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YEAR: 1963
SEASON: Winter
MONTH: January
DATE: 27
STATE: California
COUNTY: Tuolumne County
LOCATION DETAILS: Take Highway 108 to Cold Springs.
NEAREST TOWN: Cold Springs
NEAREST ROAD: Highway 108
OBSERVED: From the Union Democrat, Monday, January 28, 1963:
REPORT: 10-FT. SHRIEKING MONSTER
A horror tale of a 10-foot-tall man led sheriff's deputies last night into a dark brushy area adjoining Peter Pam subdivision, west of Cold Springs.
Officers were unable to spot a monster but returned with an equally horrifying report of unidentified shrieking sounds.
"There was definitely some creature in the woods," Deputy William Huntley confirmed. "I've never heard anything like it." Huntley's partner, Elbert Miller of Cold Springs, a veteran woodsman, agreed: "I've never heard a sound like that in all my years in the woods."
The search was touched off by an anonymous telephone call to the sheriff's office about 8:30 p.m. The caller refused to give his name on grounds, "You'll think I'm crazy and put me in a strait jacket."
He reported seeing a man - at least nine or 10 feet tall - in the road by an old gravel pit north of the Peter Pam tract. Huntley quoted the caller, "It was moving around. It appeared to be human but was the most awful thing I have ever seen."
Huntley said the caller added, "I'm scared. I'm an adult and I'm not crazy. I'm not drunk. I don't even drink."
Huntley said a second man then came on the phone to confirm the story. The second man had not seen the monster, Huntley said, but he reported seeing tracks more than 14 inches long.
Huntley and Miller then drove to the area. In first radio dispatches to the Sonora sheriff's office, they reported hearing sounds something like "a human in distress."
"It's heading right towards the car. Here it comes," Huntley advised.
After a delay, he reported, "Now it seems to be circling the car. It sounds more and more like an animal of some kind."
But the two officers reported they could see nothing in the heavy brush.
"Its definitely not a bear," Huntley radioed. "Elbert thinks it's more possibility a mountain lion, but it's not a mountain lion noise."
The two officers shouted at the creature and noticed their shouts did not seem to scare it. As they attempted to move closer, however, the sound seemed to move away.
The officers were forced to head back to Cold Springs when the patrol car's gas supply ran low, but they returned to the spot a short time late and found the unidentified creature still shrieking. Huntley said they stayed in the area until 1:30 a.m. but were still unable to spot the source of the sounds.
The officers returned to the scene after daylight but found nothing to explain the mystery. "There were no tracks, nothing to indicate anything at all," Huntley advised. He noted the area is brushy and rocky and the ground is frozen.
Huntley and Miller report they will return to the area tonight on the chance the creature will pay a second visit.
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