Iowa – Lover’s Leap, Elkader
The story goes that sometime in the 1830’s, Lou Milville befriended the local Native Americans. He got uh, particularly “friendly” with the Chief’s daughter, White Cloud. One day Milville was captured for following some younger tribesmen into the woods, and he was ordered to jump off the cliff. He fought his captors, threw them over the cliff, and fell unconscious. When he woke up, White Cloud’s shoes were carefully placed next to him, for she had jumped off the cliff herself. Much like Romeo and Juliet, no one wins. Unlike Romeo and Juliet, the legend says Lou buried White Cloud, but fails to say if he offed himself to be with her.
You missed the boat on New Jersey! THE JERSEY DEVIL is most definitely the official haunting creature of the Garden State. Long before NJ was even a state, the legend of the Jersey Devil began. It was the 13th child of Mrs Leeds, who had no desire for another baby. According to legend, she cursed the baby even before it was born. At its birth, the creature assumed otherworldly dimension and flew up the chimney of the home. Since then, the Devil regularly haunts the Pine Barrens of New Jersey, frightening all it encounters. On the eve of a National tragedy, the Devil is said to appear at many varied places in the state to warn of evils to come (most notably in December 1941, just before Pearl Harbor.)