; Phantoms and Monsters: Pulse of the Paranormal

Friday, February 22, 2013

Odd Sighting in York County, PA


I found an interesting account posted on Stephen Wagner's Paranormal About by Stacy L. The incident took place recently in York, Pennsylvania...a location I am very familiar with. I have received several odd cryptid sightings from in and around York and Lancaster counties (which are in south-central Pennsylvania...where I grew up and just north of my residence in Baltimore, MD). Was this a natural sighting...or a lost pet?

I was just relaxing in my house and watching some TV. We have double sliding doors with windows facing our backyard, and I can see outside from where I was lounging on the couch.

That's when something began moving in the corner of my vision. When I glanced over, I noticed our 10-foot-high dogwood tree on the very end bordering our yard from the neighbors was shaking violently. I couldn't figure out what kind of animal, aside from a human, could shake an entire tree like that. I stood up and walked over to the window to peer out.

There are also several extremely large pine trees bordering along the end of the backyard and I couldn't see anything through the thick foliage, even though the sun was shining brightly in the sky. The dogwood continued to shake, and then to my astonishment an enormous gray creature jumped from one of the dogwood's flimsy branches and into a huge pine nearby.

I only glimpsed it for about three seconds at most, but I definitely got a good look at it, and it was like nothing I have ever seen before. The creature was rather large, perhaps around 4 feet in length and about the size of a fox. It was all gray except for its long skinny tail that had black and white stripes along it, like those lemurs from Madagascar. Its front end was somewhat slouched down, as if it had short front legs and large powerful back legs, like how a kangaroo would look.

It was the weirdest creature I had ever seen. Unfortunately, I didn't get a look at its head as it quickly vanished into the pine. A few minutes later, I was outside rooting through the leaves and long grass at the end of the yard looking for footprints and maybe to catch a sighting of the creature, but I didn't find anything. Yet I know what I saw.

I live in York, Pennsylvania, and such creatures like that don't live in this area. If I absolutely had to call it a specific animal, I would say it was a lemur, but the tail wasn't bushy, but very slender and agile like a cat's. Wish I had taken a picture.

I haven't seen it since that day, but there have been weird scratching noises below my bedroom window at night ever since I saw the creature and I wonder if the two are related or if its another incident that coincidentally just happened in the same time period. And I wonder if I should report the sighting. If I should, who do I report to?

So...I previously mentioned that I had received odd reports from York and Lancaster counties over the years.

This video was forwarded to me with very little information...although I do know it was from a suburb of York, PA and that it was taken with a trail camera that was mounted on a tree approximately 8 ft from the ground. There had been sightings of a Bigfoot-like creature over a series of nights...but they captured something else instead. Whatever it was dislodged the camera and it focused towards the ground. This is not a deer or any other natural hooved animal in the area. A cow could not have dislodged the camera. Take a look --> Video - Unknown Creature - Hoof, Hand, Paw or What? This incident has baffled me for over 3 years.

Here are a few other strange encounters:

WILD MAN

Near Strasburg, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania - August 1978 - afternoon

Three Amish men were working in their field when a odd looking man approached them from the direction of a neighboring farm. The man was yelling and jumping about. The Amish men were alarmed and noticed that this 'man' had arms, legs and a face that seemed different...more animal than human. He had coarse dark hair on his limbs and face and wore what appeared to be a dark colored and tattered pair of old style boxer shorts. As the man-creature approached closer, he was yelling something but it was not understood by the men.

The men ran towards their house...the man-creature was right behind them. One of the Amish men ducked into the dairy barn and the other two immediately went in the house. An elderly Amish woman who had been in the garden, came to see what was going on. When the man-creature saw her it suddenly stopped running, sat down on the grass and remained quiet while staring at the sky.

The men came out of the house and one of them slowly walked over to the man-creature and attempted to talk to it. The man-creature continued to look at the sky but started to mumble. The man and woman noticed that a horrible stench permeated from this creature...described at rotting flesh.

After several minutes, the creature got to it's feet and started to walk towards the dairy barn. As it did, the witnesses noticed that the creature started to 'fade away'...eventually it completely disappeared from view just before it reached the barn. Shocked, the Amish witnesses dropped to their knees...not knowing what they had witnessed.

NOTE: this account was communicated by one of the witnesses to a non-Amish friend who periodically purchased produce from them. It was disclosed to me several years after the incident though I do know the location of the incident and who two of the witnesses were (I was raised in the general area). The other witnesses have since passed away. The witness who gave the account still lives at the location and has (reluctantly) verified the incident to me. In turn, I promised to keep personal information confidential.

Historically, Wild Men and/or Bigfoot-like creatures have become part of the Lancaster / York County folklore. There have been sightings as old as the earliest settlers in this area as well as the Susquehannock people who inhabited the land previously.

In 1987, I had a conversation with a self-described shaman whose Susquehannock relatives had moved to Ohio after many others were killed off by smallpox and invading settlers. The Susquehannocks were said to be 'giants' by John Smith and the early settlers...most described as being 'well over 6 foot high' and broad chested. This shaman told me that the Susquehannocks had placed a curse on the land before they left and that the dead would rise as shape shifters and torment the white man...Lon


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STRANGE CREATURE

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania - August 1973 - various

An ungodly looking creature created havoc among the local god-fearing Amish community. Witnesses described the creature as following: The size of a good heifer, gray in color with a white mane. It had tiger like fangs and curved horns like a Billy goat. It ran upright on long legs, and had long grizzly claws. In one incident, the creature sent a team of horses and two brothers flying when it approached their hay wagon. The following day, a man was cutting weeds on his farm about five miles from the previous incident when he heard a fierce roar and turned to see a monster with three horns and a tail charging in his direction. He raised his scythe to defend himself, only to have the implement ripped from his hands. At that point, the man wisely decided to turn both cheeks to the monster and escaped as fast as he could run. A day later a woman was feeding poultry on a farm midway between the two earlier incidents when she heard a commotion and turned to see the creature in the act of snatching a goose in each of its hands. She bravely ran toward the thing, waving her apron. The woman managed to recover one of her geese when the creature threw it at her, knocking her to the ground in the process. The interloper then escaped with the remaining bird in hand.

Source: Phillip L Rife, America's Nightmare Monsters

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Also...this link --> York County, PA Flying Cryptids

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Strange Hominid Sighting Reported Near Red Lion, York County, Pennsylvania

I received a telephone call today from a woman who claims to have seen a small bigfoot-like creature on July 18th, 2008 near the town of Red Lion, Pa. She stated that she had been shopping and was on her way home. As she was driving south on Rt. 624 about 2 miles from Red Lion, she noticed something running across a field near a home construction site. At first, she thought it was a large dog but it stood upright like a human. She pulled her car into an unfinished side road and observed the creature for several minutes as it would stop, look around, then continue running until it reached a small woods. She states that it was around 7PM in the evening and clear.

She described it as stocky with muscular arms and legs and no more than 4 foot in stature and sparsely covered in dark gray hair. It had no clothes though she could not determine the gender. At one point, she says that she was near enough to notice the head was smaller than that of a human child of the same height. She said that only one other person (a neighbor) was told of this sighting and that she did not want any notoriety. Her only reason for contacting me was because she had seen my blog and that I lived nearby (about 50 miles south in Baltimore) and thought I may want to check the area out for myself.

Note: She only gave me the name 'Macy' as a reference (I assume this is not her actual name) and refused to disclose her address and other personal information. There have been Bigfoot sighting reports in this area of Pennsylvania in the past as well as in neighboring Maryland. This very well could have been a juvenile Bigfoot. There have been local and Indian legends of a small hominid (the Albatwitch) in Lancaster and York counties...Lon

Strange Pennsylvania Monsters

Really Mysterious Pennsylvania: UFOs, Bigfoot & Other Weird Encounters Casebook One

Phantoms & Monsters: Cryptid Encounters