February 13, 2009

Guide Rock Monster, 1884

Well, considering you all might be exhausted from reading those very long comments on the debate kicked up by Darwin’s 200th birthday, perhaps it’s time for an archival respite?

This lake monster report comes from Guide Rock, Nebraska.

Guide Rock, Nebraska, by the way, does exist. It today is a small village in Webster County, Nebraska, United States, with only a population of 245 in the 2000 census.

The town was the first settlement in Webster County, with the first white settlers arriving in 1870. The town was named after a rocky bluff on the opposite bank of the Republican River. A historical marker near the village marks the former site of a large Pawnee village.

According to the history of Guide Rock,

After the first few years of its existence Guide Rock grew to be a village, containing two stores, a hotel, a blacksmith shop, and a post office. The village made no further improvement until the year 1880, when the southern line of the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad in Nebraska began building, and it was certain that Guide Rock would be made a station thereon. As soon as this was assured, it began to build up quite rapidly. The railroad was soon built, and the town continued to build up, and has ever since continued to progress slowly but steadily….

There is a good flouring and grist mill on the south side of the river, about two miles southeast of town. It was built in 1880 by Bardette & Crow, who are now doing a thriving business, and manufacture an excellent grade of flour.

There is only one church building. This is a neat and comfortable church, built by the Baptists in 1880. The religious societies are well represented.

Now try your hand at figuring out what was seen by this chap, Herbert Bailey, back then.

Daily Nebraska State Journal
Lincoln, Nebraska
April 18, 1884

A STRANGE MONSTER

In the Form of Serpent Seen in the River in the Vicinity of the Guide Rock.

Guide Rock Signal.

A genuine old-fashioned snake story comes to our notice this week. Usually, when we hear anything of this kind we dismiss it from our mind, under the impression that the party said to have seen the sight had kept the cork out of his jug too long at a time, or was not possessed to any great extent of the trait of character to which “the father of his country” owes much to his fame. But in this case the party who encountered his snakeship never indulges in the ardent, and his veracity has never been questioned and is not likely to be where he is known. Several days ago Mr. Herbert Bailey, while driving on the river road between the flouring mills and the large rock from which our town derives its name, had his attention attracted to a curious dark object in the water, which might at first glance have been taken for a floating log, but for the fact that its movements, when it did move, were rapid, and its course was up stream. About twelve feet of its length was visible on and just under the surface of the water, and it seemed capable of rearing its head several feet out of the water, looking at Mr. B. with large, dark, protruding eyes that could hardly be likened to those of a snake, remaining stationary in the water with head erect and high in the air whenever Mr. Bailey stopped, and darting down and rapidly forward with the quick, graceful movements of a snake. This continued for some time, when it occurred to Mr. Bailey to try the effect on the serpent of a shot from his gun which he happened to have with him. He accordingly took careful aim and fired, and though at the distance of but a few rods from his mark without any noticeable effect other than the whatever-it-was leisurely moved forward a few feet, dived down and silently disappeared under the water a short distance below the dam which is thrown across the river at that place. That the facts are substantially as told by Mr. Bailey no one can doubt, but what kind of a reptile it was he encountered we will not attempt to explain. Remains found in various places in Nebraska and Kansas point to the conclusion that all this vast area has been at one time the bottom of a great inland sea, and the home of enormous reptiles, and it is possible that an occasional specimen may have escaped the general destruction of the species, and still have their haunts in the subterranean recesses of the rocks and unexplored caverns along the streams of the present day.

Thanks, again, to Jerome Clark for sharing this.

Filed under Cryptomundo Exclusive, Cryptotourism, CryptoZoo News, Eyewitness Accounts, Giant Cryptid Reptiles, Lake Monsters, Year In Review