The Beast Of Coalport

Marion:Since it has been so dry lately, many reservoirs in the State are beginning to fall well below their normal levels. While this hasn't become as devastating as the drought some eight years ago or so, certain strange occurrences have again quietly surfaced in the otherwise placid waters of Lake Red Rock that have the local police and church folk secretly concerned. These hushed-up occurrences have been virtually the same as those reported during that famous drought: local livestock torn to pieces in their stalls and recent graves violated; the remains disinterred, mutilated, and in some cases-partially eaten.

     Since most of the incidents have occurred on or near lands administered by the Army Corps of Engineers (and the US Department of Defense), their spokespersons have dismissed the incidents in the area as nothing more than proverbial "pie plates or reflections in the atmosphere."

     But a recently rediscovered document hints that there is more to Lake Red Rock than flood control of the Des Moines River. Rather, this recreational haven for boating and fishing actually harbors a watery grave for an ancient curse.

     Coalport was situated on the floodplain on the south bank of the Des Moines River near an exposed bed of coal. This attracted settlers to the area by providing fuel to steamboats and access to good quality clay for making pottery. The town itself was finally platted in 1857. Steamboat fueling continued until after 1865 when the traffic diminished. Sometime later, the Des Moines changed course, bypassing the meander where the town was situated, leaving the town to a lingering demise.

     But during the boom years of the Civil War, Coalport became a bustling, compact river port, with extensive docks and warehouses and a population of nearly 30,000 people. The coal mine lay a mere 100 feet up in the side of the river bluff; coal was sent directly to the docks in small mine cars on rails. The increased need for coal for smelting iron for the Union war effort increased mining activity. Long strings of barges drew up daily to haul coal down river.

     In April of 1862,The Des Moines Starreported a nocturnal attack on Coalport by a "...towering grayish beast with brilliant yellow eyes, fearsome claws, and according to some witnesses, an uncanny if not human intelligence. Some claimed that it had a tail, others that it stood ten feet tall and resembled an ape. It attacked the docks, slaughtering horses and cattle in their corals. Moments later, it disappeared into the night. In the morning, no trace or track could be discovered by even the best and renowned of local scouts."

     According to theStar, the attacks continued through the summer then abruptly ended; the citizenry powerless and fearful to do anything against the monster. Then, one moon lit night in autumn, it was sighted climbing up the trail leading to the little Catholic church that topped the bluff about a mile south of town. An outraged mob raced by torch light to the church only to discover disinterred corpses flung about the church cemetery. Many of the recent burials had evidence of being fed upon, manifesting huge bites in heads and abdomens. Similar predations occurred until the first snow flew in early December and then ended. Unfortunately, they resumed again in late spring.

     Meanwhile, a few more details concerning both Chein Wu Jen and the Beast surfaced in the diaries of Betsy Sunter, wife of a Coalport miner:

J(une-illegible): Mr. Chein might be a nice sort, but I don see it. Mandrin's is inscrutible people, Jack says. Still, Mr. Chein charges me a fair price for cloth and he's very kind and attenive to me. Wisht I knowd what that big dark friend of his wuz there for. Jack says he's a Seek. The man wears bandages on his head and is very quiet. Maybe he got hurt in the war.

     Yestar day Mr. Chein showed me a large red and black box and asked me to take it to Doctor van der Guld. He told me not to look in it and that the doctor war to send the box right back. I did so and he gave me two yards of calico for my trouble.

     Told Jack bout it last night. He said I ought never run errands for Chein again, not ever.

     Sunter again writes about the Beast and Mr. Chein in August, 1862, saying:

     I war nar so afeared as last week when I rushed out my front door to see what war disturbing our horse, Joshua, when I saw the monster that plagues our town this summer clubbing him with a man's thighbone. Joshua war loose from his hitchin post and reared up magnificently against the devil, kicking and snorting. But the thing done clubbed him across the crown with the bone and laid our poor horse out. I screamed. It heard me and look up at me. It smiled! I was so put to fright that I swooned on the porch. When I woke, the first thing I saw was poor Joshua's mangled and bloody head staring at me. The monster had put it on the floor in front of me!

     Jack found me in a terrible state. Dr. van der Guld came and gave me laudanum. I slept badly and dreamed terrible things. Jack wanted to get me more but we couldn't afford nomore. Mr. Chein came by after hearing what happened to me. He brought his black and red box and a long wooden pipe. We sat and talked. He asked me the strangest things about the monster and wanted to know if it talked to me. I war too jittery to tell him much. He opened his black and red box and brought out a small sticky brown cube and put it in his pipe, He said it could take me to a garden. I never smoked afore and I will never again-but what ever that foul stuff war he gimme eased my mind and I slept for two days. Jack war angered at hearing bout it n ordered me thet Mr. Chein warnt ever to come in the house agin.

     As for the mysterious Chein's strange interest in the Beast, no further record has been found. But, as for the undoubted activity in opium, Marion County Courthouse possesses the records of several complaints against Chein Wu Jen for "b and unhealthsome odors issuing from the basement of his place of business". Coupled with the Betsy Sunter's diary, this makes for compelling evidence that Chein ran an opium den on the Des Moines.

     One other story concerning Chein may be more legend than fact. Sometime shortly after the war ended, Chein was supposedly visited one morning by four robed men in his shop. It is not known who these men were but soon after, the Des Moines changed its course. Now whether this is merely a fiction cooked up by an angry, bigoted citizen, no one can say. But a brief report in the Star states that directly after mining ceased, the Beast seemingly vanished completely.

     As for the ancient tunnels later discovered by archeologists, it is not known whether they connected to the mine somewhere in the bowels in the earth. Nor is it known if they had anything to do with the existence of this corpse scavenging monster. The extent of the tunnels was never sufficiently explored because of the fatal 1948 cave-in. Also, the Archeologist in charge of the excavation, Dr. Cornelius Hyde, later recommended that the tunnels would not be adversely impacted by filling the reservoir and that a more complete examination could be undertaken in the undefined future.

     It is tempting to try and connect the ancient tunnels with the Beast, but as of yet, no such evidence has been found. A respected medium from the Hopkins Grove area even ventured out recently into the midst of Lake Red Rock to try and gain some knowledge from the departed souls submerged below, but returned only with a draining case of mal de mare. Yet based on scant historical data available, it might be that if the creature is a subterranean dweller that the intrusion of fresh oxygenated air-either from mining or receding water levels-some how stimulates it and drives it upon its gruesome rampages. If this is so, then the only thing that might save Red Rock area residents from further terror and loss, might be rain.

     And lots of it.