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The unsolved mystery of the Van Meter Visitor - a winged creature with a glowing horn that caused terror in an Iowa town 110 years ago
In 1903 residents in Van Meter, Iowa claimed to have seen an eight-foot winged creature with a forehead horn that cast a blinding beam of light. 110 years later the creature and mystery remain unsolved
A bizarre legend and unsolved mystery which has haunted a small Iowa town for more than 100 years is the subject of a new book called The Van Meter Visitor.
For several nights in 1903, the small town of Van Meter, Iowa was terrorized by a giant bat-like creature that emerged from an old abandoned mine.
The identity of this mysterious monster has never been discovered, but over 100 years later a new book is retelling the amazing tale and hoping to shed some light on what happened all those years ago.
The legend dates back to the fall of 1903, when several of Van Meter’s most well respected citizens reported a half human, half animal with enormous, smooth bat wings flying about.
The creature is described as moving at speeds the townsfolk had never witnessed before, plus it let off a powerful stench and shot a blinding light from its horned head.
Each time the townsfolk encountered the creature they fired their guns at it, but this appeared to have no impact on the creature.
On the first night it was first spotted flying across the building tops. The next evening it was spotted by both the town doctor and bank cashier Peter Dunn who took a plaster cast of its ‘great three-toed tracks.’
On the third night, a man spotted it perched atop a telephone pole. Another resident who saw it, described the monster as hopping like a kangaroo, while the local high school teacher likened it to a devil.
Scared and angered by what they had witnessed, the townsfolk followed the creature to an abandoned coal mine near an old brickyard where they heard a noise from the mine.
‘Presently the noise opened up again, as though Satan and a regiment of imps were coming forth for battle,’ reads an article in the Des Moines Daily News from Oct. 3, 1903.
The monster appeared together with a smaller version. In a flash of bright light they sailed away, but returned in the morning when the town’s men had gathered with weapons ‘to rid the earth of them’.
‘The reception they received would have sunk the Spanish fleet, but aside from unearthly noise and peculiar odor they did not seem to mind it, but slowly descended the shaft of the old mine.’
The creature was never seen again.
This amazing tale has survived and been retold for several generations now and a written version even exists in the town’s centennial book.
The new book is the work of Chad Lewis, who has written over 15 books about the supernatural, plus co-authors Noah Voss and Kevin Lee Nelson and help from local librarian Jolena Walker.
The authors visited the quiet town and spoke to local residents who told them the stories about the creature which passed been down and they visited several historic locations including the mine.
Lewis says he has found no evidence to suggest the monster was a hoax, although be believes the facts of the story may have been embellished over the years.
Lewis told the Des Moines Register that even though he said he’s unsure what happened those fall nights in 1903 in Van Meter, seeking the answer was more important than finding it.
‘It was an era when anything was possible. Science was starting to gain momentum. In fact, they had just discovered the mountain gorilla. So the beast in the jungle was real,’ he told. ‘People were open to the fact that anything could happen.’
Source Credit(s): Top photo credit: A sketch, by Kevin Lee Nelson, based on century-old descriptions of the Van Meter Visitor, dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2319503/The-unsolved-mystery-Van-Meter-Visitor—winged-creature-glowing-horn-caused-terror-Iowa-town-110-years-ago.html All other photos © thevanmetervisitor.com
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What is the Scariest Cryptid You’d Never Want to Meet? -=PART 2!=-
![Tanagran Triton
A fabulous sea-monster with the upper body of a man and the tail of fish. It had red eyes and sea-green hair. Is this an early account of merfolk or some other unknown sea creature?
This creature, not to be confused with the sea-god Tritones, had red eyes, sea-green hair, scaly skin, and vicious sharp teeth. A specimen was allegedly pickled and put on display in the Greek town of Tanagra.Pausanias, Description of Greece 9. 20. 4 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) : “[At Tanagra in Boiotia:] But a greater marvel still is the Triton. The grander of the two versions of the Triton legend relates that the women of Tanagra before the orgies of Dionysos went down to the sea to be purified, were attacked by the Triton as they were swimming, and prayed that Dionysos would come to their aid. The god, it is said, heard their cry and overcame the Triton in the fight. The other version is less grand but more credible. It says the Triton would waylay and lift all the cattle that were driven to the sea. He used even to attack small vessels, until the people of Tanagra set out for him a bowl of wine. They say that, attracted by the smell, he came at once, drank the wine, flung himself on the shore and slept, and that a man of Tanagra struck him on the neck with and axe and chopped off his head. For this reason the image has no head. And because they caught him drunk, it is supposed that it was Dionysos who killed him.I saw another Triton among the curiosities at Rome, less in size that the one at Tanagra. The Tritones have the following appearance. On their heads they grow hair like that of marsh frogs not only in colour, but also in the impossibility of separating one hair from another. The rest of their body is rough with fine scales just as is the shark. Under their ears they have gills and a man’s nose; but the mouth is broader and the teeth are those of a beast. Their eyes seem to me blue, and they have hands, fingers and nails like the shells of the murex. Under the breast and belly is a tail like a dophin’s instead of feet.”Aelian, On Animals 13. 21 (trans. Scholfield) (Greek natural history C2nd A.D.) : “Concerning Tritones, while fishermen assert that they have no clear account or positive proof of their existence, yet there is a report very widely of certain monsters in the sea, of human shape from the head down to the waist. And Demostratos in his Treatise on Fishing says that at Tanagra he has seen a Triton in pickle. It was, he says, in most respects as portrayed in statues and pictures, but its head had been so marred by time and was so far from distinct that it was not easy to make it out or recognise it. ‘And when I touched it there fell from it rough scales quite hard and resistant. And a member of the Council, one of those chosen by lot to regulate the affairs of Greece and entrusted with the government fro a single year, intending to test and prove the nature of what he saw, removed a small piece of the skin and burnt it in the fire; whereupon a noisome smell from the burning object thrown into the flames assailed the nostrils of the bystanders. But’ he says, ‘we were unable to guess whether the creature was born on land or in the sea. The experiment however cost him dear, for shortly afterwards he lost his life while crossing a small, narrow strait in a short, six-oared ferry-boat. And the inhabitants of Tanagra maintained,’ so he says, ‘that this befell him because he profaned the Triton, and they declared that when he was taken lifeless from the sea he disgorged a fluid which smelt like the hide of the Triton at the time when the man cast it into the fire and burnt it.’As to the quarter from which the Triton strayed and how he came to be cast ashore here, the inhabitants of Tanagra and Demostratos must explain. In view of these facts I blow to the god, and a witness of such authority claims our belief; and Apollon Didymois (of Didyma) [oracle of Apollon Brankhos in Miletos] must be sufficient to guarantee to every man of sound mind and strong intelligence. At any rate he says that the Triton is a creature of the sea, and his words are: ‘A child of Poseidon, portent of the waters, a clear-voiced Triton, encountered as he swam the rush of a hollow vessel.’If then the omniscient god says that Tritones do exist, we should entertain no doubts on the subject.”Pausanias, Guide to Greece - Greek Geography C2nd A.D.Aelian, On Animals - Greek Natural History C2nd - C3rd A.DSource Credit(s): theoi.com/Thaumasios/Tritones.html
Cryptid Chronicles readers, what do YOU think??
If you enjoyed this post please comment, Like ♥ and share!Discover more accounts of sea monsters, merfolk and other cryptids and mysterious creatures at Cryptid Chronicles!Thank you!Your Chronicler,Sydney C. Squidneycryptidchronicles@hotmail.comhttp://www.facebook.com/CryptidChroniclesAlso follow on http://twitter.com/cryptidfans• Write for Cryptid Chronicles• Submit Art
What is the Scariest Cryptid You’d Never Want to Meet? -=PART 2!=-](http://25.media.tumblr.com/d41d0daae81465c4afd1fa45be7c5318/tumblr_mmgf1gDLW81r6ti0go1_500.jpg)
Tanagran Triton
A fabulous sea-monster with the upper body of a man and the tail of fish. It had red eyes and sea-green hair. Is this an early account of merfolk or some other unknown sea creature?
This creature, not to be confused with the sea-god Tritones, had red eyes, sea-green hair, scaly skin, and vicious sharp teeth. A specimen was allegedly pickled and put on display in the Greek town of Tanagra.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 9. 20. 4 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
“[At Tanagra in Boiotia:] But a greater marvel still is the Triton. The grander of the two versions of the Triton legend relates that the women of Tanagra before the orgies of Dionysos went down to the sea to be purified, were attacked by the Triton as they were swimming, and prayed that Dionysos would come to their aid. The god, it is said, heard their cry and overcame the Triton in the fight. The other version is less grand but more credible. It says the Triton would waylay and lift all the cattle that were driven to the sea. He used even to attack small vessels, until the people of Tanagra set out for him a bowl of wine. They say that, attracted by the smell, he came at once, drank the wine, flung himself on the shore and slept, and that a man of Tanagra struck him on the neck with and axe and chopped off his head. For this reason the image has no head. And because they caught him drunk, it is supposed that it was Dionysos who killed him.
I saw another Triton among the curiosities at Rome, less in size that the one at Tanagra. The Tritones have the following appearance. On their heads they grow hair like that of marsh frogs not only in colour, but also in the impossibility of separating one hair from another.
The rest of their body is rough with fine scales just as is the shark. Under their ears they have gills and a man’s nose; but the mouth is broader and the teeth are those of a beast. Their eyes seem to me blue, and they have hands, fingers and nails like the shells of the murex. Under the breast and belly is a tail like a dophin’s instead of feet.”
Aelian, On Animals 13. 21 (trans. Scholfield) (Greek natural history C2nd A.D.) :
“Concerning Tritones, while fishermen assert that they have no clear account or positive proof of their existence, yet there is a report very widely of certain monsters in the sea, of human shape from the head down to the waist. And Demostratos in his Treatise on Fishing says that at Tanagra he has seen a Triton in pickle. It was, he says, in most respects as portrayed in statues and pictures, but its head had been so marred by time and was so far from distinct that it was not easy to make it out or recognise it. ‘And when I touched it there fell from it rough scales quite hard and resistant. And a member of the Council, one of those chosen by lot to regulate the affairs of Greece and entrusted with the government fro a single year, intending to test and prove the nature of what he saw, removed a small piece of the skin and burnt it in the fire; whereupon a noisome smell from the burning object thrown into the flames assailed the nostrils of the bystanders. But’ he says, ‘we were unable to guess whether the creature was born on land or in the sea. The experiment however cost him dear, for shortly afterwards he lost his life while crossing a small, narrow strait in a short, six-oared ferry-boat. And the inhabitants of Tanagra maintained,’ so he says, ‘that this befell him because he profaned the Triton, and they declared that when he was taken lifeless from the sea he disgorged a fluid which smelt like the hide of the Triton at the time when the man cast it into the fire and burnt it.’
As to the quarter from which the Triton strayed and how he came to be cast ashore here, the inhabitants of Tanagra and Demostratos must explain. In view of these facts I blow to the god, and a witness of such authority claims our belief; and Apollon Didymois (of Didyma) [oracle of Apollon Brankhos in Miletos] must be sufficient to guarantee to every man of sound mind and strong intelligence. At any rate he says that the Triton is a creature of the sea, and his words are: ‘A child of Poseidon, portent of the waters, a clear-voiced Triton, encountered as he swam the rush of a hollow vessel.’
If then the omniscient god says that Tritones do exist, we should entertain no doubts on the subject.”
Pausanias, Guide to Greece - Greek Geography C2nd A.D.
Aelian, On Animals - Greek Natural History C2nd - C3rd A.D
Source Credit(s): theoi.com/Thaumasios/Tritones.html
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What is the Scariest Cryptid You’d Never Want to Meet? -=PART 2!=-
The Gigantic Wuhnan Toads
An isolated, mountainous region of China is the home to a strange, gigantic creature resembling an albino toad.
In an isolated, forest strewn corner of China’s Hubei province there are numerous lakes and deep, water filled gorges. While the beauty and natural splendor of the region are undeniable, there are some who claim that far and away the most interesting thing about this district are the gigantic and viciously territorial, toad-like creatures are said to lurk beneath the unfathomable waters.
According to local fishermen, Bao Fung Lake and the other gorges that dot the region are infested with colossal, alabaster-skinned, amphibious monsters known as Wuhnan Toads, whose most disturbing attributes are their allegedly voracious appetites.
This phenomenon was first brought to national attention in 1962, when a group of terrified fishermen attempted to purge their favorite fishing hole of these beasts by throwing dynamite into their murky domain. The fishermen were not only unsuccessful in their efforts, but were actually chased away from the lake by a massive toad-like menace, which the men — for reasons known only to them — dubbed “Chan.”
Legend has it that the “hopping mad” Chan pursued the explosive-happy fishermen almost 90-feet beyond the shoreline. The fishermen were, understandably, reticent to return to the lake and reports indicate that these pale-skinned monstrosities have continued to plague all those who stray too close to their watery abode.
As intriguing as the 1962 episode may be, there is an even more impressive encounter with these unexplained creatures on public record. According to an account printed in the Brisbane Australia’s Courier Mail in 1995, Professor Chen Mok Chun led an expedition of nine scientists from the Peking University to the remote Wuhnan area in August of 1987, in order to make a scientific study of the region’s fauna.
As the scientists began setting up camp along the shores of one of Wuhnan’s remote gorges, three gigantic animals reportedly surfaced in the lake and began to swim toward them. The stunned men later described the creatures as being toad-like in appearance, with a pale epidermis and large gaping maws, which seemed to exceed a width of 6-feet. The witnesses claimed that the animals’ gazes seemed both “aggressive” and “predatory,”though these observations are strictly subjective.
While these men of science stared in stunned disbelief at the gargantuan beasts that were bearing down on them, one of the creatures suddenly unfurled its gigantic tongue and — before the eyewitnesses could react — lunged forward and snagged one of their camera tripods by its leg and drawing it back into the water.
The scientists watched in awe — and more than a little terror, one would imagine — as the animal proceeded to devour its inanimate prey. As soon as its meal was complete, the expedition members claimed that the remaining animals emitted horrific shrieks before submerging into the depths of the lake and into the annals of the cryptozoological record.
Source Credit(s): english.hidden-science.net/2011/10/the-world%E2%80%99s-strangest-lake-monsters/, Photo credits unknown, please contact me if you have source.
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Brosnya: Russia’s Lake Dwelling Dragon
Far away, in a remote region of Russia…
The weekly Karavan+Ya published in the Russian city of Tver, became widely popular 15 years ago when it was first to report about a monster from Lake Brosno in the Andreapol District of the Tver Region. After the first publication in the weekly, the news about a dinosaur from Brosno spread all over the world. Journalists from Moscow and from abroad were seeking sensational publications about the monster from the Russian province. Hundreds of publications and TV programs about the Brosno monster made the creature a world sensation. The Tver weekly Karavan from time to time organizes small expeditions to Lake Brosno to visit the mysterious creature that became so much popular thanks to the newspaper.
Numerous witnesses say that they saw a head of a big beast above water that looked like a dinosaur or a dragon head and a long thin tail. The people said that the creature was covered with scales like a reptile and was about five meters long.
Researchers, who believe that a mysterious big creature does live in Lake Brosno and who work on the mystery of the creature, say that Brosnya (this is the name given to the monster) cannot be a reptile. Otherwise, it would be frozen and died in the climate of the middle geographic zone when dormant. If the strange creature has come to life, it means it is a mammal and breeds through syngenesis. However, some problems arise in this connection. First of all, the lake is too small for an entire population of large predators to live and breed there. Second, a group of these big mysterious creatures needs much food, which is also a problem in the small lake. There is a hypothesis saying that some water systems join lakes, seas and oceans. If so, Scotland’s Nessy may be a relative to Brosnya living in Russia’s province.
It is rumored that the strange giant creature has been living the Lake Brosno for several centuries already. One of the legends says that the lake monster scared to death the Tatar-Mongol army that headed for Novgorod in the 8th century. Baty-khan stopped the troops to have some rest on the sides of Lake Brosno. Horses were let to drink water from the lake. However, when horses came down to the lake, a huge creature emerged from the water roaring and started devouring horses and soldiers. The Baty-khan troops were so terrified that they turned back, and Novgorod was saved. Old legends say that some enormous mouth devoured fishermen. Chronicles mention some “sand mountain” that emerged above the lake surface from time to time. Once, Varangians wanted to hide stolen treasures in the lake. But when they approached the small island, a dragon came to the surface from the lake and swallowed the small island up.
The terrible monster disturbed people’s minds over the 18-19th century. It was rumored that the giant creature emerged on the lake surface in the evenings, but immediately submerged when people approached. It is said that during WWII the beast swallowed up a Fascist plane. Today, there are lots of witnesses who say they chanced to see Brosnya walking in the water. People say that it turns boats upside-down and has to do with disappearance of people.
Everything said by locals and tourists who witnessed Brosnya proves that the creature (either a dragon or a dinosaur) does exist. However, some people treat the issue skeptically and still say that the creature may be a mutant beaver or a giant pike of 100-150 years. Others conjecture that groups of wild boars and elks cross the lake from time to time. Do boars and elks dive and stay under water for a long time? However, local people witnessed neither boars, nor elks, and the Karavan newspaper and other expeditions spoke about some other creature.
There are some more scientific hypotheses concerning Brosnya. One of them is a gas version saying that when hydrogen sulphide goes up from the lake bottom it makes water boil up; this boiling in its turn resembles a dragon head. But the amount of hydrogen sulphide must be considerable to produce this effect. Other version says that there is a volcano in Lake Brosno that makes ejections on the water surface from time to time. It is well-known that there are several fractures at the bottom of the lake, the depth and the direction of the fractures cannot be defined. It is not ruled out that the volcano crater is inside of one of the fractures. This explains why the volcano, if it actually exists, has not been discovered yet.
Gennady Klimov says: “The lake actually keeps some secret. When the depth of Lake Brosno was measured, it turned out that in some parts it was 120-160 meters deep. It means that Lake Brosno is the deepest in Europe. What is more, the lake belongs to the preglacial epoch that is why mysterious phenomena are quite possible in it. As for me, my concerns about the whole of the story are quite particular. I am interested in the mechanism according to which global myths arise. I say that the administration of the Andreapol District where the lake is situated could have been more adroit to form economy of the district depending upon the Brosnya myth. Today, I do not personally care if the creature exists or not. But this is a really precious myth from the point of view of the future. Much is spoken about monster called Brosnya in different parts of Russia and in other countries, but nothing is said here in the Tver Region where the creature “lives”. It is believed that Loch Ness creature does exist. The whole of the county where is lives is connected with the creature myth. The nature here in the Tver Region is wonderful and pure. There is a unique technology of making and using myths. These technologies will be extremely important in the future.”
Marina Gavrishenko, the journalist who took part in the expedition says: “At first sight, the whole of the monster story looks like a fairytale. After the expedition to Lake Brosno, I do believe that the place is actually mysterious. Stories told by witnesses prove this opinion. We met with local people who were perfectly sane and adequate. What is more, all legends about the mysterious monster trace the roots back to the old times. I am sure that legends and rumors cannot arise from nothing.”
Nikolay Ishchuk, the head of the Tver Regional Legislative Assembly press-service says: “I do not believe in wonders. What we chanced to see at Lake Brosno is actually mysterious and incomprehensible. If the phenomenon can be explained with the laws of the planet’s life, I believe this is a miracle indeed. I recollect our expedition to Lake Brosno and our attempts to take pictures of the creature as a wonderful journey. This is wonderful that people may have such interesting adventures. May it be so that the expedition actually came across some miracle? Inexplicable things must exist in this world. When people do not understand some things they want to know more and reveal more new facts.” - Sofya Vorotyntseva - Pravda.ru
Brosnya is described as being 5 meters long (16 feet), and iridescent. Some have reported that it glows.
The bio-luminescent, aquatic reptile has inspired terror in the fishing villages surrounding Russia’s little known Lake Brosno for generations. Reports of this luminous beast, which allegedly lurks near the bottom of their lake, date back to at least 1854.
That having been said, the legends of this aquatic horror have been told and retold for centuries. One of the most famous tales associated with the dragon concerns its encounter with the Tatar-Mongol army that headed for Novgorod in the 13th century. Their leader, Batu Khan, allegedly stopped his troops on the shore of Lake Brosno to rest and allow the horses to drink but, when the horses ventured to close to the lake, a colossal roaring beast emerged from the dark water and devoured animals and soldiers alike. The troops were so terrified that they turned back and Novgorod was saved.
Other ancient legends describe an “enormous mouth” that ate fishermen and a “sand mountain” that appeared on the surface of the lake. More recently, locals claim that during World War II, the dragon – apparently an Allied sympathizer – managed to swallow a Nazi airplane.
This bizarre form of bio-luminescence is rare among cryptids, and has been reported in only two other animals, the winged predators known as the DUAH and the ROPEN, both of which are reputedly “flying” creatures that hail from across the globe.
Babushka Tanya (Grandmother Tanya) and her husband, whose house is metres away from the shore, claim to have seen the monster on more than one occasion. Tanya took a Reuters Television camera crew to the lakeshore site from where she claims to have seen the monster. “I only saw a head of this creature, so I was not scared at all,” she said while trying to draw the beast. “It is now on the bottom of the lake, deep, and it is hiding from the winter cold”, she explained. Local press reports describe a creature about five metres (16 feet) long living in Lake Brosno, 80 km (50 miles) northwest of the Russian capital, and have published photographs, though they are too indistinct to be convincing according to some experts. Natalya Istratova, Professor of Biology at Moscow State Zoo, says it is “absolutely impossible” to say what kind of animal the monster might be without examining it. However one Lake Brosno resident, Baba Nadya (Grandmother Nadya), is terrified of the beast fearing it will crawl out of the lake and into her house “any day.” A local press report describes a creature about five metres long. It quoted a local palaeontologist, Nikolai Dikov, as saying the creature’s alleged shape suggests an extinct order of reptiles with teeth like mammals. Recent palaeontological excavations at Russia’s old lakes of the tectonic origin, like Lake Brosno, are reported to have provided evidence to a theory linking the Brosno monster to pre-historic dinosaurs. Near the Siberian lake of Shestakovo, palaeontologists are said have found the bones of a pre-historic creature, quite similar to the descriptions of Brosno’s babushkas. - www.nfo.ac.uk
Fishermen say that the underwater world of Lake Brosno has a structure of several levels. From time to time burbots and perchs can be found in the lake. This is strange at all that some sorts of fish can be found in the area at all. For example, herring can be found in a lake in Peno District in the Tver Region. This is strange that the sea fish may live in the lake at all. Smelt shoals from time to time can be found in Lake Brosno as well. The phenomenon of Brosnya can be explained from the physical point of view: huge smelt shoals are reflected on the water surface through refraction of light and produces the effect of a huge reptile head. Physicists say that any mirage appears in hot weather. Indeed, witnesses say that they came across Brosnya in summer. However, origin of the strange monster is still a mystery.
Source Credit(s): Posted by Lon Strickler at Phantoms and Monsters naturalplane.blogspot.com/2011/06/brosnya-russias-lake-dwelling-dragon.html
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Writing on the wall: Pictographs, tribal tales add to lore of Sasquatch
Not far from the Tule River in Central California is a rock shelter used by tribal villagers long before the Sierra foothills began filling up with white settlers and gold miners.
The shelter is known as Painted Rock by tourists and archeologists for its colorful array of centuries-old pictographs depicting the animal spectrum from the small (lizard, centipede, caterpillar and frog) and the high-flying (condor, eagle) to the bigger beasts (coyote, beaver, bear and man). And man, of course.
Almost all of the painted images are instantly recognizable as creatures that would have inhabited the Sierras 500 to 1,000 years ago, when the pictographs are believed to have been created.
Three of the animals, though, can only be described in today’s lexicon as an adult male, adult female and child Sasquatch.
The big male, according to Yokuts tribal lore, is Hairy Man, standing on two legs, its arms spread wide, with long hair and, writes Forest Service archeologist Kathy Moskowitz Strain, “large, haunting eyes.” Next to it, with the same hairy, two-legged aspect, are what appear to be the adult female, the “mother,” and her child.
None of the animals shown on Painted Rock are proportionally larger than one would expect; they’re all either life-sized or smaller, as if in the distance.
The painting of Hairy Man is 8 1/2 feet tall.
The “Hairy Man” Pictographs from California. The child is on the left, the female to it’s right, and the male dominates the right side of the panel.
By the time the first white man saw the Painted Rock pictographs in the 1870s, earlier European settlers of the American west were already well aware of Native Americans’ historical belief in the animal the Central California tribes called Hairy Man.
Many Native Americans, from the Cree people in Manitoba to the Cowichans in British Columbia to the tribes of central and northern California, have through the centuries taken a wide berth to avoid encountering a race or tribe of large, two-legged hairy beasts.
The account of a Methodist missionary found that the Salteaux Indians of Lake Winnipeg “living in dread” of what the missionary himself described as “these imaginary monsters.”
Anthropologists’ response to this has been mixed. Some believe the animals were a creation of tribal folklore meant to keep children in line and convince them not to stray too far from the villages.
But early white traders, settlers and miners often talked about the fervent belief held by the locals in what the whites invariably referred to as “mythical” creatures — which were described much the way Sasquatch is now described.
A 1790 publication related a Hudson’s Bay Company trader’s story about the North Saskatchewan River Indians’ belief in a giant, two-legged beast called the wendingo or windingo. The Indians, noted the trapper, “frequently persuade themselves that they see his track in the moss or snow.”
Two decades later a fur trader named David Thompson found a large footprint, described in historical journals as having been 14 inches long and eight inches wide, near what is now Jasper, Alberta. The print is often referred to as the first Sasquatch footprint found by a white man, though Thompson himself was said to have believed it to be the track of a large grizzly bear.
British Columbia periodicals in the late 1800s and early 1900s carried short news items referencing “the wild man of Vancouver Island” being seen by prospectors and others. And the region’s Kwakiutl Indians related tales of the “Woods Giant” which was routinely described the same way — much larger and hairier than humans, walking on two legs, with deep-set eyes under a thick, protruding forehead.
Which, again, is the same description applied to many Sasquatch sightings today.
While modern-day curiosity about Sasquatch was stoked by the 1967 film taken by Yakima County residents Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin, an even more dramatic incident near Mount St. Helens predated that one by nearly a half-century.
In her book, “Myths and Mysteries of Washington,” prolific Northwest historical author Lynn E. Bragg wrote about Cascade and coastal tribal tales of a “band of renegades who looked like giant apes and lived like wild animals in secluded caves high in the Cascade Mountains.”
Tribal belief in the giant beasts — referred to by different tribes and dialects as Seeahtic (or Selahtic), St’iyahama, Stiyaha, Kwi-kwihai and Skoocoom — were related by missionaries as early as 1840. But it wasn’t until July 1924 that the non-tribal world sat up and took notice.
That year, a group of miners prospecting in the Mount St. Helens and Lewis River area reported that their pine-log cabin had withstood a night-long attack by a group of what they described to forest rangers and reporters as “mountain devils” and “hairy apes.”
The miners’ account was that the assault on the cabin came at night, several hours after one of the miners had fired several rifle shots at a seven-foot-tall, hairy animal. According to their story, which was related in numerous newspapers, several of the creatures attacked the cabin, pelting it with large rocks, shrieking loudly, battering at the front door and climbing onto the cabin, the latter prompting the miners to fire several shots through the roof.
The miners left the next day, so anxious to put distance between them and the creatures that one of them, Kelso resident Fred Beck, said they left behind some $200 worth of “supplies, powder and drilling equipment.”
Their revelations made the newspapers, and numerous reporters and curiosity-seekers returned to the site and found numerous large, bare footprints around the cabin — but no “apemen.”
The tale told by Beck and the others is considered evidence of Sasquatch by some while being dismissed by others as a hoax or a bad case of cabin fever.
According to the latter version, the “attackers” were a group of local youths pelting the cabin with pumice stones from the top of the canyon either intentionally or by accident, perhaps not knowing there was a miner’s cabin at the bottom.
Beck, though, later said he and the other miners were able to see the creatures through the gaps in the log walls. “Only three of the creatures (were seen) together at one time,” Beck recalled in a dictated statement to his son four decades later, though “it sounded like there were many more.”
Beck’s description of the shrieking, wall-banging experience bears an eerie resemblance to one that occurred Aug. 14, 2004, at remote Snelgrove Lake in the Canadian province of Ontario.
A group of people were staying at a lakeside cabin, including documentary filmmaker Doug Hajicek, who has produced more than 200 films for such entities as PBS, Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, Outdoor Life Network and ESPN.
For two hours in the early evening, Hajicek said, someone or something threw small rocks toward the group, though not in a threatening way.
“Fifty or sixty rocks, lobbed,” Hajicek said. “You could shine a flashlight in the woods but all you’d see is trees. I didn’t have the courage to stand up and walk into the woods.”
Later that night, Hajicek woke up hungry, went to the cabin kitchen and flicked on a light “that illuminated my head in the window. The back side of the cabin was attacked — screams, banging on the walls, things hitting the cabin and the entire cabin started shaking and rock, and (rocks) started hitting the ceiling and the walls.
“It was like being in a bad B movie.”
Neither Hajicek nor any of the others in the cabin dared go outside until long after the “attack” had abated. But Hajicek returned on the same date the following year with several other people including two research professors, one from Idaho State University and the other from the University of Minnesota. At 3 a.m., Hajicek said, “something huge hit the side of the cabin, so loud the cabin just resonated.”
Shocked and scared, none of the people in the cabin ventured outside.
So, just as the year before, nobody saw whatever it was that was out there.
Source Credit(s): © Scott Sandsberry for Yakima June 19, 2012 bigfootencounters.com/articles/tribal-tales.htm Top Photos: © Kathy Strain/Stanislaus National Forest
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![Ships’ Logs and Sea Monsters
The Ministry of Defence does not keep any secret files on sea monsters reported by Royal Navy personnel, but crews of ships and submarines who make unusual sightings can record their experiences in official logbooks that are public records. This emerged as a result of a Freedom of Information request made to the MoD by marine biologist Sebastian Darby in February 2010. Darby’s request asked the MoD if there were “any abnormally large, or dangerous sea monsters hundreds of metres under the sea that haven’t been revealed to the public”. If such creatures did exist, he argued, it would be in the public interest to publish the facts as marine biologists’ lives could be at risk.Navy FOI officer Heather Godfrey’s response admitted neither the Navy nor the MoD maintained “any form of central repository of information purely devoted to sea monsters”. Although there was no formal requirement, the Navy did encourage personnel to record sightings of marine mammals “and it’s possible this could include unusual sightings”. All such reports were sent to the UK Hydrographic Office in Somerset, while individual ship’s logs are retained until they are deposited at The National Archives after 30 years. But a search of thousands of ship’s logs for entries on sea monster sightings would exceed the cost limits allowed for a FOI request.Hulton Archive / Getty ImagesNautical folklore is replete with such stories and first-hand accounts of sightings have been recorded in Atlantic waters since the Middle Ages. In more recent centuries, one of the most celebrated sea serpent reports was made by the captain and officers of the frigate HMS Daedalus off the Cape of Good Hope in the South Atlantic on 6 August 1848 (see ‘The Golden Age of Sea Serpents’). On arrival in England, the captain, Peter M’Quhae, sent details to the Admiralty and to The Times. He supervised a detailed drawing of the 60ft-long creature that was visible for 20 minutes. But his story was rejected by palæontologist Professor Richard Owen, who insisted the crew had seen a giant seal.A number of other 19th-century accounts have emerged in British Admiralty files deposited at The National Archives in Kew. One contains an account of a sea serpent written by Captain James Stockdale in May 1830. Stockdale and the crew of the barque Rob Roy were near the island of St Helena when they heard a scuffling noise in the water. As they turned to the port bow, they were amazed to see the head of “a great thundering sea snake” whose head rose six feet out of the water “as square with our topsail [and] his tail was square with the foremast”. Stockdale said his ship was 171ft long with the foremast 42ft from the stern, which would make the monster 129ft long. He reported to his masters in London: “If I had not seen it I could not have believed it but there was no mistake or doubt of its length – for the brute was so close I could even smell his nasty fishy smell.”A Board of Trade file from 1857 contains an account from Commander George Henry Harrington of the 1,063-ton merchant ship Castilan, again near the same South Atlantic island. On 13 December of that year, he and two officers saw “a huge marine animal” which suddenly reared out of the water just 20ft from the ship. For a few moments, its long neck and dark head, shaped “like a long buoy” and covered with white spots, were clearly visible “with a kind of scroll or ruff encircling it”. The creature was submerged for a moment and then reappeared, leaving the crew in no doubt they were watching a sea monster “of extraordinary length [which] appeared to be moving slowly towards the land”. The boatswain, who watched it for some time, said that it was more than double the length of the ship, which made it 500ft long.Both reports appear to have been filed away without comment by the Admiralty, in much the same way that the Air Ministry dealt with reports of flying saucers and UFOs from RAF crews during the 20th century. Unless a clear threat was identified, either from sea monsters or aliens, unusual sightings like these were classified as interesting but of “no defence significance”.[PA] D.Telegraph, 16 May 2010; Rickard & Michell: “The Rough Guide to Unexplained Phenomena”, 2007; National Archives files: BJ 7/49 and MT 9/207.Source Credit(s): David Clarke forteantimes.com/strangedays/cryptozoology/3715/ships_logs_and_sea_monsters.html
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Ships’ Logs and Sea Monsters
The Ministry of Defence does not keep any secret files on sea monsters reported by Royal Navy personnel, but crews of ships and submarines who make unusual sightings can record their experiences in official logbooks that are public records.
This emerged as a result of a Freedom of Information request made to the MoD by marine biologist Sebastian Darby in February 2010. Darby’s request asked the MoD if there were “any abnormally large, or dangerous sea monsters hundreds of metres under the sea that haven’t been revealed to the public”. If such creatures did exist, he argued, it would be in the public interest to publish the facts as marine biologists’ lives could be at risk.
Navy FOI officer Heather Godfrey’s response admitted neither the Navy nor the MoD maintained “any form of central repository of information purely devoted to sea monsters”. Although there was no formal requirement, the Navy did encourage personnel to record sightings of marine mammals “and it’s possible this could include unusual sightings”. All such reports were sent to the UK Hydrographic Office in Somerset, while individual ship’s logs are retained until they are deposited at The National Archives after 30 years. But a search of thousands of ship’s logs for entries on sea monster sightings would exceed the cost limits allowed for a FOI request.
Hulton Archive / Getty Images
Nautical folklore is replete with such stories and first-hand accounts of sightings have been recorded in Atlantic waters since the Middle Ages. In more recent centuries, one of the most celebrated sea serpent reports was made by the captain and officers of the frigate HMS Daedalus off the Cape of Good Hope in the South Atlantic on 6 August 1848 (see ‘The Golden Age of Sea Serpents’). On arrival in England, the captain, Peter M’Quhae, sent details to the Admiralty and to The Times. He supervised a detailed drawing of the 60ft-long creature that was visible for 20 minutes. But his story was rejected by palæontologist Professor Richard Owen, who insisted the crew had seen a giant seal.
A number of other 19th-century accounts have emerged in British Admiralty files deposited at The National Archives in Kew. One contains an account of a sea serpent written by Captain James Stockdale in May 1830. Stockdale and the crew of the barque Rob Roy were near the island of St Helena when they heard a scuffling noise in the water. As they turned to the port bow, they were amazed to see the head of “a great thundering sea snake” whose head rose six feet out of the water “as square with our topsail [and] his tail was square with the foremast”. Stockdale said his ship was 171ft long with the foremast 42ft from the stern, which would make the monster 129ft long. He reported to his masters in London: “If I had not seen it I could not have believed it but there was no mistake or doubt of its length – for the brute was so close I could even smell his nasty fishy smell.”
A Board of Trade file from 1857 contains an account from Commander George Henry Harrington of the 1,063-ton merchant ship Castilan, again near the same South Atlantic island. On 13 December of that year, he and two officers saw “a huge marine animal” which suddenly reared out of the water just 20ft from the ship. For a few moments, its long neck and dark head, shaped “like a long buoy” and covered with white spots, were clearly visible “with a kind of scroll or ruff encircling it”. The creature was submerged for a moment and then reappeared, leaving the crew in no doubt they were watching a sea monster “of extraordinary length [which] appeared to be moving slowly towards the land”. The boatswain, who watched it for some time, said that it was more than double the length of the ship, which made it 500ft long.
Both reports appear to have been filed away without comment by the Admiralty, in much the same way that the Air Ministry dealt with reports of flying saucers and UFOs from RAF crews during the 20th century. Unless a clear threat was identified, either from sea monsters or aliens, unusual sightings like these were classified as interesting but of “no defence significance”.
[PA] D.Telegraph, 16 May 2010; Rickard & Michell: “The Rough Guide to Unexplained Phenomena”, 2007; National Archives files: BJ 7/49 and MT 9/207.
Source Credit(s): David Clarke forteantimes.com/strangedays/cryptozoology/3715/ships_logs_and_sea_monsters.html
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![The Creature Of Tagua Tagua Lagoon
The legend of this creature is little known, even for residents of San Vicente in the country’s 6th region, but this discovery returns a piece of their history to them. The horrible creature in the etching that accompanies this article is the little-known Monster of Tagua Tagua lagoon, a legendary creature that not even the residents of San Vicente, in Chile’s 6th region, have ever heard of.
The indescribably horrifying creature was relegated to oblivion for over 2 centuries until two Spanish researchers discovered the drawing among thousands of documents in the Madrid National Library. Thus, the anonymous etching made in Chile in 1784 became the poster for the exposition “Monsters and Other Imaginary Beings” that took place in the Spanish capital to great popular acclaim.The winged, two-tailed figure with scales and a human face had a well-deserved presence among nearly 200 images, just as unreal, belonging to such artists as Goya, Durero, Ribera, Brueghel, Holbein, Picart and Kircher. Plates extracted from classics of literature and scientific texts—largely from the 15th and 18th centuries, were also on exhibit. Under the drawing of the monster, a true bibliographic jewel, it can be read that it appeared in early 1784 at the farm of Don Próspero Elso and that “it did great damage, eating all manner of animals and drinking from the lagoon, until 100 men stealthily ambushed it with firearms and caught it alive.” The description is very detailed: “It measures three and a half rods long and its tail is bigger than its body. It legs are nearly a quarter [rod] but its claws are much larger. Its mane reaches the ground so that it entangles around its feet. The upper tail…helps it to catch its prey. The teeth are some 30 cm long and the mouth is as wide as its face. Its horns are a rod and a half long and very well-turned, and finally, it ears are are three quarters of a rod long. Even more curious: an address — Calle de Carretas No.8 — is given for those interested in seeing it. The spectacular Madrid exposition, unprecedented in Europe, featured cyclops, dwarves, giants, two headed or six-fingered creatures, hermaphrodites, lion-men, bearded or multi-breasted women. However, the organizers of this exhibit — Javier Moscoso, a professor with the University of Murcia, and Antonio Lafuente, fellow of the Superior Center for Scientific Research — believe that “the presence of horns is one of the definite signs of monstrosity. Our selection has been based, on the one hand, by the richness of the image and by the historical importance, on the other. To some residents of San Vicente de Tagua Tagua, the legend that gave rise to the monster was possibly a reflection of the fears, nightmares and anguish felt at the time. After all, this wasn’t the first time that the existence of fantastic creatures in the area was suspected, and sometimes quite rightly. That was where the Inca Empire came to an end, and in recent decades the remains of 14 mammoths from 11,000 years ago were discovered, making the place one of the richest sites in America for modern archaeology. However, no one imagined that the most recent discovery would be an item forgotten thousands of kilometers away, in Madrid’s National Library. San Vicente residents recall that the Tagua Tagua Lagoon — drained in the 1930s — was notorious for its “chivines”: floating islands formed by a dense and firm network of roots, so resilient that they could bear the weight of a horse. Deceived by the large size of some of these “chivines”, cattle would climb onto them to graze, realizing only too late that the floating island had been taken away by the current without any hope of escape. That’s how the legend emerged among natives and Spaniards about a monster that dragged cattle into the lake. Armed groups of hunters were even organized to capture it. Originally featured in La Tercera (Santiago de Chile) 1-13-2 p.18 Translation (c) 2005, Scott Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Liliana Núñez.mitológicos del territorio nacional. Source Credit(s): Copyright © Scott Corrales INEXPLICATA - The Journal of Hispanic UfologyArchivos Forteanos de Latinoamérica6-9-5 http://rense.com/general66/tagua.htm Copyright Jeff Rense © rense.com
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Discover more cryptids and mysterious creatures at Cryptid Chronicles and please vote in our Cryptid Tournament!If you enjoyed this post please comment, Like ❤ and share! Also follow on twitter @cryptidfans and now on http://www.facebook.com/CryptidChroniclesThank you!Your Chronicler,Sydney C. Squidneycryptidchronicles.tumblr.com](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mem7uwjJHs1r6ti0go1_400.jpg)
The Creature Of
Tagua Tagua Lagoon
The legend of this creature is little known, even for residents of San Vicente in the country’s 6th region, but this discovery returns a piece of their history to them. The horrible creature in the etching that accompanies this article is the little-known Monster of Tagua Tagua lagoon, a legendary creature that not even the residents of San Vicente, in Chile’s 6th region, have ever heard of.
The indescribably horrifying creature was relegated to oblivion for over 2 centuries until two Spanish researchers discovered the drawing among thousands of documents in the Madrid National Library. Thus, the anonymous etching made in Chile in 1784 became the poster for the exposition “Monsters and Other Imaginary Beings” that took place in the Spanish capital to great popular acclaim.
The winged, two-tailed figure with scales and a human face had a well-deserved presence among nearly 200 images, just as unreal, belonging to such artists as Goya, Durero, Ribera, Brueghel, Holbein, Picart and Kircher. Plates extracted from classics of literature and scientific texts—largely from the 15th and 18th centuries, were also on exhibit.
Under the drawing of the monster, a true bibliographic jewel, it can be read that it appeared in early 1784 at the farm of Don Próspero Elso and that “it did great damage, eating all manner of animals and drinking from the lagoon, until 100 men stealthily ambushed it with firearms and caught it alive.”
The description is very detailed: “It measures three and a half rods long and its tail is bigger than its body. It legs are nearly a quarter [rod] but its claws are much larger. Its mane reaches the ground so that it entangles around its feet. The upper tail…helps it to catch its prey. The teeth are some 30 cm long and the mouth is as wide as its face. Its horns are a rod and a half long and very well-turned, and finally, it ears are are three quarters of a rod long.
Even more curious: an address — Calle de Carretas No.8 — is given for those interested in seeing it.
The spectacular Madrid exposition, unprecedented in Europe, featured cyclops, dwarves, giants, two headed or six-fingered creatures, hermaphrodites, lion-men, bearded or multi-breasted women. However, the organizers of this exhibit — Javier Moscoso, a professor with the University of Murcia, and Antonio Lafuente, fellow of the Superior Center for Scientific Research — believe that “the presence of horns is one of the definite signs of monstrosity. Our selection has been based, on the one hand, by the richness of the image and by the historical importance, on the other.
To some residents of San Vicente de Tagua Tagua, the legend that gave rise to the monster was possibly a reflection of the fears, nightmares and anguish felt at the time. After all, this wasn’t the first time that the existence of fantastic creatures in the area was suspected, and sometimes quite rightly. That was where the Inca Empire came to an end, and in recent decades the remains of 14 mammoths from 11,000 years ago were discovered, making the place one of the richest sites in America for modern archaeology. However, no one imagined that the most recent discovery would be an item forgotten thousands of kilometers away, in Madrid’s National Library.
San Vicente residents recall that the Tagua Tagua Lagoon — drained in the 1930s — was notorious for its “chivines”: floating islands formed by a dense and firm network of roots, so resilient that they could bear the weight of a horse. Deceived by the large size of some of these “chivines”, cattle would climb onto them to graze, realizing only too late that the floating island had been taken away by the current without any hope of escape. That’s how the legend emerged among natives and Spaniards about a monster that dragged cattle into the lake. Armed groups of hunters were even organized to capture it.
Originally featured in La Tercera (Santiago de Chile) 1-13-2 p.18
Translation (c) 2005, Scott Corrales, IHU. Special thanks to Liliana Núñez.
mitológicos del territorio nacional.
Source Credit(s): Copyright © Scott Corrales INEXPLICATA - The Journal of Hispanic UfologyArchivos Forteanos de Latinoamérica6-9-5 http://rense.com/general66/tagua.htm Copyright Jeff Rense © rense.com
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![The Roc - Old World Thunderbird
Seven hundred years ago, Arab traders told of a bird so huge it could lift elephants into the sky.
The Roc, also known as Rukh, is the Old World version of the thunderbird. Rocs derive from ancient Arabic and Persian legends. These spectacular avian giants were said to be eagle-like and subsist primarily on elephants, which they would kill by flying to a great height then dropping the unfortunate creature to crash to its death on the rocks below and then carried it away to their nests.Sailors said it lived on an island off the southern coast of Africa and it is mentioned in both Marco Polo’s Book of Travels and in the Arabian collection of folktales called One Thousand and One Arabian Nights as the mythological bird of Arabia.Marco Polo describes rocs living in Madagascar, and envoys from Madagascar allegedly presented the great Kubla Khan of Cathay with a Roc feather that was 90 spans long (about 67 feet.)
In Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, the genie refers to a roc’s egg as his master:
“[The princess told Aladdin that] her pleasure in the [palace built by the genie] was spoiled for the want of a roc’s egg hanging from the dome. ‘If that is all,’ replied Aladdin, ‘you shall soon be happy.’ He left her and rubbed the lamp, and when the genie appeared commanded him to bring a roc’s egg. The genie gave such a loud and terrible shriek that the hall shook. ‘Wretch!’ he cried, ‘is it not enough that I have done everything for you, but you must command me to bring my master and hang him up in the midst of this dome? You and your wife and your palace deserve to be burnt to ashes …’”In The Second Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor, Sinbad uses a roc to escape a desert island, and later describes a roc carrying off both a rhinoceros and an elephant:
“I had before me one of the legs of the bird, which was as big as the trunk of a tree. I tied myself strongly to it with the cloth that went round my turban, in hopes that when the roc flew away next morning she would carry me with her out of this desert island.”
“The rhinoceros fights with the elephant, runs his horn into him, and carries him off upon his head; but the blood of the elephant running into his eyes and making him blind, he falls to the ground, and then, strange to relate, the roc comes and carries them both away in her claws to be food for her young ones.”
Sinbad hitching a ride on the legendary RocIn The Fifth Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor, a roc couple avenge the death of their child by destroying Sinbad’s ship:
“… we found an egg of a roc … The merchants whom I had taken on board my ship … broke the egg with hatchets, and … pulled out the young roc piece by piece, and roasted it. … Scarcely had they made an end of their feast, when there appeared in the air, at a considerable distance from us, two great clouds. … it was the cock and hen roc that belonged to the young one … [They] approached with a frightful noise, … [and] carried between their talons stones, or rather rocks, of a monstrous size. When they came directly over my ship, they hovered, and one of them let fall a stone … so exactly upon the middle of the ship that it split into a thousand pieces.”
Relation of the roc to the constellation Cygnus:
“The origin of the representation as bird of these stars is Greek. It is thought that the original figure of the mesopotámica tradition had taken the name of Urakhga, prototype of the Rukh Arab, more known in the West like the great “Roc”, a fiction personage inspired by the merchants of Bagdad, the story of Sinbad the Sailor, content in Thousands and the One Nights.”
In fact a giant ostrich-like bird called the Aepyornis maximus or elephant bird once lived on the island of Madagascar, off the coast of Africa. This gigantic bird may not have become extinct until the sixteenth century, and it is said to have been the largest bird that ever lived - believed to have been 3 metres (10 ft) tall and weighing close to half a ton – 400 kilograms (880 lb). But while huge like the roc, this bird was not able to fly, however, its large eggs probably helped fuel the legend of the mythical Roc.Aepyornis maximus H.G.Wells wrote a short story called Aepyornis Island in which a marooned sailor hatches an Aepyornis egg and lives with the bird, far larger than any recorded in history, for several years.Remains of Aepyornis adults and eggs have been found; in some cases the eggs have a circumference of over 1 meter (3.3 ft) and a length up to 34 centimetres (13 in). The egg volume is about 160 times greater than a chicken egg.It is widely believed that the extinction of Aepyornis was an effect of human activity. The birds were initially widespread, occurring from the northern to the southern tip of Madagascar. One theory states that humans hunted the elephant birds to extinction in a very short time for such a large landmass. There is indeed evidence that they were killed. However, their eggs may have been the most vulnerable point in their life cycle. A recent archaeological study found fragments of eggshells among the remains of human fires, suggesting that the eggs regularly provided meals for entire families.Aepyornis is not the only giant bird to give rise to legends. The Maori people have long told of a giant eagle that once lived in New Zealand. Evidence such as bones and talons have proved the giant bird, now called Haast’s eagle, was more than a myth. And unlike Aepyornis, it could fly. It had a wingspan of nearly three meters (10 feet) and preyed on moas, large flightless birds related to ostriches. Haast’s eagle (Harpagornis moorei) lived until about AD 1500-recent enough to possibly have been encountered by Maori ancestors. Giant Haast’s eagle attacking New Zealand moaThe Aepyornis elephant bird was not a moa, but the other flightless giant island-living birds had members in its family which were taller than the elephant bird at 7 ft (2 metres) to the middle of the back and 13 ft (4 metres) to the head (twice the height of a tall man). New Zealand was even more isolated than Madagascar and had no land mammals except bats. The first Polynesians arrived in New Zealand around the 10th century, becoming the Maori. The dominant life-forms were the giant land birds that lived in the fringes of the semi-tropical forests and on the grasslands and which the Maoris called ‘Moas’. Encountering the huge birds, the Maoris made legends of the giant moa, calling it the Poua-Kai and describing it as a huge bird of terrific size and strength which, in a great battle, destroyed half the warriors of a powerful tribe with its terrible rending talons and thrusting beak Moas were huge ratite ‘running birds’ like the Elephant Bird, but they inhabited the grasslands and forest-fringe in extraordinary numbers and variety. Scientists later gave them the family name Dinornithidae, ‘terrible birds’. The aggressive Polynesian invaders became a Moa-hunting culture and for the moa, which had had no predators in 100 million years, the effect was devastating.By the time Europeans discovered the islands in 1770, the giant moas had been hunted to extinction; their official extinction date is given as 1773. Europeans did not learn of the moa’s existence until bones were discovered in the 1830s. With only one natural predator large enough to tackle them, the Haast’s Eagle, they were the dominant terrestrial species on the islands.
INTERTWINED TALES
Is it possible the legendary Roc was based on a combination of the very real Elephant Bird and Giant Haast’s Eagles that actually existed? Many Cryptozoologists do believe the mythical bird could have been based upon actual sightings of these giant birds. That Roc feather mentioned earlier was later suggested by Marco Polo’s translator, Sir Henry Yule, to be a frond of a Raphia palm that the Great Khan was conned by. Raphia palms grow up to 16 m tall and are remarkable for their compound pinnate leaves, the longest in the plant kingdom; leaves of R. regalis up to 25.11 m long and 3 m wide are known. If you were alive back in this age of wonder, you too may have experienced bewildered awe of anyone who first saw them.Source Credit(s): www-v1.amnh.org/exhibitions/mythiccreatures/air/strike.php, monsters.monstrous.com/roc.htm, ennex.com/~Roc/name/index.asp, messybeast.com/extinct/moa.htm, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aepyornis, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raffia_palmRoc top illustration (with permission) © Gonzalo Ordóñez Arias genzoman.deviantart.com
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The Roc - Old World Thunderbird
Seven hundred years ago, Arab traders told of a bird so huge it could lift elephants into the sky.
The Roc, also known as Rukh, is the Old World version of the thunderbird. Rocs derive from ancient Arabic and Persian legends. These spectacular avian giants were said to be eagle-like and subsist primarily on elephants, which they would kill by flying to a great height then dropping the unfortunate creature to crash to its death on the rocks below and then carried it away to their nests.
Sailors said it lived on an island off the southern coast of Africa and it is mentioned in both Marco Polo’s Book of Travels and in the Arabian collection of folktales called One Thousand and One Arabian Nights as the mythological bird of Arabia.
Marco Polo describes rocs living in Madagascar, and envoys from Madagascar allegedly presented the great Kubla Khan of Cathay with a Roc feather that was 90 spans long (about 67 feet.)
In Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp, the genie refers to a roc’s egg as his master:
“[The princess told Aladdin that] her pleasure in the [palace built by the genie] was spoiled for the want of a roc’s egg hanging from the dome. ‘If that is all,’ replied Aladdin, ‘you shall soon be happy.’ He left her and rubbed the lamp, and when the genie appeared commanded him to bring a roc’s egg. The genie gave such a loud and terrible shriek that the hall shook. ‘Wretch!’ he cried, ‘is it not enough that I have done everything for you, but you must command me to bring my master and hang him up in the midst of this dome? You and your wife and your palace deserve to be burnt to ashes …’”
In The Second Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor, Sinbad uses a roc to escape a desert island, and later describes a roc carrying off both a rhinoceros and an elephant:
“I had before me one of the legs of the bird, which was as big as the trunk of a tree. I tied myself strongly to it with the cloth that went round my turban, in hopes that when the roc flew away next morning she would carry me with her out of this desert island.”“The rhinoceros fights with the elephant, runs his horn into him, and carries him off upon his head; but the blood of the elephant running into his eyes and making him blind, he falls to the ground, and then, strange to relate, the roc comes and carries them both away in her claws to be food for her young ones.”
Sinbad hitching a ride on the legendary Roc
In The Fifth Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor, a roc couple avenge the death of their child by destroying Sinbad’s ship:
“… we found an egg of a roc … The merchants whom I had taken on board my ship … broke the egg with hatchets, and … pulled out the young roc piece by piece, and roasted it. … Scarcely had they made an end of their feast, when there appeared in the air, at a considerable distance from us, two great clouds. … it was the cock and hen roc that belonged to the young one … [They] approached with a frightful noise, … [and] carried between their talons stones, or rather rocks, of a monstrous size. When they came directly over my ship, they hovered, and one of them let fall a stone … so exactly upon the middle of the ship that it split into a thousand pieces.”
Relation of the roc to the constellation Cygnus:
“The origin of the representation as bird of these stars is Greek. It is thought that the original figure of the mesopotámica tradition had taken the name of Urakhga, prototype of the Rukh Arab, more known in the West like the great “Roc”, a fiction personage inspired by the merchants of Bagdad, the story of Sinbad the Sailor, content in Thousands and the One Nights.”
In fact a giant ostrich-like bird called the Aepyornis maximus or elephant bird once lived on the island of Madagascar, off the coast of Africa. This gigantic bird may not have become extinct until the sixteenth century, and it is said to have been the largest bird that ever lived - believed to have been 3 metres (10 ft) tall and weighing close to half a ton – 400 kilograms (880 lb). But while huge like the roc, this bird was not able to fly, however, its large eggs probably helped fuel the legend of the mythical Roc.
Aepyornis maximus
H.G.Wells wrote a short story called Aepyornis Island in which a marooned sailor hatches an Aepyornis egg and lives with the bird, far larger than any recorded in history, for several years.
Remains of Aepyornis adults and eggs have been found; in some cases the eggs have a circumference of over 1 meter (3.3 ft) and a length up to 34 centimetres (13 in). The egg volume is about 160 times greater than a chicken egg.
It is widely believed that the extinction of Aepyornis was an effect of human activity. The birds were initially widespread, occurring from the northern to the southern tip of Madagascar. One theory states that humans hunted the elephant birds to extinction in a very short time for such a large landmass. There is indeed evidence that they were killed. However, their eggs may have been the most vulnerable point in their life cycle. A recent archaeological study found fragments of eggshells among the remains of human fires, suggesting that the eggs regularly provided meals for entire families.
Aepyornis is not the only giant bird to give rise to legends. The Maori people have long told of a giant eagle that once lived in New Zealand. Evidence such as bones and talons have proved the giant bird, now called Haast’s eagle, was more than a myth. And unlike Aepyornis, it could fly. It had a wingspan of nearly three meters (10 feet) and preyed on moas, large flightless birds related to ostriches. Haast’s eagle (Harpagornis moorei) lived until about AD 1500-recent enough to possibly have been encountered by Maori ancestors. 
Giant Haast’s eagle attacking New Zealand moa
The Aepyornis elephant bird was not a moa, but the other flightless giant island-living birds had members in its family which were taller than the elephant bird at 7 ft (2 metres) to the middle of the back and 13 ft (4 metres) to the head (twice the height of a tall man).
New Zealand was even more isolated than Madagascar and had no land mammals except bats. The first Polynesians arrived in New Zealand around the 10th century, becoming the Maori. The dominant life-forms were the giant land birds that lived in the fringes of the semi-tropical forests and on the grasslands and which the Maoris called ‘Moas’. Encountering the huge birds, the Maoris made legends of the giant moa, calling it the Poua-Kai and describing it as a huge bird of terrific size and strength which, in a great battle, destroyed half the warriors of a powerful tribe with its terrible rending talons and thrusting beak Moas were huge ratite ‘running birds’ like the Elephant Bird, but they inhabited the grasslands and forest-fringe in extraordinary numbers and variety. Scientists later gave them the family name Dinornithidae, ‘terrible birds’. The aggressive Polynesian invaders became a Moa-hunting culture and for the moa, which had had no predators in 100 million years, the effect was devastating.
By the time Europeans discovered the islands in 1770, the giant moas had been hunted to extinction; their official extinction date is given as 1773. Europeans did not learn of the moa’s existence until bones were discovered in the 1830s.
With only one natural predator large enough to tackle them, the Haast’s Eagle, they were the dominant terrestrial species on the islands.
INTERTWINED TALES
Is it possible the legendary Roc was based on a combination of the very real Elephant Bird and Giant Haast’s Eagles that actually existed? Many Cryptozoologists do believe the mythical bird could have been based upon actual sightings of these giant birds.
That Roc feather mentioned earlier was later suggested by Marco Polo’s translator, Sir Henry Yule, to be a frond of a Raphia palm that the Great Khan was conned by. Raphia palms grow up to 16 m tall and are remarkable for their compound pinnate leaves, the longest in the plant kingdom; leaves of R. regalis up to 25.11 m long and 3 m wide are known. If you were alive back in this age of wonder, you too may have experienced bewildered awe of anyone who first saw them.
Source Credit(s): www-v1.amnh.org/exhibitions/mythiccreatures/air/strike.php, monsters.monstrous.com/roc.htm, ennex.com/~Roc/name/index.asp, messybeast.com/extinct/moa.htm, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aepyornis, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raffia_palm
Roc top illustration (with permission) © Gonzalo Ordóñez Arias genzoman.deviantart.com
Cryptid Chronicles readers, what do YOU think??
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Cryptid Cupcakes: Leviathan Sea Monster, Mothman and the Sea Elephant!
Wow, how cool are those?!
Cryptid Chronicles is incredibly fortunate to have the opportunity to be reaching so many people interested in cryptozoology and to have a loyal fan base that have embraced it like they have.
I am always amazed at how many awesome folks are so engaged and open to connecting to the community in their own ways. One such super supportive CC fan is Lauren at http://halfbakedart.tumblr.com who had entered our Cryptid Chronicles 1st Annual Cryptid Cupcake Creations Contest with her Leviathan, Mothman and Sea Elephant cupcake creations!
Lauren was very creative in how she went about making these cryptid cupcakes in the spirit of celebrating the field of cryptozoology in a fun and interesting way!
Basing them off these legendary creatures in ways that accented their features and even using melted chocolate/merckens candy melts to shape them!
She based the Leviathan off of this picture:
And even made a shark for it to devour, showing the Leviathan’s immense size!
See more of the Leviathan sea monster cupcake and how she did it http://halfbakedart.tumblr.com/leviathan
For the Mothman cupcake she included eerily large wings:
See more of the Mothman cryptid cupcake and how she did it http://halfbakedart.tumblr.com/mothman
For the Makara aquatic pachyderm, she was sure to borrow from an illustration showing this mythical creature with the head of an elephant:
See more of the mythical sea elephant cupcake and how she did it http://halfbakedart.tumblr.com/seaelephant
I would like to thank Lauren for participating in this contest and contributing to our little community here. These are some fine and delicious looking creations!
Please give Lauren a round of applause for her wonderful work!
Discover more cryptids and mysterious creatures at Cryptid Chronicles and please don’t forget toVote in our Cryptid Tournament to determine Featured Cryptids for Cryptid Chronicles 1st Annual Fan Art Competition in 2013!
If you enjoyed this post please comment, Like ❤ and share! Thank you!
Your Chronicler,
Sydney C. Squidney
cryptidchronicles.tumblr.com
Follow on twitter @cryptidfans and now on http://facebook.com/CryptidChronicles
A Cryptid Chronicles Book Review: Monsters of the Sea
Author: Richard Ellis, 448 pages
Sydney C. Squidney’s rating: 5/5
Bookshelves: folklore, cryptozoology, marine-biology, reference, research, sea-monsters, ancient-mysteries, ocean-science-and-history, mythology
Originally posted at http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/310064976
The review:
A great voyage of discovery
“Monsters of the Sea” is for those with a great curiosity about the mysterious creatures that lurk beneath the surface of the sea that humans have sometimes been granted glimpses of.
For as long as we’ve been curious, our access to the oceans’ mysteries have and still remain so limited that sea monster legends have endured to this day.
Sea monsters are often considered some of the earliest cryptids to inspire countless popular myths and recent discoveries of giant squids (such as the massive 25 foot-long cephalopod photographed nearly 3,000 feet beneath the North Pacific Ocean off Japan’s Ogasawara Islands in September 2004) have lent a basis of fact to some of those legends.
Holy Squid! First Glimpse of Live Deep-Sea Giant (National Geographic News September 27, 2005)
In a revealing, well-composed and enthralling assemblage, marine biologist Richard Ellis charts the origins of an assortment of legendary “sea monsters” including sea “serpents”, giant squids (kraken), sharks and the “leviathan” or whale that frightened mariners of centuries past and brings the natural history and science of the real animals behind the myths.
All the Kraken stories and rumors about sea monsters going back centuries are outlined and then using scientific exploration and (sometimes speculative) scientific evidence, the world’s deep sea monsters are explained leading the reader into the vast world of marine biology.
I particularly enjoyed the alternating between the mythological accounts about sea monsters and the reviewing of the ocean animals for what they actually are based on available facts, including 150 fascinating illustrations showing how actually a certain known marine animal was reasonably mistaken for a “monstrous” sea creature.
Another favourite I had was the chapter about globsters (organic masses that wash up on the shoreline distinguished from normal beached carcasses by being hard to identify) and how he theorises that Octopus giganteus could account for some of these phenomena.
If you don’t want to have your sense of wonder debunked, you may want to stay away from having the sea monster myths and realities separated by Ellis, since that is the primary structure of this book, however he does leave some room for speculation and because he is also a Great white shark expert, it is mind-boggling that he has concluded that the monster shark Megalodon has only become extinct as close as 10,000 years ago in another of his books, Great White Shark.
This is a great voyage of discovery for those interested in fantastic accounts of myths, legends, and unexplained sea monster sightings and learning more of the story behind them.
Monsters of the Sea provides a comprehensive overview of sea monsters, so there is a lot to cover and can be a little heavy at times, but well worth the read.
If you’re interested in obscure accounts of historical legends, early naturalists, cryptozoology or marine biology you will probably have a lot of fun with this very well researched resource.
One thing is for certain, if one of America’s leading marine biologists thinks that the St. Augustine monster that washed ashore a century ago was actually a 200 foot octopus, then we still have much to learn about the legendary and mysterious Monsters of the Sea!
If you enjoyed this book review please comment, Like ❤ and share! Thank you!
Discover more cryptids and mysterious creatures at Cryptid Chronicles and let me know what cryptid you most believe in!
Your Chronicler,
Sydney C. Squidney
cryptidchronicles.tumblr.com
