Cryptids

Wildmen Of The Himalayas: Encounters With Yeti

Published

3 years ago

July 31, 2021

Writings of British officials residing in the Himalayan region of the Indian subcontinent during the nineteenth century contain sporadic references to sightings and footprints of wildmen called Yeti.

The Yeti were first mentioned by B. H. Hodgson, who from 1820 to 1843 served as British resident at the Nepalese court. Hodgson reported that in the course of a journey through northern Nepal his bearers were frightened by the sight of a hairy, tailless, humanlike creature.

Many will suggest, on hearing a report like this (and hundreds have been recorded since Hodgson’s time), that the Nepalese mistook an ordinary animal for a Yeti.

The usual candidates for mistaken identity are bears and the langur monkey. But it is hard to imagine that lifelong residents of the Himalayas, intimately familiar with the wildlife, would have made such mistakes. Myra Shackley observed that Yeti are found in Nepalese and Tibetan religious paintings depicting hierarchies of living beings.

“Here,” said Shackley, “bears, apes, and langurs are depicted separate from the wildman, suggesting there is no confusion (at least in the minds of the artists) between these forms.”

During the nineteenth century, at least one European reported personally seeing a captured animal that resembled a Yeti. A South African man told anthropologist Myra Shackley:

“Many years ago in India, my late wife’s mother told me how her mother had actually seen what might have been one of these creatures at Mussorie, in the Himalayan foothills. This semi-human was walking upright, but was obviously more animal than human with hair covering its whole body. It was reportedly caught up in the snows… his captors had it in chains.”

During the twentieth century, sightings by Europeans of wildmen and their footprints continued, increasing during the Himalayan mountain-climbing expeditions.

In November of 1951, Eric Shipton, while reconnoitering the approaches to Mt. Everest, found footprints on the Menlung glacier, near the border between Tibet and Nepal, at an elevation of 18,000 feet. Shipton followed the trail for a mile.

A close-up photograph of one of the prints has proved convincing to many. The footprints were quite large. John R. Napier considered and rejected the possibility that the particular size and shape of the best Shipton footprint could have been caused by melting of the snow.

In the end, Napier suggested that the Shipton footprint was the result of superimposed human feet, one shod and the other unshod.

In general, Napier, who was fully convinced of the existence of the North American Sasquatch, was highly skeptical of the evidence for the Yeti. But, as we shall see later in this section, new evidence would cause Napier to become more inclined to accept the Himalayan wildmen.

In the course of his expeditions to the Himalaya Mountains in the 1950s and 1960s, Sir Edmund Hillary gave attention to evidence for the Yeti, including footprints in snow.

He concluded that in every case the large footprints attributed to the Yeti had been produced by the merging of smaller tracks of known animals. To this Napier, himself a skeptic, replied:

“No one with any experience would confuse a melted footprint with a fresh one. Not all the prints seen over the years by reputable observers can be explained away in these terms; there must be other explanations for footprints, including, of course, the possibility that they were made by an animal unknown to science.”

In addition to Westerners, native informants also gave a continuous stream of reports on the Yeti. For example, in 1958 Tibetan villagers from Tharbaleh, near the Rongbuk glacier, came upon a drowned Yeti, said Myra Shackley in her book on wildmen. The villagers described the creature as being like a small man with a pointed head and covered with reddish-brown fur.

Some Buddhist monasteries claim to have physical remains of the Yeti. One category of such relics is Yeti scalps, but the ones studied by Western scientists are thought to have been made from the skins of known animals.

In 1960, Sir Edmund Hillary mounted an expedition to collect and evaluate evidence for the Yeti and sent a Yeti scalp from the Khumjung monastery to the West for testing. The results indicated that the scalp had been manufactured from the skin of the serow, a goat-like Himalayan antelope.

But some disagreed with this analysis. Shackley said they,

“pointed out that hairs from the scalp look distinctly monkey-like, and that it contains parasitic mites of a species different from that recovered from the serow.”

In the 1950s, explorers sponsored by American businessman Tom Slick obtained samples from a mummified Yeti hand kept at Pangboche, Tibet. Laboratory tests were inconclusive, but Shackley said the hand “has some curiously anthropoid features.”

In May of 1957, the Kathmandu Commoner carried a story about a Yeti head that had been kept for 25 years in the village of Chilunka, about 50 miles northeast of Kathmandu, Nepal.

In March of 1986, Anthony B. Wooldridge was making a solo run through the Himalayas of northernmost India on behalf of a small third world development organization. While proceeding along a forested snow-covered slope near Hemkund, he noticed fresh tracks and took photographs of them, including a close-up of a single print that resembled the one photographed by Eric Shipton in 1951.

Pressing onward, Wooldridge came to a recent avalanche and saw a shallow furrow, apparently caused by a large object sliding across the snow. At the end of the furrow, he saw more tracks, which led to a distant shrub, behind which stood “a large, erect shape perhaps up to 2 meters [about 6 feet] tall.”

Wooldridge, realizing it might be a Yeti, moved to within 150 meters (about 500 feet) and took photos.

“It was standing with its legs apart,” he stated, “apparently looking down the slope, with its right shoulder turned towards me. The head was large and squarish, and the whole body appeared to be covered with dark hair.”

In Wooldridge’s opinion, the creature was definitely not a monkey, bear, or ordinary human being.

Wooldridge observed the creature for 45 minutes but had to leave when the weather worsened. On the way back to his base, he took more photographs of the footprints, but by this time they had become distorted by melting.

On his return to England, Wooldridge showed his photographic evidence to scientists interested in the wildman question, including John Napier. At a distance of 150 meters, the creature appeared quite small on the 35 mm film, but enlargements did show something humanlike.

Describing the reactions of those who saw his photos, Wooldridge stated:

“John Napier, a primatologist and author of the 1973 book Bigfoot: The Yeti and Sasquatch in Myth and Reality, has reversed the skeptical position he had previously expressed, and now describes himself as a Yeti devotee.

Myra Shackley, an archaeologist and author of the 1983 book Wildmen: Yeti, Sasquatch and the Neanderthal Enigma, has seen the full sequence of photographs, and believes that the whole experience is very consistent with other reports of Yeti sightings. Lord Hunt, leader of the successful 1953 Mount Everest Expedition, who has twice seen Yeti tracks himself, is similarly convinced.”

Cryptids

Mothman SIghted Before 2007 Bridge Collapse in Minnesota

Published

3 months ago

April 22, 2024

The aftermath of the I-35w Bridge Collapse in 2007. Image: Wikipedia

Just like the infamous Silver Bridge Mothman sightings, witnesses claim seeing a strange, 7ft tall flying humanoid in the weeks before the collapse of the I-35W bridge in 2007.

The Collapse of the I-35W Bridge

The I-35W Mississippi River bridge (also known as Bridge 9340) was a large bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota, that carried Interstate 35W over the river. It was built in 1967 and was one of the busiest bridges in Minnesota, with thousands of cars using it every day.

Sadly, on August 1, 2007, during the evening rush hour when hundreds of people were driving home from work, something terrible happened. The bridge suddenly collapsed, causing a lot of damage. Sadly, 13 people died, and 145 were injured.

Investigators later found out that a part of the bridge, called the gusset plate, had failed. The gusset plate was worn and the stress of the extra cars on the bridge caused it to break apart.

Right after the collapse, people and emergency workers from nearby areas rushed to help. They worked hard to rescue anyone who was trapped and to take care of the injured.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation quickly made plans to build a new bridge called the I-35W Saint Anthony Falls Bridge. They finished building it just over a year later, and it opened in September 2008.

Connections to the Silver Bridge Collapse

The Silver Bridge Collapse

For many cryptid enthusiasts, hearing of a bridge collapse immediately brings Mothman to mind. The Silver Bridge was a suspension bridge spanning the Ohio River, connecting Point Pleasant, West Virginia, and Gallipolis, Ohio. On December 15, 1967, during rush hour, the bridge suddenly collapsed, sending cars and people plunging into the icy waters below. The disaster claimed the lives of 46 individuals, making it one of the deadliest bridge collapses in American history.

In the months leading up to the tragedy, residents of Point Pleasant reported sightings of a mysterious creature dubbed the “Mothman.” Described as a large, winged humanoid with glowing red eyes, the Mothman sightings fueled speculation and fear in the community.

Following the Silver Bridge collapse, some people began to link the sightings of the Mothman to the disaster, suggesting that the creature was a harbinger of impending doom. This connection led to the Mothman becoming a legendary figure in cryptozoology and popular culture.

Both the Silver Bridge collapse and the I-35w collapse were caused by structural failures in the bridges. In the case of the Silver Bridge, the collapse was attributed to a single eyebar in the suspension chain that failed due to metal fatigue. In the I-35W collapse, a design flaw in the bridge’s gusset plates, combined with increased weight from construction materials and traffic, led to the catastrophic failure.

Mothman Sightings Connected to the I-35W Bridge Collapse

Dark Reocrds covers the I-35w brdge collapse

The I-35w collapse Mothman sightings differ from the Silver Bridge Mothman sightings in their frequency. Dozens of people around Pleasant Point reported strange sightings and unexplained paranormal or extraterrestrial activity in the months leading up to the Silver Bridge collapse. The sightings surrounding the I-35w collapse were mush less common.

On August 10, 2007, George Noory hosted the “Coast to Coast AM” program, where he spoke to several callers sharing their encounters with cryptids. Among these calls was one reporting a sighting on June 27th near Stewartville, Minnesota. The caller described seeing a 7-foot-tall, winged humanoid creature with a massive wingspan, roughly the width of her Ford vehicle. The sighting occurred approximately 90 miles from the I-35w bridge, just over a month before the bridge collapse.

There are references to multiple other sightings online but they seem to have been removed from the internet. A WIRED article from the time talks of numerous blog posts on the topic but the link no longer works. This article by Singular Fortean also alludes to their being multiple sightings but doesn’t provide references.

Skepticism

So it seems we just have the one account to work with here. It’s possible that the George Noory’s caller was just someone making up a story and looking for a bit of attention. The fact that the account didn’t come out until after the collapse of the I-35w bridge does take from its credibility.

It is also possible that the caller simple saw a large crane or other bird and misidentified their memory as the mothman following the bridge collapse.

What if it was Mothman?

If it was Mothman that was seen before the collapse of the I-35w bridge it leads us to more questions than answers. Is this Mothman the same creature that was seen before the Silver Bridge collapse? Could Mothman actually be a species of creature that is drawn to human disasters, particularly bridge collapses?

Tell us your theories in the comments.

If you enjoyed reading about Mothman and the I-35w bridge collapse you might be interested in our article on the original Mothman story or the blackbird of Chernobyl.

Cryptids

The Awful

Published

5 months ago

February 27, 2024

The Awful cryptid as described by Vermont residents in 1925

In 1923, several residents of Berkshire and Richford, Vermont reported seeing a creature resembling a griffin, with a 20 foot wingspan and a serpentine tail.

“The Awful” Cryptid Sightings of 1925

Berkshire and Richford, Vermont are peaceful countryside towns located between Lake Champlain and Lake Memphremagog, near the Canadian Province of Quebec.

In 1925 several residents of these towns reported encounters with an unusual flying creature.

The creature was described as being similar to the mythical Griffin, with a grayish color, a 20-foot wingspan, a snake-like tail, and big claws capable of holding a medium sized dog. These strange sightings caused panic among the locals who came to dub the creature “the Awful”.

The first sightings of the mysterious creature were reported by two sawmill workers in Richford. As they crossed the main street bridge, they saw a very large beast on the nearby rooftop of the Boright building, glaring at them. According to the tale, one of the men was so scared that he had a heart attack out of fear. He had to be carried home but eventually recovered. However, for weeks afterward, he had nightmares about the creature, waking up his family with screams during the night.

In the following months, locals kept reporting sightings of this mysterious creature, causing fear and panic among residents. Farmers shared stories of it flying over their fields, and others saw it landing on their house rooftops. One resident, Oella Hopkins, experienced this when she was hanging laundry outside. The family dog got upset and started barking, and when Oella looked, she saw the creature, known as The Awful, perched on her farmhouse roof, staring at her. Terrified, Oella ran inside and hid under her bed for hours.

Later Sightings of “The Awful”

By the end of 1925, sightings of the creature became less frequent and almost stopped completely by 1928. Even though people thought it had disappeared, some locals claimed to see it every now and then since the 1920s. One such person was Lisa Maskell from Montgomery, who said she spotted the creature near Trout River when she was a child. When she saw a drawing of a pterodactyl later on, she thought it looked like the creature she saw and believed it resembled The Awful.

In 2006, there were a few new reports suggesting that The Awful might have returned to Northern Vermont. In October 2006, a person wrote in the County Courier about a respected person in Richford who saw the creature suddenly appear and grab a big black crow from a pine tree. The witness was surprised and said the creature flew around his house three times.

After this article, more people shared sightings. A woman remembered seeing the monster when she was about ten. It was in a tree near the Trout River, watching them with its strange beak, reminding her of a pterodactyl.

A dowser named Edith Green said people in Richford have been nervous about the creature for a long time.

An older man mentioned that the creature has been seen often in the Gibou area for the past 25 years, even recently. Locals usually leave it alone, and it leaves them alone, with a few exceptions.

A resident of East Richford said the creature has been spotted recently around the Slide Road area. He mentioned you can often hear it before seeing it, making a strange, low screaming sound and the flapping of its large wings when it’s close.

Despite its scary appearance, the creature was never known to attack people; it seemed more like it was just watching. There’s one account mentioning it flying over Berkshire Field near Lost Nation Road and appearing to hold a baby or a small animal, although it’s more likely to have been an animal.

William DeFalco covers the story of The Awful

Possible Explanations for the Awful

Assuming the reports of the Awful are not just a hoax or an old wives tale what else could be going on here? It’s possible that soe type of rare, large bird is lurking in the wilds of Vermont and is only seen very rarely due to a lack of numbers. The Awful could simple have been a particularly large owl or Eagle.

If paranormal in origin, the Awful does bear a small resemblence to the Mothman of West Virginia. Perhaps it continues to lurk in the shadows, waiting to come our and warn residents of impending doom.

What do you think about the Awful? Tell us your theories in the comments.

If you enjoyed learning about the Awful you might also be interested in the Lechuza, a strange owl-like creature or the Prime Hook Swamp Monster.