You wont want to miss the Documentary coming out in May 2015 about the Minerva Monster...really Cool stuff! Bigfoot History.. Article: Minervas Monster is almost like a pet Date: June 29, 1980 Publisher: Akron Beacon Journal He’s become, residents of the area say, a fixture in the neighborhood: Everyone knows he’s there, but no one pays much attention anymore. He has a few eccentricities, such as regularly pelting nearby houses with small stones, but mostly he keeps to himself and is generally considered a good neighbor, they say. The so-called Minerva monster, who two years ago created an uproar the likes of which Paris Township had never seen, still is hanging around the densely wooded area behind the home of Herbert and Evelyn Cayton in southeastern Stark County, nearby residents report. He’s almost like a pet, said Mary Ackerman, one of the Caytons’ daughters, who lives nearby. ’It was moving pretty good on two legs, pumping its arms like a track star, I got back in the car, rolled up the windows and locked the door. - Herbert Burke Jr. The creatures first reported public appearance came in August 1978 when Mrs. Cay- ton, her son, Howe, and another daughter, Vicki Keck, were walking up the banks of the abandoned strip pit behind the house. There, they said, they saw a creature - described as over six feet tall and covered with dark, matted hair - standing less than 50 feet away. Mrs. Cayton and Mrs. Keck, along with their friends, Becky Manley and Linda Jones, both of Canton, and Scott Patterson, of Minerva, said they got a better look at the creature a few nights later when he appeared outside a window, less than 10 feet from the kitchen table where the group was sitting. A powerful outdoor light over- head showed the creature clearly, but the witnesses said they could not distinguish arms or facial features because of the thick hair. They said the creature weighed at least 300 pounds. The five said they noticed that when the creature appeared, the usual night noises from crickets and tree toads stopped and a strange, peculiar odor like that a stagnant water was evident. They called the Stark County sheriff’s and deputy James Shannon was dispatched to the scene. Shannon paid he smelled a terrible odor when he arrived. He said later the sheriff’s department did not consider the sightings a hoax. Reports of the creature brought a horde of reporters, photographers, curiosity seekers and bigfoot hunters to the area. Some of the hunters came armed with shotguns, high-powered rifles, Dobermans and cases of beer. Two years later, it appears no one is any closer to finding out what the Minerva monster is. Sheriff’s deputies who investigated in 1978 say they were never able to identify some pieces of hair and something that looked like a jawbone, found near the strip pits. Herbert Burke Jr., 24, lived in the trailer park next to the Caytons and said he got a good look at the creature as it crossed Route 30 last summer. Burke, who now lives in North Canton, said he’d heard stories about the creature but decided he would believe it when I see it. He said that one night as he was pulling into the driveway of the trailer park, he spotted something tall standing across the road. He ’said he shined his head lights on the creature - which was less than 40 yards away - then got out of the car for a better look. He said the creature was seven or eight feet tall, weighed more than 400 pounds, and was covered with dark, matted hair. As the lights illuminated the creature, it began running toward the woods, he said. It was moving pretty good on two legs, pumping its arms like a track star, he said. I got back in the car, rolled up the windows and locked the door. He said he and other residents of the trailer park often heard rocks hitting their mobile homes at night and a variety of strange noises coming from the woods. He said the noises ranged from a kind of laughter, to a loud scream, to something that sounded like a baby’s cry. The Caytons say they often find large footprints in the soft ground near their garden, and Mrs. Cayton has several snapshots of them. She said the footprints resemble those of a human and range from 14 to 21 inches long. In months following the commotion two years ago, she said, she put out fruits and vegetables behind the house every night on Deputy Shannon’s advice. She said every morning the food would be gone and footprints occasionally would be nearby. This year I’ve got a garden out and if any of my vegetables are touched..., Mrs. Cayton said in a mock-threatening voice. The Caytons and their neighbors say that, on occasion, they still experience the eerie silence and smell the odor, which Mrs. Ackerman says smells like the seaweed her son Andy brought up from the lake in the abandoned strip mine last year. With the silence and the smell, they say, they know the creature probably is near. But they say they have grown accustomed to it and no longer make a fuss. Whatever it is, it’s not dangerous, Mrs. Cayton said. If it was going to hurt someone, it would have done it by now.
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 13:00:49 +0000