Episode 129: Small Town Wendigo

[00:00:00] Odd Trails is a true paranormal podcast. If you have a story to share, send it to stories

[00:00:05] at oddtrails.com. Enjoy the show.

[00:00:10] Forget facts. Forget logic. Forget everything that seems real. Trust. Believe.

[00:00:58] Invisible Being in the Pennsylvania Woods by TKVG

[00:01:05] This happened in around 2009. I was living on the road for two years,

[00:01:11] hitchhiking and riding trains. I was a dumb 19 year old. I'd been all over the country,

[00:01:17] mostly on the west coast, and decided to see the east coast.

[00:01:22] I went to a small festival in Florida called a Rainbow Gathering. They're like these big

[00:01:28] meetups of traveler kids, old hippies, vagrants, those kinds of people. They're always in state

[00:01:35] parks or national parks. Rangers patrol it and police sometimes show up, but for some reason

[00:01:42] the gatherings are allowed. They've been going on since the 70s. Some of the people who show up are

[00:01:49] hardcore train hopper gutterpunk types, and some are super chill Christians who will wash your feet.

[00:01:57] It's a very unusual festival. There are smaller regional gatherings and a big national gathering

[00:02:05] where thousands of people show up, kind of like a poor man's burning man. Huge fire pits get dug out,

[00:02:13] elaborate latrines, hundreds of drum circles, and free food is constantly made from the kitchens,

[00:02:20] which are just camps devoted to making food for us.

[00:02:25] I met some friends at a smaller regional one in Florida. We parted ways and I never thought I was

[00:02:31] going to see them again. One was named Anna, and we sort of hit it off. I hitchhiked north all the

[00:02:39] way to upstate New York when I caught wind of the national gathering which was going to be

[00:02:45] in Pennsylvania. I figured I might as well go. I got to this gathering early, in the Allegheny

[00:02:53] National Park. I helped set up and tried to meet people, just kind of looking for my group,

[00:03:00] not sure yet where I was going to be camping. Well one day I ran into Anna again. She and

[00:03:08] I had some spiritual conversations when we first met, talking about fairies and aliens and the like.

[00:03:15] She had some unusual stuff happen to her when she was a kid.

[00:03:20] She and her buddy had just gotten to Pennsylvania, and we decided the three of us were going to team

[00:03:26] up. We noticed a ton of people showing up to this thing. It was getting really crowded,

[00:03:33] so we decided to move our camp to a more remote area. We chose a spot off of the main trail,

[00:03:40] which goes from the parking lot to the gathering. It's a couple miles long, and there's a lot of

[00:03:47] foot traffic going up and down, people going in and out of the festival, but we had some space.

[00:03:55] This happened around dusk. Me and Anna were sitting by our little twig fire, stone cold sober.

[00:04:04] Alcohol isn't really allowed at the gatherings. It does still get in, but there's a camp at

[00:04:10] the parking lot called A-Camp where all the drinkers stay. There's of course other drugs

[00:04:16] at these festivals, but Anna and her friend and I just weren't into the whole drum circle scene.

[00:04:24] We had just gotten done having a deep talk about spirituality when we started to feel hungry,

[00:04:30] so we stood up and started heading down to the main circle, which is where everyone can get one

[00:04:36] big meal a day. We are standing up when Anna says, Hey, do you hear that? I said no and just kept

[00:04:47] putting out the fire with my foot. No, hey, shh, listen. So I stopped, and I could hear the sound

[00:04:57] of someone walking through the forest. The thing that was weird about it was that it was coming

[00:05:03] from a direction where there were no festival activities. The festival itself was down below us,

[00:05:10] about a half mile away if we were looking down the trail, and this sound was coming from our left,

[00:05:17] where it's nothing but hundreds of miles of Pennsylvania woods.

[00:05:22] The parking lot is way up the trail a few miles behind us. It was odd because it sounded like

[00:05:29] a person speed walking towards us. I didn't think it could be deer because they wouldn't

[00:05:35] be coming up to a fire pit. I genuinely thought it was just some lost hippie.

[00:05:43] As this sound was getting closer, there were some people walking down the trail

[00:05:48] and some walking up the trail. There's a weird custom called Nick at night. If you yell Nick at

[00:05:55] night, a person with a tin can full of tobacco will come find you and roll you a cigarette.

[00:06:02] There's about 10 of them walking around, and their sole job is to maintain everyone's nicotine habit.

[00:06:10] So anyways, these two groups run into a Nick at night kid, and they're now all standing together

[00:06:16] on the main trail, talking, about 30 feet below us, oblivious to our presence.

[00:06:24] So while that's happening, the sound of someone walking from our left has gotten so close that

[00:06:31] we should be seeing who or what it was, but there just wasn't anything there.

[00:06:37] I was frozen, kind of stuck in a state of confusion, and I think Anna was too.

[00:06:44] Not fearful, just wondering why we aren't seeing anything.

[00:06:49] We could clearly see leaves and dirt being kicked up, like there was an invisible person

[00:06:55] power walking by. Whatever it was, it went right up to that group of people on the main trail

[00:07:03] and didn't stop, but it slowed down like it was checking them out. They were totally oblivious

[00:07:11] to this. They were all smoking, talking and laughing. It kind of did a turn as it went up to

[00:07:18] them, and then suddenly made a straight line and came towards me and Anna. Anna had a keychain with

[00:07:27] a million things on it, and she was frantically looking for this mini flashlight she had.

[00:07:33] It was dusk, so it wasn't bright out, but still light enough for us to see the footfalls and

[00:07:39] debris being kicked up. My mind was thinking it could have been a squirrel or a field mouse

[00:07:47] hopping along on the forest floor or something. It was covered in dead leaves, but these steps

[00:07:54] were quick, as if this was a child or a small person walking really fast. It's hard to explain

[00:08:02] in writing. This thing then came right up to us. I'm standing to the right of our smoldering fire,

[00:08:11] and Anna is on the left. I could hear her struggling with her keychain.

[00:08:17] It came right up to me, probably five or six feet away. There was nothing there,

[00:08:24] it just did the same thing that it did with the other group. It slowed its pace,

[00:08:30] like it was checking us out, and slowly trotted. As it went by, Anna said,

[00:08:37] hey, and shined the light where it was, but there was nothing to see.

[00:08:45] Whatever this thing was then took off up the hill, just absolutely took off. It was so fast.

[00:08:53] The footfalls became like a machine gun. If I had wanted to run after it, I couldn't have.

[00:09:00] A second later, Anna and I took off running in the opposite direction,

[00:09:06] past that group, and just kept going until we were at the bottom of the trail.

[00:09:12] Something funny actually happened. There are people at these gatherings who spend the whole

[00:09:18] month naked. They roll around in mud and basically just wear a suit of mud for the whole festival.

[00:09:26] One of these people we had seen was this seven-foot giant of a man, probably 400 pounds,

[00:09:34] naked, covered in mud and leaves. Me and Anna are in full flight mode, and at this point it's dark,

[00:09:43] and we ran right into this guy. He scared us so much, Anna screamed, but we all started laughing,

[00:09:52] and that sort of cancelled out the panic. We went to go find our other friend, and it was weird

[00:09:59] because Anna became scared again. She kept saying that what happened was because of her.

[00:10:07] She had a weird fairy or alien situation happen to her and her mom when she was a kid.

[00:10:14] She felt like whatever this was was because of her. I don't know, I never could get her

[00:10:21] to elaborate. She didn't want to talk more about it. This other friend and I though, we were all

[00:10:28] about it. We went back up there and tried to look for tracks with our lights, listened for a while,

[00:10:36] but nothing happened. Anna didn't come with us, she wanted to pack up the tent.

[00:10:43] I've gone from thinking it was perhaps a grey alien or even a ghost, maybe a fairy or a gnome.

[00:10:51] One person said it could have been a Pukwudgie, which are like Native American gnome things

[00:10:57] that are tricksters and can turn invisible, but I really don't know what we encountered.

[00:11:38] I was born and raised in a rural Pennsylvania town with a population of around 700.

[00:11:46] This event took place in the late 1950s when I was a preteen. My best friend and I grew up

[00:11:52] enjoying the woods, rivers, streams, and ponds that comprised our valley home. Everyone in town

[00:12:00] knew everyone else and everyone else's business. There was one small grocery store in the village

[00:12:07] run by a nice but somewhat eccentric middle-aged man. My friend and I shopped there for ice cream,

[00:12:14] candy, and such on the rare occasion that we had a spare nickel or dime to spend.

[00:12:20] One weekend, there was a tragic car accident just outside of town that took the lives of three young

[00:12:27] men in their 20s. One of the men in the accident was Jerry, who was from our town, and two from a

[00:12:34] neighboring town. One of the young men that died was my sister's boyfriend. I learned of the tragedy

[00:12:42] when I woke up that Saturday morning to find my sister sobbing uncontrollably, which made me

[00:12:48] incredibly sad. About a week later, my friend and I were at the grocery store to spend our small

[00:12:54] fortune of a whole quarter. As we contemplated the various candy bars behind the counter,

[00:13:01] a young man walked into the store to buy a pack of cigarettes. He spoke with the grocer for a

[00:13:08] few minutes, paid his 30 cents, and walked out. I looked at my friend to see why his face was drained

[00:13:16] of its color. Was that who I thought it was? I asked. Yeah, that was Jerry, he replied. We ran

[00:13:26] to the grocer, who asked the same question. He absentmindedly acknowledged that it was Jerry,

[00:13:34] and then his jaw dropped. The three of us ran outside to see an empty street, no people,

[00:13:41] no cars, nothing. My friend and I rarely spoke of this event as we grew up. Later on,

[00:13:49] after we both had finished our tours in Vietnam, we met for a beer and talked over old times.

[00:13:55] He brought up the Jerry incident. We agreed that it was likely someone who had

[00:14:00] an uncanny resemblance to Jerry, but neither of us could explain why he wasn't anywhere

[00:14:06] on the street when we went to look outside. We both recalled that no car pulled up in front of

[00:14:13] the store before he walked in, and the street was unobstructed for hundreds of yards in each

[00:14:20] direction. We should have seen him, but we have no logical explanation as to why we did not.

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[00:16:29] order. Now back to the show. Maybe a Bigfoot by Lanita

[00:16:55] While listening to Episode 61 with Timothy Renner, I had to stop and write this down.

[00:17:02] I was hit hard when I heard of children being beckoned away from their parents by entities.

[00:17:08] I grew up and still live in Northern California, in Bigfoot country. My father worked as a logger

[00:17:15] out in the Willow Creek area. I used to go to work with him, and I would sit in his truck with toys

[00:17:22] and snacks. He also gave me very firm directions not to leave the truck for any reason. Under no

[00:17:32] circumstances was I to leave. I did have a whistle around my neck in case something went wrong,

[00:17:39] and the sound of a distant chainsaw to let me know what direction my dad had gone.

[00:17:46] I must have been around six or seven when this happened. I was playing by the truck

[00:17:52] when I heard a grunting noise and saw what I thought was a large brown bear moving from tree

[00:17:59] to tree. Except it was just a blurry brown figure I saw move from the corner of my eye.

[00:18:07] I felt the overwhelming need to follow it. I don't remember how long I thought about following

[00:18:13] whatever this thing was, but I knew it would be dangerous for me to leave the truck area.

[00:18:20] My dad's voice was in the back of my head, him telling me multiple times about the dangers of

[00:18:26] falling trees and needing to stay put. This thing kept moving from tree to tree

[00:18:33] in some weird game of tag or hide and seek. I apparently started to follow it,

[00:18:41] and next thing I know, I hear my name loudly being called from behind me.

[00:18:47] I turned around and saw my dad close by, running up to me. I don't remember hearing the chainsaw

[00:18:55] stop or hearing him run. I do remember the look on his face and him telling me to never follow

[00:19:03] anything in the woods. He grabbed my hand and took me back to his work site to collect his equipment,

[00:19:10] and we left right afterwards. Years later, he told me he had an overwhelming feeling to stop work

[00:19:19] to check on me. He came back and saw me intensely watching the woods in the opposite direction of

[00:19:27] where he was working. He panicked when he saw me walking away. He didn't see what I saw,

[00:19:34] but sensed something wasn't right. He was yelling my name as he ran after me,

[00:19:41] and I eventually snapped out of it, startled, breaking whatever trance I was in.

[00:19:48] Neither of us are sure about what exactly happened, but something told him to get us

[00:19:53] out of the woods that day, and he has always trusted his intuition since.

[00:20:30] They used to live in a house where a spirit would visit them at night in their bedrooms.

[00:20:36] It would be seen by two of the sisters of my dad's large Catholic family,

[00:20:41] only stopping when they started commanding him to get out and that he wasn't welcome there.

[00:20:48] But that's another story. This story took place when I was around 11 or 12.

[00:20:54] My family was building a house in a different part of the state that we were living in,

[00:21:00] and was renting another house to stay in while our new house was being built.

[00:21:04] From what I remember, the house was beautiful and somewhat secluded, with a lot of green space

[00:21:10] outside and a swing. I had fond memories of living there, even though I stayed in this room that I

[00:21:17] childishly named the Coke Room. This was because it was covered with Coca-Cola memorabilia.

[00:21:24] I'm talking large posters, old advertisements, and tons of vintage Coke bottles,

[00:21:29] some still containing liquid in them. It's strange, but I still got relatively okay sleep in there.

[00:21:37] Later on, I heard some things from my dad that changed my whole perspective on that house

[00:21:42] and our time there. My parents didn't tell us as kids, but when the owner of the house

[00:21:49] was handing them the keys and leaving, they disclosed to my parents that the house was

[00:21:54] haunted. They said there was a more disturbed spirit living in the basement of the house

[00:22:01] where the laundry room was. Because of this, she strongly advised that we only do laundry

[00:22:07] in the daytime and avoid going down there at night. Normal, right? Well, according to her,

[00:22:14] there also was a more friendly entity living in the main areas of the house.

[00:22:20] The only thing with this spirit was that it liked a certain door, a door which led to nowhere.

[00:22:28] It led to a wall. After some recent renovations, anyways, he liked that door to be kept open.

[00:22:36] My parents were of course surprised and a little freaked out at this disclosure,

[00:22:41] but they had already signed and paid for the rental at this point and just had to go with it.

[00:22:48] Later on, in the summer, they hosted a small intimate dinner party with some family friends.

[00:22:54] A small note about the kitchen, on the kitchen counter there was a bowl that was filled with

[00:23:00] old coins. Anyways, the adults were sitting around at the dining table drinking and listening

[00:23:06] to music on an iPod when my dad noticed the distinct sounds of someone digging their hands

[00:23:13] into the bowl of coins as if they were sorting through them. Nobody was near the bowl of coins.

[00:23:20] They also heard the iPod shuffle skipping and they could pick up on the faint sounds of what

[00:23:26] he described as a sped up or jumbled voice talking at a rapid pace. He couldn't pick up on the actual

[00:23:35] words being said. Over the sound of the music, the dinner guests could hear this too, but everyone

[00:23:41] was trying to act normal and calm about it. Group psychology I guess. Anyway, my parents were

[00:23:48] gracious hosts and they played it off to not freak the guests out. And that was all for the night.

[00:23:55] Although according to my dad, he would continue to hear this coin noise when he sometimes came

[00:24:01] into the kitchen late at night to get water. The other experience he had involved this door.

[00:24:08] The door would sometimes bang around being open as it was wedged between this renovated wall

[00:24:15] and an older couch. My dad got tired of this noise at a certain point and decided to just

[00:24:21] close the door. He couldn't sleep well that night and woke up to strange sounds emanating from his

[00:24:28] room. As he entered the room, he heard again the sounds of a sped up, slightly cantankerous older

[00:24:36] man saying something he couldn't understand. My dad has been around the block with spirits and

[00:24:42] politely introduced himself saying that he meant no harm to the spirit and that he would leave him

[00:24:47] alone. He then went back to the door and opened it up again. He never closed it after that.

[00:24:54] That was the most memorable thing that I've heard. And as a child, I didn't know any of this

[00:25:00] had happened. But note to self and any listeners who are renting, maybe consider asking your

[00:25:07] landlord before you sign anything if the house or property is haunted.

[00:25:14] My daughter left one behind by Jenny. Ever since I got pregnant with my daughter, Samantha,

[00:25:41] strange things started happening. Mostly good things though. Now that she's all grown up,

[00:25:50] she often calls me to talk about paranormal happenings around her.

[00:25:54] Her friends all notice this about her too. I like to say that she's a spirit magnet.

[00:26:01] Samantha has been known to leave hitchhiking spirits at our house.

[00:26:05] Odd things happen around the house too whenever she visits.

[00:26:09] Items go missing and turn up in crazy spots. The dogs act weird and completely out of character

[00:26:17] for no reason. Music boxes that haven't been wound for years start playing on their own.

[00:26:24] Usually just simple, silly things. Until one night last summer,

[00:26:30] my partner and I were sleeping, and Samantha had left that same night after visiting us.

[00:26:37] I woke up to my youngest daughter, Addie, by my bedside saying,

[00:26:43] Mama, I'm cold. Mama, wake up. I'm cold.

[00:26:49] Now this is a typical occurrence for her. She comes up to our bed at least three times a week

[00:26:56] for one reason or another. Half asleep, I reached over and subconsciously picked her up,

[00:27:03] saying, Aw, come on. That's when my eyes widened in shock.

[00:27:11] I was now fully awake and realized that this was not my daughter.

[00:27:17] Addie is twelve, much taller than this poor little thing I'm holding, much heavier too.

[00:27:25] I took a good look at her and saw a young girl with a face full of scars that looked like burns.

[00:27:33] Oh, sweetie, what happened? Who are you? I said. She just kept saying, Mama, I'm cold.

[00:27:43] I tried to hold onto her, but she scrambled under the covers to cuddle with my partner.

[00:27:48] I pulled the covers up, trying to get her, but she had completely vanished.

[00:27:55] Not thirty seconds later, my partner got up and said,

[00:27:59] I can't stay in here. It's too cold. And he left to sleep in the guest room.

[00:28:06] This man has never left our bed. He is never cold, and he keeps me warm at night,

[00:28:13] not to mention it was summer. I can't help but wonder who this little girl was

[00:28:20] and if she still needs help from the grave.

[00:28:43] Small Town Windigo by Sammy G

[00:28:48] When I was a child, my grandfather used to tell me about monsters.

[00:28:52] I never believed his stories and always thought that there was no way that they could be real.

[00:28:58] I was an odd little girl, and I was a tomboy. I loved being outside, going fishing and shooting

[00:29:05] guns. My family and I moved to a small town called Asbury, Missouri. We moved into my

[00:29:12] best friend's old house. It was in the country and sat right next to the highway.

[00:29:19] Asbury was very small and only had a post office and a gas station,

[00:29:24] so my grandfather didn't care if I went out at night by myself.

[00:29:29] I would often sleep outside at night in a tent or a hammock under the tree. I could even leave

[00:29:35] the yard alone at night, as long as I brought at least one gun to protect myself. My grandfather

[00:29:41] wasn't as concerned about a person taking me as he was about the wildlife. I was small,

[00:29:49] and there were a lot of coyotes in the area. We had even seen some large tracks by a river

[00:29:55] that looked like they could be from a bear. So anytime I left, I always took one .22 caliber

[00:30:02] rifle, my 9mm, and my dad's little 12-gauge pump-action shotgun. This ensured that anything

[00:30:10] bigger would most likely leave me alone. About three months into living there,

[00:30:17] I decided to go fishing. Summer was pretty much over and the weather was starting to cool off.

[00:30:23] I thought it was the perfect night to go and finish out my summer with a nice, relaxing

[00:30:28] fishing trip to my favorite spot. This spot was on a neighbor's property, inside his cow pasture.

[00:30:35] When I got there, I had several cows around me at the pond but they seemed to stay on the other

[00:30:42] side. I didn't pay too much attention and I got right into my night. I tend to drift off into

[00:30:49] sleep when I fish, and that's exactly what I did on this night. I'm not sure how much time had

[00:30:55] passed before I realized that I didn't hear the bullfrogs or crickets anymore. I noticed this

[00:31:02] as I realized that not only were all of the cows gone and completely silent, but there wasn't so

[00:31:09] much as a firefly outside now. This was the time of year when they were everywhere. I was raised in

[00:31:18] the forest and I knew that complete silence was bad and it usually meant a predator was near.

[00:31:25] So as a precaution, I decided to pack it up for the night as I had not caught anything anyway.

[00:31:32] As I went to stand up, I heard something snap a stick behind me. I was instantly filled with fear.

[00:31:39] I thought to myself, how could I let a predator get so close to me before I realized?

[00:31:46] How could I become so comfortable that I forgot to pay attention to my surroundings?

[00:31:51] I turned around to see something that I never expected to see. It was straight out of a nightmare.

[00:31:58] It was tall and it looked like it stood at least a foot and a half above my dad who was 5'11".

[00:32:06] This thing made my blood run cold as my eyes became transfixed on this monster.

[00:32:14] It had pale gray skin that hung off of it like an old leather jacket. It had patches of what

[00:32:21] looked like brown or gray fur. It stood on two feet but it had hooves like a deer.

[00:32:29] It had hands that looked human with what looked like giant claws at the end of its fingers.

[00:32:35] Its face was like a deer with human eyes. Its mouth was long and filled with yellowish

[00:32:41] red stained razor sharp teeth. We stared at each other for what seemed like forever

[00:32:49] until it did something. It looked right at me and said, baby girl I need you.

[00:32:57] It sounded almost like my grandfather but like he was under the water.

[00:33:04] Hearing this made me snap out of my frightened state and I raised my shotgun and fired.

[00:33:10] The creature let out a scream and I continued to fire at it. It ran towards the dark field

[00:33:16] behind it. I could see the light of a lantern coming across the old man's property. I heard

[00:33:22] him yell some profanity as he fired shots as well. He ran to me and checked on me.

[00:33:28] I asked him if he saw that thing just to ease my mind that I wasn't just saying things myself.

[00:33:35] He told me that it was an old nuisance and was responsible for killing cattle around town.

[00:33:43] He said that most people aren't out at night like you or your family.

[00:33:50] He walked me home making sure that I made it safe. When we reached my home,

[00:33:55] I explained frantically to my grandfather what I had seen and he looked at me kind of funny.

[00:34:01] That is until the old man reaffirmed what I had said. After that, I no longer slept outside

[00:34:10] and that thing continued to come into our yard every night. My grandfather and dad would often

[00:34:17] end up shooting at it as it would attack our dogs. We even had to start bringing them into

[00:34:23] the house at night as several of our hunting dogs had passed away. My grandmother came down

[00:34:30] to visit us and blessed our property and gave me a necklace to wear. It had a big crystal

[00:34:36] with my hair tied around it with a nylon chain that she had woven. After that, the thing I saw

[00:34:44] never came back but I had night terrors every night since that encounter. They finally stopped

[00:34:52] but I was always cautious afterward, especially at night.

[00:34:57] Twenty years later, I had a nightmare about the creature that I saw so I'm hoping that writing

[00:35:03] this story will help bring some clarity to what I saw. I thought from the stories I heard it may be

[00:35:11] a wendigo or skinwalker. I know I felt nothing but pure hatred and malice while it stared at me.

[00:35:18] And typing this now, 31 years old, it still gives me goosebumps. Anyone living in the woods or

[00:35:26] around nature, please know that there are things out there that just want to hurt you.

[00:35:32] Please take caution, especially at night. As it would turn out, my uncle's property

[00:35:38] would bring more encounters with monsters in the woods.

[00:36:07] Yet another story backing up my opinion that we're not meant to be playing around in the woods.

[00:36:13] Even the story I narrated about the girl's dad who was a logger, I'm just,

[00:36:18] I don't know, I'm glad nothing happened to them but if something did happen,

[00:36:22] can we really blame the entity? Yeah, no, we're the invaders. I get that

[00:36:27] we're supposed to spend time in nature, I try to do that as much as possible, but not at night.

[00:36:33] There's just something about the woods at night that seems sinister. I can feel it.

[00:36:38] That's definitely where a lot of the strange events take place, I mean,

[00:36:42] alien abductions, wendigo and bigfoot sightings, fairy folk, they all just love lurking in the

[00:36:48] dark woods. But there's also that white or gray cryptid that has been seen during the day,

[00:36:54] I don't remember any of the names off the top of my head but there's a video of this guy practicing

[00:36:59] Mongolian throat singing in the woods and you can clearly see it. I think the video's legit,

[00:37:05] it's worth looking up. If you just look up Mongolian throat singer cryptid, I'm sure it'll

[00:37:09] pop up. But I don't know, not to dissuade you from going back out during the day,

[00:37:15] you're probably like a thousand times more likely to die in a plane crash than get attacked by

[00:37:20] bigfoot. Not to dissuade you from flying either, I'll just shut up.

[00:37:25] Yeah, wise words. I was reading this really great article from a few years ago about Missouri's

[00:37:31] mysterious monsters on the Vox Magazine website and it's not the Vox that you're thinking of.

[00:37:39] I was gonna say that doesn't sound nearly buzzworthy enough for an outlet like Vox.

[00:37:44] Yeah, they're definitely not what they used to be but Vox Magazine is very cool. In the article,

[00:37:50] they covered a number of monster sightings, one of my favorites being the Momo.

[00:37:55] I like the name. I can't say I've heard of it though. What's the Momo all about?

[00:38:01] Well, it's not the Momo from the internet trend a few years back. If you do a Google search,

[00:38:05] that will pop up. But there was an article in a Missouri paper from 1972 that told the story of

[00:38:12] this eight-year-old kid and his older sister. They were playing outside and they saw this

[00:38:17] ape-like thing. I guess you could call it Missouri's Bigfoot.

[00:38:22] The kid runs inside and tells his sister and she looks out the window and she sees it too,

[00:38:25] which corroborated her little brother's story. Law enforcement actually got involved in the search

[00:38:31] for the Momo but they didn't find anything. However, there were more Momo sightings. It's

[00:38:37] been reported that Momo can be anywhere from six to 12 feet tall with a head shaped like a pumpkin,

[00:38:42] a nasty sounding scream, red eyes, and it's also super smelly.

[00:38:47] Alright, demonic Chewbacca. Got it.

[00:38:50] Yeah. It was apparently pretty scary though. For a while, the kids refused to turn to their house.

[00:38:55] Probably the smell.

[00:38:57] Yeah, good point. There also used to be a ride at the St. Louis Six Flags that was named after Momo.

[00:39:04] I do actually like it when theme parks kind of embrace the local culture. Or I guess this is

[00:39:10] probably more hypercritical, but when corporations keep it super casual and quirky. We have a

[00:39:17] McDonald's billboard sign here advertising their $1 fountain drinks and it says Utah with a dozen

[00:39:25] As. Remind us we're not only in Utah, but that sodas are so refreshing.

[00:39:32] Yeah, I like that. But you're right about the theme park thing though. It's kind of

[00:39:35] like how California Adventure at Disneyland Resort basically recreates and celebrates parts

[00:39:41] of California with rides and attractions. At first I thought it was kind of dumb. You're in

[00:39:45] California. Why not just visit Hollywood or San Francisco instead of experiencing

[00:39:50] an imitation at a theme park?

[00:39:53] Yeah, I kind of get it. It's an idealized homage, I guess. Just like a silly little thing. And it

[00:39:59] keeps it all in one spot. So I sort of get it.

[00:40:02] I warmed up to California Adventure for sure. I also love smaller theme parks like in the

[00:40:06] Bay Area. There's Great America.

[00:40:08] Oh yeah, we have one here called Lagoon. That's actually pretty cool. It's very,

[00:40:13] very small. You see it right off the freeway and everybody knows and loves it.

[00:40:18] Yeah, I was basically a little kid last time I went to Great America. I wonder if it's still

[00:40:22] fun. I need to go again. Anyway, Missouri has a decent amount of monster lore and I'm not at

[00:40:28] all surprised by the encounter in our story. I found some other first person encounters on

[00:40:35] The Net where people have seen Wendigos in the state, but this was one of the most

[00:40:40] visual and definitely the most convincing.

[00:40:43] Yeah, I love the World Wide Web. Yeah, I know there's a lot of wild stuff going on in the

[00:40:48] Ozarks and I can't say I'm skeptical about Sammy's story. Thanks for sharing.

[00:40:53] Yeah, definitely.

[00:40:54] So I guess continuing about the woods conversation, it's probably safe to say that

[00:41:00] going camping out at a rainbow gathering isn't on your bucket list.

[00:41:04] I mean, it sounds cool on paper. I just don't like the idea of falling asleep next to

[00:41:10] hundreds of strangers and obviously not being in the middle of the woods.

[00:41:15] Okay, yeah, that's fair. I actually, I camped at a music festival with my brother a couple

[00:41:20] summers ago and the clientele was similar to a rainbow gathering. It was actually pretty cool.

[00:41:26] Yeah, I remember you guys both liking it. I don't know. I could be down for like a sober

[00:41:30] drum circle, but I'm not washing anybody's feet or taking my clothes off.

[00:41:35] Yeah, I mean, I get that. I didn't see any feet washing,

[00:41:39] but there was one naked person walking around for some reason.

[00:41:43] I actually do think you'd have fun for like an hour. That's not a backhanded compliment.

[00:41:49] No, that's totally accurate. I'll give just about anything a shot as long as I can

[00:41:54] swing by in quotes for however long. Yeah, that's totally fair.

[00:42:00] I'm kind of embarrassed, but the Nick at night pun in that story took me far too long to catch.

[00:42:05] Me too. I was thinking it was some, are you afraid of the dark reference?

[00:42:10] Or if some guy named Nick started the tradition.

[00:42:13] Yeah, I just wasn't catching the reference,

[00:42:16] but it did dawn on me once I noticed that they spelled Nick and I see.

[00:42:20] Nick Oteen. Yeah, same.

[00:42:23] Yeah.

[00:42:24] But the invisible steps or whatever that was, the author mentioned fairies and

[00:42:29] that's what I'm thinking too, especially being out in the forest. It checks out, I guess.

[00:42:34] Yeah, I agree.

[00:42:35] Maybe it was a sprite of some sort. It seemed neutral at worst actually kind of playful.

[00:42:42] I don't know. At least it wasn't a Momo.

[00:42:45] Yeah, it's sort of just hung around and acted curious about everybody like

[00:42:49] a child who keeps looking at you when they do a cartwheel or something.

[00:42:54] But they're too shy to directly ask for your attention.

[00:42:58] Yeah, it makes my day when somebody's baby is smiling at me, like when I'm standing in line

[00:43:03] somewhere or at a restaurant, I'm always waving back and smiling at them all quietly.

[00:43:08] I kind of do that, but I'm always afraid that the parent is going to yell at me or

[00:43:14] everyone's going to think I'm a creep.

[00:43:17] Yeah, yeah. I hate that's how things are, but I can say that every parent has smiled back at

[00:43:22] me when they see what's going on. And I used to be the same way, but I don't know, I'd feel worse

[00:43:28] ignoring a happy baby than pissing off a parent just because I, God forbid, responded to their

[00:43:34] kid's smile with a smile.

[00:43:36] That's true. I think most parents can easily tell apart the creeps.

[00:43:40] A clean cut person in their Sunday's best could still raise more red flags than,

[00:43:46] I don't know, people like us with tattoos and beat up sneakers.

[00:43:49] Yeah, we're breaking down stereotypes over here.

[00:43:52] Yeah.

[00:43:53] Yeah. Well, your challenge for the week is to smile back at every baby you see

[00:43:58] when you're out and about.

[00:44:00] So we're doing weekly challenges now?

[00:44:03] If that's what it comes down to, so be it.

[00:44:05] Well, I'll see what I can do.

[00:44:07] All right.

[00:44:08] Thanks everybody so much for listening. All the stories you heard this week were narrated and

[00:44:12] produced with the permission of their respective authors. If you have a story to share, make sure

[00:44:16] you send it to stories at oddtrails.com. And finally, make sure you check out our Patreon

[00:44:21] if you want to get ad-free versions of all of our episodes, all at a higher bit rate,

[00:44:25] so you have the best listening experience. You can go to patreon.com forward slash OddTrails

[00:44:30] to sign up and support the show today. And finally, make sure you check out the new episodes

[00:44:34] of my other podcasts like Let's Not Meet and the Old Time Radiocast at crypticcountypodcasts.com

[00:44:39] or wherever you get your podcasts. Everybody stay safe. Peace out.

[00:44:44] Don't let the ghosts and the ghouls disturb you, darling.