Felt Mansion is location at 66th and 138th near Saugatuck, Michigan.
A time line:
The Felt family moved to the Saugatuck area in the early 1900's. They fell in love with the area.
Starting in around 1919 they started to acquire land.
In 1926, they purchased the land that the mansion still stands on.
By 1927, the Felt's hired a well known architectural firm out of Grand Rapids to help with the building of their mansion.
In 1928, Agnes Felt dies in the Mansion
August 1949, Dorr Felt dies
Late 1949 Mansion sold to the Catholic church
1963 - Mansion becomes a high school
1977 - Mansion/Felt Estate Purchased by the State of Michigan
Used as a State Police Post - Saugatuck Dunes Correctional Facility
1991 - Prison Closed
The Mansion is over 19,000 square feet. It sat abandoned until 2000 then it was restored (and with that more spooky activity came)
Agnes Felt dies in the mansion. And, it is said she haunts it to this day.
Just a fun fact - The original owner of the Felt Mansion was an inventor. He invented the comptometer. Which was an early version of the mechanical calculator. This helped a lot of accountants.
The paranormal activities really began when the renovations began on the mansion. Things got spooky. Shadow people would start to appear. They would appear human like but have a darker shadow around them. Doors would open and close on their own. Even doors that would have been locked were known to have been unlocked, and then opened. Ghost tours take place for a fee at the mansion as it is a plethora of supernatural goings on.
MELON HEADS
The Melon Head legend started at the Felt Mansion.
Melon Heads - Small Humanoids with bulbous heads that occasionally emerge from hiding places. They are known to attached people.
There was rumor that the Felt Mansion was used as an insane asylum, or that one was on the property. However, I couldn't find any truth to this. There was one sort of near the mansion grounds.
The Melon Heads find homes on the Felt Estate. Since it is so large there are so many places for them to hide. They use various caverns and caves to use as homes and to find wandering people to scare or attack.
The Melon Heads really just suffer from a disorder known as hydrocephalus. Which is excess fluid on the brain. People suffering this would be more irritable, have bouts of sleeplessness, seizures, and lets face it they weren't that pretty on the eyes. They are only about 4 to 4 1/2 feet tall and they have really large heads.
The melon head stories extend to Ohio and Connecticut although the stories started in Michigan. The hospital treating these individuals with hydrocephalus were known to be abused both mentally and physically. This made them skittish of 'normal' people. So, when they were released they became known to attack people as they saw them as looking to harm them.
There are stories that these children lived within the Felt Mansion but then later retreated to a system of underground tunnels. This story feeds into the story that the Felt Estate housed an asylum. However, the Allegan County Historical Society says that this asylum never actually existed.
Teens and people of all ages really swear they have seen the melon heads all over Allegan and Ottawa County. They use the term "Wobbleheads" and "Melon heads" interchangeably to describe what they are seeing.
However, when the Felt Mansion became a school in 1949, one of the former students said:
"Rumors start because of the unknown. "Melon Heads were actually seminarians at St. Augustine's in the Felt Mansion. The local kids call us that because it was a private school and we were all brainy."
There are stories of these melon heads being feral, and even trying to eat the people they attack.
There is even a story of a doctor that conducted experiments on people, and this is what actually made them have the melon head appearance. Can we just say AMERICAN HORROR STORY SEASON 2, if ya know, ya know. ....In this story, these people that were being experimented on got sick and tired of being the guinea pigs so they revolted. They killed the doctor. And, in some versions ate the doctor, that'll show him, RIGHT? In other stories they scattered his body parts all over the Felt Mansion grounds. They then proceeded to hide themselves. However, there is no firm evidence of any of this happening.
Parents used to actually threated their kids with the melon heads if they didn't behave...like "You better clean your room or stop back talking or the melon heads will come get you!"
Junction Insane Asylum:
The closest asylum was the Junction Insane Asylum. This was really closer to Grand Junction than to Saugatuck. But, this place was known for children who suffered from hydrocephalus to be sent. When this asylum shut down, the children housed there had nowhere to go. They were basically just released to the wild. Sent out to live on their own. They became feral in a sense.
I don't even know if the Junction Asylum was a real place. It has became harder and harder to find any truth to this story.
Another version:
There was a powerplant in Bridgman, MI that caused the melon heads. All the nuclear crap happening there caused the melon heads as a sort of side effect.
They then travelled from there to the Holland area. This is about an hour and 15 min drive. Walking would take about 22 hours.....LONG HIKE.
A few stories from friends:
-There are melon heads in all of Holland's woods.
- It was a prison then it was shut down and turned into an asylum
- You aren't supposed to go there....there are melon heads...there's some cannibalisms happening..prison made specifically for the melon heads.
Sources:
onlyinyourstate.com
clickondetroit.com/features/2017/01/18/the-legend-of-the-Michigan-Melon-Heads/source
99wfmk.com/melonheads2018
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