Legend of the Petrified Man (Evansville, Indiana) 

This is rational to me - how could organic material be around for 'thousands of years' to become a fossil? Wouldn't it decay faster than that? I read about Specimen Ridge in Yellowstone which questions previous belief of petrifaction . Over the years I have notice how if an artifact (OOPART?) does not fit into the current established paradigm it automatically becomes a 'hoax' .... who really is the trickster after all?

I've heard stories of a lady that made petrified teddy bears using a local cave. It really doesn't take long for it to happen. Hell, we have fossils of fish eating other fish.

There are mountains that are petrified trees that have fallen.

@@langleyky Yes ! Giant's and giant animals also. We have been lied to about our history, pretty much all of it.

@@greg7129 smh. Your exaggerating

That is my 2nd favorite Eckert book my favorite is frontiersmen by Allan Eckert..

I live right next to eville I've never heard this

Just the other day, was talking to a fellow RU-vidr about journeys out west. I’d love to see the petroglyphs and a score of other things.

@@AdventureswithRoger I just love checking all the places they lived.

It all goes away, never to be seen again

The Smithsonian does not want their theory of evolution and the big bang to be proven wrong. Just like the nephiliam. Abe Lincoln, which was a Republican, has written several accounts of giant human bones being found as settlers moved and settled across the United States. Facts boys and girls. E.T. Cox was a journalist for the Smithsonian late 1890s. He wrote several accounts of giant bones seen by him in his travels across the Midwest. Especially southern Indiana. By early 1900s the Smithsonian denied these facts that they previously accountable by their books. It's all about creation. They don't want the good book in our society. They want the theory that a bunch of big rocks slammed together in a huge explosion and created every living thing to be baseline. Bull-hit

There could be quite a bit, as the river was much lower before the dam and locks were built. The Ohio river, at Louisville, is now 168 feet deep, and so murky you can’t see through the water. At Mauckport, a large steamboat sits on the bottom. At one point, I was going to buy an underwater drone, looking below the Ohio River for artifacts. It’s so nasty down there, that the US Navy could only use sonar to locate the Alice Dean shipwreck, their underwater cameras were useless.

I do a lot of random internet searches about towns where I hope to visit. If they have a museum / historical society, a chat with the people uncovers more than a day at the library!

Not if you spend the day talking to the librarians! @@AdventureswithRoger

@@larsonfamilyhouse Most of the folk stories are never written down, simply told from one generation to another: they aren’t in any library. It used to be, that I’d visit a small town library, and at least one older person would be working there, that had lived in the area, their entire life. They knew the local legends, and exactly where I could find a newspaper clipping, a book, a file in a cabinet. Those dear souls are gone. Sometimes I’ll get lucky and find someone who knows where to look, IF there is anything on the subject, and after a bit of turning pages, I have something. A real good example is when I’d heard a folk story, about giant skeletons at Shelbyville, and drove up to get some information. The library staff was all younger than I am, had never heard of the legends. They helped me find some old historical society journals, and by luck I found an article. But the real find was going to the country and talking to people. Not only had they heard the story, but told me where a huge burial mound was located, and how the state of Indiana sent geologists to investigate a cave, that went under it!

@@AdventureswithRoger local lore always seems to proliferate at places like senior citizens centers, nursing homes, church and community gathering. We have some amazing people that would just love to pass their knowledge and stories on to younger generations if they would just take an interest. I learned early on because my father and brother served in the military to have an appreciation for the older generations. It could be something as simple as listening to the stories from the depression era and how they survived off nearly nothing. And then stories with the likes of bigfoot, Dogmen, all sorts of the aranormal and macabre are available for the price of a glass of tea, or coffee, and your time. 👍🤝

@@AdventureswithRoger I never heard about huge skeletons in Shelbyville. Do you know the location of that burial mound and cave by any chance?

Me to

Hi from across the river in Henderson 😊

@@kimberlymayes4061 I was there today..

I used to too. Now I'm watching this news story from Bloomington

Home of Donut Bank. German American Bank. Zestos. Jim Town. Cambridge Arms. Turonis and much more! 🎉

For a fact, there’s a huge steamboat sitting on the bottom, at Mauckport. The US Navy identified it with sonar and placed it on their list of military shipwrecks.

I always marvel that if you go about an hour north, many people don’t know about Marengo Cave Park, Spring Mill or Clifty Falls. The state won’t even publish maps at rest stops, leaving southern Indiana a mystery.

Just when I think I’ve ran out, there’s more!

I’ve got a few books in my head, I need to make them happen! 🙂

Thanks for taking a moment to give me a shout! 🙂

Some peoples dedication to bad information is impressive! 🙂

It is so peaceful along the Ohio River. I’ve filmed the towns from Lawrenceburg to Mount Vernon, and many places are surreal quiet and calming. Having lived in some busy places, it’s something I don’t take for granted.

Thank-you, Mike!

Someone was telling me that the river was so low at one point, that people waded out near Mauckport, and were chipping off souvenir pieces of the sunken Alice Dean! The nearby tavern has some of it on their wall.

@@AdventureswithRoger Crossing over to Louisville fro our side of the river it's just hard to imagine it ever being shallow. Anyway, thanks for video and keep up the good work. You make better videos about southern Indiana than anyone!

There are pictures of the Ohio being frozen enough back in the 1880's or something like that where they were driving wagons and teams of horses across to Kentucky. I remember in 1977 it froze so much , they were dropping dynamite out of helicopters to break the ice for barge traffic .

Thank you, Joyce!

Talking to people in small towns, has sent me on many great adventures. And rabbit holes! This story was found by a fellow historian, and after we talked for a bit, I thought the available picture and documentation would make a great segment.

@@AdventureswithRoger You were definitely right! And you must find the most interesting people to talk to.

There’s several counterpoints to the often confusing fossil record. For most of my life, a worldwide flood was discounted, and now the Younger Dryas has gained acceptance. There’s ample evidence of rapid sedimentation, that has also been dismissed in favor of huge stretches of time. As you mention, there are also plausible theories about rapid mineralization of biological material. I keep reading! 🙂

A fellow historian shared this one with me. We both agreed it would make an interesting segment, if only I could get enough documentation. 🙂

Thank-you!

Thank-you!

Have thought about doing a big segment about trains, model trains, Monon, depots, unique train tunnels and bridges (including the tulip trestle), train tours and museums in Indiana.

My pleasure! Lots of odd finds down here

The age of the petrified man was never verified. From the 1902 newspapers, it appeared to have been discovered and then gone, in only a matter of months, not long enough for in-depth analysis. Just a really odd piece of history! 🙂

I wondered if it was dumped back into the Ohio, or a pond near Rockport. After the famous stone head statue was stolen at Brown County, there were rumors it was thrown in a pond, to avoid arrest. We may never know!

The archeologists from Indiana University raped and pillaged everything else from Angel Mounds ! might as well steal the petrified man too .

It’s on my list, have been all around it

I had the honor of covering the Rockport Pioneer Village a few years ago. Really enjoyed learning the history. Rockport, Indiana ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-F1k8mqcEoJk.html

One of my friends, a great researcher, found an old article about this legend.

@@AdventureswithRoger I seem to recall the story once or twice over my 64 years. Maybe I heard it at Angel Mounds. Or when I was a Boy Scout, and it was told as a "scary" fireside ghost story. :)

There’s a side story of a second stone man in Southern Indiana, I think it appeared briefly after 1902. We have lots of odd stuff in these parts! 🙂

Lots of fringe theories on its disappearance. One says the owner ditched it in a lake, or even back in the Ohio River, as he was afraid the court would sue him again. He’d owe money to the claimant, who helped him pull it out of the river. No petrified man, no problem. Another theory is that the owner of the petrified man got a good offer, from either a rich collector of antiquities, or a museum like the Smithsonian. If a person weighed making a few thousand dollars here and there, but having to constantly move the heavy thing all the time, selling it outright would be a welcomed thing!

Was just talking to a historian yesterday, about how these great local stories are not being retold. They’re in books, in archives, and in memories only.

@@AdventureswithRoger oh how I miss my Grandma and my husband's Grandma, I loved hearing their stories. Hubby's Gma used to weld on the ships in Evansville during war time and she drove an Indian Harley!! I told her she was a bada$$ lol, she passed at 102 years old and she was a peach. I'm 54 and I miss those good ole days ❤️ You have a new subscriber, glad I came across your channel.

So many great ones, and great stories: gone. It’s very likely that your husbands grandma worked on the huge LST’s, like the one at Evansville. That’s a great museum.

@@AdventureswithRoger yes that's where she worked. I found a picture of hers and I believe it's of where she worked.

I grew up in Evansville ,.. 70 years old and first time for me too .

Long time employees at Mounds State Park, swear they’ve seen them. Others say that while they haven’t, they often feel watched while hiking along the river.

@@AdventureswithRoger 🙂 love your channel always enjoy watching thank you.

​@@AdventureswithRoger I swear on my children that I have seen one close to Palestine, in the woods outside of Bedford.. Close to where I have found hundreds of Indian artifacts

@@jadong8989 Strong correlation between burial mounds and paranormal sightings. Many employees at Mounds State Park, claim they’ve seen Puckwudgies.

Haven’t heard of that one

@AdventureswithRoger I apologize, the road is called. West Pay Dr. It's a long dead end road that comes out to blue river and a large campground. It's been there for many years

@rickyhill101 Familiar with the area, but not the campground.

They didn’t have a lot of things that we take for granted today. In 1902, we didn’t have the FBI, we had the Pinkerton Detective Agency. The methods used were mostly surveillance and infiltration, not high-end forensics. Drs in 1902 made remarks about the detail in anatomy, down to wrinkle marks and fingernails, that would take a true master to duplicate.

@@AdventureswithRoger THEN I would say it was the fossilized remains of an actual human.

It is when waters recede. I remember walking my little girl through our neighborhood, high above the Ohio River, actually many miles away from it, and finding fossilized sea shells in the dirt. I thought that was really something!

Think they figured out it was Polynesian

@@user-tc7ym5fj1v wasn’t it given to the local tribe? Big court case.

That’s at the back of Hanover College, near Madison. There’s visitor parking and a park bench, to take in this great view.

I recognized that spot the minute I saw it, been there dozens of times!! ❤

@@deannamarshall4287 It is a true beauty! I found it by accident, trying to capture all sections of the Ohio River, from Lawrenceburg to Mount Vernon. Looked at the map and realized Hanover College took up the high bluff above the river!

Lots of questions, zero concrete answers. Will likely always be a mystery.

When people start talking thousands and millions of years, I point out the many examples of accelerated natural processes.

Did all of them die at once, or what was the story? That’s an incredible, horrible tragedy.

The same with the Snake River. Very dangerous. Don’t even put your toe in it.

I might’ve seen the same Bigfoot. I was in Greenwood Indiana with my Mom, and there was a large trailer in the Woolsworth parking lot, along with a smaller stand alone tent. The Bigfoot in the tent was inside a glass top refrigerated casket. Very creepy looking and realistic. Mom thought it was a fake, and mentioned what looked like stuffing around an ankle. The refrigerated semi had a huge whale inside! Seems like it was a blue whale, but all I remember was blood on the floor, a loud refrigerator sound, and a fishy smell. Mom paid for us to take a look, and I thought both were awesome. I had a cool Mom!

I did a segment about all the monster stories we’ve had in Indiana. For a fact, there was a push to sell newspapers, back in the day, and sometimes misidentification was a factor. Others, you just don’t know, particularly stories by experienced hunters that should know what animals in the woods look like.

A long while back, great minds sought to prove Biblical archaeology and its claims about the natural world. That was replaced with trying to completely disprove it, and any proper scientist must be an atheist. So far, Biblical archaeology has yet to be wrong, and supposed inaccuracies of the natural world, were bad interpretations of the past. Noah’s worldwide flood was long rejected, now it’s been renamed “The Younger Dryas” and accepted. More truths continue to come to light, as they can no longer be dismissed.

@@AdventureswithRoger amen 👍✝️🙏

There are variations to this story. Praise Yahweh for Yahshua HalleluYah

He did! He came back to Indiana, to campaign for Henry Clay, one of his stops was Evansville. You can eat where he ate, at a little place at Haubstadt. The Log Inn: The Oldest Restaurant in Indiana, and Abraham Lincoln Approved! (Haubstadt, Indiana) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-WbfK7Uz7TuU.html

@@AdventureswithRoger Yes the Log Inn has our family events five times each year. It seems odd to me that he would spend so much time in Boonville and time on the Little Pigeon Creek but not much time in Evansville. He would have floated down the Ohio River bend many times heading south for trade. Also Roger did you know Abe designed his own ship and received a patient for his design, the only president to do so.

I can send you a picture of his ship design that's currently on display.

But not necessarily all three. It’s a matter of bias.

It’s a troll-like creature, mentioned by native Americans to settlers on the frontier. They are allegedly short, have exaggerated facial features and magic powers. Can disappear at will and are known to shoot arrows. Long term employees at Mounds State Park, swear they’ve seen them in the woods.

@AdventureswithRoger amazing! Thank you for your wonderful channel. I'm from Ferdinand, IN originally.

Met a nice little nun at Ferdinand, originally from Huntingburg. She saw me filming the monastery, and asked if I’d like a tour. She took me to an evening service, then gave me an exceptional tour of the entire place. Such a wonderful memory of Ferdinand!

@AdventureswithRoger it's dear to my heart. You need to check out the old history of it written by Albert Kleber (a monk from St. Meinrad). It's very readable, many interesting anecdotes.

It’s hard to say what he was, other than 300 pounds of stone. If we get passed it being a very clever hoax, a statue made by a master stonecutter, there’s a variety of theories. There have been evidences of fossilization, taking place in under 100 years. It could be a man that died in antiquity, and the right conditions made him into stone. I sure would’ve loved to have seen the petrified man!

I just present the history, and let people make up their mind

I question anything that’s said to be “thousands or millions of years old”. While it’s an educated, scientific guess, it’s based on the premises of steady carbon decay, slow sedimentation or the rate of current natural processes. I always grin a little when I visit a showcave, and the guide tells how it takes 100’s of years to make a centimeter of stalagmite, stalagmite or column. I have a picture of a column, that grew beneath the George Rogers Clark memorial, in just 3 decades: it was around 20 feet tall!

@@AdventureswithRoger the Washington monument is said to have large formations beneath, inside of it.

@J-GameHouse The Lincoln Memorial definitely does. I saw a segment on PBS showing how extensive it is.