Photo credit : Tippecanoe County Historical Association
The legend of the 'Manitou Monster' has remained an Indiana mystery beneath the waters of Lake Manitou for hundreds of years. Reported by several Native Americans and early settlers throughout the 19th century, they told of a creature nearly 60 feet long with a head the size of a steers' and a body like a serpent.
Originated from an ancient Potawatomi legend, the local Native Americans claimed the waters of Lake Manitou held supernatural powers and a large serpent-like creature. Another legend spoke of the Manitou Spirit not allowing anyone to drown in the lake, so long as he was not bothered.
The legendary, 55 - foot deep, man-made lake was created in 1827. The 1826 treaty between the United States government and the Potawatomi Native American Tribe required the United States to build a corn mill. Prior to the mill's construction, a dam was built, flooding five small lakes and 775 acres of land.
The Native Americans named the lake Manitou, a duel translation that means both good spirit and master of life or evil and the devil. Meshekenabek, the serpent monster, was rumored to have lived in one of the smaller lakes and began taking up residence in the body of water. Fulton County historian Shirley Willard wrote about the Manitou Monster in the Fulton County Folks Volume 2, which can be found at the Fulton County Museum.
Native Americans told early settlers that several members of their tribe had seen a monster serpent with a scaly tail coming to the surface of the water. While legends sometimes claim the Native Americans refused to bathe, fish or even canoe in the water, the legitimacy of that rumor cannot be verified.
Almost immediately the settlers began to report seeing the water monster. A surveyor by the name of Austin W. Morris reported having much difficulty in keeping flagmen that were brave enough to carry the surveyor's flag near the water.
John Lindsay was Fulton County's first blacksmith. He was among the settlers who claimed to have personally witnessed the creature. He was quoted describing it:
"The head being about three feet across the frontal bone and having something of the contour of a beef's head, but the neck tapering and having the character of the serpent. Color, dingy with large yellow spots."
Lindsay claimed to have seen the creature raise its head out of the water about two hundred feet from shore and swim around on the surface in front of him.
In July of1838, two men from the Robinson family rowed to shore in a panic after seeing the creature while fishing. They claimed the creature was nearly 60 feet long. The Robinson's story was reported in The Logansport Telegraph.
A portrait of the monster was made by the famous artist, George Winter, and published in that paper August 11, 1838. Winter also painted portraits of the Potawatomi tribe members who lived near Kewanna. As mysterious and frightening as the creature was, it still did not chase the Potawatomi's away by choice. They were later removed at gunpoint on September 5, 1838 by the United States government.
The newspaper story about the Manitou Monster traveled across the country. 'Men of the sea' from the east coast volunteered their services, in hopes of catching a trophy. The crew brought professional equipment to the lake, yet only caught more rumors of being scared away by the creature. Some locals claim the only thing the crew was looking for was the bottom of a whiskey bottle.
There were no more public talks of the creature being spotted again until May 26, 1849, when a buffalo carp was caught in the lake weighing several hundred pounds. Headlines in The Logansport Journal read, 'The Devil Caught at Last.'
A romantic novel titled Manitou was published in 1881 by author Margret Holmes. The fictional novel was set on the shores of Lake Manitou and the Central House hotel. Rochester was smack dab in the middle of something much stranger than fiction.
In 1888, after catching a 116-pound spoonbill catfish, one of the men saw an oppurtunity to bring the monsters legend back to life. Phillip Cook bought out the rest of the men for the catfish, taking it to the Fulton County Courthouse lawn in a horse trough. Cook kept it at the courthouse for a week and charged 10 cents a person to see it, a big price at that time. He exibited the 'Mantiou Monster' for another week in Logansport, doing a 'land office' business. After two weeks in a horse trough, Cook noticed the massive fish growing weak and took it back to Rochester to be butchered. He then went to sell the meat for 10 cents a pound.
In modern times, no reports of sightings at the lake have been made, but the mystery of the Manitou Monster lurking among the waters and swamps still remains among the most popular local legends in Fulton County.
