J.C. Johnson of Crypto Four Corners posts: "A look into the attack on an animal, where mostly the "Skunk Sack" and organs were removed."
The investigation took place in Fruitland, New Mexico area...probably in or very near the Navajo Reservation. This area is very active with a hominid species that appears to be thriving. Please watch the entire video and listen to JC's theory as to why the 'Furry One' killed the skunk. Fascinating video. Here is a link to the previous post - New Mexico 'Furry Ones', 'Skin-Walkers' and 'Shadow Man'...Lon
My wife, friend and 5 year old daughter were watching the sunset while on vacation at the Helmsley Hotel on Lido beach, Sarasota. I had grown up in Sarasota and was back visiting. My friend Scott, who btw had a private pilot's license had stopped by. We were staying on the second floor, facing the Gulf. The unit was, when you faced the Gulf, the last unit on the left, on the second floor. We noticed before the sun totally set, a bright light. It was at eye level or slightly above and to the left of us. My wife thought it was a craft. She was an Air Force brat, growing up on SAC bases, her father a retired Lt. Col. Scott speculated it was a helicopter. It just sat there, until well after dark. After dark, it was flashing all kind of colors, like you would not see from an airplane. Photography is my hobby. I had a Nikon DSLR with a telephoto lens. But I did not have a tripod. The lenses I use are stabilized. So I braced the lens and shot a bunch of photos after dark, when it was most dramatic. Some looked like a yellow or other color it was flashing pinpoint of light. Others showed a wide array colors is squiggly patterns. I did not see the object move from its position. Those photos may be from camera movement but do show that the object was flashing colors you would not see from a plane or helicopter. I was impossible to tell how far away it was, I would say far. It eventually faded. I don't know if it got farther away or if a fog or mist off the Gulf obscured it. We didn't see it any other night we were there, which to means it wasn't a star. Besides, the sun had set, the object was still there for probably a half an hour after the sun set. A star would have set too.
Later, I saw a show on the sightings in Tx. There was a similar photo taken. http://ufodisclosurecountdownclock.blogspot.com/2008/02/stephenville-ufo-sky-symbols-suspend.html It was of an object flashing different colored lights. The Naples sights, including the webcam image are of a bright light. Seeing the recent Capri island movie, it reminded me of the photos and sighting from the Spring of 2008.
**********
Here is a recent MUFON CMS report filed from Nova Scotia for a sighting on August 18, 2010 (unedited):
We were on our second night in Halifax Nova Scotia, sitting on our condo balcony in Lower Water Street, looking south at the sky between the buildings. We thought perhaps we were seeing some kind of fireworks or light display, when we saw the blue-green glowing light in the sky, but then noticed it did not move. Then it pulsed slightly and seemed to drip down upon itself almost like a lava lamp, and then broke into three even sections before our eyes. It stayed in the exact same spot, however, and came back together several times, continuing to glow with an odd greenish blue light for ten full minutes.
At the end of the event, it formed a ball of bluish green colored light and bounced up and down and all around very erratically. Eventually, it grew smaller in size and dimmer in appearance until it was gone altogether. My husband and I are skeptical and would like to know what it was that we saw, if there is in fact an earthly explanation.
We did not feel scared but felt amazed and awed by the object. It was also very beautiful because its light was glowing and looked very unearthly. We knew it was not a plane or helicopter and since it seemed not to be affected by the intermittent clouds (or lack there of) it was hard to imagine it was any kind of projection from below -- like a prank. To project something, one needs a screen of clouds or another surface to use and there was no consistent cloud cover that night. We could easily see stars around the object but it was too elongated / bar shaped to be any kind of planet or star. Since it was not moving and only seemed to pulsate and divide, it is hard to imagine it was any kind of human made craft.
********** The following MUFON CMS report was recently filed from an undisclosed location in Michigan from an incident on August 30, 2010 (unedited):
My 6 year old daughter woke up at approx 3am, saying there were aliens out side, I sorta brushed her off, but had her describe them, thinking they were just stars or something. She said they were in the field next to us.
I just told her it was fine, and go back to bed, and that I would check it out. (what every dad has to do right). So after a bit I went out side to check it out. I didn't really see anything other than Jupiter brighter than I'd ever seen before.
But that was on the other side of the house, she couldn't have seen that. The only thing interesting was what I thought was Mars, about the right size flashing red. I went back inside. She was standing in the living room waiting for me.
"Daddy the aliens still out there" I asked while I was out there. She said Yes. Now I knew for sure she had to just be seeing things.
I had her draw me a picture. she drew the dome first, I thought she was going to draw a cigar type but then but a disk on the bottom. I've never heard of anything like that, maybe you have. I drew another and asked if that was it. The pic is not scanned or I would send it now. this happened less that 2 hours ago.
Again I had her go back to bed, and told her it was fine and it would be ok. about 4:00am I checked on her, she was still awake. I had her point to where she saw this. She did and said there still out there.
Now I'm getting freaked. What the heck is she seeing?
I had her get up and told her were going outside. She didn't seem to want to, the whole time she was acting scared, which is very unlike her. As soon as we got out, she yelled there right there, all over the place, I'm like what are you seeing. "they are small now, by the stars." I said you are just seeing stars. She said, no these ones are moving all over. I thought satellites.
Then she pointed out what I thought was mars. "See it flashing and it's moving. I had moved quite a bit in the half hour or so sense I had been out there. I had moved from one side of the tree to the other in a half hour? I had the moon and Jupiter as reference, they hadn't moved that much. And it was flashing, not like a plane or like a twinkle. The white always on behind the red flash. this all was to the east.
I had asked her, she said that it had been close to the house and was much larger. and didn't know if what we were seeing was the one she saw close. about there being lost of them, I am understanding she thinks that all the other ones were above and could all have been on a bigger vessel, all she said about them was that they flashed. the lights on the smaller craft she said were almost of every color. red green yellow etc. and something about green and yellow at the same time. and said the dome was a yellowish green. I put her back to bed and googled this site.
It's 5:20am and I'm going for another look. Then I'll report.
5:27 and I'm already back and I'm spooked. I went out, was looking around and noticed the moon and Jupiter had moved. and as I looked at Jupiter I noticed there was 2 of them. I thought where did that star come from? I didn't see it earlier. It was just as bright, and if you have seen Jupiter like this you know what I meen, you notice it. Now 2 of them?
just as I thought that. The one that was not Jupiter began moving to the south and in about 10 seconds was gone. From the time I noticed it until the time it began to move was between 5 and ten seconds. Like it moved because I noticed it. this was bright white, almost a twin in every way to Jupiter.
You know that feeling, like your being watched? That's how I feel right now. I'm still curious but nervous at the same time. That's how my daughter felt. If I had a sixth sense I'd say these things are up to no good, it's just my feeling.
For perspective I'm a Christian and don't drink. I believe that this is possible. 1. because I've seen a metallic orb during the day before, and know for a fact what I saw and I've never seen humans create anything close to that. It was literally a ball of liquid mercury stationary in the sky for more than 15 min. i think that was 1998. Anyway If anything else happens, I'll write it down and get back with you, feel free to email me.
********** MUFON Investigates New Mutilations in Colorado
Two horses found mutilated August 11, 2010, by their ranch owners in Rush, Colorado, were investigated by Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) Field Investigator Chuck Zukowski (who obtained the video and images).
Two other ranch animals who apparently survived the attacks and were found with "unknown marks." A high "electro-magnetic field reading" was measured on an attacked dog. The rancher's wife reports unusual sounds two days prior to the discovered mutilations.
Rush is situated along Highway 94 in unincorporated El Paso County, two miles west of El Paso, and about one hour east of Colorado Springs.
Since early July of this year, I have been documenting the UFO activity over the Fresno / Clovis / Sanger, California areas thanks to information forwarded to me by my friend Jeff Gonzalez, MUFON State Section Director/Investigator and founder of the Sanger Paranormal Society. Over the past few days, another incident has occurred in this area that has been covered by several blogs and UFO sites. I just 'sat back' to see what was going to result from the evidence. Last night, I asked Jeff to forward a statement in reference to this incident:
Lon...I received a call on my UFO hotline number at 559-287-UFOS(8367) Saturday night around 8:40 PM. It was from Justin who I have spoken to in person on 2 separate occasions. He contacted me about 3 weeks ago that he saw me on a TV news station about the Clovis incident case #24103. The reason Justin called me 3 weeks ago because he needed to talk to someone about all the things him and his wife were witnessing around their home for the past 4 years. I met with him and he described the weird crafts that they both have seen flying around a mountain and over their house. He told me they were mostly triangular in shape but there were other craft that he and his wife have been witnessing and they know that those crafts were not airplanes or helicopters. He used to be in the military so he knows what a airplane and a helicopter look like.
This past Saturday night, 8-21-10, I received a call from Justin advising me that I need to come over to his house ASAP. I asked him why and he stated to me that a triangle-shaped craft just hit the side of the mountain which is about 3 to 4 miles away. I really didn't know how to respond to what he just said. That's when I heard 2 other people in the back ground which I found out later to be his wife and mother. I can hear them describing what they are witnessing over the phone in the background and that's when I knew something serious was going on near them. I told him I just got out of the shower, I am going to put on clothes, grab my video equipment and I will be in-route to his house.
Justin's house is about 20 to 25 min from my house by freeway. While in-route, I grabbed my video camera and started to record myself driving to the location. Also, I called Justin back on my cell phone and put him on speaker and started to talk to him. I told him to start describing to me what he, his wife and mother were witnessing. He started by saying that his mother and wife were already home and he had just gone outside when they told Justin to look at the side of the mountain. They asked him about the weird looking lights. Justin looked and noticed what they were witnessing also. It was still light outside but barely and he described to me that he was looking at a triangle shape object siting on the side of that mountain. He said it had white lights on each corner and a bright light underneath in the center with some blue and red lights on the sides. He said the shape was definitely a triangle. After observing it for a couple of minutes, he said the craft lifted up about 30 to 40 ft as it was trying to take off but could not and the craft again fell to the ground. It attempted to lift off again with no luck and again the craft slammed back down. It did not try to take off anymore. He even said it looked liked the craft was damaged on one side.
After a few minutes went by, the 3 witnesses started to see vehicles - cars and trucks - arrive at the site. These vehicles came from over the mountain and from below. He said they just came out of nowhere. He did not know if they were military or not. By this time it's dark and they see the vehicles headlights on the hill and what he says are helicopters flying over head...but he wasn't sure. I am now turning on Copper Ave. getting close to arriving to his house when he said the vehicles and other crafts started to leave. By the time I arrived, you could not see anything on the hill except for 3 lights. At that time, I assumed that those 3 lights I was videotaping all night long on the side of the hill were from the craft in question, but it turned out that it was a house. It was around 11:00 pm when I started to see some action. I videotaped other vehicles coming to the site with one vehicle turning on a spot light where you can see on the video. I also caught people walking around with flash lights and on a couple occasions captured very bright blue flashes of light coming from the area. Justin advised me, to him it looked like someone was arch welding. He was familiar with the type of light because he had arc weld before so that's why he made that assumption.
At 12:00 am, I decide I am going to spend the night watching that mountain for I felt if there was a downed triangle raft, eventually they needed to retrieve it and there was no way in hell I was going to miss that. It was now 3:00 am with no further action on the hill. Justin's mother came out of the house and said that she going up there. Justin tried to talk his mother out of going up the hill but she was so intrigued on what she witnessed that she had to find out what it was. Well, she was gone for about 45 min and she returned with no luck. There was no way to get to that location. Even though we all witnessed other vehicles on the hill, we have no idea where or how they got there.
It is now 3:45 am and I am started to get sleepy so I get inside my truck where I have an extended cab and I dose off. I keep waking up and looking towards the hill but still nothing. Its around 5:45 am and the sun is starting to come up. It is now lighting up the side of the hill allowing me to visually see where I have been recording throughout the night. I can see a bunch of pine trees and what looks like a house. Then I noticed what looks like to me to be a gray or metallic object laying right in front of that house. You can see the sun reflect off the right side which is facing the east. I try to zoom on it but it is still very far away. It is really hard to make out the shape but for some reason, it starting to take the shape of a triangle or sting ray type of shape. At that time, I am extremely tired and my eyes could be playing tricks on me but I recorded that object.
I decided to see if I could get up there to take a closer look so I drove with one of my associates from the Sanger Paranormal Society. She had just got there to bring me some food, shoes and socks. I ran out the door in my sandals. We could not find a way to get to that house. Finally, it's 12 noon and I am tired so we decide to call it a day. I have not been back to the location to see if that gray object is still there but hopefully I will get back there today. The 3 witnesses say they will give me statements as soon as they are back from the hospital with their new baby (Justin's wife gave birth).
The video (below) in which you have was taken on Aug 22, 2010, the following day, Sunday night. It was taken in Clovis, California which is south of the crash site as the craft headed over Sanger. This video was shot by sky watchers who watch for the Sanger Paranormal Society. I am not saying it is the same craft but the witnesses said they look pretty damn close. I have those videos that I shot during that night in question that I am transferring to computer. Its taking me a little bit to transfer because the camera I used does not have a digital output (Firewire). NOTE: I asked Jeff to forward any new information as well as the video of the crash site when completed. It should be noted that this event occurred in proximity to the 'ANGB/Fresno “Deep Underground Military Base' located at the Fresno Yosemite International Airport. The facility is operated by The 144th Fighter Wing - Air National Guard Base (ANGB) and in direct oversight of the North American Aerospace Defense Command 'NORAD'. Stay tuned for updates...Lon
NOTE: Jeffrey Gonzalez, MUFON State Section Director/Investigator and founder of the Sanger Paranormal Society forwarded a recent UFO video from Robert Thorson. The UFO activity was seen over Fresno on 7/16/2010. Jeffrey states that he knows the videographer and that he feels this is some of the best video evidence he has ever seen. I haven't used any enhancement on the video or the screen captures.
The following was forwarded to me from Jeffrey Gonzalez, MUFON State Section Director/Investigator and founder of the Sanger Paranormal Society:
MUFON CMS #24103 - Short Description of UFO Event: 2 bright lights huge object no sound thought we were going to die
Detailed Description of the UFO Event:
Im not sure how long it lasted because we thought we were going to die but you will understand in this description. It felts like minutes but I know it was seconds because we really thought we were going to die! Here is the story: I am reporting this in sadness because of this event my dog died! My daughter went to get the dogs from outside to bring them in (she's 15) and she ran screaming "get out a plane is going to hit us" "run" and she was hysterical. Me my husband and my son and I went running downstairs and my husband went to the backdoor (running) to investigate because my daughter is very meek and quiet and never screams. The next thing I know my husband is yelling "run" "its gonna hit us" and he started praying to God that we lived and if not take us to Heaven and let it be quick. We ran straight out the door as fast as our legs would go. Myself and my son never heard or saw anything we were just running for dear life. My husband told us to stop behind the trees because he thought at any moment it would hit and we wouldnt get much father ( didnt atually even think we would make it out the front door) and we live in the country so its all mostly open space in front of us. When nothing happened after a few seconds he told us to keep running as I horrifyingly saw him turn back toward the house. We kept going hurrying down the road and as we went we were trying to call our dogs that had escaped with us. My husband returned in his truck to state the object simply was gone/vanished he had no idea where it went but it never hit our house or flew over us and not a single sound was heard. So we continued the search for our dogs however one was struck by a car and killed. Later when I spoke with my husband and daughter I was informed it had 2 bright lights and was up in the sky they could see the back neighbors house below it and it made no sound and teetered a little back and forth but the lights were always horizontal to each other. This object made no sound what so ever and my husband said he saw the silhouette and it was as big as our back pasture across and very dark. I am very saddened but wanted to report this because weird things have occurred before here that we never mentioned to people. Like for one instance our laser pointer lights (we would play with our dogs with) when we would point them in the field they would disappear at some points but would be seen all the way to the orchards at other points and we always laughed that it was like something invisible was sucking up the light at that spot. Im now truely scared and wanted this reported in the case something happens to us. Now it is time for me to grieve. I am afraid to sleep. I truly believe it must have landed in our pasture but everything appears normal. Something very wrong happened here tonight...please help!! Has anyone else ever experienced this? Jeff noted: Hey Lon, here is a case I am working on for MUFON....MUFON case #24103
The media here picked up on the story but did a piss poor job...and you can say I said that...they left out very important points...which I gave them. Here is the video link of the newscast, go ahead and use this so people can see when they compare to the actual MUFON report...also, they used a video in the news clip that had nothing to do with the report...Someone posted this on you tube which they recorded on the night of the sighting and they used it to make the news clip more exciting....that's not what this family saw that night..Here are 2 links to youtube. I recorded 2 unmarked vans sitting across the street of the house that reported the sighting the night before...These vans were parked out front the following morning....I was working that day ( AT&T Telephone) in that same area and as I was driving past the house I noticed the first van then a second one showed up...I parked 3 houses away in my van and started to record them...They both were wearing suits and this drew a flag because we are talking Saturday morning out in the country....
What was the UFO that crashed near Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam in May 2008? The Russians contend it was a U.S. military aircaft (SR-91 Aurora) that was shot out of the sky. Cambodia made an early announcement that is was an unidentified plane that had exploded but soon retracted the statement. Soldiers from Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand searched and found metal that could not be identified to any known aircraft. As well, the Vietnamese released video and images of the wreckage...which had strange, unknown symbols or characters embossed on it. So...what was the Phu Quoc UFO? Lon
After a UFO allegedly exploded above Phu Quoc Island off the coast of Vietnam, metal debris was recovered that suggests the object may have been built by extraterrestrials.
According to Officials at the state run Vietnam News Agency, “An unidentified flying object exploded at about 10am on May 27 over the northern part of Phu Quoc Island." Colonel Nguyen Van Qui, a military commander on the island was the source of the report and no civilian, commercial or military aircraft are said to be missing in that area of southern Vietnam or nearby Cambodia.
The object that crashed was first seen in the skies over Cambodia where officials said it appeared as a “fire in the sky.” The thing exploded shortly after that and what was left of it crashed on Phu Quoc Island. Citizens of a commune on the island retrieved a piece of metal from the crash that they described as measuring “one metre by about 60 centimeters.” The metal is unusual looking and appears to have symbols engraved or stamped into it.
Additional pieces of metal were recovered by members of the military and civilians. At this writing, there are fourteen pieces in possession of the Military Command of Phu Quoc District. The metal debris rained down in Ganh Dau and Cua Can communes on Phu Quoc at about 10:20 a.m. on May 27, 2008, according to Lam Quang Chanh, a spokesperson for the provincial People’s Committee.
While it’s entirely possible that the sightings and recovered material may have nothing to do with an Alien Spacecraft, the events surrounding this crash are similar to other incidents involving UFOs. For example, some of the symbols that appear to be engraved or stamped into the metal (if they are genuine) are similar to those described by witnesses on the thing that crashed near Kecksburg, Pennsylvania, in the 1960s. An I-beam from the Roswell UFO Crash in 1947 was also reported to have unknown symbols on it.
Phu Quoc Island is a popular tourist destination located in the Gulf of Thailand. It has thirteen resort areas and several urban centers. The island was once considered a backwater area known primarily for the production of anchovy sauce and black pepper. Once a French territory with rubber and coconut plantations, Phu Quoc Island housed a prisoner of war camp during the Vietnam War. Vietnam and Cambodia struggled over possession of the island for years after the war until it finally became a part of Vietnam in 1975.
UFO crashes are rare events. When they occur in an area of the world that may not be under the control of the usual cover-up suspects, an opportunity presents itself for the nation and people involved to share what has happened with the world. Vietnam is a Communist country with close ties to China, so there still may be a tight lid clamped on this event at some point. If that doesn’t occur, we may have a chance to see the smoking gun that proves intelligent Alien life forms exist and are visiting the Earth.
reuters - An unidentified flying object exploded in mid-air over a southern Vietnamese island, state media said Wednesday, a day after Cambodia's air force retracted a report of a mysterious plane crash.
The Vietnam News Agency said residents of Phu Quoc island, 10 km (6 miles) off the coast of the Cambodian province of Kampot, found shards of grey metal, including one 1.5 meters (1.5 yards) long.
"The explosion happened at about 8 km (5 miles) above the ground, and perhaps it was a plane, but authorities could not identify whether it was a civil or military aircraft," VNA said in a report headlined "UFO explodes over Phu Quoc Island."
Soldiers were sent out to look for wreckage and survivors, and local authorities contacted airlines in Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand, but received no reports of missing aircraft, the official state news agency added.
Villagers in Kampot said Tuesday that they had heard a loud explosion. Wednesday they told Reuters they had found small chunks of metal near the coastline.
Kung Mony, deputy commander of Cambodia's Air Force, said Tuesday he had been told of a foreign plane crashing in Kampot province, but later backed off his claims of an aircraft accident.
********** Vietnam Confirms UFO Explosion / Crash
salem-news - An unidentified flying object exploded at about 10:00 AM on May 27th over the northern part of Phu Quoc Island, the Vietnam News Agency reported.
This is a region off the coast of the southern province of Kien Giang. Col. Nguyen Van Qui, military chief of the island district, reported the explosion and consequent discovery of debris.
It is reported that many residents found what are described as "many gray metal pieces, including a 1.5 meter long piece".
The island district authorities on Phu Quoc quickly contacted airline companies in Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand, but so far none have confirmed any accidents involving their flights.
The explosion happened at about 8 kilometers, or five miles, above the ground, the VNA reported, "and perhaps it was a plane, but authorities could not identify whether it was a civil or military aircraft."
The Phu Quoc Island People’s Committee mobilized local armed forces and volunteers to help rescue any survivors, believing there had been a disaster, but there were none to be found. Col. Nguyen Van Qui was the person who described the craft as an "unidentified flying object" according to the VNA.
The deputy commander of the Cambodian Air Force, Kung Mony, said the initial determination was that a foreign plane had crashed in the Cambodian province of Kampot, but that suggestion was later retracted. Villagers in Kampot confirmed that they heard a loud explosion and then found small chunks of metal near the coast, presumably from the craft. They did not elaborate as to what type of metal it was.
One possibility the VNA cited, is that a military aircraft taking part in a secret mission exploded. If that is the case, its country of origin has not claimed it.
The theory was given some weight by the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) report which said: "The explosion happened at about 8 km above the ground, and perhaps it was a plane, but authorities could not identify whether it was a civil or military aircraft."
iranian - A large unidentified flying object has exploded over an island just off the coast of Cambodia, Vietnamese officials have said.
The officials said Wednesday that they suspected it could be either a military plane or a civilian plane but not a flying saucer.
According to Ngang Van Truyen, chairman of the commune, the explosion occurred on Tuesday morning above Cua Can commune on Phu Quoc, a large island belonging to Vietnam just off the coast of Cambodia.
"It was a huge explosion, and we thought at first that it was thunder," Truyen said. “But then we saw a 100-meter-long smoke trail in the sky and knew that it was the explosion of a flying object."
Truyen added that people in the commune found six pieces of aluminum-like metal painted yellow-green on one side. The largest piece is more than one meter long and 50 centimeters wide. However, no markings or letters are found on the pieces.
My friend, Glenn Mitchell of Cumberland & Courier Newspapers in Parramatta, NSW, Australia, forwarded the following piece...very interesting:
MCC - NEW evidence has emerged that spirits inhabit Narellan’s Studley Park House after a documentary crew claimed to have captured audio of a young girl moaning.
Microphones captured the sound on Friday, August 13, after psychic medium Debbie Malone guided the film crew to an upstairs room, Unreel Productions’ Rob Kerr said.
“We were up in a room where Debbie said there was the spirit of a young girl,” he said.
“We picked up what sounded like a young girl making some noise.”
He is certain of finding paranormal activity on 36 hours’ worth of static camera footage yet to be reviewed: “I’d be surprised if we didn’t get anything.
“We set up a few target objects in the smaller rooms, like a teddy bear and balloons. If we see any of those move by themselves, it will indicate paranormal activity.”
Built by grazier William Payne in the 1880s, Studley Park House’s various incarnations have included boarding school and army barracks.
No reported death of a young girl exists - 14-year-old Ray Blackstone drowned in a dam near the house in 1909, and Noel Gregory, 13, perished of appendicitis there in 1937.
But according to ghost tour guide Joanne Gulson, the spirit belonged to “Amelia”, whose violent rape and murder in a top-floor bedroom at age 8 went unrecorded.
“She looks like Shirley Temple,” the medium said. “She’s extremely playful; we left a toy there for her to play with.”
Earlier this year, roofing contractors claimed to have discovered a hangman’s noose dangling inside the house.
A building contractor restoring Studley Park, which is being remade into the Australian home of The Sir Henry Royce Foundation and a Rolls-Royce museum, declared himself a sceptic.
“I’ve been staying here overnight for the past 10 days and I’ve seen nothing,” Tom Duffy, 61, said.
NOTE: go to Studley Park Spirits Captured on Tape and peruse the links at the bottom of the article...lots of great information on this location and other paranormal / cryptid accounts in and around New South Wales. Lon
********** Originally posted 1/7/10 Workers at Haunted Mansion Discover Hangman's Noose
Studley Park House's reputation for being haunted has deepened after workmen responsible for repairing the old house made a disturbing discovery.
The men have been busy replacing parts of the iron roof and repairing the slate to make the 120-year-old Victorian mansion watertight.
But it's the interior that has had them buzzing after they stumbled on a hangman's noose dangling from the home's steeple roof.
Studley Park House the centrepiece of Camden Golf Course has long been regarded as one of Camden's most haunted abodes.
The haunting theories were spawned by several tragic incidents that occurred on the site like the drowning of a 14-year-old boy in the property's dam in 1909 and the death in 1939 of the son of then-owner Arthur Gregory, a sales manager for Twentieth Century Fox Australia. Mr Gregory's son reportedly died in the home's theatrette from appendicitis.
Rod Nash, director of Affordable Roofing, the company repairing the roof, said he had no doubt the house was haunted. Despite uncovering the hangman's noose, Mr Nash said he was keen to visit the house at night.
Studley Park House was built by Narellan grazier William Payne in 1889 for his bride but after running into debt he sold it to an architect.
The grand home changed owners several times over the years and has been used as a private residence, as Camden Grammar School and for army training during World War II.
Camden Historical Society's Ray Herbert researched Studley Park's long and interesting history.
``I've been in the house at all hours of the day and night and I haven't seen a ghost,'' he said.
The same can't be said for the four contestants who spent time isolated in the dormitory, cellar, theatre and tower for the 2001 filming of Scream Test, a psychological reality game show. The brave participants were locked in the house as cameras filmed their feelings, thoughts and any paranormal occurrences.
One of the contestants, who reported hearing voices, was too spooked to continue the challenge and another said he'd heard a baby crying from a corner of the room. ``Kids have said they've walked past the house and seen a lady looking out the window,'' Mr Herbert said.
``Someone once reported seeing the lights on in a part of the house where there were no lights. Another time when the fire brigade was called to investigate a report of lights being on, they checked the mains and found they were switched off.'' ______________________ THE HISTORY OF STUDLEY PARK HOUSE
In October 1888, grazier and businessman William Charles Payne bought land near Camden in an area called Narellan in southwest Sydney. He named his newly acquired property "Studley Park", after the original Studley Park located in Yorkshire, England. In 1889, construction of a grand Victorian mansion began. Designed by A. L. & G. McCredie, a prosperous architectural and engineering firm, it became known as "Payne's Folley".
Unfortunately, due to financial difficulties, Payne was forced to sell the house to pay off his debt to the house's architect, a man named Francis Buckle. Buckle used Studley Park House as a weekend retreat until it was sold to Dr Henry Oliver, the headmaster of The Camden Grammar School in 1902. The school had originally been located at St Helen's Park House in Campbelltown.
On October 15, 1909, fourteen year old student Ray Blackstone and 5 of his fellow boarders decided to go for a swim in a nearby damn. Despite being told time and time again about the dangers of swimming in the dam, the boys ignored the warning. During an attempt to swim to one side of the damn and back, Ray began to struggle. Despite the assistance of his friend, Sydney Langford, the boy drowned. His lifeless body was brought ashore by senior students and it is reputed to have been stored in the cold, dark cellar of Studley Park House, awaiting burial.
The school was sold in 1919 to Reverend Charles Herbert Palmer and continued to operate until 1933 when it was packed up and moved to the home of Parliamentary Member for Sydney, William Bede Dalley, in Manly.
Studley Park was sold to Arthur Adolphus Gregory, sales manager of Twentieth Century Fox Australia. Gregory furbished Studley Park House in Art Deco style and converted the student's dining room into a theatrette. A keen golfer, he had a nine hole course designed for the land surrounding the house. A further nine holes were later added and the original stables block/classroom was converted into the golf club.
In 1939, tragedy struck when Gregory's son died in the theatrette from appendicitis.
When World War II began the property was taken over by the Department of Defence and became The Eastern Command Training School. Accommodation was increased to house the 280 staff and students attending the school's courses. Lieutenant A. R. Cutler, a future Governor of New South Wales, was one of the first students to graduate. In 1951 the first intake of the Women's Royal Australian Army Corps began their training at Studley Park.
cantonrep - Ralph A. Multer was a wounded World War II veteran who walked with a limp and exhibited a gruff exterior. He liked to spin stories about his days as a gunner’s mate on a Navy warship, including ones about the Battle of Iwo Jima. Multer worked on cars and rode a motorcycle. His nickname was “Bear,” a reference to his large frame. And on occasion, he enjoyed a few swallows of vodka.
At 22 and married, Multer worked hard to support his wife, driving a truck for the Timken Co.
He wasn’t normally given to far-flung tales of flying saucers and little green men. Until, that is, the summer of 1947.
Multer is said to be a local connection to the most famous UFO story in world history: The alleged crash of an alien spacecraft near Roswell, N.M., in July 1947.
He told loved ones he hauled material from the crashed spaceship to one of the Timken plants in Canton, OH that summer. A Timken furnace could not dent, damage or melt the UFO wreckage. Not even slightly.
An FBI agent made it very clear. Don’t tell anybody about the covert operation. Keep it hush-hush.
That’s a fascinating story. A whopper. Is it true? Can it be verified? Especially when you consider Multer died in 1982. Could a company of Timken’s iconic stature be complicit in perhaps the greatest government cover-up of all time?
SUMMER OF ’47
July 8, 1947. UFO historians consider that a monumental date. It is when the Roswell Army Air Field issued a press release that a crashed flying disk had been recovered in the New Mexico desert.
The military quickly changed its story. A second press release stated the 509th Bomb Group at the Roswell base mistakenly had identified a weather balloon as flying saucer wreckage.
Legions of UFO buffs believe the Roswell story. Researchers and authors have interviewed hundreds of people on the subject, including former military officers. Some believers have obtained once-classified documents, connecting the dots to conclude that the government concealed the crash and stashed away dead aliens with balloon-shaped heads, large eyes and child-like bodies.
Others declare the Roswell story to be a ridiculous myth borne out of wild imaginations. They contend it’s utter nonsense concocted by nuts who are loose with the facts and heavy on speculation. They argue the UFO crowd has yet to produce hard evidence, such as a hunk of the damaged flying saucer.
Multer was a believer. He became one 63 years ago while working a four-hour shift for Timken.
Multer told his wife the story. Years later, he shared it with his daughter.
It was August or September. Multer had hoped to finish the shift and meet his wife for lunch. But the normalcy of the day quickly faded.
Multer said he and two other drivers were asked to pick up loads at a railroad yard. Three flatbed trucks, covered with canvas, carried the loads.
The load on Multer’s truck was the largest. The convoy of trucks was escorted by officials of some type. Multer had some level of security clearance at the company.
FBI agents had met the trio of truck drivers. Multer asked about the loads. An agent told him they were parts of a flying saucer recovered in New Mexico. The strength and durability of the material would be tested in a super-hot Timken furnace.
“They talked to a person later who was there that night (at one of the Timken plants), and they said they couldn’t cut it, they couldn’t even heat it,” said Sundi Multer-Lingle, Multer’s daughter. “The piece of metal, well I don’t know if you can call it metal, the object was absolutely impenetrable.”
Metallic. Lightweight. Silver or dark gray. That’s how her father described the mysterious material.
“We grew up with the story,” said Multer-Lingle, 58, who was born in Canton and lives in Knoxville, Tenn. “Dad would put us up on his lap, and he would tell us the story.”
He never changed his story. Or added details, she said.
“Dad wasn’t a liar at all,” Multer-Lingle said. “I mean, if he told you something, you believed it because that’s just how he was, and I heard this so many times and so much that we never doubted it.”
Multer’s late wife told UFO researchers the experience left a lasting impression on her husband. It “never left his mind from then on,” she said in an interview in the 1990s.
RALPH AND ROSWELL
Roswell-related stories inundate the Internet. Books, movies and television documentaries transformed the Roswell story into a pop culture phenomenon. A museum in Roswell is dedicated to the topic. The Roswell UFO Festival takes place each July. A website for the Roswell newspaper features UFO-themed merchandise for sale.
Tucked away on a handful of websites, the Multer story keeps a low profile in the world of sensational UFO accounts. Multer’s Roswell story apparently is not mentioned in any book.
At the International UFO Museum and Research Center in Roswell, a search through the library’s database and archives turned up nothing about Multer and Timken as they relate to the UFO crash story, a museum employee said.
In the mid-1990s, William E. Jones and Irena McCammon Scott uncovered Multer’s story. That’s when Multer’s wife was interviewed. The duo co-authored an article about Multer in the Ohio UFO Notebook in 1994 as part of a compilation of pieces titled, “The Ohio UFO Crash Connection and Other Stories.”
Up until then, Ralph’s story had been a well-kept family secret, said Multer-Lingle. Outsiders weren’t privy to it. Multer’s wife, Violet M. Brown, died in 2009; at the time of her death, she was known as Vikki May Black.
Stricken with health problems, Ralph had died nearly 20 years earlier.
“I remember we went up to Timken (in Canton) and interviewed some people,” said Scott, 102, the UFO researcher who helped break the Multer story. “But I don’t remember how we got the story to start.”
MULTER’S STORY
Multer’s story is difficult to verify. According to records from the Golden Lodge United Steelworkers Local 1123, Multer left Timken in 1952. His daughter says that is when the family moved to the Portsmouth area in Scioto County, where Multer then worked as a railroad brakeman.
Timken spokeswoman Lorrie Paul Crum said Multer worked with the company in the early 1950s, initially in the steel operations and later as a truck driver. However, a search didn’t turn up all of the company records on Multer, Crum said.
“We didn’t have his beginning employment records,” she said.
“We had partial records. We don’t keep them for all the employees.”
Multer could have worked at Timken in 1947, said Tom Sponhour, editor of the Golden Lodge News, noting records can be sketchy that far back.
“We talked with retirees and executives familiar with all facets of ... Timken’s long-standing relationships with government and scientific organizations serving as one of the world’s foremost experts in metallurgy,” Crum said.
But “no one had any recollection of Multer’s story,” she wrote in an e-mail response.
The Repository contacted several Timken retirees who worked for the company in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
Only one recalled hearing about Multer. Dominick T. Rex got a job at Timken in 1946 in the roller bearings plant.
“It was just a rumor about a truck driver (who) did something,” Rex recalled. “He did something, and it was Ralph.”
But the 84-year-old does not recall anything about a crashed UFO.
Scott, one of the UFO investigators who co-authored the original story about Multer, said she and the other researcher visited Timken in the mid-1990s to inquire about the former truck driver and Roswell.
None of the retired management and engineer employees contacted by UFO investigators had heard of the alleged Canton connection to Roswell, said Scott, who worked on satellite photography in the 1960s for the Defense Intelligence Agency. She is a former biology professor at St. Bonaventure University.
“I don’t have a firm conclusion,” she said of the alleged UFO crash.
The U.S. Department of Defense did not respond to a phone inquiry or e-mail from The Repository seeking comment about Roswell-related events in 1947 and Multer’s story. The agency forwarded the call Thursday to the U.S. Air Force.
As of Friday, the Air Force had not replied. In the mid-1990s, the Air Force issued two in-depth reports, following an inquiry by the General Accounting Office, in an effort to debunk the Roswell story.
UFO RESEARCHERS
Stanton T. Friedman, a well-known researcher and author in the UFO field, said he had not heard of a Canton link to Roswell. Friedman co-authored a book on the topic, “Crash at Corona: The Definitive Study of the Roswell Incident.”
Friedman, however, said he’s well aware of Timken.
“They’re a major company, and they had major responsibilities during the war,” he said.
“Timken probably would have had a reputation for developing very strong materials at very high temperatures,” said Friedman, 76, a nuclear physicist.
After exhaustive research, including interviews and an examination of countless government records, Friedman said he firmly believes that a UFO crashed near Roswell in 1947.
Donald R. Schmitt has been researching Roswell-related events the last 21 years. He has co-authored multiple books on the subject, including, “Witness to Roswell: Unmasking the Government’s Biggest Cover-up.”
“This is the granddaddy of them all,” Schmitt said of the Roswell story. “If we solve this, the entire mystery is solved.”
Schmitt is intrigued by Multer’s account. “This is another piece of the puzzle,” he said. Schmitt said he’s heard “eyewitness accounts” about material being loaded on freight cars near the former Roswell Army Air Field.
“All aftermath, all arrows point directly to Ohio,” Schmitt said of Roswell, referring to other alleged Ohio connections, including Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
"Why would (Multer) lie to his wife about this?,” Schmitt said. “He didn’t profit (from) this, he didn’t gain any notoriety or any publicity, he didn’t do any talk shows or any interviews.”
Schmitt said he’s 99 percent certain a UFO crashed in the Roswell area.
“That remaining 1 percent is the remaining 1 percent of the curiosity until we get a piece of the holy grail,” he added. “I do accept the challenge of the true skeptic, not the scoffer, but the skeptic who would remind us until you come up with the piece of the actual hardware, a piece of the ship, you won’t have 100 percent.”
NOTE: the following are several references to the Roswell crash material that was found and analyzed as well as some information on the Timken Roller Bearing Company which was and remains a major U.S. government contractor (military and aerospace)...Lon
An analysis of alleged debris from the Roswell spacecraft that crash landed in 1947.
********** Reports On Memory-Metal Nitinol 'Missing'
heraldtribune - With a boost from Sarasota resident Tony Bragalia, the enduring Roswell UFO controversy is about to swing the spotlight onto one of the most successful research and development entities in America — Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, OH.
At issue are some missing reports from Battelle’s study of a nickel/titanium alloy called Nitinol, renowed for its resilience as a “memory metal.” Contracted by the U.S. Air Force to assess and exploit its compelling properties in the late 1940s, Battelle participates in or manages six national laboratories for the U.S. Department of Energy, including Oak Ridge, Lawrence Livermore, and Brookhaven.
The problem is, neither Battelle nor the USAF can produce copies of what the scientific literature refers to as the “Second Progress Report on Contract AF33 (038)-3736.” Bragalia suspects that’s because the data is still highly classified due to its source — a flying disc that crashed outside Roswell, N.M., in 1947.
“Personal testimony is one thing,” says Bragalia, whose research skills have been polished by his business as an executive-search consultant. “But when you start talking about documents and the history of science, unlike testimonials, their provenance is not questioned.”
Bragalia says his curiosity about the Roswell debris began accelerating in 2007, shortly after a retired Army Air Force veteran from Ellenton named Ben Games told De Void a tale that no one had ever heard before — in July of 1947, he flew Gen. Laurence Craigie to Roswell during the furor over the alleged UFO recovery.
As chief of the Research and Engineering Division at AAF headquarters, Craigie had offices at the Pentagon and at present-day Wright-Patterson AFB in Ohio. In October 1947, he became Director of Research and Development for the U.S. Air Force. At the end of the year, he authorized the first-ever USAF study of flying saucers. From 1948-50, he served as commandant of the USAF Institute of Technology at Wright-Pat.
In 1991, retired brigadier general Arthur Exon confirmed for author/investigators Schmitt and Kevin Randle that the Roswell debris was transferred to Wright Field in ‘47. Civilians and military personnel who handled the stuff compared some components to aluminum foil, except that it would conform to its original shape after being crumpled.
Exon, a lieutenant colonel on base at the time, said lab chiefs in charge of testing the material “knew they had something new in their hands. The metal and material was unknown to anyone I talked to.” However, Exon, who was promoted to Wright-Pat base commander in 1964, never had access to the debris.
But who did? And if, as skeptics contend, the thing that went down in Roswell was simply a classified but hardly exotic balloon project, why did Craigie make a hurried flight to New Mexico from Washington?
Enter Nitinol, which made its debut in 1939. The nickel/titanium metal was created as a byproduct of another project and initially studied for its crystalline structures. Bragalia was unable to find any research on its shape-recovery properties until encountering references to a WPAFB contract with Battelle produced in 1949.
Its “Second Progress Report” — authored by Battelle employees listed only as C.M. Craighead, F. Fawn, and L.W. Eastwood — implies a first progress report, for which Bragalia could find no references at all. Although unable to get his hands on the “Second Progress Report,” Bragalia lists four references to its existence in 1952, 1965, 1972, and 1984.
Bragalia didn’t read the “Second Progress Report” because nobody appears to know where it is. Kemberly Lang, manager of the Battelle Library, couldn’t find a copy, and neither could Annette Sheppard, special collection librarian at WPAFB. Lang reconfirmed to De Void her futility at learning anything about the 60-year-old project beyond published references to it.
“There’s something strange going on here, but there is no copy of the contract. And Wright-Patterson doesn’t have it, either. Evidently it was never submitted for retention,” says Lang, who coordinated her search efforts with WPAFB. “Both sides have miraculously lost their copies of it.
“I don’t know what’s in it, I don’t have a clue. I don’t think there’s anything malicious going on, but it’s kind of in my ‘open’ file now. It’s a mystery.”
Bragalia doubts the USAF farmed out the actual Roswell debris to Battelle. More likely, he suspects its scientists were tasked to simulate its morphing abilities through Nitinol, which requires 99.99 percent purity and the application of heat.
Curiously, Braglia says military reports announcing the unveiling of Nitinol as a memory metal cite every year from 1959 to 1963 as its point of discovery. The last word from the U.S. Naval Ordnance Lab lists its debut as 1962 or 1963.
Today, Nitinol has blossomed into the commercial sector, finding its way into everything from medical hardware to bendable eyeglass frames. Among the most ambitious firms incorporating the latest generation of metallic elasticity into a vast array of products is LiquidMetal Technologies, a publicly traded R&D company headquartered in Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.
Attributing its “amorphous alloys” to researchers from California Institute of Technology — managed by Battelle in cooperation with Lawrence-Livermore — LiquidMetal’s Web site says it has collaborated on “numerous shuttle missions for NASA scientists to study its technology in space first hand.”
“The NASA connection is huge,” says Bragalia. “When you begin taking stuff into space and testing it under microgravity conditions, it allows you to develop material of exceptional purity.”
Battelle, listed as a charitable trust exempt from taxation, is most famously known in UFO circles for producing a 1954 Air Force Project Blue Book study called Special Report No. 14. Concluding that 21.5 percent of UFOs in the military database were unknowns, Battelle directly contradicted then USAF Secretary Donald Quarles’ assertion that only 3 percent of its sightings were unknown.
“Battelle is very artful at concealing its connections,” says Bragalia. “When people say ‘the government’ knows about UFOs, I wonder. Especially when you consider that Battelle has more or less privatized six of our national laboratories.”
newsvine - A research study that has recently been obtained through FOIA offers stunning confirmation that Wright-Patterson Air Force base contracted Battelle Memorial Institute to analyze material from a crashed UFO at Roswell in 1947. Remarkably, the co-author of this very metals study is the same scientist who decades ago had confessed that he had examined extraterrestrial metal from a crashed UFO while he was a research scientist at Battelle! This just-received document also reveals that another one of its metallurgist authors reported directly to a Battelle scientist who was conducting secret UFO studies for the USAF. It appears that the study represents first-ever attempts in creating highly novel and advanced Titanium alloys. Some of these alloys were later associated with the development of "memory metal" of the type reported as crash debris at Roswell.
In 1899, Henry Timken and his sons, H.H. Timken and William Timken, established the Timken Roller Bearing and Axle Company in St. Louis, Missouri. This firm initially manufactured tapered roller bearings for the use in wagons. Timken's bearings helped wagons make easier turns and also improved their maneuverability in other ways. In 1901, the Timkens relocated the company to Canton, Ohio, where the firm became known as the Timken Roller Bearing Company.
The Timken Company's bearings became in great demand, especially as the automotive industry originated during the first decades of the twentieth century. Timken bearings were used in the Marmon Wasp, the first car to win the Indy 500. In 1917, the Timken Company constructed its first steel mill to provide the firm with a steady supply of steel to manufacture its products. Beginning in the 1920s, the company increasingly began to use its bearings in the manufacture of agricultural and mining equipment, and during World War II, besides providing the United States military with bearings, the business also manufactured gun barrels and steel tubing.
PRESS RELEASE - PARKSVILLE-QUALICUM BEACH, BC – August 24, 2010 - John Kirk, president and head field researcher for the BC Scientific Cryptozoology Club, and members of the BCSCC will be at Cameron Lake, 30 km west of Parksville, on Tuesday, September 14/10 to conduct research into the existence of a large lake creature.
Kirk and his team will be scanning the lake again, following up on their successful 2009 trip where two very large strikes on a fish finder indicated there is a large animal living in the lake. Sightings of a creature date back to at least 2004.
“The sighting fits in with a surprisingly large and widespread body of local lake creature history,” Kirk says of the of the Cameron Lake creature. “In fact, British Columbia is number one in the world for lake-monster sightings, beating out Norway and Sweden.”
The BC Scientific Cryptozoology Club was founded in 1989. Elusive creatures, such as lake monsters and Sasquatches, are known as cryptids and their study is called cryptozoology, from the Greek (cryptos) for hidden and zoology, the study of animals.
Kirk and his team will be available for media questions.
Coffee and refreshment will be provided.
Date: Tuesday, September 14, 2010 Time: 12 noon Place: Cameron Lake west shore public park access.
Media Contact: Valerie Katzarski Media Coordinator Seasmoke PR, representing Oceanside Tourism Association P: 250-480-1531 E: valerie@seasmokepr.com John Kirk BC Scientific Cryptozoology Club E: bcscc@bcscc.ca
BCSCC Press Release: Cameron Lake Cryptid May Exist - 9/22/2009
Cameron Lake, BC: It turns out where there’s smoke, there is fire or in the case of Cameron Lake, where there’s a crest in the water, there is an unknown animal. Researchers this past weekend found evidence of at least two large animals living in the lake located about 30 km west of Parksville-Qualicum Beach.
“I’m not ready to say what it is, but there’s something there and its very large – certainly larger than any trout or lake fish,” said John Kirk, co-founder of the BC Scientific Cryptozoology Club and author of In the Domain of the Lake Monsters, who conducted an initial research expedition on September 19, 2009 at Cameron Lake.
After some preliminary ground work the day before, researchers spent Saturday afternoon on the lake, probing the depths with a sonar-like fish finder. The first pass of the lake located two large contacts at a depth of 56 and 58 ft. But a pass of the lake later in the afternoon was even more successful.
"Something just went 'ping' on the alarm on the fish finder and we saw this absolutely massive object in the midst of various fish," said Kirk.
They made four more passes of the object in a 20 minute span and received readings at a depth of about 74 feet each time, ruling out that it was a school of fish.
"We were quite stunned that there was something that big in the lake, it was quite amazing," he said.
The researchers have been planning to explore the lake since a 2007 sighting by Brigette Horvath, who noticed a strange wake in the water and three objects or creatures going in a circle.
“Our organization has received reports coming from Cameron Lake since 2004,” Kirk said. “Witnesses have been describing what looks like a dark creature in the lake."
Kirk spent time on Okanagan Lake this summer in search of Ogopogo, and as chairman of the Crypto Safari Organization which sends investigators around the world, has traveled to Africa as part of research teams in search of living dinosaurs.
Kirk said the initial findings on September 19 suggest that a further more in-depth study of the lake is necessary.
“We definitely would like to come out here again,” said an enthusiastic Kirk. “When the lake is calm, the water flat, and the day long so we can really have a chance to locate this creature and find out, to the best of our ability, what it is.”
The BC Scientific Cryptozoology Club was founded in 1989. The group studies elusive creatures, such as lake monsters and Sasquatches, known as cryptids and the study of called cryptozoology: from the Greek (cryptos) for hidden, and zoology, the study of animals.
Besides numerous sightings of the Cameron Lake monster, Vancouver Island, along the Cryptid Corridor of Highway 4, has been the location of numerous Sasquatch sightings. A film and a History Channel program based on the elusive animal have been released, and it is also home to specialists in the field. _________________________
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Expedition Team To Search Lake Cameron, BC For Evidence of Monster
canada.com - People have reported seeing what they can best describe as a creature in Cameron Lake, just 30 kilometres west of Parksville, and John Kirk wants to find out what it is.
Kirk co-founded a B.C. group dedicated to hunting unidentified animals, or cryptid, and said he and his fellow members of the Scientific Cryptozoology Club have been fielding calls from people who say it's time to take a closer look. The author of In the Domain of Lake Monsters plans an expedition to Cameron Lake to look for scientific evidence on Sept. 19.
This initial inspection will determine whether or not people are mistaking natural phenomenon for a cryptid, Kirk explained.
Once he and his team rule out things like submerged rocks or logs, they will return for a more in-depth analysis. So far, people have described the creature as long and serpent-like.
One woman captured a photograph of a similar silver shape, an indication that it could be a fish, which would be just as interesting for Kirk because there are no known species of fish in the lake that can get that big, he explained.
The 70-member club has experienced field researchers from all around the world but its small size and small budget often limit the expeditions they can go on. Oceanside Tourism, which represents both Parksville and Qualicum Beach, contacted the group and offered to sponsor the trip.
"We've gotten some feedback from people who are concerned that if we find something it will stop people from swimming but it doesn't stop people in Okanagan," Kirk said. "There are no reports of anyone getting attacked at one of these lakes. In fact, it's a great tourist attraction. People make an absolute fortune on this type of thing."
Lakes in the province are notorious for creature sightings, according to Kirk, who said there are 39 lakes with some sort of sighting reports. With very few of these sightings confirmed, Kirk does not expect to find anything in Cameron Lake his first time out. _____________________
Posted 9/12/07
Cryptozoologist Follows the Clues - Cameron Lake Monster
Scientific cryptozoologist John Kirk intrigued by sightings at Cameron Lake
“There is definitely something in the water and it is moving.”
That’s the opinion of John Kirk, the president and head field researcher for the B.C. Scientific Cryptozoology Club, about a photograph of a strange wake in Cameron Lake.
He says what he saw was convincing, and now he’s considering an expedition to Cameron Lake to look at the situation first-hand.
The picture, taken by Brigette Horvath, reputedly shows evidence of something unusually large swimming in the lake. A TV segment featuring Horvath’s story and photo caught Kirk’s attention and a subsequent Internet search by his team pulled up the story in The News.
It wasn’t the first time they’d heard about this creature. In fact, he said his group first heard about the cryptid — the name given to unidentified species — in 2004.
“We have been aware of the Cameron Lake cryptid for a long time,” Kirk said.
Kirk and his team studied Horvath’s image. They have since been in contact with her and he said he’s contemplating an expedition to the shores of Cameron Lake. If he does come, Kirk will bring with him a wealth of experience spanning 20 years that has seen his search for strange creatures take him from the shores of Vancouver Island lakes to the jungles of the Congo.
He leads a group of about 70 members — among them, he notes, two members of the prestigious Royal Society. He plans to bring some of them with him, and he has invited Horvath.
The sighting, he said, fits in with a surprisingly large and widespread body of local lake creature lore. In fact, he said, British Columbia is number one in the world for lake monster sightings, beating out Norway and Sweden.
“There are 39 lakes in this province where some type of creature has been seen,” he said. “These phenomena happen all over the province.”
Other Island sightings, he said, include giant salamanders in Nitnat Lake, and an Ogopogo-like creature in Cowichan Lake.
“There’s a story of a guy fishing there in the 1950s or ‘60s being towed around the lake for an hour when his fishing line snagged on something very large.”
Tales of lake cryptids on Vancouver Island, he said, go beyond the 20-odd year history of the Cameron Lake creature, noting another lake may provide a clue about the history of lake creatures.
“Sproat Lake is also a body of water with an unknown animal inhabiting it,” he said. “In April, 1987 my family and a friend saw two large black humps swimming parallel with the shore at the northern end of the lake. We watched it for about minute. At Sproat Lake there are famous pictographs depicting an unknown creature known in the rest of the province as a Naitaka. This is the same name given to Ogopogo.”
An author and law enforcement support worker, Kirk has travelled to Scotland, Ireland and parts of the United States in his cryptozoological investigations. However, he said for him, his adventure in Africa stands out.
“We were looking for a semi-aquatic creature in Congo and Cameroon, called Mokele-mbembe, which is described as a long-necked animal with a body similar to a hippo and elephant-like legs,” he said. “It sounded like a sauropod. We heard reports of Pygmies seeing the creature.”
One father and son, he said, reported watching a Mokele-mbembe for three hours when its bulk blocked their passage on the river, and they were able to describe it in detail. Some of the locals, he said, were able to pick out a picture of the creature from a book — a picture which turned out to be of a plesiosaur. Interestingly, he added, the Pygmies described dermal quills on the neck of the beast — a feature of plesiosaurs largely unknown until very recently, and which weren’t in the pictures.
While Kirk said Mokele-mbembe could be some sort of holdover from another time, the Cameron Lake cryptid appears to be something different.
“Someone said it was silver coloured and looked like a fish,” he said. “I don’t think this is a pleisiosaur or something left over from he age of dinosaurs. I think it could be an undiscovered species.”
