End of story.
Posted on 11/28/2004 8:38:24 AM PST by TexasCajun
LAKELAND, FLA. -
Urban legends are supposed to be legends and that's all. But if you ask Jennifer Ward about the Florida skunk ape, she will tell you it stepped out of the mists of myth and into reality.
"I never thought anything like that was out there before," Ward, 30, said recently. "But I know there is now."
Ward's encounter with the hairy creature came in August, about a week after Hurricane Charley, along a rural stretch of road as she was driving home from a friend's house. Her daughters were asleep in the back seat and it was approaching dusk.
"I noticed something in the ditch. I looked over, and I guess it noticed me. It rose up," she said explaining that the animal had been crouching.
"Its eyes went from serious, maybe it was getting frogs — it was focused on something," she continued. "When he saw me, he was as surprised as I was. I slowed down to almost a stop; I didn't stop because I was scared. It was almost dark, but I could see it and get a good look."
200 years of sightings
Ward said the creature was 6 to 8 feet tall and covered with hair about 2 inches long. There was white around the eyes, but she did not notice a nose or ears. She said the lips were full with the texture of a dog's paw pad. Its hands were drawn up next to its body.
At first, Ward only told friends and family about what she saw. She acknowledged that it took considerable time for her to decide to go public.
Florida skunk ape sightings have been reported for more than 200 years, according to Scott Marlowe, co-founder of Pangea Institute in Winter Haven and instructor of an upcoming college course on cryptozoology, the study of hidden animals and the possibility of their existence.
He said there have been about 75 reported sightings of the skunk ape in Florida in the past 20 years. This Southern relative of Bigfoot gets its name for the awful stench often associated with it. Ward said she could not remember an odor, but that may have been what first caught her attention.
Joy Hill, a spokeswoman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, would not comment about whether she thinks the sighting was genuine but said her agency has received no reports of such creatures.
Marlowe is searching the area of Ward's sighting outside Lakeland for footprints and hair that may have been snagged on a branch. He said the increasing development in Florida means man and beast will cross paths more often.
"With so much encroachment, it's almost inevitable if the thing exists, we're going to find it," Marlowe said.
The skunk ape makes its winter home in the Everglades, Marlowe said, but may move about seasonally.
"I suspect they migrate," he added.
Suitable habitat
Loren Coleman, author of the 2003 book, Bigfoot! The True Story of Apes in America, is considered the leading cryptozoologist in the world and has been tracking Bigfoot-type sightings for 45 years. He said weather events, such as hurricanes, often result in sightings.
"Hurricanes and tornadoes stir up wildlife. They travel to get settled," Coleman said in a telephone interview.
"Florida is the only subtropical state, and (there is) very great habitat for any kind of primate. It's comfortable and supportive," he said. "Even though there are population centers, people forget there's lots of wild land in between."
As for Ward, she said she drives a little slower now so she can look around, and she keeps a camera in her vehicle. The Lakeland woman said she hopes her report does not stir up any craziness among people looking for the creature.
"I have the feeling they do watch a lot," she said. "I wish I could see it again. I want people to see what I saw."
I bet that half of the Sasquatch-Skunk Ape sightings are of guys who dress up in ape costumes so that they can get a laugh out of scaring people. I confess to doing the same. Oh, not in an ape outfit--we don't have much history of Skunk Apes or Sasquatches here in the Maryland/Virginia area. But we do have ghosts and stories of ghosts. I'm a Civil War reenactor and I have the requisite long gowns, etc. One of the biggest laughs I ever got in my life came from terrifying a group of the neighborhood's smart-@$$ teenage hooligans who came across me out in the yard at 1 in the morning. One of them screamed like a seven-year-old girl. Very rewarding.
I spent alot of the '70's hitchhiking all over the US. That guy, Robert Morgan, picked me up in NW Washington State and we rode through Idaho's Snake River region into Montana, where we attended a Blackfoot pow-wow.
I remember along the way we stopped at his friend's place where we were treated to a huge breakfast. He also stopped to rescue an injured great blue heron, approaching the injured bird with his arms outstretched - the way the indians taught him. I remember about 3 or 4 days' ride. He was an incredibly nice guy. I have an old picture of him (somewhere around here) at the pow-wow, which was held on the Little Bighorn. Seems the Blackfoot were "rewarded" with the rights to the land because they served as scouts for Custer, though they didn't show up "that day" as the story goes (may be urban legend, I don't know).
He was hunting Bigfoot all over the world even back then. Really great guy.
Someone lost their pet gorilla.
Thanks.
What? This is news? People, that's Johnny Damon, center fielder for the Red Sox. Damn good player. Amazing that nobody else has noticed this.
Its been years since I've even thought about the skunk ape. Grew up in Florida and it was the subject of campout stories!
End of story.
I REALLY
did
NOT
want to go here . . . but, alright . . . so be it.
There are persistent stories of ET's dropping off various critters and/or using various kinds of critters on earth for various experiments, carlessness, whatever.
Others assert that such critters are leftovers from our own past. But the majority of stories assert that they are brought here by ET's and allowed to roam or escape for various unknown reasons.
And THAT, dear folks, is about the limit of puzzle pieces I have on the subject.
I don't have much of a clue as to what TRULY TRUE TRUTH is on the subject. I do tend to believe that ET's have had something to do with the ones in Florida and the Pacific NWest. But I wouldn't want to bet anything on it. Just how I read the puzzle pieces since more from a greater diversity of directions have said such things.
That's my mother-in-law!!! Port Charlotte area, right?
Jeez, she looks great!
I'm of the mind that the Sasquatch (all regions) and the Loch Ness and other aquatic critters like it are all manifestations of God's whimsical nature here on earth to give us things to wonder at and speculate on. I wonder about ET's, though. I suspect we will never know until we get home to ask the Lord the story. But imagine a species made in his image and which never suffered a "FALL" from grace! Can't quite get my meager mind wrapped around this. I hope we go back to the moon and we might get to Mars, but I think that's man's limit.
But were their votes counted?
The skunk part makes me think that they would be Kerry supporters. If such critters start showing up in Canada, we will know the story.
Sure you did.
There are persistent stories of ET's dropping off various critters and/or using various kinds of critters on earth for various experiments, carlessness, whatever.
That explains it.
Not only do you seem to have little to no evidence or serious research related to the topic from which to judge and throw rocks,
you have even less awareness and understanding of what I think, feel and believe.
And, your attacks and insults still seem to abound unbridled.
I do suggest that you change your ways as The Lord seems to treat reaping what we sow very seriously.
LOL.
Everglades stories, cool!
Now to read the article!
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