Published date: 28 April 2011 |
Published by: Thomas Morton
DYFED Powys Police has revealed how many sightings of UFOs, zombies, ghosts, witches and vampires occurred in the county in the past five years.
The figures, made public because of a Freedom of Information Request Act, reveal 14 recorded UFO sightings in the past five years, along with 26 reports of ghosts, 11 witches and two of zombies and vampires respectively.
One zombie report turned out to be in a horror film being shot in Pembrey; the other a person acting suspiciously wearing a zombie mask in Haverfordwest.
Of the witch reports many of the calls were apparently from the same individual identified as having “mental health issues”. Others simply refer to someone looking “like a witch” but one drunk caller “rang regarding a gang of witches that want to sacrifice him.” There were no reports of werewolves.
Dyfed Powys Police said that they did not find any evidence of supernatural or paranormal activity in any of the cases – however this does not mean every case had an explanation.
UFO sightings included such reports as an “Oblong shaped, bright yellow” object “going horizontally across, about 10 to 15ft off the ground” in Llandrindod Wells in 2005; a “triangular shape in sky with different coloured lights in each corner” in Meifod in 2007; to “three orange lights thought to be UFOs” in Llanidloes in 2009, which ends: “Object seized and discovered to be a night lantern.”
Phil Hoyle of the Shrewsbury-based UFO Research and Investigation Unit said that such statistics were only a fraction of sightings, many of which go officially unreported or are hard to classify.
“Wales has got a lot of UFO hot-spots, particularly on the Shropshire/Welsh border and down around the Radnorshire forest, Knighton, Builth Wells and Llandrindod Wells” he said, saying he had reports from ex-military and police themselves, “The police go through a process of elimination to try to classify it, but people often can’t describe what they have seen - lots of people have reported structured devices, 20 to 30 feet across, quite close up - these are not just lights, and can’t be confused with chinese Lanterns.”
Between 2005 and 2010 there were 36 incidents of big cat sightings or animal deaths where big cats were suspected.
According to the British Big Cat Society’s statistics Wales ranks number four in the UK’s top 10 areas for big cat sightings. Scotland is number one, followed by Kent and Yorkshire.
In response to another request about how much the force had spent on mediums, clairvoyants or other psychics during the last five years it said it did not use such services.
The force has had 3,300 freedom of information requests costing it over £500,000 in the last five years, and has begun to publish these on its website.
Other figures show that in 2010 the force received 21 allegations of crime involving the website ebay and 47 allegations involving the social networking site Facebook.
As of 31 March 2010 there were 294 registered sex offenders living in the force area.
The Dyfed-Powys Police helicopter made 481 flights in 2009 and the force spent £299,078 on its press and communications office and officers in 2009/10.
http://www.countytimes.co.uk/news/101792/ufo-zombie-ghost-and-witch-sightings-revealed.aspx
Showing posts with label ghosts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ghosts. Show all posts
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
For many Russians, UFO and Bigfoot equally realistic
26.04.2011
A paradox was revealed during a recent poll of the Russians. In spite of the fact that approximately 70 percent of the country's population call themselves believers, only 26 percent believe that life after death is possible. The beliefs of the Russians are generally contradictory: Russians bring Easter cakes to church to "make them holy" but at the same time are afraid of black cats and broken mirrors.
"Public opinion" fund decided to poll the Russians on the possibility of resurrection after death. The fund found out that despite the fact that 59 percent of the citizens consider themselves Orthodox, and ten percent say that they belong to other denominations, only 26 percent believe in an afterlife.
For 54 percent resurrection is no more than a myth. The majority of those who do not believe in the afterlife are represented by rural residents, men, students and seniors.
Another interesting fact is those who do believe in the afterlife are people with an income of over 30,000 rubles a month, entrepreneurs and executives. Surprisingly, there were more of those who believed in eternal life among the businessmen than among those who call themselves Orthodox Christians: 43 percent versus 31.
According to the numerous surveys and studies, human faith is generally a collection of paradoxes and even absurdities. Russians who call themselves Orthodox Christians consider it their duty to wear a cross, but at the same time do not shy away from horoscopes and psychics' services. A growing number of advertisement promising "to return the beloved one" and "ward off a competitor" indicate a growing demand.
Generally in the recent years Russians have become much more skeptical. Horoscopes, prophetic dreams and professional astrologers are still popular among the population, but to a much lesser extent. Alien life for the majority of the Russians is as much a fairy tale as the life after death. Possibility of the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations is denied by 58 percent of Russians.
However, the skepticism of the Russian people does not apply to every day superstitions. Little green creatures and life after death seem to be a myth to many, while troubles promised by a meeting with a black cat, a broken mirror or spilt salt are quite real for the most. The Russians believe that spitting over the left shoulder and knocking on wood is much more effective than a prayer or a call to the spirits.
It is worth mentioning that the representatives of the Church are not surprised by such data. Priests say that identifying themselves as Orthodox, people are not talking about religion, but, rather, the national and family tradition and culture. This means that many Russians do not believe in God, but call themselves Orthodox.
In fact, for many Russians a visit to a church during holidays or baptizing children is the same thing as knocking on wood or avoiding "jinxing," i.e., and old tradition designed to ward off trouble.
However, Russians are not the only ones that have such a strange attitude to religion. For example, 43 percent of Americans attend religious ceremonies every week, but this does not prevent 38 percent of the U.S. adults from believing in the existence of aliens, 33 percent believing in Bigfoot, and 37 percent - in ghosts. Of these, 23 percent are convinced that ghosts are their dead relatives or friends, while 20 percent said they personally met with the spirits of the dead.
Experts, however, argue that there is no paradox here. "Traditional" (in moderation) religion does not interfere with the belief in the paranormal, but quite the contrary: being open to the faith into the unknown, people are not so steadfast in their religious beliefs that reject the mysterious events in principle.
In other words, people who admit the existence of things unexplained from the viewpoint of science can be (or call themselves) Christians (Muslims, Jews), and with the same sincerity believe that aliens have visited Earth a number of times. An individual open to the faith in a higher intelligence, in principle can believe in some seemingly conflicting things. Traditional religions are traditional because people transfer their commitment to a particular confession from generation to generation, observing certain rituals as a family. But it is often nothing more than a tribute to the national culture, rather than a sincere belief and commitment to a wholly-owned church dogma.
Ksenia Obraztsova
Pravda.Ru
http://english.pravda.ru/society/stories/26-04-2011/117700-russians_ufo_bigfoot-0/
A paradox was revealed during a recent poll of the Russians. In spite of the fact that approximately 70 percent of the country's population call themselves believers, only 26 percent believe that life after death is possible. The beliefs of the Russians are generally contradictory: Russians bring Easter cakes to church to "make them holy" but at the same time are afraid of black cats and broken mirrors.
"Public opinion" fund decided to poll the Russians on the possibility of resurrection after death. The fund found out that despite the fact that 59 percent of the citizens consider themselves Orthodox, and ten percent say that they belong to other denominations, only 26 percent believe in an afterlife.
For 54 percent resurrection is no more than a myth. The majority of those who do not believe in the afterlife are represented by rural residents, men, students and seniors.
Another interesting fact is those who do believe in the afterlife are people with an income of over 30,000 rubles a month, entrepreneurs and executives. Surprisingly, there were more of those who believed in eternal life among the businessmen than among those who call themselves Orthodox Christians: 43 percent versus 31.
According to the numerous surveys and studies, human faith is generally a collection of paradoxes and even absurdities. Russians who call themselves Orthodox Christians consider it their duty to wear a cross, but at the same time do not shy away from horoscopes and psychics' services. A growing number of advertisement promising "to return the beloved one" and "ward off a competitor" indicate a growing demand.
Generally in the recent years Russians have become much more skeptical. Horoscopes, prophetic dreams and professional astrologers are still popular among the population, but to a much lesser extent. Alien life for the majority of the Russians is as much a fairy tale as the life after death. Possibility of the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations is denied by 58 percent of Russians.
However, the skepticism of the Russian people does not apply to every day superstitions. Little green creatures and life after death seem to be a myth to many, while troubles promised by a meeting with a black cat, a broken mirror or spilt salt are quite real for the most. The Russians believe that spitting over the left shoulder and knocking on wood is much more effective than a prayer or a call to the spirits.
It is worth mentioning that the representatives of the Church are not surprised by such data. Priests say that identifying themselves as Orthodox, people are not talking about religion, but, rather, the national and family tradition and culture. This means that many Russians do not believe in God, but call themselves Orthodox.
In fact, for many Russians a visit to a church during holidays or baptizing children is the same thing as knocking on wood or avoiding "jinxing," i.e., and old tradition designed to ward off trouble.
However, Russians are not the only ones that have such a strange attitude to religion. For example, 43 percent of Americans attend religious ceremonies every week, but this does not prevent 38 percent of the U.S. adults from believing in the existence of aliens, 33 percent believing in Bigfoot, and 37 percent - in ghosts. Of these, 23 percent are convinced that ghosts are their dead relatives or friends, while 20 percent said they personally met with the spirits of the dead.
Experts, however, argue that there is no paradox here. "Traditional" (in moderation) religion does not interfere with the belief in the paranormal, but quite the contrary: being open to the faith into the unknown, people are not so steadfast in their religious beliefs that reject the mysterious events in principle.
In other words, people who admit the existence of things unexplained from the viewpoint of science can be (or call themselves) Christians (Muslims, Jews), and with the same sincerity believe that aliens have visited Earth a number of times. An individual open to the faith in a higher intelligence, in principle can believe in some seemingly conflicting things. Traditional religions are traditional because people transfer their commitment to a particular confession from generation to generation, observing certain rituals as a family. But it is often nothing more than a tribute to the national culture, rather than a sincere belief and commitment to a wholly-owned church dogma.
Ksenia Obraztsova
Pravda.Ru
http://english.pravda.ru/society/stories/26-04-2011/117700-russians_ufo_bigfoot-0/
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Lair of the Beasts: Castle Ring Monsters
A Magnet for Mayhem
By Nick Redfern
October 09, 2010
http://www.mania.com/lair-beasts-castle-ring-monsters_article_125677.html
By Nick Redfern
October 09, 2010
While reports of weird creatures literally abound throughout the length and breadth of the British Isles, there is one specific area of the country that certainly seems to act as an absolute magnet for such high-strangeness: it is called the Castle Ring. Located in the village of Cannock Wood, Staffordshire, and inhabited more than two thousand years ago, the Castle Ring is an Iron Age structure commonly known as a Hill Fort, and stands 801 feet above sea level.
On May 1, 2004, Alec Williams was driving passed the car-park that sits at the base of the Castle Ring when he was witness to a dark, hair-covered, man-like entity that lumbered across the road and into the attendant trees. Williams stated that the sighting lasted barely a few seconds, but that he was able to make out the shape of its monstrous form: “It was about seven feet tall, with short, shiny, dark brown hair, large head and had eyes that glowed bright red.”
Interestingly, Williams stated that as he slowed his vehicle down, he witnessed something akin to a camera flash coming from the depths of the woods and heard a cry that he described as “someone going ‘Hoooooo.’” The beast did not resurface, and a shell-shocked Williams was forced to continue on his journey, wondering what on Earth had just taken place.
Just over one year later, on June 8, 2005 to be absolutely specific, in an article titled Hunt For Dark Forces at Chase Monument, Chase Post writer Sarah Taylor reported that “paranormal investigators are set to swoop on one of the area’s oldest monuments to find out what dark forces lie beneath it.” As the newspaper noted, “a team of real-life ghost-busters’ had determined that the area of Gentleshaw that surrounds Castle Ring lay upon a ‘psychic fault.” Indeed, the whole area surrounding Castle Ring has been a hotbed of unusual activity for years – and not all of it revolves around weird beasts.
For example, commenting on the high-strangeness at the Ring, Sue Penton – of Paranormal Awakening, a group affiliated to the Association for Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena – said: “There have been reports of strange music being heard up there. It is such a high place there have been lots of UFO sightings there, too.”
This was amply echoed by Graham Allen, who at the time was the head of the Etchinghill, Rugeley-based Staffordshire UFO Group, and who had taken over the reins from the group’s founder, Irene Bott, several years earlier: “Obviously, Castle Ring is the highest point on the Chase which makes it a good place for UFO spotting. There have been numerous incidents of UFOs, which could be because you are more likely to see something from a high point.”
Allen elaborated that: “There have been reports of something landing there in the 1960s. From a research point of view there are a high number of reports around ancient sites. One argument could be that ancient sites have been located there because of the incidents of UFOs and natural phenomenon. There could be locations where there could be magnetic influences in the ground which have been attributed to earth lights.”
Moreover, relatively close to the Castle Ring is an old, disused windmill, which, it is widely believed and accepted by local historians, was constructed upon the now-crumbled remains of ancient, pagan burial ground. Ghosts of the miller’s children, who local legend says suffocated in a flour-silo, are said to haunt the mill to this day, and the folklore of the area tells of a strange black figure that appeared just before the tragedy.
Could this perhaps have been the same dark figure which Alec Williams saw near the Castle Ring in 2004? Equally as strange are the reports from the village of Cannock Wood – from which the Castle Ring lies in a north-west direction – of a ghostly nun that has been seen in the vicinity of an ancient well.
In September 2005, the local media reported that the aforementioned Paranormal Awakening investigation group had recently completed a nighttime investigation of the Castle Ring in an attempt to try and chronicle the strange activity that had been reported there for years.
A spokesperson for the group said: “The Cannock Chase local authorities were kind enough to give permission for PA to conduct its research. Indeed, we are extremely grateful to them for being so open-minded as to allow us to conduct our research at this historical and most important monument. The group’s results are stunning and have created yet more questions than we have answers. We appear to have obtained a very strange mix of UFO and genuine paranormal activity.”
Midway through February 2006, the Chase Post elaborated as follows: “A paranormal investigations group say they have evidence of strange, dancing lights and ghostly figures at the area’s most ancient monument.”
On one tape, said the Post, one of the group’s members is heard to exclaim: “Tell me that isn’t a big black shape walking towards me.” The Post added that: “A mystery male voice responds, ‘There is!’”
Of course, it should not be forgotten that large, dark shapes and strange lights were both staples parts of Alec Williams’ 2004 sighting near the Castle Ring, too. Whatever is afoot at the Castle Ring, it seems to show no signs of going away anytime soon...
Nick Redfern’s latest book is Final Events – a study of UFOs and the occult.
http://www.mania.com/lair-beasts-castle-ring-monsters_article_125677.html
Lair of the Beasts: Castle Ring Monsters
A Magnet for Mayhem
By Nick Redfern
October 09, 2010
http://www.mania.com/lair-beasts-castle-ring-monsters_article_125677.html
By Nick Redfern
October 09, 2010
While reports of weird creatures literally abound throughout the length and breadth of the British Isles, there is one specific area of the country that certainly seems to act as an absolute magnet for such high-strangeness: it is called the Castle Ring. Located in the village of Cannock Wood, Staffordshire, and inhabited more than two thousand years ago, the Castle Ring is an Iron Age structure commonly known as a Hill Fort, and stands 801 feet above sea level.
On May 1, 2004, Alec Williams was driving passed the car-park that sits at the base of the Castle Ring when he was witness to a dark, hair-covered, man-like entity that lumbered across the road and into the attendant trees. Williams stated that the sighting lasted barely a few seconds, but that he was able to make out the shape of its monstrous form: “It was about seven feet tall, with short, shiny, dark brown hair, large head and had eyes that glowed bright red.”
Interestingly, Williams stated that as he slowed his vehicle down, he witnessed something akin to a camera flash coming from the depths of the woods and heard a cry that he described as “someone going ‘Hoooooo.’” The beast did not resurface, and a shell-shocked Williams was forced to continue on his journey, wondering what on Earth had just taken place.
Just over one year later, on June 8, 2005 to be absolutely specific, in an article titled Hunt For Dark Forces at Chase Monument, Chase Post writer Sarah Taylor reported that “paranormal investigators are set to swoop on one of the area’s oldest monuments to find out what dark forces lie beneath it.” As the newspaper noted, “a team of real-life ghost-busters’ had determined that the area of Gentleshaw that surrounds Castle Ring lay upon a ‘psychic fault.” Indeed, the whole area surrounding Castle Ring has been a hotbed of unusual activity for years – and not all of it revolves around weird beasts.
For example, commenting on the high-strangeness at the Ring, Sue Penton – of Paranormal Awakening, a group affiliated to the Association for Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena – said: “There have been reports of strange music being heard up there. It is such a high place there have been lots of UFO sightings there, too.”
This was amply echoed by Graham Allen, who at the time was the head of the Etchinghill, Rugeley-based Staffordshire UFO Group, and who had taken over the reins from the group’s founder, Irene Bott, several years earlier: “Obviously, Castle Ring is the highest point on the Chase which makes it a good place for UFO spotting. There have been numerous incidents of UFOs, which could be because you are more likely to see something from a high point.”
Allen elaborated that: “There have been reports of something landing there in the 1960s. From a research point of view there are a high number of reports around ancient sites. One argument could be that ancient sites have been located there because of the incidents of UFOs and natural phenomenon. There could be locations where there could be magnetic influences in the ground which have been attributed to earth lights.”
Moreover, relatively close to the Castle Ring is an old, disused windmill, which, it is widely believed and accepted by local historians, was constructed upon the now-crumbled remains of ancient, pagan burial ground. Ghosts of the miller’s children, who local legend says suffocated in a flour-silo, are said to haunt the mill to this day, and the folklore of the area tells of a strange black figure that appeared just before the tragedy.
Could this perhaps have been the same dark figure which Alec Williams saw near the Castle Ring in 2004? Equally as strange are the reports from the village of Cannock Wood – from which the Castle Ring lies in a north-west direction – of a ghostly nun that has been seen in the vicinity of an ancient well.
In September 2005, the local media reported that the aforementioned Paranormal Awakening investigation group had recently completed a nighttime investigation of the Castle Ring in an attempt to try and chronicle the strange activity that had been reported there for years.
A spokesperson for the group said: “The Cannock Chase local authorities were kind enough to give permission for PA to conduct its research. Indeed, we are extremely grateful to them for being so open-minded as to allow us to conduct our research at this historical and most important monument. The group’s results are stunning and have created yet more questions than we have answers. We appear to have obtained a very strange mix of UFO and genuine paranormal activity.”
Midway through February 2006, the Chase Post elaborated as follows: “A paranormal investigations group say they have evidence of strange, dancing lights and ghostly figures at the area’s most ancient monument.”
On one tape, said the Post, one of the group’s members is heard to exclaim: “Tell me that isn’t a big black shape walking towards me.” The Post added that: “A mystery male voice responds, ‘There is!’”
Of course, it should not be forgotten that large, dark shapes and strange lights were both staples parts of Alec Williams’ 2004 sighting near the Castle Ring, too. Whatever is afoot at the Castle Ring, it seems to show no signs of going away anytime soon...
Nick Redfern’s latest book is Final Events – a study of UFOs and the occult.
http://www.mania.com/lair-beasts-castle-ring-monsters_article_125677.html
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Hunt for the huge black dogs haunting UK's countryside
Sunday July 4,2010
By Stuart Winter
THE fiery red eyes and the blood-curdling howls of ghostly Black Dogs have long haunted the pages of British literature.
From Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles to the sinister Padfoot in the tales of Harry Potter, time and again nailbiting stories have been woven around the legend of mythical huge dogs.
Whether such tales are just fiction is now open to doubt.
In recent years reports have continued to emerge of wolf-like Black Dogs seen roaming the country. Now zoologists and experts in the paranormal are calling for a probe to prove their existence.
Richard Freeman, zoological director at the Centre for Fortean Zoology in Bideford, Devon, said Black Dogs have been reported in Britain, across Europe and in South America. He said: “I would welcome support for a thorough investigation into their existence.
“If one could be captured on film or filmed with a thermal camera it might give us a clue to the nature of these creatures.” A report in this month’s Countryfile magazine details the legend of more than a dozen Black Dogs with such wild names as the Yell Hound of Devon, the Lean Dog of Tring, the Padfoot of Wakefield, the Gurt Dog of the Quantocks, Mauthe Dhoog of the Isle of Man and the Gwyligi of Wales.
Dr Simon Sherwood, senior lecturer in psychology, director of the Centre for the Study of Anomalous Psychological Processes at the University of Northampton, said: “Sightings of Black Dogs are certainly not just legendary accounts from hundreds of years ago. I still receive accounts from people who have been looking for information about similar sightings and have come across my website.
“I have probably collected about 50 or 60 accounts from around the world over the past 10 years or so and some of these are recent sightings.”
http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/184806/Hunt-for-the-huge-Black-Dogs-haunting-UK-s-countryside/
(Subnmitted by Mark North)
By Stuart Winter
THE fiery red eyes and the blood-curdling howls of ghostly Black Dogs have long haunted the pages of British literature.
From Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Hound of the Baskervilles to the sinister Padfoot in the tales of Harry Potter, time and again nailbiting stories have been woven around the legend of mythical huge dogs.
Whether such tales are just fiction is now open to doubt.
In recent years reports have continued to emerge of wolf-like Black Dogs seen roaming the country. Now zoologists and experts in the paranormal are calling for a probe to prove their existence.
Richard Freeman, zoological director at the Centre for Fortean Zoology in Bideford, Devon, said Black Dogs have been reported in Britain, across Europe and in South America. He said: “I would welcome support for a thorough investigation into their existence.
“If one could be captured on film or filmed with a thermal camera it might give us a clue to the nature of these creatures.” A report in this month’s Countryfile magazine details the legend of more than a dozen Black Dogs with such wild names as the Yell Hound of Devon, the Lean Dog of Tring, the Padfoot of Wakefield, the Gurt Dog of the Quantocks, Mauthe Dhoog of the Isle of Man and the Gwyligi of Wales.
Dr Simon Sherwood, senior lecturer in psychology, director of the Centre for the Study of Anomalous Psychological Processes at the University of Northampton, said: “Sightings of Black Dogs are certainly not just legendary accounts from hundreds of years ago. I still receive accounts from people who have been looking for information about similar sightings and have come across my website.
“I have probably collected about 50 or 60 accounts from around the world over the past 10 years or so and some of these are recent sightings.”
http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/184806/Hunt-for-the-huge-Black-Dogs-haunting-UK-s-countryside/
(Subnmitted by Mark North)
Friday, May 7, 2010
Witch bids to show Nessie is a ghost
By Jenna MacCulloch
Published: 06 May, 2010
A DRAMATIC event which will see hundreds of witches, clairvoyance experts and psychics gather together around the shores of Loch Ness in a bid to make contact with Nessie will take place next month.
The High Priest of British White Witches, Kevin Carlyton - who calls himself "The Official Protector of Loch Ness and the Loch Ness Creature" - is organising the one-off psychic gathering and is hoping to prove the monster is in fact a ghost.
The white witch, who claims to have thwarted the plans of "monster hunter" Jan Sundberg from Sweden coming to Loch Ness to attempt to capture Nessie a few years ago, believes the monster will never be caught, because she's not actually alive.
Kevin explained: "The creature is a ghost from a bygone era and its image has been captured by the surrounding landscape. On certain weather conditions, particularly very warm or thunderous with a lot of static in the air, images of the creature are 'replayed' and people who are slightly psychic see the creature as if it is here now."
Now the white witch hopes to prove his point about the monster, which drums up hundreds of thousands of pounds in tourism business every year for the area, by organising the coming together for those who have psychic abilities.
He said: "I predict there will be at least 200 people present at the event. I've only mentioned a small bit about the event on my website and the interest so far has been phenomenal.
"I've had psychics from all over the country, and was even speaking to someone on the phone from New Zealand who plans to incorporate the event into their trip to England next month.
"It's going to be quite an event. I'm hoping it will go ahead around June 21, but I still need to confirm the actual date.
"Computer programmer Mikko Takala will be filming the event and it's hoped it will be broadcast live on www.lochness.co.uk - so hopefully Nessie won't be camera shy!"
And for those who may be left disappointed at the news that the monster is a ghost have been re-assured by Kevin.
He said: "Everyone has psychic ability in them somewhere and some people will be able to still see Nessie."
http://www.highland-news.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/7402/Witch_bids_to_show_Nessie_is_a_ghost.html
(Submitted by Lindsay Selby)
Published: 06 May, 2010
A DRAMATIC event which will see hundreds of witches, clairvoyance experts and psychics gather together around the shores of Loch Ness in a bid to make contact with Nessie will take place next month.
The High Priest of British White Witches, Kevin Carlyton - who calls himself "The Official Protector of Loch Ness and the Loch Ness Creature" - is organising the one-off psychic gathering and is hoping to prove the monster is in fact a ghost.
The white witch, who claims to have thwarted the plans of "monster hunter" Jan Sundberg from Sweden coming to Loch Ness to attempt to capture Nessie a few years ago, believes the monster will never be caught, because she's not actually alive.
Kevin explained: "The creature is a ghost from a bygone era and its image has been captured by the surrounding landscape. On certain weather conditions, particularly very warm or thunderous with a lot of static in the air, images of the creature are 'replayed' and people who are slightly psychic see the creature as if it is here now."
Now the white witch hopes to prove his point about the monster, which drums up hundreds of thousands of pounds in tourism business every year for the area, by organising the coming together for those who have psychic abilities.
He said: "I predict there will be at least 200 people present at the event. I've only mentioned a small bit about the event on my website and the interest so far has been phenomenal.
"I've had psychics from all over the country, and was even speaking to someone on the phone from New Zealand who plans to incorporate the event into their trip to England next month.
"It's going to be quite an event. I'm hoping it will go ahead around June 21, but I still need to confirm the actual date.
"Computer programmer Mikko Takala will be filming the event and it's hoped it will be broadcast live on www.lochness.co.uk - so hopefully Nessie won't be camera shy!"
And for those who may be left disappointed at the news that the monster is a ghost have been re-assured by Kevin.
He said: "Everyone has psychic ability in them somewhere and some people will be able to still see Nessie."
http://www.highland-news.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/7402/Witch_bids_to_show_Nessie_is_a_ghost.html
(Submitted by Lindsay Selby)
Monday, February 15, 2010
Fat Ralph is world's biggest bunny
Fat rabbit Ralph is the world's bigget bunny after growing larger than his record breaking mother Amy.Published: 7:30AM GMT 15 Feb 2010
Amy, a Continental Giant rabbit, was four feet long and weighed a whopping three stone before her death in May 2009.
But Ralph, one of Amys 32 babies and barely a year old, is already longer and heavier than his monstrous mum and weighs more than the average three-year-old child.
Owner Pauline Grant relies on handouts from neighbours to make sure Ralph does not go hungry by chomping his way through £10 pounds worth of food a day.
He munches his way through half a cabbage for breakfast and dinner as well as feasting on a handful of carrots and apples for lunch.
Mrs Grant claims he is too heavy for her to pick him up for cuddles and relies on helpers at the Sussex Horse Rescue Trust, Uckfield, East Sussex.
"He is just so big. You do not fully realise until you pick him up and he has quite the appetite," said Mrs Grant.
It really hits us in the pocket having to feed him but thankfully Ralph is so famous in the area people stop me in supermarkets and offer to fit the bill.
I have no idea how big he is going to get, it could be a ridiculous size but everyone loves him and he laps up the attention.
Ralph's dad Roberto is also a previous record holder for the worlds biggest rabbit after weighting in at 35lb and measuring 3ft 1inches.
Mrs Grant is waiting on Guinness World Records to confirm Ralph as the biggest in the world after they changed their rules on measuring animals for size.
TV medium Derek Acorah, star of Most Haunted, has even had a meeting with Ralph after believing the reason he had grown so big was because he was possessed.
"We are pretty sure our house is haunted by something or other, so Ralph went up to London with friends of ours to meet Derek Acorah," said Mrs Grant.
"They said it was pretty spooky and he had a good old chat with Ralph about the spirits in our house. He seemed to think Ralph was channelling the spirit of a ghoul.
"It sounds like a load of old nonsense but Ralph isn't your average rabbit."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/7236201/Fat-Ralph-is-worlds-biggest-bunny.html
(Submitted by Mark North)
Friday, January 8, 2010
'Scary' internet plot to disrupt live TV ghost-hunter show sparks security alert
By Daily Mail Reporter
8 January 2010
A bizarre plot to disrupt a live TV ghost show and even attack its presenter has been uncovered.
Bloggers on a so-called 'urban exploration' website were caught discussing plans to wreck tomorrow's opening edition of 'Most Haunted'.
The show is being broadcast every evening for the next seven days from a deserted RAF base in Norfolk.
The episode - called The Silent Town - is expected to focus on ghosts and spirits said to haunt RAF West Raynham, which lost 86 planes during bombing raids and attacks on Nazis.
Fronted by ex-Blue Peter presenter Yvette Fielding, the show on Living TV is watched by more than half a million viewers.
But after Most Haunted announced its new location for the January show, bloggers on an urban exploration site quickly hatched a plan to turn the tables on the programme.
Urban explorers sneak into disused buildings - from manor houses to military bases and closed down mental institutions - and take photos of the site before posting the pictures online and describing the site.
But in a new twist, a group of the explorers - who are well-acquainted with the layout of RAF West Raynham - said they wanted use their knowledge of the site to 'scare the s***' out of the presenters live on TV.
One called dangerous dave even offered a pint of beer to anyone who smacks Yvette Fielding.
He said on the blog: 'If someone does a hit on that dippy cow in Most Haunted (Yvette Fielding) there's a pint in it.'
Another said: 'Right - lets go f*** with them and don our white sheets.'
One member, calling himself ukmayhem, asked the blog: 'Is it illegal to disrupt live filming?'
Another added: 'I'd be right up for messing with their show, its such bulls***. We are currently working on a plan.'
A reply on the same thread stated: 'We really should arrange to sneak in and scare the s*** out of them - what's the best options for spooking the spook-hunters?'
One blogger branded the Most Haunted team 'w******', adding: 'I am gutted that Most Haunted are going to ruin the place.'
In 2006 filming on Most Haunted was cancelled after three members of the crew were 'slashed by an unseen force' on their backs an legs as they investigated underground vaults in Edinburgh on Halloween.
And former presenter Derek Acorah was regularly 'possessed' by phantoms and even 'pulled down a mineshaft' by a spirit during a live episode in West Yorkshire in 2005.
RAF Raynham has two runways, four hangars and a watch tower which was used to direct bombing missions to Germany.
Until 1994 the base was used as a summer training camp for soldiers, but in the past 16 years it has fallen into a state of total disrepair and was sold by the Ministry of Defence in 2005 to a private housing contractor.
The 160-acre site, however, remains a deserted wasteland with remnants of it's past history strewn all over the base.
The interactive live show, presented by Yvette Fielding on location and by Paul Ross in the studio, uses demonologists and historians to explain to viewers what is going on.
Viewers can also access four webcams and report ghostly happenings to the studio online.
A spokesman for Living TV said today that they were aware of the plans and that security was now 'tight'.
She added: 'Disruption to the live show will be almost impossible.'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1241584/Plot-attack-presenters-Most-Haunted-busted-pranksters-caught-discussing-plans-online.html#ixzz0c1kTJAPS
(Submitted by Dave McMann)
8 January 2010
A bizarre plot to disrupt a live TV ghost show and even attack its presenter has been uncovered.
Bloggers on a so-called 'urban exploration' website were caught discussing plans to wreck tomorrow's opening edition of 'Most Haunted'.
The show is being broadcast every evening for the next seven days from a deserted RAF base in Norfolk.
The episode - called The Silent Town - is expected to focus on ghosts and spirits said to haunt RAF West Raynham, which lost 86 planes during bombing raids and attacks on Nazis.
Fronted by ex-Blue Peter presenter Yvette Fielding, the show on Living TV is watched by more than half a million viewers.
But after Most Haunted announced its new location for the January show, bloggers on an urban exploration site quickly hatched a plan to turn the tables on the programme.
Urban explorers sneak into disused buildings - from manor houses to military bases and closed down mental institutions - and take photos of the site before posting the pictures online and describing the site.
But in a new twist, a group of the explorers - who are well-acquainted with the layout of RAF West Raynham - said they wanted use their knowledge of the site to 'scare the s***' out of the presenters live on TV.
One called dangerous dave even offered a pint of beer to anyone who smacks Yvette Fielding.
He said on the blog: 'If someone does a hit on that dippy cow in Most Haunted (Yvette Fielding) there's a pint in it.'
Another said: 'Right - lets go f*** with them and don our white sheets.'
One member, calling himself ukmayhem, asked the blog: 'Is it illegal to disrupt live filming?'
Another added: 'I'd be right up for messing with their show, its such bulls***. We are currently working on a plan.'
A reply on the same thread stated: 'We really should arrange to sneak in and scare the s*** out of them - what's the best options for spooking the spook-hunters?'
One blogger branded the Most Haunted team 'w******', adding: 'I am gutted that Most Haunted are going to ruin the place.'
In 2006 filming on Most Haunted was cancelled after three members of the crew were 'slashed by an unseen force' on their backs an legs as they investigated underground vaults in Edinburgh on Halloween.
And former presenter Derek Acorah was regularly 'possessed' by phantoms and even 'pulled down a mineshaft' by a spirit during a live episode in West Yorkshire in 2005.
RAF Raynham has two runways, four hangars and a watch tower which was used to direct bombing missions to Germany.
Until 1994 the base was used as a summer training camp for soldiers, but in the past 16 years it has fallen into a state of total disrepair and was sold by the Ministry of Defence in 2005 to a private housing contractor.
The 160-acre site, however, remains a deserted wasteland with remnants of it's past history strewn all over the base.
The interactive live show, presented by Yvette Fielding on location and by Paul Ross in the studio, uses demonologists and historians to explain to viewers what is going on.
Viewers can also access four webcams and report ghostly happenings to the studio online.
A spokesman for Living TV said today that they were aware of the plans and that security was now 'tight'.
She added: 'Disruption to the live show will be almost impossible.'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1241584/Plot-attack-presenters-Most-Haunted-busted-pranksters-caught-discussing-plans-online.html#ixzz0c1kTJAPS
(Submitted by Dave McMann)
Friday, October 23, 2009
Alaskan creature stories
Port Chatham left to spirits
‘Nantiinaq’ sightings and spirits led to desertion of Alaska village
By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune
Malania Helen Kehl, Nanwalek’s eldest resident, is frequently called upon around the village to impart her memories of how life used to be on this southern-most tip of the Kenai Peninsula.
Among her remembrances are medicines used to heal the sick and ways of preserving sea lion meat in barrels for winter. She also is one of the last to tell the ghostly story of how the village of Port Chatham came to be deserted; why the abandoned town was shunned, and those who once lived there vowed never to return.
Malania was born Jan. 25, 1934 at Port Chatham, then a small village founded at the edge of a peaceful moorage. The village once offered shelter for many people, including Capt. Nathaniel Portlock’s ship on his 1786 Alaska expedition. But when Malania was a baby, the family abruptly moved away from Chatham, leaving the house and every board of its frame behind.
What frightening situation caused John and Helen Romanoff to take their children and flee to Nanwalek?
“We left our houses and the school, and started all new here,” Malania said in a recent interview, speaking in her traditional Sugt’stun through translator Sally Ash. “There was plentiful land here for gardening and people. My parents built a house on the beach.”
What had frightened Malania’s parents hadn’t been a single event. Over a “long period of time,” a nantiinaq (Nan-te-nuk) – or big hairy creature – was reportedly terrorizing villagers. And Malania also told of the spirit of a woman dressed in draping black clothes that would come out of the cliffs.
“Her dress was so long she would drag it,” Malania said. “She had a very white face and would disappear back into the cliffs.”
The goose-bumped terror felt when people encountered these spirits was nothing compared to what happened to Malania’s godfather, Andrew Kamluck. He was logging in 1931, when someone or something hit him over the head with a piece of log-moving equipment. The blow reportedly killed him instantly.
Malania isn’t the only one to tell of strange events at Port Chatham. Port Graham Elder, Simeon Kvasnikoff, said he remembers when nantiinaq was blamed for the disappearance of a gold miner.
“This one guy over there had a little place where he was digging for gold,” Kvasnikoff said. “He went up there one time and never came back. No one found any sign of him.”
Another story recounted the experience of a sawmill owner named Tom Larsen, who had a job cutting wood for the old fish traps. He told of spotting nantiinaq on the beach once. After going back to his house to get his gun, he returned to the beach and “the thing looked at him,” Kvasnikoff said. For some reason, Larsen decided against firing a shot.
In an April 15, 1973 issue of the Anchorage Daily News, a feature article told of the abandoned cannery town of Portlock near Port Chatham. The writer had learned the story during an evening spent with the school teacher and his wife at English Bay (Nanwalek) while on a boat trip.
The story is told:
“Portlock began its existence sometime after the turn of the century as a cannery town. In 1921, a post office was established there, and for a time the residents, mostly natives of Russian-Aleut mix, lived in peace with their picturesque mountain-and-sea setting.”
According to the ADN story, sometime in the beginning years of World War II, rumors began to seep along the Kenai Peninsula that things were not right in Portlock. Men from the cannery town would reportedly go up into the hills to hunt Dall sheep and bear, and never return. Worse yet, sometimes stories would circulate about mutilated bodies that were swept down into the lagoon, torn and dismembered in a way that bears could not, or would not, do.
“Tales were told of villagers tracking moose over soft ground. They would find giant, man-like tracks over 18 inches in length closing upon those of the moose, the signs of a short struggle where the grass had been matted down, then only the deep tracks of the manlike animal departing toward the high, fog-shrouded mountains...”
The article goes on to tell how the fed-up townfolk decided to move en masse, and by 1950, the U.S. Post office had closed there.
Even into more recent times, nantiinaq reports haven’t stopped entirely. A man who prefers to remain anonymous tells his story online at http://strangestate.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html
“In 1990, while I was working as a paramedic in Anchorage, we got called out on an alarm for a man having a heart attack at the state jail in Eagle River. He was a Native man in his 70s, and after I got him stabilized with IVs, O2 and cardiac drugs, my partner and I began to transport him to the Native Hospital in Anchorage.”
En route to the hospital, the paramedic and the Native man, an “Aleut” from Port Graham, talked about hunting. The paramedic had been to Dog Fish Bay and was once weathered in there.
“This old man sat up on the gurney and grabbed me by the front of my shirt. He got right up to my face and said, ‘Did it bother you?’ Well, with that question, the hair just stood up on the back of my head. I said, ‘Yes.’ “Did you see it?” was his next question. I said “No... Did you see it?” He said “No, but my brother seen it. It chased him.”
In August of 1973, Ed and two others were bowhunting for goats and black bear when a storm forced them to take shelter in Dogfish Bay Lagoon.
“We beached our skiff and let the tide run her dry. After a dinner of broiled salmon we turned in to our tent. Back in those days, the best tent I had was a dark green canvas job with a center pole and no windows or floor. We left the fire burning and cleaned the pots and pans so as not to attract bears during the night and turned in,” Ed wrote.
The sky was clear, but the wind was howling through the old growth timber that lined the shore. Sometime around 2 a.m., Dennis woke Ed after hearing what sounded like footsteps outside the tent. It wasn’t a bear. Ed said the walking – or rather creeping – continued until it half circled the tent.
“In August, there is still some light in the sky until about 10 or 11. I recall that we all were embarrassed about being afraid about the coming night. We had a flashlight and the rifle in the tent between us, locked and loaded. I finally dosed off but woke right up when Dennis squeezed my leg. The illuminated hands of my watch showed it was 2:30. Joe was already sitting up and had the rifle in hand. I heard the first step, not more than about 10 feet from the back of the tent. Slowly. Then another and another. Whatever this was, it sounded like it was walking on two feet.
It made the same semi-circle around the tent. When we finally got enough courage to crawl out of the tent and turn the flashlight on, we saw nothing. No tracks, nothing. The third night we decided if it bothered us again, we would come out of the tent shooting. We were actually scared. It never came back the third night and the following day we had a break in the weather and got the heck out of there.”
Though Sasquatches became something of a popular phenomenon in the 1960s and ‘70s in the Lower 48, the nantiinaq in Sugt’stun culture has been around for a long time. According to the culture, he might be a different kind of creature, a tragic half-man, half-beast who wasn’t always in this condition. He perhaps used to be fully human.
Elder Nick Tanape said he doesn’t discredit the stories about nantiinaq, but says he’s never seen one.
“I think there’s something to them,” he said.
Malania said that, once her family moved to Nanwalek, the nantiinaq stayed far away and left them in peace. It didn’t follow them, and for that they were grateful. She grew up, raised 13 children and remains one of the few regional elders who can pass on the old traditions.
Malania – a favorite among the young people of Nanwalek, especially when she tells stories – learned many things from her grandmother, who was a traditional healer.
http://homertribune.com/2009/10/port-chatham-left-to-spirits/
(Submitted by Chad Arment)
‘Nantiinaq’ sightings and spirits led to desertion of Alaska village
By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune
Malania Helen Kehl, Nanwalek’s eldest resident, is frequently called upon around the village to impart her memories of how life used to be on this southern-most tip of the Kenai Peninsula.
Among her remembrances are medicines used to heal the sick and ways of preserving sea lion meat in barrels for winter. She also is one of the last to tell the ghostly story of how the village of Port Chatham came to be deserted; why the abandoned town was shunned, and those who once lived there vowed never to return.
Malania was born Jan. 25, 1934 at Port Chatham, then a small village founded at the edge of a peaceful moorage. The village once offered shelter for many people, including Capt. Nathaniel Portlock’s ship on his 1786 Alaska expedition. But when Malania was a baby, the family abruptly moved away from Chatham, leaving the house and every board of its frame behind.
What frightening situation caused John and Helen Romanoff to take their children and flee to Nanwalek?
“We left our houses and the school, and started all new here,” Malania said in a recent interview, speaking in her traditional Sugt’stun through translator Sally Ash. “There was plentiful land here for gardening and people. My parents built a house on the beach.”
What had frightened Malania’s parents hadn’t been a single event. Over a “long period of time,” a nantiinaq (Nan-te-nuk) – or big hairy creature – was reportedly terrorizing villagers. And Malania also told of the spirit of a woman dressed in draping black clothes that would come out of the cliffs.
“Her dress was so long she would drag it,” Malania said. “She had a very white face and would disappear back into the cliffs.”
The goose-bumped terror felt when people encountered these spirits was nothing compared to what happened to Malania’s godfather, Andrew Kamluck. He was logging in 1931, when someone or something hit him over the head with a piece of log-moving equipment. The blow reportedly killed him instantly.
Malania isn’t the only one to tell of strange events at Port Chatham. Port Graham Elder, Simeon Kvasnikoff, said he remembers when nantiinaq was blamed for the disappearance of a gold miner.
“This one guy over there had a little place where he was digging for gold,” Kvasnikoff said. “He went up there one time and never came back. No one found any sign of him.”
Another story recounted the experience of a sawmill owner named Tom Larsen, who had a job cutting wood for the old fish traps. He told of spotting nantiinaq on the beach once. After going back to his house to get his gun, he returned to the beach and “the thing looked at him,” Kvasnikoff said. For some reason, Larsen decided against firing a shot.
In an April 15, 1973 issue of the Anchorage Daily News, a feature article told of the abandoned cannery town of Portlock near Port Chatham. The writer had learned the story during an evening spent with the school teacher and his wife at English Bay (Nanwalek) while on a boat trip.
The story is told:
“Portlock began its existence sometime after the turn of the century as a cannery town. In 1921, a post office was established there, and for a time the residents, mostly natives of Russian-Aleut mix, lived in peace with their picturesque mountain-and-sea setting.”
According to the ADN story, sometime in the beginning years of World War II, rumors began to seep along the Kenai Peninsula that things were not right in Portlock. Men from the cannery town would reportedly go up into the hills to hunt Dall sheep and bear, and never return. Worse yet, sometimes stories would circulate about mutilated bodies that were swept down into the lagoon, torn and dismembered in a way that bears could not, or would not, do.
“Tales were told of villagers tracking moose over soft ground. They would find giant, man-like tracks over 18 inches in length closing upon those of the moose, the signs of a short struggle where the grass had been matted down, then only the deep tracks of the manlike animal departing toward the high, fog-shrouded mountains...”
The article goes on to tell how the fed-up townfolk decided to move en masse, and by 1950, the U.S. Post office had closed there.
Even into more recent times, nantiinaq reports haven’t stopped entirely. A man who prefers to remain anonymous tells his story online at http://strangestate.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html
“In 1990, while I was working as a paramedic in Anchorage, we got called out on an alarm for a man having a heart attack at the state jail in Eagle River. He was a Native man in his 70s, and after I got him stabilized with IVs, O2 and cardiac drugs, my partner and I began to transport him to the Native Hospital in Anchorage.”
En route to the hospital, the paramedic and the Native man, an “Aleut” from Port Graham, talked about hunting. The paramedic had been to Dog Fish Bay and was once weathered in there.
“This old man sat up on the gurney and grabbed me by the front of my shirt. He got right up to my face and said, ‘Did it bother you?’ Well, with that question, the hair just stood up on the back of my head. I said, ‘Yes.’ “Did you see it?” was his next question. I said “No... Did you see it?” He said “No, but my brother seen it. It chased him.”
In August of 1973, Ed and two others were bowhunting for goats and black bear when a storm forced them to take shelter in Dogfish Bay Lagoon.
“We beached our skiff and let the tide run her dry. After a dinner of broiled salmon we turned in to our tent. Back in those days, the best tent I had was a dark green canvas job with a center pole and no windows or floor. We left the fire burning and cleaned the pots and pans so as not to attract bears during the night and turned in,” Ed wrote.
The sky was clear, but the wind was howling through the old growth timber that lined the shore. Sometime around 2 a.m., Dennis woke Ed after hearing what sounded like footsteps outside the tent. It wasn’t a bear. Ed said the walking – or rather creeping – continued until it half circled the tent.
“In August, there is still some light in the sky until about 10 or 11. I recall that we all were embarrassed about being afraid about the coming night. We had a flashlight and the rifle in the tent between us, locked and loaded. I finally dosed off but woke right up when Dennis squeezed my leg. The illuminated hands of my watch showed it was 2:30. Joe was already sitting up and had the rifle in hand. I heard the first step, not more than about 10 feet from the back of the tent. Slowly. Then another and another. Whatever this was, it sounded like it was walking on two feet.
It made the same semi-circle around the tent. When we finally got enough courage to crawl out of the tent and turn the flashlight on, we saw nothing. No tracks, nothing. The third night we decided if it bothered us again, we would come out of the tent shooting. We were actually scared. It never came back the third night and the following day we had a break in the weather and got the heck out of there.”
Though Sasquatches became something of a popular phenomenon in the 1960s and ‘70s in the Lower 48, the nantiinaq in Sugt’stun culture has been around for a long time. According to the culture, he might be a different kind of creature, a tragic half-man, half-beast who wasn’t always in this condition. He perhaps used to be fully human.
Elder Nick Tanape said he doesn’t discredit the stories about nantiinaq, but says he’s never seen one.
“I think there’s something to them,” he said.
Malania said that, once her family moved to Nanwalek, the nantiinaq stayed far away and left them in peace. It didn’t follow them, and for that they were grateful. She grew up, raised 13 children and remains one of the few regional elders who can pass on the old traditions.
Malania – a favorite among the young people of Nanwalek, especially when she tells stories – learned many things from her grandmother, who was a traditional healer.
http://homertribune.com/2009/10/port-chatham-left-to-spirits/
(Submitted by Chad Arment)
Alaskan creature stories
Port Chatham left to spirits
‘Nantiinaq’ sightings and spirits led to desertion of Alaska village
By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune
Malania Helen Kehl, Nanwalek’s eldest resident, is frequently called upon around the village to impart her memories of how life used to be on this southern-most tip of the Kenai Peninsula.
Among her remembrances are medicines used to heal the sick and ways of preserving sea lion meat in barrels for winter. She also is one of the last to tell the ghostly story of how the village of Port Chatham came to be deserted; why the abandoned town was shunned, and those who once lived there vowed never to return.
Malania was born Jan. 25, 1934 at Port Chatham, then a small village founded at the edge of a peaceful moorage. The village once offered shelter for many people, including Capt. Nathaniel Portlock’s ship on his 1786 Alaska expedition. But when Malania was a baby, the family abruptly moved away from Chatham, leaving the house and every board of its frame behind.
What frightening situation caused John and Helen Romanoff to take their children and flee to Nanwalek?
“We left our houses and the school, and started all new here,” Malania said in a recent interview, speaking in her traditional Sugt’stun through translator Sally Ash. “There was plentiful land here for gardening and people. My parents built a house on the beach.”
What had frightened Malania’s parents hadn’t been a single event. Over a “long period of time,” a nantiinaq (Nan-te-nuk) – or big hairy creature – was reportedly terrorizing villagers. And Malania also told of the spirit of a woman dressed in draping black clothes that would come out of the cliffs.
“Her dress was so long she would drag it,” Malania said. “She had a very white face and would disappear back into the cliffs.”
The goose-bumped terror felt when people encountered these spirits was nothing compared to what happened to Malania’s godfather, Andrew Kamluck. He was logging in 1931, when someone or something hit him over the head with a piece of log-moving equipment. The blow reportedly killed him instantly.
Malania isn’t the only one to tell of strange events at Port Chatham. Port Graham Elder, Simeon Kvasnikoff, said he remembers when nantiinaq was blamed for the disappearance of a gold miner.
“This one guy over there had a little place where he was digging for gold,” Kvasnikoff said. “He went up there one time and never came back. No one found any sign of him.”
Another story recounted the experience of a sawmill owner named Tom Larsen, who had a job cutting wood for the old fish traps. He told of spotting nantiinaq on the beach once. After going back to his house to get his gun, he returned to the beach and “the thing looked at him,” Kvasnikoff said. For some reason, Larsen decided against firing a shot.
In an April 15, 1973 issue of the Anchorage Daily News, a feature article told of the abandoned cannery town of Portlock near Port Chatham. The writer had learned the story during an evening spent with the school teacher and his wife at English Bay (Nanwalek) while on a boat trip.
The story is told:
“Portlock began its existence sometime after the turn of the century as a cannery town. In 1921, a post office was established there, and for a time the residents, mostly natives of Russian-Aleut mix, lived in peace with their picturesque mountain-and-sea setting.”
According to the ADN story, sometime in the beginning years of World War II, rumors began to seep along the Kenai Peninsula that things were not right in Portlock. Men from the cannery town would reportedly go up into the hills to hunt Dall sheep and bear, and never return. Worse yet, sometimes stories would circulate about mutilated bodies that were swept down into the lagoon, torn and dismembered in a way that bears could not, or would not, do.
“Tales were told of villagers tracking moose over soft ground. They would find giant, man-like tracks over 18 inches in length closing upon those of the moose, the signs of a short struggle where the grass had been matted down, then only the deep tracks of the manlike animal departing toward the high, fog-shrouded mountains...”
The article goes on to tell how the fed-up townfolk decided to move en masse, and by 1950, the U.S. Post office had closed there.
Even into more recent times, nantiinaq reports haven’t stopped entirely. A man who prefers to remain anonymous tells his story online at http://strangestate.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html
“In 1990, while I was working as a paramedic in Anchorage, we got called out on an alarm for a man having a heart attack at the state jail in Eagle River. He was a Native man in his 70s, and after I got him stabilized with IVs, O2 and cardiac drugs, my partner and I began to transport him to the Native Hospital in Anchorage.”
En route to the hospital, the paramedic and the Native man, an “Aleut” from Port Graham, talked about hunting. The paramedic had been to Dog Fish Bay and was once weathered in there.
“This old man sat up on the gurney and grabbed me by the front of my shirt. He got right up to my face and said, ‘Did it bother you?’ Well, with that question, the hair just stood up on the back of my head. I said, ‘Yes.’ “Did you see it?” was his next question. I said “No... Did you see it?” He said “No, but my brother seen it. It chased him.”
In August of 1973, Ed and two others were bowhunting for goats and black bear when a storm forced them to take shelter in Dogfish Bay Lagoon.
“We beached our skiff and let the tide run her dry. After a dinner of broiled salmon we turned in to our tent. Back in those days, the best tent I had was a dark green canvas job with a center pole and no windows or floor. We left the fire burning and cleaned the pots and pans so as not to attract bears during the night and turned in,” Ed wrote.
The sky was clear, but the wind was howling through the old growth timber that lined the shore. Sometime around 2 a.m., Dennis woke Ed after hearing what sounded like footsteps outside the tent. It wasn’t a bear. Ed said the walking – or rather creeping – continued until it half circled the tent.
“In August, there is still some light in the sky until about 10 or 11. I recall that we all were embarrassed about being afraid about the coming night. We had a flashlight and the rifle in the tent between us, locked and loaded. I finally dosed off but woke right up when Dennis squeezed my leg. The illuminated hands of my watch showed it was 2:30. Joe was already sitting up and had the rifle in hand. I heard the first step, not more than about 10 feet from the back of the tent. Slowly. Then another and another. Whatever this was, it sounded like it was walking on two feet.
It made the same semi-circle around the tent. When we finally got enough courage to crawl out of the tent and turn the flashlight on, we saw nothing. No tracks, nothing. The third night we decided if it bothered us again, we would come out of the tent shooting. We were actually scared. It never came back the third night and the following day we had a break in the weather and got the heck out of there.”
Though Sasquatches became something of a popular phenomenon in the 1960s and ‘70s in the Lower 48, the nantiinaq in Sugt’stun culture has been around for a long time. According to the culture, he might be a different kind of creature, a tragic half-man, half-beast who wasn’t always in this condition. He perhaps used to be fully human.
Elder Nick Tanape said he doesn’t discredit the stories about nantiinaq, but says he’s never seen one.
“I think there’s something to them,” he said.
Malania said that, once her family moved to Nanwalek, the nantiinaq stayed far away and left them in peace. It didn’t follow them, and for that they were grateful. She grew up, raised 13 children and remains one of the few regional elders who can pass on the old traditions.
Malania – a favorite among the young people of Nanwalek, especially when she tells stories – learned many things from her grandmother, who was a traditional healer.
http://homertribune.com/2009/10/port-chatham-left-to-spirits/
(Submitted by Chad Arment)
‘Nantiinaq’ sightings and spirits led to desertion of Alaska village
By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune
Malania Helen Kehl, Nanwalek’s eldest resident, is frequently called upon around the village to impart her memories of how life used to be on this southern-most tip of the Kenai Peninsula.
Among her remembrances are medicines used to heal the sick and ways of preserving sea lion meat in barrels for winter. She also is one of the last to tell the ghostly story of how the village of Port Chatham came to be deserted; why the abandoned town was shunned, and those who once lived there vowed never to return.
Malania was born Jan. 25, 1934 at Port Chatham, then a small village founded at the edge of a peaceful moorage. The village once offered shelter for many people, including Capt. Nathaniel Portlock’s ship on his 1786 Alaska expedition. But when Malania was a baby, the family abruptly moved away from Chatham, leaving the house and every board of its frame behind.
What frightening situation caused John and Helen Romanoff to take their children and flee to Nanwalek?
“We left our houses and the school, and started all new here,” Malania said in a recent interview, speaking in her traditional Sugt’stun through translator Sally Ash. “There was plentiful land here for gardening and people. My parents built a house on the beach.”
What had frightened Malania’s parents hadn’t been a single event. Over a “long period of time,” a nantiinaq (Nan-te-nuk) – or big hairy creature – was reportedly terrorizing villagers. And Malania also told of the spirit of a woman dressed in draping black clothes that would come out of the cliffs.
“Her dress was so long she would drag it,” Malania said. “She had a very white face and would disappear back into the cliffs.”
The goose-bumped terror felt when people encountered these spirits was nothing compared to what happened to Malania’s godfather, Andrew Kamluck. He was logging in 1931, when someone or something hit him over the head with a piece of log-moving equipment. The blow reportedly killed him instantly.
Malania isn’t the only one to tell of strange events at Port Chatham. Port Graham Elder, Simeon Kvasnikoff, said he remembers when nantiinaq was blamed for the disappearance of a gold miner.
“This one guy over there had a little place where he was digging for gold,” Kvasnikoff said. “He went up there one time and never came back. No one found any sign of him.”
Another story recounted the experience of a sawmill owner named Tom Larsen, who had a job cutting wood for the old fish traps. He told of spotting nantiinaq on the beach once. After going back to his house to get his gun, he returned to the beach and “the thing looked at him,” Kvasnikoff said. For some reason, Larsen decided against firing a shot.
In an April 15, 1973 issue of the Anchorage Daily News, a feature article told of the abandoned cannery town of Portlock near Port Chatham. The writer had learned the story during an evening spent with the school teacher and his wife at English Bay (Nanwalek) while on a boat trip.
The story is told:
“Portlock began its existence sometime after the turn of the century as a cannery town. In 1921, a post office was established there, and for a time the residents, mostly natives of Russian-Aleut mix, lived in peace with their picturesque mountain-and-sea setting.”
According to the ADN story, sometime in the beginning years of World War II, rumors began to seep along the Kenai Peninsula that things were not right in Portlock. Men from the cannery town would reportedly go up into the hills to hunt Dall sheep and bear, and never return. Worse yet, sometimes stories would circulate about mutilated bodies that were swept down into the lagoon, torn and dismembered in a way that bears could not, or would not, do.
“Tales were told of villagers tracking moose over soft ground. They would find giant, man-like tracks over 18 inches in length closing upon those of the moose, the signs of a short struggle where the grass had been matted down, then only the deep tracks of the manlike animal departing toward the high, fog-shrouded mountains...”
The article goes on to tell how the fed-up townfolk decided to move en masse, and by 1950, the U.S. Post office had closed there.
Even into more recent times, nantiinaq reports haven’t stopped entirely. A man who prefers to remain anonymous tells his story online at http://strangestate.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html
“In 1990, while I was working as a paramedic in Anchorage, we got called out on an alarm for a man having a heart attack at the state jail in Eagle River. He was a Native man in his 70s, and after I got him stabilized with IVs, O2 and cardiac drugs, my partner and I began to transport him to the Native Hospital in Anchorage.”
En route to the hospital, the paramedic and the Native man, an “Aleut” from Port Graham, talked about hunting. The paramedic had been to Dog Fish Bay and was once weathered in there.
“This old man sat up on the gurney and grabbed me by the front of my shirt. He got right up to my face and said, ‘Did it bother you?’ Well, with that question, the hair just stood up on the back of my head. I said, ‘Yes.’ “Did you see it?” was his next question. I said “No... Did you see it?” He said “No, but my brother seen it. It chased him.”
In August of 1973, Ed and two others were bowhunting for goats and black bear when a storm forced them to take shelter in Dogfish Bay Lagoon.
“We beached our skiff and let the tide run her dry. After a dinner of broiled salmon we turned in to our tent. Back in those days, the best tent I had was a dark green canvas job with a center pole and no windows or floor. We left the fire burning and cleaned the pots and pans so as not to attract bears during the night and turned in,” Ed wrote.
The sky was clear, but the wind was howling through the old growth timber that lined the shore. Sometime around 2 a.m., Dennis woke Ed after hearing what sounded like footsteps outside the tent. It wasn’t a bear. Ed said the walking – or rather creeping – continued until it half circled the tent.
“In August, there is still some light in the sky until about 10 or 11. I recall that we all were embarrassed about being afraid about the coming night. We had a flashlight and the rifle in the tent between us, locked and loaded. I finally dosed off but woke right up when Dennis squeezed my leg. The illuminated hands of my watch showed it was 2:30. Joe was already sitting up and had the rifle in hand. I heard the first step, not more than about 10 feet from the back of the tent. Slowly. Then another and another. Whatever this was, it sounded like it was walking on two feet.
It made the same semi-circle around the tent. When we finally got enough courage to crawl out of the tent and turn the flashlight on, we saw nothing. No tracks, nothing. The third night we decided if it bothered us again, we would come out of the tent shooting. We were actually scared. It never came back the third night and the following day we had a break in the weather and got the heck out of there.”
Though Sasquatches became something of a popular phenomenon in the 1960s and ‘70s in the Lower 48, the nantiinaq in Sugt’stun culture has been around for a long time. According to the culture, he might be a different kind of creature, a tragic half-man, half-beast who wasn’t always in this condition. He perhaps used to be fully human.
Elder Nick Tanape said he doesn’t discredit the stories about nantiinaq, but says he’s never seen one.
“I think there’s something to them,” he said.
Malania said that, once her family moved to Nanwalek, the nantiinaq stayed far away and left them in peace. It didn’t follow them, and for that they were grateful. She grew up, raised 13 children and remains one of the few regional elders who can pass on the old traditions.
Malania – a favorite among the young people of Nanwalek, especially when she tells stories – learned many things from her grandmother, who was a traditional healer.
http://homertribune.com/2009/10/port-chatham-left-to-spirits/
(Submitted by Chad Arment)
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Mike Conley's Tales of the Weird: Legend holds you don't fiddle with rattlers
By Mike Conley | The McDowell News
Published: April 15, 2009
Johnson County, Tenn. sits in the far northeastern corner of the Volunteer State. It is located along the Tennessee-North Carolina state line, just north of Ashe, Avery and Watauga counties.
Johnson County has a strange local landmark called Fiddler's Rock. This stone outcropping is located over a ravine near the top of Stone Mountain between the county seat of Mountain City and the community of Laurel Bloomery.
But this landmark also goes by another name, the Screaming Rock. An old tale explains the reasons why the rock outcropping is called both of those names. Folks in Johnson County say the rock is haunted by the ghost of an old fiddler who used to play there many years ago.
Martin Stone was well known in those parts for his talents as a fiddler player. Whenever someone held a dance or a party, they called on Martin to provide the music. The mountain folk of Johnson County said that he could make babies stop crying, tame wild animals and even make the sick well again through his fiddle playing, according to a Web site about the legend.
Some folks said he could also charm rattlesnakes.
On Sunday afternoons, Martin would often climb up onto the rock and start playing his fiddle. It is said that the rattlesnakes would come out from underneath the rocks and lay in the sun while he played. Then, when enough snakes had gathered, he would reach for his shotgun and kill as many of them as he could. He must have gotten some kind of amusement from doing that.
However one day, a neighbor found the fiddler's lifeless body on the rock that is now named after him. Apparently, he had not reached for his shotgun quick enough because his body was covered with snakebites.
To this day, people say the rock seems to give off a high-pitched screeching sound on cold winter days. They said it is ghostly fiddle of Martin Stone. Others report that it is the sound of him screaming as all those poisonous serpents bit him to death. Residents of Johnson County reportedly avoid the place, believing that it is haunted.
***
Last week's column about the strange sounds reported by a Mitchell County family during a camping trip in 2000 resulted in an interesting response from one of my readers.
William M. Dranginis of Manassas, Va. wrote saying he enjoyed reading the column about the strange sounds in the wilderness. He is a Bigfoot researcher who has started a Web site about the reported sightings in the Old Dominion.
"Not many people know it but Virginia has had a long history of Bigfoot sightings through the years," he writes. "When I follow up Bigfoot sighting reports in person, the witness gets very excited to tell their story and wants to learn everything they can about these creatures."
He goes to say that he too once saw one of these creatures in the woods of Culpeper Va., while metal detecting with two FBI agents.
"My whole world changed," he writes. "Since that time, every available second has been spent learning more about these creatures and trying to devise special camera systems to film them in their own habitat."
Back in 2004, he also had a one-on-one conversation with Jane Goodall, famed researcher of primates and noted animal welfare activist, while she was visiting Washington, D.C.
"The scheduled 15-minute meeting lasted 2 ½ hours, what a wonderful couple hours that was," writes Dranginis. "Dr. Goodall believes these Bigfoot creatures do exist and even stated so on NPR."
His Web site contains more than 150 Bigfoot sighting reports from all over Virginia, submitted by everyone from doctors to state police officers.
"The research is very exciting, meeting new people and seeing every section of this great state," he writes. "It's been a blast. The most interesting part about this research is that you learn more about yourself after spending countless hours in the woods searching for the creature, that in itself was a discovery of a lifetime."
You can check out his Web site at www.virginiabigfoot research. org.
Contact Mike Conley at 652-3313, ext. 3422 or e-mail nconley@mcdowellnews.com
Published: April 15, 2009
Johnson County, Tenn. sits in the far northeastern corner of the Volunteer State. It is located along the Tennessee-North Carolina state line, just north of Ashe, Avery and Watauga counties.
Johnson County has a strange local landmark called Fiddler's Rock. This stone outcropping is located over a ravine near the top of Stone Mountain between the county seat of Mountain City and the community of Laurel Bloomery.
But this landmark also goes by another name, the Screaming Rock. An old tale explains the reasons why the rock outcropping is called both of those names. Folks in Johnson County say the rock is haunted by the ghost of an old fiddler who used to play there many years ago.
Martin Stone was well known in those parts for his talents as a fiddler player. Whenever someone held a dance or a party, they called on Martin to provide the music. The mountain folk of Johnson County said that he could make babies stop crying, tame wild animals and even make the sick well again through his fiddle playing, according to a Web site about the legend.
Some folks said he could also charm rattlesnakes.
On Sunday afternoons, Martin would often climb up onto the rock and start playing his fiddle. It is said that the rattlesnakes would come out from underneath the rocks and lay in the sun while he played. Then, when enough snakes had gathered, he would reach for his shotgun and kill as many of them as he could. He must have gotten some kind of amusement from doing that.
However one day, a neighbor found the fiddler's lifeless body on the rock that is now named after him. Apparently, he had not reached for his shotgun quick enough because his body was covered with snakebites.
To this day, people say the rock seems to give off a high-pitched screeching sound on cold winter days. They said it is ghostly fiddle of Martin Stone. Others report that it is the sound of him screaming as all those poisonous serpents bit him to death. Residents of Johnson County reportedly avoid the place, believing that it is haunted.
***
Last week's column about the strange sounds reported by a Mitchell County family during a camping trip in 2000 resulted in an interesting response from one of my readers.
William M. Dranginis of Manassas, Va. wrote saying he enjoyed reading the column about the strange sounds in the wilderness. He is a Bigfoot researcher who has started a Web site about the reported sightings in the Old Dominion.
"Not many people know it but Virginia has had a long history of Bigfoot sightings through the years," he writes. "When I follow up Bigfoot sighting reports in person, the witness gets very excited to tell their story and wants to learn everything they can about these creatures."
He goes to say that he too once saw one of these creatures in the woods of Culpeper Va., while metal detecting with two FBI agents.
"My whole world changed," he writes. "Since that time, every available second has been spent learning more about these creatures and trying to devise special camera systems to film them in their own habitat."
Back in 2004, he also had a one-on-one conversation with Jane Goodall, famed researcher of primates and noted animal welfare activist, while she was visiting Washington, D.C.
"The scheduled 15-minute meeting lasted 2 ½ hours, what a wonderful couple hours that was," writes Dranginis. "Dr. Goodall believes these Bigfoot creatures do exist and even stated so on NPR."
His Web site contains more than 150 Bigfoot sighting reports from all over Virginia, submitted by everyone from doctors to state police officers.
"The research is very exciting, meeting new people and seeing every section of this great state," he writes. "It's been a blast. The most interesting part about this research is that you learn more about yourself after spending countless hours in the woods searching for the creature, that in itself was a discovery of a lifetime."
You can check out his Web site at www.virginiabigfoot research. org.
Contact Mike Conley at 652-3313, ext. 3422 or e-mail nconley@mcdowellnews.com
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