Year In Review

Kentucky’s White Vampire

October 7 – An unknown animal is killing the dogs near Danville, Ky., by cutting a hole in the throat and sucking the blood out of the body. It is said to be an immense white animal, unlike anything ever before seen. It is of the greyhound pattern, but larger in every way, being about four feet high and six long.A Ferocious Beast, Waterloo [Iowa] Courier, October 7, 1891. Thanks for this historical item from Jerome Clark.

Lake Erie Monster, 1887

A special to the N.Y. Times from Locust Point, on the shore of Lake Erie, near Toledo, Ohio, says, “The French settlers along the lake shore, in Erie Township, Ottawa County, a few miles east of here, were surprised and amazed on May 12th over the appearance of an unknown fish of mammoth size. Two brothers named Dusseau, both fishermen, were returning from the fishing grounds, when they discovered a phosphorescent mass upon the beach. It was late in the evening, but they succeeded in making their boat fast to the shore, and, upon examination, discovered a lake monster writhing [...]

Nessies’ Death Prematurely Announced

As reputable an authority as the senior officer of the Cunarder Mauretania [sic] reports that on Jan. 30, [1934] while in the Carribean [sic] Sea, the ship passed “a sea monster 65 feet long, 2 feet across the head and 6 feet broad amidships. It was headed S.W.” We are sorry he did not get its course to a finer compass reading. It might have been information of value to the professors. Again on Feb. 2, in the harbor of La Guira, the officers of this same ship reported that another strange looking denizen of the deep appeared on the [...]

A Near Death Experience

Today, September 25, 2007, marks 728 weeks or over 5100 days since I almost died. On this date in 1993, I was free-climbing a rocky cliff in Maine, slipped on some talus, and fell back, straight down, about 40 feet. I landed on some rocks and caused my lumbar 1 to completely implode. As one of my doctors said, “You didn’t break your back; your vertebra burst.” I was told later that such a rock climbing accident could have killed me. Maybe it was the Yeti shirt I was wearing, or my sons that kept me alive, but the two [...]

The Classic Crawfordsville Critter

Cedar Rapids [Iowa] Evening Gazette September 11, 1891 THE CRAWFORDSVILLE AIR MONSTER. EDITOR GAZETTE: — The article which appeared in THE GAZETTE of Tuesday, Sept. 8, in regard to the mysterious monster in the air, seen at Crawfordsville, Ind., brings to my mind an occurrence of a very similar character which took place in Chicago in the spring of 1849. Although I was a small boy at the time I remember the incident very distinctly. The first appearance of this “monster” was between 9 and 10 o’clock at night. People who were on the streets were amazed and terrified by [...]