The Beast of Busco

[00:00:00] Hi there, and welcome to Out There, A Cryptid Podcast. I'm Josh, and today we're looking into the story of a giant turtle that sparked one of the biggest cryptid hunts in American history. This is The Beast of Busco. Let's dive in.

[00:00:50] Just a quick reminder before we get started. For the next few weeks in August, TJ and I are going to be taking a little break. But don't worry, episodes are still coming out every week. We've got some Reddit episodes, plus a few more BFRO episodes, since you all seemed to really enjoy the last one. Then we'll be back in September with some exciting news that I can't wait to share with all of you. As we get ready to move out there into Phase

[00:01:17] 3, I'd really love to hear your thoughts. I put together a super quick survey to find out what you're enjoying, what you'd like to see more of, and where you'd like to see the podcast go next. It only takes a couple of minutes, and your feedback will genuinely help shape what's coming up next. You can find the survey link in this episode's description, and I also keep it on our Instagram story pretty regularly. Thanks so much for taking the time to make this show even better.

[00:01:47] And if you haven't already, be sure to check out the first episode of the Parasocial Club, featuring me, Eva, and Em from And That's Why We Drink. It was a ton of fun to record, and I think you'll really enjoy it. Alright, enough of me. We'll get into the beast of Busco right after this. Right now, get up to 15% off Select Storage Solutions. Put heavy-duty HDX totes to good use, protecting what's important to you. The solid, impact-resistant design prevents cracking,

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[00:03:09] Every town has its own local legend. Sometimes it's a haunted house that everyone avoids after dark. Sometimes it's a strange creature people swear they've seen in the woods. And sometimes it's just a story that's been passed down for generations, until nobody really knows where it started. But for the people of Cherubusco, Indiana, their legend wasn't about a ghost or some mysterious creature hiding in the forest.

[00:03:37] According to local lore, there was something enormous living beneath the surface of a small lake just outside of town. Something much larger than any turtle that had ever been seen before. Now, Cherubusco is a small town in Whitley County in northeastern Indiana. Today, it's home to just a couple thousand people.

[00:04:03] And like a lot of little midwestern towns, it's surrounded by farmland. It's quiet, it's close-knit, and if you were just passing through, you'd probably never guess it's home to one of America's strangest cryptid stories. But the history of this area goes back much further than the town itself. Long before Cherubusco was founded in 1848, the land was home to indigenous peoples, including the Miami and the

[00:04:32] Potawatomi, who lived throughout northern Indiana and had deep connections to the lakes, rivers, and forests that surrounded them. By the mid-1800s, settlers had started to establish farm communities that still exist today. And for decades, it was exactly what you'd expect. A quiet Indiana town where not much made national headlines.

[00:04:55] Then, there was Folk Lake. The lake sits just outside of town and isn't especially large or remote. In fact, if you saw today, you probably wouldn't think twice about it. But in the late 1800s, one local farmer claimed he had seen something swimming beneath the surface that he couldn't explain. At first, it was just another local story. The kind of thing neighbors talk about for a while before eventually moving on.

[00:05:25] Except this one never really went away. And it all started with a man named Oscar Folk. Oscar was a local farmer who lived near the lake that would eventually be named after his family. Oscar wasn't someone who spent his time trying to make headlines or convince people he'd seen monsters. He was just

[00:05:48] a farmer going about his daily routine in rural Indiana. But then, sometime around 1898, Oscar claimed he saw something in the water that completely caught him off guard. According to the story that's been passed down over the years, Oscar was near the edge of the lake when he noticed an enormous turtle just beneath the surface. At first glance, it probably didn't even register as unusual. Turtles

[00:06:17] were common around Indiana lakes. But this one wasn't common. Oscar later estimated that the turtle was around four feet across and weighed close to 500 pounds. To put that into perspective, snapping turtles do get large, but nothing even close to that size has ever been documented. So if

[00:06:41] Oscar's estimate was accurate, this animal would have been unlike anything scientists have ever recorded. Of course, people were skeptical. It's one thing to mistake the size of a fish or even a deer from a distance, but a turtle is a pretty specific animal to misidentify. But still, Oscar was convinced he had

[00:07:04] seen something. And over time, the story began making its way around the town. The giant turtle eventually earned the nickname Oscar. Both because of the man who first reported it, and because no one really knew what else to call it. At the time though, it was basically just local folklore. There were no newspaper reporters showing up in town, no crowds gathering around the lake, and definitely no search parties.

[00:07:32] And Oscar never caught the turtle. And as the years went on, there weren't really any major sightings. It was simply one of those stories people told about something strange. And for the next 50 years, that's pretty much where the story stayed. But if the story had ended there, we probably wouldn't be here right now. Almost 50 years after the original sighting, two men claimed they had seen the giant turtle

[00:08:00] for themselves. And unlike Oscar's story, this sighting wouldn't stay local for very long. July 1948. Two local men named Ora Blue and Charlie Wilson had taken a rowboat out onto Folk Lake for what they expected to be a normal day of fishing. Instead, they claimed they came face to face with

[00:08:26] the very creature Oscar Folk had described decades earlier. According to their account, an enormous turtle surfaced alongside their boat, close enough that they could get a good look at it before it just disappeared beneath the water again. The two men estimated the turtle weighed somewhere around 500 pounds, with a shell somewhere between four and six feet across. Other descriptions compared the size

[00:08:55] to a dining room table. There are some versions of the encounter that were even more dramatic. Apparently, when the turtle surfaced that close, it appeared to nudge the boat, and in some versions, reached toward their fishing gear before slipping back beneath the surface. Now, it's hard to know the exact true story, seeing as it's sort of been dramatized and now has multiple versions, but Blue and

[00:09:23] Wilson were certain that they had seen something far from normal. So, they rode back to shore and told Gail Harris, the man who owned the property surrounding Folk Lake. At first, Harris wasn't exactly sold on the story, but that wouldn't last. Harris decided to take a look for himself, and he later claimed that he also had seen

[00:09:47] this giant turtle. In one account, he described watching an enormous shell break the surface of the water, before slowly slipping back beneath again. And this was when this cryptid story really took a turn. Unlike most of the other witnesses, Harris didn't just tell the story and move on. He decided he was going to

[00:10:11] catch the turtle. At first, the plan was simple. Harris and a handful of local volunteers began trying to lure the turtle to the surface with bait. They waited to either get a photo of it, or maybe even capture it. But day after day, they waited along the shoreline, and it never seemed to cooperate.

[00:10:32] But Harris wasn't going to give up that easy. More and more people started hearing about what Harris was about the story. And before they knew it, newspaper reporters began arriving in Cherubusco to cover the story. Of course, it didn't take long for the beast of Busco to become national news. Stories about the giant

[00:11:02] turtle started appearing in newspapers across the country. And suddenly, this small Indiana town was at the center of one of the strangest stories of the year. Local papers were some of the first to cover the story. And this is when the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette gave the creature the name that would stick, the Beast of Busco. Other newspapers referred to the turtle as Oscar, like a lot of locals had since

[00:11:31] the 1898 sighting. Soon, the story spread far beyond Indiana. Newspapers across the country were reporting on the search, and people became fascinated by this idea that something this unusual could be hiding right in the middle of a normal Indiana community. And that attention only made Harris more determined. At this point, it wasn't just a story being passed around the town anymore. Reporters were watching,

[00:12:00] people were showing up hoping to catch a glimpse of the creature, and everyone wanted to know the same thing. Was the Beast of Busco actually real? But there was still one problem. Even with all the sightings and attention, nobody had actually caught it, or had any proof. More on the Beast of Busco, right after this.

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[00:12:59] If Harris actually managed to catch this thing, it would have been one of the biggest animal discoveries in American history. And that is the exact thing that fueled Harris's determination. The more people that showed up, the more convinced he became that he had to prove the turtle was real. So, since waiting for it to surface wasn't working, he decided it was time to force it up to the surface,

[00:13:25] and out into the open. So like we mentioned before, the first major attempt to find the Beast involved using bait and traps. So, Harris and a group of local volunteers began setting up spots with fish and meat all around the lake, and had people all stationed nearby each. So, if the creature decided to come out of the water, they could trap it. But the problem was that the turtle seemed to have no interest in cooperating.

[00:13:55] Day after day, people watched the lake, checked the bait, and waited for some sign of this giant turtle. They were convinced it was somewhere beneath the surface, but every attempt ended the same way. Nothing. No giant shell breaking the water, no evidence, and no beast. And for most people, this would probably have been the point where they started questioning whether the turtle was real.

[00:14:23] But for Harris, again, every failed attempt seemed to have the opposite effect. If the turtle wasn't coming to them, then they were going to find another way to get it out. Harris wasn't going to stop there. At this point, he had spent too much time, and too much effort, and too much energy trying to prove that the Beast of Busco was real. And before long, the search started becoming much bigger than just bait and traps.

[00:14:52] So, as we can see, this wasn't going the way Harris had hoped. The bait didn't work, the traps didn't work, and no matter how many people watched the lake, the Beast of Busco refused to show itself. So, Harris came to the conclusion that if the creature wasn't going to come to them, they were going to have to go to it. And that meant

[00:15:15] draining Folk Lake. His thinking was, I guess, pretty straightforward. If there really was a giant turtle hiding somewhere beneath the surface, lowering the water level would remove its hiding place and force it into the open. So, instead of waiting around for the creature to appear, they would take away the one place it could hide, and finally get their answer. Of course, draining a lake is a lot easier said

[00:15:45] than done, because this wasn't just a small backyard pond that could be emptied in one afternoon. Folk Lake covered a large area, and it would take a major effort to remove enough water to search it properly. But, at this point, the search for the creature had become much bigger, and everybody around was invested in finding out if this legendary turtle was actually real. So, the pumps were brought in,

[00:16:12] volunteers helped with the effort, and people still gathered around the lake to watch as the water level slowly began to drop. Reporters continued following the story, and crowds showed up, hoping they might finally see the creature that had put Cherubusco on the map. But, as the water level kept getting lower and lower, there was still no sign of the beast. What they did find were plenty of normal

[00:16:41] snapping turtles and other wildlife, but nothing even close to the enormous creature people had been searching for. If there really was a giant turtle living in the lake, all the pumps, crowds, and activity would have created a lot of disturbance beneath the surface. The creature that was supposedly hundreds of

[00:17:07] pounds with the shell the size of a table, was nowhere to be found. And after months of searching, the hunt for the beast was finally starting to come to an end. Harris and everyone else was left with a very hard truth. Despite all the sightings, the newspaper coverage and the effort that went into finding it, there was still no physical evidence

[00:17:33] that a giant turtle had ever lived in Folk Lake. But now I know what you're saying. Why did we just spend all this time on a cryptid that doesn't really have a big ending? And honestly, I don't completely disagree. The beast of Busco doesn't end with someone finally catching the creature or finding some incredible piece of evidence. But I think the explanations behind the story are what make it so fascinating.

[00:18:03] Because out of all the cryptids we've covered, this is actually one that I could genuinely believe started with something real. So let's start with the first explanation. This was just a simple case of mistaken identity. And the size of the creature was exaggerated over time. And honestly, this is probably the explanation that makes the most sense. Because while a giant turtle sounds impossible,

[00:18:33] the idea of a very large snapping turtle living in Folk Lake is not as crazy as it may seem. Indiana is home to several different species of turtles. But when we start talking about the beast of Busco, one species makes a lot more sense than the others. The common snapping turtle. The common snapping turtle is the one most people in Indiana would be familiar with.

[00:18:57] These turtles are found throughout much of the United States and are known for their powerful jaws, long necks, and aggressive behavior when they feel threatened. They can grow surprisingly large, with some reaching over a foot in shell length and weighing more than 30 pounds. They aren't exactly the prettiest creatures either.

[00:19:19] Their shells have a rough, almost prehistoric appearance, with deep ridges and jagged edges that make them look more like something from a million years ago than an animal you would find living in a freshwater lake today. Then you look at the rest of them. They've got these giant heads, a beak that could easily take your finger off, and even a little worm-looking thing on their tongue that they use to lure fish in.

[00:19:48] Honestly, if you've never seen one before, they're pretty intimidating. But, the most interesting possibility for the beast of Busco, regardless of the Indiana lake, is a different species of snapping turtle. The alligator snapping turtle. Alligator snapping turtles are the largest freshwater turtles in North America.

[00:20:12] Unlike the common snapping turtle, these animals have a much more prehistoric, monstrous appearance. They have large, rigid shells and a powerful beak-like jaw, plus the same worm-like tongue thing. They honestly look like an animal that should have gone extinct millions of years ago, but are still alive today.

[00:20:36] These turtles can reach impressive sizes, with some of the largest documented individuals weighing over 200 pounds, but still not 500 like originally stated. Plus, the alligator turtle is not native to Indiana. They are generally found in southwest warmer climates. But, there's always the possibility that one found its way way more north.

[00:21:02] And if that were the case, when you consider that most people in 1898 and 1948 probably had never seen an alligator snapping turtle before, it's easy to understand how an unusually large one could become the source of a legend. That being said, there are not one, but two prehistoric turtles

[00:21:27] that do actually sound pretty similar to what witnesses described seeing in Folk Lake. More on the Beast of Busco right after this. The first is a turtle called Archelon. This species lived around 70 million years ago, and is the largest sea turtle scientists have ever discovered.

[00:21:52] It could grow to more than 13 feet long and weigh over 4,000 pounds. So, when people describe a turtle with a shell the size of a table, it isn't completely made up. Animals like this really did exist. The only problem is that Archelon lived in the ocean, not freshwater lakes. Plus, it did go extinct millions of years ago,

[00:22:20] before humans were ever around. So, I think it's safe to say that this isn't the one. However, the second turtle is called Stupendomies, and this one is probably even closer to the beast. Unlike Archelon, Stupendomies lived in freshwater rivers and lakes. It lived in South America millions of years ago, and scientists believe it had a shell that measured close to 10 feet across,

[00:22:49] and weighed somewhere around 2,500 pounds. To this day, it's considered the largest freshwater turtle ever discovered. So, giant turtles aren't just something people imagined. They really did exist. The problem is they did disappear millions of years ago, and there's no evidence that one somehow survived all that time.

[00:23:14] And it does seem especially far-fetched that it would end up in a small lake in Indiana. But here's what most people agree upon. They believe the people who saw the Beast of Busco probably did see a turtle. It may have been an unusually large one. But as the story spread from one person to the next, the size of the turtle kept growing, until it became the huge creature we know today.

[00:23:41] And I would have to say that I agree with that explanation. However, I do have one theory that I think is interesting. Especially if you're someone who still believes there was something living in Folk Lake. One thing we know about snapping turtles is that they are incredibly good at hiding. They'll spend long periods of time, like 40 to 50 minutes, sitting on the bottom of lakes and ponds.

[00:24:10] Sometimes partially buried in the mud, with only their eyes and nostrils sticking out. They do this while they're waiting to ambush prey. But they also stay hidden if they feel threatened or disturbed. So I wonder, if there really was an unusually large snapping turtle living in the lake, is it possible that's exactly what it did? As all of these people showed up,

[00:24:39] the pump started running, and the lake became louder and more crowded than it had probably ever been. Could the turtle have simply buried itself in the mud and waited it out? Now, does that explain a table-sized turtle shell? Well, no. It definitely doesn't prove that the beast of Busco was real and 500 pounds, but it could help explain why nobody ever found a particularly large turtle during the search.

[00:25:09] The other thing to keep in mind is that snapping turtles, while they can live a long time, they're not immortal. In the wild, they're generally thought to live somewhere between 30 to 50 years, although some individuals may live longer under the right conditions. So if Oscar Folk really did see a large turtle around 1898, it's pretty unlikely that it would have been the same exact animal

[00:25:38] that people were searching for 50 years later. And the worst part is that it most certainly would not still be alive today. So in my opinion, the most likely explanation is that people probably did see a very large snapping turtle, and it may have been much bigger than average. And over the years, the story just kept growing until it became the Beast of Busco.

[00:26:04] The town of Cherubusco has completely embraced the story, even to this day. In fact, they proudly call themselves Turtle Town USA. And every year, they celebrate the Beast of Busco with the Turtle Days Festival in June. Thousands of people come out for parades, live music, turtle races, food vendors, and all kinds of events celebrating the creature that put their little town on the map.

[00:26:33] So whether there ever was a cryptid turtle living in Folk Lake probably isn't the point anymore. One unusual sighting turned into a story that has lasted for well over a hundred years. And it brought an entire town together, made national headlines, and became one of the most famous legends in the Midwest. Or, maybe there really was something living beneath the surface

[00:27:03] that nobody ever managed to find. Maybe it's still there to this day. So what do you think? Is the Beast of Busco really out there? Be sure to follow us on Instagram at OutThereCryptids for episode posts, updates, and more. Join our community on Discord where we dive even deeper into the mysteries we explore here on the podcast.

[00:27:32] The link can be found on our Instagram. And if you're loving the show, consider supporting us on Patreon. As a patron, you get exclusive perks like bonus episodes, early access, and even surprises. See you next week!