When the Blue Man Roamed Howell County

A walk in the woods after our recent snowfall had me following animal tracks and reminded me of a story by Howell County Gazette editor-publisher Will Zorn, published in 1915. 

 

Zorn wrote of the reappearance of a strange phenomenon, reported in western Howell and eastern Douglas County since the Civil War. His story was picked up by newspapers throughout Missouri and the nation. Zorn became the center of attention that summer in a meeting of the Missouri State Press Association as he told his fellow reporters the tale of the "Blue Man of Spring Creek." Hundreds of articles echoed a version of what was said by Zorn and one mentioned here. It was written in the Springfield Republican on June 25, 1915, with a dateline of Willow Springs, Mo., and byline, "Ozark Wild Man Again Reported in His Old Haunts." Zorn wrote:

 

"In the early spring of 1865, Blue Sol Collins was hunting on the divide between North Fork and Spring Creek. A light snow had fallen the night before. The woodland seemed to be covered by a myriad of tracks - turkey tracks, deer tracks, rabbit, fox, and coon tracks - big and little tracks - but most conspicuous were the tracks that resembled somewhat those of a bear. Blue Sol was a hunter without fear, and believing the bigger the game, the better the hunt, he followed the long, broad racks with claw-like impressions in soft snow. After following the trail for several hours over the North Fork, Indian, and Spring Creek hills, Sol suddenly came upon the object of his search on the north slope of upper Twin Mountain. Sol looked, jumped out of the path of several descending boulders, and ran."

 

"He had seen an object unmistakably human, though strongly resembling a vicious animal, hurling huge boulders at him down the steep hillside. This man-like animal wore clothing - a breechcloth and shouldered a piece of animal skin. Long black hair covered his bluish black skin, and on his feet were moccasins of deer hide held together by thongs, which in the snow made prints like animal claws. He carried a club five or six feet long."

 

This account was likely not firsthand to Zorn, as Solomon Collins, known alternately as Pumpkin Sol, Old Sol, and Blue Sol, died in 1882. Sol Collins was a widely known and respected figure in Howell and Douglas Counties, born in 1787, a veteran of the War of 1812, and at the age of seventy-four, a veteran of the Civil War. Incredibly, Sol lied about his age when he enlisted as a private in the Union Army's Phelps Division at Rolla, telling the recruiters he was thirty years younger, age forty-four. The upper age limit for enlistment was forty-five.

 

He must have been a very hale and hearty man, as he would have been around seventy-seven years old when he sighted the Blue Man. Collins was the first settler in what would become the Willow Springs Township, around 1830, in what was then Wayne County, Missouri. His first home was located near Carman Springs on the upper Noblett Creek. The article continued,

 

"He (the Blue Man) was seen again in 1874, and several times between then and 1890. In that year, he evidently disappeared and was seen no more until the spring of 1911. At that time, he was reported captured by a posse of Douglas County citizens. This report was an error.  However, a posse did raid his den where they found sheep pelts, hog hides, parts of dog skins, many bones, feathers, and other remains of past feasts, but the man had fled."

 

Zorn wrote, "He was seen no more until about six weeks ago, when seen by O. C. Collins, who took part in the raid four years ago, having lost two lambs. While searching for them, he came upon their pelts in a hollow about two miles from his house. Two days later, he saw the 'Blue Man of Spring Creek' attempting to catch a hog off the range. Since then, other persons have seen the 'Blue Man.' Jay Taber saw him less than a week ago. His hair, once black, is now gray, and his body is not so robust as it was fifty years ago when Blue Sol Collins saw him first, but he is still very active and is probably the best living example of the simple life."

 

"Who he is, nobody is sure, but he is said to be a descendant of French traders who visited this territory just before the Revolutionary War. One of the traders was accompanied by a Spanish woman from Florida. He cast her aside somewhere in the Ozarks, and she is said to have been the great-great-grandmother of the Blue Man of Spring Creek. His other ancestors were Indians. At least such was the story of Jerry Hilterbrand, who settled in Douglas County in 1820 and died there in 1885."

 

"How the Blue Man of Spring Creek came by his name is uncertain, but probably because he was first seen by 'Blue' Sol Collins, together with his bluish black appearance, has much to do with his name." Another speculation of the origin of the Blue Man was published by the Columbia Missourian in 1920, also attributed to Jerry Hilderbrand. As the story runs, a family that was moving to the gold fields camped one night in what was known as Lost Camp Valley, near the present site of Lost Camp in Howell County. That was long before the Civil War. The region at that time was a dense wilderness, mighty pine forests stretching over the hills and valleys for an indefinite number of miles. During the night, their six-year-old disappeared, and when the parents awoke the next morning, he was not to be found. The mother soon died with a broken heart, and the father went on to the gold fields. The son was never seen again."

 

Well, it is a shame the story ends there, but not everyone was enamored with the notoriety or novelty of a wild man or wild families in our woods. The November 12, 1915, edition of the Springfield News-Leader reported, "Howell County residents adamantly deny the existence of the monster, whose tales of the wild and wooly personage which have been going the rounds of the daily papers of the state are wholly fictitious." They also claimed that these stories, “do much injury to the region by creating the impression that the people have to go armed to the teeth to protect themselves.”

 

Another round of sightings and attendant concern swept Howell and Douglas Counties in 1924, in the vicinity from Tater Hill to Blue Buck, again along the border of the two counties. For a time, cattle and sheep were kept up by their owners (we were still open range and people normally let their critters roam), and kids were not allowed to play outside and given an admonition at bedtime to go to sleep or the Blue Man would get them - sweet dreams, kiddies! Within a year, the excitement had died down again.

 

In March 1925, the Douglas County Herald reported that a California man had written the Ava Postmaster asking if the Blue Man story was true. His reply, printed in the paper, was, "The clipping you enclosed is stated in facts. However, this man is now dead, but many of his children now live in a wild state on the banks of Spring Creek, all colored blue, live in the nude, and subsist on small wild animals such as bear, wild cats, and mountain lion, which these people devour raw. Many of them are 7 to 8 feet tall, weigh 300 to 500 pounds, and are often seen carrying young horses and cattle on their shoulders to their dens or large caves where they live. No one in this county ventures out at night in this vicinity, as to do so means sure death." The paper editor, no doubt like the postmaster, tiring of the renewed mania wrote, "No one in the Ozarks, as a matter of course, has ever given the old story any credence or little thought, but the outside world swallows it whole about every so often."

 

I live on the north end of the old Hinds' Farm, about two miles from where the Blue Man was reported in the Lost Camp community, south of Hutton Valley in 1865. In my fifty years there, I haven't seen the Blue Man, or any blue people, and doubt I would tell you if I had. Long ago I heard, and later saw, a mountain lion. I reported it to the Missouri Conservation Commission, and an agent came to my place, examined a deer in my woods that he identified from his experience in the west as a mountain lion kill. They told me that mountain lions did not exist in Missouri. So, regardless of the official position, if you say you've seen one of these creatures, I believe you.