BLOG: The Top Five Legendary Monsters of Indiana
Every state has its shadows and specters— and Indiana is in a heightened state of paranormal. Known for its rolling farmlands, dense forests, and winding rivers, the Hoosier State hides more than just cornfields. Beneath its quiet towns and rustic landscapes lurk legends that have endured for centuries—monsters whispered about around campfires, chronicled in newspapers, and even reported in modern times.
Here are five of the most legendary creatures said to roam Indiana, where myth, history, and eerie encounters blur.
Indiana’s most famous monster may not walk on two legs at all, but swim beneath the surface. The Beast of Busco—also called “Oscar”—is a gargantuan turtle said to dwell in Fulk Lake near Churubusco.
The legend exploded in 1949 when farmer Gale Harris claimed to have spotted a turtle “the size of a dining room table” lurking in his lake. Soon, the small town was overrun with reporters, fortune-seekers, and curious onlookers. Harris even tried draining the lake to prove the turtle’s existence but came up empty-handed.
Skeptics dismiss the Beast as a mix of snapping turtle exaggeration and small-town hysteria. Yet to this day, locals trade stories of a dark shell surfacing briefly before vanishing beneath the water. Some insist Oscar is real, a prehistoric holdover that simply refuses to be caught.
2. The Crosley Monster
Deep in Jennings County lies the Crosley State Fish and Wildlife Area, home to Indiana’s own mysterious beast. Hunters and campers have long told stories of a hulking, hair-covered figure stalking the forest—a creature sometimes linked to Bigfoot.
In the 1970s, reports of a “bear-man hybrid” began circulating, with multiple witnesses describing a creature walking upright on two legs. One hunter even claimed his dogs refused to enter a section of woods where the Crosley Monster had been spotted.
While no photographic evidence has surfaced, the consistency of the sightings over decades—from glowing eyes seen at dusk to crashing footsteps in the brush—has kept the legend alive.
3. The Mill Race Monster
If Indiana has a cryptid celebrity, it’s the Mill Race Monster of Columbus. Described as a towering, hairy humanoid with glowing eyes, it was first reported in 1974 at Mill Race Park, terrifying locals who described it as more frightening than any known animal.
In one famous case, two young women fled their car after seeing a creature rise from the shadows near the bridge. Another man later reported being chased by the beast while out walking. Newspapers at the time ran sensational headlines calling it “the monster that stalks Columbus,” and police even urged citizens to stay out of the park after dark.
Modern researchers often classify the Mill Race Monster as a variety of Bigfoot, but eyewitnesses insist it was something different—darker, more aggressive, and far less shy than the Pacific Northwest Sasquatch.
4. The Crawfordsville Monster
One of Indiana’s oldest legends comes from the 1890s in the town of Crawfordsville. Unlike the hairy monsters of later years, this one took to the skies.
In 1891, townsfolk began reporting a massive, writhing, snake-like creature flying above rooftops. The entity was described as 20 feet long, with fins and a flaming red eye, moving with a “squirming motion” like a living airship. Dozens of credible witnesses saw it, and newspapers from Indianapolis to Chicago covered the hysteria.
Later explanations suggested misidentified flocks of birds or atmospheric illusions. Still, eyewitnesses at the time swore what they saw was alive—and monstrous. Today, the “Crawfordsville Monster” is considered one of the strangest cases of 19th-century American cryptid lore.
5. Green-Clawed Beast of the Ohio River
In 1955, a woman named Naomi Johnson reported a terrifying encounter while swimming in the Ohio River near Evansville. She claimed an enormous clawed, green-skinned hand grabbed her leg and pulled her underwater. Though she fought free, the marks of the creature’s claws remained on her skin for days.
Local newspapers dubbed it the Green-Clawed Beast, and speculation ran wild. Some suggested it was a giant freshwater fish or an alligator. Others whispered of alien involvement, noting that a sighting of a UFO had been reported nearby the very same week. The creature was never seen again, but Naomi never swam in the river again either—a lasting testament to the horror she experienced that day.
From prehistoric turtles to green-clawed river beasts, Indiana’s monsters remind us that the Midwest is far more than farmland and small towns. It’s a state where history, folklore, and unexplained encounters overlap in unsettling ways—proving that the line between fact and legend is never quite clear. And perhaps it’s no coincidence that Stranger Things, with its shadowy creatures and hidden dimensions, chose Indiana as its backdrop. After all, in a place already rich with tales of monsters lurking just out of sight, the Upside Down doesn’t feel so far away.
For more monstrous state lore, check out The Top 5 Legendary Monsters of Tennessee and The Top 5 Legendary Monsters of Pennsylvania.
And there’s plenty more weird Indiana where that came from— check out Episode 309: The Predator, Episode 692: Dark Shift, Written Confession: The Demon Clown Creature in Indiana, and Creature Feature Friday: The Beast of Busco.