I was reading a bit about theutahbigfoothunter's trip to Skinwalker Ranch. I had never heard of this place, so I googled it. First on the list was a
Wiki page:
Skinwalker Ranch - Wiki. I WANNA GO! lol... anyways, I got to the part about "Cattle
Mutilations and Strange Creatures" and proceeded to tell my GF about a creature I'd seen about 16 years ago.
I was 16, cruising around at night in 'the blacks' (a small area where people used to go 4-wheeling, now developed area). This is in east Cheyenne,
between the area known as Sun Valley, and Lincoln Valley Auto Salvage. I was driving in an easterly direction on a dirt road and saw some kind of
wolf-like creature in my headlights approx. 60yds in front of me. First thought was "coyote", but it wasn't. It seriously looked like a werewolf
from the movies. I only saw it for a couple seconds. The thing glanced halfway at me and my lights reflected on it's eyes, which were bright yellow
glow, and it ran off over a hill, but it scared the crap outa me! I rolled up both windows and locked my doors, and started turning my truck (76 K5
Blazer) to see if I could catch it on the headlights again. Didn't see it again, and I wasn't about to go out any farther... like I said, I was
scared s***less! I ended up turning around to the nearest neighborhood by a couple streetlamps, unlocked my door, and bailed out and immediatly
scrambled to the ground to look under the truck, much like bailing off your bed as a kid, leaping halfway across the room and jumping down to look
under the bed just to prove there is nothing really there. I still laugh about it... I had to look crazy to anyone in that neighborhood who saw me.
So, to best describe what I saw was like a wolf, but it was like a movie werewolf. If it had stood up straight, it would've been about 5 feet tall.
It wasn't completely covered with hair, if any at all. I remember it had a doglike face with the cheek tufts and shorter pointy ears, as well as a
snout like a dog. It's arms were like an urangatan, and it's hind legs were shorter than human... like I said, like the movie werewolfs, except it
wasn't all huge in the shoulders and neck like you see in alot of the comic werewolves.
I grew up in Wyoming, and my mom and grandma never really talked about stuff like this much... if 'UFO' was mentioned, they would reply in casual
manner. Ghosts were referred to in the same manner. It's just something that's normal, and until ya get to a site like ATS, you don't really think
about how exciting it really is. This is why I kinda forgot about it until tonight.
Now, what was creepy is that I figured she (GF) would probably just find it as an interesting story... instead, she proceeds to tell me about 2
separate friends who didn't even know eachother telling her about a giant bat/man creature south of town. Needless to say, the hair on my arms were
standing on end! That is exactly how this creature stood... like a giant bat! The creature I saw wasn't hairy all over (although I do remember it
having hair on the outer portion of the arms and on it's cheeks). In my mind I remember it being kind of leathery.
So, we proceeded to look online to see if there's been other reports of such a creature in Wyoming. So far, really haven't turned up much, although
Wyoming has some really odd cryptozoological stories, including Bigfoot. She found this link:
Wyoming Bigfoot Sightings
From various Indian ranch hands involved he received the following information: 1. The creature was a biped about 4 to 51/2 feet tall. 2. It was
covered completely by long reddish orange hair. 3. It possessed very wide shoulders and exceptionally long arms. 4. The creature named the "Howler"
by the Indian observers, reported that the creature emitted loud yowlings not unlike a wolf. 5. The creature possessed unbelievable speed and
strength. It had out run a quarter horse while being chased by ranch hands, as it carried off a two year old heifer under its left arm. Due to the
creatures small stature, this amazed the cowboys even more as the cow, being still alive, had fought and kicked, dragging its feet upon the ground
during the chase. It was witnessed that the creature had killed the heifer with a single blow to the head as it ran off. 6. The Howler, seemed to kill
wantonly and for pleasure without consuming the kills for the most part. The carcasses of cattle, horses, sheep, deer, antelope and numerous small
animals had been found killed by crushing, blows to the head or broken necks, surrounded by the distinctive man like, barefoot prints. 7. The creature
showed amazing intelligence at eluding traps, the disarming of such and the stealing of baits.
ALL bigfoot reports I've seen indicate 6'5" to an amazing 12' tall! My conviction is that some creatures are just being thrown into the Bigfoot
category.
My first google search was for giant bats. I came across this:
Random Eruptions: Man Bat tale tops 2006 for weirdness[Wisconsin]
It is called the "Beast of Briggs Road".
Same story, a bit more info:
Man Bat Sighted by LaCrosse Area Man and Son
Here's an article about the Orang Bati:
The Orang Bati - Indonesia's
Winged Man
I think I may have seen another one while on a hunting trip in the mountains. I saw something like a wolf run across the road ahead. Being in the
woods, I only got a glimpse of it, so I cannot say for sure. At first I thought it was a small blackbear, or a wolf, but we don't have either of them
in the area I was (just north of the Independence Canyon area). Besides, it's waist was way too small to be either, as well. However, being that it
was night, I saw it in the headlights as it darted across the road, I cannot say for sure.
I just went back and actually read the part about Skinwalker Ranch on the 'strange creatures'... not sure I'd wanna go there now, lol.
Numerous encounters with unidentified or strangely behaving creatures allegedly occurred on the ranch. In some tales, the creatures were
reminiscent of dogs or hyenas. The first unusual encounter the Gormans had on the ranch involved what appeared to be a very large wolf on one of their
first days after moving to the ranch. The animal was not aggressive towards the family, but when it attempted to capture a calf, Mr. Gorman shot at
the creature. The shots had no noticeable effect and the creature eventually left the homestead. Gorman later found a hunk of flesh from the animal
that smelled of burning sulfur or rotten meat.
That really freaks me out. There was an occassional whiff of rot out in the blacks. I remember that pretty clearly. I never thought about the creature
I saw and the smell being related. Oddly, though, some have reported something similar to that concerning Bigfoot, but it's usually 'smells like a
skunk', not rotting flesh, or sulphur.
I could keep looking stuff up from wyoming all night long, but instead I'll just ask if anyone else has heard of either a giant man/bat, or a
wolf-like creature as I saw (Honestly, I could've seen a man/bat... it ran off on all fours like you would imagine a bat to if it chose not to fly,
and I couldn't locate it with my headlights after I locked my doors...) Anyone? I know this wasn't a bigfoot, and, again, I think alot more of these
have been sighted and just classified as 'another bigfoot sighting'.
I'll try to answer questions as I can. I think I got all the detail I can remember in here. I can tell you one thing for sure... thinking about the
thing still scares me. Even some of the ghosts around here don't scare me that bad, and I know one that does it on purpose! (I think he's just a
grumpy ghost, though.)