Nain Rouge

The Nain Rouge, French for "red dwarf", is a creature which is said to haunt the area in and around Detroit, Michigan. The Ottawa tribe which had once inhabited the region believed it was a protector of the area and the son of their stone god, but beginning with the French settlement of the location it was feared by the inhabitants of the city as a "harbinger of doom." The city's founder, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, said he saw it; and a succession of other people have also described sightings since then, including in recent decades.

The Nain Rouge is usually described as a small creature with red or black fur covering an animal's body but with the face of an old man with "blazing red eyes and rotten teeth." His appearance is believed by some to presage terrible events for the city.

In 1701 the creature is said to have attacked Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, the French founder of the fortress which later became Detroit, Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit. The creature is also said to have appeared on July 30, 1763 before the Battle of Bloody Run, where 58 British soldiers were killed by Native Americans from Chief Pontiac's Ottawa tribe. Eyewitnesses said they saw the Nain Rouge dancing among the corpses on the banks of the Detroit River after the battle. The small tributary of the Detroit River which still flows through what is now Elmwood Cemetery turned red with blood for days after the battle.

Multiple famous sightings occurred in the days before the 1805 fire, which destroyed most of Detroit. General William Hull reported a "dwarf attack" in the fog just before his surrender of Detroit in the War of 1812.

Jane Dacy of East Elizabeth Street was at home performing errands one evening in October 1872 when she entered a dark room and saw what the Detroit Free Press called a ghost. However, the description of "blood-red eyes, long teeth and rattling hoofs" seems more akin to the famed Nain Rouge than a mere spectre. The fright of seeing the creature caused Dacy to faint and become bed-ridden.

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