Hell,
Mich., heats up for 6-6-6 party
Sat Jun 3, 8:49 PM ET
HELL, Mich. - They're planning a hot time in Hell on Tuesday.
The day bears the date of 6-6-06, or abbreviated as 666 a number
that carries hellish significance.
And there's not a snowball's chance in Hell that the day will go
unnoticed in the unincorporated hamlet 60 miles west of
Detroit.
Nobody is more fired up than John Colone, the town's self-styled
mayor and owner of a souvenir shop.
"I've got `666' T-shirts and mugs. I'm only ordering 666 (of the
items) so once they're gone, that's it," said Colone, also known as
Odum Plenty. "Everyone who comes will get a letter of authenticity
saying you've celebrated June 6, 2006, in Hell."
Most of Colone's wares will sell for $6.66, including deeds to one
square inch of Hell.
Live entertainment and a costume contest are planned. The Gates of
Hell should be installed at a children's play area in time for the
festivities.
"They're 8 feet tall and 5 foot wide and each gate looks like
flames, and when they're closed, it's a devil's head," Colone told
The Detroit News for a Saturday story.
Mike "Smitty" Hickey, owner of the Dam Site Inn, wasn't sure what
kind of clientele would show up Tuesday.
"We're all about having fun here. I don't think we're going to get
the cult crowd, the devil worshippers or anything like that," said
Hickey, whose bar's signature concoction is the Bloody Devil, a
variant of the Bloody Mary.
Colone, meanwhile, has been in touch with radio stations as far
away as San Diego and Seattle that are raffling off trips to Hell
in honor of 6-6-6.
The 666 revelry is just the latest chapter in the town's storied
history of publicity stunts, said Jason LeTeff, one of its 72
year-round residents or, as the mayor calls them, Hellions or
Hell-billies. But LeTeff wasn't particularly enthused.
"Now, here I am living in Hell, taking my kids to church and trying
to teach them the right things and the town where we live is having
a 6-6-6 party," he said.
According to the town's semiofficial Web site, there are two
leading theories about how Hell got its name.
The first holds that a pair of German travelers stepped out of a
stagecoach one sunny afternoon in the 1830s, and one said to the
other, "So schoene hell" roughly translated as, "So bright and
beautiful." Their comments were overheard by some locals and the
name stuck.
The second holds that George Reeves was asked after Michigan gained
statehood what he thought the town he helped settle should be
called, and reportedly replied, "I don't care, you can name it Hell
if you want to." The name became official on Oct. 13, 1841.