Credit: Weird Ohio.

“One can’t be of an enquiring and experimental nature, and still be very sensible.” - Charles Fort, Wild Talents (1932).

As you may have heard, there was an unfortunate school shooting at the Chardon High School in Chardon, Ohio, on February 27, 2012.

I will not dwell on the Fortean details of that incident on this blog. You can go to my two postings on this incident over at Twilight Language, here and here.

What I want to point out is that the alleged shooter T. J. Lane was caught on Wilder Road, Chardon, which is right down the Grand Army of the Republic Highway from Wisner Road, Chardon Township, Ohio.

It is along Wisner Road where sightings of “melon heads” have been reported.

“Melon Heads” is the name given to legendary beings and urban legends in parts of Michigan, Ohio, and Connecticut generally described as small humanoids with bulbous heads who occasionally emerge from hiding places to attack people. Different variations of the legend attribute different origins.

In many ways, melon head sightings mirror the Dover Demon accounts of Dover, Massachusetts, and other large-headed cryptid encounters from the Midwest. (In the book I coauthored, Weird Ohio, there is more information on the Melon Heads. One quote from that article directly relates to this Chardon High School: “It’s apparently a popular thing for local high school kids to do to drive around the area late at night, looking for them.”)

The melon head stories of Ohio are primarily associated with the Cleveland suburb of Kirtland and Chardon Township. Chardon Township is the location of the Chardon High School, Chardon, Ohio, site of the recent school shooting.

Bridge on Wisner Road, Chardon Township, Ohio. Photo credit: Deadohio.com

Legend holds that the melon heads may be sighted along Wisner Road in Kirtland, and Chardon Township, Geauga County, Ohio. The melon head legend has been popularized on the Internet, particularly on the websites Creepy Cleveland and DeadOhio where users offer their own versions of the story.

Legend of the Melonheads was released in 2011. It is a horror fiction film loosely based on the Ohio legend of the melon heads in the Kirtland-Chardon area.