Author Denver Michaels

George Bird Grinnell (1849–1938) spent decades recording the histories, legends, and cultural practices of the Plains Indians. According to a Pawnee narrative recounted to Grinnell, the first people to inhabit the earth were giants. These mighty men of old were so powerful that they hunted buffalo on foot. The giant buffalo hunters ran fast enough to catch buffalo and were strong enough to kill them with only clubs and flint knives. So powerful were these giants, and of such enormous stature, that they carried slain buffalo upon their shoulders. These giant buffalo hunters of the Plains were also arrogant and haughty, and they refused to honor their creator, Tirawa. The giants believed themselves to be invincible; as time went on, they grew in their arrogance and their behavior became completely unacceptable to their creator.  Like so many other deities spanning a myriad of unrelated cultures, Tirawa also decided to rid the earth of the arrogant giant buffalo hunters. He turned the gr

Books about Bigfoot are a dime a dozen. I certainly have read my share over the years and I have a stack in my "to read" pile. Some Bigfoot books are great, some are terrible, and then there are plenty of so-so books. Having read a couple that fall into the mediocre category recently, I decided to reread a classic. So, I downloaded an e-book version of Ivan Sanderson’s Abominable Snowmen, Legend Come to Life. While reading the other night, something Sanderson wrote grabbed my attention—the idea that Bigfoot creatures are more human than animal. ABSMs In his book, Sanderson lumped Bigfoot into an overarching category called Abominable Snowmen or ABSM for short. Everyone knows ABSMs are elusive. Sanderson hinted at why: It is simply that ABSMs are Hominids or, just as every benighted native has always asserted, human rather than animal, and thus are endowed in one degree or another with human attributes, and most notably their powers of survival, their adaptability, their to

Virginia was arguably the most important Confederate state. It was the most populous with over 1.5 million residents. Virginia was also the wealthiest state, thanks in large part to its industrial base. Virginia was the industrial hub of the Confederacy and it equaled the output of all other Confederate states combined. Being the northernmost Confederate state, and a state of such importance to the South’s war effort, the majority of the Civil War was fought on Virginia soil. The Civil War Sites Advisory Commission classified 384 Civil War engagements as “principal battles.” Of those battles, 123 occurred in Virginia. Tennessee comes in a distant second with 38 principal battles. Some of the most fierce fighting in Virginia occurred in the Shenandoah Valley. For this reason, the valley attracts history buffs from far and wide who visit the battlefields scattered throughout the region. The Breadbasket of the Confederacy Favorable growing conditions made the Shenandoah Valley vital to th

In my RV travels across the nation, I’ve spent a fair amount of time on the shores of Lake Erie. Lake Erie is the twelfth largest lake on Earth and the primary source of drinking water for over 11 million people. The lake spans almost 10,000 square miles and holds six quadrillion gallons of water. For someone like me that has an interest in the weird and unexplained, some of the towns along Lake Erie are perfect for a visit. There are ancient burial mounds and tales of giants, lake monsters, haunted buildings , Bigfoot sightings and more. Monroe Monster In early autumn 2021, I stayed in a Michigan state park on the outskirts of the town of Monroe. Immediately, I began thinking of the “Monroe Monster.” The Monroe Monster made a name for itself in the summer of 1965 after locals began spotting the creature. The monster made headlines nationwide after it attacked a teenage girl named Christine Van Acker while she sat in a car with her mother. According to a report in the Independent (Lon