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200 years of Richmond history
Aug. 31, 1948: Final Varmint Update!

Steve Martin
Palladium-Item - Richmond, Ind.
August 31, 2006

Wayne County's version of Bigfoot plagued residents during the month of August 1948. A mysterious beast was sighted by scores of people in Wayne, Union, Preble and Darke counties. Some were certain at least one wild varmint -- and possibly two -- stalked the area.

Fountain City residents first heard the call of a wild beast at night that made cattle, sheep and horses skittish.

Richmond police officer Louis Danels and family all saw "a peculiarly shaped monster" on a road southwest of Centerville.

Dorten Moore, a Fountain City farmer, had several hogs murdered and "the hearts and livers" devoured.

A bull was slain near Liberty and a conservation officer there attempted to kill an animal resembling a mountain lion.

Wayne County sheriff's officers received numerous reports of strange creatures lurking south of Richmond. Sightings of varmints came in daily ... and expanded to neighboring counties.

Numerous people saw "a lion and panther" along Clear Creek.

In Penville, James Leo spied a brute eating potato chips his children left on the back porch.

Russell Eggers saw a scary animal in the vicinity of the sewage disposal plant on Test Road.

Farmers in the Middleboro area north of Richmond spied "a large black animal" and fired shots. Robert Martin said, "I fired twice. At the second charge, the animal reared up and then fled through a gate leading away from the yard. I know I wounded it."

A Brookville man was attacked from the rear; his clothes were torn and he was scratched.

At the same time, hunts went on in New Westville, New Madison, Hollansburg, Palestine, and Morning Sun, Ohio.

Everybody was seeing varmints!

The only beast actually found was a four-foot blacksnake shaken from a tree limb when a sheriff's deputy grabbed the limb to climb a bank in the Whitewater Gorge. The lawman not only lost his footing, he lost his bladder as he shook the snake off himself.

A German shepherd with a beastly haircut and a mane attached to its neck was discerned as a hoax in Greens Fork.

The final varmint story came out on Aug. 31, 1948 when a Centerville man reported hearing "a panther scream" in the middle of the night.

Wayne County's version of Bigfoot -- or the varmint -- has never been satisfactorily explained. Richmond photographer Roy Hirshburg wrote an ode to "The Varmint."

To keep the varmint from growing dormant

Let's write it up in verse.

Do you wish to catch it? -- then use a hatchet!

Or you're flirtin' with a hearse.

These times inspire great balls of fire

And flying saucer hooey:

But this leaping panda propaganda

Has made us almost screwy!

Loch Ness had Nessie, the Pacific Northwest had Bigfoot, and Wayne County had the varmint in August 1948.

Ten years later, in July 1959, a similar varmint resurfaced in the hilly area around Elkhorn Creek, and was seen by a handful of men and some children, but that was the last of it.

C.D. Emerick wrote in the Palladium: "Coming generations will gape in wonder at the days in Richmond and Wayne County ... back in 1948 when the varmint roamed the land."

True words, but not in the way he thought.

http://www.pal-item.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060831/NEWS01/608310310/1008