The Hampshire Cyclops

 The Hampshire Cyclops

By Cole Herrold

Cryptids and Aliens have appeared in all sorts of guises and descriptions. Oft times, these beings have features or elements similar to those of mythological and folkloric beings that raise the bar as to whether our ancestors' legends or descriptions of these creatures we take as fantasy could be potentially real encounters. The weirdest of these are those beings that not only seem to defy evolution but also seem to be a combination of multiple mythological creatures. One such encounter that seemed to be a cross between the Greek Cyclops and both the Acephali and Blemmyes these figures are beings that are humanoid in form but missing a head and feature facial features on the chest and stomach instead. The latter of these figures are reported in many early manuscripts and were extensively covered before and during the middle ages by such travelers as Pliny the Elder and Herodotus. These figures are almost nonexistent in the annals of modern Fortean studies; however, there are occasionally reports of such creatures or creatures of a similar description in modern times.

It was about 11:00 at night on February 21, 2004, and Emily Parkinson of Hampshire, England, was lying in bed waiting for her husband to come home. As she lay in wait comfortably wrapped in the warmth of the blanket, she noticed a bizarre bright white light that seemed to reflect in the mirror. Thinking that perhaps this was her husband coming home, she got up to go check at the nearby window. As she peered into the darkness, she did notice a bizarre figure standing in the yard, but as she looked closer, she could tell that the figure was far from human. As the figure turned, she could tell that it was about 6ft tall and looked very human-like but where there should have been a head was a smooth layer of flesh that stretched from the shoulder blades making the creature headless. The creature, however, was not devoid of features that one would find on the face, for as Emily looked the anomalous entity over, she noticed a large globular mass protruding from the region of the entity's stomach. This mass which she soon could tell was the creature's eye, was described as having several round black circles in it, each one smaller than the last, which gave it the appearance of some sort of Tim Burton-esque Christmas ornament. The creature seemed to notice that it was witnessed, and as the two stared back at each other, the strange eye-like organ began to create a kind of incredibly high pitch sound that she would claim seemed to penetrate her mind. Whether there was some type of communication or whether this was some sort of mind-reading is unknown, but Emily was certain that it had some sort of purpose. Emily was filled with terror by the strange nature and behavior of the creature and could not look away from the strange being as she watched; however, the entity began to slowly fade away, its flesh becoming more and more transparent before it finally disappeared. Leaving her once again alone on her property, she kept her story to herself for some time before she ultimately reported her sighting to the now-defunct site Iwasabducted.com.

This encounter is exceptionally bizarre as it features many elements that one would associate with an extraterrestrial or faerie encounter; however, there are elements of this case that are not classically associated with either phenomenon. The phenomenon of cyclops extraterrestrials are not uncommon; there have been several semi-famous reports of such beings over the years, such as the Belo Horizonte encounter where several orange-skinned cyclops aliens were reported, and a Cyclops species is included in MUFON’s The Extraterrestrial Species Almanac; however, these species are cyclops in the classical Greek sense of the word they have a single eye in a head even amongst other non-humanoid aliens who also are reported as having a single eye or mass that one would be considered an eye like in the Space Brains of Pelos Verdes case none exactly match the description of the entity seen in Hampshire and again even amongst the widely catalogued space parade almost all have some sort of head.

If this creature did not have the supernatural abilities of a potential mind scan and the ability to fade away, I would entertain the cryptid possibility even though it is less likely. There is a tradition of headless races described in folklore, such as the Acephali and Blemmyes as mentioned earlier; there also are countless creatures that are often reported headless such as the Grafton Monster of West Virginia, which was seemingly devoid of facial features but like the entity, in this case, did release a high pitched noise that was described as a whistling sound. Another headless creature was Mothman, who in the 66'-67' description did have a pair of bright red eyes seemingly placed in the chest region of the body, much like the creature here. Now the problem with this, of course, is that these creatures, except for possibly Mothman, do not have any direct supernatural connection as in the case of the Grafton Monster, there were no UFOs or anomalous lights seen in the area during the sighting and the creature did not have any of the mental or psionic abilities described in the Hampshire case nor did any witness during the flap of sightings report it disappearing in plain sight.

The fact that there was a bright light seen even though it was a form of reflection seems to once again indicate the extraterrestrial angle even though an exact species of this variety has never been reported, at least to my knowledge before. The bizarre behavior of this beast seems to indicate at some sort of sentience, and even the fading away or disappearing element is something that has been reported over the years in other extraterrestrial cases. If one looks at the incredible vastness of the universe, it is not out of the realm of possibilities that some organism could have evolved in this manner on another planet, and so from this, it is one of the most likely, if not the main explanation to this creature.

While the extraterrestrial possibility is more likely the best option for identifying the origin of the being, however, it is not the only one. The other possibility that could explain this creature is the faerie option. Faeries are often associated with bright lights, the ability to fade away or disappear, and anomalous sounds that cause some sort of deliriousness or trance-like state, all of which we see in this case. One-eyed faeries are also rather common in lore and in antediluvian encounters; however, while there is a lot of things similar with the fae in this encounter, there is nothing at least that I'm aware of that matches this being that comes from the Other World or Faerie Land. There is, of course, the possibility that this is some undiscovered or uncatalogued species, but the fact that there are how many thousands of years of recorded encounters and nothing exactly matching makes this hypothesis unlikely.

Of course, as with just about every Fortean case, there is also the chance of this entity being an interdimensional or Ultraterrestrial as both possibilities are plausible in this case. The fact that this entity appeared and disappeared is something we would associate with both these types of beings; if this creature was from another dimension, it, much like an extraterrestrial, would have countless evolutionary possibilities. The fact that there was a definite response of fear from the form the creature was described as would also add to the possibility that this being could have been intentional if it was an Ultraterrestrial for the sole purpose of feeding off fear or some other emotion or even chemical response.

Just what this entity is, we can only speculate; however, this case is incredibly interesting, and I really wish there were further sightings or more information on this being. It's cases like this that make you scratch your head and go, "what the hell" it just doesn't exactly match anything in the classic Fortean literature. There are elements of the fae, cryptids, and extraterrestrials in this case, and yet none are exactly the same as one particular category. This case is just one of those completely bizarre cases that will never be explained and one that more than likely will never be reported again.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Extraterrestrial species, Faerie

Location: Hampshire, England

Sighted: February 21, 2004

Works Cited:

The Inhumanoids By Barton M. Nunnelly

Soul-Drifter “UFOnauts: The Strange Ones." Alien Hub. February 28, 2010. https://www.alienhub.com/threads/ufonauts-the-strange-ones.22913/page-30. Accessed January 29, 2022. 

Breckinridge Fishman

 Breckinridge Fishman

By Cole Herrold

When it comes to Cryptids, most seem to be almost pulled straight from the pages or film reels of both horror and science fiction films. Mokele-Mbembe, for example, seems to be a creature pulled from Land of the Lost or the Lost World. One case in Kentucky, however, seems to be of a far more exotic cryptozoological creature that appears to of been pulled straight from either Universal’s Creature from the Black Lagoon or Roger Corman’s classic Humanoids from the Deep. This case is pseudo-famous as the case has made its rounds in the works of Lyle Blackburn in his book Lizard Man: The True Story of the Bishopville Monster and whose image was featured as the cover of the Inhumanoids: Real Encounters with Beings that Can’t Exist! By Barton M. Nunnelly who also was the first individual to write about the case in his book Mysterious Kentucky Volume 1: The History, Mystery, and Unexplained of the Bluegrass State.

This encounter occurred in Breckinridge County near Stephensport sometime during the early fall of 1966. The witness, a man named Joseph, who was 9 years old at the time, was sleeping late one night when around 1:00 in the morning he was suddenly awoken by a large noise that seemed to of come from outside. The noise seemed to come near his bedroom window, and the noise was almost as though something had hit the side of the house. The boy, sluggishly and no doubt tired by this rude awakening, began to arise out of bed and went over to the window and, looking around the area, noticed that there was nothing in the area or nothing that would have noticeably made the sound. So, the boy, with an incredible amount of courage, proceeded to wander to the living room and began to head towards the front door. Just before opening the door, however, he pulled back the curtains in front of the door's window and peered out into the darkness. As he looked into the darkness, he noticed a bizarre figure moving out front of his home. At first, when he saw the figure moving, he thought it was some sort of person, but as he stared at the figure, it then looked over at him. He then could see that the figure was by no means human. The figure was 5'6" to 6' tall and was walking on two legs, and what Joseph thought he was looking at once some sort of Lizard-man. The figure he saw in the darkness he would describe thusly “it was “very amphibious looking" with scales covering its entire body. I could definitely see that this creature had webbed feet and webbed hands. Its color was dark, brownish-green. What I remember the most about its face were these huge rows of gills which flared out on both sides of the face. Its face was very "hard" looking with little dark eyes, similar to a snake or lizard. I can't recall a nose or lips as the face-to-face encounter only lasted a second or two. There was this ridge-like feature which started on the forehead and ran back over the top of its head, kind of peaked at the top". He watched the creature for some time and realized that the creature had seemingly run into the side of the building or at the very least was responsible for the loud commotion he had heard earlier. As he stared at the creature, the creature seemed to notice him and gave him an exceptionally surprised look as though it was startled by him. The creature, then realizing it was spotted, turned and began to run towards the nearby creek known as Sinking Creek, which was 75 yards from his house. Joseph jumped from the front door window and ran towards an adjacent window which was pointed towards the direction where the creature was running, and he continued to watch the creature until he lost sight of it in the darkness. The boy then returned to bed and spoke not a word about the encounter until September 13, 2006, when he told the full account to Barton M. Nunnelly and later interviewed by Bigfoot investigator Charlie Raymond who would write the following of Joseph “Joseph appears to be very credible. He is now 49 years old, married, with two children in college. The details of his encounter remain true to his online report. He kept stressing how "amphibious looking" the creature was and that it definitely ran on two feet. He added that its body was proportionate to a man's, but neither muscles nor genitalia were noticed. What struck him the most was how quick it was! Still to this day, he can't imagine someone having a costume "that life-like," not today, not 40 years ago, especially in the remote parts of Breckinridge, Kentucky".

Thus ends the case of the Breckinridge Fishman; to me, this case is particularly interesting as it is one of the few cases of a seemingly fish humanoid on the books. There are, of course, other examples, such as the infamous Thetis Lake Monster, which I will discuss later, but reports of semi-aquatic fish humanoids are rare as opposed to encounters with fully aquatic fish humanoids such as mermaids. Other encounters with entities that are semiaquatic of a more amphibious or reptilian nature are much more common such as the Loveland Frogmen, the Riverside It of Riverside, California, or the Lizardman of Scape Ore Swamp, which many point to all being interrelated in some fashion, however, each case has features that seem to reflect specific taxonomic species that fit more in the categories of Amphibians or Reptiles the Breckinridge case even though Joseph called it a Lizard-man when he first saw it has glaring features that seem to be more of an ichthyo-humanoid if such a term can be used as the creature he saw had more noticeable fish features as gills. Something reptiles and amphibians typically do not have.

When attempting to rationalize this entity, the best way to do so is to go down the Fortean ladder of possibilities and try to see where it would best fit. Going from the most skeptical, the first place to look is a possible hoax. With this case, there is a higher probability for a hoax than many other cryptids, and the only reason I say this is simply the description; if one was to remove the head fin or crest, the creature is a mirror image to the Creature from the Black Lagoon. A similar issue comes with the Thetis Lake Monster when one compares the description to both Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Beach Girls and the Monster, and The Horror of Party Beach. With this case, Horror of Party Beach came out 2 years before the sighting, the Creature from the Black Lagoon came out 12 years before the sighting, and if this kid was as interested in monsters or had the same amount of access to such films as I did as a kid, it is not impossible that he too could have fabricated the whole encounter. However, I will say that this is unlikely as Joseph, unlike the kids during the Thetis Lake Monster case, waited many years after the fact to report his sighting, which seems sort of a bizarre time to of claimed to report such an encounter. The witness also has only released his first name, so it's not like he's trying to profit off his encounter or even gain any sort of notoriety or attention from his sighting, so the motive behind a hoax is unlikely.

The next conceivable category is that this is a cryptid. This is perhaps the theory I agree the most with, as aquatic humanoids are a rather constant cryptozoological phenomenon. Merfolk sightings have been reported since time and memorial, and there are some incredibly famous cases of semiaquatic anomalies. The most famous, of course, being the Loveland Frogmen from Ohio, which was a large frog-like being reported near the Little Miami River. The Charles Mill Lake Monster of Ohio and The Armless Horror of the Susquehanna of the Susquehanna River, Pennsylvania, are both seemingly bipedal humanoid fish-like entities that, while similar to the Breckinridge case, have one distinctive difference both don't have arms. The region that these cryptids are reported, it is interesting to note, is a hotbed for such sightings, and in relation to the Breckinridge Fishman, there might be a reason as to why. Joseph, as a follow up to his report, said the following about the Creek that the creature was seemingly running towards and the location of his house: "Our house is located on an acre where Sinking Creek meets the Ohio River. Sinking Creek originates 15 miles "upstream" in Big Springs, Ky. An interesting fact, this creek is the only natural trout/spring-fed creek in Kentucky. Just past the town of Sample, it disappears 12 miles underground (thus the name "Sinking Creek") and then resurfaces in an area further upstream in an explosion of bubbling water. As far as I am aware, nobody has ever dared to dive far enough down to determine its true origin. This creek is believed to connect to the vast underwater system which connects the many caverns of Western Kentucky; the most noted being the caverns of Mammoth Cave." Now for those unfamiliar with the Mammoth Cave system, it is an alleged hotspot for Fortean phenomenon such as Bigfoot, underground alien bases, other cryptids as well are said to of been seen in and around the caves, and the reason these underground streams are of note is that perhaps they lead much like in Creature from the Black Lagoon underground grottos where these organisms may hideout or live. A famous case known as the Green Clawed Beast which involved a woman being clawed and dragged underwater by a mysterious scaly yet hairy-handed creature; when she was rescued, she had several scratches and a green stain in the shape of a handprint from the aquatic assailant. A sample of this green substance was tested, and it was later revealed that a bluish mud that was intermixed with the handprint comes from the deepest of rivers that have access to caves; all of this was revealed on the "Black Swamp" episode of Monsters and Mysteries in America. With this case, it seems to add to the possibility of pockets of these organisms living deep in caverns and using the waterways that are interconnected to hunt or go from cavern to cavern.

With all that said, these cryptids, however, do not exactly match the Breckinridge Fishman, but the creature does have two very distinctly similar creatures; the first of this variety is the Thetis Lake Monster of Vancouver, British Columbia; this creature was described as being about 5 ft tall with silver scales and a noticeable spiny frill that a topped the creature's head. Another Cryptid I recently covered and compared to this creature was the New Kensington Green Thing which bears many similar features to the Breckinridge Fishman except for the following traits while the creature was a vibrant green in color and did have some sort of cranial frill, it did have a long tail, and seemingly mammalian features namely a pair of nipples and what some researchers claim are floppy rabbit-like ears. While there are some noteworthy differences between the Thetis Lake Monster, Breckinridge Fishman, and New Kensington Green Thing, there is a lot of noticeable similarities between them all as well; all the creatures are either Reptiles, Amphibians, or Fish or some intermediary evolutionary step in between the three or perhaps even examples of sexual dimorphism or stages of development. Evolution is a bizarre mistress, and when one looks at the phylogenetic branches of organisms, there are often these creatures that are often a mixture between two noticeable Taxonomic Classes; the main example would be the Synapsids which include organisms like Dimorphodon. These organisms have features very much like those of a reptile but have a temporal fenestra, a feature that is only associated with mammals, as well as other more intricate features that are clear indicators of being more closely related to mammals than reptiles. Perhaps this is what we see with these organisms; they are an intermediary stage where we are seeing organisms which are returning to land or evolving to be a kind of super amphibian where they can regulate their internal body temperature better, utilize both the resources in water ecosystems as well as land ecosystems, and possibly might develop migratory patterns which could explain the incredibly elusive nature of these creatures. However, all of this is complete speculation.

After the Cryptid possibility for the Breckinridge County Fishman could be some sort of extraterrestrial or interdimensional being. The fact that encounters with these creatures are practically nonexistent in both the fossil record and even inconsistent Cryptozoological or folkloric lore does not exactly bold well for them being an earthbound species. Even though I will be the first person to say that a small relict population of any creature can easily remain elusive to the point that sightings would be nonexistent, the fact that these creatures are sighted even less than Bigfoot, Eastern Mountain Lions, Black Panthers, and Lake Monsters does not exactly point to a native species. If these creatures, however, are from outer space or from another dimension, then these encounters, or should I say lack thereof, would be much more understandable. Now the only problem, of course, with this possibility is that these creatures are never, at least to my knowledge, seen in conjunction with UFOs, vortexes, or portals, and while the lack of this direct connection does not always mean they do not come as Lovecraft and Stuart Gordon would say From Beyond be it space or another dimension it makes it just as difficult however when looking at these cases as one cannot automatically assume that they do because it would simply be the “easier” answer even though we cannot take it off the table either.

 In this case, there is a clash with traditional biology, which is something that makes many scientists turn their noses up at cases like this. Yet in the millions of years of evolution, species, including our ancestors, evolved from aquatic life, and as organisms evolved to live on land, others decided to once more return to the sea when looking at cases like this to me, this is evolution once more creating creatures that are returning once again to land or that are surviving the dual life of an aquatic and terrestrial organism. Science has examples of this with organisms such as amphibians, and back when Palkicetus, the ancestor to whales, was starting to return to the water, it evolved into Ambulocetus, which was very much an amphibious creature as well, so such organisms have occurred and still do occur today. The existence of a biped on the planet other than us is not unheard of either birds, and carnivorous dinosaurs were and are all bipeds; several species of ancient reptiles also ran bipedally, such as Eudibamus, and even to this day, there are over 50 species of living reptiles that partially use bipedalism while running such as the Basilisk Lizard who takes this running to the extreme as it also can run on water through surface tension. So, the idea of other bipedal species, even to this day, is not something out of the ordinary. It's from this that this case and the countless other bipedal cryptid cases to me seem to have some plausibility through evolution; it's just figuring out exactly why they came about that's the mystery. Even with all that said, however, there is no denying that this case, as with most cryptid and Fortean encounters, will probably never be solved but at least from this sighting and the countless others, we have a place to start looking and maybe just maybe we might some day discover something that science at one point thought was impossible.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Amphibian/ Fish

Location: Stephensport, Breckinridge County, Kentucky

Sighted: Early Fall, 1966

Works Cited:

The Inhumanoids: Real Encounters with Beings that can't Exist! By Baton M. Nunnelly

Mysterious Kentucky Vol. 1: The History, Mystery, and Unexplained of the Bluegrass State By Barton M. Nunnelly

"The Kentucky Lizardman". Kentucky Bigfoot Research Organization. http://www.kentuckybigfoot.com/cryptids.htm. Accessed January 26th, 2022. 

Anza-Borrego Desert Lantern Skeleton

 

The Anza-Borrego Desert Lantern Skeleton

By Cole Herrold

When it comes to expeditions in desert environments, there are a lot of things to worry about. From having enough resources to making sure one stays safe are all challenges that can be planned for and worked on with some success. One thing that such pioneers do not anticipate is a colossal skeleton that is seemingly lit up like a macabre living decoration. Yet in the Anza-Borrego Desert of Arizona, that is one such concern those in the area, particularly at night, need to be concerned with.

The story of the Anza-Borrego Desert Lantern Skeleton actually begins with, surprisingly, the mad rush for gold. Throughout the Anza-Borrego desert are several old, abandoned mines and dilapidated shafts that, at one point in American history, people would spend countless hours attempting to find riches beyond their wildest dreams. Now it would appear that during this time, several individuals had managed to lose their lives in the harsh environment of the Anza-Borrego Desert, and it wasn't until after the end of the gold rush that the need and desire to go out into the wilderness and mine practically died out. Searching for the gold, however, to this day is still something some driven individuals choose to do, and it was around this time of resurgence in the search that tales started popping of a bizarre entity roaming the desert and allegedly chasing miners from the area. This phantom seemed to be something entirely different than one would expect to see as an apparition, as one would expect maybe the lost soul of some unfortunate miner as opposed to this nightmarish figure that supposedly roams the mines and sandy terrain.

The First person to witness the bizarre entity was a man by the name of Charley Arizona; he was a desert hand who one night had traveled to the Western edge of the Badlands. He was only four miles from Borrego and had taken several of his donkeys with him as he proceeded in setting up camp. Everything went well that night, and after getting comfortably snug by the fire and making sure his animals were secure in the location, he managed to fall asleep. He remained asleep until the early hours of the morning when he was awoken by a strange sound coming from the distance. The donkeys also woke up after hearing this sound, and they too began behaving antsy as if they could sense that something was extremely wrong. Charley stood up and armed himself, half expecting to find someone enter his camp. He peered around the area, and there out in a certain spot of desert some distance away was a bright glow that seemed to be moving. His initial thought seeing this is that perhaps some man was lost in the mountains and seeing his campfire was working his way over. The shadowy figure did seem to Charley to becoming closer towards his site, and he waited, waving his arms to try to flag down the potentially lost traveler.

As Charley looked, however, he could tell that something didn't seem right; the figure seemed to be very tall, bigger than him at least, and that the light seemed to be much higher up as well and burned with an intensity that he thought could not have been a traditional torch or lantern. The figure continued to move drunkenly around, and as he listened, he could hear a sick metallic thud as the figure stepped and a bizarre sound he could not place as if several pieces of wood were being smacked together. He stopped waving and stared at his soon-to-be visitor, but when the figure got within 200 yards, it was close enough for him to get a good look at the stranger; his blood ran cold. There walking towards him, was a creature that could only be described as a colossal skeleton, its form being over 8ft tall. It was from this skeletal frame that the sound came from the wood sound was really the sound of bones connecting reacting to its environment. This would have been terrifying enough, but as he stared, he realized that the creature did not have a torch or lantern in its hand but there hanging in the creature's chest swinging back and forth was a kind of lantern that appeared to be connected by some manner to the ribcage. The glow of the light illuminated the entire form, including the creature's eyes which shined so brightly they looked like they were on fire. This living Halloween decoration proceeded in walking towards Charley's camp, and all Charley could do was stare in pure terror, unable to move or ready himself for defense. As the creature was only a couple feet from the campsite, it seemed to not notice the man standing watching it. The creature's colossal footsteps continued past the man and past his site, and Charley regaining his mobility, turned his head to watch the creature meander its way beyond the site and eventually completely disappear from behind a row of rocks some distance away.

About two years later, two other would-be prospectors had decided to go out and search for gold in the desert. It was getting late in the day after the two had been traversing the dusty terrain the entire day, and they, much like Charley, had decided to set up camp in a rocky outcropping in the desert. It was getting late, and the two had been enjoying their dinner by the campfire when they noticed a glowing light with a shadowy skeletal shape shimmering in the darkness. One of the witnesses, having heard the rumors of the giant skeleton, had begun getting up, proclaiming to the other that they had to get out of here or the entity might harm them. The other prospector, more levelheaded, simply told his friend to sit down and that all that the light was, was the reflective glow of the fire on nearby rocks. The friend, however, felt that the glow was too high off the ground and that the skeletal frame did not seem to match what his partner proposed but unable to stir him to leave, he settled back down and stayed up the entire night waiting for the entity to return.

A year later, another man out in around the same location and in almost an identical set of circumstances also would claim to of seen the entity traveling back into town; the witness told of the illuminated ghost at Vallecito Station, and their encounter and the legend of the lantern ghost spread like wildfire. Countless would-be monster hunters and curious sightseers traveled to the desert in search of the eerie glow and the phantom that appears with it. On the third night of one such hunt, on one occasion, a group of monster hunters had happened upon seeing a bizarre glowing object seemingly walking in the same awkwardly stumbling manner that the apparition allegedly had been known for. They followed this skeletal figure for about three miles, one man even attempting to take a shot at the entity until they eventually lost sight of the creature once it ended up in a particularly deep valley.

Modern Sightings of this particular phantom are nonexistent, and this could be because of the lack of prospectors and gold miners as opposed to in the past. Without this scourge of would be fortune seekers, the entity has no reason to scare or warn people away from the location anymore. Yet even before the dawn of the 21^st-century, sightings of this anatomical apparition seemed to dwindle; maybe it was the effect of such encounters or perhaps it was some mandatory reaction to some natural event we may never know the answer but tales of the colossal skeleton while sightings are no longer reported still exist in a variety of books and media, but it is from this varying sources that may be a bit of either confusion or evidence of the truth behind the case might have been revealed.

When this case hit the books chronicling Fortean studies, two things became very clear, the first being that there was either some confusion when transcribing these accounts or two that these accounts were pure folklore created to keep people out of the desert. One of the elements of confusion or mis-recording is that most sources claim that the entity is from Anza Borrego, Arizona and that the entity frequently haunts the area from the Superstition Mountains to the Seventeen Palms. This version of the legend states that the entity was once a prospector who worked the Phantom Mine and apparently died protecting the site. This version of the tale appears in Reader’s Digest’s American Folklore and Legend, Barton M. Nunnelly’s The Inhumanoids, and Neil Arnold’s Monster! The A-Z of Zooform Phenomena. However, in another area of the West in California, the legend has been reported there as well with the same accounts being used the area that the spirit is said to roam in the Borrego Badlands and that it frequents an area known as Supernatural Hill; this account shows up in Mysterious California By Mike Marinacci. In Mysterious California, the account and identity of the apparition are often interconnected with another local legend known as the lost Pegleg Smith's gold mine. This gold mine was allegedly located somewhere in the Borrego Badlands, and that this entity was one of the prospectors who went searching for it after dying in the desert his body was completely picked clean by the wildlife, and so his spirit took the form of a colossal skeleton as he continues his search for the gold and also to scare away any in the area. Realistically I think that there was just some misinterpretation when it came to chronicling the source; it happens surprisingly frequently, but there's also a more folkloric explanation for this as well.

A less fun take on this is that both areas have the same stories to fit their alternative lost gold mines legends. I say that this is less fun because this spawns off down the trail of folklore and not into a potentially real encounter. There is an Anthropological phenomenon where cultures that are essentially non-connected create stories and archetypes that are almost identical now; this phenomenon grows and changes, especially with the use of technology, so there is the chance that that is what we see here.

With that said, this apparition is very different than typical entities reported, even those of a skeletal nature. The sheer size of the entity alone is far different than one would expect since ghosts, typically at least from what is reported, tend to maintain the size they were when alive another thing is typically ghosts do not have objects inside them unless that was part of the item that killed them. This entity almost seems like it made either the practical or fashionable choice to put the lantern inside itself, something that if this is the case means we would really need to reassess the can and cants of what spirits are able to do.

My final thoughts on this case are much like most paranormal entities. I want it to be a true creature that stalks the deserts scaring people that come too close, yet I wonder why we don't have more constant reports from the area. A search for Spook Lights in the area almost always turns up more UFO-style events over the area and not something like a glowing humanoid form or even an amorphous ball some 4 to 6 feet off the ground. While some could argue that without the drive, there would be no need for the entity to manifest, or perhaps it found the treasure it so longed for putting the apparition at rest, there's no guarantee for this and its mere speculation. Ghost entities are perhaps the most frustrating bunch of paranormal entities out there for most of the time, they're very human in their motives and behaviors, whereas other times they seem to be doing things that are kind of pointless it makes investigations of the phenomenon more accessible as opposed to bigfooting or UFO hunting where you need to be in the right place at the right time. Ghosts are everywhere, and some are supposedly trapped in locations, so the same should be said for this entity; we should have modern reports of something unless this entity is not a ghost but some other bizarre Fortean phenomenon that we don't even have a name for yet. Perhaps there are reports of this entity, and people are unaware of the legend giving them no reason to report or even a frame of reference, or perhaps there are witnesses, but because of the stigma of such sightings, they do not report on them, all of which if true is understandable. Yet, I have a feeling there won't be a follow-up anytime soon for this case even though it is truly fascinating even though it has a lantern; an answer or further details to this mystery will have to for now remain in the dark.

Artwork of Entity from Reader's Digest's American Folklore and Legend

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Apparition

Location: the Superstition Mountains to the Seventeen Palms, Anza-Borrego Desert, Borrego, Arizona or Borrego Badlands, Borrego Springs, California

Sighted: Unspecified

Works Cited:

American Folklore and Legend By Readers Digest

The Inhumanoids By Barton M. Nunnelly

Monster! The A-Z of Zooform Phenomena By Neil Arnold

Mysterious California: Strange Places and Eerie Phenomena in the Golden State By Mike Marinacci

Pegleg Smith's Gold. Desert USA. https://www.desertusa.com/treasure/lost/pegleg-gold.html. Accessed September 18, 2021.