The Historic (and Haunted) Sun Inn - Bethlehem, PA

The Sun Inn in Bethlehem, PA has long been the subject of tales of the supernatural, but one paranormal researcher said he caught what he believes to be a spirit on camera last month.

"The freakiest thing I've ever seen in paranormal," said Scott Wiley, who claimed the black shadow seen on his video is a ghost. "If you take it snapshot by snapshot, you actually see the arms, the legs, the head. You can see the whole back everything."

This isn't the first time a paranormal group has claimed to have captured something at the Sun Inn.

The innkeeper has a lot of stories to tell.

"They set up their equipment and they went in to look at the chest and as they got in there you heard a voice saying, 'We're watching you,'" said Bucky Zulborski, who described another incident involving researchers in the attic of the historic inn. "She was one of the last people to leave the attic and said goodbye to the spirits, and when she got home, she played her recording back and got the voice of a little girl saying, 'Don't go.'"

Perhaps the most chilling story is about Hughetta Bender, who was passionate about preserving the Sun Inn and volunteered there for years. She died in 1995.

Then, one night a group of researchers took a picture. In the corner window, it shows what could be described as a person with white hair wearing an apron.

"When the group was looking through her pictures, I said, 'Oh my God. I know who that is,'" said Szulborski. "Ran over to the office next door and brought back a collage of pictures. There's her in her white apron. Whenever she was in the inn she wore her white apron."

Wiley said he doesn't think the image he captured on video is Hughetta and hopes to go back to the historic inn. - wfmz

This series of video captures seems to show a shadow and orb moving in front of a wall

-----

Bethlehem's Haunted Sun Inn

Sun Inn Preservation Association founder Hughetta Bender put her heart and soul into saving the Main Street historic site.

And some believe her soul still remains in the former 1758 hotel.

On a January visit to the inn, a Lehigh Valley-based paranormal investigation group snapped a photo of what appears to be a woman in a second floor window. The figure looks to have gray hair, glasses and be wearing a white apron.

"I said, 'Oh, my God, that's Hughetta,'" said Bucky Szulborski, a Sun Inn Preservation Association board member who joined the paranormal group on its investigation. "She wore a white apron."

"For that to appear at the Sun Inn -- it's remarkable," he said.

Bender's likeness was far from the only paranormal observation Lehigh Valley Research and Investigation in Paranormal Activity made on two visits to the inn -- Jan. 24 and Saturday.

The group caught on tape at least 15 unknown voices and what they say sounds like a half-hour long ghosts' party in the dining room.

The group ranks the Sun Inn as among the most -- if not the most -- haunted place they've investigated.

"This place is as active as it gets," said member Jim Fitzgerald, a Whitehall Township resident.

The group went room-by-room on both nights, asking if there were any spirits in the inn. They asked about Elizabeth Moore, a nurse who died in 1897 at the inn.

When they asked if Elizabeth was there, someone responded with the word, "Moore," said member Steve Werner, of Bethlehem.

The response was only heard through audiotape, as were all the other unknown voices. Group members believe ghosts affect magnetic forces, so they can often only be heard on tape but not in person.

The group played many of the recordings for the media Thursday, including two instances of a strained voice saying "We're watching you."... - lehighvalleylive

-----

Notable Dates in the Sun Inn's History

- 1758 ~ Building of the Sun Inn began
- 1760 ~ First Guests Welcomed
- 1777 ~ Meeting of the leading members of the Continental Congress. Signed the order of Protection.
- 1792 ~ A deputation of Six Nation Indians, fifty-one chiefs and warriors, including Red Jacket, the Corn Planter and Osiquette, lodged at the Inn on the way to Philadelphia to meet General Washington.
- 1799 ~ Fries Rebellion at the Sun Inn
- 1803 ~ Commodore Berry of the ship United States stayed at the Inn.
- 1826 ~ A full story is added to the Inn
- 1865 ~ November 3, a gala dinner for the honorable Asa Packer upon his announcement of the founding of Lehigh University.
- 1892 ~ Memorial Tablet placed on the occasion of the Sesqui-Centennial Celebration of the settlement of Bethlehem.
- 1910 ~ Brother Albrecht's Secret Chamber: A Legend of the Ancient Moravian Sun Inn at Bethlehem Pennsylvania and What Came of It was published.
- 1972 ~ Founding of the Sun Inn Preservation Association to restore the Inn.
- 1982 ~ The restored Sun Inn is opened. - suninnbethlehem.org

**********

SPIRIT RESCUE INTERNATIONAL
Update

Remote viewing session on Weds. August 23rd - Neath, West Glamorgan, South Wales case - SRI Team members are invited to listen....check with me for start time. This is our first RV session since the passing of our associate JD. I expect she'll again be with us from here on out.

The RV will be posted in the case log at Astral Perceptions only after a consultation with the client. Irene and the UK on-site crew plan to investigate the location soon after the RV session. Stay tuned...

Squonk!

Hey, it's the weekend. Time for a bit of fun...Squonk!

Few people outside of Pennsylvania have ever heard of the quaint beast, which is said to be fairly common in the hemlock forests of that State. (Honestly, I was born and raised in Pennsylvania and I had never heard of this creature.) The range of the squonk is very limited. It has a very retiring disposition, generally traveling about at twilight and dusk. Because of its misfitting skin, which is covered with warts and moles, it is always unhappy; in fact it is said, by people who are best able to judge, to be the most morbid of beast. Hunters who are good at tracking are able to follow a squonk by its tear-stained trail, for the animal weeps constantly. When cornered and escape seems impossible, or when surprised and frightened, it may even dissolve itself in tears. Squonk hunters are most successful on frosty moonlight nights, when tears are shed slowly and the animal dislikes moving about; it may then be heard weeping under the boughs of dark hemlock trees. - "Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods" - William T. Cox - 1910

Mr. J. P. Wentling, formerly of Pennsylvania, but now at St. Anthony Park, Minnesota, had a disappointing experience with a squonk near Mont Alto. Wentling who one fine day at the turn of the century hid near its home after observing it and laying a trap for it, he snatched it up into his bag. As he was returning to the local village to show his friends what he had found in the woods, he noticed the leather bag he was carrying dripping from several cracks in the bottom making it noticeably lighter and of a strange shape. As he set it down on the ground, the legend suggests he suspected some trickery, but as he untied the top a strange liquid very much like water (or tears) spilled onto the soil at his feet. Cursing his bad luck, Wentling returned back to the village with nothing but the tale of his adventure and a soaked bag. - Unexplainable.net

The "scientific name" of the squonk, Lacrimacorpus dissolvens, comes from Latin words meaning "tear", "body", and "dissolve".

The Squonk is probably the world's ugliest animal. So ugly, in fact, that it spends most of its life crying over its cruel fate. Eventually many squonks just dissolve into a puddle of tears. You can read more about this sorry fellow and others like him in Richard Svennson's book "Fearsome Critters."

The Squonk (according to the BBC)

The Squonk (Lacrimacorpus dissolvens) is a legendary creature from the Hemlock forests of north-central and north-western Pennsylvania. The earliest stories about the squonk are lost to history, but the legend probably dates back at least to the late 19th Century, when Pennsylvania's importance in the lumber industry was at its peak, relying heavily on hemlock trees.

Legends

Squonks are very shy, very ugly animals. Their skin is ill-fitting, and covered with warts and moles. Because they know they are so ugly, they weep almost constantly, and try to avoid being seen.

The one well-known story about squonks has to do with how they are hunted. Apparently, squonk skin is valued by some, but they are very difficult to catch, because of their extremely retiring nature. They can be most easily tracked on nights with a full moon, when their tears form glistening trails on the ground.

Sometime around the year 1900, a man named JP Wentling2 was able to successfully catch a squonk. Mr Wentling followed a trail of tears, and when he heard a nearby squonk weeping under a hemlock tree, he lured it by imitating the creature, presumably by weeping. He caught the squonk in a bag, and carried it home, while it sobbed pitifully in his sack. As he carried his prize home, he suddenly noticed that the bag was lighter, and on opening it, found that there was nothing inside but tears and bubbles.

Squonks will apparently dissolve completely into tears anytime they are cornered or threatened; this is the source of their scientific name, Lacrimacorpus dissolvens, from the Latin words for 'tear', 'body', and 'dissolve'.

Squonks in Literature and Music

William T Cox published a book in 1910, called Fearsome Creatures of the Lumber woods, With a Few Desert and Mountain Beasts. In this book, he described the squonk, telling the story related above. The book was an encyclopaedic collection of legendary animals from United States folklore. Sadly, Fearsome Creatures is out of print, and rather difficult to find.

Jorge Luis Borges, the Nobel Prize-winning Argentinean writer, used Mr Cox's book as a source when compiling his Book of Imaginary Beings in 19693. This book has descriptions of 120 fantastic and legendary creatures from many different cultures, mostly European and New World.

Borges opened the preface of his 1969 edition with a sentence that may resonate with some h2g2 Researchers: 'As we all know, there is a kind of lazy pleasure in useless and out-of-the-way erudition.' His book has been illustrated and hypertextualized by students in Greece, and may be found here.

In 1974, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker of Steely Dan released their third LP, Pretzel Logic. This album featured the song 'Any Major Dude Will Tell You', a bittersweet acoustic ballad, offering consolation to someone whose world seems to be falling apart. Fagen puzzled his studio musicians with the line:

Have you ever seen a squonk's tears? Well, look at mine.
People on the street have all seen better times.

Exactly why Messrs Fagen and Becker chose this image to use in this song is as mysterious as most Steely Dan lyrics, and as they typically refuse to answer questions about their songs, fans continue to speculate. It seems likely that 'The Dan' learned about squonks from Borges' book.
Genesis

In 1976, the band Genesis released their first LP after Peter Gabriel left the group - the first to feature Phil Collins as frontman. This album, A Trick of the Tail contains the song 'Squonk'. This song is basically a retelling of the story of Mr Wentling, squonk hunter. That Collins is using the story as some kind of allegory seems clear, especially from the final verse:

All in all you are a very dying race
Placing trust upon a cruel world.
You never had the things you thought you should have had
And you'll not get them now,
And all the while in perfect time
Your tears are falling on the ground.

What Mr Collins is actually getting at is left to the reader to speculate. It is not known whether Genesis were inspired to find the story of the squonk by hearing 'Any Major Dude', or whether they discovered it independently, but the story in the song is clearly taken from Mr Cox's work, probably via Borges' book.

Squonks Today

At the time of writing of this entry (October, 2002), people continue to read Borges, and to listen to music from the 1970s. Squonks are being discovered by more and more people. The name turns up, here and there, as a username or domain name on the Internet somewhere, in the name of Squonk Opera, a performing arts troupe in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area, and in other unexpected and unrelated contexts. Perhaps we are standing at the threshold of a veritable squonk renaissance!

One shadow looms over this prospect, however. The squonk's habitat, in the hemlock forests of Pennsylvania, is severely reduced. Most of the hemlock trees were logged by 1915, and the species has become just an occasional sight in the area's hardwood forests. It is not known whether squonks rely on hemlock trees, but as their range decreases, it can only mean hard times for any surviving squonk populations. The only hope for the squonk's survival may now lie in the imaginations of dreamers, poets, and those who treasure the legends of the past. - www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2


**********

WE COULD USE YOUR HELP

How much do you enjoy receiving 'Phantoms and Monsters'? Is it worth an offering of a few dollars for a daily dose of the strange and unusual occurrences in our world?

There are two ways you can show your support. You can donate through PayPal ('Donate' buttons are located on the blog or go to the PayPal homepage and send the donation to my user email - lonstrickler@phantomsandmonsters.com ) or simply send your contribution by mail.

I truly hope you will consider endorsing 'Phantoms and Monsters' continued free service to the public. Thanks...Lon

Lon Strickler
'Phantoms and Monsters'
26 Coachman Ct.
Randallstown, MD 21133
USA

Stan Gordon: Odd 4-Legged Animal Observed Near Pittsburgh

I received the following report this morning from researcher Stan Gordon:

On June 18, 2011, a witness reported the observation of a very strange animal not far from Sharpsburg, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh near the Allegheny River. It was about 8 AM that morning as the witness stood on her back porch and observed an animal unlike anything she had ever seen before.

The witness is quite familiar with the wildlife in the area such as coyotes, and even fox. Her comment to me was, “This animal was so bizarre.” The animal was observed as it cantered down a road just a few yards above her nearby roadway. The woman explained that this animal’s movements were not that of a trot or gallop, but an actual canter like that of a horse.

The animal stood about 2 feet tall, and was “too big, for a cat”. The witness also stated that it was not a dog, and didn’t move like a fox or a coyote. The animal, which was observed for about 45 seconds, was estimated to weigh about 35 pounds and was about 2 ½ feet long. The creature was very thin and streamlined, but did not look to be starving or emaciated. The animal looked either hairless, or had very short hair about 1/8 inches long. The entire body was of a pale tan cream beige color. The witness explained that the color was not a pink fleshy color, either.

The observer was able to see a pointy snout and pointy ears as well, and it had a cat-like face. The tail, which was about as long as the body (2 ½ feet), was hairless and skinny. The last 6 inches of the tail curved slightly upwards. The creature moved about 75 yards down the middle of the road, then moved to the right side toward a guard rail. It then changed direction and went to the left where it went into a wooded area. A dead wild duck was reported to have been found mutilated a few days later in the same area.

The witness went on the internet to try to identify the animal in question. She came across a website with photographs depicting a strange creature which had been killed in a western state known as a “chupacabra.” She said what she saw looked very similar.

Click here to check out Stan's most recent book!

Spirit Rescue International™
Providing no-cost professional spiritual help, personal support and guidance
Take the first step towards genuine peace of mind

The Spirit Rescue International™ Haunted Help Forum
*Join Our Group On Facebook*

Join Eric Altman, Lon Strickler and Sean Forker LIVE each Sunday at 10 PM ET as we go
Beyond the Edge!

ANOMALIST BOOKS
Works on maverick science, unexplained mysteries, unorthodox theories, strange talents, and unexpected discoveries. Please check out their excellent and diverse catalog

The 'C' Influence
Actualizing Esoteric Discussion

Become a fan of 'Phantoms and Monsters' at Facebook



"The latest news from beyond the mainstream"
Join Ben & Aaron for their weekly podcast!
Check out Mysterious Universe Plus+ all access format!

Astral Perceptions - Discussing ultraterrestrial and multidimensional phenomena and the proficiency of remote viewing

Join the
The Social - Paranormal Network

A NETWORK OF INVESTIGATORS, ENTHUSIASTS AND THOSE SEEKING THE TRUTH
THROUGH PARANORMAL EDUCATION AND DISCUSSION

(410) 241-5974

Phantoms and Monsters
Now Available on Kindle

Follow Up: The UFO Chase...and a Shattered Life

Since my recent post The UFO - Ohio Police Chase of 1966, I was directed to the following information by a relative of Portage County Sheriff's Deputy Dale Spaur, one of the police officers who was involved in the chase:

HE CHASED A FLYING SAUCER, NOW HIS LIFE IS SHATTERED

The Cleveland Plain Dealer
Sunday, October 9, 1966

by John De Groot RAVENNA (AP)--In his world of loneliness and twisted nightmares, Dale Spaur wonders if the nightmare will ever end. It began six months ago with "Seven Steps to Hell" and ended with a flying saucer named Floyd. In the predawn hours of a gentle April morning, Portage County Sheriff's Deputy Spaur chased a flying saucer 86 miles.

NOW THE STRANGE craft is chasing him. And he is hiding from it, a bearded stranger peering past the limp curtains of a tiny motel room in Solon.

He no longer is a deputy sheriff.

His marriage is shattered.

He has lost 40 pounds.

He lives on one bowl of cereal and a sandwich each day.

He walks three miles to an $80-a-week painters job. His motel room costs $60 a week. The court has ordered him to pay his wife $20 a week for the support of his two children.

That leaves Dale Spaur exactly nothing.

THE FLYING saucer did it. "If I could change all that I have done in my life," he said, "I would change just one thing. And that would be the night we chased that damn thing. That saucer." He spit the word out, "Saucer." An obscenity.

"MY ENTIRE LIFE came crashing down around my shoulders," he said. "Everything changed. I still don't really know what happened. But suddenly, it was as though everybody owned me. And I no longer had anything for myself. My wife, my home, my children. They all seemed to fade away."

Spaur's wife Daneise now is alone with her two children. She has filed for divorce and is working as a waitress in a bar at Ravenna.

"Something happened to Dale, but I don't know what it was," she says. He came home that day and I never saw him more frightened before. He acted strange, listless. He just sat around. He was very pale."

"THEN LATER, he got real nervous. And he started to run away. He'd just disappear for days and days. I wouldn't see him." "Our marriage fell apart. All sorts of people came to the house. Investigators. Reporters. They kept him up all night. They kept after him, hounding him. They hounded him right into the ground." "And he changed."

Then one night, Dale came home very late. He isn't sure what happened. He walked into the living room. There were some other people there. Things were very tense. Very confused.

HE GRABBED his wife and shook her. Hard. He kept shaking her. It left big ugly bruises on her arms. He doesn't know how or why...

Chief Gerald Buchert (left), Deputy Dale Spaur, and - Dispatcher Robert Wilson were hounded by the press - after the incident.

That was the end of July. Daneise filed assault and battery charges. Dale was jailed and turned in his badge. A newspaper printed a story about the deputy who chased the flying saucer being jailed for beating his wife. When he got out of jail, Dale ran...left town, turned his back on everything.

BUT THE SAUCER followed him, locked in his dreams. In Ravenna, Daneise can only say, "Dale is a lost soul. And everything is finished for us."

In Solon, Dale said, "I have become a freak. I'm so damn lonely. Look at me...34 years old and what do I have? Nothing." "Who knows me? To everyone I'm Dale Spaur, the nut who chased a flying saucer.

My father called me several weeks ago. A long time ago we had a fight. I hadn't heard from him for years. Then he calls me."

"DO YOU THINK he called to ask how I was...to say 'I love you, son... To see if I wanted to go fishing, or something? Hell, no. He wanted to know if I'd seen any more flying saucers."

"I tried to go to church for help. I went to church and the minister introduced me to the congregation. 'We have the man who chased a flying saucer with us today,' he said."

Dale Spaur wept as he told what the flying saucer named Floyd had done to him. He calls it Floyd because he saw it once more while he was still working for the sheriff's department.

THE RADIO operators knew civilians were monitoring their broadcasts. So they agreed to use a code name if the flying saucer was seen again. They called it Floyd...Dale Spaur's middle name. Dale was driving east on Interstate 80-S one night in June [1966]. He looked up. There it was. "Floyd's here with me," he whispered into the radio.

Then he parked the car and sat there, alone. This time Barney Neff was not with him. Dale did not look out the window. He lit a cigarette and stared at the floor of the cruiser. He sat there for nearly 15 minutes...not looking outside, not wanting to see Floyd.

WHEN HE LOOKED up, Floyd had disappeared.

Yet it still follows him. And it has ruined his life.

THIS he believes.

-----

OHIO DEPUTIES CHASE, LOSE BRILLIANT UFO

The Cleveland Plain Dealer
Monday, April 18, 1966

by Douglas Bloomfield
Portage County Bureau

RAVENNA--Hundreds of persons in two states reported seeing a "brilliant and shiny" object over eastern Ohio early yesterday. Two Portage County deputies chased it 86 miles.

Portage County Deputy Sheriff Dale Spaur said he and his partner, Deputy Sheriff W.H. Neff played tag with the mysterious object from 5 a.m. near Ravenna to 6:30 a.m. on the outskirts of Pittsburgh.

Police Chief Gerald Buchert of Mantua saw the object and photographed it in front of his home. He showed a print of his picture to the Plain Dealer but said the Air Force told him not to release it or permit photographs to be taken.

BUCHERT DESCRIBED it as "round when I looked straight up at it, but when it moved to the left--I feel like an idiot saying this--it looked like a saucer, like two table saucers put together."

The photograph showed an object with a very dark bottom and a very light top. Each half seemed to resemble a saucer seen from the side. The lighter top "saucer" was upside down.

Spaur described the object as about 40 feet wide and 18 feet high. He said he clocked it at speeds up to 103 mph as they chased it from Randolph Township to Conway, Pa.

A BRILLIANT beam of light from the object lit the area. Spaur said, "It was so bright, even with the sun coming out, it stood out. Its lines were very distinct," he said as he used the bell of a flashlight to describe the object.

"We were close, closer than I ever want to be again," he told the Plain Dealer. "I know nobody's going to believe it but its true." Spaur said all his former doubts about UFOs were removed.

"Somebody had control over it. It wasn't just an object floating around. It can maneuver. The only sound was a steady, faint humming like an electrical transformer when we first spotted it," he said. The sound was inaudible as the deputies chased the object, they added.

AT CONWAY, PA., Spaur said the object began hovering and was "going for altitude, straight up." After watching for about 20 minutes, he and the others went inside the police station to telephone U.S. Air Force officials he said, and when they came back outside the object was gone.

The Federal Aviation Agency's Air Traffic Control Centers at Oberlin and Pittsburgh said they spotted no unknown objects on their radar early yesterday.

-----

Cops Chase UFO - 'Seven Steps To Hell' Enigma Solved

Excerpts from the original story ....Deputies Spaur and Neff were checking on a car parked alongside U.S. 224 between Randolph and Atwater. The car was filled with radio equipment and had a strange emblem painted on its side, a triangle with a bolt of lightning inside it. Above the emblem was written, "Seven Steps to Hell."

Behind them they heard a strange humming noise and turning, said they saw a huge saucer shaped craft rise out of a woods and hover above them, bathing them in a warm white light. Then it moved off. Leaving the mystery car behind, never to be seen again, the two deputies hopped into their cruiser and chased the object, sometimes at speeds of more than 100 miles an hour. The chase finally ended when the cruiser ran out of gas near Pittsburgh. They said the craft they chased was about 50 feet across and 15 to 20 feet high with a large dome on its top and an antenna jutted out from the rear of the dome.

Now here's the break in the case after 40 years...

"Seven Steps To Hell" is an unofficial tab {used in Germany as a "badge of honor"} under the 7th's "Pyramid Of Power" patch. A lightning bolt would have been added by a Military Intelligence Unit. The 7th Army's Headquarters is still located at Stuffgart-Vaihingen, Germany. Now you have to ask what are they doing in the states? Well, a reserve Military Intelligence Unit The 353rd Comm Recon Co (Scty) of the 7th was moved to Pennsylvania in 1954. Was it one of the fabled Nazi Discs?

Perhaps they were tracking a true alien craft. The eyewitness accounts and new information uncovered by Frank Riccardi of Eyepod.Org attest to the fact that the 7th was there, with their radio equipment. Whatever the craft was the United States Military was tracking it and had arrived shortly before Deputy Sheriff Dale Spaur, and Special Deputy W.L. Neff arrived on scene. Full story, photo of the patch, and relavent links pertaining to the actual existance of the patch are on site at Eyepod.Org. This explains the harassment of the witnesses and the Military's quick move to orchestrate a full cover-up. Dale Spaur of course suffered the most... Here we are almost 40 years to the day... - www.eyepod.org

NOTE: there is another link of interest at Strangers in the Night - In 1966, Ohio cops chased a UFO into Pennsylvania. Then the government got involved, and things got really weird....Lon

Videos: Bigfoot, Bear, Human or ?

I noticed an unusual video from 2008 posted by Sharon Lee at The Bigfoot Field Reporter that shows 'something'. In light of the upcoming Sanger Paranormal 'Bigfoot evidence' press conference and being only 3 years removed from the 'Georgia Bigfoot Hoax', I thought I'd present these videos for your interpretation.

Supposedly this creature was in a forested area near the Pennsylvania / Ohio border.


Click for video - Western Pennsylvania forest creature sighting


Click for video - Western Pennsylvania forest creature sighting 2

This next video is most likely computer enhanced...though it is creepy. I have interviewed witnesses who claim to have seen very similar entities. What do you think?


Click for video - Shadow creature caught on camera

Spirit Rescue International™
Providing no-cost professional spiritual help, personal support and guidance
Take the first step towards genuine peace of mind

The Spirit Rescue International™ Haunted Help Forum
*Join Our Group On Facebook*

Join Eric Altman, Lon Strickler and Sean Forker LIVE each Sunday at 10 PM ET as we go
Beyond the Edge!

ANOMALIST BOOKS
Works on maverick science, unexplained mysteries, unorthodox theories, strange talents, and unexpected discoveries. Please check out their excellent and diverse catalog

The 'C' Influence
Actualizing Esoteric Discussion

Become a fan of 'Phantoms and Monsters' at Facebook



"The latest news from beyond the mainstream"
Join Ben & Aaron for their weekly podcast!
Check out Mysterious Universe Plus+ all access format!

Astral Perceptions - Discussing ultraterrestrial and multidimensional phenomena and the proficiency of remote viewing

Click here to check out Stan's most recent book!

Join the
The Social - Paranormal Network

A NETWORK OF INVESTIGATORS, ENTHUSIASTS AND THOSE SEEKING THE TRUTH
THROUGH PARANORMAL EDUCATION AND DISCUSSION

(410) 241-5974

Phantoms and Monsters
Now Available on Kindle

Gettysburg, PA Area Bigfoot Sightings

First of all, I would like to thank those readers and listeners who tuned in to the radio show on Sunday night at Beyond the Edge Radio. We welcomed back former co-host Sean Forker who will be adding what he calls his 'color commentary' to the show. We opened the call-in line and each of us talked about our personal paranormal experiences as well as current alternative news. It really was an enjoyable show!

During the show Eric and I commented on separate reports we had both received in the past week that referenced Bigfoot sightings in and around the Gettysburg, PA area. Eric's report focused on a sighting that occurred in Gettysburg...though it does need to be verified since the nature of the sighting was a bit idiosyncratic, let alone that the beast was seen digging through a trash bin and ran off with a KFC bucket. I'll leave that one to Eric!

I received a correspondence from a man in Indiana who wanted to remain anonymous. It seems he and his family had spent the past week vacationing in Gettysburg and were on their way home on Friday night (6/4) at around 8:30 pm. From the information I have gathered, he was driving westbound on US 30 (Lincoln Way-Chambersburg Rd) near the intersection of Rt. 234 (Buchanan Valley Rd) on the central eastern edge of Michaux State Forest...approximately 10 mile west of Gettysburg. He noticed that about 40 yards ahead of him a large, tall dark-haired humanoid darted out onto the highway (4 lanes wide) and bound across from north to south into the adjacent woods. He states that it seemed to take only 8-10 long strides in order to cover the width of the highway. He also states that the beast was carrying an object under it's left arm but couldn't make out what it was. He said it looked towards him and he was able to get a look at the face which was lighter in color than the rest of the body. It was somewhat different than Bigfoot images he had remembered seeing...the face and chin were distinctively long. I referred the witness to several Bigfoot / Sasquatch / primate / early human images and asked him to pick out one that closely matched what he saw. The picture is posted below.

I plan to get a better fix on the location as well attempt to contact local residents in order to find out if others have witnessed the creature.

Though the overall area is known more for ghost sightings and hauntings...as well as the Conewago Phantom reports east of Gettysburg, there have been several Bigfoot reports from Adams County including the following reported to the BFRO:

BFRO Reports - Adams County, PA:

-January 1998 ? (Class A) - Nighttime sighting by motorists on Route 116 between Gettysburg and Fairfield

-October 1997 (Class A) - Bowhunter encounters multiple creatures chasing deer

-June 1997 (Class B) - Very loud, extremely powerful howl heard near home

-June 1992/1993 (Class B) - Footsteps heard on porch, large dark shadow passes window, near Gettysburg

-July 1961 (Class A) - Possible encounter between a juvenile and a human child, near Gettysburg

-----
Saturday, November 12, 2005

PENNSYLVANIA BIGFOOT SIGHTINGS

By DEBBY HEISHMAN
The Public Opinion - Chambersburg, PA

For anyone who's ever fled with thudding heart from a shrill nighttime sound or blurred apparition, a recent group of visitors to Michaux State Forest is willing to wager that what's out there is more real than imagined.

Bigfoot Field Research Organization last week converged on Caledonia State Park to investigate hollows and hillsides of the surrounding state forest, anticipating an encounter with the elusive mystery, Sasquatch.

The organization, known as BFRO, was founded in 1995 and claims the largest database of credible Bigfoot/Sasquatch sightings throughout the United States and Canada. Besides collecting data, volunteer members do field inquiries throughout the country.

This expedition, BFRO's first in Pennsylvania, was initiated on the strength and number of qualified sightings in Adams and Franklin counties, said BFRO founder, Matt Moneymaker.

The Waynesboro Reservoir capers, which had caused a stir a few years back, were already a footnote in the "cases closed" file. Those oversized footprints, Moneymaker said, had long been debunked as contrived. Talk now centered on a 1997 report from an Adams County hunter who told of seeing three large creatures passing quickly through the woods as he crouched on his tree stand above.

A dozen or more seekers, some with their own expensive, hi-tech instruments, came equipped for a scientific search. Most came with stories of their own — a never-to-be-forgotten sight or sound that kept them wondering.

Michael Greene, a retired fraud investigator, owns a thermal imager, which he'd wired to a digital camera worn at his waist, and a night vision scope.

Greene's eerie backwoods experience had occurred many years earlier.

"I heard this ungodly loud howl," he said slowly, "unlike anything before. When I heard this same sound later on a recording, my skin went cold. That's how strongly it came back to me."

Recordings of sounds attributed to [sasquatches] have been collected for years. BFRO maintains a computer file of more commonly heard vocalizations — from a low moan to a high-pitched whistle — which are useful in the field.

Sound is a new tool that Moneymaker believes will be key in getting a response from [sasquatches].

"[Bigfoot/Sasquatch] research is in its infancy here [in the eastern U.S.]," he said. "In the east, it never got much attention; it had a folkloric association."

There are informal associations with individuals at northwestern universities, said Moneymaker, but because of the stigma attached to the subject, the group's academic associations are not usually not publicized.

On the third night of their vigil, the team set up in a large open tract where they had heard promising evidence the night before.

Breaking into four smaller groups, the team kept in touch by radio. Through the heavy, hand-held thermal imager, one pair at a distant point was seen as two clear white clumps under the gray-white stick images of trees.

The night was cool and silent, with an occasional barred owl or barking dog raising voice in the distance.

Mark Maisel scanned the clearing with night vision binoculars, observing the surreal nature of their quest.

"Bigfoot research is considered a pseudo-science," he said. "But our methods are based on scientific method. We're curious. That's why we're out here."

Maisel interviews people who report sightings.

"I met with a man once who needed a cigarette before he could even talk," he said. "While he was telling me his story, the hair on his arm stood straight up. He was clearly shaken. You can't make up something like that."

Paul Mateja, who investigates sighting reports in New York, said he became involved with BFRO after reporting four incidents that occurred to him and his family over a 25-year period in upstate New York. Immersed in the biology of Bigfoot identification, he has kept up a correspondence with primate researcher, W. Henner Fahrenbach of Oregon, who has published works on the Bigfoot phenomenon.

Not long ago, Mateja said, his wife heard an awful call at 3:30 a.m.

"The sound was so powerful, it shook the windows of our farm house and woke up the neighbors," he said.

From time to time, after a signal, one of the crew would bellow into the night, a loud, deep drawn-out call that echoed among the hills. It should have scared up sounds from coyote, birds and deer all across the hillsides, said Maisel, but nothing stirred or called.

A recorded scream was played through the amplifier, but as the shrillness faded out, there was only silence.

For two nights, there was little to record other than vehicles that frequently hummed along distant roads, shooting lights across the dark woods.

Encounter
Before the team members had left their campsite for the last night's search, an uncommitted visitor dropped by to meet Moneymaker.

Ray Sterner works at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md., and in his spare time, he makes maps. His copyrighted relief maps are made available through North Star Publications.

Sterner had become acquainted with Moneymaker after learning that one of his maps was appearing unacknowledged on BFRO's Web site. He called to set them straight.

Since then, Sterner has prepared the relief maps for BFRO. At the same time, he's disproved two videos that had been submitted as evidence. In one film, what appeared to be a stick thrown across the frame was proven to be an insect that had flown across the lens.

"I'm a skeptic," said Sterner. "You need a lot of proof."

Sterner and his wife, who live in Carroll County, Md., hike on occasion in Michaux. When he learned Moneymaker would be here, Sterner sought him out.

The men conferred briefly, holding an Appalachian Trail map against a tree. Then, huddling at the picnic table with his team, Moneymaker highlighted three possible search routes on the map. Blue marker crisscrossed the black elevation lines printed on the map.

"Excuse me," interrupted Sterner. "That's my map you're using. I'll need it tomorrow if I intend to go hiking."

Laughter ensued, and Sterner continued. "Could I have your autograph?"

With the same blue highlighter he'd been using to route a final search, Moneymaker signed the map and handed it back to Sterner.

Before they parted, the two shook hands.

NOTES: if any updates or other reports come forth I will post here...Lon