Do You Remember The Weird Michigan Wax Museum?
You have probably heard of Madame Tussauds Wax Museum. With the wax figures of most celebrities, it is the world's greatest wax museum.
However, did you know about the wax museum that displayed the weirdest wax figures of stories and legends from Michigan?
Well, let me introduce you to the Weird Michigan Wax Museum.
While it is no longer open, it was different a sight to see in the U.P.
When it was around, some of the insane exhibits they had were:
The Grand Rapids Wooden Leg Murderer
While there are still contradictions regarding whether this story is fact or fiction, I am still going to tell you a brief story about it.
The story has been circulating around the city of Grand Rapids since the 1990s.
The mystery stems from a house that was originally at Division and Fountain, where the Michigan Bell building is currently.
Warren Randell was extremely jealous of his wife that he beat her to death with his own wooden leg before taking his own life.
If you want the full story, you can read it here.
The Snake Princess of Belle Isle
The Chippewa & Ottawa tribes referred to the area of Belle Isle as the "Island of Swans." That is important for the legend.
The chief of the Ottawa tribe was having a hard time keeping the men away his daughter. So he snuck her out by sending her up the Detroit River in a canoe. However, the wind god was jealous of her beauty so the god made the canoe go in the wrong direction.
Once downstream, she was found by an native, who made her his wigwam. That did not go over well with the wind god. So, the man was beaten to death and the girl was returned to her father.
The father pleads with the spirits to keep his daughter safe once he sent her to Belle Isle. In order to do that, the spirits made her immortal.
You can read the rest of the legend here.
The King of Beaver Island
This story is probably the weirdest of them all, at least to me.
So I will only explain a little bit.
According to Leelanau, James Jesse Strang was crowned the king of Beaver Island.
Once the Mormon leader Joseph Smith was murdered and Strang became the leader, he and his followers settled on an island in the northern part of Lake Michigan called Big Beaver.
Apparently, the non-Mormons did not like this situation at all because of Strang's adoption of polygamy and various other things, so they plotted to get their revenge.
Let's just say Strand did not see it coming.
Besides those exhibits, there were also pans for gold and different gems because they had an outdoor mining hunt experience.
The Weird Michigan Wax Museum was open from the middle of May until the middle of October, which makes sense with Halloween and the summertime.
If this tickled your fancy, there is a PDF of the brochure for the museum.