Very rarely in the field of research am I confused by a piece of evidence. It is easy to mete out what is genuine or not, properly interpreted or improperly interpreted. But, in late April 2017, I was presented with a true story that both sparks my imagination and defies what I thought I knew about cave dwellers.
Don Monroe, an adventurer, explorer, and researcher at it for over 60 years, was hiking around the 50 square mile region in the Northwestern United States that he tended to survey repeatedly for decades, always looking for changes, taking footprint castings, performing back and forth exchanges with those who might dwell inside of caves.
As an extremely experienced hunter and tracker, Don lives for every encounter in the great outdoors, especially the places the humans don't go. He has made amazing finds over the years daring to poke, prod, crawl, and climb where others wouldn't think to explore.
This one particular time in the early 2000s, he found a dead bird that had been eaten, the left wing intact, and the blood fresh. He continued to hike on. He found a place where someone had knelt down and put their right hand in the sand and used their left hand to dig a hole down to water. The handprint was most unusual in that it had very long fingers. But, being in sand, not something he could likely cast.
He followed along to find another fresh kill bird in the same manner with the left wing intact. While he puzzled over it, he noted an obscure shadow in the rocks and inspected it to find a stairstep-like descent into a cave he had never seen, one that was so hidden no one would have known it was there. If he hadn't approached from the angle he had, he would have easily missed it.
For 11 years he had passed 50 yards from the cave and never saw it. In fact, this time, he had to be 10 feet away to see the 30 foot wide x 12 feet high entrance.
Within, Don found a large cavernous room with an ancient fire pit surrounded by yellowed old bones. The first thing that came to mind is something from the ice age. The firepit area was obviously very old. There were signs of yet another dead bird and so whoever had been killing and eating the birds recently, had been in the cave. He was cautious, wondering if there was a vagrant within.
Feeling he had enough sense of the unusual hidden cave, he left.
*
It would be almost six months later when Don finally solved the puzzle of who to trust to go in there with him and do a thorough review. It was a researcher he knew who was in his 80s and said he wanted to go on another adventure in searching for hidden clues.
Don debated if the man could make it. He had a bad hip and would need to use two canes to maneuver, but Don had hiked with him before and knew his capabilities, so he offered for this researcher, Massey, to go with him.
He didn't realize at the time just what they would come upon together and what Massey would endure alone that would change him for the rest of his days....
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."
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 never be the same again!
*
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, "Similar to the print I found not far from here where someone was digging down to water in the cold hard ground."
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 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 fur-like.
"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 retrospect, Massey perhaps represented no more than a barking chihuahua.
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's life got busy after this as his wife was dying and he went on many expeditions trying not to stay home. 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.
Don continued his search for all sorts of unexplained things in many locations, but he also went back to that particular cave many times for several years.
He observed what he believed to be prints left by females and even children in the back rooms of the cave. In all, he counted 16 different individuals by the prints they left.
14-inch hand
14-inch other hand
8-inch fingers
One area Don named the "nursery" because there were seven stone slabs that almost looked like beds and little footprints on the ground.
He cast many of them and puzzled over the cave and Massey's encounter, wondering if it was a freak face to face or if the "Rascal" might show himself to Don.
He found signs that someone was raising pigeons in the cave for eggs and for a food source up on a ledge. This explained the dead birds he had found outside of the cave too. It seemed they could eat the eggs, when birds were past the roosting age, perhaps kill and eat them.
As well, Don found a couple used lighters with some stick twigs that had been burned at the tip.
A large bird that was skeletonized and laying on the floor still with bones in place was noted by Don and Massey when they came in the cave the first time. When Don came back to the cave, they were gone.
This bones-in-place-and-bones-gone scenario happened many times to Don throughout decades of research. The cave with the blue ice that contained hundreds of bones in it, was all gone the next time he went back.
The yellowed bones near the fire pit in this cave were gone the next time he came back with Massey. All he had to do was see the bones and they went missing.
*This scenario can be found in the real-life series "The Stalker Between the Worlds" on the blog about a man who on his daily walks has for years had interactions with a being of unknown origins. As soon as the Walker saw the bones, the Stalker removed them.*
The cave throughout the year stayed 45 degrees and there were plenty of bare footprints to cast, even of small feet. Whatever child was walking around the cave in 45 degrees without shoes, they were tough.
Some of the prints he also found many miles away at other caves indicating they travel and the travel might be done through communicating tunnels.
Of course, we cannot exclude the possibility that curiosity seekers who went deep into the backwoods might have found the hidden cave, but given the location and the lack of signs of human hikers in this mostly unpopulated region, the chances were extremely small.
This print appears as if the hand were wrapped in a bandage or rags and he left an imprint lying down that looked like a broken arm.
This was a double print of two female-looking hands pushed into the dirt as she laid down near the bandaged/broken arm man.
One time, he left a big basketball-sized wad of butcher paper and then chocolate bars, hoping that they would eat the candy and handle the paper. They took the lighter to the paper and burned the edges as if to hide their evidence.
Later, he spread peanut butter way up on the wall, too high for any mountain cat to stand up and reach. He found it had been licked utterly clean with nail-like digging in the surface horizontal to the floor instead of vertical.
In most caves he went into, he found a stone "pillow." This was a smooth river-rock like rock set on a ledge so that the person lying down could watch the entrance. It was identical in most every cave.
To his shock, he had left potatoes to which they stuck the plastic forks in that he had left - they did not like them, would not eat them. But, once when he was done visiting, he went home to find a rotted potato at his cabin about 15 miles away!
Of the 16 individuals he had cast, 6 of them had the unusually long fingers, bigger hands. And, he noted that the pinkie finger was as short as the thumb on the prints with 8-inch long fingers. That mutation had him pondering if perhaps what was in the cave was perhaps affected by the 1961 Idaho Falls radiation leak incident.
Don was simply looking for evidence to backup the encounter Massey had and to perhaps explain who Massey had seen when he was left alone in the cave. For all he knew, it was a rather not-so-hairy Bigfoot. Don accrued plenty of evidence of those dwelling in the cave, assuming they were Sasquatch.
*
Making heads and tails of this evidence has been something I had to sit on for months, just studying, contemplating the context and the finds, and wondering how it was possible this "Massey Man" (what I have come to refer to it as) could exist today, even in a very remote area. It would take a breeding population of these "recluses."
Here is a casting of a human foot (left) and a print from the Massey Man cave (right)
(my size 9 womens foot/men's size 7)
Don thought this could possibly be a victim of or descendent of a victim of the 1961 nuclear leak -
(LINK) In January 1961, three men died during a nuclear meltdown 65 miles east of Idaho Falls. This is a long distance from that area, but for the sake of the nuclear radiation subject, I doubt anyone who managed to survive the fallout from the explosion would have carried that mutation on to other individuals in the group that appear to be of similar size. It also would not explain the adapted eye for the cave, as that would take many many generations.
Local Native Legends: Boqs/Skookum
Boqs are the wild hairy men of this region as described by the Native People. Some believed them to be horrible, to eat people and molest women. Other tribes believed them to be more hidden and shy. (LINK). They also believe that the Boqs did not leave the area with the advent of Homo sapiens in the region, they are still about. Some have described the Sasquatch as having varying degrees of hairiness.
Reptoids/Hybrid Human Reptoid
I am determined to cover every possibility. Some speak of reptoids in caves and there are numerous accounts of people encountering these human-reptile mixes. What is also interesting is a study that 360 million years ago there was a single reptile that gave the genes for scales, feathers and hairs on the creatures and humans that would come much later. Whether you believe in this aspect of evolution or not, I am putting that out there.
The whole face postulated in clay
Tall strange creatures reported
Only a couple miles from the cave there was a dump where there were reports of tall strange creatures rummaging. This theme is repeated. In fact, one researcher found a giant Bigfoot cut-out at a mulching facility near the forest where he had seen a Bigfoot. This article tells of one who left tracks around a dump.
Conclusion
Taking everything into consideration in this most unusual case, I am pleased to hear that Don plans to continue to observe this cave. He has not encountered the being that he comes to refer to as "Rascal," but he is completely amenable to the prospect.
He has had years of back and forth interaction with those in the cave and they appear to be intelligent, willing to use what is given to them, and more or less amuse themselves with what he leaves. There is no sign that they are particularly hungry, as they are picky about the foods they eat that he has offered.
It has been several years since he has been there. He hopes that in that time they have come to think he's gone and are comfortable once again in their domain.
I promise, as always, to share information about this location and any finds that are made. It definitely warrants a good deal more research.
While I realize this is a most exceptional set of findings, I do not insist that you come to any particular conclusions. How we come to understand new information depends on experiences, belief systems, and thought processes, as well as cultural and religious influences. I greatly respect that everyone maintains their own set of standards. I readily admit, I am intrigued and I believe that we have missed much in this world that is alongside us because we proclaim to have accounted for the occupants of earth.
And yet, new tribes are found even today -
I'd like to share excerpts from Don's memoirs (with his permission) where he speaks of this incredible experience in his own words:
I was very excited to find a huge hand print with Don Massey (five months earlier on a frozen early December morning 2001) "I had first discovered the similar print while hunting rabbits in a desert mountain canyon...The huge hand, feet, and knee prints I had discovered at a dry stream bed where to my surprise an unknown biped had obviously just dug there three feet down deep into hard pan frozen gravel to get to drinking water... It had left behind its obvious evidence.
..I had tracked it to a cave (where I) entered the cave and felt its presence in the abyss. I had vacated the cave with flashlight and pistol in hand.
(Don Monroe's words about Don Massey)
(Massey) had probably experienced more horror on this day than most any one could have similar survived. Massey was then age 84 and limped slightly, life long, ever since a bad leg injury while working in the copper mixers at Anaconda, MT. Having sacrificed his own safety by pushing another worker out of harm's way and allowing the falling object to hit him instead. Uncomplaining to his last day, Maseey would not relent to even visit the Veteran's Hospital.
For all his pride, nonsense, and jack-assed pig-headedness, was never the less an invincible, admirable mentor, as well as a very right and just man, honest and true blue to the extreme. His sorted life adventures in Montana and abroad would write an exciting book. Massey remained adamant and supportive of Bigfoot research for the remainder of his life. He was abstractly proud of his horrific experience with the cave creature (45 minutes) that he named "Rascal."
Massey served in WWII against the demonic monster, Adolf Hitler.
Massey 1909-2007.
This POST might interest y'all, as well. An encounter with someone that looks just like the one Massey saw at a cave just miles away sheds light on the cavern visiting fellow and his unusual qualities.
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