The Alabama Monster of 1877

"A Living Monster or Serpent"

by Dale Cox

The Coosa River in the Alabama mountain country, where the
rash of monster sightings was reported in 1877.

Long before the Loch Ness Monster of Scotland entered the popular consciousness, eyewitnesses claimed that a similar creature roamed the waters of Alabama's Coosa River.

The most significant recorded wave of sightings of the Alabama monster took place in the late spring and summer of 1877. The first eyewitness to come forward - to his own later regret - was Mr. Marens L. Foster of Etowah County. He saw an object in the Coosa River that he first thought was a person:

...As he approached sufficiently near to see it distinctly, to his horror it proved to be a living monster or serpent, with head and neck erect, extending out of the water some three or four feet, its head resembling a horses head, large glaring eyes, and a mouth distended, showing a tongue of fiery red. The monster or serpent exhibited no signs of fear, but glared directly at him as it passed, and unprepared as he was, he thought discretion the better part of valor, and beat a hasty retreat to the opposite bank from which he watched it moving along like a man in a boat, showing now and then portions of its back until it reached a point opposite Thornton’s log yard, where it gave a plunge and disappeared from sight. Mr. Foster is an entirely trustworthy and reliable gentleman, well known in his community, and intelligent, and his statements may be relied upon. That he saw some monster there is no doubt in his own mind, but the improbability of the story has caused him to be very reticent about any statement he made on the subject. [1]

Coosa River at the Ten Islands near Ohatchee, Alabama. One
of the reported monster sightings took place near here.

The Muscogee (Creek) and Cherokee Indians, who lived along the Coosa before they were driven west on the Trail of Tears, often told of seeing monstrous serpents and other creatures in the river. The events of 1877 created many new believers in the old stories:

The monster was seen Tuesday of last week by a party of raftsmen about two miles above town [i.e., Gadsden, Alabama]. It approached the raft and was thrown at with sticks, &c., by the persons on the raft, but it didn’t seem to care. The men said it had a white belly and large knots on its back. A young man on the raft became so frightened that it became necessary to hold him to keep him aboard. [2]

Other sightings were reported up and down the river that summer, and eyewitnesses came forward with stories of similar monsters from as far back as the winter of 1817-1818. So many people claimed to see it, that the monster remains one of Alabama's most intriguing mysteries.

Editor's note: Love great monster stories? Here are a couple of others that we think you will enjoy:

The Altamaha-ha: Legend of Georgia's "Loch Ness Monster"

Bigfoot attack in the Okefenokee Swamp?

References

[1] Gadsden Times, June 8, 1877.

[2] Montgomery Advertiser, quoting the Gadsden Times, July 3, 1877.

Hurricane of 1877 at Chattahoochee, Florida

Recreated path of Hurricane #4 in 1877.
Map and data from NOAA.

A hurricane devastated a wide area of Northwest Florida in October 1877. The Chattahoochee area was particularly hard hit by the storm, which researchers have dubbed "Hurricane #4."

The National Hurricane Center believes that the storm made landfall somewhere between Apalachicola and present-day Panama City Beach on October 3, 1877. It is believed to have been a Category 3 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 115 miles per hour.

After making landfall, the storm tracked to the northeast across today's Bay, Washington, Calhoun and Jackson Counties until the eye passed over or near Chattahoochee. Damage reports were stunning, as is explained by a letter written from Chattahoochee on October 6, 1877:

The Apalachicola River at Chattahoochee, Florida.
The river was still crossed by ferry in 1877.

...The freshet and gale has done much damage in this section. The gale began on Monday and continued till Wednesday. It was very heavy during Tuesday and Tuesday night. Twelve mills and water gins within a few miles of here have been swept away. There is only one mill, that of Mr. McMillen, standing in twenty miles of here. -  Report from Chattahoochee dated October 6, 1877, Marianna Courier, October 1877. 

The railroad did not yet cross the Apalachicola River into Jackson County, but had reached Chattahoochee by 1877. The storm did so much damage to the tracks and trestles that no trains could reach the city:

...All the bridges are gone, and the railroad is so washed up that we have had no train since Tuesday, and it is not thought that the road and bridges can be repaired under eight or ten days. So we are cut off from all communication with the outside world. - Report from Chattahoochee dated October 6, 1877, Marianna Courier, October 1877.

The Tallahassee newspapers reported that the storm did extensive damage all along the Gulf Coast. A storm tide of 12-feet above normal was reported at St. Marks, a large schooner was driven completely ashore on St. James Island and parts of the wharves and several boats were wrecked at Cedar Key.

The old Apalachicola Arsenal at Chattahoochee as it appeared
when the 1877 hurricane struck the city. The structure at left,
with verandas, remains in use as the Administration building.

The damage around Chattahoochee was even worse. Newspapers reported that roofs were torn from homes and businesses, trees were uprooted and that even the crops of the region were devastated. Cotton plants were literally blown out of the ground in the fields. Farm workers tried to salvage what the could by digging the cotton bolls out of the mud, trying to save enough to make their loan payments:

...The damage to the cotton crop is heavy, having been blown out and beat under the ground by the heavy rain, but with dry weather much of it can be saved. It will be impossible for planters to meet their notes for guano and other supplies, which mostly come due about the 15^th. The railroad was quickly repaired. - Report from Chattahoochee dated October 6, 1877, Marianna Courier, October 1877.

The death toll from the storm was not broken down locally so it is difficult to know how many people lost their lives along its path through Florida. Along its total path from the Caribbean up through the Atlantic Coast states of the United States, however, the storm claimed at least 84 lives.

It crossed over Georgia and the Carolinas, its feeder bands reaching into the Atlanta Ocean, and then moved up the coast to the north, causing floods and doing heavy damage all along its path.