The Grey Man of Pawley's Island

"Legend has it that the Grey Man is spotted right before hurricanes make landfall in South Carolina. I don't think we have to worry about hurricanes in Minnesota, but stranger things have happened."

Mademoiselle Chasseur's Cryptid Guidebook - The Grey Man
The Grey Man of Pawley's Island is as classic an urban legend you can ask for. Legend goes that the Grey Man was travelling by horseback from Charleston, South Carolina to see his fiance on Pawleys Island. He and his horse were travelling overnight through a storm and got stuck in quicksand. Whether he drowned in the marshes outside of Pawleys or was overtaken by the storm, he never ended up making it back to his fiance.

The first reported spotting of The Grey Man was in 1822, and he would be intermittently spotted for centuries after that. The one uniting factor between most of these encounters was that he would be spotted before hurricanes or storms made landfall on Pawleys Island. Hurricane Hugo in '89, Hurricane Florence in 2018, Igor in '56, Wilma in '57, Gustav in 2059, the list goes on. Every time a hurricane hit South Carolina, someone spotted the Grey Man. I figure it must be hard to miss him, he's been reported as looking like a "pirate wearing a grey longcoat", and most people say that he doesn't have any legs. I'm sure that'd be a sight. Those that do spot him are rewarded though, many people that I've spoken to say that their homes have managed to, pardon the pun, weather the storm, even if the rest of the block has been destroyed! Maybe the Grey Man is trying to spare others from his fate!