Four Creatures of the Unknown That May Actually Exist
BigFoot
What
A legendary ape-man with incredible strength that lives deep in the forest; also known as the Sasquatch or Yeti.
Where
Deep in the woods and remote mountainous regions; usually reported along the Pacific Northwest of America, with sightings reported along the coast, from Northern California to Alaska.
History of Human Interaction
Rumored sightings, grainy photographs, unexplainable footprints; casts have been made of unusual footprints; hair and stool samples have been tested, without conclusive or widely-published results.
Close Relatives
Pongos and Orang Pendecks.
Features
Six to nine-feet tall, heavily built and muscular, with large feet and a sagittal crest on top of the head, giving the head a somewhat pointed, elongated look. The forehead itself is generally sloping. The entire body is covered with thick, shaggy fur. Footprints usually measure 15-inches long, with five toes.
Special Powers or Characteristics
Powerfully psychic, shy and super strong.
Dragons
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What
WhatFlying reptilian-like creature capable of breathing fire.
Where
All over the world, particularly Asia, Africa and the Americas.
History of Human Interaction
Marco Polo described huge dragon-like serpents in the late 1200s. Explorer Frank Mellard also noted the presence of dragon-like creatures while on expedition in Rhodesia in the early 1900s. Dragons are also found in mythology in many indigenous cultures on the planet; they are revered and celebrated in China.
Close Relatives
Snakes, Komodo dragons and pterodactyls.
Features
Flying reptilian creature with a beak or elongated jaw with razor-sharp teeth, two small feet with three claws each, wings, serpentine skin or scales, and glaring eyes.
Special Powers or Characteristics
Known to fly, have super strength and harness or create fire at will.
Loch Ness Monster
What
Large snake-like creature found in lakes.
Where
Loch Ness, in the Scottish Highlands, which is one of the largest and deepest bodies of water in the UK; similar creatures have been sighted in Vermont and Canada.
History of Human Interaction
Sightings are recorded in the early 1900s but lore and legends depict Nessie much earlier. Jules Verne cites a similar creature in Journey to the Center of the Earth.
Close Relatives
Plesiosaur, a Mesozoic marine reptile believed to have been extinct for 65 million years.
Features
Long and thin with a serpent-like neck; sometimes the head is described as turtle or horse-like; the creature is greenish with black humps.
Special Powers or Characteristics
Shy, with impressive strength.
Giant Squid or Kraken
What
The giant squid or Kraken is a creature of the oceans and may be anywhere from 60-feet to 1.5 miles in diameter.
Where
The giant quid is a creature of the oceans, often retreating to the deepest, unknown canyons of the seas.
History of Human Interaction
Giant squid are found in Scandinavian legends. Also called Architeuthis, the first sightings of the creature were recorded in Denmark in the 1500s; Jules Verne features the Kraken in the novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea; the largest scientifically documented squid was 43-feet long and weighed roughly one ton.
Close Relatives
Other sea creatures, notably, the common sea squid.
Features
Long (25-feet or more) and massive; in legends, it takes the shape of a squid or octopus, with eyes the size of saucers; eight or more tentacles; head has a beak with rows of sharp teeth; known to lay eggs, squirt ink and move through the water by jet-propulsion; there may be more than one species of giant squid.
Special Powers or Characteristics
Enormous size and strength; when it descends into the sea, it creates a huge suction vortex, pulling anything within its reach down with it.
About the Author
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.
