Water Monster · Ashtabula, Ohio · 1879

OH-1879ID case-5b7c0eb283Fallback locationAdded to map Oct 9, 2026

The account

Captain Larsen reports that a large submarine monster with fins and a tail sank the vessel Columbia by making a hole in its bow.

Trace the source trail → every document, in time order, and how they connect

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

Creature: Water Monster
Where: Ashtabula, Ashtabula Township, Ashtabula County, Ohio, 44004, 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: Sep 1879
Account: Not first-hand (retold or reported by someone else)
Backed by: 1 independent source (4 documents; copies and reprints are not confirmations)
Added to map: Oct 9, 2026
Case id: case-5b7c0eb283

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

Down the rabbit hole → 4 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 1 of Ashtabula telegraph (Ashtabula, Ohio), September 19, 1879
Newspaper · 1879-09-19
Earliest found, not necessarily the original.

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