UFO ROUNDUP Volume 8 Number 30
Volume 8
Number 30
August 13th, 2003
Editor: Joseph Trainor
E-mail: Masinaigan@aol.com
CHINESE SOLDIERS SPOT LAKE TIANCHI MONSTER
"A group of soldiers claim to have spotted China's 'Loch Ness Monster' in the second sighting of the mysterious animal in less than a month, state media said."
"The black-headed creature suddenly broke through the surface of Lake Tianchi in northeastern Jilin province early on Wednesday," July 30, 2003, "astounding about a dozen servicemen visiting at the time, Xinhua News Agency reported."
"The animal, which was equipped with 10-centimeter (4-inch) horns and a scaled back, swam around for about two minutes before disappearing, according to the news agency."
"A report earlier (in July 2003) said a similar animal was seen five times during a period of about 50 minutes, Xinhua reported."
"The month of July appears to be the high season for spotting China's Nessie, as hundreds of sightseers were reported to have seen it at the same time last year (2002)."
"Rumors that the 373-meter-deep (1,230-feet-deep) volcanic lake" near China's border with North Korea "harbors some sort of monster have been circulating for more than a century."
"However, scientists dismiss the reports, saying the lake is too cold for large creatures and volcanic eruptions happening as recently as 300 years ago would make life extremely hazardous for any animal making the lake its home."
"The 'Tianchi Monster' is not the only Nessie said to be living in China."
"The marine life of Lake Hanas in northwestern Xinjiang province reputedly includes a 10-meter (33-foot) long salmon species that attacks both people and cattle." (See the newspaper Wuhan Daily for August 1, 2003. Many thanks to Chen Peipei for forwarding this newspaper article.)
(Editor's Comment: For more on lake monsters, check out the feature story in this issue of UFO Roundup.)
PHANTOM PANTHER HAS MAUI RESIDENTS FEARFUL
"Olinda residents say they are concerned about the safety of their young children and have been keeping pets indoors at night as a mysterious big cat continues to be heard and seen in their neighborhood" on the island of Maui in Hawaii.
"They said they are pleased to learn that an expert on large cats will visit Maui this month to consult with state wildlife officials and help in the search for the animal, believed to be a leopard or a jaguar."
"Olinda resident Tobey Girard, who has a three-year- old daughter, said a neighbor was among those who had spotted the cat."
(Editor's Note: This Fortean phenomenon is called Alien Big Cats or ABCs in UK and Phantom Panthers in the USA.)
"'I thought it was somewhere else,' she said outside the meeting, 'I didn't know it was in our backyard, but now officially it is.'"
"Community concern was one of the reasons state wildlife biologist Fern Duvall set up the public meeting Friday," August 1, 2003, "at the Mayor Eddie Tam Memorial Center to provide an update on the efforts to capture the animal."
"'I've heard Can I let my children go out? Can my grandchildren come?' Duvall said, 'That's a really hard question to answer. We're telling people to be aware.'"
"So far the cat has appeared to be shy of humans, Duvall said, but recent sightings suggest that the animal is coming closer to homes, and it seems to be 'vocalizing' more at night, perhaps because it's hungry."
(Editor's Comment: No big cat is going to frighten away its prey by advertising its presence. It's more likely that the panther is looking for a mate.)
"Olinda resident Patti Lynn said she was concerned about the safety of her two-year-old son, and she also has three pet cats to look out for. In the past, she might have let her son play in the yard where she could hear him while she did housework inside, but no longer."
"'I don't let him outside by himself any more,' she said."
"While Lynn said it was more a premonition than a worry, she said she now makes sure she always has her eye on her son when he's outside."
"'I would hate to be one of those people who doesn't take it seriously, and then something happens to my son,' she said."
"Olinda residents said they were concerned about the cat's safety as well as their own. A murmur of disapproval rippled through the crowd of about 50 people when one man asked Duvall if hunters might be deployed to kill the animal."
"'The cat is innocent and should be protected,' said Olinda resident Willie Wachter, before the start of the meeting. Wachter and his wife, Susan, were among the first residents to to publicly discuss their sighting of the animal in mid-June (2003)."
"Duvall said the first reports of the cat came in December (2002) and gradually gained credibility as more and more residents saw the animal and gave similar descriptions without knowing anyone else had seen it."
"Since December, the mystery cat has been spotted nearly 15 times in the lower Olinda area" on Maui. "It has been described as a dark-looking cat the size of a large German shepherd, weighing around 100 pounds, with a long tail."
"Duvall said it is probably a young animal or a former pet inexperienced in hunting, and the descriptions indicate it might look more like a leopard than a jaguar. Leopards are also more likely than jaguars to be sold as pets, he said."
"Wachter said Olinda residents feel sure there's something in the forest."
"'We've just about all heard it,' he said before the meeting."
"'It was definitely an out-of-the-ordinary cat sound. It wasn't a little cat,' said Joe Erickson."
"Philip Swatek said most residents don't want the exact location of the animal's territory released to the public, not only for the cat's safety, but because they're concerned about hunters shooting near their houses."
"'Do we want people trespassing on our property? Of course not. Certainly people with guns will pose a far greater danger (to Olinda residents) than the cougar itself,' he said after the meeting."
"Duvall said that at least three landowners had complained of some shooting and hunting activity near their property after a reward for the cat was offered. He also warned the crowd that if hunters and thrill seekers go in search of the cat, it could drive the animal into the deep (rain) forest where it might never be caught."
"Swatek said he was encouraged that Arizona big cat specialist Bill Van Pelt will be visiting Maui to consult with local wildlife officials."
"'Plainly it's good they're bringing in an expert because only an expert could capture the animal,' he said." (See the Maui Weekly for August 2, 2003, "Big cat in the minds of Olinda residents." Many thanks to Robert Fischer for this newspaper article.)
POLAR BEARS SIGHTED IN THE HIMALAYAS?
"White animals appearing identical to polar bears have been spotted by local people in Tibet, a media report said on Saturday," August 2, 2003.
"The sightings, reported in several remote counties of the Himalayan region, could be of great significance to the study of the evolution of species in Tibet, Xinhua News Agency experts are saying."
"Puce, an elderly (Tibetan) herdsman from Qomo village of Gerze county in Ngari prefecture, was full of excitement when his encounter recently with the mysterious animal."
"'I was herding the sheep when suddenly I saw a white creature in the distance and thought it might be a snow leopard,' said Puce."
"'After careful study, I found it was a big white bear quite identical to the polar bears we have seen in the films,' Puce told the Xinhua News Agency."
"White bears have also been found roaming Gyaca county in Nyingchi prefecture."
However, "Liu Wulin, a specialist with the Regional Association for Wildlife Protection, said from evidence he had collected so far, the white bears many residents have seen are not polar bears but a kind of albino brown bear."
"'The white bears are from the same species as brown bears. But because of genetic defects and malnutrition, they cannot absorb melanin and appear quite different from brown bears,' Liu explained."
"Due to the great variation in the form of brown bears in Tibet, some brown bears appear to be greyish- white and brownish-black-striped, so in some cases, people jump to the wrong conclusions that these are giant pandas, Liu said." (Many thanks to Loren Coleman for the Xinhua story.)
(Editor's Comment: Polar bears in the Himalayas!? That's a new one. Here are some possible causes of the phenomenon:
(1) The bears are mutations caused by radiation from Chinese nuclear bomb tests at Lop Nor.
(2) Aliens airlifted the polar bears to the Himalayas to save them from extinction when global warming melts the Arctic ice cap.
(3) Centuries-old sorcerer Koot Hoomi, a.k.a. Kuthumi Lal Singh, has returned to the Himalayas, and he brought the polar bears along to protect his secret underground base.)
UFO FLAP SWEEPS ONTARIO
UFOs have been particularly active in Canada's eastern province of Ontario during the past week.
"On the evening of (Monday) August 4, 2003, my friend and I were sitting in the hot tub in my backyard" in Stratford, Ontario (population 28,987), a city 67 miles (112 kilometers) west of Toronto, the witness reported, "It was around 10 p.m. I always look at the sky at night."
"There was a single, slow-moving light headed east. Then I noticed an airplane coming in fast, approaching the light. It was as if he was giving chase as he had to make a big curve in his flight path to catch up and come up beside the light. It looked as though he had passed to the left of the light, slowing down just before passing. Then the two dropped beyond my sight due to (the proximity of) the house."
Just over 24 hours later, on Wednesday, August 6, 2003, at 12:32 a.m., Canadian ufologist Brian Vike reported, the eyewitness "and a couple of close friends had just dropped off one of their buddies. As they continued down the road, they came to a full stop at the street light" in North Bay, Ontario (population 54,332), a city on Lake Nipissing, located about 250 miles (400 kilometers) north of Toronto.
"While at the complete stop," the witness "turned his head to the right and saw a really strange object. He then pointed in the direction the object was sitting to alert his friends to what he was looking at. All the fellows at this point were stunned at what they were seeing, so they pulled the vehicle over at an arcade business to watch."
"Due to the object being so low, they wondered if it was attached by a cable, wire, etc. because it sat stationary in one position. At that point, they grabbed the camera, got out of the vehicle and took three snapshots of it."
The witness said that "while they stood watching the object, it started to pulsate, then disappeared or blinked out. The object was sitting at approximately 250 feet (75 meters)" above the ground. "It was also very close to the witnesses, as they indicated it to be about six or seven (city) blocks away from their position."
The UFO "was cigar-shaped, solid grey in colour. The total viewing time was approximately three to five minutes after they first spotted it."
Also, Brian Vike "was told that it stood out from everything around them, meaning it wasn't extremely bright but you couldn't view it better in the air. I asked if any sound could be heard coming from it, and the witness told me that they could hear a very faint humming sound after the object blinked out."
"After the fellows lost sight of it, they jumped back into the vehicle and drove quickly to where the light had been sitting, thinking they might be able to get another look at it. But it had vanished."
The witness also "said there is a plant (industrial complex--B.V.) and this is where the object was hovering." (Many thanks to Brian Vike for these reports.)
SOLITARY UFO SIGHTED IN ARGENTINA
"A resident of" Necochea, a seaport city located 250 kilometers (150 miles) south of Argentina's capital, Buenos Aires, "was startled last night (Monday, August 7, 2003) by a strange flying object that covered the sky. She alerted her neighbors to the sighting."
"According to comments made to EcoDiarios by a resident of Immediaciones No. 60 and 49, the sighting took place at 9:15 p.m. by a friend of hers who lives in (the) Barrio Norte (neighborhood)."
"The startled woman defined the object as 'a flying saucer' but did not provide greater detail on the surprising phenomenon. At the time the sky was completely clear, and viewing conditions were optimal."
"For a number of years, our city has not recorded UFO sightings, or at least an account of the matter has not been made public for a long time." (See the Argentinian newspaper EcoDiarios for August 8, 2003, "UFO seen from Barrio Norte." Muchas gracias a Scott Corrales y Gloria Coluchi para esto articulo de diario.)
UFOs SEEN THREE TIMES IN NORTHERN WISCONSIN
UFOs have been seen repeatedly in recent weeks over the Big Eau Pleine Reservoir in central Wisconsin.
On Saturday, August 2, 2003, at 11 p.m., a man fishing in Rozellville, Wis., about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southwest of Wausau, reported, "I've seen this many times before. This was the third time this year. Usually at night on the Eau Pleine flowage. Always see them over the same stretch of water, just miles apart."
"They looked like little balls of light. They blink on and off repeatedly, and, between flashes, they seem to travel a few miles. These flashes are about three seconds apart. It seemed they were chasing each other, and first flew in a circular pattern over the flowage. I'd say a couple thousand feet (600 meters) up."
"I saw them with my cousin while fishing. Sightings have always been between Mosinee (to the east--J.T.) and Rozellville, that stretch of the flowage. Not anything ordinary. They flew around like flies, really quick and darting, changing direction quickly." (Many thanks to John and Jenny Hoppe of UFO Wisconsin for this report.)
CROP CIRCLES APPEAR IN HOWELL, MICHIGAN
"They've come late at night, holding flashlights, their beams cutting the dark in the middle of 1,000 acres of wheat."
"They've come in the afternoon under blue sky to lift their arms and pray."
"One group wanted to camp. Others want to take pictures."
"Crop circles may be Hollywood now, but out here," in Howell Township, "at the edge of Detroit's suburbia, they represent something more ethereal, and, said Mike Esper, who discovered three crop circles on his farm a few weeks ago, something more strange."
"'It gets weirder by the minute,' Esper said."
"He discovered the three circles--51 feet (15 meters), 10 feet (3 meters) and 8 feet (2.4 meters) in diameter--as he drove his combine around the wheat field. Not wanting to destroy the evidence, he left a 3-to-4-foot (1-meter) perimeter of wheat intact around the largest circle."
"He called in a crop circle researcher to take a look at them. The expert, Jeffrey Wilson, who travels the country, took measurements and studied the circles for three days recently. Wilson determined they weren't the act of man, that they were not a hoax, that they were the result of some unexplainable natural phenomenon."
"Esper promptly emailed the local news media."
"'I'm amazed by the whole thing,' he said, 'I wanted to leave it so people could see it.'"
"The flocks soon followed."
"'I'm getting calls from all over the place,' he said."
"Though hundreds had already flocked to the circles before Wilson arrived, the evidence wasn't destroyed, he said."
"He found dozens of wheat stems with holes in the middle. He said the electricity associated with crop circles generates heat and that heat turns the moisture in the stems to steam. It expands and it blows out the holes."
"Stems still in the ground with holes in them aren't the result of a hoax, he said."
"He estimates he has seen at least 130 crop circles since 1996. It was then, as a graduate student of physics and chemistry at Eastern Michigan University, that he got his first inclination to take them seriously."
"'Throughout my career, I've always been interested in things people didn't have explanations for,' he said."
"Wilson, 33, trekked to his first circle in Ohio. He borrowed a Geiger counter from the university, convinced a friend to go with him, and arrived at the scene only to find a sheriff had roped it off. He talked his way past the yellow tape."
"As he moved closer to the center, he noticed a pattern that he would find at every other circle: Radiation levels were higher in the middle."
"Why?"
"'I don't know,' he said."
"But it got him theorizing. Soon he was measuring the electric field and the electromagnetic field within the circles. He noticed the circles often appeared near transformers attached to power lines."
"He also discovered a pattern among eyewitnesses of the crop circles who never report seeing any light or anything else unusual."
"He tried to get academia to bite, but it hasn't-- yet."
"He said science needs more approaches to study crop circles. It reminds him of airline pilots reporting stranger patterns or colors of light shooting off the top of thunderheads (clouds) in the 1980s."
"Eventually NASA sent planes up with high-speed cameras and discovered a new phenomenon--sprites and jets, which are red and blue atmospheric flashes. There is no complete explanation, but it is no longer considered a farce."
"He sees (crop) circles the same way: part science, part mystery."
Howell, Michigan (population 9,232) is on Highway BR- 96, a.k.a. Grand River Road, and County Road D-19, about 35 miles (58 kilometers) northwest of Detroit. (See the Detroit Free Press for August 5, 2003, "Michigan crop circles: farmer raises a mystery." Many thanks to Steve Wilson Sr. for forwarding this newspaper article.)
SADDAM OR STARGATE? WHAT IS TASK FORCE 20's MAIN OBJECTIVE?
"Imagine this scenario. The U.S. government obtains intelligence that hidden somewhere in central Iraq is an actual stargate, placed there by the Anunnaki 'gods' of ancient Sumeria...In this scenario, when Nibiru (the alleged "twelfth planet"--J.T.) is closest to Earth, the Anunnaki" will "take the opportunity to travel to Earth through that same stargate and will set up their encampment in Iraq."
"With time running out, President Bush invades Iraq. American scientists raid the (Iraqi national) museum and close the stargate, thus frustrating the grandiose ambitions of the self-styled reincarnation of Nebuchadnezzar, Saddam Hussein, and making the world safe for the New World Order."
"Is this the sequel to the movie Stargate? Is it a new episode of the TV series? Is it a new Star Trek movie? No, it is none of these. According to Dr. Michael Salla, it is probably exactly what happened!"
"Dr. Salla, an Australian national, obtained his M.A. in philosophy from the University of Melbourne and then his doctorate (Ph.D.) in Government from the University of Queensland in 1993. After spending two years as an Associate at the Centre for Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies in Australia, he joined the faculty of the Department of Political Science at Australian National University in Canberra as a lecturer. In 1996, he came to the U.S. and gained an academic appointment at the School of International Service at American University in Washington, D.C. where he remained until 2001."
"Dr. Salla's Iraq stargate theory is expounded in a paper written for publication on his own website."
"He believes that the U.S., Russia, Germany and France have been aware that the Anunnaki left behind some very high-tech appartus, and possibly weaponry, when they abandoned the Earth around 1,700 B.C., and that Saddam Hussein had been getting assistance from Russian, German and French archaeological teams for years in an attempt to unravel, and perhaps reverse-engineer, this apparatus, which Salla claims is probably far in advance of any technology we might have obtained from the Grays from Zeta Reticuli" and which is supposedly warehoused at Area 51 in Nevada.
Some in the Middle East's UFO community theorize that Task Force 20, which has been conducting commando raids north of Baghdad in recent weeks, is looking for this stargate in addition to elusive former dictator Saddam Hussein.
According to Mahmoud al-Diwaniyahi, the alien stargate may be hidden away in one of several locations. Some possible locations include:
(a) An ancient crypt beneath the Sumerian ziqqurat (pyramid) of Dur Kurigalzu, near Baghdad.
(b) The so-called "Dark Ziqqurat" of Enzu, located in the as-Zab as-Saghir (Little Zab) river valley, which once was the lair of Gimil-ishbi, a Sumerian sorcerer of 3,000 B.C.
(c) Beneath the ancient fortress of Qalaat-e-Julundi, near Zarzi in the Little Zab River valley, north of Mosul.
(d) Saddam's reputed underground base in Al-Ouja, 3 kilometers (2 miles) north of Tikrit, which was built for him by "the Zarzi aliens," extraterrestrials whose UFO crashed in Iraq in December 1998 and who were given sanctuary in Zarzi by Saddam.
(Editor's Comment: Dr. Salla's paper puts a whole new spin on that UFO "crash." Did the Zarzi aliens land in Iraq deliberately? Were they planning all along to reactivate the ancient Anunnaki stargate?)
"Task Force 20 has been relentless in their search," Mahmoud reported, "But Saddam continues to elude them. He is said to never spend more than three or four hours in any one location. Saturday (August 9, 2003) he released another tape urging the Iraqi people to resist the occupation."
(Editor's Comment: Another audiotape!? Saddam has more recordings out than Mariah Carey.)
As always, Baghdad continues to seethe with rumors and urban legends.
"As a U.S. soldier peered out of a passing tank, a young engineering student and a retired accountant contemplated one of the more common questions on the streets of Baghdad: Did the soldier's wraparound sunglasses give him X-ray vision?"
"'With those sunglasses, he can definitely see through women's clothes,' said the engineering student, Samer Hamid. 'It makes me angry. We are afraid to take our families out on the street.'"
"The retired accountant, Hekmet Tinber Hassan, smiled and said it was a baseless rumor, just like the widespread story that Saddam Hussein had been secretly working for America and was now at a CIA safe house."
"'I do not believe Saddam is in America,' Hassan said, 'I heard he went to Tel Aviv.'"
"In the urban legends flourishing in Baghdad, the soldiers triumphed thanks to Saddam's treachery and to U.S. technology. The legend about the X-ray sunglasses might have evolved from reports about the soldiers' night- vision goggles, or maybe just from the imposing Terminator image of the soldiers."
"Compared with the (Iraqi) residents, who cope with the 120-degree heat by staying in the shade and dressing in light clothes and sandals, the soldiers have the look of robotic aliens as they patrol in the midday sun wearing combat boots, helmets and armored vests."
"Some Iraqis say the soldiers take special pills that keep them cool, but the most common theory is that they have portable air-conditioners--usually said to be placed inside the vests (flak jackets--J.T.), but sometimes placed in the helmet or even the underwear."
"'There is fluid circulating throughout the underwear,' said Hamid the engineering student. 'I am not sure of the exact mechanism, but we all know the Americans have very sophisticated technology.'"
American "GIs are said to be so demoralized that 30 percent of them have already abandoned their posts and paid $600 apiece to escape by an underground railroad to Turkey or Syria."
"Others have supposedly converted to Islam and fled to marry women in Saudi Arabia."
Most disturbing of the urban legends is the one dealing with "concealed casualties."
"They say Saddam's alien friends used their bio- engineering to create giant scorpions. There were rumors of these creatures in the as-Zab as-Saghir before the war," Mahmoud reported. "They say some Americans have been killed by these creatures. The rumor in Fallujah is that the Americans are hiding the casualties by dumping large numbers of soldiers' bodies each night into the Tigris River."
(Editor's Comment: There are also rumors that Saddam and Elvis ride around in a shibriyeh on the back of a giant scorpion. I'll believe in these cow-sized scorpions when I see a photo of one beside a Humvee. On the other hand, the Pentagon has been known to deep-six unwelcome casualties before. In May 1944, the U.S. Army buried 3,000 men in unmarked graves in southern England. The men were casualties of the ill-fated Exercise Tiger, a rehearsal for D-Day.)
Iraqi teenagers have taken a liking to the GI sunglasses. "Like Zahra Thaer, 13. She was walking down a sidewalk in Baghdad wearing a new pair of wraparound sunglasses."
"'These are the latest style,' she said, explaining that she had been lucky to get one of the last pairs left in the store."
"Did she believe the soldiers' glasses gave them X- ray vision?"
"'I am not so sure about their sunglasses,' she said, 'But I know about the helmet. Inside each helmet is a map showing the soldier the location of every house in Iraq. My friends at school told me about it.'" (See Atlantis Rising No. 41 for September/October 2003, "The Exopolitical Factor," pages 28, 30 and 64. Also the Duluth, Minn. News-Tribune for August 8, 2003, "Mistrust of U.S. soldiers runs deep--right down to the underwear," pages 1A and 12A. Also thanks to Mahmoud al-Diwaniyahi for the additional information.)
From the UFO Files...
1870: THE BEAR LAKE MONSTER
Straddling the border between the USA's western states of Utah and Idaho lies Bear Lake. This aquamarine body of water, over 30 miles (50 kilometers) long, serves as a catch basin for creeks spilling down from the Uintah Mountains of Utah and the Bear River Mountains of Idaho and Wyoming.
As local author Bonnie Thompson points out, "a full- blown monster in the middle of a semi-desert region seems out of place. Unusual as it may be, the monster of Bear Lake has a considerable history underlined by accounts of reliable witnesses."
"Around the first part of July, 1870, a certain Mr. C.M. Johnson of South Eden (Idaho) was going along the lakeshore when he thought he saw the body of a drowned person in the lake. He went close to the shore, thinking that the waves would soon wash it in. Then he saw the head and neck of some kind of animal he had never seen before."
Johnson later wrote, "It had ears or bunches on the side of its head nearly as large as a pint cup. The waves at times would dash over the head when it would throw water from its mouth or nose."
According to Ms. Thompson, "The very next day after Johnson had seen it, the monster was seen by three women and a man across the lake at Fish Haven Beach (Idaho) where they were swimming. It was swimming when they first saw it, and they said it could swim faster than a horse could run."
"On Sunday last (July 17, 1870), N.C. Davis and Allen Davis of St. Charles (Idaho) and J. Collings of Paris (Idaho), with six women, were returning from Fish Haven, when about midway from the latter place of St. Charles, their attention was suddenly attracted to a peculiar motion or wave in the water about three miles (5 kilometers) distant. The lake was not rough, only a little disturbed by the wind."
"Mr. Sleight says he distinctly saw the sides of a large animal that he would suppose to be not less than 90 feet (27 meters) in length. Mr. Davis don't (sic) think he (Allen Davis) saw any part of the body, but is positive it must have been not less than 40 feet (12 meters) in length, judging by the waves it left in the rear."
"It was going south (into Utah--J.T.), and all agreed that it swam with a speed almost incredible to their senses. Mr. Davis says he never saw a locomotive travel faster and think it made a mile a minute fast (60 miles per hour or 100 kilometers per hour--J.T.)."
"In a few minutes after the discovery of the first, a second followed in its wake but seemed to be much smaller, appearing to Mr. Sleight about the size of a horse. A larger one followed this, and so on till four large ones in all and six small ones had run southward out of sight."
"One of the large ones before disappearing made a sudden turn to the west a short distance, then back to his former track. At this turn Mr. Sleight says he could distinctly see it was a brownish color."
"They could judge somewhat of their speed by observing known distances on the other side of the lake, and all agreed that the velocity with which they propelled themselves through the water was astounding. They represent the waves that rolled up in front and on each side of them as being three feet (0.9 meters) from where they stood."
"This is substantially their statement as they told me. These people are such that their veracity is undoubted."
The creature's existence had long been known to the indigenous people of the Bear Lake Valley. Chief Washakie of the Shoshoni told Joseph C. Rich that the "Bear Lake Monster" was a creature "of the serpent kind" which "had captured and carried away members of their race while bathing."
Washakie described an amphibious reptile very much like a plesiosaur, with the same long neck and scaly hide, but with a few differences. Instead of fins, the Bear Lake Monster had clawed feet with webbing between its toes and "with legs about 18 inches (45 centimeters) long on which it sometimes walked as it came out on the shore a short distance." (See the books Folklore in the Bear Lake Valley by Bonnie Thompson, Utah Printing Co., Salt Lake City, Utah, 1972, pages 35 through 40 and Land of the Sky- Blue Water: A History of the L.D.S. Settlement of the Bear Lake Valley by Russell R. Rich, Brigham Young University Press, Provo, Utah, 1963, pages 170 to 173.)
Next: Face-to-face with the Bear Lake Monster!
That's it for this week. Join us next time for more UFO, Fortean and paranormal news from around the planet Earth, brought to you by "the paper that goes home--UFO Roundup." See you next time.
