I'm developing a story where Skinwalker Ranch acts as a sort of nature preserve/rescue facility for cryptids. I'd like to include as many popular American cryptids as I can. So far I'm planning to use skinwalkers, wendigos, the Goatman, and a few of the different types of sasquatch. Can anyone think of any others you think people would like to see?
Oh, this is my wheelhouse. I've done a lot of research on monsters for my idea. The New Jersey devil, the yeti, the mothman, New York City giant sewer crocs, the chupacabra, Bessie, skunk ape, thunderbird. Those are some big ones you missed.
I'm trying to recall the Richard Gere movie about the Mothman so I looked it up and it's called The Mothman Prophecies...I shake my head at myself sometimes, you'd think I'd remember that. ''What's the name of that film where a big green monster called Godzilla wrecks an entire city?'' Dearie me. The Thunderbird has to be my favourite in terms of natural placement. I love the idea of a Giant bird just gliding in front of a huge thunderstorm on the horizon, if such a thing existed and I wouldn't be surprise if they did once upon a time it would have been one of those awe inspiring moments in life to witness. Very cool idea, I know skinwalkers are similar to the werewolf in some instances but you need a Dogman enclosure. Drop Vic Cundiff a line and tell him your idea and type up a scene where someone walks up to the glass and pushes the info button to play a recorded message from Vic telling them all about it. He'd love it trust me. Hell, he'd probably do the scene for free on the audio book if you went down that route. Throw in a Pukwudgie but keep it away from the kids. Good luck with it, the book I mean, it sounds cool.
The chupacabra is a native to my very own Puerto Rico. It's engagement has since spread to other parts of the continental mainland, but chupacabra is Boricua to the bone! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chupacabra
I considered that, but that's more, like you said, a Puerto Rican/Mexican monster. For now I want to stick to American monsters, and maybe later add in something about how other countries have their own cryptic reservations.
Puerto Rico is just as American as Alaska or Hawaii. I guess you're wanting to go with the continental US, or the contiguous states or whatever it's called.
Depending on your stories focus, a lot of cryptid sightings go hand in hand with UFOs and aliens. You can also include my current favorite cryptid, the pale crawler. Often misidentified as a skinwalker or wendigo, this fellow doesn't carry their cultural significance. It's just some naked demi-human who crawls around late at night and makes creepy noises, though they seem to be mostly nonviolent.
If you are looking at specific to the US, you would be looking at Native American stories. The Europeans brought their own stories with them, maybe not just the "stories". Hmmmmm.
don't forget Bloody Bones,or the Hudson River Monster. For Central/Latin America, how about the Cadejo or Cucey?
You know, I'm actually kinda fascinated by this stuff, because from an Old World perspective, it's like Americans are sorta developing their own proto-folklore. Like, Bigfoot? Big, immensely strong creature who lives in the forest and is ambiguously dangerous? We have those over here as well. We call them "trolls." Or, even something like aliens. Strange, otherwordly creatures who abduct you and do strange things to you for reasons that aren't completely clear, and often you find that there are temporal inconsistencies associated with the experience? In Europe, we call those "fairies." It's pretty interesting and I'm surprised all the anthropologists haven't taken note of it because it's kinda like seeing folklore form in something close to real time.
There's also a lot of similarities between some kinds of UFO sightings and what people in centuries past used to report as visions of angels, demons, or religious figures.
True, but looking at it from the other direction: Every time something remotely paranormal is reported in the Americas, the UFO nuts will typically claim it was aliens. It's honestly kinda frustrating, like they're basically hijacking any weird event that takes place by going: "Oh, yeah, I totally saw a UFO around that time." I suspect people are more prone to this these days because "aliens did it" seems more rational than any supernatural explanation, even though it's not really more believable.
I'm not sure how this relates. What I said is an extension of what you said earlier, but instead of trolls and fairies, it involves religious visions. Basically, people are still having the same kind of visions they always have, the explanations just change from century to century. Yes that's basically the reasoning behind the things you mentioned already too—since America is a newer country and has no traditions going all the way back to a mythological basis, they created more rationalistic explanations. Well, some of them anyway. I don't think the giant Paul Bunyan and his blue ox is all that rational—that one sounds a lot more mythological.
Right, sorry. I didn't mean to call you out or anything, you just sorta triggered a pet peeve of mine.
To call it a proto-folklore misses the fact that most of these cryptids: sasquatch, wendigo, skinwalkers as primary examples, come from native american folklore and have been a thing for ages. Now there are some that have only really come into existence recently like mothman and chupacabra that do not (to my knowledge) have any roots in native american folktales. But quite a few already are part of an established folklore.
*shrug* Cultural appropriation, however frowned upon, is still a legitimate way of adding to your own culture. There are parts of Swedish folklore that I am pretty sure we straight up plagiarized from the Celts, for instance. Originality has never been a requirement for this type of thing. So, even if bigfoot/sasquash (for example) was originally a creature of Native American myth, modern Americans have pretty much made their own version by now. Point is, this is like the first time in forever we can observe this happening in contemporary times. I just feel people should probably be more excited about that.
I've been listening to the Cryptonauts podcast lately. It's both hilarious and informative. If you guys are at all interested in cryptozoology, you should check it out. They convinced me that I need to find a place for the Enfield Horror somewhere in my story.
I'm not entirely sure it's what you want but Google a website called "the monsters know what they're doing" by Keith A. He has a huge online library or creatures. You can also look at Larry Correia's "Monster Hunter International" series. He has a great take on some older monsters and newer ones as well. His short story collections which other people contribute to have really expanded his story universe - "Target Rich Environment, Vol #1" has the hunters "saving" a young girl..... (Don't want to spoil anything.)
Oh, here's another I think I'll have to use! The Medford Shmoo. https://cryptidz.fandom.com/wiki/Medford_Shmoos
Is this relevant to what you're writing? I thought it was, then I thought not, then I thought.....ahh, hell with it, I'll post it. Use it if it works. https://ca.yahoo.com/news/not-snake-beware-venomous-bite-142702593.html
The fact that people know for 100% fact that they exist means it's not a cryptid, just a rarely seen critter. Still interesting though! I enjoyed reading that
Okay, here's another cryptid question for you guys: can you think of any cryptids/monsters/urban legends that are similar to Indrid Cold, the Grinning Man? I was planning on making him the main villain, but then I found out that he is already in The Mothman Chronicles, so I figured I'd better find a different creepy looks-human-but-slightly-off monster. EDIT: I think I may have just found the solution! In Ohio there's an urban legend about the "Melonhead" monsters. The story sounds kind of silly, but part of it states that a mysterious man named Dr. Crow created them by performing cruel experiments on infant children. That sounds PERFECT for what I'm going for!
Here's another one I'm curious about: The Concatenated Order of Hoo-Hoo. It's a real life organization that deals with woodcutting and lumberjack businesses, I think. Yes, the name sounds ridiculous, but I just found a conspiracy website saying that Teddy Roosevelt headed it and it was a cover to study and contain the Ozark Howler. I could probably find a place to use this somewhere in the story as well, but before I do I want to ask, has anyone else heard this? Is it a popular urban legend, or is it just this one guy who believes it? Read about it here if you want: https://ozarkhowler.net/index.php/2019/06/21/the-teddy-roosevelt-ozark-howler-conspiracy/
