From Voyageurs National Park on FB: Called “Catamaran” by locals, Bert Upton is among the strangest of historical characters on area waters. He lived in a hut built over a dug-out at Squirrel Narrows. Found frozen to death in the 1930s by Kettle Falls pioneer Oliver Knox; Upton was perched lifeless in the snow just a half-mile from his home. Shunning civilization, Upton defined the word hermit. First spotted rowing his crude log raft on Namakan, no one knows how he got there. Upton’s accent implied an English heritage but any personal inquiries brought a stony silence. Some suspected him a man fleeing the law; others saw a bizarre outcast; everyone knew he was peculiar. Just five feet tall and wildly unkempt, Catamaran wore hacked-off pants and walked barefoot with a stick. Winter demanded shoes but no socks, a cast-off Mackinaw, and a trailing cap made from the leg of old underwear. He was oddly religious, and suspicious of being poisoned. Surviving on snared rabbits and fish, he ofte...
eerie
ReplyDeleteThere's a Stuff You Missed in History Class episode about these beasties that will scare you silly.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to look that episode up.
ReplyDeleteI know the people who did the exhibit and wrote the related book. Highly recommended.
ReplyDeleteI've seen that exhibit, I think. Where are you? Chicago? Cleveland?
ReplyDeleteChicago at the Field Museum.
ReplyDeleteI think there's a movie about it too. With Val Kilmer maybe?
ReplyDeleteAnd Michael Douglas. I remember liking it.
ReplyDeleteThe Ghost and the Darkness. William Goldman wrote it, and there's the story of a better, lost version in Which Lie Did I Tell.
ReplyDelete