98.1’s Most Viewed 2016 (#2): Five Creepy and Strange Facts About St. Cloud
I was born and raised in central Minnesota--so, this areas seemed completely normal to me growing up. As I got older, I started learning the history and legend of the area...I started to realize that St. Cloud isn't as normal and ordinary as it first appears. Here are five tidbits that I find the most creepy and strange about our lovely town!
1. We've got a place called Sportsman's Island and it's completely abandoned. There's a landmass in the Mississippi River nearly as big as St. Cloud State University and it's a ghost town. The only thing left on the island now is an old baseball diamond and a few old buildings. There's only one way in--through an old abandoned bridge that's no longer in use.
2. St. Cloud was home to two unmarked graveyards. The story behind St. Cloud’s forgotten cemetery sounds like something from a movie. A few homeowners reported finding caskets and gravestones in their yards and underneath their houses. Some even claimed to have experienced strange happenings. Little did they know at the time that their homes were on the site of a former cemetery. City records from the Stearns History Museum show a photo from the 1800’s of a drawing of the cemetery where Lake George can also be seen. The other unmarked graveyard was located where the St. Cloud State library sits today.
3. The St. Cloud Prison wall is the second largest wall in the world built by prisoners. It’s ranked second next to the Great Wall of China. The wall stands about 22-feet high and 1.5 miles wide.
4. St. Cloud has its very own superman. His name is John Fillah and he’s been seen around town for more than 20 years dressed up as superman. He can usually be found in the summer months standing outside of the Dairy Queen on Division.
5. St. Cloud’s Beaver Island Trail was the site of the infamous Vampire Murder. It was a national story about three teenagers involved in the murder of a homeless man. One of the teens licked the homeless man's blood from the knife used to kill him with.