From The Forest: Strange Creatures, Shadow People in the Woods & Ghosts | 240

[00:00:00] Thank you for joining me and welcome to Paranormal Mysteries. I'm your host as always, Nic Ryan. On today's edition of From The Forest, I'll be talking about strange noises, bizarre creatures, and shadow people in the forest.

[00:00:25] But of course before we start, I'd like to thank Anne for their support and generosity. And remember that anyone can show their support simply by sharing and reviewing the podcast, or if you'd prefer to make a monetary contribution, you may do so through our patreon.com, buymeacoffee.com,

[00:00:42] or Paypal donation links. Also if you have a paranormal experience to share, you may contact me by email at paranormalmysteriespodcast at gmail.com, through voice message at speakpipe.com slash paranormal mysteries, or on our website at paranormalmysteriespodcast.com.

[00:01:03] And of course all of our support and contact information can be found in the show notes. And with all that in mind, tonight's first encounter comes to us from The Naturalist, and their story is called, Young's Memorial Cemetery. And The Naturalist says, Hello Nic and fellow listeners.

[00:01:25] Since 2012 I have been fortunate and determined enough to work in the environmental sector, with stints in environmental and outdoor education, ecological restoration, wildlife conservation, rare and endangered plant research, and urban agriculture. Nearly a decade of working outdoors in natural areas off-limits to the general public has

[00:01:48] been humbling, but not without its share of unexplainable experiences. I've been listening for over a year and haven't heard a lot of other folks within this sector come forward. Maybe sharing my experiences will help others re-evaluate things they may have experienced

[00:02:05] while out in the field that cannot be summarized by guiding principles of physics, hydrology, and ecology overall. It is why I am writing in under an alias, The Naturalist, as I do have some trepidation, but not enough to stay silent.

[00:02:22] In 2012 I got my first environmental education job at the Theodore Roosevelt Bird Sanctuary in Oyster Bay, New York, on Long Island. The sanctuary was founded by T.R. himself with several original buildings that T.R. helped construct and design.

[00:02:40] The property is also home to Young's Memorial Cemetery, where members of the Long Island Roosevelt family are buried, as well as plenty of other folks. One of his daughters, Ethel Roosevelt, was a lifelong resident of Oyster Bay and died in 1977.

[00:02:57] I haven't seen any personally, but I always heard some rumors that folks would see her ghost around the places that she liked to frequent. My connection to this site extends beyond 2012, back to 1997. I was brought to the Bird Sanctuary's side for public outreach programming, camps, and volunteering.

[00:03:18] During those years, I heard rumors of the place being haunted by Teddy Roosevelt and ghosts from the cemetery. Despite being an easily scared kid, I tried to not let those thoughts take over my brain, and tried to not call him Teddy because apparently he hated the nickname.

[00:03:34] Over the years attending the sanctuary, I experienced moments that I felt in time would be missing. I would get lost from the group and suddenly find myself completely disoriented and in an unfamiliar part of the sanctuary without much recollection for how I got there.

[00:03:50] There was even a few moments where I felt strange pulling to go to certain parts of the sanctuary, off trail by some kind of greater force or entity. There were times I felt something tickling me or pulling at my feet, causing me to fidget

[00:04:04] constantly, not to mention countless spooky moments while sitting in the bird blind out in the woods. Despite the strangeness, it was the place that cemented my desire to pursue a career outdoors. When I was hired to work at the sanctuary in 2012, it had been about six years since

[00:04:22] I had been on site and everyone who worked there in 2012 was not working there when I attended as a child. As an adult, the site still had this incredible beauty and mystical enchanting appearance

[00:04:34] to it, but now I could not shake the feeling of being watched wherever I went. The office, the bird blinds, locking the gates, taking out the trash to the dumpsters, and cleaning the animal enclosures.

[00:04:47] It was a constant feeling that would often result in a chill over my shoulders and down my back. The trails and pathways are heavily mulched with wood chips, and when I would leave my

[00:04:57] shift to walk out into the parking lot alone, there were many days where I would hear someone walking behind me. Sometimes I would smell an odd, smoky old leather sort of smell. The site is only 14 acres total, including the cemetery, with three walking trails all

[00:05:14] next to each other, named the Upper Trail, the Middle Trail, and the Lower Trail. There are some paths and steep inclines that connect upper to middle, middle to lower, etc. The Upper Trail also curves and directly passes a portion of Yong's Memorial Cemetery near

[00:05:30] the beginning, after a stand of conifers. There was a day when I was leading a hike along the Upper Trail, past a conifer stand, past the cemetery, past a meadow with a bench, to what I can only describe as a sloping hill.

[00:05:45] There you are hiking downhill through a dense stand of deciduous trees. The trail neatly cuts right through the middle of this miniature valley, with a steep decline to the side. The land here was heavily overgrown with English ivy, steeply sloped up until a property-lined

[00:06:01] fence and beyond the trail it's considered off-limits for visitors and students. I had a great group of kids that day, around 8-10 years old, so they're at the age where they are learning how to push back against authority. Critically questioning, but still motivated to participate in the group.

[00:06:18] The group had a great dynamic, and I never had much trouble from kids wandering off the trail and away from me. This time while we were hiking, I got the feeling of being watched again.

[00:06:30] Usually the feeling always felt like it was behind me, but leading the way with eight kids lined up hiking behind me, the feeling of being watched was coming from my right hand side. It was so overwhelming that I stopped short and the child behind me just walked right

[00:06:45] into me. I apologized to them and said, let's count off, cueing the group to count off from 1 to 8, as a way of taking attendance while on the trail without having to stop and directly look at each person. They began to count, 1, 2, 3, 4, then nothing.

[00:07:06] I immediately turned around on the narrow trail and saw that I was missing four students. The sense of sheer panic was truly primal. I loudly and firmly said, where are they? We need to stick together now. Let's go back.

[00:07:20] I might not be anyone's parent, but out on the trail, the well-being and safety of these children are my responsibility. I ran, shouting their names back down the way we came, with the four others following me closely.

[00:07:32] When we got back to the bottom of this hill on the trail, back into the thickly overgrown patch of English ivy, I saw the four kids walking up towards me. All at once they started shouting to me, we saw a man, he was down here.

[00:07:46] We thought you went down there with him. We were following you. Weren't we supposed to go here? He was tall, he looked old. Where were you? He had a hat. The greatest feeling was seeing all of them there, unharmed, unafraid, just trying to

[00:08:01] convince me that they weren't in trouble. But the relief was short-lived, as I was ready to cry and take everyone back inside, ready to forget the afternoon's activity. Utterly shaken by the thought of them separated from the group, even if only for a few fleeting

[00:08:17] minutes, I looked down to where they said they went. I saw no man. I saw no adult-sized shoe prints in the soft, wet dirt on the footpath leading down the sloping hill. I saw nothing but densely grown trees on this downward slope with a carpet of English ivy

[00:08:33] over the ground. Who was he? And where did he go? Further down the hill, I knew there was a property-lined fence that went up next to a large, multi-million dollar, privately owned home. There was no one standing by their side of the property-lined fence.

[00:08:49] There never would be, but for it being the middle of July, I suddenly felt freezing. I was somehow able to collect myself and get us back on the hike to our final destination.

[00:09:01] During snack time later, I was able to ask some of the four kids a little more about why they went off-trail, as part of a bigger conversation about the importance of staying with the group, staying where I can see them, etc.

[00:09:13] The four kids were insistent, adamant that someone was down the side of the trail who waved them to come down. They said they thought they saw me down there with the rest of the group.

[00:09:23] One boy even said that he followed me down there to meet the man, again insistent that they only went down because they thought that it was okay. They thought they saw an adult wave them down. It was hard for me to process listening to them.

[00:09:38] Plainly put, I did no such thing, and I could not have led half the group hiking one way and leading the other half another. To give some greater context to the area, people don't just go walking around Long Island. It's a very car-centric place.

[00:09:54] There's a few sidewalks, especially around here. Also, this deeply interior part of the property is far from any sort of roadway. At this time, this part of Long Island didn't have white-tailed deer either, so truly the biggest thing we'd see naturally occurring on the trail is a turkey.

[00:10:11] We'd see a fox if we're lucky, but no bear, no coyotes, no large mammals. Lastly, the sanctuary has one way in and one way out. I didn't know what to say, how to explain this to my boss, or who to even tell about it.

[00:10:27] I mentioned it to my co-worker briefly, and she looked surprised but also fully believed that any place this old would be haunted. Nine years later, I feel like I'm just processing it all for the first time.

[00:10:40] All this time, I really thought that it was a ghost of T.R. that was very much present on the site. Maybe he is. But T.R. isn't the only Roosevelt buried in Young's Cemetery. In fact, therein lies a tragedy from what I can tell.

[00:10:55] Theodore, Edith, and only two of their children, Ethel and Archie, are buried there. All the other Roosevelt children are buried in Alaska, Washington, and even Normandy, France. It's only while typing this that my heart feels inexplicably heavy.

[00:11:11] The site is only a mile and a half from Sagamore Hill, the Long Island Roosevelt family compound, where the Roosevelt children famously spent a lot of quality time as children with their parents.

[00:11:23] I ponder if the site remains so active in part because of how much they loved each other. How much energy must that love have created? Where does that energy go? May they feel a little bit like how I felt on the trail leading the hike, walking forward,

[00:11:39] suddenly aware of feeling behind them that it was too quiet, only to turn around and look for the children in my hiking group. Are Edith and Archie looking for their siblings? Are Theodore and Edith looking for the rest of the Roosevelt's?

[00:11:53] Do they all feel like they have been separated on the trail too? It has been nearly a decade since I had the humble privilege of working at this site. Many cosmetic changes and native species restoration projects have taken place since then,

[00:12:08] including the removal of carpets on non-native English ivy. But the Roosevelt Bird Sanctuary has endured these changes and remains an incredible example of conservation. I hope to return there someday, whether it be professionally or as a patron. But next time I'll bring some native wildflowers,

[00:12:27] and I think I'll climb those 26 steps to properly pay my respects to the 26th president, our former first lady Edith, Ethel, and Archie. I sincerely thank you for taking the time to read my experience.

[00:12:42] I'll be sure to write back with more tales from the field, forest, and lab. The Naturalist Our next story of the evening comes to us from Annabelle. And Annabelle's story is called, Strange Noises. Annabelle says, Hey Nick, I've written before and decided to share another story.

[00:13:07] This one is set in Colorado in a house that my family was renting for a while. One day I was sitting in a room in the basement making beaded bracelets and listening to music. I was enjoying myself, which I rarely did up there,

[00:13:20] and I decided to open the window to let the breeze in. An ad from the music app I was using started playing, so I turned the volume down. I was listening to the breeze through the trees when I started hearing a strange noise from the woods.

[00:13:34] It sounded like whale sounds, so I was wondering if my brother in the room over had music going, and I was just hearing that. So I walked over to his room and I asked if he had heard the noise too. He said that he thought it was me.

[00:13:50] At this point I was freaked out, so I went outside to see if I could hear it better, and sure enough I did. It sounded like a very large animal groaning in pain.

[00:13:59] It was a deep rumbling and it faded in and out as if it was moving away. At this point I ran upstairs to tell my mom. She thought I was crazy and I took her outside to listen. We then heard one last faint groan until it completely faded.

[00:14:15] I think about this often as it was a very strange experience. Thanks for having a place to share our stories. I love your podcast. Annabelle Our next experience comes to us from Derek, and Derek's experience is called Half Leprechaun, Half Goat and Creature at Salt Springs Reservoir.

[00:14:41] Derek says, Hey Nick, I want to thank you for sharing my story on your podcast about my possible alien abduction on episode 229. To this day, whatever happened that night, whether it be a dream or reality, I still think it was real.

[00:14:57] I have two stories to share with you today. The first one happened a long time ago, probably in the late 80s or early 90s. I was in Modesto, California at what I think was either my grandma's house or my aunt's house. I can't remember whose house it was.

[00:15:13] We lived in a country setting where your closest neighbor was a mile or so away. It was dark in dinner time, so I think it was around the fall when it gets dark earlier. My brother and I were sent outside to the back to get something for dinner.

[00:15:27] There was a fridge or freezer under an open shed. It had a roof but only two walls, one in the back and one on the side. There were small shrubs in front of this area where the fridge or freezer was for decoration.

[00:15:40] Thinking back now, they were probably little box bushes about knee height to my adult size now. When we went outside, we saw these glowing red eyes like when you shine a light on cat eyes.

[00:15:52] But they were red and my brother trying to scare me said it was a gremlin or something. At that second of him saying that, the little creature growled at us, almost sounding like the baby Simba growl but just a little bit deeper but not by much.

[00:16:08] We were both scared and yelled for our mom and grandma. And when they did this, the creature ran behind the little box bushes and we turned the light on that was over the shed thing where the fridge or freezer was.

[00:16:20] It created a silhouette of the creature and it looked like a leprechaun, but from the waist down, it had a goat's body and it ran on two legs. By this time, our mom and grandma were outside and one of my uncles saw it.

[00:16:34] They told us to get inside and my uncle grabbed a shotgun to go after it, but it was already gone. For the life of me, I forgot the name my grandma called it, but it reminded me now of the little critters on your previous podcast

[00:16:47] that like to play tricks on people for their own enjoyment. I never saw that little thing after that. My next story takes place about eight years ago at Salt Springs Reservoir in California. My wife and I were camping there with our son and his friend and our niece.

[00:17:05] It was the last day of camping and we just got done eating dinner and we were all sitting next to the fire roasting marshmallows. As I was packing up our stuff into our minivan, I noticed two glowing eyes and thought it was a deer at first,

[00:17:18] but then realized that deer eyes aren't in front of their faces like a human. This animal or whatever it was had the predator's set eyes in front, so I assumed that maybe it was a bear.

[00:17:31] So we all started making as much noise as we could to scare it off and all it did was crouch down and turn its head. It did eventually leave, but in the morning we thought that this thing was on a hill

[00:17:42] because it was pitch black out the night before. However, the morning light showed us that it was actually a pretty level area where we were. So this thing's eyes were probably ten feet high. After listening to your previous podcast about the dogman,

[00:17:57] it makes me think that maybe this was a dogman or something. Whatever it was, it wasn't a deer or bear or any other local wildlife. Thank you for taking the time to read my stories, and again, keep up the good work, and I love the podcast. Derek

[00:18:18] Our next story of the night comes to us from Sarah, and Sarah's story is called, My Experience With Shadow People In The Woods. Sarah says, Hey Nick, I found your podcast in February of last year, right before the world shut down due to the pandemic.

[00:18:37] I've been interested in the paranormal for as long as I can remember, and that interest was fueled by my mother, who has also had a lifelong interest as well. I binged every episode of the podcast that was out, up until the point in February of 2020,

[00:18:51] when I found it over the course of about five days. I couldn't get enough, so I actually became a patron to have early access to episodes. I've thought about writing in with this story many times over the last year and a half,

[00:19:03] but finally decided to do it tonight. Please accept my advanced apology for the lengthiness of it. I grew up in the tiny town of Faith, North Carolina, in a subdivision that was once all farmland. It was aptly named Faith Farms. It was surrounded by woods,

[00:19:21] and the woods on the north side of the neighborhood bordered what was left of the farmland that wasn't sold off. From what I remember being told, the original farmer's great-great-great, or something along those lines, grandson now owned what was left.

[00:19:36] The woods in that area had an entire network of trails running through it that were wide enough for a car to drive down. We used to always joke that they were made for horses and buggies, and we honestly may not have been wrong.

[00:19:49] There was also a creek that all of us neighbor kids would play in year-round. It was deep enough in some places that we could actually wade in and float. For Christmas, when I was around 10 to 12 years old,

[00:20:02] I got a brand new purple mountain bike that I had been wanting. And after Christmas, I rode my bike door-to-door to try and get one of my friends to come bike on the trails with me. I ended up going alone because everyone was either busy,

[00:20:14] not home, or under the weather. This didn't bother me, as I frequently spent time in those woods by myself, either playing in the creek, finding hidden places and cool hangout spots, looking for rocks, or trying to build a clubhouse, etc.

[00:20:30] I rode my bike down the trail that led to the wide spot in the creek we like to float in and catch crawdads during the summer. I remember wanting to see if there was ice along the edges of the part that pools.

[00:20:42] This was down a fairly large hill, and I remember almost wrecking as I was coming down because my tire slipped on the leaves when I hit my brakes to keep from going too fast, and I knew I wasn't going to be able to ride my bike back up.

[00:20:55] I leaned my bike against a tree and proceeded to poke around the banks of the creek. My back was turned to the trail. As I'm bent down poking at the icy edges of the creek with a stick, I hear a whistle

[00:21:08] and then some leaves rustle up near the top of the hill. I turn around but don't see anything, so I continue to poke around. A short while later I hear the whistle again, but this time it sounds closer. I look up the trail again and see nothing.

[00:21:23] I suddenly notice that the whole part of the woods I'm in has basically gone silent. It's quiet in the woods in winter there because most of the animals have either migrated or are hibernating, but there's definitely still ambient noise and some animals making sounds.

[00:21:38] The only thing I could hear after the second whistle was the creek quietly bubbling. The hair on the back of my neck raises and I start to feel as if I'm being watched and decide it's probably time to go.

[00:21:51] I stand up and wipe my hands off on my jeans and I grab my bike. I begin pushing it up the hill. The hill is pretty steep, so as I'm pushing I'm looking down while my hands are on each handlebar

[00:22:03] and I'm digging in my feet with each step and also trying not to slip on leaves. After a bit I look up to see how much farther I have to get to the top. There's a large tree on the right side of the trail

[00:22:15] and what I saw there still pops into my nightmares from time to time. When I look up I see a shadowy figure put a round yet pointy arm on the side of the tree facing me and then lean its rounded head around the trunk.

[00:22:30] I later saw a figure so similar in the movie Howl's Moving Castle later in life that I have to skip that scene when I watch it now. I will attach a photo of it to this email. My blood felt like it turned to ice

[00:22:44] and I was frozen in fear. The figure leaned back around behind the tree and then another does the same thing from behind a smaller tree on the left side of the trail and continues to stare at me. My flight instinct kicked in when I saw that figure

[00:22:59] step a leg out from behind the tree as if it was going to come towards me. I bolted off the left side of the trail and ran toward the tree line that ran parallel to it dragging my bike with me.

[00:23:10] I did not look back but I heard two more whistles in what sounded like a call and response type thing. By the time I reached the trail line I had tears streaming down my face from the pure fear and panic that I felt.

[00:23:22] I crawled under the lowest point of the barbed wire fence and then dragged my bike through as fast as I could. I then hopped on the bike and I never in my life pedaled home as fast as I did that day.

[00:23:34] I tried to tell my dad what I saw but he of course chalked it up to a kid's imagination in my mind playing tricks on me. After this incident I never went into that part of the woods alone again. Two other kids in the neighborhood

[00:23:48] also had similar experiences while together about a month later. All of us eventually felt too creeped out to play there anymore. Sorry again for this being so long winded. When I tell a story I just like to paint the whole picture

[00:24:03] so you can see it in your mind. I do have a few other experiences I'd like to share if you'd like to hear them. Thanks again for giving folks a safe space to share their experiences. Sometimes just having a place to talk about them freely and without judgment

[00:24:20] makes them less intimidating to think about. Warm regards. Sarah. As tonight's edition of From the Forest comes to a close I appreciate all of you for listening and a special thank you goes out to The Naturalist, Annabelle, Derek and Sarah for sharing their experiences.

[00:24:42] And if you've had a paranormal experience that occurred in or near the forest you may contact me through email, voice message or on our website and these links can be found in the show notes. Until next time,

[00:24:56] I hope you all have a safe and healthy rest of the week and I'll see you back here on Friday as we uncover more experiences involving paranormal mysteries.