Everyone has heard of the Bermuda Triangle and the
mysteries that surround it. Theories about this area range
from reasonable to just plain ridiculous, but whether you
believe it’s the site of time warps, alien abductions, or just
plain paranoia, it certainly abounds with strangeness. It’s
not the only place you can find creepy things happening,
however—here are 10 other places on Earth with their fair
share of mysteries:
10
Superstition Mountains
The Superstition Mountains are a mountain range located
east of Phoenix, Arizona. Already it’s off to a great start
with the name.
According to legend, sometime in the 1800s a man named
Jacob Waltz discovered a huge goldmine within the
mountains that has since been dubbed the Lost Dutchman’s
Gold Mine (because Waltz was German, and eh, close
enough). He kept the location a secret until his deathbed,
upon which he may or may not (depending on which version
of the story you’re reading) have told a single person the
secret. Regardless, the mine has never been found, in spite
of many expeditions. Some say the spirits of people who’ve
lost their lives in search of the gold still haunt the
mountains.
One reportedly Native American legend goes that the
treasures of the mountains are guarded by creatures called
Tuar-Tums (“Little People”) that live below the mountains in
caves and tunnels. Some Apaches believe that the entrance
to hell is located in the mountains. This is, of course,
ridiculous, as we all know the entrance to hell is in
Sunnydale.
9
South Atlantic Anomaly
Did you ever wonder if there was a Bermuda Triangle in
Space? No? Well you’re probably wondering it now, and
you’re in luck! Because there totally is, and it’s called the
South Atlantic Anomaly. The SAA is the area where the
band of radiation known as Earth’s inner Van Allen belt
comes closest to the Earth’s surface.
It’s an area centered just a bit off the coast of Brazil, and
it’s responsible for numerous problems with satellites and
spacecraft, from messing up their programs to actually
shutting down their function. The Hubble Telescope is
actually turned off from taking observations when passing
through the Anomaly, and the International Space Station
avoids scheduling spacewalks when passing through it
(which happens up to 5 times a day). It’s not just technical
problems, either—some astronauts report seeing “shooting
stars” in their visual field as they pass through.
The cause of all these problems isn’t fully understood. The
main suspect is the high levels of radiation that accumulate
at the anomaly, but scientists aren’t sure exactly how or
why the effects occur. So let’s just pin this one on aliens.
8
Lake Anjikuni
Not content with just a few individuals disappearing, Lake
Anjikuni decided to take things to the next level and provide
the locale for the disappearance of an entire village . It all
happened in November 1930, when a trapper named Joe
Labelle was looking for shelter for the night. Labelle was
familiar with the Inuit village, whose population ranges from
30-2000, depending on who you believe. He made his way
there and found quite an eerie scene—the villagers were
nowhere to be found. Everything else, including food and
rifles, had been left behind.
Labelle telegraphed the RCMP and an investigation began.
In the Village Burial Ground it was discovered that at least
one (sources vary) grave had been opened, clearly not by
animals, and emptied. Furthermore, about 300 feet from the
village, the bodies of around 7 sled dogs were found, having
starved to death despite open stores of food at the village.
Some versions of the story even report strange lights being
seen above the lake around the time of the disappearance.
So what really happened? There have been all sorts of
claims about the cause for the disappearance, including
aliens (of course), ghosts, and even vampires. The RCMP’s
own website disregards the story as an urban legend, but
with so many versions of it floating around from so many
years ago, it’s hard to be certain. Except about the
vampires, I think we can be certain it wasn’t vampires.
7) THE DEVIL'S SEA
The Devil’s Sea (or Dragon’s Triangle, take your
pick of which sounds more ominous) is an
area of the Pacific Ocean as riddled with strange
happenings as its Atlantic counterpart near
Bermuda. Located off the coast of Japan, it’s
been the site of countless claims of unexplained
phenomena including magnetic anomalies,
inexplicable lights and objects, and of course,
mysterious disappearances. The area is even
considered a danger by Japanese fishing
authorities.
One story has it that in 1952 the Japanese
government sent out a research vessel, the
Kaio Maru No. 5, to investigate the mysteries of
the Devil’s Sea. Naturally, of course, the Kaio
Maru No. 5 and its crew of 31 people were
never seen again. Another story tells of Kublai
Khan’s disastrous attempts to invade Japan by
crossing the Devil’s Sea, losing at least 40 000
men in the process.
The usual theories abound for what’s really
going on: from aliens, to gates to parallel
universes, even to Atlantis (because why not).
Some suggest that high vocanic activity in the
region is responsible for some of the
cdisappearances (the Kaio Maru No. 5 may have
been caught in an eruption). Our advice? Just
stay out of the ocean, period.
6) BIGELOW RANCH
Bigelow Ranch (formerly known as Skinwalker
Ranch and Sherman Ranch) is a 480-acre
property in northwest Utah that is home to
countless UFO sightings, animal mutilations,
and other strange occurrences. Though
mysterious happenings have been
documented since the 50’s, some of the most
bizarre stories happened to a pair of ranchers
named Terry and Gwen Sherman after they
bought it in 1994.
The first day they moved on to the property,
they saw a large wolf out in the pasture. They
even went to pet the wolf as it seemed tame (to
the curious reader, yes, this is always a good
idea). It was docile with the Shermans, but
ended up grabbing a calf by the snout through
the bars of its enclosure. When Terry shot at
the wolf with a pistol, the bullets had no effect.
It finally left after Terry brought out the
shotgun, though even that didn’t do any actual
damage. The Shermans tried tracking the wolf,
but it’s tracks stopped abruptly as if it had
vanished.
And that wasn’t the end of things. The
Shermans were constantly plagued by such
events as UFO sightings, intelligent floating orbs
(reputed to have incinerated three of their
dogs), inexplicable cryptids, and gruesome
cattle mutilations. It got so bad that the
Shermans actually sold their ranch to Robert
Bigelow in 1996, the founder of the National
Institute for Discovery Science, who wanted to
study the mysteries surrounding the ranch.
Bigelow owns the ranch to this day and NIDS
keeps a tight lid on their findings.
5) POINT PLEASANT
Point Pleasant was probably aptly named at
one point, but it is now so shrouded in tales of
mysterious and creepy events as to be nothing
but an ironic alliteration. The most famous of
these events involves a creature known as
Mothman, who reputedly terrorized the small
West Virginia community from November
1966 to December 1967. Over a hundred
different citizens of Point Pleasant are
eyewitnesses to this creature, a 7-foot tall
broad chested man with hypnotic, glowing red
eyes, and wings that stretch 10 feet long and
drag behind him on the ground.
The Mothman, who’s been the subject of both
a book and a movie (and who has his own
statue in Point Pleasant), has many possible
explanations. Some believe him to be an
extraterrestrial, others a mutant or a cryptid,
and some suggest the people of Point Pleasant
were actually being scared by owls or a
Sandhill Crane. Whatever the case, reports of
Mothman stopped after the Silver Bridge
collapsed on December 15, 1967, killing 46
people and leading many to believe that the
two events were somehow connected.
In addition to Mothman, several other
paranormal tales from Point Pleasant include
UFO sightings and reports of so-called “Men In
Black”—human looking creatures who unnerve
others by the sheer abundance of peculiarities
in their speech, appearance, and mannerisms.
These “men” supposedly appear looking for
information about the paranormal (or rather,
people who have this information).
4) MICHIGAN TRIANGLE
The Michigan Triangle is another geographical
triangle, located in the middle of Lake Michigan.
It, too, is the site of mysterious disappearances
of both land and sea craft. Some of the more
famous ones include:
Captain Donner: On April 28, 1937, Captain
George R. Donner of the O.M. McFarland was
on his way from Erie, Pennsylvania, to Port
Washington, Wisconsin, and had to pass
through the triangle. As the story goes, he was
exhausted and retired to his cabin, leaving the
second mate to wake him when they neared
their destination. About three hours later, when
the second mate went to do so, Donner was
not in his cabin. Nor was he in the galley. An
exhaustive search of the ship was conducted,
but he was never found.
Flight 2501: On June 23, 1950, Northwest
Airlines Flight 2501 was on its way from New
York to Minneapolis at the hands of experienced
pilot Robert C. Lind, and was carrying 58
passengers. Due to bad weather, when the
flight was near Chicago it changed course and
turned over Lake Michigan. Around midnight,
Lind requested permission to drop altitude
from 3500 ft to 2500 ft, without ever specifying
a reason. His request was denied, and that was
the last communication Flight 2501 ever had.
It’s last known position was supposedly within
the Michigan Triangle.
While sources vary as to what amount of
wreckage of Flight 2501 has been found (some
floating debris such as seat cushions and the
like), it seems clear that the plane crashed into
the water. Mysterious, however, is that the
plane was in perfectly good condition and in
capable hands at the time of the disappearance.
What’s more, despite searches still being
conducted annually, neither the body of the
plane nor complete human remains have ever
been recovered.
3) SAN LUIS VALLEY
San Luis Valley, in southern Colorado, is an
area high in inexplicable phenomena including
UFO sightings and hundreds of unexplained
farm animal mutilations. UFO sightings are so
common that a woman named Judy Messoline
has even set up a UFO watchtower on her
property, which has witnessed over 50 UFO
sightings since 2000 alone. Some of these are
observed by dozens of people at a time.
For the UFO skeptics out there, far more chilling
are the tales of animal mutilations from the
region. They began in 1967, with a horse
named Snippy. Snippy was found one
morning with her brain missing, and her neck
bones completely cleaned. Since then,
hundreds if not thousands of inexplicable
animal mutilations have occurred in the region,
sharing several things in common—firstly,
there is never a trace of blood around the
animals, and secondly, the animals are all
damaged with precise cuts, distinctly not the
work of predators. Finally, all of the mutilations
happen overnight to otherwise healthy
creatures.
Investigations into the incidents haven’t wielded
any results, yet they continue to this day.
Some farmers report seeing strange lights in
the sky the nights before finding a carcass,
leading some to believe that extraterrestrials are
involved. Though it’s hard to imagine aliens
caring so much about farm animals in
Colorado, the alternative isn’t much more
appealing—that humans are the so-called
“Phantom Surgeons of the Plains”. Personally,
I’d rather it was aliens.
2)
Oh look, another triangle. This one is found in
southwestern Vermont, and is the site of a
string of 5 mysterious disappearances between
1945-1950, related in no way but geographic
location. These include:
Middie Rivers, 75 years old, was out leading a
group of hunters on November 12, 1945. On
their way back, he got ahead of his group and
was never seen again. Only a single rifle shell
found in a stream was recovered as evidence.
Paula Welden was an 18 year old sophomore
of Bennington College who was out hiking on
December 1, 1946. She never returned and no
trace of her was ever found.
Exactly 3 years later, on December 1, 1949, a
veteran named James E. Tetford was taking a
bus back to his home at the Bennington
Soldier’s Home, returning from a visit with
relatives. Witnesses saw him on the bus the
stop before this, but when the bus arrived at
his destination he was nowhere to be seen. His
luggage was still on the bus.
Eight year old Paul Jepson disappeared on
October 12, 1950, while his mother was busy
feeding the pigs. Despite having a highly visible
red jacket, none of the search parties formed
were able to find the boy.
The last disappearance was a woman named
Frieda Langer. On October 28, 1950, she was
hiking with her cousin on Glastenbury
Mountain when she slipped in a stream. She
decided to go back quickly and change her
clothes, and, if you’ve been paying attention so
far, you’ll surmise that she was never seen
again. Well, not exactly—she’s the only victim
whose body was ever recovered, though it
was only found on May 12, 1951 (about 6
months later), in an area that had been
thoroughly searched after her disappearance.
The body was in such a mangled shape that no
cause of death could be determined.
Though many theories abound, including
aliens, bigfoot-like monsters, or some
unknown serial killer, there’s one thing we
know for sure: it’s a good idea to stay the hell
away from triangles.
1) BRIDGEWATER TRIANGLE
The Bridgewater Triangle No, seriously-Stay away from triangles
Especially this one. The Bridgewater Triangle,
an area of about 200 square miles in Southeastern Massachusettes
just south of Boston, is like an all you can eat buffet of the supernatural.
Among other things, the area has been subject to numerous cryptozoological sightings.
Since the 1970's there have been several reports of tall, hairy,
ape-like creatures roaming the swamp.
There have also been numerous sighting of thunderbirds, giant Pterodactyl-like creatures
that have been seen fighting in midair.
In 1976 there was a report of a man who saw a giant ,
ghostly , red-eyed dog rip the throats out of two of his ponies.
Besides these cryptids, there have been
numerous reports of mutilated animals (mainly
cows and calves) in the region. Some credit
these mutilations to satanic cults, but no one
has come forward and no one even knows
where the animals came from.
As if all this weren’t enough, the Bridgewater
Triangle is a hotbed of UFO sightings, dating all
the way back to 1760, when a “sphere of fire”
was reportedly seen hovering over New
England. Since then there have been numerous
sightings of unexplained objects in the sky—
including mysterious black helicopters. One
from 1976 describes two UFOs landing along
Route 44 near the city of Taunton, and another
from 1994 recounts a strange triangular object
with red and white lights seen by a Bridgewater
Law Enforcement Officer. In 1908 on Halloween
night, two undertakers who were traveling to
Bridgewater noticed in the sky what looked like
a “giant lantern”. They watched it for almost 40 minutes before it disappeared.
Bermuda isn’t looking so bad anymore.
the world no man can fully understand.
No comments:
Post a Comment