Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of Cryptic Cocktail Party, a show where we
have a few drinks, share a few laughs, take a dive into the unknown. I'm your host Dave,
and today I'm joined by second best co-host, Colby Clark. How's it going, bud?
Hello. I'm good. How are you?
I'm doing alright. I hope that poll didn't hurt your feelings.
Hurt my feelings? It gave me a will to live for like a couple days.
It gave you something to strive for, to become the number one second best co-host?
Absolutely.
Gotcha.
I mean, you know, Nick has an interest. Not that I'm not interested in your story, sorry.
Nick has a general interest in cryptids, you know?
That's true.
Proceeding, being a guest. So I mean, it makes sense.
I guess, yeah. But I feel like your reactions.
Nick, just know I'm coming for you.
Your reactions are more genuine, I feel like. Because he, even if he doesn't know the story,
some things you can kind of expect. You have no fucking idea what is going on.
I try to know the least going into it that I possibly can.
Yeah. That's why I did not want to tell you, because this is the topic of today's episode.
You know. You have to. There's no way you don't know it. But I didn't tell you what
it is, right? You're going to go blind with this?
You have not. I am. I'm all over the ice over here.
Alright. Well, Kobe, the other reason I wanted to have you on, not just because you're my
friend and you got to start making a name for yourself against Nick, is that one year
ago this week, you helped me launch this show by being a guest on the first two episodes,
Flatwood Monster and I believe the Dover Demon.
Oh, that's fantastic. Yeah. Those are great.
I didn't want to do this series with anyone else, because I feel like it's only fitting
that even if you're not a guest consistently, I feel like the milestones, the major ones
you have to be here for, because if it wasn't for you, this show would not have started.
Because I feel like you were the only one who had time to do it. And you did it.
Well, I'm so proud to be a part of this. It's fantastic. This is a really great thing that
you did. Yeah.
Yeah. We know we're one year in, almost 50 episodes in, hours of content. So I just want
to say thank you, Kobe, for helping me get this off the ground. Thanks to everyone listening.
You guys are fucking awesome for sharing and commenting and liking and following and all
that stuff. So I really appreciate it. Yeah. Do you want to dive right in, Kobe?
Thank you for creating this. You know, we just thank each other for a while. Show highlights
of thank yous. I mean, we could. Fuck it. This is just a thank you episode. This is
what it is. No, no, no. I'm ready for it. Freaking give it to me.
All right, Kobe. So we record these on Riverside and you can name the studio. And I kind of
gave you a hint of the area that we're going to be talking about today. Can you tell people
at what I named the studio? Doing cocaine with John Denver on a boat.
Just kidding. Take me home, country cold. All right. So can you guess where we're going
to be talking about today? Colorado. Pretty much. Pretty much. So
Denver would be more accurate. Yeah. No, we're going to be talking about Appalachia. Appalachia.
It's pronounced either way. And OK, from top to bottom, Appalachia, Appalachia, however
you want to pronounce it, is no stranger to the weird, the unusual, straight up fucking
terrifying. The Appalachian mountain range is fucking 480 million years old. So it's
had some time to kind of brew up a few of its own iterations on like eldritch horror.
There's there's a lot of things going on here. And there's been dating back on what? What
was it? The Appalachian mountain range? No, the elderly tour. What was it? Eldritch Horror,
Colby. Eldritch. I haven't heard of that. That's why I'm asking. You know, it's like
I think like Lovecraftian. No. OK. You're not. Yeah, you look like you know, you're
shaking your head like, you know, but I feel your face is saying something different. Lovecraft.
Love it. The guy, the author man, the author man. Yes. Now I got it. I'm right there. These
things have been dating back for centuries. Even the indigenous peoples of the region
have had stories and folklore of things that go bump in the night in this area. Things
like the Wampus cat, which the Cherokee viewed as a protective spirit, the Wendigo, which
if you're listening, you probably know what his deal is. And we covered it. You were the
guest on that episode. He is definitely not a protective spirit. Probably the opposite
of. OK. You also got the moon eyed people. They were short, pale skinned, little nocturnal
guys with large bright eyes that weren't really considered spirits or cryptids, but just like
a straight up different race of person. Kind of like you. I feel like I just described
you perfectly. Big time. And then you got my personal favorite. And I should probably
do a whole episode on this. This is this spirit creature, whatever it calls, called the spear
finger. And according to legend, the spear finger is a shape shifting stone skinned witch
with totally normal hands. She definitely does not have a wildly sharp and long knife
in place of one of her fingers. Did she write this? Yeah, she wrote that. Did she? Yeah,
she wrote her own biographies like a biograph on the back of a book like the jacket. Yeah.
She's like, I totally have normal hands. Not just taped it on. She just wrote it on a regular
piece of paper from the witch. So it said that she would take the form of an old woman
and convince the children in the village that she was their grandmother. And then when the
kids would fall asleep, she would straight up murder them and then steal their livers.
So I feel like this is just another reason why I don't trust old people. They're already
creepy. They're already. Are you OK? I mean, you you cross the line when you impersonate
my grandparent. All right. And then excuse me. And then to murder me. I didn't put this
in there, but it said that she would lull the children to sleep by brushing their hair.
Now I need to know, is she doing that with like the knife hands or is this like just,
you know? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Slips it in there. Yeah. It's like a comb knife and comb
knife. And then you got like shit like the Brown Mountain Lights, the Bell Witch, Big
Foot, things like that. But there's one state in the Appalachian Mountain range that above
all others has had more strange and weird creatures and folklore pop up than any other.
And that state is West Virginia. And in this statement, we got the classics. You got everyone's
favorite, the Flatwoods Monster. You got the Snallygaster Sasquatch, Sheep Squatch, Bat
Squatch. There's also the Grafton Monster, the Snarly Yow, Devil Dogs. The Jersey Devil
was seen there somehow. I don't know. But there's one cryptid that trumps all of those.
One whose very presence kind of gives off like an air of evil, tragedy and pink eye
to those who have seen it. One who has been called a harbinger of doom and destruction.
Well others are convinced it was simply a messenger trying to convey a warning. This
specific cryptid even has had a Richard Gere movie made about it. And that entity is known
as the Mothman. Julia Roberts. No, Colby's the Mothman. We're going to be doing the Mothman
and I'm very excited. Right, right, right, right, right, right, right, right. That makes
sense. Yeah, no. That's not what I said. The movie was not Pretty Woman, if that's what
the movie was thinking of. Right, right, right, right, right. Yeah. Yeah. Now Colby, you're
familiar with the Mothman, correct? Yeah. Yeah. I've heard some samples from it. Some
sample? Yeah. Oh yeah. We kind of released that song. Absolute banger. For those of you
who may somehow be unfamiliar, the Mothman is a five to eight foot tall humanoid creature
with bright red, almost hypnotic glowing eyes that will for sure give you pink eye. It has
a massive wingspan of roughly 10 feet that from what some witnesses say, they don't flap.
He just kind of like unfurls them and then just lifts off the ground. Just like, yeah,
not ideal. Right. Just an all around unpleasant thing to come across when you're driving down
the road at night, I would say. Sure. Yeah. Sightings of the Mothman's. Get out of there.
Okay. Sightings of the Mothman started on November 15th, 1966 in the small town of Point
Pleasant, West Virginia and ended on December 15th, 1967 with the tragic collapse of the
Silver Bridge, which claimed the lives of 46 people, two of which their bodies were
never found. So it's kind of rough. It's not like the happiest Christmas that year in Point
Pleasant, I would assume. Yeah. But before we get into the nitty gritty of the Mothman
sightings, the UFOs, the men in black and the weirdest dude in the world known as injured
cold, I think it's important to take a little bit and talk about Point Pleasant, its history
and for you to learn about a centuries old curse that was put upon the region that may
be the cause for all the strange occurrences and the many incidents and tragedies that have
plagued Point Pleasant and the surrounding area since that curse was spoken. Are you
ready for this Colby? Are you ready? I'm definitely ready. Yeah. Yep. Let's go. How do you feel
so far? I feel good. Yeah. I feel like I'm retaining information. I'm a little on my
on the edge of the seat, you know, and I want to know. I want to know more about Point Pleasant.
Yeah, there's going to be a, this is a information heavy episode. You're going to get a lot of
info here. That's good. Not a lot of Mothman in this one, but I think this is, I guess
this time before we're recording, I think this is important to learn about this before we go into
what the Mothman and the sightings and all that stuff were. All right. So, right, right. Point
Pleasant is a small town in West Virginia that sits on the confluence of the Ohio and the
Kanawha rivers. Confluence, I learned means like when two or more water sources join up to make
like one channel of water. So you learn something today. OK. It supposedly got its name when George
Washington was like surveying the area and offhandedly was just like, huh, this is a
pleasant point in reference to like where the Ohio River and the Kanawha River met. I don't know
how real that is because according to the official Wikipedia page, it said that Colonel Lewis set up
a camp there called Camp Point Pleasant, and it was named after that. So I don't know. I like to
believe the George Washington story just because I'm a big fan of lazily named things. Yeah, like
Blueberry. Yeah, that's blue. Blueberry. But the boys and Barry. Oh, well, why you look so flustered
about that? The boys and Barry. Good Lord. Yes, it rhymes with poison. OK.
Who's naming this ship? It was officially established on December 19th, 1794,
but was already occupied by settlers. Oh, my God, was already occupied by settlers well before then
and not just by us white folks, as I'm sure everyone will have assumed. It was originally
a Shawnee village up until 1749. But this area wasn't just home to Shawnee people.
Several tribes of indigenous people lived in the area and with the whole manifest destiny thing
going on that we were taught in school for some reason was a good thing to cold rush. No. Do you
not do you not remember manifest destiny from school? It was all around the same time, I think.
Now, I mean, maybe, but not really. No. I mean, you know, social studies.
Man, well, if you don't know what manifest destiny is, go look it up. But we were taught
it. That was when we were in England. We were like, yeah, we should have land. We should we
should have America. It's our destiny to. Yeah, basically conquer all. Yeah, basically, God,
God said that we should just keep going west. Mm hmm. Some of those native. So
now I feel like I got to start over. But with the whole manifest destiny thing going on that
we were taught in schools, some of those native tribes banded together to sort of put the kibosh
on that shit like real quick. And one of those tribes was the Shawnee. Now, from what I have learned,
the Shawnee were the strongest of these tribes, whether or not that's true. I don't really know,
but I'm not going to argue with it. But what I do know is that the Shawnee chieftain was well
respected and widely feared, not just amongst like other native tribes, but the white settlers as
well. His name was and I really hope I'm pronouncing this right. Hoka Laskwa, which translated from the
native Shawnee to English means blade of corn or corn stock. Now, not much is known about Chief
Cornstock's early life, and he doesn't really appear in any historical records up until about
1764. We know that he may have been born in 1720 in the area of what is now modern day Pennsylvania
along the Susquehanna River. And he relocated to the area of Point Pleasant sometime around 1758
during the French and Indian War, because the Shawnee were trying to like stay neutral in that
conflict. So they decided just like, get the hell out of there. Okay. All right. Yeah. Are you
retaining any of this? Absolutely. Okay. Chief, Chief Big Corn, Cornstock, Big Cornstock was a
badass dude revered by all, even the whites. You're scaring the whites. Yeah. Yeah. Doing a good. Yeah.
You mean your name for yourself. Yeah. Fuck yeah. Uh, whites. So yeah. So they were, so they were,
so the Shawnee was trying to remain neutral. That is until the British Royal Proclamation of 1763
that was meant to create a border between the colonies and the native lands. This worked well
as it could, I guess, for a while. But then of course, us whites got greedy, who would have guessed?
And that's what the Treaty of Fort Stanwyck in 1768, where Sir William Johnson negotiated a new
border with the Iroquois, which gave the British a huge chunk of land south of the Ohio River,
which included, you guessed it, present day West Virginia. Now the reason this was a problem for
corn stock in the Shawnees was because they used that land as their hunting grounds. So they weren't
and they weren't at the negotiations for this treaty. So they were pretty pissed off about it.
They didn't even show up. They weren't invited. Their invites were lost in the mail.
Pony Express back then was literally a pony express. Right. And they couldn't travel very
far. They're ponies. Now this treaty, this led to clashes between the British and Native American
tribes. And this is about the time when the Shawnees started organizing other tribes to help defend
their hunting grounds. All in all, seven Native American nations formed an alliance known as,
and I'm sorry for how this is worded. This is just how it is. And it's the Indian Confederacy
to protect the lands and defend against any further white dudes just encroaching on their lands.
Spoiler alert. Okay. It kind of happened anyways. Sorry. Right. Right. Those nations that were part
of this Confederacy were the Delaware, Weanda, Mingo, Ottawa, Illinois, Miami, and of course,
the Shawnee. These squirmishes weren't like a full fledged issue until 1774 when at least 10 Mingo
Indians were murdered by white settlers in what is now known as the Yellow Creek Massacre. This
led to the Mingoes retaliating against the settlers. And it seemed as though pretty much at this point,
like a straight up war was going to come any day now. You know, like the fog of war hung low across
the region, if you will. You look, you look bored as fuck. I told you this is an information heavy
episode. I am not bored whatsoever. I'm intrigued. Now, Cornstalk and the Shawnees weren't looking
for a war. They just wanted their hunting grounds to not be ravaged by white dudes,
which is understandable. So far, it kind of seems like the Shawnees are super chill. Like they're
like the one friend that you have that's like super chill, cool with everyone, doesn't want any
problems with anyone, never starts any shit. But if they need to, they will fucking just like straight
up murky you, no questions asked kind of vibe. That's what I'm getting from them. Yeah. You never
met my buddy Jordan, but that's Jordan. Jordan, you think he's not a real human being, right?
I don't think Jordan's real. You've gone over John Cena. Pretty much. So Cornstalk, he did what he
could to kind of just keep the peace, even going as far as sending his brother Silverheels to escort
traitors from Shawnee villages to the safety at Fort Pitt. Well, one day while Silverheers was
escorting someone to Fort Pitt, and while he was at the fort, local militiamen shot and seriously
wounded him. And this was the inciting incident that kicked off Lord Dunmore's war and brought
us to the Battle of Point Pleasant. Are you already learning about the Battle of Point Pleasant? How
you feeling so far? I'm feeling good. I'm feeling like the white strike again, you know?
I think that's where all of our problems came. Pretty much. I think we are the cause
of a lot of our own problems. Us and us from the future. I don't know what that means. You will in
15 days and 34 seconds.
So the Battle of Point Pleasant took place on October 10th, where Cornstalk and a small army
of only roughly 300 Shawnee, Delaware, Wyndett and Mingo warriors, they stood up against
Lord Dunmore's 1300 men. The battle lasted nearly the whole day with Cornstalk and his men actually
having the upper hand until reinforcements arrived and he was forced to retreat back across the Ohio
River. And eventually he ended up signing a peace treaty called the Treaty of Camp Charlotte,
which basically made it official that Cornstalk was to give up all the Shawnee land rights south
of the Ohio River. Kind of a bummer, but you know, right. It seems like Cornstalk's just like,
I don't want more people to die. So just wait is what it is. Stop making me sign documents.
Now we're going to yada yada yada a bit here and fast forward to 1775. At this point, the
American Revolution is kicking off. And just like with all other conflicts, Cornstalk and the Shawnee
wanted to remain neutral in this war. Now this is the part in the story where things get a bit murky
as to what happened next. Some sources I read in the story that I'm going to go with, because it's
a way better story and adds a bunch more to the legend, is what I'm going to go with. So please
Colby listeners, after this point, take everything I say with a grain of salt. Could be true, could
be legend, could be completely made up. The story is that in November 1777, Cornstalk went to Fort
Rudolph, which is a fort that was built on the site of the Battle of Point Pleasant and is now
present day Point Pleasant. He went along with another Native American chief named Red Hawk
and an unnamed native man. There's your unnamed man. To tell the Americans that while they don't
want war with the Americans or the British, the British are bringing more and more tribes from
their Confederacy to the side of the British. And that if Cornstalk's men wanted to fight with the
British, he would allow it and would have no choice but to join in with them. Because if
Cornstalk is anything, he's a man with principles and loyalty. If his fighters want to fight with
the British, he's going to do it. You know, if you're part of a Confederacy, I feel like you have to
like be with, you know, does that make sense? Yeah. I mean, what? Yeah. What? It's for the people,
you know, that's what the people want to do. We're doing it. He's a man of the people. That's right.
I like him. He then stated that the reason for their visit that day was to try and negotiate
some sort of peace deal before things escalated as the other tribes were already amassing along
the Ohio River, just pretty much waiting to murder everyone in that fort. Now, he told all this to a
man named Captain Arbuckle, who for some reason decided after hearing all of this, you know,
the eminent attack, the tribes setting up camps along the Ohio, that he was just going to take
all three men as hostages. You're mine now. I claim you. Why not? I mean, they're already
taken everything else. Interesting choice. Yeah. Not. Yeah, it is a very interesting choice. Now,
even though they were hostages, it said that they were treated well. They had comfortable quarters,
food. It was even said that corn stock even helped in plotting out some of the maps
of the Ohio River for the Americans to help out if and when the attacks happened.
Then on November 9th, they're just kicking it, hanging out, making maps and shit. Yeah.
He's just trying to be helpful. Like friends. Yeah. He's you know,
then on November 9th, Eloponisco, who was corn stock son, visited the fort to see his father and
to check on his well-being. He was also detained by the captain. So he's just making all sorts
of great moves. It seems like this captain killing it. You're coming with me.
The name like Arbuckle, you know, you don't play around, you know, you're serious man
for long Arbuckle line.
Now, the next day on the 10th, they heard shots fired from just outside the fort walls.
Apparently, two soldiers left the fort to go do a little deer hunting, and they were ambushed by a
group of Native Americans. One of the soldiers managed to escape, but the other one wasn't so
lucky. He was killed and scalped. And this really did not sit well with the soldiers in the fort who
were already on edge just kind of waiting for the natives to attack from across the river.
So with all this rage, a group of men acting against orders burst into where the four men
were and decided to execute all of them as revenge for their fallen comrade. It said that when the
men burst through the door, that corn stock stood up and faced them with such bravery that the men
momentarily paused their attack. But unfortunately, just standing up like a badass that he was wasn't
enough to stop what happened next. The soldiers opened fire. Red Hawk was said to have tried to
climb up the chimney, but was immediately dragged down and killed. The unknown native man said that
he was strangled to death. Corn stock son was shot where he sat and corn stock he was shot eight
eight times before he fell to the floor. And then there on the floor, he looked up at his murderers
and said, quote, I was the border man's friend. Many times I have saved him and his people from
harm. I never warred with you, but only to protect our wigwams and lands. I came to this fort as your
friend and you murdered me. You have murdered by my side my young son. For this may the curse of
the great spirit rest upon this land. May it be blighted by nature. May it even be blighted in
its hopes. May the strength of its people be paralyzed by the stains of our blood. End quote.
Damn, he said all that he was dying for a while.
The gunshot. He got shot in the gut, right? He got shot eight times dying for the
the enough time to write a book. Let's let's even uh apparently this was the the curse was longer.
I truncated it down just a little bit. So he was he was talking for a minute. But what do you think
this is a pretty that's a pretty dope curse. Damn. Yeah, absolutely. That's I mean that
that's the right time to uh say that curse upon the white folk. Yeah, if you're ever going to
curse anyone it's in that moment. He he played his cards well. And your death floor.
And he kept saying floor but it's mostly is probably just ground. Yeah, I don't yeah it's
just yeah it's just ground. Uh like hardwood. It could I mean it might I mean like a like a loft
downtown loft. Well I mean like forts weren't just one floor. They had upper levels. Right.
Could be stone. Could be wood. Who knows. I think we're getting a little off topic here.
Maybe. I think you're right. Now as soon as those words left his lips he succumbed to his injuries
and passed. Or so says the legend. Uh the bodies of Kornstock's son Red Hawk and the unknown warrior
were said to have been thrown in the river while Kornstock being the respected uh chief that he
was. He he they the the settlers did bury him right near the fort and he remained there for some time.
That is until 1840 when his bones were removed and placed in the grounds of the Mason County
courthouse. Strike one. And then again in the 1950s they removed his remains which at this point I
think they said was just like uh like one bone and a couple of teeth. Uh and they just put them in
like an aluminum box and then buried them in Two-Endy Way Park. Uh not great. Don't move the bones.
Yeah. Don't move the bones. Now as for the curse well a ton of bad shit has happened over the years
that people have attributed to said curse such as and this is a pretty long list so a catastrophic
fire that destroyed an entire city block in the 1880s on December 6th 1907 a coal mine disaster
in Monongah West Virginia killed 310 miners. Uh there were two floods that almost completely
took out Point Pleasant in 1913 and 1937. Uh June of 1944 a tornado ripped through the Tri-State
area killing 150 people. In 1954 a barge exploded killing six men just before Christmas. 1968 a
plane crash near the Conowatt airport killing 35. 1970 another airplane crash in Huntington West
Virginia killed 75. March 2nd 1976 Harriet Sisk was in the Mason County jail in Point Pleasant for
the murder of her infant daughter so her husband came to the jail with a briefcase full of explosives
and then set them off killing him his wife and three cops. Holy smokes. Um yeah. Why did you do that
Cornstock? And then in 1978 a train derailed in Point Pleasant releasing a bunch of toxic chemicals
into the water uh making all of the wells and the drinking water in the area pretty much unusable.
So on so forth. But one that everyone seems to remember. All because of the curse. That's what
they're saying. It could just be all coincidence and just this area is just rife with tragedy for
some reason. I don't know. But the one that everyone seems to remember and the one that has
the wildest stories surrounding it is that of the collapse of the Silver Bridge on December 15th
1967 and the entire year leading up to it filled the sightings of UFOs, men in black, alien visitors,
and the harbinger of doom himself the Mothman. And that is where we will pick up next week for
Mothman part two the sightings. Dang what a cliffhanger. How you feeling bud? That was a lot of
information. Oh I'm feeling full. You know feeling like I gotta do some file sorting.
All this information. You're gonna file? That's cool though. I need the backstory you know. It
feels like a slow burn. It's gonna be yeah it is. Because there's a lot of weird shit like it's not
just the Mothman like I said like there's UFOs. The men in black showed up. There was an alien
visitor named Indrid Cold who was just consistently smiling and talked through telekinesis and fucking
phones and shit like that. Like he talked through phones? Well I'm yeah fair. I got you. I got you.
No it's just like everyone knows the story of the Mothman I feel like. But not a lot of people know
the there was a bunch of weird shit happening surrounding the Mothman that all right so I'm
gonna try and bring this up into segments. The next episode we'll do the Mothman straight up.
We'll just do sightings and then I want to just go over the men in black and the UFOs and Indrid
Colds. All these things happening either before during or after and I think it's gonna be really
fun. I'm excited. It gets weird. It gets really fucking weird. All right well I'm ready. Take me
to the cryptic commune. Okay all right. Colby thank you so much for for joining me. Do you
have anything you want to plug? Anything you want to say? I mean yeah we just got a new drummer for
my band Lanterns. Change our name. You'll see a new single and a demo coming out soon.
Hell yeah. Gonna be dropping them and yeah that's about it for me. Right on and where can they find
Lanterns? Is it Lanterns 207 on Instagram? Yeah. Yeah. Follow them. That's the one. You know follow
them. It's good. It's a good time. Oh yeah. That's what we sound like.
Phenomenal. If you want to follow us follow us on Instagram at Cryptic Cocktail. Follow us on TikTok
at Cryptic Cocktail Party. We do have a Patreon. It's patreon.com slash Cryptic Cocktail Party.
It's five dollars a month and you will get things when I get around to doing them but for the most
part it's really just to support the show and what we do. Yeah that's it. Colby you want to say
bye to everyone? Bye everyone.
you