PROPERTY!!! It is fun to "believe" that there may really be ghosts,and i DO believe in them, "melonheads", witch graves,houses, etc., but I stopped perpetuating these things for the Kirtland area after there was a serious incident that involved a resident,private property and kids looking for "melonheads".

I won't even begin to tell you how to run your website, and you are listed as a link on mine because i try to list local links...but, i wish you would at least mention that this is just an urban legend, and while it is a fun date night thing, it can get kids in deep trouble. So, if they want to go looking on the public byways , great, I am all for that, but i have totally stopped listing ANY stories i have gotten about melonheads. I am older now, and i have alot more respect for the poor people who have to put up with the kids, and Yes, i have a couple of my own, who probably wouldn't believe me about the urban legend thing either...LOL. Thanks, Just my opinion...and i will totally respect yours.
Sally
http://ghostlylady.faithweb.com

Contributed by Mindscape

scott@mindscape.ws

Related to the Melonheads I accidentally ran across your site and am very familiar with the legend. I think the legend is more vague as to what really occurs down there. I am 31 years old and don't believe in ghosts or spirits of any kind. I have a cousin that works for the US government researching UFO's and occult stories. He is from Akron and one day came up in the mid 80's and was investigating a UFO sighting over Stephens Gulch (located on Wisner and Mitchell's Mills junction, Chardon) He asked if I would come along and walk with him through the woods with a park officer. the Gulch is very secluded and used to be a Military training zone in the 50's and 60's and also had Indians living down there way back. The proof is in historical documents and the Indian cleaning wells in the rock are still evident. This place is the most beautiful and enchanting place on Earth. I have never been anywhere that sends chills down your spine with its waterfalls and cut gorge walls. It compares to the most exotic places on Earth all hidden in the woods. Nothing ever came about the sighting and I didn't go back until years later.
In the late 1980's I and 2 friends that lived by Stephens Gulch walked down in. The entrance we took off Mitchell's Mills Road was one way in and one way out because of the steep hill. When we were done rock climbing we were leaving up a steep 80ft high embankment with a trail. As we climbed an old lady with her dog was coming down and freaked us out. He dog was crippled and she was dirty and almost homeless looking. Once we met in the middle she was very sweet and began to talk to us about the old hippie parties and stuff that use to happen there. She seemed senile and quite distraught. We blew it off as a stupid old lady and finished the conversation with her telling us that she lived across the road from the exit. The house she described seemed vacant by memory. Her dog was a German Sheppard. As we got to the top of the cliff my friend Adam looked down and asked where the "fuc*" the old lady went. You could see 500 yards left and right down the river and she was gone. Being semi freaked out we chalked it up to her being very fast. When we got back to my buddy Toms house he asked his mother if she knew some crazy old lady up the road across from the Gulch and she replied that the lady died years ago and use to walk her Sheppard up and down the road, it was hit by a car and died. This is a true story. I have never been there since and live 1 mile away. I am sickened by what happened and disturbed because my deepest beliefs were questioned. This place is messed up and is worthy of paranormal investigation. I have alerted many people to this story and have no clue if it has been researched. It's funny that there is actually a site with info about this messed up area!

Contributed by Jason

DaGamingGuru@aol.com

Hey, great site. I came across it tonight as I was searching for haunted spots in ohio. I saw your section on melon heads and thought to my self "Holy crap other people have seen things like that. I'm not crazy!" Several years ago, my mother had to attend a course for work in Cleveland. After her class we decided to go out and see the sites. Around 1 am we decided to head back to the hotel and drove through a lightly wooded area. Suddenly my mother slams on the breaks and I ask what was wrong. She said an animal was crossing the road. I look and this "thing" was shambling across the road. It had a big head, a human like body and it walked on two feet. My heart raced as I thought "What in the hell is this thing?" It's good to know people besides me have seen these melon head things. Jason

Contributed by Lisa

Leah_pnda@msn.com

Regarding the Melon Heads:
I know someone who works at the Holden Arboretum in Kirtland. The house at the end of Wisner Rd., that is before the dead end, is the Arboretum's property. A lot of people believe it to be the home of the melon heads, but it is really rented by the Arboretum to a radio personality.
People get in trouble for going there because of it being private property.
I have heard that the melon heads live beyond the dead end in the woods, possibly in an old insane asylum. Supposedly the road continues back there through the woods and you can find the old house.

Contributed by Vil8tor@aol.com

Vil8tor@aol.com

This is the story as told to me over 20 somthin` yrs. fact or fiction is not known but the proof and the truth are out there. "In the mid 1800`s in KIRTLAND,OH ,after the Mormans left, there was a rich family named CROW that owned a huge plantation of sorts for this area, it was in the family for generations. DR.CROW, who lived there now with his wife and 2 hydrocephalic kids, was well liked in town. His kids' condition drove him insane, he became obsessed with it. He already had a "penitentary" on his property were he studied the criminally insane, why not study this too, so he was sent more kids with this from all over the world, the family grew. As time goes by the pressure on the doc got to be too much. He couldn't have kids, the kids at pen. were getting older and more unruly everyday and he turned to drugs and alcohol and much worse. In the spring of 1868 the doc was out in the northeast woods of his lands drunk and wandering when he came upon a place he didn't know and people he had never seen. They were pagans, worshippers of a blackgoat being, their families were servants and field hands for generations on local farms and estates and this was their ritual site. The doc was impressed and took part happily. If God couldn't help him the devil would. Over that summer the doc began to change he didn't care about anything except the "woods", he would disappear into the woods for days on end and the inmates at the penitentary were left alone and uncared for and at this time it is belived in a ritual in the GULCH he sold his soul to the GOATMAN. Now comes winter, the doc is never seen nor his wife, late one winter night the townspeople hear children crying on the wind in a brutal snowstorm and think its the kids at the institute. Storm breaks the next day folks go to investigate cries and are horrified by what they find. Of the 300 inmates at the "penitenary" 260 some had froze to death in the storm they hadn't been taken care of in weeks there was signs of torture and cannibalism and lots of demonic symbols and signs of rituals. DR.CROW shows up and demands the people leave. They do under heavy resistance. The doc then takes the remaining tortured and experimental kids home. Upon returning to town the story spreads. The townspeople demand this satanist freak be condemed so a lynch mob is formed and off to the "penitentary" they go. No one left there, so they burn it and head for the house. When they get there they bust in the doors and windows looking for CROW. What they find shocks them. CROW`s wife, long dead with her stomach cut out, lots of bodies of kids disfigured and experimented on and lots of satanic symbolism. This whips the mob into a frenzy and they find the doc and some of the melonheads in the cellar and they corner them there and lock them in and set fire to the house. As it burns more melonheads emerge from other rooms in the mansion and screams and cries fill the night air. The mob goes home. The next day in the light people return to the aftermath and find lots of little footprints in the snow around a small barn about 100yrds. Behind the remains of the mansion. Inside they find all the animals half-eaten and torn apart and lots of small tracks and tracks of large cloven hoofs leading out the back of the barn and into the northeastern woods. This is were the legend stops, but the stories just begin and those are for another time. Enjoy, VIL8TOR.

WEBMASTER NOTE: Shortly thereafter I recieved another email from VIL8TOR... the Melonheads story continues...

I grew up in Chardon, lived there for 18yrs., heard my first tales of the MELONHEADS in 4th grade at Maple school rushed home to tell my parents we had to move there were evil, nasty melonheads right over in Kirtland and they laughed themselves silly at my exspense. They grew up in Eastlake and had heard the legend when they were teens. This didn't stop me and my sister from being facinated and terrified for the better part of are childhood. My mom would threaten me with things like "be good or I`ll take you to the melonheads" and stuff like that and it would work I WOULD BE SO SCARED THE MELONHEADS WOULD GET ME, I WOULD BEHAVE! This also turned into a game for my parents called let's scare the shit out of the kids by taking the back way home from the great lakes mall at night thru the heart of melonhead country and pretend the car stalls or the headlights go out. HA-HA! Family fun of the 70`s, I LIVED FOR IT!!!! To be so scared of something as a kid it then turned to morbid curiosity and then obsession as a teen and young adult. I have always been into this legend and still am. I JUST NEVER LOOKED ON THE WEB FOR IT! The subject came up with me and some of my friends since childhood just the other day and I laughed and said I was gonna start a website for melonhead and goatman sightings and look at this here one is! I`ve put the legend together over years of stories told thru others to me , somethings change story to story, but that's what legends do, but some things stay the same. TRUTH BE TOLD! There was a "penitentary", still is in name ,"PENITENTARY GLENN" metropark and inmates froze to death there. All the lands owned by CROW are now owned by the metroparks and the HOLDEN ARBERATUM and most of it is private to keep people out!! There is a very evil place located in the woods to the northeast of melonhead lands in an area called the "gulch" were there is a ritual site, goatheads and faces carved beutifully into the rocks and an altar carved as well all do exsist, I`VE SEEN THEM WITH MY OWN EYES!!! AND THEY WERE NOT CARVED BY INDIANS, at least I dont think so!! In 30 odd yrs. I have never felt nor seen a more evil place than the gulch and the woods that surround it!!! It`s location is in another post, I will just say TREAD LIGHTLY - it`s private property, you will be arrested. BEWARE WHAT YOU MIGHT SEE!!! One of the scariest nights of my life took place on WISNER RD., down in the heart of GOATMAN land at the age of 20. Me and a friend were drunk and smoked up and out "doing research" when we had an experience I will never forget, but thats a tale for another night.
sincerely, Vil8tor

Contributed by Lisa

Leah_pnda@msn.com

Regarding the Melon Heads:
I know someone who works at the Holden Arboretum in Kirtland. The house at the end of Wisner Rd., that is before the dead end, is the Arboretum's property. A lot of people believe it to be the home of the melon heads, but it is really rented by the Arboretum to a radio personality.
People get in trouble for going there because of it being private property.
I have heard that the melon heads live beyond the dead end in the woods, possibly in an old insane asylum. Supposedly the road continues back there through the woods and you can find the old house.

Contributed by Riversecrets@aol.com

Riversecrets@aol.com

I grew up near Kirtland and used to do what a lot of teenagers did in the 70s -- got drunk or high and drove up to see the melon heads in the middle of the night. We visited the usual sights, drove up to the mansion, etc. My friend's parents laughed at us because they used to do the same thing when they were kids in the 50s. (We didn't tell them about the drugs and alcohol.)
I went up there often in the summertimes, and can't say that I remember seeing the melon heads there though I did see what seemed like a woman in white walking in the woods near the bridge where there isn't a trail that I know of. She almost seemed to glow, but it was a full moon that night so for all I know it was a real woman who was just out walking.
The thing that I do know for sure is that I have seen many ufo's in Kirtland and we often had missing time when we went to see the melon heads. I know we were drunk or high most of the time, but we all had gaps of time that we couldn't account for. We could always remember driving up the driveway, but we could never seem to remember going down the driveway. We often woke up hours later in a different place or suddenly coming to driving down the road going back towards civilization. On one occassion, my friend and I only had 1-2 beers, yet we came to quite a distance away and on foot with the sun coming up.
In a different place a few miles from Kirtland, I discovered some interesting tracks which the naturalists at Penitentiary Glen could not identify. I am very interested in knowing if anyone else has found tracks and if so, what did they looked like? I am also very interested in hearing descriptions of melon head sightings. One sighting I was told about when I was a little kid was of a kind of animal with a round head and a lot of sharp teeth which sounds a lot different from the descriptions of encephelitis.
I know there has been satanic activity in Chapin Forest, but I don't know if that means that it's connected to the melon head legends? Perhaps there's multiple strangenesses in Kirtland -- ufo's, melon heads, scientific experiments with encephelitis, and satanic worship?

Thanks!

Contributed by Dave

Email withheld by Request

My friends and I have recently traveled to Wisner Road to try and get a glimpse of a Melon Head. No Luck. Road is kinda spooky, foggy, narrow, gravel, so that was pretty cool. Anyway we drove down to the end and turned around. When we were leaving the street, a cop was pulling in but didn't stop us. BE CAREFULE! But it was fun, here are some pics:

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Contributed by Alex

punkedout409@yahoo.com

ok heres the stroy that kinda started the myth...its from http://www.cheapchange.com/Melonheads.html

Webmaster Note: I checked out the cheapchange site and have to recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good creepy story... very cool.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Melon Heads"
I have been checking out your web site for a while now, but always felt left out since I am not from New Jersey. Now I finally feel that it’s time for me to tell a tale scarier than any I have ever read on either of your sites, or anywhere else for that matter. It comes from my home town of Kirtland, Ohio, and it is the mystery of the Melon Heads.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve heard tales of strange creatures that inhabit the woods in a few of the towns in this area. I’ve always been told to be careful when travelling down Chardon-Windsor Road in Chardon, Wisner Road, and near the area surrounding the Holden Arboretum in Kirtland. There are supposed to be deformed humans living in the woods with tiny bodies and large round heads. They’re known as the Melon Heads, and it is said that they hate all human beings and will kill and eat any they encounter.
The reason they are filled with such hate towards humans is because of one sick man! , Dr. Crow. It is because of his twisted work that they are in the physical and mental condition that they are. Dr. Crow was commissioned by the government shortly after World War II to treat children who suffered from a rare condition known as hydrocephalism, which causes large pockets of water within the brain. Crow ran a small institution of sorts for these kids, and donated not only his services, but his own land, for the venture. The government sent him these kids, thinking he was doing a good deed and a great favor to society. Little did they know what evil acts were actually occurring in the woods of Northern Ohio.
Dr. Crow was a vicious, malevolent, insane man, who took pleasure in the pain of others. Hidden out in the woods, away from anyone’s supervision, he began a series of cruel experiments on the sick children placed in his charge. He injected their brains with even more water, causing their heads to swell to ridiculous proportions. He mentally and physically ab! used them, and exposed them to radiation. He basically used them as the guinea pigs in all of the twisted experiments he conceived. Many of the tortured children died– you can still see numerous graves of babies in the nearby King Memorial Cemetery.
Needless to say, the Melon Heads suffered severe physical and mental retardation due to their brains being experimented on. They continued to devolve until they were hardly human anymore. They became little more than wild animals, and like all wild animals, they had no ability to reason, and instead acted purely on instinct. Their main instinct, that to survive, led them to attack Dr. Crow.
Supposedly, the Melon Heads became feral to the point where Crow could no longer control them. One day, they simply snapped and overran him while he was in his lab. They pummeled him, tore his body apart, and ate him. In the process of the attack, the Melon Heads destroyed electrical devices and knocked over vats of chemicals, causing a fi! re to start. This fire engulfed the buildings on Dr. Crow’s secluded property, and the Melon Heads fled into the surrounding woods. Nowadays, packs of Melon Heads roam the woods of this area. Dozens of reports come in each year of people seeing creatures staring at them from the woods on the edges of local roads in the dead of the night. Hikers and outdoorsmen routinely find slaughtered animals in the woods, and many have been attacked by Melon Heads, especially along the banks of the Chagrin River. The Melon Heads rule these woods.
I know all of this sounds manufactured and sensational, and as I was growing up, even I brushed off this story as nothing more than a legend. In fact, I used to get mad at people who spread such ridiculous stories. I would mock and scoff at anyone who told me they genuinely feared travelling in the area. I changed my ways in July of 1995 though, when I was 18 years old. While travelling down Chardon-Windsor Road, I came face to face with one o! f these beasts, and I can tell you, they are as real as real gets.
I was dating a girl from Chardon, and we often found ourselves driving many of the secluded roads rumored to be Melon Head territory, not because we were looking for the creatures, but because we were young, horny, and well... you get the picture. We often joked about the Melon Heads, and talked about how without them scaring everyone away and giving us some privacy, our relationship wouldn’t have - umm, blossomed – the way it did.
One night we were sitting in my girlfriend’s car off to the side of the road when I had to take a leak. I got out and walked to the edge of the woods to do my thing. Suddenly, I heard the car start up and lurch into gear, and out of the corner of my eye saw it move backwards as the headlights came on. I figured my girlfriend was playing a joke on me, moving the car away so I wouldn’t have the car blocking my public urination. She did that every now and then. Then she leaned on the! horn, and I figured she was trying to bring further public attention to my peeing. But she was not playing a practical joke at all. I found this out when I zipped myself up, turned around, and saw the scariest sight I have ever seen with my own two eyes.
My girlfriend was crying behind the wheel of the car, screaming, although I could barely hear her through the rolled up windows. The headlights were pointed into the woods, and through the foliage I saw the silhouettes of three or four shadowy shapes lumbering around. One was already on the edge of the road, moving through the bushes and tall grass toward me. From what I could make out, it was no taller than three feet, and it had the biggest, most bulbous head I’d ever seen. It wasn’t really running, per se, as the equilibrium caused by its disproportion only allowed it to move at a limited speed. I couldn’t really get a good look at the thing through the darkness and thick underbrush, but in a split second I realized that e! very childhood story I had heard about these woods may just be true. I really feared that if I didn’t act fast I would be attacked.
There was about 20 feet between me and the car at that point, but it seemed like miles. I ran towards the it, and as I did, I realized I wasn’t going to make it. The Melon Head, or whatever it was, was going to cut me off. As it emerged from the vegetation it was on the passenger side of the car between me and the door. Since the headlights were still pointing into the woods, the thing was now shrouded in darkness once again. But I knew that it was there. I stopped in my tracks and strained my eyes to see it, but mostly I listed to it. Over the muffled screams of my girlfriend in the car I could hear the Melon Head wheezing, and as it breathed it made a kind of gurgling sound. I don’t mind telling you that I was paralyzed with fear at that point.
Thankfully, my girlfriend didn’t freeze up like I did. She threw the car into reverse and swung ! it around to face me and the thing, kicking up a cloud of dust from the shoulder of the road. Then she flipped on the high beams, and when the light hit the beast, it recoiled. I seized the opportunity and took off past it toward the car. In the split second I ran past it I tried to get a better look at the Melon Head, but the cloud kicked up by the car wheels and the glare of the high beams obscured my view. I wasn’t going to wait around for the dust to settle though so that I might get a better look.
I jumped into the passenger side door and tried to get a glimpse of the thing through the windshield. Just for a moment I could make out the distorted form of it, and its two eyes glowing in the lights, then it disappeared into the underbrush. By this time the other Melon Heads must have retreated, for there was no more movement in the woods. At that point my girl floored it and we got the hell out of there, never looking back.
Since that time, I have never laughed when I hear ! stories of the Melon Heads. I don’t brush them off, and I never make fun of others who are scared of them. Heed my words as a warning: don’t mess around in the woods around Chardon or Kirtland, Ohio, or near the Chagrin River unless you too want to come face to face with the hideous Melon Heads. Or theirs’ might be the last faces you will ever see.

Contributed by barkingspider

barkingspider@bellsouth.net

I grew up in kirtland off of booth road right up against the arboretum,i couldn`t help but notice in your postings about the melon heads nobody mentions the springs(unless i missed it)myself and my friends had many strange encounters in and around the arboretum area,there are also rumors of bigfoot sightings in the area,my brother for example SWEARS he saw one off of wisner road,i also noticed that nobody mentions mystery hill(its a very strange optical illusion)all i can say for sure is that there is a LOT MORE going on in that little town than meets the eye,i have heard from various sources that much of the town is located on old indian burial mounds,i don`t know if there is any truth to that or not,but interestingly enough we had a very large mound in my backyard when i was a kid in what was otherwise a flat field of about 3 acres.I can also attest to the fact that in the early 70`s ourselves and several neighbors had tents set up in our yards that were COMPLETELY shredded by something,and i`m talking about the old style heavy canvas boy scout type tents,like i said theres more to that lil town than meets the eye,well thanks for letting me reminisce a lil bit about one of the creepiest places i have ever encountered,i haven`t lived there in over 25 yrs but talking about it still gives me goosebumps

Contributed by j d

jdc825@yahoo.com

Hi, After finding your site on a link from 'deadohio.com' I stumbled on the 'Melon-Head's' page. Below is a story/submission I can add:
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In reference to Miss S's note, when I saw the link for the 'melon-heads,' first- I was taken back- I knew that place and had been there many times. As I read on, I knew nothing about this in Kirtland but instead a house inbetween geauga lake and bainbridge. Out there off of old geauga lake road, was/is a corner house with two giant eagle stone statues at the end of a home's driveway. Back then in the mid 1980's (for me,) I don't even remember any complete 'stories' about the place, the people or anything else, but it was said that weird things went on there- nothing about large headed kids or people, etc, just the label- the 'melon-heads.' Another part to things was that on the unlit dirt roads that lead to the place that people sometimes popped up out of nowhere in the blackness of night on the road, and in nearby farm fields that statanic rituals were held.

Once when driving out there we did see two people that with car headlights just 'appeared' out of nowhere walking towards us along the road- it was pretty freaky, they looked freaky, they very pale in skin color, I didn't stop to ask, and it was 'extra' spooky that night. To hear that Miss S actually babysat for those people, that there was nothing to the stories of anything of the place, why the statues were there - this was a trip in the way-back machine for me and 'finally' an explanation for the 'melon-heads.' The 'real' story in the region out of the Kirtland area didn't seem to make it over to this other place that I ever heard or that any of us knew back then.

jd