Next up on the paranormal state’s series is the state of Nevada! A state that is wedged between California, Oregon, Idaho, Utah and Arizona in the Western United States of America. Its landscape and geography are made up of semi-arid and desert as well as some mountains such as the Sierra Nevada along the border with California. Nevada is the driest of the 50 US states.
Entertainment and tourism are a big part of the state, especially in the well-known cities of Reno and Las Vegas, with the latter cities, especially Las Vegas, being known for their show business and gambling venues not only nationally but also worldwide. Lake Tahoe, which it shares with California, is also another source of tourist attraction as well as possible sightings of the Tahoe Tessie water cryptid talked of in the previous California post. Nevada is the US state with the most hotel rooms per capita, which just goes to show how big and important tourism is to the state. Carson City is the state’s capital.
Nevada has a history of strong association with outer-space aliens and UFO sightings which is also even more amped up by the presence of the famed Area 51 formally-secret military airbase, which the US government only officially revealed existed in 2013, despite people knowing for a long time before then that a secret base existed due to pictures on Google Earth as well as the efforts to keep people away from the area using lookouts and all the no trespassing signs that threatened possible lethal action against those who disobeyed.
The base has become a sensation for those interested in extra-terrestrials, UFOs and conspiracy theorists due to the belief that they store captured and dead aliens there, experimenting on them as well as reverse-engineering and testing of alien technology. Although it is widely speculated that the base does test experimental weapons and aircraft, it isn’t thought in official circles or by most that it is alien technology. The base has been known previously for the testing of the Lockheed U2, Lockheed A-12 and Lockheed D-21 among others. UFO’s are a common reported sighting around the Area 51 base, which some believe to be aliens observing and others believe that it is testing of alien technology. Other just say it is normal advanced human-made technology that is top secret – which is the most likely explanation. Other theories have included flares and mis-identification of normal aircraft and of course weather balloons.
Area’s surrounding Area 51 have become a popular attraction for tourists interested in the topic of aliens and UFO’s and also just for people who want to see what all the crazy hubbub is about. This includes the tiny town of Rachel, Nevada which is found along the popular State Route 375 which has been dubbed the “Extraterrestrial Highway”, the Little A’Le’Inn can also be found in Rachel, providing food, drinks and lodging for tourists as well as alien themed merchandise and decoration.
UFO sightings are not only commonly reported around Area 51 but also in many other areas of Nevada itself including in the cities as well – although the isolated areas remain to be the best places for a chance of glimpsing such unidentified craft.
In 2014 a mysterious disappearance nearby to Area 51 has remained unexplained until this day, that is the disappearance of Kenny Veach, a hiker who had commented on Youtube about commonly exploring around the Area 51 and had found things such as skulls of various sizes, old animal traps, scaling cliffs, hiking up mountain after mountain as well as having slept under the stars and that he only had to be rescued one time by helicopter due to blowing his leg out. Before disappearing he often commented on Youtube videos about exploration around Area 51 and also revealed that he had found a mysterious cave that caused his body to vibrate the further he went into it, causing him to run away in fear afterwards.
Upon recounting this in a comment on one of his Youtube videos, a number of viewers urged him to go and look for it again, which he eventually did and also recorded a video on it that he posted on his channel, but he was unable to find the alleged strange cave again. With skepticism of Kenny’s claims arising from his viewers and further urgings of him to look for a 3rd time he seemingly caved to the pressure.
Kenny would tell his family that he was going on a short over-night trip… but he never returned. His cell phone was found by an old abandoned mineshaft that he had been near in a previous video, indicating he may have gone looking for the cave again, shortly after this the trail went cold and no sign of Kenny could be found.
Some speculated he may have accidentally fell down the old mineshaft, while others came up with conspiracy theories about him finding the cave again but this time didn’t make it out or that he found something he should not have, such as a secret entrance to Area 51 or an encounter with aliens while others say he simply succumb to the harsh elements of the hot weather and desert terrain.
Later on, a woman claiming to be Kenny’s girlfriend that Kenny had previously mentioned in his videos came on the M Cave Hike video and left an interesting comment that shed some more possible light on to the disappearance. The woman said that Kenny had still not been found and talked of all the time they had hiked together in the area in mineshafts, caves and finding ghost towns. She said they were always careful although Kenny was a bit more daring. She then went on to say she believed it was not an accident but that she believed Kenny committed suicide, saying he battled depression, would not take medication and also quit his job one year before his disappearance. She said that the phone was likely discarded where it was so he could not be tracked by GPS and that he had also left his video camera at home and so “had no intention of filming anything”.
So, what was it? If the woman claiming to be Kenny’s girlfriend can be believed it would appear, he likely committed suicide, but the claim isn’t confirmed and even if it was eventually confirmed there is still no body found to fully confirm a suicide. Other people have continued speculation that it could have been an accident or that it was something more sinister.
Now we shall move on to some possible cryptids that may lurk in Nevada. Unlike Washington, Oregon and California… Nevada isn’t really too well known for cryptids, but there are a couple obscure ones…
One such creature is that of the Jarbidge Monster. In the town of Jarbidge there is a local legend of a giant man-eating monster that lives in the nearby Jarbidge Canyon. There are claims, such as in the Indian Placenames in America Vol 1 book by Sandy Nestor that the name Jarbidge itself comes from the Shoshone word of jahabich which means “devil” while some blogs and Howard Hickson’s Histories on the history of the town has said that the place was meant to be called Tswhawbitts originally after the monster, but that the name ended up corrupting to jahabich (which had no meaning) and that eventually a sign was hung up calling the settlement Jarbidge.
The legend is of a giant man-eating monster from Indian legend. The giant was called Tswhawbitts by the Shoshone and it lived in a crater in the canyon. Stories told of it capturing Indians, putting them into a giant basket strapped to the giant’s back and bringing them back to its lair to eat them. The legend continues that the Indians got revenge by trapping him in a cave by pushing boulders into the entrance way. Even after this legend says that the Indians saw the canyon as a taboo and continued to keep away from it.
Although this is clearly more of a legend than a cryptid, some people have claimed that the creature could actually possibly be a Sasquatch or Bigfoot in the area and some enthusiasts have explored the area looking for such a creature. The creature is described as big and hairy and obviously is described as very tall, which would fit a typical sasquatch sighting, so it may not be too far-fetched, at least for the believers of the Sasquatch.
On the subject of cryptids, there have also apparently been some sightings of giant flying creatures in Nevada, looking a bit like pterodactyls and of which some believe to be the legendary Thunderbird from Native American legend. Much of the sightings are very obscure but one such does stick out…
Happening in 1925, four recreational pilots had an encounter with a strange gigantic flying beast over the deserts of Nevada close to a place called Battle Mountain, which was first revealed in October, 1959 when a letter from Don Wood Jr, one of the pilots, was published in Ray Palmer’s Flying Saucers magazine, the other three pilots have remained anonymous.
In the letter the incident was recounted, during a recreational flight with Don Wood and his friends in Curtiss JN-4 aircraft. The pilots would often fly around the vast deserts and often land on certain areas to experience the scenery in places that would otherwise be difficult to reach on foot. It was on such a flight when they landed on a mesa near Battle Mountain.
While walking about on top of the mesa they noticed something coming in for a landing and said it was about 8-feet across and was round and flat like a saucer and its underside was a reddish colour. He said that it skidded to a halt at about 30-meters away.
They then said they walked up to the thing and described it as some kind of animal like they had never seen before. They said that the creature was hurt and said as it breathed the top of it would rise and then fall which made a half-foot hole all around it like a clam opening and closing.
On describing the creature’s injury, he said that quite a hunk had been chewed out of one side and a metal-looking froth was coming out of the injury. He said that when it noticed them it breathed frantically and tried to rise up only to fall back down again. On further description the creature was moist and glistened on the top side but that they could see no eyes or legs.
He goes on to say that after about 20-minutes the creature started pulsating and then the creature grew very bright all over, except on the area it was injured, they said it had a shell-like body. It tried to rise again but sank back down.
Sudden a large shadow fell over them from above and they looked up and then ran as they saw a much larger animal that was 30-feet across, swooping down, paying the men no attention, but then settled over the smaller unidentified creature. They said the large creature then settled four sucker-like tongues on the smaller creature and the large creature became unbearably bright to the point you could not like right at it. Both the creatures then rose up and flew out of sight in a second.
Left behind was an awful stench and said the said the frothy stuff that the small creature had bled looked like fine aluminum wire. They also said there was more of the stuff in about a 30-foot circle where the larger creature had breathed. The stuff then rapidly melted away under the sun and they took off.
A very crazy and strange alleged encounter indeed!
Pyramid Lake in Nevada is said to be a cursed place. The lake is found north-east of Reno, Nevada and is fed by the Truckee River from Lake Tahoe and Pyramid Lake has no outflow source, meaning water only leaves by evaporation or sub-surface seepage, strangely, this hasn’t stopped some bodies of people who have disappeared/drowned in Pyramid Lake from turning up in Lake Tahoe… somehow having travelled up the wrong way of Truckbee River.
Locals have claimed that a strange number of deaths and vanishings often afflict boat users, fishers and scuba divers who use the lake, particularly during Spring time and has been attributed by some to strange dark paranormal phenomena that supposedly effects Pyramid Lake. The Piuate Indians once settled around the lake before white colonists arrived and begun disrupting and damaging their way of life. These Indian’s had long talked of the lake being cursed and also talked of paranormal creatures or entities known as Water Babies as well as Mermaids living in the lake.
They are said to look like human babies but with unsettling faces twisted by anger and hatred. These apparent demonic water babies were said to hide under the surface of Pyramid Lake waiting for unsuspecting victims to come too close of which they would drag them under the lake and drown them.
There are several legends of how the water babies came to exist including a story that these Water Babies originated from the Piaute Indians disposing of unwanted and deformed babies by throwing them in the lake and that these ended up turning into the water babies, stalking the lake for revenge. This first story is claimed though to have been made up by the white settlers in the area as a way of making the natives look like savages. Another origin of the water babies, this one supposedly from the Piaute Indians, starting with some kind of evil water serpent emerging from the lake and eating the baby of a mother who was distracted with tasks, the serpent then took the form of the baby to trick the mother when she returned and attempted to then devour her as well, but the shaman of the village intervened and made a deal with the serpent to spare the mother’s life, in exchange they would allow the shape-shifting serpent to prowl the lake, which was accepted.
A bloody war would break out between the Paiute Indian’s and white settlers around Pyramid Lake, leading to many deaths until a ceasefire eventually calmed things. The Indians believed that both the white settlers and the war were brought up upon the lake due to the long-believed curse of the lake. The story is that one of the Pauite Indian’s had come across and fell in love with a mermaid from the lake and took it back to his village with intention to be partners, but the other village members disliked this and cast the mermaid out of the village, forcing the man to return her to the lake. In great anger the mermaid is said to have cursed the lake, bringing hardship and misfortune to those in and around the lake.
Due to the dark history around the lake, many believe it is also haunted by dark entities and ghosts. There have been reports of disembodied baby crying and child laughter in and around the lake by both locals and visitors and it is said to be a bad omen to hear this and even worse… possibly death, to see such entities.
Thank you for reading! Next up will be Idaho.
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