Strange Hominid Sighting Reported

[SoulFire]

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Strange Hominid Sighting Reported Near Red Lion, York County, Pennsylvania - July 18, 2008

(copy/paste of article)

I received a telephone call today from a woman who claims to have seen a small bigfoot-like creature on July 18th, 2008 near the town of Red Lion, Pa. She stated that she had been shopping and was on her way home. As she was driving south on Rt. 624 about 2 miles from Red Lion, she noticed something running across a field near a home construction site. At first, she thought it was a large dog but it stood upright like a human. She pulled her car into an unfinished side road and observed the creature for several minutes as it would stop, look around, then continue running until it reached a small woods. She states that it was around 7PM in the evening and clear.

She described it as stocky with muscular arms and legs and no more than 4 foot in stature and sparsely covered in dark gray hair. It had no clothes though she could not determine the gender. At one point, she says that she was not near enough to see the face but the head was smaller than that of a human child of the same height. She said that only one other person (a neighbor) was told of this sighting and that she did not want any notoriety. Her only reason for contacting me was because she had seen my blog and that I lived nearby (about 50 miles south in Baltimore) and thought I may want to check the area out for myself.

Note: She only gave me the name 'Macy' as a reference (I assume this is not her actual name) and refused to disclose her address and other personal information. There have been Bigfoot sighting reports in this area of Pennsylvania in the past as well as in neighboring Maryland. This very well could have been a juvenile Bigfoot. There have been local and Indian legends of a small hominid (the Albatwitch) in Lancaster and York Counties which I have detailed below.

The 'Albatwitch' is a small (about 4 feet tall), manlike creature which supposedly lived in wooded areas. Their main area of residence seemed to be near Chickies Rock, a heavily wooded area along the banks of the Susquehanna River about a mile or two north of Columbia, Pa. Albatwitches were also reported from wooded areas all along the river's shore.

The creatures are named for a habit which they possess. Their bizarre common name is short for "apple-snitch", as they are reputed to have a taste for apples. Legends speak of how the albatwitches would oftentimes steal apples from picnickers, occasionally even throwing them at the startled people. Legends also record that the creatures often sat in trees, coming down only to find food.

Legend also says that the albatwitches either became extinct or were driven nearly into extinction in the later years of the nineteenth century. Chickies Rock, where the creatures supposedly lived, does have a tradition of strange sights and sounds - in the 1950s and 1970s, a manlike figure was seen several times, and local legends also speak of sounds like the crack of a whip heard in the woods at night. One can only wonder if these could be connected with the albatwitch.

Whether these stories are connected or not, several sightings of Sasquatch-types have been recorded from this area. A vague report concerning the sighting of a hairy humanoid came from Lancaster in 1973. Lancaster is a scant 10 miles east of Columbia. Another came from the town of North Annville (about 20 miles to the north) in the same year. In addition, a number of reports have surfaced out of neighboring York County.

Also, some sources say that the Susquehannocks, like many Indian tribes, had a belief in an apelike monster, and sometimes depicted it on their war-shields. The Susquehannocks were a local tribe - coincidentally, major evidences of their civilization (ruins of a village and burial grounds) were found at the base of Chickies Rock.

Edited July 31, 2008 by SoulFire

[Neight Boyair]

Hello, this is just a suggestion to other reserachers if they want to look for the Albatwitch, when I went in search of the Albatwitch I hiked a deer trail of Chickies Rock, alas I didn't find it but I wasn't watching the trees or going into deep woods, anyway, Chickies Ridge is on a small mountain top, and is said to be the habitat of the Albatwitch, however, next to Chickies Rock is a valley/canyon and on the other side of that is another mountain top, which also has a picnicking area (for apple stealing maybe) , the trail on this mountain is called the Heritage Trail, next time I search for the Albatwitch I plan to go there. This was just an idea to anyone who would like to do research on this creature.

Have a nice day everyone!