Parallels in West Virginia Story to Creature of Conser Lake

This is from About.com, 2005: Creature at Secluded Cabin,by Neal Everett. This encounter took place in southwest Virginia. The following description of the Bigfoot like creature parallels "Flix," the "Ghost in Conser Lake, Oregon sightings in the early 1960s. From Everett's article, this description of the creature:

Your True Tales - November 2005 - Story of the Month - Creature at Secluded Cabin: What I saw next still baffles me. At my truck there was a creature standing upright, about 7 feet tall with huge claws on its "hands." It had white hair that was almost gray, but I couldn't really see its eyes. It seemed to be searching around the bed of my truck and was paying no attention to the now-frantic dog. When the lights first came on, it did nothing but continue its search, but it then looked up at the deck.

By now I was frozen in horror and it turned around and made eye contact with me. It then made a horrible screeching sound, almost as if it was in terror from the sight of me. At first it seemed as if it was going to charge at me and climb the steps onto the deck. But then in a terrorized rage it made another screech and "sprinted" away. It ran upright and its claws almost went past its knees.

I've been studying the Conser Lake story for some time. Here's a description of the creature from an article I wrote for Oregon L.O.W.F.I.:

Path leading to Conser Lake photo: Regan Lee

Mrs. Penning in Devers-Conner, about 30 miles south of Millersburg, told Betty Westby she heard “dripping sounds,” even though it was August. It is interesting that Mrs. Penning described the “dripping” sound; remember that Flix’s footsteps were also described as “squishy.” Looking out her living room window she saw a “large, light form,” hurrying away, and heard a “low pitched cry that seems to start from its toes, tapering off to a squeal like a pig’s.” Penning also fond fingerprints on her bedroom window, and Westby spectacled that they were web shaped, due to the four fingered, spread-out shape of the prints.

Three years later, the story of the Creature of Conser Lake was still news. In an article by Martin Clark, Albany Journal staff writer, he comments on writer Keith Sosebe’s upcoming talk on the “monster.”
Leaping from the shadow of a deep gully, the thing stood fully 7 feet tall in the ghostly moonlight. Petrified with mingled horror and curiosity, the young people sat motionless in their car. Suddenly, the apparition took at enormous leap over the gully and slipped away trough a tangle of boughs.”

Cryptozoologist and biologist Ivan T. Sanderson discussed the Conser Lake monster briefly in his book Abominable Snowmen:Legend Come to Life, citing a small item that appeared in the January, 1961 edition of FATE magazine, reporting that the “monster” was “still on the loose.” Sanderson also writes in Abominable Snowmen that a source wrote Sanderson in October of 1960, insisting that there was not only the one Flix, but several “Flixes” in the area. According to Sanderson’s unnamed friend, there were more than one BHM, several in fact, and fingerprint as well as footprint casts were taken. Referring to Flix, the letter writer described the creature:

he makes extremely high pitched sounds. his hair or fur had slight glow in the dark . . .feet make a squishy sound. Has been seen at day and night and seen to disappear into the lake.”

From another post of mine on the creature at Oregon L.O.W.F.I.:

Conser Lake, OR photo: Regan Lee

The creature was called the “Creature of Conser Lake,” also the “Ghost of Conser Lake” (because of its white color) . . . Reported as a bigfoot type creature; about seven feet tall, bipedal, white shaggy fur, . . . 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. . . 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.

Bigfoot - A Zoologist's Perspective: IF There Is A "Daisy" Is He/She Dead?

Nadia Moore has been blogging interesting things about what's going on in Bigfoot world lately: Dr. Ketchum, etc. Here's a disturbing account about "Daisy" the supposed captured (supposed) Sasquatch. Supposedly. Bigfoot - A Zoologist's Perspective: IF There Is A "Daisy" Is He/She Dead?

Phantoms and Monsters: Paranormal Activity, Bigfoot, Mothman, UFOs and Other Unexplained Phenomena

As an added commentary to the post below about Dr. Ketchum's research,I'm posting the link to Lon Strikler's article at Phantoms and Monsters on the Coast to Coast interview with Ketchum. (And, like Lon, I too have a lot of respect for George Knapp.)

Phantoms and Monsters: Paranormal Activity, Bigfoot, Mothman, UFOs and Other Unexplained Phenomena: I am also frustrated...by the conjecture and rumors whipped up by a large number of Bigfoot researchers and enthusiasts, not the DNA study. Knapp also states:

The most vehement, the nastiest reaction to the aforementioned [Bigfoot] DNA study has come from those that think of themselves as Bigfoot researchers.


I have read a few responses to the C2C interview, many of which claim Knapp is an apologist for Dr. Melba Ketchum and the DNA study. Once again, we have someone who is privy to Dr. Ketchum's results and criticized for defending the study.

These salvos by Bigfoot dogmatics are clearly a 'push back' against those who are willing to have an open mind and not afraid to speak out.

Why is (almost) Everyone Giving Dr. Melba Ketchum a Hard Time?

Listened to some of last night's Coast to Coast with host George Knapp and guest Dr. Ketchum. And if what she says is true, as to her diligence with testing, then why is she getting so much flack from many in Bigfoot Land? Such flack from science, well, sadly that's no surprise. Sciences' blindness to the existence of Bigfoot and the data is horribly frustrating and a mystery but, to be expected.  Why, though, are some in the Bigfoot world attacking her? I think she's been coy in the past, a bit, but overall, look. She's trying to do something. She's sent samples out to several labs. She's looking at the DNA. She's used blind studies. She has a variety of samples, not just one strand of elk hair. All this costs money, a lot of money. Finding labs to do the work is a huge job. Scientists have turned her down once they get wind that her research is Bigfoot research. According to Ketchum, one scientist threatened to sue her and her team if they used his findings; that's how angry he was over the subject of her research -- and how afraid he remains of being associated in any way with Bigfoot research.


Knapp asked her about her insistence that those she's discussed her research with sign disclosure statements. (Knapp himself signed one.) Ketchum explained that it's important to keep the data as uncontaminated as possible.

Then there's the infamous "peer reviewed" journal citation that gives any researcher the cred they need to be accepted in mainstream science and academia. It's a crazy loop: you have to be accepted by the very types of individuals who think you're nuts to be doing this kind of research in the first place, so you're not going to be accepted. Not having been accepted, your research is nothing. If her research isn't accepted into an accepted scientific journal, she's out. So is the star of this thing: Bigfoot.

So, given all this, why is Dr. Melba Ketchum --despite her possible missteps involving communication or style -- being treated badly by some in cryptozoology?

One possible answer to that is the uneasiness among some researchers that Bigfoot might be human, or far more human like, than those researchers have presumed. Some Bigfoot researchers have no problem with promoting a kill -- "for science" they tell us -- or thinking of Bigfoot as a big ape. Or some kind of animal. (Forgetting that we, too are animals.) Bigfoot is intelligent, very cool, what a find! but in the end, "just" an animal.

Many witnesses who've encountered Bigfoot speak of the eerie human qualities of the "creature" and as we know, many have tales to tell of spiritual and paranormal events within those encounters. These aspects of Bigfoot encounters sometimes don't go over very well with the more pragmatic Bigfoot researcher. Are they afraid that somewhere along the line, Ketchum's research presents clues or evidence of "more" here?

Ketchum said in last night's interview that if she is rejected by peer reviewed journals she'll put it out to the public. That would be fantastic, but also a cruelly frustrating gift, since it will be ignored by science.