• Military probes mystery blast in Arctic

• Ed Struzik   ,   Canwest News Service

    Published: Thursday, August 07, 2008
• EDMONTON - The Canadian military is sending a long-range Aurora aircraft to investigate reports of a mysterious explosion along Canada's Northwest Passage that may have killed several whales.
• The drama apparently began in the early-morning hours of July 31, when an Inuit hunting party at an outpost camp at Borden Peninsula on northeastern Baffin Island was alerted to the sound of an explosion, followed by a cloud of black smoke.
• An Inuit member of the Canadian Rangers, a military reservist unit stationed in the far North, reported the incident, and said a hunter at the camp saw several dead whales on shore when he went over to investigate.
• In a preliminary investigation, DND's Joint Task Force Northern headquarters determined there were no known vessels operating in the area, and it did not know of any activity that could have caused an explosion.
• "At this point, we really have very little else to report," says Summer Halliday, a spokeswoman for the Joint Task Force in Yellowknife.
• "But we will be sending an Aurora aircraft to do a flyover. The plane is currently up north in the Mackenzie Valley on a routine exercise supporting the RCMP's Operation Nunakput."
• Parks Canada will also be on the scene with a boat that's being dispatched from Sirmilik National Park on Bylot Island.
• Originally designed for anti-submarine warfare, the Aurora is able to detect and destroy the latest generation of stealth submarines.

• But its long-range capabilities are what make it so useful to the military. It can fly for 17 hours and cover 9,266 kilometres without refuelling.

  The Aurora is frequently used to search out illegal fishing, illegal immigration, drug trafficking and pollution along Canada's three coastlines.
• Unusual activity has been reported in the Borden Peninsula region before, according to a DND briefing report.
• Last summer, for example, several unusual and unidentified objects were seen in the water in the same area.
• This past winter, a spectacular meteorite that swept across the sky lit up the radio waves with talk of UFOs.
• Foreign submarines have also been sighted in Canadian Arctic waters over the past decade. No one will speculate on whether a submarine might be involved in this mystery blast.

• "Until we hear from Parks Canada and the military, there's nothing we can confirm or deny," says Keith Pelley, a Fisheries and Oceans Canada official based in Nunavut.

  "All we have is a report that an explosion occurred. It may be something or it could be nothing at all. Right now, we just don't know."
• With climate change opening up the Northwest Passage to easier navigation, and with evidence of rich oil deposits below the Arctic Ocean, the international war of words over Canada's coldest frontier has been heating up.
• Five countries - Canada, Russia, Norway, Denmark and the United States - have been compiling data to claim possible extensions to their Arctic continental shelves under international law.
• Russia has been the most aggressive in pressing its claim to the Pole: About a year ago, it sent a submarine to plant a Russian flag on the North Pole sea floor, and Lt.-Gen. Vladimir Shamanov has been talking about extending Russia's naval presence in the Arctic.
• The Borden Peninsula is located on the northwest coast of Baffin Island, immediately west of Bylot Island. Inuit hunters from Pond Inlet often travel to this area to hunt whales, seals, polar bears and other animals.
• Foreign cruise ships, adventurers, cargo vessels and resupply vessels also use the waterway from late July to late September.

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• Mystery deepens surrounding Kincardine area explosions
• Thu, August 7, 2008
• By  JOHN MINER, SUN MEDIA
• The mystery has deepened surrounding explosions that shook the Kincardine area last Thursday with University of Western Ontario scientists ruling out a meteor shower.
• “Something pretty significant exploded south and west of Goderich and Kincardine. It could have exploded out in Lake Huron,” said Dr. Peter Brown, associate professor in the department of physics and astronomy at Western and the Canada Research Chair of meteor science.
• Highly sensitive devices installed near Lucan by Western to monitor low frequency sound waves detected a series of four impulses that lasted about a minute, starting at 11:12 p.m. on July 31.
• Five minutes later a low frequency rumbling was detected coming from the Kincardine area.
• “If you had been in London and it was really quiet outside, you should just have been able to hear the low rumble from these explosions. That’s unusual at this sort of a distance,” said Brown.
• With Ontario’s largest nuclear plant located just north of Kincardine, the explosions have triggered international media interest.
• Officials at Bruce Power have said there was nothing unusual at the nuclear station.
• South Bruce OPP were inundated with 911 calls shortly after 11 p.m. that night with residents describing walls shaking and windows rattling.

• Brown said the signals detected at Lucan, probably five or six minutes after the original blast, were intense.

   If it had been caused by a meteor, there should have been a bright fireball in the sky, he said.
• The university has a camera system at Kincardine aimed at the sky to capture the image of any meteors.
• “We have already looked during the time interval of interest,” said Brown. “It was clear that night and no meteor.”
• The monitoring devices at Lucan indicate all of the explosions occurred in the same area south and west of the Kincardine area and south of Goderich.
• In the past, the same instruments have picked up mining explosions in Wyoming in the western U.S. and the Shell refinery explosion in Sarnia.
• “Based on frequency content and the phenomenology of the signals, these are not consistent from what we would expect from a meteor at all,” said Brown.
• But the signals also don’t fit another theory, that it was caused by a sonic boom from a jet, he said.

• “They are not all that consistent with shockwaves you would see with supersonic aircraft,” he said.

   The closest fit for the signals from the explosion, particularly the low rumbling, would be surface blasting at a mine, Brown said.
• The only mine in the area is Sifto Salt’s underground operation at Goderich.
• A worker at the mine yesterday who lives nearby said he has never felt any tremor from blasting at the salt mine that stretches under the lake.

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• Wednesday, August 13, 2008
• Strange Phenomenon: Sky Goes Black in the UK
• By Axzion
  ATS Member
  8-10-08
• Im in u.k England in a place called Shinewater which is within Eastbourne..
• It is now about 9.20am and relativity bright, and the sky just went dark around this area, like night time dark, but no stars or clouds just pitch black..
• Quite a few people saw this so i'm not hallucinating...My neighbour believes it was a sudden eclipse but wouldn't that make everywhere else dark?
• I could clearly see the area known as "The Downs" which is a rough bunch of high hills and it was not dark over there from what i could see..
• it seemed like the light within about a .... a mile radius perhaps? just simply went dark, and I could very clearly see The Downs alight with natural light...the downs being quite a relativly high landmark you can see them from quite afar.
• This may sound mad but it was like, kinda like...The sky was cracked almost.
• Like what i was seeing wasn't our sky...it was odd and there was a really eerie feeling going on, but i guess that's just human nature when faced with something unknown.
• But honestly, it just felt looked like the sky had cracked, im sure someone would've picked this up on there mobile phone or something and cctv, that has to be an option.
• I'm gunna try my best to get this in some media format, i'll start with the local herald newspaper and see if i can get this higher because what i saw was not natural well, i for one believe it wasn't natural and i have a probable several 100 witnesses to this...

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• A chupacabra caught on tape?
• Tuesday, August 12, 2008
• By WFAA.com
• A chupacabra caught on tape?
• That's exactly what a DeWitt County deputy sheriff said he may have done Friday while driving on a back road southwest of San Antonio.
• The video shows some type of creature, which looks similar to that of a dog or coyote, running in broad daylight as Corp. Brandon Reidel followed it in his car.
• But while the animal may have some similarities, Reidel said from his view, it didn't look like a dog or a coyote to him.
• "I've been patrolling these back roads for a long time and I've never run across anything like this until that day," he told KENS-TV, News 8's sister station in San Antonio.
• Reidel said he noticed some interesting characteristics as he followed the fleeing animal.
• "And you can tell that the front legs were shorter than the back legs," he told KENS-TV.
• "And the way it's running, it doesn't run like a normal coyote or dog would."
• But what really sealed the deal, Reidel said, was when he watched the video later and got a good look as the animal turned its head towards the camera.
• "When I saw it from the side, I was like that is exactly what we have been seeing in the papers, what we've seen on the T-shirt," he said of the animal's unusually long snout.
• The creature was not caught.
• While Sheriff Joe Zavesky told KENS-TV that he loves what the chupacabra sightings have done for DeWitt County, he said he believes in all likelihood that the creature was most likely some type of coyote-dog hybrid.
• However, he hasn't appeared to rule it out totally.
• "I love this for DeWitt County," he said. "It has brought a lot attention to us, and I believe there is something to it."
• Chupacabra sightings have been reported in Puerto Rico, Mexico and parts of southern America.
• Some believe the animal lives by sucking the blood of livestock.
• In July 2007, KENS-TV interviewed Phylis Canion, a rancher from South Texas who claimed to have a chupacabra's head in her freezer. KENS-TV videotaped the blue-colored creature, which Canion claimed killed animals on her ranch for years prior to its death.
• Biologists at Texas State University-San Marcos tested DNA taken from the remains of the animal and found it to be a coyote.
• The chupacabra has become such a legend, it has become a pop phenomenon.
• KENS-TV's Chris Sadeghi and WFAA.com's Marjorie Owens contributed to this report

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• Mike Conley's Tales of the Weird: Supercarrier had strange experience
• By MIKE CONLEY

   

  nconley@mcdowellnews.com

   

  Thursday, August 14, 2008
• Last week, this column took a look at the ghosts that are believed to haunt the battleship USS North Carolina.
• Today, we shall consider the tale of the crew of an aircraft carrier encountering a UFO while sailing through the infamous Bermuda Triangle.
• Sometime in 1971, the USS John F. Kennedy, one of the U.S. Navy's supercarriers, was returning to its port in Norfolk, Va. after a two-week readiness exercise in the Caribbean.
• The carrier and its crew were sailing through the Bermuda Triangle, that section of the Atlantic Ocean were so many ships and planes are believed to have mysteriously vanished.
• Since the time of Christopher Columbus, sailors and later pilots have also reported seeing weird objects in the sky while traveling through the dreaded Triangle.
• During that voyage, one of the John F. Kennedy's crewman was on duty in the communications center, monitoring eight separate teletype machines.
• If any messages were received on the teletype machines, they had to be sent to the Facilities Control Center, which would in turn monitor the incoming messages.
• In the same room, the crew had equipment that allowed them to communicate with the shore and other ships at sea.
• Sometime that evening, the crewman noticed that all the information coming in over the teletypes was garbled and didn't make any sense.
• He checked the other machines and they too were sending out garbled messages. Walking to the intercom, he informed the Facilities Control Center about what was happened.
• He heard back that all of the carrier's communication hardware was malfunctioning, according to a Web site.
• The room had another intercom that allowed the crewmen to communicate with the bridge.
• All of those on duty in the communications center heard someone in a loud voice say on the intercom: "There is something hovering over the ship!" A moment later, someone else shouted: "It's the end of the world."
• The six men in the communications room immediately went to see what was happening outside.
• As they looked up, the men were stunned to see a large, glowing sphere hovering above the carrier.
• They later estimated it was about 200 to 300 feet in diameter. It made no sound but it gave off a yellowish-orange color.
• The men looked at the UFO for about 20 seconds, then the ship's battle station alert sounded.
• The men returned to the duties and about 20 minutes later their communications equipment started working properly again.
• The John F. Kennedy didn't send out any messages about the massive UFO that hovered in the evening sky, according to the Web site.
• Nothing else happened that night but the crewmen of the John F. Kennedy were busy talking to each other about the UFO. One shipmate said all of the radar screens glowed when the object hovered over the carrier.
• Another crewman who worked on the navigation bridge said all of the compasses malfunctioned during the event.
• Another piece of scuttlebutt concerned a rumor about some strange men in trench coats who somehow boarded the carrier and interrogated those men who had seen the UFO.

  • MIBs in the middle of the ocean?
• A few days later, the captain addressed the crew on the ship's closed circuit TV system as the John F. Kennedy was nearing its destination of Norfolk, Va. The captain reminded the crew anything that happens on the ship stays on the ship.
• He didn't mention the UFO specifically but the crew knew what he was referring to. They also knew his reminder was not a suggestion.
• Even though it has been almost 40 years, some of the former crewmen of the USS John F. Kennedy are still haunted by the incident.
• They will never forget what they saw while sailing through the Bermuda Triangle.
• Contact Mike Conley at 652-3313, ext. 3422 or e-mail nconley@mcdowellnews.com.

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• Riddle of the skull: What was a white woman doing in New Zealand 100 years before Europeans settled there?
• By  Daily Mail Reporter
  Last updated at 8:57 AM on 06th August 2008
• The discovery of a yellowing, cracked skull on a riverbank in New Zealand’s North Island had baffled scientists.
• Their research has shown the skull belonged to a European woman who lived about 270 years ago – a century before the first known arrival of white settlers in the country.
• Even an inquest into the woman’s death has failed to solve the mystery.
• Coroner John Kershaw, sitting in the town of Masterton, 50 miles from Wellington, decided after hearing expert opinions at the inquest that the skull belonged to a European woman aged between 40 and 45.
• ‘This suggests that the deceased was alive somewhere in the South Wairarapa region (north-east of Wellington) in or about 1740,’ said Mr Kershaw.

  • Left dead or to die there by a pirate crew or a European explorer party? Perhaps she was on a ship that was wrecked and she was marooned on the island?
•    

  Mystery: The skull is said to be of a white woman
• Mr Kershaw said despite radiocarbon dating of the skull, historians had reported that the region was not settled by Europeans until after the New Zealand Company sent settlers to Wellington in 1840.
• The skull was discovered in October 2004 by a local resident as he walked by the Ruamahunga River, south-east of the small town of Featherston.
• Two Auckland forensic pathologists, Dr Rex Ferris and Dr Tim Koelmeyer, told the inquest that the skull was not Maori – the Polynesian people who were the first known inhabitants of New Zealand – and was almost certainly a European woman.
• They said that conclusion could be drawn because of the study of the size of the skull, and comparison of specific parts of the skull, such as the cheekbones and jaw, with skulls of other races.
• The woman’s identity and cause of death could not be ascertained, and a verdict that ‘death has occurred’ was recorded.
• New Zealand was discovered by Dutch navigator Abel Tasman in December 1642, but he only journeyed along the west coast of the country and did not land anywhere in the North Island.
• And the first two European  women known to arrive in the country were Kathleen Hagerty and Charlotte Edgar, British convicts who escaped from New South Wales and arrived in New Zealand in 1806.
• English explorer Captain James Cook visited the area in 1770 - but that was nearly 30 years after the mystery woman was alive in the area.
• Local archivest Gareth Winter told the coroner: 'There were no European inhabitants in the area 300 years ago.
• 'There are no records of a ship missing in New Zealand waters during this period, which might have resulted in somebody being stranded there.'
• In the meantime the skull will be kept in the Wairarapa Museum of Art and History until further research can come up with some possible answers.
• Comments (16)
• Here's what readers have had to say so far.

• Perhaps the woman died somewhere else and then her skull was taken to New Zealand by later settlers wishing to make themselves feel at home by transferring the bones of their ancestors?

   

  - Voynaimir, Luxembourg, 06/8/2008 08:42

• Propably a Brit who travelled over to " chill out "

   

  - Lionel Westell, Valencia. Spain, 06/8/2008 08:30

• Intriguing ! Maybe a later immigrant took the skull from Europe as a memento of a family member, or a medical student imported it from Europe ? But of course it remains possible that some Europeans were there before it was officially 'discovered '

   

  - Brian Clapson, Trebeurden, France, 06/8/2008 08:25

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• IF NOT A HOAX, 'MONTAUK MONSTER' RAISES   QUESTION OF GENETICS AND STRANGE ISLAND
• So how   have we fared this summer with animals?

• We hear much of the tropical systems and the   tornadic lashings (even in New Hampshire) and the fires. Right now,   Florida under the gun.

    

    It is a time of storms.
• What about animals?
• Are there really signs to be found,   for example, in the vanishing of honeybees in many parts of the West as   well as other insects and small birds? What about bizarre alleged animals?

• Reports Joyce Morgan of Snellville   Georgia: "We have less wasps, no bees, hardly any flies, butterflies,   moths, and dragon flies.

    

    "Usually we have a ton of these   around the house and the yard. I have seen very few of these. We used to   have the big bumble bees around also. The Lord says we should watch the   signs of the times."
• In other cases,   there are enough birds, but   what is perceived as strange behavior
• "I am a CPA and my office on the third floor   of an office building contains two walls of windows (northern and western   exposure)," wrote Joan Pauqtte of Vero Beach, Florida, back last spring   -- which for some communities was a "silent" one.

• "Around noon, I was suddenly   distracted by a huge flock of birds (small birds, not crows) flying at a   rapid pace towards the north-northwest. It struck me as strange as more   and more birds came from the south and the east, flying over and around my   office building to meet up with the leaders.    

    

    "This continued for quite a few   minutes. I estimate that there were hundreds of birds in that flock. Very   unusual.
•  I've had this office and its view for twelve years now and I've   never witnessed such behavior or such quantities of birds in this small   town. I couldn't help but wonder if they 'knew' something and were   responding to it. Danger? Change in atmospheric conditions?"
• We are not aviary experts.   Perhaps it was   a migratory pattern.
• We have written about the predominance of   birds of prey and crows. Might they be a "sign" of something askew,   spiritually or ecologically?
• "While not dismissing the negative experience of people with crows, the   previous article on the subject left me with a bad feeling, as if we were   almost sliding into superstition," notes a viewer, however -- lending us a   balanced perspective.
• We can say this: there has been   strangeness.
• An article last week pointed out   that certain animals not prone to attack humans have been attacking, while   another reported that the oceans (and certain of the fish in them) are on   a downward spiral.
• Others   wonder whether there has been strange genetic research. If there is   meddling with God's creatures, it is a sin.

• We know that already scientists have   engineered pigs with human blood or even a bioluminescent gene that   produces an enzyme making those animals glow subtly in the dark.

    

    You can look this up.
• The gene,   named after the "lightbearer," is luciferase. See Tower of Light   for many more examples.
• Two weeks ago, mainstream newspapers in the New York   metropolitan area were carrying photographs of a strange creature they   dubbed the "Montauk   Monster." It looked like a dog with a beak and washed up,   allegedly, onto Montauk, which is at the tip of Long Island.
• It was all over the   mainstream press. It might have been a raccoon in a state of decomposition, some   speculate, or simply a   dog -- or pig -- in a similar state. Some said it was a shell-less turtle   (although turtles have no teeth on the lower jaw).
• You'll excuse us for using the photo   [above, left]. But it's worth a thousand words.
• At least one Long   Island informant tells us it   was not the first such instance -- that a very similar-looking but smaller   creature also washed up recently.
• Is it a hoax,   or decayed wildlife? Someone absconded with it, preventing a DNA   sample, which would settle things
• Until it is identified, residents   can be forgiven for wondering if it might be related to genetic research.

• The reason: just off Montauk is a   mysterious government-owned island called Plum   Island.

    

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture   acquired the island from the War Department at the end of World War II   with a charter from Congress to study animal diseases such as Foot and   Mouth Disease.

    

    Are they also meddling with DNA?
• "Plum Island is a legend, but not a myth," states    an article on the website of the Council   for Responsible Genetics.
• "Just off Orient Point, and six   miles from the Connecticut coast, Plum Island is the site of a United   States Agriculture Department Animal Disease Research Center.
• "In surrounding communities,   distrust of Plum Island runs deep.
• Lyme Disease takes its name from a   Connecticut town across from the island: many wonder whether birds or   swimming animals could have brought the disease from Plum Island. Some   suspect this might be the case with West Nile Virus as well.
• Plum Island   officials, of course, dismiss such hypotheses as fantasy."
• It sounds far out -- like big foot

• And perhaps it is.   But the fact is that the island was slated to be   upgraded to an ultra-high hazard bio-safety level-four facility, and genetic   research may in fact occur there.

    

    Might they have fashioned a strange   new creature? Are we transgressing God to that point -- at this place and   point in time?
• "At   hearings, officials treated such concerns as childish myths and said the   upgrade to BSL-4 was simply to prepare for naturally emerging zoonotic   diseases," said the article.
• "Yet the Laboratory’s new Director, Colonel David L. Huxsoll, is   the former commander of the Army’s top biological warfare laboratory at   Fort Detrick, in Maryland.
• In the 1980s, Colonel Huxsoll was a leading   figure in the Reagan Administration’s drive to apply genetic technologies   to biological 'defense.'
• Is Plum Island a quasi-military installation?   Sailors who stray too close return with that impression."

• And so it goes, in the words of a   famous author who lived in this area.

    

   

  "I'm here on Long Island and know all about the 'Montauk monster' and, yes, it   is true," said that Long Island correspondent of ours.
• "The   thing that you may not know, however, is that it is not the only one spotted   here on the island. 
• A woman in my office was at her desk reading about this   thing that washed up and her husband called. He said, 'Doesn't that thing look   exactly like what we saw on the beach in Quogue?' She and her husband have a   house on the east end and one day while walking along the beach, they came   across a creature almost identical to this 'monster', except it was small like   a baby version. Other reports have come to the same effect."
• She continues:  "All of this begs the question, what are they doing on Plum Island?
• We know   that Plum Island has always had a   reputation for scientific experimentation. The government has always claimed   that they were doing biological research to find a cure for things like hoof   and mouth disease. Then, as time passed as the public became less naive, we   realized that it was probably more like biological weaponry. 
• That was hard   enough to deal with; now this."

• But really: now what?

   

  Oh, but back to birds.  
• "I have been reading with much interest about the disappearance of the birds   as I am an avid backyard bird enthusiast," says a viewer from East Kingston   New Hampshire. "I have been feeding my feathered friends for many years and attract  many species to my feeders and every day the feeders are packed with many birds.
• "Today, I fed the birds as usual, but   there were hardly any birds  around!
• The bread still remains on the ground and the feeders are still full with only a few birds showing up. A coincidence? I leave   it to your discernment.
• Personally I feel that the government may be experimenting with some new kind of aircraft that requires   a  chemical in the skies (maybe to block it from radar?). Certainly any kind of chemical up there can not be healthy for us or the wildlife below."

• Silent spring? Silent summer?

   

  Are we hearing from nature?

   

  [resources:  Tower of Light]

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• Thursday, August 21, 2008
• A few days ago I had the good fortune to speak at length with well known Fortean author Nick Redfern. Over the course of the interview, Redfern took on several topics that should be of interest to readers here, although I'm certain much of it will be controversial to many readers too.
• Redfern, largely due to his experiences in Britain, has come to view the bigfoot phenomena as likely having something paranormal in it. (Nick, by the way, has a new book on this very topic, There's Something in the Woods.
• He keeps a blog of the same name dedicated to bigfoot-type phenomena here.)
• I hope people will be able to keep an open mind and actually read what Nick had to say, because I think what he's saying is worth hearing and judging for ourselves.
• Usually, that's about enough to stop most bigfoot researchers right there.

  • For myself after years of study and research, supernatural (paranormal) is exactly what I think they are.
• As I have said before on this blog, in a post concerning the intersection of bigfoot and UFOs:
  

  But here’s the deal on that -- we really don’t know anything about what’s going on out there. Some of these details that have been historically winnowed out of bigfoot reports, details like the subjective response of witnesses, how their bodies felt, their emotional reaction; and physical details that don’t fit our understanding of the world, like the occasional light, and who knows what else -- these things get edited right out of the report.

  • As much dishonesty and intellectually dishonest actions with closed minds on the part of the majority, if not all, Big Foot and UFO researchers as they accuse conventional science and researchers of being.
• We have already been looking at the idea of infrasound on this blog.
• It’s very difficult now to reconstruct older cases that might be helpful in figuring out whether infrasound has anything to do with bigfoot because the clues have been edited out or repressed. . .
• Thirty years ago, we had no rational conceptual basket for the experiences that go along with the infrasound hypothesis, so rather than collect the data, we (almost always) threw it out. The same thing could be happening with the lights and other trappings of UFO [and let me add now, other strange] encounters.
• There could be data here that, thirty years from now, will have a rational explanation, but we just don’t have the mental framework to grasp it now.
• We should be meticulous in our collection of the data. If the witness is otherwise reliable, and especially when there is physical evidence too, let’s take it all in. I can almost guarantee that, down the line, the things that weird us out now will look different later on.
• And that's what I really want any researchers who might read this to take away from it. You'll see Nick make the same kind of call -- let's not throw anything away. Let's gather all the evidence, even if it's weird, and put it all together. What looks strange to us today may one day have a completely rational explanation.
• I enjoyed the chance to hear Nick's views and I have to tell you, with some of the problems we have in bigfoot research, ie, finding enough physical evidence to prove bigfoot exists, I'm downright sympathetic to his views. Whatever your views, I hope you'll enjoy the interview too.
• DB: What I'm interested in is exactly what you were talking about on Paranormal Radio with Captain Jack -- bigfoot accounts with "high strangeness" in them. It's been a kind of obsession of mine for quite a while, though I've never.. I may have been near a few bigfoot creatures before, but I've never experienced any "high strangeness" stuff.
• DB: That I noticed anyway..
• DB: But I get a lot of other people telling me stuff that does seem strange. You may remember I had a couple of interviews up from people who had very strange things happen during their encounters..
  
  Nick: Yeah.
• DB: So if you've got any stuff like that I'm interested in hearing about it. And I'm also especially interested in any bigfoot encounters you might have had yourself.
• Nick: Okay. Yeah, I mean I can talk about a few weird things that have happened. Do you want me to just sort of start at the beginning as to how I came to this conclusion and the journey along the way and things like that?
  
  DB: Sure, that'd be great!
• Nick: Okay. Well basically, my interest in cryptozoology goes back to when I was about five years old. And my parents took me on holiday one summer to
  Scotland, and we spent a day at Loch Ness.
• I've still got a fragmentary memory of this story of my dad telling me about how, you know, there was supposedly this dinosaur living in the depths of Loch Ness. And, you know, when you're five years old you're not necessarily old enough to appreciate all the intricacies of the story. But you're old enough to know, "Wow, there's a monster living in that lake!"
• Nick: And so that really sort of sparked my interest, and even now as I said I can remember a few things from that day, but having been to Loch Ness again on several occasions..
• You know I think one of the reasons why it captures people's imagination so much is the fact that it looks spooky. You know, it's a huge loch, very very black water, it's got an old ruined castle on it's shores. It looks atmospheric, and I think, you know, that was one of the things that sort of captured my interest and imagination.
• And over the years, you know, from that age upwards, fourteen, fifteen, I began reading books on the subject, the ones that were around at that particular time in the late 70s early 1980s.
• You know there actually weren't that many books available, in England at least -- a lot of imports. It was very much an underground subject, a fringe subject.
• But I started subscribing to newsletters and things like that, and then, when I finished school, I went into journalism. I worked as a feature writer for a rock music magazine in England called Zero.
• And so what happened was they taught me the inside and out of journalism. I was still developing this interest in, I guess, the UFO subject, cryptozoology, and the paranormal. And so I thought, "Why not try and combine the two?"
• So I started writing for magazines and newsletters -- of course this was pre-internet era. It was just somebody would put their own stapled newsletter together and send 50 copies out to different people or whatever. So I used to do a lot of that. And then that kind of progressed into more mainstream journalism writing, and then also doing crypto and Fortean stuff for mainstream publications. From there, that led to the books.
• Nick: And so, what basically happened over time was -- where I was living back in England, which was an area called Staffordshire, a county in England -- I was doing a weekly column for a newspaper called the Chase Post.
• And this brought in a lot of reports from people who, you know, they'd seen like a black cat, a big large black cat running across the road late at night, or they'd seen an out of place animal.
• Something like a wolf, for example. People would see wolves, wallabies and things like that, kangaroos.
• But I would say for every, I don't know, twenty or thirty reports that would pour in, there would be one or two which would fall into the classic bigfoot type of category.
• DB: Really?
• Nick: Now of course, when you talk about bigfoot, everybody knows the bigfoot, the sasquatch of the Pacific Northwest, or other parts of the US, or the Yeti of the Himalayas, and then you've got the Yowie in Australia, and etc., but bigfoot and Britain aren't two words that spring to mind collectively. You know, when you're investigating and thinking about these things.
• Nick: I mean Britain itself, to put it into perspective, England, Scotland, and Wales combined, in terms of the square mileage, is actually smaller than the state of Texas where I now live.
• Nick: So it's not that big a country, even though there are a lot of wild areas and forests and woods, etc. And the population is 60 million, which is a pretty substantial population for a small country.
• And so the idea that a bigfoot or a colony of bigfoot creatures could be roaming around the British Isles sounds bizarre and preposterous, and yet the witness reports are no less credible than anything we're getting from the US, or China, or India, or wherever, Russia.
• So I began looking into these reports and, just to go back to the big cats, I mean everybody who is interested in cryptozoology has heard these stories of big cats roaming the British Isles.
• Nick: A lot of reports, a lot of escapees, that sort of thing. But when it comes to bigfoot, then you really are in a whole different category.
• Now, one of the things I found is that many of the bigfoot reports that, not just came to me, but that came to other researchers as well -- what I did, as well as digging through my reports that people would give to me, I went back and looked through the old literature from years ago and found a lot of very similar reports, where people had said things like they'd seen a giant gorilla in the woods fifty years ago.
• Nick: Or what they described as a man-like bear being seen in the woods, that sort of thing.
• And I began to realize that, to my surprise, the number of bigfoot reports in Britain was probably much bigger than anyone else had probably previously realized.
• I mean, certain areas of the British Isles were teaming with reports. I would say I've got upwards of, probably, low three figures from all across the British Isles and spanning a period of about eleven centuries.
• The earliest one is literally from about 900AD, something like that.

  • Like Beowolf and Grendel
• Nick: Now, several things stand out when you talk about the British bigfoot. One is that in many of the reports, the areas in which they've been seen has some sort of significance.
• Let me explain what I mean by that. A lot of bigfoot sightings in Britain have been made in the vicinity of ancient stone circles, prehistoric burial mounds, and areas that ancient man perceived as being of some significance.
• Whether magical, cultural significance, whatever. One classic example is a place, ironically not far from where I was born and grew up, called the Cannock Chase.
• The Cannock Chase is this large area of woodland, or forestland, in the county of Staffordshire that I mentioned earlier, where I was born.
• And there's an area on the Cannock Chase called the "castle ring." Now the castle ring is an ancient structure built by ancient man, I think something like four or five thousand years ago. There are all sorts of theories concerning why it was built, what it's significance was and is..
• Nick: But the interesting thing about castle ring is that it has been the sight of nine or ten bigfoot-type encounters, that I'm aware of at least.
• Nick: This includes people seeing shadowy forms in the woods, bright red eyes -- I actually had a very weird experience myself once over there when staking the area out, and saw what looked like a flitting, shadowy form with these two red eyes.
• Now of course people can say, "You're seeing things that you're looking for," and what are the chances of something being in the area at the time you're looking for it. I would agree with those sentiments and those statements.
• And that's why I think the British bigfoot, at least, is different in some ways to some of the reports from elsewhere.
• It is the case that they, you know, turn up in these prehistoric locations, and sometimes people are looking for them. It's almost as if these creatures know and manifest for them.

  • That is exactly what I believe is happening in a lot of the phenomena of either Big Foot, UFOs or other encounters.
• Now I know to some people, they think, "Oh, Nick's off on his paranormal tangent again," and there's like a little rolling of eyes and shaking of heads..
• Nick: But I mean, I can only tell the story as I know it from my perspective in interviewing the witnesses, and I would say I've probably got.. probably at least twenty or thirty reports where these creatures have been seen in areas that are standout areas, stone circles, places like that.
• Now you could argue on the one hand, Britain is a very old country, and you don't have to drive too far anywhere to find an old castle, or an old stone circle, which is quite true. But when you specifically get these reports of people seeing these creatures within like ten or twenty feet of these stone formations time and again, and the witnesses don't know each other, then I think we have to conclude, or I do at least, that something weirder is afoot.

  • Precisely
• Nick: Now there are other reports, for example, of bigfoot having been seen in the UK. One case, that I can think of, in the same location as a crop circle.

  • Big Foot sightings and Crop Circles
• And there was evidence at this crop circle where there'd been some sort of ritualistic activity going on. For example, there were five peacock feathers laid out, like in the form of a pentagram.
• Nick: And, of course, if you go to wikipedia or some search like that you'll find that there's a lot of legends and folklore, not all positive and good ones, attached to peacock feathers and the peacock itself.

  • SEE: the ancient Persian article of kings/rulers of Persia..the "Peacock Throne."
• So to find a report where somebody had seen this, like they described it like a huge, or large chimpanzee racing across the road late at night from the same area where rites and rituals have been undertaken inside a crop circle. Then, again, I find it difficult to, kind of, separate these various phenomena.
• Nick: You know, is it just coincidence that bigfoot has been directly opposite where a crop circle was made and there were some weird rites and rituals afoot? I think it's very very unlikely that there wasn't a connection.
• Now, to expound upon that, there are people within the UK, for example -- and I've tried this a couple of times -- who tried ritualistic magic to try and conjure these things up.

  • Getting closer to the truth here...
• And there have been a number of cases where people, including me, have basically gone out into the woods -- I actually detail this in my latest book, There's Something in the Woods..
  
  
• Nick: Yeah, I've gone out and basically tried meditation and learned how to do ritualistic magic, and then, maybe a year or so later, somebody has seen something very very similar to what I envisaged in that area.

  • Opening "door ways" by way of their rituals, black magic rites and for most, tampering with things they are too ignorant to know the dangers of...
• Now I'm not, certainly there's nothing special about me, a number of people have done this and in their own minds as well they've had some success in this area.
• NIck: One of the other areas that clinches it for me, at least, that there's more to bigfoot than meets the eye in Britain, is that, I think I've got three or four reports on file -- it's a very small number, but to me it's significant -- where people have been driving home late at night and they've seen this large hairy creature shamble across the road.
• And as it's done so, anything from like a hundred to a couple of hundred yards in front of them, their headlights, or car engine, or both of them, have failed. Almost like a vehicle interference case in some UFO reports.
• Nick: Now how we explain that, I haven't got a clue, I'll be the first to admit.
• But, again, I fully realize that some people think, you know, that's just too outrageous, the idea that a bigfoot, or a living creature, could affect the headlights of a car, and yet the people relating these accounts have, to my mind at least, no reason to lie.
• They come across as genuine as other people, and no axe to grind, you know, not looking for payments for the interview, concerned about not having too much publicity, in some cases quite happy for their first name to be revealed, but they don't want everybody and his brother knocking on their front door.
• So you have to wonder what is the motivation for coming up with a really wild story like that which in many respects defies convention and reality? So I would say it's these sorts of things, having grown up in Britain, and having been exposed to British bigfoot reports, has made me appreciate more the high strangeness angle, that Is so relevant because of Britain being such a small country.
• And, as I say, because of the locations where these things have been seen also.
• Nick: Now when it comes to the US, I'm fully aware that most US researchers of the subject do take the approach that we're dealing with a flesh and blood animal that is simply hiding out in huge forests and has successfully managed to keep away from society for however many years, for the most part.
• And that could well be the case. But I have to say, I have investigated, like I'm sure most researchers have, so called "fringe cases," in the US.
• Nick: One classic one, which is also in the new book, was concerning a sighting of a bigfoot in the woods of Oklahoma, which I think was about two years ago.
• And the couple who said they saw this huge creature just sort of stride across the path way in front of them in the woods, which they described as an immense creature, like eight foot tall or something like that.
• Nick: And they said, and I know this gets into some wild areas, that the creature, they felt, was talking to them through their minds, almost like a telepathy, saying, "Don't come any closer, stay away."
• Nick: And the bizarre thing was, they described it as almost being a very gentle, womanly voice, coming from this creature, as I say in the book, that looks like it could tear apart a small car!
• And they afterward began to experience a lot of weird activity in their home, like poltergeist activity, seeing strange balls of light flitting in the woods outside of their home, things like that.
• Now, again, you either have to say, "Well these people are just cranks," you know, seeking publicity, etc. But actually, the ironic thing is they weren't seeking publicity, rather they were looking to get some sort of idea, from someone who could, hopefully, help them as to what they saw.
• So, you know, if they're not cranks, if they're not crazy, if they're not fantasists, again, I have to conclude that even if bigfoot is a physical creature, there are far stranger things going on with respect to these perceived paranormal aspects, poltergeist activity in the wake of an encounter.
• And I think one of the things that parallels very closely some of the cases I investigated in America and practically all of them in Britain is this issue of the self-illuminating red eyes.
• Nick: Now, in England, I can tell you that I don't think.. there's probably no more than a handful of the three figure reports I've got that don't mention either self-luminating red eyes, or very very bright eyes, like silver eyes or white eyes, but that don't seem to be reflecting from any particular light source.
• Nick: Of course, you know, you can see an animals eyes in the headlights of your car if you're driving late at night, but most of the people I've spoken with said that, no, it was far stranger than that. It was almost like these eyes were lighting up half the face. They were that bright.
• Nick: I've got a lot of reports like that, where there are these stand out red eyes.
• And we get that in a lot of other crypto reports as well. Even some of the black cat reports in England have these aspects, and particularly the ancient black dog legends in Britain.
• A lot of the British towns and villages have these ancient stories of phantom black dogs, kind of like The Hound of the Baskervilles, which itself was actually based on one of these legends.
• And in these cases, the black dog is sort of like a "Grim Reaper" type character. If you see it on a lonely road late at night, there's going to be tragedy in the family, or somebody is going to die, that sort of thing.
• Nick: And they're kind of like an archetypal legend that is instilled in much of British folklore, but again, these black dogs are described as having these huge, illuminated eyes. In some cases bright red, or silver, or white.
• You know, you look at the Mothman as well, this winged creature with glowing eyes.
• So whether or not.. to what extent that's relevant, and even what it means, I'll be the first to admit I don't know. I'd be speculating, I just haven't got a clue.
• But collectively, it's these types of reports -- the locations, some of the after-effects -- that lead me to believe, as I said, even if bigfoot is physical, there's more going on.
• Nick: Now let me talk about the paranormal, of course that's very much a simplistic term. You know, it's a catch-all term for who-knows-what. And it's also the same with people who say, well, bigfoot can flit in and out of dimensions, etc. That sounds great, but my first question is, "How do you define what a dimension is?"
• Nick: It's these simplistic that get bandied about so much within many aspects of the Fortean world. And I think things like quantum physics, possibly, are beginning to answer some of these questions about other realities and things like that.
• But I think it's in the very early stages and I hesitate to go down that path and fully embrace it, but equally I think it's not a responsible thing to ignore the high strangeness, fringe cases.
• Unfortunately I know some researchers who do. They just flat out think that, you know, the witness had to be mistaken at best, or at worst, they're trying to con me and hoax me.

  • Just like their equally narrow minded "conventional scientists."
• Nick: I can understand that if you're of a mindset that -- particularly if someone has seen a creature close up and they're convinced it was a fully flesh and blood animate object. But equally I think the responsibility is on us to try not to get caught up in belief systems, and to analyze all of the evidence, even if it doesn't always sit well with what we tentatively conclude.
• I don't mind admitting some people think, when I start going off on this paranormal tangent, you know, they think, "Nick's lost it" or, you know, "He's been smoking too much of the good stuff!" So in that respect I find it -- what shall I say.. I'm trying to follow the path of staying impartial..
• Nick: But I won't lie and say I don't come across cases that suggest there's more going on, because I do. And I don't want to ignore those cases. I want to be able to try and have an open, wide approach to the subject that doesn't cause conflicts because I believe this or I believe that.
• Now in saying the fact that I do subscribe to the idea that at least some of these things are paranormal, as I said, one of the things I've tried to think of is, well, how can we take this to the next level?
• We'll take a break here, and I'll have part 2 of the interview up in the near future.
• 26 comments:
• dbd said... 

   

   

  I'm sure not! (Making any money, that is.)
  
  One thing I'd say is: If you don't like going on anecdotal evidence, you need go no further in bigfoot research until the body comes in (if it ever does).
• For the rest of it, I've directly experienced very few of the things that Nick talks about, but I have experienced some things. But I have on the blog somewhere an interview from a policeman who had a very strange encounter (use the Infrasound search term). I find him very credible, and it's his experience (along with some others) that makes me want to really look at this side of things. I don't mind if it doesn't suit you -- everyone takes a different approach. My only thought is that we need to stop throwing out evidence because it doesn't fit our view of the world.
• I remember when I first started bigfoot research, the self-luminous eyes nearly stopped me as soon as I learned about them. Since then I've done some research and have learned that there *are* physical ways for a suspension of salt water to emit light. Of course, until someone can actually study the eyes, it's just one loopy theory on top of another. But that's where we are, in terms of the opinion of mainstream science -- we're visiting the loopy fringe, whether you say bigfoot is just a flesh and blood descendant of Gigantopithecus, or whether you are willing to go further.
  
  Some of the very strange things people report *might* be explained by the infrasound hypothesis, though there are problems with that. But how can we ever fine-tune that hypothesis if the features of reports that would reveal it are supressed?
• Nick Redfern said... 

   

   

  Megapodia:
  
  I would to a degree with you about anecdotal evidence; however, the Blogsquatcher is right.
• Without a body, any and all evidence (regardless of whether it points in the direction of flesh and blood or the paranormal, and no matter how credible the witness it) is anecdotal and all we have to work with; it's the only thing that allows us to make a framework or theory.
  
  Of course, if the body of a real Bigfoot is found, then I will be the very first to admit I screwed up in my beliefs and conclusions.
  
  As for money and Bigfoot: I think (in fact, I know!) there are a lot of misconceptions about this.
  
  For example, after living in the USA for 8 years, last year was the first year I was able to afford medical insurance and to finally get a car.
  
  Before then, it was ride the bus and hope I don't get ill.
• And my ability to finally afford medical insurance, had nothing to do with Bigfoot or Forteana!
  
  One well known person in the world of Forteana came to visit me once and was amazed that i was living in a 20-foot by 20-foot rented room.
  
  Like many others, he imagined that author = mansion and ferrari!
  
  Most books (certainly mine) don't sell in massive quantities.
  
  My book "Man-Monkey," published last year has sold around 300 copies -in total.
  
  Given that the author gets around a dollar a book, that's not much! LOL.
  
  Now, I want to stress that I'm not complaining because I freely chose the life I live; but - as someone who has written books - I do want to keep things in perspective!

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• Batsquatch
• Batsquatch
• Location of Sightings:
    Near Mt. Saint Helens in Skamania County, Washington, in the Pacific Northwest region of the U.S 
• Earliest - Latest Reported Sighting:
    1980 to present 
• Description:
    This creature is described as a Great winged bat, they have purple skin, and bashing red eyes.  
• Odors described during or right after encounters with this creature:
    None reported 
• Sounds - Speech:
    Loud deep base yell  
• Interesting Sighting Details:
• Great winged bats; this is how most people perceive the Batsquatch.
• They allegedly live in the shadows of Mt. Saint Helens. They have purple skin, bashing red eyes and  features that are quite similar to bats.
• The Batsquatch has never really been associated with the Sasquatch and is more commonly believed to be another split in  evolution, thus producing this new species.
• The Batsquatch has been connoted to be carnivorous in state. Since reports tell of its appetite of small animals like chickens,  goats and hogs,
• some believe that it is actually a flying primate but researchers claim that it is more closely joined to the fruit bat of northern America.

  • Otherwise intelligent people can come off as quite silly when trying to come up with logical explanations of otherwise enexplicable phenomena...
• Fear still fills the hearts of men, women and children of Washington. In May of 1980 during the eruption of Mount Saint  Helens the Batsquatch showed itself in the shadows of clouds from the eruption.
• In 1994, a local mountaineer and a liquor shop owner were able to take pictures of the  Batsquatch making the rumor more evident and real for individuals of the said area.
• In a local newspaper this headline alerted fear back into the minds of citizens.  'Yelmidians take cover under shadow of suspicious creature. Mountain News'.
• During this event livestock seemed to disappear though luckily no humans were reported missing at the time.
• A mountaineer dictated events that happened and his  encounter with the Batsquatch when he found himself half conscious near a cliff on the said area.
• The events progressed like this: The mountaineer had been knocked out  and was feeling fuzzy from the fall when he suddenly heard a loud deep base yell from the shadows. He tried to focus his attention on the creature that had made the  sound while balancing the throbbing head ache that he had.
• He saw a log like entity being thrown of a cliff after a truck had hit it. What caught his eye was the fact that he  saw purple wings.
• He staggered to pull himself together as he looked for a way down to the valley when the clouds parted and a purple winged creature appeared.
• It looked like it was  dragging another creature up. It looked like it was about 30 feet tall. With human like affection for the injured friend the creature then took into flight and extended strong  wings that filled the mountaineer’s full eye sight view.
• The mountaineer survived the event and kept this story a secret in fear of becoming the laughing stock of the community but when new stories came in about the  Batsquatch he shared his story.
• Figment of imagination, or reality? A creature of great multitude and power that fills the air of the Washington Mountains truly is a frightful  thought, especially knowing that it somehow survived time and evolution.
• It is only a creature that is struggling to survive. Just because it is so gigantic doesn't mean that it will be  the downfall of the human race.
• However, the reality of the Batsquatch can no longer be denied.
• Respect! This is how we should take news such as this. Respect for a living creature instead of fear.

  • Oh, for crying out loud!!!
• Man should learn that our world is  filled with entities that have not yet or can not yet be explained, but knowing that they are there adds to the humanity that we should be giving great creatures such as the  Batsquatch.
• Webmasters Comments About This Case:
    As far as the 'Batsquatch' here again we have the red glowing eyes as reported in numerous creature sightings. 

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• Batsquatch
• Batsquatch is a cryptozoological creature, which has been sighted around Mount St. Helens.
• Description
• The Batsquatch is purported to have purple-coloured skin, blood-red eyes, wings like those of a Pterodactyl, and a head which resembles a cross between a primate and a bat.
• The creature's name is based on Sasquatch, although the two cryptids have never been directly linked to each other.
• Controversy
• Alongside the "winged primate" theory, an accepted theory is that these creatures are a new species of fruit bat; despite reports depicting the animal as carnivorous,
• and assumed to be at fault for the disappearance of many farm animals in the region.
• A mountaineer named Butch Whittaker reportedly sighted one of these creatures while he was getting ready to climb Mt. St. Helens, in 1994, and took several pictures of the creature before it disappeared.
• The photographs, while possibly presenting strong evidence of the creature's existence, have been the subject of much controversy, with many claiming that they are hoaxes.

• Sources

   
   
  • www.americanmonsters.com
   
  • www.unknown-creatures.com
   
  • www.buzzle.com
   
  • An eyewitness's personal account of their encounter with a batsquatch
   
  • www.unknownexplorers.com
   
  • www.cashmerewoolsilk.com
   
  • www.kryptozoologia.pl
• Further reading
• Mothman and Other Curious Encounters by Loren L. Coleman ISBN 9781931044349
• Pet Ghosts: Animal Encounters from Beyond the Grave by Joshua P. Warren ISBN 1564148882

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• The Cryptid Zoo: Big Gray Man (Fear Liath Mor)
• The "Big Gray Man" (a literal translation of his Scottish Gaelic name "Fear Liath Mor") is a Bigfoot-like creature that is regularly sighted near Ben Macdhui in Britain, the highest mountain in the Cairngorm Range of Scotland.
• The "Big Gray Man" is described as being considerably taller than the typical Bigfoot, thus being eligible for inclusion in the category of hairy humanoids called true giants.
• He is described as having a number of characteristics that make him seem more like a creature of mythology or the supernatural, rather than a suitable subject for cryptozoology.
• He seems to have paranormal powers, such as controlling the fog and causing such extreme fear in humans and animals that they will leap off cliffs or even die trying to get away.
• The Big Gray Man is attributed with the ability to manipulate emotions, such as causing his victims great fear, despair or a desire to commit suicide.
• Some reported "encounters" with the Big Gray Man are based only on experiences with extreme emotion and/or weird fog while climbing Ben Macdhui, and not on claims of actually seeing a big hairy monster.
• He is usually described as gray, sometimes as brown.
• In appearance, the Big Gray Man resembles an enormous human, at least twenty feet tall, covered all over with a thick layer of hair or fur.
• The ears are pointed. The toes are very long, more like fingers than toes, and end in large, sharp talons.
• The head and neck are disproportionately large in comparison to the rest of the body.
• In overall appearance, he is described as far closer to man than ape.
• The Big Gray Man has long legs, but the arms are not longer in proportion to the rest of his body than they would be on a human being.
• He is often partially shrouded by mist or fog, which seems to come with him and retreat when he retreats.
• The Big Gray Man walks very erect, not stooped over or humped like some hairy humanoids.
• In some sightings, he wears a top hat.
• A number of famous mountain climbers have sworn that the Big Gray Man is real because of personal encounters.
• Sightings have been reported since at least the 1700s, and continue to the present day.
• Footprints have been photographed, but these are abnormal even for a Bigfoot-type creature. The 19-inch prints are nearly as wide as they are long.
• It should be noted that spelling variations between American and British versions of English sometimes make it hard to look up information about the Big Gray Man. Most American authors write "Big Gray Man" while European authors write "Big Grey Man" ("gray" is spelled with an "e" in Britain).
• The Big Gray Man is quite similar to the Gray King of Welsh folklore.
• Both beings inhabit the mountains, are thought of as sinister, manipulate emotions, and are big hairy monsters that border on the spirit world, seeming more supernatural than biological.

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• Fear liath
• From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
• Am Fear Liath Mòr (also known as The Big Grey Man of Ben MacDhui or simply The Greyman) is the name of a presence or creature which is said to haunt the summit and passes of Ben MacDhui, the highest peak of the Cairngorms and the second highest peak in Scotland.
• It has been described as an extremely tall figure covered with short hair, or as an unseen presence that causes uneasy feelings in people who climb the mountain.
• There is little evidence of the existence of this creature besides various sightings and a few photographs of unusual footprints.
• It was traditionally seen as a supernatural being, but Am Fear Liath Mòr has been compared to the Yeti of the Himalaya and the Sasquatch, Bigfoot or wild man of North America.
• References to wild 'Greymen' in Scotland and similar creatures elsewhere in the British Isles, sometimes called Wudewas or 'Wood Men', date back to the 13th century, and are believed by some to represent relict hominids.
•  

   

  

   Summit of Ben Macdui
• In 1925, the noted climber John Norman Collie recounted a terrifying experience he had endured while alone near the summit of Ben MacDhui some 35 years before.
• "I began to think I heard something else than merely the noise of my own footsteps.
• For every few steps I took I heard a crunch, and then another crunch as if someone was walking after me but taking steps three or four times the length of my own."
• Collie was unable to make out the source of the noises because of mist, and continued "... [as] the eerie crunch, crunch, sounded behind me, I was seized with terror and took to my heels, staggering blindly among the boulders for four or five miles."
• Other climbers have also reported similar experiences, many describing uncontrollable feelings of fear and panic, some actually seeing a huge grey figure behind them, and others only hearing sounds or even succumbing to inexplicable feelings of terror while in the area.
• Similar panic responses have been reported in many North American Sasquatch encounters, and explanations involving infrasound or pheromones have been advanced.
• However, hallucinations and panic brought on by isolation and exhaustion, or an optical illusion similar to the Brocken spectre, are very plausible explanations for the Big Grey Man legend as well.
• A Brocken spectre, or 'glory', can occur in certain atmospheric conditions when the sun is at a particular angle. The subject's shadow can be cast onto low lying clouds around them, creating the illusion of a large shadowy humanoid figure. This is the most commonly advanced theory to explain the reported sightings.

  • Suuurrreeee...That's it exactly...

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• Black Eyed Kids: Another Look
• It’s early evening and you’re home alone. The doorbell rings, and you trot down the hall wondering who it could be.
• You open the door and find two children standing on the stoop. They are strangers to you, both boys in their early teens, dressed normally in sneakers, jeans, and hoodies. You suddenly feel frightened for no discernible reason.
• The taller – and presumably older – boy asks to use your telephone, and has a perfectly good explanation. He is well-mannered, polite, and speaks exceptionally well for a child his age. You’d be letting them in out of the cold .. if not for that fear.
• Your mind seeks desperately for a good reason not to let them in, even as you ask yourself why you are afraid.
• After a few moments, you come up with a good lie and tell them your phone isn't working, but you could bring them your cell phone to use ...
• The taller boy interrupts you and changes his tune. "Can we use your restroom?" he asks suddenly. "Please, it's cold out here. We need to come IN and use your bathroom."
• His emphasis on the word IN inexplicably alarms you, and you only manage to shake your head and mumble something about your cell phone.
  
• "We need to come IN," says the taller boy again, and as he looks up into your face you suddenly notice that his eyes are all black.
• Not just black pupils, but solid black with no whites.
• It's like looking into nothingness where his eyes should be.
• Your fear turns to terror, and although the boys have done nothing overtly threatening, you are suddenly, irrationally convinced that your life is in danger.
• "Please let us in," the shorter boy speaks finally, and when he looks up at you, his eyes are black too.
• "No!" you manage to choke out, surprised that you can say anything at all, and you slam the door in their faces and lock it.
• After a few minutes you regain your composure and fetch your cell phone.
• Reviewing the incident in your mind, you can't understand the fear that overwhelmed you and you resolve to quit acting like an idiot. Cell phone in hand, you open the front door, but the boys are gone. You walk out to the street thinking they can't have gone far, but there's no sign of them anywhere.
• Most are boys, and most are reported to be in their early to mid teens, dressed normally and unremarkable except for their adult speech and black eyes.
• 

  
   
  
   You've just had an archetypal experience of Black-Eyed Kids, or BEKs.
• They always ask to get IN - into the car, into the house, into wherever you are, and they often get increasingly insistent and demanding when it seems that they are going to be denied entry.
• And they are always accompanied by fear, a fear so strong that witnesses describe it as dread or terror and say that they felt that their very lives were in danger.
• Of all the people who have reported seeing BEKs, only one actually let them in - to use the phone - and he subsequently retreated in terror to another room and locked himself in.
• Sometime later, he says, he dared to open the door. Finding the area vacant, he ran for the back door and went to a friend's house. When he returned to his house with the friend, it was empty. Source
• What do BEKs want? We don't know.
• No one has come forward to tell a story of letting them in and letting them do what they wanted to. We don't know if this is because it hasn't happened, or because anyone who let them in isn't around to tell the tale. 8O
• I think we can safely hypothesize that BEKs aren't really children; although there are a few diseases that can turn a human's eyes black and black contacts exist, neither explains the terror that is felt in the presence of these "children" even before the black eyes are noticed.
• I suspect that BEKs appear as children because they want to be trusted; they attempt to appeal to human compassion and the natural desire to help a child.
• The average person is much more likely to let a strange child into their house than a strange adult. If we theorize that BEKs appear as children because they want to appear as children, we must then ask ourselves: why the black eyes? why the fear? Both seem counterproductive to the goal of the targeted person letting them in.
• I have a theory; a hypothesis, and although I am going out on the proverbial limb here, I hope that you will stay with me and that it will make sense when I am done.
• BEKs have a common feature with another entity that is often reported in the modern world: "grey" aliens.
• There is little difference between the large black eyes of the typical grey and the eyes of a BEK; some witnesses of BEKs also note that their eyes seem to be "too big" as well as being all-black.
• Greys are usually reported as being 4 - 5 feet tall, or about the same size as a young boy.
• Suppose that the entities we see as Greys or BEKs are actually among us more often than we would like to think, in the guise of ordinary children.
• Many abductees of greys have stated that greys are telepathic, can project images into the human mind, and/or seem to be able to control a person's mind and body.
• If they can control our minds, perhaps we see what they want us to see when we look at them. No one pays much attention to an adolescent - especially a boy - loitering on the street, in a park, or in a playground. What better guise for hiding in plain sight?
• Suppose that encounters with BEKs - and Greys - are what happen when the mind control fails, or when they drop the disguise because it is no longer needed.
• Suppose the fear can be felt only when the mind control isn't working, and this is why BEKs become agitated and demanding when it appears that you aren't accepting them for what they appear to be - they know something is wrong, and try harder.
• In spite of witness reports of feeling that their lives are in danger, the purpose of BEK encounters may be something less nefarious than exterminating the target.
• perhaps they need to plant some type of receiver inside the house in order to gain access later.
• If this is the case, there may be people who have let children into their houses to use the phone, or the bathroom, or get a drink of water, who never realized that their guests weren't ordinary children.
• I wish that I could ask abductees if they had recently let any children they didn't know into their house. Abductees often state that the Greys just "appear" in their bedroom, or in their house, and lack of an obvious means of entrance is one of the things that often makes these experiences difficult to believe.
• The startling black eyes and the feeling of terror make no sense if they are viewed as being deliberate, but if considered as being accidental, and what happens when the encounter isn't going as planned, they make more sense.
• Perhaps the eyes are the most difficult part of the entity to mask; don't we say that our eyes are the "windows to our soul?"
• When the mind control is ineffective, the witness begins to feel terror and see through the disguise; the black eyes convince him that something is terribly wrong and, whatever the intended purpose of the encounter was, it fails.
• But I won't be letting any strange children into my house no matter what color their eyes are!
• Heike Ott

43 more annotations...

• Interview with Bart Nunnelly, Bigfoot reasearcher.
• The sketchs below were used by permission and can be found at this site,  http://kentuckybigfoot.com/pictures.htm
• With extreme patience, Bart Nunnelly (Part owner in the website stated  above, a noted Bigfoot investigator, and an accomplished artist) created these renditions of the Beast Of LBL (1st sketch) from  one of the actual witnesses, see the report here,  http://kentuckybigfoot.com/counties/livingston.htm

   

  or you can read a more descriptive story of this creature at this site,  http://www.guardiantales.freewebspace.com/JAN-FromTheWoods.html
• And the second sketch is from the story 'Creature of the Night'

   

  which you can read here:

   

  http://www.guardiantales.freewebspace.com/JAN-Creature.html
• We would like to humbly thank Bart for his very patient work  with the witness

   

  to create such masterpieces of the animals/creatures seen.   He was very gracious and willing to make corrections numerous times to get the images as close to real life as possible.
• The Beast of LBL.   

• INTERVIEW WITH BARTON NUNNELLY

   

  KENTUCKY BIGFOOT RESEARCHER

   

  CO-FOUNDER OF WWW.KENTUCKYBIGFOOT.COM
• 1.Tell us a little about yourself, whatever you would  like the readers to know. How did you get started in the pursuit of this animal? Do you believe it will be a life long journey/ambition/hobby/study?
• I was exposed to several frightening phenomena’s  at an early age.
• In 1971,when I was 5,we lived in a small country house by the Green River in Reed, KY at a place we called  the Booth Farm.
• Strange things happened there. 'Shadows' were seen inside the house at night by my siblings. My older sister  saw a Bigfoot type monster staring in the window one night while watching TV.
• After my mother saw a UFO land out behind one  of the barns one evening we moved back to the city.
• Then, in 1975,we returned to the country. We moved to Spottsville, Ky-only  a few miles up the river from the Booth Farm; to Mound Ridge Rd.
• Here we spent 11 months enduring many terrifying encounters  with 'The Spottsville Monster’.
• Again we fled to the relative safety of the city.
• In 1985 we moved back to Reed, Ky.  to a large 2-story house on Carlinsburg Rd.
• Again we were plagued by mysterious events. Bigfoot, ghosts, UFO’s, black  panthers. All in one location.
• We spent 4 years there before moving back to the city a final time in 1989.In the mid '80's  I got hold of a copy of Loren Coleman's 'Mysterious America'. This book is the sole reason I became interested in collecting  other people's unexplained experiences.
• This one book provided me with the inspiration to eventually become a cryptid researcher,  although I have actively collected encounters of every unexplained phenomenon as well along the way.
• 2.What are some of your personal beliefs concerning  the origins or history of this animal?
• Like every other researcher, I do not positively  know the origins of these creatures. I have my own theories of course.
• Due to my own experiences over the years I know for  a fact that they are capable of some astounding feats which tend to point to a more paranormal, or supernatural, explanation  – such has becoming invisible and exhibiting some degree of telepathic 'mind

  • As has been my own theory
• I think there is a lot more to the  Bigfoot mystery than most researchers care to admit, or even contemplate.
• I do not completely discount the notion that some  of these things could be of a flesh and blood nature. They have been reportedly seen eating, mating, breeding, and leaving  trace evidence behind such as footprints, hair and scat.
• Conversely, I have heard many accounts of these things walking through walls, leaving footprints, which abruptly end  in mid stride, hypnotizing witnesses and even being directly associated to UFO entities.
• I think a hypothesis, which addresses  all of these things, and not just one or two aspects of the phenomenon, are needed here. There are strong arguments, which  support both sides, the F&B (Flesh and Blood) and the paranormal.
• I don't think that the researcher's beliefs should play  a role in the way evidence, or data, is collected. And that's with any mystery, not just BF (Bigfoot).
• 3.What was your initial reaction to your fist encounter?
• Same as with nearly all my bf encounters: extreme  fright.
• My father was an extremely strong, brave, intelligent man. Aside from the notion of any of his children coming to  harm, nothing scared him.
• The first and only time I ever saw him afraid of something was in Spottsville. This creature actually  frightened him and that fact still impresses me to this day.
• 4.Tell us about your website and how you got it started,  (you may mention your partner if he agrees to be recognized) what is the objective/purpose of your site? What message are  you trying to tell the public about this illusive animal?
• The Kentucky bigfoot website got started when my  partner and webmaster, Charlie Raymond, a computer teacher from Louisville who majored in psychology, contacted me and asked  if I would be interested in trying to put together a working database of all known KY bf sightings.
• 6.What are your personal thoughts on the nature of  this creature’s habits/attitudes/migration and travel/social environment with others of the same species?
• There seems to be several different types of these  creatures, all described in differing terms.
• Some have 3,4 or 5 toes; some look like apes, some like humans, others like wolves  that walk like men.
• One thing I have found to be consistent in most 'Dog Man’ (muzzled bf) reports is that they are  almost always described as acting with extreme aggression towards both man and other animals.

  • "extreme aggression"
• For the most part, these accounts  seem to come from the Eastern states and are exactly the opposite of the 'typical' BF behavior which comes primarily, but  not exclusively, from the PNW part of the U.S.

  • Eastern USA cryptid phenomena seem to present more a sense of aggression/aggressive behavior than their counter parts in the western States.
• So, it is my personal opinion that several types of bipedal humanoid creatures  could be responsible for the bf enigma as a whole.
• Many researchers understandably have a problem with this. It is hard enough  to grasp the idea that even one type of undiscovered primate exists in the world, much less 2 or 3 different varieties.
• 7.How do you sift through some of the sightings and  witness accounts? Do you post them all or do you edit out the ones that are naturally related to hoaxes? Is there a profile  of questions you ask?
• I try to contact the witnesses personally when possible,  and interview them to get a feel of their sincerity. Not all witnesses are sincere, but these types of people usually tip  their hands in a personal conversation.
• 9.How far in the world does this creature’s  existence extend? How far back has this animal been reported?
• The enigma of BF, as far as I can tell, is an extremely  ancient one, going back as far as the existence of mankind.
• And every continent has its own BF equivalents; we are dealing  with a worldwide phenomenon with roots stretching far back into antiquity.
• (Readers see this link http://kentuckybigfoot.com/pictures.htm at the bottom of the page to see a photo of a Native American cave painting found in Kentucky that depicts some  type of upright beast. Then go to this link http://kentuckybigfoot.com/counties/edmonson.htm to read more about the discovery.)
• 10.Hypothetically, if you ever actually entrapped  a Bigfoot, what would be your course of action? Would you turn it over to science/government officials/the media?
• First of all, I would never even attempt to capture  one of these creatures. I don't think it's possible. They seem to be extremely intelligent; incredibly powerful and wary of  anyone near them.
• I would content myself with capturing its image on film. A good close-up  shot for several minutes or so, I think, is the best anyone can hope for.

• It may sound callous, but the only way to actually  prove to science that they exist is to kill one. Given their reported contempt for man-made bullets I don't think this will  happen anytime soon.

   

   
• 11.Why, in your opinion, has there been no solid  evidence, such as a body (live or dead or injured) been found to prove it's existence?
• This question is the greatest bastion for the skeptical  argument. This question alone, when you think about it, either supports the notions that they don't exist at all or they are  a paranormal manifestation incapable of being killed or captured...or even photographed very well.
• It is incredible to think  that a living, breeding population of beings such as these could avoid all detection for any length of time. Which they have  done extremely well.
• Even their young seem to be incapable of making the kind of grave mistakes as our own do. They don't  fall off of cliffs and die. They don't get killed by cars or drown. They don't seem to die from sicknesses such as humans  often do.
• 12.What do you think this animal actually is? An  unclassified/undiscovered species? A creature of the paranormal realm? A creature left over from some alien visitation?
• All of the above.
• At this point, the creatures are  definitely an unclassified species.
• With each passing year and each new witness I talk to I am further impressed by the notion  that these things, at least one type of them, are seemingly directly linked to the UFO phenomenon, which, I feel, is not of  an extraterrestrial nature, but a paranormal one.

  • Precisely
• 13.How far does the Bigfoot legend go back in the  state of Kentucky?
• As far back, as there were people here to record  their existence.
• 14.Where are the most sightings in the USA?
• Typically, it is considered that the majority of  sightings take place in the vast expanses of wilderness in the PNW (Pacific North West).
• However, since I have been conducting  my research I have found that an incredible amount of activity is going on in the Ohio Valley.
• Much more so than the average  researcher would expect. Personally, I have come to believe that, for whatever reason, this is the bf capital of the world.
• 15.Do you believe that this animal has some level  of intelligence or communication skills either with some of their own species or with humans? Do you believe one can be befriended/tamed/  or develop enough trust to study its environmental habits?
• Yes to all of the above.
• I am in communication with  several people, who wish to remain anonymous, which claims to be in direct contact with these creatures on a regular basis.
• According to them, the BF speaks using a combination of Native American dialects and mental telepathy. Something no 'natural'  sentient being on earth is capable of.

  • Demonic

• 16.What evidence that you have found can contribute  to the actual statement that it does exist?

   

   
• I think the best evidence, which argues the fact  that they exist, is the tens of thousands of eyewitness accounts. Anecdotal, yes, but everyone can't be lying or delusional.  To one such as myself, their existence is not even questionable.
• 17.Do you believe that the media is controlled by  some secret government agency that steps in to cover up some of the more intense mysterious encounters with this animal...for  instance if it involved serious injury/and or death to the witness?

  • SEE: Tom Horn of the website, "Raiders New Network" and his book, "The Ahriman Gate."
• Yes. I am sure of this.
• 18.Can you tell us some of the Native American beliefs  about this animal?
• Most NA (North American) tribes believed that BF  was/is an evil spiritual being, capable of shape shifting into other animal forms and even disappearing at will.
• Most believed  that to even see it meant certain impending bad fortune or even death.
• While the 'evil nature spirit' is the most common belief  among NA cultures, there are some who hold that BF is merely another type of Indian, taller, more hairy and more powerful,  not to mention more cunning and elusive.
• 19.Do you believe that the Yeti, the Russian Almas  and other reports worldwide concerning the same characteristics of our own native Bigfoot, are related in some way?
• Were they  all once a tribe together before the continental split thousands of years ago, and were separated, then had to adapt to their  new environments?
• Yes I think all of these creatures are merely regional  varieties of the same subject.
• 20.Are all the Bigfoot groups/researchers/historians  connected in some way or are they all basically independent branches, like segregated religions with their own beliefs/practices/code  of ethics, etc.?
• There are basically 2 types of researchers. Those  who think BF to be merely an undiscovered species of primate, with no abilities other than those shared by other primates  such as gorillas. Certainly not as intelligent as humans.
• The other type thinks that there must be more to bf than meets the  eye. That no natural animal could be capable of the bizarre feats, which have been attributed to these creatures.
• From my  own experience, the relict hominid believers seem to be extremely hostile to anyone who thinks outside of their own paradigms.  They delight in ridiculing and belittling those who refuse to go along with their way of thinking, even though it has yielded  absolutely no results in over 50 years.
• By and large, though, the paranormal BF enthusiasts are generally not well received.

• 21.Do you believe that within the next 10 years that  someone out there will solve this mystery once and for all, by using all the modern technology available?

   

   

   

  No. I do believe the bf mystery will be solved in  the next 10 years, but not by man using modern technology. If the mystery is to be put to rest, I feel it will be by the creatures  themselves.

  • Very interesting reply to this inquiry here.
• 23.Are there any other well-known public figures,  (such as Jane Goodall who said in an interview in September of 2002, that she is certain Bigfoot exists, and was excited that  a hair sample turned up DNA evidence of a species of unknown origin.) which publicly recognize the true existence of this  animal? (Any scientist, crypto-zoologist?)
• Not many. Nearly all cryptozoologists at least support  the notion that they could exist.
• Loren Coleman, generally accepted as the world's leading cryptozoologist, is probably the  most well known advocate of the existence of BF. Interestingly, I don't think he has ever had a sighting himself. Could be  wrong there, but I don't think so.
• 24.What are some of the most unbelievable witness  accounts that you have heard or read about? (Some that are way out there, like being raped and having Bigfoot's baby, bigfoot  coming in and eating popcorn with the family, etc.)
• I have read a couple of BF rape accounts, as well  as several alleged bf murders.
• But to me, the most bizarre accounts are the ones, which the BF is reported as having some  type of interaction with the UFO phenomenon.

  • I told you so and more than 25 years ago...
• Of course, the ones where it is said to walk through walls and 'glide' above  the ground are highly unusual as well.
• 25.Are there other avenues of the paranormal that  you are interested in or have a desire to study? Have any experiences you would like to share?
• I have studied all varieties of the paranormal and  have my own experiences with most of them.
• I have personally seen several different cryptids, mostly in the company of other  witnesses, aside from my BF experiences.
• The strangest was a large, red, featherless bird with a wingspan of about 20 ft.  which resembled a pterosaur back in 1998
• In addition, I have seen more UFO's here in Western KY than I could possibly relate here.

• 26.How do your friends and family take you believing  in this topic of Bigfoot?

   

   

   

  Seriously, just as I take it. Those who know me know  that I do not lie or make up stories.

   

   
• 27.Do you have an experience that truly frightened  you?
• Yes. Read my 'Strange KY Encounter' at www.kentuckybigfoot.com, Henderson County, involving an invisible BF attack.
• The Spottsville Monster episode, http://kentuckybigfoot.com/counties/spottsville_monster.htm, was very >frightening as well, especially for a young child.
• My most frightening experiences, however, involve  ghosts. Never did care for them at all.
• Even though, like everyone else, I would like  to be rich, I did not get involved with cryptid research for any possible monetary gain. As of right now, I have never made  a single cent from my experiences or research.
• 30.What is the most enjoyable aspect of your research?
• To me, one of the most rewarding aspects of cryptid  research is being able to sketch a mysterious being under the actual witness' direction.
• Note that I did not say witness’  description. There is a big difference between the two. Witness direction, as in Jan's case, is an ongoing process,  which requires several attempts to portray exactly what the witness saw. The images are emailed to the witness who is then  able to describe what alterations are needed. Back and forth the image travels until it arrives at its intended destination:  a nearly perfect, accurate representation of an unknown animal.
• -Barton M.Nunnelly
• (Click this link http://kentuckybigfoot.com/pictures.htm to see some of Barton’s wonderful artwork he sketched out under witness’ directions.

• Including the  one’s he’s done for me personally concerning the Beast of LBL and the albino creature seen in Sturgis.)

   

  Interview done by Hannibal Specter

   

  February 2006

107 more annotations...

• The   Slack Farm Incident
• 
    The infamous 'Slack Farm' on Dike Rd. traveling away from the Ohio River in   Uniontwown, Ky. Immediately to the left and stretching to the treeline witness   the scene of the largest NA grave desecration in history, strange animal mutilations   and the reputed home of bigfoot. Directly behind viewpoint lies the dikes and   the Uniontown boat dock, scene of the 1996 sighting of a ten foot tall, gorilla-like   creature. Uniontown, Ky has a long tradition of bigfoot activity. Some of the   locals I've spoken to simply referr to these unknown creatures as 'gorillas'.   (photo by Kaleigh Duncan, 8-06)
• 
    Close up, Slack Farm. Local folklore claims that the forested hill in background,   and all the adjoining bottom land, is home to huge, bipedal 'Gorillas'.
• 
    Daisy Mae Lake, Higgins and Henry Wildlife Mngt Area, Morganfield, Ky (photo   by Kaleigh Duncan, 8-06
• Uniontown - Nov, 1996
• Woman has nightime BF sighting on Dike Rd. as it walks unhurriedly   across road and disappears into the treeline which runs along the Ohio River.
• She described it as around 10 ft. tall, with long arms and covered with long,   wooly hair. It was broad shouldered, narrower at the waist and had a gorilla   like head with no neck.
• Her husband and son, commercial fisherman, had heard   this creature many times previously as it splashed about in the shallow waters   just off the shore of a large island in the river where they fished.
• Area has   long history of BF activity.
• Interestingly, it is the site of the largest concentration   of desecrated Native American burial mounds in the world and the largest known   burial site in Kentucky.

  • Area is location of the largest "desecrated" Native American burial mounds in the world and the largest known burial site in Kentucky.
• The crime garnered national attention   and,consequently, massive protestations from Native Americans across the U.S.Hundreds   of representatives soon descended, en mass, on the area to hold rituals as they   reinterred their ancestors back into what they considered sacred land.
• Over 1,200 graves, belonging to the Angel Medina culture,were   desecrated and looted in the late 1980's.
• In the   late 1990's I was able to sneak into the area, known locally as The Slack Farm,   and have a look around this magical place. Some stealth was required, since   the grave desecrations, which resulted in the nations first lengthy prison terms   for crimes against the indigenous dead, the area was highly restricted and tresspassers   were promised immediate jail terms as well.
• Nonetheless, we were able to spend   several hours unnoticed as we walked the far end of the ridge which sat below   a large, forested hill.
• They were ripped   to pieces and strewn over the entire lower end of the ridge. They appeared to   be fresh, despite the curious absence of blood, and none of the meat looked   as if it had been eaten.
• As we walked along a small creek which emptied into   the Ohio we came upon the carcasses of about ten dead pigs.
• After this an extremely uncomfortable feeling came   over us, like we were being watched, and we decided it would be best to leave.
• Union   County - Sturgis, KY -1983 near the Peabody   Coal Mines.
• "What   I saw that Christmas Eve evening while traveling through the back roads of Sturgis...
• It had patchy hair, mainly in patches on the   shoulders and back, and it had a full tangled head of hair spreading around   its neck and patches on it's upper chest also...no tail and no hair in the genital   area.
• The genital area looked like   it had a rash or was being scratched on a regular basis as it was a pinkish   color and it had large, hanging testicles with a thick uncircumcised appendage   hanging loosely
• It was thin and lean. You could tell it had a big boned structure but the   flesh was thin on it's body like it was unhealthy.
• When it did turn to run into the opposite field the buttocks   were muscular as well, even though it was rather thin in stature.
• I would estimate   it's height to be somewhere between 6'2 and 6'5, and around 145-150 in weight.   I realize this is rather small to be classified as a Bigfoot, but maybe it had   some sort of disease or malnutrition disorder.
• There were ribs showing, like   it was starved...Also the area below around the hip area was slightly sunken   in showing the pelvic bone structure.
• Facial features: The face was sunken and shallow.
• t   had a wide nose, like a person of African descent, a large lip area around the   mouth, and the canines were a bit shorter(than the Beast of LBL's).
• I didn't   notice any lower canines sticking up, and the face was gaunt, sunken in, the   flesh sticking to the bone structure
• the eyes were red but I'm sure that was   from the headlights shining in it's face.
• The eyes shown fiery red, with no white around the pupils, just solid   red, glowing in the light like a captured animal in the dark.
• It did have blood around it's mouth,   on it's teeth, and running down it's chin and chest, and on it's hands and lower   arms.
• Wild, very long   brown hair fell from it's head in thick tangles along it's white skin, down   it's back, over it's shoulder.
• It appeared to be a man, and it was naked, it's   flesh as milky as the snow around it's bare feet that were raised up on the   toes, as if preparing to pounce, it's back hunched over slightly.
• It's muscles   were tight, solid outlines resembling finely chiseled Italian marble, no doubt   they would have been hard to the touch, as well as cold.
• One of the upper leg   muscles trembled like a horse's does after a hard race.
• It stood staring at   me, through the windshield, I could see the exhales of breath, large clouds   of warm air, coming from it's mouth in fast rhythms as it rested from running   through the fields.
• The hair on the neck and shoulders was in patches, like   hunks taken out all over, there were sprigs of long hair hanging from the elbows   and along the backbone from the neck down to the butt crack.
• Its hair was dark   brown.....and I don't know if you can add this but it had what appeared to be   leaves stuck in it at places...it was a tangled mess, very unruly...and the   straggles that hung long by the face were twisted with blood I assume at the   ends." - Jan Thompson
• (Source:   http://www.guardiantales.freewebspace.com/JAN-Creature.html)
• 
    Sketch by Bart Nunnelly under specific direction from witness Jan Thompson
• Union   County - Morganfield 1988
   
    During a quota deer hunt at the Higgins & Henry Wildlife Area just outside   of Morganfield, two Indiana deer hunters encountered a bigfoot creature in woods.   It scared the two so badly that they abandoned the hunt and returned to Indiana   empty handed. (credit: Mike McCaw)

39 more annotations...

• JAN'S TALES
• From   the Woods
• The summer of '78 will   always be a turn about in my beliefs of 'real monsters' versus the demonic or   paranormal type. 
• Ghosts and spirits had become a common event during my life   growing up, until that particular summer when a new avenue of fear introduced   itself and made a permanent pathway inside my mind.  A path made of concrete   that wanders thru the forests of my memories. 
• A place where  my daily thinking   bypasses to avoid the beckoning desire of fear that calls from down   that menacing road of remembrance. 
• For this moment though,  for the benefit   of you, the reader, I will travel down that route once more and try to   recapture the scene so that you too will lay awake wondering and asking the   Universe, "Is there something else out there somewhere that is above us   humans on the food chain?"
• (Grand Rivers is at the beginning of Land Between the Lakes   entrance.) 
• It was on one of those   hot July summer evenings in Grand Rivers, Kentucky, back in 1978, when this   took place.
• The sun was not completely down and the skies were streaked with   violet-pinkish Posy colored clouds that outlined the curtain of darkness that   was pushing the turquoise blue away. 
• I was staying at my Aunts house with my   cousins for a few weeks during summer vacation, a very welcome home at the end   of a dead end road. 
• Hundreds of acres of woods surrounded the home that that   had been built down a hill and into the side of a large hill of dirt.  There   were several homemade trails through out the woods that led to several places;   an old abandoned rail road track that went on for miles, another abandoned   place- the old sawmill, and other paths led to parts of the shore line of the   Kentucky lake.
• They all started out as walking trails, but with the new   addition of a dirt bike that my cousin Joe had the trails became well outlined   and defined.
•  As with almost every day that I was visiting, Joe was out   riding his bike through the woods, exploring, and just being with his   own thoughts of a 13 year old. 
• His younger sister, Ronda, was with me   outside on the porch swing.  She was 10, and I was 17 at the time.
• Beside the   driveway was a huge dog pen where their pet basset hounds lodged and was at   the moment quite relaxed in the shade. 
• My uncle   was working and my aunt was at the local  IGA store down in town.
• The woods had been filled with only   the sounds of birds and the chatter of squirrels for a few hours.  Joe must   have been way far off on a trail somewhere to not have heard that   distinct sound of the dirt bike screaming through it's gears echoing around   the trees. 
• I knew he must be on his way home, because his dad forbid him to   be out in  the woods at dark, so Ronda and I was waiting to hear that familiar   putt putting of the bike slowly coming down the drive as he reluctantly came   home to park it for another night.   
• As we swung back and   forth, singing silly songs, we heard something a bit strange in the distance,   it was Joe's dirt bike screaming at almost a soprano type of gear, long,   steady, and fast, with no shifting sounds, just a straight stream of one gear   in motion with a full throttle, going at top speed. 
• The sound accelerated as   he drew closer at such a fast pace, and we watched from the swing up to the   top of the driveway where he would appear from the other side out of the   woods.  I couldn't help but think that he had better slow down or he would   come flying up over the top of the hill and downwards missing a wide stretch   of pavement by being airborne. 
• The noise didn't softened or slow.  Steady and   fixed was his speed.  And just as I had thought, he emerged from the woods in   such a tenacious movement, that he did indeed go airborne a few feet before   pounding down the front tire on the driveway, continuing his descent now with   a struggle of keeping the bike upright and straight. 
• The brakes hit hard and the bike slid sideways and   as it came down to the edge and end of the drive, Joe tilted his body and let   the bike slide out from under him before he went down the rest of the hill   with it.  Instead of the bike continuing to slide to the edge it was caught in   a spin that variably died down as the engine sputtered, and then quit   altogether.  Everyone was wide eyed and full of adrenaline, all our   mouths open in shock.
• But Joe's mouth was open in a strange fearful grimace,   he was sweating profusely and his breaths were coming and going in great   heaves.  Tears were coming down his cheeks, mixing with the dusty dirt that   the trail had left him powdered with. 
• His eyes were at the top of the hill,   at the top of the drive, unblinking, searching, waiting.  We followed his gaze   not understanding what this escapade was all about.
• In silence we watched   with him for a about 30 seconds and then the dogs started barking.  Growling.    And then whining, trying to get out of the pen in a frantic panic of digging   and gnawing at the fencing.
• "IT GRABBED ME!! LOOK AT   MY LEG!!", Joe screamed, making us jump with alarm at the sound of his voice. 
• We looked down at his Levi's and saw scratch marks going across his right   thigh, scratches that tore through the tough denim and left small bloody   marks on his skin.  The marks were like a bears-claw-rake, not those caused   by  branches or sticky bushes, but a definite wide pattern of a paw print.       
• He was frightened beyond belief, and the bits and   pieces of what he was striving with extreme effort to tell us was coming out   in loud syllables that filled us both with the same dread.
• "IT WALKED ON TWO   LEGS!", his voice startled us again, as he was trying to tell his story in   between huge gulps of air.
• "It was following   me through the woods....along the path....from the old sawmill....hairy...it   was so hairy...and it's snout was so long...and it walked on two legs....it   ran on two legs...", his voice was sputtering, slowing, his eyes were still   wide, and I could see the pulse of his heartbeat throbbing under the skin of   his temples. 
• A howling began.  From   the woods, not from the dog pen where now the dogs suddenly stopped their own   complaining, standing deathly still, staring up at the top of the hill,  the   nape of the hair on their back standing up, ruffled, their noses up in the air   breathing in a strange scent. 
• A wolfs howl.  It was close.  It seemed it was   just a few yards from the road up above. 
• Just as the idiot in a horror movie   stands and stares at something to appear, that was what I was doing then, with   a mixture of anticipation and confusion.  What the hell was he talking about?   I thought to myself, mulling over the brief descriptions; torn blue jeans,   walks and runs on two legs, stalking him, hairy with a long nose and calling   the mysterious hunter an "IT".
• He had a hand on each of our backs and was   urging us onward when IT came out of the woods above.
• Joe's tears came quicker   and he started to push us towards the front door of the house demanding that   we go inside and lock the doors. 
• At first it appeared to   be a very large wolf emerging from the dark outline of the trees, but as it   approached the one lane road that connected to the driveway, it's height grew   to a towering shadow that stood on two legs.  Much taller then a man's height,   maybe by a foot, and with the sun gone down behind the clouds, it only cast   a silhouette of blackness, hairy blackness. 
• My mouth dropped wide as well as   my eyes.  This was not happening, this was not what I was seeing.  My mind was   going back and forth from rationality to reality. 
• 'I was from St. Louis, the   most frightening thing back home in Missouri was MO MO the Monster, the Show   Me States version of Big Foot.  This was no Big Foot!'
• It raised it's long   snout up in the air and let out a gurgling, slow, deliberate howl, while   stretching it's long arms to it's sides and upwards, like it was praising the   coming of the night, praying to the unseen moon and stars.
• At that moment   the security light that was at the top of the hill by the beginning of their   driveway popped on.  Slowly at first it began to glow and gathered it's energy   to shine more brightly over the next few seconds. 
• One of the creatures arms   bent and shaded it's eyes from the glare.  It wasn't an 'It' any longer, nor   was it a big foot, this was a wolf like creature that, like Joe said, stood on   two legs, was taller then a man, and was staring at the three of us down the   hill. 
• Those huge, black eyes, I will never get out of my mind.  They were   like two sockets of ebony oil shining under magnifying glass lenses.
• We ran into the house,   tearing the screen door in the process, slamming the main door, locking it,   pushing things, anything we could reach against the inside of the door.  The   kitchen was right behind us and so was the knife drawer which we raided and   took several with us as we tried to decide where to hide.
• There was a house   dog inside, another basset hound, Stubby, and he met us in the kitchen   wondering what the racket was.
• Another howl from outside, coming from the   driveway. Stubby's hair raised and he started backing up at first, then he   went to the front door and was smelling around the edges.
• The three of us ran   to my aunts room and was about to slam the door and lock it when the dog   tucked tail and ran after us, beating us under the bed.  All of us squeezed   under the four poster, knives clutched in our hands, scared half to death. 
• We   could hear the dogs in the pen outside going absolutely crazy with barking,   and we could also hear other things being knocked around on the porch, then on   the side of the house, then at the side door.  We heard glass break.  We could   tell it was from one of the bedrooms, the windows were up high and they were   very narrow so we knew that it would take some effort for anything to get thru   them, but still we shivered from fright.
• My aunts horn on her   Cadillac sounded several times as she drove down the road and approached the   house.  That meant for us to meet her outside and help with the groceries.  We   didn't budge.  We couldn't move.  We didn't answer her yells from outside for   us to come unload the bags, we didn't crawl out and unlock the door for her,   nor answer her knocking.
• She finally had to use her keys and then give some   hefty push's against the pile of items we had up against the door;the trash   can, 25 pound bags of dog food, water jugs, and a variety of other stuff.  We   stayed put.
• She discovered us only after all the groceries had been brought   in and she noticed that her bedroom door was closed and locked. 
• It was amazing that we   hadn't cut each other in some way or another with the immature use of the   knives in our haste to hide, and we were chastised in more ways then one when   it came down to my aunt observing us slowly emerging from her bedroom with the   kitchen weapons in hand.
• We all started talking at once in a fervor, then we   finally let Joe tell his story first, then we finished with it breaking a   window just before we heard her horn on the car.  She must have startled it. 
• She didn't laugh, she didn't respond at all at first, in fact she never said a   word until she came back from inspecting the windows in the bedrooms.
•  My   aunt said indeed there was a broken window, broken from the outside in.  She   made us clean up our barricade and put up all the groceries.
• Later that   night, after we were all in bed and my uncle came home, she related that   evenings events to him.

• The next morning, their   dad warned us, "Stay out of the woods."

   

  No problem.
• He went on to say that   he himself had went down in the woods earlier that morning and found several   pits dug and filled with animal bones and parts of carcasses along the path   that led to the old sawmill that couldn't be explained. 
• There were also holes   dug in the sides of the bluff along the hills that over-looked the old mill   that looked like deep caves, big enough for a man to hide in
• Then he told us   that years before when the old boy scout camp use to be on the other side of   Grand Rivers, that an unexplained creature with wolf features was seen along   the waters edge close to the camp sites.  He and his older son has witnessed   it themselves one evening.
• I went back home a few   weeks after this happened.  And since then it has never ceased to be a moment   of complete terror lodged inside my mind, along with the horror experienced at   the Oakwood Home. 
• It would only be a couple of years later, after moving   from the city down to Kentucky that once more I would come into the legend of   the wolf creature by means of some old timers that use to live in Land Between   the Lakes (LBL for short.).
• Their tales told to me while sitting on an old   bench in front of the IGA down in Grand Rivers would help me draw a bigger   picture of what this thing actually was.  Then, a few more years in passing,   in the early '80's, two police officers would tell me their own tale of the   events of a tragic scenario discovered in one of the campgrounds  down in LBL.    Events that were never published in the media. 
• Just about ten years   ago, in the early '90's, Joe and my dad who had come down from St. Louis to   visit, decided to venture into those same woods in front of my aunts house.    They took a couple of pistols and two rifles and were gone for several hours.
• These were two brave men, the bravest I know of, both of whom served in the   military and fought in two separate wars, wars of their own time. 
• These two   men came back ashen faced and bewildered.  They had walked all the way back to   the old saw mill.  The pits, fresh ones, were still around, filled with the   bones of forest animals.  The holes in the bluff still there also. 
• They both   experienced the feeling of being watched and felt an uneasiness that   'something' just wasn't right.
• The area where the sawmill was had no life   stirring around it.  No birds, no squirrels, no crickets, no bugs, even the   small pond was still and lifeless. 
• The birds that did fly made their way   around the area and refused to fly over head.
• They couldn't shake the feeling   of being observed by a secret watcher and both swore they saw a large black   shadow lurking in the shade of one of the mysteriously dug caves. 
• That had   been the first time Joe had been down that far on that side of the woods since   he was thirteen, and both of them agreed that it was to be the last. 
• My dad   said there are some things you just can't explain, that science doesn't know   about it, and these things should be left alone, they are not a part of our   modern world.  He felt that what ever it was that had scared the crap out of   us so many years ago, still existed in the same area.  His intuition has never   been wrong so far.
• Urban legend?  Maybe   some of the stories passed along the years have been added too, stretched a   bit, like all local folk lore, and first hand stories are over time.  My story   wasn't an urban tale though. It was a first hand account of something I really   and truly do not want to believe in, and wish I could forget; erase from my   memory, because the nightmares remain real even though the events are   still unexplainable by the laws of science as we know it.
• -Jan   Thompson.

• (N0TE:  Jan stated in an email   that Joe saw the sketch below, and they both "agree on the animals' features,   except for the ears.")  Joe remembers the creature with a bit shorter   ears than is depicted in the sketch.)  

     

  

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• JAN'S TALES
• The Beast of LBL     
• There is a  national recreation area  in   Western Kentucky (that also runs down to Tennessee) called 'Land Between the   Lakes', or LBL for short.
• It is situated between the Kentucky and Barklay    Lakes, consisting of more then 300 miles of shoreline, 170,000 acres of   forest and over 200 miles of walking trails.
• It is currently a focal point for   over $600 million in the tourism industry. 
• Prior to 1959, before the Kentucky   and Lake Barklay Dams were constructed, and before it was officially called   LBL (in 1963 by President John F. Kennedy), and before TVA (Tennessee Valley   Authority, the federal government used it's powers of eminent domain to buy   and tear down all the houses, businesses and community buildings thru out the   entire area, forcing over 700 families to give up their homes.) took over the   land,  the area was called 'Between the Rivers'. 
• There are over 228 small family cemeteries,   many forgotten about and lost, dotted thru out the acres of forests as it was   once used as homes to early Kentucky settlers.

  • Like Georgia's Fort Stewart Army installation outside Savannah.
• Some of the earliest graves   date back to the early 1700's, which include graves of white settlers,   veterans from nearly every war, including the Revolutionary War, and also   those of black slaves and Chinese immigrants who worked in the iron furnaces   that were in the area.
• There was also a very high infant mortality rate and   many of these children were buried right outside the cabins from where they   were born so that their mother could peer out the window and see the grave. 
• There are also numerous Native American graves scattered thru out the acres,   much older then even the earliest of settler graves, some discovered, others   lay in secret beneath the layers of leaves and forest ferns.  
• Back before the 1950's it always had been a   very rural area to live in, with farmsteads far and few between, and with no   real town to speak of except up at the north end in Grand Rivers. 
• It was in   this town, back in the mid 70's that I first heard of 'The Beast Between the   Rivers' or known now as 'The Beast of LBL'.
• Some old   timers would sit on this long wooden bench outside the old IGA store, that use   to be the old 'country store' for decades before the grocery conglomerate came   to town.  I used to hang around there on the   weekends during the day and listen to the stories they each would tell.
•  These   old men, most of whom used to live in LBL before   they were forced to move, had some very interesting stories to tell about that   part of the country. 
• There was talk of hauntings, Indian curses,   mysterious lights over gravestones at night, old hag witches that lived deep   in the woods, and more importantly, several tales of a wolf like creature that   stood on two legs that would come out of the thickets and attack their cattle   and live stock.  Day or night. 
• A creature that was taller then an average man   by well over a foot, nearly 7 foot tall, with thick long hair covering it's   body, and a stench that matched that of some of the freshly open graves that   were discovered now and then. 
• This 'wolf man' left tracks like a barefoot man   but where the toes should have been, instead  were paw prints. 
• The head was   huge and wolf like in appearance, with an extra long snout, and uncanny long   sharp incisors that glistened from the moon light with saliva, along with eyes   that, "Radiated red,  like one of the hottest fires in Hell', they'd say.
• It   had long arms that ended with huge hands and long spindly fingers with long,   pointed, dirt caked claws.
• At night they would hear it howl;   un-natural guttural sounds of painful hungry agony, and  at that warning, all would go out and tie up their livestock and even   bring their most prized selections inside their homes with them. 

  • Farmers' livestock
• The legend of the beast went back at least   a hundred years, and was passed along through time from family to family and   updated as new sightings occurred. 
• One old man said that his great great   grand pappy told him that the creature use to be a man, a Native American that   had the ability to shape shift, a powerful shaman that had been outcast from   his tribe because he used his magic for evil. 
• The Shaman had been tracked   and killed while in his wolf state by a few warriors and a couple of settlers   in the area.  In his dying breath he cursed them and vowed to return from the   dead to haunt the forests and seek revenge on their families and all who lived   there. 
• Another man on the bench with a leathery, weathered face,  said he   heard from his grandma that the beast was once a settler that came over from   Europe back in the early 1800's, with a disease that made him turn into a mad   man at night.
• The disease was eventually passed along to his children, which   never went to school, but stayed hidden away from the population. 
• Many   thought the family had died off because for years they never seen or heard   from them and after investigations by some brave men they discovered the   homestead vacant and abandoned in the early 1900's. 
• The sightings of the monster where still   frequent thru out the beginning of the twentieth century, and the elderly   group on the bench each told some unsettling encounters they or members of   their own families had had with it. 
• Each one told stories of finding   livestock slaughtered, ripped to pieces and ate upon.  Cows and pigs with   their legs dismembered from the sockets.  Even a few horses had met their end   with savage attacks upon their bodies.
• A few of them described what they saw   at different times when they caught glimpses of  the figure by  peeking out of   the curtains of the windows into the night.
• One man said it jumped out of one   of the horse stalls one evening while he was putting up some animals.   It stopped in front of him, arms spread out like it was getting ready to grab   him, let out a howl and then sprang past him and into the dusky shadows of    the  sunset. 
• This particular man said he 'wet his overalls' during the   episode. 
• Another man said he never seen it, but would always hear it's   baleful wails frequently at night, not like a regular wolf or a coyote, "No,"   he said, "It was more deeper, longer, stronger sounding then what would come   out of any animal I ever heard."
• Another old timer said his wife had seen it   trying to get into the chicken coup but gave up after getting tangled in the   chicken wire. 
• They all had tales of 'someone's hound dog' getting killed,   ripped apart limb from limb, 'someone's pig or cow or chicken' getting eaten,   the mysterious footprints left in the mud, and the stench it left behind where   ever it appeared. 
• And more then one had the same story of listening to it   walk across their front porches at night and scratching on the doors and walls   which would leave deep gouges in the wood they would find in the morning. 
• All   of them agreed that this was not a Bigfoot or Sasquatch.
• It would be only   another year or two after hearing about this mysterious beast that I myself   would encounter it at the home of a family member that lived in the same area.

  • Writer's encounter
• A prelude actually to the real story I will begin to   unfold.  I just wanted to lay some ground work so you could get the big   picture, and form some of your own opinions and theories. 
• But this isn't the story I was wanting to   tell you.  This was just a brief introduction to the unwritten accounts of the   darker side of LBL. 
• Walk with me now as   I take you back about twenty two years, back to the early 1980's. 
• Where I use   to work midnights at a gas station a few miles from the Kentucky Dam, which   was a few miles from the beginning of LBL in Grand Rivers. 
• And it was on one   of these midnight shifts I had two visitors that would change my outlook on   the subject of 'werewolves'. (... and make me believe in what I had seen   myself a few years back in the same area but had kept it between myself and    two other family members that were with me at the time....but that's another   story to be written.)

  • Belief in werewolves..
• This story was never in the paper, on the news, or had   any media  attention at all.  It was kept hush hush, and a sacred silence was   demanded on all those involved.  It couldn't get out, ever. 
•  It was a few   weeks before the beginning of tourist season, and tourists were what the   locals survived on, they were the 'bread and butter'.   A story like this   would be like screaming 'Sharks!' at Daytona Beach, or 'Child Molester!' at   Disneyland.   The people would stop coming out of fear. 
• I wasn't a witness to the fact, just a   third person, making observations and having conversations with two   individuals who were a part of the incident, who were involved in the whole   ordeal.
• They had just came from the crime scene down in the middle of LBL   after being there for over 8 hours.  It was around three in the morning and   they were taking a much needed reality break. 
• Two officers of the law.  Two grown men who   both appeared shaken beyond description.  A mixture of fear and confusion,   shock and disbelief emanated from them both. 
• One was paler then the other, a   deathly pallor over his skin, and it was this one (I'll name him officer Adam,   to protect their identities) that had to sit on the curb of the gas pumps,   head between his legs and expel the last bit of his stomach contents. 
• The   other officer (I'll name him officer Bill) came in for some coffee for   himself and a cup of water for his partner, then rejoined Adam outside.  There   were no other customers so I went outside with them to see if I could offer   some assistance with the ill man.  He gladly took the few Rolaids I had   extended in my hand, with his own shaky fingers he struggled to get them into   his mouth.  
• For quite a long while the only thing that   was heard were the crickets in the near by fields, the sounds of bugs hitting   the fluorescent lights above us hanging from the gas station canopy, and the    distant sound of highway traffic that was far and few between as it was in   the wee hours of the morning. 
• My mind was buzzing with various scenarios of   the cause of their distress....a tragic car accident....possibly a motorcycle   wreck...a boating mishap with drown victims....a murder.....a dead body   discovered.
• I don't remember sitting down but after   about 15 minutes of this hushed stillness I found myself beside them both on   the curb staring out at the darkness of the nearby corn pastures, letting my   mind paint pictures of imaginary traumas. 
• Adam spoke first, breaking the   silence of obscurity, "I can't believe it...it's not possible...I just can't   believe it...".
• In a hushed agreement, that was almost inaudible, Bill   replied, "I know...it was....is....it is so unbelievable...I've never seen   anything like this before...", a long pause, a deep breath, and he continued,   "... or even  heard of anything like this before."
• I looked at Bill and then   at Adam, they were both gazing, open eyed, unblinking, out into the inky color   of the night.  Adam's bottom lip was trembling slightly, and it wasn't from   the slight chill in the late spring air. 
• Something, or some thing had filled   them each with a congested fear. 
• After a few more moments of silent reserve,   my patience was rewarded with some slow,  fragmented descriptions of their   past 8 hours. 
• Bill turned his wide azure blue eyes towards me, they were   glazed and blood shot, tired, frightened eyes.  With a weary, shaken voice he   began to unfold a tale that would forever be embedded within my spirit, like a   nasty shadow that lingers around a corner waiting to pounce, to awaken your   inner fears once again.
• Why he decided to tell me of all people was beyond my   comprehension, maybe it was an avenue he felt safe to travel upon, to get it   off his chest, off his mind.  They were both frequent customers and we knew   each other on first name basis, but to divulge such a torrid account of great   magnitude, well, I can only say that the fear inside them both at that moment   in time had to be released, eased, and extracted from their souls, or else   they may have gone mad with unbalanced thoughts. 
• Without interrupting, I sat   entranced, listening to every word, absorbing them like an opiate, a   spellbinding narcotic that hypnotized me into forgetting the world even   existed for the next half hour or so.    
• They had gotten a call to help with   an investigation at one of the many rural camp grounds down in LBL.
• The   tourist season was about to start in a few weeks, so as usual there were some   early arrivals that had come to claim prime camping spots before the areas   were over run with tents, campers and travel trailers  
• Several other official vehicles   were already there and there were many more to come as they would soon find   out.  Many coming from other counties, and a few coming all the way from   another state.
• The sun was setting low   in the sky when they arrived at the scene.
• Several of these to come were coroners  from different   counties.  One coroner vehicle was already present as well as an ambulance,   which would prove useless, as there was no one to save.
• The victims were all   dead.  Quite dead.  Completely, totally and thoroughly deceased.
• A young   married couple that had come down to take it easy for a few days, were   the first to discover the ghastly scene.  Neither one of them wanted to stay   behind while the other went for help, so they both nervously traveled to the   nearest town, Grand Rivers, and called the authorities.
• They did not return   to LBL, they merely gave the arriving officer directions to the area of   discovery and rented a local hotel room. 
• With the sun going down, it got dark pretty   fast, so there was a flurry of flood lights from the cruisers being pointed in   all directions, along with the excited movements of fifty dollar flash lights   being held by nervous, restless hands, searching the trees, the ground, the   leaves, the shadows. 
• There was a parked motor home at the site, it's frame   being lit by a campfire close by, a fire that had almost went out on it's own,   but had been rekindled by the new crowd of men in uniforms so that they could   have more light.
• The front and back doors to the home were open, one of the   doors hanging by one hinge in a crooked slant.  Through the windows they could   see zig zagged movements of luminosity as the beams from flashlights searched   the interior. 
• Bloody hand prints slid down the thin metal walls close to the   front door and more bloody hand paintings could be seen along the length   towards the back door.
• Adam and Bill did not even want to imagine   what was inside the motor home, but then again, they would soon find out, that   it wasn't what was 'inside' but what was 'outside' that would change their   lives forever.
• There was already crime scene tape placed in numerous,   scattered parts of the area, and little white flags on metal stakes stuck into   the ground marking evidence.
• Evidence of ripped clothing, bodies and body   parts, separated limbs, a pile of bowels, pieces of loose flesh clinging to   muscle tissue.  What use to be three bodies, that just hours before had been a   happy family, on a happy vacation, to create happy memories for years to   come; a father, a mother and a young son. 

  • Crime scene evidence
• A murderous rage had taken place, one so   abhorrently appalling that there were few witnesses to the scene that had kept   their composure or held their recently eaten dinners down. 
• The happiness was gone.  Destroyed by a   psychotic mad man, or was it 'men'? 
• At first sight,   the victims appeared  to be butchered by some un-nameable weapon, possibly an   axe, or a chainsaw.  Upon further inspection, by the first arriving coroner,   the wounds on the bodies were determined not to have been caused by a sharp   instrument, but rather by some piercing, well-defined claws, and other wounds   by some keen, mordantly long incisors. 

  • Murder weapon????
• The   claw marks, for instance, on the back of the fathers corpse were distinctively   made by 4 long claws with a smaller digit, like a thumb, on the side, it's   span was wider then a man's print, wider and different  then a bears   mark, with deep deliberate gouges in the flesh. 
• Wildcat, bear, wolves?  The coroner shook   his head in a baffled disagreement with each guess from the officers. 
• Rake marks from an angry   unknown source trying to grab it's prey that was no doubt trying to escape.
• The wildcat and wolves theory was dismissed as the open wound marks were   apparently made by a more grandiose animal source.  The bite marks were   much larger then any mountain lion, wolf or coyote. 
• Whatever   did it had a longer snout, and more sizable teeth. 
• There was also indications   in the larger areas of the cadavers, of bite marks where the flesh, meat and   bone had been yanked away from the body.  Like a human who bites into an apple   and leaves the impressions of his bite and teeth marks, so were the open   wounds on these individuals.
• Bears, well, they aren't native to the area, but   who knows, maybe a grizzly did sneak in some way, but that was far fetched,   he would have had to travel several states and cross several rivers to even   get close to that part of Kentucky.  Every one present was betting on the   'bear' hypothesis anyway, and no one even thought of anything else to be the   cause of such a savage attack.  A bear, it had to be a bear.
• From the back door of the motor home, an   officer stepped down slowly, holding in his hands some type of garment.  A   dress.  A small dress, that would have fit a small girl of around five years   old.  He informed the on lookers that there were more 'little girls' clothing   packed inside the coach. 
• This meant there was a missing person, or an absent body;a   member of the family.  They all prayed she was still alive somehow, hiding   somewhere.  A new search began.
• As time went by, additional law enforcement   employees arrived, as well as a few volunteer rescue squad members.  Groups   were spread out and assigned areas to examine and explore.  Another coroner   arrived to assist in the identification and causes of death, and much later a   third one showed up, this one from a near by state.
• All types of samples were   placed in plastic bags, marked as evidence, and carefully stowed away.
• As   they were packaging up what appeared to be one of the fathers arms, one of   the doctors noticed  something wrapped between the dead fingers.  Some   tweezers slowly untangled a clump of long, grey and brown hairs.  This too was   placed in a bag, marked and put away to be analyzed at a lab later.    
• From somewhere in the nearby woods, about   50 yards from the campfire, a scream was heard.  A mans shriek that turned   into a long wail and then to whimpering.
• As others arrived they could see by   the gleam of several flashlights that the cop was holding his hat in one hand   and his light in the other.  There was blood on his face,  the front of his   shirt and on the brim of his hat.  More blood could be seen dripping on him.    It was coming from above.
• High in the trees the flash lights swung, searching   for the source of the mysterious bleeding.  A very small hand could be seen   dangling down from a tree limb way up high, as well as a slender lifeless leg   that still had a white sock still on the foot.  The missing child had been   located. 
• It had been Adam that the blood had trickled upon, hitting his hat   first, making him look up, and then feeling the thick cold fluid sprinkling   his face then sliding down to his neatly buttoned shirt.  It had been Adam   that had screamed. 
• The little girl had apparently been carried up the tree and   leisurely eaten upon while carefully laid across a large tree branch.  More of   the same long gray and brown hair was found sticking in the bark of the tree   near her body.
• They were told not to   talk to anyone of the incident, especially not the media.  I am sure that   besides Adam and Bill, there were others who had to confess what they saw that   night, if in fact this whole event ever really happened.
• After about 7 hours most of the officers   were sent away as a new team of investigators arrived. 
• About a month after sitting outside with Adam and   Bill that night, they stopped in again during one of my midnight shifts.  They   were both rather quite, more serious in nature, not like before the incident   where they would kid around while drinking their sodas and eating a snack or   two.  They had both aged in some odd way.  Streaks of gray, that had not been   there before, highlighted both of their heads of hair.  Their faces had lines   of worry and showed signs of stress. 
• I would see them again many times after   wards, but on this particular evening, they informed me that they got word   about some of the lab tests that were taken that dreadful night. 
• The tests,   on the saliva taken from the bite marks, and from the hair found on the mans   fingers and in the tree bark, came back with an unknown species origin.  The   closest animal that they could be compared to was that of a Canis Lupis, a   wolf.

  • Tests came back indicating "wolf" DNA
• Whether Adam and Bill had played an   elaborate hoax on me I'll never really know for sure but their sincerity and   fear painted a picture of truth in their eyes and actions.
• There are several   more stories that I have heard about this 'Werewolf' over in LBL that have   been told to me over the years after this particular incident.  There were   several groups of boy scouts that had seen it.  Several more campers,   fishermen and boaters that had seen it from the safety of of their   boats, floating in some of the many bays that touched upon the   shoreline.
• Hikers and  bikers have heard its howling and have seen 'something'   stalking them while they were on rural trails, hiding amongst the trees and   foliage. Hunters have run across deer carcasses that had been brutally torn   apart. 
• There was even a pair of curious grave   stone rubbers, (those that go out in search of century or more old tombstones   then make rubbings by placing paper against the coarse stones and using a   piece of charcoal to rub across it thus capturing the images and dates from   the stones unto the paper..
• It had actually came up to the car as they were leaving   and shook the back end of the vehicle up and down and left terrible scratch   marks in the trunk lid as it tried to hold on to the little Toyota while the   tires were spinning in the wet grass  to get away.  These two individuals   didn't stop driving until they were about 40 miles away, only then did they   dare stop to investigate the damage done.
• that had a fearful encounter with it at one of   the old cemeteries. 
• I myself have seen those   scratches.  Much too wide for any man to have made them.  They looked like   a heavy metal garden rakes tracks. 
• But you will never read about it in the   papers, or hear about it on the news, or get a confession from any law   enforcement official or man of office.  The media will say it's a bunch of 'Whoo   Haa', or just pranks, silly stories, urban legends, lies, tall tales and   such.  This is tourism country and that means millions of dollars to the area,   so you can't scare off business, can you?
• But, as San says on her website, 'You can't   tell me there's no such thing!', because I have my own tale to tell about this   creature.  That story will come soon, I promise, but this one had to be told   first for it is far more scarier and full of detail than   my own.
• -Jan Thompson.
• (Go to Part II -    From   The Woods)

109 more annotations...

• Livingston County, July - 1978
• They are almost always described as looking, sometimes superficially,   sometimes not, like 'Werewolves' and they often fit the folkloric description   of this mythical creature in more ways than one.
• Reports of 'dog-faced', or, 'muzzled' bigfeet have been reported sporadically   from around the country and they certainly are no strangers to the Bluegrass   state as well.
• A commonly reported theme in   many 'Dog Man' reports is its fearlessly aggressive behavior toward both humans   and animals.
• Witness Jan Thomson, and two of her cousins, experienced this aggression   one day during summer vacation at their home near Ky Lake.
• Click here for the actual eyewitness account:
    http://www.guardiantales.freewebspace.com/JAN-FromTheWoods.html
• When I contacted Miss Thompson she was able   to offer even more details concerning the physical description of the terrifying   beast:
• "...the beast I saw at my cousins house   resembled more of a bigfoot, except for the pointed ears and longer snout and   claws that it had.
• kind of a cross between the werewolf and bigfoot....
• The   nose....it had wider nostrils at the tip, more human like coming down from the   bridge of the nose and was hairy.
• and it was either the thing did not have   a neck or that it blended in with the tall head..
• (It had a) tall head, wide   shoulders, thick chest...no muscle definition that I could see, mostly hairy
• but   there was a slight curvature to the calf muscles...thick legs...
• big, round   eyes...long teeth and wide mouth.
• .big head..
• The ears were laid down towards the   back not standing up, like a dog's does when they are agitated or angry.
• no muscles showing on chest but   had a bombastically large top heavy chest.
• The   nose didn't appear to be a glossy black nose like a canine, but part of the   facial skin..
• .the teeth between the long canines were large and square, top   and bottom.
• There was short hair around the muzzle and facial features and then   it got longer and straggly... especially in the chin area also.
• The lips were   more of a black smooth outline with no curvature on top like the muzzle of a   dog where it meets the end of the nose."

• Under witness' direction, and much effort via   trial and error, I was able to render this detailed sketch of the Beast of LBL:

   

  
    Sketch by Bart Nunnely, under   direction from actual witness Miss Thomson.
• Miss Thompson also claims to have witnessed   this creature, or others similar to it, on several more occasions in the general   area (see other new reports) and has extensive knowledge of local folklore and   events, one of which was extremely disturbing and involved the gruesome killings   of a vacationing family in the LBL area in the early 1980's (see http://www.guardiantales.freewebspace.com/JAN-Beast.html).
• LIVINGSTON   CO., Oct -1969
   
    4' tall white BF seen crossing road holding its arms straight out in front of   it in a weird manner.

22 more annotations...

• 
    This is a sketch   of 'The Spottsville Monster' drawn by Bart   Nunnelly in Feb-2005 under direction from eyewitness. Not the typical   Bigfoot description

• Many   different types of Bigfoot creatures have been encountered in Ky.   Here are some sketches of Kentucky Bigfeet that have been reported   by various witnesses. Artwork (c)2005 by Bart Nunnelly.

   

  

   

   

   

  

   

  
   
     

   

  
   
     
    Female BF Illustration.
   

   

  
    Juvenile Bigfoot (Littlefoot).
   

   

  
    A typical Sasquatch family.
   
   
     
    Another Spottsville Bigfoot from witness description circa 1973.
   

   

  
   
   
   
    Shy Bigfoot?

   

  
    Nelson County sketch   from a Bardstown newspaper 11/2/78.

   

   

   

  
   

   

  The   Beast of LBL

   

  
    Sketch by Bart   Nunnelly, under direction from actual witness Miss Thomson. Read   report here.

   

  
   
   

   

  Indian   Cave Painting

   

  
    This pictograph was discovered   in a cave in Edmonson County, Ky. Read   more here!

   

   

   

  
   
   
   

• Damn Mangy Bigfoot! - There   have been many witnesses across the world which have discribed bigfeet   as having mange (hair loss) and are malnutritioned, although it looks   as if this one just had a snack!

   

  
    Sketch by Bart Nunnelly under specific direction from witness Jan   Thompson. Read report.

1 more annotation...

• Website Submission on 11-06-06
• Your first name: Mena
• Which county? Powell
• Estimated date? Sunday Nov 5th 06
• Estimated time? 12-4am
• What city, or nearest city? Red River Gorge
• Length of time the encounter lasted: Couple hours
• How many witnesses? 2
• Please describe your encounter: Me and my fiance believe we   encounterd something like a big foot, it started with feeling like we were being   watched and then that night when we went to sleep we thought we heard raccoons   playing with the foil we left out, when we peaked our head out nothing was there   and the foil was all intact, so we went back to sleep,
• I couldnt sleep so I   stayed awake, a few minutes later I heard a mans foot steps or what I thought   was a mans foot steps messinga round in the leaves
• at that time my fiance woke   up cause he heard it to, he again peaked outside and nothing was there,
• so couple   hours later we wake up and start cooking breakfast (still very dark like 3am)   when my fiance was stirring up the fire he saw 2 eyes pear out of the brush,   they were red when he went to look at it again they were gone he also smelled   a rancid ferret like smell,
• we figured we had enouph moon light to start packing   and we were both really freaked out so we packed up in the moonlight and started   down the path and we both felt like we were being followed
• we got half way   to the parking area and we heard someone walking below us except it was a really   good drop and no paths below and it was 4am and we were the only ones camping,
• I walked faster and then right next to me above the bushes something was charging   or trying to scare us,
• so we figured (oh good people) we were relieved till we started getting to the   parking area, and all of a sudden I heard something jump behind me and running
• it seemed like it was trying to run up the hill to cut us off
• so at that time we pretty much ran and it chased us the   whole way,
• we   got to the parking lot and it stopped, we never saw an animal or what the thing   was.
• Describe the creature with detail:   Smells like ferret/Red eyes/medium size/ heard it running on 2 feet and then   4
• Additional   Info: Area, Sounds, Etc. : A strange growl sound, the area was on one   of the main hiking paths, about a mile or so in..there was a rock and you climb   up it and then you see a huge flat cliff rock and you walk back into it more   and you'll see the camping spot.
• Follow-Up   Report (witness #1):
• Can you   approximate how high the red eyes were off the ground, so we can
    estimate its height?
• The eyes were   chest lvl, but they were spaced far apart, it looked as if it was crouching   down'
• Did you have a flashlight and did you shine   it at the creature?
• Tryed to, but we couldnt see it'
• 'Full   moon, but was cloud cover'
• Was there a full moon, or any moonlight?
• Follow-Up   Report (witness #2, the   boyfriend):
• "Hello,
   
    Mena submitted a report on our website regarding your recent bigfoot encounter.   I’d love to add any details you can submit also. Having 2 eye-witness   reports really validates the credibility, reliability and accuracy of the report.
• Please describe the encounter with as much detail as possible:
• Mena said you saw red eyes. Can you approximate how high the red eyes were off   the ground, so we can estimate its height?
• Yes, they seemed to be about   4 feet off the ground, which isnt that high for a bigfoot. However the spacing   of the eyes between pupils was that of a humans or longer. I kinda got feeling   that it was crouching because there was bushes there where I was them
• I actually   felt when I seen them that it was a werewolf, which is even more suspicious   than a big foot.

  • Witness senses phenom is a "were wolf"
• Did you have a flashlight and did you shine it at the creature?
• Yes we did,   however other than seeing the eyes we actually did not get a glimpse of the   animal. I think shining the lights around looking for whatever was stocking   us kept it at bay. Alittle scary for a animal to have light fling around in   the middle of the night.
• Smell. At one point,   mena went to sleep and I was rounding up for the evening when I smelt something   very odd. I grew up around the woods, and I know what various animals and the   woods is suppose to smell like. This was not one of them.
• Did smell or hear and any sounds from the creature?
• It did smell similar   to a ferat, but for me to be able to smell a ferat it would have to be really   close to smell as strong as I did.I immediately jumped up as soon as I smelled   it, and there was nothing there.
• If it was a another animal, the amount of smellsmell   that I smelt, the animal would have to be very close, and I seen nothing.
• Making   me feel like it was a large animal
• Sounds
• When we did go to bed we left our   tin foil we had cooked in, in the fire pit. Once we had quieted down in bed   we heardfoot steps leading up to the camp.and then messing around with the tin   foil. Then the foot steps were walking around the tent and even heard something   brush up against the tent.
• We were to terrified to look. After whatever it was   had left, I looked out and of course nothing was there. We also footsteps on   the way out out, but not voices.
• The footsteps seen to   be about 200 feet up the path from us. We could hear so well because it was   absolutely silent, really weird for 5 oclock in the the morning.
• I thought to myself great, there are humans   out here too. So I remember that making me feel better.
• We got to the place where we heard the steps from and something   came up from the gorge running past mena, scaring the shit out of her.We both   ran.
• Usually birds   are up at this time.
• When we got back to the car we realized that the footsteps we heard, we   did not see anyone at all, and any campersthat would be out there would be in   the sack, not out in the middle of the woods by themselves.
• Thank you,
    Charlie Raymond
    Bigfoot Investigator for www.KentuckyBigfoot.com