But what about those scary wendigo stories that supposedly affected real people? Required fields are marked *. From Texas we have a report from a witness who claims this happened out in the Texas Hill Country during the hot summer months. They are said to be giant, up to 15 feet tall, and monstrous in appearance. Nipissing Swamp State Natural Area, Wisconsin. Sightings of the Ogopogo in BC's Lake Okanagan date back to the late 1800's. Up to 15m in length, it looks strikingly similar to cousin Nessie in Scotland's Loch Ness. This has left me questioning what is those woods and was it a reality, but when my sister asked me why I was so shaken I told her what I experienced and her face went pale. This werewolf cryptid has had several sightings in the 1990s with local newspapers reporting on the topic and even eventually gaining some national news attention as the most popular werewolf sighting in the U.S. An animatronic depiction of a wendigo in a cage on display in Wendigo Woods in Busch Gardens Williamsburg. The Wendigo is a mythical creature that has been reported in many different forms. Rocky of Rock Lake Lake Mills Two consecutive notes with roughly a three to four second gap and then two more consecutive notes. This was seen as a constant threat, and turning into a Wendigo or being possessed by one was seen by the Natives of these lands as a fate worse than death. Rather, one of his creepiest traits is his ability to mimic human voices. document.getElementById( "ak_js_2" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Scare Yourself Senseless at These Haunted Wisconsin Attractions, $209 a pound?! Wendigos are considered to be some of the most despicable monsters in the Great Lakes. The Wendigo is said to be a Algonquian native legend. Most recently in 2019, mysterious howls in the Canadian wilderness led some to question whether they were caused by the infamous man-beast. September 21, 2022. Thats when the whistling started. The Story Behind the Special Wisconsin Cheese Back on Sale, Old World Wisconsin Provides a Historical Home for the Holidays, A Landmark Farm Enjoys New Life as a Community Education Center with a Focus on Healthy Food, The 5 Hottest Majors at the University of Wisconsin Right Now, Wisconsin's 7 Weirdest Towns & Why They're Called That, 8 Cheese Factories You Can Visit in Wisconsin. If the form doesnt work, you want to send a video file, or multiple photos please send them to info@wisconsinfrights.com, I took this photo/videoI found this photo/video online, I give Wisconsin Frights permission to use this photo or video. Ever since that night Ive been thinking about it and running through all of the possibilities of what it could be, but always coming up with no explanation. The curious thing about Rock Lake is that if you dive down in certain parts of the lake you can find small pyramid like structures. Wendigo's are normally described as a tall (approximately 15 feet), thin humanoid creature, sometimes said to be twisted, bloodstained, or fanged. Join MU Plus+ and get exclusive shows and extensions & much more! A freelance writer and operator of the Blue Valley Gardens produce farm outside Mount Horeb, Susan previously wrote an award-winning newspaper column and has authored two books. He looked shaken and kept looking through the peephole in my door and not saying anything. Much like other legendary beasts, the wendigo remains a fixture in pop culture in modern times. Until this. The elusive aberration is said to roam the area of Bray Road located just outside of the town of Elkhorn. and sightings were sometimes recorded. Hes hoping to find answers. An oxen trip from Milwaukee to Galena, Illinois, took five days back then, and along the road, saloons and inns sprang up to feed and shelter the miners, and to separate them from their earnings. In the early 20th century one such fighter of demons would take his last battle before succumbing to the invasion of the modern world and the death of traditions. I heard it land but it either jumped an impossible distance or landed in a thicket because I heard it but never saw. The creature has . BONUS: Whitewater, WI It was very tall and skinnyalmost as tall as the roof of their ranch house because even standing in the middle of the front yard it looked almost as tall as the house. David kept it to himself, however, and they continued walking the trail until they reached a point where the path branched off to the right, and a snowmobile trail went to the left. Now this is the part I will never forget. Lake Windigo, in the Chippewa National Forest in Minnesota. The weirdest thing about the whole situation was just being entirely overcome with fear and dread, literally to the point of vomiting. In certain cultures wendigo are depicted as humanoid, but with pale skin like a corpse. According to the Native legend, any human who eats another human, for whatever reason, even starvation, is transformed into a wendigo. This had sent horrendous chills down my spine, So I ran the fastest Ive ever had back towards the campsite, while I heard the twigs and leaves crunching behind me. Each one containing its own mystery of what might be lurking out there in the unknown. About a quarter mile from the road where their vehicle was parked, David and his wife walked out of the forest into a field. It must have been GINORMOUS however given the scale to which I saw it. It felt like longer but it was only a few seconds before this creature jumped straight up in the air (and I mean straight up, not forward) and bounded to the back of the house in 3 large strides. One of Wisconsin's most famous cryptids (i.e., creatures whose existence is unproven) is a two-legged dog-like beast that's been spotted around Bray Road in rural Elkhorn. Others say its a colossal sturgeon. In Native folklore, it was called N'ha-a . This is still hard for me to wrap my head around because it shook me to my core, but this story takes place just over a year ago in late November 2018. Whilst there are slight variations as to the physical description of this creature amongst the different Algonquian peoples, it is generally agreed that Wendigo have glowing eyes, long yellowed fangs and long tongues. As Basil Johnston has written, the idea of turning Wendigo is a very real possibility when the word refers to self-destruction, rather than literally becoming a monster in the forest. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Nothing. One night I was walking my dogaround 10:30pm I thinkwhen I saw something on the front lawn of one of these houses. And on the far side of the stream from my house there are large trees. Ive never encountered anything like this or have felt the feeling I felt when I was out there.. After learning about the legend of the wendigo, you can check out these 17 real-life monsters. It is not a colossal sturgeon. Basically don't be a selfish idiot in . To the white settlers reading this, it was a tale of devil-worship, black magic, and deadly superstition among the untamed savages of the uncharted wilds, and it drew much call to bring the Native people under control and impose their own laws on them. In lore, the creature is supposedly a gaunt, extremely tall apparition that had glowing eyes, long yellowed fangs, wicked claws, and a long tongue, often also depicted with antlers, and which was eternally en thrall to insatiable hunger, growing ever larger with each kill it made and yet never fully satiated, always skeletal and slight no matter how much it ate. After scientists from the Smithsonian Institution announced they were coming to town to investigate, Shepard admitted the hodag was a hoax. I had finally reached the campsite when the footsteps suddenly stopped, I was relieved and slumped over to the cabin stairs when I slipped on a rock slipping out of the makeshift fire, it had caused me to head straight into it. This monster comes to us courtesy of the Algonquin-speaking people of the oft-froze . In the 1980s, several people reported that the beast attacked their cars and trucks, leaving long scratch marks. The first thought that comes to mind is the classic image of the Wendigo. Other indigenous peoples believe a Wendigo is born out of an individual's gluttony, selfishness, overindulgence or extreme loneliness. Sometimes these animals were disemboweled and their entrails found hanging from bushes or trees like macabre Christmas tree ornaments, and sometimes they were simply torn in half, with one of the halves missing. 16.7, home to a bar, a church, a cemetery and a legend - a legend of a squirrel . It resembled somewhat of a dragon-like creature. 27.07 - MU Plus+ Podcast - Flames of Prophecy, 29.07 - MU Podcast - Contract with the Goddess, 27.06 - MU Plus+ Podcast - Secret Vaults of Time, 29.06 - MU Podcast - Italian Disco Abductions, 27.04 - MU Plus+ Podcast - High-Res Healing, Astrophysicist Claims Ring Lasers Can Bend Space-Time and Allow Time Travel, "What's the Creepiest Thing You've Ever Seen or Heard?" The witness in this case claims that he spends a lot of time camping and hiking the area with his brother Ryan, and on this day, they had headed out to a place they knew well, midway through Jacks River Trail in the Cohutta Wilderness. Use the form below to suggest edits. . It was first reported in 1893 to have had the head of a frog, the grinning face of a giant elephant, thick short legs set off by huge claws, the back of a dinosaur, and a long tail with spears at the end. Anthropologists have found hodag tales as early as 1870, originating in lumber camps. If Bigfoot has been here all along, we would expect to meet him in old legends as well as in the latest sightings. Indeed, one was seen as perfectly able to be changed into a Wendigo, in most cases if they resorted to eating the meat of another person, or through magic woven by another Wendigo, and humans were also at times said to be possessed by the creatures. Then things got bizarre rather quickly, of which the witness says: I remember we both pulled out our flashlights and shown it in the direction we felt the sounds were coming from but that is what was so weird. Im a very avid bow hunter and have spent most of my life out in the woods, he wrote. The Ridgeway Ghost story begins at Sampsons Saloon in Ridgeway, where a peddler is said to have stopped in for a drink and was never seen again. I'm compiling the location of all sightings onto a map. What lips it had were tattered and bloody Unclean and suffering from suppurations of the flesh, the Wendigo gave off a strange and eerie odor of decay and decomposition, of death and corruption. Could it be just hallucinations or misidentifications, maybe even hoaxes? But speed wouldnt be a necessary skill for a monster of this nature. Despite their gaunt physiques, Wendigo are described by some as giants, measuring at about 4.5 m (14.8 ft) in height. Originating within the myths and lore of various Algonquin-speaking tribes of Nova Scotia, the East Coast of Canada, and Great Lakes Region of Canada and in Wisconsin, United States, including such tribes as the Ojibwe, the Saulteaux, the Cree, the Naskapi, and the Innu, the monstrous entity called the Wendigo has long been feared. Photo taken circa 2014. According to the BFRO, five bigfoot sightings have been reported in Marinette County. Festivals quickly became an annual tradition to appease these giant monsters and continue to be held to this day. My arrow was stuck basically vertical in the ground except for leaning the opposite way I shot, he wrote, which to me and my wife seemed impossible that my arrow could be the way it was in the ground.. I live in an apartment complex that is on the end of a residential street, so most of the street is older houses. With Wisconsins creepy history, there is sure to never be a shortage of scary monsters to tell of. Watch Discover Wisconsin TV Saturday mornings at 10 on Fox Sports Wisconsin. Whether you believe the wendigo lurks in the woods at night or not, this is not just another boogeyman story meant to scare people for no reason. The name derives from the Ojibwa language for "Wiindigoo", originally used by the Algonquian Indians tribe of the northern forests, they believed that Wendigo were cannibalistic giants with supernatural powers, one of which was the ability to possess people and turn them into Wendigo. Unfortunately, this was the age of white settlers pouring into the region, and the idea of killing people due to suspicion that they were supernatural monsters did not sit well in this new world. Well Ive never hallucinated once in my life and I wasnt dehydrated because about 10 minutes prior to this event I drank an entire bottle of water and I always make sure Im hydrated before I go woodland exploring. And Im not really to athletic but Im not mega weak. But every so often, an alleged sighting emerges. These giant birds are also one of the more applauded monsters on this list according to their legends, which tell how the birds were the enemies of the great horned snakes. Biology, nature, and cryptozoology still remain Brent Swancers first intellectual loves. The intervention of a shaman was typically sought as a last resort, when a person was obviously in the final throes of fully turning, during which they would exhibit delirium, insanity, potent nightmares, the uncontrollable urge to run naked through the woods, and of course an irresistible need to eat human flesh. The Steel brought a record of 22 wins and 21 losses into the weekend. There, lumberman Eugene Shepard wrote in the local newspaper, The New North, that he had personally captured a hodag and he drew an illustration of a bull-horned carnivore, with thick, curving spikes down its back. 27.07 - MU Plus+ Podcast - Flames of Prophecy, 29.07 - MU Podcast - Contract with the Goddess, 27.06 - MU Plus+ Podcast - Secret Vaults of Time, 29.06 - MU Podcast - Italian Disco Abductions, 27.04 - MU Plus+ Podcast - High-Res Healing, Astrophysicist Claims Ring Lasers Can Bend Space-Time and Allow Time Travel, "What's the Creepiest Thing You've Ever Seen or Heard?" It was standing on its hind legs but had antlers or some type of tall ears like a bunny and its arms and legs were abnormally long and stretched to the bone. What lips it had were tattered and bloody Unclean and suffering from suppurations of the flesh, the Wendigo gave off a strange and eerie odor of decay and decomposition, of death and corruption.. The legend of the Wendigo stems from Native American folklore, primarily in Algonquian-speaking tribes located in south and southeastern Canada, the Great Lakes Region, and northeastern United States. If you are interested yourself then maybe youll have to take a trip over to Bray Road at night and see for yourself. Help us maintain the accuracy of our information. Then I kinda felt like someone was really looking at me. Each tribe typically had its own ceremonies, rituals, and talismans to ward off the creatures or stop a person from becoming one, but in most cases the final line of defense in fighting this supernatural threat was the tribes shamans. It was high enough to be in the clouds but too high to make out the actual size. If you experience problems with the form or want to attach images please email them to info@wisconsinfrights.com, Are you affiliated with this location? With its bones pushing out over its skin, its complexion the ash gray of death, and its eyes pushed back deep into the sockets, the Wendigo looked like a gaunt skeleton recently disinterred from the grave. They found it about 50 yards up, where the trail opened into a stand of tall pines. HEY! Quiet. This is the tragic story of one of the last hunters of the evil creatures of Native lore known as the Wendigo. It was behind a tree, and at first appeared to be a bear standing on its back legs scratching its back against the tree trunk. Could These Monster-Sized Snakes Be Beaten? Wendigo is a very strange scary creature whose essence is very blurred. It is among the most feared of all monsters in Amerindian lore. The presence and overall weight of the feeling this whole encounter gave me still sticks with me as clearly as the night it happened; I can remember it all so vividly and still feel the weight. What was going on here? The native story tells of a great mountain that floats in the western sky where thunderbirds gather. It is certainly a sad tale of the end of tribal beliefs, and whether these Wendigo ever really existed or not the people of the region certainly believed that they did and that they were a threat. This time, though, something would convince him ignore that feeling to go further. But I wasnt sure if I hit the deer or not so we walked over there and started looking for my arrow, still constantly watching around near us, and we couldnt find my arrow anywhere.. Strong evidence shows these creatures no longer exist but fossil records say massive birds were likely residing in North America during the early periods of human history. Have you had a similar experience in the Two Rivers area? Different versions of the wendigo legend say different things about his speed and agility. During a brutally cold winter, this mans intense hunger drove him to cannibalism. The fear I felt was incredible. And so ended the days of perhaps the last two Wendigo hunters out there and sealing the fate of the tribe to fall under the colonial laws of the settlers. It's a bony, emaciated beast with desiccated gray skin and hollow, sunken eyes. Wendigo accounts have continued on sporadically into modern times, and there may even be people devoted to fighting them, but none who have been so high profile as Jack Fiddler, and part of the traditions of these beasts died with him. Its voice resembles the sounds of the wild - falling water, wind, the call of birds and beasts. As I went to unzip my tent, trying to keep my eyes toward the woods, I heard some movement directly in front of me. Modern-day scientists and hordes of curious onlookers have issued eyewitness reports from the Linville Gorge area near Morganton. The blazing force of nature had almost burned my face when I was just stopped mid fall, I hadnt gained my balance it was just as if someone was hanging on to me and pulled me back. At that time, lead miners were pouring into the region following a trail that the Indians used to take from Central Wisconsin to the Mississippi River. My daughter and I saw an unexplained creature on a back road near Wisconsin Dells. The whistling continued for what felt like forever but thinking it through was maybe five minutes when Ryan finally yelled out into the darkness. The lake winnebago water monster. We have more lakes than any other country on the planet, so it stands to reason we would have at least one serious lake monster. Anyone who resorts to cannibalism and tastes human flesh will become one. But there is another aspect, according to which the Wendigo is something like . After all, besides some of the telltale signs such as the generation of fear, general appearance, and what seems to be in some cases an effort to trick or draw in the victim, as well as the assertion from all of these witnesses that these were "Wendigos," we are left wondering if there is perhaps something else to this all. story: Source #1 gods-and-monsters, The Wendigo is a demonic spirit believed by Algonquin-based Native American tribes to possess humans and turn them into cannibals. It has no lips, bares jagged teeth, and hisses with every breath. They had resisted Christian missionaries, remained apart from the law of the colonists, and still lived by the old ways, indeed remaining one of the only tribes still living under their own laws and traditions, but nothing can last forever, and in 1907, the Canadian government decided to investigate the claims that this man Jack Fiddler was waging a war against cannibalistic spirits. 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