Giant Salamander Ogopogo

It has just come to my attention that there are specific reports of giant salamander or "Water Lizards" at BOTH lake Okanogan and Lake Champlain and I am waiting for a firsthand account of the Lake Okanogan version to be published here. The firsthand report specifies small ones of 18 inches to 6 feet (Half a meter to two meters) long, but the report falls into the greater category of Canadian Alligators as listed by George Eberhart in Mysterious Creatures (Listing follows). Although the name specifies "Canadian", the most of these reports are right along the US/Canadian border and several reports also take place on the US side of the border. (See Map)

Canadian Alligator

Supposed Crocodilian of western Canada. Variant name: Pitt Lake Lizard. Physical description: Length, usually 5–10 feet , with a maximum of 20 feet . Relatively smooth, dark skin. Horns or ears are sometimes reported. Long snout . Jaws 12 inches long. Four legs, 10 inches long. Behavior: Aquatic but seen on land occasionally. Tracks: Webbed.
Distribution: Pitt Lake, Kootenay Lake, Chilliwack Lake, Cultus Lake, Nitinat Lake, and the Fraser River , in British Columbia. Significant sightings: On October 10, 1900, George Goudereau saw an animal like a 12-foot alligator crawl out of Crawford Bay on Kootenay Lake and root for food in a garbage heap. Later , a trail of large, webbed tracks was found. In 1915, Charles Flood, Green Hicks, and Donald Macrae found some black, alligator-like lizards in a small mud lake south of Hope, British Columbia.
Possible explanation: An unknown species of cold-adapted crocodilian. The American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) is the most northerly American crocodilian and is found as far north as t he North Carolina coast . It was reported in southern Virginia in colonial times. Crocodilians depend on their environment to provide body warmth, and their hatchlings are more susceptible to chilling than adults. In fact , eggs incubated at temperatures lower than 88°F will tend to produce only female offspring and ultimately threat en the viability of the population. Nonetheless, both the American and the Chinese alligators (A. sinensis) dig burrows into which t hey can retreat dur ing cold spells. They can also survive in lakes that are frozen by keeping their nostrils above the surface as their metabolism and body temperature drop. In warmer times, at least three species of crocodilians lived in Canada: Leidyosuchus canadensis and Stangerochampsa in Alberta during the Late Cretaceous, 65 million years ago, and Borealosuchus acutidentatus in Saskatchewan during the Paleocene, 60 million years ago.
Sources: Ivan T. Sander son, Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come to Life (Philadelphia: Chilton, 1961), pp. 39–41; John Kir k, In the Domain of Lake Monsters (Toronto, Canada: Key Porter Books, 1998), pp. 176, 185–186; Chad Arment and Brad LaGrange, “Canadian ‘Black Alligators’: A Preliminary Look,” North American BioFortean Review 1, no. 1 (April 1999): 6–12, http://www.strangeark.com/nabr/NABR1.pdf
.[The commonly- reported slick smooth skin rules out crocodylians altogether and could rule out reptiles altogether-DD]

Pitt Lake Lizard

Large LIZARD of western Canada. Variant name: CANADIAN ALLIGATOR.
Physical description: Length, 5–10 feet. Smooth skin. Horns behind the head. Two rows of sharp teeth. Distribution: Pitt Lake, British Columbia. Significant sighting: On June 3, 1973, Warren and Sharon Scott observed a number of huge reptiles in the lake. Warren captured three smaller specimens and sent one to the biology department of Simon Fraser University, but there is no record of its receipt.
Possible explanations: (1) The largest lizardlike animal in British Columbia is the Pacific giant salamander (Dicamptodon tenebrosus), but this amphibian has a marbled appearance with dark spots and only grows to about 11 inches. (2) An unknown species of Monitor lizard (Family Varanidae).
Sources: “Is a Lost World Waiting to Be Found near Pitt Lake?” Vancouver (B.C.) Province, May 12, 1978, p. 4; John Kirk, In the Domain of Lake Monsters (Toronto, Canada: Key Porter Books, 1998), p. 176; Chad Arment and Brad LaGrange, “Canadian ‘Black Alligators’: A Preliminary Look,” North American BioFortean Review 1, no. 1 (April 1999): 6–12, http://www.strangeark.com/nabr/NABR1.pdf

I only count the sightings under 6 feet in this category. the larger "Water Lizard with horns or ears at about 10-12 feet long (But sometimes reported as up to 20 feet long) I count as the giant otters instead. Those ones could have jaws a foot long, but that statement alone does not give any sense of proportion.

Ivan T Sanderson introduced the topic of these "Canadian Alligators" along the way in his book Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come to Life, and he thought the creatures were giant salamanders such as occur in China and Japan naturally. This information was promised to be added to future editions of the book, but it never was actually added in.

http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Close-Up-of-a-Giant-Salamander-Megalobatrachus-Maximus-Posters_i7147905_.htm

The reviews above from Eberhart, Mysterious Creatures (2002) also do NOT mention there are similar "Canadian Alligator" reports further East, around the Great Lakes. That information IS found in Sanderson's files. There are other mentions of these giant salamanders found earlier on this blog. One entry concerning a style of Native artwork representing the creature is found here:

http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2011/05/pnw-giant-salamander.html

Giant Salamanders Terrestrial Hunters of the Palaeogene

 

By Mike, October 3, 2012

Research Shows that Giant Salamanders Were Once Land Dwelling Hunters

Extant Specimen of Japanese Giant Salamander

 

The increasingly rare Giant Salamander of Japan.

Picture Credit: BBC News

 

There are several species of giant Salamander living today, the largest Megalobatrachus [Andrias]japonicus grows up to 1.5 metres in length.  Like all giant Salamanders this species prefers fast running, well-oxygenated streams and they are all very much aquatic creatures.  However, a team of scientists studying ancestral giant Salamander fossils found in the Gobi desert; suggest that during the Palaeogene, these amphibians were very much at home on the land.  Not only were these giant Salamanders terrestrial, but studies of the skull fossils and teeth indicate that these animals probably hunted on land too.
Giant Salamanders are found today in Asia, with one species known from the United States.  The heads and bodies of these creatures are flattened, the tail is laterally flattened and the paired limbs are relatively small and weak when compared to the rest of the body.  Modern giant Salamanders lack eyelids and the larval teeth are retained into adulthood.  In fact these amphibians only undergo a partial metamorphosis from the larval stage and retain larval characteristics as mature animals (a form of neoteny – when traits of juveniles are seen in adults).

 

Scientists studying the fossilised remains of the oldest known member of the Giant Salamander group (Cryptobranchidae), fossils found in Mongolia and dated to around fifty-five million years ago, have proposed that these animals were adapted to a life on land.
Four specimens of the Palaeogene species Aviturus exsecratus located at the Moscow Palaeontological Institute reveal that these amphibians had robust limbs, strong backbones and powerful jaws that suggest adaptations to a terrestrial environment.
Vertebrate palaeontologist Davit Vasilyan of the University of Tübingen (Germany) who helped write the scientific paper on this study states that Aviturus exsecratus had the strongest head muscles of any giant Salamander, suggesting it went on land to hunt.  Supporting this idea is the fact that fossil remains of this salamander were found in rock typically formed from water’s-edge sediments.  Unlike their modern descendants, these early Cenozoic amphibians went through extra stages of metamorphosis and lost some of the juvenile traits that are retained in adults today.  The teeth for example, were much more developed than the teeth found in the large, wide mouths of their modern counterparts.
The evolution of terrestrial giant Salamanders coincides with a period of dramatic global warming (Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum), a time when much of the Earth became covered in tropical rain-forest and global temperatures rose to an average of around 26 degrees Celsius (compared to an average today of just 14 degrees Celsius).
Dr. Vasilyan proposes that giant Salamanders first appeared as land based carnivores during this warm era, perhaps exploiting niches in the ecosystems that had yet to be properly filled after the mass extinction event that ended the Mesozoic some ten million years earlier.  When global temperatures began to drop, these amphibians abandoned their more complete adult forms adapting to an entirely aquatic existence which still persists today.

Giant Salamanders Once Hunted on Land

Terrestrial Predators

Picture Credit: Davit Vasilyan
It seems that these rare, aquatic creatures that we know today, were once powerful, land-based hunters.
http://blog.everythingdinosaur.co.uk/blog/_archives/category/animal-news-stories/page/2

This news item definitely puts the reports of the Giant Salamander-like Tatzelwurm which is said to move freely on land and acts most fearlessly and aggressively into a new light, and the fact that fossils are also found in Mongolia is also good news as far as the stories about the most similar cryptids go. Small "dragons" reported in both Eastern Europe and in Siberia also answer to this description [which is about what Ulrich Magin claimed about the Tatzelwurms in PURSUIT.] Some of the extinct forms were also bigger than the extant species, probably in the range of 2 to 3 meters long.-DD.

Shipton Track Cast-The Real Deal

A cast of the Shipton Footprint found in the SITU effects after the headquarters closed down: My indications for the differing contours of it (generalized) are shown at the right. It is quite obvious from the drawing that Sanderson made and published in his appendix B (reprinted below) that he is illustrating the contour breaks shown in the cast and not as they are shown in the photo of the contour breaks in the text as longitudinal lines which run up and down the length of the imprint in the middle of the sole.
A version of this photo was posted on the Southeast Sasquatch Association's blog in 2008:
http://southeastsasquatchassociation.blogspot.com/2008_10_08_archive.html

Sanderson plainly speaks of having seen and handled a "Plaster cast" in the text of his book and some quotes are reprinted below. When I was at SITU headquarters in 1977, what I saw in storage in the library was not a plaster cast but a slab of concrete with the print in the center, in a storage box with carrying straps attached, looking for all the world as if it had been pried out of the lot in front of Grauman's Chinese theatre. I imagine it was portland cement: it was definitely more permanent than any ordinary plaster of paris footprint cast.

Sanderson, Abominable Snowmen, p 279
Also, it is manifest that Mr. Peissel has never seen an imprint or a cast of the foot that made the medium-sized [or Meh-Teh] tracks. They are positively shocking when first seen, being absolutely enormous—and the gaps between the separated toes are enormous too, which could not happen physically if the whole was enlarged by melting and regelation

p 348-349
The Meh-Teh or classical "Abominable Snowman" prints of the Himalayas, at first sight look just about man-sized but, when you handle a plaster cast of one, you get a profound shock. The thing is positively enormous and in some respects rivals the Oh-Mah prints which, though longer, look almost delicate and which are certainly in comparison most "refined." These things, as may be seen from the depiction of an impression of one alongside that of an ordinary human footprint
are grotesque, and bestial. They also show features that, though not at all apelike in fact, digress from the human pattern most widely. They have an enormous big toe; but they also have an even more enormous second toe; and both are widely separated from the other three little toes, and they curl curiously inward toward them. This thing is not human at all.

APPENDIX B, THE IMPORTANCE OF FEET

(1) HUMAN Adult (West Caucasoid). Imprint in clay mold. (2) HUMAN Adolescent, 14½ years (West Caucasoid). Wet imprint of left foot on hard surface. (3) HUMAN CHILD, 10½ years (West Caucasoid). Wet imprint of left foot on hard surface. (4) HUMAN Infant, 21/2 years (West Caucasoid). Wet imprint of left foot on hard surface.
(5) HUMAN Adult (Cromagnon Man). From clay floor of cave in France. (6) HUMAN Adult (Southern Amerind). From mud of river bank Chishue, Patagonia.
(7) SUBHUMAN (Neanderthaler). From moist clay floor of cave, Toirano, Italy.
(8) ABSM (Guli-yavan type). From a sketch of track in mud, Kirghiz S.S.R.
(9) ABSM (Meh-Teh). From photo of cast made from print in snow, by Eric Shipton. (10) APE (unknown form). Sketch made by Charles Cordier in the Congo (over-all, 30 centimeters). (11) APE (Lowland Gorilla). From photo of cast of foot. (12) APE (Chimpanzee). Outline of extended foot from plaster cast.

p 474
The Meh-Teh tracks and prints are, in fact, by far the most puzzling of all, and especially since such persons as Shipton, Bordet, and others obtained clear photographs of them taken from directly above. Here is obviously a bipedal creature of considerable size and weight that inhabits the Himalayas and the ranges north of the Tibetan Plateau. It was the original "Abominable Snowman" and it comes out as the last "abominable enigma."

Emphasis in all cases was added by me.
The statement about the tracks reported by Bordet is untrue. As Napier points out, they are hardly like Shipton's tracks at all (Bigfoot p 48), and neither are the ones reported by Tom Slick or anybody else. The tracks are definitely unique and in fact we can go one better and say the TRACK (Singular) is unique because we have no good proof the other tracks in the same trackway were even good matches for it.

Here to which shows the exact same features in the exact same places that the negative boxed cast (mold) owned by Sanderson and each individual positive cast made from it. Both molds and casts are reproductions of the original footprint and what is more, they are very definitely the same footprint because of the very unusual features such as the "Trefoil" if this is indeed an overprinted footprintof a fox, which is what it looks like

The "Shipton Track" produced by Taylor Made Fossils is a sculpted recreation of the Shipton cast, designed to resemble the photograph, but which includes none of the special features which the actual cast of the footprint shows. This is also inthe same orientation as the footprint in the photo: all real casts are oriented in the opposite direction because the positive cast is flipped over from the negative mold

This is a photograph that recently turned up on Richard Grigonis' site and I recognised it immediately,. When I was staying at SITU headquarters in 1977, shortly after Ivan T.  Sanderson's death, Steve Mayne and Marty Wolf were in residence and they were experimenting with making latex casts (positives) of the large footprint casts stored in the boxes, on the theory that the latex copies were much more easily handled and transported.  the time abnd I saw the latex copies being made and handled them when they were fit to do so. Along with this track cast positive done in latex, there were also samples of the Westmoreland County PA "Bigfoot" tracks because that was an investigation that was also going on at the time. Those latex positives were illustrated in PURSUIT and the photo of them from Grigonis' blog were run here on the recent Skunk Apes blog entry.

 And the photograph of the actual Shipton footprint cast in cement in the box was printed in an earlier issue of PURSUIT, in July of 1971 (Vol 4, No3). The photo is on the bottom of page 73 and the caption reads, "Imprint of right foot of the "Yeti" taken from a plaster cast made by Eric Shipton in snow on the Menlung Glacier in 1951, on his Reconnaisasance of the route to conquer Mount Everest" This is a direct statement by Sanderson himself as to the origin of his casts, both the negative in storage and all of the positives which were subsequently made from the negative. And the British Museum (Natural History) is also stated to house a duplicate copy of the footprint cast made by Shipton.

This is a photo of a wall decoration that used to hang in Ivan T. Sanderson's house: it was based on a positive cast from the negative footprint in the box and is identical to the latex version made later as to its contours, but this one was cast in bronze ( the positive cast was used as a template to recast the bronzed copy, I imagine, since it was also an exact duplicate) Ivan Sanderson had several metalized items hung up to decorate this same wall, among them was the shell of a nautilus, I distinctly remember that one. This photo is also from Richard Grigonis

Below are some copies of the original 1951 footprint photos that all of the discussion is based on

See also Bobbi Short's summary of the Shipton Track photos at Bigfoot Encounters: http://www.bigfootencounters.com/images/shipton.htm

Enfield Horror Is Also a FW-Monkey?

The Enfield Horror: [Prairie Ghosts site]
The vast reaches of forest and open fields of southern Illinois, combined with the sparse population in some areas, seem to invite weirdness that might not occur in cities and more crowded locales. In the most southern portions of the region, the Shawnee National Forest covers miles and miles of territory. The acres of forest seem almost untouched by man and some believe that strange things occasionally pass through here, unseen by human eyes.

This southern portion of the state is sometimes referred to as the “Devil’s Kitchen”, a designation left behind by the Native Americans and the early settlers to explain strange sights and sounds like unexplained balls of light, apparitions, screams in the night and various other unsettling types of phenomena. The Native Americans often considered such sites as “sacred” but the settlers usually believed them to be “cursed”, or at least well avoided. The idea that such locations were linked to the "Devil" was the first thought that crossed the minds of the bible-reading, god-fearing folks and they promptly set about to do two things. They learned to avoid these strange and haunted places and secondly, they gave names to the spots to alert other visitors and settlers of the dangers of the area. In the case of the Devil’s Kitchen, just about anything is possible, from ghosts reports to mystery animals and weird monster sightings.

Perhaps strangest monster reports to ever take place in Illinois began in April 1973 in the small town of Enfield. This tiny community in southeastern Illinois became the scene of bizarre happenings for a short period of time and while the case has largely been forgotten today, it remains a part of the high strangeness of the region.

Henry McDaniel of Enfield almost became the first man to be arrested because of the Enfield Horror. White County Sheriff Roy Poshard Jr. threatened to lock McDaniel for telling folks about the weird events that took place at his home in April 1973, but McDaniel stuck by his story and his initial report would begin what became a nightmare for the small town. According to McDaniel, he was at home on the evening of April 25 when he heard a scratching on his door. When he opened it, he couldn't believe his eyes! "It had three legs on it," McDaniel swore, " as short body, two little short arms coming out of its breast area and two pink eyes as big as flashlights. It stood four and a half to five feet tall and was grayish-colored. It was trying to get into the house."

Needless to say, McDaniel was not letting it in and he quickly retrieved a pistol. He kicked open the door and opened fire. After his first shot, McDaniel knew that he had hit it. The creature "hissed like a wildcat" and scampered away, covering 50 feet in three jumps. It disappeared into the brush along a railroad embankment near the house.

McDaniel quickly called the police and Illinois state troopers who responded to the call found tracks "like those of a dog, except they had six toe pads." The tracks were measured and two of them were four inches across and the third was slightly smaller. [These are composite tracks of more than one footprint superimposed, most likely dog tracks and nothing to do with the sighting-DD]

Investigators soon learned that a young boy, Greg Garrett, who lived just behind McDaniel, had been playing in his yard about a half-hour before. Suddenly, the creature had appeared and attacked him. Apparently though, it just stepped on his feet, but this was enough to tear the boy's tennis shoes to shreds. Greg had run into the house, crying hysterically.

On May 6, Henry McDaniel was awakened in the middle of the night by howling neighborhood dogs. He looked out his front door and saw the monster again. It was standing out near the railroad tracks. "I didn't shoot at it or anything," McDaniel reported. "It started on down the railroad track. It wasn't in a hurry or anything."

McDaniel's reports soon brought publicity to Enfield and prompted the threats from the county sheriff, but it was too late. Soon, hordes of curiosity-seekers, reporters and researchers descended on the town. Among the "monster hunters" were five young men who were arrested by Deputy Sheriff Jim Clark as "threats to public safety" and for hunting violations. This was after they had opened fire on a gray, hairy thing that they had seen in some underbrush on May 8. Two of the men thought they had hit it, but it sped off, moving faster than a man could.

One more credible witness to the monster was Rick Rainbow, who was then the news director of radio station WWKI in Kokomo, Indiana. He and three other persons spotted the monster near an abandoned house, just a short distance from McDaniel's place. They didn't get much of a look at it as it was running away from them, but they later described it as about five feet tall, gray and stooped over. Rainbow did manage to tape record its cry. The wailing was also heard by eminent researcher Loren Coleman, who also came to try and track down the creature. He also heard the sound while searching an area near the McDaniel home.

A short time later, the sightings ended as abruptly as they began. No explanation was ever given as to what this bizarre monster may have been, where it may have come from, or where it disappeared to. Some had surmised that perhaps it was connected to UFO activity that was also reported in the general area at the time - but we will never really know for sure!

From: http://www.prairieghosts.com/enfield.html

-Much is made of the detail that the creature was supposed to have three legs. There were multiple sightings by several individuals, but so far as I can tell, only McDaniel said anything about it having three legs, a tail, or anything which might be mistaken for a third leg.Other observers added the detail that it was also covered in hair. To continue from here on with "Cryptozoologist's" page on the subject:
http://www.myspace.com/the_cryptozoologist/blog/532070394

　

.....

　

If McDaniel believed that his encounters with the unknown were a thing of the past, he would soon realize that he was sadly mistaken, when, on the eve of May 6, he was startled awake in the dead of the night by the howling of some neighborhood dogs. McDaniel's pulled himself out of bed, once again claimed his firearm, and — with what must have been great trepidation — opened his front door.

　

This time his encounter with this creature would not be so intimate. He claims he watched the thing at some distance, languidly negotiating the trestles of the railroad tracks near his home:

　

"I saw something moving out on the railroad track and there it stood. I didn't shoot at it or anything. It started on down the railroad track. It wasn't in a hurry or anything."

　

As is always the case with astounding events such as this, it wasn't long before the press got wind of the weirdness and came out in full force, but it wasn't until McDaniel's second report that the media frenzy truly kicked into overdrive.

　

White County Sheriff, Roy Poshard Jr., was so perturbed by this sudden influx of press and curiosity seekers (not to mention the alarm that was settling in on the locals) he threatened to incarcerate McDaniel if he didn't stop inciting panic by spreading his wildly terrifying tale.

　

To make matters worse, well armed posses of amateur "monster" hunters began patrolling the area near the L&N railroad track sightings. It was on one such expedition that five young men allegedly had a run in with a creature identical to the one that Garret and McDaniel encountered — with the notable addition being that they described the thing as being "hairy."

　

The men discovered the beast hiding in the underbrush and proceeded to open fire on it, but (much like in the McDaniel case) their bullets were unable to cause mortal injury and the monster bolted off at a speed that the eyewitnesses surmised was greatly in excess of any that a human being could achieve.

　

The final eyewitness to this improbable creature was Rick Rainbow, the news director of radio station WWKI in Kokomo, Indiana. He and three other unnamed individuals claimed to have seen a gray, stooping, 5-foot tall entity lurking outside an abandoned house not far from the Garret and McDaniel's homes.

　

Although they did not have nearly as close (or for that matter as harrowing) an encounter as the previous sets of witnesses, Rainbow and his crew did manage to do one thing the others had not — tape record the monster's disturbing scream.

　

It was then that noted cryptozoologist, Loren Coleman, arrived on the scene to investigate the eyewitnesses claims as well as the sound recording. Coleman also heard the haunting cry of the creature while searching an area where eyewitnesses claimed to have seen the thing:

"I traveled to Enfield, interviewed the witnesses, looked at the siding of the house the Enfield Monster had damaged, heard some strange screeching banshee-like sounds, and walked away bewildered."

　

In the July, 1974 edition of Fate Magazine, Loren Coleman and Jerome Clark featured the Enfield Horror in an article entitled: "Swamp Slobs Invade Illinois." Coleman even chronicled discussing this intriguing case with famed paranormal investigator—as well as bestselling author of The Mothman Prophecies—John A. Keel, in his book: Mothman and Other Curious Encounters.

"This reminds me of my exchange with Keel… in 1973, when we were discussing the new reports out of Illinois, from Enfield. On April 25, 1973, Mr. and Mrs. Henry McDaniel returned to their home and Henry had an encounter with a thing that looked like it had three legs, two pink eyes as big as flashlights, and short arms on a four-and-a-half-feet tall and grayish-colored body, along the L&N rail-road tracks, in front of his house."

　

Years later, Coleman would contrast his Enfield investigation with another he conducted regarding a legendary, unclassified creature that many assume was also from out of this world—a melon-headed monster known as the "Dover Demon":

　

"(The Enfield Horror) was my case investigation. It was much different than the Dover Demon, however, and was more like a combo phantom kangaroo, "Devil Monkey" and "Swamp Ape" situation." [Emphasis added by DD]

It should also be noted that between the years of 1941 and 1942, in the sleepy village of Mt. Vernon (less than 40 miles away from Enfield) there was a similar spate of encounters involving an anomalous "leaping" beast that terrorized the local populace and was reputedly responsible for numerous animal deaths in the region. Eyewitnesses claimed that the Mt. Vernon Monster was vaguely baboon-like (hence the "Devil Monkey" analogy) and able to leap 20 to 40[?]-feet in a single bound.

　

Is it possible that the Enfield Horror, whatever it may be, is working on 30 year cycle? While there are no reputable accounts of the creature hailing from the 21st century, one cannot entirely count out the possibility that the thing is a long slumbering anatomical oddity that rears its head every so often to feed on animals and terrify locals.

　

Whatever this creature is or is not, it has not been reported in almost 40 years. That, however, does not mean that it's not still lurking in the shadows of some old train yard, waiting to return to scratch on another door in the wee hours of the night.


[Cryptozoologist's Note: Ever since the events mentioned here took place, there has been speculation that the Enfield Horror was either an alien life form or even some sort of demon. As a scientist who is also well-versed in the metaphysical, it is my opinion that the majority of alien/UFO sightings or encounters can be explained by natural or manmade objects/activities. Those that cannot, I believe, are the result of supernatural manifestations. Since the Enfield Horror appears to have been, at the very least, frightened off by gunfire or possibly even wounded, and since the creature was observed at times going about mundane activities, which would seem meaningless for a supernatural being to be engaged in, I am of the opinion that it was neither alien nor demon, but some sort of bizzare, unknown, but entirely corporeal creature, possibly even a genetic mutation of some sort. But as I said, that is just my opinion. I leave it up to you, the reader, to draw your own conclusions.]

RESOURCES
http://americanmonsters.com/site/2010/03/enfield-horror-illinois-usa/

http://www.prairieghosts.com/enfield.html

--I have heard it suggested that the claim of "Three legs" is a garbling of an original statement the creature had "Three toes". My impression of the matter at this point is that if the suspicious and likely spurious third leg is dropped out of the description, we once again have one of Tyler Stone's freshwater monkeys, and one which comments on the American Monsters message board compared to the Loveland Frog.It is covered with grey hair that can be shaggy on the back, but which can also be seen as wetted down and thus "Slick and Slimy".The grey colour is what is elsewhere described as "Silvery" on occasion, presumably when it is being seen as more reflective. Interesting is the included feature of "Leaping" in such reports, something on the level of a human athlete's broad jump (I queried the statement of "40 feet in a single leap" in the description above because I did not think it was a valid estimate) There are several species of lemurs in Madagascar which travel bipedally on the ground-by leaping and it seems that these FW-Monkeys also have that great leaping ability for making dives into the water: other occasions such as the Loveland Frog case do mention that it can jump a pretty good distance off a bridge or whatever. Assuming a partial description stemmong from a combination of poor viewing conditions and the agitated wstate of the winess, and a confused description resulting from it, it could actually be one of the same things. The sightings from the 1940s were included in Ivan Sanderson's book, along with the passage on the "Little Red Men of the Delta"[=Pukwudgies?] And the "30 year cycle" would only be an artefact of the reports on file that are recognised to be the same type. When you count other sightings in different pigeonholes, the reports are far more common than it might seem at first.
The Strangeark Checklist of North American Cryptids includes under the heading of Primate:
1)Anthropoid ape-like animal Reported from North
American swamps and bottomland hollows. Heuvelmans
1986; Coleman 1983; [Sanderson, IvanT, 1969 and 1970, under
the name "Abominable Swamp Slobs"]
 Primate-like: Dover "demon" Reported from Dover,
Massachusetts Coleman 1983
Primate-like: "Devil Monkey" Reported sporadically from eastern U.S.;
ex. Virginia
Primate-like: Aquatic ape-like animal
Reported off eastern Maritime provinces, Canada [and] Great
Lakes Arment 2004
So now it becomes a good idea to mention Devil Monkeys.

http://animal.discovery.com/tv/lost-tapes/meet-the-creatures/devil-monkey.html

WHAT'S A DEVIL MONKEY?: The United States and Canada aren't home to any modern-day primates, which makes the appearance of a giant monkey-like creature in rural areas even more bizarre to those who've seen it. Dubbed the devil monkey, this primate-looking beast reportedly has pointed ears, a baboon- or doglike snout, a bushy tail and only three toes on each of its narrow feet. Ranging in height between 3 and 8[?-Coleman and Huyghe field guide reads 6] feet (0.9 and 2.4 meters) tall, this strange monkey gets around on all fours and travels by jumping. Devil monkeys are supposed to be aggressive, especially toward dogs and humans, and by most accounts, they are carnivorous and feed on livestock. This fearsome monkey makes a wide range of evil-sounding noises, including hoots, whistles and screams.

MONKEYING AROUND: According to George Eberhart, author and cryptid expert, the devil monkey can be found in British Columbia and the Appalachian Mountain region of the United States. One of the first reported sightings occurred in 1959 when a "monkeylike creature" rushed the car of a couple driving down a rural road in Virginia. A second encounter happened soon after, when two nurses reported that a similar creature tore the top off of their convertible. Other sightings have occurred as recently as 2001, when a giant black monkey was seen nine different times over the course of two weeks in rural New Hampshire.

POSSIBLE EXPLANATIONS: Some people think devil monkeys could be feral monkeys that have been released into the wild or escaped from research facilities, such as the ones that broke free in Florida due to Hurricane Andrew in 1992. While that's possible, Cryptozoologists Chad Arment and Mark A. Hall suggests devil monkeys could actually be a surviving species once thought to be extinct, like a fruit-eating spider monkey originating from Brazil, or a large baboon that lived 650,000 years ago in East Africa.

-The last sentence betrays a flaw in the construction of the category: the same animal cannot possibly be related to New World Monkeys in one part of its range (South America) and Old World monkeys in another part (Africa): the category must be unnecessarily lumping different sorts of monkeys together. And the description speaks of a three-toed foot while the illustration shows the opposed big toe. Still, the illustration is probably also a better and more objective depiction of Tyler Stone's Freshwater Monkey seen clearly and in good detail than any of the "Wierd" observations would lead the casual reader to believe. The type here should be tailless or have only a stump of a tail: a longtailed monkey would be something else. and checking with Coleman and Huyghe's field guide on the different three-toed tracks, the "Swamp Monster" tracks have sharp toes/claws at [8 to] 10 inches long while the three-toed "Devil Monkey" tracks are rounded at the toes (claws not showing?) and range from twelve to fifteen inches in length. The latter tracks match Momo, the Fouke Monster and the Midwest Frogfoot-probably the Scrape Ore "Lizardman" would have left something similar, except the hoaxers decided to make up one of their own instead. The average of all the tracks is just about a standard-sized human foot. I also imagine the flipper-like feet are disproportionately large to the creature in comparison to the usual human proportion of length of footprint to height: a 15 inch track need not have belonged to an excessively large creature, although perhaps that is the basis for the estimate of "Eight feet tall": there also could be some skidding and slipping in some of the longer tracks. The average of the reports is at 4 1/2 feet tall, usually reports say in the range of 4-5 feet tall, and there is a sizeable minority of reports which say "greater than human" size.  One trackway in Northern Louisiana showed three ovoid (toes not discernable) tracks in the middle of a muddy bed of a drained pond-but with the next nearest tracks 20 feet distant. Here we would have confirmation of another one of those 20 foot broad jumps.

Best Wishes, Dale D.

ADDENDUM: [From Mysterious Creatures (2002) both of the following categories are composites defined broadly enough to be only of limited value in determining any Zoological identities, but on the other hand both entries do include most of the pertinent data involved]
 George Eberhart under Devil Monkeys:

Devil Monkey Large, sometimes-tailed Primate of North America. Etymology: Name coined by Mark A. Hall. Variant names: Giant monkey, Nalusa Falaya. Physical description: Height, 3–8 feet. Light brown to black hair. Pointed ears. Baboonlike or doglike muzzle [NB: Descriptions of "Baboonlike" faces also mean Chimpanzeelike, includes Bulldoglike, both as specified by the witnesses involved-DD]. Strong chest. A blaze of white fur from neck to belly. Short forelegs with claws. Muscular hind legs. Large feet. A long tail is sometimes reported, alternately described as black and bushy or hairless. Behavior:Sometimes walks bipedally, at other times quadrupedally[and can leap long distances-DD]. Aggressive toward dogs and humans. Emits a wide range of hoots, calls, screams, and whistles. Said to kill livestock and small game. Tracks: Three rounded toes, with regular spacing between. Length, 12–15 inches. Distribution: British Columbia; Appalachian Mountain region of the United States. Significant sightings: Early one morning in 1959, a monkeylike creature rushed at the car of a couple driving down a rural road near Saltville, Virginia. It chased the vehicle for a short while, grabbing at it with its front paws. Later, they found three long, deep scratches in the metal from the front door to the rear. Around the same time, the animal apparently ripped off the con- vertible top of a car driven by two nurses. After midnight on June 26, 1997, Debbie Cross saw a strange animal outside her rural home near Dunkinsville, Ohio. It was 3–4 feet tall, hairy, and with long arms and a short tail. As it moved away from her, it walked on its knuckles. A giant black monkey was spotted in rural Danville, New Hampshire, on September 9, 2001, and on at least nine other occasions over a two-week period. Present status: Distinctions between North American Apes, Devil monkeys, Hairy Bipeds, and Bigfoot are nebulous and possibly arbitrary. In general, North American Apes are tailless and primarily quadrupedal, and they resemble chimpanzees; Devil monkeys are tailed and resemble baboons[or macaques-DD] ; Hairy Bipeds cover a wide range of descriptions from apes to wildmen and even paranormal entities; Bigfoot is a robust, tall hominid with a range that seems restricted to the Pacific Northwest. Loren Coleman even notes certain similarities with Phantom Kangaroo reports and suggests that juvenile Devil monkeys may resemble kangaroos [which is really stretching the definition!-DD]. Possible explanations: (1) Feral pet monkeys have formed breeding colonies, especially in Florida. A group of Squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus) live in Broward County’s Hugh Taylor Birch State Park, and Rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) became well established around Silver Springs after they were first released into the wild in Marion County during the filming of Tarzan movies in 1933. Rhesus monkeys are also known in Jack Kaye Park in Fort Lauderdale. A few of the 500 monkeys uncaged in 1992 by Hurricane Andrew from research labs, private owners, and the Miami Metrozoo are probably still living and breeding in the Everglades. Some officials believe Capuchin monkeys (Cebus spp.) are forming troops in south Florida. A free-roaming group of Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) was brought to Dilley, Texas, in 1972 to save the animals from destruction in Kyoto, Japan, where they are regarded as a nuisance; in 1980, the monkeys became the property of the South Texas Primate Observatory and were confined for behavioral research at a ranch there. But in the late 1980s, their enclosure fell into disrepair, and several escaped. The monkeys have roamed the south Texas brush ever since, their population swelling to more than 600 by 1995. However, none of these colonies are in areas where Devil monkeys have been reported. (2) Surviving Protopithecus brasiliensis (or related species), an extinct, fruit-eating spider monkey from the Late Pleistocene of eastern Brazil that was twice as large as any extant species, suggested by Chad Arment. (3) Surviving Theropithecus oswaldi, a large baboon that lived 650,000 years ago in East Africa and is the ancestor of the modern Gelada baboon (T. gelada), suggested by Mark A. Hall. The male was roughly the size of a female gorilla and weighed 250 pounds. A ground dweller, this animal was too big to live in trees and could not use its long forearms for swinging. Sources: Chad Arment, “Virginia Devil Monkey Reports,” North American BioFortean Review 2, no. 1 (2000): 34–37, http://www. strangeark.com/nabr/NABR1.pdf; Chad Arment, “Devil Monkeys or Wampus Cats?” North American BioFortean Review 2, no. 2 (2000): 45–48, http://www.strangeark. com/nabr/NABR4.pdf; Loren Coleman, Mysterious America, rev. ed. (New York: Paraview, 2001), pp. 184–187.

Hairy Biped A humanlike or apelike Entityof North Amer- ica, possessing some of the characteristics of Giant Hominids or North American Apes. Etymology: Coined by Jerome Clark as a catchall term for humanoids reported in the midwestern and eastern United States and Canada. Variant names: Big hairy monster (BHM), Billiwack monster (in southern California), Booger, Buenafoot (in southern California), Cannibal Giant, Dwayyo, Eastern bigfoot, Fluorescent Freddie, Goatman, Goonyak (in Vermont), Grassman (in Ohio), Lake Worth Monster, Manbeast, Manimal, Momo, Old slipperyskin (in Vermont), Old yellow top (in Ontario), Ole woolly, Orange eyes (in Ohio), Precambrian Shield man, Taku he (Dakota/Siouan, “what’s that?”), Wejuk (in Vermont), Wood devil, Wookie, Woolly booger, Yeahoh (in Kentucky). Physical description: Not as uniform as the Bigfoot of the Pacific Northwest, though al- ways covered with hair and walking on two legs (hence its name). It’s difficult to generalize traits from reports that might have multiple causes, but some of the following features are usually present. Height, 4–9 feet, though sizes up to 12 feet are mentioned. Hair or fur is reddish-brown to black, often described as 6–8 inches long. Often distinctly lacking in facial features, but a catlike face is occasionally reported. Red, or- ange, yellow, or green glowing eyes. Flat, broad nose. Pointed ears. Werewolflike fangs. Mane. Long arms. Hands are sometimes clawed. Long legs. Behavior: Primarily nocturnal. Usually has an awkward, bipedal gait but sometimes runs on all fours. Said to be able to swim. Occasionally seen with young. Reported calls are moans, grunts, howls, high-pitched shrieks. Strong, putrid odor like decaying flesh or rotten eggs. These crea- tures are sometimes ascribed such paranormal features as invulnerability, transparency, insub- stantiality, invisibility, and the ability to disap- pear instantaneously. Appears to show interest in and have no fear of human dwellings. Dis- likes cars and dogs, which often react with great fright. Sometimes associated with unidentified flying object (UFO) sightings. Tracks: Anywhere from two- to six-toed. Three-toed are perhaps commonest and have been reported from the South, the Midwest, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and southern California. Length, up to 14 inches. Stride, up to 5 feet. Hair samples have been found. All primates have five toes. Any Hairy biped that leaves clear imprints showing anything less than five toes constitutes an extreme evolution- ary anomaly. Pentadactyly (having five fingers or toes) is a common and primitive feature of reptiles and mammals. However, it is not an es- sential requirement, and many animals have modified the plan: frogs only have four digits, cows have two, horses have dropped all but one, and snakes have gotten rid of legs altogether. Most birds get by walking on only four (three in front and one behind), while the Ostrich (Struthio camelus) only has two. If three-toed, humanlike bipeds really exist as flesh-and-blood creatures and are not paranormal apparitions, it would be most interesting to find out more about their foot structure. Perhaps three toes is better than five when you’ve chosen a swamp or wetland as your habitat. Habitat: Secluded areas, often forested wet- lands or mountainous regions. Distribution: Nearly every U.S. state and Canadian province. Most sightings represent only transient individuals. A partial list of places where Hairy bipeds have been reported follows: Alabama—Choccolocco Valley, Town Creek. Arkansas—Center Ridge, Greene County, Jonesboro, Leachville, Poinsett County, St. Francis County, South Crossett, Springdale. California—Antelope Valley, Borrego Sink, Lytle Creek, Pearblossom, San Gorgonio Mountains, Santa Paula. Colorado—Green Mountain Falls. Connecticut—Bristol, Crystal Lake Reservoir, Winsted. Delaware—Selbyville. Georgia—Edison. Illinois—Big Muddy River, Cairo, Center- ville, Chittyville, Creve Coeur, East Peoria, Eff- ingham, Farmer City, Kickapoo Creek, Murphysboro. Indiana—Attica, French Lick, Galveston, Hoosier National Forest, Knox County, Pike County, Richmond, Rising Sun, Roachdale, Sharpsville, Winslow. Iowa—Clinton. Kentucky—Albany, Leslie County, Trimble County. Labrador, Canada—Goose Bay. Louisiana—Cotton Island, Honey Island Swamp. Maine—Durham. Manitoba, Canada—Gypsumville, Steinbach, Whiteshell Provincial Park. Maryland—Calvert County, Churchville, Dickerson, Harford County, Kingsville, Prince George’s County, Sykesville. Massachusetts—Bridgewater, Raynham Center. Michigan—Byron, Charlotte, Dowagiac Swamp, Fenton, Houghton Lake State Forest, Lake City, Marshall, Mason, Mio, Monroe, Os- coda County, Port Huron, Saginaw, Shiawassee River, Sister Lakes, Tuscola County, Yale. Minnesota—northern part of state. Mississippi—Meridian, Winona. Missouri—Louisiana, Pacific, Troy. Montana—Monarch, Vaughn. Nebraska—south of Lincoln. Nevada—Nevada Test Site. New Hampshire—Hollis, Salisbury. New Jersey—Great Bear Swamp, High Point, Middletown, Vineland. New York—Burlington County, Ellisburg, Morristown, Mount Misery, Richmondtown, Sherman, Watertown, Whitehall. Newfoundland, Canada—Trinity Bay. North Carolina—Dismal Swamp, Tabor City. Ohio—Alliance, Brookside Park, Carlisle, Coshocton County, Defiance, Eaton, Huron, Kenmore, Kimbolton, Mansfield, Minerva, Monroeville, Muskingum County, Newcomer- stown, Point Isabel, Rome. Oklahoma—Canton, Kiamichi Mountains, Mountain Fork River, Nowata, Noxie, Tahle- quah, Wann. Ontario, Canada—Cobalt, Webequie, Wee- nusk Indian Reservation. Oregon—Conser Lake, Roseburg. Pennsylvania—Allegheny County, Allison, Beaver County, Bradford County, Buffalo Mills, Chester County, Chestnut Ridge, Derry Township, East Pennsboro Township, Edin- boro, Fayette County, Gray Station, Indiana County, Jeannette, Lancaster, Latrobe, Lock Haven, Somerset County, Uniontown, West- moreland County, Whitney. Saskatchewan, Canada—Grand Rapids. South Dakota—Standing Rock Indian Reser- vation. Tennessee—Charlotte, Flintville, Lascassas, Knox County, Monteagle Mountain. Texas—Bells, Caddo, Denton, Haskell, Lamar County, Lake Worth, Newton County, Paris, Peerless, Polk County. Vermont—Chittenden, Hartland, Rutland County, Williamstown. Virginia—Colonial Beach, Middletown. West Virginia—Cacapon Bridge, Davis, Hickory Flats, Marlinton, Parsons. Wisconsin—Benton, Cashton, Deltox Swamp, Grafton, Granton, Jefferson, Medford. Significant sightings: Riley W. Smith saw a naked hairy man, about 6 feet tall, while picking berries near Winsted, Connecticut, on August 17, 1895. The incident was the first of about twenty that allegedly took place in western Con- necticut and the Catskill Mountains of New York over the next few weeks. Widely and pos- sibly erroneously regarded as a hoax by newspa- perman Louis T. Stone, the original incident may have involved a bear. An apelike, bipedal creature with a yellow head and mane was seen by workers near the Vi- olet Mine east of Cobalt, Ontario, in September 1906. In 1923, two prospectors saw a similar yel- low-headed, black-haired animal eating blueber- ries; they thought it was a bear until they threw a rock at it, prompting it to get up and walk away on two legs. Later sightings earned it the nickname “Old yellow top.” The last sighting was in August 1970 when Aimée Latreille, the driver of a bus carrying twenty-seven miners, was forced to swerve after he saw an apelike creature with a light mane cross the road; the bus nearly had a fatal crash down a nearby rock cut. In August 1963, Harlan E. Ford and a friend encountered a huge humanoid in Honey Island Swamp near Slidell, Louisiana. It glared menacingly at them and ran away on two legs. In May 1964, near Sister Lakes, Michigan, Gordon Brown and his brother saw a hairy man about 9 feet tall who made a whimpering sound. Shortly afterward, three teenagers saw a 7-foot creature with a black face running through the underbrush in Silver Creek Township. Many other witnesses came forth and were named in extensive newspaper coverage. A green, 10-foot-tall monster with glowing red eyes was seen in March 1965 by teenagers in the woods south of French Lick, Indiana. They called it “Fluorescent Freddie.” In 1965, two teenagers were chased from their campfire by a 9- to 10-foot hairy creature on the north slope of the San Gorgonio Moun- tains, California. On August 13, 1965, Christine Van Acker and her mother were driving near Monroe, Michigan, when a hairy, 7-foot giant stepped in front of their car. Van Acker hit the brakes, stalling the car, and the creature reached through the open window and grabbed the top of her head. The women’s screams and horn honking apparently made it retreat. On May 19, 1969, George Kaiser saw a man- sized creature covered in black fur on his farm near Rising Sun, Indiana. It made a strange grunting sound, jumped over a ditch, and swiftly ran down the road. Later, footprints with three small toes and a big toe were found. A greenish-white UFO was seen by a neighbor the next night. Odd, froglike noises woke up teenagers Wayne Hall and Dave Chapman early on July 24, 1972, at the latter’s home near Crystal Lake Reservoir in northwestern Connecticut. Look- ing outside, they saw an 8-foot hairy creature. It crossed a road and moved around in the shad- ows near a horse barn. After forty-five minutes, it crossed the road again and disappeared in the woods by the lake. On the night of April 22, 1973, William Roemermann, Brian Goldojarb, and Richard Engels saw a Bigfoot-like creature near the Sycamore Flats campground in Big Rock Canyon, Los Angeles County, California. It chased their truck for about twenty seconds, its long arms swinging in front of its chest. On re- turning, they found many huge, three-toed tracks. In May and June 1973, an apelike creature terrorized the area around Sykesville in Carroll County, Maryland. Five-toed, 13-inch foot- prints were found, separated by a stride of 6 feet. On June 25, 1973, Randy Needham and Judy Johnson were parked near a boat ramp on the Big Muddy River near Murphysboro, Illi- nois, when they heard a piercing cry that came from the nearby woods. They looked up and saw the sound came from a huge shape lumber- ing toward them. The creature was about 7 feet tall and covered with a matted, whitish hair. Others saw and heard the same creature over the next two weeks, and it reappeared in the sum- mers of 1974, 1975, 1988, and 1989. At 4:30 a.m. on September 2, 1973, Chester Yothers woke up and saw a Bigfoot-like crea- ture only 5 feet away outside his trailer near Whitney, Pennsylvania, apparently looking at the house next door. He woke his wife and called the police, who arrived shortly afterward. The monster was gone, but they found wet foot- prints on the concrete and in the flower bed. Dennis Smith and Jimmy Slate heard pound- ing and shrieking noises in the woods next to Overlook Drive, near Watertown, New York, in the early morning of August 10, 1976. As the sun was rising, they saw an erect, black hominid walking down the road about two city blocks away. When Smith yelled, the creature turned around and ran in the opposite direction. Later, two 15-inch-long tracks, trampled grass, and some long hairs were found. On May 18, 1977, two thirteen-year-old boys were walking their dog near the historic Roberts Covered Bridge south of Eaton, Ohio, when the dog got frightened and they smelled a rotten-meat odor. Turning around, they saw a 9-foot, apelike creature with dirty brown hair, white eyes, and long arms; it chased them to- ward the road. Both boys were terrified for weeks after the incident. Two 14-inch, human- like prints were found near Seven Mile Creek on a nearby farm. Some twenty-eight sightings of Bigfoot-like creatures 6–9 feet tall were reported in wooded areas around Little Eagle in the Standing Rock Reservation in South Dakota from September to November 1977. Numerous large footprints were found, and high-pitched shrieks were heard repeatedly. Cecelia Thunder Shield said the being was tall with gray, shining hair and a black face. In January 1980, an employee of Reynolds Electrical and Engineering Company saw a 6- to 7-foot hairy creature while driving along a high- way at the northern end of the Nevada Test Site. It disappeared in the sagebrush. James Guyette saw a huge hairy humanoid walking and swinging its arms along an inter- state highway near Hartland Dam, Vermont, in April 1984. It moved down the embankment and headed west. A woodsman of Gray Station, Pennsylvania, was walking at the forest edge at dusk on December 13, 1986, when something threw a large piece of wood at him. He looked up and saw a hairy creature, standing 8–9 feet tall with wide shoulders and long arms, blocking the path. After a moment, it turned, stooped, and ran into the woods. Gary Lee Hayes was hunting near a tract of the Houghton Lake State Forest, Michigan, on No- vember 25, 1990, when he saw a tall, upright creature moving on the crest of a nearby hill. It had black hair all over its body and was 7 feet tall. The creature walked down to a large beaver dam, squatted down, stood up, then went back uphill. Robert Toal found huge, human-shaped tracks in the snow on his property in Kingsville, Maryland, on the night of February 4–5, 1995. Field investigators from the Baltimore-area Enigma Project arrived a few days later and photographed the tracks, which were 20 inches long, 11 inches wide, but only 1 inch deep in the powdery snow. The tracks had an average stride of 4 feet 10 inches in a straight line and apparently passed through a 4-foot-high wire fence. Since even humans weighing less than 200 pounds made deeper impressions in the snow, the Enigma group thought these were the full-body impressions of a much lighter animal, possibly a jumping rabbit. Early in the morning of March 28, 2000, James Hughes was driving his newspaper route near Grafton, Wisconsin, when he saw an 8- foot hairy humanoid standing by the side of the road. The creature was carrying something that looked like a dead goat. Human tracks 14 inches long and 5 inches wide were found in early June 2001 on the Weenusk Indian Reservation at the mouth of the Winisk River on Hudson Bay, Ontario. The stride measured 6 feet. Present status: Distinctions between North American Apes, Devil Monkeys, Hairy bipeds, and Bigfoot are nebulous and possibly arbitrary. In general, North American Apes are tailless and primarily quadrupedal, and they resemble chimpanzees; Devil Monkeys are tailed and resemble baboons; Hairy bipeds cover a wide range of descriptions, from apes to Wild- men and even paranormal Entities; Bigfoot is a robust, tall hominid with a range that seems restricted to the Pacific Northwest. Possible explanations: (1) Many hoaxes, such as pranksters wearing masks or suits. The Selbyville, Delaware, swamp monster of 1964 was admittedly a hoax perpetrated by a man in a monster suit. (2) Mentally unstable or homeless humans living in the woods. This explanation may have been especially true for nineteenth- century reports. (3) Misidentified American black bears (Ursus americanus). (4) Monkeys or apes escaped from zoos or circuses. (5) Entities associated with UFOs, suggested by Stan Gordon and Don Worley. (6) Occurrences of Bigfoot outside its traditional range in the Pacific Northwest. The only comparative analysis of Hairy biped data in eastern North America has been done by Craig Heinselman, who looked at 654 reports from fifteen eastern and northeastern states between 1838 and 2001 and found few differences in height or other narrowly selected physical characteristics from the Pacific Northwest Bigfoot. He arrived at a tentative population estimate of 210–420 adult individuals for all fifteen states. Sources: Leonard Roberts, South from Hell- fer-Sartin: Kentucky Mountain Folk Tales (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1955), p. 162; Indianapolis News, March 15–17, 1965; “Monster Season,” Newsweek, August 30, 1965, p. 22; Gene Caesar, “The Hellzapoppin’ Hunt for the Michigan Monster,” True, June 1966, pp. 59–60, 84–85; Ivan T. Sanderson, “Wisconsin’s Abominable Snowman,” Argosy, April 1969, pp. 27–29, 70; Warren Smith, “America’s Terrifying Woodland Monster- Men,” Saga, July 1969, pp. 34–37, 92–94; John A. Keel, Strange Creatures from Time and Space (Greenwich, Conn.: Fawcett, 1970); Jerome Clark, “On the Trail of Unidentified Furry Objects,” Fate 26 (August 1973): 56–64; Allen V. Noe, “ABSMal Affairs in Pennsylvania and Elsewhere,” Pursuit, no. 24 (October 1973): 84–89; Stan Gordon, “UFOs in Relation to Creature Sightings in Pennsylvania,” in Walter H. Andrus Jr., ed., MUFON 1974 UFO Symposium Proceedings (Seguin, Tex.: Mutual UFO Network, 1974), pp. 132–154; Jerome Clark and Loren Coleman, “Swamp Slobs Invade Illinois,” Fate 27 (July 1974): 84–88; Berthold Eric Schwarz, “Berserk: A UFO- Creature Encounter,” Flying Saucer Review 20, no. 1 (July 1974): 3–11; Milton LaSalle, “Bigfoot Sighting,” Pursuit, no. 40 (Fall 1977): 120–123; Mark A. Hall, “Contemporary Stories of ‘Taku He’ or ‘Bigfoot’ in South Dakota as Drawn from Newspaper Accounts,” Minnesota Archeologist 37 (1978): 63–78; Jerome Clark and Loren Coleman, Creatures of the Outer Edge (New York: Warner, 1978); Mark A. Hall, “Stories of ‘Bigfoot’ in Iowa during 1978 as Drawn from Newspaper Sources,” Minnesota Archeologist 38 (1979): 2–17; S. Stover, “Does Maryland Have a Sasquatch?” INFO Journal, no. 34 (March-April 1979): 2–6; Dennis Pilichis, Night Siege: The Northern Ohio UFO- Creature Invasion (Rome, Ohio: Dennis Pilichis, 1982); Bruce G. Hallenbeck, Bob Bartholomew, and Paul Bartholomew, “Bigfoot in the Adirondacks,” Adirondack Bits ‘n Pieces 1, no. 3 (Spring-Summer 1984): 21–26, 49–50, 58–61; Mark Opsasnick, The Maryland Bigfoot Reference Guide (Greenbelt, Md.: Mark Opsasnick, 1987); Mike Marinacci, Mysterious California (Los Angeles, Calif.: Panpipes, 1988), pp. 84–86, 93–94; Mark Chorvinsky and Mark Opsasnick, “The Selbyville Swamp Monster Exposed,” Strange Magazine, no. 4 (1989): 6–8; Michael T. Shoemaker, “Searching for the Historical Bigfoot,” Strange Magazine, no. 5 (1990): 18–23, 57–62; David E. Philips, Legendary Connecticut (Willimantic, Conn.: Curbstone, 1992), pp. 175–177; Michael T. Shoemaker, “The Winsted Wild Man Revisited,” Strange Magazine, no. 11 (Spring- Summer 1993): 30–31, 59; Joseph A. Citro, Green Mountain Ghosts, Ghouls and Unsolved Mysteries (Montpelier: Vermont Life, 1994), pp. 93–101; Michael A. Frizzell, “The Kingsville Tracks,” INFO Journal, no. 74 (Winter 1996): 17–21; Loren Coleman, “Three Toes Are Better than Five,” Fortean Times, no. 98 (June 1997): 44; Christopher L. Murphy, Bigfoot in Ohio: Encounters with the Grassman (New Westminster, B.C., Canada: Pyramid, 1997); Christopher Kiernan Coleman, Strange Tales of the Dark and Bloody Ground (Nashville, Tenn.: Rutledge Hill, 1998), pp. 53–55; Don Keating, “Active Sasquatch in Coshocton County, Ohio,” North American BioFortean Review 1, no. 1 (April 1999): 5, 41, http://www. strangeark.com/nabr/NABR1.pdf; Dana Holyfield, Encounters with the Honey Island Swamp Monster (Pearl River, La.: Honey Island Swamp Books, 1999); Keith Edwards, “Wisconsin a New Home for Bigfoot?” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, April 4, 2000; Tim Swartz, “The Hairy Ones,” Strange Magazine, no. 21 (Fall 2000), on line at http://www. strangemag.com; Ron Schaffner, “Retrospective: Preble County, Ohio Incident,” Crypto Hominology Special, no. 1 (April 7, 2001), pp. 50–58, at http://www.strangeark.com/crypto/ Cryptohominids.pdf; Francine Dubé, “Big Footprints Stir Sasquatch Speculation,” National Post (Canada), June 25, 2001; Joe Nickell, “Tracking the Swamp Monsters,” Skeptical Inquirer 25, no. 4 (July 2001): 15; Craig Heinselman, “Eastern Sasquatch Analysis: Potential Patterns or Dubious Data?” paper presented at the Third East Coast Bigfoot Researchers Meeting, September 22, 2001, Delmont, Pennsylvania; Chester Moore Jr., “Monsterous Sounds: A Field Investigation of Texas Bigfoot Vocalizations,” The Anomalist, no. 10 (2002): 13–19.

--Among the other categories should be added the Lytle Creek Monster in the San Bernardino Hills, seen 1966, but with a more recent outbreak of "Monkey" sightings in the San Bernardino area in 2005-2010, often confused with rumors of escaped chimpanzees or such
http://www.pe.com/local-news/san-bernardino-county/san-bernardino-county-headlines-index/20111029-san-bernardino-lytle-creek-monster-had-short-reign.ece

Another 1950s Cover Story

WIERD BUT TRUE!

While going through 1950's Men's Magazines cover art, I also came upon this cover which was apparantly retelling the 1955 encounter of a woman in the water with a "Creature" near Evansville, Indiana.

This was an incident referred to in the earlier blog posting about Reptoids,

http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2011/09/reptoids-and-dinosauroids.html

And it is one of a series of early reports from the Eastern USA which Ivan Sanderson referred to generically as Abominable Swamp Slobs. Since the category included Eastern Bigfoot, North American Apes (Skunk Apes) and generic Hairy Biped reports as well, the category is generally useless today: but a number of what were then called "Swamp Monsters" in the later 1950s and on through the 1960s and into the 1970s seem to have been "Creatures" of this sort, and that includes not only reports from Florida but also similar rumours in the Caribbean Sea and in Central America as well, from Sanderson's archives. At the time, NONE of these reports were taken very seriously, even by the Cryptozoologists.

The cover art is by Clarence Doore.

Best Wishes, Dale D.

The WHOLE Picture This Time

While on a photo search for something else, I came upon the original of a much-reproduced early illustration of a female Sasquatch (Pre-Patty):

It is a Mort Kunstler illustration of the Roe encounter as illustrated for TRUE Magazine in the later 1950s.


And yes, there are other versions of the artwork but this is the full, original 2-page-spread painting. At least one other simpler versiion in a plain gray wash has also surfaced since the publication of Ivan Sanderson's Abominable Snowmen in 1961: Sanderson's book cropped out just the Sasquatch from this version of the illustration.

Best Wishes, Dale D.