Encounter Atlas
Historic encounters / Other strange creatures
Everything else: nameless beasts in the swamp, "what-is-its" and creatures that fit no category.
11 cases40 newspaper pages3 marked as probable hoaxes
Illinois River bottoms, fourteen miles west of Jerseyville approx. · Nov. 1868
Hunters in the Illinois River bottoms west of Jerseyville said they caught and killed a monster they could not decide was an animal or a reptile. It had a back like a skunk's and a rough brown belly.
Farmville, Virginia · Feb. 5, 1869
Two men near Farmville captured an animal no one there had seen before: about three feet long, slim and brown, with a small head, black eyes, long ears, a sharp nose and a long tail.
Indian Camp Spring, four miles south of Columbia, Tennessee approx. · March 10, 1869
A letter to the Columbia Herald, vouched for by a local man, said a giant frog weighing 90 pounds had been caught in a cave near Indian Camp Spring.
Probably a hoax or tall tale Has every mark of a frontier tall tale.
Perry Township, Wood County, Ohio approx. · Jan. 1884
People in Perry Township, Wood County, were alarmed when an unknown animal burrowed into graves in the township cemetery, leaving claw marks and fur. Weeks later papers said the animal had been captured.
Cumberland River at Nashville, Tennessee · July 1884
Two old fishermen caught a strange marine animal in the river above the Nashville waterworks and kept it staked and chained by the tail to the bank until it could be put on show near the square.
Enon, Ohio · Dec. 9, 1884
When Barret's circus train was stopped by a burned railroad bridge near Enon, a jaguar escaped from its cage unnoticed. It ran across the countryside, stampeding and killing cattle, and the story ran in thirteen papers.
Flat Rock, Mexico, Missouri approx. · March 1891
The Mexico Weekly Ledger reported great commotion in Flat Rock at midnight when an unearthly winged creature with a gorilla-like head, horns and long shaggy arms was said to have landed on top of a high derrick and switched its forked tail.
Probably a hoax or tall tale Written as comedy by the local paper.
Mountains at the head of Capay Valley, Yolo County, California approx. · June 1891
For weeks, Yolo County papers ran yarns about a freak of nature in the mountains at the head of Capay Valley, nicknamed the What-is-It. Two more men then said they had followed the creature to its lair.
Probably a hoax or tall tale The Sacramento paper said the story may have been started deliberately.
Rocky Ford road, three miles west of New Albany, Mississippi approx. · March 1896
Travellers crossing the dark creek bottoms three miles west of New Albany told the same story: a monster white goat rearing up on its hind legs in the road, as if to attack horse and rider. The stream had been nicknamed Hell Creek.
“All the Mississippians Who Have Seen It Tell the Same Story.”
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.”
Doe Gully tunnel, B&O Railroad, near the Potomac approx. · Dec. 19, 1896
Railroad men reported a strange beast near Doe Gully tunnel on the Baltimore and Ohio line that killed a mountain farmer's sheep. A railroad official said he saw it come down to the river to drink. Seven hunters saw it but could not get a shot, and men went to the fields armed. Locals called it the catawampus.
“men go to and from their work in the fields armed”