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Post by Joanna on Aug 17, 2014 7:18:19 GMT -5
Greer Island's GoatmanSomething monstrous is lurking among the singing cicadas and rustling reeds on the shoreline of the West Fork of the Trinity River in Tarrant County, Texas. First spotted 45 years ago this month, the creature has been known to throw tires and scare teenagers. Real or imagined, the thing appeared to be “part man and part goat” with scales and long clawed fingers, witnesses claimed. It made the pages of the daily newspapers and whipped Tarrant County into a monster-hunting frenzy in the summer of 1969. They called it the “Lake Worth Monster.”
Even today, stories of the monster, also known as “Goatman,” can be heard around campfires in North Texas. Researchers have made documentaries and written books. Lakewood Brewing Co. even decided to pay respect with a limited-release Goatman beer.
“The stories are enduring. The lore is enduring,” said Michelle Villafranca, a natural resource specialist at the Fort Worth Nature Center and Refuge. Villafranca organizes a Lake Worth Monster Bash at the nature center in October to celebrate the monster (this year’s bash is scheduled for October 4). Along with being in charge of land management at the park, she has become the go-to collector of all things monstrous. On the windowsill of her office is an empty bottle of Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Ale. She has a book written about the Lake Worth Monster filed on her bookshelf right next to her field guides of local mammals. “We have alligator sighting report forms; we don’t have any Goatman sighting forms. Maybe we should start,” Villafranca said. “After all, he is North Central Texas fauna.”
Summer of ‘69. The summer of 1969 was hot and humid in Tarrant County. Back then, the area near Greer Island wasn’t gated off like it is now. Teenagers would go down Shoreline Road around the lake to be alone and enjoy the freedom of summer nights.
On July 9, a group of three couples was parked by a clearing. Around midnight, a beast leapt onto their car from the trees above. The monster tried to grab one woman, but they sped off before it could take her away, the witnesses said.
“We’ve had reports about this thing for about two months,” a police dispatcher told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, “but we’ve always laughed them off as pranks.”
But an 18-inch gash in the side of the car and the terrified nature of the witnesses led police to open a full investigation. It appeared in the newspapers the next day and the area was immediately caught in monster-fever. Truckloads of men with guns headed toward Greer Island to hunt the thing. Spectators came out in droves to try to catch a glimpse of it. Reporters swarmed in, and police tried to keep the peace.
Rick Pratt, director of the Greer Island Nature Center at the time, remembers folks coming out with wine, whiskey and beer to have a good time and hunt for the creature. “Here was a Sasquatch, our very own,” Pratt said. “It was a party, what the hell, let’s go.”
On the night of July 10, a few dozen people were at a clearing known for dumping near the lake when the monster made another appearance. It appeared on a cliff, looked angry, and threw a tire 500 feet. Everyone, including a group of sheriff’s deputies, ran away in fear. One witness said the monster gave off a “pitiful cry, like something was hurting him.”
Craig Woolheater was 9 that summer. He was fascinated with monsters, dinosaurs and UFOs. He clipped out the newspaper stories about the Lake Worth Monster scare and kept them in a scrapbook. Years later, while driving through Louisiana, he saw something unexplainable. In his headlights, he said, he saw the gray body of a huge primate on two legs. He became a believer and started the Texas Bigfoot Research Center in 1999 to study and educate people about the elusive creature. Today he lives in Mansfield and is a full-time cryptozoology blogger. He believes the Lake Worth Monster was a real creature, like ones that have been spotted all over the country, stopping in the area because of its viable habitat. “I personally think it’s an undiscovered, uncataloged primate species that walks on two legs,” he said.
According to legend, the Lake Worth Monster lives on the shores of the West Fork of the Trinity River. It can swim, climb trees and eats fish and chickens. It is seven feet tall and has inhuman strength. Some reports say it has horns sprouting from its head, giving the monster the moniker “Goatman.” This is the only known photograph (above) of the alleged monster, taken in 1969.Source: Charles Scudder, The Dallas Morning News, July 2014.
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Post by Sam on Aug 18, 2014 2:46:32 GMT -5
I don't think that I've heard of this Bigfoot, or whatever it is. In the photo, it looks more like a Yeti than a goatman.
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Post by natalie on Aug 19, 2014 18:43:26 GMT -5
Whatever or whoever it is, it must be quite strong to have been able to make a gash in a car, and throw a tire 500 feet away.
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Post by Sam on Feb 11, 2023 0:47:30 GMT -5
A few nights ago when work was slow, we got to talking about Bigfoot and other things people see in the woods. One man is married to a woman from Texas and he told us that her brother and some of his friends saw what people call the Goatman a few years back. He said Greer Island is out in the middle of Lake Worth, which was formed by a dam way back in the early 20th century. Some people say the creature is really more of a Bigfoot than a goat, and he said there's a story that some people fishing one night saw a strange, hairy man swimming from the mainland to the island. There's a big wildlife refuge there, so it might be possible for a huge creature to keep out of sight. Apes can't swim, so if they did see a Bigfoot swimming, this would mean the creature is more man than ape.
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Post by steve on Feb 11, 2023 11:11:19 GMT -5
A few nights ago when work was slow, we got to talking about Bigfoot and other things people see in the woods. One man is married to a woman from Texas and he told us that her brother and some of his friends saw what people call the Goatman a few years back. He said Greer Island is out in the middle of Lake Worth, which was formed by a dam way back in the early 20th century. Some people say the creature is really more of a Bigfoot than a goat, and he said there's a story that some people fishing one night saw a strange, hairy man swimming from the mainland to the island. There's a big wildlife refuge there, so it might be possible for a huge creature to keep out of sight. Apes can't swim, so if they did see a Bigfoot swimming, this would mean the creature is more man than ape. I think that most people who see things like Bigfoot, Thunderbirds and lake monsters never say anything about it because they know they'll be ridiculed. If I saw Bigfoot, I'm not sure I'd tell anyone.
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Post by snowfairy on Feb 11, 2023 17:00:02 GMT -5
I think that most people who see things like Bigfoot, Thunderbirds and lake monsters never say anything about it because they know they'll be ridiculed. If I saw Bigfoot, I'm not sure I'd tell anyone. Some friends of mine saw a Bigfoot when they were on a camping trip in Washington state near the Canadian border, but they never made an official report because they knew they would be accused of being drunk or on drugs.
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Post by pat on Feb 11, 2023 23:20:30 GMT -5
Some friends of mine saw a Bigfoot when they were on a camping trip in Washington state near the Canadian border, but they never made an official report because they knew they would be accused of being drunk or on drugs. I know a man in Interlachen, Florida, who swears he and his wife saw Bigfoot cross the road in front of them late one night when they were driving through the Etoniah Creek State Forest. His wife made him promise not to say anything, but he still told a few people.
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Post by serena on Feb 12, 2023 2:48:10 GMT -5
I know a man in Interlachen, Florida, who swears he and his wife saw Bigfoot cross the road in front of them late one night when they were driving through the Etoniah Creek State Forest. His wife made him promise not to say anything, but he still told a few people. I have some cousins who saw the Alabama White Thang when they were camping in the Bankhead National Forest. It was in October and there were other people in the campground, and someone said it might be a man or teenage boy dressed up in a white gorilla costume. Scaring people like that might be OK in some places, but in Alabama, people have guns, and anyone running through the woods in a monster costume would risk getting shot.
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Post by steve on Feb 13, 2023 1:30:56 GMT -5
I have some cousins who saw the Alabama White Thang when they were camping in the Bankhead National Forest. It was in October and there were other people in the campground, and someone said it might be a man or teenage boy dressed up in a white gorilla costume. Scaring people like that might be OK in some places, but in Alabama, people have guns, and anyone running through the woods in a monster costume would risk getting shot. There's a really a cryptid known as the "Alabama White Thang"?
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Post by serena on Feb 15, 2023 21:44:27 GMT -5
There's a really a cryptid known as the "Alabama White Thang"? It's a Bigfoot creature with white fur, or light colored fur. People usually see it at night, so if it was a light colored tan, it would look white. When people talk about it, they call it the "white thang," so that's how it got its name.
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Post by catherine on Feb 16, 2023 0:08:48 GMT -5
It's a Bigfoot creature with white fur, or light colored fur. People usually see it at night, so if it was a light colored tan, it would look white. When people talk about it, they call it the "white thang," so that's how it got its name. I've come across a lot of people who claim to have seen, or know someone who has seen, the White Thang.
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Post by Sam on Feb 20, 2023 4:09:41 GMT -5
I think that most people who see things like Bigfoot, Thunderbirds and lake monsters never say anything about it because they know they'll be ridiculed. If I saw Bigfoot, I'm not sure I'd tell anyone. I know people who have seen things, like the monster folks here in Kentucky call "Bearilla," ghosts and other strange things, but they don't publicize it, because (1) they don't want to be accused of being drunk or high or just crazy, and (2) they don't want to attract a lot of investigators to the area.
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