What Students Can Learn From Studying Urban Legends

Urban legends, featuring ghost stories, unsolved mysteries, and the like—every community has them. They might be fun for students to learn about, but do such incredible tales have any authentic educational value for history students?

I discovered recently when I taught a lesson on our hometown’s urban legends in a local history course that these tales of the fantastic and macabre do indeed offer students something more than just fun stories—they can provide a variety of important lessons. 

First, what is an urban legend? An urban legend is a story passed down that often contains exaggerated or sensational elements. Scholars consider urban legends a kind of folklore. Urban legends traditionally were spread by word of mouth, but now social media plays a big part in their dissemination.

The Psychology of Urban Legends

Psychology and sociology teachers, as well as anyone teaching about culture, can incorporate regional urban legends into their curriculum. Even if we don’t realize it, urban legends can fulfill deep human needs or teach important lessons. They may caution listeners to avoid certain places or behaviors, or the stories can convey unique cultural norms or universal values.

According to Britannica, “Folklorists believe that urban legends reflect the anxieties and beliefs in modern society. ... Thus they hold as important a place in the study and collection of folklore as older traditional tales.”  

For background, you might read The Vanishing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Meanings, by Jan Harold Brunvand, considered a pioneer in the study of urban legends. This book can give educators and students alike an introduction to American urban legends and their importance to people and society.

Community Connections

These tales offer students a unique connection to their communities. Famous names, places, and events often show up in them, but in strange, new ways. 

They can help students see their hometowns in a different light and connect students to places they pass every day but might not really notice. As such, urban legends can provide a significant inroad to teaching about one’s own hometown, its social history, and the stories that give every place a unique identity.

Urban Legends and Historical Thinking

Urban legends can contain kernels of historical truth. While some are outright fabrications, others are events that became more sensationalized and exaggerated over the years. Teachers can mine these elements to teach “real history,” explore primary sources for further evidence, and provide much-needed context for the stories.

A question to ask students is, “Where does the real story end and the myth begin?”

Below are some other questions to consider.

• What actual occurrences might have contributed to the legend we now know?
• What might have really happened? 
• Why might the story have changed? 
• Do we have any evidence as to what actually happened? 

Urban Legends and Primary Sources

Educators can tie hometown folklore to a variety of national and world events. In our course, in a single class period I taught about urban legends unique to Erie, Pennsylvania.

For instance, a 1966 UFO sighting on the shores of Lake Erie led to the involvement of the U.S. Air Force. The class examined news clippings and testimonials from the time period. This allowed me to steer our classroom discussion to the Cold War, post–World War II aerial technology, and heightened fears over Soviet reconnaissance. 

My lesson included several news sources from the time of the events in question. Teachers and librarians can use an urban legends lesson to teach primary and secondary source evaluation. Bring out newspaper clippings, or connect students with digital archives.

Ask students to compare primary sources and testimonials with modern secondary sources. What do we discover?

Visiting the Legend’s Location

On the second day of our urban legends curriculum, I oversaw a bus tour that took us to several of the local sites we discussed in the prior lesson. Below are examples of some of the locations of urban legends we covered.

• Ax Murder Hollow: This is an extremely popular area known for the sightings of an apparition. On the first day, we read a secondary source in which the author gives a plausible explanation for the origin of this urban legend, arguing that a real-life butcher named William Gack had caught two young burglars looking to rob him. The potential thieves, in the author’s view, were horrified by Gack’s butcher’s apron and the tools of his trade. They subsequently spread rumors about him that grew into the current legend about his malevolent ghost. On the second day, we visited Ax Murder Hollow. We also drove past the graveyard where William Gack is buried. 
• Gudgeonville Bridge (a haunted bridge): We analyzed the history of the bridge and covered bridges in general and then toured the bridge and its environs on the second day. This bridge has several eerie stories attached to it. Some have described apparitions of children. Others attest to hearing the ghostly sounds of horse hooves beating across the bridge at night. Another story involves a tired old mule named Gudgeon (of course) dying on the bridge and haunting the area. This might be the only “ghost mule” story in the region, or even the country! 
• Local pet cemetery: Cemeteries are powerful conduits to local history and can have connections to urban legends and compelling stories. We concluded our tour with a visit to our county’s only pet cemetery, the final resting place of Bonzo, a celebrity chimpanzee who passed away in the area.

Researching Urban Legends

Contact your local librarians, archivists, curators, and historians. Ask about urban legends. They might have ideas or resources. Visit your library. I discovered some great books about ghostly and strange tales in our area. Use your local newspaper, which may have search abilities that bring up digitized stories from decades ago.

Keep the following in mind as you proceed: Sometimes these stories can be violent or lurid. Choose age-appropriate urban legends, and always be mindful of your audience.