Local Cryptozoology or other things that go bump in the night

Steely_Gunz

Steely_Gunz

Got the Khukuri fevah
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Like I said earlier, I don't want to hijack Danny's thread, but I have long be fascinated by the legends, stories, and handed down tales of the weird and unexplained from different locals.

I thought a thread about some of the odd things we have heard about or have even experienced might make for some good reading among friends, right?

I guess I'll start;)

I live in a town/city called Evansville that sits right in the "toe" of Indiana. It rests in a valley along the Ohio River and has numerous tributary creeks that flow and feed into the big watery bend. Up until the last 30 years or so, a great deal of the area that wasn't part of the city was either farmland, forest, or patches of forest surrounded by so much farmland no one would bother to walk to such far out trees. In other words, it was a place where things could go untouched and unnoticed for generations.

Another thing this area has going for it is the sheer size of the river. The Ohio is massive. One of my favorite stories dates back to 1955 where a lady and some friends were swimming in the river. Suddenly, she felt a hard pull on her leg dragging her under the surface for a time. She managed to kick away and get to the surface only to be grabbed again by a "very long, very slender and very strong" arm with talonned fingers. She managed to kick away again and lunged for a friend's inner tube. The splash appeared to frighten the creature off.

Two hypotheses (well of the of the supernatural type) try to explain the situations. One is that the creature as on of the Lovelace Frogmen, a bipedal creature with a very froglike head that was spotted several times along the river in the state of Ohio that could have made its way downstream. The second is more extraterrestrial in nature. A week after the attack, just south of here a Kentucky family was visited/attacked by pointy eared creatures dressed in or made of silver material that were both bulletproof as well as seemed to levitate instead of walk (their legs were seemingly atrophied to the point of near uselessness.) It was dubbed the Hopkinsville Goblin Encounter. Either way, 1955 was a big year for Tri-State paranormal stuff.

Another critter that popped up and around here in the past was very Bigfoot like in nature. However, I guess it would be closer to call him a Skunkape as he supposedly smells like hell. There were various stories of farm houses in the neighboring towns being trashed a bit as the Skunkape came poking around. We are just a stone throw from Hoosier National Forest, so who knows might still be out there.
On a personal note, my childhood neighbor, a serious man in all regards, swore up and down that he tracked a bigfoot one night as a teenager with his father. His family lived in the same area for generations. If memory serves me correctly, his family had had a few barn cats killed and mostly eaten. This didn't bother them much as barn cats are as common as...well, barn cats. But it was strange. A few nights later he came into the kitchen when his mother screamed holy hell. Something big had been peeking through the window at her as she did the dishes. He said that he and his father grabbed up their rifles and set off after it. They found huge prints in the mud and heard it crashing through the trees. They tracked it for a bit, but lost their nerve soon after.
Having grown up in the area myself, I could honestly see how a creature could have lived before it was developed with neighborhoods in the mid 1970s. There is a winding creek full of fish and turtles. It's a good 9' deep and only runs about a foot deep if its not flooding. Back when I was a kid it wasn't overly developed around there. The creek backed up to either thick woods that went on for hundreds of acres or open clearings that were basically unfarmed for the most part. I remember walking the creek bed one day, as I often did when I was 10 or 11 years old, and stumbling across two drown raccoons. Their faces had been shoved in the water (which was shallow. I remember there being a pretty bad drought that summer so there were just pockets of water). They were lying dead side by side. No signs of bodily trauma (as I poked them with a stick). Just two dead raccoons smashed into the mud, heads under water. The weirdest part, a pungent musty smell hung in the air:eek: Probably was the raccoons...but ya never know:p

So what kind of stories are from y'alls neck of the woods?
 
Good stuff, Jake. Trust the Kentuckians to determine if something's bulletproof by shooting it:thumbup:. We've got lots of hauntings in these parts, particularly around old plantations. Only odd critter sighting that comes to mind is the Lizardman thing that happened when I was a boy. I'll do some research and come back with more info later.
 
We live a ways south of Ohio's "Bigfoot Triangle" which is centered on Coshocton County. Had some vocal encounters and found some branches ripped off of trees but never an actual sighting of that big ol' furball.
 
Well hobbits were proven real (albeit extinct) as well as the coelocanth. (spelling?)
Bigfeet are also a real, probably extinct species. (gigantopithecus)
Having never seen anything unusual in the non-human sense in my life (!) I cant really chip in with stories...
 
nuthin' much happening here since the guys making the crop circles confessed, but there ARE the ongoing reports of a family of black panthers living on bodmin moor, not too far away. they are properly afraid of man and are hardly ever filmed. occasionally someone gets mauled a bit. 'official' statement from 1995 is they do not exist. however a 3 1/2 foot long black cat was filmed shortly after on the moor.

[youtube]yIEwY64iKNw[/youtube][youtube]3wUFxSUz0lk[/youtube]
 
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About 17 years ago when i was taking a "camper" course for Boy Scouts Malaysia we weren't comfortable sleeping at camps.
The legend of a man coated in grease would steal valuables from houses and nobody would be able to catch him. He's only out at night.

Then came an even horrifying tales of gonads-eating cats. I don't know why it was even scary but i do know a friend of mine kept waking up at nights just to check if his sacks are still intact.:p

Hopefully someone with his last name "Messner" will come up and talk about his encounter with Yeti.
 
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JayGoliath said:
About 17 years ago when i was taking a "camper" course for Boy Scouts Malaysia we weren't comfortable sleeping at camps.
The legend of a man coated in grease would steal valuables from houses and nobody would be able to catch him. He's only out at night.

Then came an even horrifying tales of gonads-eating cats. I don't know why it was even scary but i do know a friend of mine kept waking up at nights just to check if his sacks are still intact.:p

Hopefully someone with his last name "Messner" will come up and talk about his encounter with Yeti.
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A friend of mine grew up overseas and thieves would strip down and grease themselves up and sneak in the houses to steal. It would be near impossible to hold on to someone slicked up. I would imagine their hair would be gone as well.
 
Steely_Gunz said:
Two hypotheses (well of the of the supernatural type) try to explain the situations. One is that the creature as on of the Lovelace Frogmen, a bipedal creature with a very froglike head that was spotted several times along the river in the state of Ohio that could have made its way downstream.
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Just to clarify- the Loveland Frog was seen along the Little Miami River (a tributary of the Ohio) in Loveland, OH. The first sighting was by an on-duty policeman, which is the only reason the story received any credibility at all. The Officer described a four-foot tall creature with leathery skin and a frog-like head, walking upright, and carrying a short wand with sparks shooting out of one end. The Officer fired on the threat, and the creature dove into the river.

(I lived in Loveland for a number of years.)

I don't have any stories of my own, but here in WV, we've got the Mothman, and the Flatwoods/Braxton County Monster. A couple of years ago, there were reports of a lion (Yes, a lion, not the mountain variety, but the bona fide, black-maned, full-scale african variety) being seen in the forests around the foothills. Grudging and incredulous investigators finally did find an escaped exotic pet roaming the countryside.
 
Here in northern Michigan we have the Dogman. Maybe you would be more familiar with the beast of Bray road? Both similar to were wolves. Walk on hind legs, smells bad, and hates people. I have never had an encounter with “the beast” but know people who swear they have.

However, I own a cabin set way back in the woods, have the Pine River running in front of it. Own 38 acres with 20 of it being swamp and an extra 100 of state land surrounding. One night I was fishing, had a couple good size brookies, when I heard a scream coming from a surrounding swamp. It was the loudest scream I have ever heard! After doing some research on bigfoot localization I found the exact scream I heard that night.
 
kronckew said:
nuthin' much happening here since the guys making the crop circles confessed,
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Confessed to lying about creating the circles?
Planks and ropes can't superheat the insides of plant stalks or dessicate soil 6 inches below the surface.
 
Ah thanks for the clarification, Mac:)

I spent 4 hours trying to post this thread. Of course, 20 mins of it was typing and the rest was stupid work BS getting in the way of my posting fun:p It's nice to hear some folks chime in with some stories.

We also have several haunted sites around here too. The most famous is the Willard Library Gray Lady. Now forgive me, because I have forgotten the whole story. But I think the consensus is that she was the daughter of the carpenter that did all the intricate woodwork through out the library...I think;) Funny story, the scene in Ghostbusters where the guys run into their first ghost in the library, that ghost is supposedly based on the Gray Lady...although she was never actually a librarian nor was she malicious. Actually, supposedly one of her favorite things to do is peek in on the childrens' reading room.

One of the more unnerving hauntings that I heard about is located under an antique shop in the next town over. If memory serves me correctly, there was a large open pit where supposedly a pretty evil SOB kept run away slaves. Like I said before, I live right along the river, so there were numerous spots in the surrounding towns where folks would help or hinder slaves fleeing north. Anyway, this old building had a deep dark spider-hole of a pit under the floor boards. This doesn't surprise me as the building sits nearly on top of the river and before the levy project it was common for the river to rise and flood most of the downtown area.
Evidently, this guy kept the slaves down there in pretty rough conditions. Of course, many of them died before they could be returned south. When this building was being remodeled many, many years later, a worker actually found/fell into this pit. It was pitch black. The others scrambled to find a rope to throw down to him all the while the guy shrieked bloody murder. Supposedly he felt hands all around him, moans in his ear, and even the sensation of being bitten:eek:

OK, one final ghost story that is near and dear to my heart because I used to walk by this creepy place all the time when I was in highschool. Robin Hill is an old house on the corner of Mill and 9th street in Mt Vernon. Like all good ghost stories, it's a blend of truth and fantasy. The STORY is that this old house was a stop for the underground railroad, and that there is a secret tunnel that runs from the banks of the Ohio to the basement of this place for the slaves to travel through for shelter as they pushed up stream. Some say the tunnel is a myth. Some say it probably collapsed a century ago. At any rate, they never found the tunnel except for the boarded up/rubble filled possible entry.

Anyway, the story goes on that the daughter of the gentleman helping the slaves fell in love with one of them and became with child. The guy was already feeling some real heat because of his dealings with the railroad, and had no idea how he was going to cover this up. Supposedly he flipped out and killed his daughter, the baby (some say it was unborn. some a newborn) his wife, the slave, and finally took a long walk off a short piece of rope in the basement....but not before destroying the entrance to the tunnel.

Now, that all sounds suspect to me, but what I do know is that NO ONE likes to go into that house nor do they like to even walk BY the house. At night, an strange green glow can be seen walking from window to window. If you go down in the basement you supposedly can hear the hushed whispers of slaves and a baby crying.

Now the part that gives me the willies. Some say that the daughter was an avid collector of dolls and several child sized porcelain dolls were pulled up from under the floor boards when the house was renovated (this place has been under construction more often than not but never really lived in). Some say that the dolls were simply brought in during the 1970's when a couple owned the house and used it mainly for storage. What is KNOWN, and I don't like to use that term loosely when it comes to paranormal stuff, is that the dolls LIKE it there. Supposedly, they tend to cluster in the girl's room. Whether they are there because of her or simply to keep the baby company no one knows. They don't like being moved around, especially the one the current owners have dubbed "Elizabeth".

The contractor supposedly took Elizabeth (all nearly 5' of her) and moved it from the room and put it in the closet of another room while they worked on something in the girl's room. As they milled about down stairs on another project, bump, bump, bump, scratch, rattle, bump, thump. The noise was coming from the closet and suddenly stopped. Curiously, the guy went up to the room, opened the closet door, and found it...empty. The hair standing up on his neck, he bravely leaned into the original room daring a peek and found the doll sitting on the ledge of the window looking out...in the exact position he had found her in when he moved her in the first place:eek:

This place is supposedly for sale. I dunno if it has been bought yet or not, but I don't think I could live there.
 
DannyinJapan said:
Confessed to lying about creating the circles?
Planks and ropes can't superheat the insides of plant stalks or dessicate soil 6 inches below the surface.
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Crop circles are an interesting subject in and of themselves.

A lot of them are, indeed, hoaxes. There are numerous individuals as well as several well organized groups who have done this either as pranks or to make some sort of statement.

The original circles were very simple, and some of the simple ones were not hoaxes. I know folks who've seen a few where the plant stalks were actually braided like twine, which is weird even for crop circles.

Recent circles over the past decade have become increasingly complex. A few are extraordinarily complex -- so much so that it would be impossible for a hoaxter on the ground to create them, even with a well organized team plotting the images with computers, lasers, and surveying scopes. That being said, the nature of these complex images is such that if they are a hoax top secret military technology is being used to perpetrate them for reasons unknown.
 
The primary reason cryptozoology is widely ridiculed is because it seems impossible to acquire solid incontrovertible evidence of these creatures. This is because most of them aren't really creatures at all, but rather manifestations of spirit. Can't catch a spirit. They don't photograph well either. But a strong manifestation will seem to have all the attributes of a physical creature -- temporarily -- then it disappears.

I used to live in the Hills of Upstate NY, and I've seen some really weird stuff, including creatures that don't seem to exist (like the yellow monkey-kangaroo thing that we saw running alongside our car on a backroad in the middle of the night). I was in a carload of people who all saw what appeared to be an invisible bear cross the road in front of us one night -- it was just a huge bear shaped shadow that absorbed the light from our headlights and I have no explanation for that at all.
 
tyr_shadowblade said:
The primary reason cryptozoology is widely ridiculed is because it seems impossible to acquire solid incontrovertible evidence of these creatures. This is because most of them aren't really creatures at all, but rather manifestations of spirit. Can't catch a spirit. They don't photograph well either. But a strong manifestation will seem to have all the attributes of a physical creature -- temporarily -- then it disappears.

I used to live in the Hills of Upstate NY, and I've seen some really weird stuff, including creatures that don't seem to exist (like the yellow monkey-kangaroo thing that we saw running alongside our car on a backroad in the middle of the night). I was in a carload of people who all saw what appeared to be an invisible bear cross the road in front of us one night -- it was just a huge bear shaped shadow that absorbed the light from our headlights and I have no explanation for that at all.
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That's a really interesting theory:) My mother swears up and down that she saw a giant bird or deer creature run down from the top of a hill and nearly out in front of their car one late night as she and my dad drove the back roads of Texas. I never thought of it like that. Dad thinks she was just overly tired and seeing stuff. Mom still says some tall critter came barreling before them before disappearing.

Myself, I've seen what I can only describe as phantom hawks. Every so often, a large redtail hawk will pass in front of my truck as I drive along. I love hawks and raptors and feel a strong connection to them. As soon as I turn my head to watch it fly off, it's gone. I mean from the time it hits the seam of the truck where the windshield meets the doors window the bird is gone. A hawk is too big to fly straight up. They have a loping wing flap that clumsily gets them into the air until thermals can take over.

The odd thing is that usually up ahead there is something that grabs my attention that might not have normally. Usually a wreck or some sort of debris in the road. I think the hawk is warning me to pull my head out of my rear:p
 
Back in the summer of 2008 an animal carcass washed up on the eastern end of Long Island. Not easily recognizable as any particular type of mammal, it was dubbed the Montauk Monster. One of the theories behind it is that it was an animal that either escaped from, or was improperly disposed of at, the Plum Island Animal Disease Center. Anyway, these things wash up from time to time, and the term "Montauk Monster" is dredged up once again. But there was one time that was different...

The Air Force used to run a radar station, Camp Hero, out in Montauk. It has since been turned over to NY Parks & Recreation and has become a nature preserve and park, although the (unoperational) buildings are still Air Force property (as is all property beneath the ground surface). It is alleged that the gov't faked Nikola Tesla's death and he was brought out to Camp Hero to work on projects involving mind control, psychokinesis, and bending space and time (the Philadelphia Experiment becomes intertwined with this tale, but I will leave it out). He was in charge of the project through the 1980's (given extraordinary long life through his eating and physical habits). A "time tunnel" was created and allowed the researchers to contact other alien species, and some of these species assisted in advancing the project even further. I don't remember the supposed details that well, but supposedly at one point a hostile, unitelligent "Montauk Monster" escaped the lab and started rampaging, off-season luckily, through Montauk, and a group of Marines had to be dispatched to get rid of the beast.
 
Steely_Gunz said:
That's a really interesting theory:) My mother swears up and down that she saw a giant bird or deer creature run down from the top of a hill and nearly out in front of their car one late night as she and my dad drove the back roads of Texas. I never thought of it like that. Dad thinks she was just overly tired and seeing stuff. Mom still says some tall critter came barreling before them before disappearing.

Myself, I've seen what I can only describe as phantom hawks. Every so often, a large redtail hawk will pass in front of my truck as I drive along. I love hawks and raptors and feel a strong connection to them. As soon as I turn my head to watch it fly off, it's gone. I mean from the time it hits the seam of the truck where the windshield meets the doors window the bird is gone. A hawk is too big to fly straight up. They have a loping wing flap that clumsily gets them into the air until thermals can take over.
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The thing about spirits is they can choose any form they want. They can even change form -- hence the legends about shapeshifters. It is impossible for a physical being to shapeshift, but a spirit can do it quite easily.

Manifestation requires a lot of energy. Unless you are clairvoyant and can see things which are normally unseen, it is highly unlikely that these sightings are taking place by accident. It seems as if they want to make their presence known for some reason. Maybe some of them just want to blow people's minds for amusement, but I'm sure there are deeper reasons behind certain of their activities.

These sightings usually take place at twilight or after dark, but they can occur during daytime as well. I remember one time my Da was out mowing the lawn on the garden tractor and he saw this big bird circling overhead. It got closer and closer and he started to get nervous because he looked up and claimed it had a 10 ft wingspan -- which is bigger than a condor -- and he was thinking this giant bird thing was fixin' to knock him off the garden tractor so he went in the house because he was concerned about his safety. Thing is, there were no condors in that area. No eagles either. Probably wasn't a bird at all.
 
This isn't technically crypto - but I find it stunning how unafraid people are of "lions, tigers and bears, oh my"
These animals are HUGE, they DO eat people on a regular basis and even with a gun, your chances are not good.
A big tiger will run 9 feet long and over 600 pounds of muscle.
 
Is it just me or does any one else notice that the degree to which you believe in these supernatural creatures is directly related to how deep in the woods one is and how close to sunset it is?:). I've always liked this stuff, but Jake's ghost stories were freaky! Take care.
 
Hey! Where did my HUGE post from yesterday go? I was expecting some real feedback on that one.

Back to my major points... with a grumble... :mad:

For Danny: it's c-o-e-l-A-c-a-n-t-h. Change one letter, but otherwise, good job! :thumbup:

I also remember the Gigantopithecus theory, with regards to Bigfoot and the cryptid apes. In fact, when I saw a picture of "Big G." in a science book I owned as a kid (can you tell that I was a bit nerdy?), the idea occurred to me immediately. And, as with my "time travel" UFO theory, I heard that someone else had come up with the idea later. (This happens to me a lot.)

On the subject of man-made crop circles: while individual confessors have not always been compelling, there is a growing sense that this phenomenon is man-made, since the increasingly elaborate designs have often shown very human images, and even pop culture jokes! The question is, who is doing it, and for Pete's sake, WHY?!
 
There is an easy way to tell if they are fake, but you need access to a certain kind of thermal imaging equipment and you need to be airborne. As for the hoaxers - bravo! You guys found a fun way to introduce previously unknown mathematical theorems.
 
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