Fort Sheridan

It moved slowly and, quote, appeared to devour whatever objects it encountered.

A piece on the website New City from 2020 tells the tale of H.R. Brinkerhoff and W.F. Blauvelt, who in March 1893 reportedly saw a large black speck in the waves near Brinkerhoff's quarters at Fort Sheridan.

As it got closer, they saw a large head that was dark on top and light on the bottom, and it looked like an alligator head.

It was about 30 feet long.

Uh-huh.

Up in, you know, it's like right on the border of Fort Sheridan, just as you're going into Lake Forest.

And, um...

They were supposed to be, you know, the legend goes, you know, something crazy like he was supposed to have been like a satanic priest or something back in the early 1900s, you know.

I don't know.

I guess he had to do something with McCormick Place in Chicago or seasoning or something.

But the man was supposed to be unbelievably rich and, in fact, donated part of his mansion to Fort Sheridan when it was first built, I guess, or something along those lines, part of his property.

But it's a beautiful, beautiful mansion right on the lake.

On October 4th, a riot broke out on Broadway.

Two days later, Governor Goodrich declared martial law and Major General Leonard Wood arrived from Fort Sheridan with more than 4,000 federal troops and banned public assembly on every street and in every park in the city.

Wood had commanded the Rough Riders.

Roosevelt had been his second and had died that January.