Burlington Hawk-Eye
Burlington, Iowa

September 29, 1885

CITY AND SUBURBS.

[excerpt]

Ellison township, over across the river, keeps reiterating the story about a
monster serpent at large in that section. A Kirkwood man who saw it some
days ago says it is about forty feet long, thick as a young tree, makes a
track in the dust the width of a man’s two hands, and raises its head up
four or five feet as it travels, with tongue protruding a yard in length and
emitting a sound like the roaring of a train of cars. It was seen
twenty-five years ago in the same vicinity.