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Monsters of the Old West · This is monsters

0:07
Speaker 1: Over the years, we have travelled to many places said
0:09
Speaker 1: to harbour an unusually high number of strange and unexplained events.
0:14
Speaker 1: Locations where multiple witnesses claim to have encountered bizarre phenomena,
0:18
Speaker 1: often under circumstances that continue to defy explanation to this day.
0:23
Speaker 1: In this episode, however, our journey takes us not simply
0:26
Speaker 1: to another place, but to another time. To an age
0:30
Speaker 1: of cattle drives, frontier settlements and dusty trails disappearing into
0:35
Speaker 1: the horizons. an era of cowboys, outlaws and prospectors. But
0:41
Speaker 1: according to some accounts, these were not the only things
0:45
Speaker 1: roaming the vast landscapes of the American frontier. Join us
0:50
Speaker 1: as we encounter the Monsters of the Old West. Few
1:41
Speaker 1: American states possess quite the same reputation for the strange
1:45
Speaker 1: and unexplained as Arizona. The state has featured prominently in
1:49
Speaker 1: several of our previous episodes. particularly those concerning the malevolent
1:54
Speaker 1: and predatory entity said to roam the land surrounding the
1:57
Speaker 1: Navajo Nation, the creature known to many as the Skinwalker.
2:03
Speaker 1: Arizona was also the setting for one of the most
2:06
Speaker 1: famous UFO incidents in American history. During March of 1997,
2:12
Speaker 1: thousands of people reported witnessing mysterious lights moving silently across
2:16
Speaker 1: the skies above Phoenix. whilst others described observing an enormous
2:21
Speaker 1: V-shaped craft passing directly overhead. Elsewhere lie the Superstition Mountains,
2:28
Speaker 1: a harsh and unforgiving wilderness long associated with strange disappearances,
2:33
Speaker 1: violent deaths and stories of buried treasure. Then there are
2:38
Speaker 1: the stories we have yet to visit. The alleged haunting
2:42
Speaker 1: surrounding the London Bridge at Lake Harvestoo, the strange reports
2:46
Speaker 1: associated with a vast aircraft graveyard outside Tucson, and the
2:51
Speaker 1: persistent rumors of ghost lights, phantom riders, and inexplicable creatures
2:56
Speaker 1: glimpsed moving through remote desert communities after dark. For this episode, however,
3:02
Speaker 1: our attention turns much further back in time, to the
3:05
Speaker 1: years when Arizona remained a frontier territory and large areas
3:09
Speaker 1: of the American West had yet to be settled by
3:11
Speaker 1: those arriving from the East. the dangers facing those who
3:16
Speaker 1: ventured into these landscapes were many and varied. Exposure, drought, disease,
3:22
Speaker 1: hostile terrain, and violence at the hands of other men
3:26
Speaker 1: all represented very real threats to survival. Yet according to
3:31
Speaker 1: some accounts, these were not the only dangers waiting beyond
3:35
Speaker 1: the edge of civilization. Because scattered throughout the historical record
3:40
Speaker 1: are reports of encounters with creatures so bizarre so improbable
3:44
Speaker 1: and so unsettling that they can only really be described
3:48
Speaker 1: in one way. Monsters. America's frontier history possesses no shortage
3:57
Speaker 1: of legends and larger-than-life characters, many of whom have long
4:02
Speaker 1: since passed into folklore. Figures such as Annie Oakley, Buffalo
4:06
Speaker 1: Bill and Doc Holliday often seem to possess abilities that
4:10
Speaker 1: border upon the superhuman. their exploits growing ever more extraordinary
4:14
Speaker 1: with each retelling. Far less widely known, however, are the
4:19
Speaker 1: stories that feature something altogether stranger. Amongst the most disturbing
4:24
Speaker 1: of these is the tale of the creature that would
4:27
Speaker 1: become known simply as the Red Ghost. Its story begins
4:32
Speaker 1: during the summer of 1883 on a small ranch near
4:36
Speaker 1: Eagle Creek in central Arizona. The property was occupied by
4:40
Speaker 1: two sisters and their husbands, who lived together in a
4:43
Speaker 1: modest wooden cabin and supported themselves by tending to a
4:47
Speaker 1: small herd of cattle grazing in the surrounding countryside. One morning,
4:53
Speaker 1: just as they would on any other day, the two
4:56
Speaker 1: men set out to inspect the livestock whilst their wives
4:59
Speaker 1: remained behind to attend to the household chores. Roughly an
5:03
Speaker 1: hour later... Their routine was interrupted by a commotion erupting
5:07
Speaker 1: from the direction of the cabin. Recognising the frantic barking
5:12
Speaker 1: of the family dogs, the men immediately abandoned their work
5:16
Speaker 1: and hurried back towards the ranch house. What awaited them
5:21
Speaker 1: was a scene of pure horror. Lying just outside the
5:25
Speaker 1: front door was the battered and broken body of one
5:29
Speaker 1: of their wives. The second woman was eventually discovered barricaded
5:34
Speaker 1: inside the cabin, terrified but physically unharmed. Through tears and
5:40
Speaker 1: obvious shock, she explained what had happened. The two sisters
5:45
Speaker 1: had been occupied with their usual duties when they became
5:48
Speaker 1: aware of the dogs barking somewhere outside the property. Assuming
5:52
Speaker 1: that a coyote or some other predator had wandered onto
5:55
Speaker 1: the land, one of the women stepped outside to investigate.
6:00
Speaker 1: Barely had she crossed the threshold when an immense animal
6:04
Speaker 1: charged into the yard. According to the surviving witness, the
6:12
Speaker 1: creature appeared almost out of nowhere. It struck her sister
6:16
Speaker 1: with tremendous force, knocking her to the ground before repeatedly
6:20
Speaker 1: trampling her beneath its hooves. Unable to intervene and scarcely
6:25
Speaker 1: able to comprehend what she was witnessing, the horrified woman
6:28
Speaker 1: could do little more than watch from the doorway as
6:31
Speaker 1: the attack unfolded before her. The animal itself was unlike
6:36
Speaker 1: anything she had ever seen. It stood considerably taller than
6:41
Speaker 1: any horse owned by the family and was covered from
6:43
Speaker 1: head to tail in a thick coat of long, shaggy
6:46
Speaker 1: red hair. Yet as terrifying as the beast itself had been,
6:51
Speaker 1: it was not the thing she remembered most vividly, because
6:55
Speaker 1: seated upon its back, was a rider. The figure was
7:00
Speaker 1: described as impossibly thin and seemingly in an advanced state
7:03
Speaker 1: of decay, its gaunt features stretched tightly across its skull
7:08
Speaker 1: and its eyes appearing as little more than dark, hollow sockets.
7:13
Speaker 1: For several moments, it simply sat there, staring back towards
7:17
Speaker 1: the cabin. Then, without warning, rider and mount turned together
7:23
Speaker 1: and galloped from the yard. leaving only silence and devastation
7:27
Speaker 1: behind them. Arming themselves with shotguns, the two men immediately
7:32
Speaker 1: set out in pursuit. Around the property, they discovered a
7:37
Speaker 1: trail of unusually large hoof prints impressed deeply into the ground,
7:41
Speaker 1: whilst along the nearby creek they recovered several clumps of
7:44
Speaker 1: coarse red hair that had apparently snagged upon the surrounding vegetation.
7:49
Speaker 1: Within days, stories of the murderous rider and its monstrous
7:53
Speaker 1: steed had spread throughout the local community, before travelling much
7:57
Speaker 1: further afield. Many dismissed the more extraordinary elements of the
8:02
Speaker 1: account as the product of grief, alcohol, or the effects
8:05
Speaker 1: of the brutal Arizona heat. Before long, however, events would
8:11
Speaker 1: unfold that would make such explanations increasingly difficult to sustain.
8:20
Speaker 1: Several weeks after the attack at Eagle Creek, another incident
8:23
Speaker 1: was reported under remarkably similar circumstances. A party of prospectors
8:29
Speaker 1: travelling through the Arizona wilderness had pitched camp for the
8:32
Speaker 1: night and settled down to sleep when they were suddenly
8:34
Speaker 1: awoken by a tremendous commotion. As the men scrambled from
8:39
Speaker 1: their canvas tents, there came the sound of timber splintering
8:42
Speaker 1: beneath immense force. Two of the heavy wooden wagons that
8:46
Speaker 1: had been standing at the edge of the camp were
8:48
Speaker 1: tossed violently aside. as though they weighed little more than kindling.
8:53
Speaker 1: In the weak moonlight, the startled prospectors caught sight of
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Speaker 1: a huge, shaggy beast charging back and forth through the camp,
9:01
Speaker 1: scattering equipment in every direction. Perched astride its back was
9:06
Speaker 1: a gaunt, emaciated figure, dressed in ragged clothing, its arms
9:11
Speaker 1: flailing wildly as though directing the destruction unfolding below. The
9:16
Speaker 1: assault lasted only moments. As abruptly as it had begun,
9:20
Speaker 1: the monstrous animal and its rider wheeled about and galloped
9:23
Speaker 1: back into the darkness. When daylight arrived, the prospectors discovered
9:29
Speaker 1: evidence that seemed eerily familiar. Caught amongst the shattered timbers
9:33
Speaker 1: of the overturned wagons were several coarse clumps of dark
9:36
Speaker 1: red hair, almost identical to those reportedly recovered from the
9:40
Speaker 1: ranch near Eagle Creek. For a time, the mysterious rider
9:45
Speaker 1: was not seen again. Then, during the following year, fresh
9:50
Speaker 1: reports began to emerge after a party of hunters claimed
9:53
Speaker 1: they too had been attacked whilst camped in the Arizona backcountry.
9:58
Speaker 1: Unlike the prospectors before, them, these men chose to stand
10:02
Speaker 1: their ground. As the creature thundered into their camp, one
10:09
Speaker 1: of the hunters rushed forwards with a lasso, whilst the
10:12
Speaker 1: others opened fire with their rifles. For a brief moment
10:16
Speaker 1: it appeared the rope had found its mark, tightening around
10:20
Speaker 1: the beast's neck before it reacted with astonishing strength, snapping
10:24
Speaker 1: the heavy lion almost effortlessly. The unfortunate hunter barely had
10:29
Speaker 1: time to retreat before the enraged animal bore down upon him.
10:34
Speaker 1: According to the surviving witnesses, its skeletal rider appeared almost
10:38
Speaker 1: to delight in the attack as the towering beast prepared
10:41
Speaker 1: to trample a man beneath its hooves. Only sustained rifle
10:45
Speaker 1: fire finally drove the creature away, before it could deliver
10:49
Speaker 1: the killing blow. By now, the settlers of the surrounding
10:54
Speaker 1: area had had enough. A sizeable posse was assembled to
10:57
Speaker 1: hunt down the mysterious rider once and for all. Following
11:02
Speaker 1: oversized hoof prints and the now familiar trail of coarse
11:05
Speaker 1: red hair, the group tracked the creature for several weeks
11:08
Speaker 1: before finally catching sight of it crossing open country in
11:12
Speaker 1: the distance. Unfortunately, one over-eager member of the party fired
11:18
Speaker 1: too soon. Although the shot startled the beast and allowed
11:22
Speaker 1: it to escape, it appeared to strike the rider. When
11:27
Speaker 1: the men reached the spot where it had been seen
11:29
Speaker 1: only moments earlier, they didn't find a body. Instead, lying
11:34
Speaker 1: alone upon the ground was a weathered human skull, its
11:37
Speaker 1: empty eye sockets staring silently back at them. Years passed
11:42
Speaker 1: without any further reports of the monstrous animal or its
11:45
Speaker 1: now headless rider, and many assumed that whatever had haunted
11:49
Speaker 1: the deserts of Arizona had finally disappeared. However, not everyone
11:55
Speaker 1: shared that confidence. In 1893, fresh rumours began circulating after
12:05
Speaker 1: witnesses claimed that the red ghost had returned. this time
12:08
Speaker 1: crushing a bear beneath its hooves before disappearing back into
12:12
Speaker 1: the wilderness. Amongst those who heard the story was a
12:16
Speaker 1: local farmer named Mizu Hastings, who had grown up listening
12:20
Speaker 1: to the tales of the creature and resolved that, should
12:23
Speaker 1: the opportunity present itself, he would be the one to
12:26
Speaker 1: bring its reign of terror to an end. Armed with
12:29
Speaker 1: little more than a rifle and enough provisions for several days,
12:33
Speaker 1: Hastings set out into the deserts. his opportunity came sooner
12:39
Speaker 1: than he expected. After several days of searching, he encountered
12:44
Speaker 1: the beast drinking from a small pool of water. Perched
12:48
Speaker 1: upon its back was the same tattered, headless figure that
12:51
Speaker 1: generations of witnesses had described before him. Taking careful aim,
12:57
Speaker 1: Hastings ignored the grizzly rider and instead fixed his sights
13:01
Speaker 1: upon the animal itself. Several shots then rang out across
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Speaker 1: the desolate landscape. The great beast staggered forwards before its
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Speaker 1: legs gave way beneath it, collapsing heavily onto the ground.
13:16
Speaker 1: Approaching with understandable caution, Hastings circled the carcass several times
13:21
Speaker 1: before satisfying himself that neither the animal nor its rider
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Speaker 1: posed any further threat. After cutting away a quantity of
13:29
Speaker 1: the creature's distinctive red hair as proof of the encounter,
13:33
Speaker 1: he returned with assistance to examine the extraordinary discovery more closely.
13:39
Speaker 1: The explanation that eventually emerged proved almost as remarkable as
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Speaker 1: the legend itself. The red ghost was not some supernatural beast,
13:48
Speaker 1: but an enormous feral camel. Lashed securely to its back
13:53
Speaker 1: were the weathered remains of a human being, the body
13:56
Speaker 1: having long since decomposed until little more than a skeleton remained.
14:01
Speaker 1: Exactly how the unfortunate rider came to meet such a
14:04
Speaker 1: fate has never been established, although two principal theories have endured.
14:10
Speaker 1: According to the first, the dead man had been a
14:13
Speaker 1: prospector or traveller, who, for reasons unknown, had secured himself
14:17
Speaker 1: to the camel before dying while strapped to the saddle.
14:21
Speaker 1: Unable to free itself of its grisly burdens, the increasingly
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Speaker 1: aggressive animal had wandered the Arizona wilderness for years, reacting
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Speaker 1: violently whenever people attempted to approach it. Others, however, have
14:34
Speaker 1: pointed towards a far more intriguing possibility. During the late 1850s,
14:41
Speaker 1: the United States Army imported dozens of camels into the
14:44
Speaker 1: American Southwest as part of an ambitious experiment to determine
14:49
Speaker 1: whether the animals could serve as military pack transport in
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Speaker 1: the desert. Although the project showed considerable promise, the outbreak
14:57
Speaker 1: of the Civil War brought it to an abrupt end,
14:59
Speaker 1: and many of the camels were sold, abandoned, or simply
15:02
Speaker 1: disappeared into the surrounding wilderness. Whether the red ghost was
15:07
Speaker 1: one of those animals can never be known with certainty,
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Speaker 1: but if so, it raises one final and deeply unsettling question. Who, exactly,
15:18
Speaker 1: was the unfortunate soul whose bones remained strapped to its
15:21
Speaker 1: back for all those years? few creatures have become quite
15:28
Speaker 1: so synonymous with the North American wilderness as Sasquatch. For generations,
15:35
Speaker 1: stories have circulated of enormous man-like beings inhabiting remote forests
15:39
Speaker 1: and mountain ranges, glimpsed only briefly before disappearing back into
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Speaker 1: the wilderness. While such reports are most commonly associated with
15:48
Speaker 1: the Pacific Northwest, they are by no means confined to
15:52
Speaker 1: that region. The rugged highlands of central Arizona possess a
15:57
Speaker 1: long tradition of their own. Today, the alleged creature said
16:01
Speaker 1: to inhabit the forests of the Magollan Rim is widely
16:04
Speaker 1: known as the Magollan Monster, although reports bearing a striking
16:08
Speaker 1: resemblance to the modern legend stretch back to the closing
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Speaker 1: decades of the 19th century. Throughout the 1880s, newspapers across
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Speaker 1: the American West carried accounts of gigantic wild men living
16:21
Speaker 1: in isolated woodland. many of them describing encounters in or
16:25
Speaker 1: around the foothills of the Magollan Mountains. Witnesses spoke of
16:30
Speaker 1: an aggressive creature that appeared fiercely protective of its territory,
16:34
Speaker 1: attacking hunters and prospectors who ventured too deeply into the forest,
16:38
Speaker 1: and according to some accounts, even clashing with Apache war parties.
16:44
Speaker 1: Such encounters were not confined to the wilderness alone. Miners
16:49
Speaker 1: working in the region occasionally claimed that the creature had
16:51
Speaker 1: forced its way into remote cabins under cover of darkness,
16:55
Speaker 1: overturning furniture, ransacking stores, and stealing whatever food it could
16:59
Speaker 1: carry before vanishing once again amongst the trees. Although individual
17:05
Speaker 1: accounts varied in their finer details, the descriptions themselves remained
17:09
Speaker 1: remarkably consistent. Witnesses spoke of an enormous human-like figure covered
17:15
Speaker 1: from head to toe in pale or white hair, possessing
17:19
Speaker 1: broad shoulders, immense physical strength and unusually long talon-like fingernails.
17:26
Speaker 1: Some dismiss the reports as little more than sightings of
17:29
Speaker 1: a deranged hermit living in isolation. Others, however, remain convinced
17:35
Speaker 1: that the forests of Arizona concealed something far more extraordinary.
17:43
Speaker 1: The most famous encounter involving Arizona's alleged Sasquatch is said
17:48
Speaker 1: to have taken place during May of 1903, and was
17:52
Speaker 1: later reported by a local newspaper, the Williams News. The
17:57
Speaker 1: account came from a Colorado hunter named I.W. Stevens, who
18:01
Speaker 1: claimed to have witnessed an extraordinary event whilst trapping beavers
18:04
Speaker 1: near the Grand Canyon. During the course of his hunt,
18:09
Speaker 1: Stevens discovered a series of footprints unlike any he had
18:12
Speaker 1: encountered before, Although unmistakably human in shape, they were of
18:17
Speaker 1: such extraordinary size that he made a conscious effort to
18:21
Speaker 1: avoid following them, preferring not to discover what kind of
18:24
Speaker 1: creature could have left such tracks. Some time later he
18:29
Speaker 1: stopped beside a river to refill his canteen. As he
18:34
Speaker 1: crouched at the water's edge, an angry commotion further upstream
18:38
Speaker 1: drew his attention. Looking up, he found himself confronted by
18:43
Speaker 1: a remarkable scene. a mountain lion stood its ground on
18:47
Speaker 1: the opposite bank, its body low and tense as it
18:51
Speaker 1: growled towards an unseen adversary. Behind it, two young cubs
18:56
Speaker 1: huddled close together, seemingly unaware of the danger unfolding around them. Then,
19:03
Speaker 1: Stephen saw what had provoked the animal's fury. Standing only
19:08
Speaker 1: a short distance away was an immense human-like figure that
19:11
Speaker 1: he estimated to be close to eight feet tall. its
19:15
Speaker 1: entire body was concealed beneath a thick coat of pale
19:18
Speaker 1: grey or almost white hair, giving it an appearance unlike
19:22
Speaker 1: anything he had ever encountered in the wilderness. The creature's
19:27
Speaker 1: attention soon shifted. Breaking off its confrontation with the mountain lion,
19:33
Speaker 1: it turned towards Stevens, stooped to lift a heavy fallen
19:37
Speaker 1: tree branch, and began advancing, with a makeshift club gripped
19:41
Speaker 1: firmly in its hands. Panicking, Stevens fired his rifle into
19:47
Speaker 1: the air in the hope that the noise alone would
19:50
Speaker 1: drive the creature away. Instead, it seemed only to enrage it.
19:56
Speaker 1: Acting on instinct, he then swung his rifle towards the
19:59
Speaker 1: mountain lion and fired again, killing the animal instantly. To
20:04
Speaker 1: his immense relief, the towering figure abandoned its advance and
20:08
Speaker 1: turned its attention back towards the fallen predator. What happened
20:13
Speaker 1: next would remain with him for the rest of his life.
20:17
Speaker 1: The creature calmly killed the two cubs before settling amongst
20:21
Speaker 1: the three carcasses. Using long, talon-like fingernails, it tore open
20:27
Speaker 1: the bodies before lowering its head to feed. blood running
20:31
Speaker 1: freely through the pale hair that covered its chest and arms.
20:36
Speaker 1: Stevens eventually made his way back to civilization, but afterwards
20:40
Speaker 1: declared that he would never again hunt in the Grand
20:42
Speaker 1: Canyon region, warning others that they might not prove as
20:46
Speaker 1: fortunate should they encounter whatever monstrous inhabitant stalked those remote
20:51
Speaker 1: Arizona forests. Whilst the creature encountered by I.W. Stevens in
20:59
Speaker 1: 1903 bears a striking resemblance to the Sasquatch reported elsewhere
21:03
Speaker 1: across North America, the same cannot be said of another
21:07
Speaker 1: legend said to haunt the Arizona wilderness. A decade after
21:11
Speaker 1: Stevens' remarkable encounter, the Arizona Republican published an account that
21:16
Speaker 1: was stranger still. The story centered upon a region known
21:21
Speaker 1: as Bloody Basin. a bleak stretch of country named after
21:25
Speaker 1: a battle fought there in 1873 between the United States
21:28
Speaker 1: Cavalry and Apache Warriors. Published during May of 1913, the
21:35
Speaker 1: article recounted the experiences of three cattle hands, who claimed
21:39
Speaker 1: to have encountered a creature unlike anything they had ever
21:43
Speaker 1: seen before. The men had been driving a herd of
21:47
Speaker 1: cattle across the basin when the animals suddenly became restless.
21:53
Speaker 1: Although the surrounding terrain was largely flat and open, offering
21:56
Speaker 1: few places for a predator to conceal itself, the herd
22:00
Speaker 1: became increasingly reluctant to continue. Concerned that wolves or mountain
22:06
Speaker 1: lions might be nearby, two of the cowboys rode out
22:09
Speaker 1: to investigate, whilst the third remained behind with the cattle.
22:14
Speaker 1: The agitation only intensified. As the two riders circled the
22:20
Speaker 1: edge of the herd with their rifles drawn, a shrill,
22:23
Speaker 1: piercing cry suddenly echoed across the basin. Moments later, something
22:30
Speaker 1: emerged from behind a small patch of brush. When later
22:35
Speaker 1: questioned by the newspaper, neither man could adequately describe what
22:40
Speaker 1: they had seen. The creature possessed a long, slender body,
22:44
Speaker 1: supported by a set of oversized limbs that bent sharply
22:48
Speaker 1: at unnatural angles. giving it an appearance that one witness
22:52
Speaker 1: likened to a gigantic insect. As it shuffled across the
22:56
Speaker 1: open ground towards them, it emitted another deafening shriek and
23:01
Speaker 1: seemed to gather speed with every step. The cattle reacted instantly.
23:07
Speaker 1: Several steers broke from the herd and stampeded across the
23:10
Speaker 1: basin towards the remaining cowboy, whilst the two riders held
23:15
Speaker 1: their ground and opened fire. several rounds struck the advancing creature.
23:24
Speaker 1: Instead of falling, however, it reared upwards onto its hind
23:27
Speaker 1: limbs until it towered over the mounted men, despite the
23:31
Speaker 1: height afforded by their horses. Then it let out another
23:35
Speaker 1: ear-splitting scream before its body began to change. The transformation
23:42
Speaker 1: was unlike anything either witness believed possible. The creature's body
23:48
Speaker 1: rippled and twisted as though its bones no longer possessed
23:51
Speaker 1: any fixed arrangement. Its head appeared to collapse in upon itself,
23:56
Speaker 1: disappearing into its torso, whilst the elongated limbs folded backwards
24:01
Speaker 1: before withdrawing into the body altogether. For several bewildering seconds,
24:08
Speaker 1: the entire creature seemed to turn itself inside out. Then,
24:13
Speaker 1: just as suddenly... New limbs emerged in different positions. Without
24:19
Speaker 1: another sound, the bizarre entity turned and began making its
24:24
Speaker 1: way back towards the brush from which it had first appeared.
24:28
Speaker 1: The stunned cowboys eventually recovered their senses and fired several
24:32
Speaker 1: more shots after the retreating creature, but it vanished before
24:36
Speaker 1: they could tell whether any had found their mark. No
24:40
Speaker 1: blood could be seen where it had stood. nor had
24:43
Speaker 1: its movement shown any sign of pain or impairment. Their
24:47
Speaker 1: conclusion was simply that the noise of the gunfire had
24:50
Speaker 1: frightened it, whilst its hide had proved too thick for
24:54
Speaker 1: the bullets to penetrate. No further sightings of the Bloody
24:59
Speaker 1: Basin monster were ever documented. Even so, the encounter was
25:04
Speaker 1: enough to establish a lasting reputation for the area, and
25:08
Speaker 1: for a considerable time afterwards... a number of local ranchers
25:12
Speaker 1: chose to move elsewhere rather than risk crossing Bloody Basin
25:16
Speaker 1: by themselves. These were by no means the only strange
25:24
Speaker 1: creatures said to inhabit the Arizona frontier. Amongst the most
25:29
Speaker 1: remarkable is the account of a gigantic winged animal reportedly
25:33
Speaker 1: shot near the outskirts of Tombstone during the closing years
25:36
Speaker 1: of the 19th century. Contemporary newspapers describe the carcass of
25:41
Speaker 1: the creature, whose appearance drew immediate comparisons to a prehistoric pterodactyl.
25:47
Speaker 1: As with the tale of the Red Ghost, however, the
25:50
Speaker 1: physical remains were never preserved and have long since disappeared,
25:54
Speaker 1: leaving only the testimony of those who claim to have
25:56
Speaker 1: witnessed them. Whether any of these extraordinary accounts contain a
26:01
Speaker 1: kernel of truth remains impossible to determine, yet one detail
26:06
Speaker 1: they all have in common is their settings. from the
26:10
Speaker 1: forests of the Magollan Rim to the deserts and canyons
26:13
Speaker 1: of central Arizona, each unfolded in places where human settlement
26:17
Speaker 1: was sparse and the natural world still held the upper hand.
26:22
Speaker 1: Even today, vast expanses of the state remain remarkably isolated,
26:27
Speaker 1: and reports of strange creatures continue to emerge from regions
26:31
Speaker 1: where few people ever venture. For now, the creatures of
26:36
Speaker 1: the Old West continue to occupy that uncertain ground between
26:39
Speaker 1: history and legend. And somewhere amongst the deserts, forests and
26:46
Speaker 1: lonely mountain ranges of the American Southwest, there are those
26:50
Speaker 1: who remain convinced that not every monster sighting belongs to
26:55
Speaker 1: the past. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.