20,000 Leagues Under the Ohio River

So a few months back (December), local city workers pulled a three foot alligator out of a dumpster downtown near the Ohio River. It was dead, but no one knew for sure how it had got there. It was probably a pet that someone tossed after it died, but I was joking with some friends about the possibility that it had crawled out of the Ohio River and into the dumpster for warmth. You know the old story: A kid has a pet alligator and flushes it down the toilet. The alligator grows into a huge beast living in the sewers. You never know.

I was wondering if that was even possible, so I poked around online to see if any alligators actually have been found in the Ohio. I got more than I bargained for. Not only have people found crocodiles and piranha-like tropical fish in the Ohio River over the years, last August they pulled an octopus out of the river. That's right, an octopus. And not just any octopus, this octopus was six feet long! It was caught by an Indiana man looking for catfish in the Ohio River across from Louisville.



No bullshit, check out the news article.

I've tossed a few beers back before and waded in the Ohio looking for driftwood with my dad. I don't think I'll be doing that anymore.

Oh, the title. Well, according to according to Cincinnati's CityBeat, there's an urban legend that a submarine was once spotted in the Ohio River as well. There was at least one eyewitness to the strange event. "Back in 1961, I saw a submarine, honestly," says Janice Forte of the Cincinnati Historical Society. "We were just standing down by the river and somebody says, 'My God, look at that!' It was not submerged, and it was headed north. Nobody wrote about it in the papers, that I saw. It was really strange."

Huge octopuses + submarines = Jules Verne