# Monsters of the Old West

An episode of [This is monsters](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/6825840254), 22 Oct 2026, 29 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/75923346/monsters_of_the_old_west.mp3

Description:Explore the dark and mysterious side of the American Old West in Monsters of the Old West. This episode dives into the frightening legends, strange creatures, unexplained encounters, and terrifying tales that emerged from the frontier. From mysterious beasts said to roam remote wilderness areas to stories of strange sightings and folklore passed down through generations, discover how fear, superstition, and the harsh realities of frontier life shaped the legends of the Wild West. Separate historical accounts from folklore as you uncover the stories that continue to capture the imagination of history and mystery enthusiasts.Tags:#MonstersOfTheWest #OldWest #WildWest #AmericanFrontier #WesternLegends #HistoricalMysteries #MonsterStories #Cryptids #Cryptozoology #DarkHistory #AmericanHistory #FrontierLegends #UnexplainedMysteries #ScaryStories #Folklore #WildWestHistory #MysteriousCreatures #HistoryPodcast #LegendaryMonsters #UntoldHistory

## Transcript

[0:07] Speaker 1: Over the years, we have travelled to many places said
[0:09] Speaker 1: to harbour an unusually high number of strange and unexplained events.
[0:14] Speaker 1: Locations where multiple witnesses claim to have encountered bizarre phenomena,
[0:18] Speaker 1: often under circumstances that continue to defy explanation to this day.
[0:23] Speaker 1: In this episode, however, our journey takes us not simply
[0:26] Speaker 1: to another place, but to another time. To an age
[0:30] Speaker 1: of cattle drives, frontier settlements and dusty trails disappearing into
[0:35] Speaker 1: the horizons. an era of cowboys, outlaws and prospectors. But
[0:41] Speaker 1: according to some accounts, these were not the only things
[0:45] Speaker 1: roaming the vast landscapes of the American frontier. Join us
[0:50] Speaker 1: as we encounter the Monsters of the Old West. Few
[1:41] Speaker 1: American states possess quite the same reputation for the strange
[1:45] Speaker 1: and unexplained as Arizona. The state has featured prominently in
[1:49] Speaker 1: several of our previous episodes. particularly those concerning the malevolent
[1:54] Speaker 1: and predatory entity said to roam the land surrounding the
[1:57] Speaker 1: Navajo Nation, the creature known to many as the Skinwalker.
[2:03] Speaker 1: Arizona was also the setting for one of the most
[2:06] Speaker 1: famous UFO incidents in American history. During March of 1997,
[2:12] Speaker 1: thousands of people reported witnessing mysterious lights moving silently across
[2:16] Speaker 1: the skies above Phoenix. whilst others described observing an enormous
[2:21] Speaker 1: V-shaped craft passing directly overhead. Elsewhere lie the Superstition Mountains,
[2:28] Speaker 1: a harsh and unforgiving wilderness long associated with strange disappearances,
[2:33] Speaker 1: violent deaths and stories of buried treasure. Then there are
[2:38] Speaker 1: the stories we have yet to visit. The alleged haunting
[2:42] Speaker 1: surrounding the London Bridge at Lake Harvestoo, the strange reports
[2:46] Speaker 1: associated with a vast aircraft graveyard outside Tucson, and the
[2:51] Speaker 1: persistent rumors of ghost lights, phantom riders, and inexplicable creatures
[2:56] Speaker 1: glimpsed moving through remote desert communities after dark. For this episode, however,
[3:02] Speaker 1: our attention turns much further back in time, to the
[3:05] Speaker 1: years when Arizona remained a frontier territory and large areas
[3:09] Speaker 1: of the American West had yet to be settled by
[3:11] Speaker 1: those arriving from the East. the dangers facing those who
[3:16] Speaker 1: ventured into these landscapes were many and varied. Exposure, drought, disease,
[3:22] Speaker 1: hostile terrain, and violence at the hands of other men
[3:26] Speaker 1: all represented very real threats to survival. Yet according to
[3:31] Speaker 1: some accounts, these were not the only dangers waiting beyond
[3:35] Speaker 1: the edge of civilization. Because scattered throughout the historical record
[3:40] Speaker 1: are reports of encounters with creatures so bizarre so improbable
[3:44] Speaker 1: and so unsettling that they can only really be described
[3:48] Speaker 1: in one way. Monsters. America's frontier history possesses no shortage
[3:57] Speaker 1: of legends and larger-than-life characters, many of whom have long
[4:02] Speaker 1: since passed into folklore. Figures such as Annie Oakley, Buffalo
[4:06] Speaker 1: Bill and Doc Holliday often seem to possess abilities that
[4:10] Speaker 1: border upon the superhuman. their exploits growing ever more extraordinary
[4:14] Speaker 1: with each retelling. Far less widely known, however, are the
[4:19] Speaker 1: stories that feature something altogether stranger. Amongst the most disturbing
[4:24] Speaker 1: of these is the tale of the creature that would
[4:27] Speaker 1: become known simply as the Red Ghost. Its story begins
[4:32] Speaker 1: during the summer of 1883 on a small ranch near
[4:36] Speaker 1: Eagle Creek in central Arizona. The property was occupied by
[4:40] Speaker 1: two sisters and their husbands, who lived together in a
[4:43] Speaker 1: modest wooden cabin and supported themselves by tending to a
[4:47] Speaker 1: small herd of cattle grazing in the surrounding countryside. One morning,
[4:53] Speaker 1: just as they would on any other day, the two
[4:56] Speaker 1: men set out to inspect the livestock whilst their wives
[4:59] Speaker 1: remained behind to attend to the household chores. Roughly an
[5:03] Speaker 1: hour later... Their routine was interrupted by a commotion erupting
[5:07] Speaker 1: from the direction of the cabin. Recognising the frantic barking
[5:12] Speaker 1: of the family dogs, the men immediately abandoned their work
[5:16] Speaker 1: and hurried back towards the ranch house. What awaited them
[5:21] Speaker 1: was a scene of pure horror. Lying just outside the
[5:25] Speaker 1: front door was the battered and broken body of one
[5:29] Speaker 1: of their wives. The second woman was eventually discovered barricaded
[5:34] Speaker 1: inside the cabin, terrified but physically unharmed. Through tears and
[5:40] Speaker 1: obvious shock, she explained what had happened. The two sisters
[5:45] Speaker 1: had been occupied with their usual duties when they became
[5:48] Speaker 1: aware of the dogs barking somewhere outside the property. Assuming
[5:52] Speaker 1: that a coyote or some other predator had wandered onto
[5:55] Speaker 1: the land, one of the women stepped outside to investigate.
[6:00] Speaker 1: Barely had she crossed the threshold when an immense animal
[6:04] Speaker 1: charged into the yard. According to the surviving witness, the
[6:12] Speaker 1: creature appeared almost out of nowhere. It struck her sister
[6:16] Speaker 1: with tremendous force, knocking her to the ground before repeatedly
[6:20] Speaker 1: trampling her beneath its hooves. Unable to intervene and scarcely
[6:25] Speaker 1: able to comprehend what she was witnessing, the horrified woman
[6:28] Speaker 1: could do little more than watch from the doorway as
[6:31] Speaker 1: the attack unfolded before her. The animal itself was unlike
[6:36] Speaker 1: anything she had ever seen. It stood considerably taller than
[6:41] Speaker 1: any horse owned by the family and was covered from
[6:43] Speaker 1: head to tail in a thick coat of long, shaggy
[6:46] Speaker 1: red hair. Yet as terrifying as the beast itself had been,
[6:51] Speaker 1: it was not the thing she remembered most vividly, because
[6:55] Speaker 1: seated upon its back, was a rider. The figure was
[7:00] Speaker 1: described as impossibly thin and seemingly in an advanced state
[7:03] Speaker 1: of decay, its gaunt features stretched tightly across its skull
[7:08] Speaker 1: and its eyes appearing as little more than dark, hollow sockets.
[7:13] Speaker 1: For several moments, it simply sat there, staring back towards
[7:17] Speaker 1: the cabin. Then, without warning, rider and mount turned together
[7:23] Speaker 1: and galloped from the yard. leaving only silence and devastation
[7:27] Speaker 1: behind them. Arming themselves with shotguns, the two men immediately
[7:32] Speaker 1: set out in pursuit. Around the property, they discovered a
[7:37] Speaker 1: trail of unusually large hoof prints impressed deeply into the ground,
[7:41] Speaker 1: whilst along the nearby creek they recovered several clumps of
[7:44] Speaker 1: coarse red hair that had apparently snagged upon the surrounding vegetation.
[7:49] Speaker 1: Within days, stories of the murderous rider and its monstrous
[7:53] Speaker 1: steed had spread throughout the local community, before travelling much
[7:57] Speaker 1: further afield. Many dismissed the more extraordinary elements of the
[8:02] Speaker 1: account as the product of grief, alcohol, or the effects
[8:05] Speaker 1: of the brutal Arizona heat. Before long, however, events would
[8:11] Speaker 1: unfold that would make such explanations increasingly difficult to sustain.
[8:20] Speaker 1: Several weeks after the attack at Eagle Creek, another incident
[8:23] Speaker 1: was reported under remarkably similar circumstances. A party of prospectors
[8:29] Speaker 1: travelling through the Arizona wilderness had pitched camp for the
[8:32] Speaker 1: night and settled down to sleep when they were suddenly
[8:34] Speaker 1: awoken by a tremendous commotion. As the men scrambled from
[8:39] Speaker 1: their canvas tents, there came the sound of timber splintering
[8:42] Speaker 1: beneath immense force. Two of the heavy wooden wagons that
[8:46] Speaker 1: had been standing at the edge of the camp were
[8:48] Speaker 1: tossed violently aside. as though they weighed little more than kindling.
[8:53] Speaker 1: In the weak moonlight, the startled prospectors caught sight of
[8:57] Speaker 1: a huge, shaggy beast charging back and forth through the camp,
[9:01] Speaker 1: scattering equipment in every direction. Perched astride its back was
[9:06] Speaker 1: a gaunt, emaciated figure, dressed in ragged clothing, its arms
[9:11] Speaker 1: flailing wildly as though directing the destruction unfolding below. The
[9:16] Speaker 1: assault lasted only moments. As abruptly as it had begun,
[9:20] Speaker 1: the monstrous animal and its rider wheeled about and galloped
[9:23] Speaker 1: back into the darkness. When daylight arrived, the prospectors discovered
[9:29] Speaker 1: evidence that seemed eerily familiar. Caught amongst the shattered timbers
[9:33] Speaker 1: of the overturned wagons were several coarse clumps of dark
[9:36] Speaker 1: red hair, almost identical to those reportedly recovered from the
[9:40] Speaker 1: ranch near Eagle Creek. For a time, the mysterious rider
[9:45] Speaker 1: was not seen again. Then, during the following year, fresh
[9:50] Speaker 1: reports began to emerge after a party of hunters claimed
[9:53] Speaker 1: they too had been attacked whilst camped in the Arizona backcountry.
[9:58] Speaker 1: Unlike the prospectors before, them, these men chose to stand
[10:02] Speaker 1: their ground. As the creature thundered into their camp, one
[10:09] Speaker 1: of the hunters rushed forwards with a lasso, whilst the
[10:12] Speaker 1: others opened fire with their rifles. For a brief moment
[10:16] Speaker 1: it appeared the rope had found its mark, tightening around
[10:20] Speaker 1: the beast's neck before it reacted with astonishing strength, snapping
[10:24] Speaker 1: the heavy lion almost effortlessly. The unfortunate hunter barely had
[10:29] Speaker 1: time to retreat before the enraged animal bore down upon him.
[10:34] Speaker 1: According to the surviving witnesses, its skeletal rider appeared almost
[10:38] Speaker 1: to delight in the attack as the towering beast prepared
[10:41] Speaker 1: to trample a man beneath its hooves. Only sustained rifle
[10:45] Speaker 1: fire finally drove the creature away, before it could deliver
[10:49] Speaker 1: the killing blow. By now, the settlers of the surrounding
[10:54] Speaker 1: area had had enough. A sizeable posse was assembled to
[10:57] Speaker 1: hunt down the mysterious rider once and for all. Following
[11:02] Speaker 1: oversized hoof prints and the now familiar trail of coarse
[11:05] Speaker 1: red hair, the group tracked the creature for several weeks
[11:08] Speaker 1: before finally catching sight of it crossing open country in
[11:12] Speaker 1: the distance. Unfortunately, one over-eager member of the party fired
[11:18] Speaker 1: too soon. Although the shot startled the beast and allowed
[11:22] Speaker 1: it to escape, it appeared to strike the rider. When
[11:27] Speaker 1: the men reached the spot where it had been seen
[11:29] Speaker 1: only moments earlier, they didn't find a body. Instead, lying
[11:34] Speaker 1: alone upon the ground was a weathered human skull, its
[11:37] Speaker 1: empty eye sockets staring silently back at them. Years passed
[11:42] Speaker 1: without any further reports of the monstrous animal or its
[11:45] Speaker 1: now headless rider, and many assumed that whatever had haunted
[11:49] Speaker 1: the deserts of Arizona had finally disappeared. However, not everyone
[11:55] Speaker 1: shared that confidence. In 1893, fresh rumours began circulating after
[12:05] Speaker 1: witnesses claimed that the red ghost had returned. this time
[12:08] Speaker 1: crushing a bear beneath its hooves before disappearing back into
[12:12] Speaker 1: the wilderness. Amongst those who heard the story was a
[12:16] Speaker 1: local farmer named Mizu Hastings, who had grown up listening
[12:20] Speaker 1: to the tales of the creature and resolved that, should
[12:23] Speaker 1: the opportunity present itself, he would be the one to
[12:26] Speaker 1: bring its reign of terror to an end. Armed with
[12:29] Speaker 1: little more than a rifle and enough provisions for several days,
[12:33] Speaker 1: Hastings set out into the deserts. his opportunity came sooner
[12:39] Speaker 1: than he expected. After several days of searching, he encountered
[12:44] Speaker 1: the beast drinking from a small pool of water. Perched
[12:48] Speaker 1: upon its back was the same tattered, headless figure that
[12:51] Speaker 1: generations of witnesses had described before him. Taking careful aim,
[12:57] Speaker 1: Hastings ignored the grizzly rider and instead fixed his sights
[13:01] Speaker 1: upon the animal itself. Several shots then rang out across
[13:06] Speaker 1: the desolate landscape. The great beast staggered forwards before its
[13:11] Speaker 1: legs gave way beneath it, collapsing heavily onto the ground.
[13:16] Speaker 1: Approaching with understandable caution, Hastings circled the carcass several times
[13:21] Speaker 1: before satisfying himself that neither the animal nor its rider
[13:25] Speaker 1: posed any further threat. After cutting away a quantity of
[13:29] Speaker 1: the creature's distinctive red hair as proof of the encounter,
[13:33] Speaker 1: he returned with assistance to examine the extraordinary discovery more closely.
[13:39] Speaker 1: The explanation that eventually emerged proved almost as remarkable as
[13:43] Speaker 1: the legend itself. The red ghost was not some supernatural beast,
[13:48] Speaker 1: but an enormous feral camel. Lashed securely to its back
[13:53] Speaker 1: were the weathered remains of a human being, the body
[13:56] Speaker 1: having long since decomposed until little more than a skeleton remained.
[14:01] Speaker 1: Exactly how the unfortunate rider came to meet such a
[14:04] Speaker 1: fate has never been established, although two principal theories have endured.
[14:10] Speaker 1: According to the first, the dead man had been a
[14:13] Speaker 1: prospector or traveller, who, for reasons unknown, had secured himself
[14:17] Speaker 1: to the camel before dying while strapped to the saddle.
[14:21] Speaker 1: Unable to free itself of its grisly burdens, the increasingly
[14:25] Speaker 1: aggressive animal had wandered the Arizona wilderness for years, reacting
[14:29] Speaker 1: violently whenever people attempted to approach it. Others, however, have
[14:34] Speaker 1: pointed towards a far more intriguing possibility. During the late 1850s,
[14:41] Speaker 1: the United States Army imported dozens of camels into the
[14:44] Speaker 1: American Southwest as part of an ambitious experiment to determine
[14:49] Speaker 1: whether the animals could serve as military pack transport in
[14:51] Speaker 1: the desert. Although the project showed considerable promise, the outbreak
[14:57] Speaker 1: of the Civil War brought it to an abrupt end,
[14:59] Speaker 1: and many of the camels were sold, abandoned, or simply
[15:02] Speaker 1: disappeared into the surrounding wilderness. Whether the red ghost was
[15:07] Speaker 1: one of those animals can never be known with certainty,
[15:10] Speaker 1: but if so, it raises one final and deeply unsettling question. Who, exactly,
[15:18] Speaker 1: was the unfortunate soul whose bones remained strapped to its
[15:21] Speaker 1: back for all those years? few creatures have become quite
[15:28] Speaker 1: so synonymous with the North American wilderness as Sasquatch. For generations,
[15:35] Speaker 1: stories have circulated of enormous man-like beings inhabiting remote forests
[15:39] Speaker 1: and mountain ranges, glimpsed only briefly before disappearing back into
[15:44] Speaker 1: the wilderness. While such reports are most commonly associated with
[15:48] Speaker 1: the Pacific Northwest, they are by no means confined to
[15:52] Speaker 1: that region. The rugged highlands of central Arizona possess a
[15:57] Speaker 1: long tradition of their own. Today, the alleged creature said
[16:01] Speaker 1: to inhabit the forests of the Magollan Rim is widely
[16:04] Speaker 1: known as the Magollan Monster, although reports bearing a striking
[16:08] Speaker 1: resemblance to the modern legend stretch back to the closing
[16:11] Speaker 1: decades of the 19th century. Throughout the 1880s, newspapers across
[16:18] Speaker 1: the American West carried accounts of gigantic wild men living
[16:21] Speaker 1: in isolated woodland. many of them describing encounters in or
[16:25] Speaker 1: around the foothills of the Magollan Mountains. Witnesses spoke of
[16:30] Speaker 1: an aggressive creature that appeared fiercely protective of its territory,
[16:34] Speaker 1: attacking hunters and prospectors who ventured too deeply into the forest,
[16:38] Speaker 1: and according to some accounts, even clashing with Apache war parties.
[16:44] Speaker 1: Such encounters were not confined to the wilderness alone. Miners
[16:49] Speaker 1: working in the region occasionally claimed that the creature had
[16:51] Speaker 1: forced its way into remote cabins under cover of darkness,
[16:55] Speaker 1: overturning furniture, ransacking stores, and stealing whatever food it could
[16:59] Speaker 1: carry before vanishing once again amongst the trees. Although individual
[17:05] Speaker 1: accounts varied in their finer details, the descriptions themselves remained
[17:09] Speaker 1: remarkably consistent. Witnesses spoke of an enormous human-like figure covered
[17:15] Speaker 1: from head to toe in pale or white hair, possessing
[17:19] Speaker 1: broad shoulders, immense physical strength and unusually long talon-like fingernails.
[17:26] Speaker 1: Some dismiss the reports as little more than sightings of
[17:29] Speaker 1: a deranged hermit living in isolation. Others, however, remain convinced
[17:35] Speaker 1: that the forests of Arizona concealed something far more extraordinary.
[17:43] Speaker 1: The most famous encounter involving Arizona's alleged Sasquatch is said
[17:48] Speaker 1: to have taken place during May of 1903, and was
[17:52] Speaker 1: later reported by a local newspaper, the Williams News. The
[17:57] Speaker 1: account came from a Colorado hunter named I.W. Stevens, who
[18:01] Speaker 1: claimed to have witnessed an extraordinary event whilst trapping beavers
[18:04] Speaker 1: near the Grand Canyon. During the course of his hunt,
[18:09] Speaker 1: Stevens discovered a series of footprints unlike any he had
[18:12] Speaker 1: encountered before, Although unmistakably human in shape, they were of
[18:17] Speaker 1: such extraordinary size that he made a conscious effort to
[18:21] Speaker 1: avoid following them, preferring not to discover what kind of
[18:24] Speaker 1: creature could have left such tracks. Some time later he
[18:29] Speaker 1: stopped beside a river to refill his canteen. As he
[18:34] Speaker 1: crouched at the water's edge, an angry commotion further upstream
[18:38] Speaker 1: drew his attention. Looking up, he found himself confronted by
[18:43] Speaker 1: a remarkable scene. a mountain lion stood its ground on
[18:47] Speaker 1: the opposite bank, its body low and tense as it
[18:51] Speaker 1: growled towards an unseen adversary. Behind it, two young cubs
[18:56] Speaker 1: huddled close together, seemingly unaware of the danger unfolding around them. Then,
[19:03] Speaker 1: Stephen saw what had provoked the animal's fury. Standing only
[19:08] Speaker 1: a short distance away was an immense human-like figure that
[19:11] Speaker 1: he estimated to be close to eight feet tall. its
[19:15] Speaker 1: entire body was concealed beneath a thick coat of pale
[19:18] Speaker 1: grey or almost white hair, giving it an appearance unlike
[19:22] Speaker 1: anything he had ever encountered in the wilderness. The creature's
[19:27] Speaker 1: attention soon shifted. Breaking off its confrontation with the mountain lion,
[19:33] Speaker 1: it turned towards Stevens, stooped to lift a heavy fallen
[19:37] Speaker 1: tree branch, and began advancing, with a makeshift club gripped
[19:41] Speaker 1: firmly in its hands. Panicking, Stevens fired his rifle into
[19:47] Speaker 1: the air in the hope that the noise alone would
[19:50] Speaker 1: drive the creature away. Instead, it seemed only to enrage it.
[19:56] Speaker 1: Acting on instinct, he then swung his rifle towards the
[19:59] Speaker 1: mountain lion and fired again, killing the animal instantly. To
[20:04] Speaker 1: his immense relief, the towering figure abandoned its advance and
[20:08] Speaker 1: turned its attention back towards the fallen predator. What happened
[20:13] Speaker 1: next would remain with him for the rest of his life.
[20:17] Speaker 1: The creature calmly killed the two cubs before settling amongst
[20:21] Speaker 1: the three carcasses. Using long, talon-like fingernails, it tore open
[20:27] Speaker 1: the bodies before lowering its head to feed. blood running
[20:31] Speaker 1: freely through the pale hair that covered its chest and arms.
[20:36] Speaker 1: Stevens eventually made his way back to civilization, but afterwards
[20:40] Speaker 1: declared that he would never again hunt in the Grand
[20:42] Speaker 1: Canyon region, warning others that they might not prove as
[20:46] Speaker 1: fortunate should they encounter whatever monstrous inhabitant stalked those remote
[20:51] Speaker 1: Arizona forests. Whilst the creature encountered by I.W. Stevens in
[20:59] Speaker 1: 1903 bears a striking resemblance to the Sasquatch reported elsewhere
[21:03] Speaker 1: across North America, the same cannot be said of another
[21:07] Speaker 1: legend said to haunt the Arizona wilderness. A decade after
[21:11] Speaker 1: Stevens' remarkable encounter, the Arizona Republican published an account that
[21:16] Speaker 1: was stranger still. The story centered upon a region known
[21:21] Speaker 1: as Bloody Basin. a bleak stretch of country named after
[21:25] Speaker 1: a battle fought there in 1873 between the United States
[21:28] Speaker 1: Cavalry and Apache Warriors. Published during May of 1913, the
[21:35] Speaker 1: article recounted the experiences of three cattle hands, who claimed
[21:39] Speaker 1: to have encountered a creature unlike anything they had ever
[21:43] Speaker 1: seen before. The men had been driving a herd of
[21:47] Speaker 1: cattle across the basin when the animals suddenly became restless.
[21:53] Speaker 1: Although the surrounding terrain was largely flat and open, offering
[21:56] Speaker 1: few places for a predator to conceal itself, the herd
[22:00] Speaker 1: became increasingly reluctant to continue. Concerned that wolves or mountain
[22:06] Speaker 1: lions might be nearby, two of the cowboys rode out
[22:09] Speaker 1: to investigate, whilst the third remained behind with the cattle.
[22:14] Speaker 1: The agitation only intensified. As the two riders circled the
[22:20] Speaker 1: edge of the herd with their rifles drawn, a shrill,
[22:23] Speaker 1: piercing cry suddenly echoed across the basin. Moments later, something
[22:30] Speaker 1: emerged from behind a small patch of brush. When later
[22:35] Speaker 1: questioned by the newspaper, neither man could adequately describe what
[22:40] Speaker 1: they had seen. The creature possessed a long, slender body,
[22:44] Speaker 1: supported by a set of oversized limbs that bent sharply
[22:48] Speaker 1: at unnatural angles. giving it an appearance that one witness
[22:52] Speaker 1: likened to a gigantic insect. As it shuffled across the
[22:56] Speaker 1: open ground towards them, it emitted another deafening shriek and
[23:01] Speaker 1: seemed to gather speed with every step. The cattle reacted instantly.
[23:07] Speaker 1: Several steers broke from the herd and stampeded across the
[23:10] Speaker 1: basin towards the remaining cowboy, whilst the two riders held
[23:15] Speaker 1: their ground and opened fire. several rounds struck the advancing creature.
[23:24] Speaker 1: Instead of falling, however, it reared upwards onto its hind
[23:27] Speaker 1: limbs until it towered over the mounted men, despite the
[23:31] Speaker 1: height afforded by their horses. Then it let out another
[23:35] Speaker 1: ear-splitting scream before its body began to change. The transformation
[23:42] Speaker 1: was unlike anything either witness believed possible. The creature's body
[23:48] Speaker 1: rippled and twisted as though its bones no longer possessed
[23:51] Speaker 1: any fixed arrangement. Its head appeared to collapse in upon itself,
[23:56] Speaker 1: disappearing into its torso, whilst the elongated limbs folded backwards
[24:01] Speaker 1: before withdrawing into the body altogether. For several bewildering seconds,
[24:08] Speaker 1: the entire creature seemed to turn itself inside out. Then,
[24:13] Speaker 1: just as suddenly... New limbs emerged in different positions. Without
[24:19] Speaker 1: another sound, the bizarre entity turned and began making its
[24:24] Speaker 1: way back towards the brush from which it had first appeared.
[24:28] Speaker 1: The stunned cowboys eventually recovered their senses and fired several
[24:32] Speaker 1: more shots after the retreating creature, but it vanished before
[24:36] Speaker 1: they could tell whether any had found their mark. No
[24:40] Speaker 1: blood could be seen where it had stood. nor had
[24:43] Speaker 1: its movement shown any sign of pain or impairment. Their
[24:47] Speaker 1: conclusion was simply that the noise of the gunfire had
[24:50] Speaker 1: frightened it, whilst its hide had proved too thick for
[24:54] Speaker 1: the bullets to penetrate. No further sightings of the Bloody
[24:59] Speaker 1: Basin monster were ever documented. Even so, the encounter was
[25:04] Speaker 1: enough to establish a lasting reputation for the area, and
[25:08] Speaker 1: for a considerable time afterwards... a number of local ranchers
[25:12] Speaker 1: chose to move elsewhere rather than risk crossing Bloody Basin
[25:16] Speaker 1: by themselves. These were by no means the only strange
[25:24] Speaker 1: creatures said to inhabit the Arizona frontier. Amongst the most
[25:29] Speaker 1: remarkable is the account of a gigantic winged animal reportedly
[25:33] Speaker 1: shot near the outskirts of Tombstone during the closing years
[25:36] Speaker 1: of the 19th century. Contemporary newspapers describe the carcass of
[25:41] Speaker 1: the creature, whose appearance drew immediate comparisons to a prehistoric pterodactyl.
[25:47] Speaker 1: As with the tale of the Red Ghost, however, the
[25:50] Speaker 1: physical remains were never preserved and have long since disappeared,
[25:54] Speaker 1: leaving only the testimony of those who claim to have
[25:56] Speaker 1: witnessed them. Whether any of these extraordinary accounts contain a
[26:01] Speaker 1: kernel of truth remains impossible to determine, yet one detail
[26:06] Speaker 1: they all have in common is their settings. from the
[26:10] Speaker 1: forests of the Magollan Rim to the deserts and canyons
[26:13] Speaker 1: of central Arizona, each unfolded in places where human settlement
[26:17] Speaker 1: was sparse and the natural world still held the upper hand.
[26:22] Speaker 1: Even today, vast expanses of the state remain remarkably isolated,
[26:27] Speaker 1: and reports of strange creatures continue to emerge from regions
[26:31] Speaker 1: where few people ever venture. For now, the creatures of
[26:36] Speaker 1: the Old West continue to occupy that uncertain ground between
[26:39] Speaker 1: history and legend. And somewhere amongst the deserts, forests and
[26:46] Speaker 1: lonely mountain ranges of the American Southwest, there are those
[26:50] Speaker 1: who remain convinced that not every monster sighting belongs to
[26:55] Speaker 1: the past. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

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