I would just like to wish you all the the best for 2020.I hope the year is good to you all.May it bring health,wealth and prosperity xx

Monster in Shasta Lake?

Lake Shasta Serpent 

Lake Shasta in California is  35 miles long  (56 km) and a maximum depth of 517 ft (158 metres ).Its primary inflows are Sacramento River, Pit River, McCloud River and its primary outflow is the Sacramento River.

On 10^th July 2017 a family called Atwood were swimming and having a picnic on the beach at Shasta Lake.They first noticed disturbances in the water where groups of  fish were leaping out of the water.Then a large black mass breached the surface, perhaps in pursuit of the fish. Finally the creature and its head was completely in view. Mrs Atwood said :

“It was massive and slow moving, then it slowly submerged itself into the water leaving behind hardly a ripple of evidence on the lake surface. I looked to my husband to make sure he saw the giant beast too, his expression instantly told me he also witnessed the creature.”

Mrs Atwood described the Shasta lake monster as a glossy dark gunmetal grey blue colour with smooth skin, and on the dorsal side it had what looked to have hard shell like spiked scales about every 18″ or so. She said the shape of its head was similar to a rattlesnake; angular and bulky, and its eyes were pure black.

You can read the full story here :

http://mikemorgandesigns.com/2017/07/14/shasta-lake-horned-serpent-sighting-northern-californias-loch-ness-monster/

There is a legend of a creature in the Lake.A native tribe objected to the Shasta Dam taking some of their sacred land.They summoned an ancient horned beast with a fire dance and it materialised in the Sacramento River.It was described as scaly ,huge and had horns.It did not stop the Dam but continued to reside in the Lake.

In 2018 a monster was found in the Lake :

“A morning of fishing on Lake Shasta turned into a rescue operation for a pair of Redding anglers who pulled a catfish out of an 8-foot sturgeon's mouth Monday, saving the big fish's life.Brandon Bartlett said he and his friend, Sou Saephan, had been fishing on the Pit River Arm of Lake Shasta and were returning to Jones Valley in their boat when they saw something in the distance splashing in the water.They motored over to get a closer look "and what do you know it’s a (bleeping) river monster just swimming on top of the water so I roped the tail because I could tell it was suffering," Saephan said in a Facebook post.At 8-feet, 2 inches long, Bartlett said it was easily the biggest fish he had ever seen."It looked almost prehistoric. It was really big," Bartlett said, describing the line of spikes along its back and sides.They used the boat to drag it to the shore and discovered it had a catfish stuck in its mouth.They used a pair of pliers to pull out the catfish, which was about 13 inches long."You could see the fish almost take a gasp when we got it (the catfish) out," Bartlett said.

Read full story here :

https://eu.redding.com/story/news/2018/09/20/big-fish-anglers-rescue-monster-8-foot-long-sturgeon-lake-shasta/1345479002/

So could the Sturgeon have been what the Atwoods saw ? At over 8 feet long and with spikes on its back its sounds similar to the description by Mrs Atwood.Unless more sightings and evidence are forthcoming, a large Sturgeon may be the explanation for the monster of Shasta Lake.

Christmas Monsters

Not all Christmas creatures are benign like Santa Claus. Krampus looks like a demonic goat who walks on its hind legs like a human. He punishes naughty  children, beating  them with birch branches and  carries a basket on his back so he can carry off a child to eat later.The 5^th of  December is Krampusnacht ,men in homemade Krampus costumes run around Alpine villages causing havoc. These 'Krampus Runs' continue today.

The Karakoncolos looks like a cross between the Devil and a Sasquatch. In Turkey, the legend says he would stand at street corners on winter nights setting riddles for passers-by. If the traveller gave an answer that included the word ‘black’ they were free to go on their way. If not, he would strike them dead .Sometimes the Karakoncolos would just put them in a trance and leave them to roam free. In Serbia, the story says the Karakoncolos   jumps on the victim’s back and uses them as a ride. The exhausted person was only released at dawn.

Jólakötturinn is the Icelandic Yule Cat or Christmas Cat. Jólakötturinn, who first appeared in the 19th century,  a huge, ferocious beast with razor-like whiskers, blazing eyes and terrible claws who consumed any child who did not receive new clothes on Christmas Day.It  is tied into an Icelandic tradition in which those who finish their work on time received new clothes for Christmas, while those who were lazy did not . Jólakötturinn could tell who the lazy children were because they did not have at least one new item of clothing for Christmas and these children would be eaten by the Yule Cat.

Then there is the macabre skeleton mare of Welsh tradition,Mary Lwyd, which  rises from the dead and wanders the streets with her undead attendants, to remind the living of their existence. Mary Lwyd wants to  to get into your  house. To keep the zombie horse out, you must engage in a battle of  rhymes . Usually singing the rhymes to which the zombie horse replies.On New Year’s Eve, the undead mare is represented by a puppeteer parading a horse skull on a pole draped in white cloth around the towns and villages. 

Next there is a creature from Scandinavian folklore who looks like  a gnome and lives among the dead inside burial mounds called the Tomten.He can  act as a caretaker of the household, that is if you keep on his good side. The Tomten has quite the temper and is known for  biting people who upset him. The bites are  poisonous and  deadly. People leave a gift of food out on Christmas Eve for the Tomten.

One of Iceland’s creatures associated with Christmas is  Gryla  a giant troll who is  bad tempered with an  insatiable hunger  for children. Each Christmas, Gryla comes down from her mountain dwelling to hunt for naughty children. She catches  them in a sack and takes  them back to her cave where she boils them alive for her favourite stew.

After that all it remains is for me to wish you a merry Christmas and thank you for reading and following the blog xx

Do you believe in the cryptid Father Christmas ?

Is Santa Claus a cryptid?

You may laugh but think about the similarities between Santa and documented  cryptids.

Cryptids tend to be seen in places with difficult terrain where they cannot easily be tracked or seen. -Santa lives in an icy wasteland.

Santa disappears and reappears. There are stories about bigfoot disappearing before people’s eyes and many cryptids are only spotted at certain times of the year when conditions are right .

Santa flies through the air on a sled with flying reindeer. There are many flying cryptids from thunderbirds to mothman.

Then there are his little helpers –the elves. They could be a descendant or offshoot of the Hobbit skeletons that were found in recent years.

He leaves gifts. There are old stories of wildmen who left food for the starving on their doorsteps.

Santa is rather hairy according to many depictions with flowing beard and locks. Ditto are many cryptids.

He has a distinctive cry-Ho Ho Ho. So do many cryptids including a species of giant bat that is said to make a similar noise.

Santa only exists in folklore stories, so do many cryptids until people start to hunt for them. Nearly all cryptids from the Loch Ness Monster to the Yeti are first discovered in old stories when one looks back at the time line.

So Is Santa Claus a cryptid? Probably not as there is no eye witness testimony to back up his appearances that I am aware of (that does not include your parent in a red dressing gown and Santa hat and fake beard leaving presents at the bottom of the bed) but next time someone scoffs at your belief in cryptids, remind them they believed in Father Christmas once so don’t knock belief in the unknown.

A Living Dinosaur in the Yukon?

The monster of Partridge Creek,Yukon.

A  story by Georges Dupuy entitled "The Monster of Partridge Creek"( in the Yukon) was  published in the French journal ‘Je sais tout’ in  1908 and The Strand Magazine.A banker, James Lewis Buttler and a miner Tom Leemore told him they were hunting moose near Clear Creek when the animals began stampeding away from them in fright.A large predator must have startled them. The men followed some tracks, which they assumed were  made by a large animal, into a rocky gorge.  On their return  Dupuy heard the story and agreed to join the men, along with French missionary Father Pierre Lavagneux and five unnamed First Nations individuals, to search for the reported animal. They established a camp site overlooking a ravine near Partridge Creek where they claimed they were able to observe an animal,10 meters( 30 feet long )with a hairy body. Scared at the sight of it  Lavagneux cried out , "A Ceratosaurus. It is the Ceratosaurus of the Arctic Circle.” Dupuy claimed he had a letter he  received from Lavagneux in January 1908 he dated Christmas Day 1907, in which the priest said that on Christmas Eve, and while in the company of ten First Nation men , he had seen the monster again,with what seemed to be the carcass of a caribou in its mouth . Tracks identical to those found back in 1903 were clearly visible in the deep mud. They were later obliterated by snow.

Source: https://selectstrand.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-monster-of-partridge-creek-strand.html

Normally we hear tales of living dinosaurs from hot countries ,often in jungles. This however was the Yukon,snowy and cold.It seems unlikely a creature used to warmer climes could have survived for millions of years in such conditions. Could they have seen the rare but native of the area ,a Wood Bison?

In comparison to a plains bison,a wood bison is larger and heavier, with large males reaching 3.35 m (11.0 ft) long including 54 cm (1.77 ft) tails and 201 cm (6.59 ft) tall at withers and 1,179 kg (2,600 lb) in weight, making it the heaviest living terrestrial animal in North America.The highest point of the wood bison is well ahead of its front legs and they also have larger horn cores, darker and woollier pelages, and less hair on their forelegs and beards. One such large animal caked in mud and appearing unexpectedly could be mistaken at a distance for something more sinister or dinosaur like. Just a thought in the unlikely event of dinosaurs surviving in such a cold place,sometimes a simple explanation of mistaken identity is the answer.