Oregon L.O.W.F.I

Posts Tagged ‘Conser Lake’

In my book The Ghost of Conser Lake, (unpublished) I cite an interesting passage from Ivan T. Sanderson’s book Abominable Snowmen about the creature. (You can read a previous section of the book here. Mention of “Flix,” the Bigfoot like being that appeared in Millersburg, Oregon in the late 1950s -early 1960s, is one of those interesting high strangeness BHM (big hairy monster) cases. Here’s a section from my book, with added comments in parentheses.

Flix Gets Around
Flix made the news for a good two years. He was seen off and on in the area during that time. Clarence Starr, owner of the Owl Cafe in Albany at the time, told Westby (Betty Westby, the reporter who wrote several articles about Flix for the

Democrat Albany Herald

newspaper) that the monster “had trampled down a lot of mint on his farm and that he will not be able to harvest much of his crop.”

An elderly woman “who came from one of the early pioneer families,” the paper noted, walked into theGreater Albanyoffice to give her story of her encounter with Flix:

“That monster was in our pasture last night. My neighbor took a shot at it. He found some blood on the ground, so he thinks he hit it. We saw its tracks, and the women in our neighborhood are scared to go anywhere at night or even sit on porches or leave the doors or windows open. I think he sheriff an state police should Hunt this creature down before it kills someone.”

The newspaper tried to explain to the woman a “big white cow” had recently escaped from its owner’s truck and that this is what she saw, but “she refused to believe our explanation.”

Mrs. Penning in Devers-Conner, about 30 miles south of Millersburg, told Betty Westby she heard “dripping sounds,” even though it was August. It is interesting that Mrs. Penning described the “dripping” sound; remember that Flix’s footsteps were also described as “squishy.” Looking out her living room window she saw a “large, light form,” hurrying away, and heard a “low pitched cry that seems to start from its toes, tapering off to a squeal like a pig’s.” Penning also fond fingerprints on her bedroom window, and Westby spectacled that they were web shaped, due to the four fingered, spread-out shape of the prints.

Three years later, the story of the Creature of Conser Lake was still news. In an article by Martin Clark, Albany Journal staff writer, he comments on writer Keith Sosebe’s upcoming talk on the “monster.”
Leaping from the shadow of a deep gully, the thing stood fully 7 feet tall in the ghostly moonlight. Petrified with mingled horror and curiosity, the young people sat motionless in their car. Suddenly, the apparition took at enormous leap over the gully and slipped away trough a tangle of boughs.”

By October, Flix, or a similar creature, was reported in Stanton, Oregon, 30 miles from Millersburg. (Oregon) It seems that Flix moved within an approximate 30 mile radius. This is assuming it was the same creature of course. Calls came into the Stayton police station of an “eight foot tall hairy monster,” and monster hunters were quick to look for the creature. Fortunately the police stopped a group of teens, armed with guns and beer, who decided to go monster hunting, before they could do any damage.

A Herd of Flixes?
Cryptozoologist and biologist Ivan T. Sanderson discussed the Conser Lake monster briefly in his book Abominable Snowmen:Legend Come to Life, citing a small item that appeared in the January, 1961 edition of FATE magazine, reporting that the “monster” was “still on the loose.” Sanderson also writes in Abominable Snowmen that a source wrote Sanderson in October of 1960, insisting that there was not only the one Flix, but several “Flixes” in the area. According to Sanderson’s unnamed friend, there were more than one BHM, several in fact, and fingerprint as well as footprint casts were taken. Referring to Flix, the letter writer described the creature:

he makes extremely high pitched sounds. his hair or fur had slight glow in the dark . . .feet make a squishy sound. Has been seen at day and night and seen to disappear into the lake.”

This last part about Flix disappearing into the lake gives some support to the theory about BHM, and/or Bigfoot, living underground. Sanderson also supported this idea. The letter writer mentions a “Hal Starr” who has had contact with more than one of these creatures. In the correspondence sent to Sanderson about the Conser lake “monster,”
the letter writer reports that “Creatures” (italics mine) were still being sighted on a farmer’s farm.” The name given was Hal Starr; is this the owner of the Owl Cafe mentioned earlier?( Cal,or Hal?)

Flix himself verified Sanderson’s source that there was more than one creature. The creature told psychic Jane Waterby (Waterby was a friend of Betty Westby’s and the two visited the lake to try and communicate with Flix.) that he wasn’t the only creature of his kind:

I am sorry for you alien friend. What are you called?”
“I am called Flix. there are many like me, but I am the one called Flix.”

Another typical yet frustrating detail Sanderson’s friend gives is the writer’s comment that a “finger print [was] lifted off a house window including a plaster cast of a foot print.” Sanderson’s friend also said he had physical evidence:

“Have personal taped accounts of this creature . . . this includes photographs.”

But no photographs, fingerprints, footprints or recordings have turned up. As with much of UFO, cryptid and Fortean phenomena, evidence is as elusive as the phenomena itself.

copyright Regan Lee
March 1, 2009

It’s no surprise Oregon has its share of Bigfoot encounters; including paranormal Bigfoot events. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the town of MIllersburg, Oregon, (about forty five miles north of Eugene) experienced some very strange events involving a white Bigfoot or “BHM” (Big Hairy Monster) with a lot of high strangeness surrounding the encounters.

The creature was called the “Creature of Conser Lake,” also the “Ghost of Conser Lake” (because of its white color) and the “Monster of Conser Lake,” the lake’s name was Conser at the time, but isn’t called Conser Lake anymore, the name has been changed and is on private property. I’m not revealing the name of the lake out of respect to the owners.

Reported as a bigfoot type creature; about seven feet tall, bipedal, white shaggy fur, the creature mystified Millersburg residents for over a year. The story begins with a story of a UFO or strange light crashing into Conser Lake in either 1959 or 1960. Soon after the strange light crashed into Conser Lake, a Millersburg truck driver was understandably startled to find a white, shaggy furred bigfoot type creature trotting along beside his truck as he was driving down the road. The driver, a mint farmer, was going about 35 miles an hour; the creature was easily keeping pace with the moving vehicle.

The creature was described as being about seven feet tall. The mint farmer described the creature as a “shaggy gorilla.” Local Bruce Hamilton remembers the creature in Conser Lake, and a story about a “young couple driving by the lake; a seven or eight foot creature ran alongside their car.”

As if the truck farmer’s experience wasn’t odd enough, another report of a tall, white furred shaggy Bigfoot type creature running alongside side a truck made its way into the news. This time the creature was seen in Telephone, Oregon, in Eastern Oregon. (I realize the town doesn’t seem to show up on maps or Google searches, as I have found, and a recent e-mail alerted me to. However, this is the name cited by several sources. Many small “towns” are not listed, also, it’s possible the name has changed, the area incorporated, or simply disappeared over time.) Witness C.A. Cissman saw a bright light approach, hover about 30 minutes, then disappear, shooting upwards and disappearing within seconds. Later, in Prospect, Oregon a logger was shocked to see a white furred, Bigfoot or Bigfoot type being, leisurely jogging alongside his truck on a deserted rural road.

Stories of Bigfoot running alongside cars aren’t new, either. A report from 1926 tells of a Bigfoot creature encounter in Yankton, Oregon: “Bigfoot following alongside a truck looking in. Sheep and children would disappear.” (UFO Casebook) It seems there was a history of bright zipping lights and white Bigfoot — or white somethings — following cars and trucks in Oregon.

Other reports of white Bigfoot creatures can be found; for example, Chris O’Brien writes in his Secrets of the Mysterious Valley about a “New Mexico cattle inspector” who told O’Brien:

he watched with binoculars a white bigfoot clamor up a rocky slope . . a witness in Washington “reported seeing a Bigfoot with large pointed ears” (p 231 Secrets of the Mysterious Valley, Christopher O’Brien)

The reference to “pointed ears” is interesting; Flix, our creature in Conser Lake, was also described as having pointed or “cat like” ears. A “ten foot white Bigfoot” was seen on the banks of the Ohio river in the 1960s. In fact, sightings of a white Bigfoot in the area were reported from the 1900s to the 1990s .(The I-Files: True Reports of Unexplained Phenomena in Illinois, Jay Rath)

Peter Guittilla’s The Bigfoot Files contains stories of white BHM or Bigfoot like creatures that transcend the flesh and blood variety. Guittilla references an account from Fate magazine out of Peter Bottom, Arkansas. In 1966 reports of a “monster” living in the Bottom emerged. The creature was described as being nine feet tall with snow white fur. Aside from giving off a strong smell, the creature “made a sound like a radio signal . . . the signal sounded like ‘beep, beep, beep.” (The Bigfoot Files, p 86)

The synchronicity of the white bigfoots is intriguing, along with the mysterious lights in the sky. As far as the Conser Lake “monster” goes, witnesses reported feelings of disorientation, dizziness, severe headaches, and hearing loud thuds and running footsteps right by them but no source for the sounds. Some insisted they were in telepathic communication with the being, who said his name was “Flix” and was from outer space.

Flix was Bigfoot like in many ways, yet there were other characteristics described by witnesses that are strange. Flix was said to have claws and or webbed feet and hands and cat like ears.

There are some similarities with Bigfoot; the height, bipedalism, shaggy fur. As noted, there were other similar beings in Oregon scattered throughout the state. But enough high strangeness episodes take the idea of a strictly flesh and blood creature out its comfortable unknown animal category, and into the truly Fortean or esoteric. All the above noted incidences: UFOs or bright lights, telepathy, sounds with no visible source, feelings of disorientation, and the synchronicty of similar creatures adds up to something beyond a flesh and blood Bigfoot.

Notes
Janet Bord; Colin Bord: Bigfoot Casebook
Peter Guittilla: Bigfoot Files
Regan Lee: The Ghost in Conser Lake
Christopher O’Brien: Secrets of the Mysterious Valley
Jay Rath: The I-Files: True Reports of Unexplained Phenomena in Illinois
photos by Regan Lee