Riverside It

 The Riverside It

By Cole Herrold

Many people want to see cryptids. I'm included in this camp how I'd love to see Mothman flying overhead, or while camping encounter, a sasquatch silently wander in the woods. The idea of encountering something unknown is what most of us in the field of Cryptozoology want to experience at least once in our lives. Yet, the thing most of us seem to forget is that there is a dark side to the world of Cryptozoology. Whether it be Nessie attacking early villagers in Loch Ness or Bigfoot carrying off women and children to eat in its dark abodes, this notion of aggressive animalistic cryptids has almost disappeared due to the pop media, tourism, and Amblin style films that paint these creatures as cute, cuddly, friendly, and shy critters that are just trying to make their way in the world. This is unrealistic for many who have had an encounter with a cryptid can seem like a waking nightmare. This is one such case.

On a dark rainy night on November 8^th, 1958, in Riverside, California, Charles Wetzel was driving home in his 1952 Buick and listening to K.F.I. Los Angeles on the radio. While crossing North Main Street where the Santa Ana River is located, he proceeded to in a wise way to slow his speed to avoid a potential accident, for there was an area of the road that had a habit due to its construction to result in the river flooding the road. As approaching this area, he noticed that his radio began to receive only static. Obviously frustrated at the lack of tunes or simply missing his favorite radio host, Wetzel continued to change and go from station to station to find that every station is flooded with static. Glancing up, Wetzel noticed what he thought was a sign, but as his eyes adjusted to his surroundings, he realized how wrong he was. There illuminated by his Buick’s headlights was something that has never been seen before.

A creature that stood six feet tall was wadding in the overflow of the banks, standing there just obscured by shadows as it slowly began to move in a strange gait. The car approached the unnatural abomination, and at that moment, the creature turned and glared inward at the occupant. The creature Wetzel saw had a largemouth that protruded out of the face; its rounded head bore no features like ears or a nose but instead had two deep-set glowing yellow eyes. The creature was as tall as a man in its stance with incredibly long arms with large, clawed hands. The legs of the creature stuck out from the side of its waist as opposed to the bottom like a person giving it almost a crab-like stance and appearance. When it walked, it appeared not to use its knees as though they were there only to help balance the strange anomaly. Its body was covered in scales that were leaf-like in pattern and humanoid in form. As the creature stared into the Buick, a swift motion from the creature's arm sent shivers up the startled motorist's back as the creature proceeded to claw at the windshield. Its long claws screeching and scratching at the glass. The beast let out hideous gurgling sounds while continuing its assault on the machine.

Wetzel reached throughout the cacophony of screeches, gurgles, and rain to his glove box, where he kept a .22 high standard pistol. He felt the cool metal in his hand, his eyes never leaving the site of the monstrous beast still wreaking havoc on his car. His finger wrapped around the trigger, yet at that moment, he thought if he shoots the glass, the barrier between him and his enigmatic aggressor would be severed, resulting in a more physical confrontation which may result in the end of his life. Wetzel's mind changed gears, and returning to the wheel, pushed his foot down on the gas. The startled creature still continued its assault as it was knocked down to the street pavement. The creature, as Wetzel would later describe, "Screamed like a Fucker" as the heavy automobile ran the unknown entity over. The creature under the vehicle continued its din under the car, screaming and gurgling while scratching at the oil pan under the car, almost as though it was trying to hold on to the moving vehicle. Wetzel left the creature in the road and continued to drive on, not stopping until he reached the police station. The police took notice of the damage done to the vehicle, and later on, tests of the undercarriage noticed that the "grease had been scrubbed off" by something.

Bloodhounds were later sent to go and search for the creature that had created such a problem for this Riverside resident. Yet arriving at the site, they could find no trace of the monster that should have been a bloody mess on the side of the road. Wetzel never saw the creature again, and I'm sure never traveled that section of road ever again.

This account of what has been dubbed as the Riverside Bridge Monster, Riverside It, and the Riverside Brain Tickler, the latter which according to The Weird U.S. Website's article "The Riverside Bridge Monster” received this name because of a free paper that retold the tale, is one of the most frightful and aggressive cryptid encounters on the books. It’s a situation no one wants to be in. This account has been written extensively by Loren Coleman in his necessary Fortean research tome Mysterious America. Coleman describes the bare bones of the case as well as material brought up in his interview with Wetzel some years later.

This creature is by far one of not only the most aggressive but bizarre beasts reported from a cryptozoological standpoint. There is nothing that officially matches it, not even when looking at other cryptids. Lizardmen appear more reptilian and do not have the kind of protruding beak seen in this case. The same goes for frogmen, armless aquatic humanoids, and just about every other obvious suspects in the cryptid ark. Everything about it seems wrong; the way it moves, the size of it, and the description of its face and scales make it one of the most enduring mysteries I've ever read.

The appearance of the creature zoologically speaking matches no known animal, not even from a fossil standpoint. Some features like a protruding mouth could be something beak-like, which is similar to what some dinosaurs did display, like an Oviraptor but to say that this is a surviving dinosaur is even more ridiculous. This animal displays features that appear both reptilian, mammal, and bird-like, but most of its features can be lumped into a reptile or reptilian style. Yet again, nothing that we know of matches. So where can we go from here?

In most of my articles, I can come up with a list of potential possibilities that range from the most mundane, like a native species, to something more exotic like a surviving relict. Yet, with this case, even the idea of saying it was somebody perpetrating a hoax is extremely unlikely. The damage done to the car and the damage specifically tested by police under the car show that something was hit by Wetzel and did attack his car. If it were a person hoaxing it, that person would be severely injured or dead, and I'm sure the newspapers would have recounted the individual's "prank," and this would no longer be the mystery that it is. If Wetzel had done the damage to the car himself, it raises the question as to why for no sane person would deliberately damage their own vehicle for the chance of some publicity. The idea of Wetzel doing this damage is on the point of it being just ludicrous, and if you go down that route, it can easily turn conspiratorial.

The most plausible option, it seems, is that this is a new undiscovered species. As bizarre as that concept might seem with a creature like this, there are no mundane answers that don't come off sounding ridiculous or so far out in right field that it's not even worth discussing. With cases like bigfoot and lake monsters, there are countless reports of multiple individuals. With this creature, there is only one official sighting, no evidence of a breeding population at all, so it's hard not to view this creature as a single entity. Viewing it in that terms, we should have some physical evidence, some road smear for its existence. While with most cases of vehicular accidents on animals, the poor creatures usually do not survive. The Riverside It clearly should be lying near the bank or floating in the water if it even was able to move slightly. Yet a body was never found. There are some evidence and reports that the creature managed to survive or that another member(s)of this species is still seen residing in and along the Santa Ana River.

The first of these cases occurred the night after the events between Charles Wetzel and the beast. The first being that almost another vehicular accident with these beasts occurred as a couple driving down a similar stretch of road watched as a large dark form ran across the road. While the form is not described as anything more substantial, this encounter because of timing is deeply connected to the Riverside It because of the timeframe and location of the beast.

An interesting find connected to this case comes from a strange source, the A.P.R.O. Bulletin. The A.P.R.O. or Aerial Phenomenon Research Organization is an organization whose primary focus is on U.F.O. s and extraterrestrial oriented research. When doing research for another topic, I came across an interesting article in a book by Coral E. Lorenzen that collected a good majority of the issues from 1958-1959. In the November 1958 issue of the Bulletin, an article entitled "Monster," the article is about the Charles Wetzel case. The article says that there were around twenty-eight calls to the sheriff in regard to the monster. This itself is ambiguous whether it's journalists, concerned neighbors, or as in the cases of most monster flaps, other eyewitnesses. The way the article is written; however, it seems to be implying the latter. These accounts, to my knowledge, have been uncollected, and I'm sure that there are tons of encounters that went unreported, as is the case with most cryptid encounters. While the police reports on other sightings have yet to be either released or accounted there were other encounters that occurred along and near the Santa Ana River and appear to be of a similar creature.

In the ever-invaluable book The Inhumanoids: Real Encounters with Beings That Can’t Exist! by Barton M. Nunnelly, he describes the Wetzel encounter and goes on to describe three separate occasions of creatures similar in appearance. This first sighting which occurred several years after the initial Riverside encounter occurred near the town of Corona. This account has been referred to as the Lemon Grove incident as this was the general area where a lot of these sightings took place. These sightings took place approximately 10 miles from Riverside but occurred during the 60s and 70s, approximately 5 to 15 years after Wetzel’s infamous encounter.

Dave Wilson and Tom McKelvy were out driving on a full moon in Dave's truck one night when they decided to head up to the Lemon Grove area. Driving the old dirt roads, they were encapsulated in the serenity of the darkness around them when one of the duo noticed some movement in the tree line. Wondering about their mysterious observation, they proceeded to go and put their truck in park. Sitting in the darkness, they proceeded in lifting and turning on a large flashlight and scanned the forest's darkness for what has captured their attention. When there about 75ft in front of them, they saw a form. The form was a creature standing 9ft tall and covered in shaggy gray hair. The creature bore a round head described in shape, not unlike that which Wetzel reported. The creature's round head was attached to the shoulders as no neck was visible. Its round head was filled with a pair of bulging eyes, front teeth that pointed outwards, and a nose that looked pushed in. The creature's arms were insanely long, and its hands were tipped in long claws. The two men stared at this unholy abomination for what seemed like an eternity when the creature began to move in an odd fashion; it seemed to lurch as it moved before letting out a long metallic-sounding screech. The men's eyes widened, for this was a call to war; the creature began to charge the stopped truck. Dave and Tom knowing their encounter most likely was going to turn deadly, proceeded in putting the truck in reverse and, like a bat out of hell, spun the truck around and drove 70 yards away from the monstrous beast. The two men breathed a sigh of relief as they believed they were in the clear, but it had not. Looking in the rearview mirror, one of the men could see their monstrous assailant still charging, and by the time the men were pulling away once again, the creature had begun to stretch its disproportionate arm into the tailgate of the pickup truck as though it was trying to grab it. Luckily before any connection could be made, the men sped off, leaving their strange antagonist behind in the Lemon Groves.

The next day the men returned to the scene and there discovered a large track with three long-clawed toes. The print was eighteen inches long and seven inches across. The men proceeded to go to the police with their encounter, but the officers, after hearing their encounter and seeing the print, believed that this sighting was the work of some prankster. About a year later, however, Dave and another friend, while driving in the same area, saw the same creature south of Chase Drive in the Lemon Groves. While seeing it a second time, he noticed the area smelled of a horrendous smell like that of a dead animal.

These accounts are often included in books on bigfoot. Yet this creature seems to be a composite of the creature seen by Charles Wetzel, and interestingly, a lot of the features like the round head, hair, long arms, seem to bear a resemblance to some types of bigfoot like creatures like Momo the Missouri monster. This creature, while slightly mammalian, behaves and has features that are extremely similar to what was reported by Wetzel and I feel should be included as part of this case. Could it be that the leaf-like scales reported by Wetzel was actually wet muddy fur that had dried, giving it that scale-like pattern? This idea has been proposed for other reptilian creatures, most notably the Honey Island Swamp Monster and the Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp. I personally don't feel this to be the case seeing as the creature was literally on top and underneath Wetzel's car, and he got an excellent look at it, seeing as this creature was only feet away from his face. Clearly, in a situation like that, someone can tell the difference between a lizard-like monstrosity and something apish.

While this is all the written accounts of a creature similar in appearance to the Riverside It in California, while researching the account, I came across the website Weird California and its article “Wetzel's Riverside Monster” while the article itself poses nothing new in regard to information. Upon reaching the bottom of the page, I found an anonymous commentator who claimed to of known others who had encountered similar beasts. While it can easily be dismissed by skeptics due to the anonymous nature, the simple fact of it being a comment, and not as worthy in regard of evidence as opposed to the researchers who spent time interviewing Wetzel and writing about the case for the sake of completion I decided to include it in the article.

This is the account in its entirety: “I know some people that live at the Wetzel River, currently known and called The Riverbottom, that has seen that creature and saw two more of those creature. A total amount of three creatures which they seen those creatures hovering over the River water and watching the people and as soon as the people go closer to it they run off into the bushes. In addition to the story, those creatures still exist and still is unknown what it could be. They come out at night. Many people who live there has seen it and tried to stab it with a long spear but it got away. Also there are demon entities who also come out at night. They have powerful forces that they imprint their face onto the side of the tent. Some people who believe in Jesus Christ will tell those entities to leave them alone. They only come to the weak minded people who don't have faith and believe in Jesus Christ. His name protects us people who have belief and faith in him. He is the one who can and will save us. Be aware if you go take a trip to the River Bottom. Be safe.”

This account, if accurate, offers an interesting patina for a case that is deeply rooted in Cryptozoology. In contrast, I take a lot of the spiritual aspects of this particular creature with more than a grain of salt. Personally, I would say an entire bag of salt. I do find it interesting that there is a consistent amount of supposed accounts that occur along the Santa Ana River. Could it be that these creatures use this river to travel from a different locale or as a major site for spawning if they are instead of reptilians more akin to fish in origin and behavior?

A fish humanoid is something that has occurred from time to time. The Thetis Lake Monster, for example, is a creature described as a semiaquatic fish or lizard-like creature. Now this creature seen in the 70s in Vancouver Island is described as much more ornate in the face and head than what is reported in the Riverside It case. There was a case that occurred in Breckinridge, Kentucky, that also featured a fish-type humanoid that ran into the side of the witnesses' house. How similar or different these animals would be to already known fish is something yet to be determined. Yet there is the possibility that these animals retained through the millions of years of their evolution some of their habits such as migration. This idea seems even more plausible with a species that is bipedal. This feature would help these creatures to travel from one lake, pond, river, bayou, etc. this could explain why we have one-time encounters or encounters of the creatures several years or decades down the line while other areas have reports of the same or similar creatures. A study to try to determine a pattern has at least to my knowledge not been explored.

Following this idea of a migratory aquatic species, there is one account of a creature bearing an intermediate resemblance to what was seen by Wetzel. The same year as Wetzel's encounter, there was an encounter of a similar beast in San Luis Valley in New Mexico. Priscilla Garduno Wolf and two other friends encountered a strange figure which came out and stood outside her house for several nights near her home. The figure stood by a ditch which was full of water. The dogs around her property had become upset about this creature. This continued for several nights, but the creature was gone by the day. Now on one occasion, the group of friends had decided to go and use this aquatic path to cool off from the hot summer sun. While traveling, they noticed a dark figure standing in the tree line. As the girls passed this silent creature and proceeded to walk a decent distant past it, they never looked away from the shadowy form. Without warning, the figure picked up speed, plunged into the water, and began to swim at a fast pace towards the young girls. They could make out its blurred form as it swam menacingly in this irrigation canal. The girls realizing the potential danger they were in, ran out of the water and did not stop until they got home. The next day they returned to the location where their semiaquatic admirer had been, and they found three-toed lizard-like tracks. that was the end of her horrific account with what she called the Lizard Man.

While I thoroughly believe that in this case, what we are seeing is a rare aquatic humanoid or reptilian humanoid of some kind, there are several alternative ideas that push this creature into more fringe topics. I mentioned the supposed demonic nature of these creatures in the account written by the anonymous commentator. While I sincerely do not support this idea and believe it to be one of the least likely, it is one that does, for the sake of argument, need to be brought up. The idea of reptilian creatures being devils or demonic forces is something that is continuously mentioned by many who are of an entirely religion-oriented mind. While these creatures are unknown, and it is tempting to jump on the supernatural bandwagon for things that we do not understand, it is also important to mention that some of these individuals claim that dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals were created by the devil to trick mankind, which is truly nonsensical.  As a man with a mind more towards science than supernatural, I bury these claims to be on the par of almost impossible. In my mind, there is a more scientific understanding of these creatures.

Another hypothesis is that these creatures are, in fact, from another dimension or, as John Keel would call them, an Ultraterrestrial. For those who don't know what an Ultraterrestrial is, it is an organism made up of energy or some other form of matter that can appear and change into different things for a variety of different purposes; some claim these creatures feed off our energies like fear, depression, etc. whereas others seem to simply be tricksters not unlike the various spirits, and gods seen around the world but most famously known in Native American lore. These creatures have been described to take a variety of supposed forms and are the singular explanation to every kind of phenomenon from bigfoot, U.F.O.s, ghosts, and even religious figures for those who follow this school of thought. It is worthy of note that during Charles Wetzel's encounter before he saw the creature, he reported that his radio received nothing but static on every radio station. This is something Keel had noted with a variety of these Ultraterrestrial encounters, and this kind of event occurred during sightings of the Mothman during the 66'-67' flap. This phenomenon has also been reported in connection with those that have supposedly encountered portals into other worlds or dimensions.

My standpoint on this is that this is too extreme of an answer for the data that is given in the account, and it requires no thoroughly complex thought or critical thinking to really come to this conclusion. Now that’s not to say that there may be something to some cases where this is the most likely answer, but there needs to be a hierarchy of thought when it comes to these topics. When researching any topic, I always try to eliminate the mundane answers first; if nothing mundane makes sense, I go into the field of Cryptozoology, followed by Ufology, then spectral research and the world of multidimensional entities and Ultraterrestrials, this is then followed by demonology and what some would call divine. The range goes from most likely and most testable or hypothetical to least likely and least testable. The case of the Riverside It is unique because it is mostly a biological case, but it has some features that could enter on some of the fringier sides.

The Riverside It case, however, seems to not fit nicely into any of the fringier topics. For those dedicated to these studies, many of which I do find worth, like Ufology and spectral research, I feel would agree for the most part that this particular case seems to indicate something that is of a more biological standpoint, especially with Wetzel's encounter. There were no U.F.O.s reported during the account, so the idea of this creature being some kind of extraterrestrial is extremely unlikely. The creature clearly had some physicality to it, especially with the reaction to being hit by the car, so clearly, it is not a demonic or ghostly entity. So that really leaves one main plausible option.

 This creature, while often viewed as a singular entity, is something that appears to be some kind of reptilian hominid or icthyohominid creature that, due to convergent evolution or parallel evolution, developed bipedal features. While there is nothing in the fossil evidence to support the development of such a feature or creature, we do know that many species like dinosaurs and birds walk bipedally, and reptiles like the Basilisk lizard run bipedally. So, the existence of something other than a man doing so is not out of the ordinary.

With this particular case, we are left with way more questions than answers. There is no cut and dry answer while I feel this creature is a flesh and blood organism that possibly travels or migrates to other watery holes for some as yet unknown reason and timeframe. It is still a hypothesis that requires much more study and testing. Yet while there is so much uncertainty to the origins of this particular beast, there is one thing that is perfectly clear. The creature had upset the life of one particular man that rainy night and, in doing so, certainly changed his viewpoint of the world. How does one prepare for an encounter with the unknown? it is something that many want, but few realize the possible repercussions of such an encounter. In Charles Wetzel's case, the overall end was of a traumatic encounter that, when interviewed, was so ingrained in his memory that even the most minute detail was saved. I have great sympathy for those who have encountered the unknown and have problems coping with it, for it is something that can totally change not only their perception but their lives.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Reptile

Location: Riverside, California

Sighted: November 8, 1958

Works Cited

Bishop, Greg, Joe Oesterle, and Mike Marinacci. Weird California: Your Travel Guide to California’s Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets. Sterling. 2006.

Coleman, Loren. Mysterious America: The Ultimate Guide to the Nation’s Weirdest Wonders, Strangest Spots, and Creepiest Creatures. Paraview Pocket Books. 2007

Guttilla, Peter. The Bigfoot Files. Timeless Voyager Press. 2017.

Lorenzen, Coral E. “Monster”. The A.P.R.O. Bulletin. November 1958. Saucerian Publishing. 2020.

Nunnelly, Barton M. The Inhumanoids: Real Encounters with Beings that Can’t Exist!. Triangulum. 2017.

“Riverside Bridge Monster”. Weird U.S. http://www.weirdus.com/states/california/bizarre_beasts/riverside_bridge_monster/index.php?fbclid=IwAR0YNI5ZLYUs1Z6buTGkaPVUbrzmCEm2NCb45HaZk39f6GNCcZx_Vhb7ry0. Accessed December 15^th, 2020.

“California Screaming? Dark Tales And Legends From Otherwise Sunny California” Me Time For The Mind.  https://www.metimeforthemind.com/california-screaming-dark-tales-and-legends-from-otherwise-sunny-california.html?fbclid=IwAR1U2WkbvOAgtyHekprHYBDrg9rfkbYL6VUZK7pKtLb6jMa0VqHt5RoCA_0. Accessed December 15^th, 2020.

“Wetzel's Riverside Monster” Weird California. http://www.weirdca.com/location.php?location=119. Accessed December 16^th, 2020