Shocking Video Of A Texas Bigfoot! (Or Maybe Not)


There may be a Bigfoot crawling around the underbrush of Texas. According to the breathless narrator in this video, these two photos were taken by Lupe Mendoza, who spotted a strange creature when it spooked a herd of cattle. Apparently some gutted hogs were found nearby, so Bigfoot may have been feeding.

Actually it may be a Skunk Ape, the Deep South version of Bigfoot that prowls around swamps and has been sighted as far back as the 1960s. The creature has generated enough interest to be the subject of a Skunk Ape Research Headquarters and gift shop in Florida.

No doubt this new footage has led many cryptozoologists (people who investigate supposedly mythical beasts) to beat the bushes of Texas looking for more of these critters. If you try your luck, you might want to review the Bureau of Land Management’s guide to finding Bigfoot.

The narrator might have said more than he knew when he compared the images to a man in a Ghillie suit, used by hunters and snipers. Check out the US Marine Corps photo image below for a comparison.

So what do you think these images show? Take our poll and tell us!

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Yeti Resort Being Built In Siberia

The Seregesh ski resort in Siberia has a new marketing plan. The Siberian Times reports that it’s building a Yeti park.

Belief in the Yeti is common in Siberia, where it’s called the “Big Man.” Hunters often report seeing them and regional governor Aman Tuleyev has offered one million rubles ($33,000) to anyone who can bag one. No takers yet, which makes one wonder about the reliability (and aim) of those hunters.

Park developer Igor Idimeshev claims to have seen the Yeti several times. He believes the creatures are aliens who can walk on water and glow in the dark. Idimeshev says the park will have a museum about the Yeti, along with conference space so cryptozoologists can meet and discuss sightings.

Park organizers seem to be cashing in on last October’s report of Yeti hair being subjected to DNA analysis. Apparently the hair, found in a Siberian cave, wasn’t human yet closely related to us. The report was vague and was met with skepticism even from some Yeti investigators.

But who knows? Siberia is a big place …

Have you ever seen the Yeti or another monster? Tell us about your experience in the comments section!

[Image courtesy Philippe Semeria]

Whatever Happened To The Lake Conway Monster?

Could a reservoir in Arkansas be the favorite watering hole of a southern Bigfoot? Maybe it once was, but it doesn’t seem to be anymore.

When I was a kid in the 1970s, I loved tramping through the woods, and so of course I loved hearing about monsters lurking in the woods. I vaguely remember a rash of sightings of a big, hairy monster in the woods of Arkansas. It had several names, the most popular being the Fouke Monster, which was sighted by numerous individuals and was the subject of some atrocious films that freaked out 10-year-old me.

There were also sightings at Lake Conway just north of Little Rock. It’s 6,700 acres in size, making it the largest man-made game and fish commission lake in the country, and a popular fishing spot. Most of the sightings come from fishermen in remote parts of the lake.

According to one anonymous testimony (the sort of thing that constitutes evidence for cryptozoologists hunting these critters) it was about 7 feet tall and completely covered with dark hair. It stood at the edge of the lake watching a fishing boat for several minutes and showed no fear or comprehension when a gun was pointed at it.

Sightings of the Conway Lake monster date back to the 1940s, according to this article in the Saline Courier, which cites no sources. They continued until the 1970s before trailing off to nothing.

Several witnesses noted that it had a terrible odor. This led some cryptozoologists to suggest it’s a skunk ape, a mysterious beast shown here in a photo courtesy David Barkasy and Loren Coleman. This shot was allegedly taken in Florida. Skunk apes are found throughout the South although, of course, none have ever been caught. Sadly, no photos of the Lake Conway monster have ever been reported.

So what was the Lake Conway monster? Skunk ape? Bigfoot? A hairy refugee from a nudist chili festival? Did it go extinct like some people said Nessie has? Perhaps it moved away as Little Rock has expanded and more and more fishermen use Lake Conway. It seems a shame, though. The folks around Lake Champlain have kept their monster alive and kicking. So come on, Arkansans, go find the Lake Conway monster, or at least take a blurry nighttime photo of an orangutan!

Durham: castles, cathedrals, and monsters in northern England


Ever hear of Durham? Unless you’re British or a church historian, you probably haven’t. That’s because a disproportionate number of visitors to England never get beyond London and its neighbors Oxford, Cambridge, Bath, and Stratford-upon-Avon. This concentration on southern England means that many visitors miss out on seeing the beauties of the country’s north.

Durham is one of the north’s most important towns. Never an industrial powerhouse like Newcastle or Manchester, its influence was as a cathedral town. Durham is built on a hill dominated by a cathedral and castle, both built by the Normans. Together they’re a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The cathedral dates to the 11th century and was built on the foundations of an earlier church. It’s one of the most important pilgrimage sites in England because it houses the remains of two great church leaders. Saint Cuthbert was a seventh century missionary who performed miracles and helped spread the rule of the church over the chaos of Anglo-Saxon England. The Venerable Bede lived a generation later and was also an important religious figure as well as writing one of the earliest histories of England.

The castle has been used for various purposes over the centuries and is now part of the local university. The guided tour will take you past a collection of armor, a giant dining hall, and into a Norman chapel. This chapel is in almost perfect condition and while it’s Norman, it was decorated by Anglo-Saxon artisans. Each pillar carved with animals and warriors. The reason it’s so well preserved is that the learned scholars at the university didn’t recognize its importance and used it for years as a storage room!

The River Wear wraps around three sides of Durham and there’s an attractive river path that offers fine views of the city’s historic center rising above the trees. Don’t swim in the river, though, because you might comes across the Lambton Worm, a sort of Loch Ness Monster. While Nessie may have become extinct, keep a sharp eye out for this local beastie.

According to legend, one Sunday a long, long time ago a local boy named John Lambton went fishing instead of going to church. His only catch was a strange, ugly little thing that looked like an eel. Angry, John cursed it and threw it down a well. When John grew up he left Durham to become a soldier. The worm grew up too and started eating local children and terrorizing the city. When John came back from his military service he heard what was happening and went off to see a witch for advice on how to slay the monster. The witch gave him magical armor that would protect him from the worm’s attacks, but also warned him that after slaying the worm he must slay the first living thing he saw.

%Gallery-100819%John found the worm and after an epic battle managed to kill it. As soon as he was done his father ran up to congratulate him. John Lambton couldn’t kill his own father and ignored the witch’s warning. Since he didn’t fulfill the prophecy, the Lambton family was cursed for nine generations.

Of course you can’t believe everything these silly old folktales say. While most of the story is obviously true, it is very hard to kill the average English river monster, and so the Lambton Worm may still exist.

Durham acts as a gateway to the North of England. Newcastle is only a 15 minute train ride away, and Hadrian’s Wall can be visited on a day trip. Being close to the Scottish border there are plenty of castles and attractive countryside. So if you’re done with London, head north and check out Durham. There are high-speed trains from London’s Kings Cross station that only take three hours but get you a world away from the crowding and pollution of the big city.

Has the Loch Ness Monster gone extinct?

Things aren’t going well in Scotland. Last year was the worst year on record for sightings of the Loch Ness Monster. A documentary studied the possibility that Nessie has gone extinct, and even the Official Loch Ness Monster Fan Club is worried.

Only one “dependable” sighting, by a local man back in June, shows there might be life in the old critter yet, but if that’s a false alarm, where does that leave us? Locals around Loch Ness are worried last year’s poor showing may affect tourist numbers. In the United States, liberals are saying Nessie died of shame from being called a “monster” instead of the more politically correct term “evidence-challenged endangered species”. Conservatives claim Nessie was the first victim of the death panels set up by Obama’s America-hating, terrorist-loving national health care.

The number of sightings has been going down for a few years, so the creature or creatures may very well be dying out. Is it gone for good? Unless AOL coughs up a few million to equip me with sonar equipment and a submarine, I really can’t say.

Whatever happened to Nessie, take heart. There are plenty of lake monsters to go around. There’s a Nessie-like creature in Minnesota, one in Lake Champlain, and others scattered around the world. There’s even another Scottish beastie in Loch Morar, which was the subject of a recent investigation by blogger Tom Gates. He took the amazing photo shown here. Believe it or not it’s actually a fake, made with a little Nessie model and some basil, and should serve as a warning to serious cryptozoologists that common household items can be used to construct a photo that can fool even the experts.

I, for one, don’t think Nessie will ever die. Despite having walked on the Moon and plumbed the depths of the ocean, we as a species love a mystery, and will always need creatures like Nessie, Bigfoot, the Mothman, and Raw Head and Bloody Bones until we ourselves go extinct.%Gallery-13474%