The Superstition Mountains
In the 1920s, two
prospectors hiked into the area of Pope Springs to search for gold. In the middle of the night, a huge beast
killed and carried off their four hundred and fifty pound burro. The prospectors described the beast as a,
“large smelly, strange animal with a matted, coarse and tangled hair
coat.” The creature walked on its hind
legs and stood at least eight to ten feet in height. The prospectors claimed that the creature
“smelled like feces and urine” and was agile on its hindquarters. They testified that the creature weighed four
to eight hundred pounds.
The creature
described by the two prospectors closely matches descriptions of the Mogollon
Monster, Arizona’s answer to Big Foot. The Mogollon Monster is described as being over seven feet
tall, with inhuman strength, and large, wild and red eyes. Its body is covered
with long black or reddish brown hair, and it emits a strong odor described as
that of “dead fish.” The creature is territorial,
and sometimes very violent. The creature is also
said to decapitate deer and other wildlife prior to consuming them.
The earliest known documented
sighting of the Mogollon Monster was reported in a 1903 edition of The
Arizona Republican, in which I.W. Stevens described a creature seen near
the Grand Canyon as having, “long white hair and matted beard that
reached to his knees. It wore no clothing, and upon his talon-like fingers were
claws at least two inches long.” Upon further inspection he noted, “a coat of
gray hair nearly covered his body, with here and there a spot of dirty skin
showing.” He later stated that after he discovered the creature drinking the
blood of two cougars, it threatened him with a club, and “screamed the wildest,
most unearthly screech”.
An account from the mid-1940s by Don
Davis says, “The creature was huge. Its eyes were
deep set and hard to see, but they seemed expressionless. His face seemed
pretty much devoid of hair, but there seemed to be hair along the sides of his
face. His chest, shoulders, and arms were massive, especially the upper arms;
easily upwards of 6 inches in diameter, perhaps much, much more. I could see he
was pretty hairy, but didn't observe really how thick the body hair was. The
face/head was very square; square sides and squared up chin, like a box.”
The creature was
spotted a number of times between 1982 and 2004 near the Fort Apache Indian
Reservation.
The Phoenix Gazette on Monday, May 11, 1981,
announced, “Explorer Plans Capture of Big Foot.” C. Thomas Biscardi was making
an exploratory trip to the Superstition Mountains of Arizona to search for Big
Foot. His search turned up nothing
conclusive.
In 2007, there was a
Big Foot sighting in the Superstition Wilderness Area. A large upright animal spooked a rider and
pack horse near the head waters of Rough Canyon along the northern edge of
White Mountain.
Another set of monsters supposedly roaming the
Superstitions are the lizard men or reptilians.
Are these creatures coming from UFOs or are they homegrown? No one can quite decide. Indian
legends speak of reptilian beings inhabiting the earth when their ancestors
roamed the west. There are numerous Native American petroglyphs throughout the
region that depict what appear to be upright, bipedal lizards.
The earliest documented sighting occurred on October
28th, 1878. On that date, the Louisville Courier-Journal ran a story
about a scaly “Wild Man of the Woods” that had been killed and was on display
for public view. The creature was described as being about six feet tall, with
large eyes, and covered with scales. The strange being was viewed by hundreds
of the curious.
Gold, Murder and Monsters in the Superstition
Mountains
Arizona’s Superstition Mountains are mysterious,
forbidding, and dangerous. The
Superstitions are said to have claimed over five hundred lives. What were these people looking for? Is it possible that these mountains hide a
vast treasure? Is it possible that UFOs
land here? Is it possible that in these
mountains there is a door leading to the great underground city of the Lizard
Men? Join us as we recount a fictional
story of the Superstitions and then look at the real history of the legends
that haunt these mountains in our new book: Gold, Murder and Monsters in the Superstition
Mountains.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment