Deep in the woods in southwest Michigan lives the legend of the melon heads. The melon heads are large-headed humanoids characterized by their large craniums, resembling that of a large melon.

The legend stems from children with hydrocephalus. A condition in which cerebrospinal fluid builds up within the brain- causing increased pressure in the skull which if it occurs in babies, this can cause a rapid increase in head size. Said children were kept in Junction Insane Asylum, located near the Felt Mansion in Holland, MI. The legend explains that these children faced severe emotional and physical abuse. After this occurred, the children became feral and were released into the surrounding forests.

An alternative origin story of the melon heads shares that when the mansion became a seminary school, that the “melon heads” were students at the school. These students were called melon heads by local kids because they were smart.

Many claim that melon heads tend to appear on Wisner Rd. in Holland. One account, an anonymous report from someone who lived by the roads on Wisner Rd., states that when they were ten years old, they had an encounter with a melon head. It was evening time when they heard a noise outside their house, and went to see what was going on. When they went outside to see what the noise was, they found their dog bleeding. They saw a small pale creature with a large head lurking in the woods. When the creature saw them, it ran into the woods. They went out the next morning, attempting to track it down, and failed. 

Now it is said that these children hide in the woods near the Felt Mansion and occasionally emerge to attack people. There have been reports of visitors seeing curtains moving in the windows of the vacant old building with strange noises, such as heavy breathing, footsteps, and shadows darting through the darkness. 

The Felt Mansion is located in Holland, MI, this is only about an hour and a half from Plainwell, MI. The Felt Mansion was built in 1925. Six weeks after it was built, the wife of the man who built the house, Dorr Felt, died. The wife, Agnes Felt, died from a stroke in the master bedroom of the house. Dorr later sold the mansion in 1949 and was bought by a diocese in Chicago and became the St. Augustine seminary school.  Then the mansion was leased to a cloister of Augustine Nuns. Later the property was sold to the state of Michigan and became a correctional facility. The prison closed in 1992. The restoration of the Felt Mansion was started in 2002 by a group of volunteers and the restoration was complete in 2007. Now it is used as a venue for public and private events. 

Next time you go to Holland, MI make sure you keep and eye out for the Melonheads.