In Episode 388 Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger explore Beals Island, Maine, searching for the legend of Barnabas Coffin Beal III who died in 1899. Better known as Tall Barney, some say hey was seven feet tall and as strong as five men—a giant. They say he would sleep with his feet sticking out the window because his bed was too short. Though there are many tall tales about Beal, he was indeed a real person who left a mark behind in Maine.
BECOME A LEGENDARY PATRON:
https://www.patreon.com/NewEnglandLegends
CREDITS:
Produced and hosted by: Jeff Belanger and Ray Auger
Edited by: Ray Auger
Theme Music by: John Judd
SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST FOR FREE:
Apple Podcasts/iTunes | Spotify | Pandora | Amazon Podcasts | TuneIn | iHeartRadio
JOIN OUR SUPER-SECRET:
New England Legends Facebook Group
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
*A note on the text: Please forgive punctuation, spelling, and grammar mistakes. Like us, the transcripts ain’t perfect.
[DRIVING]
RAY: So we’re in Jones port, Maine, about to drive over a bridge to one of Maine’s many islands along the coast.
JEFF: Yup, we’re heading over to Beals Island.
RAY: There’s not much on Beals Island besides a bunch of neighborhoods. I get the sense people live here but work on the mainland just over the short bridge.
JEFF: I’m sure you’re right. If we keep following the road a little ways, the neighborhoods give way to a forested area. The whole island is about 6 square miles of land.
RAY: It’s pretty. Residential. It looks like a fine place to live.
JEFF: Yes indeed. Make a right up here.
[BLINKAH]
RAY: Okay, got it.
JEFF: And we can pull over right up here on the right by the Beals Village Cemetery.
[CAR STOPS / DOORS OPEN AND CLOSE]
RAY: We’ve begun more than a few adventures in cemeteries. It’s usually a fine place to start. Are we looking for a ghost this time?
JEFF: No, Ray. We’ve come to Beals Island, Maine… to search for… a giant.
[INTRO]
JEFF: I’m Jeff Belanger.
RAY: And I’m Ray Auger. Welcome to Episode 388 of the New England Legends podcast. Thanks for joining us on our mission to chronicle every wicked strange legend in New England one story at a time. And we can’t do it without you! After all, you send us most of our story leads. Thanks to Lauren Middleton for this one. She also helps us with our website and our free New England Legends app. If you’ve got a story you think we should check out, please head to our web site and email us anytime.
JEFF: We’ll go searching for the Beals Island Giant right after this word from our sponsor.
SPONSOR
RAY: So we’re walking through the Beals Village Cemetery. I can see a few headstones with the Beals name on it, which makes sense.
JEFF: It does. The island is named for them.
RAY: Right. Mainwaring Beal was the island’s first permanent resident. He came here in 1774 and helped build up a fishing village. His family grew, and soon others joined them out here. It was one of Mainwaring’s descendants who they say was a giant.
JEFF: That would be Tall Barney. A gentle giant. Kind, but strong. Handsome, but huge. They say when he would lie down in his bed to sleep at night, his feet would stick out the window. And there’s evidence of him all over this island.
RAY: Maine already gave us Paul Bunyan—if you believe the locals. So you’re saying Maine has another giant, too?
JEFF: They do. Though not as big as Paul Bunyan, Tall Barney was more of a local folk legend. But still… a giant nonetheless. So let’s head back to 1856, and meet Tall Barney.
[TRANSITION]
[BIRDS/SPRING SOUNDS]
[OCEAN SOUNDS]
RAY: It’s the spring of 1856, and love is in the air here on Beals Island, Maine. Franklin Pierce from Hillsborough, New Hampshire, is president of the United States. Though there’s some tension with southern states, folks up in Maine don’t think about it too much. They’re too busy with their own lives. So back in December, Barnabas Coffin Beal III, married Phebe Ann Stanwood. 20 year-old Barnabas, towers over everyone else in this fishing village that bears his family’s name. Barnabas is six feet, eight inches tall and as strong as five men, they say.
JEFF: Though no one around here calls him Barnabas… he’s better known as Tall Barney. They say he can tote his fishing dory on his back and carry it down to the water. They say he can carry a 100-pound barrel under each arm with ease.
RAY: He’s huge, and strong as a horse.
JEFF: Right. Tall Barney, like his father and grandfather before him, is a fisherman. He earns his living from the sea, and knows his was around boats and the water. Considering Tall Barney and his wife intend to start a family, he knows they need a house.
[HAMMERING SAWING]
JEFF: So Tall Barney uses old wood from ships to construct their home.
RAY: The home isn’t very large for such a big man. It’s one and-a-half stories with a chimney in the middle. It’s painted white. A nice, simple home, but I imagine tall Barney….
[THUMP]
[OWWWWW]
RAY: ….hits his head a lot when walking inside.
JEFF: No doubt. They say in the summer he’d sleep with his feet sticking out of the window because his bed wasn’t long enough. And when he’s not in bed, given how Tall Barney towers above everyone else, he gets a lot of attention. And it’s not always good attention.
[SLOW BUILD TO CROWD NOISE AND HORSE AND CARRIAGE]
RAY: We’re following Tall Barney on a trip to Portland, Maine. He doesn’t get into the city much, so he’s walking around wide-eyed at all the sites and sounds. Annnnd he’s hitting a local pub. Let’s follow him inside.
[DOOR OPENS]
[PUB CROWD NOISE]
RAY: Two beers please!
JEFF/RAY: Cheers!
JEFF: Inside this pub it’s really clear how much bigger Tall Barney is compared to everyone else.
RAY: As time passes and Tall Barney sinks more drinks, pretty soon the others around him start to flex their beer muscles.
JEFF: Yeah, you can feel the tension. Like there’s gonna be a fight.
[DRUNK GUY]
RAY: Ohhhh man… and there it is. That drunk local just dared Tall Barney to show him how strong he is, and Tall Barney told him the next thing he sees outside, he’ll hit him.
[DOOR OPENS]
RAY: The crowd is following him outside.
[HORSE TROT GETTING CLOSER]
JEFF: Uhhhm Barney is walking up to that horse…
[HORSE NEIGH]
[SMACK]
[THUMP]
RAY/JEFF: What! Oh my God!
RAY: Barney just punched that horse between the eyes and with one hit killed the horse dead!
JEFF: Now Barney is reaching into his pocket and handing the horse’s owner a wad of money to pay for the animal.
RAY: People are giving Tall Barney a wide berth here in the streets of Portland. Who can blame them?
JEFF: And I think we just learned something…
RAY: Yeah, don’t mess with Tall Barney when he’s had a few drinks.
[CITY FADES OUT]
JEFF: Back on Beal’s Island, Tall Barney’s family is growing.
[BABY CRYING]
JEFF: He and his wife, Phebe welcome a child into the world. This little house suddenly feels a little more crowded.
RAY: More time passes. Each summer Tall Barney wins the annual rowing race at the fisherman’s festival in Gloucester. No one can beat him.
JEFF: And all the while his legend grows.
[BABY CRYING]
RAY: And so does his family. Over the years, Tall Barney and his wife have 11 children in that small house on Beals Island. But they make it work.
JEFF: More years pass, and there’s more stories of the Beals Island Giant. (PAUSE) It’s now 1899. And the 63 year old Tall Barney isn’t doing well.
RAY: No, he’s laid up in a chair. His legs are swollen up around his feet. He’s got fluids bad. They call it dropsy. Some of his friends are coming by to pay their respects. Even here at the end, Barney loves sharing stories. He said his one regret in life is that he never got the chance to fight the famous prize fighter John L. Sullivan when he was in Gloucester.
JEFF: John Sullivan was a big-time prize fighter. You didn’t just walk up and pick a fight with him, it was scheduled and became a ticketed event. Tall Barney wanted to prove his strength on a big stage, but never got the chance. Now, near the end of his life, that’s his only regret.
RAY: Not bad overall. Barabas Coffin Beals III dies February 1, 1899. And that brings us back to today.
[TRANSITION]
JEFF: And today, Tall Barney is buried in the Beals Village Cemetery right over this way.
RAY: I wonder what his casket looked like?
JEFF: Right?!
RAY: I can see he shares a headstone with his wife Phebe who died in 1917.
JEFF: Tall Barney became a Maine folk hero. Some say he was six feet, six inches, other say six-foot-eight, some said he was over seven feet tall. Though we can’t seem to find an exact measurement, everyone agreed he was big. And if we take a short walk west of the cemetery, we’ll walk down…
RAY: Oh! Barney’s Cove Road. Which takes us by Barney’s Cove.
JEFF: And out there on the water a little ways…
RAY: I see a small island out there with a clump of trees.
JEFF: That would be Barney’s Little Island.
RAY: This guy really left a mark around here.
JEFF: He did. Photos of him survive, as does a poem written about him in 1938 by Alice Frost called “The Ballad of Tall Barney.” We’ll leave you with a couple of lines from the poem.
Mere five feet folk were puny lot/And six feet people somewhat squat/For Barney Beal was six feet plus/With seven inches fabulous.
He knew no fear and slight restraint/When others frothed or made complaint/But settled every quarrel quick/With energetic kick or lick.
[OUTTRO]
RAY: And that teaks us to After the Legend where we explore this week’s story a little deeper and sometimes we veer off course.
JEFF: After the legend is brought to you by our patreon patrons. Our patrons make the magic happen, and with your help we could do even more for our community. They help with our hosting and production costs, travel, marketing, and everything else it takes to bring you two stories each week. Membership is only $3 bucks per month and for that you get early, ad-free access to new episodes, you can listen to our entire archive of shows, you get bonus episodes and content that no one else gets to hear, and discounts on merch and event tickets. To sign up head over to patreon.com/newenglandlegends. We’d appreciate it.
To see some pictures of Tall Barney and Beals Island, click on the link in our episode description, or go to our web site and click on Episode 388.
Before you go, please make sure you’ve subscribed to our podcast because it’s free wherever you get your podcasts. We don’t want you to miss a thing. And if you post a review for us, or tell your friends about our show, even more people will join our community and share even more of the great weird stories you’ve come to expect from us. Also, we love hearing from you, so reach out anytime.
We’d like to thank our sponsors, thank you to our patreon patrons, and our theme music is by John Judd.
Until next time remember… the bizarre is closer than you think.
