Oklahoma: We Are With You

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the folks in Oklahoma. Please help or donate if you can. And remember, there are also many pets and other animals that have been injured and displaced due to this tragic event.

Snow, Solstice, and Full Moon Eclipse

The last hours of fall are waning and what has become the "official" first day of winter is upon us. The Winter Solstice (sometimes called Mid-Winter or Yule) will arrive in just a few hours. In ancient times, this important day marked the half-way point of the winter and brought with it the promise of the lengthening of daylight hours and the time of planting. It is a celebration of surviving the harsh winter, letting go of the old, and welcoming the new.

I have plenty of snow on the ground again this year- perfect for the holiday season. Tonight the heavens will put on a rare show that will create unbelievable beauty on the white, fluffy drifts that are visible across my fields. I am speaking, of course, of the total eclipse of the full moon tonight. The moon will darken to a coppery red and cast its light across the snow in an unforgettable show of nature's brilliance. What an event on the Winter Solstice!

Here is the NASA timeline of the eclipse and all times given are for the Eastern Time Zone. It starts on December 21, 2010 at 1:33 am and totality is at 2:41 am. The best view will be at 3:17 am.

Enjoy!

Cool and Creepy: Big Dog Fits the Bill

I was just playing around on YouTube (actually looking for cool wild animal attacks- don't ask) and came across several videos of "Big Dog." Cujo you say? No, not exactly. Nothing supernatural or paranormal, but definitely futuristic in a cool and creepy way. The beauty of having your own blog is that you can write about pretty much whatever you want. While the blog is dedicated to the paranormal and the cryptozoological, I think this piece will more than fulfill the criteria for strange.

Even though Big Dog sort of creeped me out in a fascinating way, I could not help but watching the videos several times- sort of like watching a train wreck. You just cannot look away. This robot is unbelievable and if you did not know better, you would swear that it was an actual biologic- a living creature. Of course the implications of this machine are far-reaching for everything from military missions to maybe someday being used by hikers and campers. I know that I want one. Although I am sure that the actual price tag for something like this would be well beyond what the average person could ever afford- I shutter to think!

Anyway, take a look at the video. It speaks for itself. If anyone has some advanced knowledge of Big Dog and its technology, by all means, please post it.

Bigfoot Sighted....Everywhere?

I was watching a popular paranormal show a few weeks back and was amazed at the comment made by one of the folks on the show. This person was absolutely stunned and amazed that Bigfoot/Sasquatch has been sighted and encountered in places other than the Pacific Northwest. Really. This comment astonished me in that anyone who is in this business knows that these cryptids have been seen all over the world, not to mention all over the U.S.

Bi-pedal primates have been seen all over the U.S. and Canada for centuries. Relatives of the North American specimens have been seen all over the world. These creatures had been seen and encountered long before the famous Patterson/Gimlin film ever hit the public and our fascination with them turned into scientific research. Sightings and encounters from across the country date back to the earliest written records of European and colonial settlements. Stories and legends of the creatures from the native tribes go back even farther.

Contrary to popular beliefs, the East Coast is not so heavily populated outside of the urban/suburban areas. There are many areas within the Appalachians and their valleys that remain wild and secluded. There are also many swamps and marshes along the coast that could hide virtually any species. We receive steady numbers of reports here in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. These reports not only come from recent sightings and encounters, but from people who are recalling incidents from many years ago and are just now willing to come forward.

APCR and Sasquatch Watch of Virginia have year-round active research and investigations. We have specific areas that we have deemed hot-spots due to reports and/or our own experiences. We have different research techniques that are currently being employed in an effort to communicate with and collect evidence of these creatures and have experienced some successes. There are also individuals outside of the research field who have claimed to have habitualization scenarios taking place in which they say they have established contact and trust with and actively provide food for these North American primates.

In any event, there is no doubt that these creatures have habitat suitable to them all across North America. A simple search on the internet can provide a wealth of information, photos, and videos about our larger-than-life subjects (just be careful they are not hoaxes!). Just be sure to do your homework and get the facts straight before making presentations, especially in front of millions of people.

Eastern State Pets....

Everyone in the paranormal community knows about Eastern State Penitentiary and its infamous otherworldly residents. Many of us have been there and experienced the landmark firsthand. While the structure and its ghosts get all the fame and media attention, the critters who were past residents and the ones who currently reside there rarely get even a small mention.

The current resident "pets" are the bats that reside in the area and within the buildings. They love to "buzz" investigators as they make their way through the cell blocks. It is almost as if they enjoy getting as close as they can while homing in on the many flying insects that they seek. It can be very entertaining, especially if you get folks who are screamers and are afraid of them.

Billed as a notable inmate, "Pep" the dog was allegedly sentenced and imprisoned for life at ESP in 1924 by then Pennsylvania Governor, Gifford Pinchot. Pep was alleged to be a most heinous criminal and was deemed "The Cat-Murdering Dog." It was reported that he had killed the beloved cat of Mrs. Pinchot, Governor Pinchot's wife. Whether or not this is true, no one really knows for sure. Pep did have his mugshot taken with his very own inmate number. He even had his own "cell" at the prison which is part of the walking tour there. According to the plaque that tells Pep's story, there were never any official prison records to validate the story. Could he have been a pet of one of the guards? A stray that prison officers "adopted?" Or could this have been a light-hearted prank played out by the prison workers? It is hard to say. One thing is for sure; Pep has been immortalized along with the other famous inmates.

With the closing of the prison in 1971, the human inhabitants moved on. With its grounds and buildings now quiet, ESP became home to some new four-legged residents- the cat colony. Neighborhood strays moved in and the grounds became the perfect habitat for them. It provided them with plenty of rodents and other feline favorites to catch and consume at their leisure. Over the years the colony grew and the cats began to show a uniformity in their conformations. Dan McCloud, known as "Dan the Cat Man" cared for the cats for 28 years. In later years, the cats were trapped by the local Spayed Club in 1993 and all were either spayed or neutered. By 2003, the population ceased to exist with the deaths of the last remaining animals.

Artist Linda Brenner pays tribute to the cats and to Dan McCloud with her art installation at the prison entitled The Ghost Cats. 36 white-casted spectres "roam" and "lounge" throughout the prison and along its ominous walls and grounds. The "cats" can be quite startling if you are not aware of them as they look quite real at first glance. It is a challenge to find all 36 as they are placed in some very precarious places on occasion. When I spoke to one of the staff members there during our recent investigation, she told me that they move them periodically so they may not ever be in the same place twice. The casts were made to look exactly like the original colony cats, modeled with their same body types. The exhibit is a testament to the compassion of Dan the Cat Man and to the survival instincts of his beloved cats.

Website Changes

I have been constantly changing and fine-tuning the APCR website. During this week I have made some major changes not only in content, but to the look of the site as well. It will remain a work in progress. I have added a Membership page and we are now accepting resumes and applications. Stop by and browse through the site. I will be adding photos soon. Click on the site link above.

Let's Visit the Cemetery

Have you ever taken the time to really explore a cemetery? Not your thing, huh? Too creepy? Weird? Okay, then I am creepy and weird because I love to hang out in cemeteries. Not just for paranormal reasons, but because cemeteries are art and history museums of sorts. Many are architectural and horticultural wonders as well. They are the perfect places were the past meets the present and sometimes they even offer glimpses of the future.

Here in Virginia it is illegal to be in a cemetery after dark without permission. Before you visit one in your area, make sure that you are there legally. That happens to be a major rule for my team- if you trespass in a cemetery, you are off the team. Okay, enough of the disclaimers and the legal spiel.

My favorite time to visit cemeteries is, of course, fall. Fall just makes the atmosphere that much better. I like to look for the oldest graves and headstones as they are generally the most interesting. They often even state the cause of death and have the most ornate carvings and sometimes quotes or sayings about the person. Knowing the history of the area can also help you find cases of multiple deaths from disease outbreaks, major accidents, or disasters. Family plots and crypts are also fascinating. Just to see the multiple generations buried or entombed side by side is interesting in and of itself.

Something we have been doing is daytime IR photography in cemeteries. It gives a whole new perspective on the monuments, sculptures, and stones. These photos do not even require captions or explanations. They speak volumes about their subject matter.

I visited a small church cemetery last year that was quite interesting. The church had long since been torn down and the most recent graves were from the 1940s. It was small, less than half the size of a football field. The local historical society had rescued and recovered it from years of neglect and overgrowth. Many of the stones had been damaged by vandals, tree roots, and time. The graves had long been forgotten and because many of the stones were out of place, they had no way of knowing which one went where. They came up with an idea to still display the stones. They made walkways with them by intermingling them among paving stones and cobblestones. Maybe not the most ideal method of preservation, but it did serve as a memorial of sorts.

It is also fascinating to see the similarities and differences in cemeteries from region to region and country to country. Some of the most awesome ones are the "old world" types that so often come to mind when we think of our favorite horror flicks. Many of those across Europe contain the victims of plagues and epidemics of proportions many of us have never even imagined, much less seen. Those like St. Louis in New Orleans have their residents in above ground crypts and vaults, away from the danger of their swampy environments, but much closer to the living.

One final thought to leave you with: regardless of our status, wealth, fame, or place in life, we all end up in the same place eventually.