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The Nain Rouge, French for "red dwarf" or "red gnome" is a mythical creature that originated in Normandy,
France[1], as a type of lutin.
In the United States, it haunts Detroit, Michigan, United States and feared by its residents as "the harbinger of
doom." (Skinner 1896) Its appearance is said to presage terrible events for the city. The Nain Rouge appears as a small
child-like creature with red or black fur boots. It is also said to have "blazing red eyes and rotten teeth." (Skinner
1896)
The creature is said to have been attacked in 1701 by the first white settler of Detroit, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac,
who soon after lost his fortune. The creature is also said to have appeared in 1763 before the Battle of Bloody Run, where
59 British soldiers were killed by Native Americans from Chief Pontiac's tribe.
Famous multiple sighting 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.
A woman claimed to have been attacked in 1884, and described the creature as resembling, "a baboon with a horned
head...brilliant restless eyes and a devilish leer on its face." Another attack was reported in 1964.
Other sightings include the day before the 12th Street Riot in 1967 and before a huge snow/ice storm of March 1976, when
two utility workers are said to have seen what they thought was a child climbing a utility pole which then jumped from the
top of the pole and ran away as they approached.
More recently, in the autumn of 1996, according to an article in the Michigan Believer, the Nain Rouge was spotted by
two admittedly drunken nightclub patrons, who claimed to both have heard a strange "cawing sound, similar to a crow,"
coming from a "small hunched-over man" who was fleeing the scene of a car burglary. The creature was described as
wearing "what looked like a really nasty torn fur coat."
Detroit Beer Co., a Brewpub in downtown Detroit brews its signature "Detroit Dwarf Ale" in honor of the the
Nain Rouge.
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