A Plain Account of the Ohio Marsh Man Part 4

Though the stories of the “Marsh Man” lingered throughout the summer, most relegated them to the realm of crypto-zoological curiosities that often clog the pathways of the internet. Due largely to the vast quantity of reports that, to greater or lesser degrees, were unverifiable, no greater investigation had occurred beyond the Fish and Wildlife Service’s initial survey. Increasingly fantastical calls came in from all along the coast of Lake Erie from Detroit to Cleveland. 

The morning of September 21^st was unseasonably warm. By ten o’clock, it was already a humid 83 degrees. It seemed that the summer refused to cede its throne to autumn. Hunters gathering in the Point Moulliee State Game Area in southeast Michigan to hunt waterfowl could move freely in shorts and t-shirts. The game area, constructed to both recreate the coastal wetlands (similar to Magee Marsh and others along the Ohio side of the lake) and to dispose of contaminated soil from harbor inlets, sat in the shadow of the Fermi II nuclear reactor. The cooling towers dominated the horizon to the south and seemed to glow in the rays of the sun.

Security officers Andrew Benhollow and Amanti Johnson were on duty that morning and manning the displays which contained feeds from the various cameras on the south side of the facility. These videos (which can be obtained via the Freedom of Information Act) continually cycle through the various angles throughout the complex. Specifically, the station occupied by officers Benhollow and Johnson contained the cameras facing lake-ward. There is a security perimeter around the plant indicated by floating buoys. It is not altogether uncommon (especially in the height of summer and during hunting season) for watercraft to unintentionally cross the security cordon. In these cases, a loudspeaker announces the trespass and (firmly) suggests an immediate retreat. As this does happen quite frequently, the two officers routinely scanned the lake for any irregularities.

At approximately 10:43am, Officer Johnson noticed an object floating in the water slightly beyond the plant’s perimeter. It appeared at first to be a log or capsized boat. Johnson zoomed in and saw that the object was instead partially clothed man swimming, or rather treading water about 500 feet out in Lake Erie. He alerted Officer Benhollow to the man who appeared to be in no distress and actually seemed to be looking in the direction of the towers. At 10:55, the officers placed a call to the Coast Guard upriver in Detroit. Though there appeared to be no immediate danger (the man was calm and seemed in good physical condition) the Coast Guard dispatched a vessel to intercept the man.

Just as Amanti Johnson was hanging up with the Coast Guard (10:58am, to be specific) alarms began to sound throughout the facility. There was initial a great deal of confusion (to be expected) but what came to be known was that the facility had suffered a partial meltdown. A steam explosion led to a primary pressure boundary fail. Debris from the failure was projected into the cavity below the nuclear core. Automatic water sprays were activated to keep the pressure down and the corium successfully cooled and returned to a solid state. In the end, less than 1 millisieverts of radiation (less than a chest X-ray or CT scan) was released throughout the complex.

Though obviously dangerous and costly, the ensuing chaos ensured that all attention was paid to the evacuation and containment efforts. The Coast Guard vessel was forced to turn back due to the risk of exposure. The figure spotted by Officers Johnson and Benhollow disappeared from cameras shortly after the first alarm sounded. Due to the need for secrecy and internal policing, the officers’ report was not made public until a reporter from the Detroit Free Press asked individuals about their experiences with the near-disaster. Once the article was published in November of that same year it gave a sense of legitimacy of the “Marsh Man” reports.

Anecdotally, I have been told that NEA officials, working in conjunction with the local branch of the FBI conducted their own search for this mystery man in the wake of the incident. No statement confirming this was ever issued. We can only speculatively question the intentions of the NEA/FBI in searching for the swimmer.