Turtle Days 2011 Celebrates “Beast of Busco”
Posted by: Loren Coleman on June 16th, 2011
Turtle Days is the oldest continuously running festival of Indiana held annually in Churubusco (Turtletown USA), celebrating the legend of “Oscar the Turtle,” the “Beast of Busco.”
The Sightings
In 1948, two men from Churubusco, Ora Blue and Charley Wilson, claim to have seen the Beast of Busco while fishing in Fulk Lake.
In 1948, Gale Harris, owner of the property which contained Folk Lake, claimed to have seen the creature.
In March 1949, Gale Harris claims to have seen the Beast of Busco again.
On October 13th 1949, 200 plus people reportedly saw the Beast of Busco as it appeared at the surface the lake in an attempt to catch a duck being used as a lure.
The Stats – (Where applicable)
• Classification: Lake Monster / Unknown
• Size: As big as the top of a car
• Weight: Unknown
• Diet: Carnivorous
• Location: Churubusco, Indiana
• Movement: Swimming and four legged walking
• Environment: Lake Bottom
This year we will celebrate the 62nd Churubusco Turtle Days Festival (TM), June 15-18, 2011 in honor of the hunt for “Oscar” which began in 1949. The four day festival is filled with contests, vendors, concessions, music, games, rides, fireworks, and many activities for the whole family.
Help make this year’s festival one to remember, by getting involved, sponsoring, or participating in the celebration.
Click to see the 2011 Festival Visitor’s Guide.
Or check out the SCHEDULE.
The Turtle Days Board has chosen
Oscar’s Island Adventure 
as the theme for
Turtle Days Festival 2011
June 15th-18th
During the short week of the festival we have an opening ceremony, live bands, nightly raffle drawings, karaoke contests for children and adults, a talent show, nightly bingo, car/truck/bike show, motorcycle poker run, merchants, food and craft vendors, amusement rides, a trap shoot contest, tractor pull, horseshoe and cornhole tournaments, youth sporting events, beer tent, BBQ cook-off, all-u-can eat fish and tenderloin dinner, pancake and sausage breakfast, chicken BBQ, and more. We also have a day just for the kids, with games and *turtle races. On the final evening the annual Turtle Days Parade features floats, ball players, color guards, cheerleaders, classic cars, trucks, bikes, animals and much much more. Then to top off the festival, Saturday night we have a spectacular fireworks display.
*The Turtle Days board would like to ask that if participating in the turtle race on kids day that you please do not bring any endangered turtles.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Gamera?
I love the last part. They always had to put in “No snapping turtles” for our local turtle race when I was a kid. There is one in every crowd you know, and it’s usually me.
Redrose999 I should have known if anyone besides me had ever seen that movie they would be found here !!! thanks for letting me know I am not the only one
I remember reading about this one, another one of those Fortean things that lasted for a span of time and then went its merry way into the analogs for interesting crypto-folklore and Forteana.
Nice to know they have a festival though. 🙂
Sounds like a future roadtrip for me.
Snappers are amazingly intelligent in spite of looking prehistoric and being so strong. They are a great artistic and fun basis for a festival. Saw a huge one in Ohio farm country actually playing in a creek, just splashing away and having a good time like a child. The pads of its feet were pink. Husband tried to save them when they would migrate, moved them out of the 55 mph road to a nearby lake and even removed leaches off them. He got a little careless one time, had the turtle by the tail, and they can stretch their necks farther than you think, snap at lightning speed, plus they can jump about a foot when lurching forward. Almost got my husband in a bad spot which would have raised his voice a bit…
I wonder if this could have been an alligator snapping turtle, which can grow to an enormous size. Churubusco is outside the alligator snapper’s natural range, but it could have been a member of a remnant population or been introduced in the lake.