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Investigated on 1/16/2005
Pigeon Roost Legend:There is no "haunted" legend that I know of with this area, just a lot of history. Something about the small memorial area has always given me an unsettled feeling. Although Hwy. 31 South runs outside of the memorial it is still fairly isolated. A small trailer sits at the entrance to the memorial and graveyard which is most likely the grounds keeper. This unsettling feeling about the area is not just mine. Others have voiced their uneasiness when visiting the site. I had one person tell me that no matter when she visits she can always hear a hammer banging on something in the words. However this noise was never investigated when it was heard. Maybe it is the known history of the small settlement with its brutal battle with the Shawnee Indians, or something else. On a whim we decided to check this area out.
Directions:From Interstate 65 take Henryville exit, and proceed east a few blocks to Highway 31 and turn north (left). The area is well marked by signs.
Date of Investigation:January, 16 2005 11 pm. The temperature was 28 degrees with wind from the north at 8 mph. The solar weather for this night was Geomagnetic Field Storm and Solar x-rays were x class flare. The moon phase was First Quarter Moon 45.4% of Full.
History of Pigeon Roost:A small settlement founded in 1809 spanning about a square mile and separated from other settlements by miles located in is what now the southern part of Scott County Indiana. A 44 foot limestone monument sits at the Pigeon Roost Memorial Site in remembrance and marking the mass grave of the 24 settlers killed during the war of 1812, when the small settlement was attacked by a group of Shawnee Indians on September 3, 1812. Many Native American tribes assisted the British in attacking scattered settlements in the Indiana Territory. A group of 12 Indians killed 24 settlers, sixteen of them children and five women. Kidnapped two children and burned the small settlement to the ground in the matter of about an hour.There were survivors of the attack, many headed to blockhouses that were within miles. One of the saddest stories involving survivors was that of the Biggs family. Mrs. Biggs had gone into the woods to look for a missing cow with her three children, one an infant. Upon return to the settlement and finding it under attack she fled into the woods with her children at one time being near enough to the Indian attackers that she could hear their footsteps. The infant began to cry and she covered its mouth with her shawl to prevent discovery, after the Indians had passed she found she had smothered the infant. With the dead infant and her other two children she stayed hidden and made it to the safety of the blockhouse by daybreak. By September 4 the word of the massacre had spread into Charlestown Indiana and 200 armed men came to the scene to assist finding only one cabin standing the settlement charred and mutilated bodies including women and children. The group was unable to locate the Indians responsible and there is debate to which Indian group actually attacked the village. The two kidnapped children were later found, Ginsey McCoy was found as the wife of an Indian chief west of the Mississippi River. Peter Huffman was found in Canada after being sold to another Indian tribe. He returned to Indiana in 1824 but soon returned to the Indian life he had been leading. Pigeon Roost is owned and managed by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Division of Museums and Historic Sites
Investigation:It was about 11 pm when we pulled into the small memorial area. There is a shelter area with picnic tables and the surrounding area is a cemetery. We did not see or hear or feel anything out of the ordinary. However two of the pictures I took turned out a little blurry for some reason and one has a few orbs in it. All the others were clear.
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