Strange Creature Washes Ashore in Georgia, Baffles Scientists
A bizarre animal washed up on shore in southeastern Georgia on Friday, that some say resembles the Loch Ness monster or a prehistoric marine reptile, like the Plesiosaur. The green, seafaring creature appears to have a small head, long neck, two fins, and a frilled tail.
The Jacksonville, Florida Fox affiliate reports that the animal was spotted by local resident, Jeff Warren, while he was fishing with his son on the coast of Wolf Island National Wildlife Refuge. Warren said he first thought the creature was a dead seal, but later described it as more of a “Loch Ness-type thing.”
Cryptozoologists are intrigued by the recent find, due to the legend of the Altamaha-ha, a Loch Ness-type cryptid, fabled to inhabit the waters around southeastern Georgia. Sightings of the creature are common in the many tributaries and streams flowing in from the mouth of the Altamaha River.
Some have speculated that the creature could be a rarely seen frilled shark, similar to the one spotted off the coast of Portugal last year. Frilled sharks do live in the waters around Georgia, though the specimen in question doesn’t appear to have the animal’s typical razor teeth.
Experts have ruled out the possibility that the creature is a cetacean, the group of marine mammals that includes whales, dolphins and porpoises. Often in these scenarios, the animal in question turns out to be a cetacean, such as the case last year, when a massive, grey animal washed ashore on an Indonesian island, mystifying locals, until it was determined to be a decomposing whale.
Unfortunately, Warren was unable to capture the specimen and only posted a single, slightly blurry video of the creature, leading some to call it a hoax. There are, however, a multitude of new species discovered each year, with one estimate predicting that 24 to 31 percent of marine species have yet to be discovered.
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Countless Bigfoot Sightings in Colorado Tracked at Sasquatch Outpost
If you perform a Google search for the term “Bigfoot” or “Sasquatch,” on any given day it’s likely you’ll find at least a few articles published within the past week. Sasquatch has become so ingrained in our culture, arguably more than any other cryptid, to the point that if it somehow isn’t real, we’ve practically willed it into existence.
Beyond its cultural acceptance, there’s actually overwhelming evidence of the reality of such a creature that spans centuries of sightings and lore throughout myriad cultures. Jim Meyers, a professional Sasquatch seeker and owner of the Sasquatch Outpost in Bailey, CO, cites the fact that nearly every Native American tribe has its own epithet for Sasquatch.
The Navajo call it “Ye’ Iitsoh,” meaning “Big God”; the Cherokee call it “Ketleh-Kudleh,” meaning “Hairy Savage”; and the Lakota-Sioux call it “Chiye-Tanka” meaning “Big Elder Brotha.”
Often, Native Americans refer to Sasquatch as another tribe or another people, rather than a species of ape or animal, Meyers says. And this near-universal acceptance of such a creature by indigenous peoples who have inhabited remote areas of the US, centuries before its modern development, is one of the most compelling pieces of evidence for the existence of Sasquatch in his opinion.
Though Sasquatch has assimilated into our modern mythological zeitgeist, it can be found in a number of cultural traditions across the world—on nearly every continent, in fact.
Known as the Yeti, Yeren, Yowie, or the pejorative Abominable Snowman, tales of a large, hairy bipedal creature can be found in Australia, Asia, Europe, and both Americas. Interestingly though, Meyers says he’s not familiar with any instances of Sasquatch sightings in Africa, which is also where he lived much of his life.
Meyers grew up in Africa, as his parents were missionaries—a career path he would follow in his adulthood. Having moved to Kenya at age 11, he went to boarding school before attending college in the US. Feeling a desire to continue his parents’ work, Myers would spend another 20 years working as a missionary in Senegal, followed by a decade spent in France. Eventually, he returned to the states and settled in Bailey.
While he was always fascinated with Bigfoot, ever since he saw “The Legend of Boggy Creek” as a kid, Meyers said it wasn’t until a local businesswoman in Bailey recounted a very credible sighting she experienced in the area. Shortly thereafter, Animal Planet recorded an episode of Finding Bigfoot in Bailey, adding to Meyers’ interest, and the rest was history…
Searching for a new avenue of business to pursue, and hearing multitudes of stories and eyewitness sightings in the area, Meyers decided to open a Sasquatch museum in his small Colorado township in 2014. It’s now become a tourist hotspot with over 36,000 visits.
At the Sasquatch Outpost, Meyers has curated his ongoing research into the Sasquatch Encounter Museum where one finds recordings of the creature’s vocalizations, examples of the ways in which it bends, and snaps tree branches, and plaster casts of its footprints.
One of those casts happens to be from the most famous and credible Bigfoot sighting of all time: the Patterson-Gimlin film from 1967. While some skeptics claim the clip has been debunked and a deathbed confession of a hoax was made, Meyers is quick to correct that as a fallacy, pointing out that he’s talked with Patterson’s wife who said he maintained the veracity of the film up until his death.
And if that weren’t enough, Meyers has also kept a map of various levels of Sasquatch sightings and interactions people have reported experiencing throughout Colorado at the Outpost. On the map are various colored pins based on the type of encounter experienced: red denotes a visual sighting; yellow indicates tree breaks and bends; green indicates a vocalization or tree knocking; blue identifies a rock or item thrown at someone.
If you’ve had a Bigfoot encounter in Colorado, you may be able to contribute to this growing map of over 300 encounters. In the meantime, check out Meyers in the latest episode of Beyond Belief.
