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The Legends Of The Bottomless Hole In Indiana May Send Chills Down Your Spine
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Welcome back, everyone, to another episode of Not Your Average Bucket List by OnlyInYourState. Today, we’re heading to Indiana for a creepy dive into some local lore and legends. The OnlyInYourState article we’re focusing on today is titled: The Legends Of The Bottomless Hole In Indiana May Send Chills Down Your Spine and it was written by one of our great writers Tori Jane.
Prairieton itself is a quaint town characterized by its simplicity and quiet life, with a population of around 1,205 according to the 2020 census. Despite its modest size, the Blue Hole has gained notoriety for its rumored bottomless depths and intriguing backstory.
Things we’ll cover in this episode:
- What is the history behind The Blue Hole in Prairieton?
- Does Indiana have any other fascinating local lore and legends?
- What is the story behind Churubusco’s Beast of Busco?
Podcast Timestamps:
[00:05:30] An Interesting Description About The Blue Hole
[00:8:11] First Impressions About The Blue Hole in Indiana
[00:15:03] Other Indiana Folklore & Legends
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Get In Touch!
If you have personal experiences with any of the attractions mentioned above, call or text 805-298-1420! We’d love to hear your thoughts on these places and maybe even share your clip on the show! You can also reach out to us via email at [email protected].
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Transcript
Introduction to Hidden Gems and Local Legends
00:00:06
Speaker
This is Not Your Average Bucket List by Only In Your State, a podcast about exploring the hidden gems right in your own backyard. Welcome back, everyone, to another episode of Not Your Average Bucket List by Only In Your State.
Exploring Indiana's Legends with Co-host Sarah
00:00:23
Speaker
Today, we're heading to Indiana for a very creepy dive into some local lore and legends. I'm here with my co-host, Sarah. Hi, Sarah. Hey, Marissa.
00:00:33
Speaker
So the only interstate article we're focusing on today is titled The Legends of the Bottomless Hole in Indiana May Send Chills Down Your Spine.
The Bottomless Hole and Local Lore
00:00:45
Speaker
And it was written by one of our great writers, Tori. This type of story is, I feel like,
00:00:50
Speaker
in our wheelhouse for us. Because for anybody that doesn't know, we had an entire season dedicated to local lore and legends throughout the United States. And it was probably my favorite season. I could just do that forever. I mean, I feel like it's a very niche focus, so I like that we're branching out from it. But to be honest with you,
00:01:12
Speaker
That's just chef's kiss. Yeah, I agree. And I love our creepy articles that we have on Only In Your State.
Community Pride Through Local Legends
00:01:20
Speaker
It's always fun when October rolls around and you know, we're kind of just like sending out ones that, you know, we've already written or diving into new places. But I don't know, there's something about legends in home states for people that just kind of, you know, bring, I don't know, communities together.
00:01:37
Speaker
Well, I think yeah, it brings communities together. There's this weird state pride aspect of our local community pride of like, this is our weird thing. We all stand behind it no matter how maybe wild or illogical it is. Like even this story, I love that. It just feels like
00:01:54
Speaker
these locals are like, you know what, it's weird. We're going to insist that it's weird.
The Mystique of the Blue Hole in Prairieton
00:01:59
Speaker
And anyone who asks us about it, we're going to tell them because whenever we get into talking about it, you know, there's some different takes on it. But I just love that these people are like, no, no, no. Let us tell you the truth about this. I do. Yes. Because for all intents and purposes, this blue hole just looks like kind of like just like, hey, a pretty place.
00:02:20
Speaker
It is a very deep lake. Yeah. I do love how people lean into their local lore and it is a state pride aspect for sure. I didn't know this before. I don't know how I didn't know this in our season. There's a cryptids trading card game. Did you know that? No. Yeah, it's like Pokemon but for cryptids.
00:02:47
Speaker
I just, I just saw it. Yeah. Yes. So I, yeah, I love how people are. And I don't know if now it's my algorithm or what, but man, I'm getting cryptids of the wazoo on Pinterest. I mean, everywhere I look, it's basically just like cryptids and they're like, here, enjoy this new lifestyle.
00:03:09
Speaker
Oh, the squawks. I will say, I wish you would have been around for whenever we did the, so we interviewed Heather, who's from Small Town Monsters on our local lore and legends season.
Cryptids and Monster Fest: A Cultural Phenomenon
00:03:21
Speaker
And then I went to the Monster Fest that was in, you know, near my hometown. And it was so full of people, so passionate about cryptid. I was like, I went there feeling like just a, you know, vanilla normie because like everyone else was like, no, no, we are serious about this.
00:03:39
Speaker
And apparently Salt Fork State Park in Ohio is like a hub for Bigfoot. And like there are all these little things I didn't know. So it's interesting. Yeah.
00:03:49
Speaker
The world of cryptids, it's like peeling back an onion. Because really, I feel like we only scratched the surface in our season. And there's so much more. We didn't even feature all the states, which maybe we'll do another season of that. I would love that. I think this is also the evolution of I was someone who, as a kid, was obsessed with mythology. And I would get mythology books and read through all the deities and stuff. I think this is just the next step is cryptids. So the US-based version of it.
History and Notoriety of the Blue Hole
00:04:17
Speaker
Yeah. No, that's a good point.
00:04:19
Speaker
Um, so yeah, so this particular blue hole in prairie tin, Indiana, uh, it's a prairie tin is a small town, uh, simple quiet life. That's their like, you know, bread and butter. Oh yeah. What were you guys saying? How, how many people live there?
00:04:38
Speaker
It's like 1,200 people. Small, small. It is very small. I was going to say, if that's their tagline, they hit the nail on the head. Also, there's a nearby hamlet of Hutton. I didn't know that a hamlet was a term we still use in these modern days, but also small town in Vigo. It's a little quaint area of Indiana.
00:05:01
Speaker
Yeah, and I love that as small as this is and probably a town I would never come across unless I was looking for it, I would assume. It really has gained notoriety over the years for this rumored bottomless lake that it has here.
00:05:22
Speaker
Yes, and before we get into the description of it, I found, so from Indiana State University, they have this Indiana folklore collection, and there is this typed memo that's describing the Blue Hole from the early 80s, and it's from a service station owner, and I just think it is the most quaint historical description of it. Can I read it? Yes, please.
00:05:49
Speaker
Okay, so it was formed by a break in the levee. And this is all hand, I'll send it to you. It's like hand type, just a scan of this. It was formed by a break in the levee. It used to be a lot deeper. It's spring fed, used for swimming hole and fishing. There's stories about cars in the bottom, but those are tails. I used to go swimming down there. Yeah, we'd all pile in a pickup truck after and have swimming parties. We dove the whole thing. It was so deep at times and you really couldn't find the bottom.
00:06:18
Speaker
It put chains down it a couple of times to see how deep it was. Ever since prohibition, you know, it was a mighty good spot for a drink on Sunday. It was the best place around. Wow. My favorite description, like, you don't need to listen to us. No. This service station, I heard German Irish American from Prairie Town, Indiana recommends.
00:06:38
Speaker
I love that. What a great like also I love how you emphasized every like period at the end of a sentence because I can picture him talking. It's written such a way to where like there are these like teeny tiny sentences like yeah we used to go in the pickup truck it was big during prohibition. Yeah so good I can picture his thumbs maybe in like his overalls just like
00:07:03
Speaker
Yeah, he's going to pick up truck. Yep. You know what? And I feel like during his story in the true Midwestern way, he probably was like, you know, uh, Mary Ann from down the road. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, her son, there's certain Joe really used to love to go to this. Just like whining a tale about people you don't know, but they're dropping names as if you do. Like, wow. Yeah. So that pretty.
00:07:30
Speaker
What a nice intro into this bottom list. So good. And yeah, so also I found that this is on private property. So I think we should just throw that out there before anybody decides to pack up and go before finishing this episode.
00:07:49
Speaker
Yeah, please be mindful of signs and stuff. It is highly visible from the road. So don't worry about like not being able to see it, but just like don't be trespassing on this. Not just because you might walk away with a ghost attached to you for the rest of your life, but also private property is pretty serious business. So yeah, what were your first impressions of the blue hole? So to me,
00:08:18
Speaker
It's one of those things where it does look very deep and.
Eerie Tales and Reluctance at the Blue Hole
00:08:23
Speaker
anytime that that kind of like coming from the this area of the country like you're not really finding these giant natural deep places like usually a quarry or something broke or they had to backfill a town because you know um so but the first thought was like i am not swimming in that i don't see why people would i mean i get it but also ghosts town cars i don't know what's under there pirates so yeah
00:08:51
Speaker
How about you? I definitely had an aura of like, hmm, maybe not. Yeah, I feel like this is any sort of body of water that I can't really see around or like, you know, I'm not the type of person that's like, I'll jump in for fun. Let me be the first person to do it. That doesn't surprise me. OK, yeah, that seems on point. That tracks. So, yeah.
00:09:18
Speaker
And I know you don't like water you can't see, you know, the depths of, so neither of us are swimming. Amongst other things. I mean, you did mention pirates. So do you want to talk about that a little bit? Yeah.
00:09:34
Speaker
Okay, so we've mentioned that this is a chilling, creepy, you know, haunted place. And the local legends around about it, one of it is associated with pirates. So the old Wabash River pirates used to apparently hang out
00:09:50
Speaker
at this blue hole. And for whatever reason, not sure. I saw some stories claiming that they buried treasure at the bottom of it, which is not something I thought pirates did. There's the whole map with the sand and the X's, but maybe the Wabash River Pirates who I'd never heard of before, which is fantastic. And I really hope some local sports teams like took that to heart. I don't think it's truly bottomless because if they buried the treasure there, I hope they'd want to
00:10:16
Speaker
get it later. And there's a lot of stories around people have tried to dive looking for the treasure and people have died and their ghosts are haunting the area. I did not find any evidence of that, but that was my big takeaway, is that there are river pirates, for one, and they buried treasure at the bottom of the hole.
00:10:36
Speaker
When I heard this story about the Pirates burying their treasure, I was imagining there's like a TikTok video or something on social media circulating about these whirlpools and this guy throws a giant log into a whirlpool and then I think his wife is filming and there's a river there
00:10:57
Speaker
whatever he you see it pop up all the way down river so it's like it goes in this whirlpool and then goes in a hidden you know like underneath and then travels so it's like kind of
00:11:08
Speaker
you know, this underground river, I would say, I guess, is how I would, you know. But that's what I pictured. Yeah, I pictured the blue hole. Maybe, like, I know it's not obviously this, like, fast-moving thing or a whirlpool, but what if it is just, like, an underground tunnel river that, you know, people... And just to another dimension. Right. Oh, no. Okay, so an underground, like, a river current that sucks it out.
00:11:34
Speaker
Yeah. And it goes someplace else. And that's why people are like, Oh my God, this is so mysterious. Like, where is this going? But really it's going someplace just like a mile down river that, you know, that was my first impression. I was like, Oh, maybe this is a good explanation, but it's also me trying to find logic in these areas. There's like a subterranean cave and you just go down. You can like pop up in, but I'm not going to try and I'll just use my imagination.
00:12:00
Speaker
Not for all the Wabash River gold in the world. So what other legends are associated with the whole?
00:12:08
Speaker
So I heard about a monster similar to the Loch Ness because of course any body of water that you can't really see has some sort of Loch Ness monster. I've heard, yeah, other people were like whispering that there's some sort of monstrous entity in the blue hole that makes it extra eerie.
00:12:32
Speaker
We should probably do a size comparison to Loch Ness and the Blue Hole in India. I have a feeling it's a little bit smaller, so maybe it's just like a mini-pressy, you know, prairie-ton little girl swimming around. You've mowed the treasure.
00:12:50
Speaker
Yeah, that tracks because it's, yeah, like dragons defending the treasure is like a little, little pressy. Oh my gosh, I love this. Yeah, this is really what I love about small town lore is just like, yeah, of course there is a monster hiding there and has maybe an underwater current tunnel or maybe pirates, you know, whatever. Yeah, yes. I think just like leaving the imagination open is what makes
00:13:18
Speaker
local lore and legend so special and so fun to talk about is that you can kind of let your imagination run wild and you don't have to stay within the confines of logic, which is usually what I'm drawn to because I need to explain things. But it's like local lore, it leaves that misunderstanding open and that's okay. And that's what creates the mystery.
00:13:41
Speaker
Yeah, you're not finding like you have to pin down everything to concrete reason and logic, which is an interesting departure.
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Indiana's Folklore and Museum Exhibit
00:14:57
Speaker
Did you find any other legends in Indiana that you thought were interesting or in the area? Yeah. I wanted to mention one thing that I came across that I thought was really neat. The History Museum in South Bend, Indiana right now has an exhibit running through May 12th, 2024 called Indiana Lore. Yeah, I know. It has all of these historic photos and original artwork.
00:15:23
Speaker
and state legends throughout time. It's been running since June of last year and will be open mid-May. And it's just a lot of like local stories that this one woman who was accused of murdering her children
00:15:38
Speaker
who she claimed were just dolls. And yeah, and other the palm reader at the Tuckaway house. And then the churro busco beast of busco is featured there too, which I know. Yeah.
00:15:55
Speaker
Let me just tell you, it's only four hours away from me and I'm absolutely go. You should. You said it's open till May? Yeah, May 12th, 2024. So I just think, yeah, what a cool thing that this museum is also leaning into the
00:16:13
Speaker
legends and folklore. And I didn't know Indiana had so many stories and cryptids. Yeah, it was, I actually went down a couple Reddit threads and because I found some, I don't know if you have other stories to talk about because I have a handful. No, no, go ahead. Okay, I won't take too long.
00:16:32
Speaker
So the first one I came across was Diana of the Dunes.
Ghostly Legends: Diana of the Dunes and Beyond
00:16:37
Speaker
So in Chesterton, Indiana, there are the Indiana Dunes, and there's a legend that around Lake Michigan, you can see a naked woman swimming in the lake at night, especially at night. And this legend dates back to 1915.
00:16:41
Speaker
But
00:16:50
Speaker
And they say that this woman was a hermit living near the lake and no one knew her name, so they always refer to her as Diane or Diana because of her beauty. She was allegedly Alice Maple Gray, who was a daughter of a wealthy Chicago family. And she came to live on the dunes after she began to lose her eyesight, question mark.
00:17:08
Speaker
Anyway, in 1920, apparently she married Paul Wilson who was a suspected murderer and I think an abusive husband. I think she died shortly after giving birth to a child, so she still goes back and swims in the lake, a ghostly figure, to relive the happier days before that jerk showed up.
00:17:31
Speaker
And then this one was great because I came across it and it was called Purple Head Bridge. And some Redditor posted it and then he just had a slew of people going like, oh yeah, this one. I haven't heard this in a time. So it's actually Wabash Cannonball Bridge, Purple Head Bridge. And it connects between Indiana and Illinois overpassing the Wabash River.
00:17:54
Speaker
And according to local lore, if you go over the bridge at night, turn off all the car lights, honk the horn three times, a floating purple head will appear somewhere on the bridge or in the rear view mirror. It's like a Bloody Mary, but for your car. Weird. Yeah. I love these tales because who came up with this? Was it a college kid? It was just some granny trying to scare her little ones.
00:18:18
Speaker
It did look really creepy because it was one of those old plank and stone bridges, so driving across it would have been particularly creepy. I do think that it has been since resurfaced to our new civil planning. At one point, it was very, very creepy. Then the last one, I have a couple more I can always send you after, but this last one I wanted to mention.
00:18:40
Speaker
was the Gray Lady of Willard Library. And so more than 136 years old, Willard Library is the oldest public library building in the state of Indiana. Old buildings, old ghosts, we know the story. So it's a beautiful Victorian Gothic building in Evansville. And essentially,
00:18:59
Speaker
I don't know if they made it up or someone reported it, but it's just known to be haunted. The Willard Library ghost is so known to be haunted that there are webcams that you can use on their site and their live webcams that you can just click through. So it's like children's room, research room, foyer, like all these different, and I spent a good 15 minutes this morning just, there's people working and like doing their thing in the library.
00:19:24
Speaker
But here's me looking for ghosts. I don't know if you've ever played the I'm on observation duty games, but I think you would like them. They're scary, but not real. Anyway, I'll tell you about them. And yeah, you're just looking for ghosts. And that's what I was doing. So the psychics visited the library in 2007. And they said that they're this is on the website, they're able to verify that the ghost has been there and paranormal investigator groups have brought in equipment to library employees have reported seeing the ghost.
00:19:52
Speaker
especially the children's librarian and the library assistant, and policemen responding to a security alarm at the library have spotted two ghosts in upstairs windows of the library. So it's just, yeah. Go, you know what, support reading, support your local library, support the ghosts. They need attention too.
00:20:13
Speaker
That's really cool and very unique. I feel like as an attention draw for that library to have. How brilliant. Yeah. Honestly, even if it wasn't haunted, just be like, you know what, guys, our library is haunted. We're going to set up these cams. And then once every month, you just have one of the interns go through the halls. She's like, oh no, we spotted them. Genius. I love it. Small towns, perk your ears up. Yeah. Got your marketing done for you.
The Legend of the Giant Turtle in Busco
00:20:45
Speaker
The one story that the Churro Busco Beasts of Busco that I wanted to talk about because I could tell you. What's so funny to me about this story is that this is like a legendary creature that gained a lot of notoriety in the 1940s because this guy Oscar Folk said he saw a giant turtle in Folk's Lake and it's on his property, mind you.
00:21:12
Speaker
Okay. And he said this turtle was between eight feet and 15 feet in length, that it was massive. But of course he could not capture it. I think it's a big turtle. Yeah.
00:21:27
Speaker
So like a lot of other stories that we talk about, it gained attention. And locals, media, they became fascinated with this creature they named the Beast of Busco. And despite numerous searches between everybody collectively, they even drained the pond.
00:21:47
Speaker
the creature was never found. And so this is how the legend formed. This is how it's become this part of local folklore. And even people still visit the area in hopes to see the beasts of Busco.
00:22:00
Speaker
Wow. I don't know why, but whenever you said beast, I was not imagining a turtle. I was thinking mammal. Yeah. I was thinking, yeah, very. Okay. Yeah. So yeah, it's supposedly a snapping turtle. One of those, you know, kind of prehistoric looking. Oh gosh, they're nasty. We had them in our pond. It was
00:22:20
Speaker
I also had a creature, a beast, let's say, in my family's pond. We didn't drain it to verify, but there was always this giant grass carp, which they're huge anyway, but it was albino, so we called it Moby Dick, and every time we'd see it, I don't know how long they lived, but it lived a long, long time. Still might be there to this day. Wow. Maybe I need to start marketing that. I was going to say, this is your money maker right here. This is the first time we're hearing about this.
00:22:49
Speaker
You got to make shirts, you got to make banners, do a festival. I love it. Oh my gosh. I'll send out the invites as soon as I get the event up and running.
Encouraging Exploration: Only In Your State
00:23:04
Speaker
Only in Your State is an award-winning travel publisher that uncovers hidden gems and local favorites across the US. We have a presence in all 50 states with a passionate following of fellow travelers
00:23:18
Speaker
looking to get out and explore. Head on over to OnlyInYourState.com to find the best attractions in your backyard and beyond.