Missing But Not Lost, Jodee Redmond [love letters to the dead .txt] 📗

/> Along with the bird and animal tracks one would expect to find, another set of footprints was discovered by local residents: a set of mysterious hoof-prints. The prints were 4 inches in length, 2.75 inches wide, and spaced about 8 inches apart. Whatever made them walked on two legs. They formed a trail that went over haystacks, walls, rooftops, and gardens.

The prints started off in a garden and stopped short in the middle of a field approximately 100 miles away. At one point, they went into a shed and came out on the other side- apparently, whatever made them went through a six-inch hole. Outside of a church in Woodbury, the prints looked like they had been burned into the snow by a hot iron.
Scores of people saw the strange prints and the story sparked a heated debate about what could have made them.

A naturalist suggested that the prints were made by a badger - he pointed out that they put their hind paws into the prints made by their front feet.

Other theorists suggest that the prints were made by one of any number of animals: squirrel, rat, otter, fox, donkey, a pony with a broken shoe, or some type of cat. A wild theory involved a kangaroo escaping from some kind of traveling circus, making the footprints, and then returning to its cage before anyone realized it had been missing. A group of hunters searched for whatever was responsible for the footprints, but was unable to track down the culprit.

Local residents, though, locked their doors and kept their children in after dark while they held on to the belief that the Devil had visited Devon that night - and the proof was in the footprints.


The Angels of Mons: A First World War Legend

Was the British Expeditionary Force saved from almost certain death by reinforcements from above?

On August 26, 1914, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was in retreat, pulling back from Mons (a city in southwestern Belgium, near Brussels). Not only were the troops greatly outnumbered, but they were exhausted. A German cavalry unit was in hot pursuit. The BEF tried to get to a place where they could make a stand, but they were met by German troops.

It would appear that the BEF was doomed, when suddenly a strange apparition appeared in the sky between the British and German troops: a group of angels!

Several reports of that day's events describe three angels wearing long robes, illuminated by a bright light. The one in the middle was the largest and had a pair of wings. Some accounts describe phantom cavalrymen appearing, and some soldiers fighting on the German side reported that they had refused to charge a break in the British line because of the large number of troops observed. (The British have stated that there were no soldiers in that area at the time.)

It is interesting to note that any accounts of what took place at Mons were done anonymously. Several second-hand reports are available, though. Perhaps the army personnel didn't wish to appear mentally unbalanced, especially in the case of a brigadier general who shared his experience with an army chaplain.

Was this merely a wartime legend, a mass hallucination, or a mirage? It's difficult to say for certain, but the fact remains that for some reason, the German pursuit was halted, allowing the BEF to live to fight another day.


The Lost Colony of Roanoke Island
Killed by Indians, Disbanded, or Abducted by Aliens

What happened to the 117 people who tried to establish the first English settlement in America?

On April 26, 1587, Governor John White and 117 colonists set sail from Portsmouth, England, to the New World. Their goal was to establish a new colony near Chesapeake Bay. One of the colonists was White's daughter, Elinor, who was married to a man named Ananias Dare and was expecting a baby.

Two years earlier, an unsuccessful attempt had been made to establish a settlement on Roanoke Island. Sir Richard Grenville left 100 men on the island and returned to England to get supplies. The colonists grew tired of waiting for Grenville to return and when Sir Francis Drake stopped at Roanoke in June of 1586, they returned to England with him. Grenville arrived on Roanoke two weeks later with supplies and 15 more men. The 15 were to to stay until reinforcements could be brought from England.

When White and Company arrived on July 22, 1587, they found the island deserted and the fort demolished. Only the bones of one man were found.
Less than a month later, on August 18, White's daughter gave birth to a girl named Virginia - the first English child born in North America.
White decided to return to England for supplies, a trip he intended to last 6-8 months. In fact, it was almost three years before White was able to return to Roanoke Island.

When he arrived, he found the settlement deserted. The word "Croatoan" was carved into a tree near the palisade encircling the fort; the letters "CRO" were found on another tree. (It was understood that if the colonists had decided to leave the island, they would leave a clue as to their destination; if they were in danger, they would add a cross to the sign.)

No cross was found carved into the tree, so it was assumed that the settlers had relocated to Croatoan Island, 50 miles to the south. White wanted to sail to Croatoan to continue the search but he was prevented from doing so by bad weather. He returned to England.

What happened to the members of the Lost Colony? There are several theories that have been put forward to explain the disappearance:
One such theory is that the settlers were killed by Indians. Local Indians had welcomed the settlers and had helped them to plant corn and fish using a weir. Keep in mind that no cross was carved into the tree, indicating danger, and no bodies, bones or burned-out buildings were found.

Another more far-fetched theory is that this is a case of alien abductions, but no concrete evidence has been found to support this.

The most accepted theory is that the settlers did relocate to Croatoan Island and may have eventually become members of the tribe. They also could have eventually settled in the Chesapeake Bay area or near the Chowan River.

But since no physical evidence has ever been found, all we are left with are theories as to the fate of the members of the Lost Colony.


Part V: Cryptozoology

The Loch Ness Monster

Nessie: Fact or Fiction?

The first recorded sighting of Nessie took place in 565 A.D. Is this Scottish tourist attraction the home of a lake monster?

If you type "loch ness monster" into the search box on Google, you get over 1 million hits. "Nessie", as she is affectionately known (for some reason, I think of Nessie as female), even has her own fan club. Thousands of tourists visit Loch Ness every year, hoping to catch a glimpse of the legendary creature.

Loch Ness measures 23 miles in length and is one mile wide. The average depth is 700 feet. The peat content in the water makes for little visibility.
Traditional Scottish folklore speaks of water kelpies. These were thought to lure children into the water by offering them a ride across the lake. If the ride was accepted, the unfortunate child's hands would stick to the kelpie and the child would drown.

At first glance, it would appear that the idea of a lake monster might have originated as a way to keep young children away from the water for their own safety. Having said that, consider the first recorded sighting of Nessie: In 565 A.D. St. Columba was visiting Scotland. He stopped by the loch and observed a lake monster who was about to attack a swimmer. The lake monster abandoned its pursuit of the swimmer on Columba's command.

Fast forward to 1933. Construction of a new road in the area meant that the Loch could now be viewed from the north side. In April of that year, "an enormous animal rolling and plunging on the surface" was seen by two witnesses. Nessie has also been seen on land. George Spicer and his wife were driving by the Loch when they observed something crossing the road in front of their vehicle. They noticed that the animal had a large body, with a long neck. Its movements were described as being "seal-like". It was difficult for them to estimate the creature's size but they did note that it was wider than the road.

Skeptics have dismissed Nessie sightings as being either hoaxes or explainable as floating logs, boat wakes, ducks, and the like. Still, the sightings continued, with witnesses reporting seeing a large animal with humps above the water (similar in shape to an overturned boat). Some accounts include a long neck or flippers being seen.


The Search for Nessie

Hoax, Plesiosaur, or Some Other Animal?

Is the Loch Ness monster a type of plesiosaur?

In 1934, a veterinary student named Arthur Grant saw a strange creature cross the road in front of him near Loch Ness. He described the animal as looking like a plesiosaur. Certainly, Grant's description of something with a small head, long neck, and a heavy body with flippers sounds a lot like this marine dinosaur which is thought to have become extinct millions of years ago.

Loch Ness is not the only body of water allegedly home to a sea monster: Lake Champlain is home to "Champ", Canada's Lake Okanagan has "Ogopogo", "South Bay Bessie" makes her home in Lake Erie, and Illiamna Lake (Alaska) and Alkali Lake (Nebraska) also have their own mysterious residents, to name a few. From time to time, news reports contain stories of strange aquatic creatures washed up on a beach. It would seem that there are many marine animals that are as yet unknown to us.

Evidence would seem to indicate that Champ is real - using underwater microphones, researchers for the Discovery Channel were able to pick up sounds similar to those made by dolphins or Beluga whale.
In 1970, the Academy of Applied Science used sonar equipment and an underwater camera in an attempt to prove the existence of Nessie. Photographs were released which clearly showed a flipper, but these were subsequently found to have been enhanced.

Operation Deep Scan took place in 1987. Several boats used sonar to sweep the loch during a one-week period. The results of the scan were interesting: all the targets found, with the exception of three. The mystery continued when researchers from the British Natural History Museum's Project Urchin, who were using sonar to study the ecology of the loch, found large objects moving underneath the water's surface.

Is it possible that an animal thought to be long extinct, like a plesiosaur, could be alive and well in Loch Ness and elsewhere? A coelacanth, thought to be extinct for some 60-80 million years, was caught in 1938. A U.S. Naval vessel caught a megamouth shark in 1976 off the coast of Hawaii. (Thank goodness this shark's three-foot grin is used for filter feeding!) Not all species thought to be extinct really are, it seems.

Having said that, in spite of the fact that there have been many eyewitness sightings of Nessie, there have also been a certain number of hoaxes associated with the Loch's famous resident. The "surgeon's photo" taken in April of 1934 and showing a head and long neck protruding from the water, is now known to be a hoax. The "monster" was constructed