I talk about the paranormal side of the US state of California from the nightcrawlers, strange giant shadows, water cryptids and of course the famous sasquatch. I also talk about the haunting of Alcatraz.

1. March 17,
2020
California – Nightcrawlers, Shadows and Alcatraz
theweeklyrambler.com/california-nightcrawlers-shadows-and-alcatraz/
California! A big large state with the highest population out of the other US States and
the biggest economic powerhouse in the US to boot, a state known for Silicon Valley, a
place in San Francisco where numerous companies in technology, innovation, social
media and the internet are set up. California is also known for Hollywood and its big
worldwide acclaimed film, celebrity and movie industry.
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2. Patty from the Patterson-Gimlim film
California is also known for a number of its cities including San Francisco and Los
Angeles. The state’s capital city is Sacramento. California has a long coast along the
Pacific Ocean and the state is well-known for its attractive beaches. The state is also
bordered with Oregon, Nevada, Arizona and the country of Mexico. California’s varied
geography includes mountains, fir forests, with Redwoods being a well-known tree of the
state, there is also desert as well. But from time to time the state can suffer from terrible
droughts and wildfires and there is also the danger posed from Earthquakes – including
the so called “Big One” that is meant to happen anytime, at least according to all the
news articles out there anyway.
So as can be seen California has lots to offer and it also has a long history and you know
what that means… paranormal stuff! So, let’s get into it. Of course, we once again have to
bring up the big hairy celebrity that is Bigfoot or as it is known in the US, the Sasquatch,
which is once again also known to be hanging about in California’s forests and isolated
areas. One of my first ever posts that focused on Bigfoot talked about the Patterson-
Gimlin film, the most famous and iconic footage ever captured of the Sasquatch and is
still highly debated until this day, the footage of this apparent encounter was taken in
Northern California, alongside Bluff Creek, a tributary of the Klamath River and north-
west of Orleans in 1967. The apparent Sasquatch walking in the footage has been
dubbed “Patty” and is thought to be female.
There was also the apparent “Sasquatch
vocalizations” caught on a recording at a lodge in
the Sierra Nevada mountains in the 1970s known
as the Sierra Sounds, captured by Ron Morehead
and Al Berry, the creepy recordings can be heard
on Youtube. Again, it is highly debated with people
for and against it. Some say it was simply just
humans making the sounds as a hoax while others,
such as the linguist Scott Nelson, has said that the
sounds were too complex to be made by normal
animals and that further analysis and studying was
needed but that he believes that it is a complex
language that is spoken and understood by these
unknown creatures.
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3. Lake Tahoe – Supposed home of Tahoe Tessie. Photo byLara Farhadi from Flickr. License.
But let’s move away from the big celebrity and hogger of the cryptid world that is Bigfoot
or the Sasquatch and go on to some more localised cryptids. First up is a water cryptid
called Tahoe Tessie. This one is a bit more localised than bigfoot although the lake does
still go across two states, which is of course California but also Nevada, called Lake
Tahoe. The freshwater Lake straddles the border between California and Nevada, West
of Carson City, the lake is the largest Alpine Lake in North America and the second
deepest lake in the US behind Crater Lake in Oregon.
Descriptions of Tessie vary from being described as a 60-feet long serpent-like creature
to simply being described as a giant fish. Legends of a creature or monster in the lake
have gone on for centuries with legends also coming from the Washoe and Paiute Native
American’s. The giant creature is said to have its underwater lair beneath an area called
Cave Rock, a large formation of rock along the southeastern shore of Lake Tahoe and is
apparently sacred to the Washoe Indians with rumours they threw their dead into the
lake at Cave Rock and there are many rumours of hauntings and ghosts in the area
attributed to this, in-fact the lake itself is said to be somewhat haunted by ghosts,
including a lady dressed in fine 1800s clothing floating just below the surface of the
water.
Sightings of Tahoe Tessie are on a fairly regular basis including unusual breaks in the
water seemingly created by something very large and dark humps sticking out of the
water as if from some big creature that then submerged back under the water. Such
sightings have included two off-duty police officers in the 1950s who reported seeing a
large, black hump rise from the water and keep speed with a boat over 60mph. In the
1990s a Kayak Instructor reported seeing a two-person kayak flip over and sink, but
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4. when he got to the area in a speed boat to see, there was nothing there and none of his
students reported sinking their kayaks and everyone was accounted for, could it have
been Tahoe Tessie?
One of the places the Nightcrawlers have been seen is Yosemite National Park. Photo byDiliff
from Wikimedia. License.
Next up is an interesting one, that of the Fresno Nightcrawler, also called the Fresno
Alien, a very strange creature that was caught on a camera on at least two separate
occasions, with the first in Fresno, California, in 2010 a creature appearing to be all pale
white and walking with two long legs but having no arms and very short upper body with
a head, the creature looks like a strange semi-circle shaped being as a whole, and was
walking along the front-yard of a man called Jose who recorded it on CCTV, claiming his
dog started barking at the same time the creature was on CCTV, prompting him to look
at the footage. The footage was also featured on the Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files
program who were unable to debunk it.
In 2011 the creatures were caught on security camera again but this time in California’s
Yosemite National Park and instead of just one there was two of them, one of which was
similar in size to the first but also a 2nd much smaller one, as if it were a child. Their feet
were also visible in this footage as well, the creatures were still semi-circle shaped and
pale white.
A number of experts claim that the videos are merely a hoax and easily faked, such as by
using sheets and illusions in the dark or by the usage of bad quality footage.
Nonetheless the Nightcrawlers have a sort of cult following now, similar to how
slenderman did when it first appeared, although slenderman is widely known to be fake,
originating from a creation on an online image board and from there made into
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5. “creepypasta’s”, entertainment videos on youtube, made-up history and games and now
even a movie, I’ll perhaps do a blogpost on it one day. The Nightcrawlers on the other
hand are a little more debatable and there have been some other reported sightings
since.
Image by Antonios Ntoumas from Pixabay
Next up is a strange phenomenon that seems to happen in the Santa Lucia Mountains,
the mountain chain is in coastal central California running from Carmel’s southeast to
the Cuyama River, spanning 140 miles. For centuries the Chumash Indians spoke of
them and called them “The Old Ones”, massively tall dark silhouettes of anywhere from
7-15ft, often wearing wide-brimmed hats, cloaks and sometimes apparently holding long
sticks or staves that would stand on the peaks of the mountain’s… simply just observing
the mystified witness or witnesses.
Early European explorers have also reported seeing them and Mexican’s that lived in the
area called them “Los Vigilantes Oscuros” even until this day the reports of encounters
with them still happen. Describing them any further is impossible as whenever one
attempts to get close to these strange hulking figures they simply just vanish away into
thin air. It is said that they have a better chance of appearing to people who are dressed
in more old-fashioned garb. They are apparently also most commonly seen during the
twilight hours.
One sighting in the mid-1960s was reported by a former high school principal who was
hiking in the mountains. He claimed to suddenly see a dark figure wearing a hat and
cape who was standing on a rock in the distance and surveying the area. But the figure
vanished into thin air when the man called out to it.
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6. Alcatraz. Photo by Frank Schulenburg from Wikimedia. License.
Finally, it is time to move on to a haunting in California and I thought of no better place
than that of Alcatraz! The former notorious prison that is no-longer in use but still serves
as a tourist attraction. Alcatraz island is located in San Francisco Bay and has been used
for a lighthouse, military fort and prison and also of which it is best known for, a federal
penitentiary from 1934 which was shut down on March 21st (my birthday) 1963. The
penitentiary was designed for troublesome and dangerous inmates who were too much
trouble for other federal prisons, meaning that Alcatraz had many notorious criminals
behind its walls during its operation.
Such prisoners included mobsters and gangsters such as Al Capone (who was seemingly
driven mad by a spirit he believes was stalking him, said to be one of his victims), George
“Machine Gun” Kelly, Bumpy Johnson, Mickey Cohen, Arthur R. “Doc” Barker and Alvin
“Creepy” Karpis (the prison’s longest serving inmate), others included terrorists such as
Rafael Cancel Miranda and murderers and psychopaths such as Robert Stroud known as
the “Birdman of Alcatraz” due to his nursing and interest in birds at a former prison
leading him to write books on birds and even make an in-prison business for a
temporary time.
The prison has claimed that during its operation no prisoners ever successfully escaped
due to its stringent and strict measures such as armed guards, watch towers and also
the fact that the prison was on an island surrounded by the sea. There had though been
several attempts leading to deaths of both prisoners and prison officers, one of the most
famous attempted escapes lead to the Battle of Alcatraz lasting from May 2nd to 4th in
1946 leading to the deaths of 3 prisoners and 2 prison officers and later 2 further
prisoners being executed for the part they played.
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7. Many other escape attempts either led to being shot dead or drowning in the sea.
Although a number of those who have escaped were marked as “missing and presumed
drowned” but some believe that in this small number may have been at least a couple of
successful escapes, but without any proof it is impossible to say. The furthest an escaped
prisoner is recorded to have got was to the shore, this happening in 1962 with the
convict called John Paul Scott, but he passed out on the shore due to hypothermic shock
and was subsequently recaptured.
Due to its dark history such as the people it held, the conditions and suffering of
prisoners, suicides and other deaths has led to Alcatraz being dubbed as one of
America’s most haunted places. But even before there was a prison on the island, early
Native American’s had already told stories of evil spirits on the island and events from
the American Civil War and the military prison that was once there before the federal
one are also suspected sources of hauntings for Alcatraz. Prisoners and prison guards
had also reported paranormal phenomena during the prison’s operation. Tourists and
tour guides to the former prison continue to claim odd goings-on at the island and its
buildings and a number of paranormal investigators have been to it, documenting
evidence including programs such as Ghost Adventures.
The phenomena reported has included cell doors slamming by themselves, disembodied
whispering in the cells, phantom figures and manifestations in the halls and corridors,
cold spots, ghostly lights, moaning, crying, screaming and wailing sounds and also
residual sounds such as that of music and sewing machines. There were even reports by
prisoners at the time of dark entities, such as those with glowing red eyes, often seen in
solitary confinement, one such death in Alcatraz is reported as mysterious, reportedly
involving the red-eyed entity, happening in D-block (believed to be one of the most
haunted areas) the inmate apparently saw glowing red eyes in the dark and was
screaming for hours, and was later found dead with in the morning, left with a purple
face, bulging eyes and unidentified strangle marks around his throat.
So, there you have it, a few paranormal cryptids and a notorious haunt from California.
Next up we will be checking out the state of Nevada – where I am pretty sure we will have
a visit from aliens!
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