Jay's Cryptid Hunts

Here's my top five favorite cryptids. No I won't elaborate (yet).

Fresno Nightcrawlers

Mothman

La Bête du Gévaudan

Jersey Devil

The Whaley House is a well-known paranormal hot spot located in San Diego, California. It’s known around the world as one of the most haunted places in America. Before the house was built in 1855, the town’s most famous execution, the hanging of thief Yankee Jim Robinson, occurred. 1855 was when Thomas Whaley bought the land and built the house and two years later his wife Anna and their three children moved in and opened a general store on the lower level.

Soon after moving in, the Whaley’s 18 month old son, Thomas, died of scarlet fever. It’s said that baby Thomas now haunts the building. People report hearing tiny footsteps, crying, and giggling from the supposed baby Thomas.

A few months after Thomas’ death, a fire destroyed the store and the family moved to San Francisco.

In 1868, the family moved back into the house and it became the headquarters for the city courthouse, San Diego’s first theater troupe, another general store, and more. Two years later would see the main activity of the town moved to New Town, now known as the Gaslamp Quarter, and left Old Town and the Whaley House behind.

A year later, Thomas Whaley would go on a business trip and Anna was left behind with the kids. A group of men searching for the old courthouse records broke in and held her at gunpoint. Luckily she made it out alive and didn’t die until 1905.

In Louisville, Kentucky lies the Waverly Hills Sanatorium. It opened on July 26, 1910 and could only house 50 patients. This obviously could not stay the same as tuberculosis numbers continued to rise. Tuberculosis was responsible for 25% of all deaths in the United States by the end of the 1800’s and Kentucky hospitals were overflowing.

Thus Waverly Hills was renovated with three more stories and several add ons outwards to accommodate the increasing number of patients. And by October 1926 could now house roughly 400 patients.

The Sanatorium ran completely self-sufficient, producing its own food, raising its own animals and it even had a functioning post office. Anyone who went to work here gave up their lives since the majority ended up getting tuberculosis and becoming a patient themselves. Some of the treatments prior to the vaccine were rest, fresh air, and sunlight. Some patients were left outside overnight in the middle of winter for the treatments. Other treatments included having parts of the lung removed or collapsing a patient’s lung to let the organ “rest”, this of course killed all the patients involved in this treatment.

When a patient died the nurse would take the body and walk it down the 500 foot long tunnel that went from the first floor of the Sanatorium all the way to the bottom of the hill it sat upon. The tunnel was also used to bring some supplies up when needed.

The Sanatorium closed in 1961 after the Tuberculosis vaccine was created and cases dropped severely.

Bigfoot. A seven-foot tall, hairy, ape-like creature commonly seen and known across North America. Almost everyone living in North America has heard of these creatures, especially those living near the mountains on the coasts. Stories of sightings are passed down through generations and spread through news sites and social media. With the popularization of social media, it’s become even more popular to record things when confused about seeing something. Videos of supposed bigfoot sightings pop up almost on the daily and people have even made shows devoted to trying to find and hunt Bigfoot. With the rise in interest of cryptids, especially Bigfoot and Mothman, comes the rise of people searching for answers. Are there more than one Bigfoot? Is there believable proof of its existence? What could Bigfoot possibly be? And as is, I’m one of those people trying to figure the answers to these questions out.

Our first piece of information we’ll be looking at is the fact that there have been multiple sightings of creatures similar to Bigfoot across the world. Although going by different names, it’s generally accepted that they’re all related. You may know some of them as the Yeti, the Yeren, the Agogwe, the Mapinguari, the Yowie, and the Almas. All of these have certain attributes in common, they’re taller than the average man, covered in hair, and there isn’t enough scientific proof that they exist for the science community to classify them. The first official sightings of most of these creatures happened in the 1940s but it’s wildly accepted that based on the native stories of ape-like creatures, sasquatches have been around and seen hundreds of years before. In this situation, sasquatch could be compared to the myths from around the world of giant snakes or of how the world was created, they’re similar stories from all across the world predating when humans began to travel and communicate. Which makes you wonder; how do all these civilizations have these same or similar stories without communication?

A common theory for why all these civilizations have similar stories is that extraterrestrials visited each society and the stories are based on those experiences, but, of course, there’s no actual proof of that and a lot of the theories related to extraterrestrials are inherently white-centric and racist towards native societies, specifically the ones in the Americas. It would make the most sense if all these societies had seen an ape-like creature in their region and that’s how they all have these stories.

While there have been multiple search parties in these areas to find these creatures, I don’t believe a single group of people will ever be able to search a forest in its entirety by themselves. There is so much land that has never been completely searched, that there is an extremely high likelihood that there are more animals in the wooded and mountainous areas than we’ve found.

Every so often new species are discovered, especially apes. Just in 2017, a new species of Orangutan was discovered in Indonesia, so who’s to say a new species of ape can’t be found elsewhere? There’s even a possible species that sasquatches could be descended from.

100,000 to 300,000 years ago, as an ice age happened, a species of large apes went extinct. They’re described similarly to sasquatches but are known to be bigger (up to 10 feet tall and 1,100 pounds). They lived in the tropical forests of China for up to 9 million years and it’s closest related living relatives are orangutans. The common theory as to why it went extinct is that when the ice age began, their main source of food, berries and other tropical fruit went dormant and they didn’t adapt to eating the other food sources there like grass and leaves. These giant apes are compared to the giant sloths of the past a few times, both being large mammals and going extinct around the same time. The giant sloths went extinct likely either because of a change in climate, human hunters, or just a general disruption of their habitat.

Sasquatches can be filed down to several different species with different names. Each one from a different region of the world. They all hold the same traits though, tall and hairy.

Mothman

                                            Background:

                 West Virginia

The first reported sighting of the creature we know as Mothman was on November 12, 1966 in Clendin, West Virginia. Depending on the source, one to five gravediggers spotted a figure moving from, tree to tree in the graveyard they were working in. Three days later, in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, two couples were out on the edges of town driving. The Scarberrys and Mallettes saw the creature in the dark, it’s eyes glowing red when the lights from their car hit them. The couples drove quickly back to the town. Supposedly the creature followed all the way to the outskirts of town before it disappeared into a nearby field. The couples later went to the police and described the creature as “a winged creature 6-7 ft. tall, bright red eyes about 6 in. apart, a 10 ft. wing span, able to fly as quick as 100 mph, and a clumsy ground runner”. Throughout the next three days, eight more sightings were reported. On December 15, 1967, the Silver Bridge collapsed and killed 46 people. Leading up to the collapse UFO sightings supposedly occurred in the surrounding areas. This began the legend that Mothman is a harbinger of doom.

                 Illinois

         On July 25, 1977, the creature or a creature similar to it was sighted in Illinois for the first time. A woman in Logan County reported that while watching her kids play in the back yard two giant birdlike creatures attacked her family. Apparently one of the creatures snatched up her son and carried him several yards away. In Illinois, the sightings continues increasing, many occurring in Chicago between 2017 and 2019. In 2017, 55 sightings were recorded. In November 2019, the most recent sighting occurred. A truck driver at O’Hare International Airport was outside smoking a cigarette when he spotted what he described as looking “like a person with wings that were stretched out and flapping” standing by the fence. Could it possibly be that Mothman was warning the citizens of Chicago or the upcoming trials they would be facing In 2020?

                 Other reported sightings of Mothman or a similar creature occurred around the same time and place as the 1986 Chernobyl Disaster, the 2009 Mexican Swine flu outbreak, and the 2011 nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan.

*Supposedly there was a Mothman sighting in Prince William in Virginia, but I was unable to confirm this. *

                                            Theories:

·      Sandhill Crane:

§  2.5-4 ft. tall

§  Grey plumage

§  Red flesh around the eyes

§  Average wingspan of 7 ft.

§  Similar sounds to Mothman

§  No confirmed sightings in West Virginia but are very frequent in Illinois

§  Known to migrate to the west coast during the winter

§  Living in the “TNT Area” could’ve possibly mutated it

§  It would have likely been found by now

§  Doesn’t match full description of Mothman

·      Prank:

§  Could possibly be a prank that got out of hand

§  No one’s come out saying they are

§  How has it been seen across the world if this is the case?

§  Could’ve caused a mass hysteria affect

·      Mass Hysteria:

§  Looks similar to a sleep paralysis demon

§  More recent sightings reported by people who have heard or are fans of Mothman

§  Could be people letting their imaginations get the best of them

§  There is quite a large quantity of reports though

·      Interdimensional/Ultra-Terrestrial:

§  Def.: A being that commands time and space and can jump from one dimension to another

§  Plays into the Multiverse Theory

§  Could explain why no one’s caught him

§  Explains appearance

§  Could tie Mothman to other cryptids as this is a common theory

§  Could be coming to warn of disasters