Latest / Hidden Creatures: Stories, Sightings, and the Search for What Hides in the Dark / Episode 6: SPECIAL EDITION: Cryptid Geek Out - Behind the Scenes with Matt Duvall

Transcript

Episode 6: SPECIAL EDITION: Cryptid Geek Out - Behind the Scenes with Matt Duvall · Hidden Creatures: Stories, Sightings, and the Search for What Hides in the Dark

• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to Hidden Creatures, Stories, Sightings, and the Search for What Hides in the Dark.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Join us as we explore mysterious encounters, legendary creatures, and unexplained stories from around the world.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: From eyewitness accounts to local folklore, we'll follow the clues and search for the truth behind the unknown.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Some stories may be unsettling, eerie, or hard to forget.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Listener discretion and advice.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: Something is out there.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: Waiting.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: Join us as we step into the shadows and follow the trail to the unknown.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_01: This is Hidden Creatures.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: Let's begin.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_06: Welcome back to Hidden Creatures.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_06: I'm your host, Lori Chen.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_06: And with me today is my awesome co-host and researcher, Kristen Jones.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_06: Hi everyone.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_06: On today's special edition episode, the Hidden Creatures Podcast team is heading deep into the world of cryptids as we get an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of the North American Cryptid Museum in Plano, Texas, with none other than Ranger Matt Duval.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_06: If Matt's name sounds familiar, it should.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_06: His incredible Bigfoot encounter was featured in episode two of Hidden Creatures.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_06: It's one of our most fascinating and talks about episodes.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_06: So if you haven't listened to it yet, be sure to go check it out after today's show.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_06: This time, though, we're stepping out of the studio and into the museum itself.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_06: Whether you're a longtime cryptid enthusiast or just cryptid curious, this is a special behind-the-scenes adventure you won't want to miss.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_06: Ranger Matt takes us through exhibits featuring some of the most famous cryptids ever reported, including Mothman and the legendary chupacabra.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_06: But that's just the beginning.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_06: We also dive into some lesser-known creatures that have terrified witnesses for generations, like the eerie rougaroo of Louisiana folklore and the terrifying owl witch known as La Chusa.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'll let our researcher Kristen tell you more about them.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, Lori.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: So this is what I found.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Humans have told stories about enormous serpents, lake creatures, wild humanoids, giant birds, and other unusual animals for thousands of years.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Some became part of mythology.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Others described animals unfamiliar to the storyteller.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like in the Middle Ages, they were called wild men and monsters.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: European traditions contain numerous accounts of hairy, human-like beings living beyond civilized territory.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: This becomes particularly relevant to the later history of Bigfoot.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: In the 1950s, cryptozoology becomes a recognizable field.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: French-Belgian zoologist Bernard Huivelnitz helped establish cryptozoology as a distinct pursuit during the mid-20th century.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of simply collecting monster stories, the idea was to examine reports as potentially useful zoological evidence.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: By the 20th century, researchers were attempting to evaluate eyewitness descriptions, footprints, hair, photographs, sounds, alleged bodies, geographic distribution, historical records, and indigenous traditions.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you, Kristen.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_06: I think we are almost ready to geek out even more over cryptid history, folklore, eyewitness accounts, and the stories behind some of North America's strangest creatures.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_06: But before we do, we wanted to share our personal favorite and most terrifying cryptids.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_06: Loch Miss Monster is the one I want to be real the most because she's mystical, she's in Scotland, and if she could talk, she'd have one of those fantastic accents.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: I agree.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: And Scotland is known for their deep traditions of folklore.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: It feels magical there.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so why not Nessie?
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: The one that really scares me is the Mothman.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: People lose time when they see him.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: It seems like the Mothman is trying to warn people.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's got red eyes, and there's so many sightings of him deep in the Appalachians.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: And it's only a matter of time before people see him again.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_06: I'll say the name of the one that is most disturbing to me and without sounding too Harry Potter reference-y, he who shall not be named is the Wendigo.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_06: I won't talk about it anymore, but in our tour with Ranger Matt, he absolutely does.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: Speaking of Ranger Matt, our Crypta Museum tour starts now.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_02: So I think you'll enjoy.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_06: We do start to see a lot of similar stories all over the world in different time periods.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_02: In places that shouldn't have connections.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_02: We run into that a lot too.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_02: And I find that very fascinating.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_02: That almost every culture has its unquiet dead, it has its big, tall, hairy, hominid giants, it has little people, you know.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_03: And giants?
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_02: Giants, absolutely.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_02: And if you're near water, something living water, you know.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_06: Black mess.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_02: Black mess.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_02: Love it.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_06: That water is so black and so.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_06: Oh, it's very dark.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_06: Very long.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_06: It's like something clearly could live in.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_02: That whole uh the Great Glen, that whole area is a glacial rib.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_02: So that's why those lake, those locks are so so deep.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_06: Black and glossy.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_06: It's almost eerie looking into the water.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_02: We had a Scottish lady here a few weeks ago, and it was hilarious.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_02: I ran into her in the gift shop, and she was looking at this Lake Monster plush, and she went, you're messy here.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_02: And I go, No, we're North America.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_02: And then she goes, Well, what's that?
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, Well, there's lake monsters all over the world.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_02: There's quite a few in North America.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_06: Lake Champlain has more.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_02: There's like the pogo, there's champ.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, champ.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_02: There's uh we have the bare legged monster in there, and you can see the entire length that's supposed to be because it's on the floor.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_02: So that's fun.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_02: What mainly happens in here is during our hunt season, which starts September 19th, you can get a VIP package.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_02: So you like get to come back here and get some treats and things, and then they bring you in the hunt.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_02: Also, we have an event called Cryptids and Cocktails that happens here.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_02: So it is during our off season.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_02: We have one more.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_02: It's gonna be with Lyle Blackburn from Bigfoot World, and it is sold out, unfortunately.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_02: But however, once hunt season's done and uh towards the end of November, they will start back up again.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_03: Birthday! Yeah!
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_02: And like those little things to eat, everybody gets a drink or two, and uh we talk about a particular subject.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_02: It's fun.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_02: We did Dark Legends of Ireland was my first one.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we don't get to talk about that a lot here because we're North American, so that was neat.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_02: And then Dark Legends of the Ocean.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_02: That was awesome.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_02: That is terrifying.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_04: I got chills into the ocean.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_04: There's stuff down there.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_02: There's so much that I had to really narrow down what I was gonna talk about because the I mean it's 71% of the earth, yeah, you know.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_02: So if you don't want to be observed, being in the bottom of the ocean or a desert or something would be a good idea, you know?
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_02: Under the sand, under the earth, too.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_02: There's lots of places.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_02: I can't go rainforest, and I'm just going like a good day.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_02: It's because it's inconvenient, uncomfortable, and dangerous.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_02: And if we could send drones, I think they'd do well, maybe, except for all the foliage.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm chatty.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_06: Richard's chatty too, he's just focused.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he's doing drones.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_06: He's got his Ghostbusters packed.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_06: All right, you're green, so you're good to go.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_02: So we have a rad gift shop too, which is really fun because we get to source these things.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of this that is made by our people, especially over there.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_02: Because the haunted house world, which we also are, is very crappy, you know.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_02: So it ties tends to tie into that.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_02: So let me check.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_02: Hey Absolut.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_02: That's Ranger Rick.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_02: I'm checking where we have people.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_02: Cool.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_02: So I would love to show you our Texas cryptid shack.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_02: So come with me.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_02: We often start in here.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, I see the chipacabra.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we've got both flavors.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_02: Because if we only had one, everybody would ask, where's where's the chipacabra?
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_02: People here know this one because obviously we see you know, video of them running around West Texas, all of that.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_02: The behavior is the same, which is why the name ended up being the same as well.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_02: The OG in Puerto Rico in the 1990s spread to Latin America.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_02: That's what this footage is here.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_02: It caused a panic because there were hundreds of dead animals being found.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_02: And it's normal for ranchers to lose one to disease or animals, but it was a lie.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_02: So this whole legend formed around it.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_02: And as you can see, very much cryptid of his time because of this very alien-like face.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_02: This is the 90s, so X Files, Roswell, and Area 51 are popping off at the time.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_02: Those teeth, though, that's something else.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's uh I actually have met a woman in the museum who claims to have seen this chupacabra, and she said that those spines came off like an iguanas, which was interesting.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_02: We get a lot of people who've had experiences, and since we're not judgmental here, they're willing to share a lot of the has this cryptid been seen anywhere besides Puerto Rico?
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_02: Uh yes, in Mexico and in parts of like Central America and kind of spread from one place, the whole legend.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_02: And this is we have figured out a mangy dog or coyote.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_02: But again, behavior is similar, they tend to leave bodies drained to blood.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_02: This one prefers chickens, as you can see.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_02: I call them a good boy.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_02: On this video reel, it's not showing right now, but um, you can see one running around in West Texas, and there was one lady who actually found one dead on the side of the road, had a taxidermy to put in her house.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_04: You've heard that one, yes, in Quero, Cuero, Texas?
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_04: I believe so, yes.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_04: Isn't that the yes?
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_04: That's it.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_02: That's a video right there.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_06: And she put it in her freezer, right?
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_02: No, she had a taxidermy, it's in her living room, or at least it was back then, which is wild.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_02: And then if you look on the map over here, uh all of the cryptids in this room are on the map.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_02: We have news stories.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_02: This is a fun one too, because we love doing deep dive cryptid because there's so many out there that have only appeared, you know, once or twice or only in one place.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_02: So this is really before dogman sightings in Texas is in the 1970s.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_02: Cedar Park is in the hill country, and very common cryptid behavior standing just inside the tree line where you can see the, or they can see you, but you can't see them.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_02: Red glowing eyes, going after livestock as well, and then just gone.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_02: We're a big state.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_02: We have everything but tundra and volcanoes here.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_02: So there's lots of places to go, lots of places to hide.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_02: And it often it seems like they may move on to the next area and maybe they get a different name there, which is one reason why we end up with 500 different names for Bigfoot because everybody has their local one, you know.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_04: Height-wise on the Bear Creek.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_02: This is right about it.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_02: So six-foot-ish, not as tall as like a full dog man seven foot kind of height.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_02: We make them as close to what's reported as possible.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_02: So that's a fun part.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_02: And then, of course, so she's my favorite in here.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_02: Wow, La La Chusa, it means the barn owl in Spanish.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_02: See y'all catching references, and that's great.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_02: She's witchy, she's an owl, she's a lady, she is mystical, and a lot of her legend involves her having been a healer on both sides of the Rio Grande, and then something happened to her, which ended up with this.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_02: It actually actually reminds me of Medusa a little bit in that regard because she's angry, she's salty, I don't blame her.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_02: She is what your abuela warns you about in the Rio Grande Valley.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_02: You know, every culture has that.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_02: Don't go down by the water, don't go in the woods, you know, and it's a fun one.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, owls freak people out, and they always have.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_02: There are a few cultures that enjoy them.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_02: You know, the Greeks saw them as a symbol of wisdom, the Zuni honor them, but a lot of native peoples are very wary of them.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_02: And you see this body plan elsewhere too.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_02: The harpies of sirens of Greece, the Strix of Eastern Europe, the stakini of the Seminole people, all very, very similar.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_02: And she screeches, she swoops out on cars, she uh scares urban explorer YouTubers who are like exploring an abandoned warehouse in South Texas in the South.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_02: All right, if you want to join me in the main museum, awesome.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_02: So, as I mentioned, we have a whole lake monster on the floor.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_02: Wow, this is a fun one because it's a different body plan to what you usually see.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of lake monsters get that plesiosaur kind of image, but this one is much more like a mosasaur with crocodilian type skeutes and armor, and it does go all the way down there.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_04: And where has this been?
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_02: So, this is the Utah-Idaho border, and Fair Lake is where it was from, and this one has a fair amount of reports, as you know, there's a lot of of lake and river cryptids in in the US and Canada.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_04: I've not heard of this one, yeah.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_02: It's a little more obscure.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_02: Like I said, we like to go.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, we have Moth Man of Bigfoot and things like that, but we like to go a little deep.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, the Riguru behind you.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, that one fascinated.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_02: It is really fascinating.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_06: What do you know about him?
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah or her.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_02: It's interesting for a couple reasons.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_02: First of all, this comes from France and French history and folklore because of the Beast of Jevardon in the 18th century.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_02: France had more wolf attacks and more werewolf reports for a very long time than anywhere else in Europe.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_02: So when the Acadian people came from France, originally settled in northeastern Canada, they brought that folklore with them.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_02: And then eventually they were kicked out after the British won a war, they came to Louisiana and became the CJs.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_02: It's also fun because this is a temporary curse.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_02: So it's kind of a way of enforcing social norms.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_02: Because don't do that, or a rougar, you might turn into a rougaroo, do do that, or you might turn into one.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_02: One of the biggest things is missing Lent for a certain number of time, certain number of years, um, can cause you to turn.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_02: And the fun thing is it's a temporary curse because you have two options if you become a Ruggaroo.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_02: Uh you either run around in the bayou for 101 nights as a wolf, man, or woman, or you bite somebody else and make it their problem.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_02: So that ties into that French werewolf.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_04: Question Does this originate from a spell or witchcraft?
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_02: Uh it is connected to mystical spooky things.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I have, I think, seen something about someone being hearse in that way.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_02: But it seems to, in the tradition, happen naturally when people deviate.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_04: Like karma.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_02: Exactly.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_02: And that that's often the case with a lot of cryptids.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_04: It's almost like a spirit.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe a spirit that gets bonded with you that you get stuck with for a while and then it wanders away.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_04: And it wears away.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_04: Do people remember?
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yes.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_02: And there are people that claim to be one at some point.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, not during it.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_02: During the day, you're a normal human.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's one of those things.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_02: So it's like the Mononegal in the Philippines or a lot of those Asian cripples where you're a normal person during the day, but at nights it happens.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_02: You know, what else would you all?
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_02: No, the the South Monster.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_02: It's very po very, very popular in the early 70s.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_02: It was indeed.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_02: Uh my dad was from Texas.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, love it.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_03: So you're right there.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_03: There was of course my dad was already out of Texas.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_03: But uh he he had heard some people talk to people and moved some of the names of some of the people that had reported to me.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm not surprised.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_02: That's just across the border, you know?
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_02: And you said it right.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of people say Fuke or Folk.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_02: It is foul.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_02: No, it has to be foul.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_02: I saw the legend of Auggy Creek as a kid, and it absolutely terrified me.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it wasn't about that.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_02: Well, based on it.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and it was a little bit sensationalist, and it was a docky drama.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_02: But they were on the ground after people have had sightings, which is always a good thing.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_02: So they were there while things were basically still going on.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_02: We had a lot of video screens, there's a lot of interactive screens in here too.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_02: Where you can swipe left or right, is this real or not?
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_02: Which is fun.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_02: And like you like I said, lots of maps and things.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_02: We've got Bigfoot crankcasts.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_04: There's so much in here.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_02: There's a lot, and we're about to expand.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_02: So it's gonna be even bigger in a very short amount of time.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, definitely come back.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_02: It's fascinating, isn't it?
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_06: Oh, with the bridge and all the people dying.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_06: It's it's scary.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_06: Again, red eyes.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_02: Indeed.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_02: It's so common, big foot too.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_06: I haven't heard red eyes for bigger, but okay.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_02: It's not all of them are reported that way.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_02: It seems to be some of them can't reported before.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_02: And then you get the amber eyes who are more like dogman kind of creatures.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, Mopman is the most popular cryptic in the museum.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_02: And it's because I think he really states to younger people.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_02: Anyone that's you know, like younger millennials and younger than that, because they often understand what it's like to be an outsider, and certainly that is what a cryptic is something just on the edge, you know, and so we have young folks all the time.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_02: They're coming here with their mouth and stuff on.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's fun.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: It comes from legendary.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_02: Indeed, West Virginia, Point Pleasant, and the surrounding region.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_02: And there's a statue there, there's a museum there now.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_02: It's been good for that little town because you know, it's just this little place that most people don't even notice on the Ohio River.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_02: And they are about to have their big festival of the year, which is in September.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_06: Do you have anyone travelers that come in here saying that they've seen Mother's?
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_02: I have not yet because I feel like it's been gone for a while.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_02: That's a good point.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_02: Because yes, 1967 was a long time ago.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_02: What has kept it going is Mothman becomes this omen of doom for things going down that are bad and gets inserted into various other narratives.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_02: Supposedly, before Reactor 4 went up at Chernobyl, they saw this big black terrible bird, is what was reported.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_02: And I don't know if that's fake lore that comes in later or if that actually happened, but it definitely got tied to Mothman.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_02: Is he trying to warn us?
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_02: Is he trying to enjoy the suffering?
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_02: We don't know.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_06: I tend to lean towards probably something interdimensional, or maybe aliens, but like but in thinking about extraterrestrial.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, there there are people that connect it to you.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_02: But for me, I mean, like, I read something once of and I don't know whether this happened or not, but the report was that some people went to the TNT area, which is an abandoned World War II's munitions place.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_02: That's where the very first sighting happened outside Port Pleasant in 1966.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_02: And supposedly they did some kind of ritual or something, and then Mothman shows up.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_02: So again, I don't know if that happened, but if it did, that's very interesting.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_06: Hmm.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_02: You know?
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_06: That ties into some things we've heard about alien craft over like nuclear.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, that's and military bases.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_02: We do have some aliens because there's overlap.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_02: The UFO world, the paranormal world, the cryptic world are all interconnected.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_02: We also have the Dover Demon in that little shack over there around the corner, and a few others that may be connected in some way.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_02: We like to mix it up.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_02: Like the squonk over here comes from lumberjack folklore.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_02: So, like the jackalope and also the hodag and s and the hoop snake and various others, this was Americana folklore.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_02: And it's not that we're having sightings, but it's fun to talk about.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_06: He's really cute.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_06: He is I would I would keep him.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_02: The problem is the story is he is ugly, he knows he's ugly, he cries all the time.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_02: And if you try to pick him up, unfortunately, he dissolves into a pool of tears.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_02: So, yeah, I know everybody gives that face.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_02: I love him too.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_02: He's relatable, and people love this one too.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_02: I think for that reason.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_02: You know, most people have struggled with their parents at some time in their lives.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_02: We all know sorrow.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_02: So it's kind of like an emblem of, you know, what we've all kind of been through, you know.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_02: But some of these, like I said, the Adlet, for example, up there, that's Canadian, much more obscure.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_02: That's from Inuit tradition.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yes, Jersey Devil, by the way.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, that's a good one.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_06: I think there were recent sightings, somewhat recent sightings.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_02: They're still seeing.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_02: If you've ever been to the pine barons, it's fascinating.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_02: I was down there once for a like post-wedding party on the Jersey shore, and it's pine trees, mist, and pine needles on the ground.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_02: There was no ground cover, and it's spooky.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_02: And there's Bigfoot stuff there, there's apparently a giant snake, there's abandoned haunted ghost settlements.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_02: It's you know, one of those places.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_06: Why does this look so familiar to me?
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_02: It looks familiar because of this, and the reason for I am terrified of this one.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, you should be the one I am the most afraid of.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_02: You should be.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_02: The reason that we have this sign like this is we want to be respectful of native communities.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_02: And in the Chippewa, Ojibwe, and other Anishinabe peoples, this is real.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_02: This is not something that is a joke.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_02: And over there on that side, to the Dine or Navajo, that is real too.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_02: And so we don't want to be disrespectful, and they don't like saying the name, so when possible, we don't say it either.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_02: We're actually changing this up a little bit because the traditional native um depiction is a very tall, very gaunt person with a human head.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_02: The antlers and deer head kind of got added later on as part of pop culture.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_02: So we're gonna have both.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_04: And I heard it was almost more wolf-like, too.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_02: I haven't heard that as much, but I mean they do have sharp teeth.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_02: One of the things that you have to do in order to become one is bite off and eat your own lips, which is wild.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_02: So they always have their teeth on display.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_02: The thing that a lot of people don't know about both of these is if you ask the native peoples, they're very rare.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_02: It's not something that happens very often because you have to have a specific set of circumstances for them to occur.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_02: Here, it's most often connected to cannibalism and really bad winters, which is still a thing, but not as much as it would have been, say, the Donner Party era, you know, and all of that kind of stuff.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_03: You want to see some more?
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_03: Wow, yes.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_03: And also regional.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_02: Uh yes, the Great Lakes and northeast of there, mainly.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_02: And also only reported during cold weather.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_02: So this is a winter hazard, not a I love it.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_02: Bigfoot has a pet squirrel over there, which I think is the squirrel is developing its own backstory, which is funny.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_02: I think that they're as complicated as humans are, and I think some of them just want to be left alone.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_02: Some of them are aggressive, some of them, you know, have uses for people, and others don't want to be seen.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_02: What keeps bringing them to us is their curiosity.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_06: They're deeply curious why humans don't want brought to Well, that's going to do it for this special edition of Hidden Creatures.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_06: A huge thank you to Ranger Matt Duval for taking us behind the scenes at the North American Cryptid Museum and sharing his incredible knowledge, stories, and passion for all things cryptid.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_00: We definitely had a blast touring the museum and geeking out over all the cryptids.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully you enjoyed it and learned about a few creatures you may not have heard of before.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: If you're ever in the Plano area, be sure to visit the North American Cryptid Museum and experience it for yourself.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: Trust us, there's way more to see than we could ever fit into one episode.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_05: These are the encounters as they happened, told by the people who lived through them.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_05: Whether they reveal the unknown or simply deepen the mystery, that's for you to decide.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_05: And if you've had a terrible experience you'd like to share on this podcast, email us at hiddencreaturespodcast at gmail.com.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_05: Until next time, stay safe and don't wander too far along in the dark.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_05: We have plenty more thrilling stories to share with you.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_05: And maybe one day we'll share your story too.