Water Monster · Washington, District of Columbia · 1854

WA-1854ID case-10c3e432e7Fallback locationAdded to map Oct 8, 2026

Creature: Water Monster
When: Oct 1854to the month
Where: Washington, District of Columbiafallback location
Reports: 5 documents1 independent

The account

An eye-witness reports seeing a serpentine monster thirty to forty feet long moving in the bay, with fishermen claiming knowledge of an unknown creature capable of great speed.

Trace the source trail → every document, in time order, and how they connect · 2 cited sources not found yet

We map claims, not creatures: this is what the sources say, not proof. How a case is built

Details

Creature: Water Monster
Where: Washington, District of Columbia, United States
mapped to town level · from the newspaper's printing town, not where it was seen
Fallback location (drawn hollow on the map): this is the newspaper's printing town, not where it was seen.
When: Oct 1854
Account: Not first-hand (retold or reported by someone else)
Backed by: 1 independent source (5 documents; copies and reprints are not confirmations)
Added to map: Oct 8, 2026
Case id: case-10c3e432e7

Place lookups use data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), via Nominatim. All credits

Source trail (3)

Down the rabbit hole → 5 documents, and how they connect

Every link goes to where we found the account. The earliest we found is marked; it is the earliest found, not necessarily the original.

Image 3 of Daily national intelligencer (Washington City [D.C.]), October 23, 1854
Newspaper · 1854-10-23
Earliest found, not necessarily the original.
Image 5 of Weekly national intelligencer (Washington [D.C.]), October 28, 1854
Newspaper · 1854-10-28
Image 1 of The Athens post (Athens, Tenn.), November 3, 1854
Newspaper · 1854-11-03

Request a correction or removal of this case

Discussion (0)

No comments on this case yet.