Strange Sightings on the Ohio River.
Sightings of The Ohio River monster had been
reported in local newspapers in the 1870s
John Davidson, master of the Silver Moon steamboat,
was docked, when he saw an amazing apparition. As he wrote to the Cincinnati
Enquirer on 10th January 1878:
“I had no faith in the reports I had read of the
river monster, so graphically described in the newspapers, but I am now
convinced of the actual existence of the terrible beast. At one time it reared
its head high above the surface of the water in the manner of the sea lions of
the Zoological Gardens of your city. The long pelican beak, the slimy mane, and
the extreme serpentine length of the animal answer exactly to the previous
descriptions that have been published.”
The monster dove beneath the surface before Captain
Davidson could call his first mate to witness the beast.
11 January 1878, Ben Karrick was driving his
horse-drawn wagon over the Roebling Bridge when he saw a sea serpent in the
Ohio River below. He reportedly told the Cincinnati Gazette:
“Protruding from the water some twelve or fifteen
feet was what seemed to be the head of a huge serpent or animal, that was
rushing through the water at a very rapid rate, and occasionally lashing the
water with its tail into a perfect foam.Its head and neck seemed to me to be
covered by a black glossy substance like hair, and further back from the head,
the hide looked like that of an alligator. The head was shaped somewhat similar
to that of a sea horse, which we have so often seen in pictures.”
Karrick also told the newspaper that the beast made
a noise similar to the deep lowing of a cow, followed with a loud hissing
noise. It headed toward the shore and disappeared from
sight.
Later that week a letter on the front
page of the gazette stated that Mr. Karrick’s monster was the same as the
great serpent of Clermont County’s Hartman Mill dam that escaped some years
prior. That serpent was reputedly fifteen to twenty feet long and as thick as
the body of a man and lived in the pool of a dammed creek upstream from the
Little Miami River.
Then it seemed to have vanished.
On August 21, 1955, A Bizarre encounter was reported
in the Ohio River between Henderson, Kentucky and Evansville.A Mrs. Naomi Johnson encountered what she claimed was a creature beneath the
surface of the water whilst swimming
in the Ohio River. A friend and her children were on the bank and witnessed the whole thing.Mrs
Johnson had swum out to about 15 feet (5 metres) away from the bank.Suddenly Johnson
said that she felt something clutched around her knee from below. It was like a large rubbery
claw-like hand. It tried to yank her down and would not let go no matter how
much she struggled to disengage herself
.Her companion was on the shore and could only watch in horror as Johnson
flapped her arms and gasped for breath in the river.Mrs. Johnson managed to
kick her leg free and then headed for the shore, but almost instantly she was
seized again, this time her ankle.Grabbing a nearby inner tube she was able to stay afloat and eventually whatever it was let go. Mrs. Johnson was
treated for bruises and it was discovered that she had a greenish, slimy
,palm-print on her leg which left a
stain for several days.
So two strange tales of creatures.There have been no
recent reports as far as I am aware.Please comment of you know of any.So what
were the strange creatures?
Stories of huge catfish lurking in the Ohio River have been talked about for years and in June 2009 a blue cat caught
by Chris Rolph of Williamsburg weighed 96 pounds and measured 54.5 inches (1.38
metres) long. However neither creature
sounds like a cat fish.If one species of large creature can exist in the river there
could have been others.The film The Creature of the Black Lagoon came out in
1954,could that have influenced Mrs Johnson? Maybe it was a large catfish tried
to drag her down and the creature was in her mind which influenced what she
felt. Whatever it was if you go out on the Ohio River,take care .
t
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