Mrs. R. H. Carter, who lived in Petersburg from 1908 to 1930, says that in the 1920's (before  the 1929 stock law was passed, prohibiting cows from wandering the streets),  a  little circus came to town,  played a night performance, and expected to take the ferry to Indiana the next day.  However, the four or five elephants shied away from the ferry.  As Aurora historian Earl Huffman tells the rest of the story, the elephant trainer got into a boat towed by a camel and coaxed his charges into swimming across the Ohio River to Indiana.