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The Wolf Girl of Devil's River, a Texas-Strange Story
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200 miles from Austin is the town of Carrizo Springs, near the supposedly haunted Espantosa Lake. It was once a stop on the Old San Antonio Road, running from Louisiana to the Pecos, and is home to the famous Wolf Girl of Devil’s Creek.
The story begins on the Chickamauga River in Georgia. John Dent was a trapper working with his partner, Will Marlo. Marlo and Dent traded together for several seasons, each year selling their hides jointly and splitting the profits. However, in 1833, Dent met Molly Pertul, a daughter from one of the neighboring farms, and fell in love. Dent told Marlo he would not divide the profits according to their usual arrangement but would sell his hides himself. Marlo was unhappy. Days later, they engaged in a public argument, ending when Dent fatally stabbed Marlo.
Now a fugitive, John fled west with Molly, stealing off in secret and leaving her parents to wonder. Months passed before Molly penned a note to her parents, postmarked from Galveston. The note read:
“Dear Mother,
“The devil has a river in Texas that is all
his own and it is made only for those who are grown.
“Your with love—
“Molly”
Eventually, the Dents settled a few miles outside the failed colony of Dolores. Little is recorded about them until May 1835, when a man arrived at the home of a nearby Mexican couple. The man explained that his wife was in labor and needed help. While he was explaining, however, he was struck dead by a bolt of lightning.
This delayed the couple from reaching the camp until nightfall. When they finally did arrive, the woman was dead from childbirth, but no baby could be found. Instead they found a letter, which identified the woman as Molly Dent. Wolf tracks surrounded her and the couple assumed that the baby was dragged off by wolves.
Ten years passed, and reports began to surface of a naked girl running with wolves, attacking goats with her bare hands. The girl was said to run first on all fours, then rise up. She had long hair that covered her body. Indians recalled seeing handprints and wolf tracks mingled by the river.
A group of rough vaqueros decided to organize an effort to capture the girl. They tracked her down, but she bit and clawed, screeching something like a cross between a woman’s scream and a wolf’s howl. The men eventually captured her and locked her in a room. The girl’s howls grew louder as night fell.
Then, the girl’s cries were answered as a pack of wolves descended into the camp, attacking the livestock. The men scrambled to shoot them, and in the confusion, the wolf girl tore the boards off the window and escaped.
She was never captured again. But sources continued to report seeing a woman nursing wolf pups, or wolves with the faces that were “part-human”.
Stories of humans raised by wolves are ancient. Many of us are familiar with the Greek myth of Romulus and Remus, and can recount the story of Mowgli, the Indian wolf child. In the ancient stories the children featured were often framed as differently-abled and more pure than those raised by humans. They grow up to be kings or heroes. But the wolf’s reputation changes as human societies move into a static, agricultural state. Because of the threat they posed to agriculture, wolves are painted as cruel; the ‘bad guy’ of folklore (read: Little Red Riding Hood, Peter and the Wolf, etc.).
What’s interesting about the wolf girl story is how it seems to straddle the line between the two. There is something rousing about the girl’s escape. We are not told that the men capture the girl to bring her back to civilization, but that they were a group of rough men who decided to catch her. In lawless 1840’s Texas, it was quite dangerous for a girl to be around strange men. Therefore, we find ourselves in the strange position of siding with this unearthly creature as she bolts for freedom.
There are notes of fear in the story but they seem to reinforce our position. The terrifying account of giving birth on the open land; the fear of the wolves descending—all point our alliances back with the girl. Yet the girl is no hero. She is a freak; a sensation character.
Additionally, because the story has markers in actual history, it lends a kind of validity most folktales don’t have. Listeners wonder, ‘did that actually happen?’
Mostly, the story is an appropriate symbol for the burgeoning America of the time. America is a strange contradiction; a celebration of the spirit of freedom and condescension toward the strange. Even at this time of our history, there are expressions of freedom more acceptable than others, and already a cultural strain which asks you to separate lies from the truth.
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