Bluefield Frogoyle

 Bluefield Frogoyle

By Cole Herrold

Green seemingly reptilian or frog-like creatures are perhaps some of the most interesting cases in the world of the Fortean. Who does not love the Loveland Frogmen, either the wand-wielding parachute pants wearing 55' beings or the classic bipedal amphibians from 1972? There are tons of these reports, and each is unique in its own right. One such Cryptozoological Kermit occurred in Bluefield, West Virginia, and its visage and impact were so great that it affected the life of an at the time little boy for the rest of his life.

A boy by the name of Robert S. would write in 2004 at the now-defunct About.com Your True Tales Paranormal Phenomenon. This encounter occurred in Bluefield, Mercer County, WV, after he had moved to the area as a boy. His family had moved into a house on Longview Ave; as a boy, he was noticeably and surprisingly fearless and was exceptionally curious about his new home. One of the things that piqued his interest as a boy was his neighbor's house, which was located two homes down from him. The house had long and huge hedges that surrounded the perimeter of the backyard. One day his curiosity got the best of him, and he proceeded to squeeze his way under the hedge; as he crawled under the greenery, he soon noticed that there was a layer of barbwire intermixed within; due to his size and age, he had no problem maneuvering through the wire. When he entered the backyard, he found a pond that was surrounded by Witching Balls. These witching balls were also darting the yard, and as he examined the confines of the yard, he noticed that someone had seen him from the window and he realized that if he were caught, he'd have to face repercussions and began to run back to the bushes and as he ducked and worked his way through the boughs a man came from the house running towards him and proceeded to yell at him “get out, get out”. Robert would describe the man as looking like” Allen Funt from "Candid Camera” and that he had “a white birthmark on his skin that looked like paint dropped on his head, and a sneaky grin". Robert proceeded to run back to his home after evading the barbwire and low-hanging limbs from the hedge, hoping that the walls of his home would provide him safety from his trespassing. This would not be the case, however, as the man ended up coming straight to his home, knocking aggressively on his front door, and then proceeded to tell his mother to keep him out of his yard.

Robert, for a time, did just that, but he was curious about this strange man, and as time went on, he watched his neighbor intently. He discovered that he and his wife were rather odd, to say the least, his wife would wear a tank top around her waist to show off the scars from where her breasts were removed, and on one winter day when he was out climbing a tree, he saw both the husband and wife sunbathing naked on their property in the snow. During the night, he could hear the neighbors singing Christian tunes for hours, and it was not at all peaceful but instead reminiscent of what one could imagine what playing the piano with a hammer would sound like. The peculiar nature of his eccentric neighbors was not enough, however, to dissuade him from approaching their property, and on one particular summer day, he would come to regret not staying his distance.

One summer day, he decided to go over to the hedges with his matchbox cars. While playing with the small mechanical vehicles, he noticed a rustling in the bushes. Curious by this, he turned to look at the shaking foliage and was surprised to see a face pop out and glare at him. This was no normal face; however, its visage to the young boy would only be comparable to a gargoyle, yet each feature of the strange entity was more perplexing than the last. Instead of human-like eyes, the creature had solid black pointed eyes that were bulging from a face that looked eerily like a frog's except that it had both teeth and ears that "flexed outward like the side of its head two big green gloves on” and a body similar in shape to a bulldog's. Its skin was a vibrant green in color, and while its arms and legs were not described in any great detail, it was noted that the creature had webbed feet that pointed inward as it walked. As it stared at the boy, the creature began to open its mouth and uncurl a loud hiss. Robert would describe this action in the following "He held it wide open as if to taste the air". Robert, as he stared at the creature, was completely paralyzed with fear and attempted to cry out for help, yet not a syllable was able to be uttered. Eventually, however, he was able to get control of his faculties and, at a speed that would rival The Flash proceeded to run as fast as he could back to his home and run straight to his mother. Upon seeing her, he, in excited and terrified bursts of energy, attempted to tell her about the anomalous amphibian that he had witnessed, yet all she could do was point to a series of "Childcraft books" and say, "See if you can show Mommie a picture of the animal." Upon scanning through the various tomes, the closest he came across was even more peculiar as the animal in question was an Australian marsupial namely a Koala and only this because of how the creature’s eyes appeared. Seeing the animal her son had said was the closest in appearance, his mother only laughed and said, "Son, those animals are only in Australia. What you probably saw was a dog". Disheartened by his mother's comment, he never spoke of the creature again.

Several years later, after his strange and eccentric neighbors had left the area, a preacher and his wife moved into their house. Robert was then hired by the couple to do some maintenance on the property, like mowing the grass and taking care of the home in general and on one occasion, he had to go down into the basement of the home, and while there, he felt extremely terrified of being down there as though there was some dark energy in that room. Robert proceeded to tell the preacher about his experience with the previous owners of the house and about the time the husband chased him out. The preacher explained that the man did this because a little girl in the area drowned in the pond, and the girl's family proceeded to sue the family. Yet Robert felt that there was some strange connection to the previous owners, the strange creature, and the dark energy he felt in the basement, but he could not figure out just how or what it could be. Robert's final remarks on the creature, however, were the following “I have never seen a creature like the one I'm about to tell you about since the day I laid eyes upon it, and till this point, I have never seen it again… Because of that experience, I have always been scared of the dark because I know there are monsters. I saw one."

With this case, there are several avenues to go down in analyzing this case. Perhaps the most obvious is the possibility of a hoax, seeing as this was an online uploaded report with no follow-up. The strange details in the case could be examples of elaboration to make the case seem stranger, and there are certain details that definitely seem unrelated and raise the question as to why they'd include that in the report. This almost seems like a slight wink towards absurdity, something a hoax claim would usually do. Yet with that said, there's a lot in the description that seems to be reminiscent of other more obscure cases that, to me, at least seem to point to something more tangible than a wild false narrative.

The next possibility still on the skeptical side would obviously be a misidentification. One could point to an exotic pet such as an iguana or basilisk lizard as being the culprit of what he had seen. The barbwire could possibly have been some idea of the couple's to keep the animal inside the area of the yard. Yet, with most cases of a reptilian or frog humanoid, there are problems with this; for one thing, the boy got a very good look at the creature, and upon trying to find something similar in a book, the closest he came to and only because of the eyes was a koala. If this was a reptile of any variety that we are currently familiar with, he would have found something similar, so I have to say that a misidentification is extremely unlikely. This unlikeliness is added to the fact that similar types of creatures have been reported elsewhere, often times in and around water.

Now this curious creature does appear to be a cryptid as from the very brief encounter that was described, it seems to indicate something that can interact with its environment and has a kind of behavior that is extremely similar to reptiles and amphibians, especially when the creature opened its mouth wide and taste the air. This behavior has been reported in other seemingly reptilian and amphibian cryptids, such as Lizardmen reports and the Franklin Township Frogman case. In comparison to other reported cryptids, this particular cryptid is actually very similar to another cryptid reported in New Kensington, PA, on February 28, 1981. This being known as the New Kensington Green Thing was described as a green-skinned entity with strange ear-like protrusions and webbed feet. The creature was seen by a group of boys who attempted to capture it but were unsuccessful, and it ran into a sewer drain. There are other similarly described small frog or lizard-like creatures reported elsewhere, and with this and the New Kensington Green Thing cases, I have to wonder if what these creatures are is the juvenile versions of larger cryptids. As a researcher, we go off the assumption that cryptids are, for the most part, biological in nature and origin, and if this is to be the case, there must be both a decently sized population and young. While with some cryptids like lake monsters and sasquatch young are reported with reptilian and amphibian cryptids, there are seemingly no reports in the record. Yet looking at cases like this, it could be that is exactly what we are looking at, and it would make sense as well. In nature, there are what is referred to as r and K-selected species; in r-selected species, such as sea turtles, there is no care for the young due to the fact that in species of this variety they tend to release a ton of offspring at once and very quickly whereas K selected species tend to raise young for longer periods of time and have fewer numbers of offspring. Some species, like certain dinosaurs, had intermediate traits between the two types of r and K selection. With aquatic humanoids or reptilian humanoids, it would seem that they would be either in the intermediate category or r selected, and if their behavior is like frogs or sea turtles, this could explain why there are never any reports of juveniles with adult lizardmen or frogmen yet why there are tons of seemingly unrelated reports of lizardmen, frogmen, and these frogoyles and green things. Yet, of course, this is all mere speculation.

Now while this creature does appear to be a cryptid, it's not the only possibility of its origin of existence. The next possibility, as unlikely as it sounds, is that this entity could be some sort of demon or supernatural entity. While this seems like a clear departure from sanity, I say this for the following reasons, and it's entirely in regard to the Robert S. neighbors. In myths, there are entities known as familiars, and interestingly enough, familiars often take the forms of owls, crows, cats, and for this possibility, frogs. These entities often change into intermediate stages of a demonic entity, and the animal they appear as to the witch who owns them. Robert was quick to point out that the neighbor's behavior was rather eccentric, and so it's possible that some of this could have been due to practicing Magick of some sort or another. This, too, added to the strange drowning of a girl in the couple's pond, could all be connected to them summoning some sort of entity, and on this particular day, Robert had happened to see it. Or alternatively that the couple was attempting to rid their property of some malevolent entity as witching balls which were seen in their backyard traditionally were used by farmers to scare witches and other malevolent entities away. This could be the more likely option since if they were malevolent magicians of some sort, the husband would not have told Robert to get out, and he would be in the basement being used in some arcane ritual. Again, there’s not much to go on and certainly not much to connect without wild speculation, but it should be noted that even towards the writing of his encounter, Robert felt there was some connection to all the strange things with the couple, the creature, and the house. Or, more than likely, they are all separate phenomena.

The Bluefield Frogoyle is an interesting addition to a wide pantheon of seemingly aquatic-looking cryptids. The fact that it was seen so close to a pond, albeit in someone's back yard, is interesting as depending on the layout of the house and the yard, one has to wonder just how the overall setup of the area is. There is a hypothesis that I've been a firm supporter of proposed by Cryptozoologist Rob Morphy that aquatic humanoids may migrate from one watery locale to another. I find this extremely likely since oft times these creatures are not seen regularly in such locations and often disappear for exceptionally long periods of time only to occasionally reappear. Often times in some locations, there are islands and rocky areas that rise out of the water; these would be ideal locations for the creatures to live momentarily as they go from water source to water source, and it could also explain how and why similar creatures are seen in completely different locations in the US and if these creatures have life cycles like an amphibian then there will be all sorts of different stages reported hence why someone might see a frogman or Fishman and someone else in a different location might see an Armless Horror or Charles Mill Lake Monster whereas others might see Frogoyles or Green Things. Obviously, this is just a theory based on the pattern of sightings of these types of creatures, yet it's interesting to think about. Either way, this is a fascinating case and one that I'm sure we will more than likely never find a definitive answer to but until the day we know this is a hoax or a real creature, it's best to stay away from the strange property in Bluefield.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Reptile, Amphibian, Paranormal Entity

Location: Bluefield, Mercer County, West Virginia

Sighted: Undisclosed

Works Cited:

Monsters of Virginia by L. B. Taylor Jr.

Mack Maloney's Haunted Universe By Mack Maloney

Strange Tales from Virginia's Mountains: The Norton Woodbooger, the Missing Beale Treasure, the Ghost Town of Lignite and More By Denver Michaels

 

 

Riverside It

 The Riverside It

By Cole Herrold

Many people want to see cryptids. I'm included in this camp how I'd love to see Mothman flying overhead, or while camping encounter, a sasquatch silently wander in the woods. The idea of encountering something unknown is what most of us in the field of Cryptozoology want to experience at least once in our lives. Yet, the thing most of us seem to forget is that there is a dark side to the world of Cryptozoology. Whether it be Nessie attacking early villagers in Loch Ness or Bigfoot carrying off women and children to eat in its dark abodes, this notion of aggressive animalistic cryptids has almost disappeared due to the pop media, tourism, and Amblin style films that paint these creatures as cute, cuddly, friendly, and shy critters that are just trying to make their way in the world. This is unrealistic for many who have had an encounter with a cryptid can seem like a waking nightmare. This is one such case.

On a dark rainy night on November 8^th, 1958, in Riverside, California, Charles Wetzel was driving home in his 1952 Buick and listening to K.F.I. Los Angeles on the radio. While crossing North Main Street where the Santa Ana River is located, he proceeded to in a wise way to slow his speed to avoid a potential accident, for there was an area of the road that had a habit due to its construction to result in the river flooding the road. As approaching this area, he noticed that his radio began to receive only static. Obviously frustrated at the lack of tunes or simply missing his favorite radio host, Wetzel continued to change and go from station to station to find that every station is flooded with static. Glancing up, Wetzel noticed what he thought was a sign, but as his eyes adjusted to his surroundings, he realized how wrong he was. There illuminated by his Buick’s headlights was something that has never been seen before.

A creature that stood six feet tall was wadding in the overflow of the banks, standing there just obscured by shadows as it slowly began to move in a strange gait. The car approached the unnatural abomination, and at that moment, the creature turned and glared inward at the occupant. The creature Wetzel saw had a largemouth that protruded out of the face; its rounded head bore no features like ears or a nose but instead had two deep-set glowing yellow eyes. The creature was as tall as a man in its stance with incredibly long arms with large, clawed hands. The legs of the creature stuck out from the side of its waist as opposed to the bottom like a person giving it almost a crab-like stance and appearance. When it walked, it appeared not to use its knees as though they were there only to help balance the strange anomaly. Its body was covered in scales that were leaf-like in pattern and humanoid in form. As the creature stared into the Buick, a swift motion from the creature's arm sent shivers up the startled motorist's back as the creature proceeded to claw at the windshield. Its long claws screeching and scratching at the glass. The beast let out hideous gurgling sounds while continuing its assault on the machine.

Wetzel reached throughout the cacophony of screeches, gurgles, and rain to his glove box, where he kept a .22 high standard pistol. He felt the cool metal in his hand, his eyes never leaving the site of the monstrous beast still wreaking havoc on his car. His finger wrapped around the trigger, yet at that moment, he thought if he shoots the glass, the barrier between him and his enigmatic aggressor would be severed, resulting in a more physical confrontation which may result in the end of his life. Wetzel's mind changed gears, and returning to the wheel, pushed his foot down on the gas. The startled creature still continued its assault as it was knocked down to the street pavement. The creature, as Wetzel would later describe, "Screamed like a Fucker" as the heavy automobile ran the unknown entity over. The creature under the vehicle continued its din under the car, screaming and gurgling while scratching at the oil pan under the car, almost as though it was trying to hold on to the moving vehicle. Wetzel left the creature in the road and continued to drive on, not stopping until he reached the police station. The police took notice of the damage done to the vehicle, and later on, tests of the undercarriage noticed that the "grease had been scrubbed off" by something.

Bloodhounds were later sent to go and search for the creature that had created such a problem for this Riverside resident. Yet arriving at the site, they could find no trace of the monster that should have been a bloody mess on the side of the road. Wetzel never saw the creature again, and I'm sure never traveled that section of road ever again.

This account of what has been dubbed as the Riverside Bridge Monster, Riverside It, and the Riverside Brain Tickler, the latter which according to The Weird U.S. Website's article "The Riverside Bridge Monster” received this name because of a free paper that retold the tale, is one of the most frightful and aggressive cryptid encounters on the books. It’s a situation no one wants to be in. This account has been written extensively by Loren Coleman in his necessary Fortean research tome Mysterious America. Coleman describes the bare bones of the case as well as material brought up in his interview with Wetzel some years later.

This creature is by far one of not only the most aggressive but bizarre beasts reported from a cryptozoological standpoint. There is nothing that officially matches it, not even when looking at other cryptids. Lizardmen appear more reptilian and do not have the kind of protruding beak seen in this case. The same goes for frogmen, armless aquatic humanoids, and just about every other obvious suspects in the cryptid ark. Everything about it seems wrong; the way it moves, the size of it, and the description of its face and scales make it one of the most enduring mysteries I've ever read.

The appearance of the creature zoologically speaking matches no known animal, not even from a fossil standpoint. Some features like a protruding mouth could be something beak-like, which is similar to what some dinosaurs did display, like an Oviraptor but to say that this is a surviving dinosaur is even more ridiculous. This animal displays features that appear both reptilian, mammal, and bird-like, but most of its features can be lumped into a reptile or reptilian style. Yet again, nothing that we know of matches. So where can we go from here?

In most of my articles, I can come up with a list of potential possibilities that range from the most mundane, like a native species, to something more exotic like a surviving relict. Yet, with this case, even the idea of saying it was somebody perpetrating a hoax is extremely unlikely. The damage done to the car and the damage specifically tested by police under the car show that something was hit by Wetzel and did attack his car. If it were a person hoaxing it, that person would be severely injured or dead, and I'm sure the newspapers would have recounted the individual's "prank," and this would no longer be the mystery that it is. If Wetzel had done the damage to the car himself, it raises the question as to why for no sane person would deliberately damage their own vehicle for the chance of some publicity. The idea of Wetzel doing this damage is on the point of it being just ludicrous, and if you go down that route, it can easily turn conspiratorial.

The most plausible option, it seems, is that this is a new undiscovered species. As bizarre as that concept might seem with a creature like this, there are no mundane answers that don't come off sounding ridiculous or so far out in right field that it's not even worth discussing. With cases like bigfoot and lake monsters, there are countless reports of multiple individuals. With this creature, there is only one official sighting, no evidence of a breeding population at all, so it's hard not to view this creature as a single entity. Viewing it in that terms, we should have some physical evidence, some road smear for its existence. While with most cases of vehicular accidents on animals, the poor creatures usually do not survive. The Riverside It clearly should be lying near the bank or floating in the water if it even was able to move slightly. Yet a body was never found. There are some evidence and reports that the creature managed to survive or that another member(s)of this species is still seen residing in and along the Santa Ana River.

The first of these cases occurred the night after the events between Charles Wetzel and the beast. The first being that almost another vehicular accident with these beasts occurred as a couple driving down a similar stretch of road watched as a large dark form ran across the road. While the form is not described as anything more substantial, this encounter because of timing is deeply connected to the Riverside It because of the timeframe and location of the beast.

An interesting find connected to this case comes from a strange source, the A.P.R.O. Bulletin. The A.P.R.O. or Aerial Phenomenon Research Organization is an organization whose primary focus is on U.F.O. s and extraterrestrial oriented research. When doing research for another topic, I came across an interesting article in a book by Coral E. Lorenzen that collected a good majority of the issues from 1958-1959. In the November 1958 issue of the Bulletin, an article entitled "Monster," the article is about the Charles Wetzel case. The article says that there were around twenty-eight calls to the sheriff in regard to the monster. This itself is ambiguous whether it's journalists, concerned neighbors, or as in the cases of most monster flaps, other eyewitnesses. The way the article is written; however, it seems to be implying the latter. These accounts, to my knowledge, have been uncollected, and I'm sure that there are tons of encounters that went unreported, as is the case with most cryptid encounters. While the police reports on other sightings have yet to be either released or accounted there were other encounters that occurred along and near the Santa Ana River and appear to be of a similar creature.

In the ever-invaluable book The Inhumanoids: Real Encounters with Beings That Can’t Exist! by Barton M. Nunnelly, he describes the Wetzel encounter and goes on to describe three separate occasions of creatures similar in appearance. This first sighting which occurred several years after the initial Riverside encounter occurred near the town of Corona. This account has been referred to as the Lemon Grove incident as this was the general area where a lot of these sightings took place. These sightings took place approximately 10 miles from Riverside but occurred during the 60s and 70s, approximately 5 to 15 years after Wetzel’s infamous encounter.

Dave Wilson and Tom McKelvy were out driving on a full moon in Dave's truck one night when they decided to head up to the Lemon Grove area. Driving the old dirt roads, they were encapsulated in the serenity of the darkness around them when one of the duo noticed some movement in the tree line. Wondering about their mysterious observation, they proceeded to go and put their truck in park. Sitting in the darkness, they proceeded in lifting and turning on a large flashlight and scanned the forest's darkness for what has captured their attention. When there about 75ft in front of them, they saw a form. The form was a creature standing 9ft tall and covered in shaggy gray hair. The creature bore a round head described in shape, not unlike that which Wetzel reported. The creature's round head was attached to the shoulders as no neck was visible. Its round head was filled with a pair of bulging eyes, front teeth that pointed outwards, and a nose that looked pushed in. The creature's arms were insanely long, and its hands were tipped in long claws. The two men stared at this unholy abomination for what seemed like an eternity when the creature began to move in an odd fashion; it seemed to lurch as it moved before letting out a long metallic-sounding screech. The men's eyes widened, for this was a call to war; the creature began to charge the stopped truck. Dave and Tom knowing their encounter most likely was going to turn deadly, proceeded in putting the truck in reverse and, like a bat out of hell, spun the truck around and drove 70 yards away from the monstrous beast. The two men breathed a sigh of relief as they believed they were in the clear, but it had not. Looking in the rearview mirror, one of the men could see their monstrous assailant still charging, and by the time the men were pulling away once again, the creature had begun to stretch its disproportionate arm into the tailgate of the pickup truck as though it was trying to grab it. Luckily before any connection could be made, the men sped off, leaving their strange antagonist behind in the Lemon Groves.

The next day the men returned to the scene and there discovered a large track with three long-clawed toes. The print was eighteen inches long and seven inches across. The men proceeded to go to the police with their encounter, but the officers, after hearing their encounter and seeing the print, believed that this sighting was the work of some prankster. About a year later, however, Dave and another friend, while driving in the same area, saw the same creature south of Chase Drive in the Lemon Groves. While seeing it a second time, he noticed the area smelled of a horrendous smell like that of a dead animal.

These accounts are often included in books on bigfoot. Yet this creature seems to be a composite of the creature seen by Charles Wetzel, and interestingly, a lot of the features like the round head, hair, long arms, seem to bear a resemblance to some types of bigfoot like creatures like Momo the Missouri monster. This creature, while slightly mammalian, behaves and has features that are extremely similar to what was reported by Wetzel and I feel should be included as part of this case. Could it be that the leaf-like scales reported by Wetzel was actually wet muddy fur that had dried, giving it that scale-like pattern? This idea has been proposed for other reptilian creatures, most notably the Honey Island Swamp Monster and the Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp. I personally don't feel this to be the case seeing as the creature was literally on top and underneath Wetzel's car, and he got an excellent look at it, seeing as this creature was only feet away from his face. Clearly, in a situation like that, someone can tell the difference between a lizard-like monstrosity and something apish.

While this is all the written accounts of a creature similar in appearance to the Riverside It in California, while researching the account, I came across the website Weird California and its article “Wetzel's Riverside Monster” while the article itself poses nothing new in regard to information. Upon reaching the bottom of the page, I found an anonymous commentator who claimed to of known others who had encountered similar beasts. While it can easily be dismissed by skeptics due to the anonymous nature, the simple fact of it being a comment, and not as worthy in regard of evidence as opposed to the researchers who spent time interviewing Wetzel and writing about the case for the sake of completion I decided to include it in the article.

This is the account in its entirety: “I know some people that live at the Wetzel River, currently known and called The Riverbottom, that has seen that creature and saw two more of those creature. A total amount of three creatures which they seen those creatures hovering over the River water and watching the people and as soon as the people go closer to it they run off into the bushes. In addition to the story, those creatures still exist and still is unknown what it could be. They come out at night. Many people who live there has seen it and tried to stab it with a long spear but it got away. Also there are demon entities who also come out at night. They have powerful forces that they imprint their face onto the side of the tent. Some people who believe in Jesus Christ will tell those entities to leave them alone. They only come to the weak minded people who don't have faith and believe in Jesus Christ. His name protects us people who have belief and faith in him. He is the one who can and will save us. Be aware if you go take a trip to the River Bottom. Be safe.”

This account, if accurate, offers an interesting patina for a case that is deeply rooted in Cryptozoology. In contrast, I take a lot of the spiritual aspects of this particular creature with more than a grain of salt. Personally, I would say an entire bag of salt. I do find it interesting that there is a consistent amount of supposed accounts that occur along the Santa Ana River. Could it be that these creatures use this river to travel from a different locale or as a major site for spawning if they are instead of reptilians more akin to fish in origin and behavior?

A fish humanoid is something that has occurred from time to time. The Thetis Lake Monster, for example, is a creature described as a semiaquatic fish or lizard-like creature. Now this creature seen in the 70s in Vancouver Island is described as much more ornate in the face and head than what is reported in the Riverside It case. There was a case that occurred in Breckinridge, Kentucky, that also featured a fish-type humanoid that ran into the side of the witnesses' house. How similar or different these animals would be to already known fish is something yet to be determined. Yet there is the possibility that these animals retained through the millions of years of their evolution some of their habits such as migration. This idea seems even more plausible with a species that is bipedal. This feature would help these creatures to travel from one lake, pond, river, bayou, etc. this could explain why we have one-time encounters or encounters of the creatures several years or decades down the line while other areas have reports of the same or similar creatures. A study to try to determine a pattern has at least to my knowledge not been explored.

Following this idea of a migratory aquatic species, there is one account of a creature bearing an intermediate resemblance to what was seen by Wetzel. The same year as Wetzel's encounter, there was an encounter of a similar beast in San Luis Valley in New Mexico. Priscilla Garduno Wolf and two other friends encountered a strange figure which came out and stood outside her house for several nights near her home. The figure stood by a ditch which was full of water. The dogs around her property had become upset about this creature. This continued for several nights, but the creature was gone by the day. Now on one occasion, the group of friends had decided to go and use this aquatic path to cool off from the hot summer sun. While traveling, they noticed a dark figure standing in the tree line. As the girls passed this silent creature and proceeded to walk a decent distant past it, they never looked away from the shadowy form. Without warning, the figure picked up speed, plunged into the water, and began to swim at a fast pace towards the young girls. They could make out its blurred form as it swam menacingly in this irrigation canal. The girls realizing the potential danger they were in, ran out of the water and did not stop until they got home. The next day they returned to the location where their semiaquatic admirer had been, and they found three-toed lizard-like tracks. that was the end of her horrific account with what she called the Lizard Man.

While I thoroughly believe that in this case, what we are seeing is a rare aquatic humanoid or reptilian humanoid of some kind, there are several alternative ideas that push this creature into more fringe topics. I mentioned the supposed demonic nature of these creatures in the account written by the anonymous commentator. While I sincerely do not support this idea and believe it to be one of the least likely, it is one that does, for the sake of argument, need to be brought up. The idea of reptilian creatures being devils or demonic forces is something that is continuously mentioned by many who are of an entirely religion-oriented mind. While these creatures are unknown, and it is tempting to jump on the supernatural bandwagon for things that we do not understand, it is also important to mention that some of these individuals claim that dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals were created by the devil to trick mankind, which is truly nonsensical.  As a man with a mind more towards science than supernatural, I bury these claims to be on the par of almost impossible. In my mind, there is a more scientific understanding of these creatures.

Another hypothesis is that these creatures are, in fact, from another dimension or, as John Keel would call them, an Ultraterrestrial. For those who don't know what an Ultraterrestrial is, it is an organism made up of energy or some other form of matter that can appear and change into different things for a variety of different purposes; some claim these creatures feed off our energies like fear, depression, etc. whereas others seem to simply be tricksters not unlike the various spirits, and gods seen around the world but most famously known in Native American lore. These creatures have been described to take a variety of supposed forms and are the singular explanation to every kind of phenomenon from bigfoot, U.F.O.s, ghosts, and even religious figures for those who follow this school of thought. It is worthy of note that during Charles Wetzel's encounter before he saw the creature, he reported that his radio received nothing but static on every radio station. This is something Keel had noted with a variety of these Ultraterrestrial encounters, and this kind of event occurred during sightings of the Mothman during the 66'-67' flap. This phenomenon has also been reported in connection with those that have supposedly encountered portals into other worlds or dimensions.

My standpoint on this is that this is too extreme of an answer for the data that is given in the account, and it requires no thoroughly complex thought or critical thinking to really come to this conclusion. Now that’s not to say that there may be something to some cases where this is the most likely answer, but there needs to be a hierarchy of thought when it comes to these topics. When researching any topic, I always try to eliminate the mundane answers first; if nothing mundane makes sense, I go into the field of Cryptozoology, followed by Ufology, then spectral research and the world of multidimensional entities and Ultraterrestrials, this is then followed by demonology and what some would call divine. The range goes from most likely and most testable or hypothetical to least likely and least testable. The case of the Riverside It is unique because it is mostly a biological case, but it has some features that could enter on some of the fringier sides.

The Riverside It case, however, seems to not fit nicely into any of the fringier topics. For those dedicated to these studies, many of which I do find worth, like Ufology and spectral research, I feel would agree for the most part that this particular case seems to indicate something that is of a more biological standpoint, especially with Wetzel's encounter. There were no U.F.O.s reported during the account, so the idea of this creature being some kind of extraterrestrial is extremely unlikely. The creature clearly had some physicality to it, especially with the reaction to being hit by the car, so clearly, it is not a demonic or ghostly entity. So that really leaves one main plausible option.

 This creature, while often viewed as a singular entity, is something that appears to be some kind of reptilian hominid or icthyohominid creature that, due to convergent evolution or parallel evolution, developed bipedal features. While there is nothing in the fossil evidence to support the development of such a feature or creature, we do know that many species like dinosaurs and birds walk bipedally, and reptiles like the Basilisk lizard run bipedally. So, the existence of something other than a man doing so is not out of the ordinary.

With this particular case, we are left with way more questions than answers. There is no cut and dry answer while I feel this creature is a flesh and blood organism that possibly travels or migrates to other watery holes for some as yet unknown reason and timeframe. It is still a hypothesis that requires much more study and testing. Yet while there is so much uncertainty to the origins of this particular beast, there is one thing that is perfectly clear. The creature had upset the life of one particular man that rainy night and, in doing so, certainly changed his viewpoint of the world. How does one prepare for an encounter with the unknown? it is something that many want, but few realize the possible repercussions of such an encounter. In Charles Wetzel's case, the overall end was of a traumatic encounter that, when interviewed, was so ingrained in his memory that even the most minute detail was saved. I have great sympathy for those who have encountered the unknown and have problems coping with it, for it is something that can totally change not only their perception but their lives.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Reptile

Location: Riverside, California

Sighted: November 8, 1958

Works Cited

Bishop, Greg, Joe Oesterle, and Mike Marinacci. Weird California: Your Travel Guide to California’s Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets. Sterling. 2006.

Coleman, Loren. Mysterious America: The Ultimate Guide to the Nation’s Weirdest Wonders, Strangest Spots, and Creepiest Creatures. Paraview Pocket Books. 2007

Guttilla, Peter. The Bigfoot Files. Timeless Voyager Press. 2017.

Lorenzen, Coral E. “Monster”. The A.P.R.O. Bulletin. November 1958. Saucerian Publishing. 2020.

Nunnelly, Barton M. The Inhumanoids: Real Encounters with Beings that Can’t Exist!. Triangulum. 2017.

“Riverside Bridge Monster”. Weird U.S. http://www.weirdus.com/states/california/bizarre_beasts/riverside_bridge_monster/index.php?fbclid=IwAR0YNI5ZLYUs1Z6buTGkaPVUbrzmCEm2NCb45HaZk39f6GNCcZx_Vhb7ry0. Accessed December 15^th, 2020.

“California Screaming? Dark Tales And Legends From Otherwise Sunny California” Me Time For The Mind.  https://www.metimeforthemind.com/california-screaming-dark-tales-and-legends-from-otherwise-sunny-california.html?fbclid=IwAR1U2WkbvOAgtyHekprHYBDrg9rfkbYL6VUZK7pKtLb6jMa0VqHt5RoCA_0. Accessed December 15^th, 2020.

“Wetzel's Riverside Monster” Weird California. http://www.weirdca.com/location.php?location=119. Accessed December 16^th, 2020

New Kensington 'Green Thing'

 The New Kensington ‘Green Thing’

By Cole Herrold

Some cryptids are seemingly cut from the same cloth Bigfoot, Yeti, Almas, Seismite, Woodwose, for example, all are hairy hominids this indicates some close lineage or at least distant relation. Cryptids known as Reptilians are almost always indicated as the same entities and never seemingly have different features unless one branches out into the worlds of Ufology and Religious experiences, which have similar entities. Yet, in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, there was one such encounter with a juvenile creature that seemed to be totally different than the typical reptilian. The creature is often referred to as famous yet is rarely covered and is most notably referred to as the New Kensington Lizard Man, but to distinguish how bizarre and unique this creature is, I've gone back to using the original name for the creature that appeared in the Valley News Dispatch the New Kensington ‘Green Thing’.

It was a cold February 28, 1981, when 13-year-old Bill Menhart and three or four other boys aged 11-13 (some say up to 16) were out playing near the old railroad tracks by Constitution Boulevard and North Street in the middle of both New Kensington and Arnold in Westmoreland County. When they came across a slime-covered festering storm drain. Their attention was not on the drain itself, for they had seen the protruding sewage valve on more than one occasion but seemed to be something moving very close to it. The boys looked over and noticed that standing there was a creature that seemed ripped from another time. The creature in question would be described by Bill in the following way "It looked like a baby dinosaur, a lizard, about two feet. It has a big tail." This general description, however, was not the most bizarre features of this creature. The creature was dark green in color and was completely hairless. Along the top of its head was a bizarre crest or frill that seemed reminiscent of a typical shark's fin. The creature, however, while seemingly reptilian in nature and origin, seemed to share one feature, which is completely opposed to what a reptile is supposed to have with mammals. The creature's chest featured prominent nipples that would later be recounted in Rosemary Ellen Guiley’s Atlas of the Mysterious in North America. The boys noticed the bizarre beast wandering around near the drain, seemingly oblivious to their presence. Yet the boys, not scared or intimidated by the beast, did what any rambunctious children would and proceeded to pelt the bizarre creature with rocks and began to take chase after it. The creature let out slight squeals whenever it was hit and, like any startled animal, began running around looking for any way to escape a possible demise. The small creature, however, as it was scurrying away from these colossal children, would not go unscathed as one of the 11year old boys managed to grab hold of the creature attempting to capture it. The creature unleashed a high-pitched screech-like squeal and began to writhe as quickly as it could to escape the clutches of the boy. The creature eventually succeeded as it squirmed enough to the point that the boy could not keep its grip and, landing on its two feet, eventually realized the only point of escape was the sludge-infested stink cylinder. The creature running towards the drain managed to clamor in and disappear just as one of the kids once more attempted to grab the small beast.

Now while this mad dash was going on, the boys unleashed countless cries of war, and this brought the attention of several adults in the area. As these adults worked their way over, they too managed to see the trail end of this creature's escape. This led an entire group of people to lurk over the pipe, waiting just for the chance for the creature to come out. This Punxsutawney Phil-esque watch, however, would ultimately be cut short as night began to cut over the sky and the boys, each knowing the closeness to their curfew, slowly began to return home for dinner. A few days later, the group began to tell their classmates all about their encounter with the cryptozoological creature, and so word spread around the school like wildfire. This tale, however, would not be kept in the confines of the halls of learning but instead would be brought home where the parents of the students quickly hear the strange tale that their classmates had experienced a few days prior and the parents so concerned about the encounter proceeded to reach out to the Arnold Police Department. Arnold Police chief William Clark would later talk with the boys and receive a sketch which would appear in the March 5, 1981, issue of the Valley News Dispatch. Arnold, after interviewing the boys, would reassert most of the description given and would say in an official report, "The creature was described as about three feet tall with two arms and a tail and hunched over on two legs." 

Now during this time, many people had flocked to the storm drain and the railroad tracks to attempt to see the ostensibly unknown entity. The most interested in the subject of the 'Green Thing,' as the papers would call it, was Bob Goerman, a passionate UFO researcher who came down to investigate on Tuesday the 3^rd and Wednesday the 4^th. Goerman received the account from the Arnold Police department and proceeded to interview the kids as well as walking along the entire length of the tracks in New Kensington and Arnold for evidence of the creature. During his time, he attempted to bait the creature out with apple slices near the opening of the sewer; when asked why he said, "Because creatures like this seem to go for fruit." Yet his slices were always taken by rats and mice instead. Goerman, after his search, seemed to think that the creature was harmless but also was no longer in the area. "I think if it exists, its moving upriver." And with his final comment, so too did the tale of the creature known as the 'Green Thing.'

The 'Green Thing' is an entity that can be interpreted in a variety of ways. Most skeptics would probably say that since the witnesses were children, they were either A making it up or B misidentifying some normal member of the fauna. While it's possible that this account is nothing more than a case of childhood dreams of prehistoric life, this becomes much harder to swallow when one takes into account that adults as well saw this creature, thereby implying that lying is off the table. However, misidentification is, and there are some possibilities as to what it might be.

One of the most popular theories as to what the ‘green thing’ was is that the creature was an escaped exotic pet. Cryptozoologist Chad Armet put forward the possibility that it was specifically a plumed basilisk. The reason for this Armet would claim is that the Basilisk lizard does have a primarily significant crest much like the 'green thing,' and also, more importantly, the basilisk lizard also can run bipedally. The most incredible feature of this is that the Basilisk lizard's feet are designed so that it even can create tiny air bubbles, which cause surface tension in rivers as it runs, giving it the ability to run on water; this also gives it the name the Jesus Christ Lizard. While this is a popular theory for this case, there are some problems with it; the big problem to me is that the creature had nipples which are a mammalian trait. The eyewitness sketch that appeared in the paper also has a bizarre kind of flaps that come from the side of the head as well, which is not typical of the basilisk lizard.

This same thought process can be applied to other exotics such as Iguanas, and another sidebar possibility as to why this would be unlikely is that reptiles are genuinely sluggish in cold weather. The sighting of the 'Green Thing' took place in February, so this is still winter; if this is a reptile, it should not be roaming around the cold, windy streets of New Kensington. So there’s more indication due to the creature being seen in the winter and that it had nipples that what this creature is, is some kind of hairless mammal.

Going the hairless mammal route, it is important to say there is nothing even close to this creature from a mammalian point of view. There's no real two to three-foot tall green, tailed, bipedal creature with frills; it just doesn't exist in a known zoological realm. The closest skeptical answer for this would be if someone shaved a monkey, painted it green, but left a mohawk to give the illusion of a frill, and for some reason let it loose in New Kensington. This may seem unlikely, but someone did, in fact, do something similar in 1909 at the trail end of Phenomenon Week in New Jersey where several charlatans put fake wings on a green painted kangaroo and called it the Jersey Devil, which they after a fake capture put it on exhibition where they poked it with a nail on a stick to make the creature lunge and snarl at patrons. Again, however, in the New Kensington case, this is highly unlikely that the Jersey Devil prank was ultimately to make money at a sideshow, whereas this made no money nor benefitted anyone. So, a hoax via mammal is more than likely not as plausible.

With that said, there is a chance that this creature may be some unidentified mammal that happens to be green. It would be revolutionary if that would be true, for no mammal is naturally green. Or perhaps this creature might not be truly green; perhaps it lives in the sewer or in an environment where its natural skin tone gets tinted, sort of like how sloths have algae that grow on their backs, giving them greenish tones. The only problem with this is the creature's seemingly reptilian traits, the frills, and even the witness's description of being a baby dinosaur seems to even though it has some mammalian qualities or features that it would almost have to be a reptile.

Going the undiscovered reptile route, perhaps this creature evolved to withstand cold temperatures and can now feasibly live in Pennsylvania's harsh winters. Pennsylvania does have several species of reptiles, so it would not be surprising at all for this to be the case. There are also reports of larger reptile-like creatures that are said to roam the state, including the 30-40ft Broad Top Mountain Serpent, a black snake as big as a stovepipe, the Lapping Farm Lizard Man, and several reports of pterodactyl-like creatures. So, a small 2-3ft reptile is more reasonable not only in believability but also in finding shelter from the elements.

Now with that said, there's never been a Pennsylvania cryptid close to it. The Lapping Farm Lizard Man was very much like a typical Reptilian; however, several researchers have pointed to similar creatures in other states. The first one that some have pointed to was the Riverside It was an incredibly lanky and aggressive creature with a scarecrow-like face and scales that allegedly attacked a car when a section of road flooded in Riverside, California. Now I personally feel that this is a stretch since the Riverside creature did not have a frill and had several other bizarre features that clearly do not match the 'Green Thing.'

To me, a much closer cryptid that may or may not be a grown-up version of this species was sighted in Breckinridge, Kentucky, in 1966. The creature ran into a sleeping man's house before running off towards a nearby river. The creature was described as a 5-6ft creature covered in scales with a frill on the top of its head and webbed hands. This is almost identical to what was reported except that it did not have a long tail. I wonder if these entities could truly be aspects of this species lifecycle like a traditional frog, the 'Green Thing' being the in-between stage of a tadpole and a grown frog, and the Breckinridge creature being a full-grown adult. Another possibility is that this could be some sexual dimorphic features and that one or the other is male and female.

Another creature that is similar is the Thetis Lake Monster; it was described as a kind of fish-man with three spiky frills on its head. The creature was very similar to what was seen in Breckinridge as well and had many of the same features like webbed hands and a tailless bipedal stance. So again, there does seem to be a kind of similar yet different varieties of fishmen or lizardmen-type creatures.

This creature seems to ostensibly be a cryptid. There was no UFO reported in conjunction with the sighting; however, Westmoreland County has always been a hotbed of Fortean phenomenon so much that the whole county could be referred to as a Keelan "window area." The creature was clearly a physical entity, so we can rule out the demonological or spectral. There's no real indication that this creature is a kind of fae as there are not really any reptile-like faeries out there. The interdimensional option is always on the table as there's always the chance that this creature seemingly popped into our existence, but it again, based on what we have on this case unlikely. This creature, I think, is one of the few times that it's almost certainly a traditional cryptid.

This case has always fascinated me since I first read about it in Monsters of Pennsylvania some years ago. This case seems to indicate the more biological standpoint of a study that most seem to picture as folkloric and fantasy beasts. Many times, skeptics will ask where are the young if these creatures exist; we should have sightings of the young. Now while young bigfoot sightings are almost common whereas other juvenile cryptid sightings are practically nonexistent however if this is a baby lizardman or Fishman, this makes this case incredibly important for Fortean study. This would be the first, at least to my knowledge, juvenile lizardman or Fishman sighting and could pull a more serious study into these types of creatures and their said habitats.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Reptile/Mammal

Location: New Kensington/Arnold, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania

Sighted: February 28, 1981

Works Cited:

Atlas of the Mysterious in North America By Rosemary Ellen Guiley

Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology By Michael Newton

Monsters of Pennsylvania By Patty A. Wilson

Mystery Animals of Pennsylvania By Andrew Gable

Strange Pennsylvania Monsters By Michael Newton

Unexplained Mysteries of the 20th Century by Janet and Colin Bord

Balser, Emily “New Kensington 'Green Thing' legend resurfaces online” TribLive. Sept. 14, 2017. https://archive.triblive.com/local/valley-news-dispatch/new-kensington-green-thing-legend-resurfaces-online/. Accessed December 28, 2020

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.