The Pods

Take a look at this picture.

I go on and on about the Pale Men. I realize that I might sound like a broken record. But the fact is that the Pale Men are real: I've seen them myself, I know they're here. They're few. They are bound to water and fog. They cannot survive without either. And there aren't enough to pose any kind of threat.

But there could be. They could be coming back. They could be multiplying.

This isn't a recent photograph. It's part of my grandfather's collection. It could be anything, obviously, but I know that these are 'eggs' pulled from the Pale Men from the depths of the ocean onto the shore. What lies within, I don't know. And there are no reports of these pods after 1973, when this picture was taken.

The Keewaqu

Everyone's probably heard of the Wendigo; the ravaged, ravenous remnants of men possessed by darker things - forced, in their terrible hunger, to devour their own. The Wabanaki call these cannibalistic creatures keewaqu or kiwakwa.

Most of us, however, haven't seen one. I knew they existed, but I didn't know they existed here; not until I was shown a decomposing carcass...supposedly of kiwakwa.

This drawing is an artist's reconstruction of what this thing might look like, based on the remains we photographed: a pronounced spine, sharp claws, a huge mouth and a low, crawling gait. It could be an animal, sure, but I'm not sure which animal fits this description - or matches that appearance. And even if it isn't keewaqu, I still wouldn't want to meet this thing in the forest late at night. Or any time.

The Pale Men

My grandfather showed me a lot of things before he passed away, back in '93. He showed me things that I almost wished I hadn't seen. He showed me evidence that's completely irrefutable; evidence I cannot in good conscience show anyone - and wouldn't be able to, not unless I could take them to the spot my grandfather brought me to.

But he also left me some photographs he took. My grandfather was an avid photographer - with a taste for the esoteric - and he spent his whole life on Solomon Island, searching for evidence to the things he knew were real.

Like this photograph, which was taken in 1986.

My grandfather called them the Pale Men. They have also been called Nábleikr. They came from the sea, and they were first brought here by what I guess would be Vikings - a long time ago. According to my research, it would have been around 900 or 1000 AD, when Norsemen were rumored to have visited North America. Most vanished when the Vikings left, but some stayed behind - in the dark, cold water, waiting for...something? Someone? Occasionally they will rise up to the surface, go on land, searching... That's how my grandfather got this photograph.

He never told me what happened next.

Big Man on Island

The Wabanaki people know him as Glooskap. You might know his people as Yeti, Sasquatch or, colloquially, as Bigfoot (-feet?).

He's a hominid, ranging in size from human sized to almost three meters. He lives in close contact with nature and the Earth. He is intelligent, peaceful and private.

And he's very real.

Once, according to legend, there were many of Glooskap's people on Solomon Island. They lived in harmony with their environment and with humans. When evil first befell the island, the sasquatch fought together with humans to protect their lands. After that, he began to fade away...

Until the mid 19th Century, they say, you could still spot Glooskap or one of his tribespeople once in a while, at dusk or dawn, always from a distance. But after the Blue Ridge Mine opened, the last of the sasquatch vanished into history. Eradicated by man or willingly retreating into the forests, no one knows. And no one made a verified sighting for well over one hundred years.

The above picture - made famous in the local newspaper and across the state - was taken in 1979. It remains controversial but it matches the descriptions I've been able to unearth. It's the closest thing we've had to a verified sighting, and it makes me hopeful that these noble creatures are still out there, still watching over and protecting the land that's rightfully theirs, and that Glooskap is still guarding our island against the evil that sleeps at its heart.

P.S. The reason I use "him" and not "her" is that nobody has ever confirmed the existence of a female Yeti, and Glooskap was - in every tale told of him - a male. There must surely be females too, but whether or not they've been captured on film or even seen, is still an unanswered question.

This is probably a tree...right?

I don't like coming off as crazy - although it's not completely avoidable given the nature of this blog - but these kinds of posts aren't particularly helpful.

This COULD be just a tree, right? A lucky shot in the dead of night...in the middle of a lightning storm?

What it certainly COULDN'T be is a shot of the legendary Jack. Jack O'Lantern, the Night Watchman, master of the will-o'-the-wisps.

No, it certainly couldn't be that...

I'll categorize this one under "undecided".

Submitted by 'P.G.'

Guardians of the Mountains

I don't know where or when I first heard about the Guardians. It could have been my grandfather; after all, he told me numerous stories about the myths, legends and realities of the island and the Wabanaki people from when I could barely walk. It could have been my uncle, who claims one of the creatures tore up his leg - it's why he was limping half his life, he said. He vanished in the woods one day, in '03, and nobody ever found any sign of him. He just vanished into thin air.

It could have just been a story I heard in the trailer park - over a cold beer, or under the stars one evening, with Joseph smoking his pipe and Frank strumming the guitar. It's the kind of story old Joe enjoys telling.

I don't know when I first heard about the Guardians, but one thing is for sure: I've heard about them on many occasions. There are numerous stories about these mystical creatures, and they have all of them left their impression on me.

A friend of my uncle's drew this, based on his description and that of other people - my grandfather, Joseph, other Wabanaki, even townsfolk. Sure, at night it's easy to mistake a big dog or a wolf or a coyote for something else. Shadows play tricks on you, and when you're spooked you see things. But there's been many reports and sightings over the years, more and more recently, and some say that the Guardians are portents of dark days coming.

What are they? Legends speak of them as watchers and gatekeepers of something ancient and vast and evil that sleeps in these mountains. And when this evil stirs, so do the Guardians...

The Truth (is out there?)

My grandfather, a member of the Wabanaki tribe, was the first to tell us about the things that haunt Solomon Island. We didn't believe him, not in the beginning. Not until he showed us evidence.

A thousand winters ago, he told us, our people were visited by warriors from across the great sea - where the morning light breaks. They arrived in long ships, carried by wind and destiny, and they arrived just in time to help the People of the Dawn fight a great enemy serving the dark spirit of the mountains. The Darkness War was won, at great loss to all, but evil wasn't vanquished completely. Some of the darkness remained behind when the outsiders left; some was already here since before the mountains, buried deep, sleeping; and some came crawling back into the light, stirred by the scent of death.

The Pale Men, my grandfather told us, followed the warriors in their long ships from the sunken city, fought on their side in the war, but they were of darkness, and when the visitors left, some of the Pale Men remained, marooned in deep water. Waiting to be called again. We didn't believe him.

He showed us.

From that day on, I never disbelieved anyone who spoke of the things that haunt our woods. From the Pale Men to the forest moths, from the Wendigo to Glooskap. From the pestilent Revenant to the legend of Jack O'Lantern. Behind every myth lies a greater truth.

I'm here to document that truth.