The Night Grabbers

 The Night Grabbers

By Cole Herrold

Original Sketch I did after the incident in late 2017

Now, this case, I must stress, is a bit of a testimonial. This is an incident that occurred to me in the summer of 2017, and it has been with me for a while. For those who don't know, I, aside from writing as complete as possible articles on old cases, do fieldwork in investigating claims and areas said to be home to cryptids, aliens, and ghosts. Over the course of my time investigating such cases, I’ve had several strange occurrences. While following up a Bigfoot encounter in Bald Eagle State Park, I heard a strange set of bipedal footprints that stopped when I looked in the direction of the noise and started when I looked away. I've, while investigating haunted locations, recorded several possible EVPs and had strange sensations when encountering allegedly haunted objects. Yet of all the encounters over the years that I've experienced, this is perhaps the most unsettling. This encounter is one that I had not talked about openly for a long time simply because one of believability and two because it honestly bothers me. I, however, recently opened up and talked about it openly for the first time, and upon talking about the experience, I felt that I had to have some sort of written account of the incident.

Most people know about the beginning of this incident, but the follow-up is something that I have kept private even to my family. I was a delivery driver at the time of this, and I was driving down Snydertown Road on the outskirts of Sunbury, Pennsylvania. I have a tendency as I drive to look out into the woods and fields when I drive because I love nature, and I always hope to see an animal like a turkey or fox. As I was doing this, I looked to my left, where there was a telephone line, and my attention was drawn to a strange object hovering above. The object was small; I would estimate something about the size of an ottoman. It was a pulsing object of white light. The best way to describe it was like a strobe, but there was some form behind it that was noticeable. My initial thought was maybe it was a down line or some sort of electrical discharge but being as this was still day, I could see the area clearly and noted that there were no downed lines. My next thought was maybe this was ball lightning, but from what I knew about ball lightning, it tended to form close to the ground, and none seemed to, at least to my knowledge, pulse-like the object I saw. I continued to drive because I was in the middle of a delivery, and while perplexed, I decided I'd continue with the delivery and id come back to check the area on my way back. The drive to the delivery and back to the location took about 5 minutes, and upon returning to the location, the object was gone. I slowed my car down and looked for any further evidence of the object but could find nothing, and while looking, I could see that the light would not have been reflected or come from some home or similar structure. Realizing that there was nothing more I could do at this given time, I returned to the store and went on working.

That night I woke up at around 2:00 in the morning and noted that my arm was stretched up above my body. I sleep on a futon, and I have woken up and found myself sitting and laying in all sorts of positions, but this time it was different. I lifted my head up and noticed that my arm was attached to something dark in color. As I stared at this, I looked up and noticed what was attached to my arm. There were three dark black figures. The figures were about 3-4ft tall, and they had heads the shape of peanuts and wiry thin bodies. There were no noticeable facial features as I stared at the beings. All three beings had their arms extended and had grabbed my arm at the exact same point. I could not move initially, and they too did not move, but eventually, as I got a full realization at just what I was seeing, the trio vanished. This was exceptionally odd because they seemed so physical in their form. They were not like shadow men or ghostly, but they seemed to simply disappear. As if they realized I was aware of them. I stared in utter disbelief and managed to put my arm down and, almost in an uncharacteristic response, proceeded to go straight back to sleep.

The following day I woke up having thought it was a dream, but upon looking down at my arm, I found a large black and blue mark in the area where the beings grabbed me. I was still reeling from what I had just experienced the day and night prior. I, as a researcher, felt completely unnerved. It's one thing to be interested in the unknown; it's something completely different when it happens to you. In Fortean research, there's an idea that if you open yourself up to the phenomena, it becomes aware of you, and this is a terrifying prospect. During this time frame, I did not pick up a book or watch a tv show on the paranormal for fear of a possible recurrence. As I thought hard about this incident, I began to wonder whether this was something psychological in origin. I personally am an avid believer in the plausibility of a lot of Fortean phenomena, and this branches over into general acceptance that this is a normal and real phenomenon. Yet the Keelian aspects that I alluded to I do not think are plausible. The universality that all phenomena are the same to me just seemed to be an easy out at best or a lack of critical thinking at worst, and that with the ideas I was treading on, it was very selfish as if I was putting myself into the center of this world. It's from this that I took a step back and attempted to think about it from a more skeptical and open view.

My first thought was that there was nothing clearly that could explain the object seen earlier that day, and so I do believe it is unexplained and fits the initial criteria of a UFO. I’ve gone to that location countless times, and I have never found a rational answer to the object. I’ve told the UFO account many times because it was so unique. The beings I've come to call the Night Grabbers, however, I have come to think we're probably an example of Sleep Paralysis. I’ve never had an incident of sleep paralysis before or after this account, but a lot of what I experienced that night was very similar to sleep paralysis. The fact that this occurred while lying in bed, waking up and seeing a strange figure, and that at first, I had no control of my limbs was very similar to what is normally described with sleep paralysis. Now the reason I think this occurred was because of my initial UFO sighting; it would be easy to say that this was a failed abduction attempt or something similar but its also possible that my mind created this scenario in a dreamlike state because of the fact that the UFO was so prevalent in my thoughts that day.

Now, of course, to give the devil his due, I will say that there is the possibility that what I experienced was something Fortean there are a lot of similarities to what I experienced and to what others have over the years, and it does not only fit the traditional extraterrestrial encounters but also a phenomenon that is known as bedtime visitors these entities are also often associated with sleep paralysis even though the entities I possibly encountered do not match the shadow man, Hatman, grinning men that are frequently reported but countless other types are also said to occur and are known as other bedtime visitors. The same goes for faeries, as faerie abduction is something that has been reported from time to time, and in many ways, how the creatures behaved and grabbed seemed more unskilled than what one would think of something that's used to interacting or possibly taking humans. Even though I feel what I experienced was not something unknown, and in a way, this comforts me, I also have to accept the possibility that what I experienced could very well have been something of this caliber.

So this is the end of my account. I have no clear idea of what happened that day. I'm sure what I experienced in regard to the Night Grabbers was simply an example of sleep paralysis, but as for the UFO, that was something else. I saw it during the day; it was a pulsing orb; it seemed to have some sort of physical form behind the pulsing that I could tell was there but could not exactly make out what it was made of. The relation between the two clearly is anyone's guess, and its something I deal with every day as I often wake up in the middle of the night expecting to see these beings again if they were real, but they never returned, which at times is even eerier as it makes me wonder was this a one-off encounter that I experienced in actuality or was it my only time having sleep paralysis. I have no idea. I guess the end purpose of this is to have some official record of this experience as well as if someone else experienced this specific type of entity or had a similar experience, some kind of corroboration not only of mine but their experience as well. So if there's anyone else out there who had an experience like this, definitely comment or let me know.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: unknown

Location: Sunbury, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania

Sighted: Late Summer 2017

The Kettle Creek Monster and the Susquehanna Mystery Thing: The Susquehanna River Monsters

 The Kettle Creek Monster and the Susquehanna Mystery Thing: The Susquehanna River Monsters

By Cole Herrold

Waterways have always been areas of high strangeness and places of mystery. Rumors of lake serpents or river monsters have encapsulated the mindsets of communities that choose to call the shores home. There are several famous examples from Champ of Lake Champlain or Chessie of the Chesapeake Bay, yet typically, when one thinks of Pennsylvania and Fortean studies, creatures of this type typically do not come to mind. As a researcher, I’ve found that PA has tons of alleged lake and river monsters, some I’ve covered previously from Raystown Ray to the Allegheny River Monster, and then there's the rivers and lakes that PA shares with other states that have reports of creatures such as the Monongahela River which hosts three different cryptids and Lake Erie which is home to Bessie. Yet there's one river that cuts through almost all of the state and has several monster legends, all of which have seemingly gone unnoticed by most researchers, that being the Susquehanna River.

I live along the Susquehanna River's bank, and I have always heard the same stories of giant catfish that are in every body of water, but years later, I found out seemingly that the water is teeming with several possible cryptids that have been reported throughout time. The Armless Horror of the Susquehanna, an armless aquatic humanoid that was seen shambling in the waters near Cly and Goldsboro, is one such entity that was reported in 1905, but eight years earlier, a totally different type of creature was reported in Clinton County and was seen both in the River itself and the adjoining Kettle Creek where it got the names, the West Branch Dugong, the Kettle Creek Monster and the Susquehanna Seal.

Native Americans in the area of the Susquehanna River, particularly near the Kettle Creek area for generations, had tales of some bizarre creature said to swim in the river, but as with most native accounts, settlers did not take them seriously. As towns and communities began to be built along the river, however, people would report seeing a bizarre figure swimming in the river and habitually knocking over lumber barges, rafts, and boats. On February 27, 1897, the first documented reports of the creature were published in the Daily Democrat; the writer, a man by the name of "John of York" wrote, “A marine animal or sea monster is said to have inhabited the dead water… making his home down in its depths among the big, black rocks.” And would go on in several articles to discuss the various reports and theories revolving around the alleged creature.

Those living around the river or fishing would frequently hear the sounds of slapping water and bizarre noises, which would be described as “strange sounds that emanate from the deep, dark water like the groaning of some expiring giant, then like the struggling and snorting of some big hippopotamus.” And” Those who have crossed the animal’s path heard its terrible roar, his disturbing the waters and lashing them into a foam." Those who would take rafts out onto the river would constantly report having them be capsized by the colossal creature, and several others would report seeing the creature frolic through the rushing water. Descriptions of the creature were never clear aside that it was a dark form, with most terminology used as a sea monster or marine animal or as one quote in the original article states, “He was not the form or image of anything else on earth,” however, eventually one witness would get a good enough look at the creature and describe it something like a cross between a hippopotamus and a dinosaur with a size like that of an ox or a hippo.

In 1889 a huge flood hit, and many felt that the creature had finally managed to make its way back to the ocean; meanwhile, others knew better as rafts and boats were still being bumped and turned over all the way into the 1900s. Sightings and rumors of the creature persisted for some time, and even I had heard tales told by many fishermen of seeing incredibly large creatures dwelling in the river, yet most felt it could be a giant catfish. Then in July of 2009, an official report came to light in the Daily Item. The Daily Item is a local newspaper that is run in the city I live in, and in the July 30^th edition, there was a report published by the Great Outdoors section of the paper writer and local fishing guide Ken Maurer, who when asked if there was anything mysterious that he heard of or new that occurred in the river. Ken would describe a bizarre creature that he had seen on several occasions stating, "At first I thought it was a deer or beaver, but nothing was sticking out above the water. It came to within fifty yards of me, then sank under the surface. As it swam, it pushed a hump of water and a “V” that made a wake. It did this for several hundred yards. It was much, much larger than any fish I’ve ever seen, such as a large carp or a fifty-inch musky. Either the navy is testing a small submarine, or we have our own Loch Ness Monster. I saw it several times and it always sank out of sight before it got close enough to see clearly, almost as if it knew I was there”.

A couple weeks after the publication of this account, a larger article came out on August 16, 2009, entitled “Mystery of the ‘thing’ deepens” Ken would return to write about the bizarre beast said to exist in the Susquehanna. In it, he would elaborate on his own encounter as well as how a friend and unnamed acquaintance had seen the creature in the dark waters of the river. Ken stated that he first found out about the creature in 2001 when a good friend of his told him about a bizarre creature he saw swimming in the river that he proceeded to describe as a small submarine that was about to surface. He at the time thought his friend was either making it up or mistaken until the two decided to go out fishing on the river one evening and as the two waited for something to bite their lines, the two saw the mysterious object seemingly rise up out of the water. Ken tried to rationalize what kind of creature this could be, but he could tell that it was not a mammal as its head never rose above the surface and that it was big enough with its wake to create waves that splashed along the shoreline as the creature moved. When the creature got bout 50 yards away, it submerged from sight. Over the next two years, Ken would report seeing the creature several times, and it always managed to disappear before he could get a clear look as to what the creature could be. Years later, in 2009, an acquaintance of his, after reading the original reported encounter in the July 30^th edition, came to him and told him that he too had seen the strange creature, but this time a couple miles downstream from where he typically saw the creature. The two discussed their sightings and came up with very different possibilities as to the identity of the animal; his acquaintance felt that based on the size, it had to be a mammal, possibly a seal or otter, but Ken, even after comparing his encounter with his acquaintance still felt it must be some sort of fish and thought that maybe it was some sort of colossal carp. Ken feels that this creature is extremely rare as sightings are practically nonexistent and only seem to be reported by fishermen and people who are constantly on the river; in fact, he hadn't seen for years since his string of sightings; however, he was made aware in the summer of 2008 of a man who encountered a similar creature in the same general area.

As with most cryptid sightings, there is often a stigma that comes with reporting an encounter, and Ken was no stranger to that. At the beginning of the follow-up article, he mentioned how he received some backlash with his sightings as many had come to question his mental state, eyesight, and whether what he had seen was a figment of his imagination. Yet I think it's very important and applaudable that he did, so this is a creature that needs to be investigated further. Also, the fact that Ken is as close to an expert as one can find when it comes to the species that are supposed to be in the area and that he could point out that clearly, this does not belong is extremely important and adds more credibility to his claims than a lot of the other kinds of cryptid sightings that are out there where the animal is not completely visible.

Aside from Ken Maurer, who reinvigorated tales of a strange creature in the Susquehanna and called the creature he saw the Susquehanna Mystery Thing, Paranormal Researcher Lou Bernard is another person for who we have to thank for keeping this creature alive as he has in recent years written several articles, done several Susquehanna River investigations looking for the creature, and discussed the creature in great lengths at several presentations at nature parks near Kettle Creek and libraries. He has as recently as July 2021 looked for the creature and has managed to bring this creature to the attention of the people, specifically around Clinton County. Now it is important to note that the Kettle Creek Monster and the Susquehanna Mystery Thing are often never connected. I have a strong suspicion that they very well might be the same creature as the descriptions seem to be very similar to a mammal or fish-like creature that is rarely seen and seemingly large in size. If this is the case, I think that the creature should, for the sake of simplicity and completeness, be called the Susquehanna River Monster or Monsters.

This case obviously means a lot to me because of the fact that this is the closest I'll come to live on the shores of Lake Champlain or Loch Ness or Lake Iliamna, and these types of cryptids have always been a favorite of mine. Yet while I'm only a stone's throw away from the Susquehanna, I have never seen anything too incredibly bizarre aside from some of the people that decide to engage in aquatic recreation. With this creature, if it exists, there are several possibilities as to what it could and couldn't be some extremely plausible others not so yet the most peculiar thing about this is that how did this creature manage to make its way into the river. One idea as to how the creature managed to get into the river, which appeared in the Daily Democrat, was that during a heavy flood, the creature managed to swim up from the ocean or a nearby bay like the Chesapeake and followed several other fish species which it used as food. Eventually, the creature made its way to where the Kettle Creek area was and, finding an adequate supply of food, decided to reside there and proceeded to get stuck firmly in that location once the waters receded. One idea that "John of York" hypothesized was that the creature became too large from the abundance of food that it, even with the smaller waterways, could not return back to the ocean.

Scientists during the time the creature was initially sighted had several ideas of what the creature could be; some from a more skeptical standpoint felt that the creature was a sea lion based on the roaring sound the creature supposedly made. Others suggested perhaps it was a whale or a shark and another group suggested that perhaps it was a prehistoric reptile that made its way from the ocean. A prominent theory at the time was that underneath the river were a series of tunnels that led to the ocean; it is believed that these tunnels and caverns were easy enough to maneuver through and that they perhaps were the key as to how the creature got there. "John of York" would mention these caverns as well as a possible shelter for the creature to escape bad weather and, of course, people. However, no real expedition or investigation was conducted as "John" states, “with some arguing for and some against his existence. No one seems willing to investigate for himself, as the water is said to be of great depth, so that it would be accompanied with great danger, for the dugong is said to be a man eater.”

These theories are similar to theories that are connected with other river monsters and lake monsters. Nessie and Champ are believed to of traveled into Loch Ness and Lake Champlain through underwater caverns, and the St. Johns River Monsters (see entry) also were believed to of come into the St. Johns from the sea. I personally think there may be something to this with some accounts, but I am not sure when it comes to the creatures reported in the Susquehanna.

While the possibilities as to how this creature or creatures made their way into the Susquehanna are numerous, so too are the possible identities. Early scientists, as previously stated, suggested everything from a marine reptile like a plesiosaur or mosasaur to a mammal like a whale or a seal, and Ken Maurer had felt that what might be there in the river is some form of colossal carp or other fantastic fish. All of these possibilities are the same that show up time and time again in almost every lake or river cryptid encounter. I think it's safe to rule out a marine reptile as if the creature was a reptile; there would be reports of it coming up to breathe air more often, which we really don’t have.

A hypothesis I came across regarding this creature is that perhaps it is a relic member or descendent of Hynerpeton. Hynerpeton is an amphibian species that lived in the rivers and ponds of Pennsylvania in the Late Devonian period. The creature was estimated to grow to about 2.3 ft long; however, the fossil found was an incomplete skeleton much like Gigantopithecus, so there's a lot of speculation as to how this creature was, so there's a chance that the fossil collected could be from a juvenile or that the creature could be even larger than what has been estimated. I find this hypothesis interesting for several reasons amphibians actually have the incredible ability to breathe through their skin and can hold their breath for incredibly long periods of time, usually between 4-7 hours; this could help a large creature evade being seen, and if this creature is more aquatic than land oriented it could have capabilities that could put to shame all those of currently studied amphibians.

The fish hypothesis is interesting when one looks at the description of the creature, which is often described as submarine-like. I instantly compare it in my head to the Lake Iliamna monsters, which are often described as being large aluminum-colored submarine-like creatures which most liken to a large fish. Similar submarine-like descriptions have been used to describe the Loch Ness Monster, which some researchers feel might be a giant variety of eel. As mentioned earlier, there are countless stories in the Susquehanna of colossal catfish that possibly might be actually close-up encounters with the creature everyone else refers to as a mystery thing or monster.

Another possibility that I think is less likely since there should be more land sightings or loud noises associated with modern sightings is that it could be a seal or otter. Seals and otters are highly intelligent and could be capable of reacting more quickly to humans than other creatures to evade them. However, if a creature like a seal or an otter was in the river, it would be extremely noticeable, and that there would be places where it would come ashore, so I truly think that this is not what the creature (s) is.

A final possibility I feel I must include simply because of how ingrained it is in Pennsylvania Cryptozoology is that it could be a giant snake. Giant Snakes are insanely common in Pennsylvania, almost as common as Bigfoot, Thunderbirds, or Mountain Lions in Pennsylvania reports. There's the infamous Broad Top Serpent, a 30-40ft black snake as big as a stovepipe that makes its home on Broad Top Mountain a similar secretive serpent known as the Devil's Den Serpent is reported in Gettysburg and is only slightly smaller. In the lake Wolf Pond, a lake monster that I covered a long time ago (see entry) was described as being a colossal snake black or dark in color with peculiar rings along its back, and much like the Kettle Creek Monster, it had a penchant for knocking over and capsizing boats. I also entertained this notion with Raystown Ray since many of the sightings and descriptions are very similar to a colossal snake. Perhaps that is what this creature could be since snakes do tend to swim and spend a lot of their time in the water. The only problem with this, especially with Ken's sightings and research, is that the creature seemingly moves more like a submarine than a serpentine form implying more bulk and appendages to move its form, so chances are this creature is not a super snake.

The mystery of the Susquehanna River Monsters to me is extremely interesting, mainly since this is a subject I can investigate practically on my own front yard. I have no clear definitive answers to what these creatures might be even though there are several things I feel we can rule out, and I'm flabbergasted that there has not been more research done or at least written about on the subject aside from a few articles in the Daily Item and several online sites. This is perhaps one of the least talked about river monsters that I’ve found, and so I feel that further inquiries need to be made to get more information on this beast as clearly others had to of seen it. This creature, while not perhaps as memorable as Pinky from St. Johns River or the White River Monster, does hold a special and important place in the halls of Pennsylvania Forteana and so deserves to have its time to shine and will definitely be a creature I have to investigate personally very soon.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Mammal, Reptile, Fish

Location: Kettle Creek, Susquehanna River, Lock Haven, Clinton County, and Northumberland County, Pennsylvania

Sighted: Native accounts -Modern Times

Works Cited:

Bernard, Lou “Deep thoughts about the Susquehanna Seal”. The Express. December 30, 2017. https://www.lockhaven.com/news/community/2017/12/deep-thoughts-about-the-susquehanna-seal/. Accessed November 20, 2021.

Bernard, Lou “The discovery of the Susquehanna Seal” The Express. August 14, 2021. https://www.lockhaven.com/news/health-and-home/2021/08/the-discovery-of-the-susquehanna-seal/. Accessed November 20, 2021.

Bernard, Lou “Seal of Approval: The Monster of the Susquehanna” PA Wilds. May 6, 2019. https://pawilds.com/monster-of-the-susquehanna/. Accessed November 20, 2021.

Tabitca “Kettle Creek Monster ?” Cryptozoo-oscity. June 24, 2020. http://cryptozoo-oscity.blogspot.com/2020/06/kettle-creek-monster.html. Accessed November 20, 2021.

Daily Democrat (Clinton County, Pennsylvania) February 27, 1897

Daily Item (Sunbury, Pennsylvania) July 30, 2009

Daily Item (Sunbury, Pennsylvania) August 16, 2009 

The Northumberland County Mystery Beasts

 The Northumberland County Mystery Beasts

By Cole Herrold

In September of 1913, the cities of Bear Gap, Paxinos, Reed Station, Elysburg, Snydertown, and Shamokin were in the epicenter of a rash of strange sightings of a bizarre creature that made its presence known in the surrounding woodlands and desolate forests. The first sighting of this creature occurred near Bear Gap and was sighted by timber dealer Jacob Leisenring who was driving his car on Brush Valley Road towards Bear Gap when he noticed a strange figure along the side of the road ahead of him. The figure was on all fours and covered in dark fur and seemingly was not use to the car's bright headlights as it seemed to disorient the creature enough that it did not realize the potential danger it was in. The creature seeing the now incoming car, began to turn around and slink back into the woods. As Jacob watched the creature return back into the woods, he was able to tell that the creature was about 30 inches in height and about three feet long. Jacob reeling in what he had just seen, returned to Bear Gap and gathered several other people to return to the location with him. When the group got to the location, they found several prints in the soft dirt. The prints they were surprised to see were very similar to a human's hand, but the bizarre thing about these prints was that they were seemingly backward.

A week before the September 15^th publication Irvin Startzel and several others in his car would also encounter this bizarre creature also while out driving his car; this time, however, he was driving on a creek road near Reed Station towards his home in Shamokin when a large creature leaped out across the road and began to scamper and crawl up the nearby mountainside. Irvin, as well as everyone else in the vehicle, had a much better look at the creature and said that the creature had a striped furry body and that as it leaped across the road, the way it did so was like the movement of an ape or a monkey. Exiting their car to try to catch another glimpse of the creature, they noticed a series of footprints that were human-like and also like Leisenring's tracks were backward.

Sightings of the creature continued in Paxinos and Elysburg when farmers continually caught glimpses of a creature matching the description of what Startzel and Leisenring saw in their fields, and at night the area was filled with a cacophony of bizarre cries. While there is a vague appearance to this creature, whenever the farmers would attempt to approach the creature, it would run off, so they were unable to get a more defined appearance of the creature. The farmers and nearby towns and cities, however, even without a clear description, were on high alert as search parties in the area broke out looking for the creature. Farmers loaded countless rounds into their rifles and laid out several traps in the nearby woodlands waiting for any anomalous animal to come into their possession, yet nothing was ever found.

Sightings of this creature seemingly stopped for a time, but it would not be for long when the same or a similar kind of creature was reported in Snydertown in January of 1940. A family comprising of a husband, wife, and his sister was driving one afternoon when a creature began to walk out in front of their car. The man began to slow down, thinking that it was a deer about to come out into the road, but as he watched the creature cross, he realized it was not a deer. The creature appeared to be like a large monkey and had a long tail that it kept curved up over its head as it moved across the road. The creature had extremely bright eyes that were reflective like a deer's, and the creature was covered in dark brown hair and skin. One of the women who went on to report the sighting to the PA Bigfoot Society would recount that Snydertown has several bizarre events and phenomena said to occur there, such as a woman who went insane on a farm after saying, the devil kept coming to look in her window.

While there have been, at least to my knowledge, no other sightings of the Northumberland County Mystery Beast, the area around Paxinos and Snydertown are filled with accounts of Bigfoot. I’ve personally heard and collected several first and secondhand accounts of these encounters and am extremely surprised that there might be another cryptid in the area. The interesting thing about the Mystery Beast is that what witnesses were describing in both 1913 and 1940 seems to be kinds of Primates. While a full description of the creature was never described, the footprints left behind in 1913 appeared hand-like which is something that we see in other primates like chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, monkeys, and lemurs. The 1940 account, however, clearly seems to be a kind of extremely large monkey or lemur.

Now with that said, it's difficult to come to any true conclusion as to what species these creatures could be; their identities are not definitive; aside from that, they both appear to be primates. Skeptically speaking, there is the chance that these creatures could be escaped Chimpanzees or some other animal that escaped captivity. In the annals of cryptozoology, however, there are countless reports of large primates that are not Bigfoot-like, but more like baboons or chimps these species are referred to as Napes or North American Apes by Loren Coleman, have footprints very similar to what was reported in 1913. Another cryptid reported in North America that is of the same vein is creatures referred to as Devil Monkeys typically Devil Monkeys are described as Baboon like creatures; however, the term has been used to describe any monkey-like primate in North America such as the Danville Devil Monkey of New Hampshire which bore a resemblance to a Woolly Monkey.

Was a reverse-footed Nape or Devil Monkey seen in 1913?

Now with that said, there is the chance that the 13' and 40' sightings are of different species of this kind of creatures. While the creature seen in 1940 seems to be some huge monkey, the lack of features described in the creature seen in 1913 makes an exact identity impossible, but there are two key features that are described, the first being that the creature had some sort of stripes along its furry back which is odd because stripes are rarely seen on primates aside from lemurs and Owl Monkeys and secondly it had human hand-like feet that were backward now there is a chance that the witnesses may have misinterpreted the tracks and the footprints were forward-facing but interestingly enough in other countries there have been reports of primates with backward-facing feet the Kalanoro of Madagascar and some versions of stories revolving the Orang Pendek of Sumatra describe them as having backward-facing feet to make tracking impossible. Now there are very few references to this kind of feature in creatures in America, but it is interesting that there are alternative creatures in other parts of the world which could be possibly related.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Mammals most likely Primates

Location: Paxinos, Shamokin, Reed Station, Snydertown, Bear Gap, Elysburg, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania

Sighted: September 1-14, 1913, January 1940

Works Cited:

Bigfoot in Pennsylvania By Timothy Renner

Humanoid Encounters: 1930-1949 By Albert S. Rosales

Danville Morning News Danville, Pennsylvania September 15, 1913

 

Ghost Werewolf of Northumberland County

 

Ghost Werewolf of Northumberland County

By Cole Herrold

During the span of the 1800s, a ton of bizarre accounts occurred. These accounts are filled with all manner of creatures, from yellow-skinned horned creatures to merfolk. One of the most prevalent creature accounts were reports of hairy upright dogs that seemingly were supernatural in origin. These entities, known colloquially as werewolves, have a tradition beyond time, and memorial tales of these entities can be traced all the way back to ancient Greece with tales of King Lycaon. Most of these accounts describe a human either condemned to shift in form from a man to a wolf-type creature. Other versions of this transformative beast describe a deal with the devil for power. These accounts were prominent in Europe, but when people immigrated to America, tales of werewolves came with them. These accounts unsurprisingly managed to continue on in Pennsylvania. The most famous case of a werewolf in Pennsylvania is sometimes known as the Line Mountain Werewolf or the Northumberland Werewolf, but this lycanthrope is different from other cases as it not only features a horrific shapeshifter but also the existence of the creature after its death.

During some time in the 1800s, May Paul, a 12-year-old farm girl who lived in the Schwaben Valley in Northumberland County. May, due to the fact that she lived on a farm in the country, had several chores that were more than just important for her to do. One of these tasks was to watch and tend over the sheep that her family had for the sole purpose of sheering for wool. This wool helped clothe as well as pay for the necessary supplies that the family needed to make it through each day. The area around the farm was not fenced in, and there was not a neighbor for miles, so oftentimes, she would take the herd and travel around looking for ideal patches of grass for the animals to graze in. Now while there were large areas of pasture, it was bordered by dark, secluded shadow shrouded woodland, and there in the woodland area lived a local hermit.

The hermit was very much disliked in town, and the man tended to keep to himself as he lived in a shanty shack in the forest. Now the man had no contact with just about anyone on the outside, but he did slowly develop a relationship with May. Now this relationship was nothing intimate, the two barely spoke a word to each other, but they did share some company on the times when the man would leave the dark embrace of the forest and would sit on a set of fallen logs that appeared as a natural fence from his property to hers. The man would watch the girl as she worked, and this would continue for the entire day until she ultimately would return home with her livestock.

May, as the time went on, soon started to speak to the man, and he would be both respectful to her and talk to her admiringly. The hermit and her continued to do this for some time until, eventually, the two became very close and ultimately became friends. The man was relatively new to the area, and even though Mary and him were close, the townsfolk could not help but gossip about the man. The people were extremely concerned for unlike May, who spent time talking to the man, so all they could think was that this man was outside of the natural order of what they felt was normal in their world. They knew not the man's name, where he lived, what he did for a living, and so the townsfolk were very suspicious about this man.

The townsfolk, however, while curious about the man, had other fish to fry as their area had been besieged around the same time as the man arrived a huge mass death of livestock in the area. The animals were torn apart, their flesh chewed and gnawed as though some large predator had come through the land decimating all that was in its way. The townsfolk expected the usual predators, mountain lions, bears, coyotes, but as time went on, they had their answer. Over the course of several nights, many of the farmers heard the eerie sound of their animals being slaughtered they would run out, and there standing near the bleeding husk of their livelihood, was an incredibly large wolf. This wolf which appeared to be the leader, was not alone as several other smaller wolves were also running around aiding its siege on the farms. The townsfolk were obviously concerned, and they seemed to be unable to stop this onslaught.

It was around this time that whispers of gossip became combined, and the memory of werewolves flashed in everyone’s mind. The townsfolk soon returned to the old hermit and felt that it was odd that the old man and the wolves seemed to of occurred at the same time. This connection was added to when it broke that the Hermit and May had a kind of friendship and that her livestock were the only ones spared from wolves assault. Rumors spread; some felt he was a witch, causing a curse on the area. Others felt that the old man himself might have been a lycanthrope. The villagers became on guard for the man, and word of the rumors reached May's parents.

One night when May arrived home from grazing her cattle, her parents were waiting for her. The group entered the farmhouse, and her parents strongly urged her to cease her friendship with the old man. The girl, however, could not see how the sweet old man that she befriended was the monster that the rumors seemed to indicate, and so she continued their friendship. May, however, could not shake the rumors from town and had information that the others knew not. She did have some experiences with the wolves in the area. On several occasions during the day when out her herd had been encircled by wolves, their forms skittering between the trees in the tree line. They were circling her and ready to pounce on multiple times. May had gotten her herding staff ready to protect herself and her livestock on multiple occasions as she waited for the worse, but she thankfully never had to. The wolves always would slink back and then disappear as if startled or spooked by something she was unaware of, and then almost instantly after that point, the old man would come from the woods.

These carnivorous attacks would occur for some years after they began, and no wolf hunt seemed to stop the almost coordinated assault. All the while, May and the old man continued to be friends, and her sheep remained unblighted by the creatures. All this would change, however, when one dark night, a tired old farmer had arisen from sleep after hearing the sound of something large in his barn. The old farmer grabbed a rifle and lantern and headed out towards the barn to investigate the sound. The farmer started to move the heavy doors and as he peered into the darkness with a lantern in hand and there in the barn was a huge grizzled grey wolf. The wolf began to charge towards the farmer; the old man could not even get the rifle to his shoulder by the time the creature was in front of him. The old man braced himself for the worst expecting the long fangs to pierce his flesh and render him asunder, but instead, the wolf ran straight past him. The old farmer, seeing he could live another day, regained his wits and, lifting the gun to his shoulder, took aim at the great grey form. The man taking a shuttered breath pulled the trigger, the projectile skimming through the air before ultimately taking root into the beast. The farmer could hear a loud whimper and knew that he had hit the beast as it ran off into the woods.

The farmer, now revitalized by the scent of the hunt, ran towards where he hit the creature and, shining his lantern, noticed a dark crimson on the green grass. The crimson was a trail leading him towards his quarry, and so he pursued; he followed the blood into the shrouded darkness and continued to do so for some time until his wits caught up with him. Realizing that it is overly dangerous to track a wounded wolf in the dark, he decided that he should return home and continue the search in the light of day. The following day the farmer returned to the spot where he shot the wolf and refollowed the still crimson carpet through the woods. During this time, there was a bounty on wolves, and a sum of 25 dollars a wolf was being paid for each brought in, so the farmer was more than driven to find the beast. He traveled the area for some time before ultimately finding that the trail ended in a large thicket. He could not make out anything detailed in the thicket, but he could see that a large still form was there. Holding up the gun on the chance that the animal was still alive, he cautiously moved the brush to the side, waiting for a head to turn or for the sound of a menacing growl, but instead, he got the shock of his life. There lying in the grass was the form of a man completely naked.

The farmer bent down, seeing this, and began to roll the man over. He recognized the man right away; it was the hermit everyone in town was talking about. He looked at the man's body, expecting to see claw or teeth marks thinking maybe after he shot the wolf in its wounded state, it attacked this man. This he found was not to be the case, for there in the man's chest was a large gaping bullet wound and around his body a pool of blood. He had bled to death. As the farmer stared at the man, he did notice that there were some unusual features that seemed different from when he saw him last; the hermit's body had hair on his palms and beneath his feet and on his ears. The farmer stared in disbelief and also noted that as he began to move the man's body, the corpse's mouth opened, revealing that the man had several large wolf-like teeth. The farmer, unbelieving what he saw, lifted the remains up and took it to a spot near the mountain ridge in the area to bury before ultimately returning and telling the town of the man's death.

Word spread around the town of the event that occurred the following night, and when May heard the news, she was completely overcome with sorrow. This sorrow, however, was soon replaced by hate as she heard that people still claimed that the old man was a werewolf and responsible for the events around the area. May continued to deny this even to her death, claiming that the man was kind and certainly not a horrendous monster. The villagers, however, did not care for her assertions as after the hermit died, the attacks from the wolves also began to dwindle to relatively normal rates as opposed to the sheer savagery that occurred over the years. While wolf attacks did occur after the hermit's death, May and her family continued to never have a problem with the canines, and whenever there potentially was a problem, a large gray wolf would appear from the woods near the area where the old man used to come from, and the other wolves would back down. Whenever May would look back over towards where the wolf was, however, it would simply vanish.

To this day, people still claim that the hermit's spirit resides in the woods and the area where May and him used to frequent. People will say that spectral old man will sit in the exact spot where the man used to, and on more frequent occasions, a large grey wolf will also appear in the area and will sit in the exact same spot. The area where the man was buried and where the apparition is said to still be seen has even been named after the event as the area is now known as "Die Woolf Man's Grob" or "the Wolf Man's Grave." 

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Spectral Transmogrified human

Location: Schwaben Valley, Northumberland County, Pennsylvania

Sighted: Sometime in the 1800s

Works Cited:

Hunting the American Werewolf: Beast Men in Wisconsin and Beyond By Linda S. Godfrey

Monsters of Pennsylvania By Patty A. Wilson

Supernatural Lore of Pennsylvania: Ghosts, Monsters, and Miracles By Thomas White

The Werewolf Book: The Encyclopedia of Shape-Shifting Beings By Brad Steiger