The Green-Haired Monster of Trout Run Road

 The Green-Haired Monster of Trout Run Road

By Cole Herrold

Strange cryptid creatures are rather common when one digs deep into the pages of old newspaper articles. These encounters can be clearly fabrications of the writer's imagination, misidentifications, or, more interestingly, honest to god encounters with the unknown. These sightings range from mundane to grandiose, so it's difficult at times to wade through all the information. As time goes on, however, these cases eventually, which for a time seemed lost, are rekindled due to supernatural sleuths and Fortean researchers who then cull the accounts into books for all to enjoy. One such account describes an extremely aggressive encounter with a colossal creature that, while brief, is entirely captivating and, in such, leads one to ask more questions than what we can currently glean from the information available.

On Saturday, December 1, 1973, eighteen-year-old Michael Lee Findley was out on Trout Run Road in Hellam Township, York County, at 5:00 in the morning when he experienced an aggressive assault from a creature seemingly ripped from the pages of a Marvel Comic. The creature, which the December 4^th article of the York Daily Record described as a "green-haired monster," proceeded to go and attack the young man. Findley would note that the creature was bigger than any man and was covered in shaggy hair and ran and walked bipedally. Findley was able to survive the assault and had managed to work his way to the York Hospital, where doctors had found long scratch marks on his face and a serious head injury that led to some memory loss which prompted an investigation by police. Upon telling the police about the attack, the officers proceeded to search the area but found nothing and would be quoted saying their investigation "did not reveal any facts relating to the same" in regard to Findley's testimony. The police coming back to him after finding nothing would attempt to convince him that his attacker was nothing more than a man in furs, but Findley knew that what he encountered was not that, and if it was," it was the largest man who had ever lived on the entire planet ."Findley also, as a boy, lived on a farm and was aware of the natural fauna of the region and was able because of this to rule out the usual suspects for such a case like a bear and cows, as some of the officers had claimed it could be. This account would seemingly be lost to Fortean history if it was not for the incredible research by Pennsylvania Fortean Researcher Timothy Renner, who would initially include this encounter in his mandatory book on Pennsylvania High Strangeness Beyond the Seventh Gate. Timothy Renner would later reach out to the witness and would discuss the encounter and, surprisingly, discovered some discrepancies between what the witness said happened and what the newspaper reported. One of the major discrepancies involved the appearance of the creature, which Findley would say the following, "I can’t tell you what it looked like," upon which Renner replied, "you can’t tell me what it looked like, or you don’t want to tell me what it looked like” Findley responded “oh I can’t” yet during the interview the witness would give little pieces of details describing just what he had seen, but the one element that he does not remember from his encounter is the creature's green hair. Renner noted that the witness was still disturbed by this encounter and that he, to this day, has the occasional nightmare that replays involving the attack, and that he was seemingly resistant to wanting to dive back into that morning. Renner would also go on to hypothesize that the newspaper added the description of the creature as green-haired as a way of dismissing the story.

Now with breaking down this case, we have evidence that something did happen to Michael Findley on that road, so an overall hoax or lie is unlikely to impossible, especially since the encounter caused serious head trauma, not something one would endure if they were perpetrating a hoax. Misidentification is also unlikely, seeing as with Findley's background, he is very much aware of the local wildlife and how they behave. We can rule out a bear also, as well as the attack seemed to simply stop, and if this was a bear, we would have more wounds and damage from the attack. So, we can see from this that the more skeptical or mundane answers are unlikely in this case.

While mundane answers do not exactly hold up in a case like this, there is another possibility that seems to be the conclusive answer to the encounter. This encounter is just one of the countless cases of aggressive sasquatch. This idea is also held by Timothy Renner after talking to the witness and seeing as York County is surprisingly high in the number of hominid sightings in the state, it would make sense. While the original newspaper source is clearly questionable based on what Renner gleaned from the interview, we do know that what the witness encountered was a colossal hairy man-like creature that walked bipedally essentially; this describes a sasquatch. Just why this creature seemed to attack Findley is anyone's guess, but it would appear that this could have been because the creature viewed Findley as a threat to its territory. If the creature viewed Findley as food, the creature clearly could have killed him, and this encounter would not have been published. Another interesting thing is the region that was attacked by the creature; in the behavior of primates such as chimps, when they attack, they tend to go towards the face and extremities, which is exactly what occurred here in this case. We have seen this behavior in other bigfoot reports when the creature becomes aggressive such as the case where a sasquatch slammed a woman's face into a car door. This behavior lends more towards the great ape theory of sasquatch and less towards a hominid origin.

One thing I feel that does need to be included in this breakdown is the claim of green fur. While Findley does not remember the creature having it, and Renner feels that the green fur was included solely to discredit the sighting, it is important to point out that sightings of green-furred sasquatch are not new. In French Lick, Indiana, there were sightings of a red-eyed green-furred sasquatch called Fluorescent Freddie, and many southern sasquatch reports often describe a greenish tint to the fur seemingly caused by moss, algae, or other plant life clinging to the creature's fur. This idea has even been used to rationalize sightings of the Bishopville Lizardman, seeing as some sightings depict the creature as having ape-like features but a greenish coloration. This is not a far-fetched idea as we have seen this in other animals; in March of 2022, a video surfaced showing a green furry slithering object trapped in a bucket in Thailand. This object turned out to be a snake that had moss growing along its body which gave it an altogether bizarre and Muppet-like appearance. So perhaps Findley had encountered a green-furred creature and, due to the trauma, had forgotten that piece or is trying not to remember the full depiction of the creature seeing as how the event affected him.

While this case appears to be entirely cryptozoological in origin, one cannot remove the other Fortean categories from the table. Perhaps this entity was some extraterrestrial who had wandered farther from his ship to the point that its origin seemed more earthbound. Perhaps this entity was some variety of faerie, seeing as the location the sighting took place has a reputation for supernatural and esoteric phenomena. Perhaps this being popped in from another dimension and, in its confused and terrified state, proceeded to attack what is conceived as a threat. All of these possibilities, needless to say, need to be included, and most of this comes entirely from the lack of information. Perhaps Findley saw more that morning than what was reported some strange light in the sky or the woods or heard some strange sounds or some other anomalous interaction that went unreported. While I'm inclined to believe this case is Cryptozoological in origin, there is a chance, as with most cases, that there just might be more to it. Yet until more information can come to light, all we really can do is speculate and hope that the next time the creature is encountered, it will be on much friendlier terms.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Mammal, Primate, Hominid

Location: Trout Run Road, Hellam Township, York, Pennsylvania

Sighted: Saturday, December 1, 1973

Works Cited:

Beyond the Seventh Gate By Timothy Renner

York Daily Record December 4, 1973

Where did the Roads Go? Podcast. Seriah Azkath. “Beyond the Seventh Gate With Timothy Renner”. December 6, 2016. 

The Allegheny River Flying Serpent

by Cole Herrold

Pennsylvania is filled with waterways and with them supposed tales of Cryptids. From the western tip of the state is Lake Erie which is home to Bessie, a large plesiosaur type cryptid that has been seen resting on Presque Isle as well as on the coast of the Ohio side of the lake. The Susquehanna River in the early 1900s was reported to of been the lair of a creature I've come to call the Armless Horror, an armless fishman that rose from the churning brine. Giant Catfish are rumored to dwell in every river and stream, and a large serpentine creature known as Ogua is said to dwell in the Monongahela River. In the lake Wolf Pond, a giant circular patterned snake was encountered in a dramatic way when it capsized a fisherman’s boat. Even in manmade lakes, cryptids are reported as in Raystown Lake; a black slimy creature known as Raystown Ray is rumored to appear on occasion in the lake. All these creatures seem to be either amphibious or solely aquatic, and that is to be expected as most species on this planet that deal with water as a lair tend to be one of these varieties. However, in 1906 a creature was seen in Pennsylvania's Allegheny River that was not just at home in the water and land but also in the air.

It was on a warm Fall day near Grunderville when Miss Rachel Talbot, the daughter of W.A. Talbot, was out at her Summer Villa. The Summer Villa was facing the Allegheny River. The river was throshing and churning with the natural flow that Rachel had come to be used to and at times miss when away at her normal residence. It was while staring out at the frothy brine that her eye noticed something dark moving on the water. She squinted and stared at this strange form, wondering whether or not it was a log or piece of driftwood. As the figure got closer, she could tell it was larger than the typical piece of wood that would float down, and it seemed to be significantly larger out of the water than a normal log. She stared, wondering whether an entire tree had potentially fallen and made its way down the river simply from how large and long it was, but the more she stared, the more that didn't seem right either, and then the unthinkable happened the tree turned its head. She soon realized that this was not a tree, a log, or any piece of driftwood but instead a large snake-like creature. The creature swam down the middle of the river, its head stretching ten feet out of the water, appearing like the quintessential Loch Ness Monster image.

The Lapping Farm Lizard Man

by Cole Herrold

Reptile-like monsters have always been a staple in horror, science fiction, and fantasy. They speak to us culturally in a primitive way of something old and ancient. Something that predates us and will most likely exist long after us. There is an understandable fear to anything we cant relate to hence why we project them in classic kaiju films like Godzilla, the Giant Behemoth, Gamera, and The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms as well as in characters like the Sleestaks from Land of the Lost, the Lizard from Spider-Man, and the sinister extraterrestrials from V. With these creatures the more human-like we make them it always seems to be more terrifying and more intelligent they appear to be. Yet while our movie theaters and television screens host these bizarre beasts, they are not alone, as reports of similar creatures are claimed to be sighted around the world. 

Humanoid reptiles are a topic that constantly is discussed in cryptozoological circles. Reports have been sporadically coming in from all over the world. In America, though, we have had a rather steady amount of reports and sightings from just about every state. The most famous case, however, is of the Lizardman of Scape Ore Swamp, which was sighted in the late 1980s which chased and attacked a car near Scape Ore Swamp. In California, a bizarre lizard creature was reported coming out of a river during a rainstorm and also attacked a car. Most reports of these ostensibly semiaquatic dwellers are from the southern portion of the United States, yet upon doing some digging, there are reports of some reptile-like beasts in the northern states as well. In Rosemary Ellen Guiley and Kevin Paul's amazing book Haunted Hills and Hollows: What Lurks in Greene County, Pennsylvania, they describe an extremely early account of a lizard humanoid in Franklin Township near the Lapping Farm area, and it is an exceptionally bizarre case and also possibly a look into an even more disturbing element to these creatures.

The Beast of Barrisdale

by Cole Herrold

The Beast of Barrisdale is a bizarre mystery that, like many older cases, seems to be one part myth and one-part cryptozoological phenomenon, and unfortunately, most if not all the witnesses are no longer with us to elaborate or explain what is currently out there in the form of books and website information. It is a case that, like many, we will probably never be able to explain or come to any solid conclusion. While the case of the Beast seems to of come to a close, there is another element to the Beast of Barrisdale; however, it is known as the Loch Hourn Monster, but if this is the case, it is not alone in this moniker. For the Beast seems to of staked a claim only on the land and air as no reports of its description come from the water, and that is because the water is already taken.

Scotland is just teeming with loch (lake) monsters. The most famous being the Loch Ness Monster, which has since been the poster child for lake monsters since word of it hit the mainstream media. Yet other lochs around it and all throughout Scotland are homes to other slithery slimy aquatic beasts’ lochs such as Loch Oich, Loch Lochy, Loch Morar, Loch Shiel, Loch Quoich, and Loch Awe, just to name a few. Yet, there is one loch that is home to one of the most bizarre beasts ever conceived in an aquatic lair.

The Peluda

by Cole Herrold

Outside of Lake, River, and Sea Monsters, Europe is surprisingly devoid of cryptids. There, of course, are famous encounters like the Beast of Gevaudan, the famous cryptid canine that killed countless women in children in the French countryside, and the Owlman of Mawnan England's answer to the Mothman, yet these creatures, if legends are to be believed is not the only strange creature reported to dwell in the European countryside. Reports of a strange venomous mammalian reptile were reported during the Medieval Times in France. This strange chimeral beast may seem like fiction, but some cryptozoologists have entertained the notion that what was reported in French legend was, in fact, a living creature.

My first encounter with the strange beast known as the Peluda came from the Cartoon Network show Secret Saturdays. A show about cryptozoologists protecting, researching, and hiding the existence of cryptids. It was an ambitious show at the time and extremely fun to watch, and in one particular episode where the hero Zak Saturday and his family raid the villain V.V. Argost's lair full of cryptids, they encounter a shaggy hair covered beast that, when sighting the hero suddenly revealed a reptile head and long quills. I was fascinated by this creature as it didn't seem to match any cryptid I had known. A quick search on the show's wiki website led to the confirmation that the creature was the Peluda.