Waukegan Spreads The Ancestral Wendigo Legend

The zombies that have become familiar to American filmgoers and television viewers could be seen lumbering up and down Genesee Street on Saturday, Oct. 18, as fans of reanimation participated in the 4th annual ZombieWauk.

But did any of them know that the zombies we see each week on “The Walking Dead” might very well have drawn their original inspiration from creatures that haunted Waukegan before the arrival of European settlers?

“A lot of people think that George Romero invented zombies in 1968 with ‘Night of the Living Dead,’” said local spoken-word artist Scott Crain, dressed as Mr. Electrico from “Something Wicked This Way Comes,” as he addressed a crowd in Jack Benny Plaza around sunset. “But Native Americans who settled this land and the land north of us into Canada had a legend of the Wendigo.”

Source: Lake County News-Sun

Image: Wendigo Round II