Strange Minnesota Monsters

In Minnesota eye witnesses claim to have seen Bigfoot in Two Harbors, Wendigos in Roseau, lake monsters in Lake Pepin, Mothman near Rochester, trolls in Cannon Falls, and a musically inclined purple dwarf, formally known as Prince, in Minneapolis. Search for them, and find shadow creatures lurking in homes in Richfield. Read about prowling panthers along the Minnesota River, near Bloomington, and learn about giants tromping around Bemidji. These are some of the frightening creatures that grace the state of Minnesota. Look closely for them (if you dare), but be ready to run!

This book takes the audience on a bizarre journey to some of the most paranormal places in MN. From aliens attaching in Sauk Centre and the deadly serpent in Lake Pepin to Phantom Animals prowling the woods and Bigfoot lurking in your own backyard, no place in MN is without its own mysterious creature. Complete with photos, case history, eyewitness accounts, folklore, and directions, this unique book encourages you to visit these places for your own supernatural story.

Monsters have been spotted everywhere, not just hiding under a child’s bed, lurking in the closet, or springing forth from folkloric tales. Exploring the history, mythology, pop culture, and the world of the supernatural, The Monster Book: Creatures, Beasts, and Fiends of Nature is a comprehensive resource of the monster menagerie from around the world. Examining the lore and legends, as well as the first-person accounts of bizarre freaks of nature and spine-tingling paranormal entities, it details each beast with thorough research, while recounting the facts in an engaging narrative. This fascinating look at monsters investigates nearly 200 beings, beasts, freaks, and fiends, ranging from the renowned and celebrated to the little-known and inglorious, including Werewolves, Bigfoot, the Loch Ness monster, the chupacabra, Mothman, the Abominable Snowman, the Mongolian Death Worm, Living Pterosaurs, Alien Big Cats, Lizard Man, Lake Worth Monster, the Monstrous Monitor, South American Sasquatch, the Jersey Devil, Sea Serpents, Phantom Black Dogs, and much, much more.

Midwestern Strange chronicles B.J. Hollars’s exploration of the mythic, lesser-known oddities of flyover country. The mysteries, ranging from bipedal wolf sightings to run-ins with pancake-flipping space aliens to a lumberjack-inspired “Hodag hoax,” make this book a little bit X-Files, a little bit Ghostbusters, and a whole lot of Sherlock Holmes. Hollars’s quest is not to confirm or debunk these mysteries but rather to seek out these unexplained phenomena to understand how they complicate our worldview and to discover what truths might be gleaned by reexamining the facts in our “post-truth” era. Part memoir and part journalism, Midwestern Strange offers a fascinating, funny, and quirky account of flyover folklore that also contends with the ways such oddities retain cultural footholds. Hollars shows how grappling with such subjects might fortify us against the glut of misinformation now inundating our lives. By confronting monsters, Martians, and a cabinet of curiosities, we challenge ourselves to look beyond our presumptions and acknowledge that just because something is weird, doesn’t mean it is wrong.

A grand tour of the North Star State's geographical, political, and human history, including travelers' guides to historic destinations.

Monsters in Performance boasts an impressive range of contemporary essays that delve into topical themes such as race, gender, and disability, to explore what constitutes monstrosity within the performing arts. These fascinating essays from leading and emerging scholars explore representation in performance, specifically concerning themselves with attempts at social disqualification of "undesirables." Throughout, the writers employ the concept of "monstrosity" to describe the cultural processes by which certain identities or bodies are configured to be threateningly deviant. The editors take a range of previously isolated critical inquiries – including bioethics, critical race studies, queer studies, and televisual studies - and merge them to create an accessible and dynamic platform which unifies these ranges of representations. The global scope and interdisciplinary nature of Monsters in Performance renders it an essential book for Theatre and Performance students of all levels as well as scholars; it will also be an enlightening text for those interested in monstrosity and Cultural Studies more broadly.

Includes • Arrowhead's Devil Dogs • Spirits of the Vikings • Phantom racehorse Dan Patch • The legend of the fearsome Windego • The ghost ship Minnesota