Down in the Cryptodumps, part four: Stuff Flying Around With Wings.

Back to the Cryptozoology Dump Box from the SITU collection that I was once perusing and making copies for filing, which never took place [panic not, readers, all the originals DID get back in Ivan's files.] My Fortean Heart is pure and my finger tips not sticky.

Today: weird stuff flying about not related to UFOs.

TEXAS AERIAL TITANS. 

c.1976 News accounts were coming out of Texas of a very big bird seen. SITU received several clippings. Ivan had already passed away, but he would have been interested [as I'll show you later]. The Texas sightings reported seeing a flying animal around 15-20 feet in wingspan. The majority of the sightings were along the Rio Grande on both the US and Mexican sides. 

Perhaps the human mind was playing jokes or perhaps The Universe was, but earlier in 1975 palaeontologists discovered, in Texas, the largest fossil pterosaur ever found. The beast had a wingspan of nearly fifty feet, and its skeleton challenged science to tell how it could even get off the ground. The "Texas Pterosaur" seemed a ripe candidate for inspiring goofy Texas sightings.

The hitch in that hypothesis was that not all the witnesses could easily be written off as goofs. One sighting was by three k-12 teachers and another by two policemen. Both "birds" were about one third the size of the Texas Pterosaur. 

OJIBWE THUNDERBIRDS.

A letter in the files from the same time came from a researcher looking into cryptozoological mysteries in Eastern Canada. He referred to thunderbird sightings from two areas, approximately as marked on the map above. The Quebec [Laurentian-area] information was from a trip that he had taken in 1975. A Quebecair pilot told him that his plane had been buzzed by a bird of approximately 25' wingspan as he was flying over the Laurentians in 1972. Another man told the correspondent that he had seen a similar bird in the same area in 1969. 

The Northern Ontario information came from a woman researching Ojibwe legends of the Thunderbird. The Thunderbird is a primary Nature Force/Deity/Manitou of the Peoples of the Ojibwe/Chippewa. The old pictoglyph above is from the Jeffers Minnesota park. This lady said that during her interviews several Native Americans of the area told her that they had seen the Thunderbird nests in Northern Ontario. 

IVAN'S VIEWS: 

Sanderson would have been interested in all this 1975-6 input had he lived. He had a fairly extensive resource notebook on the topic. When you glance through this thing, you notice that Ivan had some favorite bits which sort-of hooked him. 

Though not buying everything that he read in this article, much of the thing [minus the tone] intrigued him. 

One case that he liked has been repeated many times. You can read it above. But he also said that to get the gist of the subject, readers should read the entirety of Pearl's article. 

Another case, which Ivan might not have seen, appeared in PURSUIT after his death in an article by Curt Sutherly. Sutherly was intellectually "congenial" to both Pterodactyls and Thunderbirds, but informed us in the article that they were two utterly different things: Pterodactyls were physically/biologically real animals of the past, which possibly could have lasted into prehistoric-humans' times but are now extinct, and Thunderbirds were "monsters popping in and out of our reality", semi-real parodies of physical/biological things, that he wished to call "para-creatures". 

 Ivan wouldn't have liked Sutherly's conclusions [though I would] {The above are Ivan's notes} . 

Ivan didn't like non-physical things in general. He was a hands-on and in the lab [or the zoo] kind of guy. He'd MUCH prefer a still existent pterosaur AND an unknown really big raptor of some kind to any other set of choices. For Sutherly, the Ojibwe, and myself, the Thunderbird as a "Real" Manitou is quite the most compelling of the hypothetical sets. 

PIASA BIRD. 

This was in a large box of things sent to SITU from Joan Whritenhour's organization after her passing. A good bit of that stuff wasn't too interesting, but the organization had some "odd" contacts that SITU didn't have. Occasionally a mention of something would occur in a letter or newsclipping that was right down SITUs alley. As you can read, the report is of a "monster bird" in the vicinity of Belvidere, IL which is close enough to be called Piasa Bird Territory. In 1948 there was a flurry of sightings in that area all the way down river towards St. Louis. 

I'm a fan of the idea of the Piasa Bird. It's one of those cryptozoological mysteries which has a long but solid provenance thoroughly attached to Native American lore. There were two other Piasa Bird references in this cryptobox: One was a FATE magazine article that I didn't think much of, and the other was the oldtime article above. This latter was one of Ivan's articles --- he had a little group of photocopies of 19th century newsclips that he was apparently once reading. 

The 1889 clip above is quite enthusiastic for the possibility of a real Piasa. It is based upon knowledge by someone who was a scholar and serious about finding out about the painting on the hillside. It comes at a time just after one of the great collectors of information about American pictographs had published his work. The writer knew of McAdams' book on the Relics of Ancient Races as well as having talked to one of the most important informants of the time, John Russell. The writer also may have talked to the pictograph collector, or maybe it was he himself doing the writing.

Here's our pictograph hero, Garrick Mallery. Preserving the designs of the ancient Native American pictographs was his avocation and his passion. He ended up creation an 8oo page manuscript of his work. Within that work he mentions the Piasa Bird. 

So what's that all about? The FATE magazine article stated that the Piasa Bird had no wings. It intimated that we probably had no idea what the thing was like at all because the glyph was so degraded by the time anybody looked. But I disagree and I think that Garrick Mallery and John Russell disagree. There is a statement by some early viewer that the "Bird" was a crudely drawn monster with no wings. FATE takes that as the definitive reference. But Russell [I believe] states that because of the brown-red color of the wings, you will have a hard time seeing them from a distance and in less than good lighting conditions. Then, as what is for me the coup de grace, Mallery publishes this in his monograph:

Our favorite Mississippi Flying Monster could fly by wing after all. 

Why do I care? Well, it's a small matter in the larger business of living one's life, admittedly, but having a winged Piasa makes several things "fit" and others maybe possible. The "fit" is with the Native American legends, even those told way back to Marquette and Joliet. It "fits" with the idea of the powerful spirits or Manitous that we've talked about earlier. It "fits" with the dislike that the modern Native Americans had for that particular dangerous-in-their-stories manifestation, so much so that they fired guns at the image once firearms arrived. 

And, the Piasa Bird, unlike almost all other old images anywhere, is pretty close to a "proper" British-style Dragon [if it has wings]. As longtime readers of this blog know, we searched [some time ago] rather intensely trying to find a proper dragon anywhere, and, with the possible exception of "Beowulf's Bane" {not Grendel but the other thing, that killed him}, came up almost empty.

With wings our Piasa Bird remains a rare candidate for an ancient romantic concept. 

STURM'S DRAGONS.

Inspired by this small victory, I looked a bit for Dragons. I came across this quizzical fellow, Christopher Christian Sturm { even for a Catholic like myself, I think that Christopher Christian is overdoing it .} He wrote of Dragons in his famous work.

Sadly, Mr. Sturm's flying dragons turn out to be Swamp Gas. The irony of that staggers me. 

I DO notice, however, that "swamp gas" seems a little insubstantial to deal with all the things that Sturm mentions --- it seems that the "sophisticated" English doubters were busily substituting one anomaly for another. But dragonless still am I. 

Ivan had the book above in his SITU library --- I don't have any means of knowing if he read it. It contains things about Vietnamese animals so he may have. It was one of those items which was marginal at best to any interest that SITU would have, and I considered passing it on to someone else. But first I wondered what "Vermilion Bird" meant. 

The Vermilion Bird is a deity or Nature Power --- the Phoenix. In some renditions it looked pretty dragonish to me. 

In Chinese mythology it is one of the four directional powers, one of which is the Azure Dragon. So, my Vermilion Bird seems to be no Dragon either. 

But the Vietnamese had other ideas. In their view, and especially before the Chinese influence thoroughly took over [we're talking mediaeval times here, not recently], these images of powerful significant Spirits sort of melded together. The important Spirit was the Kua, or water dragon, who mated with a goddess/fairy queen to produce the warrior dynasties of early Vietnam. 

The stories say that these dragons lived offshore in places like Ha Long Bay even until recent times. What did they look like? 

Curses! Foiled again!! I'm looking for Dragons and find Sea Serpents instead!!!

Happy Hunting, Folks.

Till next time, Peace.

DOWN IN THE CRYPTO-DUMPS, part three: Hairy Humanoids.

OLDEN TIMES:

Another one of our mysteries which is set in stone in the ancient mind --- either those old folks had no clue whatever, or we don't.

Ivan had several classic illustrations of hairy wild men which formed part of his ideas on the "Wudewasa" of Europe's past, and I'll just post a few here. The above is, I believe, a fragment of a painting study by Hans Durer {I've never heard of Hans Durer; Albrecht Durer yes.} .

All of these are interesting, but the very bottom drawings intrigue. I notice that the picturing of the Ourang-outan is quite like the drawing of the wildman by Bontius, and that slides right into the drawing by Gesner of Breydenbach's apeman. This in turn reflects upon the next picture.

These are illustrations for Breydenbach's Travels in the Holy Land. Our wildman is at the bottom right, and it, if just an orangutan is pictured with a tool and leading a camel. Well, that is at least odd. Other than the "orangutan/wildman", the camel, giraffe, crocodile and long-eared sheep seem uncontroversial. But what about the giant salamander and the unicorn? The unicorn has as "Narwhal-looking" a horn on it as any I've seen. Is Breydenbach just a wholesale liar?? He states unmistakenly: " These animals are truly depicted just as we saw them in the Holy Land." What's going on? The only way that I can think to rescue his reputation would be to say that he visited some notorious stuffed animal museum which contained real and whizzed up animals.

........ or he could have really seen a unicorn and a giant salamander.

But we don't want to think about that, I guess. Too Out Proctor with too little data.

Alright. Pushing onward into the Bush: GIANTS.

Ummm.... ugly. Can The True and The Ugly be one? Though Plato didn't think so, {he of "the good, the true, the beautiful" idealism}, he must have not taken himself literally in the popular definition sense of beauty, since, despite what the guy in The Princess Bride said, he was not a moron. Our Native Americans believed in a true race of giants and one of their artists is telling us that we are now looking at one. ... Sasquatch with a shave and a haircut??

Ivan published at least three articles in PURSUIT on the subject of Giants. The first claimed that Lundy Island [a small piece of land in the general gap between Wales and Cornwall] had two ancient coffins containing two eight-foot skeletons plus "sacrificed slaves". Upon trying to track this claim down, SITU got nowhere except to hear that the original writer of the newsclipping got his "data" from an "older clipping" and "reference books", all unnamed and unfound.

A second article listed several dispersed claims. a]. 100 miles south of Tug Hill, PA remains of a people of giant size; b]. Sayopa, Sonora Mexico old cemetery of burials of men averaging eight feet; c]. El Boquin, Chontates District, Nicaragua gigantic man with head missing. {Ivan noted that Chontates is an indian word meaning "wildman"}; d]. Island off southern Florida eight foot tall human skeletons embedded in the sand; e]. Tioga Point, Bradford county PA 68 men buried in a mound, averaging seven feet tall; this last group was said to have evidence of horns on their heads. ... I think that I'll pass on these ... for more than one reason.

The third article was an examination of a claim repeated by Ivan himself in his classic Abominable Snowman: a Legend Come to Life. In that he spoke of a giant skull found during WWII on the very western tip of the Aleutian Island chain. The catalyst for this PURSUIT article was the appearance of an old Sanderson acquaintance who was on site when the thing was uncovered. This man had scolded Ivan for not asking him about the claim before publishing it in his book. Ivan retorted: "I didn't know you were there!!" The man [kept anonymous by Sanderson] went on to describe uncovering the damaged and degenerating skull of what he called an Icthyosaur [Ivan disagreed with that identification while buying that this thing was not human], which had lost part of its beak, and was in the process of losing the rest. The seamen were referring to it as The Giant, while not knowing what they were talking about. Ivan then rejected the spectacular claim, and with the new data decided that something like a bottle-nosed dolphin was a better guess.

There were also two articles from something called Forgotten Ages. These things were entitled "The Sons of Goliath, parts one and two".These articles were loaded with giant claims and far too dense for me to detail here. I'll give a too-brief thumbnail. Part one was more worldwide while part two was almost entirely US focussed. Part one listed claims of the following sort: a]. 1928 Ecuadoran Central Railroad blasting crew--- eight foot and nine foot giants. b]. about same year, Gargayan, Philippines --- seventeen foot tall skeleton; c]. also same period, Ceylon --- thirteen foot skeletons; d]. 1960 Tura, Assam, India --- eleven foot skeleton --- "authorities" dismiss it as "only" the bones of an ape ... uhhh, just an eleven foot ape? Sure, no news there; e]. 1969 Terracina Italy --- fifty tiled coffins each containing a skeleton between 6 1/2 and 8 feet tall; f]. 1891 Crittendon, Arizona --- sarcophagus with skeleton 12 feet tall; g]. 1911 and 1931 and 1939 Lovelock, Nevada --- several skeletons and mummies between 6 1/2 and 9 feet tall, between 8 and 10 feet tall, and one seven feet seven inches; h]. 1879 Brewersville, Indiana --- number of skeletons one of which was 9 feet 8 inches tall; i]. 1925 Walkerton Indiana --- eight skeletons 8 to 9 feet tall; and eight more instances, most of which were from Minnesota. In one of those "mound stories" it was insisted that among the remains were the bones of HORSES despite them not being native to the continent.

Part two of this hard-working review piece, concentrated on the idea that not only was the North American continent littered with the remains of giants, but that the Native Americans knew this all along. These giants went by the names of the "Sitecah" or the "Allegewi" or the "Telligewi" [among doubtless others]. They were considered to be the legendary opponents of the current tribes, of great size, fair skin, outstanding understanding of technology, and the builders of the mound culture. The academic archaeologists and anthropologists cringe horribly at even the thought of this, as it is academic cant that the Native American peoples built all of that themselves --- I by the way am happy with the thought that the direct ancestors of the current peoples were the Mound Builders, but in the spirit of Charles Fort severely disapprove of having such conclusions as basic "untouchables" built right into the psyches of a whole tribe of academics by training [programming]. It should at least give a little pause when native elders and shamans tell you a different story.

The part two goes on to fire even more shots across the academic bows, bringing up the much argued "Chinese exploration of the Americas" as claimed documented in the Shan Nai King. Herein it is claimed that America was well explored in the 2000BC era, and two areas of Giant inhabitation were found [The East Coast and the Western Deserts, if you're interested]. The Chinese called the latter "The Great Men's Country". There was also a somewhat lengthy description of something that has totally eluded me over my 75 years --- the lost work of a student of Plato, Theopompus of Chios, who allegedly wrote something called the Meropidae. {I've got to look this up and see if it's even real}. This thing, a dialogue between King Midas and the Satyr Silenos [THAT would have been one great conversation to sit in on --- hah!], purported to describe the inhabitants of the land across the ocean. Guess what? They were giants. ... and two types of giants. Supposedly, they came across the ocean once, landing in Hyperborea [Great Britain], whereupon they were confronted by a happy and strong people [The Druids no doubt].

Well, much fun. I haven't a clue as to whether any thing of this is real, except one thing: Native American legends are rife with images of physically real large humanoid somethings-or-other having intelligence. How does that relate to Sasquatch? That's your job now.

CHINESE WILDWOMEN: Some time ago on the blog I presented several entries on the materials in some rare Russian monographs held by Ivan in his collection. Among the many fascinating things in those books were tales of violent aggressive female Yeti/Almas/whatevers. As you see below, they seem to have shown up again.

This should be expected I guess, as even Bhutan has memorialized the wild female side of this exotic mystery in its postage stamps.

SHIPTON: 

Interesting to me to read of an interview with Eric Shipton, being as his famous Yeti print is such a big deal in this ABSM data bank. 

The rest of this small article continues below --- I couldn't get the scale correctly matched, but it's the same article....

I, as always, am puzzled by things that more veteran researchers would not be. My puzzlement here is why Shipton showed a "human" proportioned footprint rather than his famous "ape" proportioned one. This lecture would have taken place in about 1975, as the article appeared in Bigfoot News of January 1976.

For those who don't know what I'm talking about {rest easy, most people don't know what I'm talking about}, the above is the famous photograph of the track. As you see, it's not very much like a humanlike foot, but much more resembles that of an ape with a possible prehensile big toe. Why would the aging Shipton not show his classic picture?, or if he did, why would veteran Bigfoot researchers speak of it as a human foot, albeit kingsized? Sometimes I think that the world is playing pranks on me ... Whoa! Can't go that route! Not only Out Proctor, but LOST Out Proctor! 

A SAD DEBUNK: 

..... a sharp-eyed researcher spots a hoax.

This letter also relates in a way to a small packet of letters exchanged between John Green and Sabina Sanderson [just post Ivan's death], concerning their shared belief that Peter Byrne was untrustworthy as an ABSM researcher, in the particular instance of the famous old "Jacko" Bigfoot case. {I'm not going to wash that dirty laundry here, just letting you know that the Sandersons and John Green didn't hold Byrne in high regard. The letter above by the way is by neither Green nor the Sandersons}. 

HAPPIER WILD STUFF: Percy Fawcett's Amazonian Giants. 

If you can't trust this guy, well at least don't tell him that at the local saloon. 

A map sent to PURSUIT purported to focus on this mystery --- frankly not too closely, but it's fun anyway.

This is the internet version of the location of the Guapore River bordering Brazil and Bolivia, from which Fawcett turned northwards towards the Machado. The correspondent sent this map below to illustrate the encounter area where Fawcett and his team were abandoned by the locals to face the violent hairy primitives alone. 

All readers should pack their bags and get their tickets and go exploring. Hey! What kinds of Forteans are you anyway!? 

The scenery is beautiful and there's a good elevated butte on which you'll find Challenger's Lost World. So get going! 

YOWIE. 

No, that's not a comment on my previous enthusiasms. But the Australian version of Yeti might feel that way. There were two Yowie things in this cryptodump. The article claimed to be able to characterize the Yowie by comparing many witness accounts. And the answer is:

That sort of approach is something that seems fairly rational and sort of "proto-science", if the credibility quotients of the case reports are good. The following newsclipping however pushes things beyond comfort zone to say the least:

Ummmm.... dropping down to see what's happening eh?? 

The Yowie subject did mention an oldtimer character who seemed to have something to do with this cryptomystery though: H. James McCooey.

Though appearing a bit disreputable in the picture above [and in fact having all manner of rough up-against-the-law claims against him], McCooey seems to have been a legitimate accomplished animal recorder and collector and species finder. In short, he was a heck of a good old-style in-the-woods naturalist. McCooey said that he had collected many stories of a large Australian ape and had seen what he thought was the animal himself. A lot of this activity was in the mountains of NSW. 

Another good spot for you guys to go exploring: the Blue Mountains. 

Whether we find the Yowie or not, I liked the following case just slipped in quietly at the end of the article: 

.... High Strangeness .... pure oxygen for the soul. 

And with that I'll give us both a break. 

Not sure what's next in the crypto-dump pile. Some "thing" will doubtless pop up.

Peace.