The Banshee of the Badlands

An artists impression of the Banshee of the Badlands. Photo: Small Town Myths

The Bad Lands of Dakota are a strange and eerie place, with colorful but bleak peaks and labyrinthine canyons, that some say are haunted by a banshee.

The Legend of the Banshee of the Badlands

The Badlands in Dakota is a strange and eerie place that used to be a sea-bottom, but now it's full of canyons and peaks that are colorful but harsh and scary.

Animals like game and rattlesnakes live there, and some people have fought against civilization there in the past.

Visitors have reported encounters with a ghostly creature, called a banshee, that haunts the area near a hill called "Watch Dog".

The banshee is said to appear at night. It will appear in the form of a pale and weathered looking woman. She gestures as if wanting to speak, but disappears with a loud shriek when asked what she wants. The appearance of the Badlands Banshee is often accompanied by unexplained flashes of light.

People are afraid to go near the haunted hill and it is said that cattle refuse to graze there.

Sightings of the Banshee of the Badlands

The most famous encounter with the Banshee of the Badlands happened to a group of cowboys.

One dark night, three cowboys were sitting around a fire in the badlands, telling stories and having a good time. Suddenly, they heard a terrifying scream and saw a translucent woman at the foot of a nearby hill. She looked pretty at first, but then her appearance turned scary.

Behind them, they heard music coming from a fiddle. The woman disappeared and the music grew more aggressive as the night went on. Two of the cowboys fell asleep, and when they woke up, the third was gone.

They followed his boot prints and found them leading to the edge of a cliff, where they saw a skeleton and a fiddle. The cowboys were scared and quickly left the area, afraid that they too would become a victim of the banshee of the badlands.

Denver Michaels covers the story of the Banshee of the Badlands

Have you had an encounter with the Banshee of the Badlands? Tell us about it inthe comments.

If you enjoyed learning about the Banshee of the Badlands you might also be interested in the Irish Banshee or the Sluagh.