Phantoms and Monsters

The Bunyip: Australia's Cryptid King
MUFON: 'Flying Serpent' Sighting - Hollywood Hills, CA
Recent Fortean / Oddball News 2
Oregon Sasquatch Symposium Revelation

Posted: 22 Jun 2010 10:45 AM PDT

theage - The mythological creatures that fill today's horror literature and movies hail from faraway lands. Zombie tales originated in the Caribbean, while European folk tales gave us vampires and werewolves. But a vastly more terrifying creature lurks much closer to home: one that has haunted the dreams of Australian children and the imaginations of adults: the bunyip.

Bunyips are not at all funny, although recent children's books, plays and TV have made them seem that way. Rather, the bunyip is a fascinating emblem of cross-cultural contact in colonial Australia: an indigenous bogeyman that came to terrify European settlers.

The bunyip is that breath of cold air on the back of your neck in a closed room. It's that person staring at you in a crowded party, whose face you can't place. It's an anxious mystery that makes us doubt ourselves...which is why Australians have tried to laugh it off.

White settlers first learned of bunyips from indigenous Australians in the early 19th century. The word itself comes from the Wergaia people of north-western Victoria, although similar creatures exist in indigenous folklore across Australia. William Buckley, the escaped convict who lived with the Wathaurong near the Barwon River, claimed to have spotted one several times.

Another escaped convict turned bushranger, George Clarke, had lived with the Gamilaraay on the Namoi River in northern New South Wales. Trying to capture Clarke's gang in 1832, policeman Captain John Forbes met "Liverpool", a Gamilaraay leader who sketched a creature he called a "Wawee". It had fin-like feet, teeth and a tusk. "All the Blacks express fear of it, and say that it will devour them if it can catch them in the water," wrote Forbes in his diary. A town in the Wawee's splashing ground is now known as Wee Waa. Similarly, in 1878 indigenous man Kurruk sketched a fearsome, emu-like bunyip called Toor-roo-dun said to terrorise swamps around Western Port — where Tooradin stands.

While the bunyip was always large, amphibious and emitted a terrifying moan, no two accounts seem to agree about its physical appearance. In some descriptions it had a seal's flippers and sleek body; in others, scales or shaggy dark fur. It usually had tusks or horns, but its head could resemble a pig's, dog's, cow's or duck's.

This uncertainty frustrated white settlers. Robert Brough Smyth's 1878 book Aborigines of Vic-toria concluded that the locals "appear to have been in such dread of it as to have been unable to take note of its characteristics."

Other colonialists were more sceptical. In an 1891 ghost story, Rosa Campbell Praed wrote, "The blacks have an impish drollery and love of mischief, and they delight in imposing on the credulity of their white auditors." Captain Forbes worried: "I am not very sure, after all, that these people are not laughing at us."

White Australians have long debated whether the bunyip is, or was, a real creature. After all, to European eyes Australian wildlife already seemed like a bizarre zoological prank: deer that stood like humans but hopped like frogs; egg-laying otters with ducks' bills and beavers' tails.

The word "bunyip" first appeared in print in July 1845, under a Geelong Advertiser headline: "Wonderful Discovery of a New Animal". But an edition of the Warrnambool Examiner, dated May 12, 1857, dismissed "stupid and idle stories" about bunyips, concluding: "It's obvious that the bunyip is a mere tradition of the crocodile, with which the northern rivers abound."

Australian Museum naturalist George Bennett was first to suggest formally (in 1871) that the bunyip might be an indigenous cultural memory of extinct Australian megafauna, passed down through oral tradition. By 1991, the authors of Vertebrate Palaeontology of Australasia were postulating that, "When confronted with the remains of some of the now extinct Australian marsupials, Aborigines would often identify them as the bunyip."

And in 1998, geologist Greg McNamara told Australian Geo-graphic magazine his theory that the remembered bunyip was actually a prehistoric turtle, Meiolania prisca, "a most impressive beast" up to two metres long with a metre-long, bony club tail and curved 25-centimetre horns.

Aborigines' and Europeans' shared uncertainty colours the bunyip's meaning even today. By the 1850s, the word came to denote imposture and pretension: in 1853, radical lawyer and political activist Daniel Deniehy lampooned William Wentworth's bid for a hereditary peerage in Australia by branding it a "bunyip aristocracy". Prime Minister Paul Keating used the same phrase to ridicule his Liberal opponents in Parliament.

The 1970 comedy/documentary The Naked Bunyip dealt frankly with Australian sexuality. Director John Murray had read a story in which a bunyip didn't know what sort of creature it was. "We, as Australians, did not have a strong sense of identity, either," Murray recalled in 2005. "Were we a myth, too? Why not strip this creature bare and find out what it is made of?"

Australian parents used the indigenous stories to warn their children away from the bush. In colonial times, kids regularly drowned in waterholes or died of exposure, so these scary tales were practical. But as children's entertainment strove to build a self-consciously Australian vocabulary in the early 20th century, bunyips began to appear as literary monsters.

The children's pantomime The Bunyip was the Wiggles of its day, playing from 1916 to 1924. A stunningly elaborate production, it featured indigenous actors throwing boomerangs out over the crowd!

But by the 1957 children's musical The Bunyip and the Satellite, the bunyip had become wise and whimsical, advising children how to defeat the wicked Bush Fire Spirit. Barry Humphries, who played the bunyip, described it as a "prancing bird-like clown with a falsetto that inevitably got huskier after 12 performances a week".

Humphries also presided over a giant bunyip float in the 1958 Moomba parade and starred in a Channel Seven TV series. He fled from bunyip typecasting by moving to London in 1959. But by then, kindly bunyips were the go — especially Michael Salmon's pink Alexander Bunyip, who ate Canberra in 1972 and will soon get his own statue outside the Gungahlin library.

Nonetheless, the bunyip retained an undercurrent of fear. As a child I remember finding the Ron Brooks illustrations in The Bunyip of Ber-keley's Creek (1973) deeply disturbing. And Patricia Wrightson's The Ice Is Coming (1977) featured the chilling description: "Its red eyes were like death and its bellow was like fear... You could not tell what it was except that it was dreadful..."

**********

THE BUNYIP

The bunyip is a mythical creature that is native to Australia. It is also known as kianpraty. The Aborigine word "bunyip" translates into demon spirit. The Australian Aborigines believed in the Bunyip so thoroughly that it has been integrated as a part of their traditional ceremonies and stories.

There are numerous descriptions of this beast from a giant starfish to being identical to the North American Bigfoot. One of the most common descriptions is that it has a canine face and head, tusks like a walrus, flippers and a horse-like tail. Because of this description, some believe that the bunyip is, in fact, an endangered, or even extinct, species of seal or sea-lion. Other descriptions included anything from feathers and legs like a dinosaur, to scales like a crocodile.

Though the creature seemed to prefer the unexplored territories of Australia, there have been sightings in Tasmania. The bunyip lives in a rivers, swamps, bogs, or water-holes, across Australia. It is believed that if a camp is set too near a bunyip hole, the entire camp will be destroyed, including the campers, during the night, by an enraged bunyip. The main source of food for a bunyip is thought to be cattle and people. Many people claim that several drownings throughout Australia are due to the bunyip, rather than bad choices or inability to swim.

Probably the most prolific period for bunyip sightings was in the 1850s. Hundreds of settlers and natives claimed to have seen the creature.

There are several explanations for the possibility of the bunyip. The first, an endangered or extinct seal or similar marsupial, is a good possibility. Another explanation is that it is a species of creature thought to be extinct over 10,000 years. The species is known as the diprotodon. The diprotodon was a plant eating marsupial that was large and to a point meets some of the criteria in the descriptions. Some researchers claim that if this creature did survive, but is yet undiscovered, it would have evolved into a hippo-like marsupial.

First Written Use of 'Bunyip'

Fossils found near Geelong were revealed by The Geelong Advertiser in July 1845, under the headline Wonderful Discovery of a new Animal. It continued "On the bone being shown to an intelligent black (sic), he at once recognised it as belonging to the bunyip, which he declared he had seen. On being requested to make a drawing of it, he did so without hesitation." The account noted a story of an Aboriginal woman being killed by a bunyip, and the "most direct evidence of all," which was that of a man named Mumbowran, "who showed several deep wounds on his breast made by the claws of the animal." The account provided this description of the creature:

"The Bunyip, then, is represented as uniting the characteristics of a bird and of an alligator. It has a head resembling an emu, with a long bill, at the extremity of which is a transverse projection on each side, with serrated edges like the bone of the stingray. Its body and legs partake of the nature of the alligator. The hind legs are remarkably thick and strong, and the fore legs are much longer, but still of great strength. The extremities are furnished with long claws, but the blacks say its usual method of killing its prey is by hugging it to death. When in the water it swims like a frog, and when on shore it walks on its hind legs with its head erect, in which position it measures twelve or thirteen feet in height."

Shortly after this account appeared, it was repeated in other Australian newspapers. However it appears to be the first use of the word bunyip in a written publication.

Sources:
Mastin, Colleayn O. Illus. by Sovak, Jan "The Magic of Mythical Creatures"
www.helium.com
www.skepticworld.com
The Geelong Advertiser 2 July 1845 in Peter Ravenscroft's "The Bunyip and Inland Seal Archive"
en.wikipedia.org
www.theage.com.au

The Bunyip: Australia's Cryptid King

MUFON: 'Flying Serpent' Sighting - Hollywood Hills, CA

Posted: 22 Jun 2010 10:10 AM PDT

Photo captures from video witness used as a description example

MUFON Case Management System - Hollywood Hills, California - unedited: Estimated-Time: 01:45am, Estimated-Date: October 17, 2009, Length: 7-10ft, width: 2-3ft, Color: Faded Bluish Florescent, Altitude: 40-50ft facing North, Movement: Rotating Clockwise, Speed: 3-5 mph Traveling to the East, Weather: Clear No Wind or Breeze.
I had trouble sleeping the night of my sighting, so I decided to go outside and water the back lawn. I stepped out in the back patio and reached down to pick-up the water hose when I came back up I saw what at the moment I thought was a kite. I immediately concluded that the object was not a kite because it stopped moving but continued to rotate clock-wise. I stood and stared at the object to study its form, color, & shape. This was the (MOST Obscure Object) I have ever seen… I also noticed that this object made absolutely no noise, and the most interesting aspect about it is its shape. The object looked like a vertebrae or back bone and has it rotated it seemed to be flexing in a cumbersome motion. The color was a faded florescent blue, and the light that it emitted was even throughout the entire shape and form of the object. The size could have been 7-10 ft long and 2-3ft in diameter. The distance was about 40-50ft above me and facing north towards the Hollywood Hills. I wanted to go get my camera that was sitting on my desk so I backed away from the object to my back door keeping my eyes on it so I don't lose track of its position. I ran to my desk grabbed my camera and ran back out to my patio. The object was no-longer in its previous position, It had climbed vertically straight up at what I estimated to be 1-2 thousand ft. I turned off the LCD display on my camera to see if I can acquire it through the view finder. I could not see the object, but I snapped 4 succession pictures in the general direction of the object. I could still observe the object with the naked eye but could not see it through the camera. I continued to watch the object for about another minute ½ then it passed out of view completely. I then placed a call to the (LAPD) to file a report. The Officer who handled the call listened intently and asked me 1 or 2 questions, and then offered to send out a chopper that was in the area to see if they could intercept the object. I said go ahead but that I could not see the object anymore so it would be impossible for me to give any position of where it might be at that moment. The Officer thanked me for calling and said that it was an interesting conversation and that if the object returns to call again immediately. I then called (MUFON) but got no answer. After that night I had tried to make sense of what I had seen that night and the only explanation I can come up with is that it could (NOT) have been anything explained in conventional terms and it seemed to be under intelligent control because it stopped in mid-air almost at the exact moment I took notice of the object. It was like the object was watching me has I was watching the object. And when I returned outside this thing had traveled straight up vertically 1-2 thousand ft, from the point and position from where I left it to grab my camera. This was truly the most strangest sighting I have ever experienced… I have had an Abduction experience when I was 6 years old, and throughout my life I have had UFO sighting of all different types, but nothing like the 1 I had this night. I did a little research into this object and there was some video on YouTube pertaining to a sighting that Story Musgrave the Astronaut had videotaped from the Space Shuttle. Here the YouTube video Link that will give some idea to what I witnessed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jotdaXX1w2A
The object I saw moved in the exact same way has the video clip of the Story Musgrave Sightings. Its form or shape hard to determine whether it's the same Object. But its movement is identical to my sighting. This sends chills up my spine when I think about it. I keep asking myself what could it have been???

NOTE: On several occasions I have received similar sighting accounts...either as flying serpents or dragons. Below is an article on a strange cloud phenomena in China. Is this what people are witnessing? What is your opinion? Lon

***********

Dragon-shaped Flying Object Appears in Jilin Province

At about 6 p.m. on August 6, two students walked out of their library in Jilin University and looked up. "Look! A flying dragon appears in the sky!" A student named Li captured an image of the dragon on his picture-phone, providing the second instance of photo documentation of a dragon flying over China so far this summer. "When I was walking out of the library, I saw a bright, animal-shaped object flying in the sky, heading southeast. It was incredibly dazzling, just like a gigantic dragon. I immediately took a picture of this unusual event on my cellphone," said excitedly Li, a student at Jilin University, Jilin province.

Li captured what he believes to be a dragon on his phone camera and began passing it around the University two days later. In the middle of the photo is a distant-looking dragon-shaped object, complete with four limbs and a tail. As they were leaving the library that evening, Li's girlfriend Xiaobin suddenly yelled, "Look! A flying dragon appears in the sky!" A glowing, red dragon-shaped flying object streaked across the sky, illuminating the evening sky just after the sun had disappeared from sight. Dragon-shaped Flying Object Appears in Jilin Province

A similar occurrence was reported a few years ago.

A photo of two peculiar dragon-shaped objects taken from a plane flying over Tibet's Himalayas piqued many users' interest when displayed on a Chinese website. The photographer is an amateur.

On June 22, 2004, the photographer went to Tibet's Amdo region to attend the Qinghai-to-Xizang Railroad laying ceremony, and then took a plane from Lhasa to fly back inland. When flying over the Himalayas, he accidentally caught these two "dragons" in a picture that he took. He called these two objects "the Tibet dragons."

Looking at the photo, these two objects appear to have the characteristics of crawling creatures: The bodies seem to be covered by scales, the backs have spine-like protuberances, and also they have gradually thinning rear ends. Although the photo caught only a portion of the entire scene, it was sufficient to create the appearance of two gigantic dragons flying in the clouds.

MUFON: 'Flying Serpent' Sighting - Hollywood Hills, CA

Recent Fortean / Oddball News 2

Posted: 22 Jun 2010 10:17 AM PDT

PRISONER KILLS CELLMATE, EATS LUNG

telegraph - A French prisoner killed his cellmate then sliced open his chest to remove and eat his heart, a court has heard. However, the man removed the wrong organ, and ate his lung by mistake.

Nicolas Cocaign, 39, appeared in court in the northern city of Rouen for allegedly killing Thierry Baudry in January 2007 by punching and kicking him, stabbing him with a pair of scissors and suffocating him with a rubbish bag.

Mr Cocaign then allegedly sliced open Baudry's chest with a razor blade, removed a rib and pulled out an organ which he believed was the man's heart, but which in fact was a lung. He is accused of eating part of the lung raw and then frying the rest of it with some onions on a makeshift cooker in the cell in the Rouen prison.

"I wanted to take his soul," Mr Cocaign, who at the time of the crime was in custody awaiting trial for attempted armed robbery, allegedly told an investigating judge probing the case. A verdict in the trial is expected on Thursday.

NOTE: ...However, the man removed the wrong organ, and ate his lung by mistake. Not the sharpest tack in the jailhouse...Lon

***********

CHINESE TODDLER HOOKED ON CIGARETTES AND BEER

That Indonesian kid who chain-smokes has nothing on this 3-year-old - she's hooked on nicotine AND beer after a horrific traffic accident.

Chinese toddler Ya Wen started downing pints and smoking up to a pack a day after being struck by a speeding van and spending five days in a coma, her parents told the Yangcheng Evening Post.

"She likes drinking," her mother, Gao Wen, said.

"Three glasses of beer is no problem to her."

Gao Wen said her daughter's personality changed dramatically and she started acting like an adult shortly after leaving the hospital.

First, she was busted hiding in the toilet smoking her dad's cigs. Then she began stealing them from a store - until the owner let her have them on credit.

"The first time I found her smoking was in the toilet," her mother said.

"Before that, I often saw cigarette butts in the toilet but thought they were my husband's, until I saw my daughter smoking there."

The store owner said he assumed the child was buying the butts for Dear Old Dad, adding that the child would take up to two packs away at a time.

The family lives in a shelter in Huizhou, China, and collects and sells garbage for cash.

Ya Wen's father recently gave up smoking to set a good example for his child but she still cries for them.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian tot who made headlines with his habit is cutting down.

Ardi Rizal, 2, used to throw tantrums if he didn't have 40 cigarettes a day but he is down to just 15 a day.

"He's totally addicted," Ardi's mother, Diana, 26, said recently.

"If he doesn't get cigarettes, he gets angry and screams and batters his head against the wall. He tells me he feels dizzy and sick."

**********

AFRICAN KILLER CULT REVEALED

nation - The latest man to claim that he is a killer has told police that he belongs to a cult that specialises in ritual killings.

The man, who is said to come from Uyoma in Rarieda District, was arrested after claiming that he killed Ms Devina Amenya in a lodging in Keroka town.

He has told police that the cult has branches in Kisumu, Kericho, and Nairobi. "He said they kill their victims and shave off the hair, which they present to their leader every last Friday of the month as proof that they have accomplished a mission," said local police boss Shadrack Maithya.

Mr Maithya said the man was found with human hair suspected to have been shaved from Ms Amenya, his last victim. The suspect's confession could give Rachuonyo police leads in solving the mysterious murder of a woman in a Kendu Bay lodging two months ago.

Ms Margaret Abuko, a nurse at Kendu Adventist Hospital, was killed on the night of April 9-10. She had reportedly booked the room and was later joined by a female companion who could not be traced when her body was discovered.

The death left investigators perplexed as no traces of the killer could be found. She was later buried at her Kagan home in Homa Bay District.

Rachuonyo police boss Stephen Munguti said he could not discuss the matter in detail as he arrived a month after the incident. "I arrived here after the killings and the former CID boss who handled the matter was transferred to Webuye," he said.

On Monday, another woman reported to Nyamira police how the suspect attempted to kill her in a Kisii lodging. She told investigators that she had known the assailant for a year .

Mr Maithya said the woman, whose name police could not disclose, will be a witness when the man appears in court. Several people whose names were mentioned in the confessions as accomplices were being sought by police.

The 22-year-old man is said to have confessed he joined the cult while at secondary school. In the Keroka killing, he booked the lodging through a waiter at the bar and registered as G. Otieno. No other details were given.

The Nyamira police boss said CID officers from Nyamira, Kericho and Nyando were working together to establish if the confessions were true.

He claims to have killed three people in Bondo, two in Nyando, one in Sotik and one in Masaba North district. But when he was arrested, he claimed he had killed five people in Kendu Bay, Katito, Kapsoit, which did not feature in Monday's briefing.

Nyando police boss Patrick Mbarire said he could not verify the man's claims.

Never been used

Bondo DC Mohamud Salim said no mysterious deaths had been reported in lodgings in the district while Rarieda DO 1, Mr Mohamud Hussein, also said no such cases were reported in the district.

Mr Maithya said the man had a Kenyan passport which was issued in 2009 but had never been used. On Monday, people who came into contact with the man described him as a charming person.

A woman, who said she was the last person to visit Ms Amenya at the Obomo Hotel room, and identified herself as Judith, said the man posed no danger. "He is the kind of person you want to meet. They are always nice to us and treat us well," Judith said.

Sources said the suspect, is very eloquent, appeared calm and happy during the interrogation. He apparently killed Ms Amenya, after his initial target, Duke Monyancha, a 20-year-old employee of the lodging escaped from him.

Mr Monyancha had shown the alleged killer around Keroka the previous night. "He kept asking me about the town and he wanted us to walk along dark streets. He seemed to be happy about something but would not tell me about it," Mr Monyancha said.

Mr Monyancha said he told him he wanted to visit the US soon for a "mission." During interrogation, the man said he wanted to kill Mr Monyancha.

**********

WHITLEY STRIEBER'S LATEST BOOK 'THE OMEGA POINT'

Click for video

"What comes after the end of the world? Whitley Strieber wraps mind-bending principles inside an apocalyptic mystery. The story is one of both disaster and hope."
--Larry Bond, New York Times bestselling author of Cold Choices

"A mind-bending, truth-telling, high-powered novel that is just impossible to stop reading. It's got everything: sweep, scale, history, high stakes and immense ideas. One of the best thrillers about the end of the world I've ever read."
--Douglas Preston, New York Times bestselling author of Impact

From Booklist
In a thriller about the end of the world as we know it, Strieber takes us on a journey through the horrors of apocalypse and into the promise of hope in a future changed beyond all recognition. Since 2012, radiation from a supernova has been wreaking increasing havoc with technology. Eventually, the ferocity of the solar storms threatens to burn life on Earth to a crisp. Enter David Ford, a psychologist hired to work at the exclusive Acton Clinic. Of course, nothing is as it appears on the surface. Though he has no recollection of it, David was once a student at the center that preceded the clinic, at which Herbert Acton and others taught a science so ancient it had passed into the realm of mysticism. Many of the present-day patients were David's classmates, and they hold the only hope for the survival of humanity in their command of the science they learned there. Strieber regards the popular theme of apocalypse from a New Agey angle not unusual for him and sometimes rather dull. --Regina Schroeder

**********

WALKING WITH ALIENS

During the 2010 UFO Festival in Roswell, New Mexico, authors Noe Torres, Ruben Uriarte, and E.J. Wilson will offer special walking tours of several key locations at the former Roswell Army Air Field that are directly linked to the 1947 UFO incident.

Roswell, NM, June 21, 2010 --(PR.com)-- Visitors to the 2010 Roswell UFO Festival are invited to visit the former Army air field where a crashed UFO and alien bodies were allegedly hidden from the public in 1947. On July 2 and again on July 3, UFO investigators Noe Torres, Ruben Uriarte, and E. J. Wilson will take groups on a 90-minute narrated tour that will cover two miles and visit nine key sites directly involved in the infamous Roswell UFO incident. The official Web site for the "Roswell UFO Walking Tours" is RoswellTours.com.

"It's something that I don't think has ever been offered before," said Ruben Uriarte, state director for the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) in Northern California and a long-time investigator of UFO cases in the Southwestern U.S., including the Roswell case. "I think it will be a unique opportunity for UFO enthusiasts to walk near several of the most important places where the Roswell Incident happened back in 1947. There have been tours to several of the alleged UFO crash sites, but that really wasn't where the real action in this case took place. Really, everything happened here at the old Roswell Army Air Field, and we're so lucky that many of the buildings and structures still stand."

With their tour groups in tow, the authors will tell the amazing story of the world's most famous UFO case, as they stop to point out where everything happened at the former air field. "Before we start our walk, we will describe the sites that we will visit so that everyone will know what to look for," Torres said. "And then as we walk along, we will tell more of the story behind each place.

Torres has based the walking tours on his recently-published book "Ultimate Guide to the Roswell UFO Crash: A Tour of Roswell's UFO Landmarks" (February 2010, RoswellBooks.com) After it was published, Torres and Uriarte came up with the idea to offer short tours of several of the key UFO landmarks mentioned in the book. Torres said, "After spending a couple of years researching these important sites, reading eyewitness testimony, and visiting the locations, we felt it would be great not only to hold lectures about the book, but also to actually take people out on narrated walking tours of the former Roswell Air Field, where most of the really weird stuff happened."

During the Roswell UFO Festival (July 1-5), Torres and Uriarte will also be presenting three lectures at the Roswell UFO Museum, 114 North Main Street. On July 2 at 8:30 a.m., the authors will speak about their book "Mexico's Roswell: The Chihuahua UFO Crash," published in 2007 by RoswellBooks.com. On July 3 at 3 p.m., Torres and Uriarte will speak on their latest book, "Ultimate Guide to the Roswell UFO Crash." On July 4 at 1 p.m., they will speak about their 2008 book, "The Other Roswell: UFO Crash on the Texas-Mexico Border."

"Ultimate Guide" has received many favorable reviews and has been on the top 10 list of bestselling UFO books on Amazon.com. Veteran UFO researcher Kevin Randle said recently, "If you are planning to visit Roswell, this book tells you all you need to know about the UFO crash, the city and its character. It condenses the confusion of the case into an easily read book that will help anyone make the most of a visit to city and help understand what actually happened. A very nice addition to the Roswell literature."

"Prior to the publication of this book, few people knew exactly where to look for this spell-binding hidden history. Now, contained herein are the resources needed to visit all the major historical sites related to the alleged UFO crash," said John LeMay, Roswell historian and author, who wrote the book's afterword.

Another collaborator in Torres' book was Jesse Marcel, Jr., son of the former Army intelligence officer at the Roswell Army Air Field in 1947. The elder Marcel was the first former soldier stationed in Roswell to disclose that a UFO had crashed and had been recovered back in July 1947. Marcel, Jr. wrote the forward for Torres' book, in which he stated, "Here you will read about my former home, which still stands in Roswell and where we examined the strange wreckage. You will also read about many other places, including the mysterious RAAF aircraft hanger, where UFO wreckage and bodies were temporarily stored. Through a clearer understanding of the Roswell event, we discover greater truth about the universe and our place in it. We are not alone."

Also assisting with the "Roswell UFO Walking Tours" will be the book's photographer, E. J. Wilson, a Roswell-area resident and a former employee of the Roswell UFO Museum. Wilson took over 100 photographs for the book of the major UFO landmarks still existing in Roswell. "I think the tours will be fantastic," WIlson said. "It's a way to make history come alive, and we'll have some really interesting stories to tell."

The "Roswell UFO Walking Tour" will begin with a short orientation to be held at 7 p.m. each evening (July 2 and 3) in the multipurpose room of the Campus Union Building of Eastern New Mexico University at Roswell, located at 48 University Boulevard. Admission to the tours will be $25 per person, with a $5 discount to everyone who stops by the authors' table at the Roswell UFO Museum, July 2-4. More information about the tours can be found at RoswellTours.com.

Recent Fortean / Oddball News 2

Oregon Sasquatch Symposium Revelation

Posted: 22 Jun 2010 01:39 PM PDT

registerguard - An unusual group of hominid was spotted Saturday in the fir-ringed valley at Lane Community College in south Eugene.

Although the skies were sunny, 210 of them gathered in the shade of a lecture hall and exchanged vocalizations on the subject of a bigger, hairier and more elusive and most controversial species — bigfoot.

"One thing these people have in common is determination in the face of societal opposition," said Jim Kiser, who researches bigfoot from his home in Newberg. "My son thinks I'm crazy and my brother-in-law is less polite. My Ph.D.-in-chemistry friend says he has a bigfoot detector — and it's a six pack."

The range of the bigfoot-seeking hominid is national, but, since 2003, large seasonal gatherings have occurred in California, Oklahoma, east Texas and Ohio — where 670 turned up in April, said Jeffery Meldrum, who teaches anatomy at Idaho State University.

"It's a curious commentary on human nature that there are these sorts of gatherings all over the country," he said. "It becomes a social network that fills a human need, obviously."

Saturday's gathering, called the Oregon Sasquatch Symposium, drew participants from — besides Oregon — Washington, Idaho, California, Nevada, Florida, Texas, Hawaii and New Zealand. The symposium continues today in Building 17 at LCC.

The participants' habitat — while traveling — is the Red Lion Inn or similar motels. But their ordinary location is out in the woods, listening for unaccounted-for knocks and whoops that might indicate the presence of bigfoot.

"Many of them devote any time they're off the job," said Jon Nichols, a Sasquatch researcher and bull breeder from Vancouver, Wash.

Bigfoot followers cannot be distinguished by surface activities, such as career or political affiliation, Nichols said. "You'll see computer programmers to pipe fitters — a wide spectrum," he said. "You have everything from the greenies to the rabid conservatives."

They are tool users, these human bigfoot-seekers. They employ infrared night vision goggles, motion activated cameras, plaster casting kits. Some have developed mobile field research laboratories they tow behind pickup trucks to support their work.

Increasingly, they pursue bigfoot on the Internet, where several websites have cataloged signs and sightings of the elusive animal.

The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, for instance, lists 224 sightings in Oregon, including 13 in Lane County — including details of each encounter.

The bigfoot-seekers refer to themselves as "witnesses" if they've glimpsed a bigfoot-type creature and "habituators" if they've "come to know these beings," said Toby Johnson, a University of Oregon student and the symposium organizer. Although, he said, the term "habituator" is fading in favor of "long-term witness." The group calls itself the "bigfoot community."

The community has its alpha individuals, who are revered for their experiences, their knowledge of foot- or voice-print — or their ability to rivet an audience to an encounter story.

Robert Gimlin, who shot the most famous bigfoot footage in 1967, was on hand Saturday. So was Meldrum, who is among the most prominent academicians to venture into Sasquatch study, despite the ridicule of university peers.

But the rock star was Autumn Williams, the keynote speaker, who was feted with whoops and cheers. "We are a family," the slender blond woman said as she started her story, "drawn together by our interests."

Williams told the story of a 50-year-old bulldozer driver in Florida, who took up residence in a swamp to escape the tragedies in his life.

There, Williams said, he took up a Jane Goodall-style life with a tribe of bigfoot. She referred to him only as "Mike" and said that she was the only human in the world to which he would confide.

Mike is a profane and funny witness, given to playfully calling his friends, the bigfoot — bigfeet? — "snapperheads."

Williams said Mike would not supply her with a picture because he is wary of the demand for such "evidence," but he allowed an artist to simulate an image that he verified was close to accurate, she said.

"Oh," a woman in the audience gasped, when Williams flashed a close-up of the hairy face with luminous eyes, wrinkled nose and broad mouth on the lecture hall screen.

"Wow," other audience members said.

Williams took questions after her speech, and none were critical, Meldrum noticed. "There were no probing questions, none of that," he said, later adding: "It reflected the attitude of the audience. They were won over to her story."

Many bigfoot enthusiasts are fervent — and some range into the realm of anti-science, Meldrum said. At an earlier conference, he said, "I thought I was in a Bible belt meeting in the South."

The bigfoot-seekers are fairly shy. A half dozen wouldn't mind sharing their experiences for this story, but not if they were identified by name.

"I just don't want anybody to know," said a woman from Spokane.

There are a number of reasons for their reticence, Nichols said. "As a (bigfoot) researcher, your highest priority is to not let anybody know what your doing and keep your mouth shut. They don't want to be held up to ridicule."

Another reason, Nichols said, seekers are proprietary about the woods where they do their field research. They don't want their sites compromised.

"Mike," the habituator in Florida, must remain secret so his identity doesn't bring attention and jeopardize the safety of bigfoot — which he calls Enoch, Williams said.

"The big guy comes first," she said Mike said.

Those who follow bigfoot's trail tend to assume that the creature they seek is, generally speaking, friendly and intelligent.

Some have been influenced by the movie Avatar, Meldrum said, whether they recognize it or not. Williams, for instance, depicts bigfoot as a kind of noble savage who shuns the use of technology and lives communally.

She juxtaposes bigfoot with man's image-and-possession obsessed society.

"That's the politically correct posture for a lot of people," Meldrum said. "The Sasquatch has chosen a path that's more pristine and pure."

NOTE: First off, I respect Autumn Williams' stance on this but I'd really like to have one question answered...why her? Why was she privy to this exclusive and remarkable information above all other researchers? As a person who has had an encounter with one of these creatures as well as taken the open-mind approach to sighting experiences expressed by others, I'm still wary of Autumn Williams' revelation despite what others may think. I will read the book and hopefully my questions will be answered...Lon

BTW...you can order Autumn Williams' book 'Enoch' at ORDER 'ENOCH'

Oregon Sasquatch Symposium Revelation

**********

UPDATE: well, I was over at the Bigfootforums.com and it seems the vultures are beginning to circle in reference to Autumn William's narrative. A post by Gigantopithecus canadensis is probably the most detailed:

Autumn's presentation was punctuated by odd rants of political correctness that were invariably fashioned into reasons for not offering any evidence. I thought it odd that she hadn't even been to Florida to meet Mike and check his story out in the slightest way. I was dumbfounded that most of the participants were willing to stand in a very long line to buy a signed copy of her book during the first day's lunch break. I just didn't see the appeal in the book. Even viewing the book as just a story, I must assume it is like her presentation, which I believe told me far more about Autumn than it did about bigfoot.

I understand Autumn may have broken into tears at least twice during the symposium -- once during her mother's presentation, and again during a tribal storyteller's presentation. And taking the cell phone call toward the end of her presentation was just downright rude and wierd. She offered no explanation, and I assume she was expecting the call -- her phone was on the podium. I've never seen anyone give a presentation with their cell phone on the podium.

I found it odd that Mike, the source of the stories for Autumn's book, is not realizing any benefit from the book. I suspect that Mike won't complain, because there's no Mike to complain. If Mike existed, even if he was declining compensation, I'd have a hard time as a human being cutting him out entirely.

Autumn's presentation was the first; her mother gave the second presentation, which consisted of excerpts from her book, Valley of the Skookum. Her mother lost me entirely when she read a passage about her husband watching an invisible bigfoot tromp past their cabin -- he saw the invisible foot depress the grass into bigfoot footprints. I am willing to entertain the idea of bigfoot having some fairly unique characteristics, but invisibility isn't one of them.

Autumn's mom also related what seems to be Autumn's sighting, the event that makes her a witness? Mom and very young daughter (an older toddler?) were walking down a trail looking for sticks to make the fire in their cook stove, when they rounded a corner they came face-to-face with a large bigfoot. Mom told her daughter to run, they turned around, dropped their sticks, and beat it back to the cabin where they remained all day in bed. Apparently mom never talked about this incident until a young adult Autumn asked her a question about meeting an animal in the woods when she was young, then mom related the event. Thus, I have to question what, if anything, Autumn remembers of her witnessing a bigfoot; or, is she simply remembering how her mother told her a story.

There was a disquieting lack of logic running through Autumn's presentation. I suspect her book may suffer the same problem. If so, I assume some member of these fora will dissect her story and post his or her findings.

I just ordered a copy of the book so I can see for myself the reason why this revelation is beginning to cause a ruckus...Lon

Have you had a close encounter or witnessed something unusual?
Send us an email

Become a fan of 'Phantoms and Monsters' at Facebook

Listen to our segment
'Strickly Paranormal: For Those Seeking the Truth!'

New 'SPECIAL OFFER' Category
BUY 2 and get the 3rd FREE!

Anomalist Books - works on maverick science, unexplained mysteries, unorthodox theories, strange talents, and unexpected discoveries. Please check out their excellent and diverse catalog