Famously, local author Kevin Paul’s book, Haunted Hills and Hollows: What Lurks in Greene County Pennsylvania makes the claim that Greene County is the single most Haunted County in America. This is a claim that many who have spent their time living in this area would vehemently agree with! Greene County is filled with local legends and lore that are well covered in Kevin’s book and its sequel Haunted Hills and Hollows II.
But Greene County is part of a larger region, and what sorts of other paranormal things are going on in the area at large? To find out, let’s head south a little into Marion County, WV, and get digging into something West Virginia is well known for – cryptids! A cryptid is a creature or animal that is claimed to exist, but there is no proof of its existence. Bigfoot is a solid example of a cryptid. West Virginia has many cryptids. One West Virginia cryptid is Ogua, a creature once said to lurk around Rivesville and Hoult, just outside of Fairmont, WV.
Ogua, over the years, has been called the Hoult Monster or the Rivesville Monster and was first encountered in 1745 by a family living along the Monongahela River. It is said that a large turtle-like creature with two heads pulled underwater, and presumably ate, a young boy fishing. It was estimated that Ogua weighed at least 500 pounds. The Native Americans in the area had warned settlers of the creature’s ferocious nature.
Since then, there have been several sightings of Ogua, even as recently as 1983, when a coal miner settled along the river to do some night fishing. Shortly after casting his line out, the water churned intensely, and a serpentine form rose out of the water. Then two monstrous heads, each the size of a basketball, rose from the water, followed by a giant turtle shell with a large whipping tail. The coal miner stared in disbelief, and soon the giant creature sank back into the water.
What is this creature that has been sighted so many times over the generations in the Monongahela River near Rivesville? Is it a figment of the imagination? Exaggerated stories? Or is there indeed something unknown lurking in the depths of the Monongahela? Perhaps we will never know for sure.
Kevin’s books are very easy to come by, and it’s also very easy to search the GreeneScene’s archives for all things paranormal we’ve written over the years. Simply go to https://staging.greenescenemagazine.com/, click on the search icon, and enter keywords such as “paranormal,” “haunted,” “ghost,” or any other topic you wish and all past articles related to that subject will come up in a list. There is a lot to see and read – Greene County is the most haunted county in America, after all!
