Daily Huronite [Huron, South Dakota] October 20, 1892

Another Calamityite.
Rapid City [South Dakota] Journal.

The following from a South Dakota exchange revives the Missouri sea serpent story of 1875-6 near Vermillion when many people really were frightened at its appearance: “There is a genuine ‘sea serpent’ or more properly a river serpent has its home in the Missouri [River], not far from Sioux City. It was seen by Mr. Edwin Philbrook and two others a few days ago. It was seen to emerge from the water in a slough, crawl across a sand bar and plunge into the river. It was over thirty feet long, had several fins, and was scaley and ugly in appearance. It plowed a furrow in the sand where it crossed the bar that looked like a trough.”
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This is thanks to Jerome Clark. Theo Paijmans notes he has been trying to track down specifics for ages on the “Vermillon Beast” that allegedly terrorized the area. Clark first heard of the story from a short reference in John Keel’s Strange Creatures from Time and Space. This news item fills in the picture a bit more.