Churubusco and the Beast of Busco
Near Fort Wayne, Indiana
The town of Churubusco in Whitley County, Indiana calls itself Turtle Town, and every June the streets fill with floats and a parade and a queen's coronation in honor of a creature that was never caught, and may not have existed. The story of the Beast of Busco is one of the great small-town legends of the Midwest, and understanding it requires going back to a farm pond, a fisherman, and a very large turtle.
In eighteen ninety-eight, a man named Oscar Fulk reported seeing a massive snapping turtle in the lake that would later bear his name. Nobody paid much attention. Fifty years passed. Then in the summer of nineteen forty-eight, two Churubusco residents named Ora Blue and Charley Wilson were out fishing on Fulk Lake and came back with their own account: a turtle the size of a dining room table, weighing somewhere around five hundred pounds. A United Press International reporter from Fort Wayne picked up the story in early nineteen forty-nine and sent it out on the wire.
What followed was a genuine media sensation. A farmer named Gale Harris owned the lake, and he became convinced he could catch the animal. He drained portions of the pond. He hired divers. He brought in a net. He attempted to drag the bottom. At one point he rented diving equipment. National newspapers covered the hunt. Crowds of sightseers descended on Whitley County. Harris spent weeks and considerable money on the pursuit. The turtle was never found.
Eventually the frenzy subsided, Harris gave up, and Churubusco was left with a legend. The town has embraced it fully. The annual Turtle Days festival began as a commemoration of the whole affair, and the creature has been given the name Oscar, likely in honor of the original lakeside witness. There is turtle memorabilia, turtle art, and turtle races. The festival draws visitors from across the region every June.
The name Churubusco itself has nothing to do with turtles. It honors the Battle of Churubusco, an eighteen forty-seven engagement of the Mexican-American War. But Turtle Town has stuck, and Oscar has outlasted any number of more verifiable local claims to fame.
