The charm of the outcountry, the allure of treasure, the rumor of ghosts, the fear of monsters and a touch of magic all under the subtext of race combined with the art of superstition unfold in the curious legend that is Coal Creek. The story passed down or invented (who knows), nevertheless, rightfully earns its place among the strangest of strange stories to ever come off American soil.
Reader, if there is nothing else true to the following tale be assured that there is such a place as Coal Creek in Illinois. Three in fact, as if the very story, itself, was not convoluted enough. Fortunately, the legend hints at the most southwardly of the three; an unimposing, quaint, little, out-of-the-way area and hardly a place to hide monsters, but such is subjective.
For where one sees no more than a grove of trees, another sees woods of strange enchantments. Where one may look upon a creek and see nothing but murky water, another sees everything from the darkness down below to where monsters lurk and ghosts make their home. Indeed, for what is not beheld by mortal eyes, the human imagination has to fill.
Thus it is with the following. And while we all love a good story, here is to be found what inquisitive minds might term as “suspect” (to say the least). From “Indian magicians” to the “ghostly guardians [who] are bound by a charm,” or even the “white man who formerly visited the mine [who] was supposed to have received from the Indians a charm by which he could control the guardian specters.” Now, there is a lot that could be said about that, phrases that could be analyzed and much to be desired. But underneath it all, perhaps, there remains still infinitely more what would simply best be enjoyed.
After all, while a story can be so much more first and foremost a story it is. So, set aside logic, hold back criticisms and simply indulge yourself for what it is worth—a weird but wonderful footnote in American folklore.
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THE LEGEND OF COAL CREEK.
The Rich Vein of Silver Which is Guarded by
Two Weird Monsters.
The Rich Vein of Silver Which is Guarded by
Two Weird Monsters.
Clinton (Ind.) Letter in Chicago News.
Between Clinton, Ind., and the Illinois line is a hilly bit of country, through which flows a little stream called Coal creek. In the hills are valuable coal beds, lying generally only a few feet below the surface of the ground and cropping out in many places. The log cabins of miners and poor farmers, with here and there a stony field of corn or oats, are the only signs of civilization in the wild neighborhood. The people have a remarkable story to tell to any stranger who may chance to penetrate into their territory.
They firmly believe that there is a vein of pure silver “a foot think” in a certain hill at the side of the creek. This rich vein of metal, they say, extends under the bed of the creek and then is lost beneath a high hill on the other side. No white man now alive has ever seen this treasure. Many years ago, however, an old man dressed in ragged garments and acting as if he had lost his wits, was seen occasionally in the neighborhood, and it is believed he knew the secret of the mine. The old man, after remaining in the hills two or three days and nights, would disappear as mysteriously as he came. When any one questioned him about the mine he would shrink from them and say: “It would be death for me to tell.”
The people believed that this old man dug up what silver he could carry away and then departed, only returning when he needed more. He has not been seen for a number of years, however, and it is thought that he is dead.
The mine—so the story runs—is hidden from human eyes by the power of Indian [sic] magicians. Furthermore, it is protected by two grim guardians—a great lion and a snake one hundred feet long. There are many people in that vicinity who say they have seen the lion and the snake. As they are never known to leave any track behind them it is believed that they are ghosts. The people say that when the Indians were driven out of that country by the white settlers the magicians of the tribe killed the lion and the snake and left their ghosts to guard the mine. In order to furnish these ghosts with a hiding place the Indians set fire to a bed of coal which cropped out of the hill near by, thus forming a deep cave, which is there to this day, and which no one has dared to explore. In this dark hole the ghostly guardians are bound by a charm. The snake, however, is permitted to leave the den once every year, while the lion has the same privilege accorded it once every four or five years. At such times as they are free they roam abroad and create terror for miles around.
The snake was last seen in the summer of 1886 by a man named Murphy, who, with his little son, was picking blackberries in the woods. The father and son ran away as fast as they could; in fact, no one who has seen this wonderful serpent ever did anything in its presence except run away from it, so far as anyone can now remember. The lion, however, has been hunted.
John Flectcher, a farmer, one day about ten years ago, saw the lion in front of him. He ran to a neighbor’s house and got a gun, a companion, and a pack of hounds. They followed the lion to a thicket, in which it disappeared. The hounds, on catching sight of the beast, first bristled up and then turned tail and ran. The hunters also became frightened and went home.
Mrs. Hockett, when a little girl, saw the lion sitting by a stump on a hill near her father’s house. She began to scream, and her father ran to her. He could not see the beast, and told her that she was afraid of a stump. He got an ax and cut down the stump, but the lion still sat there. It finally went away. A few years later Mrs. Hockett’s sister saw an animal “like a big, woolly dog” running down hill by her side. Presently she saw it was the lion, and ran away.
About ten years later Mrs. Hockett, her husband and one or two other persons, while going along a lonely road at night, heard an animal breathing in a thicket a few feet away. Before they had time to get badly frightened they heard the animal rise above the tops of the young trees and then crashed down into the bushes several hundred feet away. A few more of those tremendous leaps took it out of hearing. They did not doubt but that it was the lion.
The spectral snake is described as being black in color as large around as the body of a man. The people believe that the charm by which it and the lion are held will become powerless in a few more years and that they will go away and never return. Then the lost silver mine will be found. The white man who formerly visited the mine was supposed to have received from the Indians a charm by which he could control the guardian specters. When he died the secret was lost.
In the above bare statement the curious belief of the Coal creek dwellers is given without adornment of any sort, its value lying in the simple faith with which the people of that locality accept it as the truth. The story reads like a relic of some mediæval tale of enchantment and fiery dragons, which in some strange manner has been transplanted on American soil.
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