#georgiabigfoothoax — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #georgiabigfoothoax, aggregated by home.social.
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Bigfoot remains a moneymaking hoax
Once again, someone has rather uncreatively posed a hairy man prop as an amazing find and put it on display for all the rubes to pay to see.
This time, it’s at the New York State Fair.
Dack
Self-titled Bigfoot expert Charles “Snake” Stuart claims to have found a dead Bigfoot specimen in the Adirondack Mountains in October 2024. A hastily cobbled together website at BigfootRemains.com shows the body. The site also contains a Press Release which details a trail of nonsense that describes the 8ft creature as Neanderthal-human hybrid coined “Dack”. There is sciencey fluff about his technique and the DNA results. He pretends to do a news interview. He wants money for more research. It’s all laughably bad.
There are many reports of Bigfoot in the New York mountains, so the basis for the claim was not extreme (as cryptid claims go). This is very much a pop cryptid example as the story is more about making bank than making history with a scientific find. There is nothing about this that is remotely believable; it’s designed for entertainment.
While I haven’t sought out the Bigfoot community response, I suspect it is overwhelmingly negative. They are pretty serious folk. Oh wait… this just floated in from infamous legit serious Bigfoot guy Matt Moneymaker with the BRFO:
Oh, he’s pissed, poor thing.
It’s likely there will be a few who are so gullible that they think this is real. Nevertheless, it’s getting some publicity so I bet it will be popular. For my own little side show, I hastily cobbled together a history of related cryptid gaffs.
Hank
Before there was Dack, there was Hank. In fact, Dack looks a lot like Hank. Maybe they are related. Hank was a hoaxed body created by Rick Dyer in 2014 made of of latex, foam and camel hair that Dyer and a partner toured around the US charging people $10 a head. According to the San Antonio Express News, they pocketed $60,000 before the jig was up. Dyer had claimed that he had shot the creature in Texas. This was a classic story of “fool me twice” because Dyer was already an established Bigfoot con artist so you were kind of daft if you fell for this a second time.
Rick Dyer and HankGeorgia Bigfoot Body
Dyer and Matthew Whitton claimed to have encountered several Bigfoots in the Georgia woods in 2008. They dragged one huge dead body out and put it in a freezer, releasing a photo to the press. Partnering with well established Bigfoot huckster Tom Biscardi, they held a press conference revealing more photos. Many Bigfoot believers wanted this to be “the real deal” as Biscardi called it. But the hoax was short-lived. When the time came to examine the real body, the fakers bolted and the jig was up. It was a suit with added animal guts. This is the episode Moneymaker cites in his Facebook rant screenshotted above. I think these chuckleheads were trying to pull off another Minnesota Iceman caper, but they were too witless.
Minnesota Iceman
These hoaxes followed a pretty successful gaff that is still discussed today: the Minnesota Iceman. Originally known as the Siberskoye Creature, Frank D. Hansen’s specimen of a hairy ape man encased in ice, made the rounds in the US and Canada in 1968. Hansen’s tale of how he came to have the creature changed repeatedly. It had been found floating as a block of ice off the coast of Siberia (if this sounds like a Scooby Doo episode, that’s because it was), or it shot in Vietnam and transferred to the US, or Hansen shot it himself in Minnesota. The Iceman garnered attention from the founders of cryptozoology Bernard Heuvelmans and Ivan Sanderson who visited Hansen’s specimen (still encased in ice) and came away believing it was a real hominid carcass. Heuvelmans even wrote about it as real. The story of the Iceman is wild. Hit the TetZoo site for more. The conclusion is, you guessed it, it was a hoax – a latex prop made to appear like it had been shot in the eye. Creative! The ice did the job of obscuring the details. Clever! However, when government officials came sniffing around, Hansen stated the real body had been retrieved by the owner and he was using a replica prop instead. Convenient.
Step Right Up
There are many other examples of cryptid hoaxes – constructed, dead, or alive – that have been displayed in public for a fee. P.T. Barnum was great at this. He gave us the Cardiff Giant (actually a replica of a fake), and the Feejee mermaid in the mid 1800s. The “real” fake Cardiff Giant was supposedly a lithified giant man whose appearance was a sensation in New York in 1869. Created by George Hull, who spend a large amount of cash to have it constructed, he cleared a tidy profit by the end. Funny enough, a Facebook comment on “Dack” called it the Cardiff Giant 2.0. Eh, that commenter forgot a few examples in between.
The infamous Hodag of the late 1890s was a constructed beast from the Wisconsin woods that was so popular that it became the mascot for the town of Rhinelander. Gene Shepard was a noted storyteller and jokester, it’s unlikely many people believed this mash-up monster was real. Today, the Hodag has his own store and traveling shop that appears at cryptid town festivals.
The Jersey Devil, known in 1785 as the Leeds Devil, was advertised as being live on exhibit at Philadelphia’s Arch Street Museum for 10-cents admission. The “devil” was a cruelly concocted hoax where a kangaroo was painted with fake wings and prodded to jump around. The stunt didn’t save the sad excuse for a museum, which closed.
I’m sure I’m missing some examples. What we are seeing here is the art of the hoax. The audience always forgets that real discoveries aren’t made this way. They want to hope, and get a glimpse of something fascinating. Instead, they either get a rude awakening or they laugh at the joke that they willingly fell for. Maybe that’s worth a dime. But not much more.
#Adirondacks #Bigfoot #BigfootHoax #cryptidHoax #fakeBigfoot #GeorgiaBigfootHoax #hoax #MinnesotaIceman #NewYorkStateFair #RickDyer #TravelingHoaxes
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Pop Cryptid Spectator 14
Thanks for joining me for another edition of Pop Cryptid Spectator. This week I have some news and thoughts and we go in search of the legend of the Nahuelito, a lake monster whose popularity predated Nessie and which is a great example of a Pop Cryptid.
In this edition:
- Cryptid Check on Big Picture Science
- Update on Pueblo mystery creature
- Bigfoot museum spared from fire damage
- Faking a fake nightcrawler
- Nahuelito represents!
Cryptid Check on Big Picture Science
The Big Picture Science podcast featured cryptids this week. The episode kicked off with a flashback to the Georgia Bigfoot Hoax press conference from 2008. I remember that day. It was ridiculous. Lots of people had high hopes, and I admit I also was thinking this was going to be the big reveal. It was a big scam. Tom Biscardi spearheaded the press event that garnered worldwide attention. We watched on CNN as he referred to reporters as “yous” and showed images of a Bigfoot costume in a freezer, even a close up on the teeth. Biscardi was a Bigfoot enthusiast (not the football coach) but he will be forever remembered (not fondly) as more of a gambler and charlatan. Biscardi continues to make exaggerated and insultingly credulous Bigfoot content.
Then, the host interviews Chris Rogers, Assemblymember in the California legislature pushing the Bill to name California the state cryptid. (See PCS 8 and 10.) He gets a number of things wrong in his comments to reveal he doesn’t know much about cryptid history, but he is transparent that the goal of the bill now is a tourism ploy. No surprise there. At this point, the bill might just pass because of the public interest.
In addition, Benjamin Radford then appears to talk about Bigfoot and cryptids in popular culture. Michael Branch talks about the Jackalope (as reviewed in PCS 3), and Boris Worm discusses real life searches for new and bizarre animals. Make sure to check out this episode from a top science podcast.
Update on Pueblo mystery creature
Last week in PCS 13, I shared the news story from Colorado of an unidentified mystery animal that was captured on video in a residential area. Since then, the story expanded worldwide because people LOVE opining on what it could be. Their comments are painful to read. While ridiculous commenters said it was a chupacabra or a skinwalker (just STFU with that), wildlife officials said it may be a raccoon. I was leaning towards coati. However, a second video was posted that showed the animal outside the window eating cat food. Unfortunately, the video was obscured by the lighting and dirty glass, and not altogether clear. However, the animal has obvious injuries on its face indicating it may have escaped from a cage, been in a wildfire, or has some other misfortune. While the silhouette does resemble a raccoon, the coloring is odd, more uniformly dark brown, so the ID is still a mystery. I’ve heard nothing more about the animals being seen again, or captured. I hope the local interest does result in it’s capture so we can put this to rest.
Just to be clear, this is not a bear. It is too small. The ears look small for a raccoon as well but the animals has injuries that may be obscuring its identification.Bigfoot museum spared from fire damage
A cabin behind the Bigfoot discovery museum in Felton, California suffered damage after a fire. The cause of the fire is unknown but did not spread to the main museum owned by Michael Rugg where the Bigfoot memorabilia was stored. The museum was recently sold.
https://www.goodtimes.sc/bigfoot-museum-property-fire/
Cryptid Event!
Washington, DC, May 5, 2025 6:00 pm-8:30 pm
Profs & Pints DC: Encountering Cryptids, featuring Joshua Barton, lecturer in English at Virginia Commonwealth University and scholar of horror. Go to Popville for more info.Faking a fake nightcrawler
There was a bit of drama in the extremely online cryptid community this week as a budding filmmaker says he was the one who hoaxed the Yosemite video (Facebook) showing the pair of Fresno Nightcrawlers. Everyone knew this video was a hoax to play off the original FN video (that still remains mysterious as to its origin). Yet, some people are even doubting this guy was the real hoaxer. Instead, they claim he’s trying to just get attention. Personally, his YouTube channel was the original host for this video 14 years ago. He describes how he did it and where, so I think it really was him. It is interesting, though, that claiming responsibility for hoaxes is going to get noticed. It’s almost as if you can get a pass for hoaxing a cryptid because it’s already assumed to not be real. You will be recognized for your skills and how many people believed it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziB35K9shuI
The ubiquity of hoaxes weighs down the field of cryptozoology, making it difficult to take any of the creature claims that seriously. Hoaxes remain a viable explanation.
Nahuelito represents!
The city of Bariloche in Patagonia, Argentina will be getting a new tourist attraction – an iron sculpture of Nahuelito, the monster of Lake Nahuel Huapi. The large 6 x 4 meter statue will be placed near the water front and civic center so people can take a photo with it. It is expected to be in place by the town’s anniversary of May 3.
Bariloche has long embraced its local monster, first introduced to the wider world in the 1920s, even before the Loch Ness Monster. It’s most typically depicted as a plesiosaur, as is Nessie and many other lake monsters around the world. The town has used the creature as a tourism draw for decades: Nahuelito is its mascot in what they believe is an enchanted place.
Nahuelito assumed the common Nessie-shape over time (and also picks up some similar associated rumors). Like many modern cryptids, the Nahuelito’s existence is justified by relating it to a native folklore creature. But, as is almost ALWAYS the case, the historical view doesn’t match the modern view very well. Nahuelito is tied to a beast in the water known as El Cuero by the Mapuche people. However, El Cuero (the cow skin) was said to be like a “water tiger” or that looked like a piece of floating hide or leather. Except it ate people. Bizarre tales are used in all cultures to warn of dangers of the water and to be entertaining. It is hazardous to take those stories literally and use them to say that such a creature actually exists.
Culturally, legendary animals (which, as cryptids, are never clearly seen) tend to have evolving descriptions that coalesce around an iconic view for a while until the culture changes. The move from sea serpent to plesiosaur shape for lake monsters is a perfect example. (See PCS 7 for a review of A Natural History of Sea Serpents). We see other depictions of Nahuelito as a more of a thin, snakelike, loopy, sea serpent-type. But the plesiosaur shape became the default early on and has REALLY stuck, with the creature referred to as the Patagonian plesiosaur.
This doesn’t mean there are multiple animals of varying descriptions. The discrepancy suggests it isn’t a single type of animal (or two) at all; it’s a cultural interpretation of waves, logs, debris, or normal animals in the lake. The reported plesiosaur shape for lake monsters worldwide was influenced by literature and films from the early 20th century. Additionally, the land of Patagonia was commonly referred to as a sort of “lost world” where “antediluvian” (time before the Biblical flood) creatures still lived. This view also bolstered the common idea of a living plesiosaur.
Like Ogopogo, Champ, Nessie, and other lake monsters, the Nahuelito helps define the town of Bariloche. Its likeness is used in the town festivals and it has its own town park and documentary. People love their Nahuelito, particularly for the dollars it brings in for its association with the town. Its reputation is credited for the development of the town into the modern tourist location it is today.
The monster was featured on the TV show Destination Truth – an exaggerated show that promotes outlandish ideas to explain mysteries. For this cryptid, the show took up the concern by some that the creature is a result of nuclear experiments from the 1950s. Only in science fiction does a radiation event suddenly create bizarre mutant new species.
There are also claims that, like Loch Ness, geological conditions may cause some anomalies on the lake that are attributed to the monster. These natural claims also come with misinformation. For example, it is a common trope for people to believe that underwater caves connect the lake to the sea and the animals travel in and out. This is completely invalid – geology doesn’t work that way.
There have been hoax photos associated with the creature as well. Still, the creature is gaining in popularity as a pop cryptid. Some are pleased to call Nahuelito their favorite cryptid, but the dramatic sightings of old don’t occur much anymore.
For more, check out this Strange Magazine article. And here is a documentary on the town and its most famous hidden resident.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG64-e2sUe4
Thanks for reading! Send comments, questions, or suggestions to sharon(at)sharonahill.com. If you want to send some cryptid plushies or other merch, or books to review, email for my physical mailing address.
For more, click on Pop goes the Cryptid landing page. Make sure you subscribe to all the posts – it’s always free and I don’t send annoying spam.
Pop Cryptid Spectator is also available on Substack. Please share this with cryptid fans you know!
Pop Cryptid Spectator Pop Cryptid Spectator 17Pop Cryptid Spectator 16
Pop Cryptid Spectator 15
Pop Cryptid Spectator 13
Pop Cryptid Spectator 12
Pop Cryptid Spectator 11
#AICryptids #cryptids #cryptidtiktok #folklore #hoax #LochNessMonster #Nessie #nightmarefuel #TheSasqualogist #VeggieMan #WestVirginia
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Pop Cryptid Spectator 14
Thanks for joining me for another edition of Pop Cryptid Spectator. This week I have some news and thoughts and we go in search of the legend of the Nahuelito, a lake monster whose popularity predated Nessie and which is a great example of a Pop Cryptid.
In this edition:
- Cryptid Check on Big Picture Science
- Update on Pueblo mystery creature
- Bigfoot museum spared from fire damage
- Faking a fake nightcrawler
- Nahuelito represents!
Cryptid Check on Big Picture Science
The Big Picture Science podcast featured cryptids this week. The episode kicked off with a flashback to the Georgia Bigfoot Hoax press conference from 2008. I remember that day. It was ridiculous. Lots of people had high hopes, and I admit I also was thinking this was going to be the big reveal. It was a big scam. Tom Biscardi spearheaded the press event that garnered worldwide attention. We watched on CNN as he referred to reporters as “yous” and showed images of a Bigfoot costume in a freezer, even a close up on the teeth. Biscardi was a Bigfoot enthusiast (not the football coach) but he will be forever remembered (not fondly) as more of a gambler and charlatan. Biscardi continues to make exaggerated and insultingly credulous Bigfoot content.
Then, the host interviews Chris Rogers, Assemblymember in the California legislature pushing the Bill to name California the state cryptid. (See PCS 8 and 10.) He gets a number of things wrong in his comments to reveal he doesn’t know much about cryptid history, but he is transparent that the goal of the bill now is a tourism ploy. No surprise there. At this point, the bill might just pass because of the public interest.
In addition, Benjamin Radford then appears to talk about Bigfoot and cryptids in popular culture. Michael Branch talks about the Jackalope (as reviewed in PCS 3), and Boris Worm discusses real life searches for new and bizarre animals. Make sure to check out this episode from a top science podcast.
Update on Pueblo mystery creature
Last week in PCS 13, I shared the news story from Colorado of an unidentified mystery animal that was captured on video in a residential area. Since then, the story expanded worldwide because people LOVE opining on what it could be. Their comments are painful to read. While ridiculous commenters said it was a chupacabra or a skinwalker (just STFU with that), wildlife officials said it may be a raccoon. I was leaning towards coati. However, a second video was posted that showed the animal outside the window eating cat food. Unfortunately, the video was obscured by the lighting and dirty glass, and not altogether clear. However, the animal has obvious injuries on its face indicating it may have escaped from a cage, been in a wildfire, or has some other misfortune. While the silhouette does resemble a raccoon, the coloring is odd, more uniformly dark brown, so the ID is still a mystery. I’ve heard nothing more about the animals being seen again, or captured. I hope the local interest does result in it’s capture so we can put this to rest.
Just to be clear, this is not a bear. It is too small. The ears look small for a raccoon as well but the animals has injuries that may be obscuring its identification.Bigfoot museum spared from fire damage
A cabin behind the Bigfoot discovery museum in Felton, California suffered damage after a fire. The cause of the fire is unknown but did not spread to the main museum owned by Michael Rugg where the Bigfoot memorabilia was stored. The museum was recently sold.
https://www.goodtimes.sc/bigfoot-museum-property-fire/
Cryptid Event!
Washington, DC, May 5, 2025 6:00 pm-8:30 pm
Profs & Pints DC: Encountering Cryptids, featuring Joshua Barton, lecturer in English at Virginia Commonwealth University and scholar of horror. Go to Popville for more info.Faking a fake nightcrawler
There was a bit of drama in the extremely online cryptid community this week as a budding filmmaker says he was the one who hoaxed the Yosemite video (Facebook) showing the pair of Fresno Nightcrawlers. Everyone knew this video was a hoax to play off the original FN video (that still remains mysterious as to its origin). Yet, some people are even doubting this guy was the real hoaxer. Instead, they claim he’s trying to just get attention. Personally, his YouTube channel was the original host for this video 14 years ago. He describes how he did it and where, so I think it really was him. It is interesting, though, that claiming responsibility for hoaxes is going to get noticed. It’s almost as if you can get a pass for hoaxing a cryptid because it’s already assumed to not be real. You will be recognized for your skills and how many people believed it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziB35K9shuI
The ubiquity of hoaxes weighs down the field of cryptozoology, making it difficult to take any of the creature claims that seriously. Hoaxes remain a viable explanation.
Nahuelito represents!
The city of Bariloche in Patagonia, Argentina will be getting a new tourist attraction – an iron sculpture of Nahuelito, the monster of Lake Nahuel Huapi. The large 6 x 4 meter statue will be placed near the water front and civic center so people can take a photo with it. It is expected to be in place by the town’s anniversary of May 3.
Bariloche has long embraced its local monster, first introduced to the wider world in the 1920s, even before the Loch Ness Monster. It’s most typically depicted as a plesiosaur, as is Nessie and many other lake monsters around the world. The town has used the creature as a tourism draw for decades: Nahuelito is its mascot in what they believe is an enchanted place.
Nahuelito assumed the common Nessie-shape over time (and also picks up some similar associated rumors). Like many modern cryptids, the Nahuelito’s existence is justified by relating it to a native folklore creature. But, as is almost ALWAYS the case, the historical view doesn’t match the modern view very well. Nahuelito is tied to a beast in the water known as El Cuero by the Mapuche people. However, El Cuero (the cow skin) was said to be like a “water tiger” or that looked like a piece of floating hide or leather. Except it ate people. Bizarre tales are used in all cultures to warn of dangers of the water and to be entertaining. It is hazardous to take those stories literally and use them to say that such a creature actually exists.
Culturally, legendary animals (which, as cryptids, are never clearly seen) tend to have evolving descriptions that coalesce around an iconic view for a while until the culture changes. The move from sea serpent to plesiosaur shape for lake monsters is a perfect example. (See PCS 7 for a review of A Natural History of Sea Serpents). We see other depictions of Nahuelito as a more of a thin, snakelike, loopy, sea serpent-type. But the plesiosaur shape became the default early on and has REALLY stuck, with the creature referred to as the Patagonian plesiosaur.
This doesn’t mean there are multiple animals of varying descriptions. The discrepancy suggests it isn’t a single type of animal (or two) at all; it’s a cultural interpretation of waves, logs, debris, or normal animals in the lake. The reported plesiosaur shape for lake monsters worldwide was influenced by literature and films from the early 20th century. Additionally, the land of Patagonia was commonly referred to as a sort of “lost world” where “antediluvian” (time before the Biblical flood) creatures still lived. This view also bolstered the common idea of a living plesiosaur.
Like Ogopogo, Champ, Nessie, and other lake monsters, the Nahuelito helps define the town of Bariloche. Its likeness is used in the town festivals and it has its own town park and documentary. People love their Nahuelito, particularly for the dollars it brings in for its association with the town. Its reputation is credited for the development of the town into the modern tourist location it is today.
The monster was featured on the TV show Destination Truth – an exaggerated show that promotes outlandish ideas to explain mysteries. For this cryptid, the show took up the concern by some that the creature is a result of nuclear experiments from the 1950s. Only in science fiction does a radiation event suddenly create bizarre mutant new species.
There are also claims that, like Loch Ness, geological conditions may cause some anomalies on the lake that are attributed to the monster. These natural claims also come with misinformation. For example, it is a common trope for people to believe that underwater caves connect the lake to the sea and the animals travel in and out. This is completely invalid – geology doesn’t work that way.
There have been hoax photos associated with the creature as well. Still, the creature is gaining in popularity as a pop cryptid. Some are pleased to call Nahuelito their favorite cryptid, but the dramatic sightings of old don’t occur much anymore.
For more, check out this Strange Magazine article. And here is a documentary on the town and its most famous hidden resident.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG64-e2sUe4
Thanks for reading! Send comments, questions, or suggestions to sharon(at)sharonahill.com. If you want to send some cryptid plushies or other merch, or books to review, email for my physical mailing address.
For more, click on Pop goes the Cryptid landing page. Make sure you subscribe to all the posts – it’s always free and I don’t send annoying spam.
Pop Cryptid Spectator is also available on Substack. Please share this with cryptid fans you know!
Pop Cryptid Spectator Pop Cryptid Spectator 13Pop Cryptid Spectator 12
Pop Cryptid Spectator 11
Pop Cryptid Spectator 10
Pop Cryptid Spectator 9
Pop Cryptid Spectator 8
Pop Cryptid Spectator 7
Pop Cryptid Spectator 6
Pop Cryptid Spectator 5
Pop Cryptid Spectator 4
Pop Cryptid Spectator 3
Pop Cryptid Spectator 2
Pop Cryptid Spectator 1
#BigfootMuseum #cryptid #ElCuero #FresnoNightcrawler #GeorgiaBigfootHoax #hoax #lakeMonsters #Nahuelito #PuebloMysteryCreature
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Pop Cryptid Spectator 14
Thanks for joining me for another edition of Pop Cryptid Spectator. This week I have some news and thoughts and we go in search of the legend of the Nahuelito, a lake monster whose popularity predated Nessie and which is a great example of a Pop Cryptid.
In this edition:
- Cryptid Check on Big Picture Science
- Update on Pueblo mystery creature
- Bigfoot museum spared from fire damage
- Faking a fake nightcrawler
- Nahuelito represents!
Cryptid Check on Big Picture Science
The Big Picture Science podcast featured cryptids this week. The episode kicked off with a flashback to the Georgia Bigfoot Hoax press conference from 2008. I remember that day. It was ridiculous. Lots of people had high hopes, and I admit I also was thinking this was going to be the big reveal. It was a big scam. Tom Biscardi spearheaded the press event that garnered worldwide attention. We watched on CNN as he referred to reporters as “yous” and showed images of a Bigfoot costume in a freezer, even a close up on the teeth. Biscardi was a Bigfoot enthusiast (not the football coach) but he will be forever remembered (not fondly) as more of a gambler and charlatan. Biscardi continues to make exaggerated and insultingly credulous Bigfoot content.
Then, the host interviews Chris Rogers, Assemblymember in the California legislature pushing the Bill to name California the state cryptid. (See PCS 8 and 10.) He gets a number of things wrong in his comments to reveal he doesn’t know much about cryptid history, but he is transparent that the goal of the bill now is a tourism ploy. No surprise there. At this point, the bill might just pass because of the public interest.
In addition, Benjamin Radford then appears to talk about Bigfoot and cryptids in popular culture. Michael Branch talks about the Jackalope (as reviewed in PCS 3), and Boris Worm discusses real life searches for new and bizarre animals. Make sure to check out this episode from a top science podcast.
Update on Pueblo mystery creature
Last week in PCS 13, I shared the news story from Colorado of an unidentified mystery animal that was captured on video in a residential area. Since then, the story expanded worldwide because people LOVE opining on what it could be. Their comments are painful to read. While ridiculous commenters said it was a chupacabra or a skinwalker (just STFU with that), wildlife officials said it may be a raccoon. I was leaning towards coati. However, a second video was posted that showed the animal outside the window eating cat food. Unfortunately, the video was obscured by the lighting and dirty glass, and not altogether clear. However, the animal has obvious injuries on its face indicating it may have escaped from a cage, been in a wildfire, or has some other misfortune. While the silhouette does resemble a raccoon, the coloring is odd, more uniformly dark brown, so the ID is still a mystery. I’ve heard nothing more about the animals being seen again, or captured. I hope the local interest does result in it’s capture so we can put this to rest.
Just to be clear, this is not a bear. It is too small. The ears look small for a raccoon as well but the animals has injuries that may be obscuring its identification.Bigfoot museum spared from fire damage
A cabin behind the Bigfoot discovery museum in Felton, California suffered damage after a fire. The cause of the fire is unknown but did not spread to the main museum owned by Michael Rugg where the Bigfoot memorabilia was stored. The museum was recently sold.
https://www.goodtimes.sc/bigfoot-museum-property-fire/
Cryptid Event!
Washington, DC, May 5, 2025 6:00 pm-8:30 pm
Profs & Pints DC: Encountering Cryptids, featuring Joshua Barton, lecturer in English at Virginia Commonwealth University and scholar of horror. Go to Popville for more info.Faking a fake nightcrawler
There was a bit of drama in the extremely online cryptid community this week as a budding filmmaker says he was the one who hoaxed the Yosemite video (Facebook) showing the pair of Fresno Nightcrawlers. Everyone knew this video was a hoax to play off the original FN video (that still remains mysterious as to its origin). Yet, some people are even doubting this guy was the real hoaxer. Instead, they claim he’s trying to just get attention. Personally, his YouTube channel was the original host for this video 14 years ago. He describes how he did it and where, so I think it really was him. It is interesting, though, that claiming responsibility for hoaxes is going to get noticed. It’s almost as if you can get a pass for hoaxing a cryptid because it’s already assumed to not be real. You will be recognized for your skills and how many people believed it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziB35K9shuI
The ubiquity of hoaxes weighs down the field of cryptozoology, making it difficult to take any of the creature claims that seriously. Hoaxes remain a viable explanation.
Nahuelito represents!
The city of Bariloche in Patagonia, Argentina will be getting a new tourist attraction – an iron sculpture of Nahuelito, the monster of Lake Nahuel Huapi. The large 6 x 4 meter statue will be placed near the water front and civic center so people can take a photo with it. It is expected to be in place by the town’s anniversary of May 3.
Bariloche has long embraced its local monster, first introduced to the wider world in the 1920s, even before the Loch Ness Monster. It’s most typically depicted as a plesiosaur, as is Nessie and many other lake monsters around the world. The town has used the creature as a tourism draw for decades: Nahuelito is its mascot in what they believe is an enchanted place.
Nahuelito assumed the common Nessie-shape over time (and also picks up some similar associated rumors). Like many modern cryptids, the Nahuelito’s existence is justified by relating it to a native folklore creature. But, as is almost ALWAYS the case, the historical view doesn’t match the modern view very well. Nahuelito is tied to a beast in the water known as El Cuero by the Mapuche people. However, El Cuero (the cow skin) was said to be like a “water tiger” or that looked like a piece of floating hide or leather. Except it ate people. Bizarre tales are used in all cultures to warn of dangers of the water and to be entertaining. It is hazardous to take those stories literally and use them to say that such a creature actually exists.
Culturally, legendary animals (which, as cryptids, are never clearly seen) tend to have evolving descriptions that coalesce around an iconic view for a while until the culture changes. The move from sea serpent to plesiosaur shape for lake monsters is a perfect example. (See PCS 7 for a review of A Natural History of Sea Serpents). We see other depictions of Nahuelito as a more of a thin, snakelike, loopy, sea serpent-type. But the plesiosaur shape became the default early on and has REALLY stuck, with the creature referred to as the Patagonian plesiosaur.
This doesn’t mean there are multiple animals of varying descriptions. The discrepancy suggests it isn’t a single type of animal (or two) at all; it’s a cultural interpretation of waves, logs, debris, or normal animals in the lake. The reported plesiosaur shape for lake monsters worldwide was influenced by literature and films from the early 20th century. Additionally, the land of Patagonia was commonly referred to as a sort of “lost world” where “antediluvian” (time before the Biblical flood) creatures still lived. This view also bolstered the common idea of a living plesiosaur.
Like Ogopogo, Champ, Nessie, and other lake monsters, the Nahuelito helps define the town of Bariloche. Its likeness is used in the town festivals and it has its own town park and documentary. People love their Nahuelito, particularly for the dollars it brings in for its association with the town. Its reputation is credited for the development of the town into the modern tourist location it is today.
The monster was featured on the TV show Destination Truth – an exaggerated show that promotes outlandish ideas to explain mysteries. For this cryptid, the show took up the concern by some that the creature is a result of nuclear experiments from the 1950s. Only in science fiction does a radiation event suddenly create bizarre mutant new species.
There are also claims that, like Loch Ness, geological conditions may cause some anomalies on the lake that are attributed to the monster. These natural claims also come with misinformation. For example, it is a common trope for people to believe that underwater caves connect the lake to the sea and the animals travel in and out. This is completely invalid – geology doesn’t work that way.
There have been hoax photos associated with the creature as well. Still, the creature is gaining in popularity as a pop cryptid. Some are pleased to call Nahuelito their favorite cryptid, but the dramatic sightings of old don’t occur much anymore.
For more, check out this Strange Magazine article. And here is a documentary on the town and its most famous hidden resident.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG64-e2sUe4
Thanks for reading! Send comments, questions, or suggestions to sharon(at)sharonahill.com. If you want to send some cryptid plushies or other merch, or books to review, email for my physical mailing address.
For more, click on Pop goes the Cryptid landing page. Make sure you subscribe to all the posts – it’s always free and I don’t send annoying spam.
Pop Cryptid Spectator is also available on Substack. Please share this with cryptid fans you know!
Pop Cryptid Spectator Pop Cryptid Spectator 17Pop Cryptid Spectator 16
Pop Cryptid Spectator 15
Pop Cryptid Spectator 13
Pop Cryptid Spectator 12
Pop Cryptid Spectator 11
#AICryptids #cryptids #cryptidtiktok #folklore #hoax #LochNessMonster #Nessie #nightmarefuel #TheSasqualogist #VeggieMan #WestVirginia
-
Pop Cryptid Spectator 14
Thanks for joining me for another edition of Pop Cryptid Spectator. This week I have some news and thoughts and we go in search of the legend of the Nahuelito, a lake monster whose popularity predated Nessie and which is a great example of a Pop Cryptid.
In this edition:
- Cryptid Check on Big Picture Science
- Update on Pueblo mystery creature
- Bigfoot museum spared from fire damage
- Faking a fake nightcrawler
- Nahuelito represents!
Cryptid Check on Big Picture Science
The Big Picture Science podcast featured cryptids this week. The episode kicked off with a flashback to the Georgia Bigfoot Hoax press conference from 2008. I remember that day. It was ridiculous. Lots of people had high hopes, and I admit I also was thinking this was going to be the big reveal. It was a big scam. Tom Biscardi spearheaded the press event that garnered worldwide attention. We watched on CNN as he referred to reporters as “yous” and showed images of a Bigfoot costume in a freezer, even a close up on the teeth. Biscardi was a Bigfoot enthusiast (not the football coach) but he will be forever remembered (not fondly) as more of a gambler and charlatan. Biscardi continues to make exaggerated and insultingly credulous Bigfoot content.
Then, the host interviews Chris Rogers, Assemblymember in the California legislature pushing the Bill to name California the state cryptid. (See PCS 8 and 10.) He gets a number of things wrong in his comments to reveal he doesn’t know much about cryptid history, but he is transparent that the goal of the bill now is a tourism ploy. No surprise there. At this point, the bill might just pass because of the public interest.
In addition, Benjamin Radford then appears to talk about Bigfoot and cryptids in popular culture. Michael Branch talks about the Jackalope (as reviewed in PCS 3), and Boris Worm discusses real life searches for new and bizarre animals. Make sure to check out this episode from a top science podcast.
Update on Pueblo mystery creature
Last week in PCS 13, I shared the news story from Colorado of an unidentified mystery animal that was captured on video in a residential area. Since then, the story expanded worldwide because people LOVE opining on what it could be. Their comments are painful to read. While ridiculous commenters said it was a chupacabra or a skinwalker (just STFU with that), wildlife officials said it may be a raccoon. I was leaning towards coati. However, a second video was posted that showed the animal outside the window eating cat food. Unfortunately, the video was obscured by the lighting and dirty glass, and not altogether clear. However, the animal has obvious injuries on its face indicating it may have escaped from a cage, been in a wildfire, or has some other misfortune. While the silhouette does resemble a raccoon, the coloring is odd, more uniformly dark brown, so the ID is still a mystery. I’ve heard nothing more about the animals being seen again, or captured. I hope the local interest does result in it’s capture so we can put this to rest.
Just to be clear, this is not a bear. It is too small. The ears look small for a raccoon as well but the animals has injuries that may be obscuring its identification.Bigfoot museum spared from fire damage
A cabin behind the Bigfoot discovery museum in Felton, California suffered damage after a fire. The cause of the fire is unknown but did not spread to the main museum owned by Michael Rugg where the Bigfoot memorabilia was stored. The museum was recently sold.
https://www.goodtimes.sc/bigfoot-museum-property-fire/
Cryptid Event!
Washington, DC, May 5, 2025 6:00 pm-8:30 pm
Profs & Pints DC: Encountering Cryptids, featuring Joshua Barton, lecturer in English at Virginia Commonwealth University and scholar of horror. Go to Popville for more info.Faking a fake nightcrawler
There was a bit of drama in the extremely online cryptid community this week as a budding filmmaker says he was the one who hoaxed the Yosemite video (Facebook) showing the pair of Fresno Nightcrawlers. Everyone knew this video was a hoax to play off the original FN video (that still remains mysterious as to its origin). Yet, some people are even doubting this guy was the real hoaxer. Instead, they claim he’s trying to just get attention. Personally, his YouTube channel was the original host for this video 14 years ago. He describes how he did it and where, so I think it really was him. It is interesting, though, that claiming responsibility for hoaxes is going to get noticed. It’s almost as if you can get a pass for hoaxing a cryptid because it’s already assumed to not be real. You will be recognized for your skills and how many people believed it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziB35K9shuI
The ubiquity of hoaxes weighs down the field of cryptozoology, making it difficult to take any of the creature claims that seriously. Hoaxes remain a viable explanation.
Nahuelito represents!
The city of Bariloche in Patagonia, Argentina will be getting a new tourist attraction – an iron sculpture of Nahuelito, the monster of Lake Nahuel Huapi. The large 6 x 4 meter statue will be placed near the water front and civic center so people can take a photo with it. It is expected to be in place by the town’s anniversary of May 3.
Bariloche has long embraced its local monster, first introduced to the wider world in the 1920s, even before the Loch Ness Monster. It’s most typically depicted as a plesiosaur, as is Nessie and many other lake monsters around the world. The town has used the creature as a tourism draw for decades: Nahuelito is its mascot in what they believe is an enchanted place.
Nahuelito assumed the common Nessie-shape over time (and also picks up some similar associated rumors). Like many modern cryptids, the Nahuelito’s existence is justified by relating it to a native folklore creature. But, as is almost ALWAYS the case, the historical view doesn’t match the modern view very well. Nahuelito is tied to a beast in the water known as El Cuero by the Mapuche people. However, El Cuero (the cow skin) was said to be like a “water tiger” or that looked like a piece of floating hide or leather. Except it ate people. Bizarre tales are used in all cultures to warn of dangers of the water and to be entertaining. It is hazardous to take those stories literally and use them to say that such a creature actually exists.
Culturally, legendary animals (which, as cryptids, are never clearly seen) tend to have evolving descriptions that coalesce around an iconic view for a while until the culture changes. The move from sea serpent to plesiosaur shape for lake monsters is a perfect example. (See PCS 7 for a review of A Natural History of Sea Serpents). We see other depictions of Nahuelito as a more of a thin, snakelike, loopy, sea serpent-type. But the plesiosaur shape became the default early on and has REALLY stuck, with the creature referred to as the Patagonian plesiosaur.
This doesn’t mean there are multiple animals of varying descriptions. The discrepancy suggests it isn’t a single type of animal (or two) at all; it’s a cultural interpretation of waves, logs, debris, or normal animals in the lake. The reported plesiosaur shape for lake monsters worldwide was influenced by literature and films from the early 20th century. Additionally, the land of Patagonia was commonly referred to as a sort of “lost world” where “antediluvian” (time before the Biblical flood) creatures still lived. This view also bolstered the common idea of a living plesiosaur.
Like Ogopogo, Champ, Nessie, and other lake monsters, the Nahuelito helps define the town of Bariloche. Its likeness is used in the town festivals and it has its own town park and documentary. People love their Nahuelito, particularly for the dollars it brings in for its association with the town. Its reputation is credited for the development of the town into the modern tourist location it is today.
The monster was featured on the TV show Destination Truth – an exaggerated show that promotes outlandish ideas to explain mysteries. For this cryptid, the show took up the concern by some that the creature is a result of nuclear experiments from the 1950s. Only in science fiction does a radiation event suddenly create bizarre mutant new species.
There are also claims that, like Loch Ness, geological conditions may cause some anomalies on the lake that are attributed to the monster. These natural claims also come with misinformation. For example, it is a common trope for people to believe that underwater caves connect the lake to the sea and the animals travel in and out. This is completely invalid – geology doesn’t work that way.
There have been hoax photos associated with the creature as well. Still, the creature is gaining in popularity as a pop cryptid. Some are pleased to call Nahuelito their favorite cryptid, but the dramatic sightings of old don’t occur much anymore.
For more, check out this Strange Magazine article. And here is a documentary on the town and its most famous hidden resident.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG64-e2sUe4
Thanks for reading! Send comments, questions, or suggestions to sharon(at)sharonahill.com. If you want to send some cryptid plushies or other merch, or books to review, email for my physical mailing address.
For more, click on Pop goes the Cryptid landing page. Make sure you subscribe to all the posts – it’s always free and I don’t send annoying spam.
Pop Cryptid Spectator is also available on Substack. Please share this with cryptid fans you know!
Pop Cryptid Spectator Pop Cryptid Spectator 17Pop Cryptid Spectator 16
Pop Cryptid Spectator 15
Pop Cryptid Spectator 13
Pop Cryptid Spectator 12
Pop Cryptid Spectator 11
#AICryptids #cryptids #cryptidtiktok #folklore #hoax #LochNessMonster #Nessie #nightmarefuel #TheSasqualogist #VeggieMan #WestVirginia
-
Pop Cryptid Spectator 14
Thanks for joining me for another edition of Pop Cryptid Spectator. This week I have some news and thoughts and we go in search of the legend of the Nahuelito, a lake monster whose popularity predated Nessie and which is a great example of a Pop Cryptid.
In this edition:
- Cryptid Check on Big Picture Science
- Update on Pueblo mystery creature
- Bigfoot museum spared from fire damage
- Faking a fake nightcrawler
- Nahuelito represents!
Cryptid Check on Big Picture Science
The Big Picture Science podcast featured cryptids this week. The episode kicked off with a flashback to the Georgia Bigfoot Hoax press conference from 2008. I remember that day. It was ridiculous. Lots of people had high hopes, and I admit I also was thinking this was going to be the big reveal. It was a big scam. Tom Biscardi spearheaded the press event that garnered worldwide attention. We watched on CNN as he referred to reporters as “yous” and showed images of a Bigfoot costume in a freezer, even a close up on the teeth. Biscardi was a Bigfoot enthusiast (not the football coach) but he will be forever remembered (not fondly) as more of a gambler and charlatan. Biscardi continues to make exaggerated and insultingly credulous Bigfoot content.
Then, the host interviews Chris Rogers, Assemblymember in the California legislature pushing the Bill to name California the state cryptid. (See PCS 8 and 10.) He gets a number of things wrong in his comments to reveal he doesn’t know much about cryptid history, but he is transparent that the goal of the bill now is a tourism ploy. No surprise there. At this point, the bill might just pass because of the public interest.
In addition, Benjamin Radford then appears to talk about Bigfoot and cryptids in popular culture. Michael Branch talks about the Jackalope (as reviewed in PCS 3), and Boris Worm discusses real life searches for new and bizarre animals. Make sure to check out this episode from a top science podcast.
Update on Pueblo mystery creature
Last week in PCS 13, I shared the news story from Colorado of an unidentified mystery animal that was captured on video in a residential area. Since then, the story expanded worldwide because people LOVE opining on what it could be. Their comments are painful to read. While ridiculous commenters said it was a chupacabra or a skinwalker (just STFU with that), wildlife officials said it may be a raccoon. I was leaning towards coati. However, a second video was posted that showed the animal outside the window eating cat food. Unfortunately, the video was obscured by the lighting and dirty glass, and not altogether clear. However, the animal has obvious injuries on its face indicating it may have escaped from a cage, been in a wildfire, or has some other misfortune. While the silhouette does resemble a raccoon, the coloring is odd, more uniformly dark brown, so the ID is still a mystery. I’ve heard nothing more about the animals being seen again, or captured. I hope the local interest does result in it’s capture so we can put this to rest.
Just to be clear, this is not a bear. It is too small. The ears look small for a raccoon as well but the animals has injuries that may be obscuring its identification.Bigfoot museum spared from fire damage
A cabin behind the Bigfoot discovery museum in Felton, California suffered damage after a fire. The cause of the fire is unknown but did not spread to the main museum owned by Michael Rugg where the Bigfoot memorabilia was stored. The museum was recently sold.
https://www.goodtimes.sc/bigfoot-museum-property-fire/
Cryptid Event!
Washington, DC, May 5, 2025 6:00 pm-8:30 pm
Profs & Pints DC: Encountering Cryptids, featuring Joshua Barton, lecturer in English at Virginia Commonwealth University and scholar of horror. Go to Popville for more info.Faking a fake nightcrawler
There was a bit of drama in the extremely online cryptid community this week as a budding filmmaker says he was the one who hoaxed the Yosemite video (Facebook) showing the pair of Fresno Nightcrawlers. Everyone knew this video was a hoax to play off the original FN video (that still remains mysterious as to its origin). Yet, some people are even doubting this guy was the real hoaxer. Instead, they claim he’s trying to just get attention. Personally, his YouTube channel was the original host for this video 14 years ago. He describes how he did it and where, so I think it really was him. It is interesting, though, that claiming responsibility for hoaxes is going to get noticed. It’s almost as if you can get a pass for hoaxing a cryptid because it’s already assumed to not be real. You will be recognized for your skills and how many people believed it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziB35K9shuI
The ubiquity of hoaxes weighs down the field of cryptozoology, making it difficult to take any of the creature claims that seriously. Hoaxes remain a viable explanation.
Nahuelito represents!
The city of Bariloche in Patagonia, Argentina will be getting a new tourist attraction – an iron sculpture of Nahuelito, the monster of Lake Nahuel Huapi. The large 6 x 4 meter statue will be placed near the water front and civic center so people can take a photo with it. It is expected to be in place by the town’s anniversary of May 3.
Bariloche has long embraced its local monster, first introduced to the wider world in the 1920s, even before the Loch Ness Monster. It’s most typically depicted as a plesiosaur, as is Nessie and many other lake monsters around the world. The town has used the creature as a tourism draw for decades: Nahuelito is its mascot in what they believe is an enchanted place.
Nahuelito assumed the common Nessie-shape over time (and also picks up some similar associated rumors). Like many modern cryptids, the Nahuelito’s existence is justified by relating it to a native folklore creature. But, as is almost ALWAYS the case, the historical view doesn’t match the modern view very well. Nahuelito is tied to a beast in the water known as El Cuero by the Mapuche people. However, El Cuero (the cow skin) was said to be like a “water tiger” or that looked like a piece of floating hide or leather. Except it ate people. Bizarre tales are used in all cultures to warn of dangers of the water and to be entertaining. It is hazardous to take those stories literally and use them to say that such a creature actually exists.
Culturally, legendary animals (which, as cryptids, are never clearly seen) tend to have evolving descriptions that coalesce around an iconic view for a while until the culture changes. The move from sea serpent to plesiosaur shape for lake monsters is a perfect example. (See PCS 7 for a review of A Natural History of Sea Serpents). We see other depictions of Nahuelito as a more of a thin, snakelike, loopy, sea serpent-type. But the plesiosaur shape became the default early on and has REALLY stuck, with the creature referred to as the Patagonian plesiosaur.
This doesn’t mean there are multiple animals of varying descriptions. The discrepancy suggests it isn’t a single type of animal (or two) at all; it’s a cultural interpretation of waves, logs, debris, or normal animals in the lake. The reported plesiosaur shape for lake monsters worldwide was influenced by literature and films from the early 20th century. Additionally, the land of Patagonia was commonly referred to as a sort of “lost world” where “antediluvian” (time before the Biblical flood) creatures still lived. This view also bolstered the common idea of a living plesiosaur.
Like Ogopogo, Champ, Nessie, and other lake monsters, the Nahuelito helps define the town of Bariloche. Its likeness is used in the town festivals and it has its own town park and documentary. People love their Nahuelito, particularly for the dollars it brings in for its association with the town. Its reputation is credited for the development of the town into the modern tourist location it is today.
The monster was featured on the TV show Destination Truth – an exaggerated show that promotes outlandish ideas to explain mysteries. For this cryptid, the show took up the concern by some that the creature is a result of nuclear experiments from the 1950s. Only in science fiction does a radiation event suddenly create bizarre mutant new species.
There are also claims that, like Loch Ness, geological conditions may cause some anomalies on the lake that are attributed to the monster. These natural claims also come with misinformation. For example, it is a common trope for people to believe that underwater caves connect the lake to the sea and the animals travel in and out. This is completely invalid – geology doesn’t work that way.
There have been hoax photos associated with the creature as well. Still, the creature is gaining in popularity as a pop cryptid. Some are pleased to call Nahuelito their favorite cryptid, but the dramatic sightings of old don’t occur much anymore.
For more, check out this Strange Magazine article. And here is a documentary on the town and its most famous hidden resident.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wG64-e2sUe4
Thanks for reading! Send comments, questions, or suggestions to sharon(at)sharonahill.com. If you want to send some cryptid plushies or other merch, or books to review, email for my physical mailing address.
For more, click on Pop goes the Cryptid landing page. Make sure you subscribe to all the posts – it’s always free and I don’t send annoying spam.
Pop Cryptid Spectator is also available on Substack. Please share this with cryptid fans you know!
Pop Cryptid Spectator Pop Cryptid Spectator 17Pop Cryptid Spectator 16
Pop Cryptid Spectator 15
Pop Cryptid Spectator 13
Pop Cryptid Spectator 12
Pop Cryptid Spectator 11
#AICryptids #cryptids #cryptidtiktok #folklore #hoax #LochNessMonster #Nessie #nightmarefuel #TheSasqualogist #VeggieMan #WestVirginia