In 1673 French explorers going down the Mississippi River they noticed a painting on the rocks as they went by, in father Jacques Marquette’s journal he wrote the following;
“…while skirting some rocks, which by their height and length inspired awe, we saw upon one of them two painted monsters which at first made us afraid, and upon which the boldest savages dare not long rest their eyes…they are as large as a calf; they have horns on their heads like those of a deer, a horrible look, red eyes, a beard like a tiger’s, a face somewhat like a man’s, a body covered with scales, and so long a tail that it winds all around the body, passing above the head and going back between the legs, ending in a fish’s tail…”
Quarrying destroyed the original art we now know as being the Piasa Bird in 1860. Renditions attempted to recreate the artwork in 1924, 1950, and 1983, all of which were also destroyed because of development
The Piasa Bird was a creature that allegedly lived in the steep cliffs along the Mississippi River.
According to Native American myths. The Piasa was quite different from the Thunderbird as it was depicted as a flying dragon in ancient paintings dating back as far as 1200 CE.
“Many years ago a huge and fearsome creature began to carry off members of that tribe of Indians called the Illinois. Whole villages were depopulated. One night Ouatoga, a brave chief of this tribe, had a dream. In this dream the Great Spirit gave him a plan by which he could kill the man-eating creature.
When Ouatoga’s warriors eventually ambushed and killed the Piasa, they carved its image into a cliff face as a memorial.
According to legends, the Piasa Bird feasted on human flesh, but not fresh flesh. Rather, it circled around when Native American warriors battled enemy tribes. When the fighting ended, the Piasa Bird would swoop down to dine on the bodies of the fallen warriors.
European colonialism had a profound impact on the forests and wildlife of the New World. The colonizers brought with them a deep-seated fear of the unknown, which manifested itself in many ways, including a fear of the wild forest, wolves, and superstitions of the unknown forest.
The colonizers viewed the forest as a dark and dangerous place, full of unknown dangers and lurking predators. They saw the forest as a place of darkness and evil, where the devil himself might be lurking. This fear was compounded by the presence of wolves, which were seen as vicious and bloodthirsty predators that would attack humans without provocation.
The colonizers also had many superstitions about the forest, which only served to increase their fear. They believed that the forest was full of spirits and demons, and that these entities could possess humans who entered the forest. They also believed that the forest was a place of magic, where witches and other dark forces could cast spells and work their evil deeds.
Despite these fears, the colonizers were determined to conquer the forest and tame the wilderness. They cut down trees, cleared land, and built roads and settlements. They hunted wolves and other predators to near extinction, and they forced the native peoples to abandon their traditional ways of life and adopt European customs and beliefs.
Today, we can look back on this period of history with a mixture of awe and horror. We can marvel at the courage and determination of the colonizers, who were able to conquer a vast and unknown wilderness. But we can also see the terrible cost of their actions, in the destruction of the forest and the loss of so much wildlife and native culture.
The fear of the wild forest, wolves, and superstitions of the unknown forest was a powerful force in the early days of European colonialism. This fear drove the colonizers to conquer the wilderness and tame the unknown, but it also led to the destruction of so much that was beautiful and valuable. We must remember this history, and work to protect the remaining forests and wildlife that we have left…
“It happened in Houston,Ms, my story still leaves me perplexed till this day . In 1978 I was 8 years old, but I still can remember this as if it happened yesterday. We were one week into our beginnings of the summer break. Me and my brother, my brother being three years older than I, were so excited that we didn’t have to go to bed at 8:o’clock any more, You know it’s summer break and all . Lucky for us, a man had came to our door around 7 pm .He asked my daddy , I think my dad knew him, to give him a ride down to the rodeo that was on the outskirts of town . Because there ,he had got his new job, doing what…, I didn’t know or care… We begged daddy to let us come along. We loved riding in the back of the truck, especially at night, and this was a full moon lit night.
Reluctantly, daddy said yes. BUT on our way back home, after dropping off this man…that is when things got weird. As the truck approached this big pinkish house , now this house had a huge yard and dividing this yard was a fence to an even bigger hilly pasture . Lit by the moon light, I saw what appeared to be an enormous dog running down hilly pasture toward our truck. I was so captivated by the size of this dog. not really a big deal, being that it was 1978 and it was common place to see dogs chasing vehicles. However, when this dog reached the fence, It leaped over it and landed on all fours only to rise up on to two legs ,flawlessly continuing to run like a man, in seconds, meeting and keeping parallel with with our truck.
Keep in mind daddy was driving, I was sitting on the toolbox in the back of the truck nearest the creature and my brother was next to me, who was somehow fixated on the opposite side of the road…I was literally paralyzed with fear, only able to close and reopen my eyes and shake my head. This creature was covered with Grayish hair from head to toe, appearing to have breasts with black eyes shimmering in the moonlight.
It’s eye dotted at my oblivious daddy driving then at my brother but then to focus on me..It beckoned me to come to it with its left hand. And I then closed my eyes, shaking my head furiously in order to wake myself from this nightmare..The creature Seeing that, as if to say ,I AM REAL, without ever leaving the border of the yard stepped under the only night light on that entire road..This ligh was at least 20 feet up. Wow, that few minutes felt like hours..This thing’s body covered 8 or 9 feet of the night light’s pole. The most frightening thing was the NOT QUITE human face that seemed to be mouthing words to me as it continued beckoning me with a very frustrated expression.
It looked nothing like an ape and nothing like a man except for the human nose that was wide and its lips movements. It could have easily grabbed me from the back of the truck, being that the border of the yard was at least 20 from the road..It just continued beckoning until the truck got out of sight …I didn’t regain full mobility and speech from being fear stricken until the truck pulled into our drive way.
I told my folks what I saw. Daddy said he didn’t see anything, however, my parents being super religious knew that I wouldn’t be so foolish as to tell them some outlandish lie..They just said it was a spirit and that I needed to pray. The question that my mama asked my brother racks my brain until this day. She had asked him” You were sitting right next to him(me) why didn’t you see anything?”
My brother said ” in the field on the opposite side of the road he was frightened by the giant white African lion chasing the truck”. At 8 years old I had watched a lot of the PBS network to know Mississippi, especially Houston, we had no African lions. So my question will always be….was there two creatures and was this an ambush???
This encounter was from r/bigfoot on Reddit, you can follow along with the post here;
One night I was doing patrol ops in the woods/hills and we decided to take a pause. It was around 3am we were taking a break. It was during a wargame and I was on watch. Holding security we were seeing an outline in the woods and meanwhile we are sleep deprived not thinking we were seeing real things in the tree line till we till we talked to each other to confirm what we were seeing through our nods. Pebbles were being thrown at us and we were confused and thinking we were about to be run up on by Opfor (Opposition Force).
So we wake up our guys slowly thinking we’re about to be ambushed. Turns out we were being stalked. We decided to get into defensive positions and the rocks kept coming thinking we were being messed with by the Advisors running around overwatching the wargame. We checked on the radio if there were any nearby. None. None at all. So we thought it was Opfor. We opened up with blanks. But, as we opened up we saw a massive creature and another one about
25-30 meters away. The creatures knocked over a semi-thin tree and gave a deep growl.
Something that would shake guys who were de-sensitized and not really scared by anything. When day light came we circled back to look and we found huge footprints.
We were so confused and shaken. After that situation we didn’t know how to explain what we saw or experienced. That night I became an actual believer I was always skeptical about bigfoot or some creature being in the woods. It was about 3 1/2 years ago. Till this day I struggle to go into the woods.”
On the night of July 26, 1895, in the Delaware County resort town of Margaretville, Peter Thomas was driving a team of horses on a lone road when a “wild-eyed man or ape” stood in the road ahead. Thomas said the creature had “long and hairy arms” and was “uttering a raucous, inarticulate cry.” He said the creature twisted the neck of one of his horses before dragging it into the darkness. The creature was “seven feet high, of human shape, covered with hair.”
The next day, local farmer John Cook said he shot “a ferocious ape-like being,” before it grabbed him and threw him to the ground. The wild man stood “about seven feet tall, entirely nude, covered with black hair, with a long beard and with teeth which project from its mouth like fangs” .
Newburg Daily Express 1895; New York Daily Herald 1895.
I just saw the craziest thing! It had like this beak and like, web feet! And that tail!
If the description was changed to tall and hairy we’d all be thinking bigfoot. But, that was probably close to what a person said about this creature around the 1700s. The platypus was once a cryptid itself, witnesses described this creature but no one had a body until 1799 when English zoologist George Shaw was delivered one. His first thought was it must be a hoax, and was quoted with “It naturally excites the idea of some deceptive preparation by artificial means,”
Reading what he wrote more than 200 years ago, it’s easy to see why Shaw was initially skeptical about the creature he’d examined: “ Of all the Mammalia yet known it seems the most extraordinary in its conformation; exhibiting the perfect resemblance of the beak of a Duck engrafted on the head of a quadruped.”
Sounds similar, sounds like one of us describing the Jersey Devil. The head of this, body of that. The platypus has been around for millions of years in one form or size or another, yet only two centuries have passed since we examined the first body. I thought since so much is being written about current cryptids I thought I’d focus on some former cryptids. The weird creatures described by settlers and later of our now known animals.
The platypus, whose home is in Australia, must have been a sight to see. They have a beak like a duck, feet like an otter and a tail like a beaver. That species was really adapting well with what it may need to survive out there. They also have a few odd surprises up their sleeve. The platypus is the only mammal that lays eggs, it has no stomach so their food go directly from esophagus to colons. But the biggest surprises are that it’s venomous! A male has venom in his back claw also if you catch it swimming under uv lights you’ll see it glows in the dark and finally its beak have special sensors on it to detect its meal going by and doesn’t need to see or hear under the water. They can hold their breath for approximately 30 seconds under water.
They are still just the oddest looking animals and they really do look seen all together from different species but, I suppose he was in a way, god decided to give him a little bit of everything and sent them on their way…
My family and I had an encounter in 1997 just south of Utica NY in a rural town of Sauquoit. My grandparents were visiting China at the time and my mother, uncle and I were house sitting for them. I was 16 at the time and had already racked up countless hours of hunting, camping, hiking and fishing experience in upstate NY. So I was very outdoorsy young fellow. As I said above I spent most of my time outside exploring the wilderness and there wasn’t much to do at grandmas house except for this kind of impressive geological feature they had towards the back of their property. There was a small creek that flowed over a small waterfall, maybe 8 ft high, and down into a stone gorge. The gorge is maybe 150 wide and 20 feet deep and the edges were composed of large rectangularish rocks that were crumbling to below. When visiting I would often visit here to flip rocks over to catch crawfish or salamanders or whatever I could find. I never felt uncomfortable there. There is what appears to be a cave created by some of the larger rocks that I don’t recall ever exploring but was definitely big enough for a person to crawl into. (I didn’t get into spelunking until I was in my late teens). Whenever I was in the gorge or on the edge I would yell init because it would return a wonderful echo, unlike any echo I’ve heard before or since so that was always fun. Onto the incident, I believe it was the 3rd night of house sitting around 2:30-3am. The house is set about 250 yards from this creek and we were all sound asleep when I was awakened by the most ungodly thunder scream imaginable. I sat straight up in my bed and listened, I was horrified!!! Within seconds I ran out of my room and met my mother and uncle in the hallway who were also equally shocked as I was. I remember I said(I didn’t normally cus) “WTF is that?!?” And as I said this the thing was STILL screaming. It felt like forever but it must have went on for at least 15 seconds. It was the loudest and meanest sound. We grabbed a flashlight and a couple shotguns then went outside to investigate. We checked the horses. They were visibly shaken but ok. We knew the creature was in the gorge because of the echo so we walked through the horse field and approached the wood line. We heard nothing else and we saw nothing. None of us had the balls to enter the forest where the gorge was. At daylight the next day I went to the gorge to look around. I felt extremely uneasy and remember looking into the cave from idk maybe 10 yards away and I just got a bad feeling so I split. I never went back to that creek to enjoy the wildlife ever again. I wanted to ask my grandfather about it when he returned but unfortunately he died weeks later and I never had the opportunity. After my grandmother recovered from that I asked her about it. She said that grandpa and her had heard the scream 3 times since 1980. My grandfather actively worked on classified projects for 3 branches of military at the same time and he was an avid Hunter in his recreational time. One time he took his repeating rifle and a flashlight to investigate in the middle of night and found nothing. The next morning, this is all according to grandma, he went to take a better look while it was light out. Grandpa told her not to worry because he found some human excrement and figured it was some kids Messing around. I know he told her that because he didn’t want to sell the house he built. He wanted to soothe her fears. There’s no way a person could make this noise and there was certainly no kids hanging out in this remote forest at 3am. I forgot to mention that each time they heard this thing it was mid-late summer and about 3am. Each instance was separated by approximately 5-6 years.
None of us saw anything but that sound was not forgettable. It’s certainly impacted my life as I now consider things that I would not have otherwise. There are things that go bump in the night. 100%
I found an almost identical recording of the sound that you can listen to here :
@2:53 the sound begins and carries on through the narrators voice. Take a listen and let me know what you think. Honestly I don’t know what it is but these people say it’s Sasquatch. I have no other answers. I wanna say it was louder than a lions roar but had a deep gutteral pitch to it at the same time. My theory is that whatever it was , was using the echo from the gorge to amplify its message. If these things exist then I doubt they would give away its position if it didn’t have a good reason to do so. Grandma sold the house that year so I couldn’t investigate further. Im tempted to ask the current owners if they’ve heard anything strange but I don’t wanna come across as a nut or spook them. I suspect they have heard it because every 5-6 years it was doing this like clockwork.
According to New England Folklore blog and the book Humanoid Encounters, on December 16, 2008, four students in Pawtucket, Rhode Island decided to take a walk in the woods after finishing their exams. They followed an old waterway deeper and deeper into the woods. As they walked it became increasingly quiet. Noticeably quiet. No birds. No squirrels. No breeze.
Scarily quiet.
The students suddenly became aware that they were not alone. Someone – or rather something – was in the woods with them. The creature was about six feet tall. It stood upright like a man, but had the head of a wolf. The students stood still in terror, petrified that the creature would approach them.
The wolf creature looked around, sensing it was not alone, but did not see the students. Finally it ran off further into the trees and was lost to sight. After waiting to make sure it was really gone the students left the woods. One of the witnesses was convinced the creature was a werewolf…
‘Did me and my friend see the Warminster Thing in 1977 at Cley Hill? Some friends of mine were having a conversation about UFOs in 1977 and we decided to visit Cley Hill one night for a vigil. We arrived around 11pm but I can’t remember what the date was.
We managed to climb to the top in virtual darkness. It was a clear night and from the top we could see for miles and saw all the lights from nearby villages and towns, saw helicopter activity from nearby army bases and watched satellites for an hour or so. Other than that, there was nothing out of the ordinary flying or moving about.
We bought a tent so we decided to scale back down the hill and find somewhere to pitch the tent. Heading back to the car we drove around some local lanes but it’s hard to find somewhere when you are in the country in darkness with no streetlights. I found a gated field entrance which I pulled up to and my friends got out the tent and stuff from the boot, including a couple of torches. I admit I was starting to feel a bit vulnerable being in the middle of nowhere near the bottom of Cley Hill in UFO country.
I stayed near the car while my friends tried to stake out the tent in the field. They were saying the ground was too stoney and hard as I noticed a light coming towards us up the lane, like a swinging latern. There was a house 300 yards or so away so I wondered if it was someone from there. I was trying to figure out what it was when the light disappeared from view going down and leaving a light showing then popping up again at a low level a little closer to her. I shouted to my mates to look, ‘what is it?’ We watched and saw a very bright ‘arc-light’ perfectly formed and round like an orange corona around its circumference. It was now a lot bigger than a lantern size.
It approached us steadily before bouncing up and down, disappearing as it dipped and reappearing again. This must have been some time well after midnight. I was getting pretty scared but one of my braver mates tried to attract this light thing with his torch. It was already coming towards us, growing larger in size by the second, and noiseless I may add. I remember saying something to my friends like ‘If you want to stay here, you stay. But I am getting out of here.’
With that we picked up our gear, threw it in the back of the car and jumped in. We wheel span out of the gated field like a bat out of hell and sped away from the area and whatever that ‘thing’ was. It was definitely coming our way and we did not want to wait around and find out more.
After a short while we pulled over to compose ourselves, found a track between farm fields and decided to stake out the tent there and brew a cuppa. Surprisingly we did manage to sleep for a couple of hours until the sun came up. It was in the daylight we decided to head back to the field entrance where we witnessed the ‘thing’. In the light of day and using the landscape, we managed to figure out the light was around the size of a house and the reason it appeared to bounce as it moved was because it was following the contours of the land, fields and trees very tightly, disappearing behind copses of trees and popping up over them again.
I know this was not a helicopter. I am an amateur aviation photographer so I am familiar with all types of aircraft and their lights. Plus, it was silent! No noise whatsoever and no flashing lights, just a huge extremely light, pure white and orange-tinged object.
We went back up the top of Cley Hill and could see the field where we had witnessed the ‘thing’. It allowed us to figure out how the light had been disappearing and reappearing as we could see the tree boundaries around the fields. We could also see it would have been quite some distance away at first before moving towards us.
I ask myself if I would have like to see something similar again and I will admit I am a bit of a wuss in the dark. The whole experience terrified all of us. However, I have lived back in Wiltshire for the last eight years and I do still look up in the sky and check, just in case I catch another glimpse of the Warminster Thing
Could there be giant dragonflies still in existence?
“Me and my younger brother saw a huge dragonfly spanning well over a foot and half long in Bolton, England in 2002. It must have been over an inch in diameter as well at the centre. I would have questioned myself but as it was witnessed by someone else too. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t just me seeing things. Sometimes I think was it an RC [radio/remote-controlled] helicopter? But no way could it move with such swiftness, agility and silence especially with 2002 technology. I went to the Manchester museum and checked with the insect experts and they said it sounds like you’ve seen something from the prehistoric and that no species of dragonfly that exist today are that large. It’s not a giant bird but has anyone ever seen these massive dragonflies? I would love some confirmation some more witnesses across the world.”
According to the article people have seen them. When the world was younger, all creatures insects all the way to dinosaurs stomping around. was oversized due to the high concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere. But now it’s thought not possible. Read the rest of the article and let me know what you think. Do you know anyone who has seen a rather large one flapping about?
A few years back I was visited by a dragonfly. Mind you just a normal sized one, so I looked up what they may represent. Hers what I found from Parade Magazine;
“Dragonflies have often been considered messengers from the spiritual, non-physical realms. If you’ve been seeing a lot of dragonflies lately, it could be your spirit guides or ancestors offering you guidance or protection.
With their short life span and need-for-speed, seeing dragonflies is a reminder to enjoy the present moment. So often, we are worried about the next task on our to-do list or how we need to serve others around us. It takes away from enjoying the current moment we’re experiencing. Let the dragonfly’s presence remind you to stay fully present and engage with who you’re with and what you’re doing right now.”
Who knows maybe we need to see even bigger ones around this planet because humanity isn’t slowing down to enjoy the little moments. ..
Sasysquatchgirl 