The Weeping Man

Underneath the Crystal Lake covered bridge, the face of a man appeared in the water to one family who was crossing. The face of a man was seen deep in the murky waters with tears streaming down down his face and an opened mouth as if sobbing.

Water spirits and haunting ghosts of drowning victims are found across bodies of water and arising from many different places and cultures. Sometimes hauntings are used to mark dangerous sites where crossing the river should be avoided due to undertows, rapids, or unpredictable waters. Other water spirits keep alive the memories of lost loved ones, connecting their ongoing legacies to the places of their death.

It is largely unclear who the weeping man might have been but he joins a chorus of other river ghosts who appear to those crossing perilous terrain.

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Rivers were perilous things for the early days of American development and expansion. Before railroads, rivers offered the fastest transport of goods. Log driving, a practice brought over from European settlers, carried logs lashed together with a driver riding atop them with an oar. A folklore creature, the hidebehind, was blamed for many loggers’ disappearances.