The Ghost in Conser Lake

It’s no surprise Oregon has its share of Bigfoot encounters; including paranormal Bigfoot events. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the town of MIllersburg, Oregon, (about forty five miles north of Eugene) experienced some very strange events involving a white Bigfoot or “BHM” (Big Hairy Monster) with a lot of high strangeness surrounding the encounters.

The creature was called the “Creature of Conser Lake,” also the “Ghost of Conser Lake” (because of its white color) and the “Monster of Conser Lake,” the lake’s name was Conser at the time, but isn’t called Conser Lake anymore, the name has been changed and is on private property. I’m not revealing the name of the lake out of respect to the owners.

Reported as a bigfoot type creature; about seven feet tall, bipedal, white shaggy fur, the creature mystified Millersburg residents for over a year. The story begins with a story of a UFO or strange light crashing into Conser Lake in either 1959 or 1960. Soon after the strange light crashed into Conser Lake, a Millersburg truck driver was understandably startled to find a white, shaggy furred bigfoot type creature trotting along beside his truck as he was driving down the road. The driver, a mint farmer, was going about 35 miles an hour; the creature was easily keeping pace with the moving vehicle.

The creature was described as being about seven feet tall. The mint farmer described the creature as a “shaggy gorilla.” Local Bruce Hamilton remembers the creature in Conser Lake, and a story about a “young couple driving by the lake; a seven or eight foot creature ran alongside their car.”

As if the truck farmer’s experience wasn’t odd enough, another report of a tall, white furred shaggy Bigfoot type creature running alongside side a truck made its way into the news. This time the creature was seen in Telephone, Oregon, in Eastern Oregon. (I realize the town doesn't seem to show up on maps or Google searches, as I have found, and a recent e-mail alerted me to. However, this is the name cited by several sources. Many small "towns" are not listed, also, it's possible the name has changed, the area incorporated, or simply disappeared over time.) Witness C.A. Cissman saw a bright light approach, hover about 30 minutes, then disappear, shooting upwards and disappearing within seconds. Later, in Prospect, Oregon a logger was shocked to see a white furred, Bigfoot or Bigfoot type being, leisurely jogging alongside his truck on a deserted rural road.

Stories of Bigfoot running alongside cars aren’t new, either. A report from 1926 tells of a Bigfoot creature encounter in Yankton, Oregon: “Bigfoot following alongside a truck looking in. Sheep and children would disappear.” (UFO Casebook) It seems there was a history of bright zipping lights and white Bigfoot -- or white somethings -- following cars and trucks in Oregon.

Other reports of white Bigfoot creatures can be found; for example, Chris O’Brien writes in his Secrets of the Mysterious Valley about a “New Mexico cattle inspector” who told O’Brien:

he watched with binoculars a white bigfoot clamor up a rocky slope . . a witness in Washington “reported seeing a Bigfoot with large pointed ears” (p 231 Secrets of the Mysterious Valley, Christopher O’Brien)

The reference to “pointed ears” is interesting; Flix, our creature in Conser Lake, was also described as having pointed or “cat like” ears. A “ten foot white Bigfoot” was seen on the banks of the Ohio river in the 1960s. In fact, sightings of a white Bigfoot in the area were reported from the 1900s to the 1990s .(The I-Files: True Reports of Unexplained Phenomena in Illinois, Jay Rath)



Peter Guittilla’s The Bigfoot Files contains stories of white BHM or Bigfoot like creatures that transcend the flesh and blood variety. Guittilla references an account from Fate magazine out of Peter Bottom, Arkansas. In 1966 reports of a “monster” living in the Bottom emerged. The creature was described as being nine feet tall with snow white fur. Aside from giving off a strong smell, the creature “made a sound like a radio signal . . . the signal sounded like ‘beep, beep, beep.” (The Bigfoot Files, p 86)

The synchronicity of the white bigfoots is intriguing, along with the mysterious lights in the sky. As far as the Conser Lake “monster” goes, witnesses reported feelings of disorientation, dizziness, severe headaches, and hearing loud thuds and running footsteps right by them but no source for the sounds. Some insisted they were in telepathic communication with the being, who said his name was “Flix” and was from outer space.

Flix was Bigfoot like in many ways, yet there were other characteristics described by witnesses that are strange. Flix was said to have claws and or webbed feet and hands and cat like ears.

There are some similarities with Bigfoot; the height, bipedalism, shaggy fur. As noted, there were other similar beings in Oregon scattered throughout the state. But enough high strangeness episodes take the idea of a strictly flesh and blood creature out its comfortable unknown animal category, and into the truly Fortean or esoteric. All the above noted incidences: UFOs or bright lights, telepathy, sounds with no visible source, feelings of disorientation, and the synchronicty of similar creatures adds up to something beyond a flesh and blood Bigfoot.

Notes
Janet Bord; Colin Bord: Bigfoot Casebook
Peter Guittilla: Bigfoot Files
Regan Lee: The Ghost in Conser Lake
Christopher O’Brien: Secrets of the Mysterious Valley
Jay Rath: The I-Files: True Reports of Unexplained Phenomena in Illinois
photos by Regan Lee

On Paranormal Bigfoot from the Chattahoochee Blog

Nice post about one Bigfoot blogger's ideas on paranormal bigfoot at the Chattahoochee blog.

Invisible DNA and Bigfoot

More good stuff on invisible Bigfoot. Read about it at Cryptomundo. Art Bell will discuss this idea with Michio Kaku on Invisibility & DNA on C2C tonight. Promises to be very interesting!

NEW Bigfoot Thread on JREF: Bigfoot and Fairies

I've lost count, this makes 29? Give or take one or two? This one is titled "Photo Captures Bigfoot With Fairy."

http://forums.randi.org/showthread.php?t=122365

Website: "Bigfoot, Oh Yes They Are Real"

Someone e-mailed today with this link to their site; "Bigfoot Oh Yes They Are Real." There are some interesting photos on the site. The site is of the paranormal Bigfoot variety; invisible Bigfoot and the like.

It's another moment of Fortean synchronicity; for some reason, the past two days, I've been thinking very strongly about dematerializing Bigfoot, and how I would go about putting together some kind of presentation on the topic. Then I find this e-mail.

http://hometown.aol.com/osareal/index.html

Lisa Shiel, Glowing Orbs, Is Bigfoot a Fairy?

Bigfoot researcher Lisa Shiel has a new look for her blog Backyard Phenomena, which I like. The previous look was fine, but I like this better. I don't know if Lisa had always had this up on her blog, but I just noticed: "exploring the paranormal universe with Lisa A. Shiel" which is a nice touch.

Lisa's recent post is Fairy Lights and Glowing Orbs, once again asking the question, do these share a relationship with Bigfoot? Is Bigfoot a fairy, even? Something Shiel discusses, and I've wondered as well, as I wrote about for my Trickster's Realm column for Tim Binnall's Binnall of America site:

Fairies, Bigfoot and Hauntings (May 22nd, 2006)

I’m still making my way through the very excellent book Daimonic Reality, by Patrick Harpur. (Usually I’m reading at least five books at the same time, so it takes me awhile.) Harpur discusses “paranormal Bigfoot” and suggests that the so-called ‘paranormal Bigfoot’ (a whole other topic unto itself; one I’ve been fascinated with for a long time) is a fairy.

‘Fairy’ for lack of a better term. Unlike the image many of us may have of fairies -- that they’re diminutive, and sweet, pretty girly colors with transparent wings and delicate forms -- fairies come in all sizes and shapes. They are sometimes friendly, sometimes mischievous, sometimes dangerous. They are fickle, easily offended. They need to be treated with some dignity and care, respect and distance. Traditional folklore tells us that leaving food out for fairies is important. Harpur describes a family who had Sasquatch-like encounters on their property; the being seemed to hang around the place, took the food offered, at times seemed playful. But when humans got too close, expected too much, and didn’t leave food out, it was gone forever.

The behavior of fairies can mimic hauntings. What we might assume is a haunted house, and its apparitions and actions seem like those of ghosts or spirits, are not ghosts (impressions of the once living humans, or interactive deceased) but fairies.

Sometimes these “fairies” attach themselves to a specific individual or family. This is what got my attention in particular; I have a close friend who, along with many members (mostly on the female side) have experiences with ghosts and hauntings, as well as UFO events. Many family members, who are scattered all over in different states, have elaborate stories of paranormal, ghost like encounters. Ghosts seem to follow them I, along with everyone else in the family, assumed these things were due to ghosts. I myself have seen and heard many “ghostly” type things connected to this family.

But I always wondered at the sheer number of hauntings in this family. It seemed to be very unusual; all theses people, regardless of where they lived, have ‘ghost issues.’ There often was so much activity; and the interactions between whatever entity is in this house (or, entities) seemed too intense for just a ghost. Reading Harpur’s suggestion that it is entities that are not human, that are in fact, fairies of some type, attaching themselves to a family is intriguing. It’s an interesting road I hadn’t explored.

Both in the cases of ‘paranormal Bigfoot’ and some hauntings, this idea of a fairy entity as the cause for the manifestations seems to fit. Both topics -- Bigfoot and hauntings -- are huge, of course, and deserve their own focus. There’s much more to what Harpur says in his book about this overall. I’ve only touched upon an idea about what might be occurring in with my friend, and her family, as well as the Bigfoot idea.

One more fascinating thread to explore in the land of the weird!

Mormon Bigfoot Encounter

Richelle Hawks has a very well written and insightful article on Bigfoot and Mormons:Thus Spake Sasquatch: Notes on that Mormon/Bigfoot Connection on her Medussa's Ladder column for Binnall of America. Among other things, Hawks points out the folklore from non-Mormon culture about Mormon culture. I think a lot of these ideas about Mormons -- the "magic underwear" making the sound bite rounds, for example -- are veiled expressions of a bigotry towards Mormons that go way back. (The reason why the Mormons ended up in Utah in the first place is because of the vilification they experienced; they were literally driven out. I'm not defending or apologizing for Mormons, or any religion including Christianity. I am not a Christian, and not religious. Mormonism has its own issues of the fundamental variety: (the forced polygamy, etc.) and their own history of bigotry towards, say, African Americans, sexism, that, while in the minority, seem to loom large in people's minds. )

Hawks relates a Bigfoot encounter in 1835 with Mormon David W. Patten. A point of contention, Hawks points out, is that the Bigfoot spoke to Patten. Is it possible Patten described it this way, but the communication was telepathic? Another possibility is that this creature was an angel/fairy. Angels in various guises figure in a big way in Mormon tradition. And accounts of telepathic communications -- ongoing, over time as well-- exist.

Lisa Shiel: The Invisible World, Part 1

Bigfoot, fairies and the paranormal, linked more than we might think . . .

Lisa Shiel has another great post on her Bigfoot Quest blog. This time, she writes:
All paranormal phenomena are connected.
I think so too, as do many others. Read more of her thoughts on

The Invisible World, Part One.

Patrick Harpur, in his book Damien Reality, writes about this very kind of thing. It’s a book I recommend to anyone who’s interested in this area.

Lisa Shiel: Native American Fairy Lore

The Native American May-may-gway-shi.

Lisa Shiel has a new book coming out next fall: Strange Michigan. It’s on the list!

In her blog entry Native American Fairy Lore, and in her new book, Lisa references the May-may-gway-shi, as type of fairy entity:
It seems that the Algonquian Indians have legends of the May-may-gway-shi, the North American equivalent of the fairy. The Algonquian legends associate the May-may-gway-shi with ancient red-ocher rock art from the Pre-Columbian era. The Burnt Bluff pictographs fall within that era. Some legends say the fairies created the rock art.

The Burnt Bluff pictographs depict humanoid figures with barrel chests, wide shoulders, and almost no neck. The pictographs resemble similar figures found in ancient rock art from the Four Corners region of the U.S. The figures all resemble Bigfoot far more than humans.

More Fairy-Bigfoot Thoughts

From Lisa Shiel. (Bigfoot Quest.) I like her thoughts on the idea of Bigfoot as Fairy. Thinking of Bigfoot as a fairy; explains a lot of the anomalous happenings surrounding many a Bigfoot encounter, as well as the elusive nature of Bigfoot.