By Fred Steiner
www.BlufftonForever.com

Remember the Bluffton mystery animal from 1956 posted on the Icon last week? (Read the article HERE.)

Well, it returned in 1958–or perhaps a close relative showed up, instead. Several Bluffton residents reported large animal sightings in the fall of 1958. Those sightings continued well into 1959, reported in the Bluffton News.

Here are accounts from the Bluffton News about the 1958 bobcat, wildcat, puma, or whatever it was.

First read this story from 1925
But, as a preamble, check out this news item from the Feb. 5, 1925, Bluffton News: A 75-pound timber wolf was killed by a posse of Hardin County farmers near Ada last week. 

The killing of the wolf is believed to solve the mystery of the loss of large numbers of livestock whose half devoured carcasses have been found on the edge of the marsh during the past two years. A.D. Eply fired the shot which crippled the wolf before it was clubbed to death by the farmers.

From the Nov. 15, 1958, Bluffton News
Adding to the interest of the opening of upland game season on Saturday, is the word to be on the lookout for a wildcat reported in the southeastern edge of Bluffton.

Spurred by a $10 bounty offered for the cat by Charlie’s and Demp’s Tavern, Sportsmen’s club members are even talking of organizing a wildcat hunt as soon as the first snow flies.

An animal identified as a bobcat was seen by two men last week – Albert Flinn and Luther Elling – near their homes on South Mound Street. The cat was first seen when it pounced out of the stubble in Albert Badertscher’s field and attacked the Elling dog. The dog escaped with a few scratches.

This is not the first time a big cat has been seen in the same vicinity. About two years ago, Duluth Strunk, who lives at the south end of Mount Street, killed a large animal which was identified as a lynx. The animal attached Strunk while he was in the yard. Strunk killed the big cat with a shot gun.

Check www.blufftonforever.com for the entire story.