"Yeti" Footprints Found By Adventurers in Nepal
Footprints from the legendary Yeti have been found in the snow-covered slopes of the Himalayas, a Japanese team of explorers has claimed.
The adventurers could hardly contain their excitement as they told of finding the 8in-long footprints which bore a close resemblance to those of humans.
But, said team leader Yoshiteru Takahashi, they were not human - neither were they the footprints of wolves, deer or snow leopards.
They were made by the Yeti, we believe,' said Mr Takahashi, who heads the Yeti Project Japan, after returning from the mountains to the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu.
Stories of the Yeti - also known as the Abominable Snowman - have been passed down through generations of Nepalese families whose ancestors have told of a half-man, half ape, living in the Himalayas, where the world's tallest mountain, Mt Everest, is located.
The scientific community has mostly discounted the stories, saying they are more myth than fact, but Mr Takahashi is convinced the 'creature' exists.
If so, it would be very old, for it was first described in 1832 by Englishman James Prinsep who told of his local guides spotting a tall, bipedal creature covered with long dark hair.
Mr Takahashi also claims to have seen a Yeti when he went to the Himalayas in 2003. On that expedition he was 200 yards away from the apparition but remains convinced he was not mistaken.
'It was in silhouette,' he said. 'It was walking on two legs like a human and looked about 150 centimeters (5ft) tall.' Now, finding strange footprints in the snow on his most recent expedition, has left Mr Takahashi convinced that the Yeti is still wandering among the towering Himalayan peaks.
'We have no doubt about what we have found. This makes us certain that the Yeti exists. As well as the footprints, the stories the locals tell makes us sure that this being is not imaginary.'
Despite spending 42 days on Dhaulagiri IV - a 25,135ft peak where Mr Takahashi says he has seen the shadowy figure in the past - the seven- man team has failed in their prime objective of capturing a Yeti on film.
We set up nine motion-sensitive cameras in the area where I first saw what I believed was it, but we have not got any images.
'But we'll be coming back as soon as we can - and we'll keep coming back until we get the Yeti on film, and then all doubt will vanish.'
Following the first record of a Yeti by James Prinsep, other explorers have also written of the strange creature.
In 1921 explorer Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Howard-Bury told of finding footprints he believed had been made by a large wolf, although they gave the impression of being made by a bare-footed man.
The yeti, also known as the abominable snowman, is an ape-like creature said to inhabit the Himalayan region of Nepal and Tibet.
The names yeti and meh-teh are commonly used by the people indigenous to the region, and are part of their history and mythology.
The yeti can be considered a Himalayan parallel to the Bigfoot legend of North America.
His Sherpa guides told him, however, that the tracks must have been made by 'The Wild Man of the Snows'.
In 1954, the Daily Mail reported the discovery of hair specimens from what was said to be the scalp of a Yeti. Professor Frederick Woods Jones, an expert in human and comparative anatomy, failed to reach a conclusion, but said the dark brown hair was not from a bear or an anthropoid (manlike) ape.
Alleged sightings and debate has continued through the decades - but so far no-one has been able to produce a clear, definitive photograph of the world's most elusive being.
If it exists at all.
Source: The Daily Mail (UK)
Worker ‘Creeped-Out’ By ‘Fright’ At Fort Knox
PROSPECT, Maine — When the Cowardly Lion stood in the Haunted Forest wringing his tail saying, “I do believe in spooks, I do believe in spooks,” he had good reason.
He was surrounded by trees with faces, flying monkeys, a wicked witch and, yes, spooks.
Now, Teddy Cooke, 19, of Verona Island has a good reason to say the same thing.
Cooke, who works as a tower and gate attendant at Fort Knox Historic Site and the Penobscot Narrows Observation Tower, didn’t have to deal with the Wicked Witch of the West, but he did have a close encounter of some kind last Saturday night inside the fort.
“It creeped me out,” he said.
It happened Saturday night as Cooke was closing up the fort after the annual Fright at the Fort event. He wasn’t one of the ghouls, trolls or ogres stationed in the fort to spook the nighttime visitors. Cooke was part of the tech crew, in charge of the fog, the lights and the scary audio for the event.
The fort was dark except for the “Fright” effects.
“My job was to lock up, shut down all the electrical stuff, the fog machine and the strobe lights,” he said. “I was going to the upper level of the officers’ quarters when I saw it — it was the back of a leg moving at the end of the hall.”
At that point, he said, he thought there was a straggler from the Fright event, and he called out to say the fort was closed and to follow him out. There was no response.
From the hall, a set of stairs leads up to a long corridor known as “Two Step Alley.” Cooke walked up the steps and as his eyes reached the level of the floor, he saw the dark shape of someone walking down the alley.
“About halfway down, I could see the figure of a person,” he said. “There was a red floodlight at the other end and it clearly blocked out the light.”
He called out again, but there was no reaction.
Cooke said the figure looked like a “solid shadow.” He saw no face or details, but could tell it was walking, not gliding. It did not react or turn when he called. And it made no sound that he heard.
Although he said he felt a little jittery, he didn’t feel any emotion or any presence from the figure.
He reached for his flashlight and the figure was gone.
“I looked down for just a second and when I looked up again, there was nothing there all the way to the end of the alley,” he said. “At this point, I’m still thinking it’s a person. There are pillars all the way down the alley, and I thought they may have ducked behind there. I thought maybe someone was going to jump out and scare me.”
Cautiously, he checked each pillar all the way down.
No one was there.
“There’s no way anyone could have gotten down the alley in that time,” he said. “Up until I got out I thought it was a person. I don’t know what it was. I got out of the fort as quickly as I could.”
Cooke admits to being a fan of the “Ghost Hunter” television show, but said he wanted proof before he’d believe in ghosts. He says he has it now.
“I considered myself a skeptic until something happened so that I would know,” he said. “This was kind of that ‘it’ that happened.”
Some might discount Cooke’s account as imagination, but he’s not the first to have a supernatural experience in the fort. According to Leon Seymour, executive director of the Friends of Fort Knox, there have been reports for years from visitors and fort staff of unusual happenings.
“I’ve heard hundreds of stories,” he said. “People having their hat taken off, people being pushed.”
The fort is a likely spot for spirits, according to Sky Taylor, a Bangor radio announcer and co-founder of the Down East Paranormal Society.
The granite and the fort’s proximity to the water all help to store and conduct spirit energy, Taylor said.
Taylor and her husband have had unexplained encounters in the fort before, one of them in the same area where Cooke saw his spirit on Saturday. Several years ago, she brought in a psychic, who confirmed there were spirits dwelling in the fort.
Although no one actually died inside the fort, Taylor said, the spirits could be soldiers who had strong ties to the fort. One might be Sgt. Leopold Hegyi, who spent 13 years at Fort Knox and died in a house across the road from the fort where he lived.
Taylor produced a special radio broadcast about the spirits at the fort and included the story from a former guide at the fort during the 1980s. The guide reported that on one of her tours, a soldier showed up at the edge of the group. She assumed it was one of the Civil War re-enactors who hold encampments at the fort.
She learned later that none was at the fort that day.
“A little later, she saw a photo and said [the soldier] looked just like Sgt. Hegyi,” Taylor said. “If anyone had ties to this place, it was Sgt. Hegyi.
Although Hegyi’s widow, who lived in New York, collected his belongings after the sergeant died, she did not claim his remains. He is buried in a cemetery a short distance from the fort down Route 1 in Stockton Springs, Taylor said.
Cooke is not sure what he saw, but he’s convinced he saw something. He’s a little “uneasy” about going back in for this weekend’s version of Fright at the Fort, and admits that anytime he comes back into the fort, he’ll recall this incident.
“I’m not sure I’d want it to happen again,” he said. “But I’d be excited if it did.”
Source: Bangor Daily News
Mysterious Monster Hunts
If you think Bigfoot is a hoax, you're not alone. In 2003, the Seattle Post Intelligencer and the New York Times fingered deceased Washington state prankster Ray Wallace as the perpetrator of a decades-long Bigfoot sham; his family claimed he created the Sasquatch legend with suits and fake footprints. More recently, in August 2008 a news-making Bigfoot corpse in Georgia was revealed to be a gussied-up Halloween costume ordered on the Internet.
But those reports haven't stopped people like Matt Moneymaker, president of the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, from seeking the big, hairy truth. He's led scores of people on $300 four-day Bigfoot treks to North America's mountain ranges, home (in his estimation) to 10,000 Sasquatches. He dismisses the claim that Wallace invented Bigfoot, and notes that Sasquatch sightings occurred hundreds of years before Wallace was even born. What's more, he knows from firsthand experience that Bigfoot is real.
"We've proven it over and over and over again," Moneymaker says. "I've taken hundreds of people out on expeditions and many people have had encounters during those expeditions. We prove it every month to people who are willing to go out and experience it."
Bigfoot is just one of dozens of mysterious creatures that may roam the world. Believers argue that while these so-called cryptids have not yet been catalogued by science, they most certainly exist. Out in the wilds of the world, creatures like Orang Pendek in Sumatra (a diminutive ape/human hybrid), Mokele-mbembe in the Republic of Congo (a living dinosaur) and Phaya Naga in the Mekong River (a fire-breathing snakelike creature) are lurking.
As the host of the SciFi Channel's Destination Truth, Joshua Gates investigates reports of unexplained creatures in remote corners of the world. While the show rarely ends with definitive proof that any particular cryptid exists, he and his team have unearthed convincing proof of some creatures -- most notably a Yeti footprint found in Nepal. Gates describes himself as an "open-minded skeptic" who holds out for the possibility that cryptids may be hiding out there.
"There is a real sense that there are mysteries that have not been solved in places like the Amazon and elsewhere," Gates says. "And that's borne out by how every year, they are cataloging not just new plants and new fungi... they're actually cataloging new vertebrates."
Despite ubiquitous GPS systems and Google maps, broad swaths of the world remain uncharted, perhaps allowing cryptids to go undetected. But, partly thanks to technology, this is a boom time for cryptozoology, the study of mysterious creatures. Websites like cryptomundo.com (run by famed cryptozoologist Loren Coleman) and Moneymaker's BFRO.net are read by international audiences willing to explore where strange animals are spotted. Adherents believe that with a global network of searchers, proof of the existence of mysterious creatures can come soon.
Modern cameras may also help snag sightings of elusive prey. One Japanese expedition is using cutting-edge motion detection cameras (and sponsorship money from Japanese brewery Suntory and electronics company Nikon) to look for Nepal's Yeti, aka the Abominable Snowman (or, Bigfoot's snowbound cousin). Likewise, the Orang Pedenk Project in Indonesia hopes to use heat- and motion-sensitive cameras to capture photos of the small apelike creatures that walk like men.
The most famous cryptids, like Bigfoot, are popular among curious travelers. In fact, according to a recent British poll, Scotland's Loch Ness is the most popular tourist destination in the United Kingdom, no doubt thanks to its most famous possible resident, the Loch Ness Monster. While Nessie is notoriously bashful, area attractions like the Loch Ness Research Center draw hundreds of visitors every year.
Less savory beasts also attract fans. When the Chupacabra was first reported in Puerto Rico in the 1990s, enterprising locals organized island tours to look for this creature that reportedly sucks blood from animals. "It is taken seriously, but it's more of a joke than anything," Puerto Rico Tourism Company spokesperson Mari Jo Laborde says. "Every once in a while there's an appearance that makes the newspaper, like a story about the Chupacabra showing up somewhere. But it's more of a folktale than something people fear." As sightings in Puerto Rico have died down, the Chupacabra has spread to other countries, most recently in the American Southwest.
While Bigfoot, Nessie and Chupacabra are notoriously elusive, they are arguably the most accessible cryptids. Travelers searching for encounters with other creatures need to set out into wilder terrain, like Papua New Guinea, where the mysterious winged Ropen has been reported, or the Amazon, purported home of the giant anaconda and one-eyed sloth creature call the Mapinguary.
"In general, these stories have more life in cultures that are still developing," Gates says. "What happens is the more industrialized and modernized and integrated with the world, the more these stories tend to slip away."
Source: KCBA-Fox 35
Awesome Or Off-Putting - Phantom Planes
There’s ghosts, there’s UFOs, and then sometimes the two groups get together and have a real freaky lookin’ baby. They say the act itself is usually preluded with some smooth R&B after a night at the theatre and a nice dinner that costs more than $20 for the both of ‘em.
The end result is something called Phantom Planes - airbuses that both look and sound real, but then disappear into nothing. Some low-flying encounters with them have been so lifelike that pedestrians have jumped for cover.
As we already said - Phantom Planes are a phenomenon wherein the ghostly structure of a plane materializes, flies for a bit and then disappears. We haven’t heard if any long-dead crew have been seen piloting the ghost-ships, but there have been some reported very close encounters - like this one from the BBC:
“The most dramatic incident which came to the attention of ufologist Margaret Fry was reported by mothers in Llangernyw, Denbighshire, as they were picking up their children from school. Several claimed they were sent running for cover as the plane - which they described as rusty, with no paint work - roared over their heads.
“In the distance it followed the landscape and dipped down in the valley at such speed that the parents felt the plane was sure to crash, but they continued to watch as it pulled up and, with “great effort”, it managed to make it over some distant hills. Margaret said there was a shocked silence after the incident before locals began calling officials to try and find out what had happened to the plane.”They were told that no such aeroplane would even be allowed to fly in that condition,” said Margaret. “
Sounds unique, right? It’s not. Here’s another account - this one first hand. It’s from a man named Tony Ingle, who was out walking his dog:
“It was very eerie…I could see the propellers going round but there was no sound..It was getting lower and lower and I thought, this thing’s going to crash…..It was bizarre…I could see it was banking as if trying to turn, and then it seemed to go down just over a hedge. I ran up the lane to see if I could see anything. I expected a plane to be in the field but there was nothing…just lambs and sheep. Everything was silent, you could hear a pin drop…”
There was no sound with that particular sighting - it’s not always the case though. In this next one - taken from a 1976 edition of the Cincinnati Post (and found on Unexplained-Mysteries.com, there were a bunch of different types of witnesses - the last of which even heard people screaming as the phantom plane was about to crash:
“Butler County, Ohio, deputies discontinued a search yesterday afternoon for a plane which reportedly had crashed in Reily Township near Imhoff and Indian Creek Roads late Wednesday night. Deputies said an amateur radio operator heard what he thought was a distress call from a plane believed to be flying from Oxford to Cincinnati about 11 p.m. About 1:45 a.m. yesterday, George Mosley, 1203 Azel Avenue, Hamilton, his son and two other boys became separated in the same area while coon hunting. During the separation the boys said they saw a white flash in the sky at treetop level, then heard screaming and a crash. Airports in Hamilton and Butler County had no record of any small craft filing a flight plan during those hours. Deputies used a plane and walked the area in search of a downed plane Wednesday night until fog set in on the Reily area. The search was continued yesterday morning and discontinued after nothing was found.”
That’s a pretty creepy account - not only did the three boys see the thing individually, but a radio operator heard a distress call completely separate from the other account.
Phantom Plane sightings don’t seem to happen too often - they’re rare enough to be pretty free from devoted debunkers, as far as our quick internet search can tell. Should any of these debunkers arise we’ve little doubt their chief arguments would have to do with tricks of light or the moon through the trees. It doesn’t answer much, but when you have to publicly expose something you can’t actually study there’s not a lot of wiggle room.
All we know is if we saw a ghost plane accompanied by terrified screams, a light emitting explosion and distressed radio calls, we’d probably think at least twice about our brand of cough syrup.
And we’d rub our eyes.
Ralph Lael’s “Alien Mummy”: Where is He Now?
There is one particular story from the annals of Ufology which I come across from time to time, and though little known outside various circles, it has always fascinated me. This would have to do with none other than the strange case of Western North Carolina resident Ralph Lael, a “contactee” of sorts who, according to books he wrote in the 1960s, had claimed to have made contact with the mysterious Brown Mountain Lights and even know their source as a result of information given to him by aliens. But aside from Lael’s incredible testimony regarding contact with foriegners from planet Peewam, he also owned an “outer space rock shop” in the Lineville Gorge near Morganton, NC, where he had what was arguably his most intriguing artifact on display to the public: an “alien mummy”.
-Picture taken by Tim Beckley From the book "Underground Alien Bases" by Commander X.
I first learned about this “mummy” through Joshua P. Warren, who had hosted a photograph taken of the creature by acclaimed UFO researcher Tim Beckley on the LEMUR website. After first viewing it, I remember how I remarked that it resembled “Kermit the Frog” draped in a loin cloth lying in a small coffin, hence the name I came to give it: “Ralph Lael’s Alien Muppet.”
Little is known about exactly what the small mummified body may have been, though as far as I have been able to tell, there have been some reports over the years that involved Lael telling folks who had lived in the Linville/Morganton area that it “might have been a pygmy” of some sort. Dr. Chris Blake, a writer and researcher who lives in the area today, discussed this with me during a MUFON experiment we attended that involved mapping an portion of the Lineville wilderness where the area’s famous ghost lights are seen, and alluded that many locals thought it might have been a sideshow attraction that Lael had purchased or had been given. Other minute features were discussed from time to time which might support theories that the mummy was indeed a human of some sort, like the recollection of Linda Wolff, Lael’s niece who is now a journalist living in Hickory, NC. As Wolff described in a tribute piece she wrote about Lael, “I remember peering into the glass covered ‘casket’ and staring in awe at the tiny teeth!”
In spite of this, Lael at least preferred to advertise the oddity as an actual “alien” similar to those he had claimed to have met in crystalline caverns beneath the Earth on many occasions. Aside from the outstanding nature of Lael’s claims, there is perhaps at least one other interesting twist to this story involving the mysterious muppet. Apparently, after Lael passed away his shop was demolished, leading some to believe that it (and the alien body within) were intentionally destroyed in some effort to cover up the fact that it might have been a bonafide extraterrestrial. But perhaps the body was never destroyed at all; could it be that the demolition of Lael’s shop had actually been intended to cause speculation as to what had really happened to Lael’s prize possession, and that the mummy itself was spirited away to some undisclosed location? Or even more likely, was the item merely thrown away with other of Lael’s belongings, since the building was being prepared for destruction anyway?
Recently in a Shaver Mystery Yahoo discussion forum, my friend and fellow researcher Tim Beckley (who had taken the original photograph) noted that “as for the ‘little man’ having mysteriously disappeared, that might be pushing it. I wasn’t there when the shank Lael worked out of was torn down (or fell down). It was an ancient looking building at the top of a winding road - sort of like the last outpost before the area where one would stop to see the lites. He also had some unusually large crystals he claimed he got from inside the mountain. I don’t know if he had any family, or if someone took the little mummy (it could have been real or not). Maybe one could track down a family member.”
That, in fact, is exactly what Joshua P. Warren and I have hoped for in the last several years; finding someone out there who may know where the “body” was taken after Lael’s death. Josh has given out an invitation for friends and family of Lael in the past on our radio program, Speaking of Strange, and now I will do the same here… If you or anyone you know has any information leading to the recovery of Ralph Lael’s “alien muppet”, please contact us here at The Gralien Report by emailing me at the following address: email@example.com.
With your help, perhaps we can solve this (as-of-yet unsolved) mystery….
Source: The Gralien Report