Encounter Atlas
Report an encounter
Historic encounters / Indiana
6 old newspaper reports of strange things in Indiana. Other strange creatures (3); Sea serpents and lake monsters (2); Wild men (1). Each links to the original page.
Vernon, Indiana · April 1891
The Cincinnati Enquirer reported a gorilla-like creature in the rugged hills around Vernon, Indiana, near a cavern a local man claimed to have found years earlier. The paper wondered if it was Darwin's missing link.
“Perhaps This Is Darwin's Long-Sought Missing Link”
Church Milling Company race, Knightstown, Indiana · Aug. 1892
Several people said they saw something about ten feet long, with a head like an alligator's and a flat tail, diving like a duck in the mill race. Four-pound fish were found bitten and torn, and the race was to be drained to catch it.
Bass Lake (Cedar Bass Lake), southeast of Knox, Indiana · May 1893
After years of torn nets, a capsized rowboat and a steamer tugged by its anchor line, a fishing party from Knox (including the lawyer who had defended President Garfield's assassin) hooked something that ran out a thousand feet of line. Passengers on the little steamer City of Kokomo said the animal surged up under the bow and nearly swamped them.
Denver, Miami County, Indiana · May 30, 1896
Eric Gustin said that while driving home at dusk with his wife and another woman, their horse nearly collapsed with fright at a monster snake in the woods east of town. The story was reprinted for months, from Scranton to Idaho.
“This Snake May Be the Sea Serpent on a Land Voyage.”
Lake Wawasee, Indiana · Aug. 1, 1897
Hotel guests and cottagers at Lake Wawasee said they had seen and heard a serpent in the lake. The Indianapolis Journal joked that the resort could now rank with the seaside attractions.
Probably a hoax or tall tale Written half in jest as resort publicity.
East of English, Crawford County, Indiana · April 1921
People east of English said an animal about three feet high with dull white fur, howling like a frightened fox, killed a farmer's cow and pig. Everyone who saw it ran, so nobody could describe it well, and farmers carried pitchforks or guns into the woods.
Newspaper pages: Library of Congress, Chronicling America (US newspapers published before 1927 are in the public domain). Text search: American Stories (Dell, Bryan, Carlson and others, CC BY 4.0). Summaries are our own. Place data: GeoNames (CC BY 4.0).