– – The season finale of Monsters and Mysteries in America went off with a bang in their “Desert Wasteland” episode, treating us to tales (and tails) of thunderbirds, skinwalkers, nightstalkers, and not to be forgotten, aliens! The American Southwest may be a desert wasteland, but it’s rich in really cool folklore! Of course, I was hooked, and wouldn’t have been disturbed unless there was an earthquake or I was on fire.
Now since at least the 1960’s, cattle mutilations have been reported in this domain, and it ain’t Ronald McDonald or the Burger King that’s doing it!- – Now who could be mutilating the cattle, excising pieces and organs of them with bloodless, surgical precision? This question served as the springboard for an introduction to things supposedly possessing the capability for such mayhem, namely thunderbirds or skinwalkers.
Now Thunderbirds here do not refer to the legendary Ford sportscar, but rather to pterodactyl-like flying creatures with wingspans of perhaps thirty feet or so, long referred to in Native American folklore. Skinwalkers are my personal favorite of the things covered, a kind of demonic assassin created by magic to harass and harm. A type of male witch, the skinwalker can change form at will, often taking the shape of wolves or coyotes although owls or other bird forms are also known, and any shape is possible! Skinwalkers execute curses at the behest of someone else, and in human form could be anyone, even a neighbor.
Nightstalkers as presented are an enigmatic bipedal creature that can come in different shapes. Their form is indistinct, although red eyes are commonly noted. As their name suggests, they tend to come at night, and can haunt dreams. Claw-like scratches on flesh and metal are reported by those who contend that they have encountered them.
Aliens are commonly considered as potential cattle mutilators, presumably possessing the technology capable of bloodless organ excision. In the southwest, alien grays have been reported to abduct and “harvest” humans, in one case supposedly removing a fetus from a pregnant woman. The biological father of this child reported being again abducted years later, and introduced to the product of that pregnancy. Presumably the kid would get some pretty advanced schooling!
All in all, the episode had great, captivating stuff, but did I believe all of it? I see the purpose of such shows as being to entertain and inspire wonder, and to cause us to consider alternative explanations of phenomena. I love such shows dearly…but I’m not quite ready for the tinfoil hat brigade yet!
– – Mysterious shadows, screams in the night, hairy hominids, and a hair-raising sense that something is watching me…these are a few of my favorite things! Few cryptic creatures are as laughably strange, however, as is the Sheepsquatch, a crossover between mutton and man reported throughout West Virginia and in the southwestern region of Virginia. 
– – Seldom are cryptids described as goat-like, but the “Goatman” of Western Kentucky is an exception. As characterized on the Discovery Channel’s show, Monsters and Mysteries in America, the Goatman is reputed to have hypnotic powers of a sort, to be able to imitate voices, and to entice people to climb the Pope Lick railroad trestle to lure them to their doom. 
– – Children, it is sometimes said, should be seen and not heard. Bigfoot in Oregon, in contrast, has been heard but not seen. People residing near the Indian reservation near the Blue Mountains have reported noises described as roaring and screeching, and sounding unlike anything they’ve heard before from the local wildlife.
– – Another Bigfoot sighting has been submitted from Utah’s Provo Canyon where two hikers saw from a safe distance on Sunday what they initially believed to have been a black bear; they stood there for some time fumbling with their camera before getting it to work. When the “bear” suddenly stood and stared directly at them, the hikers fled from the massive animal through the woods, abandoning their camping gear and heading to their car. The camera continued to run during their flight, with images unclear from that point but revealing something moving upright with massive arms (pictured)…
– – I’m always glad when giant eyeballs wash up on beaches, bringing to mind as they do such vintage sci-fi classics as 1958’s The Crawling Eye. Eyeballs by nature tend to make people squeamish, especially disembodied ones…and in time for Halloween, too!- -What a gift from the sea!
– – The Ozark Howler sounds like a really bad country music act, but refers to a cat-like cryptid reputed to reside in remote areas of Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas. Said to be the size of a black bear, it boasts a thick body, black hair, glowing eyes, and perhaps horns from its forehead! The Howler is reputed to stand three to four feet tall at the shoulder, and weighs in at about 400 pounds. The creature makes a deafening aggressive, threatening scream that is kind of a combination of a wolf’s howl and an elk’s cry…
– – I think that the appeal of giant mollusks, cephalopods in particular, is that they are 
– – A group of high school students on a class project in the Idaho wilderness captured a dark, mysterious creature on a short video taken near Mink Creek before the unknown creature retreated into the treeline. 
FOXSYLVANIA 
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