Arizona is a state located in the southwestern United States, bordered with California, Nevada and the nation of Mexico, it also borders the US states of Utah, a small corner of Colorado and New Mexico, with these three states, Arizona is part of the Four Corners monument. Arizona’s capital and largest city is Pheonix, a city that is also a popular tourist attraction, known for high-end spa resorts, golf courses and nightclubs among more. The city of Pheonix is also known in ufology for a very famous UFO encounter which we will touch on later. Arizona is the last of the contiguous states to gain statehood.
In the south of Arizona, you will find desert landscape and experience hot summers and mild winters, while in the north there are forests, mountains, and the Colorado Plateau which is another desert area and where the Four Corners monument can be found within, there are also canyons in the north including the world-famous Grand Canyon National Park. Temperatures in the north are more moderate and the winters can have heavy snowfall.
Tourists attractions are the national forests, some ski resorts such as in Flagstaff, Alpine and Tucson and there are several National Parks and National Monuments. One-quarter of the state is also made up of Indian reservation lands including 27-federally-recognised Native American tribes with the largest being the Navajo Nation.
The largest sectors that play into Arizona’s economy are healthcare, transportation and government. The state originally relied on what is known as the five C’s to keep the economy afloat, which included copper mining, cotton harvesting, cattle agriculture, citrus fruits and climate tourism. Tourism is of course still a big part of the state and copper mining is also still a fairly large industry in Arizona.
Now let us move on to the more paranormal and unexplained side of Arizona! Some of things that have been reported in Arizona but are not localized but quite widespread include sightings of the Native American skin-walkers, a feared evil witch that can shapeshift into animals and also sightings of the legendary thunderbirds. The famous Chupacabra goat-sucker cryptid has also been reported in the state numerous times, including cattle mutilations blamed on the creature.
But let’s get a bit more localized, starting with the famous Pheonix Lights – one of the most well-known UFO sightings in history and of which had some of the most widespread sightings in UFO history, including former Arizona Governor John Fife Symington, this was despite him making a joke about the sighting in a press conference. He would later publicly admit to his sighting. Photos and several videos of the sighting can be found on the internet such as on Youtube. The incident in question took place on March 13th 1997 and although it is called the Pheonix Lights, sightings of the UFO or phenomena were also seen in the Mexican state of Sonora and the US state of Nevada and also other areas of Arizona including the city of Tucson, but was dubbed the Pheonix Lights due to the UFO or phenomena being captured on camera in pictures and on video over the city of Pheonix.
They were described as moving in the other areas of where they were sighted and also a few reports had the lights not exactly in formation, although most did, and also varying colours from one place to the other and varying descriptions. But over Pheonix the lights were mostly stationary and permanently in a triangle-like formation, or also described as the shape of a Carpenter’s Square having white lights. Many believe that the UFO may have even been one giant ship and that the lights were just a part of it or possibly some kind of engines, a report from Prescott Arizona even said that it was a big solid object as it blocked out the starry sky where it was flying. Other witnesses have said that its main body was hard to see but made a sort of distortion in the sky. Many witnesses said the object was silent, although a few reported a low noise. It took around three months for the sighting to reach national attention after newspaper media released a column on it.
Theories of what it was continue to this day including rare natural phenomena, military flares, actual alien visitation, military experimental aircraft, other undisclosed military activity, mis-identification of a normal aircraft (although no aircraft were reported to be in the sky at the time of the first sighting), Chinese lanterns and so on.
Now let’s move on to some cryptids said to be found in the state and the first one is something known as the Mogollon Monster, which appears to be a localized version of Sasquatch, said to be found in central and eastern Arizona along the Mogollon Rim, of which it is named after. The Mogollon Rim is a topological and geological feature that cuts across Arizona, extending about 200-miles from the northern Yavapi County, running eastwards and ending at the border with the US state of New Mexico. The Rim forms the southern edge of the Colorado Plateau in Arizona.
The Mogollon Monster is a big part of the folklore of the area and has been used in stories to scare campers and travelers, including by Boy Scouts and there have been tales of prospectors and campers being harassed and attacked by the monster. As usual the monster has varying descriptions, but a common description is that it is bipedal, very tall perhaps as tall as 7ft, a hair-covered body, either black, grey or white and that it has a large either rounded or square head and that its face is reminiscent of a human and is the one consistently hairless part, the chest, feet and hands are also said to be hairless. Also, many descriptions of it having large eyes and also that similar to a Sasquatch it has inhuman strength and a bad stench, large foot prints can also be a sign of it.
Many stories have claimed that the creature is nocturnal and comes out at night and will act very violent and aggressive if encountered and the Mogollon Monster is also described as being an omnivore, including eating deer, some legends say the monster will decapitate its prey before eating them. The beast is also said to mimic surrounding wildlife such as birds and coyotes… could this be a way for it to attract prey through trickery? Other noises it is said to make include strange whistling sounds and also a terrible screeching scream. Another Sasquatch like trait is the hurling of stones from unseen areas which the Mogollon Monster is said to partake in.
The earliest known sighting of this apparent monster was reported in The Arizona Republican paper in 1903, the daily newspaper is published in the state capital and circulated throughout the state, being the state’s largest newspaper chain. In the report a man called I.V Stevens described seeing an unknown creature near the Grand Canyon. The description of it was more unique, saying it had long white hair and a matted beard that reached as far down as the creature’s knees. It wore no clothing and had talon-like fingers with claws that were estimated to be 2 inches in length. It was covered in a coat of grey fur, with spots of exposed dirty skin showing in random areas.
The man said he discovered it drinking the blood of two Cougars and that the monster noticed the man and became aggressive and even threatened him with a club and let out an unearthly screech.
Another sighting was reported by a cryptozoologist called Don Davis that happened in the mid-1940s while he was on a Boy Scout trip near to Payson, Arizona. He described the encountered creature as huge and that it had deep set eyes that were difficult to see but noted that they seemed expressionless. Its face was almost entirely devoid of hair, except for on the sides of the face. It had a massive chest, arms and shoulders, with the most notable being the size of its upper arms, estimated at least 6 inches in diameter, but possibly much more. The creature was hairy and its head and face was very square-like.
The usual scientific explanations have been the misidentification of animals and that early reports could have simply been grizzly bears that once roamed the area as recently as the 1930s. More recent sightings have been attributed to the misidentification of black bears, elk and mountain lions. Many have said also that sightings can easily also be hoaxed and/or made up.
Next up we will go over a mysterious incident that took place in a town called Tombstone, Arizona in the late 1800s. This historic place is known for its Wild West history and is what the town is continued to be styled after to attract tourists. It was one of the last Boomtowns in the American Frontier thanks to mining of silver and became the largest productive silver district in the state at the time, due to this its population very quickly soared from around 100 to 14,000 in a mere 7-year span.
One famous event is the Gunfight at the O.K Corral which was a 30-second shootout between lawmen and the loosely organized group of outlaws called the Cochise County Cowboys. The shootout happened on 26th October 1881 at about 3pm, three of the outlaws were killed, the rest fled and two lawmen were injured. It is known as the most famous shootout in the history of the American Wild West. The shooting occurred due to a long simmering feud between the lawmen and outlaws. The shooting has since inspired much Wild-Western pop-culture films and books.
But Tombstone isn’t just known for that shooting incident, there is a more obscure shooting, or should I say, legend, that is said to have occurred in Tombstone on April 26th 1890. The incident was reported in the local newspaper called the Tombstone Epitaph which described armed men shooting a giant bird or creature out of the sky and then apparently posed with it in a photo – although there are at least two of these photos, one with a bunch of men dressed like cowboys or in old clothing holding up a pterodactyl-like creature and of which many believe is the real one, but is merely a recreation and another in a distorted photo of men standing over what appears to be some dead flying creature, which is actually a faked photo. The real photo has never actually surfaced, if it even exists at all, it even appears that the notion of a photo didn’t end up being circulated until long after the event, touted by cryptozoologists, including some claiming to actually have the original photo. No photo of the incident was published nor mentioned in the original Tombstone Epitaph article.
It isn’t exactly known what the giant creature could have been, if it was real and simply not a made-up hoax of which some believe could have been the case due to the town falling on harder times as the mining industry scaled down and was also stalled by an earthquake that caused the mines to flood and not much else of import was happening at the time outside of that, it could have been an attempt to stir up popularity and interest. But others who believe it could be real say it may have been one of the legendary Thunderbirds from Native American legend. Others say it was perhaps some kind of pterosaur creature surviving to the present time and one of the few that was left.
The story does take a more interesting turn though as allegedly in the 1930s/40s at one of Tombstone’s Helldorado celebrations, a yearly entertainment event held in Tombstone since 1929 and takes place in October. At the event in question an old cowboy spoke out about the giant bird incident and claimed that the media had blown it out of proportion – but who was this cowboy? – apparently none other than one of the shooters of the big bird incident themselves. He explained that he and his friends chased the creature while it flew overhead but that the horses became spooked and stalled the men, turning them around and they were unable to get back to it, they themselves were also frightened. So, they, according to this old cowboy who claimed to be part of it, lost it and never shot it down.
Did the incident ever actually happen? Was it made up for popularity or simply as a fun tall tale? Was there ever a photograph or was that just a later addition for increased hype? I guess we won’t ever truly know.
Next up we will look into a haunting in the state of Arizona one of which is in the ghost town of Jerome, which is an old mining town that now a days attracts many tourists interested in the Western-themed attractions and also for some – the thrill of encountering the paranormal. One particular place in the town said to be very haunted is the Jerome Grand Hotel and with two suicides and a person called Claude Harvey being crushed to death by a self-service elevator, it is not too much of a surprise that the place is considered to be haunted.
Not to also mention that the Jerome Grand Hotel was a hospital before becoming a hotel, originally built in 1926 and was called the United Verde Hospital after the mining company that built and owned it. The hospital was built for the employees of the towns copper mines, but it was also able to be used by the general public as well and for the time it was recognized as state-of-the-art and one of the best hospitals in the United States.
The hospital is where the death of Claude Harvey, who was a maintenance man, took place and is itself shrouded in sinister suspicion. Harvey’s body was found with his head pinned beneath the elevator car. But interestingly a coroner cast doubt on the elevator causing the man’s death and suggested he was murdered and placed there to make it look like an accident. Even more shady was the United Verde Copper Company role in refusing an autopsy or x-ray on the man and leading to the incident remaining unsolved. He is now believed to be one of many restless ghosts of what is now the Jerome Grand Hotel.
The hospital would eventually be closed down in 1950 due to mining operations being scaled down and medical services being available elsewhere and the building would remain unused for 44-years, until in 1994 the old hospital was built and turned into the Grand Jerome Hotel, opening in 1996 and remains a popular tourist attraction and hotel, specifically due to the hauntings of not only the very hotel, but also around Jerome itself, ghost tours are one of the many popular tourist attractions of the town.
The hotel is mostly haunted by the former patients of the old hospital and common reported phenomena includes seeing the apparition of Claude Harvey near and around to where his body was found. Disembodied coughing and sneezing are another unexplained phenomenon often reported by the staff and of which is believed to also be Claude Harvey. Other apparently common activity are doors slamming by themselves, people being shoved by unseen forces, disembodied crying, ghostly footsteps, strange and unpleasant unexplained smells and strange phenomena caught in photographs, such as ghostly mist and orbs. Apparitions of the former patients and a child have also been reported, some even seen upon waking in the night… standing at the foot of a guest’s bed.
The hotel is clearly the focal haunted spot of the ghostly town of Jerome.
And that is that for now. Next up we will look at the paranormal happenings in the US state of Montana.
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