Looking for Monsters? Take to the Mountains. That’s Where They Lurk

More than a few strange creatures can be found in the Earth’s lakes and lochs. Others lurk deep within the oceans. And, forests are perfect places for strange creatures to hide out. The Bigfoot creatures being perfect examples. Jungles, too. But, what about mountains? The number of cases of monsters carefully avoiding us, the human race, and by dwelling high in the mountains of our world, is huge. As we will now see. Let’s look at some perfect examples. In a 1908 edition of the Alaska-Yukon Magazine, there appeared a fascinating story from one Frank E. Howard. It was an article that told of an incident that occurred during the summer months, just a few years previously. The location was a mountainous region on Alaska’s Malaspina Glacier, in which Howard was prospecting. As he negotiated the perilous glacier, Howard had a disastrous fall into a deep crevasse. Fortunately, Howard was not injured, but there was a problem. And, wouldn’t you just know it, it was a big one, too: there was simply no way for him to climb out the same way he had fallen in. So, there was just one option: he had to follow the crevasse, hoping that it would lead downhill and allow him to finally leave the crevasse and make his way down the glacier. Thankfully, and finally, it did exactly that.

(Nick Redfern) Where the monsters roam

Howard told the magazine: “I arose and started down the slope with the idea of reaching the water and following along its margin while the tide was low, in search of some crevasse leading out into the open bay. I was sure the great cavern was crevassed to the surface at some point beyond. As I kept going ahead I noticed a gradual increase of light, and in a few more steps, I stood in a broad wall of blue light that came down from above and, looking up, I saw there was no clear opening to the surface. But objects were now revealed some distance around. Then an object rose slowly out of the glimmer and took form – a spectral thing, with giant form, and lifelike movement. The object rose erect, a Goliath in the shape of a man. Then, watching me with a slantwise glance, it walked obliquely from me, until its form faded in the gloom of the cavern. It’s Howard’s final words that suggest strongly that the mighty creature was a Bigfoot: “With its shaggy light-colored fur and huge size, the creature in some ways resembled a bear with bluish gray fur, but that it had a roughly human form, and at all times walked erect.” Moving onto another example:

Demonstrating that beasts such as Sasquatch are not the creations of 20^th century movie-makers, and hoaxers, are the surprisingly large number of newspaper accounts on the subject that date from the 1800s. A classic, and perfect, example, is a fascinating feature that appeared in the pages of the Sacramento, California-based Daily Union newspaper on November 1, 1879. It was titled, very appropriately, A STRANGE CREATURE: Two Hunters Chased by a Wild Man in the Antelope Mountains, and begins as follows: “William Shegan, who came in from Antelope Valley last evening with a load of produce, tells a Leader reporter a very strange and startling story of the experience of two men who were hunting in Antelope Valley last week. He says that Peter Simons and John Gore had been out all day hunting ducks and such other game as they came in their way, and as evening came on they took a short cut across the mountains on their way back to the ranch. The mountain over which the trail led them was a very rugged one – in fact, the wildest place in the Antelope range of mountains – and a few years ago used to be infested with the larger species of wild animals.” The story continued that as the pair made their careful way around what was described as a “large chasm,” they heard a strange, animalistic noise coming from the vicinity of a nearby cliff-face. As they looked to see the source of the chatter, both men were shocked by the sight of a large, hairy, manlike animal that sprung from behind the cliff-face, and headed towards the mountains with “the speed of the wind.”

(Nick Redfern) What roams in the mountains?

Typically, the Bigfoot creatures are not known as violent creatures. There are, however, exceptions to the rule. One classic and disturbing example occurred back in the summer of 1924, in a canyon in the vicinity of Kelso, Washington State. As evidence that tales of Bigfoot are not solely limited to the last few decades, the story was written up, at the time, in the pages of the Oregonian newspaper. An extract of the salient points reads thus: “The strangest story to come from the Cascade Mountains was brought to Kelso today by Marion Smith, his son Roy Smith, Fred Beck, Gabe Lefever and John Peterson, who encountered the fabled ‘mountain devils’ or mountain gorillas of Mt. St. Helens this week, shooting one of them and being attacked throughout the night by rock bombardments of the beasts.” Now, onto another example of monsters and mountains: In the 1940s, a naturalist who spent time working in Ecuador as a dealer in live animals, told cryptozoologist Ivan T. Sanderson: “The so-called Shiru, I have heard of from the Indians and a few white hunters on both sides of the Andes but decidedly more so on the eastern slopes, where the vast mountains are still quite unexplored, and rarely, if ever visited. All reports describe the Shiru as a small (4-5 feet) creature decidedly hominid, but fully covered with short, dark brown fur. All agreed that the Shiru was very shy, with the exception of one Indian, who claimed having been charged after having missed with his one and only shot from a muzzle loading shotgun, a weapon still used by the majority of Indians along with the blowgun. These reports are rather sober and objective, and in no way tinged with the colorful imagination into which Latin-Americans are prone to lapse.”

August 26, 1957, marked the date upon which one of the strangest and most controversial affidavits of all time was prepared and signed. The man that made the sworn statement was one William Roe, of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The affidavit was made so strange and controversial due to the fact that it detailed Roe’s very own encounter – and an extremely close encounter – with a large, female Bigfoot.  Roe began: “Ever since I was a small boy back in the forests of Michigan, I have studied the lives and habits of wild animals. Later when I supported my family in northern Alberta by hunting and trapping, I spent many hours just observing the wild things. They fascinated me. The most incredible experience I ever had with a wild creature occurred near a little place called Tete Jaune Cache, B.C., about 80 miles west of Jasper, Alberta. I had been working on the highway near this place, Tete Jaune Cache, for about 2 years.”

In October 1955, said Roe, he “…decided to climb five miles up Mica Mountain to an old deserted mine, just for something to do. I came in sight of the mine about 3 o’clock in the afternoon after an easy climb. I had just come out of a patch of low brush into a clearing, when I saw what I thought was a grizzly bear in the brush on the other side. I had shot a grizzly near that spot the year before.” It soon became apparent that the creature in his midst was no bear: “This one was only about 75 yards away, but I didn’t want to shoot it, for I had no way of getting it out. So I sat down on a small rock and watched, with my rifle in my hand. I could just see part of the animal’s head and the top of one shoulder. A moment later it raised up and stepped out into the opening. Then I saw it wasn’t a bear.”  Indeed, that much is clearly evident from the detailed description that Roe provided: “This to the best of my recollection is what the creature looked like and how it acted as it came across the clearing directly towards me. My first impression was of a huge man about 6 feet tall, almost 3 feet wide, and probably weighing near 300 pounds. It was covered from head to foot with dark brown, silver-tipped hair.”   Not only was the creature not a bear, it wasn’t male, either, as Roe quickly realized. It was a Bigfoot. Yet another example of monsters on mountains.

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