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sorryimgay@reddit

Mon cher, the Rougarou is comin' for you!

Here we have a "bigfoot version" but it is much older and little known

The Mapinguari

A giant, hairy monster, with claws on its hands, one eye and a mouth on its belly that roams the forest and eats people. His only weak point is his belly button under his mouth.

a drawing of what it would look like

(It wasn't me who did it)

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AuggieNorth@reddit

Hard to miss him on Youtube lately with his buddy Yeti. He seems to have a California accent. https://youtu.be/HPCP3f6SFXc?si=RTFA9DP2oqnE9QvM

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largos7289@reddit

Dude Ai is getting crazy LOL but yea those things are frick'n hysterical.

Skunk Ape in Florida

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Naomi_Baka_@reddit (OP)

I know Bigfoot, but it's fake that he was from Canada 😔

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Key-Regret-7812@reddit

Does bigfoot observe borders? He could have a summer cottage up north.

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SufficientOption@reddit

Jackelope but they’re more of a joke thing people make taxidermy of for fun

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EonJaw@reddit

Snipes!

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If we're including taxidermy then you can't forget Assquatch

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ramblinjd@reddit

Those are the main cryptids, along with a Florida Ape man and a Carolina lizard man. Chupacabra might also count in Texas and New Mexico.

We also have tall tale type legends - similar to England's King Arthur - that might have been based on real people or even have been real people but who have outlandish stories told about them. This would be like

Paul Bunyan

Pecos Bill

John Henry

To a lesser extent you could even lump a few founding fathers in there, half the stories we hear about George Washington and Paul Revere are outright fabrications, even if they were real people.

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culturedrobot@reddit

Paul Bunyan and John Henry were the ones who immediately sprang to mind when I read this question.

I’d say that a lot of Wild West figures have become legendary or mythical in their own right. Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Wild Bill, Jesse James… all of these guys have persisted in the American mythos and have become folk heroes through stories using quite a bit of colorful exaggeration.

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EonJaw@reddit

What about The Lone Ranger?

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SuspiciousZombie788@reddit

Johnny Appleseed, various hauntings/ghost stories-though some of those may be more regional and not countrywide legends.

EonJaw@reddit

Oh yeah! John Henry! ❤️⚒️

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PBnBacon@reddit

John Henry is easily the most fascinating piece of American folklore to me. It’s got everything - race, social class, industrialization, educational disparities, westward expansion, man vs. machine, exploitation of the labor force - it’s never stopped being relevant.

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Quick-Angle9562@reddit

John Henry was a great one. A few months ago was telling my wife about his legend and she’d never heard of it. From memory I told it pretty well but had forgotten anything about race.

Ya, but “he killed him a bear, when he was only 3”.

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BabaMouse@reddit

Windwagon Smith

Many legends have arisen about the defenders of the Alamo; Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, and William Travis.

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silviazbitch@reddit

Add Wendigo to the cryptids- evil spirit from Algonquian folklore.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendigo

Champy, the Lake Champlain monster

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champ_(folklore)

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InvertedJennyanydots@reddit

Goatman in Maryland

There are lots of urban legends and ghost stories that were sort of ubiquitous sleepover stories you'd tell to freak out your friends and yourself but they may be pretty regional or local in nature. Where I grew up we had a lady ghost who supposedly wandered around the lake because she was killed there. We had chupacabra. We had a story about kids who were hit by a train who supposedly would push your car off the tracks if you stalled/parked on them. I feel like there are lots of stories like that where there's some version of them in many different US locales. Oh the hook guy myth that everyone told at slumber parties.

Pisceswriter123@reddit

I know it's technically fiction but The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a big cultural thing in some parts of the country. Rip Van Winkle is pretty well known as well.

Outside of that, adding to what others have said, we have people like Babe Ruth and Amelia Airheart.

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Calaveras-Metal@reddit

Paul Bunyan and his Ox Blue.

Wahsington and the Cherry tree.

Headless Horseman,

DB Cooper

Stagger Lee

The Legend of Duncan Campbell at Ticonderoga

My mother’s family traces back to Major Duncan Campbell of Inverawe, a Scottish officer in the Black Watch who fought in the French and Indian War.

Before leaving Scotland, he sheltered a fugitive and swore on his dirk to protect him. By morning he learned the man had murdered his own cousin. That night, the cousin’s ghost appeared and said, “You’ll see me again at Ticonderoga.”

Years later, Campbell’s regiment marched through what’s now Schuylerville, New York, on their way north. At Fort Ticonderoga in 1758, he was mortally wounded. Witnesses said he cried out that he saw a ghost in the smoke before he fell.

Robert Louis Stevenson later retold the story in his poem “Ticonderoga.” Some still say a Highland soldier lingers in the early mist around the old fort, keeping a promise he could never break.

John Bunyan Johnny Appleseed John Henry Rip Van Wynkle The Headless Horseman

Big foot/Sasquatch Jersey devil Chucacabra Black Dog Devil at the Crossroads

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LastCookie3448@reddit

Lake Pyramid Water Babies

The Hook (escaped mental health patient with hook for hand, scratches on windows before getting his child victims)

Freedom.

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Wendigo, big foot, plenty of others

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lutherblueeyes@reddit

There are a bunch of them, off the top of my head I can only think of the Headless Horseman, The Mothman, and the Jarbridge Monster.

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jesuspoopmonster@reddit

There are many Native American legends

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Meowmeowmeow31@reddit

Wendigo is a cool one.

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DarkSeas1012@reddit

If y'all haven't read/listened to The Wendigo by Algernon Blackwood, y'all REALLY ought to give it a go!

My grandma handed me a collection of short stories, starting with that, when I was like ten, and it has absolutely terrified me ever since! Great treatment of the myth/monster!

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FoxConsistent4406@reddit

Also skin walkers

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fantastic-antics@reddit

one day I went down an internet rabbit hole researching Wendigo myths. It's amazing how widespread these myths were among Native American cultures. lots of variations.

In many of the stories the Wendigo is a type of spirit that can corrupt or possess a person who is greedy, hoards food, or engages in cannibalism. Gluttony draws the spirit to it's host, and curses them with hunger that can never be sated, and they transform into a tall, gaunt cannibalistic monster, who can shapeshift and disguise themselves as a normal person. maybe they disguise themselves as an acquaintance of yours. Maybe a stranger you encounter in the forest. Maybe a familiar voice that leads you off the trail.
I think those are the spookiest versions of the Wendigo legend.

Which makes it even scarier, because it used to be a person, and anyone could become one.

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AppallmentOfMongo@reddit

My favorite detail is that (at least in some stories) the wendigo is so hungry for flesh that it eats its own lips, so all that's left is mangled flesh and bloody teeth

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Bacontoad@reddit

The only way I've heard to kill one is with fire, but the resulting ashes will become a swarm of mosquitoes.

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cherry_monkey@reddit

That explains all the mosquitos up north

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Bacontoad@reddit

... there came the sound of something dropping heavily between the trees, striking the branches on the way down, and landing with a dreadful thud upon the frozen earth below. The crash and thunder of it was really terrific.

...

... the sounds of heavy footsteps crunching over the snow became distinctly audible, approaching through the blackness towards the circle of light.

And while the steps, with their stumbling motion, moved nearer and nearer upon them, the three men stood round that fire, motionless and dumb.

...

Like stricken children they seemed. The picture was hideous. And, meanwhile, their owner still invisible, the footsteps came closer, crunching the frozen snow. It was endless--too prolonged to be quite real--this measured and pitiless approach. It was accursed.

Then at length the darkness, having thus laboriously conceived, brought forth--a figure. It drew forward into the zone of uncertain light where fire and shadows mingled, not ten feet away; then halted, staring at them fixedly. The same instant it started forward again with the spasmodic motion as of a thing moved by wires, and coming up closer to them, full into the glare of the fire, they perceived then that--it was a man...

...

Something like a skin of horror almost perceptibly drew down in that moment over every face, and three pairs of eyes shone through it as though they saw across the frontiers of normal vision into the Unknown.

...

... the face was more animal than human, the features drawn about into wrong proportions, the skin loose and hanging, as though he had been subjected to extraordinary pressures and tensions.

...

... he got the impression of a mask that was on the verge of dropping off, and that underneath they would discover something black and diabolical, revealed in utter nakedness.

-- Algernon Blackwood (1910)

That one still creeps me out as an adult.

There's a cool story about it on the YouTube channel "Bedtime Stories"

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Irak00@reddit

Like pukwudgies- basically scary looking sour patch kids except they’re sweet and then sour.

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The idea that biblical literature is in anyway different ... by the judgment of time and belief by its adherents and the subsequent cultural cache it might hold.

Yes, this is why it is different. We agree.

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Bonuscup98@reddit

Taking the goals of the author into account nearly negates your entire point of view. Why would anyone care what a bunch of Bronze Age desert dwellers thought they were doing? And why would you discount the mothman stories because they were written as honest fictions and treated as such by the authors?

Both are works of fiction written by people engaged in the act of make believe. Just because the authorship of one is known doesn’t make it any more or less a pile of bullshit.

We absolutely are not in agreement here.

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Icy-Mixture-995@reddit

Jesus was not a fictional person. He was crucified. Hebrew historians who documented it weren't that fond of the man who split their faith and then spread it outside the tribes. The Romans surely weren't happy with him, when they recorded his death and impact at the time. They weren't advancing his cause. They were recording history and events. Whether you believe words attributes to him or not is your choice but he was not fictional.

You can argue whether he was or wasn't God incarnate but he was a living being.

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Spongedog5@reddit

I don't believe that all fiction should be analyzed the same way.

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TwainVonnegut@reddit

That if you just work hard enough, you too will become a member of the billionaire class.

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Intrin_sick@reddit

Paul Bunyan

Chupacabra

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animepuppyluvr@reddit

I love how you equated these two. Like Paul Bunyan is as wild and "evil" as a chupacabra lol

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TimesOrphan@reddit

The man strapped hams to his feet, then ran up and down a half-mile long stovetop - both to cook the hams and grease the stove for the logging camp chef.

Origin: The legend of the chupacabra originated in the summer of 1995 in Puerto Rico.

Buffalo Bill

Johnny Appleseed

Yeah, but Paul would be a complete unknown if he hadn't been used as a marketing campaign in 1916.

Then again, that kind of vibes with being an American legend.....

clamb2@reddit

It’s turtles all the way down!

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aMoose_Bit_My_Sister@reddit

obligatory.

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Naomi_Baka_@reddit (OP)

It's something Zoey from K-pop's Demon Hunters would easily believe, or at least wish it were real. LOL... A legend for you:

The legend of Cuca, a witch who looks like an alligator and has blond hair who kidnaps children who stay up late, takes them to a cave, and makes stew. We have a lullaby with her.

Nana neném Que a cuca vem pegar Papai foi pra roça Mamãe foi trabalhar

(Tradução)

Windigo.

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The_Wonder_Bread@reddit

Here's one of my favorites because it's clearly so nonsensical:

Depends on the angle, but there are absolutely reports of ricochets.

HermioneMarch@reddit

A famous ghost story from my state is the gray man. He appears on the beach to warn residents that a hurricane with the potential for deaths is coming. He’s generally pretty accurate. There’s also the vanishing hitchhiker, but she goes all over the US.

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Loud_Ad_4515@reddit

Headless Horseman

Paul Bunyan (mythical)

Johnny Appleseed (true)

I’d argue that long ago, more people understood the difference between stored to teach a lesson and stories about facts. IMO, the devil was meant to be the former. But we have lost that ability and now religion preaches as if it is a real entity.

Many real life serial killers have reached what might be called legendary status. Or maybe infamy is the better word, but to be fair, it's not much different than many criminals from the wild west. In particular, killers from the 70s-90s. Jeff dahmer, btk, ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, etc

The kids are still doing Bloody Mary these days. My daughter who was in 4th grade last year was really into Bloody Mary with her friends at school. One of the kids would go to the bathroom and turn off the lights, look at the mirror, say the chant, and run out scared out of their mind, claiming they saw Bloody Mary. When they got back to the classroom, they furiously tell told friends about it, and another friend challenges it. That friend goes to the bathroom to investigate, and it’s the same thing all over again.

My daughter was reporting to me that when it was her turn, she turned off the bathroom lights, said the chant in front of the mirror and SWORE she hear a baby crying. It completely spooked her.

My favorite part of that Legend is that Andrew Jackson randomly fucking shows up in it and then pretty immediately leaves

Naomi_Baka_@reddit (OP)

I don't know the second one

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Swurphey@reddit

It was declassified years ago but essentially in the 50s a weather balloon carrying secret equipment designed to detect Soviet nuclear tests popped and landed outside Roswell, New Mexico. Since this was all top secret "modern" technology the farmers out there had no idea what the hell it was and shortly afterwards the military swooped in to secure the object and evacuate it before anybody could get too close of a look at what it was. People will say there was a cover-up; well obviously there was a cover-up, sure beats the Soviets figuring out we had a trick up our sleeve to tell where, when, and how powerful each of their nuke test detonations were.

This was around the same time as the original "flying saucer" reports were coming out from pilots so when you have a mysterious shimmering silver flying object crash land on some guy's farmland in the middle of the desert carrying (at the time) hyperadvanced technological devices, the military descending in full force to recover said object, and have already had plenty of sightings of other seemingly otherworldly lights and UFOs in the area, it's not a huge leap to jump to "an alien spaceship crashed here and the government covered it up and extracted it to the nearest military base", that being Area 51.

Area 51 was supposedly the secret government facility that held and studied all alien technology and the fact that the government refused to acknowledge its existence (finally only doing so in 2013 after it was already common public knowledge what went on there and having recieved a FOIA request demanding info) really wasn't helping things. In reality it was a highly classified Air Force base where they developed their most top secret planes and technology, it's where things like the F-117 stealth "fighter" (really more of a two-shot sharpshooting bomber) and the B-2 stealth heavy bomber were developed. Having seen both fly overhead in real life (I spent my early childhood in California relatively close to airbases that hosted them), they really do project a sense of ominousness from their completely unique designs and how otherworldly they look from below as they seem to glide across the sky. If even as a young kid that already knew these planes from books ("A" is for A-10 Warthog, "B" is for Bell X-1, etc) and were some of my favorite airplanes still saw these in person and thought "oh my god fuck fuck holy shit what the fuck is that thing", I cant imagine being some poor farmer in the 50s-70s who has never known anything more advanced than WWII-Vietnam era aircraft seeing those shapes fly overhead. It's completely understandable that they saw these flying around a military base that might shoot you just for violating its borders that had semi-recently taken over an entire town to prevent civilians from seeing what had crashed and thought these couldn't have been anything except extraterrestrial spaceships/reverse engineering prototypes

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Naomi_Baka_@reddit (OP)

Interestingly, many of your legends are quite modern, here we have stories like that of the curupira, a boy with spiky, fire-colored hair and inverted feet, He walks through the forest looking for hunters, and when he finds one, he kills them with a bow and arrow or a spear. Some try to follow his tracks and end up getting lost in the forest, He also kills those who burn forests and those who throw garbage and cut down trees.

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Swurphey@reddit

The US is culturally much younger than other countries, we have a lot of similar stories but they were drawn from the legends and mythology of the various Native American tribes across the country. Other than a few things like Bigfoot/Sasquatch or Mothman, most of our stuff is a blend of Native European (usually) holdover stories we carried with us when our families first emigrated to America. Really we just haven't had enough time to develop a distinct "old" folk mythos of our own, most of our most well known uniquely American stories are mythologizations of actual historical figures or cultural archetypes of people from the colonial and Wild West eras

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bryku@reddit

Many legends and folklore come from europe, but there are some home grown ones like:

Bigfoot
Skinwalker
Wendigo
Men in Black
Area 51
Localized Stories
- ____ Witch (many places have some type of witch lore)
- Cannibals (many places have some hill billy or
- Hitch Hikers (many places have spooky stories about hitch hikers. Typically about a ghost girl)mountainmen cannibal stories)
- Suicide Bridge (many places have some story about people hanging on a bridge. You drive under it and shut the car off and wait 5 mins)
- Spooky Ghost Building

ca77ywumpus@reddit

We have some that are based on Native folklore and legend, like Thunderbirds, Skinwalkers and Wendigos.

We also have "imported" legends like Chupacabras, werewolves, vampires, La Llorna, and fairies/feyfolk.

Pecos Bill, his girlfriend Slue Foot Sue, Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox, John Henry, Johnny Appleseed, Old Stormalong…

Lots of Historical figures who grew into legends like Geronimo, Davy Crockett and his wife Sally Ann Thunder, Mike Fink, Daniel Boone…

and, of course, the Cryptids: Bigfoot (Sasquatch), The Jersey Devil, Mothman, Thunderbird, Wendigo (could also go into Canadian folklore), Lake Champlain’s Champ, the Ozark Howler, Fresno Nightcrawlers, the Dover Demon, Shunka Warakin, the Enfield Horror, just to name a few.

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largos7289@reddit

The Native American's here had the skinwalkers, but like most things, other places have similar "creatures" or people. Like witches are what we call them here but culturally they are just called different things. You could argue a voodoo priestess is also a witch.

We do have things like Paul Bunyan, and John Henry. There may be similar tales but i can't validate if there were indeed real people. Maybe a based off of real life person type thing. I like the John Henry tale myself man Vs machine.

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Pretty much every American war or police movie character. The propaganda and idealized glorification of american soldiers and police is beyond anything the greeks or romans or egyptians could dream up. Throw in the western movies as well.

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SuperNebula7000@reddit

I can't believe no one mentioned the mythical honest politician. It is rumored they are solitary individuals that travel the halls of government doing the work of the people. Hard to spot and they usually have short lives. Most metamorphise into regular politicians after a year or two.

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Asleep-Banana-4950@reddit

Go look up the Jersey Devil - where do you think the hockey team got their name?

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OneEyed_Raven_Daddy@reddit

Bigfoot John Henry Paul Bunyan Johnny Appleseed Columbia (goddess of America)

Those are a few of the entirely fictitious ones. We also tend to mythologize a number of our historical figures. The apotheosis of Washington is a famous painting of our first president, depicting him rising to the level of the gods. there are stories which are almost certainly fictionalized accounts. Depicting Washington has so honest that he was incapable of telling a lie.

Avoid woods.... at night

If you hear your name called in the woods alone don't acknowledge

Always bring an offering if you take something

Salt the four corners of your home to keep evil out

Cryptids you have mothman, skinwalkers, big foot, wampus cat, the Bell Witch, wendigo among many others.

Brave_Mess_3155@reddit

Babe isn't lumberjack jack lore its a vegan propaganda movie from the 1990s.

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Naomi_Baka_@reddit (OP)

I will return you with the royal victory, a beautiful Indian woman called Naiá, as beautiful as any man, whether he is from her village, a neighboring village or even tourists. From then on there are two versions

Version where Jaci (moon god) is a man

Naia was in love with Jaci, and wanted to marry him, one day she saw the reflection of the moon in the water and thought it was Jaci, she jumped towards him but drowned, Jaci seeing this revived her and turned her into a flower known as victory Reja (an aquatic photo) and they always meet when the reflection of the moon hits the water

Version where Jaci is a woman

Paul Bunyon and Babe the Blue Ox

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Delicious-Window8650@reddit

The skunk ape (big foot from the Florida Everglades)

Roswell (flying saucers)

The Lost Dutchman

We have a similar story, but the girl was at the cemetery, the guy gave her a ride and she forgot her bag or coat in the car and he went to take it, the same thing happened as you said, but instead of going to see his coat, they went to look in her closet and saw that the bag/coat wasn't there

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theoracleofdreams@reddit

The phantom rider/hitchiker is a folktale that can be sourced through several different cultures outside of North America.

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Wild-Bill-H@reddit

Look no further than America’s Native Legends. The battle of Little Bighorn is still studied in Military Schools as genius tactical defense and victory!

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IneffableHubbies@reddit

There's the Jersey Devil!

Tall Tales!

Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, John Henry, Calamity Jane

In Alabama look up the book 13 Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey by Kathrine Tucker Windham. She did other states too. There are so many legends. One of my favorites is the man who disappeared walking across his field.

https://www.historicmysteries.com/history/the-story-of-david-lang/3163/#:~:text=Origin%20of%20the%20Story,Williamson?%E2%80%9D%20.%20.%20.%20.&text=The%20element%20that%20did%20not,voice%20crying%20out%20for%20help.

The Jersey Devil. Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill. John Henry. Native Americans have legends like how the fox got it's tail, but they weren't taught like the Greek and Roman legends were.

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gerdude1@reddit

Not legends, real.

I used to live in the Marina in San Francisco (3 blocks from Presido Park) and was one evening out for a smoke in the front of the building. A couple of people are coming by and ask me if I saw the racoons. So I go around the corner to see what they followed and holy smokes there were two racoons, the size of large boar, going down the street back into Presido park. At first I thought there were boar, until I saw their fur.
Now living in Dallas, a few years ago I was in the backyard having a smoke and all the sudden see a large shadow moving. I look up to my fence and there was a possum the size of a small pig walking on it. Called my wife and she couldn't believe either the size of the possum.

Daniel Webster vs the devil

The devil who went down to Georgia

Johnny Appleseed

Paul Bunyan

Here in Alabama we have a number of indigenous legends. Huntsville for example pre settlement by Americans in the 1810's before Alabama was a state was known as Death Valley.

Why? Well there are numerous reasons. First of the mosquito infestation here during the hotter periods of the year is off of the charts. Temperatures during the summer can soar as high as 120 Fahrenheit (48 Celsius according to google). Then there are the supercell thunderstorms that can occur throughout the year and have spawned up to EF4 tornadoes. Those same storm systems can cause widespread flooding due to the two Appalachian foothills on either side of the valley, they kinda form like a V with Huntsville in the middle. This doesn't account for the frozen (for the South) hell scape the valley becomes in late December and early January with the roads into the foothills becoming impassible from snow and temperatures plummetting as far down as -20 Fahrenheit (-29 C according to google). On average though we don't get more than 2 inches of snow but it compacts into ice very rapidly making roads very dangerous.

Then for another Indigenous legend we have the Sipsey River Wilderness which theoretically is home to a Wendigo. I'd encourage you to do research on Wendigo's yourself there a major portion of indigenous lore of the United States. I myself believe I may have encountered the Sipsey Wendigo once but it could of been a rabid bear or deer but I was to busy shitting myself in fear to figure that out.

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georgia_moose@reddit

Cajun Louisiana has the Rougarou (or Lougarou). Part its lore does come from France originally but it has been adapted to the swamps of Louisiana.

In the Upper midwest is Paul Bunyon and Babe the Big Blue Ox.

Originally in the Pacific Northwest but seemingly everywhere is Bigfoot or Sasquatch.

Appalachia has all sorts of legends of criptids and such.

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Sandover5252@reddit

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow!

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stabbingrabbit@reddit

Paul Bunyan Johnny Appleseed Many tales of the pioneers

Honest_Swim7195@reddit

Snipe

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Emotional-Dog8118@reddit

Also the Legend of Sleepy Hollow with Ichabod Crane and the headless horseman.

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Emotional-Dog8118@reddit

Paul Bunyan. Legendary woodsman with his blue ox, Babe.

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jigokubi@reddit

I'm going small and local: Denton Road.

There was a dirt road near me with all sorts of creepy urban legends attached to it. But they paved it.

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annacaiautoimmune@reddit

How the West was won is an important American legend.

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Aeirth_Belmont@reddit

Disney made a movie a long time ago about some of them. Like the Legend of Sleepy Hallow is on it. Then we have Indigenous legends. Like the woompus cat, bigfoot, etc. I would think Sleepy Hallow and Bigfoot are the most known to outside of the US.

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1945-Ki87@reddit

Many of our historical figures also have some fables associated with them, with varying degrees of truth. George Washington has his cherry tree myth, Benedict Arnold is the most famous ‘traitor’ in American history, Benjamin Franklin is almost Americas Da Vinci

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Big-Night-3648@reddit

Big foot Wendigo Jersey Devil A lot of places in the south hold that the ghosts of confederate soldiers haunt the old battlegrounds

Don’t know if this is what you meant, but there’s also folk hero legends like:

John Henry Paul Bunyan Davy Crockett- real guy whose reputation grew to myth Daniel Boone Casey Jones

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BeefInGR@reddit

Sasquatch at least in my area is the one

Wendigo

Jersey Devil

Mothman

Jackalope

Skunk Ape

Enfield Horror

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Witty_Razzmatazz_566@reddit

Also:

Sasquatch

Mothman

Wendigo

Paul Bunyon

John Henry

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Trey-the-programmer@reddit

Snipes.
They're real. And if you put wet dog food on your ankles and stand very still in the woods on a moonless night in absolute darkness, you can reach down and grab them when you feel them pecking at your ankles.

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xpeachymaex@reddit

Jackelopes are definitely real.

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NitinTheAviator@reddit

Bigfoot? Skinwalkers? Area 51?

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flamingknifepenis@reddit

Sasquatch, Thunderbird, Dogman, Jersey Devil, Mothman, Skinwalker, Wendigo, various sea / lake monsters (including a giant octopus and a giant crawdad), Gumberoo, Baxbakwalanuxsiwae (had to look up the spelling, but it’s another fun one), etc.

Huggin' Molly

Jersey Devil

Mothman

Wendigo

... and countless others

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WorkerAmbitious2072@reddit

Bigfoot

Clowns

Boogy man

Daniel Boone

Paul Bunyan (sp?)

Davey Crocket

Teddy Roosevelt

John Wayne

Bill Hickok

Etc

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Granadafan@reddit

All these characters are make believe and in modern tales, so we can include Batman, Superman, Spiderman, Wonder Woman, Bionoc Man, and any other super hero

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PickleMundane6514@reddit

Pecos Bill

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JustBid5821@reddit

Paul Bunyon

Legend of the Blue bonnet

Legend of the Indian paintbrush

Tons of American Indian mythology

Tons of Hawaiian mythology

You may have to look for them there are Alaskan Inuit mythologies

I am sure there are compilations somewhere I know when I was little I loved reading mythologies and found books on all I could get my hands on

Vexonte@reddit

Maybe there is a translation error. But we have legends and folk tales about real people like Johnny appleseed, Davy Crocket, wild bill Hickock and John Henry(don't know if he was real). Folk tales about not real people like Paul Bunyan and Pacose Bill.

We also have cryptids morphed with legends/myth like Bigfoot, Champy, Dover Demon, wendigo, flatwoods monster, chuqicabra, and mothman.

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seifd@reddit

As far as the true equivalent of Greek myth, the Native Americans all have their own sacred stories. For the mainstream American, probably the closest you'll get is tall tales like Paul Bunyon and Pecos Bill.

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Squish_the_android@reddit

There's a bunch. So many of the lore was lost because it wasn't written down.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fearsome_critters

See the list of books at the bottom of the page.

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nowhereman136@reddit

Mythic monsters:

Big Foot
Moth Man
Jackalope
Jersey Devil
Lake Champlain Monster
Chupacabra
Wendingo
Florida Skunk Ape
Ozark Howler
Many more, each region seems to have one

Paranormal myths

Roswell Alien Landing
Marfa Lights
Winchester House
RMS Queen Mary
Stanley Hotel
Eastern State Pen
Area 51
Salem Witch Trials
Gettysburg
Again, many more

American mythic figures

Johnny Appleseed
Paul Bunyan
John Henry
Davy Crocket
Pecos Bill
Zorro
Molly Pitcher
Casey Jones
John the Conqueror
Etc

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chrisinator9393@reddit

Marilyn manson getting his rib cut out to blow himself.

Every American kid has heard this story since the 90s.

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DanceClubCrickets@reddit

There are a lot of local legends depending on where you go. If I say the word “Snallygaster,” I’m guessing that wouldn’t ring any bells for anyone outside of, like, central or northern Maryland… or anyone that’s played “The Snallygaster Situation,” I guess.

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Thund3rCh1k3n@reddit

Skin walkers. the Appalachian mountains have a ton of folk lore about the things that live in them.

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WerewolfCalm5178@reddit

Paul Bunyan, Johnny Appleseed, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

It is hard for a modern country to have "mythical figures" when there is unambiguous documentation.

My country ('tis of thee, sweet land of liberty) doesn't have a history that could be called legends or mythical. It is literally written as it happened.

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tacmed85@reddit

We've got a ton of different native American stories and legends, cryptids, and folklore. I grew up about 20 miles from skinwalker ranch that's become kind of popular lately even though the stories about it don't really have anything to do with skinwalkers and popular culture has misunderstood and kind of been shifting skinwalkers into an American werewolf type creature instead of the anti medicine man they're supposed to be.

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the_real_JFK_killer@reddit

Legends here tend to be local. Like the northeast has the jersey devil, south has the goat man, Puerto Rico and the southwest have El chupacabra (im pretty sure I butchered that spelling but whatever). Florida has the skunk ape. I could go on and on.

Theres very few legends that are all across the us. Bigfoot is one id argue is national, but its also heavily associated with the pacific northwest. Wendigos are another thats sorta everywhere, but its also mostly associated with the north. Skinwalkers are the only one I can think of that doesn't have a heavy association with a particular reason, but I might be totally wrong on that.

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Araxanna@reddit

Paul Bunyan- he is based on a real person, but GREATLY exaggerated. He’s a giant of a man who was a lumberjack and there are all sorts of ridiculous stories about him, including when they made pancakes for him in this HUGE skillet and the other lumberjacks strapped butter to their feet and skates around the hot pan to butter it. He also had this blue Ox called Babe. The whole thing is absurd and obviously fake, but kids love it.

There’s also Johnny Appleseed, who according to legend walked across the whole country planting Apple trees. (This one is just based on the prevalence of random Apple trees all over the place. They just randomly pop up. We’ve had no fewer than six randomly grow in our yard since we moved in 45 years ago.)

There are probably a lot more, but I’m blanking on them right now.

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Confident-Skin-6462@reddit

paul bunyan, johnny appleseed

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Theclapgiver@reddit

Johnny Appleseed is real

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JennyPaints@reddit

Not as told to elementary school children. Johnny Appleseed planted apple seeds for profit and his apples were necessarily for hard cider as apple varieties don't grow true from seed. The sweet man planting apples for everyone to enjoy is a myth.

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Confident-Skin-6462@reddit

plus "legends" can be true. "myths" are not, as you have noted this is a myth.

i wouldn't call the jersey devil, bigfoot, le nain rouge, etc. a "legend" but a "myth" (techincally a "cryptid")

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lord_scuttlebutt@reddit

The Native American peoples had hundreds of legends and myths over the course of the centuries in which they were the only humans in the new world. You should look into them.

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BookLuvr7@reddit

Aside from things like Bigfoot, it's often our cowboy stories that are romanticized in other countries.

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andmewithoutmytowel@reddit

The Wendigo is a monster that was a man. During a winter famine, he resorts to cannibalism, and is cursed for it. The wendigo is tall and skeletal, for after his curse, he cannot be sated, he is always hungry for human flesh. He's often portrayed with the horns or head of a deer or elk, and sharp claws as he is more beast than man, and he wanders the forests looking for hapless travelers. He stinks of his corrupted flesh, and you can see dried blood on his claws, and around his mouth. Sometimes he's shown with eyes and a heart of ice, as the winter famine has taken over his body.

The Wendigo, the Wendigo,

his eyes are ice and indigo...

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MmmIceCreamSoBAD@reddit

Haunted houses or other buildings.

We love paranormal activity to the point where we have attractions built in fall to go be scared at. There is nothing like this anywhere else in the world, a very unique part of American culture.

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gravely_serious@reddit

Mothman, Jersey Devil, Rougarou, Ozark Howler, and Dogman come to mind.

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MmmIceCreamSoBAD@reddit

Tons of local legends around the US.

Mine was the "gates of hell", there was this group of like six railroad overpasses on some country roads where it was said that like a dozen people hung themselves off them and if you went at night, you could find their ghosts.

So of course at 16 we visited and were all freaked out lol.

Harry_Balsanga@reddit

Wendigos are cool

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bobcatt@reddit

Johnny Appleseed, Paul Bunyan, Daniel Boone, John Henry,

https://www.vox.com/2015/3/20/8265497/american-folklore-map

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2baverage@reddit

Goatman, Bigfoot, Paul Bunyan, Jersey Devil, Mothman, Jackelopes, thunderbirds (I'm pretty sure a lot of cultures have their own version of that though), ottermen, the headless horseman, and my personal favorite the deer woman. There's quite a bit depending on the state and if you count Native American legends too.

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PacSan300@reddit

Lots of great answers here, but one I would also add is Stormalong.

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Rhomya@reddit

Paul Bunyan

Johnny Appleseed

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AKlife420@reddit

Thunderbird, Keelut, Waheela, Adlet.... Alaska is full of them.

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Next_Sun_2002@reddit

I don’t see a lot of American legends and tales

This is because the people who immigrated to the US brought the legends and tales from their own country with them. Compared to other civilizations, White US is very young. The best place to find legends or tales in North America is among the indigenous peoples

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Fractal_self@reddit

Skin walkers

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Remarkable_Table_279@reddit

All sorts of cryptids (some of these I never heard of) https://www.mattgyver.com/tutorials/2022/10/1/cryptids-of-north-america

But we’ve got tons of urban legends…usually involving creepy crawlers where we don’t want them (in hair)…or children & pets where we don’t want them (placed in oven to dry)