The Green-Haired Monster of Trout Run Road

 The Green-Haired Monster of Trout Run Road

By Cole Herrold

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

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

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

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

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

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

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Mammal, Primate, Hominid

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

Sighted: Saturday, December 1, 1973

Works Cited:

Beyond the Seventh Gate By Timothy Renner

York Daily Record December 4, 1973

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

Chickie's Hill Mummy

 Chickie’s Hill Mummy

By Cole Herrold

In the world of the Fortean, there are tons of accounts that seemingly depict entities that are absolutely supernatural in origin. These entities do not fit the known and already extensive realms of Cryptozoology and Ufology but instead, seem to come straight from the Phantom Zone. One of these anomalous entities was reported on Chickie's Hill in Lancaster County. Chickie's Hill and the surrounding area is already a hotbed for Fortean phenomena from small diminutive hairy hominids known as Albatwitches to classical Bigfoot and supernatural Bigfoot encounters and countless ghost sightings and anomalous sounds; the area hardly seems like it could fit another mystery in its hills and mountain but of all these entities said to reside there in none could compare to a bizarre phantasmagorical entity that would be seen by a pair of witnesses in the area in 1946.

Harriet Horn would come face to face with a bizarre apparition on the most unassuming of days in 1946. Harriet, along with several of her friends and coworkers, were out enjoying a warm day on Chickie's Hill, and the group had decided to stop and enjoy a picnic. As the plates were being passed out and the mounds of delicacies were being placed around. Harriet realized that the group desperately was low on water and so, along with a male friend, hopped into his car and drove back down the hill to go fetch enough for everyone. As they were coming closer to the exit of the park, they noticed a bizarre figure standing near a group of trees. Harriet at first thought it to be a person but soon realized in abject terror that the figure was way too big and thin to be a person. As the car came closer and closer, she soon realized that what was looming in the woods was something that seemingly stepped out of the pages of an Edgar Allan Poe story. The figure which she now could tell was a person was a towering 16 feet tall. The entity was extremely bizarre as it was wrapped in long bandages from top to bottom and was seemingly devoid of arms or legs, or they were hidden by trees or wrapped tightly in the bandages to the point where they were not noticeable. All of this was bizarre and horrifying enough, but as she stared at the skeletal face, she noticed that protruding from the sides was a total of six knives that were placed three on each side. Harriet's companion, who was driving, was so encapsulated by this bizarre apparition that all he could say was "My God! What is that" and almost lost control of the vehicle as he gawked at the monstrous mummy. They continued to drive past the entity, leaving the creatures behind, and continued to drive a quarter of a mile before pulling off to the side of the road. The two sat there in utter disbelief, attempting to rationalize what they had just experienced when an eerie thought emanated in their brains. They left all of their friends and coworkers behind with that thing. The two, in an act of heroism, proceeded to restart their car and began driving back into the park and up the hill towards where their colleagues were continuing the picnic. All the drive up, the pair looked in the woods around for the colossal creature, but it seemingly vanished. As they returned to their friend's picnic, they rushed out of the car as fast as they could, uttering, "You gotta get out of here, we saw something terrible." With these words, all of the picnickers began grabbing what they could, leaving only some plates, food, and blankets behind. The group all traveled back down the road where some of the coworkers may have seen the bizarre entity. When the group returned to work the next day, everyone was quiet, and their silence seemed to speak volumes as to what they may have seen. Only one woman was not so quiet in a hushed tone she began to tell about a story she heard of a witch that lived on Chickie's Hill who was allegedly evicted from her home. This now homeless practitioner supposedly had placed a curse on the land and, in doing so, opened a door letting all sorts of strange entities loose on the Hill.

In 1969 Chickie's Rock County Park underwent a massive case of Ghost Mania. Chickie's Rock and Chickie's Hill is littered with several reported spirits from Native Americans, Amish folks, and the tragic souls of those who committed suicide on the rock, and during 1969 several teenagers reported seeing shadowy gray apparitions in the woods. This sighting which later was revealed to be a hoax, did not stop countless others from searching the forest for spirits; the search was so extensive that police officers were dispatched to manage the heavy flow of traffic that filled the park. Now while there were several hoaxed claims and ostensibly real encounters during this time span, there was one particular encounter that seems to mirror that of Harriet Horn in 1946; one of the ghosthunters, while out wandering in the woods, reported that they saw a spirit wrapped in bandages with a knife sticking from it.

Now there have since been no reported sightings of this entity, so it's difficult to glean any further information on this entity, and it's a type of creature that seems to have never been reported since then. Now with attempting to categorize this entity in a Fortean style, it's very clear that this is not a cryptid. There's nothing to imply this creature has any sort of physical biology to it in the same way a Bigfoot would. There's actually more possibility of it being a hoax rather than a biological entity.

The hoax possibility is seemingly much more plausible in this case than a lot of other cases of bizarre encounters. There is based on what can be gleaned from eyewitness testimony the idea that this creature may have been capable of movement, but it’s never seemingly described as ambling along, opening its mouth, or doing anything of the sort that would give the appearance of a sentient entity. So, from this lack of movement, there's a possibility that what was reported could have been some manufactured model or some form of an art installation that could have been made as a kind of prank. Now that said, while not impossible, I find it unlikely seeing the figure reported was about 16ft tall and to create a piece that big and set it up and then take it down all in the matter of a few minutes just for the chance of a hoaxing someone is highly improbable.

While a hoax cannot be taken off the table, other researchers have looked at other Fortean categories for an answer to this anomalous apparition. One of the most unlikely categories that some researchers have pointed to is that what was seen on Chickie’s Hill could have come from the world of Ufology based on a comparison to a famous case in Mississippi. Researcher Joshua Cutchin has hypothesized that the appearance of the Chickie’s Hill Mummy might be interconnected to the Pascagoula Abductors. The reason for this is that the Pascagoula Abductors were often described as having mummy-like skin and having bizarre conical knife-like protrusions that jutted out of their face. Now the Pascagoula abductors are only loosely similar to the Chickie's Hill Mummy; the size is entirely wrong, the Pascagoula abductors had arms and floated and had less projecting facial features, and that one was on the front of the face. Based on these glaring differences, I do not believe that they are the same or even a related phenomenon.

The most plausible category for this entity which is perhaps the most difficult to accept is that this is a supernatural apparition, either some sort of manifestation created via witchcraft or possibly the transmogrified spirit of a murder victim. Entities similar to the Chickie's Hill Mummy have been reported elsewhere, not only in the United States but around the world. One that I recently wrote about is the Anza-Borrego Desert Lantern Skeleton which was an 8ft tall skeletal apparition with an old lantern that hangs in its skeletal chest (see entry for more information). In Japan, there is a Yokai known as Gashadokuro, which is a colossal skeletal apparition that is fifteen times the size of a normal person. This entity is composed of the bones of individuals who had died of starvation and proceed in grabbing and biting the heads off anyone who encounters them. In Scotland, another skeletal type entity was reported the entity was seen at the wedding dance of King Alexander the figure bore no clothes or flesh this encounters exact date is unclear since the original reference to this was John Keel’s The Complete Guide to Mysterious Beings and he places the date to 1293 but this is impossible as King Alexander III the last of the King Alexanders died on March 19, 1286, and was married in 1251. King Alexander II, however, was married a second time in 1239 to Marie De Coucy, so there's a higher chance that this is the encounter Keel was mentioning. Similar sightings of skeletal apparitions have been reported in England and Ireland.

What are we to make of these skeletal specters? There is a typical belief that apparitions will frequently bear the marks or even the methods of their execution, such as the Ghost of Anne Boleyn appearing without her head or the Greenbrier Ghost who recreated her broken neck to show her mother how she was murdered. This does not seem to be the case with these entities, or if it is a part of why these entities manifest in the way they do, it needs to be more thoroughly looked into. If the Chickie's Hill Mummy was some murder victim and what Harriet and the other witnesses saw was the body wrapped up with the several murder weapons inserted in it, this would be the first case in which a murdered individual was 16ft tall. So, it’s doubtful that what was being manifested is a direct representation of the original form of whatever this entity is/was if this was at one point human. Perhaps much like Japan’s Gashadokuro, the entity was some sort of manifestation that is formed by multiple spirits or created by some sort of emotion. This could explain how the entity seems to be much larger than it should be if it was at one point the spirit of a living person.

While I've discussed the possibility that this could be the soul of some sort, be it a murder victim or something similar, there's another possibility that was offered by one of those who were picnicking on the hill. There have been several reports of alleged witches in Pennsylvania, and there have been about two that have been said to be in the area of Chickie's Hill. If we look at these tales of magic as possible, perhaps this apparition is some sort of demon, or magical manifestation that's sole purpose is to, in an almost Scooby-Doo-like way to scare away or cause mischief on those who would enter the area. Now I must say even though the apparition is extremely bizarre if this was to be the case, there should be more reports of this entity unless the curse had a supernatural period of time of activity and had reached its end. This is something that has happened before but from a Christian standpoint and with an equally bizarre entity. There was a period of time that the Jersey Devil was believed to of been exorcised from the Pine Barrens after a priest was paid to deal with the creature's shenanigans. Sightings of the creature during this time span were practically nonexistent, leading many to think that the creature was cast out of the woods. Perhaps that is what we see here, but in reverse, the curse was laid the apparition was free to roam the area for an allotted period of time, and then once that time was up, it had to return from wherever it came from. Yet all of this is simply speculation.

This anomalous apparition is an entity that, when I first came across it, completely encapsulated my thoughts. This figure is so bizarre that it truly is unique even when it comes to the colossal gallery of reported ghosts, cryptids, and aliens that are said to lurk on our planet. Just what was seen on the hill that day, I can only speculate, but its something so unique that it definitely needs to be brought to the attention of the Fortean community even though I’m sure well never come close to even getting a glimpse of what truly was lurking on that warm day in 46’ and seen that cold night in 69’.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Paranormal Entity

Location: Chickie’s Rock County Park, Columbia, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania

Sighted: 1946/1969

Works Cited:

Beyond the Seventh Gate By Timothy Renner

The Complete Guide to Mysterious Beings By John Keel

The Inhumanoids By Barton Nunnelly

Cutchin, Joshua “Pascagoula or PA ghoulie?” Joshua Cutchin. December 20, 2016. https://www.joshuacutchin.com/single-post/2016/12/20/pascagoula-or-pa-ghoulie. Accessed October 26, 2021.

The Lewisberry Scuttler

 The Lewisberry Scuttler

By Cole Herrold

Sometimes a possible connection to other cases can be found in books one currently doesn’t own. I recently wrote about a bizarre cryptid creature known as the Mud Creek Road Monster, and I was under the impression that there had been no other sightings of the creature or anything similar. Well, I recently bought Beyond the Seventh Gate, which is another incredible addition to the Fortean collection, and in it, there's one interesting encounter that has some similarities to the entity reported on Mud Creek Road with only some slight differences.

In October 2013, local business owner Donald Reeser was out driving on Route 382 towards Lewisberry, York County. He was near where Brenneman Drive was when he noticed something tall and dark walking along the roadside. Thinking it was a person in dark clothing, he began to slow down and was watching to see whether the person was going to continue going straight or whether it was going to turn in some different direction. It was at that moment Reeser noticed as he watched the person move that it seemed to be walking in an awkward fashion as though whoever was hurt. He kept staring at the shambling form and soon noticed that the figure was much taller than he initially thought it appeared to be 6 ½ feet tall, but he also had the impression it could be even taller. As Reeser watched, he was almost certain that this man was in an accident and began approaching the figure as quickly as he could. It was only after doing this that he soon realized that whatever this thing is it was not a man. The man, clearly now a creature, seemingly oblivious to the fact that a car was coming towards it, dropped down on all fours and began to spiderly scurry across the road. Reeser, as the creature crossed the road, got a good look at it and would describe it as having black skin covered in short black hair. The creature's face seemed humanoid but where its nose and mouth should be was a long protruding snout. Reeser watching this creature disappear into the woods, was completely dumbfounded. Reeser returned home after an otherwise uneventful drive home and soon began to tell his friends about his encounter. While he was trying to see if anyone else knew or had an experience with this ostensibly unknown entity, two other witnesses would approach him and claim that they too had seen the same creature in the nearby woodlands, but just what it was, none of them knew for certain. The one thing Reeser did know is that the creature was not a bear, nor was it any of the known local species in the area.

Now more information on these other encounters is unavailable, but as mentioned earlier, this entity seems similar to a creature I've discussed recently called the Mud Creek Road Monster. The lanky, awkward movement, the dog-like snout, black skin, and short black hair are all things that the Lewisberry Scuttler had done/looked like that appear to be similar to the Mud Creek Road Monster. Now with that said, there's not much more to the description; there was no report of dog or wolf-like ears, nor was there any reference to the pure black void like eyes or colossal claws that the Mud Creek Road Monster so there is, of course, the chance that these are two different kinds of creatures, but it is needless to say eerie that they have many of the same features.

While there are some similarities to the Mud Creek Road Monster, that's not a clear answer as to what this creature really is. My first thought would be a bear with mange since a bear can rear up on its hind legs and would have that shambling gait as described by the witness; however, the humanoid-like head seems to be something that kind of makes this hypothesis improbable. This, too, can be added when one takes into account when one thinks of the scuttling way the creature is described as going across the road, which almost seems to imply the creature had spindly limbs. This is something that does not occur with bears, who usually have a lopping run.

Renner compares this creature to two other cryptids but states it does not match either the first being the infamous Dogman phenomena and the second being the Crawlers. Dogmen are overly hairy upright canines, and while this creature has a long snout, it does not have any of the other features associated with dogmen. Crawlers, on the other hand, are a far newer cryptid and have appearances like that of the Rake from Creepypasta lore. They are more humanoid in the face, body and have overly long arms and short legs that end in long, overly extended fingers; this seems to be almost a match except for a few things. Crawlers are almost always white or gray in color, they do not have snouts but flat faces, and most importantly, they are almost never reported being bipedal. If this creature is a crawler, it would be the first time one had been reported it would seem walking bipedally for some time. With this creature, I feel confident enough to say it's not a bigfoot with mange as we have the Sam Sherry encounter to compare it to, and it's a far departure from that encounter.

While there's no existing report of anything similar, that is not to say that this creature could not be something biological. The creature assumedly is a mammal since it has hair, so perhaps this is some kind of creature that for some reason managed to remain hidden, living in caves or the dense woodlands around the area. There's also that chance that this creature could naturally be subterranean. I entertained this idea with the Ridge Road Monster, a gangly red-eyed humanoid that seemed to descend into the ground through a hole, and also the Lapping Farm Lizard Man, which also disappeared into a hole after attempting to kidnap a man. Perhaps that's why there are so many bizarre humanoid cryptids, and entities reported since these creatures would only need to come out of the ground or their subterranean lairs for maybe food or resources.

While there is a biological possibility to the creature, there are, of course, countless supernatural routes from interdimensional, Ultraterrestrial, and demonological, yet there's nothing outside of the creature's appearance to indicate such an origin. Creatures like this ostensibly would fall in the cryptid category, yet one must entertain other possibilities if the creature does not match the known parameters of current zoological records. So perhaps this creature is something infernal that was meandering its way to do some evil deeds, or that it's an Ultraterrestrial whose ultimate goal was to freak Reeser out for that split second to gather enough fear for fuel, or maybe this creature just happened to blip into our dimension for a second for whatever reason be it intentional or accidental. We simply do not know.

I find this case interesting for several reasons. For one, this entity is entirely unique even though it has earmarks of other cryptids, two it is from a biological standpoint something that clearly is not comfortable with walking bipedally yet when on four legs seems to have incredible speed, and three there have been other sightings even though information on these are at least to my knowledge unavailable. It's from this I think that this cryptid might be one that researchers in the region should definitely go and investigate; perhaps from this, we may find more eyewitnesses and get a clearer picture as to what is being sighted scuttling around in the woodlands of Lewisberry.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Mammal

Location: Lewisberry, York County, Pennsylvania

Sighted: October 2013

Works Cited:

Beyond the Seventh Gate By Timothy Renner