Monsters and Myths

If hecklerspray ever had to fight a crocodile, we’d start out by giving it our famous one-two punch, follow up with our world renowned triple-round-house kick, and then we’d force its tail into its own mouth making it chew until it was nothing more than a little scaly donut.

Don’t try that at home, kids. We’ve had training.

If we ever had to fight Mahamba, on the other hand, we’d probably do all the same things except with construction cranes instead of our hands. That’s because Mahamba is reported to be a 50? long croc. It’s been sighted in the Congo, and some say it’s a remnant from a very ancient age.

We have a strange quote for you today - strange because we can only read it ourselves through Google’s Translator tool. It gives the account of a man who encountered Mahamba in the wilds of the Congo. He’d gone to hunt ducks, but saw this alligator/crocodile thing he estimated to be 15 metres long.

He only had a wussy gun with him as he came to hunt tiny little ducks, but he had a better weapon in his vehicle. He sent a kid to get his bigger gun. The is where Google translator kicks in. The original text is in German, and is found on Kryptozoologie-online.de:

“After the boy after a long time came, [the hunter] decided to brave because of the apathy of the crocodile which it had apparently not noticed, a little closer in his direction to crawl. Unfortunately, [the croc was] alerted by the ducks, which immediately aufflogen him, given his scant stock to a rapid, led untargeted shot. It was like it had come, because the giant crocodile-like flight left just before him like the ducks down the sand bank into safe water and disappeared into the murky waters.”

Probably the most coherent thing ever to appear on this website, right? Did you catch the part where the great white hunter was actually crawling towards this thing? Yeah, we did too. The story goes on:

“Hardly two or three days later ran the adventurers on a sand bank. After just one meter of scarce water under the keel of the boat was, waggled it unusually fierce and would not be the low water level would have assumed he almost rammed a river horse to have. Suddenly ran an approximately twelve meter-long crocodile, apparently uncomfortable by his boat taken quickly into deeper water. The animal had them after the Belgians later thought, already heard and escaped going to be in the direction in which her boat on the sandbank auflief. At the collision the animal had a speed of 64 Kmh added.”

As we understand it, a few days later the same crew got beached on a sand bar. One of these huge alligators freaked, shook their boat a bit, and then swam off. It’s kind of a tough read. Now for some plain English quotations. This is off of the website AmericanMonsters.com:

“Probably hailing from the Lake Likouala swamp region, this animal may, in fact, be a completely new species of heretofore undiscovered large, central African crocodile. That having been said, rumors of this animal’s prehistoric origins still persist, convincing some investigators that the animal might be a freshwater variety of the presumed extinct, aquatic reptile known as mosasaurs.”

Other than what we’ve already told you, there doesn’t seem to be a lot known about the Mahamba - by the western world, anyway. The natives could probably expound on the subject quite a bit.

hecklerspray.com/awesome-or-off-putting-mahamba-the-congos-50-foot-crocodile

/200816512.php

Legendary Nessie Hunter Robert Rines is giving up his search for the Loch Ness Monster after 37 years.

The 85 year old American will make one last trip in a bid to find the elusive beast. After almost four decades of expeditions, he admitted: “Unfortunately I’m running out of age.”

World War II veteran Robert has devoted almost half his life to scouring Loch Ness. He started in 1971. The following year he watched a 25ft long hump with the texture of elephant skin gliding through the water.

His original trip was to help another monster hunter with sonar equipment and quickly identified moving targets. He was smitten and returned the next year, which is when, he says: “I had the misfortune of seeing one of these things with my own eyes.”

Since then, he has been obsessed with tracking down the creature with a staggering array of hi-tech equipment. It was this gear that took the famous “flipper” picture that year which created a stir around the world. Despite having hundreds of sonar contacts over the years, the trail has gone cold and Rines believes that Nessie may be dead, a victim of global warming.

He still wants to check almost 100 contacts on the floor of the loch, believing one may be the monsters remains.

Robert bought a cottage near the shores of the loch to live in during his annual summer trips. He has also set up a “Nessie” room in his Boston home crammed with information gathered over the years. As he prepared for his last hunt, Robert said: “What am I to do - forget what I saw? There are a lot of eyewitness accounts. Are they all liars? All drunks? I don’t believe human nature is like that. “What disturbs me as a lawyer is that we prove cases by eyewitness testimony. The human brain is not 100 per cent accurate but it is not zero either.”

In 1975 the trained physicist and inventor managed to get a photograph in the murky waters of the loch which apparently showed the body, flipper, neck and head of an animal.

Since Nessie hunting began in the 1930s, a host of people have tried to find the monster.

nessie.co.uk/htm/nessies_news/news.html

The 2008 Texas Bigfoot Conference will be held in Jefferson, Texas, October 18, 2008, 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M., with a fundraising dinner at 6:00 P.M. The event will be at the Jefferson High School commons area. The address is:

1 Bulldog Drive
Jefferson, Texas 75657

2008 Texas Bigfoot Conference Speakers:

Peter Byrne

The TBRC is proud to present the legendary Peter Byrne as a special guest dinner speaker at the 2008 Texas Bigfoot Conference. Byrne’s military background and his experience as an adventurer, explorer, hunter turned conservationist, and friend to the wealthy and influential uniquely qualify him to lead expedition and research projects in search of yeti and sasquatch evidence on a scale not seen before or since. He led the historic Tom Slick expeditions in the 1960s and the Bigfoot Research Project in the 1990s. Byrne will discuss those efforts, the findings and the failures.

These days, Byrne continues to serve as the Executive Director of the International Wildlife Conservation Society, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit group that he co-founded in 1968. He designs and implements wildlife conservation programs for the government of Nepal, including elephant and tiger studies and wetlands reclamation projects. He spends up to eight months each year in Nepal. Byrne is presently (2008) building a private, not-for-profit, safari lodge in southwest Nepal, adjacent to WGP, which will be used as a base for scientific research to support these and other programs.

Don’t miss out on this rare opportunity to meet and learn from one of the true pioneers in sasquatch research.

W. Henner Fahrenbach

W. Henner Fahrenbach is a retired zoologist. He worked for thirty years as Chairman of the Laboratory of Electron Microscopy at the Oregon Regional Primate Center in Beaverton, Oregon. He has published numerous papers in a variety of journals in the fields of histology and neurobiology, in addition to several analyses of sasquatch biology.

Dr. Fahrenbach has investigated many sasquatch sighting reports and is the custodian of the world’s largest collection of possible sasquatch hairs. He has appeared in several documentaries pertaining to the sasquatch phenomenon and has spoken widely on the subject, including a sasquatch Biology class held at Portland Community College. He is a member of the TBRC Board of Advisors. He currently resides in the eastern edge of the greater Phoenix metro area where he enjoys astronomy, gardening, mountain hiking and natural history.

Dana Holyfield

Dana Holyfield is the granddaughter of the late Harlan Ford, who reported sighting a mysterious bipedal apelike creature in the early 1960s. She grew up in Slidell, Louisiana and has written several books. Holyfield has produced a documentary of the elusive beast now known as the Louisiana Honey Island Swamp Monster. Her 60-minute film, The Legend of the Honey Island Swamp Monster, takes the viewer into the wet swamplands believed to be the home of this legendary creature.

Featured in the film is an exclusive interview with Mr. Billy Mills, a co-worker and close friend of Harlan Ford, who was with Ford during the original 1963 sighting that occurred during a hunting trip. Mills retells their experience for the first time on camera and leaves little doubt that what Ford stated in the In Search Of documentary was truthful. Portions of Holyfield’s documentary, which features startling footage of what appears to be an upright hairy biped captured by Ford in the 1970s, will be shown during her presentation.

David Paulides

David Paulides holds two degrees from the University of San Francisco, and has a professional background that includes twenty years in law enforcement and senior executive positions in the technology sector. A boyhood camping experience with his father in the late 1960s sparked his life long interest in the sasquatch.

In 2004, he was part of the founders group that formed North America Bigfoot Search (NABS) where his investigative and analytical skills and experience were invaluable in researching bigfoot sightings. He spent three years living among the Hoopa tribal members, listening to, researching and recording their bigfoot stories.

The Hoopa Project is his first book, based on his experiences in the Hoopa and Bluff Creek area of Northern California. Paulides is currently the Executive Director of NABS. He makes his permanent residence in Los Gatos, California

Brian Brown

Brian Brown is the founder of the web’s most popular bigfoot discussion website, The Bigfoot Forums. In addition, he produces the acclaimed Bigfoot Information Project Podcast (BIPcast) and co-hosts The Bigfoot Show with Scott Herriot and Paul Vella. Brian was also recently elected to the Board of Directors of the Alliance of Independent Bigfoot Researchers (AIBR) where he hopes to help the group foster the development of organizations like the TBRC across the continent.

Brian’s interest in the sasquatch is rooted in the stories he heard growing up in his native California and is inspired by the work of John Green. He is a partner at an interactive marketing agency in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he lives with his wife Kellie and his two children.

Brian will be the Master of Ceremonies for the Conference and will also moderate a panel discussion of the speakers from 4:00 to 5:00 P.M. The panel discussion will likely later be included in a Bigfoot Information Project Podcast (BIPcast).

J. Robert Swain

J. Robert Swain is the artist and creator of a series of cartoons about the sasquatch called Laughsquatch. He is a native of Oklahoma, has lived in Arkansas and Michigan and currently lives in central Mississippi. In the real world, Robert serves as a missionary with Gospel Opportunities Evangelism to the Spanish-speaking countries of Central and South America and Europe. Robert has traveled to over 20 countries on four continents doing mission work; he publishes religious books and literature through GO Publications and short-run secular books through Swain Publications. Robert is also a Civil War reenactor and is a member of the Alliance of Independent Bigfoot Researchers.

In 2007, Robert started drawing one-frame cartoons about bigfoot and individuals in the bigfoot research community. Currently, with almost 300 cartoons on this subject, Robert is in the process of getting Laughsquatch syndicated. Besides entertaining his readers, Robert hopes to use the cartoons to educate the public as well. Robert and his son Jamie, age ten, were recently interviewed on Let’s Talk Bigfoot where they discussed their experiences and his funny cartoons. More about Robert, the cartoons and 30 sample cartoons can be found at www.laughsasquatch.com.

Alton Higgins

Alton Higgins has degrees in Wildlife Biology and Zoology; he is a biology professor at Mid-America Christian University in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

An experienced birder, Higgins worked as a field biologist for the Center for Environmental Studies at Arizona State University where he focused primarily on censusing vertebrate populations in riparian habitat.

Higgins is an active member of the TBRC, participating in field research, investigations and camera-trap operations in Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas. In his own words, he has “seen, heard and experienced things that cannot be attributed to currently accepted animal species.” He has spoken yearly at conferences and many other settings since 2003, including the Willow Creek International Bigfoot Symposium.

Daryl Colyer

Daryl Colyer was born in Atlanta, Texas and spent most of his life near Waco, Texas. Early on he spent much time hunting, fishing and being in the outdoors. He served in US Air Force Intelligence as an airborne linguist.

Later, he met and became close friends with Alton Higgins and Craig Woolheater. He began to work closely with the two men, interviewing hundreds of witnesses in the process, and experiencing his own visual encounter with an upright hair-covered animal near the Trinity River and the Big Thicket National Preserve of Southeast Texas.

These days, Colyer is part of a management team of a credit union in Central Texas. He enjoys avidly following the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team; lifting weights and working out; hiking and being in the outdoors; and actively researching and investigating with the TBRC, where he serves on the Board of Directors. Colyer has been a featured speaker at the Texas Bigfoot Conference since 2004.

Kathy Strain

Kathy Strain is a Cultural Anthropologist and works as the Forest Archaeologist for the Stanislaus National Forest, California. She is an expert regarding the so-called “Hairy Man” pictographs located on the Tule River Indian reservation in California.

Kathy chairs the Alliance of Independent Bigfoot Researchers and has conducted extensive field work and academic research pertaining to the sasquatch phenomenon. She has spoken at several symposiums on the subject, including the 2006 Bigfoot in Texas? exhibit at the University of Texas at San Antonio’s Institute of Texan Cultures.

Kathy will be giving a presentation on her new book entitled: Giants, Cannibals and Monsters - Bigfoot in Native Culture.

bigfootencounters.com/

A creature described by the na-
tives as something very similar to an ou-
rang-outang is supposed by many colonists
to exist in the mountain ranges at the back
of Western Port, but their ideas of it are
mixed up with such a superstitious dread
as to induce many to consider it only in
the light of an imaginary being, created by
their own fears, or by interested parties
amongst themselves; but the fact of some
strange and peculiar tracks having been
noticed in the ranges, recorded in the Port
Philip papers at the time they were disco-
vered, and many other circumstances, seem
to indicate that there is some animal resi-
dent there which has not yet been seen by
a white man; and from the position of
this tract of country, being quite out of
any road pursued by European travellers,
it is very possible such a thing may exist.

An account of this animal was given me
by Worrouge-toulon, a native of the Woe
worong tribe, in nearly the following man-
ner: “He is as big as a man and shaped
like him in every respect, and is covered
with stiff bristly hair, excepting about the
face, which is like an old man’s, full of
wrinkles; he has long toes and fingers,
and piles up stones to protect him from
the wind or rain, and usually walks about
with a stick, and climbs trees with great
facility; the whole of his body is hard and
sinewy, like wood to the touch.” Wor-
rongbe also told me “that many years ago
some of these creatures attacked a camp
of natives in the mountains, since which
period they have have had a dread of mo-
ving about there after sunset,

The only
person now alive who killed one, he told
me, was Garbora, the great doctor, who had
succeeded in hitting one in the eye with
his tomahawk. On no other part of his
body was he able to make the least impres-
sion. All this might be very probable,
when it is considered that in the time be-
fore the white people came, their golbora
narrok, or stone tomahawk, was not by
any means a sharp weapon. On one oc-
casion, when pheasant shooting about three
days journey in the mountains, in company
with two natives and a white man, we con-
structed a bark hut, and had retired to re-
pose, when shortly afterwards, I was startl-
ed by a most peculiar cry, very different
from any of the other noises which are
heard from the wild animals inhabiting
these ranges, I should have previously
mentioned, that the blacks, after the fa-
tigues of the day, had very soon fallen
asleep; but, on the noise rousing them
they both started up and seized their guns,
with the utmost horror depicted on their
countenances. Not a word escaped them,
and the mysterious sounds still echoed
amongst the hills.

On my asking one, in
rather a loud voice, what he was frightened
at, he desired me not to speak loud; that
the shouts which had aroused them pro-
ceeded from a bundyilcarno, or devil, which
is the name they have given this thing.
The noise shortly died away in the distance,
and I once more endeavored to sleep.
Neither of my natives would lie down for
the night, and as soon as day dawned, they
insisted on leaving the scene of this strange
occurrence, and going to some distant part.

cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/yowie1848/

How can the Secret of Roswell be kept? Those doubting the Roswell crash doubt that it could ever be concealed over such a long time. Government is not capable enough to veil such a thing from the governed. They argue that the cover-up would be too vast and too difficult to be effective. And they are wrong.

The ability of government -and the private sector- to maintain extreme secrecy over an extended time is well established. This secrecy has been effective on many different levels and on many different fronts. Technologies, covert activities and even entire organizations have remained hidden from view, even over many decades.

The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) was established in 1960. Its existence was not acknowledged until 32 years later! A letter of lies in my possession from 1975 from the Air Force specifically denied existence of the NRO, although it was by then already 15 years in operation. The National Security Agency (NSA) was created in 1952. Although acknowledged five years later, many of the 40,000 employees of “No Such Agency”‘ could not mention their employment by the Agency -even to their own families- until the 1990s!

The B-2 Stealth Bomber was optimized in 1979 but not publicly flown until ten years later. The precise ingredients and formula that make Coca-Cola have been kept secret since 1886. Though it is the most manufactured beverage on the planet, only a core group of living people at any one time hold the key to the process. From a bomber to a soft drink- secrets of technology and trade can remain secret.

FEMA’s Mt. Weather is a virtual underground city that functions as an emergency haven for the continuity of government. Built deep beneath the Earth in the 1950s, it involved the efforts of thousands of engineers and construction personnel. They could not even tell their loved ones where they were and what they were doing. Mt. Weather continued its clandestine operation until the mid 1970s when it was finally acknowledged. Incredibly, members of Congress and their families (who would be housed there in an emergency) also held the secret of this Secret City over decades! Of course Area 51 - the massive Nevada Air Force Installation- makes this same case. Risen from the desert dirt in the 1950’s -and involving the lives of many thousands from all walks of life- the government only tacitly conceded it as “an operating location” in 2003.

Heinous CIA experiments sanctioned against US citizens remained covered up throughout many administrations. Project MKULTRA was a far-ranging CIA-sponsored effort in mind control of the unwitting. Started in the mid-1950’s, it was not until 1975 that the screen was lifted on these government acts against mankind. Human radiation experiments involving the poisoning of children and the physically and mentally challenged were conducted from the 1940s through the 1960s on thousands of the unwilling. This was not revealed until the mid-1990s under a Bioethics Committee investigation.

Former OSS (Office of Strategic Services) personnel can only today in 2008 admit to their past employment by OSS in the early 1940s! Only after the passage of over 60 years did the government release these employees from their oaths! And they kept their oaths (like those who kept their Roswell oaths) throughout those six decades! Walter Mess, a 93 year old former OSS agent said to NBC recently, “I was told to keep my mouth shut!” Another, Elizabeth McIntosh, also 93, exclaimed, “Finally, after all these years…I can tell people who I was, what I saw and what I did.” Only this year was it revealed that even famed chef Julia Child was an OSS agent!

But perhaps the best evidence that Roswell can be kept hidden is found within ourselves. It is the the “hiding” that we do in our own lives, everyday.

All of us -each and everyone- has kept personal certain things over the years. This is what makes us all human. And this is why privacy -or keeping secrets- is likely a behavior of instinct. It allows us to cope with unwanted knowledge. Often these “secrets” are held from wives, husbands and children. We even keep our secrets hidden from ourselves. We compartmentalize these secrets in our minds, the most malignant of which are buried in our unconscious. Even in auricular confession to the Holy Man, do you tell all? A tactic that most people use to keep a secret is to simply not think about it- especially in the presence of those from whom the secret must be kept. And secrets are challenging. In prior posts I have shown how holding deep secrets was psychologically destructive to some of the participants who were closest to the Roswell crash.

How has Roswell been kept secret? The skeptics have in many ways answered their own question by continuing to ask.

The real question may be- has Roswell really been kept secret? With the torrent of credible Roswell revelations over the years, the dots are now clearly connected. The ranchers, generals and politicians have told. The scientists, intelligence agents - and even the astronauts - have not kept quiet on the matter. In so doing, they have made peace with history and truth. Roswell is no longer secret.

ufor.blogspot.com/2008/10/roswell-concealment-by-anthony-bragalia.html

Bigfoot appears to be on the move through the wilds of Northern British Columbia.

A rash of three sightings between late July and August have brought about speculation from paranormal specialists as to what the creature might be up to.

In addition to Houston sightings, Larry Sommerfield, a self-proclaimed sasquatch hunter from Terrace has a cast in his possession that he says is a sasquatch print.

Though he wouldn’t tell The Terrace Standard how he came into possession of the cast, it is 16 inches long, 10.5 inches wide and has four toes.

“I don’t know why there is so much activity but I have a researcher friend in Saskatchewan, who thinks it may have something to do with increased bear sightings” Brian Vike, director of Houston British Columbia Canada (HBCC) UFO Research said. “There seems to be a lot more bear sightings nearing hibernation and as the animals move down from the mountains, maybe something else large and hairy is moving too.”

A second hand report received by Vike, about a sighting in the Morgan subdivision, indicates that another Houston resident saw the enigmatic creature in late July, around the same time as Delores Harrie.

“I haven’t been able to connect with the other lady yet, but she is a very credible witness, she has an important job in Smithers,” Vike said.

Harrie reported a Sasquatch sighting at her home on Buck Flats Road on July 28 to Vike. She made the report 29 days after the sighting simply because she didn’t not know who she should tell.

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

Since her incident, one of the woman’s friends reported a sighting on Telkwa High Road in Moricetown on Aug. 27 and over the summer there have been sightings in Campbell River on Aug. 31.

At the time of the sighting, Harrie 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,” Harrie said, adding her home is surrounded by trees and bluffs. “I mean it could have been a moose or something, but you never know.”

At 5:45 a.m. that morning of July 28, Harrie heard her dogs barking at the door. When she went down to investigate she saw that someone or something was rattling the door handle.

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.

“She was very obviously upset and there was a sighting on Buck Flats near Silverthorne Lake three years ago,” said Vike. “And another one in a different area near the lake.”

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.

“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.”

Brian also found that the treed area she indicated the creature disappeared into had disturbances on the path where the grass had been laid down, as if something very heavy had slipped and possibly fallen.

“The creek there is dried up but the ground is still very swampy so I figured I would be able to find some impressions,” said Vike. “I also found what could have been a track with maybe a couple of toes visible but I just can’t be sure.”

Vike didn’t find any other evidence such as hair but he did say that there have been other sighting this summer.

Harrie doesn’t know why the creature would choose to go onto her property, but the experience has left her a little shaky.

“I used to only lock my door once in a while, now I lock it all the time,” she said.

bclocalnews.com/bc_north/houston-today/sports/29974929.html

While hiking along the snowy banks of the Clackamas River late one January afternoon in 1969, Millie Kiggins of Estacada, her husband and their friend Art Schneider found something that would thrust the Kigginses and the quiet wilderness surrounding Estacada into an international spotlight.

“We went to look at a Forest Service cabin up above Squaw Lake on the way to Cold Springs about 20 miles from Estacada,” Kiggins said. “They were going to sell them, and we wanted to look at them. We started out late, and we were in about three feet of snow. There was a gate, and we couldn’t get through. So we started to walk, and it looked like somebody had already gotten through, because there were tracks in the snow.”

They noticed the large size of the tracks and their depth. “They were 18 inches deep”, she said. “Whatever had made them was heavy, because ours were a couple inches deep. It had to have been walking on two feet…and its stride was 67 inches.”

The path of the tracks was in an unusually straight line, too straight to be man-made footprints, she said. The hikers followed the imprints for about a quarter mile before they realized it was getting late and decided to turn back. Before leaving, Kiggins documented their discovery with a photograph and contacted the U.S. Forest Service.

“They said it was a snowshoe rabbit. I have no idea what it was, but if it was a rabbit, it would have to be a big one to make prints that big. I told him if it was a snowshoe rabbit they had better look out, because it’s big enough to eat them,” she said.

Back at home on their farm on the outskirts of Estacada, the Kigginses began to experience a series of Bigfoot-like phenomena.

“He was around here for a year,” she said. “We found footprints all over the farm. Once, they led to a five-foot fence and continued on the other side uninterrupted as if he stepped right over it.

“Sometimes we would smell him. Smelled like a bad nursing home. We heard loud screams and grunts all at once lasting 10 or 15 seconds. It could be heard miles away. The hair on the back of your neck would stand up. It spooked the cattle.”

Kiggins sent a copy of her picture to Bigfoot hunter John Greene who later visited her with Roger Patterson, famous for the Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot film footage from 1967. KATU interviewed her, and she was included in a British television documentary. Her photograph was published in a book written by a wildlife biologist and in a fifth-grade textbook.

During the early 1970s, Estacada became a hotspot for Bigfoot enthusiasts. Scientists, hunters, trappers and the media came from throughout the country and across the sea in the hope of gathering evidence of the existence of an elusive, shadowy creature that walks the forest on two legs.

Many of the Bigfoot hunters also came looking for Kiggins. Eventually, the Estacada Police Department, back when Estacada had one, helped put a stop to it. “We had all sorts of crackpots up here,” she said, “and I guess I’m one of them, because I saw the tracks, but I can’t help that.”

For anonymous firsthand accounts of Bigfoot phenomena, enthusiasts can now peruse the databases of websites, such as oregonbigfoot.com and bigfootencounters.com that collectively contain approximately 40 reports for the Estacada area alone between 1912 and 2006

A U.S. Forest Service employee, who does not wish to be identified, said she has never taken a single Bigfoot report in the 12 years she has worked at the desk of the Clackamas River Ranger District office in Estacada,.

“We don’t have a book or a piece of paper that states sightings at all,” she said. She refused comment further for fear she would “get in trouble again.”

There is at least one highly photographed, easily accessible Bigfoot in Estacada — a menacing replica created by a chainsaw artist. It guards the entrance to Mike’s Second Hand Store and holds a sign warning potential shoplifters they will be eaten.

“I’ve heard second or third-hand stories,” storeowner Mike Doolittle said. “I would think that if there was a Bigfoot, I would’ve heard about it on the six o’clock news. I know Santa Claus is real, because I’ve seen him. I’ve never seen a Bigfoot.”

Kiggins has never seen Bigfoot either, and she is careful to emphasize that she is not exactly sure what created the strange tracks, the spooky sounds or the awful smell.

Although nearly 40 years have passed since she photographed the tracks in the snow, she still gets correspondence from Bigfoot enthusiasts. “I recently got a letter from a guy in England who wants to know about it,” she laughed. “I don’t know if I’m going to write back. It might be just another crackpot.”

estacadanews.com/features/story.php?story_id=122288913062619500

Coming at the end of October 2008, “CryptidHunt,” on a computer near you….

Jordan Warner, 15, the “CryptidHunt” Producer/Director informs me his web-based series will begin broadcast on YouTube on Halloween 2008.

Here is his overview and episode guide, with a listing of some interviews, upcoming:

From Bigfoot to America’s Loch Ness Monster, CryptidHunt deals with the search for various cryptozoological creatures reportedly seen around the world. With hidden cameras and underwater photographic equipment, each episode examines the most compelling and credible evidence from photos, video, footprints, hair, bones, and even eyewitness accounts! From ship captains to scientists, to police officers and credible eyewitnesses. CryptidHunt searches for the hidden and the unknown.

Episode Guide (revised 4 pm, October 1, 2008)

America’s Loch Ness Monster

Does America have its own Loch Ness Monster? The locals call it Champ. Over the years, hundreds of witnesses claim to have seen a dinosaur-like creature, 12-45 feet long most resembling the extinct plesiosaur. Examine the mystery surrounding Lake Champlain especially with the latest underwater camera technology. The 1977 Mansi Photograph will be examined by experts to see if it’s a hoax, fake, or a real animal.

Sasquatch Encounter

What is the Creature of Whitehall? In 1976, in upstate New York, several police officers reported encounters with a hairy beast. It was described as a “large creature, monster, seven to eight feet tall,” “walking like a gorilla hunched over” and making a sound like “a woman screaming or pig squealling.” 30 years have passed and the reports are coming in. Examine the history of wildman encounters all over the globe. CryptidHunt will set out on a expedition with researchers and into the area where witnesses claim to have seen the creature.

Giant Squid Caught

The Kraken, known as the Giant Squid today is a tentacled beast that can grow as big as a blue whale. In 2006, inventor Doug Hajicek was the first human to capture a live giant squid on video. But can these sea monsters actually grow up to monsterous size? Examine the evidence of giant squid and learn the legend of the Kraken.

Birdman

Indian legends told stories of giant winged creatures called Thunderbirds. Between November 1966 and December 1967, residents of West Virginia reported multiple encounters with a bizarre winged creature that the media nicknamed Mothman. Most of the sightings occured in Point Pleasant around a abandoned explosive dump known as the TNT area. On December 15, 1967 the silver bridge suddenly collapsed. Could this disaster be a link to the Mothman? CryptidHunt travels to Point Pleasant, to investigate the Mothman and determine what happened in November 1966 and December 1967.

Bigfoot

Bigfoot has been sighted in the Pacific Northwest than any other region on earth. The concentration is Northern California, Oregon, and Washington State. Today sightings and physical evidence are gathered on a regular basis. CryptidHunt will examined the best pieces of evidence of bigfoot’s existence. The 1967 Patterson-Gimlin film has always been blurry. But with the help of digital experts. Can they tell that if the creature in the Patterson footage was a man in suit? Or a real flesh and blood creature?

Beast of Gevaudan

In the mid-18th century, villagers throughout Gevaudan were terrorized by a ferocious mystery mauler that killed and mutilated 300 human victims in a three year period. Eyewitnesses described the beast having formidable teeth and an immense tail. Its fur had a reddish tinge, and was said to have emitted an indescribable odour. It killed its victims by tearing at their faces with its teeth. CryptidHunt will examine the evidence and seeks answers to find out what was prowling the French countryside.

Monster Fish

Sharks and Eels are called monsters of the deep. But do real monsters exist in are lakes, rivers and ponds too? People report seeing monster-size fish as big as a boat and as giant as a crocodile. But are they real or just a really big fish story? CryptidHunt will join experts and fishermen to try to catch a monster fish.

Swamp Ape

The foggy swamps of Southern Florida is home to many creepy creatures. Including a beast locals call The Swamp Ape. At 5-8 ft tall, with red hair, and a foul-smell this beast has been nicknamed The Skunk Ape, Flordia’s version of Bigfoot. CryptidHunt will prepare a expedition into the Florida everglades will researchers to search for the foul-smelling monster.

Russian Snowman

Wildman are known to have lived 30,000 years ago, yet there are ape man sightings in Russia called Almas, still surviving in the mountains of Mongolia. It is said to have a more human looking face and uses fire and tools. CryptidHunt will set out on a expedition to search for the Almas and investigate a devilish plan by a evil dictator.

Creatures of the Outer Edge

For years eyewitnesses claimed to have captured something on their video cameras. They describe “a torpedo-like creature, with 4 to 6 pairs of wings and going unseen by the naked eye. What are these unusal creatures? Join a scientific experiment to debunk creatures that many have called “Rods”.

The Jungle Yeti

Does a small human-like creature lurk in the jungles of Indonesia? Follow cryptozoologist Adam Davies into the jungles of Sumatra to search for a unknown primate called the “Orang Pendek”.

Phantom Black Cats

Attacks by big cats are becoming more frequent. But some people say they are seeing large black panthers. While they resemble a mountain lion, experts say “there is no such thing as a black mountain lion.” CryptidHunt will prepare a winter expedition into the rolling hills of Pennslyvania. Looking for a animal that can go for the throat and breaking the neck of victims and suffocating their prey which will make this a dangerous expedition.

Forthcoming INTERVIEWS

America’s Loch Ness Monster

-Sandra Mansi (Eyewitness)

-Scott Mardis (Champ Researcher)

-Lohr Mckinstry (Journalist)

-Earl Sprauge (Eyewitness)

-Benjamin Radford (Skeptic)

-Joe Nickell (Skeptic)

-John Kirk (Cryptozoologist)

-B.J. Bombard (Eyewitness)

-Jim Carroll (Eyewitness)

-Rachael Miller (Stormboarding)

Sasquatch Encounter

-Paul Bartholomew (Author “Monsters of the Northwoods”)

-Dan Gordon (Eyewitness)

-John Bindernagel (Wildlife Biologist)

-Thomas Steenburg (Cryptozoologist)

-Cliff Sparks (Eyewitness)

-John Green (Sasquatch Researcher)

Giant Squid Captured

-Doug Hajicek (Inventor)

-Richard Ellis (Marine Biologist)

-Scott Cassell (Squid Researcher)

Birdman

-Loren Coleman (Cryptozoologist)

-Jeff Wamsley (Mothman Researcher)

New update from Jordan:

1.) I went to Lake Champlain, Whitehall, Point Pleasant, Florida, and Pennsylvania.

2.) I didn’t go to Mongolia and Mexico. Jon Downes of the cryptozoology society in England is helping me out and sending some footage of the Almas expedition they were on this year. Doug Hajicek is also sending me some footage of a interview and squid footage from that expedition to catch the squid.

Pretty much I need support from other investigators and researchers. Gary Mangiacopra is sending me some Champ Articles for the Champ episode and Adam Davies is sending some footage of his Orang Pendek trip. Because I want this series to be mostly with the true cryptozoologists and investigators. I am doing my best to let Cryptid Hunt NOT be Monster Quest or a Destination Truth sidekick.

cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/cryptidhunt/

William B Stoecker: If you drive north by car or tour bus from Salisbury, with its cathedral, you will pass the hill known as Old Sarum, which is the original site of Salisbury. You will cross the beautiful River Avon and may catch a glimpse of swans and red deer in this lovely part of southern England. And, at last, you will see the haunted hilltop burial mounds known as barrows, and then Stonehenge itself. Stonehenge, Old Sarum, and Salisbury Cathedral are all in a straight line. Archaeologists believe that construction of Stonehenge began at least 5,000 years ago, and proceeded in stages over a period of many centuries. First came a circular ditch and bank in the soil and its underlying chalk, which is soft limestone. About 4,000 years ago, later builders added a circle of eighty bluestones, weighing about four tons each, from the Prescelly Mountains 240 miles away in southwest Wales. These could have been transported mostly by water. Later 50 ton sarsen stones were added, brought from Marlborough Downs some twenty miles to the north on the other side of a steep ridge. Horizontal lintel stones were lifted and placed atop the sarsens, held in place by mortices and tenons (vertical) and tongues and grooves (horizontal). This was finished some 3,500 years ago by a people now known as the “Beaker People” after their distinctive ceramic pots.

Since about the seventeenth century, antiquarians began to take an interest in Stonehenge and other mysterious sites. John Aubrey (1626-1697) and William Stukely (1687-1765) believed that these structures were probably built under the direction of the Druids, the priests of the Celtic people living in Britain when the Romans arrived. More recently, archaeologists and historians have pointed out that this was impossible, since the Celts and their Druid priests only arrived in the British Isles about 2,500 years ago, and that Stonehenge had to have been made by a pre-Celtic people. As we shall see, it may not be so simple. In fact, author Colin Burgess has suggested that Stonehenge was, in fact, built by the ancestors of the Celts.

Stonehenge and the nearby burial mounds are, in fact, part of a great complex of megalithic structures, made of immense, rough-hewn stones, in southern England. Similar structures are found throughout the British Isles, France and other parts of mainland Europe, the Mediterranean island of Malta, Turkey, Israel, and throughout the Americas and elsewhere. Not far from Stonehenge is Avebury, the world’s largest known stone circle, with a town partly built over it; sadly, in the past, much of this structure was dismantled. Avebury features forty ton sarsens with no lintels, and a circular ditch and bank some 1,396 feet in diameter and twenty feet high. In Britanny in western France is the immense complex of stone rows called Carnac, with some 3,000 stones, dating perhaps as far back as 6,500 years ago. The megaliths and underground structures in Malta, like the Ggantiza Temples in Xaglara on the Maltese island of Gozo, are over 6,000 years old and were once roofed, plastered, and painted. In the Americas, in addition to the Mound Builder structures and the great ruins of Mexico and South America, structures resembling those in England have been found in places like New Hampshire and New York; some maverick archaeologists have suggested that these may have been built by a tribe called the Red Paint People, perhaps 3,000 years ago. These people had ocean-going boats; it has even been suggested that they may have crossed the Atlantic and been in contact with their European counterparts. Indeed, most of the European megaliths are near the ocean, suggesting that they were built by sea-going peoples.

The idea that the Druids could not have built Stonehenge and the other British and French structures rests on the assumption that the Celts are relatively recent immigrants to western Europe. This, in turn, is based on the fact that certain components of classic Celtic culture, like horses and chariots, appear in the West only about 2,500 years ago, and in Central Europe about 2,800 years ago. Celts spread as far east as Turkey, and their modern descendants are the Irish, the Scots, the Bretons, the Welsh, and the Cornish. They were a warlike people, typically light skinned, fair haired, and tall.

Little is known for sure about their religion and the Druid priests; their Roman conquerors accused them of sadistic human sacrifice, and this may well be true, but little hard evidence of this remains today, and we would do well to remember that those who win the wars write the history. The Celts are believed to have worshipped spirits found in nature and to have held oak trees and mistletoe to be sacred, and the Romans said that they believed in reincarnation. It is believed that the Druids were not a hereditary class, that they underwent a long and arduous training, and they may have worn white robes. The Druid religion may have survived in Ireland into the seventeenth century, and, of course, there are people today who have decided to call themselves Druids. There is no evidence of the Druid religion among the Celts of Central Europe, but it may have existed there under a different name.

There is absolutely no evidence of war or of any conquest of an earlier, pre Celtic people at the time the Druids supposedly arrived in Western Europe, making it difficult for archaeologists to explain how they could have peacefully imposed their language, religion, and culture on this hypothetical earlier people. Even more embarrassing is the fact that geneticists claim that modern British people are related to the Spanish, and DNA from human remains of supposedly pre-Celtic times in Britain have shown that many modern British people are related to these early people as well. More and more it is beginning to appear that the Celts (and their Druid priests) may have been in the West all along, and may, indeed, have built Stonehenge after all.

The Celtic languages are part of the Indo-European language group that also includes modern German, Spanish, French and so forth; indeed, in Western Europe only the Basques of the western Spanish/French border area speak an unrelated language.

And there is no evidence that any pre-Indo-European language people were conquered anywhere else in Europe. Furthermore, judging by their adaptations to climate, with large blondes in the north and shorter, darker people in the south, the same peoples appear to have lived in these various areas for a very long time.

Ancient Greek and Italian were also Indo-European languages, as were the Farsi language of ancient Persia (Iran) and Sanskrit in India. And here, too, conventional history tells us that the original inhabitants, speakers of the still extant Dravidian languages, were conquered by invading “Aryans” from the northwest. And here, too, there is no evidence of this. The oldest known civilization in the region (until undersea ruins were discovered off the coasts of India) was the 5,000 year old Indus-Sarasvati culture, with cities like Harappa and Mohenjo-daro. Since they did not seem to have horses and chariots like the later “Aryan” culture, it was assumed that they were conquered by people who did…but, once more, there is no evidence of war or conquest, and these new technologies both here and in western Europe need not have been spread by war. In fact, their art depicted swastikas and phalluses like the art of the much later Hindus, and one of their ancient seals depicts a man in a yoga position. They had river boats and perhaps sea going boats as well, and traded with the Sumerians of present-day Iraq. They also seem to have practiced goddess worship and had paintings of leaping bulls like the Minoan culture of Crete. Their culture appears to have undergone a slow, natural decline.

So, more and more, it appears that the Celts and other Indo-European speakers were there all along. If so, the Druid priests, or some early form of same, were there when Stonehenge was built, and, since it appears to have been a religious center, they would be its most likely architects.

unexplained-mysteries.com/column.php?id=136333

PORT HENRY — It may be that Champ, the Lake Champlain monster, is getting more reclusive.

A summer expedition to find the mysterious creature brought a dozen participants and sophisticated tracking equipment but didn’t find anything.

Another expedition will be held next summer, said organizer Ruby Anderson of Naugatuck, Conn.

“We have learned some important things through Champ Expedition 2008 — like make sure you have backup equipment in case of problems with cameras (and) cell phones.”

The group will once again be headquartered at Button Bay State Park and Campground near Vergennes, Vt., she said.

“We chose this location because there have been several sightings of Champ at Button Bay. Our own sighting of Champ in 2007 also took place in Button Bay. All evidence seems to indicate a family group of Champtany in the Button Bay area.”

“Champtany” is the designation Champ Quest Director Dennis Hall gave to Champ several years ago.

“It was my own sighting that got me researching and studying Champ,” Anderson said.

“Myself and my daughter, Precious, and her friend, Tori, had a Champ sighting at Button Bay State Park on July 17, 2007.

“My brother, Gary, also had a sighting of a baby Champ at Button Bay State Park back in 2001.”

Many Champ sightings have been either in Button Bay on the Vermont side or in Bulwagga Bay off Port Henry. Researchers have offered theories that Champ could be anything from a plesiosaur to a large sturgeon. Most agree there would have to be a breeding colony of the creatures in the lake for it survive over the years.

Anderson described the 2007 sighting at Button Bay.

“(We) were sitting on the cliffs a short ways from the Nature Center at Button Bay State Park. We saw what looked like a large school of fish some distance out that was moving toward us.

“Shortly after, we saw a large, dark-colored animal with three to four humps, around 30 feet long, come to the surface. It moved across in front of us, then turned and went back out then turned right and continued across the lake for some distance before it headed back out into deeper water and submerging.”

She said the sighting was at about 12:15 in the afternoon.

“I am fairly convinced that there was a large school of fish, and the animal was probably feeding on them. I was later told an ex-Marine had been there on vacation and had also seen and described the same animal.

“During our 2008 expedition, I saw nothing even remotely resembling the animal we saw in 2007.”

This year, Anderson organized an expedition at the end of July, and participants camped at Button Bay for a week.

“We had teams by the lake in shifts equipped with a high-speed video recorder with zoom lens and infrared for evening hours. We were using decoys to try to lure Champ in closer to get better footage.”

They’re trying to be thorough with their search for Champ, she said.

“While our goal is to find proof of Champ, identifying things that could be mistaken for Champ is also important. It helps in sorting out reported sightings and identifying actual Champ sightings from misidentifications.

“I believe Champ does indeed exist, and I hope proof of Champ’s existence will come in time.”

pressrepublican.com/homepage/local_story_272053009.html