Big Cats: From the Appalachians to the Southeast Swamps

In her recent article in the Huffington Post, American Monsters: A History of Monster Lore, Legends, and Sightings in America author Linda Godfrey noted seven of the scariest monsters in America. Sean Forker and I discussed this in our recent 'Preview Show' podcast at Arcane Radio.

Linda included the 'Wampus Cat' cryptid on the list, in which she notes:

"...resembles a huge, unholy hybrid of canine and feline characteristics. People have reported being stalked by these creatures in the canyons around Los Angeles and in some states in southeastern U.S. A supporting Native American legend of a woman cursed for spying on a men's council meeting hints at mythic origins of these creatures. The woman was doomed to roam in the shape of a human-like, great cat and, according to the legends, still haunts many southern forests."

The Wampus Cat legends are a matter of fact in Cherokee native tradition...I've heard these tales since I was a kid. Several years ago, I wrote a piece about big cat tales from the Appalachians to the southern swamps. The following is a portion of that early post:

Cryptid cat sightings are a worldwide phenomena. For decades, there have been accounts of large black cats roaming the countryside of Great Britain. As well, mutilations of horses and livestock in Australia have prompted fear that undocumented large cats also dwell on the continent.

Over the past few years, there has been an increased number of large cat sightings recorded throughout the eastern United States. Most descriptions have been similar to those of cougars or panther-like creatures, large muscular felines with long tails. Though, many of the reports proved to be that of a large feral cat or an oversized pet.

Before European settlers set foot in North America, the native Cherokee people of Tennessee, North Carolina and Georgia spoke of the fearsome Wampus Cat (also called the Ewah) that roamed the land. This was said to be the result of a woman who had disguised herself in the skin of a mountain lion and spied on the men of the tribe as they sat around the campfire telling sacred stories on a hunting trip. When the woman was discovered, the tribe's medicine man punished her by transforming her into a half-woman, half-cat. Supposedly, this creature still lives.

In the early 19th century, the Wampus Cat was reported to roam the Southern bottomlands and described as ". . . an impossibly hideous critter said to have the head of a man, the body of a wildcat only larger, and the soul of a demon." The Wampus Cat was known to lurk along murky river bottoms and feast upon hapless hunters, fishermen and travelers and anybody else who wandered too far away from civilization. Wampus Cat stories and sightings became less and less frequent after the War Between the States.

Old American South books and newspapers state that "Wampus" was a name used for an unknown monster cat as well as other mystery animals. The word catawampus (cattywampus), which means "Cater-Cornered; slant wise, or Evil; malicious" in the American Heritage Dictionary, seems to be a neutral piece of evidence.

In 2008, a reader from Knoxville responded to an inquiry I made concerning the Wampus Cat and other mysterious large cats:

“During the school year, my girlfriend lives in Strong Hall on the University of Tennessee campus. One night while we were at her place, I was talking about how I was walking back to my dorm (Greve Hall) with a friend of mine. I was beside him, but very slightly ahead. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw what appeared to be a man in a black cloak walk up to my friend and sort of lean into him, almost like he was going to put his hand on my friend's shoulder. Only when his hand fell on my friend's shoulder, he simply disappeared. I will admit that during this time I was a bit tired from studying for an exam, and my friend says he felt nothing, but that's neither here nor there.”

“After telling my girlfriend this story, she told me that during the first week of school she looked out her ground-floor window toward the corner of 16th and Cumberland, and saw what appeared to be a human-sized cat walking on its hind legs, with glowing eyes. I don't remember the details she gave me, as far as how long it was there or how long she saw it.”

“It should be noted that my girlfriend is from Minnesota and I have no reason to believe she would try to trick me by reading about the Wampus Cat and then trying to pretend she saw it. We're very close and I have no reason to believe she would lie to me.”

Granted, this could have been a dorm party induced phantom, but I think the writer was serious. There are recent accounts of large cat sightings in the south that have an unusual twist.

A few years ago, an unknown predator mauled a pit bull and killed two puppies in Brunswick County, North Carolina and residents fear it's the same animal that killed three dogs in September 2007. The county's animal control agency investigated the animal's tracks, droppings and other clues but couldn't determine what attacked the dogs. Locals call the unknown animal the 'Beast of Bolivia'. Some residents and experts said the predator may have been a wayward panther or cougar, or even a wolf because 3-inch paw tracks were found at the scene. There have been no reports of noise during the attacks which seems strange since this is a residential area. As well, the beast has never been seen.

In an earlier incident, a man was taking pictures of alligators in the North Santee River in South Carolina with a digital camera. Later when he returned home and looked at the images, he realized there was a black panther watching him. He stated that he never witnessed or heard the animal for the entire time he was at the river.

For years there have been stories of Black Florida Panthers prowling in our wilderness, but there's never been any official record they exist.

in 2008, a rare Black Bobcat was captured and researchers at the Busch Wildlife Sanctuary say they now know what people were referring to when they said they saw the panther.

"For years, people here in Florida have talked about Black Florida Panthers. First of all, Florida Panthers are basically a Cougar. There has never ever been a Black Cougar or a Florida Panther ever found. No record of them, no pictures, no hides, no skins, nothing. but still we hear these stories of black cats that lurk in the wilds of Florida. Maybe we have kind of found that missing piece of the puzzle and we now know what everybody's been talking about when they say, 'I saw a Black Panther in the wild.' But really they saw a Black Bobcat."

The sanctuary has been working with the state to run DNA and blood tests. They want to make sure there's official documentation that the Black Bobcat exists... even if the Black Panther does not. The sanctuary later returned the Black Bobcat to the wild.

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MORE ON THE LEGENDS

The mountains of Tennessee, from the hills of Kentucky and West Virginia , are dotted with country folks whose occupations range from farmers to coal miners. Many of these country folks have tales of the paranormal, ranging from coal miner ghosts to legends of the Indians.

Jinx Johnston is one of those country people who had a true encounter of a famous legend. The legend of the Wampus Cat. Jinx was a robust man. He stood about 6 feet high and weighed around 200 pounds. He was the type of man that could not scare very easily. The camp fire would cast eerie shadows on the faces of his audience as he began to tell his story of the Wampus Cat. The following is his story:

"There was an old woman who lived by herself in the hills of West Virginia. Townfolk swore she was a witch. People would complain their cattle would be hexed and other farm animals would come up missing. They all blamed the old woman because she lived like a hermit. Supposedly, she would turn herself into a cat and hide until someone would open the door. She would dart into the house and wait for her victims to fall asleep. She would cast a deeper sleeping spell on the farmer and then she would slip out of the window to steal a farm animal. The witch was so good at what she was doing, she was never caught."

"One day, the townfolks decided they had grown tired of their livestock coming up missing or dead. They devised a plan to catch the witch in her own act. She snuck into an unsuspecting house and placed the whole family under her spell. She jumped out the window as she had always done and went straight for a cow or sheep. Uncle Jinx always changed the animal this woman was after. The old woman, still in her cat form, went to the barn. She began chanting spells to change herself back into human form. Before it was completed, several people jumped out and surprised her. The poor old woman never had the chance to complete the transformation. It left her half woman and half cat. A ghastly creature to the eye sight. The creature howled with fright and broke down the door. She ran off into the night, never to be seen again. Jinx Johnston said time is important for a witch if she was changing back from an animal to a human again. The spell she had cast upon herself could never be reversed or fixed. The witch was doomed to be the Wampus Cat for the rest of her life."

"On nights when the moon is high, and the wind is blowing hard, you can see this creature. It walks upright like a human but has the body of a large cat. It howls and supposedly still stalks the hills of West Virginia. This creature is said to stalk farm animals but prefers young children the best."

Jinx would always finish his story by telling his audience how he used to go raccoon hunting. He and his 'coon' dogs would be out looking for raccoons to tree. The moon would always be bright in the sky and the howls of the Wampus cat would ring in his ears. One night, the dogs were way ahead of him. He kept hollering for them to return but they never did. The robust man went on to tell how he tripped over something and his rifle went flying out of his hands. He smelled an awful smell. He said it smelled like a skunk and a wet dog. He looked up and saw this hideous creature. Saliva dripping from its fangs, and yellow eyes that glowed in the dark, and a howl that nearly brought him out of his skin. Jinx looked for his rifle but it was lost in the dark. He got up and slowly backed away from the creature. He turned around and ran as fast as he could towards home. Jinx told how he could feel and smell its breath on his neck. He bolted inside his house and slammed the door. He reached for his Bible and began reading out loud. The Wampus Cat howled at his words. Finally, just as the sun peeked over the hill, the Wampus Cat left. He said this was the reason he stopped treeing raccoons at night. Jinx's fear of the Wampus Cat was greater than chasing a raccoon up a tree.

The second version of the Legend of the Wampus Cat begins this way. According to an old Indian legend, the Wampus Cat was created. It was said a young Indian woman did not trust her husband. It was custom for the men of the Indian tribe to hunt while the women did things around the encampments. The women were forbidden to hunt. One night, she placed the hide of a mountain cat on her body. She snuck out to spy on her husband to see what he did on his hunting trips. As the hunters gathered around their camp fires, the woman watched them. She became fascinated with the stories and the magic that was presented to the men of the Indian tribe. The poor woman was caught and for her crime, she was transformed into what is known as the Wampus Cat. The woman was doomed to be forever half woman and half mountain cat. The ghost of the Wampus Cat is still said to walk the hills of Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. On full moons, you can see the Wampus Cat howling. Is she howling because of her grave mistake and wishes to be transformed back to her humanly body?

If there were no legends, the world would be much duller. Many people consider the Bigfoot or Sasquatch a myth. I’d say just as many people consider the hairy hominid a fact.

Sources:
essortment.com
huffingtonpost.com
phantomsandmonsters.com
pulpbits.com
americanfolklore.net
mcdowellnews.com
godchecker.com
americanfolklore.net
Eyewitness reports

American Monsters: A History of Monster Lore, Legends, and Sightings in America

The Wampus Cat: Myth or Reality?

Monsters of West Virginia: Mysterious Creatures in the Mountain State

The Monster Hunter's Handbook: The Ultimate Guide to Saving Mankind from Vampires, Zombies, Hellhounds, and Other Mythical Beasts

Paranormal Underground

By Greg May - The recent posting of the trail cam photo showing a gnome-like entity in the woods of Butler County, Pennsylvania has put the Keystone State back into the paranormal limelight. Butler County has more than its share of paranormal occurrences ranging from UFOs and Bigfoot to sightings of elves and gargoyles.

The Butler County Gargoyle was a winged entity sighted by a motorist in 2011. The witness told Stan Gordon the creature was standing behind a highway directional sign that was eight feet high. The Gargoyle was taller than the sign! Interestingly, a very similar account was told to Brad Steiger by witness Sandy Nichols in 2005. Nichols was motoring late one night on a country road outside Nashville and encountered a ‘Mothman-like’ creature that was also standing beside a road sign that was 7.5 feet tall. Could this have been the same entity sighted later in Butler County, Pennsylvania?

Jesus is doing unusual things in these Last Days to wake people up to the fact that He is returning soon and that our Age is just about over. Satan is busy, too, knowing his time is running out. Christian evangelicals believe UFOs and extraterrestrials are demonic entities that Satan uses in his ‘Great Deception’ which he launched in 1947 when pilot Kenneth Arnold observed flying saucers near Mt. Rainier and when the saucer was found near Roswell, New Mexico. In 1948 Israel became as nation which, according to Scriptures heralds the return of Christ. The New Age Movement - one of the false doctrine Jesus warned against in the Last Days – teaches that extraterrestrials will save humanity from the Apocalypse. People are more apt to believe in something tangible – like an alien or a UFO – than in something spiritual, which is God.

In his book, “23 Minutes in Hell” Bill Weise recounts his frightening, nightmare-isn’t-a-good-enough-word-for-it visit to the Underworld which he claims he saw from 3,700 miles beneath the surface of the Earth when Jesus showed him Hell to get the word out that Hell is very, very real and Jesus was returning “very, very soon”. Chuck Smith, author of ‘What The World Is Coming To’ says “the abyss is literally a shaft. Somewhere upon the surface of the Earth there is a shaft. The entrance to this shaft leads down into the heart of this Earth where Hades exists. Hades is often translated ‘Hell’ in the Bible. Hell does exist. It is in the center of the Earth”.

Weise claims he fell through a tunnel down into the bowels of the Earth where he encountered creatures which resembled hairy bipeds such as ‘Bigfoot’ and bipedal reptoids like ‘Lizardman’. Could the creatures we see occasionally be these same creatures of the Underworld that find their way to the surface to fascinate and frighten us? Proponents of the ‘Hollow Earth Theory’ such as Richard Shaver told of demonic creatures he allegedly encountered underground in Ray Palmer’s ‘Amazing Stories’.

No doubt Earth is riddled and honeycombed with tunnels, shafts and passageways that lead to underground caverns and worlds unknown to us. Generations of miners who migrated from the Old Country to America and who worked the mines beneath Pennsylvania, Ohio and Kentucky were cautious of certain sounds they dreaded while working underground which were omens of impending disaster. A particular superstition was an ominous organ chord which heralded a cave-in. Also, child-like laughter and elfin entities were observed moments before mining disasters occurred.

Our government has spent billions of dollars on outer and inner (undersea) space exploration but imagine what could be discovered if an intensive effort was made to explore the bowels of the Earth? Stories of underground bases have been fodder for readers of conspiracy theories for years but could there be more to what lurks underground? Perhaps this would shed light on cryptozoological mysteries as we explore the lair of the unknown – underground.

Sources:
Bill Weise. 23 Minutes in Hell. Charisma House. Lake Mary, FL. 2006.
Ken Gerhard. Encounters with Flying Humanoids. Llewellyn Publications. Woodbury, MN. 2013.
Brad Steiger. Real Monsters, Gruesome Creatures and Beasts from the Darkside. Visible Ink Press. Canton, MI. 2011.

NOTE: I do not endorse or impugn any of the narrative posted by the author. It is presented solely as the opinion of the author and has been published, as received, without any edits. It has been my policy to allow guest bloggers the occasional opportunity to freely express their beliefs. Lon

Encounters with Flying Humanoids: Mothman, Manbirds, Gargoyles & Other Winged Beasts

23 Minutes In Hell: One Man's Story About What He Saw, Heard, and Felt in that Place of Torment

Real Monsters, Gruesome Critters, and Beasts from the Darkside

Daily 2 Cents: Shipton's Yeti Footprint Photographs On Sale -- 15th Human Foot Washes Ashore In Pacific Northwest -- Sewer Fishing

Shipton's Yeti footprint photographs on sale at Christie's

In 1951 Sen Tensing, Shipton, and I descended from the Menlung La ... at about 16,000-17,000 feet we came across a whole series of footprints in the snow, on the lower part of the glacier. There seemed to be two groups, one rather indistinct in outline leading on to the surrounding snowfields. The others were much more distinct with, in places, a markedly individual imprint etched in the 2- to 4-inch covering of snow. We had no means of measuring so after examining them Shipton took four photographs: two of the indistinct prints with myself, my footprints, and rucsac beside them for comparison; the other two photographs were of one of the most detailed and distinct group of prints, with my ice axe for scale, and a second one with my booted foot. The footprint was about the same length as my boot, and I take a size 42 continental, or 8½ British, which is about 12 to 13 inches long. The print was nearly twice as broad as my boot (3 to 4 inches) and had clear-cut edges in the crystalline snow on a base of firm snow ice. There was the definite imprint of a big toe that was broader and shorter than the other rather indistinct toes, of which there seemed to be four or five. We followed these tracks for some way down the easy glacier and noticed that whenever a narrow 6-inch-wide crevasse was crossed there seemed to be claw marks in the snow at the end of the toe imprints. ... Two days later we were joined by Murray and Bourdillon, who, after visiting the Nangpa La ... had followed our route into the Menlung Basin. All tracks had been deformed by the sun and wind.' (Michael Ward, 'Everest 1951: the footprints attributed to the Yeti -- myth and reality', Wilderness and Environmental Medicine, 8, 29-32 (1997)).

Shipton's photographs ignited speculation about the existence of a Yeti which had been growing since N.A. Tombazi made the first European sighting during an expedition to the Sikkim Himalaya in 1925.

Edmund Hillary had a further encounter in 1952 on a pass between the Ngojumba and Khumbu glaciers: 'We were climbing quite a steep pitch when Pemba stopped and picked something off the rock. Obviously greatly excited, he showed it to Angpemba. Feeling somwhat curious, I asked them what it was all about. They placed in my hand a tuft of long black hairs -- thick and coarse, they looked more like bristles than anything else. "Yeti, Sahib! Yeti!" I couldn't help being impressed by their conviction, and it did seem a strange place to find some hair. We were well over 19,000 feet and the Abominable Snowman was obviously no mean rock climber' (Hillary, High Adventure, 1955, p. 103).

Following these various incidents, Hillary mounted an expedition in 1960 to collect and evaluate evidence of the Yeti, with inconclusive results. British mountaineer Don Whillans was a fervent believer, claiming he encountered the Yeti while scaling Annapurna in 1970. He observed a few human-like footprints in the snow around his camp one morning and, that evening, claimed that through binoculars he watched a bipedal, ape-like creature for about 20 minutes as it apparently searched for food not far from his camp.

The Yeti, one of cryptozoology’s highest profile creatures. Does it really exist? There is a distinct lack of hard scientific evidence for it, but the members on this expedition swore blind that they didn’t hoax the photographs … so what made them?

Christie's Online Auction - Yeti footprints in the Menlung Basin

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15th human foot washes ashore in the Pacific northwest

A human foot, still inside a New Balance tennis shoe washed ashore in Seattle this week — and if that wasn’t mystery enough, it’s the FIFTEENTH foot that’s washed ashore along the Pacific Northwest coast since 2007!

15 human feet have washed ashore along the Pacific Northwest coast — from Canada down to Tacoma — over the last seven years.

And no one seems to know where they’re coming from.

“Who knows where they originated?” resident Albert Hulsen told FOX31 sister station Q13 FOX in Seattle. “Maybe it’s not from this area at all but from one of the surrounding islands.”

FOX6’s sister station, Q13FOX in Seattle says the latest foot was discovered last Tuesday, August 19th — by volunteers picking up trash.

A forensic anthropologist with the King County Medical Examiner’s Office, where the foot is being examined says the foot likely wasn’t severed, but detached from the body as it decomposed at sea.

“The bones fall apart. They (feet in shoes that have washed ashore) are not being severed. They’re not being purposely cut off. Tennis shoes not only protect the feet but they’re also buoyant, and so they either float on the surface, or they’re in the high part of the water column, so they will float in with the tide,” the forensic anthropologist said.

The Medical Examiner’s Office has released a picture of the tennis shoe in which the foot was found in an attempt to identify the person who wore the shoes.

Q13FOX reports it is a New Balance shoe, men’s size 10 1/2. It is a white sneaker with blue trim.

This model of shoe was first available for purchase in April of 2008.

A black, cotton Hanes sock was on the foot when it was found.

There is no word on whether authorities have made any effort to link this foot to the other 14 that have washed ashore since 2007.

So where are these feet coming from?

A local expert on tides told Q13FOX the feet could be local — or they could be winding up in the Northwest by way of the Strait of Georgia in Canada or the Strait of Juan de Fuca that connects the Puget Sound near Seattle to the Pacific Ocean. - Fox6Now

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Sewer Fishing in Katy, TX

A teenager from Katy, near Houston in Texas has taken to using the sewer grate in front of his home to catch fish.

It's 16-year-old Kyle Naegeli's hobby. And the Katy High School junior is quite good at it. He claims to have caught hundreds of fish using this method.

Naegeli has been a drain angler for four years now, using a hook and fishing line, with hot dogs (“the cheap ones” he says) and shad fish acting as bait.

“Sometimes it takes a few hours to catch something,” he says, maintaining that sewer fishing takes patience. Naegeli doesn't eat the sewer fish, owing to its questionable origins. The fish swim into the sewer line from a nearby pond.

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'COAST TO COAST' AM APPEARANCE

I will be a guest on 'Coast to Coast AM' this Sunday (Monday morning) at 3-5 am ET / 12-2 am PT
Guests: Dr. Melba S. Ketchum / Lon Strickler

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American Monsters: A History of Monster Lore, Legends, and Sightings in America

The Ancient Giants Who Ruled America: The Missing Skeletons and the Great Smithsonian Cover-Up

DMT: The Spirit Molecule: A Doctor's Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences

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'Earthquake Lights' Phenomenon Witnessed During Napa Valley Event

The mysterious 'earthquake lights' phenomenon was seen over Napa Valley during the recent seismic event:

MOUNTAIN VIEW (KPIX 5) – Several people called the KPIX 5 newsroom after Sunday morning’s magnitude 6.0 earthquake in Napa, reporting mysterious flashes of light in the sky. Witnesses said the strange phenomenon looked like lightning.

Similar flashes of light have been reported in earthquakes around the world, from Japan to Peru.

Friedemann Freund, a scientist with the SETI Institute in Mountain View, said the same thing happened during Sunday morning’s earthquake. And it wasn’t a transformer blowing up or UFOs.

“What they are, are a consequence of the stresses building up deep below the earth, seven miles like in the case of the Napa Valley earthquake,” Freund told KPIX 5.

He calls the phenomenon “earthquake lights,” the quick buildup of stress that causes an electric current to flow to the surface and burst through the earth. This typically happens before or during an earthquake.

Several North Bay witnesses contacted Freund at the SETI Institute about seeing several flashes around the time the Napa quake hit. They said there was one or two seconds between each one.

The bizarre flashes were documented all over Twitter.

Freund has been studying the lights for 12 years. His team recently looked at 65 occurrences around the world over the last 400 years. Most seismologists don’t believe such things are real.

“There are things that we still don’t understand about the earth, so why not accept unusual, exceptionally unusual phenomena taking place? And the light outburst from the ground is one of them.” - San Francisco CBS Local

NOTE: I have posted information on this phenomenon previously...'Earthquakes Lights' Considered Real Phenomena and at Strange Events Before & After Earthquakes

Electromagnetic Phenomenon Related to Earthquakes and Volcanoes

Earthquakes, Volcanoes, and Tsunamis: Projects and Principles for Beginning Geologists

Unexplained!: Strange Sightings, Incredible Occurrences & Puzzling Physical Phenomena

Weather Warfare: The Military's Plan to Draft Mother Nature

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Teens Experience Frightening UFO Encounter

In March 2010, an extraordinary event took place in Lavonia, New Hampshire...a small town in the central part of the state, situated between Lake Winnipesaukee and Winnisquam Lake. The following NUFORC reports are from two witnesses who had the same encounter together. Some may feel that these witnesses were attempting to generate a hoax in order to cover up something else. I've been willing to give the witnesses consideration and the benefit of the doubt until evidence to the contrary comes forward:

Occurred: 3/20/2010 23:00 (Entered as: 3/20/10 23:00)
Reported: 3/25/2010 6:37:05 PM 18:37
Posted: 4/13/2010
Location: Laconia, NH
Shape: Changing
Duration: 1hr 30 min.

UFO Sighting in Laconia

My name is D. I am sixteen years old and I live in New Hampshire. Last Saturday night I went out with my girlfriend, who lives in Laconia, when we had the following experience: I was with her around 11. We wanted to take her Mom’s car because it was nicer and we wanted to go look at the stars. We went to Fun Spot at the back parking lot in Laconia. There were 8 cars already there when we arrived. Little by little, the cars started leaving one by one. We were the last car in the parking lot. Then the lights of the parking lot and the lights of the houses around us and the lights of the houses down the street started to go out one by one. Then my girlfriend noticed something blocking the moon and asked, "What was that?" I knew it wasn’t a cloud because it moved back against the wind and blocked the moon again. I don’t know how to explain this but it turns into a ball when it wants to slow down and move around quickly and when it wants to go fast, straight, it turns into a flat plate with maze box-shaped lined lights. These were on all the time. The colors were dim yellowish white and did not change. I cannot tell whether these were part of the bottom or not. It flipped a lot. I did not know which side was right or up on it. It was doing this over the trees across the street from the parking lot. It suddenly crossed the street towards our car. Its size was as big as 14 houses. It was really quiet. That’s when we had to leave. But I did not have time to turn on the headlights.

We put the clutch in to start the car and jammed it into 1st and floored it. The front end got picked up and the car could not move. We steered left and right but the car just kept on going up into the air. My girlfriend was scared and she had boogers coming out of her nose while I was cursing. The car was going up and the back wheels were off of the ground. Then I looked out of my window and saw that the parking lot park lines started getting smaller. Both our windows were down this whole time. The front windshield started to crack and shake and the cracks spread from the passenger side to the driver’s side. It popped outwards like it was pulled out.

Something yanked my wrist. Not aggressively. And the whole time in my head something was telling me “Don’t panic,” or “Don’t be scared.” And it wasn’t in English in my head but I got the meaning. It wasn’t a language – I don’t know how to explain it. And on my girlfriend’s side, it had her half-way out of the window. Her butt was off of her seat, maybe one-and-a-half or two feet? and the car was pointed almost completely straight up at the stars – yet I saw no stars.

Every time I tried looking at it, in front, a white film went over my eyes. It was kind of like staring at the sun with your eyelids closed. I could not hear her screaming but I know that she was screaming. My ears felt like they kept on popping from the altitude. I couldn’t hear. The smell was like unbearable, like you want to close your nose. It was spicy, like pepper-sprayish, and clean at the same time – it was a smell that you could stand but you would close your nostrils because it still smells bad. When I tried to fight and get my wrist back in the car, that’s when the grip got stronger. It was pulling my left arm up out of the window – there was no pain but it was strong – …. I was trying to fight off the grip on my wrist. My tongue was numb. The horn beeped by accident and the grip got a little loose. It beeped again in the struggle and my arm flopped down in the car. My girlfriend also fell back in her seat and we realized we were still up in the air. ! It took 2 seconds for the car to drop. When we dropped, the air bags came out. We floored it as fast as we could through the town. It was almost a straightaway to go to my girlfriend’s house with very few turns to take. During this time, both of us couldn’t stop crying. We arrived at her house and her Mom asked, “What happened?” All this took place from 11pm to 12:30 am. It seemed like we were in the air for 10 minutes and it felt like it was forever. Her Mom called the police, and a policeman came.

The policeman did not believe us when we first told him what had happened until he looked at the vehicle. There were no scratches or dents or anything. He said that there was no reason for this to have happened to the car when there are no dents or scratches and no reason for the windshield to shatter and pop out the way it did. He had no explanation for why the windshield popped outwards. Also, when I went to open my cell phone in front of the policemen, I got shocked by it.

On Monday, I went to my doctor to get a whole physical to make sure I was OK. My wrist had a puncture wound while my forearm has a cut that is semi-circular and there’s blood on it. I do remember that when I first looked at my arm after I got it back in the car, it was red with blood. But by the time we got to my girlfriend’s house, there was no blood anywhere. On the center consul of the car, there is an imprint of her hand. I don’t quite understand what the policeman said but it was something about the skin of her hand leaving an impression.

Now, I don’t like to feel bumps in the car, or feel anything that trembles like a boombox. I don’t want to be out in dark areas at night. I also don’t like to walk out to my Mom’s car, anymore, outside. “

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Occurred: 3/20/2010 23:00 (Entered as: 3/20/10 23:00)
Reported: 3/25/2010 7:00:26 PM 19:00
Posted: 4/13/2010
Location: Laconia, NH
Shape: Changing
Duration: 1hr and 30 min.

UFO Sighting in Laconia

“My name is E and I’m eighteen years old. I live in Laconia. Last Saturday night, my boyfriend D came up to see me and we went out. When we got to Fun Spot, in Laconia, we parked in the back in the separate parking lot. We turned off the car and it was totally silent. We were just sitting there and I looked up at the moon. I saw this weird black-shaped object. And then, I said to my boyfriend, “What was that?” He looked up at it and he said, ”If it gets any closer, we need to leave.” I kept staring at the moon to see if it was just a plane or something. It moved back across the moon. It was huge and it looked like it was zig-zagging or changing shape. I couldn’t tell. He said, “I think it’s coming closer.” It flew so fast over the trees getting closer to where we were. It felt like it was zeroing in on us. It blocked the moon. And then, we started panicking and driving away. I thought were were going to hit the Bingo building. We turned left but it felt like we went off of a jump – you know that feeling? like we were on a rollercoaster? And we were in the air. I was trying to pay attention to everything that was going on but it felt like I couldn’t. When I looked up, everything was black. The smell was not nice but it was like something you could stand. It was an odor I’ve never smelled before. I heard absolutely nothing – it was silent. I felt immobilized like I had no control over what I was doing or over my body. I could see nothing. It was like opening your eyes in a pitch black room.

I felt really nervous and scared. I don’t remember crying or screaming. I held on to the center console because I felt like I was lifted. I was holding on so tight that my thumbprint is imprinted on the center console. And then, when I finally realized what was happening, I was so close to the windshield that my body was going forward with my arms behind me. Everything was black. I heard a loud noise like a horn. Once. And then, the car just dropped. I hit my eye on the dashboard and the airbags came out. I couldn’t believe what had just happened. I held my face and I looked over at my boyfriend. I saw that his left arm had blood. I said, “Are you OK?” I looked at the windshield and it was cracked, totally, but only on the passenger side. I could see D but I couldn’t see anything outside. The only thing that made the car drop was the sound of the loud horn. When the car dropped, there was a loud boom. After that, we just drove so fast out of there. The smell went away after we drove away. And I started crying. And I said, “What the h—l just happened?” My boyfriend said, “I don’t know, I don’t know.” I didn’t feel like they were following us.

When we got home, my Mom said that she could hear me from the outside while I was freaking out. I couldn’t stop crying. My Mom said, “Calm down and tell me what happened.” I said, “You’re never going to believe me.” “Is it my car?” she asked.

And I said, “Let me explain,” because I felt that if I didn’t explain it fast enough, it was just going to go away from my mind. At about 12:15 am, a cop arrived. I told him what had happened while I was sitting down at the dinner table. My boyfriend was sitting next to me – it was then that I noticed that there was no more blood on his arm or his clothing. The cop didn’t believe me at first until he finished looking at the car. He told my Mom that there was no reason for the air bags to come out because nothing else on the car was damaged. He didn’t check underneath the car but we found out later that the underside was totaled. The cop said that he was going to the place where we had been.

I just felt thankful that we’d gotten out of there. But I couldn’t stop crying for more than 2 hours afterwards. My Mom said, “You should go take a shower and get the airbag dust off of you.” But I didn’t want to be alone at all. I felt lucky. And there were no scratches or anything anywhere on my body.

The first night, my dream was that I was a little girl, maybe 6 or 7 years old, in an Elementary School classroom. I was looking at myself as a little girl. And then it was like the teacher called me up and I couldn’t talk or say anything - but everybody else seemed to say something for me. Like everything I wanted to say, everybody else was saying it except for me. They were saying exactly what I wanted say. I have never had a dream like this before – where I am a little girl and see anything about the past. I did not feel right at all.

I am better now. I still worry about seeing this thing again and I pay attention to the sky at night. I really don’t go out at night, anymore, because I’m scared. “

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UPDATE: someone on the ATS forum contacted the Laconia, NH police and received the following response:

Officer Batstone responded 03-21-10 at 0017 hrs., to take the report from the 18 and 16 year old and look at the vehicle that was damaged. The incident they reported occurred at the Opechee Park, which is no where near Fun Spot as they report to you.

According to the ATS post, Opechee Park is 0.8 miles away from the Fun Spot. Not a great distance, but obviously the "incident" reported was different than the incident submitted to NUFORC.

Honestly, I think these kids were hesitant to tell the police that they parked in the Fun Spot for some reason, so the police report states Opechee Park. BTW, the Fun Spot is a huge place and (from what I gathered online) the parking area is immense.

However the time of 0017 hours (1:17am) on March 21st does correspond correctly in both reports.

This proves there was indeed an incident, that a vehicle was damaged and that an officer was called to the scene.

NOTE: Lavonia is approx. 40 mile south of Indian Head, NH...the location where Betty & Barney Hill claim they were abducted. Lon

Strange New Hampshire

Captured! The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Experience: The True Story of the World's First Documented Alien Abduction

Ghost Quest: New Hampshire's Paranormal Research Society

Encounters at Indian Head: The Betty and Barney Hill UFO Abduction Revisited

Daily 2 Cents: Town Council Repeals Banned 'Magic Arts' Law -- Sailing Stones Mystery Solved -- 'American Monsters' Now Uncaged

Town council repeals decades-old law that banned 'magic arts'

FRONT ROYAL, Va. (WJLA) -- A Northern Virginia community is divided tonight over a debate that sounds like something out of history books.

In Front Royal a decades-old law bans things considered "magic arts."

At a town council meeting Monday night, the passions were front and center.

Someone called this a faith war—pagans versus Christians.

Many in Front Royal say they'd pretty much forgotten about the law that bans fortune telling, Tarot card readings, or practicing magic arts.

When a Tarot card reader set up shop at the Brooklyn Marketplace on Main Street—for just one day—the manager says some people in the town threatened to boycott the other vendors if the Tarot card reader stayed.

"This is an extreme group of people who,have taken on an ordinance to push their own political agenda," says Arlene Ballou.

After looking the law over, the town council scheduled a vote to repeal the ban.

And opponents sprang into action.

Outside the town council meeting, one group of citizens marched carrying a cross while others bowed their heads in prayer.

“For the Judeo-Christian tradition, it's an abomination; it's giving someone the power that God has. Only God knows the future," says Leo Morton.

Inside, it was a packed house and things got heated.

At the last minute one councilmember tried to amend the law to take out offensive terms like "gypsy" but he was quickly voted down.

In the end, the council voted to repeal the ban, 4-2. - WJLA

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Police Confirm UFO

Several witnesses, including multiple police officers, saw a strange object over Lower Paxton Township.

The anomalous object was first spotted by Stephanie Wilkerson who had been sitting on her porch on Monday night when something in the sky caught her attention.

Initially believing it to be an airplane, Wilkerson became intrigued when she noticed it start to change color and called her husband outside to see what he thought. A neighbor went inside to fetch some binoculars in an effort to identify the object but remained unable to determine what it could be.

Eventually the police were called in to investigate and an officer turned up at the scene. Having no idea what the object was either he called his superiors for a second opinion but even they were unable to shed any light on the phenomenon.

One officer contacted Fort Indiantown Gap and Harrisburg International Airport to find out if they knew anything about it but was told that there had been no scheduled flights at the time.

Click for video - UFO Sighting VIDEO Harrisburg PA Police witness REAL UFO in Pennsylvania

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Death Valley's sailing stones mystery solved

A team of researchers has finally managed to explain how such large boulders can move all by themselves.

The phenomenon, which was discovered in the 1940s, pertains to the inexplicable movement of extremely heavy boulders across a dry lake bed situated in Death Valley National Park.

Nobody has ever seen the boulders move directly but long trails left behind them in the sand seem to suggest that they have somehow traversed significant distances all by themselves. Some of the rocks that have shifted even weigh upwards of 320kg.

In an effort to solve the mystery once and for all a team of scientists from Scripps Institution of Oceanography visited the site in 2011 and set up a high-resolution weather station and 15 rocks fitted with GPS devices to measure even the slightest movements with impeccable accuracy.

It would take a further two years for anything to happen, but eventually during a visit to the site in December 2013 the team discovered that the area had been submerged in 3 inches of water.

As it turned out the movement of the rocks occurs under a very specific set of circumstances that requires there to be just enough water to cover the ground but not enough to submerge the rocks. The actual movement occurs due to a combination of strong winds, the freezing of the water during the night and the thawing of the ice by the hot sun during the day.

"It's possible that tourists have actually seen this happening without realising it," said co-author Jim Norris. "It is really tough to gauge that a rock is in motion if all the rocks around it are also moving." Read more at Scripps

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Early Photobomb c. 1840's

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American Monsters now uncaged

American Monsters: A History of Monster Lore, Legends, and Sightings in America - Buy it now!

The Monsters have been uncaged! The whole furry, scaly, red-eyed, bat-winged, fanged, dripping-clawed, oversized pack of slavering unknown creatures that I spent two years cramming into a 376-page paperback are now free to romp and roam where ever anyone may care to read about them. And in this book, it’s not just all about upright, wolf-like creatures. I wanted to create a work that shows something of the breadth and depth of the unknown kingdom that eyewitnesses continue to glimpse day and night in sky, land and water. I think it’s amazing that people see giant primates, huge flying things thought to have died out with the dinosaurs, and weird beasties like the Chupacabras that looks like nothing ever seen before, and yet we know next to nothing about most of them.

Not that this is anything really new. People like Ivan Sanderson, John Keel and many other investigators were slogging through marshes and tromping far off lands long before I began to collect the experiences of otherwise ordinary people. Nor is my occupation all that unique; I have plenty of contemporary colleagues, friends and investigators from all sorts of backgrounds and abilities–too many to name here but see the acknowledgments page in Monsters for mere starters–to whom I and the whole field of cryptozoology owe an enormous debt for their own research and studies.

I hope this book, if nothing else, will help make the case that although modern science insists these creatures are not here, they sure look like they are to those who see them. And that there is something more to these anomalous events than mass hallucination, the occasional hoaxer, or misidentifications of known animals. - Linda Godfrey's Blog

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