VANCOUVER TALES

John Green made many contacts who shared the stories they heard in their areas with him. Two of them for the Vancouver area were Bruce McKelvie and Charles Cates.

Bruce Mckelvie was a journalist and historian, who spent time listening to the stories told by the people in the area. He was known to keep silent if asked to and never told of the secret encounters. Charles Cates, Mayor of North Vancouver, also collected stories of these creatures. Both of these men recorded these tales long before anyone thought to keep any sort of systematic records. Unfortunately, most of what they knew was lost when they died in the late 1950s.

Charles Cates was friends with the Native Americans on a north Vancouver reserve. A friend of his was among a group of people who were camped on Anvil Island in Howe Sound. One night they were startled when a sasquatch put its head into their tent.

Both men knew of the story involving Mike King but they disagreed on when the incident took place. Bruce's version claimed it was on the Campbell River, Vancouver Island. King was alone, his Native American packers had refused to accompany him into the area. They expressed their fear of the "Monkey Man" of the forest.  Late in the afternoon, King  came upon a "man-beast" bending over a water hole. It appeared to be washing roots, which it was placing into two neat piles. When it realized that King was there, it gave a cry and started up the hillside. After going a short distance from him, it turned and looked back at King. He described the creature as being "covered with reddish-brown hair, and his arms were peculiarly long and were used freely in climbing and in bush running; while the trail showed a distinct human foot, but with phenomonally long and spreading toes."

Alex Oakes of Coombes, Vancouver Island, shared that he had heard many stories from people who claimed to have seen a sasquatch during the 1940s and 1950s. He also told of how he himself had seen a sasquatch in the early 1940s when the creature ran across the road in front of his car when nearing his home. It ran at high speed and hurdled the fences on either side of the road. Oakes added that he could see how its hair streamed out behind its shoulders as it ran and leaped. He described it as about 7 ft tall and the color of a brown bear. The hair on its shoulders was around 6 in. long.

In 1915, there was a sworn statement made by Charles Flood (Hope, BC), Donald McRae (Agassiz, BC), and Green Hicks (Agassi, BC). They were prospecting at Green Drop Lake and were exploring an area near an unknown divide near the Holy Cross Mountains on their way back to Hope. 

Hicks started telling Flood and McRae that near them was Alligator Lake where he had seen alligators and Cougar Lake where he said were wild humans. The other two, curious, followed Hicks to Alligator Lake and saw the alligators, black in color and twice the size of lizards in the middle of the small muddy lake. A few miles further was Cougar Lake. To get there they passed through an area where several years earlier a fire had burned quite a few square miles of the mountains. In the re-growth were large areas of mountain huckleberry.

While the men were walking through this dense berry growth, Hicks suddenly stopped and pointed to a large, light brown creature. It was 8ft tall, standing on it's hind legs, pulling the berry bushes with one hand and putting berries in it's mouth with the other. Hicks called the creature a "wild man". McRae insisted that it was a bear. The creature heard them arguing and disappeared into the brush about 200 yards away. Flood thought the creature looked more like a human. He had seen several black and brown bears on trips but thought this creature looked different.

Around 1933, a retired insurance broker and a friend took a weekend trip to the head of Pitt Lake, just east of Vancouver. They climbed to the edge of a small plateau, looking for interesting rocks. They eventually sat down to have lunch. As they ate, they noticed movement behind a thicket about a quarter of a mile away.  Looking through field glasses, they decided it had to be a black bear eating berries. Then the friend said to take another closer look at the face. Through the glasses they saw that the creature seemed to have a human face on a fur-clad body. They decided to wait until it left and then they would go and look for tracks.

The tracks they later found were not real good as the surface was stony. But they seemed to be a large human track with no claw marks. And appeared to definately not be bear tracks. When the creature left, it "shuffled off on two feet, without haste." The insurance broker was told by his friend : "Let's go back. What you have just seen is a sasquatch; don't mention this to anyone, not even your wife. No one will believe you, you will just be laughed at and you will have a miserable time of it. Just forget the whole thing and keep quiet."

Burns Yeoman, from Deroche, BC, told a tale  that took place sometime in 1939 or 1940. Five men, including Yeoman, were up at Silver Creek head waters looking for molybdenite. On the other side of the hill in the valley, they saw four or five animals who appeared to be wrestling just like men would. They were around 3/4's of a mile away and appeared to be black in color. They thought the creatures were hair-covered, as it did not seem to look like skin or clothing. All the creatures were on two legs during the entire time. The men did not feel that these were bears. They watched them wrestle for about a half hour.

There was never any sign of any of the creatures being hurt. One would throw the other down. He would jump right up on his hind legs again. The men felt they must have been around 7 ft high; bigger than a man. They weighed about 400 lbs or more and were heavier built than men.

Mrs. Jane Patterson lived on a ranch near Bridesville, BC, just north of the U.S. border. It was around 1937, she recalls that she went by herself to find an abandoned house on the ranch where she had been told rhubarb grew in an old garden there. As she neared the house, she ducked under some tree branches to enter the garden. As she straightened up, she found herself facing a creature sitting about 10 feet away with it's back against a tree. For some unknown reason, she said "Oh, there you are." 

The creature sat like a person would, hands on knees. Sitting, it was taller than her while standing. It blinked its eyes and she supposed it was surprised at her coming out of the trees. She judged the creature to be a light brown, not tan. The body was hair covered, but did not appear to be thick. It never moved except to blink. Patterson backed away from the creature and headed for home. Once there, she told her husband what she had seen and asked him to go back with her to look at it. He told her he hadn't "lost no monkey" and wasn't going to go looking for one. Three days later, he finally gave in and followed her to the old garden, still protesting that he hadn't lost no monkey and he didn't want to see no monkey. He didn't see the monkey.

Charles Cates when talking with John Green in 1957 left these points. The stories he heard and repeated always had some basis in truth. He further made the following statements : Almost all of the Native peoples of British Columbia have a name for the creatures. In the Squamish language it sounded like "smy-a-likh". The stories always seemed to have the same physical description. They did not use the existence of these creatures to tell any fantastic tales. They merely referred to them by their name. The creatures were described as being quite shy and doing no harm. They would always refer to the creatures in a quite casual manner, as if not a big thing. These same Native peoples also would mention having seen the creatures in various parts of the coast.

Nancy 

"I'll spark the thought; what you do with it is up to you."

"BIGHEAD" OF BUTLER, OHIO

Never called 'bigfoot' by any of the witnesses, denied by all but the witnesses, this creature terrorized Butler for one week back in 1978.

The story appears to start on July 8 around 11 pm, when two teens Eugene Kline and Ken O'Neil were walking along the railroad tracks. They heard a stsrange noise in the brush, an unusual growling sound. They both turned in that direction to see a 7ft tall creature with a large head and red eyes the size of golf balls. Ken turned and ran while Eugene stood frozen in place. After what seemed like minutes, he finally turned and ran after Ken.  When they spoke to investigators later, neither could recall any details about the face, hair, hands, or feet.

A carload of Mansfield teens claimed to have seen the creature on July 10. The car approached a railroad crossing and saw a "huge black appaarition with red eyes" slumped down next to the tracks. The names were withheld (available apparently through police reports) but all gave the Bellvile police the same story and all seemed to be frightened by what they saw.

The next sighting was on July 12.  Lavena Kline,  (or perhaps Theresa as the story differs in different accounts. One story also stating "and several others", while this story claims just two people) and her father Roger were pitching hay from their barn. There was a slow freight train approaching which began to blow its horn. As it continued to blow the horn, her father returned to the house. Theresa (Lavena?) was curious about the train's unusual whistle blasts and decided to check it out. Taking a few steps she encountered a crouching silhouette with glowing red-orange eyes. It made a cry loike a cat, only much deeper. She turned and ran for home.

The Richland County Sheriff's department investigated the claims and said they found no physical evidence of such a creature.  They remained skeptical of the reports and some even mocked the story.

Butler police chief Phil Stortz said the Klines were probably seeing a wild animal from Mohican State Park, He also expressed the view that he could not see how a bigfoot could exist in Ohio. Late a newspaper printed that Stortz claimed footprints and unusual hair was found on the Kline's property. When asked about the article, Stortz denied the statements printed and said he had been misquoted.

Eugene was familar with both domestic and wild animals from the area. It was usual for him to observe the local wildlife as they visited a nearby creek. He remarked that during the time this creature was around, he did not see many of the usual activity. Further, the neighborhood dogs barked constantly and the cattle were spooked.

Throughout all this, none of the witnesses ever referred to the creature as a 'bigfoot'. Only the Butler police chief ever used that term. However, one thought did come to me. That perhaps the two boys in their fright were not able to see that the creature perhaps had little to no neck, which in turn might have made them think the creature had a larger head than what might be considered "normal".

Nancy

"I'll spark the thought; what you do with it is up to you."

BIGFOOT OF ROACHDALE, INDIANA

drawing by Sybilla Christine Irwin.

In August, 1972 bigfoot came to the home of Randy and Lou Rogers of Roachdale, Indiana.

They first became aware of something coming around their farmhouse early in the month. Whatever it was made it's presence known by banging on the walls and windows of the farmhouse, gradually increasing each night. When Roger would run outside to try to catch who or what it was; he would catch only a glimpse of something heavily built, around 6 ft. tall disappearing through a cornfield. For two to three weeks this creature would arrive between 10 and 11:30 each night, bringing with it an odor like a dead animal or rotting garbage.

Although Mrs. Rogers was frightened, she was also curious. She decided that if this creature meant to harm them in any way, it could have done so at any time. She began to leave "waste food" out for the creature. The food was readily taken. Sometimes she would see it outside, watching her through her kitchen window. She noted that although the creature stood on two legs, it also ran on all fours. When it was on all fours, it stood as tall as her husband at 5'9".

The creature never left any tracks, even when it ran through mud. It seemed to hardly touch the ground as it ran and it made no noise as it ran through the undergrowth. She also stated that she thought she could see through it when she looked at it.

By the third week of August, almost three dozen people had reported seeing a creature wandering around at night. Some people claimed that they had seen a luminous object hovering over a cornfield. It was said to have exploded but no debris was ever found. This was said to have happened around an hour before Mrs. Rogers first set eyes on the creature.

On August 22, 1972, Carter Burdine and his uncle Bill "Junior" Burdine found 60 chickens dead on Carter's ranch. They were dismembered but not eaten. The bodies were strewn from 200 yeards from the chicken coop to the front yard of the farmhouse. Later that evening, while searching the area with the marshal, they heard something large and heavy rush across the raod six feet from Bill. It was moving too fast for him to see exactly what it was. It smashed a fence down in it's flight, also leaving trampled weeds and grass in it's path.

In the early hours of the next day, two men returning to the farm, saw a massive bigfoot standing in the next to the chicken coop. The figure totally filled the 6 x 8 ft doorway, blocking out the lights from the inside. It's head was higher than the top edge of the door. They, along with Carter's father Herman, chased and cornered the creature in the hay barn. It managed to break out of the structure and disappeared into the darkness. The men found another 110 chickens dead. Conservation officer William Woodall was called in to investigate. He never found any concrete evidence of what the creature was. All that was left were the stories of what people said they saw and experienced. There were no tracks, as the ground was hard and the vegetation high. 

Nancy

"I'll spark the thought; what you do with it is up to you."

MAJOR GENERAL MIKHAIL STEPHANOVITCH TOPILSKI

While it was not research, the Russian army and this officer had an extraordinary encounter with the creature called Almasty. There seem to be several versions of what happened in 1925 and I will tell them all.

Major General Mikhail Stephanovitch Topilski was the commander of a cavalry regiment in the Red Army during the Civil War after the Communist Revolution of 1917. In 1925, he and his men were given the task of hunting down anti-Communist forces in the Pamir Mountains southwest of the Tien Shan. They encountered more than just fighting men.


Version the first :  The army had been tracking a group of 12 plus fugitives, or "bandits" as they called them. While following the trail, the men heard gunshots, followed by three of the fugitives running towards them. The army opened fire, killed two and wounded the third.


The wounded man was an Uzbek from Samarkand. When he was questioned, he explained that the three had not been attacking the army. He claimed that they were fleeing from gigantic hairy men armed with clubs. Topilski expressed his skepticism so the man took him to where the fight had occurred. Outside of a cave next to a glacier were the bodies of five of the wounded man's companions and the body of a hairy giant.

The body had three bullet wounds. Lying next to it was a stick made of very hard wood. At first the body was thought to be that of an ape, as it was covered in hair. However, remembering that there were no apes in the Pamirs and that the body looked very human, a closer examination was made. The army doctor was included in this. There was no clothing or covering on the body except for the natural hair.  The doctor (who was later killed in combat) measured and further inspected the body. He announced that the creature was not human.

It was a male, 5' 8" tall, looked to be elderly, and was a brownish color with patches of greyish hair. The hair was longer but sparser on the chest, and short and thick in the stomach area. Mostly, the hair was very thick and without any undercoat. There was less hair on the buttocks. The doctor stated that from the shape, the creature sat like a human would. There was more hair on the hips. The knees were completely bare of hair, calloused. The entire foot was hairless and covered with hard brown skin.

It's hair was thinner near the hand and the palms had no hair on them, calloused like the knees. The face was a dark color, no beard or mustache. The temples were bald; the back of the head was covered by thick, matted hair. It lay with open eyes and teeth bared. The eyes were dark and the teeth large and even-shaped like human teeth. The forehead was slanted; the eyebrows "powerful". The jawbones were protruding, resembling a Mongol type of face. The nose was flat with a deeply sunk bridge. Ears were hairless and looked a little more pointed than usual with humans and with a longer lobe.

The chest was massive and looked powerful. The body had well-developed muscles. Genitalia resembled a human male's. The arms were of normal length, the hands slightly wider and the feet much wider and shorter than a man's. There were no important anatomical differences between it and a man.

Version the second : Topilski was leading his men on an assault on an anti-Soviet guerilla force (White Russian Army). They were following the information given them that these men were hiding in a cave high in the Pamirs. They were also told tales of a "beast-man" who lived in the higher areas of the Vanch.

Soon they came upon the cave that looked to be the reported stronghold of the guerilla force. Topilski ordered his men to open fire, aiming into the cave's opening. They were shocked when a hairy creature emerged, crying out, and falling under the hail of bullets. It lay there, mortally wounded. After a few minutes, Topilski and some of his men finally approached the lifeless body.

There is no mention of how Topilski and his army routed the guerilla force, but one of the survivors while questioned told of how they were hiding in the cave, and were attacked by several apelike creatures. Topilski ordered the cave searched; they found the body of one of the creatures. It is unclear whether he now had two bodies of the creatures or only one. But Topilski speaks as if there were only one creature to be examined.

"At first glance I thought the body was that of an ape. It was covered with hair all over. But I knew there were no apes in the Pamirs. Also, the body itself looked very much like that of a man. We tried pulling the hair, to see if it was just a hide used for disguise, but found that it was the creature's own natural hair. We turned the body over several times on its back and its front, and measured it."

He continued : "The body belonged to a male creature 165-170 cm [about 5 1/2 feet] tall, elderly or even old, judging by the grayish color of the hair in several places. The chest was covered with brownish hair and the belly with grayish hair. The hair was longer but sparser on the chest and close-cropped and thick on the belly. In general the hair was very thick, without any under fur. There was least hair on the buttocks, from which fact our doctor deduced that the creature sat like a human being. There was most hair on the hips. The knees were completely bare of hair and had callous growths on them. The whole foot including the sole was quite hairless and was covered by hard brown skin. The hair got thinner near the hand, and the palms had none at all but only callous skin."

"The color of the face was dark, and the creature had neither beard nor mustache. The temples were bald and the back of the head was covered by thick, matted hair. The dead creature lay with its eyes open and its teeth bared. The eyes were dark and the teeth were large and even and shaped like human teeth. The forehead was slanting and the eyebrows were very powerful. The protruding jawbones made the face resemble the Mongol type of face. The nose was flat, with a deeply sunk bridge. The ears were hairless and looked a little more pointed than a human being's with a longer lobe. The lower jaw was very massive. The creature had a very powerful chest and well developed muscles. The arms were of normal length, the hands were slightly wider and the feet much wider and shorter than man's."

Version the third : This one begins as did Version Two, but includes the doctor's and the men's reactions along with Topilski's, and has no mention of a surviving guerilla's telling of attacks by apelike men. There is no entering the cave and discovering the body of an ape man.

The doctor would later write in his report : "he didn't look totally like a man, but it was not an ape either. It was a male, about two meters tall, (6 ft 7 inches) covered with dark brown hair and the face was dark, distinctly ape-like." What was it? Could the wild thing they had shot have been the Russian Kaptar we hear about today?

Every man questioned agreed that the creature ran from the cave on two feet, fully upright, dazed, terrified, and fatally injured. Some added it appeared to be confused and in pain as it fell. They said, being unable to carry the body with them, they buried it under a stone covered cairn near the cave's mouth.

Version the fourth : This one contained a slightly different description of the creature.

"The corpse that of a male, was about five and a half feet long and covered with dense grayish-brown hair except for the face, ears, palms, knees, feet and buttocks. (There were shaggy hairs on the upper lip). The skin on the hands, knees and feet was thickly callused. The face was dark with dark eyes, a heavy and massive lower jaw. Although the teeth were quite large, they seemed to be those of a human. The creature had a broad unusually muscular chest, but otherwise its torso was much like that of a man."

In this version, the creature was again buried under a pile of stones.

We will never quite know exactly what Major General Topilski and his men encountered that day at that mountain cave. The differences in the stories are to be expected when the tales are told years later by older memories, perhaps from those who wished to forget what they had witnessed that day.

Nancy

"I'll spark the thought; what you do with it is up to you."

RUSSIAN RESEARCH -- PART TWO

Many independent researchers made their way into the remote areas of Russia; some with the intention of studying the strange man-like, hairy creatures, and others who ran across them while traveling or while conducting their other research.

K.A. Satunin was a leading student of vertebrates in the Caucasus. He had an accidental encounter in the Talyish Mountains. He discovered a female "Biaban-Guli", which was the name used by the southern Causasus people. When he reached a nearby settlement, he tried to obtain more information on these hairy, man-like animals who appeared unable to speak.

In 1959, Y.I. Merezhinski was a senior lecturer in Anthropology and Ethnography at Kiev University. While in Azerbaijan, he was taken to a place where a "Kaptar" was known to come to drink.  He had promised his guide that he would only photograph it but encountered anger when he instead attempted to shoot it. His shot missed and his guide was no longer helpful. The creature was thin and it's body covered in hair. This matched the descriptions the local people had given.

Jumping back in history, N.A. Baikov, an eminent zoologist, met with a Manchurian hunter in 1914. The hunter was accompanied by an assistant, a "half-man", hairy being who walked stooped over and was unable to talk. Although Baikov expressed amazement at seeing such a creature, he did not give any more detail of it. However, the basic description he did give seems to match the descriptions of the "wild men" of the area.

A partial list of quick sightings and encounters include :

1941 : V.S. Karapetian, a physician, examined a male "wild man" in Daghestan.

1925 : M.S. Topilski, an army general, described in detail an examination made of a 'wild man' accidently killed in the Pamirs. (this report in detail next post).

1937 : Marshal P.S. Rybalko, commanding an army unit in Sinkiang reported catching a "wild man" in the marshes.

1937 : G.N. Kolpashnikov, a soldier, saw and described two "wild men" that had been accidently killed by a sentry.

1906 : B. Baradin, an explorer from St. Petersburg, encountered a creature at close range during an expedition.

1905 : Knight, a British 'adventurer' while returning from Tibet had a sighting.

1906 : H.J. Elwes, British botanist, also had a sighting.

1925 : Tombazi, and Italian topographer saw a 'wild man' in the mountains of Sikkim.

1957 : A.G. Pronin, a hydrologist, reported his sighting while in the Pamirs.

1942 : M.M. Bespalko, an artist, also had a sighting in the Pamirs.

1934 : B.M. Zdorik, geologist, saw one sound asleep in the mountains of Tajikistan.

1948 : M.A. Stronin, geologist, Tien Shans region. It seemed to become frightened and ran across a nearby slope.

1948 : A.P. Agafanov, geological engineer, while in Tien Shans, was shown a family relic - a cut-off and dried-out hand of a 'wild man'. The back of the hand was covered with brown hair.

1954 : Professor Hoy Vai-Loo, Chinese historian, claimed to have captured a kind of "wild man" while in a mountain village in the Shansi province. He used the creature for simple labor.

1950 : N.Y. Serikova, Russian livestock specialist, had just started his new job in the Karbarda, Caucasus and not yet heard any local stories of the "Almasti".  He had no idea what he witnessed from a short distance, but his detailed description identified it as one of the Almasti.

Next post : Major General Mikhail Topilski




Nancy


"I'll spark the thought; what you do with it is up to you."

RUSSIAN RESEARCH

When most people think of the possibility of sasquatch-type creatures on the other side of the world, they immediately think "Yeti." However, there is much more information out there by the Russians than anything from the Himalayas. Only problem is that not much of it is widely publicized in English.

There are some publications, some authors that will publish translations. And with internet programs available that will translate, if the material is on the internet, you can get some idea of what is being said.


John Green was frustrated by the apparent unavailability of information from those countries. So for years he corresponded with Professor B.F. Porshnev, Igor Bourtsev, and Dmitri Bayanov of the Hominid Problem Seminar at Moscow. Green had some articles translated but found the translation not easy to follow and he made an attempt to paraphrase what Porshnev wrote and hoped he did not distort or confuse what he was trying to say.


First off, the group used names for the creatures that Green was not comfortable using as they carried the concept of primitive man. Green felt that might give people a one-sided view of the evidence offered. But he was equally uncomfortable using the term Sasquatch if there were any possibility that the Russian creatures were something different.


The name that this group preferred was Homo troglodytes. This was also the name that Karl Linnaeus  used to label the two creatures he studied more than two centuries before the Russian study. Linnaeus talked of these creatures that resembled man physically but yet were hair covered and lacked speech. "Troglodyte" is generally taken to mean "cave man" but scientifically also can be used to mean the Anthropoid apes. John Green used the term Troglodyte with that understanding.


When Linnaeus explored the alleged novelty of the two creatures, he was amazed that people were getting so excited over monkeys while natural scientists were ignoring the troglodytes as if they did not exist. -- Ah, yes. Somethings never change.


The Mongolian scientist T. Jamtsarano and his investigation into the manlike creatures in Mongolia was discussed in an earlier post. V.A. Khakhlov was unaware of Jamtsarano's work when he began gathering information between 1907 and 1914 in the Tien Shan region of Mongolia.


He learned quite a bit of the creature "Kshee-guiek", as the Khazastan people called them. So he wrote to the Russian Academy of Science on June 1, 1914, renaming the creature Primihomo Asiaticus.


Jamtsarano and Khakhlov researched and reached their conclusions independently of each other. But both established that the natives of the regions believed in the existence of similar creatures. They agreed concerning habitat, appearance, and behaviors. It would be difficult to believe that in two different regions of central Asia that such similar folklore could be so alike. And have descriptions that would match fossils discovered at a later time. Fossils that neither the people nor Jamtsarano or Khakhlov were aware existed.


Later, Mongolian professor G.P. Dementiev and others would carry out extensive field research. They obtained more precise anatomical, morphological and biological information.


P.P. Sushkin, being inspired by the evidence found by Khakhlov and other travellers throughout Central Asia, conducted further academic research. His conclusions were that transformation from ape to man took place in the high mountains of Central Asia, passing through the intermediate form of an upright-walking animal. However, he restricted his research to information gathered from a limited region of Central Asia which caused the arrival at this mistaken theory.


However, it is interesting in itself that the Russian research approached the problem as being more related to man than ape. Western European scientists on the other hand, researching in Nepal and the Himalayas, looked at the creature first as relating to bear and then to ape. Not to man.




frontiersofzoology.com

More from Porshnev and the Russians in a later post.

Nancy


"I'll spark the thought; what you do with it is up to you."

MURPHYSBORO MUD MONSTER aka "BIG MUDDY MONSTER" - ILLINOIS

In the summer of 1973, Illinois became the center of bigfoot activity. For two weeks the Murphysboro Mud Monster, also called  Big Muddy Monster, struck fear into the residents' hearts.

It began around midnight June 25, 1973. A young couple, Randy Needham and Judy Johnson, had parked near the boat ramp on the Big Muddy River near the city of Murphysboro. As they sat there, they heard a strange, roaring cry that came from the nearby woods. They looked towards the trees and saw a huge shape coming toward them, continuing to make the cry. When it got within 20 ft of their car, they realized that this was a 7 ft tall creature with matted, whitish hair or fur streaked with mud from the river. Knowing that this was "something not human", they fled to the police station.

Officers Meryl Lindsay and Jimmie Nash were sent to check out their story. They found a number of footprints in the mud that were approximately 10-12 in. long and approximately 3 in. wide. They returned to the station.

At 2:00 am Lindsay, Nash and Officer Bob Scott and Needham returned to the area again. They found even more tracks in the area. Lindsay left to get a camera. The others began to follow the tracks that were leading along the river. Suddenly about 100 yards away, the men heard a scream. They didn't wait to see what had made it but fled quickly back to the patrol car. After a while, when everything remained quiet, they emerged from the car and began to investigate. The men spent the rest of the night trying to track down a "splashing sound" heard in the distance. When they left at daylight, everything was quiet.

The next night, the creature returned. It's not quite clear the timing of the sightings, but one witness was a 4 yr old boy, Christian Baril, who informed his parents that he had just seen a "big white ghost in the yard". The parents did not believe him at that time.

Randy Creath and Cheryl Ray were sitting on the back porch of her house at around 10:30 pm. They heard something moving in the woods near the river. When it emerged they saw a muddy, white creature staring at them. Cheryl insisted that it had glowing, pink eyes. She claimed they glowed; it was not reflected light. They estimated it at 350 lbs and 7 ft. tall, with a rounded head and long ape-like arms.

Ray  turned the porch light on and Creath went towards the woods for a closer look. The creature seemed not to care and ambled off into the woods. They called the police. The Baril's, upon speaking with the investigators, now realized that their son had really seen something in the yard and shared their information with the police.

Large footprints were found, along with broken tree branches and crushed undergrowth. There was also a strong odor that then faded. Officers Jimmie Nash and Ronald Manwaring were among those checking this story. Manwaring started following the footpath through the woods. He noticed the stench and a slimy film on the tree branches. "I saw this substance and smelled the smell myself," said Manwaring.

They brought in Jerry Nellis and his German Shepherd dog, trained to search and track. The dog tracked the creature through the woods, down a hill to a small pond. Eventually the trees and underbrush became too thick for the dog and Nellis to get through and the dog was pulled from the track. As the officers searched the area with flashlights, the dog appeared to find another part of the trail and proceeded to lead them to an abandoned barn. Once there, the dog refused to go into the barn, remaining outside shaking with fear and barking. The officers finally entered the barn only to find it empty. The search was called off for the night.

There were two more encounters reported to the police that summer. On July 4th, some traveling carnival workers claimed to have seen the monster looking at their Shetland ponies. On July 7th, Mrs. Nedra Green heard screaming coming from a shed on her farm. She did not investigate it.

Jerry Nellis maintained that "in my opinion . . . we were tracking a bear." He then added, "We never got a good view of any tracks. Is there a Sasquatch? I don't know -- it makes for a good story, though."

Police Chief Toby Berger summed it up. "A lot of things in life are unexplained, and this is another one. We don't know what the creature is, but we do believe what these people saw was real."

Nancy

"I'll spark the thought; what you do with it is up to you."

SIGHTINGS IN IOWA - THE 1970s

Iowa has a long history of bigfoot sightings. An old newspaper clipping states : " 'It' is the mysterious creature folks around here have heard about for 50 years -- a furry, scary thing that stands like a man."

The article continued with telling of a woman who talked of hunters and trappers that would tell tales of animals that walked like men when she first moved to the area as a young girl.

Gary Koontz reported seeing a strange animal in the early '70s while he was hunting. He was in the middle of dense woods and underbrush near a state park and was about 100 yards  away when he saw it. Koontz described it as standing upright, covered in dark fur or hair and had a "flat, frightened face". He estimated it at four or five feet tall. "I knew it was something I had never seen before. I was startled . . . . It let out a high-pitched, woman-like scream and disappeared into the brush."  He added that his uncle had also seen a similar creature around the same time.

In October 1975 a report out of Lockridge, Iowa, told of a sighting of a "thing" with long, shaggy dark hair seen by several people. It was further described as usually moving on all fours but sometimes was seen to stand up on its hind legs and walk. People said it had an apelike face.

In August of 1976, A Dumont man found a half mile of big tracks going along a gravel road. The tracks were 12 to 13 inches long and five inches wide. The stride measured about 6 ft. The tracks came from the open country but then headed towards a wooded area that paralleled the West Fork River.

August 22, 1976 a 13 year old boy reported seeing a 6 ft, hairy black creature near the Ocheyedan River. At around 9:30 am the boy saw it at the river, holding it's hands as if drinking from them. When he returned to the area with his family, they found 14 inch footprints, narrow at the heel, but 7 inches across the 5 toes. The tracks ran along the river bed, disappearing into the distance.

Nancy

"I'll spark the thought; what you do with it is up to you."

BRITISH BIGFOOT aka WILDMAN aka WOODWOSE

There are so many reasons people will give for Britain not being home to any bigfoot type creature.

NO FOSSIL BASED EVIDENCE.
NO BONES.
NO LIVE OR DEAD SPECIMENS.
HABITAT.


Hmmm. Those all sound familar. Let's see, we (well, most of us) will agree that there appears to be a large, hairy man-beast living in North America. And we can list:


NO FOSSIL BASED EVIDENCE.
NO BONES.
NO LIVE OR DEAD SPECIMENS.
HABITAT. (For those who will say, not enough forest cover, not enough food sources, etc.)


So, let's just toss those reasons out the window. Because I can assure you that people are seeing something over there. And there are researchers and research organizations in England, Scotland and Ireland.


There is British Bigfoot Research who has a great interactive Google map. And one of my favorite pages is Beasts of Britain. (Find links to them on Sasquatch Observations page.) Author Nick Redfern has written two books on the phenomena : Man-Monkey: In search of the British Bigfoot and Wildman: The monstrous and mysterious saga of the British Bigfoot.  These are just a few of the sources for information on this location for bigfoot.


Theories abound on just what these mysterious creatures can be. Are they real? Are they supernatural? Are they a combination of both?  Questions that people even ask about bigfoot here in North America.


Rob Hampton had an encounter while visiting the Rollright Stones in Oxfordshire. He caught a fleeting glimpse of something 7 to 8 ft high with silvery, grey hair that covered it's entire body from head to toe. Except for it's hands and feet. These Rob  reported as being pink in color.  It was walking steadily and quickly on two feet. When it gave Rob a sideways "piercing" glance, he got a "funny" feeling. And then the figure disappeared. Real or supernatural?


Other stories along the east coast of England include those of the Shug Monkey. This is described as a "ghost-like hairy humanoid". This creature has been sighted in the Rendlesham Forest (yes, the UFO sighting location) mostly along the road that runs between West Wratting and Balsham.  It appears to look like a cross between a big dog and a monkey. It leaves gigantic doglike footprints with flattened "claws" that are shaped more like human fingernails than claws.  The word "shug" comes from an Old English word for Demon. Some researchers place this cryptid in with the Black Dog legends.

This bigfoot is called by several names : Wildman, Hairy man, Woodwose. The first two have been used in the past to describe and label our North American sasquatch. Woodwose may be unfamilar to some of you.

The word woodwose has its origins in ancient England. Some say it may be derived from the old word "wudu" meaning "forest" and "wasa" meaning "being". Therefore, a being of the forest; a wild, hairy humanoid of the woods.

Tabitca Cope researching into the Woodwose explains it was predominately reported across England from the 14th to the 16th century. The creature was described as a large, man-like beast, covered in a coat of tight, curly hair, heavily bearded, carrying a large, wooden club. Sometimes it was known to cover it's body in ivy, moss, and leaves as a possible form of camouflage.

Researcher Elizabeth Randall said the Woodwose is usually shown as a complete, part human figure carrying a club with the limbs being leafy. It could also show a thick beard and could wear a cap.

Some researchers feel that what people were seeing Neanderthals, isolated from civilization. 

Nancy


"I'll spark the thought; what you do with it is up to you."

WISCONSIN HAS SASQUATCH

Wisconsin is not just pasture land and cows and Milwaukee. There are rivers and lakes and forested land. And there are sasquatch.

In 1964, a man driving down State Highway 89, reported seeing a sasquatch run across the highway in front of him. This happened shortly after midnight and was near the Illinois border. When the sasquatch crossed in front of him, it jumped the fences on either side of the highway.

About 15 people claimed to see a hairy, white "monster" in August of 1970. The Telegraph Herald reported :

". . . a white furred, apelike 300 pound creature about seven feet tall with claws and pink eyes has established a lair near here. (Benton, Wisconsin) He -- almost everyone agrees it's a male -- has been around about three weeks."

Ivan Sanderson and Dr. Bernard Heuvelmans interviewed several men after they reported an encounter while on a hunting trip. A group of 12 men saw a strange creature while on a deer drive in the Deltox Marsh near Fremont.

On November 30, 1968, while the men were going through the swamp, the creature stepped out in front of the left end of the line. Word was passed along the line and the men then tried to circle round the creature, to approach near enough to see what it was. Some of the men got pretty close before it managed to disappear in some woodland.

Ivan Sanderson made a composite of the creature after talking to 6 of the men :

"The composite description of the creature that emerged was that of a large and powerfully built man covered with short, very dark brown or black hair and with a lighter and hairless face and hairless palms. The head appeared smallish, also with short hair, but the neck appeared to be enormous and so short as to be almost non-existent."

He went on the say that the shoulders were very wide and large; the torso barrel shaped. The men could not really describe the legs as they were hidden by three to four foot high grasses. They seemed to recall that the grass did not reach the creature's crotch and so decided that the legs were maybe as long as a tall man's. They all agreed that the arms of the beast were exceptionally long for a man.

It did not appear to be afraid of the men; it openly watched the men and even moved towards them when they backed away but it kept a distance from them. It walked similar to a man but was slightly bent forward. The men added in the interview that this creature had been seen twice previously that fall; once in Deltox March and once in Lebanon Swamp. It also was seen the night after encountering the hunting party, on a nearby road.

Everyone agreed that no man would have been brave (or stupid) enough to masquerade around in a fur suit during hunting season. It would have been suicidal. But yet, not one hunter seems to have fired a shot at the creature.

1976 saw some action in Cashton, Wisconsin. In October the newspaper reported that "an unidentified creature is stirring interest in the Cashton area". An unnamed farmer saw a 7 ft, upright creature covered with dark hair in August. The creature also had a very strong smell. In November, the newspaper carried a follow-up story which mentioned that four 18-inch footprints, 7 inches wide, with only four toes were found by three people walking in the woods late in October.

Nancy

"I'll spark the thought; what you do with it is up to you."

ALMAS : A BODY AND OTHER EVIDENCE - PART 5

In 1980, a Mongolian government employee came across a dead body while working in Bulgan.

At first, he thought it was a human body. But when he got a closer look, he knew different.

"I approached and saw a hairy corpse of a robust humanlike creature dried and half-buried by sand. I had never seen such a humanlike being before covered by camel-colour brownish-yellow short hairs and I recoiled, although in my native land in Sinkiang I had seen many dead men killed in battle . . .  The dead thing was not a bear or ape and at the same time it was not a man like Mongol or Kazakh or Chinese and Russian. The hairs of its head were longer than on its body. The skin was darkened and shrivelled like the hide of a dead camel".

In 1992, the first serious expedition was launched to investigate Almas in the Tien Shan region. It was led by Russian anatomist and mountain climber Dr. Marie-Jeanne Koffman. The team was a joint French-Russian venture. The team spent several weeks in the region, collecting over 500 eyewitness accounts which included descriptions of almas families. However, the expedition did not see any almas themselves and were thereby unable to capture any.

They did return with some droppings and hairs that locals told them came from almas. When analyzed, the hairs could not be matched to any known animal and were determined to have possibly come from some sort of primate. The droppings contained food remains that showed the creature they came from was omnivorous. The shape and texture was unlike those of a bear which was the only known omnivore living in that area.

Nancy

"I'll spark the thought; what you do with it is up to you."

ALMAS -Part four

There is much interest in the alleged Almas, Almasty, Almasti on the other side of the world. Let's take a further look at some of what had been found in Mongolia.

In the late 1800s, N. M. Przhevalsky recieved information on "man-beasts" during his trips into Central Asia. He never investigated any of those reports.

Professor Tzyben Zhamtsarano, a native of Mongolia educated in St. Petersburg, found himself in the middle of a political revolution. In 1907 he was sentenced to indefinite internal exile for his involvement. The exile was to his homeland in the far east area of the then Russian Empire. Even after the Soviet Union replaced the Tsar's regime, he continued to stay in that location. He found it easier to continue his research in the quiet, remote area. And it made it easier for him to invesigate the Almas.

(b)

Professor Zhamtsarano interviewed at least a dozen the Mongolian nomads who told him they had encountered the wild man. He made detailed notes of their experiences. And then he hired a local artist to work with the nomads in order to produce a series of pictures of the creatures they had seen. Also among his research notes was a large map of the Tien Shan region on which he marked each sighting along with the date.

Finally he returned to Leningrad (St. Petersburg) in 1928. When he died in 1940, his archives were taken by the Leningrad Institute of Oriental Studies. The location of his work is unknown today and is thought to have destroyed during the German siege of Leningrad in 1941-42.

In the 1960s, Dordji Meiren, one of the professor's research assistants, was asked what he remembered of the work done on the Almas. Meiren said that subject had not been his speciality, but could remember a little of what the professor had talked about and could recall a few details of the map. He told the interviewers that numerous reports had been made from Gourban Bogdin, Chardzyn, and Alachan districts. Meiren added that he thought some reports also came from Khalkha, Galbin, Khovd and Dzakh Sodgin regions.

Meiren went on to say that the professor believed that the number of reports declined drastically after around 1890 and that by 1925, the Almas seemed to have become extinct across more than half of its orginal range. He also recalled being shown a skin of an Almas male. Meiren described it as looking human and being a little over 5 feet tall. What set it apart from being human was that it was covered in  dense reddish-brown curly hair. The hair on the scalp was much longer and densely matted. The face was hairless around the eyes and mouth with short, curly hair on the cheeks and forehead. The fingers and toes had nails similar to a human. Meiren did not know what became of it.

Nancy


"I'll spark the thought; what you do with it is up to you."


Part 5 tomorrow




Photo (a) Bigfoot411.com; photo (b) Cryptidz.wikia. com

ALMAS - Part three

Hans Schiltburger (mentioned briefly in part one) was a Bavarian nobleman who is known for the oldest written reference to Asian wild men (so far). His book was written in the 1430s.

Hans was unfortunate enough to be captured during a battle by Mongols of the Golden Horde. A merchant named Egidi bought him from the soldiers as a slave.  He traveled extensively throughout the conquered lands of the Golden Horde for several years until he eventually returned to Europe. There he was sold to a Christian who then set him free, enabling Hans to return to his home. It was there he wrote his memoirs including his experiences with the 'wild men'.

He explained how the "wild people" had nothing to do with "normal" human beings. They were "fur" covered over their entire bodies except for the hands and feet. Hans said the creatures ran around the hills like animals and ate foliage and grass and whatever else they could find.

A Lord of a territory where these creatures roamed made Egidi a gift of two of the wild people, a man and a woman. They had been captured out in the wilderness along with three wild horses and a few other animals that were unfamilar to Hans and remained unnamed. The horses he described were a species known as Przewalski's wild horse which were commonly found in that area of asia. Many feel this gives a ring of truth to the rest of his account.

In 1664, a medical book, "The Mirror of Medicine" was published during the Qing Dynasty. It was a compendium of wild animals that could be found in northern China and Mongolia. The book talked of  flesh, bones, and other body parts of animals and the various ways they could be used in traditional medicine.

Among the listings of unquestionably real creatures is listed the "wild man". It goes on to list the wild man who "lives in the northern mountains and his origins are like that of the bear. His body resembles that of a man and he has enormous strength. His meat may be eaten to treat mental disease. His gall cures jaundice." Included was a small illustration. It showed a basically human figure standing on a rock with it's left arm upraised. The entire body of the creature, except for hands and feet, were shown covered in dense fur. Even the eyes and mouth were surrounded by hair. The author of the book seemed to consider the wild man as quite ordinary, common in fact.

In the 1890s, it was said an Almas woman was captured, but the story was only revealed in 1910 when a Kazakh herdsman told V. A. Khaklov, a Russian zoologist, of his childhood memory of having seen a wild woman. He explained that she had been captured by some farmers. They were keeping her chained up when he saw her. The woman usually remained quiet but if someone came near her, she would bare her teeth and scream at them. The herdsman spoke of seeing her when she slept. He said she would rest on her knees and elbows, placing her forehead on the ground. Her hands would be folded on the back of her neck.  Her diet was raw meat and vegetables and she would drink by lapping it like a dog. It was said the farmers released her after a few days and she fled back into the forest.

Nancy

"I'll spark the thought; what you do with it is up to you."