The Legend Of The Mogollon Monster In Arizona May Send Chills Down Your Spine

ONLYINYOURSTATE ^ | December 16, 2021 | Katie Lawrence

[nickcarraway]

From skinwalkers to La Llorona to the Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine, we have our fair share of urban legends in Arizona. One of them is the Mogollon Monster: an ape-like creature that allegedly stalks the dense forest landscape of the Mogollon Rim. Have you ever heard the story? If not, you’re in for a spine-chilling read!

During these uncertain times, please keep safety in mind and consider adding destinations to your bucket list to visit at a later date. Did you know Arizona has its very own Bigfoot?

The creature is known as the "Mogollon Monster," and the tale promises to leave you lying awake at night. It may be known as the Mogollon Monster, but the first sighting of the ape-like cryptid occurred near the Grand Canyon in 1903.

A man named I.W. Stevens told The Arizona Republican he saw a "humanoid creature with long white hair and matted beard that reached to his knees." The monster allegedly did not have on any clothing, and possessed at least two-inch-long claws on its talon-like fingers.

The majority of Mogollon Monster sightings are in the dense forest landscape of the Mogollon Rim. This 2,000-foot-high escarpment stretches from northern Yavapai County to the border with New Mexico.

Even a cryptozoologist, Don Davis, is a believer. He claims that during a mid-1940s Boy Scout trip near Payson, he laid eyes on a large, hairy creature with expressionless eyes and a square-shaped face and head.

According to anecdotal reports, the creature is over seven feet tall, walks upright, and emits a strong, pungent body odor.

The monster is allegedly nocturnal, omnivorous, territorial, and, at times, violent. It takes wide, inhuman strides, and leaves behind footprints that measure nearly two feet across.

The Mogollon Monster is said to mimic the noises of wildlife in an attempt to blend in with its surroundings.

Reports also state the creature gives off a blood-curdling scream similar to that of a woman in great peril. Next time you decide to go camping on the rim, keep a watchful eye.

One of the monster's favorite activities in exploring campsites after dark!

Pictured here is a wood carving of the Mogollon Monster, whose existence - whether fact or fiction - is now a permanent object of Arizona folklore.

Scientists aren't convinced, attributing sightings either to hoaxes or misidentification. Either way, there are a whole host of origin stories for the monster, each one a worthy campfire tale.

So if you ever hear a piercing scream or come across a set of impossibly wide footprints on the Mogollon Rim, run far away and never look back.

The Mogollon Monster just might be lurking deep in the woods, waiting for the perfect moment to strike... Have you ever heard of the Mogollon Monster – or perhaps even spotted it? Tell us your thoughts and experiences in the comments section below. For more spine-chilling urban legends in Arizona, check out our previous article.

Address: Mogollon Rim, Arizona 85541, USA

[SisterK]

Still not sure how to pronounce “Mogollon.”

mow gee yon (the g is a hard g and not j sound)

[Big Red Badger]

XLNT!!!
.
Now I’ll have to find it’s
Origins,since I just moved here.
Thanks Sister!

[2CAVTrooper]

In other words, they found the whereabouts of michelle “Big Mike” obama?

[Allegra]

According to anecdotal reports, the creature is over seven feet tall, walks upright, and emits a strong, pungent body odor.

Oh, yeah. {nods knowingly} That guy.

[Auntie Dem]

In Utah we have the legend of the Bear Lake monster (on the border of Utah and Idaho). My dad’s aunt had a cabin on the shores of Bear Lake and in the early 60’s we kids would go sit on the boat dock and dangle our feet in the lake. One night we could hear a noise in the dark—maybe 150 feet from us—that sounded like something big coming out of the water. Of course the girls (not us manly boys) screamed and rant back to the cabin. When we recited what we’d heard my dad said, “Oh yes, there is a Bear Lake monster, I’ve got a picture of it in my wallet.” He rummaged through his wallet and said “...here it is...oh wait, that’s your mother...”

What a guy.

[Trillian]

Big mike was in the area.

[AZHSer]

First time camping up there I heard a soul piercing scream in the middle of the night and woke my husband up, telling him to grab the gun so we could go save the screaming woman. He jumped up with the gun and rushed out of the tent and then stopped to listen to see which direction he needed to go. Another scream and he came back in the tent cracking up. What was so funny about a lady in trouble? No lady. It was an elk. I had never heard one before🤣

[chrisinoc]

I live right by the Prescott National Forest and this is the first time I’ve heard of a Mogollon Monster.

[Chainmail]

Went hiking and camping with two of my neighbor’s friends many years ago in the Padres National forest. They turned out to be not ideal folks for long hikes - or much else - and they griped at my intermittent trout fishing along the way and most of all because I carried my .22 AR-7 for snakes and such (they were Air Force enlisted and didn’t like guns)

We were traveling up a long, narrow canyon when it got dark, so we pitched camp for the night. I was feeling a bit spiteful, so I told them “ this is canyon the Manson lawyer disappeared in”. They started whispering back and forth, so I knew they weren’t going to sleep well now.

Then we heard footsteps in the brush near us. It was absolutely pitch black, yet whoever was walking near us was moving easily. Now my fellow hikers were really scared - and so was I. I turned on my trusty 5-cell flashlight but though I could hear more heavy footsteps, nothing was visible.

I said “whoever is out there, identify yourself - I am armed”. Nothing.

Then I said “identify yourself or I will open fire”. Again nothing - so I fired one shot straight up in the air -

And a Black bear charged through our campsite and out the other side!

I called to my fellow hikers and said “did you see that?” This time they didn’t answer. When they saw the bear, the two of them took off down the canyon and it was well after midnight before I found them and got them back to their sleeping bags.

Needless to say, never had any contact with those two after we got back.

[353FMG]

No greater danger to this country than this administration. Xi and Putin are pussycats.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

The story I was told was very distinct from the Bigfoot origin story. It involved an old rancher and three young men who worked as hands on the ranch. The rancher held a grudge against the Mogollon Monster, as he believed it had killed one of his sons. So his ranch hands were always armed with shotguns, and always worked as a team.

The rancher’s son had been out hunting in winter and was late returning, so the rancher rode out in the direction he said he was traveling, only to find his son’s head up in a pine tree. The body was never found.

Years passed, and the hands found the rancher’s remains in much the same way. They liked the old man so swore to hunt the beast down. One knew of a small cave in the area, so being the smallest of the three, he went inside while the other two kept watch outside.

The two were attacked, and so violently that the third knew he would have no chance if he went out to help them. Instead, noticing a crevasse in the cave just large enough for him, he squeezed in sideways as much as he could.

The beast entered the cave looking for him, and terrified beyond belief, as it reached in there and tried to claw him, deeply scratching his arm, he wedged himself firmly in the back of the crevasse. He passed out and woke up several times after the beast had gone.

The last time he woke up in the hospital. His rescuers had noticed the area in front of the cave painted with blood, and had a very hard time extracting him from the crevasse.

After he told his story, they tried and failed to find human remains, and he was in such a state of shock that he was sent south to the Arizona State Insane Asylum.

[21twelve]

Lynx can sound like a woman screaming as if she were being approached by an axe murderer.

[Beowulf9]

Interesting story. Looked for motre about the staircases and came aross this:

https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2020/08/strange-cases-of-mysterious-stairs-in-the-wilderness-that-lead-to-nowhere/

[semimojo]

...the dense forest landscape of the Mogollon Rim.

LOL. Probably the most open forest landscape I've seen.

$10 says Katie's never been east of Amarillo.

[Inyo-Mono]

Just another Sasquatch, this one in Arizona. They’re all-over North America, and stories about them go back centuries, even to the Natives, and they are uncannily consistent.

True.

[2CAVTrooper]

That sounds like a giant...

Pecker! Wait, that’s not a woodpecker...

[just Grace]

Send her back to Chicago and maybe she’d scare some gangstas.

———————————-

You win the internet comment of the day. 🤣

[Candor7]

he saw a “humanoid creature with long white hair and matted beard that reached to his knees.” The monster allegedly did not have on any clothing, and possessed at least two-inch-long claws on its talon-like fingers. >>>>>>>>>>

Sounds like a description of my old uncle Mortimor.

[sauropod]

.

[Tommy Revolts]

Years ago I went fishing at a remote lake in southern Iowa, with 2 of my friends, in the wee hours of the night. We pulled one of those small aluminum fishing boats.
We're out on the lake and it was pitch black, the stars were incredible.
We're shooting the shit and throwing back a few beers and fishing when there was this scream, and I mean it was a blood-curdling scream, which lasted for a good 20 or 30 seconds.
We froze, complete silence. It took a good minute before any of us said a word and then we were like wtf was that.
We couldn't get off that lake and out of that wooded area fast enough.

To this day, I share this experience, trying to identify what could have made a scream like that. It was humanlike and ear-piercing.

Anyway, I go dispersed camping at the Mogollon Rim (pronounced Moh-geeh-yohn). It is amazing!
Maybe one day I'll hear that scream again.