Phantoms and Monsters |  |
- Flying Humanoids: Poland
- Fortean / Alternative News: California Faces Natural Catastrophe, 'Superchickens' and 84-Year-Old Trans-Atlantic Adventurer
- Montana's Legendary Lake Monster
| Posted: 17 Jan 2011 05:52 PM PST  In late Autumn in 2000 two witnesses encountered strange flying figure in Koniewo in northern part of Poland. The tall, long-haired being was flying in a unusual position in close vicinity of two terrified witnesses. The observation was accompanied by strange, loud rumble coming out of the forest. The being was well visible. It was flying with face turned to us. It was long-haired and about 1.5 – 2 m. (5-6.5 ft) in height! It flew over the road and then disappeared in the branches" – says Mr. Mariusz G. who in 2000 had a weird encounter with a flying figure. Mariusz G. is 24-year-old paramedic working in a hospital in Olsztyn – a capital city of Warminsko-Mazurskie Wojewodztwo in northern Poland. He is also studying in Gdansk. In 2007 he decided to relate his encounter with weird flying humanoid that took place in 2000 to Mr. Michal Kusnierz – a member of Polish UFO reporting and researching group NPN. "It was one of many evenings when I was returning from my buddy in Koniewo (located about 6 km. away from Lidzbark Warminski). There used to be a whole crowd of us there – we used to visit him in free time . About the midway between the city and this village there is a valley with two sharp curves surrounded with small forest. At that night I was traveling with my colleague. It was late autumn but there were no snow around. It was about 11 p.m." "We were returning by bikes. We were talking, as I can remember, about our colleague who opened a gym in his cellar. We found ourselves on a straight path nearing the mentioned valley. Although it was late the Moon enlightened all around." After about 70 – 100 m. (230 – 300 ft) something urged me to look right. We were pedaling slowly, when suddenly a figure flying along the forest rim appeared. It was very well visible! It was flying with its face turned to us. Then we stopped. My colleague without resistance throw the bicycle away and began to flee away, as every normal man in similar situation", he recalls. "Personally, I don't believe in ghost and I was never interested with similar matters therefore I began to search for some rational explanation. With my heart in my mouth for several or dozen of seconds I remained focused on this extraordinary event. To my fear I could hear terrifying sounds coming out of the forest. It was a loud band and I find it difficult to compare it to anything." The witness stated that the sound resembling loud and terrifying rumble after some time began fading to start again for a while. "I regretted then that I hadn't fled away with my colleague. Then I turn back and crying I began pedaling to catch my colleague that was already beyond my sight range. I caught him already in vicinity of the village. We then returned to our buddy home asking his mother to give us a lift." The whole experience of then 17-year old Mariusz lasted more than minute. The other (then 22-year-old) witness fled away just after seeing the flying humanoid that remained in their sight for several seconds. When both of the witness found themselves again on the road they couldn't see the being again.  He describes the flying figure: "It was flying on its side with its face facing us. It was long-haired and about 1.5 – 2 m. in height. It appeared above the road and then disappeared in the branches. It wasn't equipped with any device – it was simply levitating being on its side and flying ahead. It was gray figure, the face wasn't visible and there is no possibility to guess its sex. Was it dressed? It's a good question… It was about 100 m. awal, it was gray… I rather cannot say anything about its clothing. The body outline was detectable as well as long hair. I also could notice the other end of the figure, i.e. its feet. The entire figure was light-gray, as if a shadow…" Mariusz stated that at first he took it for some kind of mirage and therefore he decided to remain in place for a while and observe. "Then all the illusions fade away and I thought only how to reach my colleague." "I had never thought that I met something like this in my life" – the witness added. "For me it was something provoking my fear and terror. It left a trace in me, because I was extremely panicked. It is still today that when I talk about it I feel some kind of uneasiness inside…" - npn.org.pl ---------- In April 2008 I received a report of a possible flying humanoid sighting in Borne Sulinowo, Poland:  On this particular day, Mrs. Izydora from Szczecinek, northern poland went with her husband on a trip to Borne Sulinowo area. The man parked their car and soon they departed. While her husband went toward the local forest, Mrs. Izydora decided to stroll amongst ruins of the local military base. It was about 1-2 p.m. Suddenly woman felt strange but decided to walk further. After a while she unexpectedly noticed in the mid-air some kind of semi-transparent entity. As she said, it looked like a "misty figure" of a man hovering several meters above the ground. Mrs. Izydora (71) could see its exact shape since the silhouette was outlined by whitish contour making it quite noticeable. For some time the witness remained as if paralyzed and unable to scream while the being was hovering nearly directly above her. It remained in the air in a distance of a few meters and kept its arms stretched "as if preparing to flight". After a while of observation woman decided to retreat to her car parked nearby. Scared woman began her retreat to the car, but then she noticed that the being started to follow her and rapidly flew above disappearing in the nearby woods. Then woman called her husband and forced him to leave the place immediately. She told him about the weird incident two days later.  Woman used a word "male" in description of the being's appearance. As she told the being despite the lack of distinctive details of appearance had a solid and massive shape, resembling a tall man. It moved smoothly and without any sound. Mrs. Izydora said that the being seemed to be "misty" with a distinct outline. The whole observation lasted a few minutes but Mrs. Izydora couldn't recall it exactly. Another interesting fact is some kind of possible influence of the witness physical condition. Mrs. Izydora felt weak but it isn't clear if it was connected with the being appearance. The other feeling was paralysis which prevented her from calling husband. A strange feeling passed away as soon as being disappeared in the woods. As it is mentioned above Mrs. Izydora decided to talk about the incident after a few days. We talked to her after more than half a year after the encounter and she still was frightened. She told us that she never expected to experience such an encounter with something she could not explain rationally. Beside Mrs. Izydora is open-minded person she doesn't want to come back to that place despite the fact that previously it was often visited by her and her husband. NOTE: The 'Flying Humanoid' phenomenon has be around for decades...but there has been more attention given to these reports since the more recent sightings in northern Mexico. Are these actual humans...or mystical anomalies (Witches - as suggested by some of the Mexican witnesses). Possibly a cryptid being or an alien entity? There are several references to these sightings throughout the Phantoms and Monsters site - just use the search tool...Lon       |
| Posted: 17 Jan 2011 06:49 PM PST  California Facing Further Natural Risks NYTimes - California faces the risk not just of devastating earthquakes but also of a catastrophic storm that could tear at the coasts, inundate the Central Valley and cause four to five times as much economic damage as a large quake, scientists and emergency planners warn. The potential for such a storm was described at a conference of federal and California officials that ended Friday. Combining advanced flood mapping and atmospheric projections with data on California's geologic flood history, over 100 scientists calculated the probable consequences of a "superstorm" carrying tropical moisture from the South Pacific and dropping up to 10 feet of rain across the state. "Floods are as much a part of our lives in California as earthquakes are," said Lucy Jones, the chief scientist for the United States Geological Survey's multi-hazards initiative, adding, "We are probably not going to be able to handle the biggest ones." The geological survey estimates that such a storm could cause up to $300 billion in damage. The scientists' models estimate that almost one-fourth of the houses in California could experience some flood damage from one. The conference was convened by the geological survey, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the California Emergency Management Agency to help disaster-response planners draft new strategies to limit the storms' impact. Climate scientists have for years noted that the rising temperature of the earth's atmosphere increases the amount of energy it stores, making more violent and extreme weather events more likely. Californians have learned to expect earthquakes the way Floridians expect hurricanes. (A minor earthquake, with a preliminary magnitude of 4.1, rattled windows in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay area about a week ago.) The existing engineering systems that dispose of floodwater are so efficient that the effects of moderate storms often go unnoticed, Dr. Jones said. So while many Californians know whether they live or work close to an earthquake-prone fault and what to do should there be a serious quake, few realize that the state could be hit by storms that at their worst could rival the largest hurricanes that devastate the Gulf Coast and the southeastern Atlantic Seaboard. Yet vast floods have also been documented, both through tree-ring data and more modern historical records. Marcia K. McNutt, the director of the geological survey, said that 150 years ago, over a few weeks in the winter of 1861-62, enough rain fell to inundate a stretch of the Central Valley 300 miles long and 20 miles wide, from north of Sacramento south to Bakersfield, near the eastern desert. The storms lasted 45 days, creating lakes in parts of the Mojave Desert and, according to a survey account, "turning the Sacramento Valley into an inland sea, forcing the state capital to be moved from Sacramento to San Francisco for a time, and requiring Gov. Leland Stanford to take a rowboat to his inauguration." Just like a major earthquake, a superstorm could be a severe blow to the state's agriculture and to the water-supply system that now diverts water from the north to Southern California. Dr. Jones said in an interview that improved satellite imagery available in recent years allowed scientists to clearly identify what they call "atmospheric rivers" — moisture-filled air currents up to 200 miles wide and 2,000 miles long, which flow from tropical regions of the Pacific Ocean to the West Coast. The West Coast winter weather systems popularly known as the Pineapple Express, air currents carrying moisture from the Hawaiian Islands are just one moderate subset of these rivers, Dr. Jones said. The abbreviation for atmospheric river, A.R., gave the geological survey the root of its name for these major weather events, which they call ARk storms. ********** Genetically modified 'superchicken' that doesn't spread deadly bird flu dailymail - A genetically modified 'superchicken' that doesn't spread deadly bird flu has been developed by scientists. The bird is intended to prevent the outbreaks of avian influenza which lead to millions of birds being culled. It could also stop new strains of flu mutating in domestic fowl and spreading to people, leading to killer worldwide pandemics. The British team behind the GM chicken say it is 'inconceivable' that its meat or eggs could be harmful. However, it will need rigorous safety checks before it could go into the food chain, they said. But anti GM campaigners warned that genetic engineering was not the answer to stopping bird flu - and said the public would never accept GM eggs and meat. Avian flu is a serious threat to farmers and people. Although it does not easily infect humans, when it does it can be deadly. The latest, most virulent strain - called H5N1 - has killed more than 300 people since 2003 in 15 countries and led to the deaths of millions of birds. In 2007 around 260,000 turkeys were culled in East Anglia after outbreaks of H5N1. Doctors fear it could mutate in flocks of chickens into a new strain that is transmissible from person to person, fuelling a pandemic that kills millions of people. The GM chicken was created by a team at Cambridge University and Edinburgh University and reported today in the journal Science. Dr Laurence Tiley, from Cambridge, said: 'Preventing virus transmission in chickens should reduce the economic impact of the disease and reduce the risk posed to people exposed to the infected birds.' The chickens carry an extra gene that stops the flu virus replicating in their bodies. The gene - which was added to embryo chicks while they were in the egg - produces 'decoy' loops of RNA, the chemical cousin of DN, in cells throughout their bodies. The decoy RNA interferes with the machinery that viruses use to make copies of themselves inside cells and spread throughout the body. So although GM chickens fall ill and die from flu - they cannot pass it onto other birds or people. In tests at the Veterinary Laboratories Agency in Weybridge, Surrey, infecte GM chickens fell sick but did not transmit the flu virus to normal birds kept in the same pen. The gene is expected to work against all strains of bird flu, and the virus cannot easily evolve to escape its effects. Because the new gene is dominant, chicks bred from a pair of GM birds will also be unable to transmit bird flu. The trait will be passed down to future generations. Dr Tiley said there was 'no observable difference' between the GM birds and their non-GM relatives he said. 'The nature of the decoy molecule means it is pretty well inconceivable that could have any detrimental effect on somebody that ate it because RNA is an unstable molecule that is easily broken down by the gut,' he said. 'There is no reason to suggest that these chickens would be unsafe in any way.' Pugh cartoon GM birds would need thorough safety tests and the approval of food agencies in America and Europe before they could enter the food chain. Co-author Prof Helen Sang, from the Roslin Institute, Edinburgh, said: 'Countries like China are interested in possibly of using GM to protect their poultry stocks and it will inevitably be more expensive because you will have to use products of breeding companies to stock your producers,' she said. However, costs would come down over time, she added. The researchers are now working on chickens that are completely immune to bird flu. They believe the technique could be used to protect against the spread of disease in other animals such as turkeys, geese and pigs. But Pete Riley from GM Freeze said: 'These are global industries with thousands of broiler and battery units around the world and it improbable that the GM chickens will be bred fast enough to keep pace with the mutations that are occurring in avian flu virus all the time around in the northern and southern hemisphere. 'In intensive units the environment is quite different to the lab and so far this has not been part of the research. In addition, many poorer producers may find the additional cost of the GM birds too high and stick with conventionally bred birds. 'Genetic diversity in chickens, not genetic modification of a single breed, is important in reducing the spread of infections, as it is with all farm animals'. NOTE: Waiting for the other shoe to drop...Lon **********  84-year-old adventurer set to launch Atlantic raft An-Tiki - Four English adventurers led by 84-year-old Anthony Smith are to sail 2,800 miles across the Atlantic on a raft made from plastic gas pipes. It is a journey that would test the mettle of any seafarer – a 2,800-mile Atlantic crossing powered only by sail. But when four Englishmen set off on the trip, two things will make their expedition remarkable. Their vessel will be a raft made from plastic gas pipes. And the crew will be led by an octogenarian who relies on a stick to walk. With a combined age of 259, the sailors on board the "An-Tiki" will not be lacking in experience. Anthony Smith, 84, will be joined by Don Russell, 61, David Hildred, 57, and Andrew Bainbridge, 57, for a ten-week voyage from the Canary Islands to the Bahamas. The raft is expected to begin the epic journey this week. All the materials have been either donated or purchased by Mr Smith, who is spending compensation he received after he was run over by a van two years ago – an accident that has left the adventurer, writer and grandfather with metal pins in his leg. What would normally be regarded as a devastating setback has been turned into a positive. "I had some luck two years ago – I was run over," Mr Smith said. "That's what inspired the whole thing and that's provided the basis for the money. "The whole point it to prove that elderly people can do something interesting. Well, I am 84 and disabled, so I'm well qualified on that score." The inspiration for the unusual trip comes from a desire to show that rafts, although a primitive form of transport, are no more dangerous than hollow-hulled vessels. The crew are also raising money for WaterAid, a charity that provides clean water for the world's poorest people. "People ask me 'Am I frightened?' But I say I don't know enough to be frightened," Mr Smith explains. "I don't know how we will get on, as we don't know each other very well. I don't know how tiring it will be, living on something that goes up and down all the time. I don't know what it will be like living on a bunk. Nobody knows what a storm will do to us, or how well we will be able to steer." But Mr Smith, of west London, insists the adventure is no foolhardy indulgence. Two of the crew – Mr Hildred and Mr Bainbridge – are experienced sailors, and the raft has been kitted out with all the necessary communications in case they get into trouble. All the pieces – including gas pipes, electronics, wood, and two telegraph poles that would became the mast – were assembled and shipped in a container from Felixstowe, Suffolk, to La Gomera in the Canary Islands. The crew will be sheltered by a wooden hut, 20ft by 7ft (6m by 2m), where they will take turns to sleep on two bunk beds. Cooking, from gas stoves, chart-reading and all-important communications will be also be carried out there. "We've also got a small library so it won't all be hard work," says Mr Smith. The lights and electronics will be powered by four solar cells on top of the hut, a wind generator – and a pedalling machine. Meanwhile, the crew will be sustained by 16 boxes of food, containing dry stuffs like cornflakes and perishables such as eggs, oranges and bananas. A small bread maker will add homely comfort to their ordeal. "We also have a hook and line to catch fish, and a plankton net to eat plankton. Plankton is good enough for the blue whale, the biggest creature on earth, to eat, so it's good enough for us." Drinking water will be carried in five pipes, each 18ft long. "We'll have so much water I think we will be able to sell it to passing yachts." Asked what treats he's brought along to keep the crew's spirits up for the long days and nights ahead, Mr Smith's answer is short and simple. "Alcohol," he says. "Everyone's quite keen on a drink, so it's not so much beer as rum and whisky." The crew has had to wait for the weather to calm down before launching the raft. A support vessel will tow the raft out to sea for a few miles – "in case anyone forgets their toothbrush". "We have to wait for the wind. I don't want to be released and then blown back to shore. But the current is there to do the job. It took Columbus across in 1492 so it should take us across too." The crew's destination is the small island of Eleuthera in the Bahamas. ********** Miracle man comes back 'from the dead' after 3.5 hours mirror - A man whose heart had stopped was brought back from the dead after three-and-a-half HOURS. Arun Bhasin, 53, was rushed into hospital after being found unconscious in the street in temperatures of -10C. But as he was being wheeled in, he went into cardiac arrest and was just minutes from death. By pure luck, he'd been taken to the Croydon University Hospital – home to two of the country's top experts in resuscitation. They put him on a pioneering new CPR machine which performed almost 20,000 life-saving chest compressions. Dr Nigel Raghunath, said: "He was pretty much dead in that he had no pulse or heartbeat for three-and-a-half hours so it is amazing that we got him back." He added: "I've not seen any-thing like it in 15 years in A&E." Engineer Arun, of East London, admitted: "I should be dead. I can't believe they kept me alive for so long. It's a miracle. ********** Roman rise and fall 'recorded in trees' BBC - An extensive study of tree growth rings says there could be a link between the rise and fall of past civilisations and sudden shifts in Europe's climate. A team of researchers based their findings on data from 9,000 wooden artifacts from the past 2,500 years. They found that periods of warm, wet summers coincided with prosperity, while political turmoil occurred during times of climate instability. The findings have been published online by the journal Science. "Looking back on 2,500 years, there are examples where climate change impacted human history," co-author Ulf Buntgen, a paleoclimatologist at the Swiss Federal Research Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape, told the Science website. The team capitalised on a system used to date material unearthed during excavations. "Archaeologists have developed oak ring width chronologies from Central Europe that cover nearly the entire Holocene and have used them for the purpose of dating artefacts, historical buildings, antique artwork and furniture," they wrote. "Chronologies of living and relict oaks may reflect distinct patterns of summer precipitation and drought." The team looked at how weather over the past couple of centuries affected living trees' growth rings. During good growing seasons, when water and nutrients are in plentiful supply, trees form broad rings, with their boundaries relatively far apart. But in unfavourable conditions, such as drought, the rings grow in much tighter formation. The researchers then used this data to reconstruct annual weather patterns from the growth rings preserved in the artefacts. Once they had developed a chronology stretching back over the past 2,500 years, they identified a link with prosperity levels in past societies, such as the Roman Empire. "Wet and warm summers occurred during periods of Roman and medieval prosperity. Increased climate variability from 250-600 AD coincided with the demise of the western Roman empire and the turmoil of the migration period," the team reported. "Distinct drying in the 3rd Century paralleled a period of serious crisis in the western Roman empire marked by barbarian invasion, political turmoil and economic dislocation in several provinces of Gaul." Dr Buntgen explained: "We were aware of these super-big data sets, and we brought them together and analyzed them in a new way to get the climate signal. "If you have enough wood, the dating is secure. You just need a lot of material and a lot of rings."     |
| Montana's Legendary Lake Monster Posted: 17 Jan 2011 10:25 AM PST  It's a typical day for the Flathead County Sheriff's office in Flathead Valley, Montana...small thefts, neighbor complaints, bar fights, etc. Then at 2:08 pm, someone on Bierney Creek Road reports a "wolf-looking dog-like creature". OK, it's another strange sighting in the valley...again, a typical day. Flathead County Sheriff's Reports Kalispell News By Christie Burns , 01-16-11 Wednesday 1/12 8:56 a.m. Someone called in to say they know of a man who was talking about suicide while on the phone with the Internal Revenue Service. 9:54 a.m. Someone in Bigfork reported getting unwanted calls from a foul-mouthed individual. 11:21 a.m. A caller on Bosco Drive claimed there was a dog laying in the ditch. The dog was fine and returned to its owner. 12:37 p.m. A man on Highway 35 in Kalispell reported that he had been drinking for the last four days and, although he wasn't currently drinking, he didn't feel very well. He was taken to the hospital. 1:34 p.m. A woman on Helena Flats Road claimed her neighbors have been harassing her. 2:08 p.m. Someone on Bierney Creek Road reported a "wolf-looking dog-like creature" sighting. 2:48 p.m. Someone on Kokanee Bend claimed to have seen a mountain lion. 3:50 p.m. Snowboard bindings were stolen on Big Mountain. 4:37 p.m. A woman on Mountain Drive said she wanted her male roommate gone. He left and she was happy. 5:11 p.m. A 5-year-old boy who had wandered away from his school in Somers found his way home safely. 6:39 p.m. A pack of unruly dogs chased deer. 6:52 p.m. A woman on Grande Vista Drive reported that her neighbor had plowed snow into her driveway. The neighbor claimed he didn't do it intentionally. 6:59 p.m. A Shadow Lane resident claimed that the antlers, the ones behind the wood pile, are missing. 2:13 a.m. Apparently, there was a large, bloody fight at a bar in Coram. You see, the Flathead Valley has a long history of strange events...specifically, Montana has its own "Nessie" in Flathead Lake. At least that's what folks have been saying since 1889 when it was viewed from the lake steamer U.S. Grant. According to the website Flathead Lake Monster, sporadic appearances have been viewed by scores of people since then. Documented sightings were reported in the early 1900s, 1912, 1919, 1922-23, 1934, 1937, 1939, and in every decade since. Captain James C. Kerr skippered the U.S. Grant, a lake steamboat that made its rounds in Lake Flathead. On one trip Kerr and his passengers saw what first appeared to be a log or another approaching boat in the water. After coming closer, they realized an unusually large whale-like object was coming toward them in the lake. This sighting started the legend of the Flathead Lake Monster. One of the strangest accounts was that of a researcher, who claimed he had sighted the lake monster in 1985 and again two years later. This is very unusual because it is very rare to see it even once in a lifetime. The average number of sightings is between one and two each year. However, in 1993 alone, there were about thirteen reports. It was clear that weather and lake conditions were not unusual in 1993. However, on May 24, 1993, there was a sighting reported of two monsters together in Big Arm Bay. One was considerably larger than the other and they were thought to possibly be mother and child, or a male and female couple. On July 15, 1993, two sightings occurred, 25 minutes and 15 miles apart. On July 17, 1993, two sightings were made in the same area, but half a day apart. On July 13, 1993, off Woods Bay, a bank officer and a district sales manager from Seattle managed to acquire a few seconds of video footage of the monster. The video shows a large, dark shape about 12 feet long just below the surface. One witness stated that he was able to see the monster before the film started rolling and that it had a sturgeon-like head and an eel-like body. The sightings continue to this day. As for the "wolf-looking dog-like creature" sighting...that may be another story.  Click for video Click for video --------- The History of a Monster By Myers Reece, 08-28-07  flatheadbeacon - Laney Hanzel can't tell you if the Flathead Lake Monster exists. But he won't tell you it doesn't. He has file folders full of recorded accounts, maps, newspaper clippings and various tidbits concerning the creature. After nearly 30 years of working as a fisheries biologist on Flathead Lake, he knows the body of water well. It's a lake of mythical proportions and Hanzel sees no reason to dismiss eyewitness accounts of a creature with those same proportions. "I believe the people who are reporting to me," he said. "They say, 'We saw something and it was real.'" Hanzel began recording eyewitness "monster" accounts in 1990 when he still worked for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks because the large number of sightings called in to the agency warranted its own file. It was after his retirement in 1993, though, that he had enough time to interview these people personally, gather their stories and then file them. He does it because it's intriguing, he said, and because he thinks maintaining records of such cultural lore is important. He doesn't claim to have seen the monster. "Somebody has to keep these records," he said. "Regardless of what they say, I just write it down. I don't say, 'Well, maybe, did you see this?'" The people who come to him with eyewitness accounts aren't nutcases, he said, though he acknowledges some may be pranksters. But for the most part they are lawyers, doctors, policemen, engineers, biologists, an oceanographer, a retired U.S. Army Major and many others. Hanzel has documented 85 sightings, but isn't sure how many other people are too embarrassed to come forward. They don't want to sound crazy. "Most people try to talk themselves out of seeing something unusual," Hanzel said. As the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River, Flathead covers nearly 200 square miles and is as deep as 386 feet. With 22 different fish species and an array of aquatic plants, the lake, in theory, is big and hospitable enough to hold a large creature. "It could hide something very easy," Hanzel said. The creature – Hanzel prefers that word over the more negative "monster" – is generally described as being between 20 and 40 feet long with humps on its back, steel black eyes and an eel or snake-like body. What amazes Hanzel is that many of the descriptions are the same, even though the witnesses have never met. This was also true before the sightings began to garner media attention, which has included two interviews with Hanzel on a San Francisco radio talk show. "It was the similarities that really peaked my interest," he said. "This consistency is kind of validity. I mean, the similarities occurring in this thing – it's uncanny."  Hanzel never found any scientific evidence of the creature's existence while working for FWP. In his many years of studying Flathead Lake's aquatic life, he worked with highly sophisticated acoustic equipment that was able to detect a 1-inch fish 300 feet below the surface. He never detected any large unknown creatures. He did, however, pull up nets on several occasions with huge holes. "Those were some pretty big holes that I couldn't explain," Hanzel said. The first recorded sighting was in 1889. Other sightings occurred sporadically throughout the early 20th century. Paul Fugleberg, the former editor of the Flathead Courier, put together a file of the earlier sightings. Fugleberg is the original Flathead Lake Monster historian and he stills works with Hanzel in maintaining records. The biggest year for sightings was 1993, when Hanzel recorded 13. The most recent sighting was in 2005. One day in 1993, two people 16 miles apart reported sightings within 25 minutes of each other, which could support other people's claims that they saw two creatures, Hanzel said. Also, many people say that schools of fish jump out of the water, in an apparent attempt to escape a predator, right before the monster appears. People might be seeing a variety of things when they think they see a monster, Hanzel said. Maybe they see a log bobbing in the water. On a calm day, a boat's wake can travel up to six miles. An eyewitness may see this wake without a boat in sight and jump to conclusions. Many people have argued that witnesses actually saw sturgeon, but Hanzel said a sturgeon has never been recorded in Flathead Lake. In the 1950s the sturgeon theory gained popularity. Sturgeons can grow more than 10-feet long and have prehistoric characteristics that look "monsterish." At one point, Big Fish Unlimited offered a cash reward for any sturgeon caught out of Flathead Lake. A man named C. Leslie Griffith came forward on May 28, 1955 with a 7-foot-6-inch, 181-pound white sturgeon that is now on display in the Polson-Flathead Historical Museum. The event was covered all over the press, with many people doubting that the sturgeon came from Flathead Lake. Though the controversy was never publicly resolved, Hanzel said a biologist from University of Montana cut open the fish's stomach and determined it came from a separate river system. Brian Beck, who owns Flathead Lake Monster Inc., had a sighting in the late 1980s. He wrote it off at the time, he said, because it's easy to talk yourself out of such strange things. But a week later he heard about other people who had sightings at exactly the same spot and time as his. "It was serpent-type and with waves," Beck said. "It just didn't look like anything I've seen on the lake and I grew up on the lake. I've seen about everything on the lake." Beck acknowledges there's a chance he saw a log or something else, with perfect wind and lighting conditions to give the impression of a living creature. Maybe. "It could actually be our monster," he said. "You never know. That's what makes the story great. You can't say something doesn't exist just because you haven't seen it." Click for video Send us an email   New Items - Strickler's Celebrity Autographs  ANOMALIST BOOKS Works on maverick science, unexplained mysteries, unorthodox theories, strange talents, and unexpected discoveries. Please check out their excellent and diverse catalog  The 'C' Influence Actualizing Esoteric Discussion   "The latest news from beyond the mainstream" Join Ben & Aaron for their weekly podcast! Check out Mysterious Universe Plus+ all access format!  Spirit Rescue International Providing no-cost professional spiritual help, personal support and guidance Take the first step towards genuine peace of mind JOIN US ON FACEBOOK Phantoms & Monsters Wiki A NETWORK OF INVESTIGATORS, ENTHUSIASTS AND THOSE SEEKING THE TRUTH THROUGH PARANORMAL EDUCATION AND DISCUSSION  Astral Perceptions - Discussion of interterrestrial and multidimensional phenomena including conversations on the proficiency of remote viewing SUPPLY BASE Buy alternative supplies and gifts CLICK HERE!       |
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