Wednesday, 23 February 2022

Silver Lakes and Their Creatures.

 

On the subject of places with the same name having fortean activity ,I came across the Silver Lakes.

Silver Lake Massachusetts

Silver Lake is  in Plympton, Massachusetts. The Pembroke/Plympton town line is within the lake, and a portion of the western shoreline of the lake is the town line with Halifax. The inflow of the pond is Tubbs Meadow Brook Access to the pond is through Silver Lake Sanctuary.

In the 1940s and 1950s there were reports of a “lake monster” – believed to be a “giant frog” or a “frogman”  in the Lake. It was mentioned in old newspaper articles. Locals believed it but little else is known.

Loren Coleman did write about it in article on October 25, 2013 Boston Globe article titled "Monsters of New England” However it had no more information.

 

Silver Lake Saugus Massachusetts

Breakheart Reservation is a public recreation area covering 652 acres in the towns of Saugus and Wakefield, Massachusetts. A creature was reported there that looked like an alligator.In 2011 wildlife officials hunted for it fearing it had taken up residence there. Officials from the Department of Conservation and Recreation searched Silver Lake in the Breakheart Reservation Park in Saugus on July 28, 2011, after sighting two alligators. No alligator was found.

Read story here:

https://www.boston.com/uncategorized/noprimarytagmatch/2011/07/28/my-what-a-big-smile-you-have-officials-on-lookout-for-alligator-at-saugus-park/

 

Silver Lake New York

Silver Lake originated several thousand years ago when retreating glaciers left western New York.It has a maximum depth of 37 feet(12 metres).

According to the indigenous people The Seneca, the lake was home to a slug-like creature. That monster  of the Silver Lake creature was killed , according to folklore, after a thunderstorm drew it from the lake. John John, the elder in the Squawkie Hill Indian Reservation said  that the Seneca used to avoid Silver Lake because of big, foul-smelling snake that lived beneath its waters. They had left the lake in 1820 just to get away from the beast.

Then in the 1880s : an unknown mysterious animal was  sighted in Perry, New York. The Serpent of Silver Lake was first seen on July 13th, 1885 by four fishermen who saw what they thought was a huge log – until it moved in a serpentine manner. Over a hundred people saw the serpent during the next several weeks. Hoards of people travelled to Silver Lake, hoping to see or kill it. The creature’s last appearance was in the late summer of 1885.

It was however a hoax :

In 1857, there was a fire at A. B. Walker's hotel. Firemen found a contraption, about 60 feet long, made of waterproof canvas with coils inside with weights attached to it, a hose and large bellows to inflate it and ropes to move it, in the attic – the remains of the Silver Lake serpent.

Walker wanted to increase his hotel business, so he and friends created the serpent. After they were almost discovered with their contraption, they stored it in the hotel’s attic. Walker left Perry after the hoax was discovered. The townspeople of enjoyed the hoax. They decided to hold an annual Sea Serpent Balloon Festival that commemorates the “serpent.”

Source:

https://cryptozoo-oscity.blogspot.com/2011/04/serpent-of-silver-lake-hoax.html

The Hotelier used the local legend to his own advantage ,but it was another Silver Lake that had a lake monster in folklore .So maybe there is something in a name ,what do you think?

Sunday, 20 February 2022

Malayan Bigfoot

  

Mawas of Malaysia

In Malaysia  the Orang Mawas or Mawas is a creature  said to inhabit the jungle of Johor . It is described as being about 10 ft (3 m) tall, walks on two legs  and covered in dark fur. The local Orang Asli people call it hantu jarang gigi, It has been seen raiding fruit trees and eating fish.

In 2001  while driving up Malaysia's main North-South highway, Eva Hawa says she saw a creature fitting the Mawa’s  description crossing the road in broad daylight

"It was hairy, it was big, it was about six to seven feet tall. He moved right across in front of my car. He has a hunch and walked like a very old man," she said.

Abdul Rahman Ahmad, had seen Mawa footprints 30 years ago.His late brother had been a game warden and they had seen them when walking.They were 8 inches (20cms) across and 15 inches (40 cms) long.They were like large bare human foot prints with a thumb type print rather than a big toe.

A report from the BBC in 2006:

 The  people of Mawas certainly seem to believe in the creature from which their village takes its name.Some, like Aji the boatman, say they have seen it.

"It was about 10 or 11 at night. I saw something, but I didn't know what sort of creature it was. But I can definitely see the eyes were red. And it made a noise, Woooooo!" Aji said.

"Maybe it was scared off by my headlight and I was scared by him so we both rushed off in different directions and later I came back and found the footprints," he said.

Vincent Chow, of the Malaysian Nature Society, had some photos.

"Based on what we've learned, this is the southern end of their migratory route and because the forests have become fragmented they're rather confined now," Mr Chow said.

Traces of the muddy prints were still on the road.

"They move around looking for fruits, sometimes they go looking for them in villages. They're also looking for a mate and for salt."

Prompted by the footprints and a recent spate of sightings, the Johor state government is planning a team to start looking for Bigfoot.”

Source:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4759018.stm

Once again no definitive  proof  has been produced but the locals have a strong belief in the creature.In view of the amount of sightings  around the world of bigfoot type creatures every sighting should be investigated. Something is being seen by people.

Siberian Yeti or Bigfoot

 

Kul the Russian Yeti

The Kul is said to be 2 metres tall (7 feet) and covered in hair with red eyes. It walks on two legs like a human but has longer arms.There have been many sightings including several this century.

Three separate 'sightings of yetis' in Siberia ahead of new expedition to find the 'abominable snowman'

By The Siberian Times reporter24 September 2012

Yetis have been 'sighted' recently in three different remote areas in Kemerovo region, according to local reports. One was spotted this month by an unnamed state inspector in the Shorsky National Park, says local government official Sergei Adlyakov.'The creature did not look like a bear and quickly disappeared after breaking some branches of the bushes,' he was quoted as saying.This case was in Tashtagolski district, close to the border with Khakassia, it was claimed. It was highlighted by Trud newspaper but when The Siberian Times asked Adlyakov for more details, he said the sighting was 'private information' and he had not intended that the 'sighting' was made public. The same official has claimed to be aware of yeti sightings in previous years.

Earlier in August, fisherman Vitaly Vershinin saw two creatures near Myski village, according to a local Siberian newspaper. 'Sailing up the river I saw on the bank what I thought were two bears,' he said. 'They were drinking water.

'When they noticed me, they easily stood straight upright and went away... I did not wish to chase them.'Officials in Kuzbass, Kemerovo region, told of another alleged sighting.'We were sailing in a boat without an engine. On the rock above the Mras-Su River we saw some tall animals looking like people,' said locals who have not been named.

'Our binoculars were broken and did not let us see them sharply. We waved at the animals but they did not respond, then quickly ran back into the forest, walking on two legs.He stressed: 'We realised that they were not in dark clothes but covered by dark fur. They did walk like people.'

Russia's leading 'yeti expert' Igor Burtsev, head of the International Centre of Hominology, said he believes the supposed Myski sighting to be 'significant' though was unaware of the later National Shorsky Park case.

Read rest here :

https://siberiantimes.com/weird-and-wonderful/news-and-features/news/three-separate-sightings-of-yetis-in-siberia-ahead-of-new-expedition-to-find-the-abominable-snowman/

Yeti reappears in Siberia after more than a year

By The Siberian Times reporter17 October 2016

Following a 'sighting' by local official, hunters reveal 'footprints' that do not belong to bear or any other known creaturThere has been a gap of almost 14 months since the last Yeti evidence in Siberia, an unusually long interval with no sightings of the mythical creature or its footprints.

But today there is news of footprints near the village of Eryomino, close to the Chyoka River, in the Kyshtovsky district, Novosibirsk region, regarded as a little off the beaten track for the abominable snowman aka Bigfoot and Sasquatch.

Alexei Kovalenko, a hunter and a fisherman, revealed these recent pictures of mysterious footprints, prompting the head of the village council in Kulyaba in the same district - Alexander Shadrin to disclose that on September 17 he came face to face with a yeti which had been terrorising cows at night.

'I was greatly scared,' he confessed, explaining the creature was 'all hairy' and 'light silver' in colour.

Read rest here: https://siberiantimes.com/other/others/news/n0773-yeti-reappears-in-siberia-after-more-than-a-year/

Some describe the creature as having dark ,some silver hair.This begs the question are they different species or was one elderly? There is no doubt of the belief in the Kul or Yeti in the region but so far proof has been elusive. An expedition was sent to the area but despite claims no definitive proof has been reported.There is obviously something producing foot prints etc but whether they are simply bear tracks distorted by the snow or mud or a relic hominid or even an unknown ape remains to be seen.

Saturday, 5 February 2022

Two Lake Walkers and Lake Monsters

 

Two Lake Walkers and their Monsters

This Walker Lake is a natural lake, in  western Nevada in the USA. It is 11 miles (17 km) long and 5 miles  (8 km) wide The lake is fed by the Walker River .The lakebed is a remainder of prehistoric Lake Lahontan that covered part  of Nevada during the ice age.

There is a legend of a monster in its depths. The lake was the home of the  Paiute tribe who told the settlers stories of a giant snake-like creature that lived in the lake, and was known to have eaten humans . They refused to go fishing on the lake because of the legend.

In 1868, it was reported to the to the editor of the Esmerelda Union ,Aurora, a man called Reuben Strathers said he and a friend had killed one of the monsters. The creature was described as having a head similar to a crocodile, with its front feet near its neck, with a long tail and covered in scales .

In 1907  The Washington Herald reported  that Don Cornelison and his friend John McCorry had been fishing in a boat  when they spotted the something strange .

The report stated: “Cornelison says that at first sight he took the serpent for a man in a skiff, and when it disappeared for a moment he thought the boat had capsized, and rowed toward the spot, when it suddenly reappeared, giving them a good view of its proportions, which they estimated to be about thirty feet in length and six feet across the back.”

In 1909, the Reno Evening Gazette reported that a Japanese railroad worker had attempted to swim ashore from a boat but was drown and the monster was thought to be responsible as no remains were found.

In  July 1915, the Walker River Bulletin printed a piece that  monsters had disrupted the lake into a large wave like a Tsunami. There had been a violent disturbance in  the water near Dutch Creek. It was so large  that some people believed it to be a volcanic eruption underwater.Others blamed the monsters. The story said, “After the outburst or upheaval of water, which sent white horses in every direction, white smoke or fog arose to the crest of Mountain Grant.”

(Which sounds to me like an explosion or eruption)

In 1934 the Mineral County Independent reported that underground springs fed into Walker Lake and there was an underground passage to Pyramid Lake,enabling the creatures to pass theough.

There are also legends of a serpent in Pyramid lake .It was reported to Major Henry Douglas in the 1870s that “The Pyramid Lake Paiutes tell of their ancestors seeing a large snake or serpent in the lake some two or three hundred feet long.” Again it was said to eat humans .

Sightings are still reported sometimes today by campers and hikers.The serpent is nicknamed Cecil.

  The  Second Walker Lake.

Walker Lake is the source of the Kobuk River in northwestern Alaska. The lake is located deep in the remote interior of northern Alaska. Explored during an expedition led by John C. Cantwell in 1885. Locally known as "Big Fish Lake". The indigenous people ,the Inupiaq have a legend which tells of giant, ferocious fish that lives in  the lake . An attempt was made by a member of  the Cantwell expedition to catch one of these giant fish using  a hook made of an entire set of reindeer antlers baited with a whole goose.However it was unsuccessful and giant man eating fish are still said to be living in the waters .

There is another Alaskan lake with giant fish  Read about it here :

https://cryptozoo-oscity.blogspot.com/2009/05/alaskan-lake-monster.html

 

What I find interesting is there are two lake Murrays both supposed to have monsters.Is there something in a name?Are some names linked to Fortean activity? There is a Bridgewater in the UK and one in the USA ,both areas of strange phenomena

Read about the Lake Murrays here: https://cryptozoo-oscity.blogspot.com/2009/09/two-lake-murray-monsters.html