The Beast of Busco

[Still Waters]

The Beast of Busco emerged one day out of the blue. A farmer named Oscar Fulk spotted it in a seven-acre lake on his northern Indiana property in 1898: a massive turtle, Fulk swore, the size of a small dinosaur. When he ran to tell others in his small town of Churubusco, no one believed him, and the beast disappeared for 50 years. In July 1948, two men, Ora Blue and Charley Wilson, were fishing in the same lake when they saw an implausibly giant turtle gliding across the water’s surface.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/could-citizens-of-this-indiana-town-have-seen-a-500-pound-turtle-180984659/

https://sites.lsa.umich.edu/mqr/2015/09/unsolved-histories-a-giant-turtle-a-stubborn-man-and-dredging-up-a-myth/

[Piney]

It's a established fact that reptiles get smaller as the larger ones are hunted off so a super sized very old alligator snapper found in the past isn't surprising. 

They were probably gigantic before they became a diner and saloon "delicacy" and I trapped some old big ones myself on our property in the Pine Barrens. 

[Buzz_Light_Year]

3 minutes ago, Piney said:

It's a established fact that reptiles get smaller as the larger ones are hunted off so a super sized very old alligator snapper found in the past isn't surprising. 

They were probably gigantic before they became a diner and saloon "delicacy" and I trapped some old big ones myself on our property in the Pine Barrens. 

Years ago I read an article about the early settlers that came to America and they noted how large some of the fauna was. The article mentioned trout that were 2ft long and I don't remember much else. May have been the same article that mentioned that when Henry Hudson sailed into what is now Hudson Bay his men didn't want to go ashore because of the Demon Lights.............Fireflys. 😆

[Piney]

22 minutes ago, Buzz_Light_Year said:

Years ago I read an article about the early settlers that came to America and they noted how large some of the fauna was. The article mentioned trout that were 2ft long and I don't remember much else. May have been the same article that mentioned that when Henry Hudson sailed into what is now Hudson Bay his men didn't want to go ashore because of the Demon Lights.............Fireflys. 😆

The "trout" were chain pickerel, pike and sturgeon. 

I have in the Salem Colony (Quaker) records a Swedish translator, who settled in 1635 account of 6-10ft rattlesnakes with horns. I have a Quaker account from 1678 reporting the same thing. 

I actually believe Miisupiisu, the Horned Serpent which is the personification of rivers to be based on this "cryptid" because both sightings were next to creeks.

I believe they might of existed but I never started a thread because there isn't enough information out there. 

Edited July 20 by Piney
brain fart

[Grim Reaper 6]

8 minutes ago, Piney said:

The "trout" were chain pickerel, pike and sturgeon. 

I have in the Salem Colony (Quaker) records a Swedish translator, who settled in 1635 account of 6-10ft rattlesnakes with horns. I have a Quaker account from 1678 reporting the same thing. 

I actually believe Miisupiisu, the Horned Serpent which is the personification of rivers to be based on this "cryptid" because both sightings were next to creeks.

I believe they might of existed but I never started a thread because there isn't enough information out there. 

I have seen a horned viper that looks like side winder while I was in the Middle East.

[+and-then]

I recall seeing an old black and white photo from around the early 1900s of two men standing next to a cross bar that was 6ft from the ground and there were several river catfish hung from it that had nearly a third of their length on the ground.  Gigantic damned bottom feeders from the Tensaw River.  

[the13bats]

This could have been based on a huge turtle and then the size grew with tellings,

 

[the13bats]

On 7/20/2024 at 7:00 PM, and-then said:

I recall seeing an old black and white photo from around the early 1900s of two men standing next to a cross bar that was 6ft from the ground and there were several river catfish hung from it that had nearly a third of their length on the ground.  Gigantic damned bottom feeders from the Tensaw River.  

My dad died at 89 2014 said his dad and other guys noodled catfish in Arkansas when my dad was a boy, he said some were were so big that it took two guys to get them out and somewhere I have an old fashioned paper pic of my dad about 8 with another kid laying next to catfish easily twice their size.

[Piney]

6 hours ago, the13bats said:

My dad died at 89 2014 said his dad and other guys noodled catfish in Arkansas when my dad was a boy, he said some were were so big that it took two guys to get them out and somewhere I have an old fashioned paper pic of my dad about 8 with another kid laying next to catfish easily twice their size.

I'd use a couple of bleach bottles attached to a shark leader with a field mouse on the hook to catch snappers but every once in a while I'd catch a decent size catfish on that rig and it would be a meal.

[Procyon]

It seems insane to me that someone would go to those sorts of lengths just to capture one turtle. I mean, a plesiasaur like Nessie or something humanoid like the Sasquatch I understand, but a big turtle? This guy spent what must of been the equivalent of millions of dollars searching for it. Also, unrelated, but the Turtle Days festival sounds really fun. I've always envied rural towns that still have unique customs like that.

[Procyon]

On 7/20/2024 at 2:36 PM, Piney said:

It's a established fact that reptiles get smaller as the larger ones are hunted off so a super sized very old alligator snapper found in the past isn't surprising. 

They were probably gigantic before they became a diner and saloon "delicacy" and I trapped some old big ones myself on our property in the Pine Barrens. 

It's also pretty common for loose pets to get massive, especially when they're put into unfamiliar habitats. Have you seen those photos of goldfish that people released into lakes when they were tiny, only for them to grow so big that it takes two grown men to carry one? Oscar could've been one of those. The OP's article mentioned that the only other alligator snapper found in Indiana was probably a loose pet so there's definitely precedence, even if the other one didn't grow to unusual size.

[Piney]

1 minute ago, Procyon said:

It's also pretty common for loose pets to get massive, especially when they're put into unfamiliar habitats. Have you seen those photos of goldfish that people released into lakes when they were tiny, only for them to grow so big that it takes two grown men to carry one? Oscar could've been one of those. The OP's article mentioned that the only other alligator snapper found in Indiana was probably a loose pet so there's definitely precedence, even if the other one didn't grow to unusual size.

I've seen Vietnamese snake heads get huge in Pine Barrens lakes. Ocean Spray, in cahoots with the Quakers employed Vietnamese refugees for a while and they were always letting them loose in ceremonies. What a disaster. 

[the13bats]

1 hour ago, Piney said:

I've seen Vietnamese snake heads get huge in Pine Barrens lakes. Ocean Spray, in cahoots with the Quakers employed Vietnamese refugees for a while and they were always letting them loose in ceremonies. What a disaster. 

We used to boat on the butler lake chain in Orlando lots of people dumped aquarium pets into those lakes and I've seen huge oddities many fisherman catch things like Oscars while bass fishing, I imagine there are more non native creatures there than native ones.