Bigfoot Evidence posted an article about Dr. Matthew A. Johnson's Bigfoot encounter and his commentary on the BFRO Facebook site. The question he poses is "does our government know about Bigfoot?"...then Johnson relates his evidence as to why the government DOES know about Bigfoot. A reader happened to ask me the same question this morning...so for their benefit and others pondering the same question, allow me to offer my '2 cents.'
The following are accounts and links that suggest the government has more than a curious interest in Sasquatch:
Ray Crowe
In Cowlitz County, Washington at one of Ray Crowe's Western Bigfoot Meetings, someone brought up the topic of corpses of Sasquatch after the May 18, 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens in Washington State. The witness heard of two Sasquatch the Army Corps of Engineers had taken out of the volcanic devastation...two months after the initial blast.
Another attendee heard of a dredging operation of the Cowlitz River and that two bodies were found in the sand (probably same case?). A chopper flew them off.
Joe Beelart offered that the crane doing the dredging was from the Manatowaka Company and that the bodies were found two weeks after the Mt. St. Helen's blast of May 18, 1980. He suggested that somebody might want to track down the company and find out who was working the shift that the bodies had been found on.
During a tour of the devastation by helicopter in 1985, a Vietnam veteran helicopter pilot mentioned a similar tale to Bobbie Short saying there were military helicopters that flew out nets full of burned and semi burned elk, deer, bear and something with hairy charred arms hanging out of the drop nets. They were taken to a common pit where the bodies were burned to avoid disease and contamination of the rivers.
NOTE: immediately, you can see that there are several versions to the story. The International Bigfoot Society later issued the following report:
A large foot print found more recently near Mt. St. Helens
The International Bigfoot Society
IBS Report #3493
Location: Cowlitz County, WA United States
Fred Bradshaw report concerning dead Bigfoot bodies near Mt. St. Helens
My father worked for Weyerhauser Co. at Green Mountain ,WA, east of Vancouver. The site has security on their roads to check on the equipment and check closed areas to keep people out.
My father was working the day Mt. St. Helens blew up. He was at a meeting in Kelso, WA, and as he was a supervisor, when Mt. St. Helens blew it's side out, all heck cut lose.
My father was sent back to Green Mountain right away but like most he wasn't allowed to go very far because of the mud slide coming down the river. He did get to the town of Toutle, WA, on highway 504 off I-5. He and his crew were placed at different spots to watch mud flow and of course help people get out of the blast zone after the major blow up. He was sent to the area of Spirit Lake to keep people out.
When the second major blow up of the mountain came, my father and the other guy with him reported in, and they got out of there.
He was then placed in charge of the helicopter landing zone. It was his job to help keep people out of the landing zone and let aid crews in so they could care for injured.
Later, when all the people were out and bodies out, the National Guard was brought in to clean up. They hauled dead animals out that they placed in piles; deer in one, elk in another and so on. They were covered up with tarps and later burned.
But my father was placed in charge of one pile of dead that were covered and no one was allowed to go near. Armed U.S. National Guard personal were around this pile, and one day when they were going to move this group of bodies, and my father was very close to it and was told to keep his mouth closed. And when the tarps were removed he saw the creatures, some badly burned and some not. They placed them in a net and lifted them into a truck and covered it over. My father asked a guardsmen what will they do with them and he said study them or what ever...he didn't want to know. He said it's like other things you don't ask, and off they went. AND NO ONE KNOWS WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM. My father and the rest were debriefed and sent home.
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Below are several links to interesting accounts of government interest and encounters with Sasquatch:
In my article Dulce Base: What Are We Seeing? there is anecdotal evidence that these creatures are being recovered and experimented on in these underground facilities. Many of the livestock attacks in northern New Mexico are, most likely, the result of Bigfoot-type hominids that are regularly seen in this area. I find it hard to believe that the government is not aware of the activity so close to many of their 'research' facilities. Also, State Department documents do seem to suggest that the US Government has intimate knowledge of the Yeti.
Ufologist and Cryptozoologist Nick Redfern recently published an extraordinary anecdote that described a friend's encounter with a supposed Bigfoot creature near Tao, New Mexico. The encounter with the Bigfoot was unusual in itself but the abrupt appearance of a military-style helicopter without lights heightened the strangeness. The helicopter then concentrated a spotlight on the beast. The creature "suddenly took off 'at a real speed,' with the helicopter in hot pursuit. Both disappeared from sight as the helicopter’s light grew fainter and utter darkness returned."
Redfern's friend commented "what was the helicopter doing flying with its lights off in the skies of Northern New Mexico in the dead of night? What was the nature of the strange beast that had apparently set its sights upon him? And what on earth was the connection between the two?"
Was this actually a military helicopter attempting to captured a live Bigfoot or, as Redfern suggests, action initiated by another private group?
On the flip side, legendary Bigfoot researcher John Green has responded to the contention that the government is hiding a carcass of a Sasquatch that was retrieved from the ruins of the eruption of Mt.St.Helens:
"I’m a pretty seasoned researcher, half a century of it, and I have never encountered the slightest evidence suggesting that any level of government knows anything about Sasquatch, let alone having whisked corpses away by helicopter. Nonsense." - John Green
The notion that the U.S. Government would attempt to procure a Sasquatch, living or dead, and not tell anyone doesn't seem too far-fetched to me. I'm not a conspiracy theorist by nature but I am fairly certain that there is a helluva lot of extraordinary and anomalous information that is withheld from the citizenry.
There is proof that the U.S. Government recognizes that these creatures do exist somewhere at in some capacity.
Newly unearthed State Department documents confirm for the first time U.S. Government's belief that the Yeti roamed the mountains of Nepal in the 1950s, a finding that shocked federal officials including the archivist who discovered the papers.
Archivist Mark Murphy said he couldn't believe his eyes when he discovered the long-ignored papers written at the end of the Eisenhower administration. "I thought I was seeing things," he said. "These documents show that finding the Yeti was a big deal in the 1950s. It goes to show the government was taking this seriously."
How seriously?
One foreign service dispatch from the Embassy of New Delhi dated April 16, 1959 describes the many American expeditions involved in mountaineering and monster hunting in Nepal.
"American resources in the last two years have been concentrated on efforts to capture the abominable snowman," the record reads.
In the July 1975, The Washington Star-News"the Army Corps of Engineers has officially recognized Sasquatch, the elusive and supposed legendary creature of the Pacific Northwest mountains. Also known as Big Foot, Sasquatch is described in the just-published Washington Environmental Atlas as being a very large animal of 8 to 10 feet tall, weighing up to 1000 pounds with feet measuring up to 24 inches long. The width of the footprint is up to 10 inches wide, covered with long hair except for face and hands, and having a distinctive human-like form."
What if they really did find the Loch Ness monster or the legendary Bigfoot of the Pacific Northwest?
Most scientists doubt that these creatures exist, but thoughts of the discovery of a new species that might be the closest living relative to man, or the possibility of finding a leftover dinosaur, excite the imagination of scientist and nonscientist alike. It also poses another question: Would such a creature be subjected to the same kind of exploitation as the giant movie ape, King Kong?
Scientists generally believe there are still many species of birds and mammals that have not been discovered because they live in remote areas and their populations are limited. After all, the gorilla and giant panda were only legends until the late 19th century when their actual existence was first confirmed by scientists. The komodo dragon, a 10-foot-long lizard, wasn’t known to science until 1912. The coelacanth, a deep-water prehistoric fish, was known only from 65 million-year-old fossils until 1938 when a specimen was caught alive off the Madagascar coast.
Just last year a Navy torpedo recovery vessel dropped a sea anchor into 500 feet of water off Hawaii. But instead of a torpedo, it hauled up a 15-foot representative of a new species of shark. The dead shark, named megamouth after its bathtub-shaped lower jaw, had an enormous, short-snouted head and 484 vestigial teeth.
To be sure, no remains of today’s legendary “monsters” have ever been found. There are no living specimens in zoos or dead ones in museums. Most certainly, many “sightings” of these creatures are exaggerated or misinterpreted reports, and some are downright hoaxes.
But finding a Loch Ness Monster or Bigfoot is still a possibility, and the discovery would be one of the most important in modern history. As items of scientific and public interest they would surely command more attention than the moon rocks. Millions of curiosity seekers and thousands of zoologists and anthropologists throughout the world would be eager to “get at” the creatures to examine, protect, capture, or just look at them.
What would the United States Government do?
Keith Schreiner is Associate Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The service is the Government agency with responsibility for protecting endangered and threatened species. Schreiner says “At least, we have the laws and regulations on the books to deal with newly discovered species.”
Schreiner acknowledged, however, that a good deal of international cooperation would be needed if extremely rare species were found abroad. And finding one on U.S. soil would pose serious problems too, Service officials agree.
Undisputed proof of a Bigfoot might cause an immediate, short-term problem no law could handle. Word of its discovery would be flashed around the world within hours, Hysteria, fear, or panic might accompany the news in the area where the creature was located. The throngs of curiosity seekers, would-be captors, and others wishing to find Bigfoot would not only create a serious threat to the animal itself, but to public safety as well. Some officials doubt whether any State or Federal action short of calling out the National Guard could keep order in the area within the first few hours or days of the creature’s discovery. This could be essential until a team of scientists could do the necessary things to ensure the creature’s survival.
The key law in preservation of a species is the Endangered Species Act, which pledges the United States to conserve species of plants and animals facing extinction. This broad, complex law protects endangered species from killing, harassment, and other forms of exploitation. The Act prohibits the import and export of, and interstate commerce in, endangered species. American citizens cannot engage in commercial traffic in endangered species between nations, even when the United States is not involved. Scientists wishing to study endangered species are required to have a permit issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
But before a creature can receive protection under the Endangered Species Act, a number of actions normally must occur which involve recommendations from the public, scientists, and State and foreign governments where the species exists.
The first of these would he the species’ formal description and naming in a recognized scientific publication. In addition, if it were a U.S. species, the Governor of the State where it was found would be contacted, as would the officials of foreign governments if it were found outside the United States. Only after much information was collected could the Service make a formal determination as to whether the species should be afforded endangered or threatened status…
Bigfoot, also known as Sasquatch, is purported to be an 8-foot, 900-pound humanoid that roams the forest and wilderness areas of the Pacific Northwest. One “eyewitness” described an obviously female Sasquatch as a “tall, long-legged, gorilla-like animal covered with dark hair and endowed with a pendulous pair of breasts.” It, too, has been described in publications and given a scientific name. In fact, so many people were stalking Bigfoot with high-powered rifles and cameras that Skamania County, Washington, is prepared to impose a fine of $10,000 and a 5-year jail term on anyone who kills a Bigfoot. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers even lists Bigfoot as one of the native species in its Environmental Atlas for Washington. This year the Florida and Oregon legislatures also considered bills protecting “Bigfoot” type creatures. A Bureau of Indian Affairs policeman has 18-inch plaster cast footprints of the “McLaughlin monster,” a Bigfoot-type creature he saw last month in South Dakota.
Under U.S. Law, the Secretary of the Interior is empowered to list as threatened or endangered a species for 120 days on an emergency basis. For endangered species in the United States, the Secretary can also designate habitat that is critical to their survival. No Federal agency could then authorize, fund, or carry out any activities which would adversely modify that habitat.
So long-term Federal protection of Nessie or Bigfoot would basically be a matter of following the same regulatory mechanisms already used in protecting whooping cranes and tigers.
“Under normal situations,” Schreiner said, “we must know a great deal about a species before we list it. How big is the population? Does it occur anywhere else? Is the population in danger of decline? Is its habitat secure? Is the species being exploited? What is its reproductive rate? Obviously, if a Bigfoot really were found we could use emergency provisions of the Act to protect it immediately...”
The news release details what the U.S. Government would do in the event Bigfoot was proven to exist. The fact that the Loch Ness Monster was added to the statement is somewhat curious but it may have been done in order to give the Bigfoot a 'status' equal to the legendary lake monster at the time. The statement does seem to suggest that provisions to protect Bigfoot, regardless of the hominid's actuality, were already in force.
Nick Redfern's account does add another piece to an already complicated Bigfoot puzzle. Will there ever be proof of its existence that most people can agree on? How did it evolve...are these creatures terrestrial, extraterrestrial or interdimensional? The answers to the questions remain a quandary.
NOTE: After I had posted the following Oh-Mah - The 'Boss of the Woods' in November 2008, I received an email from a man in southern Washington who stated that he had heard anecdotes from Yakima native people in reference Oh-Mah or Sasquatch after the Mt. St. Helen's eruption. The most prominent account was that of a large male Oh-Mah that was badly burned, but still alive, that took refuge in an area east of the devastation near traditional tribal lands. He was told that government agents in military gear captured the Oh-Mah and airlifted it to an undisclosed location. I have no way of knowing if this is a true account but it does seem to suggest that there was an effort made to take advantage of the eruption in order to capture specimans either dead or alive. You may want to read a narrative I wrote for the The 'C' Influence - The Bigfoot Paradox...Lon
Pentagon is conducting surprise military drills with increasing frequency
Editor’s note: After this story was posted earlier today, the Sun Sentinel in Hollywood, Florida, reported on a drill and advised citizens not to worry:
People in Hollywood may be startled (again) by the sight of menacing looking figures rappelling from a Blackhawk helicopter over various public buildings. Don’t worry, though, it’s only a drill.
The Hollywood Police Department and the Department of Homeland Security are taking part in a Master Rappelling training exercise, according to a city notice.
The training began Thursday and is scheduled to continue Friday afternoon at several government-owned buildings. But the specific locations are being kept hush-hush for security reasons.
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The Pentagon is conducting surprise military drills with increasing frequency around the country, alarming citizens and acclimating them to the presence of obtrusive combat technology and simulated warfare.
The latest in-your-face training exercise occurred in Plainville and Worchester, Massachusetts.
As usual, most citizens were unaware of the drills until helicopters swooped over their neighborhoods.
“Many residents were surprised and scared Wednesday evening when military helicopters descended on the vacant Wood School into the late hours of the night in a scene that might have appeared to simulate the United States’ special forces attack on Osama bin Laden’s compound last year.” the Sun Chronicle reported on Friday.
“The helicopters were landing around the Worcester Memorial Auditorium in Lincoln Square and buzzing neighborhoods, prompting many telephone calls and e-mails to the Telegram & Gazette from residents curious about what was happening,” another newspaper reported.
Even the cops were clueless. “A police officer sent to close off Main Street at State said he did not know what was going on, leaving the people around there to wonder. Left to their own devices, people thought the hubbub might be that it was filming for a new Sandra Bullock movie or that it was part of a police effort to round up all the gang members or prostitutes in the city.”
“We apologize for any inconvenience or unforeseen disturbance,” said Maj. Emily Potter, public affairs officer for the U.S. Army.
A Plainville bureaucrat who signed off on the U.S. Army Special Operations Forces exercise was miffed the operation went past midnight. “A 6-year-old would have more common sense” than to continue a military exercise in a residential neighborhood at that time, he said.
Black helicopters swooping over residential homes and simulated warfare in the public space after midnight are obviously designed to send a message – the military will do whatever it wants, whenever it wants and the irritation voiced by citizens is not a consideration.
The Federalist Papers are replete with warnings about standing armies and how they are used to deliver tyranny. The framers of the Constitution objected to a standing army because a “standing army in the hands of a government placed so independent of the people, may be made a fatal instrument to overturn the public liberties; it may be employed to enforce the collection of the most oppressive taxes, and to carry into execution the most arbitrary measures. An ambitious man who may have the army at his devotion, may step up into the throne, and seize upon absolute power.”
“Newspapers editorialized after the American Revolution against standing armies, referring to them as ‘that great support of tyrants’ and as a ‘manifest danger to public liberty,’” writes Laurence M. Vance.
Now, as reportage carried by Sun Chronicle and the Telegram & Gazette demonstrates, newspapers are not particularly concerned by the manifest dangers standing – and drill-obsessed – armies pose to liberty.
Instead, editors and reporters are star-struck by the awesome power of war machinery on parade and if there are any complaints to be reported from citizens, it concerns sleeping children past midnight, not tyranny. - infowars
Four children from the same family have been found dead in Haiti after being treated by a witch doctor who claimed to be able to cure them of a mysterious illness, a local official said Friday.
"Three girls and a boy, the eldest of whom was seven years old and the youngest only 15 months, suffered abuse from the healer who was treating them," said Wilfrid Brisson, an official from the southern town of Marbial, told AFP.
"They were then abandoned in their mother's bed."
According to neighbors, the sorcerer -- who was assisted by his brother -- persuaded the victims' mother that the children were possessed by a demon and said he could rid their soul of the devil.
The witch doctor and his brother beat the children repeatedly, in steps they said were necessary to expel the demon, and the youngsters died from the blows, said Brisson.
The alleged killers have apparently fled to the capital Port-au-Prince. An investigation by authorities in Marbial is under way and the children's mother is in custody.
About half of Haiti's population is believed to practice the voodoo religion in some form, though many are thought to also follow other religious beliefs at the same time. Sorcery and spiritual magic have been incorporated into some of the beliefs.
Voodoo evolved out of the beliefs that slaves from West Africa brought with them to Haiti. It is now deeply rooted in Haitian culture.
Western evangelical Christian movements, however, have also made inroads in Haiti. - france24
NOTE: I have read the books listed above over the years...gave me a much better perspective into the culture of the practice and how to combat attacks used on others. Just wrapping up a case in Brooklyn, NY that involved conjuring by a Dominican disciple who was attacking a client. Lon
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'Cruise Ship' shaped UFO?
Wilsail, MT - 8/4/2012: Camera captured what appears to be similar to a "cruise ship" flying object. We were hiking in the NW Crazy Mountains just beneath Table Rock and I took a number of photos. We had no knowledge that anything was flying in the area but apparently this is a flight path for jets in and out of the airport in Belgrade -- Yellowstone International Airport. During our two day stay I also heard what sounded like a low flying turbo prop at least twice but could never locate anything in the area other than jets far off in the distance. All of the jets we saw on this trip had clearly visible jet streams. This picture clearly shows no jet stream and I was completely unaware that I had captured this ship until downloading my photos yesterday. - MUFON CMS
Possible da Vinci painting found in Scottish farmhouse; could be worth $150 million
Fiona McLaren, 59, had kept an old painting in her Scottish farmhouse for decades. She reportedly didn't think much of the painting, which had been given to her as a gift by her father. But after she finally decided to have the painting appraised, some experts are speculating that it may in fact be a 500-year-old painting by Leonardo da Vinci and potentially worth more than $150 million.
"I showed it to him [auctioneer Harry Robertson] and he was staggered, speechless save for a sigh of exclamation," said Ms. McLaren, according to The People.
The Daily Mail says the painting may be of Mary Magdalene holding a young child. The painting is now undergoing further analysis by experts at the Cambridge University and the Hamilton Kerr Institute, who will attempt to uncover its exact age and origins.
Even if the painting is not a da Vinci original, it is believed to at least be from the da Vinci school, created by one of the master's pupils during the 16th century.
A papal bull was found attached to the back of the painting and is believed to have originated from the era of Pope Paul V, head of the Catholic Church in the early 17th century. McLaren says the word "Magdalene," is visible on the faded paper.
McLaren says she hopes the painting is sold to a museum, and she plans to donate a percentage of the painting's sale value after it is auctioned. - yahoo
According to WhoFortedBlog.com: This image, snapped by an as of yet unnamed game trapper from Alberta, certainly appears to be a rather good snap of what looks like some kind of big primate lounging around in the forest; a far cry from the usual “blobquatch” images of blurry brown specs viewed through leaves and digital zoom. The photo is so striking, in fact, that one could easily wonder if it wasn’t actually an image of a gorilla snapped in a preserve somewhere. The woman who uploaded the photo to Facebook a few hours ago, Penny, swears that isn’t the case.
“I know this person. They are a dogsledder and would in no way be the type to try to fool around with fake pictures. They actually think it’s a bear and cub but for some reason they only have one photo. Strange.”
NOTE: Trail cam...one photo...so clear...more questions than answers. There have certainly been a lot of Bigfoot images coming from Canada lately. IMO just another footnote in 'the search for Bigfoot'. Unless something else comes forward, this photo gets filed with the others...Lon
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The following article was written by Jan Thompson and forwarded to me by my colleague Ben Peveler of the NAFS. The website where this article originally appeared was taken down by the author after she was deemed a liar and a fraud. I'm not going to go into that scenario considering the source of the accusations. The article has been reprinted by others though I cannot attest to the exact content those versions presented. Ben believes that Jan's story is credible...he is from the area of the incident and has talked to others who have met Jan. I also want to give credit to Barton Nunnelly who brought this story to the public's attention in his documentary Hunt the Dogman: High Strangeness in Western Kentucky
I present the account as I received it (without edits). Take it for what it's worth and make your own determination as to it's validity:
THE BEAST OF LBL
There is a national recreation area in Western Kentucky (that also runs down to Tennessee) called 'Land Between the Lakes', or LBL for short. It is situated between the Kentucky and Barklay Lakes, consisting of more then 300 miles of shoreline, 170,000 acres of forest and over 200 miles of walking trails. It is currently a focal point for over $600 million in the tourism industry. Prior to 1959, before the Kentucky and Lake Barklay Dams were constructed, and before it was officially called LBL (in 1963 by President John F. Kennedy), and before TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority, the federal government used it's powers of eminent domain to buy and tear down all the houses, businesses and community buildings thru out the entire area, forcing over 700 families to give up their homes.) took over the land, the area was called 'Between the Rivers'.
There are over 228 small family cemeteries, many forgotten about and lost, dotted thru out the acres of forests as it was once used as homes to early Kentucky settlers. Some of the earliest graves date back to the early 1700's, which include graves of white settlers, veterans from nearly every war, including the Revolutionary War, and also those of black slaves and Chinese immigrants who worked in the iron furnaces that were in the area. There was also a very high infant mortality rate and many of these children were buried right outside the cabins from where they were born so that their mother could peer out the window and see the grave. There are also numerous Native American graves scattered thru out the acres, much older then even the earliest of settler graves, some discovered, others lay in secret beneath the layers of leaves and forest ferns.
Back before the 1950's it always had been a very rural area to live in, with farmsteads far and few between, and with no real town to speak of except up at the north end in Grand Rivers. It was in this town, back in the mid 70's that I first heard of 'The Beast Between the Rivers' or known now as 'The Beast of LBL'. Some old timers would sit on this long wooden bench outside the old IGA store, that use to be the old 'country store' for decades before the grocery conglomerate came to town. I used to hang around there on the weekends during the day and listen to the stories they each would tell. These old men, most of whom used to live in LBL before they were forced to move, had some very interesting stories to tell about that part of the country.
There was talk of hauntings, Indian curses, mysterious lights over gravestones at night, old hag witches that lived deep in the woods, and more importantly, several tales of a wolf like creature that stood on two legs that would come out of the thickets and attack their cattle and live stock. Day or night. A creature that was taller then an average man by well over a foot, nearly 7 foot tall, with thick long hair covering it's body, and a stench that matched that of some of the freshly open graves that were discovered now and then. This 'wolf man' left tracks like a barefoot man but where the toes should have been, instead were paw prints. The head was huge and wolf like in appearance, with an extra long snout, and uncanny long sharp incisors that glistened from the moon light with saliva, along with eyes that, "Radiated red, like one of the hottest fires in Hell', they'd say. It had long arms that ended with huge hands and long spindly fingers with long, pointed, dirt caked claws. At night they would hear it howl; un-natural guttural sounds of painful hungry agony, and at that warning, all would go out and tie up their livestock and even bring their most prized selections inside their homes with them.
The legend of the beast went back at least a hundred years, and was passed along through time from family to family and updated as new sightings occurred. One old man said that his great great grand pappy told him that the creature use to be a man, a Native American that had the ability to shape shift, a powerful shaman that had been outcast from his tribe because he used his magic for evil. The Shaman had been tracked and killed while in his wolf state by a few warriors and a couple of settlers in the area. In his dying breath he cursed them and vowed to return from the dead to haunt the forests and seek revenge on their families and all who lived there. Another man on the bench with a leathery, weathered face, said he heard from his grandma that the beast was once a settler that came over from Europe back in the early 1800's, with a disease that made him turn into a mad man at night. The disease was eventually passed along to his children, which never went to school, but stayed hidden away from the population. Many thought the family had died off because for years they never seen or heard from them and after investigations by some brave men they discovered the homestead vacant and abandoned in the early 1900's.
The sightings of the monster where still frequent thru out the beginning of the twentieth century, and the elderly group on the bench each told some unsettling encounters they or members of their own families had had with it. Each one told stories of finding livestock slaughtered, ripped to pieces and ate upon. Cows and pigs with their legs dismembered from the sockets. Even a few horses had met their end with savage attacks upon their bodies. A few of them described what they saw at different times when they caught glimpses of the figure by peeking out of the curtains of the windows into the night. One man said it jumped out of one of the horse stalls one evening while he was putting up some animals. It stopped in front of him, arms spread out like it was getting ready to grab him, let out a howl and then sprang past him and into the dusky shadows of the sunset. This particular man said he 'wet his overalls' during the episode. Another man said he never seen it, but would always hear it's baleful wails frequently at night, not like a regular wolf or a coyote, "No," he said, "It was more deeper, longer, stronger sounding then what would come out of any animal I ever heard." Another old timer said his wife had seen it trying to get into the chicken coup but gave up after getting tangled in the chicken wire. They all had tales of 'someone's hound dog' getting killed, ripped apart limb from limb, 'someone's pig or cow or chicken' getting eaten, the mysterious footprints left in the mud, and the stench it left behind where ever it appeared. And more then one had the same story of listening to it walk across their front porches at night and scratching on the doors and walls which would leave deep gouges in the wood they would find in the morning. All of them agreed that this was not a Bigfoot or Sasquatch. It would be only another year or two after hearing about this mysterious beast that I myself would encounter it at the home of a family member that lived in the same area.
But this isn't the story I was wanting to tell you. This was just a brief introduction to the unwritten accounts of the darker side of LBL. A prelude actually to the real story I will begin to unfold. I just wanted to lay some ground work so you could get the big picture, and form some of your own opinions and theories. Walk with me now as I take you back about twenty two years, back to the early 1980's. Where I use to work midnights at a gas station a few miles from the Kentucky Dam, which was a few miles from the beginning of LBL in Grand Rivers. And it was on one of these midnight shifts I had two visitors that would change my outlook on the subject of 'werewolves'. (... and make me believe in what I had seen myself a few years back in the same area but had kept it between myself and two other family members that were with me at the time....but that's another story to be written.) This story was never in the paper, on the news, or had any media attention at all. It was kept hush hush, and a sacred silence was demanded on all those involved. It couldn't get out, ever. It was a few weeks before the beginning of tourist season, and tourists were what the locals survived on, they were the 'bread and butter'. A story like this would be like screaming 'Sharks!' at Daytona Beach, or 'Child Molester!' at Disneyland. The people would stop coming out of fear.
I wasn't a witness to the fact, just a third person, making observations and having conversations with two individuals who were a part of the incident, who were involved in the whole ordeal. They had just came from the crime scene down in the middle of LBL after being there for over 8 hours. It was around three in the morning and they were taking a much needed reality break.
Two officers of the law. Two grown men who both appeared shaken beyond description. A mixture of fear and confusion, shock and disbelief emanated from them both. One was paler then the other, a deathly pallor over his skin, and it was this one (I'll name him officer Adam, to protect their identities) that had to sit on the curb of the gas pumps, head between his legs and expel the last bit of his stomach contents. The other officer (I'll name him officer Bill) came in for some coffee for himself and a cup of water for his partner, then rejoined Adam outside. There were no other customers so I went outside with them to see if I could offer some assistance with the ill man. He gladly took the few Rolaids I had extended in my hand, with his own shaky fingers he struggled to get them into his mouth.
For quite a long while the only thing that was heard were the crickets in the near by fields, the sounds of bugs hitting the fluorescent lights above us hanging from the gas station canopy, and the distant sound of highway traffic that was far and few between as it was in the wee hours of the morning. My mind was buzzing with various scenarios of the cause of their distress....a tragic car accident....possibly a motorcycle wreck...a boating mishap with drown victims....a murder.....a dead body discovered. ('Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back...that's why the cat has nine lives.')
I don't remember sitting down but after about 15 minutes of this hushed stillness I found myself beside them both on the curb staring out at the darkness of the nearby corn pastures, letting my mind paint pictures of imaginary traumas. Adam spoke first, breaking the silence of obscurity, "I can't believe it...it's not possible...I just can't believe it...". In a hushed agreement, that was almost inaudible, Bill replied, "I know...it was....is....it is so unbelievable...I've never seen anything like this before...", a long pause, a deep breath, and he continued, "... or even heard of anything like this before." I looked at Bill and then at Adam, they were both gazing, open eyed, unblinking, out into the inky color of the night. Adam's bottom lip was trembling slightly, and it wasn't from the slight chill in the late spring air. Something, or some thing had filled them each with a congested fear.
After a few more moments of silent reserve, my patience was rewarded with some slow, fragmented descriptions of their past 8 hours. Bill turned his wide azure blue eyes towards me, they were glazed and blood shot, tired, frightened eyes. With a weary, shaken voice he began to unfold a tale that would forever be embedded within my spirit, like a nasty shadow that lingers around a corner waiting to pounce, to awaken your inner fears once again. Why he decided to tell me of all people was beyond my comprehension, maybe it was an avenue he felt safe to travel upon, to get it off his chest, off his mind. They were both frequent customers and we knew each other on first name basis, but to divulge such a torrid account of great magnitude, well, I can only say that the fear inside them both at that moment in time had to be released, eased, and extracted from their souls, or else they may have gone mad with unbalanced thoughts. Without interrupting, I sat entranced, listening to every word, absorbing them like an opiate, a spellbinding narcotic that hypnotized me into forgetting the world even existed for the next half hour or so.
They had gotten a call to help with an investigation at one of the many rural camp grounds down in LBL. The tourist season was about to start in a few weeks, so as usual there were some early arrivals that had come to claim prime camping spots before the areas were over run with tents, campers and travel trailers The sun was setting low in the sky when they arrived at the scene. Several other official vehicles were already there and there were many more to come as they would soon find out. Many coming from other counties, and a few coming all the way from another state. Several of these to come were coroners from different counties. One coroner vehicle was already present as well as an ambulance, which would prove useless, as there was no one to save. The victims were all dead. Quite dead. Completely, totally and thoroughly deceased. A young married couple that had come down to take it easy for a few days, were the first to discover the ghastly scene. Neither one of them wanted to stay behind while the other went for help, so they both nervously traveled to the nearest town, Grand Rivers, and called the authorities. They did not return to LBL, they merely gave the arriving officer directions to the area of discovery and rented a local hotel room.
With the sun going down, it got dark pretty fast, so there was a flurry of flood lights from the cruisers being pointed in all directions, along with the excited movements of fifty dollar flash lights being held by nervous, restless hands, searching the trees, the ground, the leaves, the shadows. There was a parked motor home at the site, it's frame being lit by a campfire close by, a fire that had almost went out on it's own, but had been rekindled by the new crowd of men in uniforms so that they could have more light. The front and back doors to the home were open, one of the doors hanging by one hinge in a crooked slant. Through the windows they could see zig zagged movements of luminosity as the beams from flashlights searched the interior. Bloody hand prints slid down the thin metal walls close to the front door and more bloody hand paintings could be seen along the length towards the back door. Their images dancing eerily in the fire light like some ancient tribal symbols .
Adam and Bill did not even want to imagine what was inside the motor home, but then again, they would soon find out, that it wasn't what was 'inside' but what was 'outside' that would change their lives forever. There was already crime scene tape placed in numerous, scattered parts of the area, and little white flags on metal stakes stuck into the ground marking evidence. Evidence of ripped clothing, bodies and body parts, separated limbs, a pile of bowels, pieces of loose flesh clinging to muscle tissue. What use to be three bodies, that just hours before had been a happy family, on a happy vacation, to create happy memories for years to come; a father, a mother and a young son.
The happiness was gone. Destroyed by a psychotic mad man, or was it 'men'? A murderous rage had taken place, one so abhorrently appalling that there were few witnesses to the scene that had kept their composure or held their recently eaten dinners down. At first sight, the victims appeared to be butchered by some un-nameable weapon, possibly an axe, or a chainsaw. Upon further inspection, by the first arriving coroner, the wounds on the bodies were determined not to have been caused by a sharp instrument, but rather by some piercing, well-defined claws, and other wounds by some keen, mordantly long incisors.
Wildcat, bear, wolves? The coroner shook his head in a baffled disagreement with each guess from the officers. The claw marks, for instance, on the back of the fathers corpse were distinctively made by 4 long claws with a smaller digit, like a thumb, on the side, it's span was wider then a man's print, wider and different then a bears mark, with deep deliberate gouges in the flesh. Rake marks from an angry unknown source trying to grab it's prey that was no doubt trying to escape. The wildcat and wolves theory was dismissed as the open wound marks were apparently made by a more grandiose animal source. The bite marks were much larger then any mountain lion, wolf or coyote. Whatever did it had a longer snout, and more sizable teeth. There was also indications in the larger areas of the cadavers, of bite marks where the flesh, meat and bone had been yanked away from the body. Like a human who bites into an apple and leaves the impressions of his bite and teeth marks, so were the open wounds on these individuals. Bears, well, they aren't native to the area, but who knows, maybe a grizzly did sneak in some way, but that was far fetched, he would have had to travel several states and cross several rivers to even get close to that part of Kentucky. Every one present was betting on the 'bear' hypothesis anyway, and no one even thought of anything else to be the cause of such a savage attack. A bear, it had to be a bear.
From the back door of the motor home, an officer stepped down slowly, holding in his hands some type of garment. A dress. A small dress, that would have fit a small girl of around five years old. He informed the on lookers that there were more 'little girls' clothing packed inside the coach. This meant there was a missing person, or an absent body;a member of the family. They all prayed she was still alive somehow, hiding somewhere. A new search began.
As time went by, additional law enforcement employees arrived, as well as a few volunteer rescue squad members. Groups were spread out and assigned areas to examine and explore. Another coroner arrived to assist in the identification and causes of death, and much later a third one showed up, this one from a near by state. All types of samples were placed in plastic bags, marked as evidence, and carefully stowed away. As they were packaging up what appeared to be one of the fathers arms, one of the doctors noticed something wrapped between the dead fingers. Some tweezers slowly untangled a clump of long, grey and brown hairs. This too was placed in a bag, marked and put away to be analyzed at a lab later.
From somewhere in the nearby woods, about 50 yards from the campfire, a scream was heard. A mans shriek that turned into a long wail and then to whimpering. As others arrived they could see by the gleam of several flashlights that the cop was holding his hat in one hand and his light in the other. There was blood on his face, the front of his shirt and on the brim of his hat. More blood could be seen dripping on him. It was coming from above. High in the trees the flash lights swung, searching for the source of the mysterious bleeding. A very small hand could be seen dangling down from a tree limb way up high, as well as a slender lifeless leg that still had a white sock still on the foot. The missing child had been located. It had been Adam that the blood had trickled upon, hitting his hat first, making him look up, and then feeling the thick cold fluid sprinkling his face then sliding down to his neatly buttoned shirt. It had been Adam that had screamed. The little girl had apparently been carried up the tree and leisurely eaten upon while carefully laid across a large tree branch. More of the same long gray and brown hair was found sticking in the bark of the tree near her body.
After about 7 hours most of the officers were sent away as a new team of investigators arrived. They were told not to talk to anyone of the incident, especially not the media. I am sure that besides Adam and Bill, there were others who had to confess what they saw that night, if in fact this whole event ever really happened. Witness's that had to divulge the awful secret of that atrocious discovery at one of the campgrounds at LBL. About a month after sitting outside with Adam and Bill that night, they stopped in again during one of my midnight shifts. They were both rather quiet, more serious in nature, not like before the incident where they would kid around while drinking their sodas and eating a snack or two. They had both aged in some odd way. Streaks of gray, that had not been there before, highlighted both of their heads of hair. Their faces had lines of worry and showed signs of stress. I would see them again many times afterwards, but on this particular evening, they informed me that they got word about some of the lab tests that were taken that dreadful night. The tests, on the saliva taken from the bite marks, and from the hair found on the mans fingers and in the tree bark, came back with an unknown species origin. The closest animal that they could be compared to was that of a Canis Lupis, a wolf.
Whether Adam and Bill had played an elaborate hoax on me I'll never really know for sure but their sincerity and fear painted a picture of truth in their eyes and actions. There are several more stories that I have heard about this 'Werewolf' over in LBL that have been told to me over the years after this particular incident. There were several groups of boy scouts that had seen it. Several more campers, fishermen and boaters that had seen it from the safety of of their boats, floating in some of the many bays that touched upon the shoreline. Hikers and bikers have heard its howling and have seen 'something' stalking them while they were on rural trails, hiding amongst the trees and foliage. Hunters have run across deer carcasses that had been brutally torn apart.
There was even a pair of curious grave stone rubbers, (those that go out in search of century or more old tombstones then make rubbings by placing paper against the coarse stones and using a piece of charcoal to rub across it thus capturing the images and dates from the stones unto the paper....similar to when as a child you use to take a pencil and rub across a piece of paper on a penny or other coin to see the image of Lincoln or Jefferson.) that had a fearful encounter with it at one of the old cemeteries. It had actually came up to the car as they were leaving and shook the back end of the vehicle up and down and left terrible scratch marks in the trunk lid as it tried to hold on to the little Toyota while the tires were spinning in the wet grass to get away. These two individuals didn't stop driving until they were about 40 miles away, only then did they dare stop to investigate the damage done. I myself have seen those scratches. Much too wide for any man to have made them. They looked like a heavy metal garden rakes tracks.
But you will never read about it in the papers, or hear about it on the news, or get a confession from any law enforcement official or man of office. The media will say it's a bunch of 'Whoo Haa', or just pranks, silly stories, urban legends, lies, tall tales and such. This is tourism country and that means millions of dollars to the area, so you can't scare off business, can you?
But, as San says on her website, 'You can't tell me there's no such thing!', because I have my own tale to tell about this creature. That story will come soon, I promise, but this one had to be told first for it is far more scarier and full of detail than my own. And that bench, the long, sturdy, heavy oak bench, that sat in front of the old country store for decades? It is still in existence. In fact, I had the grand opportunity of acquiring it several years ago when an even newer version of an IGA store was being built upon the same grounds. The previous owners remembered my fondness for sitting with the old timers and having undying patience with their many stories and got a hold of one of my family members to ask if we would like to have it to keep in the family. The bench now sits in my front yard, by the driveway, where I sit to wave goodbye to all those who had come to visit for the day. I've learned to always wave goodbye, because you never know if you'll see them again. You never know what lies in store for you or them. What lies in the shadows. Waiting. Watching. With hungry eyes and a drooling snout.
From the Woods
The summer of '78 will always be a turn about in my beliefs of 'real monsters' versus the demonic or paranormal type. Ghosts and spirits had become a common event during my life growing up, until that particular summer when a new avenue of fear introduced itself and made a permanent pathway inside my mind. A path made of concrete that wanders thru the forests of my memories. A trail that will not be covered with weeds, or fade with time. A place where my daily thinking bypasses to avoid the beckoning desire of fear that calls from down that menacing road of remembrance. For this moment though, for the benefit of you, the reader, I will travel down that route once more and try to recapture the scene so that you too will lay awake wondering and asking the Universe, "Is there something else out there somewhere that is above us humans on the food chain?" It was on one of those hot July summer evenings in Grand Rivers, Kentucky, back in 1978, when this took place. (Grand Rivers is at the beginning of Land Between the Lakes entrance.) The sun was not completely down and the skies were streaked with violet-pinkish Posy colored clouds that outlined the curtain of darkness that was pushing the turquoise blue away. I was staying at my Aunts house with my cousins for a few weeks during summer vacation, a very welcome home at the end of a dead end road. Hundreds of acres of woods surrounded the home that that had been built down a hill and into the side of a large hill of dirt. There were several homemade trails through out the woods that led to several places; an old abandoned rail road track that went on for miles, another abandoned place- the old sawmill, and other paths led to parts of the shore line of the Kentucky lake. They all started out as walking trails, but with the new addition of a dirt bike that my cousin Joe had the trails became well outlined and defined. As with almost every day that I was visiting, Joe was out riding his bike through the woods, exploring, and just being with his own thoughts of a 13 year old. His younger sister, Ronda, was with me outside on the porch swing. She was 10, and I was 17 at the time. My uncle was working and my aunt was at the local IGA store down in town. Beside the driveway was a huge dog pen where their pet basset hounds lodged and was at the moment quite relaxed in the shade. The woods had been filled with only the sounds of birds and the chatter of squirrels for a few hours. Joe must have been way far off on a trail somewhere to not have heard that distinct sound of the dirt bike screaming through it's gears echoing around the trees. I knew he must be on his way home, because his dad forbid him to be out in the woods at dark, so Ronda and I was waiting to hear that familiar putt putting of the bike slowly coming down the drive as he reluctantly came home to park it for another night.
As we swung back and forth, singing silly songs, we heard something a bit strange in the distance, it was Joe's dirt bike screaming at almost a soprano type of gear, long, steady, and fast, with no shifting sounds, just a straight stream of one gear in motion with a full throttle, going at top speed. The sound accelerated as he drew closer at such a fast pace, and we watched from the swing up to the top of the driveway where he would appear from the other side out of the woods. I couldn't help but think that he had better slow down or he would come flying up over the top of the hill and downwards missing a wide stretch of pavement by being airborne. The noise didn't softened or slow. Steady and fixed was his speed. And just as I had thought, he emerged from the woods in such a tenacious movement, that he did indeed go airborne a few feet before pounding down the front tire on the driveway, continuing his descent now with a struggle of keeping the bike upright and straight. Ronda and I jumped from the porch swing and got out of the way as we didn't know where he was going to stop or in what position. The brakes hit hard and the bike slid sideways and as it came down to the edge and end of the drive, Joe tilted his body and let the bike slide out from under him before he went down the rest of the hill with it. Instead of the bike continuing to slide to the edge it was caught in a spin that variably died down as the engine sputtered, and then quit altogether. Everyone was wide eyed and full of adrenaline, all our mouths open in shock. But Joe's mouth was open in a strange fearful grimace, he was sweating profusely and his breaths were coming and going in great heaves. Tears were coming down his cheeks, mixing with the dusty dirt that the trail had left him powdered with. His eyes were at the top of the hill, at the top of the drive, unblinking, searching, waiting. We followed his gaze not understanding what this escapade was all about. In silence we watched with him for a about 30 seconds and then the dogs started barking. Growling. And then whining, trying to get out of the pen in a frantic panic of digging and gnawing at the fencing.
"IT GRABBED ME!! LOOK AT MY LEG!!", Joe screamed, making us jump with alarm at the sound of his voice. We looked down at his Levi's and saw scratch marks going across his right thigh, scratches that tore through the tough denim and left small bloody marks on his skin. The marks were like a bears-claw-rake, not those caused by branches or sticky bushes, but a definite wide pattern of a paw print. "IT WALKED ON TWO LEGS!", his voice startled us again, as he was trying to tell his story in between huge gulps of air. He was frightened beyond belief, and the bits and pieces of what he was striving with extreme effort to tell us was coming out in loud syllables that filled us both with the same dread. "It was following me through the woods....along the path....from the old sawmill....hairy...it was so hairy...and it's snout was so long...and it walked on two legs....it ran on two legs...", his voice was sputtering, slowing, his eyes were still wide, and I could see the pulse of his heartbeat throbbing under the skin of his temples.
A howling began. From the woods, not from the dog pen where now the dogs suddenly stopped their own complaining, standing deathly still, staring up at the top of the hill, the nape of the hair on their back standing up, ruffled, their noses up in the air breathing in a strange scent. A wolfs howl. It was close. It seemed it was just a few yards from the road up above. Just as the idiot in a horror movie stands and stares at something to appear, that was what I was doing then, with a mixture of anticipation and confusion. What the hell was he talking about? I thought to myself, mulling over the brief descriptions; torn blue jeans, walks and runs on two legs, stalking him, hairy with a long nose and calling the mysterious hunter an "IT". Joe's tears came quicker and he started to push us towards the front door of the house demanding that we go inside and lock the doors. He had a hand on each of our backs and was urging us onward when IT came out of the woods above. At first it appeared to be a very large wolf emerging from the dark outline of the trees, but as it approached the one lane road that connected to the driveway, it's height grew to a towering shadow that stood on two legs. Much taller then a man's height, maybe by a foot, and with the sun gone down behind the clouds, it only cast a silhouette of blackness, hairy blackness. My mouth dropped wide as well as my eyes. This was not happening, this was not what I was seeing. My mind was going back and forth from rationality to reality. 'I was from St. Louis, the most frightening thing back home in Missouri was MO MO the Monster, the Show Me States version of Big Foot. This was no Big Foot!'
It raised it's long snout up in the air and let out a gurgling, slow, deliberate howl, while stretching it's long arms to it's sides and upwards, like it was praising the coming of the night, praying to the unseen moon and stars. At that moment the security light that was at the top of the hill by the beginning of their driveway popped on. Slowly at first it began to glow and gathered it's energy to shine more brightly over the next few seconds. One of the creatures arms bent and shaded it's eyes from the glare. It wasn't an 'It' any longer, nor was it a big foot, this was a wolf like creature that, like Joe said, stood on two legs, was taller then a man, and was staring at the three of us down the hill. Those huge, black eyes, I will never get out of my mind. They were like two sockets of ebony oil shining under magnifying glass lenses. We ran into the house, tearing the screen door in the process, slamming the main door, locking it, pushing things, anything we could reach against the inside of the door. The kitchen was right behind us and so was the knife drawer which we raided and took several with us as we tried to decide where to hide. There was a house dog inside, another basset hound, Stubby, and he met us in the kitchen wondering what the racket was. Another howl from outside, coming from the driveway. Stubby's hair raised and he started backing up at first, then he went to the front door and was smelling around the edges. The three of us ran to my aunts room and was about to slam the door and lock it when the dog tucked tail and ran after us, beating us under the bed. All of us squeezed under the four poster, knives clutched in our hands, scared half to death.
We could hear the dogs in the pen outside going absolutely crazy with barking, and we could also hear other things being knocked around on the porch, then on the side of the house, then at the side door. We heard glass break. We could tell it was from one of the bedrooms, the windows were up high and they were very narrow so we knew that it would take some effort for anything to get thru them, but still we shivered from fright. My aunts horn on her Cadillac sounded several times as she drove down the road and approached the house. That meant for us to meet her outside and help with the groceries. We didn't budge. We couldn't move. We didn't answer her yells from outside for us to come unload the bags, we didn't crawl out and unlock the door for her, nor answer her knocking. She finally had to use her keys and then give some hefty push's against the pile of items we had up against the door;the trash can, 25 pound bags of dog food, water jugs, and a variety of other stuff. We stayed put. She discovered us only after all the groceries had been brought in and she noticed that her bedroom door was closed and locked.
It was amazing that we hadn't cut each other in some way or another with the immature use of the knives in our haste to hide, and we were chastised in more ways then one when it came down to my aunt observing us slowly emerging from her bedroom with the kitchen weapons in hand. We all started talking at once in a fervor, then we finally let Joe tell his story first, then we finished with it breaking a window just before we heard her horn on the car. She must have startled it. She didn't laugh, she didn't respond at all at first, in fact she never said a word until she came back from inspecting the windows in the bedrooms. My aunt said indeed there was a broken window, broken from the outside in. She made us clean up our barricade and put up all the groceries. Later that night, after we were all in bed and my uncle came home, she related that evenings events to him. The next morning, their dad warned us, "Stay out of the woods."
No problem.
He went on to say that he himself had went down in the woods earlier that morning and found several pits dug and filled with animal bones and parts of carcasses along the path that led to the old sawmill that couldn't be explained. There were also holes dug in the sides of the bluff along the hills that over-looked the old mill that looked like deep caves, big enough for a man to hide in. Then he told us that years before when the old boy scout camp use to be on the other side of Grand Rivers, that an unexplained creature with wolf features was seen along the waters edge close to the camp sites. He and his older son has witnessed it themselves one evening. I went back home a few weeks after this happened. And since then it has never ceased to be a moment of complete terror lodged inside my mind, along with the horror experienced at the Oakwood Home. It would only be a couple of years later, after moving from the city down to Kentucky that once more I would come into the legend of the wolf creature by means of some old timers that use to live in Land Between the Lakes (LBL for short.). Their tales told to me while sitting on an old bench in front of the IGA down in Grand Rivers would help me draw a bigger picture of what this thing actually was. Then, a few more years in passing, in the early '80's, two police officers would tell me their own tale of the events of a tragic scenario discovered in one of the campgrounds down in LBL. Events that were never published in the media.
Just about ten years ago, in the early '90's, Joe and my dad who had come down from St. Louis to visit, decided to venture into those same woods in front of my aunts house. They took a couple of pistols and two rifles and were gone for several hours. These were two brave men, the bravest I know of, both of whom served in the military and fought in two separate wars, wars of their own time. These two men came back ashen faced and bewildered. They had walked all the way back to the old saw mill. The pits, fresh ones, were still around, filled with the bones of forest animals. The holes in the bluff still there also. They both experienced the feeling of being watched and felt an uneasiness that 'something' just wasn't right. The area where the sawmill was had no life stirring around it. No birds, no squirrels, no crickets, no bugs, even the small pond was still and lifeless. The birds that did fly made their way around the area and refused to fly over head. They couldn't shake the feeling of being observed by a secret watcher and both swore they saw a large black shadow lurking in the shade of one of the mysteriously dug caves. That had been the first time Joe had been down that far on that side of the woods since he was thirteen, and both of them agreed that it was to be the last. My dad said there are some things you just can't explain, that science doesn't know about it, and these things should be left alone, they are not a part of our modern world. He felt that what ever it was that had scared the crap out of us so many years ago, still existed in the same area. His intuition has never been wrong so far.
Urban legend? Maybe some of the stories passed along the years have been added too, stretched a bit, like all local folk lore, and first hand stories are over time. My story wasn't an urban tale though. It was a first hand account of something I really and truly do not want to believe in, and wish I could forget; erase from my memory, because the nightmares remain real even though the events are still unexplainable by the laws of science as we know it.
NASA's most advanced Mars rover Curiosity has landed on the Red Planet. The one-ton rover, hanging by ropes from a rocket backpack, touched down onto Mars Sunday to end a 36-week flight and begin a two-year investigation.
The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) spacecraft that carried Curiosity succeeded in every step of the most complex landing ever attempted on Mars, including the final severing of the bridle cords and flyaway maneuver of the rocket backpack.
"Today, the wheels of Curiosity have begun to blaze the trail for human footprints on Mars. Curiosity, the most sophisticated rover ever built, is now on the surface of the Red Planet, where it will seek to answer age-old questions about whether life ever existed on Mars -- or if the planet can sustain life in the future," said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. "This is an amazing achievement, made possible by a team of scientists and engineers from around the world and led by the extraordinary men and women of NASA and our Jet Propulsion Laboratory. President Obama has laid out a bold vision for sending humans to Mars in the mid-2030's, and today's landing marks a significant step toward achieving this goal."
Curiosity landed at 10:32 p.m. Aug. 5, PDT, (1:32 a.m. EDT Aug. 6) near the foot of a mountain three miles tall and 96 miles in diameter inside Gale Crater. During a nearly two-year prime mission, the rover will investigate whether the region ever offered conditions favorable for microbial life.
"The Seven Minutes of Terror has turned into the Seven Minutes of Triumph," said NASA Associate Administrator for Science John Grunsfeld. "My immense joy in the success of this mission is matched only by overwhelming pride I feel for the women and men of the mission's team."
Curiosity returned its first view of Mars, a wide-angle scene of rocky ground near the front of the rover. More images are anticipated in the next several days as the mission blends observations of the landing site with activities to configure the rover for work and check the performance of its instruments and mechanisms.
"Our Curiosity is talking to us from the surface of Mars," said MSL Project Manager Peter Theisinger of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "The landing takes us past the most hazardous moments for this project, and begins a new and exciting mission to pursue its scientific objectives."
Confirmation of Curiosity's successful landing came in communications relayed by NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter and received by the Canberra, Australia, antenna station of NASA's Deep Space Network.
Curiosity carries 10 science instruments with a total mass 15 times as large as the science payloads on the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity. Some of the tools are the first of their kind on Mars, such as a laser-firing instrument for checking elemental composition of rocks from a distance. The rover will use a drill and scoop at the end of its robotic arm to gather soil and powdered samples of rock interiors, then sieve and parcel out these samples into analytical laboratory instruments inside the rover.
To handle this science toolkit, Curiosity is twice as long and five times as heavy as Spirit or Opportunity. The Gale Crater landing site places the rover within driving distance of layers of the crater's interior mountain. Observations from orbit have identified clay and sulfate minerals in the lower layers, indicating a wet history.
The mission is managed by JPL for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The rover was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. - NASA
Power grids, communications and satellites could be knocked out by a massive solar storm in the next two years, scientists warn.
Experts say the sun is reaching a peak in its 10-year activity cycle, putting the Earth at greater risk from solar storms.
Mike Hapgood, a space weather specialist at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory near Didcot, Oxfordshire, said: "Governments are taking it very seriously. These things may be very rare but when they happen, the consequences can be catastrophic."
He warned that solar storms are increasingly being put on national risk registers used for disaster planning, alongside other events like tsunamis and volcanic eruptions.
There is 12% chance of a major solar storm every decade - making them a roughly one-in-100-year event. The last major storm was more than 150 years ago.
The threat comes from magnetically-charged plasma thrown out by the sun in coronal mass ejections.
Like vast bubbles bursting off the sun's surface, they send millions of tons of gas racing through space that can engulf the Earth with as little as one day's warning.
They trigger geomagnetic storms which can literally melt expensive transformers in national power grids.
Satellites can be damaged or destroyed and radio communications - including with jet airliners - could be knocked out.
Teams of scientists in North America and Europe monitor the sun and issue warnings to governments, power companies and airline operators.
In 1989, a solar storm was blamed for taking out the entire power network in Quebec, Canada, which left millions without electricity for nine hours.
The largest was known as the Carrington event in 1859, when British astronomer Richard Carrington observed a large solar eruption that took just 17 hours to reach the Earth's atmosphere.
It caused the aurora borealis - or Northern Lights - to be seen as far south as the Caribbean. - sky
UFO crash sites detailed: Drew revisits Kingman, Arizona story
More than six years of intensive research has uncovered two “pristine UFO crash sites” in Kingman, AZ, that occurred over a four-day period in May 1953, according to UFO researcher Harry Drew who made the announcement Sunday, August 5, 2012, at the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) annual symposium in Cincinnati.
This was the second anticipated "blockbuster UFO discovery" MUFON promised at its three-day conference. On Friday, August 3, Executive Director David MacDonald announced that 60 volumes of “meticulous UFO research over 30 years” by the late Ufologist Leonard H. Stringfield were donated to MUFON.
According to Drew's web site, the researcher “uncovered evidence the Kingman UFO crash story was the blending of two separate UFO crashes that happened four days apart near Kingman, AZ, in May 1953.” Continue reading at
Chile: Original Recording of the Corporal Valdes Abduction (CE-3, 1977)
From a recording by Pedro Araneda
We transcribe below the recording made by Prof. Pedro Araneda only hours after the events that took place in Pampa de Lluscuma, Chile (1977)
It should be noted that this professor worked in the vicinity of Putre and was a corresponded for the "La Estrella de Arica" newspaper at that time. The recording is hard to understand at certain moments, because all of the recruits speak at once and in a disordered manner -- an understandable situation, since the recording was made during an altered emotional state, many times repeating facts, confusing words and details.
Professor Aranda, a witness to all this, commanded respect and full social credibility. As can be seen from the recording, there is a military man or bureaucrat present: the bureaucrat surnamed Flores? Supposedly, members of the army were in Putre at that time by chance. The presence of a soldier with the last name of Roca is also noted, who also recorded at that time. The full recording has duration of 180 minutes.
"The light was pestering us all night. No one knew what it was all about." This is the expressive remark with which the recording kicks off. The voices sound anxious; words are stumbled over and are uttered quickly.
Professor Araneda: Around what time did you see that light?
Soldier: At around ten minutes to four (on 25 April)
Araneda: You, Rosales, were pulling guard duty and were the first one to see it. What did you see? (Question is addressed to recruit Pedro Rosales)
Rosales: First I saw a light coming down, then another, then two. One of them landed on that side of the mountain and another to the other side. One of them was around where you can see that yellow spot, more or less where the trees are...up there...there."
(Voices of the patrol members become mixed and confused, explaining the sighting)
Araneda: In other words, it was over by the pirca (stone wall) and the canyon, and mountains are over on the northeastern part of the Pampa (confirmation is discussed)
Corporal Valdés: When we saw that, we grouped together and assumed a combat stance, shoulder to shoulder, and said: "Don't anybody move...if something happens, it'll happen to all of us."
Araneda: Then you saw the light vanish?
Soldier: I was on guard, watching it, and it didn't go away...it only went away when the sun vanished from sight.
Araneda: You calculated...the light's magnitude?
Soldier: It was as round as a ball, somewhat oval, increasing and decreasing, it seemed to approach us...it seemed to be messing with us (1)
Araneda: How many men were in your squad?
Corporal Valdes: Seven men. We all saw the same thing together. That's when I got lost, according to them. They called me, they looked for me, and then I vanished and fainted. They say I had spasms. I don't know...I don't recall a thing.
Araneda: Were the lights more or less parallel, one higher than the other?
Corporal Valdes: No, the first light intensified when Rosales summoned me, and it later descended slowly over the hill. The other landed in front of us like this....as if calling to us, trying to intimidate us, like so...
Araneda: The perimeter lit up the cultivations, the grass, and the mountains?
Corporal Valdes: The hill was lit up, and we could see its outlines and the cultivations. Despite the fact that the night was darker because there was no moonlight, it was even hard to us to walk in the dark. And when a light came down, the first one descended behind the mountain with a tremendous brightness, while the others are here before them. There was a flash, a very large glow, like a fire.
(The corporal's words are corroborated at every step by the remainder of the recruits that made up the patrol)
Araneda: I will now ask you to identify yourselves by rank and name.
Second Corporal: Armando Valdes Garrido
Recruit: Julio Enriquez Rosas Suarez
Recruit: German Riquelme Valle
Recruit: Juan Rojas Rivera
Recruit: Pedro Rosales Arancibia
Recruit: Humberto Rojas Bell
Recruit: Raul Salinas
The recording ends here and the continues at the moment that the eight (8) protagonists of this phenomenon discuss the reappearance of Corporal Valdes under strange circumstances.
Several Voices: Then the corporal reappeared, he was laughing and saying: "you'll never know who we are or where we come from, and we're coming back again..."
Araneda: And was the corporal speaking in his normal voice?
Voices: Of course...the voice he always had...but a bit more hurried...altered...and when he passed out and came back gain, he looked at us as if he didn't know us and rocked his head back and forth, saying "the light, the light"...
Another Soldier: Later on, he fainted and woke up again and spoke. We tried to cover him and he'd say: "Let go of me, let go!" and he'd struggle.
Another Soldier: And what he stared at the most was the light...he looked at it with his eyes wide open...
Araneda: How long was the corporal lost?
Mixed Voices: The corporal was gone for some fifteen minutes...we approached the end of the rock wall and call his name...four of us went out to look for him and then the other three went.
Another Voice: We walked along somewhat...we shouted...called him by name...and the light was there...
Another Soldier: And we didn't hear his footsteps when he came...like when a person approaches, you can hear them in the still of the night. (3)
Araneda: How long was he in that trance?
Soldiers: He was like that for some ten minutes, reacting...sometimes he would recognize some of us and then faint...he would wake up and not know who we were...then he quickly slipped into a peaceful state. (4)
Araneda: And you, Valdes, don't recall why you wanted to step away from your men a few meters to take a closer look?
Valdes: All I can say is that something called my attention. Something was attracting me. It was like an internal communication with the light. I could even feel it, when we all got together and assumed a defensive posture. I'm unsure whether it was a truly wonderful or awful sensation. It was extraordinary and I'm telling you that we are seven minds...eight minds. (5)
It's one thing for a single person to suffer a hallucination...an apparition...but to have seven people say the same thing? The problem is that I don't remember what happened. I only know what they've told me. What I do recall is that when we saw the light at first, we wanted to move to find shelter, but something made us stay back...as if something was holding us back to see the light....I remember that I didn't separate more than three or four meters from you guys...from that moment on I have no recollection. They say I vanished as if by magic. The most surprising thing is that I appeared as if by magic. (6)
Araneda: Do you recall what you did in that time period?
Corporal Valdes: No. The only thing I remember is...what appears in my mind is like when I feel sleepy, and I disappear down a deep well...like that...something round, like an abyss or so...from that point onward my brain is empty...my mind can't fathom what happened...I can say it was something like a warning...as if saying that this isn't the first time we'll see each other...or that I shouldn't get involved in things that don't concern me. I don't know...I wasn't spoken to in words...if those beings truly exist. There were even sheep walking near us, and rather than running away, which is what they do when they feel something strange, they remained still. They grouped in perfect silence. This disconcerted us even more. Our mascot dog, "Huamachuco", as they call him, also remained quiet near the stone wall near the campfire (7). There were was no sound to be heard. It was deafeningly quiet. And I invoked God and told the light...go away...I command you in God's name. We were ready for anything at that moment. We would die together, but no one was going to separate us. We even took an oath to remain together.
Several Voices: Before the corporal got lost, he told us to snuff out the fire with a blanket.
Corporal Valdes: Yes, it was as if the fire drew their attention, much like a child is drawn to a fire...as if "they" felt the fire drawing their attention.
Soldier: Next the corporal ordered us to remove the blankets, and I saw him go off to the end of the stone wall. I thought he was going to relieve himself, but five minutes went by more or less and he didn't return. We went looking for him and he was gone. I remember that when he reappeared he shouted: "Guys!" -- it was like a cry for help.
Corporal Valdes: Of course...you insisted that I was calling you "from beyond the grave"...as if trying to escape from something.
Recruit: And when the corporal spoke to us upon returning, he said: "Guys..." and his voice was odd. That's when he fainted and I reached to pick him up. He regained consciousness and grabbed on to us. It was as if that fake star wanted to take him away. He stared at the light.
Another Recruit: At that time all we did was stare at the light. It was like a magnet...a magnetism that attracted our eyes...the light suddenly grew and forced us to back off.
Several Recruits: And when he passed out we settled him on the ground, and the corporal would laugh loudly and then settle down...he also called out to his family, crying for help, saying they were taking him away...
Araneda: You remember returning to them?
Corporal Valdes: No. I remember nothing more than waking up...around 4:30 a.m.
Recruit: When he was in the trance, we would hold him like so and he'd say: "Leave me...let me go...don't hurt me."
Another Conscript: And when he asked us not to hurt him, he covered his ears, as if not to hear anything at all.
(Two more guard recruits join the recording -- Pedro Rosales and Juan Reyes)
We had been seeing something odd for some time. It was like stars flying across the sky. Just like a spaceship, like they call them, leaving a trail of light from here to there.
Araneda: And this was early...at around what time?
Both Conscripts: Around 10:30 pm and it repeated all night until those two descended...
Conscript: When both lights descended, we tried to find an explanation to it. I told the corporal, maybe it's a star on the horizon that's reflected on the ground...but it was impossible, because the light intensified and lit up the sector...
Corporal Valdes: Now then...one thing that I'm clear about...when the light appeared in front of us and were shoulder-to-shoulder in a battle stance...I was clear that "we were us"...but something happened. I had only just stepped away and it grabbed hold of me...like they say...when our minds were all thinking about the same thing and united, nothing happened, as if that force couldn't affect me at all.
Araneda: Along with the void in your mind, there was a stretch during which the watch stopped. Isn't that so?
Corporal Valdes: It stopped at exactly 4:30 a.m. on 25 April 1977.
Araneda: What I find odd is that the wristwatch shows a date of [30 April] right now and no one has tampered with it or changed the time...
Remarks and Considerations on the Recording Presented
It should be mentioned that the transcription was made by journalists Luis Aturana Carter and Luis Daroch, special correspondents of "La Estrella de Arica" at the scene of the events. We can collect some details that are remarked by these experts, and which drew their attention at that time, setting them down on this transcription that we have endeavored to give you in its entirety and verbatim.
Among the redeemable facts of this document -- "the only one in existence when the events were still warm and with all of the recruits present" -- Pedro Araneda left his own impression on a highly peculiar event to which he was a witnessed. He saw that Corporal Valdes's beard was rather grown, confirmed by Raul Salinas in our own investigation, and who provided all of the elements needed for his superior to shave on the night of the events.
Pedro Araneda said the following on the recording: "There is something very strange here. The corporal has a dense growth of beard and naturally, he was clean-shaven...it's very strange...to have such a dense growth of beard in such a short period of time.
Notes:
(1) [...]
(2) Some sources at the time mentioned "eight soldiers" showing the emergence of confusion from the very start of the case. The names of Ivan Robles Riera and one Juan Reyes are mentioned in other newspapers of the time. The nearest source of this we believe to have been provided by Cpl. Valdes himself, when he was asked who the members of his patrol were within hours of the event, and his military rank. His recorded response, edited in this work, is the closest in time to the events and the closest to the truth, which is logical. Where did the other names come from? Even in the recording itself, the journalists say "two recruits join the conversation", issuing opinions. One of them is Pedro Rosales Arancibia, the other is the mysterious Juan Reyes, who at no time mentions Corporal Valdes in his recorded description. Who is in error? Could he have been mistaken for Juan Rojas?
(3) A very different version from the one provided by recruit Raul Salinas, who says that Corporal Valdes appeared stumbling out of nowhere, from the other side of the stone wall, or bodily from above.
(4) At no time is it stated that someone struck Corporal Valdes to calm him down. Other versions include this detail. Omission, confusion, where does the truth lie?
(5) Again, the confusion of seven or eight people, now stated by Corporal Valdes himself.
(6) In this remark, Valdes does not clearly state if he fell from above the stone wall, from the other side of the wall, or was walking along...
(7) Not everyone recalls the dog "Huamachuco". Raul Salinas does not remember him at all in subsequent conversations.
(8) Copta: A military cape or poncho with a head cover, used particularly for outdoor campaigns and suited to the cold in the area.
Sources:
La Tercera de la Hora
La Estrella de Arica
Archivos NOUFA Chile
[Translation (c) 2012, Scott Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to NOUFA, Noticiero Autonomo Ufologico]
