I sang for Sasquatch: A Recent Expedition to Kentucky yields a possible encounter

  Last week Angela and I took a little trip up to Mammoth Cave National Forest to do some zip-lining and investigate some recent bigfoot sightings in the area. The guys giving the zip-line tour were already talking about some Bigfoot sightings they knew of in the area so we got excited about hunting a hot location. 

Possible structure 

    Next we headed into the park and crossed the ferry into the backcounty portion of the park to the area I had previously identified as promising. This part of the park near the White Oak Trail is among the least traveled and features a one-way trail which does not connect to any other. In fact it dead ends at the Green River.  We couldn’t take our rig on the hiking trail so we identified an opening in the foliage that we could  use  to climb up the steep bank and enter the forest from the road. I  locked down the differentials (gots REAL 4x4 ya'll) and headed off-road into the woods all the way dodging trees, boulders and stumps. Thank gawd for skid plates and ground clearance.  We then carefully selected a campsite far enough into the forest so as not to be seen by anyone coming down the dirt road. After establishing a camp I prepared a fire for cooking and after dinner we enjoyed some whiskey as is our tradition when on expedition in the state of Kentucky or any state for that matter.

 Later that evening at around midnight I began doing some tree knocks.  Now anyone who has read about bigfoot research is aware that these things are believed to communicate at times by banging rocks or logs against trees. I've heard tree knocks before and have used this approach to attract the creatures. My first round of knocking yielded no response. 

After a few more sips of whiskey I had an idea. Angela is an impressive vocalist with a some powerful lungs. In fact she was the pop artist known as Angela Ammons back in the early 2000's and was signed with Universal Records. So of course I got her to sing for Sasquatch.  You may be asking, just what does one sing to the Sasquatch? That’s a good question. While Angela had some commercial success during her career I don't think Squatch is down with American teeny-pop. So I asked her to just ad lib something like Native Americans might sing. My whiskey fueled logic was that injun  music might resonate better with this ancient being than say Ke$ha or 50 Cent. What she came up with isn't really native American but just a simple rift you might hear from one of those hippies playing the pan flute at a drum circle in Asheville North Carolina.  Click below to listen. 

                                           

                                                          Angela sings for Sasquatch

   

About 20 minutes after Angela finished her serenade to Sasquatch we heard a series of tree knocks that we were unable to record because we weren’t ready with any sort of recording device. This was the only sign of bigfoot that we encountered besides some oddly stacked wood which may or may not be placed intentionally. I’m planning a larger expedition in the fall to further investigate this same area. See below for picks from our trip. 

Semper Explorandum 

What was that?

"I sang for Sasquatch"

Our campsite

Building a fire

Mountains of Madness: Nazis UFOs and lost civilizations in Antarctica

It’s the coldest and most desolate location on the planet with recorded temperatures reaching 80 degrees below zero. Eternally frozen and shrouded in ice, Antarctica contains enormous mountain ranges that separate vast tracts of blinding white landscape that routinely experience blizzards of hurricane force. Nearly twice the size of Australia, the white continent still holds countless mysteries waiting to be explored.

 As a young man I was first inspired by the beauty of the landscape and the immortal accounts of men like Ernest Shakelton who led the famous Endurance expedition during the heroic age of Antarctic exploration.  Later I began to read about numerous UFO sightings and of theories surrounding possible ancient civilizations whose ruins might lie deep beneath the ice or within one of the massive cave systems. Some theorists even believe that one of these openings may lead to another world inside our own planet. I recently stumbled upon one of these openings while looking at satellite imagery available on Google Earth. The opening is triangular and measures roughly 280 feet in width and 130 vertically.  The cavern is located at exactly 66°33'11.88"S Latitude and  99°50'19.53"E Longitude near the northern coast of the continent between the Queen Mary and Knox Coast. As I search for further details on this particular cave my imagination runs wild. After all, rumors of secret Nazi installations in the Antarctic have been around since the end of World War II. And just what was Admiral Karl Dontiz referring to in 1943 when he told Adolph Hitler that he had created “an unassailable fortress for the Fuhrer on the other end of the world.”?  Is this where the scores of missing German submarines and other technology were hidden after the war?

 As if Nazi’s, UFOs and giant caves were not enough to drive my obsession to visit this frozen realm,   author H.P. Lovecraft invokes the white continent as the location for his 1931 horror novella, At the Mountains of Madness. In the story a research team encounters an ancient colony of monstrously exotic extraterrestrials that killed most of the expedition party including a dog.

Evidence suggests that Antarctica wasn’t always covered in ice and could have contained civilization. Core samples extracted in 2012 indicate the existence of tropical flora on the continent. Furthermore, one of the earliest maps depicting Antarctica is known as as the Piri Reis map. It was drawn using maps from deeper antiquity and accurately depicts the Northern Coastline of Antarctica with no ice! While it’s believed that the last time Antarctica was unfrozen was during a time that predated the oldest civilizations, we should question the accepted rate at which Antarctica was frozen in ice.  In 1990 the recovery of several World War 2 aircraft that remained undisturbed in Greenland demonstrated that it’s possible for 263 feet of ice to form within only half a century.

My curiosity is fueled by so many aspects of this region. Rumors abound on the internet of secret alien bases located beneath the ice. I’m not saying it’s all true. But a significant number of UFO cases have taken place in Antarctica and documented by the Argentine military.

Do I have designs underway for an expedition to Antarctica in the near future? I’d like nothing more than to announce this very thing.  However, Antarctica must for now take a back seat to other priorities like taking my family to Disney World. Such an endeavor requires a much larger budget, the right team and a great deal more preparation.  The Siberian Taiga is a more likely destination for the next big expedition but that shall be a topic for future editions. Until then.  Semper explorandum!

Inside the Black Cat Tavern

It’s an obscure landmark, but one that harkens back to an era that is both dark and fascinating all at once.   The Black Cat Tavern operated as a popular nightclub on the outskirts of Murfreesboro in the period during and after prohibition. It is best described as a cave to which a manmade entrance was added, creating an enclosed space. It consisted of three rooms which included a dance hall, a dining room and a kitchen in addition to the natural cave area with an underground stream.  Situated alongside a major highway but hidden by dense foliage, it remains virtually invisible to the average passerby.  

Little can be confirmed regarding details of this establishment’s history.  Although enough rumors and second hand stories exist that indicate it was a place that your mamma would have probably told you not to go. That didn’t discourage those back in the 20’s from hanging out at the underground jazz joint that some have  termed a “speakeasy”.  It’s even believed that Jean Faircloth MacArthur , the 2^nd wife  of American General Douglass MacArther  of WW2 fame partied  here on occasion. 

Overwhelmed with curiosity to learn more about the Black Cat, we decided to take a small expedition to this underground hideaway and see for ourselves.  Arriving at the location we cautiously slipped through the bars that block the entrance.  We then examined each room of the dank edifice with our flashlights, clearing away a jungle of cobwebs as we made our way through.   I’ll be the first to confess that the Black Cat is a little spooky.  It’s not a place that I recommend going for a night out.

 But the tavern wasn’t always such an eerie place. The walls were once covered in cedar planks and heat was provided by a set of fireplaces which surely provided a warm ambiance during its heyday.  It’s easy to imagine this place as a fun underground venue for nightlife.

We’ve all got romantic ideas about this era that are given to us by pop culture. But in reality it was still a relatively dark period in American history.  Poverty and disease were rampant.  At the local hospital women were often given scopolamine, tied to tables and left to hallucinate for days before giving birth. Sexy times eh? The Black Cat Tavern was nothing fancy. It was basically just a hole in the ground where people went to get drunk. But still it represents a part of American culture.  Even the darker elements of our past in my opinion should not be forgotten.

For all the paranormal researchers and ghost chasers that drop in to read this post,  I should add that the Black Cat is near the top of my list Murfreesboro's Most Haunted locations which is the subject for a later post in October. 

The property is currently managed by the Murfreesboro Parks and Recreation Department and closed to the public. Safety and adequate funding are likely the reasons that Black Cat has remained a low priority for historic preservation.  The collapsed floors and broken beer bottles left by previous visitors make it a hazardous hangout.    

 Many fascinating monuments to American cultural history such as this are lost either through urban development or simply allowed to deteriorate.  Some remain hidden because they represent dark and uncomfortable periods in the past and others are simply hazardous and inaccessible.

 With enough encouragement from others who are aware of its historical significance, I think a gradual restoration of the Black Cat site might be feasible. It’s certainly worth a call to city officials at the Murfreesboro Department of Parks and Recreation to express your support for the idea of preserving this old-time venue. What you do you think?


Here are a few pics from a recent trip to Black Cat.