Groundspeak Portal

What about a catagory on Local Legends? Every town, city and village knows at least one. We find them in our local history and on our historical markers. Some even have a book or two written about them but they may not be well known past a tri-county area. What makes them a local legend? What did they do for the community that was great. I think at least a full paragraph should be devoted just to the man or woman in the waymark. In my case I know of 2 local legends and I also know where they are both buried. I know of a third but he is farther north and I'm not sure where he is buried. I think some of these waymarks would make a rather good read. At least one webpage to back up your legend. Well load up your shotguns and start a firin'. Swizzle

Check the Urban Legend and Superstitions group or the Weird Story Locations

BANG!!!!!!

good luck getting a UL posted, the other one is easy.

Aren't urban legends meant to be on the dark side? I'm looking more towards the positive side with some actual facts to back up the people and there actions. I'm not hunting ghost in the shadows with this one. Swizzle

Email the Urban Legends group leader run it past her.

swizzle:

What about a catagory on Local Legends? Every town, city and village knows at least one. We find them in our local history and on our historical markers. Some even have a book or two written about them but they may not be well known past a tri-county area. What makes them a local legend? What did they do for the community that was great. I think at least a full paragraph should be devoted just to the man or woman in the waymark. In my case I know of 2 local legends and I also know where they are both buried. I know of a third but he is farther north and I'm not sure where he is buried. I think some of these waymarks would make a rather good read. At least one webpage to back up your legend. Well load up your shotguns and start a firin'. Swizzle

This could work. I see a big difference between what you are proposing and the existing Urban Legend and Weird Story Locations categories. Your idea is focused on real people who are known locally as 'legends' in that area, as opposed to rumors and tales.

These local legends could be individuals within a community who have contributed in some significant way to the social or economic fabric of the community, or they might have performed some single significant task that made them achieve legendary status. They might have done these things years ago, or still be doing it today.

You'd need to do two things to make this work (neither of which would be very hard):

1. Come up with a reasonable, workable definition of 'legend'
2. Identify what types of specific locations would be acceptable for the waymark (a grave, a birthplace, a plaque commemorating some specific acheivements, the location of the dam where the legend stayed up all night, holding back the breach in order to give the townsfolk a chance to escape ... )

One of our local legends is French Louie. He was a loner, a mountain man, a hunting guide, a trapper and one of the greatest men that was known in his part of the southern adirondacks. Once a year he would take all of his furs to town and sell them. Then he would give each of the town's children a coin. I think it was a penny. We're talking a hundred years ago. There's also a story of him coming to town with a dislocated shoulder in a blizzard. The doc put his arm back in for him and offered him a room for the night. He declined and went back into the woods, in the middle of the night, in a blizzard.

I'll work on the definition of a legend and see what I can come up with. I also have a funny story that would be added in the waymark.

A headstone, or any marker or plaque describing a specific act that was highly reguarded by the general public. There has to be some proof of the person's Legend status. Just type in "Adirondack French Louie" and you'll find something on him. There's even a FrenchLouie.com with a book written about him.

Well what would you consider a legend? I think all of these legends should be from our past. Living legends can change and get a bad name from one bad act. Let's here some more on this one. Swizzle

cache_test_dummies:

This could work. I see a big difference between what you are proposing and the existing Urban Legend and Weird Story Locations categories. Your idea is focused on real people who are known locally as 'legends' in that area, as opposed to rumors and tales.

Yes. This. Thank you, CTD.

If it goes in the direction of real people then this may come close to Epic Beings and Creatures, I guess it depends on scale and definition of legend or legendary. (If it is worldwide is it epic and more local then a legend?)

Well this is all I got so far. Mucho Grande help would be appreciated. I want this to be a real working catEgory and I also want to keep the Subjective to a minimum to keep it easier for reviewers. If this just plain sucks then tell me what needs to be done to make it fly and fly right. I want as much black and white here as possible. Thanx, Swizzle


Local Legend:
An individual who has made a positive impact on the lives of those in his/her community and the surrounding area.
They must be highly thought of by the general community.
The individual in question should be deceased. Good people who are still alive can and often do change their ways and quickly gain a bad reputation. Living legends need not apply.
Acts of bravery, heroism, kindness, extreme skill, and in general a positive influence to all should be a few of the reasons that someone has gained the local legend status.
Proof of their legendary status should be shown through the use of a web page. If a local legend is popular enough in a community then someone will write about them on the web.
Acceptable waymarks will be the persons headstone, a plaque or other marker that describes, whether whole or in part, the reason this person has gained the status of local legend.
This only includes humans, we're not looking for Loch Ness or Bigfoot here.

Title it "Larger than Life Locals" or something without the word "Legend."  It will be too confusing with the other categories.

You will also need to exclude the memorials dedicated to people for their extremely brave and/or heroic military service.  Those should be accepted in the Specific Veterans Memorials.

That's the reason I didn't put in any mention of military. Bravery in the military can and often is forced by the position that the individual is in. This would be geared towards local hero's with the actions being within the community. Running into a burning building, ripping a car door off to get to the survivors well the cars on fire, stopping a bank robbery, & rescuing drowning people from a frozen river, that sort of action. It is also not just the bravery and heroism, it could be a person who gave their last cent to help others when they're the ones that could use the help. Helping the sick and injured with nothing in return, or any number of reasons as to why a person was considered a great person.  I also forgot to mention that the person shouldn't be consider famous and fit into a category where people know or have heard of them from 2 states over. More of a tri-county legend. I don't think it will be any more confusing then the 930 other categories that are already here. You still need to read each listing to get the description of what is required by a certain category. I think you'd be taking away from the category if you remove the legend from the listing. Not saying that Larger Than Life couldn't be used in the description. JMO, Swizzle