Of Earth & Water: The Forgotten River Monsters of Appalachia

By Lacey Williams

Originally published in Greetings From Appalachia Magazine, Volume 1

The water of the Ohio River is murky, and moves steady, dark waters through the hills of Appalachia, carrying with it centuries of stories. One of the oldest tales of the region is also one that has mostly been forgotten by modern scholars. Giant serpents who once inhabited this valley coexisted side by side with indigenous tribes and pioneers that were considered so great, effigies dedicated to them were constructed all over the region. Modern depictions often paint them in the light of folklore, but the roots of the Ohio River Monsters stretch deeper into our mountains than we realize and suggest there is more to this story than a simple folk tale.

Most history books about the Ohio River Valley will focus on industry, immigration, or frontier exploration. But if you dig deeper, you’ll find stories of firsthand reports or native tribes that share a common narrative which seems to have been lost to time. It is one of strange, giant creatures that slithered beneath the river’s surface and in underground caverns. Some called them River Devils, some called them Water Beasts, and some simply called them Giant Serpents. Native tribes in the area such as Cherokee, Shawnee, and Algonquian all respectively had various beliefs and stories about the giant serpents of the area.

Rivers were often seen as boundaries between two worlds, and serpents were tied to stories of storms, under water realms, death, transformation, and power. But they were not treated as mythical beings. They were more accepted to exist in the physical world just like any other animal. Effigies of giant serpents line the Ohio River Valley overlooking the waterway. Memories of ancient beings written right into the land to remind future generations who came before them.

In Ashland, Kentucky, remnants of a rare stone serpent effigy remain today. It crawls 627 feet across the ridge and is believed to have been left by the Adena culture. They were a pre-contact native civilization that lived and thrived in the area from 1000 BCE to 200CE. In Peebles, Ohio, a 1,348 foot long serpent effigy considered the oldest and largest remaining in the world, having been built around 1000 AD. It shows a coiling snake with a spiral tail and a head swallowing an oval object. The snake’s head aligns with the summer solstice sunset, lunar phases, and seasonal changes. In Shawnee mythology, the King of Serpents was the ruler of the underworld. Cherokee, Shawnee, Lenape, and Miami people all believed in and described giant serpents that inhabited the rivers, lakes, and caves of the Ohio River Valley.

In the 1700s and 1800s, settlers began recounting stories about seeing giant serpents in the river. Newspapers began to discuss them matter-of-factly until around the time of the Industrial Revolution. In the 19^th century, even more stories of serpents began to spill out into newspapers and recorded reports in areas of hotspots for activity in Cincinnati, Gallipolis, and Portsmouth, Ohio.

In 1847, it was reported near a tributary of the river that an enormous snake 30 ft in length and round as a keg, with its head 5 ft above the water was spotted. It was documented that nearly a thousand people saw and chased the creature down the bank until it reached the mouth of the Ohio River where they lost it when it submerged itself.

In January of 1878, a steamboat master reported seeing a giant serpent swimming down the river. He claimed the creature raised its long, pelican shaped head above the water, had a slimy mane, and serpentine body. The very next day, a man in Cincinnati reported to the local paper that while crossing the bridge, he saw a creature swim underneath. He said it held its head 12-15ft above the water, had black, glossy hair on its seahorse-like head, and had scales like an alligator down its neck and back. He said it made a bellow like a cow followed by a hiss. 

In 1890, a settler reported that when speaking with a local native tribe, they described to him an enormous serpent in the clouds that was 200 ft long, as big around as a man, an alligator size head, and had yellow and black stripes.

In 1894, in Gallipolis, a fisherman reported seeing a 10 ft long serpent that swam right up next to his boat. He said it had “an immense head and bulbous eyes.” In 1955 in Portsmouth, two fishermen saw a long, dark creature that swam near their boat. One claimed it was “longer than any fish I ever saw- like a snake with a face.” The other man said, “it came up fast, then sank without a splash…just gone.”

Also in 1955, notably on the same day as the Kentucky Hopkinsville Alien invasion just down the way, two women were swimming in the river when one of them had been suddenly grabbed by a hand-like claw and pulled under the water. Her friend watched her struggle and be repeatedly pulled under until she was finally able to pull herself free. Medical help came and treated her for cuts and scratches but were not able to remove the greenish handprint left on her leg for several days. 

Of course, many have tried to explain away these stories over time. The water is murky; the currents and depths are unpredictable. Large trees or logs could easily be dragged down river and play tricks on unsuspecting eyes.

Then there is the existence of giant catfish in the river. Catfish are nocturnal, their large size disrupts the surface of the water when they break, and in modern days, the largest recorded catfish caught is 104lbs. It is not unlikely that prior to the pollution that came with the Industrial Revolution into today, where the Ohio River has been voted many years over to be the most polluted river in the United States, there could have been even larger in the water. 

Another argument is the existence of Garfish; Garfish are quite jarring and have a slightly prehistoric look to them. They do have armor-like scales and move in a serpentine fashion. The largest garfish in modern records caught was a whopping (and terrifying) 302lbs, and 9 ft 8 in long!

Another possibility is something as simple as misidentification. In the 1880s until around the 1920s, it was the height of fashion to own alligators as pets. Most people, however, did not account for how large and vicious these creatures would eventually become and would just release them into the wild when they could no longer care for them. In 1879, an alligator was captured on the banks of the Ohio River and was assumed to have been one of these released pets or escaped from a zoo or traveling carnival.

Then there is something potentially all together even more strange than a giant serpent that could explain the sightings. During the 19^th century, stories began to circulate all throughout Appalachia river communities of Mud Mermaids. They were documented to be about 4 ft tall, having a light coat of brown hair, yellowish skin, webbed feet, and 4 limbs. They were amphibious creatures with the ability to run and swim at inhuman speeds and emanate loud screeches. They had sharp teeth and claws, were reclusive creatures that survived off frogs and fish, and were easily startled. They avoided humans when possible and were eventually eradicated or driven from the area by pollution that came in with industrialization.

As Industrialization brought industry into our region, it also brought with it boats that congested the waterways, dams, and chemical pollution. If any large or unknown creatures did exist within its banks, with the introduction of industry, so came the death of the river monsters. Stories of the great serpents dwindled and eventually disappeared all together, a sign of the times as our wild spaces and clean waters that even Thomas Jefferson once famously raved about, slowly disappeared and were ravaged. The great serpents were just one of the creatures of collateral damage who once called our valley home. 

But stories of the great serpents can still be heard in the whispers of the river on a summer evening or seen in the giant effigies towering over our communities, still today. Whether or not the Ohio River Valley ever did truly house a giant serpent may matter less at the end of the day than the fact that for thousands of years, generations of entire civilizations believed it could. Be it ancient serpentine effigies, or eyewitness reports of serpents beneath the water’s surface, the history of the giant serpent is one embedded in our humble river valley. I only hope this recounting will be a reminder to us all the next time any of us see a barge lumbering down the waters that were once considered sacred and dangerous, that stories will always find a way to the surface, and the river rarely gives away all its secrets at once.