by Tyler Houck
Another giant snake was killed in Lock Springs, Missouri, in 1897. It measured 16 feet long.
Yet another snake was sighted along the Cuyahoga River between Akron and Cleveland, Ohio, in 1944. The creature was first spotted on June 8th, when Clarence Mitchell saw it in his cornfield. He reported the track of the snake to be as wide as an automobile tire and said the snake was about 18 feet long. Paul and John Szalay reported the snake’s track in their field two days later, and Mrs. Roy Vaughn called the fire department when the snake ate one of her chickens.
The news started carrying stories on the “Peninsula Python”, as it is called, and people started wondering where it had come from. One popular theory was that the snake had escaped from a carnival truck that had crashed into a cemetery two years earlier. The carnival truck or train escapade is a popular theory for almost any unknown animal. That theory has been put forward for cryptids such as giant snakes, phantom kangaroos, American Lions, and even the Fouke Monster, Arkansas’ Bigfoot.
A large, python-like snake was
seen in Ohio in the summer of 1944
On June 25, 1944, the snake was sighted near Kelly Hill. Hunters rushed to the area, only to realize that the report was a false alarm.
On the 27th, the snake fell out of a dead willow and frightened Mrs. Pauline Hopko and her milk cows. Bobbie Pollard and some other boys also sighted the snake at this time, but it soon disappeared when hunters arrived.
Two days later, Mrs. Ralph Griffin saw the snake rear up as high as a man. The creature (just like other
mysterious snakes, black panthers, or mysterious lions) avoided hunters yet again. It was then spotted by Mrs. Katherine Boroutick. Hunters came for the last time, but did not find the snake.
Soon, the first frost came, and hunters waited to find the frozen body of the giant snake. That never happened. The snake was never seen again.
An 8-foot long boa constrictor was run over in the Hockomock Swamp in Massachusetts in 1970. The Hockomock Swamp is located in an area in the Bay State called the “Bridgewater Triangle.” It is very common to hear reports of Bigfoot, Thunderbirds, UFOs, Giant Snakes, and other mysterious stuff in this area.
Workers in the Hockomock Swamp had a run in with a snake “as big as a stovepipe” in 1939. The snake coiled up, raised its head, and then disappeared into the swamp. Local legend says a snake like that one appears in the swamp every seven years.
Hockomock Swamp
7 Continue the Search for Cryptids
Throughout this book, I have recounted stories about many different monsters. There are many others, however, that have not been mentioned. Those include other Bigfootlike creatures, Lake Monsters, Reptile People, and flying monsters. I will now list some of them and give a little bit of information on each.
Iliamna Lake Monster: Lake Iliamna, Alaska The monster (or monsters) in Lake Iliamna are said to look like giant fish. Some think the monsters are just sturgeon or other large fish. Indians said that these monster fish would attack canoes and eat the people in them.
Some people have said that the Iliamna Lake Monsters are a breed of freshwater shark. Like I mentioned above, most skeptics would probably say they are just sturgeon. They would have to be very large sturgeon, however, because these monsters are said to be about 30 feet long!
Gloucester Sea Serpent: Gloucester Harbor,
Massachusetts This Sea Monster was spotted many times in the summer of 1817. The sightings of the monster led the Linnean Society of New England to form a committee for the purpose of collecting information on the creature.
One day a few boys found a small snake-like animal on the beach. The snake had three humps on its back. The Linnean Society declared the creature a “baby sea serpent” and wrote an article about it. A French naturalist looked at the pictures in the Linnean Society’s article and said that the “baby sea serpent” looked like an ordinary snake with odd growths on its back. That’s exactly what it was.
The Snallygaster: Maryland The Snallygaster is a creature similar to the Jersey Devil. Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States, even planned on hunting the Snallygaster. He was also a Bigfoot believer.
Jack the Wild Man: Massachusetts On September 4, 1891, two women picking blueberries in Massachusetts saw a naked man covered in hair. The creature was not like a Bigfoot- it was a Wild Man. It soon became known as Jack the Wild Man. Other witnesses later said things such as: “He was a terrible looking thing”, and “We know he was a man, but he certainly looked like one of the wild men whom we have read about.”
Hopkinsville Goblins: Hopkinsville, Kentucky One night in 1955, two families in Kelly, Kentucky, were attacked by little men from space. Billy Ray Taylor, a friend of the Sutton family who lived on the farm where the incident took place, said he had seen a flying saucer land on their property. The others did not believe him. About an hour later, the Sutton’s dog came running back to the house and hid under the porch. Soon after, a small creature with a glowing, silver body, large eyes and ears, claws, and a wide mouth appeared at the window. The men grabbed their guns and fired at the creature.
Soon other Goblins appeared. Every time one was shot, it would roll away into the yard, only to return a short time later. The Suttons and Taylors battled the monsters for four hours until they managed to escape and go to nearby Hopkinsville.
The police went back to the residence, but found no signs of space men. They left at about 3 A.M. Soon after, the creatures were back! Gunfire was once again heard, and, luckily for the humans involved, the aliens left at around dawn.
Knobby: Cleveland County, North Carolina Knobby is a tall, ape like creature seen in North Carolina. It is hairy, about six feet tall, and is said to weigh about 200 pounds. There were many sightings of Knobby in the 1970s, when farm animals were found dead and residents reported hearing strange howls at night. The howls were said to sound like a cross between a woman screaming and the sound of a mountain lion.
Bigfoot: Oregon Oregon is one of the hotspots for Bigfoot reports. It ranks about number three in states for most sightings. In 2014, guests from the Western Bigfoot Society met at Cascadia State Park in Oregon for the Bigfoot Days event. Ray Crowe put together a small book for the occasion called Bigfoot in Linn County Oregon. Sightings in the area go back many years.
Sometime in the 1940s, Floyd Wilhelm saw a Bigfoot lying on the ground playing possum near Moose Mountain. Another sighting occurred in 2003 in Cascadia State Park. The witness, Bruce Coats, had played recordings of Bigfoot howls about 20 minutes earlier. After the witness got in bed, he heard a strange sound coming from the woods behind the camper. The sounds stopped about five minutes later.
A week later, the same witness played the same Bigfoot recording. He heard the same sounds. He also heard something he described as sounding like a landslide. Other campers reported the same sound.
The Black River Monster: Black River, New York The Black River Monster is a snake-like creature seen in New York’s Black River. The monster is said to be a dark color and has large, bulging eyes. There is one thing very different about this river monster, however, than others like those in chapter two: it is only know to appear during electrical storms!
The Murphysboro Mud Monster: Murphysboro, Illinois This Bigfoot-like creature was first spotted in June of 1973 near the Big Muddy River in Murphysboro, Illinois. The first sighting occurred when a couple sitting in a car saw a tall, mud covered creature emerge from the woods. Several other people saw the creature over the next couple of days.
The Mud Monster was said to have light colored hair and was seven to eight feet tall.
Oklahoma Octopus: Oklahoma Several lakes in Oklahoma, including one called Lake Thunderbird, are thought to be home to giant octopi measuring over 20 feet long.
The Kushtakaa: Alaska The kushtakaa are shape-shifters from Tlingit Indian legend that are said to be able to take the form of an otter or a man. In some stories, the kushtakaa are helpful, but in some they are deadly,
and trick people. The people they trick then become kushtakaas!
Those are just a few of the many more monsters in the United States. Now, what do we make of all these reports? Some may be fake. In the process of writing this book I stumbled upon an article on doubtfulnews.com about the website Cryptozoology News. That website supposedly has stories about Cryptid encounters, but its all fake. The reader may remember the report of a pterosaur with an 80-foot wingspan in chapter three that came from that site. There’s one more hoax. There are too many of them in
Cryptozoology.
Some reports, however, can’t be hoaxes, and I believe that many (if not all the others in this book, except for the Hodag, of course) are true. I have had the chance to meet some of these witnesses and talk to them, and they have no reason to lie.
There are many theories put forward to explain Cryptid encounters. As I mentioned in the last chapter, the most popular theory to explain away a report of an ABC, giant snake, or phantom kangaroo is a circus train wreck. There are many different theories to explain Lake Monster sightings; the most popular is the plesiosaur theory. Skeptics, however, will usually say that the creature the witness saw was only a log, bird, or large sturgeon.
Many skeptics say that Thunderbirds are only turkey vultures. Some Cryptozoologists and other people that have an open mind think they may be teratorns. Some say the Mothman is a visitor from space, while some say it comes from another dimension! Bigfoot may be a regular animal living on the Earth, but some think it’s an alien. Some think that aliens put Bigfoots on Earth. We just don’t know.
Now, I will let the reader come up with his or her own explanations. Of course, I have my own theories, but I do not know what these creatures are. No one does. We may never be able to find out what they all are, because, if we do, another monster will probably walk out of a swamp, terrorize people on an old dirt road, or be spotted flying through the night sky.
Keep an open mind, and keep an eye out for anything strange that you may run into.
Acknowledgements
My greatest thanks to those of you who helped in the making of this book:
Joedy Cook, Doug Waller and the Southeastern Ohio Society for Bigfoot Investigation, Lorain Franklin of Champ’s Trading Post, and Terry and Treba Jahn. Thank you all for helping out and sharing stories of Bigfoot, lake monsters, and Dogmen with me. This book would not be the same without your help.
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