Beasts and hauntings Henry County naturalist provides tales of scary visions locally

MT. PLEASANT - Although Iowa may not be the first place that comes to mind when it comes to hauntings and beasts, Henry County Conservation's assistant naturalist Danika Cox offered stories on Sunday afternoon that may convince even the most fervent unbelievers that there are creatures and ghosts lurking throughout the state.

Cox started her virtual presentation with the beasts portion and noted that in 2016, 18,000 new species of plants and animals were identified.

'Could these sightings have been new species or their mind playing tricks?” she asked.

Beasts Cox covered included the Van Meter Monster, the Lockridge Monster, the Monster of Big Blue, and Iowa's very own Loch Ness monster, Pepie the Lake Pepin Monster.

The stories included sightings of fur-covered creatures that destroyed livestock of farmers and giant snapping turtles rumored to lurk at the bottom of lakes.

Cox covered Iowa-based Bigfoot sightings including one woman in Sioux City who claimed to have seen Bigfoot, Bigfoot's mate and a baby. In Iowa, Humboldt County remains the top location for reported sightings with nine reported so far.

'It's interesting that there are so many people reporting seeing the same thing across multiple states. People are definitely seeing something,” Cox said.

In discussing haunted locations throughout the state, Cox told the stories of the Black Angel of Oakland Cemetery, the Banshee of Brady Street, The Day the Music Died, Reece Park, Mossy Glen the Axe Murder House and the Tara Bridge.

While most stories centered on accidental tragedies, Mossy Glen and the Axe Murder House in Villisca were based on murder cases. In her tellings of the incidents, Cox said the locations are known to be haunted by the murder victims as well as the murderers.

In some haunting locations, there continue to be beliefs about sightings at certain times of the night including Reece Park, where visitors are allowed to camp and hike and listen for ghostly apparitions and the sound of screams.

'Could it be the weather? A case of mistaken identity? Could these people be seeing someone else in the area? I don't know,” Cox said of the potential hauntings.

With the gruesome details of the murder-related hauntings, Cox added the very details of what happened could induce visions and automatically cause someone's mind to 'go into overdrive,” encouraging visions.

'Are stories even about ghosts? Could it be weird weather patterns or eyes playing tricks on them? I honestly don't know,” she said.