Monsters and Myths

British Columbia investigator Brian Vike posted on September 21, 2008, news of a new Sasquatch sighting. He writes:

“I found out on September 19, 2008 that there was another sighting of Bigfoot/Sasquatch here in Houston, British Columbia. This time the sighting of the critter was just east of town on Morgan Road. A very credible lady witnessed the Sasquatch, this would have been around the same time it was sighted here in Houston which would have been near the end of July 2008. I told my daughter about the sighting, her face dropped a bit as they live right around where the critter was seen. I hope to have more on this soon.”

Earlier, on August 26, Brian Vike had learned of a July 28, 2008, sighting, delayed simply because she didn’t not know who she should tell.

“It was my neighbour who said Brian was the person to talk to,” she said.

At 5:45 a.m. the morning of July 28, the woman heard her dogs barking at the door. When she went down to investigate she saw that someone or something was rattling the door handle. Knowing that her son was not due back from his graveyard shift for two more hours, she began to panic.

She eventually opened the door and the dogs were out like a shot, sniffing out something on he east side of her property.

When she looked out at the side of her house, she saw a creature that was walking on two legs.

“It was huge and it had long hair, not fur — kind of like the kind you see on an ox and a reddish brown, the colour of the trees that are killed by the pine beetle,” said the woman. “And it moved so fast, by the time I opened my door it had run from the porch to the other side of the house.”

Once outside, the dogs pursued the creature it continued along a dried-up ravine and disappeared into a forested area. Her oldest dog didn’t return for three hours.

“I was worried but what do you do, tell people your dog is chasing bigfoot?” she asked. “I drove up and down the road, looking for him and eventually he came back.”

When she went out later that day, she found the area had markings where something very heavy had laid down the grass along the path.

When Vike investigated the property, he stood in the same area on the east side of the house where the women had seen the creature in attempt to gauge it’s height.

Except for the markings, Vike didn’t find any other evidence but he did say what the woman saw coincides with other sightings this summer, reported the local newspaper, the Houston Daily.

“I am just over six feet and when I stood there she said she could only see the top of my head,” said Vike. “Whatever the heck she saw that morning, she was able to see from the head to the chest, making it at least seven or eight feet.”

Since her incident, one of the woman’s friends reported a sighting on Telkwa High Road in Moricetown and over the summer there have been sightings in Campbell River and in Port Renfrew on Vancouver Island.

On Sunday morning, September 7th, the woman heard something crashing outside near her house and her dogs were anxious to get outside.

“I am becoming much more aware of being out here,” said the woman whose home is surrounded by trees and bluffs. “I mean it could have been a moose or something, but you never know.”

Now we know, again, as recently as September 19th, the Sasquatch still seems to be around Houston, BC.

cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/new-bc-sasq/

Sunday, September 21st at 9PM Eastern / 8PM Central on HISTORY Channel

Take a journey to the Far East, to the remote Chinese province of Hubai to discover what locals have dubbed the “Wild-Man.” Witnesses have reported seeing a creature that is covered in reddish-brown hair, walks on two legs and is anywhere from five to seven-feet tall. Chinese authorities have collected over one hundred samples of unidentified hairs from the alleged monster and claim that it is just a matter of time before they capture this “Wild-Man.” Join an international team of experts in a search for answers.

The sasquatch is many things to many people. While some say it’s a myth, others wholeheartedly believe in this being’s existence, even making their livelihood off the legend. To one man stuck in the wilds of British Columbia, though, it was his partner in a hair-raising one-night stand.

Hair of the Sasquatch revolves around Steve Hastings, a hunter, outdoorsman and taxidermist. After heading out on a hunting trip, he goes missing much to the alarm of his wife and neighbours. After three days, the search party is called off, only to see Hastings emerge from the forest unscathed and healthy. After much prodding, Hastings reluctantly reveals to close friends of his encounter and interaction with his sasquatch saviour. Director Dale Wolfe says that the outlandish turn of the film serves to bring home an often forgotten notion.

“Roger [Cove, Hair's screenwriter]’s point is that no one ever thinks about the fact that if there are male sasquatches, there’s got to be female sasquatches,” says Wolfe. “If a guy’s been out in the bush for too long, I wonder how attractive she’s going to start looking.”

In addition to the unexpected association between Hastings and their hairy subject, Wolfe and Cove were looking for a new way to frame the sasquatch’s impact on others.

“We originally started out to make a short film and as we went to people and started talking about it, we sort of felt that we were going down the same old road as every other sasquatch movie that has a fake sasquatch in it or talking to people about if it exists,” Wolfe explains. “The thing we discovered in doing this, though, was all the companies [profiting, like] the Sasquatch Inn and people selling sasquatch burgers.”

The duo also traveled to the set of a Kokanee beer commercial, whose advertising campaign capitalizes on the sasquatch image, and explored the Vancouver 2010 Olympics use of the hairy fable as one of its iconic mascots. With this concept in place, Wolfe and Cove worked to achieve a subtle mix of reality and fiction in the film, which Wolfe explains wasn’t hard, given the sasquatch’s ever-growing reputation and the talent involved in the film.

“I think we found [the balance] through a great cast giving us believable performances,” Wolfe says. “Most people don’t know who are cast members and who are real people from the documentary.”

As Hair of the Sasquatch walks the line between reality and folklore, it may prompt audience’s to think, if not of their own beliefs on the sasquatch’s existence, but about what is real and what isn’t, especially in the film itself.

“I think [the sasquatch is] a legend,” Wolfe says. “When I look at the scientific evidence, they’ve never found a carcass or remains. We actually met someone who claims to have seen the sasquatch. They said they found the hair of the sasquatch and then when they had the hair analyzed, it was a bear. It’s one of those things where I would love to believe that it exists– like UFOs or the Loch Ness Monster or Ogopogo. There’s a part of me that wants to believe it, but I’m probably the biggest skeptic when it comes to the reality of it.”

gauntlet.ucalgary.ca/story/12666

The mysterious Lake Champlain can be found along the border between New York and Vermont. Like Loch Ness in Scotland, the lake is long, deep and narrow. And like Loch Ness, Lake Champlain is supposedly the home of a strange creature that defies scientific explanation.

For centuries, the Iroquois nation lived, hunted and fished on the lake’s shores long before the white explorers came. The Iroquois told many tales about a great horned serpent that lived beneath its waters.

French explorer and navigator Samuel de Champlain arrived on the scene in the early 17th century. Champlain, for whom the lake is named, explored much of the Northeastern United States and Canada and started a settlement in Quebec. He is supposed to have mentioned seeing a strange creature in the lake that bears his name when he discovered it in 1609, according to a Web site.

For many years, things were quiet at Lake Champlain when it came to monster sightings.

Then in 1873, The New York Times ran a story about a railroad work crew putting down track near the lake in Dresden, N.Y. The railroad workers supposedly saw the head of an “enormous serpent” emerge from the water. For a few moments, the workmen were shocked by what they were seeing and then they ran away. The creature, in turn, swam away.

The workmen reported that the creature had bright, silver-like scales that glistened in the sun. The New York Times article said, “The appearance of his head was round and flat, with a hood spreading out from the lower part of it like a rubber cap often worn by mariners.”

Later that year, a small steamship loaded with tourists allegedly hit the creature and nearly capsized. The head and neck of the animal were spotted afterwards about 100 feet away from the ship.

In no time, the creature now known as Champ became more famous. The legendary showman P.T. Barnum posted a $50,000 reward for the “hide of the great Champlain serpent to add to my mammoth World’s Fair Show.” Needless to say, no one was able to collect the reward.

But the Champ sightings kept coming in though. In July 1883, the sheriff of Clinton County, N.Y. saw “an enormous snake or water serpent” which he said could be 25 to 35 feet long.

In 1887, a farm boy spotted the creature “making noises like a steamboat.” That same year, a group of picnickers in Charlotte, Vt. reported seeing a creature 75 feet long in the lake, according to the Web site.

The Champ sightings continued into the 20th century. In 1970, two witnesses traveling on a ferry across the deep, cold lake saw the creature. One of the witnesses said the animal was “dark brownish-olive” in color. The other witness said it appeared to be “a large snakelike creature, swimming with its head above water, held as snakes do, with coils behind.”

Other reports make it sound more like a plesiosaur. Plesiosaurs were prehistoric marine reptiles with long necks, a bulky body, four fins and a long tail. They have been extinct for some 65 million years.

But the most famous sighting happened in 1977. It also produced the most convincing piece of evidence about the creature’s existence.

Sandra and Anthony Mansi were visiting relatives in Vermont when they stopped along the Lake Champlain edge near the Canadian border. Their children played in the lake while the adults watched.

While Anthony went back to the car, Sandra noticed that the water was churning. As she watched in amazement, a huge creature with a small head, long neck and a humped back rose out of the lake. The head, which was 8 feet above the surface, moved from right to left.

When Anthony came back, he saw the creature too. Alarmed for his family’s safety, he got them out of the water and up the 6-foot lake bank. At this moment, Sandra took a picture with her Instamatic camera. A few moments later, the creature’s neck and head went back into the lake. The whole sighting lasted six or seven minutes.

The Mansi family put the photo away fearing that they might be ridiculed if it became public. But a friend who saw it contacted Joseph W. Zarzynski, founder of the Lake Champlain Phenomena Investigation and a social studies teacher.

Zarzynski was impressed with the photo and took it to George Zug of the Smithsonian Institution’s Department of Vertebrate Zoology. Zug stated that the creature in the photo does not resemble any known animal living in Lake Champlain. Other experts declared the photo was genuine.

So after all these centuries, people today feel that a strange creature lives in Lake Champlain. Like Ogopogo and Nessie, Champ sightings continue to this day.

mcdowellnews.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=MMN/MGArticle/

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For two nights in April 1977, some teen-agers in the town of Dover, Mass. reportedly saw something that would defy explanation, even among paranormal investigators. More than 30 years later, researchers still argue about what is called the Dover Demon.

The unknown entity with an enormous head was first sighted at around 10:30 p.m. on April 21. Bill Bartlett, 17, of Dover, and two other friends, also 17, were driving through town at around 40 to 45 miles per hour. While traveling on Farm Street, the car’s headlights illuminated something weird crawling along a nearby stone wall. Bartlett, who was the driver, later reported that he saw what he thought at first was a dog or a cat, but upon closer inspection realized that it was a strange, unearthly-looking creature crawling along the stone wall, according to a Web site.

Bartlett continued to watch the creature. He later reported it had a disproportionately large, watermelon-shaped head and glowing orange eyes. It had long, thin arms and legs with slender tentacle-like fingers, which it used to grasp onto the pavement. The creature had no hair and had rough, flesh-toned skin, which Bartlett described as tan and sandpaper-like. The creature reportedly had no nose or ears and no mouth could be seen.

When he saw it, Bartlett yelled at his friends “Did you see that?” Neither one of his buddies saw the weird creature because they were looking elsewhere at that moment. But they later stated that Bartlett was “genuinely frightened” by what he had seen.

The creature was sighted later that night by John Baxter, 15, as he was walking home sometime after midnight. He was walking on Millers Hill Road when he supposedly saw the silhouette of someone approaching him on his side of the road. He said it walked on two legs and ended up running into a gully and standing next to a tree. Baxter later said the dark figure looked like a monkey except for its large “figure-eight” head. The creature’s long toes could be seen curled around a rock and its long fingers were wrapped around the tree. After staring at the creature for a few minutes, Baxter said he got scared about the situation and quickly got out of there.

The next night, Abby Brabham, 15, and Will Taintor, 18, were traveling down Springdale Avenue in Dover when Brabham saw something weird along the side of the road. Her description matched Bartlett’s and Baxter’s descriptions, only this time the creature had glowing green eyes. She said it was “about the size of a goat.”

Bartlett, Baxter, Brabham, and Traintor all drew sketches of the weird creature shortly after their sightings and their sketches matched each other. On the piece of paper that includes Bartlett’s sketch, he wrote “I, Bill Bartlett, swear on a stack of Bibles that I saw this creature.” It is also interesting to note that these teens did not know about each other’s sightings at the time they occurred. They did not talk to each other before they were interviewed by investigators, according to a Web site.

Cryptozoologist Loren Coleman was the first one to check out what they had seen. He interviewed the eyewitnesses within a week of the sightings and he named the creature the Dover Demon. The press picked up on that name and it has been called that ever since. Coleman found all four to be credible witnesses and believed that they were sincere in what they reported, according to his book “Mysterious America.”

At first, some paranormal investigators thought it could be an alien being from another world but Coleman wasn’t so sure about that. He thought this creature might be some kind of unknown animal. One skeptic said it was really a newborn moose. But all the descriptions of the Dover Demon clearly state that it had fingers, while moose have only hooves. Coleman pointed out that there are no records of moose living in eastern Massachusetts at that time.

Others theorize that it was really a being from another dimension, accidentally transferred into our world through some kind of dimensional warp.

So to this day, no one really knows what these teens in Dover, Mass. saw on those spring nights in 1977.

mcdowellnews.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=MMN/MGArticle/

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Sasquatch, Yeti and Bigfoot — these names have been attributed to unidentified things that go bump in the night, often reported by people hiking, camping or hunting in remote wooded areas.

Decades of myth and conjecture surround the sightings of this legendary humanoid creature. It’s a phenomenon that continues to enlist enthusiastic believers and elude conclusive scientific evidence all the same.

Eric Altman, a Hempfield resident and president of the Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society, often speaks — perhaps surprisingly — as both the voice of Bigfoot enthusiasts and as the voice of reason. A sense of realistic skepticism is almost equaled by his passionate beliefs that “something” is indeed roaming the forests — still not identified.

Altman said he has been interested in the subject since childhood but engaged in actual research about 11 years ago.

“Our group was put together in 1998 by Steve Anderson and Harry Benton,” he explained. “About two years later, Steve had to get out of the group for personal reasons and asked me to take over. I was not really interested in running a group. The choice was end the group or I take over. So I said I’d give it a try.”

Since then, Altman has been the go-to person for witness reports, group research outings and organizing the group’s annual conference.

As for the entire legend potentially being that of pure fiction, he said, “It’s possible.” But conversely, he raised the question — “But, is it possible there’s something out there that people are really seeing? I think there is, and I want to find out either way.”

He explained this duality comes from years of experience, chasing false claims and witnessing outlandish hoaxes, all while discovering and investigating areas and artifacts that simply can’t be explained away either.

“There are a lot of lonely people who get the Bigfoot bug. We’ve come across that several times, gone on wild goose chases. That’s the bad side,” he admitted. “And I’ve never seen a creature I can definitively say was a ‘creature.’”

But even after encountering numerous implausible or fictional reports, the amateur researcher said his interest never abates.

“Looking at these tracks, these castings, and footprints on my own, and talking to legitimate witnesses and hearing those scientists who are now starting to study this … that’s what keeps me going. I know there’s something definitely out there, but what it is — I can’t say at this point. The reason I keep doing it is not so much to prove to science, or public, but for myself.”

Beginning Sept. 26, The Pennsylvania Bigfoot Society will hold its conference, a three-day event open to the public, at Pitzer’s Townhouse in Jeannette.

“The first evening is a meet-and-greet dinner with speakers and researchers, and free to the public,” he said. “A dinner menu will be available, and it’s more of a social gathering. Saturday is the actual conference.”

Altman stated many of those commonly raised questions regarding Bigfoot’s existence will be addressed by guest speakers, along with many displays and presentations that offer possible credibility to its existence.

“Broad topics will be brought up. My presentation is on a history of Bigfoot in Pennsylvania, because there is a history since the 1960s and 1970s, and some of what our group has discovered.”

A $10 donation is required for admission on Sept. 27, which begins at noon and ends at 8 p.m.

“The $20 reserved seating is all filled up for the closest seating,” he noted. “How it’s set up is theater-style seating, a podium for speakers, white screen for presentations. Eight presenters, display tables with photos, casts and vendor tables with books. Our group will have merchandise for sale, an auction, books, shirts, dolls, movies and artwork. Any money we raise goes back into the self-funded group.”

Altman said the final day’s activities will be more of a hands-on historical perspective.

“Sunday is a driving tour and walk at four locations in southwestern Pennsylvania where there have been sightings in the last five to seven years, and we will meet at 1 p.m. at Pitzers parking lot.” Participation is limited to the first 50 people who register during the conference, and their own transportation is required. “We believe these are reputable locations and we’ll give a little dissertation at each location.”

pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_588739.html

In November 2005 the three Orang Asli including Along and Amir went as usual into the jungles to do their work. Later they were joined by a fourth person. Amir hunted fish for a living, while Along collected rattans to sell. It was about 10am when they arrived and they have not started work yet. It was then they saw this Bigfoot creature, whom he named as Hantu Hutan. They saw this creature standing about 15 metres away, with his back against a tree. It was performing an action akin to rubbing its back on the tree bark, as if its back was itchy, or it was just bright morning and it was stretching itself for a breath of fresh air. They looked, stood still for a moment and ran off. (We were to learn later that though Alan mentioned that Along and Amir went into the jungle, both Along and Amir actually went in at different times. This is paret of the Orang Asli culture, which we were to learn very soon.)

Alan described the Bigfoot as about 3 metres all, with a human face but hairy all over with bright golden hair. It stood upright and had jaranq teeth features like canine teeth. Alan said that the encounter with the Bigfoot was just one encounter in which they were all together. When asked to identify the Bigfoot, Alan pointed to the picture of the hand drawn Bigfoot on the cover of my album, which had many pictures of primates put together for easy identification. Alan was not sure if the Bigfoot was a male or female. Though they only saw one, he believed that it could not be the only one and there must be some other nearby. He describe the color of the Bigfoot body hair as red golden and pointed to API Agent Huili hair as an example. Alan said the body was as hairy as an king kong (Alan said this while pointing to a Orang Utan which was standing upright), except that its face was like a human. Alan also describe the Bigfoot as having a huge chest, stretching out both his hands to demonstrate the immense size. It was also very tall but did not have long hands like king kong. He said that the four of them took one look at the Bigfoot and ran. They did not see the back of the creature, just the front. He said he did not see any footprints due to dry weather and hard ground conditions. He repeated again that Amir was his brother-in-law while Along was his son-in-law. It was then that he said that he was not the actual one who saw Bigfoot, but that he was with the group that brought the State Officials to the place of encounter.

There is a very detailed and informative report on the Malaysian Bigfoot at the following site.  Found it to be quite interesting and figured readers would aswell.

http://www.api.sg/research/MYbigfoot/BF.htm

“The Legend of Boggy Creek” movie inspired D.W. Lee to drive to Fouke, Ark., in search of Bigfoot.

Since the 1990s, he has become an avid researcher and expert on the legend and the creature.

And a believer.

“Once you see one, you want to see another one,” Lee said. “Hearing their vocalizations and movement around you is incredible.

“It gives you pause to think about what goes on in a woods at night.”

Lee and his Stilwell-based Mid-America Bigfoot Research organization are part of an international long-term Bigfoot investigation using cameras and video equipment.

Once, when researching north of Claremore, he saw a dozen of the creatures move on all fours through an open field, then stand up and walk when they got to the tree line.

“We have a white Bigfoot in this area,” Lee said.

“We’ve been tracking it in this area since 1994. It travels in between Adair and Cherokee counties.”

Bigfoot is definitely a primate, he said.

“There are three kinds: those with human type features and a nose more human in shape; those with a gorilla look; and some with a monster look that are terrifying to look at.”

They’re found throughout the U.S. and active in Oklahoma, according to Lee.

“They’ve been here for ages,” Lee said. “We shouldn’t be afraid. They’re just as curious about us.”

Some people feed them, and they have found plenty of dead chickens outside chicken houses, he said.

“They’re really good at catching deer,” he said. “They hunt in packs. Part of them will run deer in the general direction of the others, and they can grab them when they run by.”

tahlequahdailypress.com/features/local_story_192100905.html?keyword=topstory

The Big Grey Man of Ben MacDhui, or Am Fear Liath Mòr as he seems to be known in his native Scotland, is a ten-foot-tall creature that ‘haunts’ a very high peek in the Cairngorms. He’s been described as both a physical creature and a ghost of sorts, and many a mountain climber has a story including him.

Whether the Fear Liath is a physical creature or not, those that have encountered him have said they were absolutely overcome with fear - sometimes enough so to cause them to stumble through five miles of mountainous fog just to escape his presence.

The Big Grey Man of Ben MacDhui, as we said, is a ten-foot-tall creature that has been described a few different ways. Some say he’s got a barren skin, while others insist he’s covered in a short brown hair. The Encyclopedia Mythica describes him thusly:

“Fear Liath More, or the Grey Man, is a creature said to have inhabited the vicinity of the summit cairn of Ben MacDhui, one of the six great peaks of the Scottish Cairngorm Mountains, for generations. The Grey Man is identified as a presence encountered both physically and psychically. In its physical form, the Grey Man is most often described as quite large and broad shouldered, standing fully erect and being in excess of 10 feet in height, with long waving arms.

“He is also reportedly olive complected or, alternatively, covered with short brown hair. Because of this, some tend to associate him with the Bigfoot or Sasquatch of North American fame, or the Yeti of the Himalayas. Footprints found on the summit of Ben MacDhui do closely resemble the “typical” Bigfoot imprint. However, this association is misleading, as the Grey Man has far more interesting identifying characteristics than his physical description alone.”

From  what we’ve gathered, the chief difference between the Grey man and Bigfoot is that a Bigfoot is generally (we said generally) encountered with your eyes. When you run into the Grey Man you usually don’t see him - but you’re suddenly terrified by him. Encyclopedia Mythica also gives a description of a typical encounter:

“More frequently, the Grey Man is encountered in physical sensation, but without a true physical form. Sensations of this type include vast, dark blurs which obscure the sky, strange crunching noises, echoing footsteps which pursue the listener, an icy feeling in the surrounding atmosphere, as well as a physical feeling of a cold grip on, or brush against, the observer’s flesh. There is also a high pitched humming sound, or the Singing as it is sometimes called, which is associated with Ben MacDhui and the Grey Man.”

The singing sounds pretty spooky. It gets worse - a specific encounter is given on Wikipedia:

“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.””

Here’s another encounter - this one includes gun shots, and was found on Ghostclub.org.uk:

“In 1943 the most sensational account of the Big Grey Man appeared penned by a mountaineer Alexander Tewnion: he claimed he had actually shot at it with a revolver! He described how he had been climbing Ben MacDhui when a thick mist descended so he descended by the Coire Etchachan path. He was disturbed to hear menacing footsteps and recalling Professor Collie’s experience he peered into the mist. A strange shape loomed up in the mist, receded and then came charging towards him. Pulling out his gun he fired three times and then turned and ran reaching Glen Derry in a time I have never bettered since.”

So the Grey Man seems to be physical enough to get shot at, but generally appears as more of a terrified feeling than a face to face meet & greet. Although the beast has never been sighted off-mountain, there are a few other places in this big wonderful world where similar entities are believed to exist - spooking you out as you walk alone through the middle of nowhere.

Wheever they are, we are more than content to just give them their space.

hecklerspray.com/awesome-or-off-putting-the-big-grey-man-of-ben-macdhui/200816114.php