Skysquatches
By Cole Herrold
For the skeptics, the existence of Bigfoot
is already a tall order. The idea that a man-like creature roaming the wilds of
America when zoological statistics states we've discovered every large animal
in the world is something they already have a hard time swallowing yet reports
come in year after year in ridiculous numbers and at least the idea of a
Bigfoot is something that is at least similar to what we know exists. However,
there is a subset of accounts that seem to totally jump off the map of even the
hardest believer's sanity, and one such type is interconnected with the forest
giant. If these encounters are to be believed, it would seem that a group of
these wood apes somehow, over the course of evolution, developed the incredibly
uncanny ability to fly.
The phenomenon I’ve come to dub
Skysquatches are a peculiar case as most reports come from modern time with
only a few predating the late 2010s. I first came across this relatively
unknown phenomenon while researching Pennsylvania sightings in Albert Rosales’s
masterpiece Humanoid Encounters Series and then later Lon Strickler
would catalog several of the Lake Michigan Mothman sightings in his book Winged
Cryptids under a headline Bigfoot with wings? that clearly do not match
typical Mothman descriptions but seem to be more examples of the same kind of
phenomenon.
The first case that we can arguably say
fits into this category occurred in January 1976 in Hidalgo County, Texas, which
involved Manuel Perales and his 12-year-old son Danny. The two took their old
beat-up pick-up truck on a rather cool day towards the woods of a friend’s
ranch in Northern Hidalgo County to go hunting for the day. The two left the
safety of the truck, guns in hand, and began to head to a spot Manuel had
scoped out earlier and had set up a deer stand. The father and son clamored up
the metal steps to the heightened hideout and proceeded to sit still and quiet,
waiting for potential quarry. All went well until suddenly they saw movement;
the father instantly put his rifle's scope up to his eye, and he could tell
that it was an incredibly large buck. Manuel being the caring father, proceeded
in nudging his son to give him the go-ahead to shoot the first deer of the day.
Danny lifted his rifle aimed at the animal and stared through the site, yet as
he did so and as he could see the oblivious nature of the deer, he felt a
twinge of compassion for the animal and realized he could not take the shot. He
turned to his father, shaking his head, implying he could not take the shot all
for his father to in an angry turn lifted his own rifle and proceeded to take
the shot. However, fate seemed to be with the deer, for just as Manuel pulled
the trigger, his rifle jammed, and the deer, seemingly now aware of the
potential danger it was in, bolted. The father, irritated and concerned, turned
over to his son and asked him, "Why couldn't you take the shot?". The
boy sat in silence for a minute and, as he was turning to go answer him had the
shock of his life. Manuel was grabbed by some large creature by the shoulders
and slowly was lifted up above the ground. Manuel, still trying to figure out
what was going on, began to struggle and try to shake himself free from the
vicelike grip of some unknown assailant. The creature, which seemed to be a
cross between a bat and a bigfoot, was flapping its wings and was attempting to
lift the man away. The hunter had become the hunted. The boy, in a moment of
bravery, knew what he had to do and proceeded to grab his rifle and took
careful aim at the creature. He raised the rifle and set his scope for between
the creature's eyes and, when he was sure his father was out of the way, took
the shot. As the rifle recoiled, however, his barrel moved slightly and,
instead of hitting the creature's brain cavity, only managed to blow out one of
the creature's eyes instead. The creature howled in pain and instantly dropped
the father and began to fly off into the woods screaming in pain. Danny rushed
down to his father, who was lying on the ground, and made sure he was alright.
Everything seemed fine except for some cracked ribs, and the two quickly yet
cautiously made their way out of the woods and back into town.
In the Sumer of 1993, another account of a
Skysquatch occurred near Baker's Point in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Not much is
known about this encounter except the following "A witness saw a six foot
Bigfoot-type creature near Baker's Point. As he watched the creature spread a
huge pair of wings and took flight, quickly disappearing from sight". This
account I found in Albert S. Rosales mandatory Fortean catalogs The Humanoid
Encounters series and was the first case I came across of such a
phenomenon. Rosales credits Lena Griffith of New Jersey MUFON for the sighting,
but other than that, nothing else is known about the encounter.
Sightings of these types of creatures
appear to be incredibly rare as there are, to my knowledge, no other sightings
until the late 2010s, many of which get lumped into the Lake Michigan Mothman
encounters; there
is specifically one account, in particular, that seems to be a part of this
phenomenon. It is important to note, however, that the term Batsquatch which
was utilized from the Monsters and Mysteries in America series where the
first account comes from, lumps the cryptid Big Bird as one of these types of
creatures, and most accounts mentioned in the show are of that variety. The
inclusion of Big Bird as this type of creature is not the only erroneous thing
the show did on this particular episode as even the name of Batsquatch is an
already taken name for a Cryptid reported in Washington State that was
described as having bluish fur, the head of a dog or wolf, and human-like hands
or feet hence why I to make more of a distinction from this entirely lumped
phenomena coined this particular subset Skysquatches to remove any potential
confusion with already established creatures.
The final encounter with a creature that
can be dubbed as a Skysquatch comes from Woodstock, Illinois, and occurred on
February 22, 2019. A witness who is only known as TM, was driving home at 8pm
in the evening from a trip to Walgreens. He turned onto Country Club Road,
which was near the DuField Pond Conservation Area; as he was driving along, he
noticed that something was crossing from the Conversation Area and was about to
enter the road. Thinking initially it was going to be a deer, he proceeded to
slow down and watched as the dark form began to make its way across the road.
To his absolute shock, however, what crossed the road some 30ft in front of him
was something entirely different than what should be reported in Illinois. It
was in that moment he thought he was staring at something that clearly shouldn't
exist; his first thought was that the creature working its way across the road
was none other than the classic cryptozoological creature known as Sasquatch,
but as the creature took up 1/3rd of the road he noticed that
attached to the back of the creature were some bizarre extensions that upon
seeing this had him totally rethink his assessment. The creature, while covered
in hair, also had extremely large protrusions coming from its back that he
could tell were gargoyle-like wings. The body of the creature was covered with
hair with well-defined arms and legs and was about 8-9ft tall and the wings
attached to this hairy form were membranous and extended over the top of the
head. He could make out incredible details from his headlights but surprisingly
could not make out the face of the creature. Once the creature crossed the road
and disappeared into the darkness, TM proceeded to tell his wife about the
case. His wife had him draw the creature, and she the next day went out to the
frozen area to look for tracks. She found tons of boot prints and a few tracks
that she couldn't readily identify. The wife later proceeded in emailing Lon
Strickler of Phantoms and Monsters about her husband's sighting, and Lon
did a follow-up interview, and so to did Tobias Wayland and Emily Wayland of Singular
Fortean, who would later also do a follow-up. A side note to this encounter
is that there are three other winged humanoid reports from the area which
Strickler connects to this encounter.
This final account reels in the cases of
winged humanoids that seem to be Skysquatches, and to my knowledge, no other
sightings have been reported. It's interesting to think that the Bigfoot
phenomenon has now dipped its toes into almost every facet of the paranormal.
In the 70s, there were waves of UFO-Bigfoot reports, Disappearing Bigfoot, the
Demonic/Psychic Bigfoot, in the 90s, and 2000s there were the spawn of the
Interdimensional Bigfoot, the Cloaking Bigfoot, the Multidimensional Bigfoot,
and now we have the Flying Humanoid Bigfoot its almost as though the paranormal
is such a fan of the hairy hominid that it has to include it in every project
it creates. Now while I make it sound as though the paranormal is some cosmic entity
that seems intent to unleash horrors and confusion across America however
perhaps this form is simply ideal for some yet unknown reason for a variety of
this phenomenon to exist even though none of the cases are legitimately
connected.
While there are countless cases of
Paranormal Sasquatchery, this type of creature is not necessarily something
supernatural but biological. There are several species said to exist around the
world of primate-like flying creatures; however, most of these are incredibly small.
One of the creatures reported in America is the Napa Rebobs, a group of flying
monkeys that are said to attack anyone bold enough to enter their dark domain
on Partrick Road. In Indonesia, an almost identical creature is reported known
as the Orang Bati; these creatures are extremely dangerous and have been
claimed to abduct and eat children. Now the big difference between these
creatures and the Skysquatches is the fact that these creatures are incredibly
small compared to the colossal giants seen in Illinois, Allentown, and Hidalgo
County. So, unless these entities are juveniles that are left in regional nests
before growing up and taking flight to other portions of the world, they seem
to be entirely different creatures.
Yet even if the relation to the Rebobs or
Orang Bati was solid, it still does not explain the Skysquatches biology. The
Skysquatches back wings evolutionarily should not exist in nature. The only
organisms with back wings are insects, bats, and birds; on the other hand, they
evolved the ability of flight by modifying their hand phalanges and arms to
become wings. This should be how these creatures look but having the wings on
the back throws a monkey wrench into any known evolutionary line. This implies
that we truly do not know every evolutionary outcome and line or that these
creatures are not from this world.
One theory that many current researchers
seem to advocate is all winged humanoid encounters are entities that are from
another dimension or from the Superspectrum, the location where the
Ultraterrestrials are said to reside. The multidimensional aspect, to me, would
be the more plausible of the two, for there is the chance that these creatures
evolved naturally on some different dimension, yet both options are still on
the table. Another theory that can be thrown out with these hypotheses is the
infernal origin of Sasquatch. Some evangelists claim that the Sasquatches are
the sons of the Nephilim or the Nephilim themselves; if this is the case, the
wings would be a suitable addition to a creature that at one point was said to
be angelic. I do not think this is to be the case; however, it is worth noting
that the witness who sighted the creature in 2019 did mention the Nephilim when
describing his encounter.
These encounters are flabbergasting and
seem to be very difficult to put into an already established box. These
accounts are also difficult because there are very few, and most are extremely
brief, and the details are almost always fuzzy as to behavior, so it's
difficult to even glean as to whether these creatures are ostensibly
cryptozoological entities or paranormal ones. For now, until more data can be
gathered on these winged weirdos, all we can do is collect whatever accounts
might be floating around and hope that any future encounters with these
creatures are less aggressive than the one from 76'.
Quick Facts:
Species/Potential Species: Mammal
Location: Northern Hidalgo County, Texas,
Baker’s Point, Allentown, Pennsylvania, Woodstock, Illinois
Sighted: January 1976, Summer 1993,
February 22, 2019
Works Cited:
Humanoid Encounters 1990-1994 By Albert S. Rosales
Winged Cryptids: Humanoids, Monsters, and
Anomalous Creatures Casebook By Lon Strickler
Monsters and Mysteries in America Season 2, Episode
8 "Winged Beasts: Flying Humanoid, Jersey Devil, Batsquatch."
Destination America. 2014.
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