1883 Idaho Newspaper Told Of Snake-Eating, Feral Man Killed By Ax

With Halloween now roughly seven weeks away, I've noticed people in Idaho are already embracing the season's spirit and preparing for some good scares. In honor of the celebration of all things twisted, I thought I'd share the story of an actual newspaper report from the 1800s that described a hunter taking down a deranged, mountain man dressed in animal skin and terrorizing a community in central Idaho.

Halloween decorating is in full swing at the Jannetta home. My family shares a love for the season and starts planning way in advance for October 31. We're still a couple weeks away from October and I've already had my fill of candy corn.

 You just can't find newspaper reports like this anymore, unless you live in Florida maybe.

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Some stories are just impossible to make up. Stories of UFOs, cryptids, and Bigfoot being seen in Idaho are often reported. I hadn't heard of the story of The Wild Man of Camas Prarie until just this week, and it's something right out of a Tim Burton movie. The 1883 report by a Bellevue-area newspaper reminded me of the story of the Wolfman, and apparently people as far as the East Coast got wind of it.

Accounts of this feral man describe him as massive, wearing animal skin, and having nearly three-inch nails. The story goes that a hunter was confronted by this person and had to not only shoot the man with a shotgun but then had to finish him off with an axe. The wild man allegedly ate snakes too. You just can't find newspaper reports like this anymore, unless you live in Florida maybe.