Both deaths appear to be due to “exposure, based on weather conditions and ill-preparedness,” the local sheriff’s office said.
— Read on www.newsweek.com/men-searching-sasquatch-found-dead-what-we-know-2007106
Bigfoot Discovery Museum Closing…

The iconic museum, located alongside Highway 9 in Felton, has embodied Santa Cruz’s quirkiness for twenty years.
As Ruggs retires, the museum will retire alongside him.
“Well, anywhere from 30 to 70 people come in the door and, they’ll check everything out, and, I show them our local sighting map, and, they’re usually amazed to see how many sightings there have been in this area. I was amazed, too, because when I opened it, I didn’t expect that to happen,” Ruggs said.
Ruggs says he first saw Bigfoot when he was a kid.
“I looked upstream, and then when I look back towards the woods. Whoa, here’s this big hairy guy standing there looking at me. And we had eye contact for about the count of three. Then I heard my mother screaming. Mikey, where are you? So I thought, oh, jeez, I better get back,” Ruggs recalled.
https://www.ksbw.com/article/bigfoot-discovery-museum-california-santa-cruz-mountains-close/63045200
A big piece of bigfoot history closing its door here. I wish I had a chance to visit it, it was definitely a bucket list stop for me…
Scientists find a 35,000-year-old saber-toothed kitten in the Siberian permafrost

An ancient cat was found almost perfectly preserved in Siberia’s permafrost.
Researchers found the mummy of a 35,000-year-old saber-toothed cub in what is now Russia’s northeastern Sakha Republic, also known as Yakutia, in 2020
The kitten still had its whiskers and claws attached when it was pulled out of the permafrost, and was covered in a coat of “short, thick, soft, dark brown fur.” Its hair was about 20 to 30 millimeters long, according to researchers.
You can read rest of article from NPR here…
https://www.npr.org/2024/11/16/nx-s1-5193845/35000-year-old-kitten-siberia-frozen
Sadly, we will probably hear they are going to attempt to bring them back from extinction as well, along with the wooly mammoth and thylacine tiger. We can’t even stop the current extinctions of today’s animals we are causing and they want to add to the crisis. We’ll have to wait and see what comes of it down the road…
Election Hate 2024

At the end of the election, however many days that takes. Some of us will have the president we want and some of us will not.
But this is not just an election between one man and one woman. This is also a check point for ourselves, the voters.
How do we want to live the next few years out? Do we want to live in hate? Fight with everyone online? Spew hate at each other? Or do we want to go back to the way it was when maybe we didn’t like everyone’s opinions, but we did respect them. We could have a civil conversation.
Maybe going forward we need to go back to how it was with my parents generation. You kept your religion and your politics to yourself. I don’t want to know who you vote for or who you pray to. That’s none of my business. I’m judging you only by how you treat me, what I see and hear myself. Your actions in this world. And that’s all I want to be judged by.
I don’t want to feel this overwhelming anxiety anymore.
Look at how we are all acting right now. We are teaching the next generation that this behavior is normal. It’s fucking not. It’s immature, it’s beneath us.
And the whole world is watching us tear each other down and apart. And some countries are laughing at the great America falling apart from within. Enough is enough.
As one person I can’t make a change in the world’s social climate but together we ALL can. Just agree to wake up tomorrow let this anger go. Don’t make nasty online comments. Keep our conversations and differences civil. Be adults.
Go forward with kindness, positivity and empathy….
I want better for our futures and the next generations futures. And it has to start here with us.
I hope everyone has a safe positive experience getting out there to vote. And the tomorrow is the first day of the rest of our positive lives…
Ipupiara… The Sea Lion??

For the second in a series of curious creatures once the cryptids of their time, we talk about the sea lion.
I can imagine a sea lion must have been quite a site if you had no knowledge or experience with one, I’d probably still want to pat one even then. But let’s take a look at one of it’s first sightings in Brazil in the 1500s…
In 1564, when the Portuguese had just arrived here, they found a monster on the beach? That’s right. It was where the city of São Vicente is today, on the coast of São Paulo. The story goes back to Pero de Magalhães Gândavo, one of our first historians. He says that, one night, the Indians pulled out of the sea a creature that measured more than 3 meters in length, full of fins and hair all over its body, “and on its snout it had very large silks like whiskers”. They named it ipupiara, or water demon in ancient Tupi.”
A text from that time tells a tale that goes a little like this;
Explorer Baltasar Ferreira killed this marine monster off the coast of São Vicente (present-day Santos in the state of São Paulo) in 1564. The monster is described as being 15 palms long, covered with hair, and with silky bristles like a mustache on its muzzle.
Today they say they still aren’t sure what the creature really was, but it is thought to be a lost sea lion that swam into their waters. A statue of the creature, which is thought to be what inspired the Creature from the Black Lagoon and The Shape of Water, still stands today…

Sources:
Exploring The Legend Of Pukwudgies: The Sneaky Creatures Of Native American Mythology

The legend of the Pukwudgie began with Native American tribes such as the Wampanoag.
Exploring The Legend Of Pukwudgies: The Sneaky Creatures Of Native American Mythology
Lady Fate…


My mother and me above, and my dad singing away…
I was this little girl once with out a care
Waking up thinking you’d both always be there
But then I was reminded that nothing lasts forever
And as the years go on I can barely feel the tether
Of that parental bond
I’m praying for a sign from beyond
That you’re still there
Your souls are around me somewhere
What I would give for one more day
To say mom and dad, “hey”
I do still need you now
I’m feeling lost somehow
I need you to remind me again of just who I am
All I’ve been through
And I’ll get through this too
I’m reaching out to your spirits
I hope you both feel it
Guide me down this next trail
Because I think I’m going off the rails
I’ve always been an old soul, and wild
But today I feel just like that child
Who didn’t understand
That god had a plan
That I’m where I’m supposed to be
Even if I can’t see
I always believed fate guided our way
But fuck I don’t feel that today
I think she took a nap
And left me in this trap
So please open this latch
And bring me on back
To that tough carefree girl
With no worries in the world
Sing my soul song
And make me feel strong
I just need a sign that says I’m
where I belong
Because I don’t know if I’ll hold out for long
I’m taking a deep deep breath
And praying I take the right step
Lady fate please wake up and tell me
Is this, is this really where I’m supposed to be???
Normally I share my poems on all my platforms, but this one felt more like I needed to purge it out there, but yet not for everyone.
So I thought I’d share it here. I’m sitting on the beach right now, it’s a gray chilly day but I’m here working through some silly emotions. They’re passing now. Thank god, because I’m usually the one that tries to save someone else from this kind of day, not ever actually having it myself. So it was a weird feeling let me tell you.
I luckily have my journal with me to write down all these crazy thoughts, and all these words that kept flying out of me. I also have a very warm blanket and a little trusted chihuahua to hang with me.
This poem was from some of those crazy thoughts coming at me. I’m dedicating it to my parents that I lost a few years back. I hope you enjoy it. I hope they do too.
And I truly hope their loss from an illness I couldn’t save them from in time, will somehow save another…
Have a great Monday everyone….
Feet of Death…

It’s a Sunday morning and I’ve got my coffee, chihuahua and remote and I’m setting in for a movie. This morning’s watch is Feet of Death. A new bigfoot genre horror from independent film writer and director James Chick, whose past work include the television show Grimm.
If you’ve been following me for a bit you know I love indie bigfoot movies. They are always entertaining and I’m always impressed when someone can make their movie their way, at usually great financial cost to themselves.
One of the things I love about bigfoot movies is looking at their shooting locations. This movie was filmed around Mount St. Helens in the Pacific Northwest making for a beautiful backdrop worthy of a bigfoot film.
The movie opens with a hiker stumbling on a dead body, which we learn is one of many found in this area. But this body is one of a Fortean investigator, played by Eric Berger who is there to do a story on these particular disappearances for his channel, Myths of the Unknown and tragically ends up among the body count.
We then meet the USFS investigator who is the best at animal tracking and identifying, played by Andrew Jacob Brown who teams up with the local sheriff, (my favorite character) played by Jack Vanover to confirm these are actually animal related. The USFS character is struggling to work through the death of his own wife from an alleged animal attack himself.
Now, I don’t want to give away any spoilers, as the film was just released, but there is a bit of a plot twist to this movie, leaving you to wonder if there is or isn’t a bigfoot out there. Which, if you’re either a bigfoot researcher or a enthusiast you’re already probably used to wanting to solve that mystery, and you’re going to have to hang in tight till the end to do it. But it is worth the watch, and if you like this genre of films as much as I do? Then you won’t be disappointed…

In addition to getting a chance to catch the movie, I was also able to catch up to James Chick and ask him a few questions about his film. Check out his answers below…

Q. What got you interested in making films?
A: Since I was a kid I always had a camera in hand. Back in middle school I would make music videos with my friends and sister using my dad’s VHS camera. Then in highschool I bought my very own Sony high-8 camera! I would film my friends and I doing whatever before vlogging was even a thing. So when I got to college it made since to pursue production as a career.
Q. What is your favorite part of the process?
A: Being on set filming is the most enjoyable and stressful part. It’s also the shortest part of the process unfortunately.
Q. What was this films experience like for you?
A: This was a crazy stressful, exciting, terrifying, and enjoyable experience for me. It was my first time directing so it was a brand new experience.
Q. What made you decide to make a film about Bigfoot?
A: I was born and raised in the PNW so Bigfoot is everywhere up here, and there is a massive global audience.
We have 5 acres out by Mt Saint Helens, where the film takes place. I also love creature features such as A Quiet Place. So it just made sense logistically and creatively to do a bigfoot film.
Q. Are you a believer in the possibility a bigfoot is out there?
A: I want to believe. But…. It’s hard to believe there is no good real evidence with all our tech these days.
Q. What was the biggest challenge making it?
A: Raising funds for the project as a first time director is always a challenge. And then finding distribution after it was completed was another aspect I was completely green at.
Q. Where was the movie filmed?
A: Everything was filmed on or around Mt Saint Helens.
Q. Do you have any future projects in the works?
A: I am in early stages for a fun sci-fi adventure in the vein of Firefly meets Alien…
I am looking forward to seeing that one, as both of those franchises are a favorite of mine and congratulations on a great directorial debut!
You can catch the movie on the links below on whichever your favorite platform is.
https://www.amazon.com/Feet-Death-James-Chick/dp/B0D8WNDV21
https://play.google.com/store/movies/details/Feet_of_Death?id=jCI8qVvFUmc.P&hl=en_US
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vo1CH1CmOeU
You can glimpse behind the scenes of the making of Feet of Death here;
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrgKf6fdE8dAQT7otyVRgM5fl-xsHaqj2&si=RaiqouwzQT5nlTwU
Happy viewing everyone and let me know what you think of the film!
The Illinois Cloud Man
Discover in-depth articles on monsters, cryptids, UFOs, ghosts, lost treasures and the Tombstone Thunderbird Photo. Dive into the world of mysterious topics at Thunderbird Photo.
— Read on thunderbirdphoto.com/f/the-illinois-cloud-man
The Thylacine’s Zoo… Thylacine History Part one

We in the cryptozoology community post often about the beloved thylacine, but for me the part of its history I have a hard time coming to terms with is its last days at the zoo and the films which appear to be a dank miserable zoo environment.

But how was their care really? Who ran that zoo? Maybe if we know a little bit about that it may be easier to study the last of these amazing creatures.
It turns out that this zoo wasn’t as uncaring as the video made it seem by its age and quality.

A women named Mary Roberts opened the Beaumaris Zoo on her property in Hobart in 1875.
Mary had no formal schooling in zoology, but she did have a passion for Tasmanian fauna. Mary began sharing her passion with the general public in 1895.
Her great love and care for the thylacine was well known. She became the first woman to successfully breed them in captivity. So loved by her they were, that she wrote a manual on the keeping, caring, and breeding of the thylacine.
She was accepted into the Zoological Society of London, where she began gaving lectures on the care of these amazing marsupials.
In 1921 Mary Roberts passed away and the zoo and its many inhabitants were offered to the Tasmanian government, who declined the offer sadly. Then they were cared for by a Scottish farmer who was a great nature enthusiast. The Beaumaris Zoo was eventually moved to a location in Queens.
Sadly the last known living tiger died in 1936, the zoo itself closed a year later in 1937. There are only a few remains left of the zoo’s buildings where it stood last…

The remains of the last thylacine were given to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, who being unaware they had the last specimen of its kind, did a traveling exhibit with them instead of working on proper storage and cataloguing.
But how does all this make you feel now? Is it better to see those videos knowing Mary Roberts truly cared for them and tried to educate everyone on their proper care?

For me personally it makes it a little better understanding their history with at least their time with her. I still question their care in their last days . They appear so skinny in the videos, and just knowing the last one died due a cold spell, because they weren’t put in the proper habitat that night just doesn’t help me.
I pray they had some affection along the way. And as much as I would love to see these elusive creatures alive, I don’t agree with the de-extinction plan for them.
Humans are doing a number on this planet causing extinction and near extinction of many of its species. So the idea that it would be a good thing to bring them back in a time we are killing off others just doesn’t make sense and seems highly unethical to me.
What are your thoughts on the de-extinction of the thylacine? Do you think this world can support and keep them alive now in its current state? Let me know.
Have a great Monday…
