The Yeti

The first known report of the ‘abominable snowman’ came from Europe in 1832. A British official in Napal described an unknown hairy creature walking erect on two-legs. In the high and often inaccessible peaks of the Himalaya’s the wild man was now being brought to the attention of the media.

In 1921 the Yeti was given the name ‘abominable snowman’ by Western climbers, they were striving to conquer the mountain peaks when they became enthralled by local tales about the Yeti, also called Minka or Kang-Admi.

In 1948 a Norwegian claimed he had been attacked by two of them in Sikkim. In 1951 a British climber called Eric Shipton was in the Gauri Sankar range, he took photo’s of what he believed to be the Yeti. Many experts conclude that they could have been bear prints, distorted by the thawing snow.

The local Sherpa’s were happy to recount tales, and monks in a Himalayan Monastery, they showed off bones, skins and scalps of the creatures. In 1993 both Edmund Hilary and Tenzing Norgay saw strange footprints in the snow during the first ascent of Everest. In 1960 a further expedition was launched by Hilary but they were unable to find any further evidence of the Yeti.

The search carries on.

Farm Road 511

Brownsville, Texas boasts a fairly unique story about ghostly cows!

The locals may well warn you about driving down Farm Road 511 at night, as you might well encounter the ghostly subjects.

As you drive along you might find your headlights illuminating a large cow right in front of your eyes. Swerving to avoid the bovine you’ll probably pull up to see if you can find it, or you might even drive through it, either way upon investigation you won’t find the elusive creature.

Whilst is sounds comical there have been accidents on the roads reported to have occurred so don’t take it lightly!

Weird US has their story on the site here.

The Cardiff Giant

A far cry from England, this was found in Cardiff, New York State in October 1869, workers who were digging a wall came upon stone man 10 foot tall on the land of William C Newell. Farmer ‘Stub’ Newell began charging 50 cents a time to gaze upon the petrified person.

Who was the Cardiff Giant? Or what… some of the Christian folk turned to their bibles, a giant mentioned in the Book of Genesis, and others wondered if the giant man was turned to stone by witchcraft. Other declared that he might well be a statue made by the Christian Missionaries that landed there, to awe the local Indians.

The Cardiff Giant was soon revealed as a hoax. George Hull was an atheist who conspired with stone masons and Nevell to produce the statue. It was aimed entirely at the folks in the Bible Belt as a joke. In November 1868, Hull had the giant figure secretly buried on Newell’s farm. A year of patience passed to ensure that the locals would not connect the wagon with the find, the digging them commenced when they called in the workers. Hull recouped his money and more when local worthies brought the giant and exhibited it at the city of Syracuse.

Showman P T Barnum made a bid for the stone giant but was refused, instead he displayed a plaster copy. The copy drew more spectators than the original and can be found in the Farmer’s Museum at Cooperstown, New York State.

A great article on WordPress can be found HERE

Peoples Temple Agricultural Project

It is more commonly known as Jonestown, it’s more famously known that way because of the notorious events November 18th, 1978 when over 900 people died in the settlement in northwestern Guyana.  formed by the Peoples Temple and led by Jim Jones. All but two people there died from apparent cyanide poisoning making 909 dead at the site, in an event named ‘revolutionary suicide’ by Jones and some of the members on the audio tape during the event.

The events after the poisonings led to the murder of five others by Temple members at the nearby airstrip, Port Kaituma, one of the victims was a US Congressman named Leo Ryan. Some consider this to be a mass suicide, others suggest it was a mass murder.

I’m not going to go into the events because in actual fact I picked it due to the status of it being an abandoned area. Jonestown was left abandoned and finally given up to nature, the place itself has been swallowed up by the jungle and no doubt sooner or later very little, if any evidence of it will likely exist.

If you should wish to read up more the link is here

Poveglia

Recently I went on a trip with friends out to Italy, more specifically Venice. We stayed around the Lido area which is around three kilometres away from the abandoned island of Poveglia. In the port at San Marco we saw a ship called Poveglia and we took it upon ourselves to ask them if the boat did indeed go there… blank faces. This was a similar event when we asked the local police too, seems it was not a well heard of place.

The island itself is not on the main routes, and there are no tourists being guided around. I had hoped we’d find out a way to get there but sadly not. However this hasn’t deterred me from recounting this curiosity. I am sure someone may be able to correct me where I go wrong. (Hope so anyway).

The Island seems to have a lengthy history attached to it, records suggest that in the 9^th Century it was fairly well populated but had suffered plenty of wars and attacks. In 1379 Venice came under conflict and the people from Poveglia were moved to the Giudecca. The Venetian government built a permanent fortification on the Island; the Octagon there is still visible today. It remained uninhabited until it was offered to the Camaldolese monks in 1527, they refused to take it. In 1661 descendants were then offered the Island but again it was refused. It was still left empty and abandoned.

1777 saw the Island being used by the Public Health Office who used it as a check point for goods and people as they came and went through Venice. 1793 saw the plague changing the island once more, several cases of the plague on two ships meant that it was a temporary confinement place for the ill. It was a place made permanent in 1805, and the church of San Vitale there was destroyed, the old bell tower was then converted into a lighthouse. It was closed down in 1814.

The 20^th Century was used as a quarantine station once more, and then in 1922 the buildings that were left had been converted to a hospital for the mentally-ill and for long-term care. This was the case until 1968 when the hospital was closed, the island was used for a while after that but now is closed off.

So on to the creepy bits? That’s what we’re here for right?

The mental asylum doctor was no doubt given his tyrannical legend like so many others of the time, due to practising lobotomy and other, now, barbaric practises. He was tortured by his patients, went “mad” and then jumped to his death from the bell tower. However the story says that he survived and was then strangled by a mist from the ground.

Other sources say that so many people were buried and burnt during the time of the plague that the ground is half human-remains. The local fishermen will give it a wide berth to ensure they will not fish up the bones of ancestors and a stay overnight would most like produce interesting tales, Ghost Adventure’s went that way themselves and discovered this to be much the case. The locals are either unaware of this place, or will feign disinterest leaving only the more curious and grizzly minded wanting to go there.

A rather good first account from someone that has visited can be located here: MENTAL FLOSS