The Odd Fellows Hall-A History (ONE)

[oneighty]

Being a feeble attempt at fiction; or is it? Feeble perhaps. But fiction?

First there were the Indians living happy in a Long house where this building now stands. The Indians maintained alternately a camp or a permanent settlement for three hundred years or more so say the legends told around the camp fires.

Wild game was plentiful along the shore of Lake Erie and so were the fish in Walnut Creek. To capture the fish the Indians used a weir-a device cleverly constructed of vertical hardwood posts driven into the creek bottom and interwoven with supple willow branches. Willow was also woven into baskets which were used to scoop up the captured fish.
The fish were then gutted and hung in the summer sun to dry for winter consumption.

One morning in late October following a terrible storm from the northeast the Indians discovered trapped in the weir a most repulsive creature. They were sickened by the sight and stink of it. They threw stones and sticks at it causing the creature to scream out in pain and anger. The creature struggled to free itself, body whipping madly about. Finally unable to escape the weir it died. The Indians abandoned the site never to return.

For the many years after the story of the creature was passed on to the children of the tribe by the 'Tale Spinners' around the smoky fires in the winter Long houses. The Indian name for the creature was "Un-Gaha-Ra' meaning 'eel with a deer head'. The Indian legend describes the 'Un-Gaha-Ra as being a cross between an eel and a deer. It is quite similar to the water creature described in Ireland, Scotland and Sweden where people have for centuries called it 'Water Horse' In modern times we might call it 'Nessie the Lockness Monster'.

To be continued maybe.

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