Paranormal Investigator Magazine Issue I | Page 8

Paranormal Investigator Magazine He described it as such: “It looked like someone wearing a Halloween mask who had wrapped themselves in a blanket.” After several weeks had passed, with no further monster sightings, Mill Race Park was, once again, open to the public. Now, I’m not a conspirator. However, I am a veteran government employee and I can recognize when I’m being told that one and two equals five. Thirty-nine years later, it seems that the monster sightings have long been forgotten. Many people who can recall the event will refer to it as “the hoax.” I, on many occasions, have heard people state, “It was some nut dressed in a costume trying to scare people.” Though I was just a child when the sightings took place in my hometown, my notion seems to differ from the majority (a common occurrence in being a paranormal investigator.) I often consider the reports given by the eyewitness’. These people took the time to rush to the police department in order to report a monster. Now, think about that. They did not rush into the police department to report a person in a costume scaring people…they were reporting a monster. The first four women, who had seen it in broad daylight, stated, “We swear it is true.” The next group of women stated, “This did not look like someone in a costume.” The alleged creature leaped onto the hood of their car and tried to attack them through the windshield. Within less of two to three feet of distance, would they not have been able to differentiate if this was someone wearing a 1970’s Halloween mask? Not to mention…the scratch marks that was embedded on the hood of their car. Article from the Republic Newspaper, 1974, Let’s not be so quick to jump on the “most logical explanation” bandwagon. After analyzing the sightings, maybe there is a good reason that the Mill Race Monster is now a long-forgotten event. Was it a hoax, or was it something else? Now, I’m not asking you, the reader, to believe in monsters….as a government employee, for me to suggest such a thing would be just…silly.  Then, two young men spot the creature, not once, but twice. They watch the outlandish being through binoculars and then are forced to recede. Mobs of people form one of the largest monster hunts in history. Shortly after, the park is closed to the public. Then, a government employee of the city states that he had seen the creature…at night…from a distance and it looked like someone in a Halloween mask with a blanket wrapped around him. —4—