Is the Serial Killer Shoe Tree of Salem, Michigan Still Standing?

You may be driving somewhere down country Michigan roads and come across the sight of a bunch of various types of footwear hanging from the branches of a roadside tree.
Scary?
No, they really shouldn’t be, to the average person.
Bothersome?
To a handful of neighbors, usually.

Shoe trees seem to have morbid rumors spread about them...are some of these shoe trees really the creation of something blackhearted or just people having fun, throwing their old, discarded trees into the branches?

Many of them are for fun, but there are possibly a few that have a more sinister history.

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There’s one located on a dirt road west of Salem that has a legend stating it was started by a serial killer, who threw pairs of shoes from his victims into the tree branches.

From there, the amount of shoes grew and grew until there were hundreds. The branches overhang a spooky old dirt road and you can't miss it if you drive down. According to one shoe tree visitor, as reported on RoadsideAmerica.com, "Last time we went the tree was gone, cut down, nowhere to be seen. We even had a resident threaten to call the police on us if we didn't get out of the road."

According to another visitor on the same website, "Someone cut off the two big branches that hung over the road holding all the shoes. Now all you can see is a tree that obviously was cut."

However, in the years that followed, other visitors report that the shoe tree is BACK in business, with hundreds of shoes once again hanging off this withered old tree down a creepy dirt road (Spencer Road). If you try to visit, the shoes may or may not be there...depending on the generosity of the neighbors, I guess.

It's located out in the countryside on the right side of northbound Spencer Road just a few feet north of Six Mile Road. Even though it's listed as Salem (which is 7-8 miles east), it's closer to Whitmore Lake, which is only three-and-a-half miles northwest.

There ARE a couple of residents nearby who aren't too fond of noisy thrill-seekers, especially late at night. So keep that in mind when you visit and be respectful. If you don't want 'em to come by and cut the tree branches down, then be courteous, don't vandalize, and no obnoxious whoops and hollers...don't ruin it for others!

If the day comes when we find actual feet still inside the shoes..... then you can start to worry...