Subject: Re: Alligators in Vincennes Richard,
Here is an item that might interest you...an alligator in Mariah Creek in
Vincennes in 1946. The supposed explanation of how it got there is even
more fantastic than finding it in the first place.
Indianapolis Star, 31 December 1946, p. 9. c. 5
"Petersburg Lays Claim To 'Gator Killed Downstate
Petersburg, Ind. Dec. 30 - An alligator liberated in a government lake near
here in 1900 is believed to be the one killed in Mariah Creek at Vincennes
last week by two Pike County hunters, Ben Melvin and James Audaer.
It was recalled that a defunct road show in 1900 gave an alligator to John
J. Eisert, an employe of the Petersburg Press, in payment for an advertising
bill. Unable to sell the alligator, Eisert placed it in the lake where it
remained until the 1913 floodwaters carried it down White River to the
Wabash. There it apparently worked up the Wabash into Mariah Creek."
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I am sure that alligator did not survive in Indiana for 46 years and swim
from Petersburg to Vincennes, but where did it come from?
I am researching a couple other items you might be able to use.
Paul A. Roales
Date: Sun, 10 Aug 1997 09:40:05 -0500
From: "Paul A. Roales"
To: richard king
Geologist
P.A.R. Consulting Service
http://www.ionet.net/~paroales