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My Great-Great-Great Grandfather, Calvin M. Young, was a writer, who wrote about the Native American people in the Ohio and Indiana regions. He mainly focusted on the Miami Indians and one of their Chiefs, Little Turtle. Here are some interesting tidbits I found while reading and researching some of his works. Thar be some strangeness at Devils Lake in Indiana, plus I’ve tried to pin down the location of Chief Little Turtle’s Village for posterity and historical record. I apologize if this work is redundant, it’s mainly for my own use in other Native American research.

From Ohio History:

The village where Little Turtle was born in 1752 was located on the north tributary of Eel river, twenty miles northwest of Fort Wayne, Whitley County, Indiana, on lands now owned by William Anderson, in Section 9, Smith Township. This north tributary is known today as the Blue river branch near it’s juntion at the Blue River Lake, to which it furnishes an outlet only a short distance away. The village stood on the west side of the river on a high, sandy point of land, surrounded on three sides by a great bend in the river. A wide prarie marsh skirted these high lands north and south, but on the east, the high banks were near each other, making it an easy ford to the north bank of the lake, only a few hundred yards to the eastward. The Blue Lake covered possibly five hundred acres. Near the foot of the hill immediate to the south a fine spring of water bubble forth underneath the shade of a beautiful grove of large oak trees. A short distance to the south of the spring, nestling in the middle of the prarie, was a small lake containing three or four acres, and so very deep that the water looked a dark blue. It was called by the Indians Devil’s Lake, from the fact that something mysterious had appeared in or near it, entirely unknown to Indian lore, during a dusky summer evening, at which time the Indians became terrible frightened and ran all the way to Fort Wayne, then a frontier outpost. (Source: Ohio History pg 108-109)

Location keys we can gather from the article:

1. The village where Little Turtle was born in 1752 was located on the north tributary of Eel river

   1. This north tributary is known today as the Blue river branch near it’s junction at the Blue River Lake, to which it furnishes an outlet only a short distance away

2. twenty miles northwest of Fort Wayne, Whitley County, Indiana,

   1. lands were then owned by William Anderson, in Section 9, Smith Township

3. The village stood on the west side of the river on a high, sandy point of land, surrounded on three sides by a great bend in the river.

   1. A wide prairie marsh skirted these high lands north and south

4. On the east, the high banks were near each other, making it an easy ford to the north bank of the lake, only a few hundred yards to the eastward

Satellite View

Reread the strange tale of the Indians sighting at Devil’s Lake, while keeping in mind that they ran all the way to Fort Wayne, Indiana, which is 20 miles to the SouthEast. These are people who lived their entire lives with nature, so what did they see?

Near the foot of the hill immediate to the south a fine spring of water bubble forth underneath the shade of a beautiful grove of large oak trees. A short distance to the south of the spring, nestling in the middle of the prarie, was a small lake containing three or four acres, and so very deep that the water looked a dark blue. It was called by the Indians Devil’s Lake, from the fact that something mysterious had appeared in or near it, entirely unknown to Indian lore, during a dusky summer evening, at which time the Indians became terrible frightened and ran all the way to Fort Wayne, then a frontier outpost. (Source: Ohio History pg 109)

Further info on strange occurances at another Indiana Lake (also named Devil’s lake, but in a different area of Indiana):

• http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/indevils-lake/