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Friday, October 8, 2021

Skysquatches

 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.

Area where the sighting of the 2019 Skysquatch Sighting occurred

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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