Monsters and Myths

Felton — The legendary Bigfoot is not a legend after all, and has been seen in remote parts of Santa Cruz County, according to the sponsors of a June 7 discussion and exhibit on the reality of Bigfoot.

The event will be held at the Bigfoot Discovery Museum located on Highway 9 in Felton.

Museum curator Michael Rugg said not only is Bigfoot real, but he himself once saw the primate with his own eyes.

“As a boy, when I was 5 years old I saw Bigfoot,” he said. “My family had a saw mill in Laytonville Humboldt-Mendocino county line. We vacationed and fished on the Eel River. We were camping on a beach and my parents were fixing breakfast, and I wandered off one morning. I came to a sand bar in the river and saw a very large hairy man, completely covered in bushy dark hair, with nothing on but the remnants of a torn shirt hanging off one shoulder. I looked at the hairy man, and he looked at me, and then I heard my parents screaming, Mikey! Mikey where are you?’”

Rugg said he ran to get his parents and return to the site, but Bigfoot was gone.

Called the Bigfoot Discovery Project, the June 7 event will feature a talk by David Paulides, a former police investigator and noted Bigfoot researcher who wrote a book titled “The Hoopa Project, Bigfoot Encounters in California,” focusing on areas in Northern California where the greatest concentrations of alleged Bigfoot activity exist. Many of the witnesses featured in the book are American Indians.

They have signed affidavits testifying to what they saw, he said.

Bigfoot allegedly has been seen in wooded areas of Santa Cruz County including the region between Santa Cruz and Half Moon Bay, the northwest side of Loch Lomond, the Nisene Marks Forest along Aptos Creek Road, and the Quail Hollow Sunset Trail area near Felton.

Rugg is also writing a book on the subject of Bigfoot and said much of the information to be presented is based on personal interviews. He described Bigfoot as a large bi-pedal primate, not a missing link as some people wrongly think.

“Missing link is a misused term,” he said. “That’s a link in a chain showing a transition in evolutionary traits between prosimian animals and monkeys.”

Famous film footage taken in 1967 in the Six Rivers National Forest near Crescent City in Northwest California, called the Patterson/Gimlin film, Rugg said shows a genuine Bigfoot, or “Sasquatch” as it is sometimes called. A similar creature called a Yeti has been seen in the Himalayas.

“We even have a tooth that might be from a Bigfoot,” Rugg said.

Rugg, 63, a resident of Felton, was a graphic artist involved in the high-tech industry before retiring and going into Bigfoot research full time. He said the subject often provokes derision and skepticism among disbelievers, but people need to be open minded about the possibility.

“The BDP will add to the dialogue of the impending discovery of Bigfoot by Western science and the general public,” he said. “If anthropologists are right, the only thing separating us from these forest giants is the grid of our culture, our technology.”

Source: santacruzsentinel

‘ALLO ‘ALLO star Vicki Michelle took a pleasure cruise on Loch Ness and had a close encounter with Nessie herself.

Vicki was appearing in the stage version of the classic telly comedy at the Eden Court in Inverness.

And she and the rest of the cast got more than they bargained for when they enjoyed a sightseeing trip on the loch’s Jacobite Queen cruise ship.

The boat was on its way to Urquhart Castle when the crew picked up a strange signal on their sonar.

Vicki dashed below decks for a look, and was amazed to see five mysterious “arch shapes” on the screen.

The boat’s skipper said he’d never seen anything like it in his 15 year on the loch. Monster-hunters plan to investigate the sighting further.

Vicki, who plays saucy waitress Yvette in ‘Allo ‘Allo, said yesterday: “Perhaps Nessie’s a fan of the show!”

She added: “I caught an arch shape on the monitor, followed by four more.

“The whole cast had been hoping to see something on the trip. And if it was Nessie, that positive energy probably brought her out.

“In all seriousness, whether it was Nessie or not, we all definitely saw something on that monitor.”

Loch Ness researcher Adrian Shine, who has spent years investigating the monster mystery, said: “This has got me puzzled. It has every appearance of a genuine sonar contact.

“It certainly adds to the Loch Ness mystery and will be the subject of further investigation.”

The ‘Allo ‘Allo stage play, starring Vicki and Hi-De-Hi’s Jeffrey Holland as Rene, was on in Inverness from May 18 to 23. The cast are now continuing their UK tour.

Source: dailyrecord

HONOBIA — Researchers believe that a footprint they discovered over the weekend in the Kiamichi Mountains of southeastern Oklahoma is that of the elusive creature Bigfoot.

D.W. Lee, global director of the Mid-America Bigfoot Research Center, said the print was discovered about five miles into the woods. They were able to make a cast of the print, which measured 15 3/4 inches long and 5 inches wide.

“The toes were clearly visible on the cast after it was lifted up,” Lee said.

In addition, Lee said they heard “vocalizations” in the woods that they recognize as the tell-tale mocking calls of Bigfoot. Whoop sounds, “attempted imitations” of whippoorwills and mimicking of dove and owl calls were heard, he said.

One crew member was hit by a rock during a night hike just moments after two large animals were spied through a night scope walking on two feet across a logging road.

“A lot of people, it doesn’t really dawn on them when rocks land near them” that Bigfoot could be responsible, Lee said.

Lee and his crew are evaluating hundreds of photographs and hours of video recordings taken over the weekend by about 30 researchers.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Scott Simmons said he has not been involved in any Bigfoot-seeking expeditions but that people are capable of collecting and analyzing data and have been doing so for years in fascination of the possibility of an unknown apelike species.

“I’m not going to tell someone they did not see or did see something.” he said.

Source: tulsaworld

This short film clip was discovered on an 8mm 3 minute reel purchased at a yard sale in Pennsylvania.Reel was marked as  1977  according to the seller, the guy who filmed it was a farmer/hobbyist who is deceased.

It was discovered and purchased in 2009 and was placed on youtube sometime last week.

It is hard to tell if it is actually bigfoot as the footage is not of great quality. Could this simply be another one of the many previous hoax’s , or is this actually video of bigfoot (sasquatch) ?

This weekend, as Shore-bound travelers zip through the Pine Barrens, more than few will peer into the vast repository of gargoyle-y evergreens and wonder:

Is there, or was there ever, a Jersey Devil lurking in those wierdo woods?

One hundred years ago, thousands of people believed.

“WHAT-IS-IT VISITS ALL SOUTH JERSEY” declared the front page of The Inquirer on Jan. 21, 1909 - above a photograph of “actual proof-prints of the strange creature.”

“Hooflike tracks” could be seen in the snow “in practically every block in Burlington city” - including rooftops - throwing “this section into a state bordering on panic.”

Even dogs were scared.

“Hounds put on the trail refused to follow the tracks, and, with bristling hair and the picture of terror, ran home,” the article stated.

Armed with shotguns, a party of young farmers near Jacksonville in Springfield Township followed the tracks for almost four miles - when they “mysteriously disappeared.”

The tracks, not the farmers.

A Gloucester man said the creature had wings two-and-a-half-feet long, four legs, a neck like a crane, a head like a collie and a horse’s face.

Two Maple Shade men agreed with the doglike head, but said it had long black hair and feet and hands like a monkey.

Some folks called the creature “the Flying Death.”

Not that any people died. Though some chickens and pets reportedly did.

Then, on Jan. 22, men with nets bagged the “docile” creature not in South Jersey, but in “the wilds of Fairmount Park,” according to a Jan. 23 Inquirer story.

A reporter coined the term “kangowing” for the creature, saying it seemed to be a cross between a kangaroo and an Australian water bird.

Soon, for 10 cents each admission, the public could see the caged “Leeds Devil . . . more fearsome than the fabled monsters of mythology!” at a museum at Ninth and Arch Streets.

The “fearsome” beast, though, looked like a happy dragon in a cartoony illustration on a handbill.

“Leeds Devil” was a reference to the legend that the monster was the 13th child born to Deborah Leeds in the early 1700s. Legends differ as to how humanlike the offspring was, and whether it fled into the Atlantic County woods when she died.

The “capture” was later declared a hoax - a kangaroo with fake wings, according to the Philadelphia Record.

But the sightings were so numerous, especially of mysterious hoofprints, that people still wonder if real creatures were afoot in late January and early Februrary of 1909.

Perhaps a flock of wild fowl was forced down by a weekend snowstorm, and their tracks were altered by subsquent rain, the Jan. 21 Inquirer article theorized.

An artist’s rendering published in the Philadelphia Bulletin showed a winged critter with jutting jaws.

Some have since seen a resemblance to a hammer-headed bat. Experts have discounted that idea, since these large fruit-eating bats live in Africa, and would have trouble surviving a South Jersey winter.

Maybe the Mr. Hope behind the hoax used bats fitted with funny shoes.

No one knows.

Animal authorities at the time said they could think of no winged species that matched the bizarre descriptions.

Great horned owls, which could attack other animals, and sandhill cranes, which have large wingspans and can make loud noises, also have been suggested over the years as possible explanations.

Since 1909, sightings have been sporadic.

Did “What-Is-It” disappear?

Perhaps, but the legend refuses to die.

As recently as two summers ago, a weird winged creature was spotted in Central Jersey, according to some accounts.

So as you’re driving by, keep looking.

And have that cellphone camera ready.

Source: philly.com

HONOBIA — Some 25 to 30 researchers will be braving the southeastern Oklahoma woods this weekend in search of the reclusive Bigfoot.

The Kiamichi Mountains provide the apelike creature a habitat that’s rich with deer, berries, honeysuckle and plenty of woodsy cover, believers say.

“You could hide an army in there and never know it,” said D.W. Lee of Stilwell, global director of the Mid-America Bigfoot Research Center.

In October in Honobia, the researchers saw “eye shine” from a creature standing about 8 feet tall, he said.

“They would get close enough that the campfire would shine in their eyes and it would show green,” Lee said.

Like ghost hunters, the Bigfoot researchers will be equipped with night-vision goggles and scopes, along with an array of audio and video equipment. They will record hours of footage from the trail for viewing after their trip.

Lee said the creatures typically throw rocks at them when they’re sitting around a campfire.

“If they wanted to hit you, they would,” he said. “It’s like they just want to see how you’ll react. Other times you may get in areas where you’re not welcome. If you’re close to the little ones — the young Bigfoot — they’re going to make sure you leave.”

The only time Lee said he became fearful in the woods was during a trip to the Chelsea area in northeastern Oklahoma.

“I saw three groups of Bigfoot going across a field in front of me,” he said.

About a year ago

in the Chelsea area, the researchers poured a cast of a footprint, 15 inches long and 5 inches wide, that they believe was made by a Bigfoot.

They’ve photographed other footprints along logging roads in the Kiamichi Mountains of southeastern Oklahoma.

Mountain-area natives and Sasquatch-track followers are familiar with what they say are the creature’s distinctive screams and whoops.

Lee said Bigfoot is intelligent and can mimic the sounds of other animals.

“We do hear a lot of owl calls, but you can tell it’s not an owl because it’s like an 800-pound owl hooting at you,” he said.

About five years ago, Lee’s group received a report from a man hunting deer in a tree stand in the Kiamichi Mountains. It seems that his pager went off, and after he turned it off, he heard something in the woods mimicking its beep-beep sounds.

“When he turned around, he saw Bigfoot standing there,” Lee said. “His words were that it was a ‘big something’ that he just didn’t want no part of.”

Perhaps Jane Goodall gives skeptics some pause.

In a 2002 interview with National Public Radio, the primatologist said she believes that the creature could exist. She said she based that assessment on descriptions given to her by American Indians, who reported two sightings and described sounds they’d heard.

Some people have dismissed Bigfoot sightings in Oklahoma as actually black bear sightings. But unlike bears, Lee said, a Bigfoot walks upright exclusively and — at 7 to 8 feet tall — is much taller than a black bear.

“We’re not just a bunch of country hicks,” said Lee, a network administrator.

Hundreds of people attend the Honobia Bigfoot Festival and Conference each year. This year it will be held Oct. 2-3 and sponsored by the Talihina Chamber of Commerce.

Source: tulsaworld

Last July, a couple found the carcass of a strange beast washed up on New York’s coastline. The creature resembled no animal we know of and was immediately labeled The Montauk Beast, Montauk being the place it was discovered.

Now, photos have been released of a second strange creature which could be another Montauk Beast, It was found in roughly the same area but looks slightly different. The couple who found it bagged it and have it on ice for, well, who knows what reason.

There are various theories as to what the Montauk Beast could be. Some suggest it’s a half-decomposed pig or dog, others claim it’s a movie prop, while other still think it may be a genetic experiment from the Plum Island Animal Disease Center.

The most outlandish theory is it’s a form of biological warfare, meant to contaminate the water around New York. Whatever the truth, it’s certainly a weird sight to behold. Maybe the Loch Ness Monster swam to America and had some offspring?

Source: webhub

The search for gem stones in a southern Alberta quarry has resulted in a priceless find of another sort — an ancient sea monster.

Scientists say the well-preserved fossilized elasmosaur discovered mid-May at Korite International’s ammonite mine south of Lethbridge could be the largest prehistoric marine reptile ever found in Alberta.

Paleontologist Don Henderson, of the Royal Tyrrell Museum, said the find is so significant it will be written up in scientific journals.

“It’s the most complete one from Western Canada,” Henderson said Thursday.

The elasmosaur is a type of plesiosaur, an aquatic creature with stiff, paddle-like flippers for limbs that feasted on fish and other underwater creatures.

The creature found in the ammonite quarry would have had a long neck, tiny head, fine sharp teeth and a strong jaw. Though carnivorous, it would not have been a savage beast, like a shark.

“It wasn’t chomping and attacking large things . . . it would probably hurt to be bitten on the hand by it but I can’t see it tearing your arm off,” said Henderson.

Though its appearance conjures images of mysterious sea creatures such as the Loch Ness monster, experts say plesiosaurs no longer lurk deep beneath water bodies around the world, having disappeared from the earth along with the land-dwelling dinosaurs at the end of the cretaceous period millions of years ago.

“They lived at the same time as the dinosaurs, right from the very beginning and up to the very end and mass extinction at the end of the cretaceous,”said Henderson.

The elasmosaur found in southern Alberta would have lived as many as 72 million years ago, swimming in the sea that once covered much of the province.

Back then, the area resembled the Florida coast.

“This seaway ran all the way from the Arctic Ocean all the way down to the gulf of Mexico,” added Henderson. “This animal died millions of years before the seaway was gone.”

The paleontologist said the fossilized creature found in the Bearpaw Shale — an area that stretches to Montana and is rich with fossils — could have been as long as 12 metres, seven of which would be neck.

It was a vertebrae from its neck that prompted workers at Korite’s mine to turn off the engines of their heavy equipment several weeks ago and call in the six-member Tyrrell team.

“They were digging when (a worker) spotted a bone,” said John Issa, of Canada Fossils Ltd., a sister company to Korite.

The unusually shaped rock was hanging out of the bucket of a large excavator. There were more leading into the shale at the side of the shallow pit, added Issa.

“It’s very exciting,” said Issa, adding the company has turned over fossils from two other major finds in recent years to the Tyrrell.

It took three weeks to haul out three slabs of rocks weighing more than 9,000 tonnes believed to contain the entire skeleton. There is a strong possibility that the head may still be intact.

The long, painstaking process to prove it, however, could take up to two years.

“These giant blocks of rock are still locked in burlap and plaster and sitting in our storage area. We can’t do anything on this until October,” said Henderson, adding he hopes the discovery will eventually become the showpiece for an aquatic exhibit.

Because the elasmosaur is so well preserved, experts hope to learn more about how species from this region compare to those worldwide.

Stones that were swallowed by the elasmosaur — common among the creatures — will also provide important information to scientists about how far the creatures swam and what purpose the swallowed rocks served.

Alberta has come to be known for its prehistoric discoveries.

Late last month, world renowned paleontologist Phil Currie, a science professor, revealed the discovery of a bone bed in Edmonton that is believed to have been a feeding ground for ancestors of the fierce Tyrannosaurus rex. Currie said it is one of the richest beds of dinosaur bones he has seen.

Source: canada.com