Monster Research Blog

Bigfoot Cover up?

2011-10-06T12:30:00.000-07:00

An article titled Bigfoot Researcher Believes US Forest Service Covers-up Bigfoot raises the question of a conspiracy to keep Bigfoot's exiistence secret. Why? So the US Forest Service doesn't have to deal with yahoo's running into the woods looking and to protect logging. That doesn't make sense to me. Logging would continue even if Bigfoot was discovered with restrictions on proven habitats and populations and the Forest Service would get more money to protect an Endangered Species. Plus, think of the money the Forest Service would make if he/she blew the whistle and produced evidence?

From the article:

Bigfoot Researcher and author William Jevning has gone to Twitter to post what he believes to be a possible US Forest Service cover-up in the matters of Bigfoot.

The story was posted by Craig Woolheater over at Cryptomundo and I just happen to stumble across it. Craig, being the good guy that he is, has gone through the tedious task of arranging Mr. Jevning’s tweets that where posted in reverse order (oldest twit on bottom) on the Twitter page.

So what did tweet say? Well it turns out that the author might have uncovered an attempt at covering up some proof of the infamous mythical creature known as Bigfoot. Mr. Jevning’s reveals in his tweet that upon being called to investigate thousands of possible Bigfoot tracks found by hunters, he was surprised when he arrived at the alleged location of the prints only to find that the US Forest Service had “washed” away every single track.

Bigfoot quest: Siberia drafts in the pros

2011-10-01T12:16:00.006-07:00

Well, I think Bigfoot may be in Siberia. It is large and mostly uninhabited. This article (Bigfoot quest: Siberia drafts in the pros) has more details.

From the article:

The search for Siberia’s Bigfoot is gaining pace. Local authorities, who have been trying to catch the elusive – and possibly mythical – creature for years, have called on the help of professional yeti researchers.
Siberian Kemerovo is one of the few places where relic hominids are thought to be living, along with the Himalayas, the American Pacific Northwest and other remote regions. Since 2009, hunters have reported seeing two-meter-tall ape-like animals in the Tashtagol area, and footprints believed to belong to the creatures have been found in the Azass Cave.

The local administration has been promoting the Bigfoot as a tourist attraction since 2009 and even established a “Day of the Bigfoot” festival. However, the one thing missing from an array of yeti souvenirs are actual pictures of the beast. It declined to reveal itself to local deputies when they held a session in the cave and has so far failed to pose for a live webcam streaming video from its lair.

Last Post

2011-06-06T12:12:00.003-07:00

Even though this is a little late...I had tons of fun researching Nessie and really want to go to Scotland to see if I can "find" her. I hope you guys all had a fun c researching your monsters too and that you all have a great summer!!!!

Final thoughts

2011-06-06T08:57:00.001-07:00

After spending the last three months researching stories and legends of this mysterious creature, it’s pretty much impossible not to have developed some opinions on the validity of some of these reported sightings. I definitely believe that people who report seeing large flying creatures are certainly seeing something. However, I’m not entirely convinced that what these people are seeing are in fact extremely large birds. Most of the information about thunderbirds comes from eyewitness accounts. I find it odd that no solid evidence—in the form of bones or other types of remains—has been found that would corroborate stories of extremely large birds, especially ones with capabilities like those reportedly belonging to thunderbirds.

I think a reasonable thing to do when exploring thunderbird sightings is to consider the possibility that people are really seeing massively large birds, but instead of these creatures being undiscovered cryptids of mythical proportions, perhaps they are just species of known birds that witnesses are just vastly overstating in size and appearance.

The reports of thunderbirds are compelling, and these creatures have a long history in both our culture and the cultures of other groups of people that have come before us. There is a large body of research and other work revolving around sightings of these creatures. Some aspects of that research are more credible than others. However, I really think that until we find a “smoking gun,” likely in the form of a mass sighting or the recovery of an actual specimen, the thunderbird will remain simply a legend and a character in some incredible stories.

The best thunderbird book I came across

2011-06-06T08:52:00.002-07:00

I had a difficult time locating good books to use for sources within Wilson Library. There was a decent amount of literature on general cryptozoology, but not a lot that was specifically focused on thunderbirds. I had better luck checking out Google Books, where I found a digital copy of Thunderbirds: America’s Living Legends of Giant Birds, which was written by authors Mark A. Hall, Loren Coleman and Mark Lee Rollins (Hall, Coleman, L., and Rollins). This is perhaps the most credible book related to cryptozoology that I came across. The entire volume is dedicated to the thunderbird, including chapters on the history of sightings in modern America, native legends of thunderbirds and possible explanations as to what people who have reported sightings are actually seeing. The amount of cited research in each chapter really stands out. The authors include an extensive series of endnotes and cited information from first-hand interviews, newspaper articles, magazines and other literature. It is written from an analytical standpoint with the intention to document what is verifiably know about thunderbirds as well as information on the people who claim to have seen them. This book was incredibly helpful, and was also a great research aide.

If anyone wants to check out an excellent book on cryptozoology, with solid research and careful referencing, search "Thunderbirds: America's Living Legends of Giant Birds," on Google Books.

Monster Quest Birdzilla episode review

2011-06-06T08:42:00.002-07:00

So, I realize I need to catch up a little on a few weeks worth of posts I forgot to put up here over the past month. My apologies in advance for the dump of information. I had a chance to sit down and watch the MonsterQuest episode titled "Birdzilla," the other day, and I have some thoughts.

Link to video

Monster Quest does a pretty fantastic job with this episode. The producers examine the history of thunderbird sightings, recognizing the connection to native mythology. They also contact zoology experts and others who work in professions related to large birds of prey to get expert insight into some of the more famous thunderbird tales. The episode includes original video footage of supposed thunderbirds, and it examines the validity of the footage and reporting sightings while remaining impartial. One of the most interesting segments of the episode deals with the 1977 Illinois report that I mentioned earlier. The producers of Monster Quest were actually able to track down the young boy—now grown up—who claims to have been picked up and carried through the air by an extremely large black bird with a wingspan close to 15 feet.

Whoever posted these episodes put up quite a few additional ones. There's Monster Quest episodes on large killer fish, giant squid and of course the ubiquitous Bigfoot. I was surprised at the care and attention taken to be scientific in these shows. I guess I figured it would be more for entertainment, but the producers obviously are serious about looking for answers.

Last Mermaid Post

2011-06-04T00:19:00.002-07:00

The quarter is coming to a close and my paper is wrapping up. After my presentation I focused on devoting my time to diving deeper into the sources I have already discovered. Now, I am working on editing and revising it in preparation to turn it in on Wednesday of finals week. This quarter has been great. I've learned a lot about getting directly to the source of things. I have learned to get passed the modern mermaid into the legends and myths that created it into what it is today.

The End.

2011-06-03T11:20:00.000-07:00

Beyond the black metal band I mentioned, the beast’s place in pop culture is embedded mostly in books, whether self-published novels, or Robert Louis Stevenson’s text Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes:

For this was the land of the ever-memorable Beast, the Napoleon Bonaparte of wolves. What a career was his! He lived ten months at free quarters in Gévaudan and Vivarais; he ate women and children and 'shepherdesses celebrated for their beauty'; he pursued armed horsemen; he has been seen at broad noonday chasing a post-chaise and outrider along the king's high-road, and chaise and outrider fleeing before him at the gallop. He was placarded like a political offender, and ten thousand francs were offered for his head. And yet, when he was shot and sent to Versailles, behold! a common wolf, and even small for that. (49)

This is an excellent quote to conclude with, simply because it gives a definitive description of the true nature of the beast—of there are many. There was really only one single thing was agreed upon in all my searching: that the beast was not imagined and that it was far more malignant than any common wolf killing—there’s a reason why the Beast of Gévaudan is so welled remembered in the collective French mind. Its reign of terror truly was terrifying, but despite all that, there really isn’t any definitive answer as to what the beast really was. In the quote above, Stevenson says the beast was a mere common wolf, while Jay M. Smith, probably the premiere academic on the beast believes the beast was actually a collection of beasts, a pack of wolves, perhaps—while some older sources believe it to be a rather warped hyena. With so many speculations, it’s difficult to choose a singular answer. But one thing is true—La bête du Gévaudan did exist.

Failing at life (or at least deadlines for this class)

2011-06-01T13:23:00.003-07:00

Ao once again I missed the deadline for this post. This is probably because my father was in town visiting from Alaska and that I am completely finished with my paper. Below is the last section of my paper. I hope you enjoy...

Through my research I was able to learn more about the folklore behind the vampire as well as the effect these creatures are having on people in society today. The fact that people are still interested in these creatures centuries after the first story was told really says something about how it connects with the human psyche and the desire to live forever. This research made me look at this creature as more than a popular trope that permeates through our popular culture but a symbol of human desire and longing for still more explanations for life and death and the meaning of both.

Monstropedia

2011-06-01T12:20:00.002-07:00

I've given up on Monstropedia. I've tried multiple times to expand the paragraph on the beast (because it's severely lacking in content and accuracy)--though what I'd like to do is give the beast its very own entry. Which is what I first tried to do. But I could find nothing (not even in the help section) on how to actually create an individual page. Next, I went to the entry on werewolves (which is where the snippet about the beast is), finally found an illogically titled button ('view source'--instead something sensical like, I don't know--'edit page'). Of course, once I clicked on it, the page that appears tells me I don't have permission. Ah well; I'm not sure I'm impressed enough with Monstropedia to really want to contribute. Think I'll stick with Wikipedia...

Plagarism!! Recap!!

2011-05-31T19:50:00.002-07:00

In my presentation last week, I went over this whole story about one of my earlier blog posts being re-posted by a number of other cryptozoology and paranormal blogs. I wanted to recap what I have already said, mainly to just get it down in writing for my paper, but also if anyone is interested in checking out some of these links themselves.

I’m really curious if this has happened to anyone else.

I found all of this out during the course of regular research into online sources for information on thunderbirds. I simply Googled a number of different search terms (“thunderbird sightings,” “thunderbird legends,” etc.) and looked at anything interesting that popped up.

My original post was published on April 16 and titled “2002 Thunderbird sighting reported in Alaskan daily newspaper.” In it, I summarized a story of a thunderbird sighting that had been picked up by a number of local and national news outlets, including CNN and Reuters. I also explored some potential explanations for sightings of these mysterious bird-like creatures.

On May 15, the entirety of my post was published by an anonymous “administrator” on a blog called Monstertracker.com. The blog includes my byline at the top, under the byline of the re-poster, and also links to our class blog at the very bottom. I also recently noticed at the bottom of this blog page, there is the following disclaimer: FAIR USE NOTICE: These pages contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This website distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107.

One interesting thing is that the re-post of my original removed the 2002 date from the headline. This carries through the rest of the blogs that also re-posted my entry.

Also on May 15, less than 10 minutes after the re-post went up on Monstertracker.com, my post was re-published in its entirety on a blog call UFODigest.com by a guy name Dirk Vander Ploeg. This re-post contained a link to Monstertracker.com, but not to our class blog. It also contains my byline under Vander Ploeg’s name and photo.

The UFODigest blog has the exact same layout and disclaimer message as the Monstertracker blog, and as I poked around on both sites a little bit more I found that Vander Ploeg is listed as the publisher of both blogs.

On May 17, my re-posted blog entry on UFODigest.com was linked off of another blog called Paranominal.com, which I had actually checked out before for information on thunderbirds. This blog simply gave a brief teaser of my entry, which it credited entirely to UFODigest, and then sent you back to UFODigest.com.

I haven’t found any other cases of this happening, either to this post or any others I have made this quarter.

Ending Mermaids

2011-05-28T23:17:00.000-07:00

Having to stand up and talk for a ten minute presentation was very nerve racking. I have not had very much experience in making speeches and have not presented anything in about a year. Standing in front of people and having a lot of focus on me is not my idea of a good time. Dr. Lorenzen made the situation very comfortable and I was able to meet the ten minute requirement and even pass it! I feel like it went really well and had a lot of good information to share. This week I will continue to finish up some writing and start majorly editing and fixing my in paper citations. It's been a good quarter of research!

Digital Flotsam and Jetsam (kind of)

2011-05-27T00:09:00.001-07:00

Honestly, I haven't much more to say about the beast, so I suppose the next few posts will just be tidying up. Most recently, I've just been scouting the internet; here's a summary of the first five sites that come when I searched 'beast of gevaudan' in google:

The first site up is Wikipedia, of course. I'm not sure I need to reiterate myself (or the whole rest of the class), so I'll leave it alone.

Next is The Cryptid Zoo, a page I never actually looked into. With good reason, perhaps--the link is broken. Helpful of google to give me a site that doesn't even work properly. Lovely.

The third site that appears in the google search is Occultopedia. Not a bad site, actually. Decently informative and, unlike Monstropedia, the writing doesn't make me twitch. It's just too bad that the article has no citations (apparently it's scheduled to be reviewed soon), because there were a few tidbits that were interesting, but unverified.

Google, of course, pulled up numerous sites, but the last I'll review is called, simply Unknown Creatures. They have probably the most…illuminating description of the beast's size I've yet to read, describing it as "as large as a calf or young cow." (Those are essentially the same thing…right?). Once again, no citations, but the layout is esthetically pleasing, simply because the information isn't too dense, the paragraphs thick, but not ponderous, each headed by a large and bold title.

Finishing up

2011-05-26T20:46:00.002-07:00

This week I have been working on my presentation and editing my paper. I have also really been enjoying the presentations. I am learning a lot about all of your cryptids!! I didn't realize there were so many legends and creatures that have such strong roots in particular cultures.

All of the presentations so far have also given me tips and insight into different ways of researching. I was really shocked when I learned that one of your blogs was plagiarized and used in several different posts. After I heard this, I checked online to see if mine were stolen too. It turns out that my posts were left alone. In hearing about how easy it was for two separate people to steal a blog and re post it as there own, I now feel very skeptical about the internet and a lot of online resources. I know there are very credible sources and stories out there, but i may think twice before I believe or give credit to an author.

Conclusions about Research

2011-05-26T12:11:00.003-07:00

My research was very rewarding because I learned so much about Nessie than I ever thought possible. I really felt like I was gaining a part of my Scottish heritage because to understand any heritage you need to know their beliefs and phenomena. This study of Nessie brought me closer to Scotland and for that I will be forever grateful. I was expecting my research to be really easy since Nessie is such a popular monster, but I was completely wrong. It is hard finding reliable sources on Nessie because everyone wants to have a say about the myth. I found it very easy to find articles and books that were credible and I could learn a lot of information from. However, newspaper articles and websites were definitely a struggle to find sources and credible ones at that. I could find relatively little in newspapers and it was only when I searched through our library databases did I find two articles. With websites I had to sift through many hoax websites out there to try to find the credible ones among the pack. Once I did find some credible sources, they provided a plethora of new information on Nessie. Another thing I found with my research was that a lot of the sources were written towards children. While they provided good information on Nessie, I was hoping to find more information that was geared towards adults. One of my favorite parts of the research was to make an edit to Wikipedia. I really enjoyed trying to figure out how to accomplish this and to see if my edits would be kept on the page. It was a fun assignment and really got me into the spirit of the research. Altogether, my research went well and I really enjoyed researching monsters, especially Nessie. She will always have a soft spot in my heart.

2011-05-23T16:34:00.001-07:00

Mermaids, Mummies, and Mastodons

I really am thankful for Western Washington University Library and their incredibly helpful staff. I recently found a book on Summit and wanted to give a BIG shout out to all the WWU librarians for being those unsung heroes that do all the little, dirty jobs that no one sees but everyone appreciates…

The book I discovered (with a little help from a really helpful librarian) was found through Summit and provided me with a glimmer of hope that I was going to find some empirical research documentation on “Real Mermaids”. I can really only say one thing after previewing the book, the search continues. The book cover appears to be some sort of British slave camp and really reflects the early American history of colonization. The big hint that I must have missed was the italicized text directly under the title that should have clued me into the potential content and saved me some time and effort. Although there is only a small portion of information regarding mermaids in this particular text, there is at least something. I am often reminded by my mentor that its not the final destination that is important, but rather the journey that led you to your final destination. The missed clue read; The Emergence of the American Museum, which actually discovering this piece of information would have served a purpose of allowing me to spend my limited available time on researching other options, but this is really a treasurer of information.

The book is about the coming of age of American museums and how they came about. There is actually a fairly extensive calendar of historic events and dates outlined in the book that speak about preserving our history and heritage. The small piece of information regarding my well hidden monster is new information and actually fairly interesting. The photo is of a nineteenth century Japanese mermaid. Formerly exhibited in the P.T. Barnum’s circus, this artifact now resides in the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology Harvard University. The book overall was interesting, but didn’t have a lot of useful information regarding my mermaid search.

Beneath the Volcano: Religion, cosmology and spirit classification among the Nage of eastern Indonesia

2011-05-23T12:44:00.002-07:00

It's in!!! This time summit has supplied me with the original published work of Gregory Forth published by The Royal Institute of Linguistics and Anthropology in the Netherlands. This book was loaned by the library at Reed College in Oregon.

Unlike other sites and readings that claim ebu gogo means "grandmother who eats anything", Forth stated on pp. 104 that "Ebu means 'grandparent, ancestor' while the relevant sense of gogo in this contxt may be 'greedy, gluttonous'.

I won't have much time to review this, but I'm excited to get my hands on it... anthro-geeky, I know. What can I say?

A little behind

2011-05-23T09:57:00.002-07:00

So I actually finished my research before this post was due so I totally spaced. After I turned in my draft, however, I found some good websites that might work so I'm debating whether or not to add them since they are good but at this point unnecessary. While looking at sources I read over the wikipedia site but found that everything was pretty much covered and didn't feel like anything really needed to be changed. So that's what I've done this week. Not too much but we'll see what I need to change once I get my draft back.

at the bitter end - NOVA and the original ethnography by Forth

2011-05-22T21:58:00.002-07:00

Although it is arriving at the bitter end, I was able to uncover the original text published by Gregory Forth titled, "Beneath the volcano: religion, cosmology and spirit classification among the Nage of eastern Indonesia" that details his first contact with the story of the ebu gogo in the mid to late 1990s. It has been ordered through Summit and will arrive soon.

I also dug up a NOVA presentation from 2008 that shows on youtube as a 5 part series, but once again, it focuses on Homo floresiensis/The Hobbit. It is a decent docu, however and allows one to see all the players involved in the intrigue of this puzzling find and explains the difficulty in determining what exactly these remains are and what that might mean to our understanding of human origins.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_S8snltr0M

Gnome Sighting in Argentina

2011-05-22T19:53:00.004-07:00

There are many videos of alleged gnome sightings on YouTube. Most are clearly hoaxes, but some are difficult to explain. The best example of a sighting that I could find was filmed in Argentina in 2008. It shows a group of young men talking when the camera pans to show a small, gnome shaped figure in the distance moving toward them in a strange hopping motion. The men scream and run away in fear. The poor quality of the video makes it difficult to tell if it is actually capturing a gnome sighting. The video was first picked up by a British tabloid newspaper called, The Sun. This video is among the most viewed gnome encounter on YouTube. I went to snopes.come and found out that it was actually a hoax.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EQO0VfBpt4&feature=related

Wikipedia

2011-05-22T14:02:00.003-07:00

Of course I leave Wikipedia for last, because it's just too simple to start off with. I actually googled "Black Dog of England" and one of the first pages that came up was for Wikipedia under "Black dog (ghost)". I clicked on it to take a look at the sources they had as references to see if I could find anything that would add to my studies. Surprisingly enough they had a lot of references (books for the most part). Unfortunately, there weren't many articles listed, which is a shame since that is what is more readily accessible to me through the internet. There were also only about 5 or 6 external links listed, but one of the ones that caught my eye was an article about Phantom Black Dogs on the site mysteriousbritain.co.uk. It gave a lot of information about phantom black dogs and other phenomena.

Nearing the end

2011-05-21T21:03:00.002-07:00

The Encyclopedia Britannica states that a mermaid is a, “fabled marine creature with the head and upper body of a human being and the tail of a fish.” It also goes on to say that they loved music, lived long lives, were mortal and had no souls. create THESIS The story of the mermaid goes much deeper then what pop culture would lead us to believe. The legend of the mermaid is a universally told tale that is especially prominent in countries bordering the sea. The story containing romance and danger enchants people centuries ago and lives on today. Even though many stories are only myths that were passed down through oral traditions, there are select people that choose to believe the mermaid is real. Skeptics claim that sightings of mermaids are only jokes or illusions but who really knows the truth? This paper will describe the character and appearance, mythology, sightings, explaining my research methods.

I also found this great more recent article of a mermaid sighting!

Is a mermaid living under the sea in northern Israel?. 8 Dec. 2008. Haaretz Service.

2 May 2011. <http://www.haaretz.com/news/is-a-mermaid-living-under-the-sea-in-northern-israel-1.281876>.

Urban Dictionary

2011-05-19T13:05:00.004-07:00

As I was doing a little more research, I decided to put Spring-Heeled Jack into the Urban Dictionary (Just for fun). Here is what it said:

"A demon of English folklore who was first reported in the UK in the year 1837.
According to legend Spring Heeled Jack only appears at night abducting people, though he abducts women most of the time.
He is a feared demon who causes the disapearance of many; It's unknown what happens to his victims.
Spring Heeled Jack is said to look like a mustached gentleman wearing a suit, shoes, tie, gloves, top hat, and a monicle.
Spring Heeled Jack is said to jump very high and that he can leap through great distaces which gives him the appearance of flight.
(hence the name Spring Heeled Jack)
It is believed that he has super jumping abilities, others claim that his shoes have springs.
It is also belived that salt is his weakness, it is said that salt can turn him into stone.
In the legend, water can restore Jack from being a stone statue.

I saw Spring Heeled Jack Jumping over the entire neighborhood."

After reading this, I realized how incorrect much of the information was (there were also many spelling mistakes). Granted, this is the 'Urban dictionary', but it was interesting to read about their version of this historical figure. The mention of abduction was interesting. In all of the sources I have looked at, none of them ever mentioned abductions. In fact none of the victims were ever killed during an 'actual' attack (ones that died, often did days later due to shock). It was also fun to hear that salt can turn him into stone. I am really curious as to where this information came from!

If anyone is interested, Urban Dictionary has a variety of Spring Heeled Jack merchandise with their lovely definition printed on t-shirts, mugs, magnets, and stickers!

Old Newspaper Articles on Sasquatch

2011-05-17T18:09:00.001-07:00

In searching newspapers, I was pleased to discover an abundance of articles pertaining to the Sasquatch, or wild men, of North America. Articles reporting on supposed encounters and footprint discoveries have been showing up for over 100 years, and I came across some of the oldest ones, which were very interesting to read. I found a number of articles printed in the 1880s and 90s all describe similar occurrences with a “wild man” in Illinois. An article printed in 1885 titled “A Wild Man”, from the Decatur Illinois Saturday Herald, read in its entirety: “A wild man haunts the woods near Locust Grove.” A similar article was printed two years later in the Decantur Daily Review , which read “An alleged wild man of the woods is making life miserable for rustics of Logan county.” Then in 1891, an article from the Decantur Daily Republican titled “The Wild Man Hunt” tells of how a “systematic hunt for the wild man” of the area was to take place. The creature was supposedly stealing poultry and pigs from local farmers, so they organized “a circle of searchers four miles in circumference” to catch the wild man. I did not find a follow-up article on the outcome of the search-party, but I did find another article, printed in the Davenport Daily Leader three years later, that tells of “organized search parties for a wild man” who was “surreptitiously slaughtering calves, pigs and lambs belonging to farmers.” Coincidentally, these search parties took place in the same county of Illinois as the last article I mentioned. This pattern of events leads me to believe there was definitely some sort of wild man in living in Illinois at this time. Another article, printed in 1902 in the Dubuque Telegraph-Herald, told of a group of young ice skaters who observed an “eight foot hair covered human monster” who was, “flourishing a large club and uttering a series of yells.” Tracks were found, measuring 22 inches long and seven inches wide.

My last books!

2011-05-17T12:58:00.002-07:00

The next book that I found was called The Loch Ness Monster by San Souci and this book is part of the Great Mysteries-Opposing viewpoints Series. This book is a smaller book that is for kids and adults to learn about the basics of Nessie. The point of the book is to explore all of the evidence for and against Nessie and decide if Nessie is real. In the end this book does decide that the evidence is inconclusive, so it is up in the air for readers to make their own decisions (pg.92). This book is a good starting point for a researcher to get the basics of what Nessie is, her habitat, the history and so on. From that point the book provides a further exploration section if the reader wants to know more. I really liked this fact because it is promoting the continuation of research into the Nessie myth. This book is complete with pictures and all the physical evidence that has been accumulated over time about Nessie, which gives the reader a broad understanding of Nessie. This book, as stated, is a really good starting point for research and gives a very well defined picture of Nessie. The only issue I have is that since I have done so much research on Nessie I feel like I am getting the same information over and over again. This book personifies that feeling but in the end it is a good book to read if you want to know the basic facts.

The last book in my continuing search through the Summit system was Loch Ness Monster by Tim Dinsdale. I really felt that this book was the ultimate research book that I could find about Nessie because of the amount of research that Dinsdale has done into the Nessie myth. This book is the newest edition from 1976, so it includes even more information from Dinsdale. He starts of by explaining how it got interested in searching for Nessie. His “spark” was on 1959 when he happened upon a picture and article about the Loch Ness Monster in his favorite newspaper (pg.1). From that point on he was intrigued to find out the “truth” about Nessie and when this book was printed he had spent fifteen years searching for Nessie. The rest of the book is dedicated to his research very detailed and laid out for the reader to understand what Nessie could be. He leaves the reader the option of deciding based upon his evidence if Nessie exists, but he does provide very compelling evidence. He does come out and make the statement that, “there could be little doubt the Monster was still alive and kicking; a creature of flesh and blood living in the present” (pg.58). Dinsdale truly believes that there is monster out there and he will believe that for the rest of his life. This book is a very detailed account of Nessie as a monster and also of the searches that go into looking for Nessie. This book, to me at least, is the compendium of Nessie research books because Dinsdale does such a good job of laying all the facts out for the reader. This book is a very enjoyable read for anyone looking into the Nessie myth.