Through much of 1921, many Adams County, Pa., residents practiced “gorilla” warfare.
“Fleeter of foot than Paddock the great California sprinter, more strongly built for endurance than Jack Dempsey, the heavyweight champion, and far more elusive than a bootlegger to would be captors is the one and only Gorilla,” the Gettysburg Times reported.
That’s right, county residents were hunting an actual gorilla. The first local report appeared in the newspaper on January 20, but it seemed that word might have been circulating already about the creature.
A small group of people first saw the gorilla sitting on a rock near Mount Rock. “When the monstrous animal saw that it was discovered by some Mount Rock citizens, it arose, stretched itself, and disappeared into a nearby wood, according to the report,” the newspaper said.
This first story was met with hearty skepticism. The newspaper quoted a Gettysburg citizen as saying, “It is evident that some of my Mount Rock friends are seeing more peculiar visions now than they did before the advent of the Eighteenth Amendment.”
After the 18th amendment to the U.S. Constitution had been ratified in 1919, national prohibition of alcohol production and sale had started at the beginning of the year.
Two days after the initial report, the Gettysburg Times announced in a headline that the gorilla story wasn’t a myth. It stated that the existence of the creature had been verified by authentic sources.
“The animal described by some as a gorilla and by others as a kangaroo was first seen at Snyder’s hill between York Springs and Idaville where a number of men failed in a combined attempt to capture or shoot it,” the newspaper reported.
Fifty armed men had chased the creature trying to capture it without any luck.
It was believed that the gorilla had escaped “from a circus train during a wreck several months ago.” However, the only known circus train wreck in 1920 has been in Canada when the Christy Bros. Circus train wrecked on May 25.
The newspaper reports also noted that no damage had been attributed to the gorilla, although it had been blamed for a smokehouse robbery.
Tensions among county residents rose as they searched for the gorilla. On January 25, the Hanover Evening Sun reported that Abraham Lau of Franklintown had walked out to his backyard to get a bucket of coal when he thought he saw the gorilla. He ran back into the house and grabbed his rifle. When he went back outside, he raised his gun and fired at the mule.
It turns out that he had shot at his neighbor’s mule that had wandered over to his yard. Luckily, the mule wasn’t severely wounded.
The same couldn’t be said for a dog in Rouzerville three days later.
At dusk, the gorilla was seen in an alleyway in Rouzerville. The woman who saw it raised the alarm and the men grabbed their rifles and chased it out of town. They tried to circle the hill where it had run, but it apparently escaped. However, “A black dog running through the underbrush paid the death penalty when an excited hunter mistook it for the ape,” the Gettysburg Times reported.
Somehow the gorilla passed the hunters and went back into town where it was seen again causing alarm.
It was then seen the next day in Monterey. Two men thought they saw a man approaching them on all fours. “When they called the animal rose on its hind legs and came toward them making gurgling sounds. The young men did not investigate further,” the Gettysburg Times reported.
On Feb. 5, John Simmons saw the gorilla walking through a field near Pen Mar. He said that since it was broad daylight, he could see that the creature was definitely a gorilla.
Reports of the gorilla then vanished from the newspapers until August when it was seen in Gettysburg on lower York St. The man who saw it ran into his house, grabbed his rifle and shot at it. When it fell to the ground, he thought that he had killed it.
“Thinking he had bagged his game the gunner went toward the fallen animal. When only a few feet away the beast jumped to its hand legs and chased the man into the house,” the Gettysburg Times reported.
More residents grabbed their rifles and chased the gorilla out of town. It was last seen heading toward Biglerville, but it supposedly left behind footprints that were identified as a gorilla’s.
The Gettysburg Times, which had once proclaimed that the gorilla was not a myth now took a more skeptical approach. “One night he is seen cavorting over the hillsides between York Springs and Gardners in northern Adams county. The next night he looms up in Biglerville, then Gettysburg and ere a week flits by he is seen in the hills of Franklin county of Maryland. What an asset to a football coach planning for a successful season would be this never weary animal who flits from mountain top to mountain,” the newspaper reported.
There was at least one more gorilla sighting in 1921. Ray Weikert said that he saw the gorilla crossing a street that he was riding along in late August. Weikert saw it crossing the street, not too far in front of his horse “Not only did the young man see the beast, but the horse as well, and it was with difficulty it was kept from running away,” the Star and Sentinel reported.
The gorilla purportedly leisurely crossed the road walking on its hind legs. It then climbed the fence and walked into the underbrush.
After a black bear was seen in the county in early November, the Gettysburg Times suggested that maybe all of the gorilla sightings were actually people seeing a black bear.
We’ll never know, though. The gorilla was never captured and reports of sightings ended.
You might also enjoy these posts:
- Freed POW returns home to Biglerville
- The sand pit killer strikes
- The circus comes to town in York, Pa.
Maybe somebody – or several somebodies, considering how the sightings moved around – dressed up in a gorilla costume?
Then again, it’s more likely it was a bear.
LikeLike
[…] “Gorilla” warfare in Adams County […]
LikeLike
[…] “Gorilla” warfare in Adams County […]
LikeLike
[…] “Gorilla” warfare in Adams County […]
LikeLike