Cryptid US

by Tyler Houck

  Dennis Szececinski saw a “long black creature” swimming near Toledo around September 16.

  George Repicz videotaped Bessie for 20 seconds in July 1991. Skeptics said the object he filmed was just a floating log.

  A 35-‐foot replica of Bessie was built by Thomas Schofield. The replica was secured to the mouth of the Huron River, where it remained until 2004. It disappeared around the time of Schofield’s death. His sons replaced it around father’s day in 2005. They made a 27-‐foot long, 4-‐foot tall model along with a “baby Bessie” model.

  The White River Monster

  The “White River Monster” began being seen in the White River in Arkansas in 1924, when it was seen by a woman who said it was a “terrible looking thing.” She said it had a “dingy, gray, crusted hide,” and made a blowing noise.

  The next sighting occurred in 1937, when a local farmer named Bramblett Bateman saw the monster. This is his story:

  “On the first of July, 1937, I was standing on the bank of the White River at about one o’clock, and something appeared in the river about 375 feet from where I was standing. From the best I could tell from that distance, it would be about 12 feet long and four to five feet wide. I did not see the head nor tail when it rose to the surface. It stayed in that position for five minutes. It did not move up or down the river, but afterward I have seen it move up and down the river, but never have I been able to determine the full size of the creature. Two weeks ago from this date, September 22, 1937, I saw the thing upstream about 200 yards from where I first saw it. At this time the monster was in the current of the river, all the times before it had been in the eddy.”

  Mr. Bateman gave a brief background of himself in his letter and said he knew of at least 25 others who had seen the creature.

  A flurry of new monster sighting occurred in 1971. Here are three incidents:

  1. “I saw a creature the size of a boxcar thrashing in the White River. It was smooth, gray in color, and long. The thing was peeling all over. It had a smooth type of skin. Water began to boil up three feet all around him... I never saw the head.”

  2. “A giant form rose to the surface and began moving in the middle of the river. It was very long and grey colored. It had a spiny backbone that was about 30 feet long. It made no noise except for the splashing and bubbles around it. It looked like something prehistoric.”

  3. “The thing I saw looked like it came from the ocean. It was gray colored, real long, and had a long, pointed bone sticking out of its forehead. It resembled an animal more than a fish.”

  Weird, giant footprints were found on an island in the same section of the river not long after those sightings. The tracks had three toes, with claws, and were 14 inches long and 8 inches wide. The distance between each print was 8 feet. They went out of the water, then back in. One investigator noticed small trees that had been pulled over, and a large area of flattened grass where something had been laying.

  A dinosaur footprint that may look like those found at the White River. The creature could not be a dinosaur, however, because all dinosaurs lived on land. Plesiosaurs, like the one pictured in the Champ section, lived in the ocean at that time.

  The Flathead Lake Monster One of the best-‐known lake monsters from the western U.S. is the monster seen in Flathead Lake in Montana. The monster was first sighted in the 1880s, when the captain of the first steamboat to operate on the lake saw what he at first took to be another boat approaching him. When he got closer to the object, however, he realized it was actually a whale sized animal swimming towards the boat. A passenger fired at it and the monster submerged.

  In 1919, another steamboat almost collided with a huge, unidentified animal. The captain at first thought it was a floating log, but then the animal swam away. The 50 passengers and the crew also saw the creature.

  Flathead Lake Monster Soda

  A man fishing on a bridge

  observed the monster in 1937. The bridge spanned the Flathead River, which is connected to Flathead Lake. He thought he was seeing a swimming dog at first, but then realized that he was watching a 6-‐foot water monster. It had a broad head and a mane of brown hair on its neck. He was certain that the thing wasn’t a beaver, otter,

  bear, or any other known animal that he knew of. This man’s observation is interesting because the creature he saw might have been a baby. If there was a baby, there would be a whole population of monsters in Flathead Lake.

  One of Flathead Lake’s monsters came very close to a family in 1960. They went to investigate splashing sounds coming from a pier and found a large animal rubbing its back on one of the pillars.

  The creature raised its head at one point. The wife said “It was a horrible looking thing… It had a head like a horse, and there was about a foot of neck showing.” The husband went to grab a rifle, but the beast was gone by the time he got back.

  Four people in a motorboat chased the monster one day in 1971. The creature rose up about 100 feet from the boat, and one man thought “What is Jack going to do when he catches it? This is like a dog chasing a car!” They never did catch it, though, because it submerged when they had gotten about 75 feet from it. About two minutes later, it rose up on the left side, but when the boat was turned towards it, it submerged once again and the party didn’t see it again. One of the witnesses said it had several humps and was about 30 feet long.

  A retired Army officer and his son saw the monster in 1985 while fishing. The father said:

  “At first we thought it was a few scuba divers. We approached slowly after that, not wanting to scare whatever it was. As we got closer, we could see that it was chasing fish in the shallows. When we got within 200 feet of it, we realized that it was nothing that we had seen before. At one point, it raised its head out of the water and looked at us. This thing was big, as long as a telephone pole and twice as large in diameter. The skin was smooth and black. It had the head of a serpent. There were four to six humps sticking out of the water. It started to move away slowly, but then took off like a streak through the water. It then stopped and looked back at us, but then disappeared under the waves.”

  A policeman and his family saw the monster chasing a school of fish in 1993. He said it was between 15 and 20 feet long, with a series of shining humps and the head the size of a bowling ball.

  The creature has also been seen more recently. In 2005, Julia Manley and her husband saw one of the creatures. They said they saw its humps in the water. “We weren’t drinking or anything,” Julia said. “We both knew right away that it was the Flathead Lake Monster.”

  “Lots of people came up to us after that and said ‘you know, I saw something just like that, but didn’t tell anybody because I didn’t want to be laughed at’.” Jim Manley said. The Manleys said they don’t care if people don’t believe their story, they
know what they saw. There have been a total of about 97 Flathead Lake Monster sightings since the 1800s, but, like with other lake monsters and creatures like Bigfoot, there have probably been many, many other people who have seen it (or them) that haven’t said anything. The mystery of the Flathead Lake Monster lives on.

  3 Skies Filled with Monsters

  Along with giant ape-‐men and aquatic monsters, many mysterious beasties are also seen in North American skies. Many strange creatures have been seen in various states, some of the most famous beings include the Mothman seen in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and Thunderbirds, which are seen all over the U.S. Those two creatures are included in this chapter, along with the Van Meter Visitor and Living Pterosaurs.

  Thunderbirds

  Native Americans told stories of giant flying monsters they called Thunderbirds. The Thunderbirds were said to be big enough to pick up a deer, or even a man! They brought storms with them wherever they went (it is said that a Thunderbird made the sounds of thunder when it flapped its wings and could shoot lightning from its mouth and eyes.)

  There are many Native American stories of Thunderbirds. Cryptozoologist Mark A. Hall recounts many of them in his book Thunderbirds: America’s Living Legends of Giant Birds (New York, Cosimo Classics, 2004.)

  In one Indian legend, the Montagnais-‐Naskapi Indians knew of a creature called “Met’co the Eagle Abductor.” One time the bird snatched up a boy and flew off as the others watched helplessly. It took the boy to its nest, but didn’t eat him. The boy was there for 1 summer, until he grabbed the leg of the great bird one day as it was leaving and returned home.

  A Thunderbird on a totem pole

  BELOW: An Ojibwe shoulder pouch showing two Thunderbirds

  There are many other Indian stories similar to that one, but giant birds are still seen picking up humans! A famous incident occurred in Lawndale, Illinois, in 1977. This is the story.

  On July 25, 1977, ten-‐year-‐old Marlon Lowe was playing in his family’s yard with a few friends. As he was walking across the yard, two huge, black birds flew over. One of the birds swooped down as it passed over him and grabbed him in its talons. Seven people watched as the huge avian carried Marlon across the yard. It dropped the boy after it had gotten to the other side of the house, apparently because of his mother’s screams.

  Jerry Coleman, from Decatur, Illinois, interviewed Marlon and his mother only a few hours after the incident.

  “I’ll always remember how that thing was bending its white neck,” Ruth Lowe, Marlon’s mother, said. “It seemed to be trying to peck at Marlon as it was flying away.”

  The Lawndale Incident

  She compared the bird’s appearance to a condor, but compared its size to an ostrich. She spent many hours in the library after the incident, trying to find out what the bird was, but she had no success. A local sheriff said it had been a turkey vulture, but she disagreed. That’s what normally happens when a mysterious creature is seen, be it a Thunderbird, Bigfoot, or

  something else. Police always saw it’s a known animal, because people might panic if they knew a bird big enough to fly away with people was around their town!

  Several sightings occurred in the weeks following

  the Lawndale Incident. On July 28, Stanley Thompson, his wife, and a few friends saw a giant bird fly over their farm. They said the bird had a 6-‐foot body and a wingspan of 9 to 10 feet.

  James Majors saw the birds next. He was driving in a mail truck when he saw 2 birds with wingspans that were more than 8 feet, plump bodies, straight tails, legs and feet with claws about 2.5 to 3.5 inches long, eight inch bills, and “mean” looking faces.

  Lisa Montgomery also saw one of the birds on the 28th. She was washing her car and looked up to see a giant bird with a wingspan of at least 7 feet. “It was black and had a real low tail.” She said. She said it was flying towards Pekin, Illinois.

  Dennis Turner of Downs, Illinois, saw one of the birds with two of his friends at two AM on July 30th. They saw it perched on a telephone pole and said it had a wingspan of six feet or more. They said it dropped something by the pole, and police later found a dead rat at the spot.

  Waynesville residents said they saw the same bird at two PM that same day. They said it was black and had an 8-‐foot wingspan.

  On July 30th, “Texas John” Huffer filmed what he said were two of the “big birds.” He said he was fishing with his son that morning when he saw two huge birds (he said they left droppings the size of baseballs) on a dead tree. He said their heads were 18 inches long and their wingspans were 12 feet.

  Huffer sold part of the film to Champaign’s WCIA-‐ TV station for one newscast, and things got weird after that.

  “I weigh 260 pounds, and I wouldn’t get close to that thing,” Huffer said. By the time the story got to other places in the U.S. and England, Huffer was quoted as saying that the birds weighed 260 pounds! Typical news reporting!

  Those are some of the reports from the flap in 1977, but big birds were being seen around there long before that. In 1948, twelve-‐year-‐old James Tares saw a bird “as big as a B-‐29” near Glendale, Illinois. He knew it was not a plane because he saw it flap its wings. He said its feathers were a gray-‐green color.

  Thunderbird seen by Dennis Turner(see previous page )

  On the TV show MonsterQuest

  On April 9, 1948, Mr. and

  Mrs. Robert Price saw a

  “monster bird… Bigger than an airplane” on their farm in Caledonia, Illinois. Shortly after, a truck driver said he had seen the same bird in a different location on the same day. “I saw the bird,” he (Veryl Babb) said, “but I didn’t tell anybody because I didn’t want to be laughed at.”

  A former army colonel then came forward to say that he had seen the bird on April 4. He said “It was definitely a bird and not a glider or jet plane. I thought there was something wrong with my eyesight at first.”

  On April 10, 1948, the bird seen by Price and Babb was seen in Overland, Illinois. Mr. and Mrs. Clyde C. Smith and Les Bacon saw the bird. They thought it was a plane until they saw it flap its wings. They said it was gray in color.

  A week later (on the 18th), Chat Burke saw the bird fly past his house. He said it was much smaller than a plane and looked like an albatross, but an albatross has never been officially seen west of Maine.

  BELOW: An albatross

  E.M. Coleman and his son James saw “an enormous, incredible thing with a body shaped like a torpedo,” on April 24. Coleman said it cast a shadow the size of a Piper Cub.

  That night, Patrolman Clarence Johnson saw a bird the size of a small airplane as it flew silhouetted against the moon. He said he had never seen a bird that big before.

  On April 26, 1948, Dr. Kristine Dolezal, a chiropractor, was walking through her kitchen in her second floor apartment when she heard an airplane flying outside, low over
the house. “It sounded like something was wrong with the motor,” she said. She stepped out on the porch and saw the plane, and something else. She saw a giant bird that was grayish-‐ black in color. At one point, she said it looked like the bird and the plane were about to collide. The bird flapped its wings lazily three times, and both it and the plane disappeared into the clouds.

  Harry Bradford saw the bird less than 24 hours later. He turned a spotlight on it, and watched it circle around a few times before it disappeared. “I’ve seen it three times in the last four days,” he said. “That’s too much tomfoolery for a man of fifty to take!”

  Some people who saw the bird at night said it glowed. “Don’t tell me we have a self-‐illuminated flying monster!” Charles Hertenstein, the mayor, said. He had been dealing with the reports from the days before and had probably had about enough of it. Strange as it may seem, there have also been reports of live pterosaurs that glow.

  The giant, glowing bird was seen for the last time on May 5th. Arthur Davidson called police to say that he had seen it. “It was greyish and illuminated,” he said. “It seemed to be flying over the old folks home.”