The Ogua River Monster

Hi, I'm Holly and I'm Haley. Welcome to Mountain Mysteries Tales from Appalachia. Well hello there. Such an exasperated side.

No, it's reflective. Okay. You just mentioned to me off-air about your upcoming vacation and I wonder how people afford trips. You know, like so many colleagues that I work with, I mean I would assume unless they get paid in that way just amount more than me, are always going on trips and vacations and they're like oh I'm going to the Cayman Islands, I'm going to the Bahamas, I'm going to do this and I'm going to do that and I was like I don't even that I could afford to go to South Carolina for the day.

I mean probably but honestly I have always been that kind of person that I don't really vacation. I tend to like to put money towards like fixing things in my house and like doing that like that's kind of been more me because I feel like vacations much like flowers are fleeting. Like sure it's a moment it's great, feels really good when you're there kind of like sex but then afterward you have that like I mean was that it? No, you have the pictures, oh not, no, not from the sex.

I mean it just depends, depends on what you want to do, but not me, no but you know from the vacation, but that's just kind of it, you have a memory, you spend a lot of money, I'm not trying to poop with your vacation. But I also just kind of don't get it and also vacationing with just me and my son sounds right us put in a different location, right me saying put your shoes on. In a different location, yeah, just do the different ones older, maybe, maybe, but you know I give it to people who are like yeah because you know we went on vacation the last one I went on was with you and I made a thing four years ago. Oh my gosh, yeah.

And my son was very little at that point, he was right at a year old and it sucked, not you guys, right, right, but I really never left the place that we were saying. Yeah, I'm sorry, because it was really hard to take him out, he was a two and a half a day kind of kid, so like and if we took him we had to carry the stroller like across the sand, it was a whole thing, yeah, so we just got to the point where I was like, well this is frustrating, I never really see the age, I don't get to do anything, I'm just kind of trapped in the house, so I could do that at home for each term. So I think that that's you know not that I'm a negative nelly, I've had wonderful vacations before, you know, but I don't know, so if you're out there tell me how do you fund your vacations, do you feel the same way that I do? I'm sure a lot of people don't feel that way, I need the vacation.

I mean this one I'm excited about because it's a short trip, going to New Orleans which I've never been before, I'm gonna do some like ghost tours and cemetery tours. I want to know all about this so I'm really excited about that, but it's just like one of those locations that's been on my list that I'm kind of thinking it's gonna be like a one and done, like gone, I've seen it, good, like it, cool, but I mean it's hard to like to fund, I mean I'm using money from a second job, pretty much to to do this, and it's only for like four days, yeah, I think we're, yeah we have two travel days and like three days there because we're flying in and out, so that's like a whole day, just the flights, yeah, so yeah. You know I have been to lots of different places, but one of my favorite places that I travel to, I know this sounds ridiculous, is Phoenix, really, I loved it. It's also not ever been on my list, a place to go.

Yeah, like a friend and I met up there, it was fantastic, I really enjoyed it, beautiful airport, really nice people, we just do a lot of really fun things and so, okay, cool, we have that Phoenix to list, row Phoenix on the list, yeah, my brother is currently actually, one time there's air so you should be home, yeah, he is traveling with a dance team that he's a part of to Slovenia, wow, yeah, so they flew out of Charlotte, North Carolina, landed Madrid, and they just fly from Madrid to Vienna, and they have to take a bus from Vienna to Slovenia. How far is it from Vienna to Slovenia? I don't know, I know the first flight, because I don't know if that's where he's going in Slovenia, but I mean they're going to like a whole bunch of different places because it's like a dance festival, a festival type thing, so there's like all these different countries that will be there doing their folk dances and it's very cool, I've done a couple of the strips and they're great, but yeah, he's going, it's not far, it's not four hours, yeah, I was thinking that it was like 12 hours and a bus, well I think the flight to Madrid is like eight or ten hours, that's not that bad considering that if you went to Australia, I'd be like 14, I know, I'm Japan, I think the longest, I feel like a ten hour flight, and it's not fun, but it's fine, I want to go to Iceland and tell my bucket list, so I'd love to, well he's got it, there's a girl on the team that he dances on that has a blood clotting condition, so she, like, she couldn't go in the last trip because she was like in the middle of like figuring out like what was going on, and now like she's been cleared to go but she has to like per doctor's order every 30 minutes get up and walk up and down the aisle of the block, so she doesn't like have clots and stuff, so I was like oh my gosh, but it's something that my brother has been, like I've known her since she was probably like two years old, I mean teeny tiny, and her and my brother are really good friends, they're like probably more siblings than my brother, yeah, they're very, yeah, they're very like, they have a very good sibling bond almost, so she might be his real sibling, we just, we just don't know, no, um but yeah she uh, it was really cute when her mom found out Travis was going, she was like oh my god, oh thank god Travis is going, yeah, yeah, keep in, I wonder if the other people on the airplane are like oh my god that woman is walking again, I know, I mean she's so like petite, like she's such a tiny little bird, she's oh my god, still bit americans, yeah, but she'll be, I mean, okay here are the cat screaming because I think marquettes left to get her pizza, um, it's been through hell today, um but it's fine, so the guy, I can't imagine, like she can't even sleep, that sounds awful, like every 30 minutes she has to get up, sounds awful, but I mean I guess it's the pressure paint, like it's exchanged, yeah, to be able to go, yeah she has to get up and walk and do all this stuff, well I hope he has a good trip, yeah, I hope he hasn't crashed with all the plane crashes, um I thought about that, I was like oh hope he'll crash, oh no we're gonna have positive that he just fine, just fine, but here I'm gonna have some negative thoughts about your story about, oh yeah, so we have the screaming cat in the background which kind of is fine, it adds to it, right, because I'm talking about the Ogua River Monster from Western okay sure, um most people refer to it as the Mon, so I'm gonna refer to it as the Mon, because I can't save Mon and Gavelin, I'm going to the Mon, the Mon, okay so it is a 130 mile long river that runs between West Virginia and Pennsylvania, so it's kind of like the border river there, it has a long history of legends and strange aquatic beasts associated with it, um so like any good large body of water, it is said to have a monster dwelling beneath its surface, and they've named it the Ogua, sure, O-G-U-A, okay that's what I'm gonna say, Ogua, kind of like Ogua, but not, okay, so um this is a pretty like ancient creature because the native people in the area had known about it for a long time, um like way back, and they knew about this creature living in the river, so when the European settlers came from you know England and where else they were coming from, to Pennsylvania, West Virginia, they had to learn about this creature from these stories and legends from the native people, um they would warn settlers not to venture too close to the water's edge, um and because the large and powerful jaws of the Ogua were more than capable of taking a victim from the shore and dragging them back down beneath the surface of the water, um the beasts thought to drown its victims first and then store its bodies and its den only to devour them later, so they never find a body? No, like it's taken and then stored in the, which is something that alligators do, so alligators and icing crocodiles as well, um but they will take something from the shore like a deer or something like a small creature like that, um they'll come on and get like take whatever it is and pull it down and kill it and then they will stick it under like a log or something and then come back to it and eat it.

Well it's kind of like when I go to a restaurant I get a teal box. Right it's like a teal box, exactly. Yeah and I'll hit it up later that night maybe for breakfast and more. Right or really midnight snack and you're like man I really want that slightly cold pasta.

Yeah yeah so like I get the deer off the road you know make sure it's dead obviously and then I just put it under a rock you know in my yard and then go back and- Exactly. Absolutely that's perfect. Absolutely. Yeah so that's what it would do.

So even though it is described um in a lot of the way the other monsters are described so like a dark shape below the water it turns the surface knocks over canoes pulls animals down floating on the surface. It does differ in you know a unique way because it's also able to live on land. So the creature was described as not having flippers or fins but four stubby little legs instead. The Olga said to be able to strike fast at potential prey on shore but if it missed it could quickly dirt out of the water and chase whatever it was going after until it caught.

It's going to be hard to do on short little stubby legs. Right yeah so it would either then carry or drag the victims back to the body of water where it would store it for later under the surface. It's long the thick tail would drag on the ground the entire way back to the water often creating deep slide marks in the earth. Since you know it was described as described as being reddish brown in color almost turtle like an appearance nearly 20 feet long and roughly 500 pounds.

The pictures that I've seen of it like of the artist's renditions obviously it kind of looks across between a turtle and an alligator. A turtle gator. Well there are such things as alligator snapping turtles. Right like that's a thing so it kind of looks like that.

Okay and those things get to be really really big. Well not 20 feet normally but you know they get pretty awesome. But also people tend to embellish it. Yeah it was a hundred and twelve feet long.

Right yeah yeah so and that's the main two. Right sorry so researchers believe that the Ogoa could have started like a legend could have started after local tribes possibly came across a rogue alligator that had made its way up the Mississippi into the Ohio River and then eventually into the Mon which is like that kind of stuff happens right not often. This would explain some of the stories of animals and even people being snatched off the shore ground and stored away later which we talked about like that's what alligators do. So there have been other alligator sightings in other northern states throughout history that still happens today where they get kind of for some reason they go like the wrong way almost and end up in different places which is really weird.

So it's not really like a crazy out there theory that it could have been an alligator. Other researchers believe that a larger than normal alligator snapping turtle is the blame which I mentioned that would explain the turtle like appearance as well as the aggressive nature carnivorous appetite and reddish brown skin. So normally alligator snapping turtles are found down south but they have been found as far north as Maine and are able to survive you know just fine. Even yeah they do move a lot slower and stay out of sight in colder months.

So the first sighting like officials are recorded sighting was back in 1745 by a family living in Holtz, West Virginia. It says there was a 12 year old boy who was allegedly pulled under the water by the ugua while fishing with his family. The boy was never seen again. Just crazy.

Okay so here I'm just going to go through some of the different sightings that people have had. So another one was from the late 1700s. It was a letter written by a young soldier stationed at Fort Harmer which is near present-day Marietta, Ohio and he described it as a quote river devil that would lie and wait for deer to come down to the water to drink. It would then lunge out and seize them crushing them in his mighty jaws and dragging them downstream to its layer.

The soldier said that a hunting party from the fort actually managed to kill one of the bees which they measured being 15 feet and length and weighing over 400 pounds. He reported the creature had not one but two heads like some Nachimera hybrid of reptile and mythological hydra. They have to. They have to.

Right so and that also is allegedly so like I mean I don't think there's any like official report of that happening. And it's not that sound is good though right? Oh yeah. He was like so like us all this crock.

Yeah. And they're like oh okay so cool. Yeah cool man. He's like oh my god if you come to all do their little two heads.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So in the 19th century the sightings continued. Farmers and fishermen reported seeing the creatures dark humped back break the surface over the river or spotting the distinctive trail tracks in the middle of the riverbank. In a few instances people claimed the monster had actually attacked them pursuing them only under trying to overturn their boats but there's no you know real concrete evidence and with many people still regarding the backwoods of Appalachia as a realm of superstition and tall tales. Ain't that the truth.

We've learned that on this podcast. Absolutely. And we love it. Bring it on.

Absolutely. Okay so in the 20th century as the river area became more industrialized and populated you know when there were more people there they were going to have more witnesses to things if there is something there. So there were more credible reports coming out about the river monster. In the 30s through the 50s sightings around the city of Pittsburgh became so frequent that local police actually formed a task force to investigate but they never were able to capture it.

I mean you know there's a lot of steel being made. No. They just they need to be able to do something else with their time. So you know what let's let's form it.

Let's take our money away from the crime that's happening here. I put it towards mythical. A mythical. Turtle alligator creature thing.

Let's do that. Yeah. Feels right. Yeah.

Feels good. And they were unsuccessful. So all that time and ever it was truly worth it. Yeah.

Feels good. In the 80s the Ogawa entered more you know political awareness in 83 a series of sightings around the town of Rivsville, West Virginia. Made headlines and the monsters back in the spotlight. The most dramatic encounter was out of a coal miner named John Edward White who claimed to have seen a huge serpentine creature while fishing on the river at night.

As he watched the beast massive head and long riding tail broke the surface yards from where he sat. His story made local papers and soon other eyewitnesses came for with their own tails of close calls with the Ogawa. Pops up from the water and says I'm back bitches. I'm here.

I thought I was going. Ogawa. Ogawa. Ogawa bitches.

I'm back and I've got another head. There you do it. Yeah. Okay.

So this kind of was a turning point in the legend because you're now having people like like more modern day sightings of it and stuff like that. So a lot of cryptozoologists did not know that was. Yeah. That's a thing and I kind of want to be one.

And monster hunters flocked to the region hoping to like capture evidence. Locals shared their own stories and theories and the Ogawa became a source of regional pride almost. Like yeah, this is our monster. We love him.

So the t-shirts. Absolutely. So it became a unique piece of Appalachian lore that set the Montagayla River apart from you know anywhere else. Wow.

Requises returning with the pieces of the dogs barking. Yes. We can't escape the animal. We can't.

It's so zoo in here. In my home. It just does what it is. And that's what we do.

Okay. So in the many decades since those last sightings they have continued. None of them is dramatic or well publicized as that Rivesville incident in the 80s. In 2003 a fisherman near Pittsburgh claimed to have taken a photo of the creature but the blurry image was inconclusive.

I mean we are talking about the time period. Yeah. Early digital camera. So I might see none.

Yeah. Other witnesses have come forward with stories of close encounters describing the same massive prehistoric looking beast. Some reach searchers have uncovered some old newspaper archives and different accounts that seem to describe the Ogoa. But they have been pretty largely forgotten over the years.

Like the little hints that are in there suggest that the monster's history may be even richer than and more extensive than we really know. But it's you know just a really cool part of Appalachian folklore. I love that. Yeah.

So I want the t-shirt. I want the t-shirt. Yeah. A hat.

Maybe like a trucker hat. Yeah. The Ogoa. Yeah with the two heads definitely.

Yeah. I wanted to say I survived the Ogoa. But the Ogoa didn't survive me. I mean I would imagine it's probably like what people are seeing is probably an alligator-sarming turtle.

Yeah I guess. That's what I would guess. But I also like the belief that it's a monster. Listen you don't even make it.

I do. Yeah. I'm into it. I like it.

Have you ever seen one of those t-sarming turtles? Yes. My son watches the show called Wow Fam. Something like that.

And it's basically this guy in Florida and he kind of has this mirage of you know aquatic creatures and he goes and saves different creatures and that kind of thing. And so we've seen a lot of the snappy turtles. We've seen um oh gosh there's something. I can't think of the name of it but my son loves to watch and see if he catches that.

It's pretty cool. So yeah we've seen a lot of that and it does strike me that there are a lot of creepy weird looking animals in the sea. Yeah. In freshwater.

Yeah. Saltwater. Yeah. We've had we got a big snappy turtle on our property in this little like pond thing for a while and it was very did not like it.

Or did it jump? Did it just kind of go away? Yeah I don't know exactly what happened to it. I don't know if somebody like took it off somewhere but there was one actually on when you get on the interstate from like my town.

There was a big snappy turtle that had been like hit on the road. It looked pretty intact. I mean it was clearly dead but it was just like on the side of the road. Like I mean it was off to you.

You didn't collect it. No I'm sure it smelled really bad. No science. Thank you.

I have stopped and saved a box turtle or two from the road before. You saved a cat from the elements? Yeah. So you brought me in.

Yeah brought you in. Yeah. No. Please.

Yeah. Ribbies. All the stuff. Yeah.

Yeah. No the uh I'll stop for like a box turtle or something and move it off the road. Sweet. Yeah.

I won't stop for a homeless person. No because they're gonna order you. There's a higher likelihood of being murdered by a person than a turtle I feel. I yeah but I don't stop bringing people.

Turtles have a gun. No. Well that we know. I mean they might.

Yeah. This is fun. Yeah. This is a fun little piece here.

Probably to you know get us away from the weeks of like we've had some intensity. We have. Yeah. Missing children murder in the 1800s.

Yeah. The Cincinnati Hills. Yeah. Sort of stuff.

Yeah. Joint suicide. crazy. Just all the things.

So I do like this delightful little river monster. Little river monster. I'm sure a great time. Tickles my fancy.

Yeah. Whatever you need. Cool. All right.

Until next time. Oh wait. No way that they had a reach us. Oh you can do that by emailing Haley directly at mountain mysteries dot Appalachian at gmail.com.

You can find us on Facebook at mountain mysteries tales from Appalachia Instagram at mountain mysteries dot Appalachia and of course bonus content you know you want it. Patreon dot com slash known mysteries. All right. Our shout out is Quincy Massachusetts.

Excellent. Thank you so much for listening. We will catch you next time. Bye.