Monday, August 31, 2009

A western Pennsylvania river monster: the Ogua

Native American lore placed a monstrous creature called the Ogua in the Monongahela and Ohio Rivers. The Ogua was a chimerical creature shaped like a turtle, with a 15 foot tail and two heads that emerged from the water by night to hunt and kill deer, snaring them with its tail. Some Natives had stories that it was a monster generated by the legendary chief Hiawatha. European settlers reputedly encountered the beast, and an account is supposed to exist in the collection of West Virginia University.

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