polywog999 Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 First off, I would just like to say that I have worked, fished, been caught out on the bay in terrible storms and never....and I mean NEVER, seen a damned sea monster....EVAR! We are talking 45 years on the bay, people. Not only have I never seen the "monster" I have never even heard of anyone else seeing the stupid thing either. I imagine some yahoo, caught a glimpse of a sturgeon and said "look or th' starboard....it's a dern sea creature!" or something lame like that. Here is a history of the "monster," try not to fall asleep. :snore::snore::snore: :toilet: Chessie (sea monster) Creature (also very boring) Grouping Local Legend (i.e. LIE!) Sub grouping Sea serpent (ok, I guess) Data Country United States Region Chesapeake Bay Habitat Water (good thing he doesn't live at Jiffy Lube) Chessie is a legendary sea monster said to live in the midst of the Chesapeake Bay. Over the years there have been many alleged sightings of a serpent-like creature with flippers as part of its body. According to Matt Lake in Weird Maryland, two perch fishermen, Francis Klarrman and Edward J. Ward, in 1943 spotted something in the water near Baltimore. “This thing was about 75 yards (69 m) away, at right angles from our boat. At first it looked like something floating on the water. It was black and the part of it that was out of the water seemed about 12 feet (3.7 m) long. It has a head about as big as a football and shaped somewhat like a horse’s head. It turned its head around several times—almost all the way around.”[1] In 1982 Robert and Karen Frew supposedly videotaped Chessie near Kent Island. Their video does show a brownish “something” moving side to side like an aquatic snake. Most sighting reports of this sea monster describe it as a long, snake-like creature. The reported length of the monster varies from 25 to 40 feet (12 m) long. It is said to swim using its body as a sine curve moving through the water. There were a rash of sightings in 1977 and more in the mid 1980s. Although there are alleged photographs of Chessie, there is no genuine evidence of its existence. The last notable sighting of the beast was in 1997, off the shore of Fort Smallwood State Park, very close to shore. The legend of "Chessie" is very similar to, and was likely inspired by, that of "Nessie", the Loch Ness Monster. The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in United States. Its surface and major tributaries cover more than 4,479 square miles (11,600 km2) and in places it is 175 feet (53 m) deep. A photograph of an unknown sea creature taken by Trudy Guthrie in 1980 was later identified as a manatee from Florida. Manatees are unusual this far from Florida. A manatee nicknamed “Chessie” was rescued from the Chesapeake's chilly water in October 1994 and returned to Florida, but has revisited the Chesapeake several times since then, and photographed in the Patapsco River in 2010. Unlike the reports of a serpentine creature, manatees do not swim undulating from side to side. Other speculations to explain sightings have included a mutant eel theory(?), large river otters, prehistoric zeuglodons, and South American anacondas escaping from 18th and 19th century sailing ships. Wow, what a snore fest. Why cant we have something cool like South Park's Skuzzabut? Sure, he had a carrot for a hand and TV's Patric Duffy for a leg, but at least he wasn't boring. Chessie INVENTED boring. They should call him "Chessie the stupid, boring sea monster." I wonder about the mutant eel theory, though.....:rotflmao: In the future, if you guys aren't catching any fish pulezz invent a more interesting sea creature for us. And you'll have to do better than a mutant eel! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Brave Little Toaster Oven Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 There's plenty of other weird things in Maryland too...like the haunted house at the Six Flags Amusement Park - its behind the Wild One, and there is a pathway to reach the house if you are walking to the pavilion area. Apparently the woman that lived there committed suicide and haunts the park, so they dont touch her house. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polywog999 Posted March 14, 2011 Author Share Posted March 14, 2011 There's plenty of other weird things in Maryland too...like the haunted house at the Six Flags Amusement Park - its behind the Wild One, and there is a pathway to reach the house if you are walking to the pavilion area. Apparently the woman that lived there committed suicide and haunts the park, so they dont touch her house. Oh yes, DON'T forget cry baby bridge! I recently started a new organization called Springfield Paranormal Investigators. Our goal was to go around our local area seeking out areas that have had ghosts or strange incidents reported. Turns out there are a lot of them in the Wash DC, Virginia, Maryland, and West Virginia areas reasonably close to us, within 100 miles or so. What we honestly expected was to debunk site after site and put the results up on our web site, (still being built but soon to be www.usbunch.com\ghosts.htm). Our first visit was to the famous Bunnyman Bridge which turned out to be only 11 miles from our home base of operations in Springfield, Virginia. It is probably only an urban legend as our web search and library search failed to verify the events that were supposed to happen there. We did get a few odd pictures but nothing definitive. However, if you do go there you will be freaked by the weird acoustics of the tunnel. Staying with the bridge theme, we selected the Crybaby Bridge in Westminster Maryland as our second outing. This is the site of our first truly odd photograph that I have submitted for your review. We found the crybaby bridge with very little effort around 8-8:30 PM on 7 Feb. 2004. I won’t go into what the site is about since that is available with a quick googling. We proceeded to take pictures with 2 digital cameras, 2 regular 35mm cameras and 1 digital camcorder. Sure enough, while we were climbing all over the bridge and surrounding areas our windows fogged up and tiny fingerprints appeared all around the windows. We didn’t hear any tapping sounds or hear anything unusual. So we retired to Westminster for dinner and talked about our experience. It was agreed that we would wipe down all the windows and go back that same night. Since we had not wiped the windows previously, hey, we’re new at this, we thought the fingerprints could have already been there. Sure enough, the fogging was duplicated but NO fingerprints appeared, not a one. It is a small bridge and when you drive over it very slow there are sounds that could be interpreted as tapping noises. We had debunked our second case. Then we looked at the pictures. Something was there. I have submitted to you three pictures, the odd foggy one and the one taken seconds before and one seconds after just to show there was no fog present. We’ve taken literally thousands of pictures with these cameras and nothing has ever shown up like this.... http://www.castleofspirits.com/stories04/spiinvestigates.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kosher Ham Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 I remember hearing about Goatman. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polywog999 Posted March 14, 2011 Author Share Posted March 14, 2011 I remember hearing about Goatman. Goatman was actually pretty cool.... Part human, part goat, the elusive Goatman has been one of the USA's premiere urban legends since the 1960's. There exists a creature in Maryland known as the Goatman. Whether it is Maryland "legend" or Maryland "reality" is a question that remains unanswered but there are enough witnesses and circumstantial evidence to keep the Goatman's name alive. When one first hears of the elusive monster they may be overwhelmed by laughter at such an odd sounding menace, or baffled at how such a thing came to be thought up. No matter what the initial reaction a person has, it soon gives way to curiosity: what the heck is a Goatman? While the facts may be disputed the details in every story remain the same; an angered humanoid emerges from the forest and returns to its abode without a trace. The invariable description is that of an upright creature but beyond that the appearance varies. Some have claimed that the Goatman has a human body with a goat's head, similar to the perception of Satan, while others insist that the Goatman has a goat's lower body with the torso of a human, much like the satyr of Greek mythology. There is another school of observers/speculators whose description is not as definitive and say simply that he is an exceptionally hairy humanoid creature roughly six feet in height. Regardless of the physiognomy the Goatman legends do share one common theme and that is Maryland or, more precisely, Prince George's County. Since the late 1950's the territory of the Goatman has consisted of several localities in P.G. County with an acute focus on the Bowie area. The area is largely forest with a number of main highways running through it to other, more populous parts of the state. At the heart of the matter is the bridge known as "Crybaby Bridge" because, so it is said, if motorists stop on that bridge late at night the shrill braying of the Goatman can be heard. It should be noted that the crying could be that of an infant ghost, as the bridge reportedly got that name because of a young mother drowning her baby under it. The bridge is located on Governor's Bridge Road. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burgold Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 Tell my missing leg that there's no sea monster in the Chesapeake! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polywog999 Posted March 14, 2011 Author Share Posted March 14, 2011 Tell my missing leg that there's no sea monster in the Chesapeake! That was the famous "white" shark.... Annapolis MD While the vessel 'Dawn Raider’ out of Marklys Marina in Essex, Md. was fishing for Striped Bass (also locally known as Rock Fish), this Great White was hooked in the mouth but only resisted slightly for 15 minutes before it came up alongside t he boat to have a look; long enough for one of the crew members to slip a rope a round it's tail!!! 'And that's when things heated up!! .. The Shark took off towing the 42 foot fishing boat backwards through the water at about 7 Knots. Just like in JAWS, the boat was taking on water over the stern and the crew watched in horror as the shark would actually jump completely out of the water at times. This went on for an hour before the shark finally drowned. She weighed in at 1035 LBS. It is suspected she followed a weak El Nino current into local waters in search of food. Although mid 60 degree water is considered ideal for these sharks, the larger ones can tolerate water in the low 50s. Markley's Marina Essex, MD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kosher Ham Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 I think in Burgold's case it was the Gefilte fish getting back after all these years of oppression. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Botched Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 There's plenty of other weird things in Maryland too...like the haunted house at the Six Flags Amusement Park - its behind the Wild One, and there is a pathway to reach the house if you are walking to the pavilion area. Apparently the woman that lived there committed suicide and haunts the park, so they dont touch her house. Back when it was Adventure World, they would drive the haunted hayride right past that house and some chainsaw guys would come out. Never heard that story before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stoshuaj Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 if Chessie's not there anymore, I'm sure we can blame that on the commercial fishermen as well......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan T. Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 The Bunnyman was the real deal, though he had nothing to do with the Bunnyman bridge and he never killed anybody. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kosher Ham Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 Back when it was Adventure World, they would drive the haunted hayride right past that house and some chainsaw guys would come out. Never heard that story before. I forgot it was ever called that. I lived in Atlanta for most of that time, and moved back to DC but always liked Kings Dominion and Busch Gardens so much more. So it's understandable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Brave Little Toaster Oven Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 Back when it was Adventure World, they would drive the haunted hayride right past that house and some chainsaw guys would come out. Never heard that story before. Next time you go there, ask one of the attendants about 'Eleanor'...they should know about it since weird things happen in June since that is the month she committed suicide. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Botched Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 I forgot it was ever called that. I lived in Atlanta for most of that time, and moved back to DC but always liked Kings Dominion and Busch Gardens so much more. So it's understandable. It was Wild World before that. I used to go there all the time with a friend of mine. We'd bring goggles and spend most of the day searching for money in the wave pool. Good times. And yeah, KD and BG are definitely better. Or they were anyway, I haven't been to Six Flags since it was called Adventure World so I don't know if it's improved much. Before I get too far off topic, I agree with poly, the whole Chessie thing is lame. All they did was steal the idea of Nessie and Champ from Loch Ness and Lake Champlain. They should have made it a gigantic killer striped bass, or maybe a bluefish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Brave Little Toaster Oven Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 Before I get too far off topic, I agree with poly, the whole Chessie thing is lame. All they did was steal the idea of Nessie and Champ from Loch Ness and Lake Champlain. They should have made it a gigantic killer striped bass, or maybe a bluefish. Actually, a giant blue crab that sits at the bottom of the Chesapeake named Chompers :pfft: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SWFLSkins Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 http://www.floridaskunkape.com/ It's real or it's this guys brother dressed up, my guess, it's his brother and he want to sell everything he can with the logo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burgold Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 You just wait until the sea monsters all band together in a class action suit to get damages for all the illegal dumping and pollution. Then you guys will see who's real. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DieselPwr44 Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 Leave Chessie alone!! Without Chessie and Capt. Chesapeake, I wouldn't have ever been introduced to Ultraman,Lancelot Link or had any afternoon cartoons as a kid in the 70's!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tweedr01 Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 You just wait until the sea monsters all band together in a class action suit to get damages for all the illegal dumping and pollution. Then you guys will see who's real. "I for one welcome our sea monster overlords." Sorry, had to be done Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SWFLSkins Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 Actually, a giant blue crab that sits at the bottom of the Chesapeake named Chompers :pfft: I steamed him up in my bath tub decades ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TD_washingtonredskins Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 The Bunnyman was the real deal, though he had nothing to do with the Bunnyman bridge and he never killed anybody. Explain...the BMB is my favorite local urban legend. I read about it every year around Halloween. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan T. Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 Explain...the BMB is my favorite local urban legend. I read about it every year around Halloween. There was a newspaper article in the Washington Post on October 22, 1970 recalling an incident that occured near the instersection of Guinea Road, Commonwealth Avenue, and Twinbrook Road. The Kings Park West subdivision was just being built, and that intersection was is a main entrance to that neighborhood. The Post article: Man in Bunny Suit Sought in Fairfax Fairfax County police said yesterday they are looking for a man who likes to wear "white bunny rabbit costume" and throw hatchets through car windows. Honest. Air Force Academy Cadet Robert Bennett told police that shortly after midnight last Sunday he and his fiancee were sitting in a car in the 5400 block of Guinea Road when a man "dressed in a white suit with long bunny ears" ran from the nearby bushes and shouted: "You're on private property and I have your tag number." The "Rabbit" threw a wooden-handled hatchet through the right front car window, the first-year cadet told police. As soon as he threw the hatchet, the "rabbit" skipped off into the night, police said. Bennett and his fiancee were not injured. Police say they have the hatchet, but no other clues in the case. They say Bennett was visiting an uncle, who lives across the street from the spot where the car was parked. The cadet was in the area to attend last weekend's Air Force-Navy football game. Two weeks later another article appeared: The "Rabbit" Reappears A man wearing a furry rabbit suit with two long ears appeared — again — on Guinea Road in Fairfax County Thursday night, police reported, this time wielding an ax and chopping away at a roof support on a new house. Less than two weeks ago a man wearing what was described as a rabbit suit accused two persons in a parked car of trespassing and heaved a hatchet through a closed window of the car at 5400 Guinea Rd. They were not hurt. Thursday night's rabbit, wearing a suit described as gray, black and white, was spotted a block away at 5307 Guinea Rd. Paul Phillips, a private security guard for a construction company, said he saw the "rabbit" standing on the front porch of a new, but unoccupied house. "I started talking to him," Phillips said, "and that's when he started chopping." "All you people trespass around here," Phillips said the "Rabbit" told him as he whacked eight gashes in the pole. "If you don't get out of here, I'm going to bust you on the head." Phillips said he walked back to his car to get to get his handgun, but the "Rabbit", carrying the long-handled ax, ran off into the woods. The security guard said the man was about 5-feet-8, 160 pounds and appeared to be in his early 20s. That's the genesis of the whole legend. My sister claims she saw him on our street. I grew up in the area and heard many tales of the bunnyman, and they're very elaborate - that he was escaped from a mental institution and murdered people, that he slaughtered rabbits and wore their pelts, that he hung his victims from the Bunnyman Bridge - but all that is all urban legends, sprung from the weird incidents back in 1970. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TD_washingtonredskins Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 Oh OK...I have read all of those origin stories. I find it so chilling and interesting...I'm not sure why. Probably just because I grew up in that area. Thanks man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tweedr01 Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 Does anyone have a list of the local stories like this? They really are interesting to read, the only one I really knew of growing up was the Bunnyman Bridge, any others? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan T. Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 Oh OK...I have read all of those origin stories. I find it so chilling and interesting...I'm not sure why. Probably just because I grew up in that area. Thanks man. The bunnyman was our bogeyman growing up, so it's interesting to me too. Read this for great information about the whole legend: The Bunny Man Unmasked: The Real Life Origins of an Urban Legend By Brian A. Conley, Historian-Archivist Fairfax County Public Library Introduction There is a story that a man dressed as a bunny haunts the residential neighborhoods around our nation's capital. Silly as this may sound at first, the Bunny Man has been a fixture of local legend for at least 30 years. By 1973 the so-called "Bunny Man" had been reported in Maryland, and the District of Columbia. His infrequent and widespread appearances tended to occur in secluded locations and usually tell of a figure clad in a white bunny suit armed with an ax threatening children or vandalizing property. By the 1980s the Bunny Man had become an even more sinister figure with several gruesome murders to his credit. Although he has been reported as far south as Culpepper, Virginia. his main haunt has been the area surrounding a railroad overpass near Fairfax Station, Virginia frequented by party goers, the now infamous "Bunny Man Bridge." The Legend For more than 25 years stories of the Bunny Man have been kept alive primarily amongst our teenage population. Over the years the story has evolved into a ghost story suitable for parties, camp outs, and any occasion that such tales are exchanged. It was at one such gathering in 1976 that the author first heard it told. The Bunny Man was said to be responsible for the deaths of two disobedient children in the Clifton area. Others were rumored to have disappeared, and there was talk of animals found horribly mutilated. I never saw the Bunny Man myself, but then I never strayed into the woods at night, especially not near the Bridge... Most childhood ghost stories are forgotten as one gets older. However, the Bunny Man followed me. After graduating from college, I accepted a position with the Fairfax County Public Library, eventually becoming an Information Specialist in the Virginia Room. One day around 1992 a very well-spoken young lady came into the Virginia Room with a question. She wanted to know how she could find information on a murder that was supposed to have taken place near her home. As I interviewed the patron to ascertain what hard facts she had to go on, some vague memory nagged at me. Two children were allegedly murdered by a local hermit for trespassing, and their bodies left hanging from a covered bridge. She had no names and only a vague idea of a time frame. The whole story seemed a little fantastic, but the thing that really bothered her was the guy was supposed to be an escaped inmate dressed in a bunny suit. At this point, even though the story had evolved a bit, I recognized the tale from my own youth. We were unable to confirm any of the elements of the story as she or I had first heard it, and I put it down in my mind as a story fabricated to scare children. I likely would have forgotten about the Bunny Man again if the questions didn't begin coming on a regular basis. The Bunny Man has actually begun appearing in print in recent years, having been mentioned in several high school newspapers, and more recently, on the Internet. He goes on to track down the legends, how they spread, and the truth behind the legends. A must read if you're interested in the subject: http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/library/branches/vr/bunny/bunnyprint.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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