United States – Thunderbird
Leaving the Mexican border behind us we go up to the vast country that is the United States of America. Unsurprisingly the country fair teems with cryptids but which one of the many are we going to have a look at today? Well, we haven’t had a peek at a bird for a while so I think a look at a feathered cryptid is in order, but which one? I thought about the ivory-billed woodpecker but in the end I opted for the Thunderbird.
Despite having a name that suggests it’s a Gerry Anderson creation, the Thunderbird is a true mystery creature with no strings attached.
You don’t get many bigger birds than this: with a wingspan quoted as being up to around 20 feet it’s a bit too big for the average bird table; in fact that’s close to the size of the wingspan of a light aircraft. The Thunderbird is said to feed on carrion, which could explain what happens to a lot of road kill that vanishes, and I dare say it could also explain the odd missing walker.
There’s another mystery connected with this critter: many people remember seeing a photo of a Thunderbird being held up against a barn by a number of cowboys. The image is thought to date to the 1880s, but in best cryptid photo tradition no one has been able to locate it recently.
Next stop Canada, which as the big bird flies, isn’t that far.
Saturday, November 12, 2011
OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today
Yesterday’s News Today
http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/
On this day in 1980 Voyager 1 took the first pictures of the rings of Saturn on a close approach.
And now the news:
Some of the footage taken by Voyager 1 of Saturn’s rings:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fb8Ydfzizv0
Friday, November 11, 2011
NEIL ARNOLD: BLACK CAT WHITE HOUSE
‘Spooks In White House Recall Green-Eyed Kitty’, ‘Ghost Sounds Had Margaret Worried; Not So Ike, Mamie’. Just two confusing headlines pertaining (would you believe it?) to the same strange ghost story in connection to a phantom cat at Washington’s White house.
Several newspapers; such as the Spokane Daily Chronicle, the Eugene Register Guard and the Williamson Daily News; all reported on the ghost story. The Williamson Daily News was the first to report on the tale on June 13th 1955 under the headline, ‘Nichols Says: Black Cat Or Some Ghost Definitely Was On The Prowl In Statuary Hall’. The article, by Harman W. Nichols, a United Press Staff Correspondent, stated: ‘Washington – Margaret Truman claims that she heard ghost sounds around the White House when her pappy was president. Our present leader, Mr Eisenhower, claims she’s a sound sleeper and that he and Mamie don’t pay any attention to noises in the dark of night.
All of that sent me to the library to look up the business of spook's around the nation’s capital. Seems that back here in the 1920s, a ghost or something, showed up and scared the wits out of a Capitol floor-scrubber. This fellow finally got so worked up that he threw in his broom, disappeared and hasn’t been seen since. According to some fine research done by an unknown reporter for the National Tribune, on Sept. 8, 1927, a black cat, or some other form of ghost was on the prowl nightly in Statuary Hall – where live the marble and bronze likenesses of the great in our history. According to the reporter, who made a thorough study of the problem, the cat was black, as, indeed, all cats are in the dark of night. The fellow who wrote the story said that the cat was all over the place every night. Frightening the daylights, or nightlights, out of night caretakers. Before the floor-washer disappeared, the reporter got hold of the man. The cat, although he never saw her, must have been “big as a big tiger” on account of she flashed green eyes “as big as saucers” when she went running around statues of the likes of Uriah M. Rose of Alabama, the jurist, writer and world traveller. Not to mention Gen. James Shields, the only man who ever served in the Senate from three states.
The cat, and her offspring, according to the latest reports, also became quite fond of Gen. Lew Wallace, the soldier, statesman, and lawyer. Maybe the pussy had read, or heard about the wonderful tribute paid to the general Jan 11, 1910, be Sen. Albert J. Beveridge, of Indiana, from whence the general sprang. “General Lew Wallace loved liberty for all men and fought for it.”
Mayhap the cat, dearly loved liberty too, and was looking for a way out of the gloomy hall of the immortals which looks so eerie in the after hours. Samuel Adams, according to the old-time chroniclers, also was a favourite haunt of the kitty and her tribe. How could she and her young help but be impressed by the likeness of a man who signed the Declaration, and was the press agent, you might say, for what happened at the Boston Tea Party ? After all, Sam was known as the “father of the American Revolution”, and it says so right there under his statue.
Mayhap the cat, dearly loved liberty too, and was looking for a way out of the gloomy hall of the immortals which looks so eerie in the after hours. Samuel Adams, according to the old-time chroniclers, also was a favourite haunt of the kitty and her tribe. How could she and her young help but be impressed by the likeness of a man who signed the Declaration, and was the press agent, you might say, for what happened at the Boston Tea Party ? After all, Sam was known as the “father of the American Revolution”, and it says so right there under his statue.
Any smart cat also couldn’t help but cuddle to the likeness of Daniel Webster, “an expounder of the Constitution.” It is said that old Dan had a bunch of cats in his back yard and fed them catnip and other feline delicacies by the hour.
But, cats or ghosts I’ll go along with old Charles Anderson Dana, who once said: “I don’t believe in ghosts, but I’ve been afraid of them all my life.”
AMERICAN FOLKLORE.NET: Birth of the Jersey Devil
http://www.americanfolklore.net/
Corinna recently discovered this website and sent me some stories for the blog:
Birth of the Jersey Devil
A New Jersey Legend
retold by S.E. Schlosser
A storm was raging that night in 1735, when Mother Leeds was brought to bed in childbirth. The room was full of woman folk gathered to help her, more out of curiosity than good will. They had all heard the rumors that Mother Leeds was involved in witchcraft, and had sworn she would give birth to a devil.
Tension mounted when at last the baby arrived. It was a relief (and to some a disappointment), when the baby was born completely normal. But a few moments later, before their terrified eyes, the child began to change. The room erupted with screams as the child grew at an enormous rate, becoming taller than a man and changing into a beast which resembled a dragon, with a head like a horse, a snake-like body and bat's wings.
As soon as it was full-grown, the monster began beating all the woman (including his mother) with its thick, forked tail. With a harsh cry, it flew through the chimney and vanished into the storm.
The Monster of Leeds, or the Jersey Devil as he was later called, still haunts the pines of New Jersey, wrecking havoc upon farmer's crops and livestock, poisoning pools and creeks, and appearing on the New Jersey shore just before a ship wreck.
Corinna recently discovered this website and sent me some stories for the blog:
Birth of the Jersey Devil
A New Jersey Legend
retold by S.E. Schlosser
A storm was raging that night in 1735, when Mother Leeds was brought to bed in childbirth. The room was full of woman folk gathered to help her, more out of curiosity than good will. They had all heard the rumors that Mother Leeds was involved in witchcraft, and had sworn she would give birth to a devil.
Tension mounted when at last the baby arrived. It was a relief (and to some a disappointment), when the baby was born completely normal. But a few moments later, before their terrified eyes, the child began to change. The room erupted with screams as the child grew at an enormous rate, becoming taller than a man and changing into a beast which resembled a dragon, with a head like a horse, a snake-like body and bat's wings.
As soon as it was full-grown, the monster began beating all the woman (including his mother) with its thick, forked tail. With a harsh cry, it flew through the chimney and vanished into the storm.
The Monster of Leeds, or the Jersey Devil as he was later called, still haunts the pines of New Jersey, wrecking havoc upon farmer's crops and livestock, poisoning pools and creeks, and appearing on the New Jersey shore just before a ship wreck.
GLEN VAUDREY: Whole Wide World #24
Canada - Bigfoot
This is a vast country with lots of room for cryptids to hide in, possibly in one of the many lakes or perhaps in the dense woods. We couldn’t really travel through North America without having a mention of what many consider to be the poster boy of cryptozoology: Bigfoot.
It should surprise no one to find out that sightings of Bigfoot have been recorded in British Columbia, the western-most province of Canada. Perhaps one of the most interesting sightings dates from the summer of 1924 when a prospector going by the name of Albert Ostman claimed that he was kidnapped by a Bigfoot family, spending a total of six days living with them. He described the biggest adult as standing somewhere between 7 and 8 feet tall, and it was this creature that had carried Ostman in his sleeping bag into captivity. While not many would like to spend time as captive of a cryptid it did give him chance to study the behaviour and habits of Bigfoot.
I bet you’re wondering how he managed to escape; well, he tricked the adult Bigfoot into eating his handy box of snuff and was able to make good his escape during the ensuing chaos.
Where next? Well, how about somewhere less well known....
This is a vast country with lots of room for cryptids to hide in, possibly in one of the many lakes or perhaps in the dense woods. We couldn’t really travel through North America without having a mention of what many consider to be the poster boy of cryptozoology: Bigfoot.
It should surprise no one to find out that sightings of Bigfoot have been recorded in British Columbia, the western-most province of Canada. Perhaps one of the most interesting sightings dates from the summer of 1924 when a prospector going by the name of Albert Ostman claimed that he was kidnapped by a Bigfoot family, spending a total of six days living with them. He described the biggest adult as standing somewhere between 7 and 8 feet tall, and it was this creature that had carried Ostman in his sleeping bag into captivity. While not many would like to spend time as captive of a cryptid it did give him chance to study the behaviour and habits of Bigfoot.
I bet you’re wondering how he managed to escape; well, he tricked the adult Bigfoot into eating his handy box of snuff and was able to make good his escape during the ensuing chaos.
Where next? Well, how about somewhere less well known....
BYE BYE FOR A WEEK
Corinna and I are off to The Unconvention, and after that we shall be visiting Corinna's mother in Rutland. We shall therefore be away, and out of contact, until next Wednesday at the earliest. This is old-school out of contact meaning the bliss of having no computer, so if you email me don't be offended when I don't reply for a week or so.Graham and Prudence are in charge of the CFZ, and Graham and Lizzy (with contributions from Oll Lewis and Andrew May) are in charge of the blog. I am sure both teams will do a superlative job.
Until next week. Over and Out!
PS: In case of emergency email graham@cfz.org.uk
CFZ CANADA: New Ogopogo footage?
Is it Ogo? Is it not? Is it Ogo? Is it not? Recently a BC gentleman named Richard Huls taped something in the water at Lake Okanagan in BC. The national news media, then the international news media, immediately ran with the story that he had seen the famous lake monster.
Check it out
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