This is part 2 of a 4-part series that began yesterday (LINK TO #1). For the background on this piece of evidence, read yesterday's post first. Be prepared -
Don relayed to me; "After I found this cave, I knew I had to go back, but I wasn't going to do it alone. I needed someone to document and witness. But who? I thought about that a few months before it dawned on me the ideal person to trust with this hidden cave."
Then, Don stopped relating the story and told me he was going to text me a picture and then we would talk again. "Get ready for this picture. It's from the cave," he wrote.
Get ready for this picture.... That cautionary statement made me puzzle. I expected to see a photo pop up on my phone's screen of a cave and all its shadows and the light of a flash bouncing off stone walls, like most cave photos researchers send.
What came up on my cell phone was so shocking and confusing, that I immediately sent it from my phone to my email account so I could pull it up on the computer's big screen and study it.
It could not possibly be what it looked it!
What he sent me, I thought was a mistake at first. It was far too close and too clear. There was no mistaking red hair and an eye gazing back, but it looked so foreign. As an artist, I recognized the facial landmarks were wrong, the shape of the eyelids were nothing like ours, or any other creature I could think of....
I promptly studied the photo to explain it away, as it is exceedingly hard to impress me with evidence and evidence this clear is almost never obtained. Then, I immediately called him back.
"Don, how the hell did you get this? Did you encounter this? What is it? Where is it?" My mind was racing so much, the questions spilled out of me rapid fire.
Don took a breath and proceeded to continue his explanation. He had chosen a researcher to go with him, someone who had gone on many treks with him and was as curious about the world and nature as he was.
That researcher would be the one to capture one of the most stunning and confusing bits of evidence I have ever seen.
Well, here it was as sent to me-
I was repeating myself again, "w-what is this?"
The photo looked an odd perspective, so I turned it upside down in case perhaps he sent it in the wrong orientation and suddenly, I got a chill.
Don mentioned "I have no idea which way is up. I found it on a camera from that trek."
And so I will now explain what Don conveyed to me, the amazing series of events surrounding the photo capture of a cave "being" that he had come to call "Rascal" and I myself named "Massey Man."
*
Don wanted to come back to the cave, but not alone. Finding someone he trusted with an obscure unknown cave was a riddle, but he did know another researcher who was rather fearless, although elderly. He asked him and his friend said he'd go. Together, they headed out, his friend utilizing two canes for his bad hip to keep a good ground while he stepped down into the cave.
When they arrived within, the bones around the fire pit were gone. Don frowned. Someone else had to have been in there. This was not the first time he had found bones in a cave and then as soon as he viewed them, someone took them away. It was a repeat theme throughout the caves he studied.
There was also a large bird of some kind, postured as if it had sat down and died, leaving its bones intact.
Then, as they came further, the men found a handprint. The fingers were 8 inches long! And the thumb and pinkie seemed to be the same length.
"I'll be damned!" Don had exclaimed, "Same as the print I found not far from here where someone was digging down to water."
The researcher, Massey, offered to stay and guard the handprint while Don went to get casting material. Don left his friend with a light that blinks red and blue, a disposable camera and Massey had two guns with him, as well as his canes.
Don returned almost an hour later to find Massey was quite shaken, pale and agitated.
The man rapidly explained that the fellow of the cave was there a yard and a half away from him, staring him down almost the whole time Don was gone.
"He was 7 feet tall and no more hairy than an Italian!" Massey declared.
Massey went on to describe some more features. The being's legs were hairy, but the hair on the body was sparse, not solid-looking. "He was built like the Arm and Hammer fellow in the arms."
Massey said he was protecting the handprint from the creature. And, it didn't seem to be intimidated by him, even when the researcher cursed at it like a sailor. He warned he had two guns and tossed out expletives, determined to protect the find.
The WWII vet was ready to stand his ground, but the being never flinched and remained there observing him, perhaps sizing up the canes and the age of him and realizing he wasn't a threat to his cave.
In a rattled state and with a visible shudder, Massey mentioned to Don that he did not ever want to see those red eyes again.
The being also made no sounds, no vocalizations. It just stood its ground.
As Don finished the cast of the handprint, Massey studied the area around them cautiously. When they exited the cave, the old man clicked his canes against the rocks loudly to try and scare it from coming after them.
It was obvious by the armed war veteran's actions, that he had guns but he was not willing to use them unless seriously provoked. After all, even though he couldn't explain what this being was, it was in the human family. And, Massey was in its home.
When they left the cave following that in 2002, Massey did not go back again. He refused. He was quite shaken by the experience.
Photo of Massey right after the encounter
Don took the bag with all their supplies from the excursion and dropped it off in his cabin. His life got preoccupied because his wife was dying. Following her death, Don proceeded to go on many expeditions around the world and had brief times in the cabin in which he was usually cutting firewood and keeping it warm, as well as hunting.
He went back many times to see the status of the cave and record what he found (tomorrow's installment).
Massey passed away in 2007.
Years later, Don settled in for a long enough stay in the cabin to root through his items and make sense of his space. It was then that he came across the bag with all the items still in it from the expedition including the red and blue blinking light and extra casting material. He saw the camera had been used with some shots taken, so he had them developed to find that two were blank or completely dark. One, however, was this infamous shot above.
It would appear that likely Massey pointed and aimed, hoping to capture something in the shot or intimidate and scare. The blue light that was blinking in the cave might have created the reflection on the pupil and the light from the camera could be seen reflected, as well.
I am reminded of how people happen upon evidence that aren't out seeking fame or fortune or feeling they must produce evidence. It's the ones in the obscure places, poking around curiously who come across the most amazing finds and then they fear retribution by a society not ready to see it. So, photos like this are forgotten on computers or in cameras.
What is even more amazing than this photo, is that there was much more evidence after this incident which I will present in tomorrow's installment -
Part 3 (subsequent evidence)
Part 4 (conclusions)
(*Part 3 tomorrow about subsequent journeys into the cave, findings and evidence procured.*)
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