New Sighting- Fall River, MA- Anonymous

 This occurred in the summer of 2020. 

The witness has asked to remain anonymous so we will call him Ben. He did not ask for the dog to be anonymous but I've also decided to protect the pooch's privacy and have changed his name also.

Ben had recently adopted a dog to have some companionship during Covid lock down. An Australian shepherd mix, Colby has lots of energy and required lots of exercise to keep him happy. Ben had taken Colby to the Freetown State Forest for a walk to get out some exercise. If you're familiar with the area, this incident took place on the path near Assonet Ledge, right near the trees with pentagrams spray painted on them (what is wrong with people? and don't get me started on all the trash there). 

It was getting close to dusk so Ben was trying to get out the last of Colby's energy before heading home. He had him on one of those retractable leashes and had let it out as long as possible so Colby was a bit ahead of him on the path. Suddenly Colby yelped like he had gotten hurt but then froze in his tracks and started to growl at something off the path. When Ben caught up with him, at first he couldn't see what the dog was growling at. He looked around and then looked back and then he saw it where he was looking moments before and saw nothing.

He said the creature was no more than 20 feet away from where they were standing. It was about 3 feet tall, gray skin with patchy black fur, a face like a chipmunk and a big pot belly. The creature seemed to be frozen in fear or shock, possibly scared of the large growling dog. Ben wasn't sure how long the group's staring contest lasted but he said he suddenly realized it was almost dark and they needed to get out of the woods. He pulled Colby away from the creature with a little difficulty and after they were a few feet down the path, Colby began acting normally again. 

Some of the questions I always ask are about sensory information leading up to and during the encounter. While he didn't hear anything strange or see any orbs or other strange lights, he did say there was a strange amount of fireflies that night. This could be completely unrelated but its interesting because the Indiana puk-wudgies of Mounds State Park are known to be associated with fireflies. When I asked Ben if he smelled anything strange he said there was a floral smell at first which then mixed with the smell of ozone as he got closer. 

Ben mentioned that as they were leaving, he repeatedly looked behind him to make sure they weren't being followed but he never saw the creature again.

Podcasts and Videos

 

Audio Only

High Strangeness Factor with Steve Ward and Andy Mercer

222 Paranormal Podcast

Videos

Talking Weird

Monsters On The Edge

Beyond The Woodline

Bill Russo- Interview Video

Dogs: High Strangeness Alert Systems

Numerous sightings start with someone taking their dog for a walk and the dog alerting them to a strange creature that they may not have noticed on their own. There are very similar stories associated with haunted locations, bigfoot sightings, UFO encounters and during the Mothman flap in the 60s, multiple dogs went missing. I choose to believe they ran away and found new loving families in a less strange location.

Dogs have a hearing range of 40 hZ to 60 kHz which is much greater than humans, in addition to this dogs can perceive certain wavelengths of infrared light. Some have a greater sensitivity than others. This is interesting because of the associated with infrared lights and high strangeness. Across the world through multiple time periods, there have been sightings of light orbs revolving around strange creature sightings. Many times these orbs appear as red and morph from there, either materializing into a physical object or cycling through the spectrum in order. See Tei-pai-wanka entry for the pukwudgie association with these light orbs.

We all know the ROYGBIV spectrum from elementary school but before red is actually infrared. It would stand to reason that these manifestations are actually starting as infrared which some dogs are able to perceive but we are not. If light based entities are either manifesting from another dimension or possibly always living among us but on a spectrum we can't perceive, it would make sense that a dog would be able to detect them before we would. 

Who wants to let me borrow their dog to go look for pukwudgies?

Little People of the Buckeye State

 In honor of the Loveland Frogman festival this weekend, I decided to look into little people sightings and lore in Ohio and I was not disappointed. I've heard of sightings in that area and have 2 reported to me so I knew they were out there. They seem to be most prevalent in the south west part of the state and along the Ohio river valley. You know....where all the other weird stuff in that area happens. Further north in Cuyahoga Valley National Park, they also have stories of little people.

They are the traditional little men of the wilderness type of stories. They seem to hang out in state parks, but especially near rocky outcrops and ledges. People often hear a kind of high pitch chattering in the woods before seeing them. They are more often spotted in small groups here than they are here in New England.

As is expected, they hang out in veins of high strangeness. Bigfoot, thunderbirds, UFOs, the beloved frog men, Grassman (look him up if you arent familiar), etc. Across the Ohio River in Point Pleasant, WV, there was a strange light and "people of small stature" spotted along the river bank at night. This occurred in 1967, during the height of the Mothman sightings. Mothman stole the spotlight that time.

The historical lore in the area, is that these little people are mostly harmless tricksters or guardians of the woods. I've heard them directly referred to as pukwudgies but also called the European terms of brownies or goblins. I read old stories from that area that said if you saw one and then told someone afterwards, it was bad luck. The talented folk artist, Morgan Evans, said that growing up in the Ohio river valley in nearby KY, the story she heard was if you saw one and told someone else, that they would soon see one also. I also read accounts of mean humans holding them captive to protect their property. I hope this is no longer in practice. FREE THE PUKS!

Pangea

 There is little people lore in almost every culture all over the world. In some areas, it seems to be more prevalent than others and be connected with other high strangeness. The land itself seems to be special. These thin spots, or window areas for the Keelians, seem to just be portals for strange creatures. 

At first glance, you wonder if the Puritans brought lore over from England, but this lore existed before their arrival. What they brought with them was the demonization of everything outside of the ordinary. Their view of the devil was a short, dark man so when they heard the Gay Head Wampanoag lore of short, black little people, those immediately became devils. It makes you wonder if the fae of the British isles were also given an undo bad reputation. I'm still staying away from fairy rings just in case though. 

Already some of the oldest lore, it may go back even further than we remember. If you plot out similar little people lore and high strangeness areas, it's suspiciously similar to the red areas below. Did the continents splitting create some sort of a rift? Or was this land strange even before then? High strangeness areas on other continents seem to follow mountain ranges and/or fault lines. Food for thought.

Indiana Puk-wudgies

 Though their description does not match that of the Hockomock pukwudgies and the name is commonly hyphenated in that area, they still do have similarities. They are roughly the same height but after that the physical commonalities stop. Indiana puk-wudgies have blonde hair that is cut into the 90s-esque bowl cut. They have pointed ears that stick out from their helmet of hair and are commonly spotted wearing blue "smocks". Their presence is often associated with the appearance of fireflies and thunder storms. They seem to have a much better relationship with humans than the pukwudgies of New England. People often report the diminutive creatures as seeming to be curious about humans.

Most sightings have revolved around Mounds State Park in Anderson, IN. The park has 10 ceremonial mounds built by the prehistoric Adena people and later used by the Hopewell tribe. The site is thought to have been used for religious ceremonies and has astrological alignments. There have also been burial sites discovered though at least one seems to have been looted. From 1897 to 1929, an amusement park stood also on the grounds.  

So are they the same creatures as the New England pukwudgies? My initial reaction was immediately no, but when I paused to reflect on it more I decided it couldnt be ruled out. Human appearances and behaviors vary from region to region. Why couldn't little people? "Pukwudgie" is also and Ojibwa name and not from the language of the people indigenous to either location. It could be more of a blanket term for any species of little people, much like duende is used in Central and South America.

It wasn't until I read up more on the Indiana puk-wudgies that I started to suspect there may be a connection with pukwudgies and burial sites. Remains up to 8,000 years old have been found in Hockomock. When pukwudgies are luring people through the woods, are they luring them away from the resting place of ancient people?