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Part 3b Dinosaurs Alive Today |
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(previous 1999 version of this seminar) |
Seminar 3, part b: Dinosaurs Alive Today
 Introduction
Okay, in the previous sessions we talked about the age of the earth. The Bible teaches that God made the whole world about 6,000 years ago. And then we talked about how dinosaurs have always lived with man. They are part of the normal creation.
Now, in this session we want to cover dinosaurs that are still alive. I know how crazy that sounds, but I've been researching this for a long time, folks. Let me just share with you what I've found and then you can make your own decision. The Bible says in the book of Job that there was an animal named Behemoth that God describes in Job chapter 40. And it says this animal, Behemoth, lieth under the shady trees in the covert of the reed and fens. The word fens is an archaic English word that means the swamp. Behemoth lives in the swamp.
Dinosaurs in the Congo
Description of the Congo
Well the biggest swamp in the world today is the Likouala swamp in the middle of Africa. Mostly in the Congo but partly in Zaire. That swamp is 55,000 square miles of swampland. That means it is bigger than the whole state of Arkansas. It's bigger than many of the states here in America. Almost as big as Georgia. Georgia is 58,000 square miles. That swamp was taken over by the Belgians in 1880 and it was called the Belgian Congo. How many of you learned it as the Belgian Congo when you studied your history years ago? Then in 1960 the communists came in there and liberated them. You know how the communists liberate countries. They killed everybody and said, “Okay, you are free now”. And so they liberated them. It was called the Belgian Congo up until 1960.
Well explorers began going into that swamp in 1880, and they began coming back with reports that there are dinosaurs still alive. In 1910 this article appeared in the New York Herald. “Is a Brontosaurus Roaming Africa's Wilds?”. Of course we have since discovered there was no Brontosaurus. They had the wrong head on the skeleton. But probably something more like a diplodocus or an apatosaurus.
In 1948 this article appeared in the Saturday Evening Post. The author said, “A well known South African big game hunter, named Mr. Gobler, returned from a trip to Angola and announced to the Capetown Newspaper that there was an animal of large dimensions, the description of which could only fit a dinosaur, dwelling in the Dilolo Swamps and known to the natives as 'chipekwe.' It has the head and tail of a lizard.” In different parts of the area over there, they have different names for the same creature, depending upon their local language I'm sure.
Mokele Mbembe
But in 1980, Dr. Roy Mackal from the University of Chicago had read all of these stories about those creatures still alive in African swamps. He was a microbiology professor. So he decided he should go to the Congo Swamps and check it out for himself. He went over to the swamps and spent six weeks. He said it's the most miserable swamp in the world. Right on the equator. 95 degrees all the time. And 95 percent humidity all of the time. Mosquitoes landed on them at the rate of 1,000 per hour. Just a miserable place to go. They were there for six weeks. They talked to the natives that lived in the swamp and said,”Do you have any crocodiles in this swamp?” And they said, “Oh, white man, we have big crocodiles!” They paced off on the sand bar how long they were and nobody would believe them. Until 1983 or 1984, one of the expeditions that went to that swamp saw a fifty foot crocodile! Now if you are a pygmy, four feet four inches tall, a fifty footer looks real big to you!
They asked the natives, they showed them pictures in a kid's coloring book. They said,”Have you ever seen an animal that looks like this?” The natives said, “Oh yeah, that's Mokele Mbembe. He lives in the swamp.” Dr. Mackal said, “Fellows, that's a dinosaur! Don't you know they've been dead for 70 million years?” The natives said, “We're sorry, we didn't know about that. See we've never been to America to study evolution. All we know is we see them out there every once in a while when we're fishing in the swamp.”
Now I don't want you to go home and say there are billions of dinosaurs roaming the world and you need to be careful when you go to the mall. That's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is there are a few places where there is still a few that have been spotted here lately. And a swamp in Africa is one of those places.
The animals there that they call Mokele Mbembe are only about 20 feet long. Most of that is neck and tail. The body is about the size of a hippopotamus. Total of about 20 feet. They claim that these animals live under water. They live in caves or they live under water. And they come out, barely stick their necks out and grab the plants on the side of the river. Their favorite plant is the Malombo plant. There is Dr. Mackal holding one of the Malombo plants. It's got a  fruit kind of like an apple on it, only harder than an apple. And the animals just love these things. And the natives said, “If you'd like to find Mokele Mbembe just travel through the swamp until you find lots of Malombo plants and no hippopotamus.” Hippos like to eat it also, but Mokele Mbembe doesn't like hippos so he drives them out of the river or the swamp and he takes over that area for himself.
They did find footprints of the creatures on shore. Apparently they come out at night to get more plants and the footprints had claw marks on them. Elephants and hippos are about the same size but they do not have claws on their feet. The natives claim that these animals will sometimes surprise you when you are going in your canoe through the swampy area and they will come up out of the river, or the swamp holes they call them. And if you happen to get too close to it and startle it, its tail will smash your canoe and he will drown you. But he won't eat you if that's any consolation.
A missionary friend of mine was there for 42 years as a missionary. His name is Eugene Thomas. There is his phone number. He said he had two pygmies in his church that helped kill one of the creatures back in about 1959.
Marcellin Agnagna is a biologist from the Congo. He went on one of the expeditions back into the swamp. He said, “You know I live in the Congo and I didn't know that 500 miles up river from my house the swamp had stories of dinosaurs. He went back there and claims that he saw one. Now this is a communist  country so he's probably an atheist. But he said, “I'll draw a sketch on the board of what I saw.” And he drew that sketch. It's in Time/Life and Mysterious Creatures.
Herman Regusters from Los Angeles, from Jet Propulsion Laboratory, took an expedition in 1981 or 1982 I believe. When he came back the Los Angeles Newspaper carried this article about a dinosaur like creature that was photographed. And the photograph was kind of fuzzy. Regusters said that the humidity is so bad over there just survival is a full time job. Keeping your equipment dry and serviceable is another whole set of problems. And then being alert enough when you do get a five or ten second glimpse of something to do something with it is another whole set of problems.
People often say, “Well why doesn't someone get a good, clear photograph?” Well that's a fair question. Let me ask you a question. How many of you have ever seen a car wreck? You watched it happen. You saw an accident? I'd like to see you get a picture of one as it happens. In the first place, who has got a camera with them at all times? And if you did have a camera and you saw an accident, you wouldn't think of it in time. You are so caught up in the moment.
So I think that's part of the problem with these sightings of the dinosaurs still alive. Certainly in the African swamp, you are just worried about survival and mosquitoes and everything else. But Regusters said the creature was dark brown. The skin appeared slick and smooth with a long neck and a small head. Herman-that's Herman Regusters and his wife Kia-saw this creature. They heard it making a roar. Many other members of the expedition including government officials heard it and saw it. The natives claim these animals live in caves along the side of the swamp. And they eat plants for awhile and when there are not enough plants they move on someplace else. So it's not a simple matter of,”hey let's  drive over to Africa and take a picture and drive back home.” It's just not quite that simple. In the first place, this area is almost as big as Georgia, and they said you could average about one mile per hour traveling through this impenetrable swamp. It would take you all day to go eight or ten miles. If I told you there were a hundred elephants hiding in Georgia and you can only go one mile an hour and I want you to find them. You'd better bring a lunch! You're going to be there for awhile. Right?
This Mokele Mbembe creature has been reported by many expeditions by people who have gone over there. Including William Gibbons, a friend of mine from Canada. He and I have written a book called Claws, Jaws and Dinosaurs. It is written for young readers and is all about dinosaurs still living. He's been over there three times. There's his phone number.
 A missionary friend of mine named Cal Bombay works for the One Hundred Huntley Street in Toronto, Canada. He and his wife are missionaries in Kenya. And he said they saw a creature like this sunning his self on the road. They watched it for fifteen minutes.
At the end of my videotape number two, we put interviews on there. I've interviewed about fifty people who have seen one of these creatures. And we get as many as we can on videotape. And we put it right at the end of tape number two. If you get that tape you can see for yourself the interviews with these people.
South American Dinosaurs
Down in South America, there is a large, swampy area called the Amazon Jungle. How many have ever heard of the Amazon Jungle before? [The] Amazon River is gigantic! In 1907, Col. Percy Fawcett of the British Army was sent to mark the boundaries between Brazil and Peru.  He was an officer in the Royal Engineers and was well known as a meticulous recorder of facts. Col. Fawcett said in 1907, when he came back from that trip that he was in the swamps there and he saw an animal he believed to be Diplodocus. The Diplodocus is this creature right here. The natives in that part of the swamp in Amazon said, “Yep, we've got those living out there in the swamp.” Many different tribes around that region report the same thing in South America. Col. Fawcett shot and killed and measured a 62-foot Anaconda snake. The natives that were with him said,”Colonel, you should see the big ones!” He said, “This is not a big one?!” A couple of years ago, 130 foot Boa was reported in Reuters News Service in Peru. It scared the soccer team half to death! They said the snake went crashing through the jungle and left a trail wide enough through the trees that you could drive your wagon down it. Then the snake went back into the river. This one, they claim, was 150 feet long. It floated down the Amazon.
One of my former students from California, when I was teaching out there, was a missionary in Minoas, Brazil. Which is kind of in the middle of the country. He said, “Mr. Hovind, we are way up river of the Amazon. Right in the middle of the country.” He said, “Where we live the Amazon River is only nine miles wide. Can you imagine a river nine miles wide? It's amazing.
Loch Ness
The Search for Nessie
There's a lake in Northern Scotland called Loch Ness. Has anyone ever heard of Loch Ness before? Loch Ness is a huge lake. Twenty-four miles long. About 1-1.5 miles wide. It's nearly 1000 feet deep in places. It has been reported, or calculated I should say, that Loch Ness is capable of holding every person in the world. All six billion people in the world could go drown in Loch Ness at the same time. It's a big lake!
The problem with Loch Ness is it's up in the mountains and if you wanted to see the lake, you had to either travel up river seven miles from the town of Inverness or you had to climb over the mountains to get there-until 1933 when they decided to go in with a bulldozer and dynamite and put a roadbed along the edge of Loch Ness. Because there really was no place to put a road. So they chiseled a groove in the mountains and put a road there. This book is showing a picture of the road looking the other direction. See, they cut into the mountains to make this roadbed. This author reported that in 1933, there were 52 separate sightings the first year the road was in. By 1960, when this book was written, the author said there had been 9000 reported sightings of the Loch Ness Monster. Today it is over 11,000. There are 11,000 people that have claimed they have seen something in Loch Ness! Now of course there are always hoaxes and frauds. I'm not going to say that all 11,000 are legitimate. But just because there are some hoaxes and frauds doesn't mean they are all hoaxes and frauds.
World Book Encyclopedia spent a lot of money to take a submarine from Georgia over to Scotland and put it down in Loch Ness. The guy in the submarine, named Dan Taylor (he now lives in Hardeeville, South Carolina). Dan Taylor went down in the submarine. And here is what he said about it. He said, “Nessie was pretty elusive. I thought I got her. Something was lying on the bottom, and the wash from it threw my submarine way off course.” He's building another sub, by the way, to go back. He still wants to write a capture of the Loch Ness Monster with a mini sub.
Operation Deepscan
 Well they gave up on the sub idea because pretty much because the water is so black. It's like being in a giant cup of coffee. Visibility is zero. You turn your spotlights on and the light just doesn't penetrate. So instead they put boats all the way across the top of the lake and they called it Operation”Deepscan”. And they scanned the bottom of Loch Ness. As far as anybody knows, that's the first time there has been a sonar scan of the lake bottom. They said the bottom of the lake is wrinkled up like a raisin. Lots of places to hide. I've got a map from Scotland. A map of Loch Ness. There were caves going off to the side also of Loch Ness. Lots of places to hide. I'm sure the critter heard 24 boats coming down the lake and said, time to go someplace.
Pictures of Nessie
One guy got a picture of a giant diamond shaped flipper. This was taken by the Academy of Applied Science. Underwater photography is difficult because the water is so black. But they took those pictures with a sonar-activated camera. One man did get a  picture of Nessie with its mouth open. That picture is from Reader's Digest Strange Stories. Many people have said they have seen humps sticking up out of the water moving across the lake at very great speeds. Tim Dinsdale got good film footage of almost a minute of this creature going across the lake. And it wasn't a boat, it wasn't a submarine. The Royal Air Force Academy or somebody over there in England analyzed the photo and said, “This is a live animate object.” They claim that this picture was a fake. And it could be, I don't know. Called the “Surgeon's photo”. But I think it's awful interesting that they waited till the last guy died to announce it's a fake. They claim that he said on his deathbed that the picture was a fake. And he might have, I don't know. But I think it's kind of interesting there are no living witnesses now to determine the truth.
But even if that one is a fake, it doesn't matter. There are 11,000 sighting of this creature. And there are other lakes besides Loch Ness. There are seven other lakes just in Scotland reporting similar creatures. And you can go to your library and books on any one of these. If your library is on the Library of Congress system, you go to QL 89. Or if it's on the Dewey system, you go to 001.9 and you will find books on Loch Ness Monster.
Other Sea Creatures
The Cornish Sea Serpent
There is one called The Cornish Sea Serpent down in Southern England. In the English Channel something has been seen reported many times. A similar creature. A dictionary in 1766, we think it's a 1766 dictionary - the cover and first two pages were torn off. The best we could tell; that's what the research indicates. This was listed in the dictionary in 1766. We looked up the word “Sea Dragon.” It said, “A Marine monster caught in England in 1749, resembling,  in some degree, an alligator, but having two large fins which served for swimming or flying. It had two legs terminating in hoofs, like those of an ass. Its body was covered with impenetrable scales, and it had five rows of teeth. Strange creature.”
In 1934, Time Magazine ran this picture. There is a man in the upper right hand corner there for scale. Something huge laid on the beach in Normandy, France. They said it “Was definitely: 1) not a whale; 2) not a sea cow. It's is possible we are in the presence of an unknown species.” March edition 1934.
 Brazil
Something slammed past a couple of scientists on a boat in Brazil in 1905. The guys who saw this creature were on some yacht. They said it had a dorsal fin six feet long and two feet high. And a small head on a neckabout seven or eight feet long in front of the fin. Two experienced British naturalists saw it. They said there was a good-sized body under the water. But couldn't see the details.
New Zealand
Down by New Zealand there is a place where the Japanese do a lot of fishing. It's called the Chattum Rise because at that point the water is only 900 feet deep. You say, “Only?” The rest of the ocean is a lot deeper than that! I flew back over the Pacific from preaching in Australia. I told one of the guys in the office I said, “Man, the Pacific Ocean is huge!” He said, “That's just the top of it.” Pretty amazing thought.
 But down by New Zealand they fish and one day they were fishing down there in 1977 with this gigantic fishing boat. Dragging their massive nets down across the bottom, they pulled up a dead, rotten, stinking carcass from 900 feet down. It was 32 feet long, and weighed 4,000 pounds apparently a Plesiosaurus. It stunk so badly, that they photographed it a bunch of times and threw it back. They made sketches of the thing. A marine biologist on board made the sketches. Said it had four flippers and a skinny neck. Of course the typical humanist or evolutionist answer to this is that it was a basking shark. And they go through all of their details about the gill slits rotting away and the fins rotting away. The guys who had it on board in their hands said look we know what basking sharks are; it was not a basking shark. The Japanese Government issued a special stamp in 1977. A commemorative stamp, first class mail.
Russia
In Russia, there have been several sightings in some different lakes in Russia. There is one lake they call Mystery Lake. Some scientists went up there and said they saw a creature with a big fin on its back and a long skinny neck. A different spot up in the North Coast of Russia in the Arctic Ocean, what looked like a dinosaur washed up on coast just after a storm in the Arctic in 1994. A Russian news service reported the carcass was 39 feet long. Well what is that?
Japan
In Japan there are several different lakes that are reporting creatures similar to this. There's one they say has a long neck and it's an eel like monster. Many people have seen it. A different lake in Japan has a creature that they've nicknamed “Issie”. They've got a statue of it up there by the lake. Whatever it is.
China
In China there has been something seen over there in one of the lakes. They call it an USO. Unidentified Swimming Object. The monster was golden yellow. It had a long neck and a beard and a horned head the size of a wash basin. What on earth is that?
Sweden
Just a few years ago up in Sweden, there was an expedition to go to one of the giant lakes up there. 450 people have reported they've seen something awfully big in that lake in Sweden.
Canada
Canada has twenty different lakes that are still getting regularly reported sighting of dinosaur like creatures still alive. I've got the article right here about Canada's lake monster. As well as names and addresses of many people who have claimed they've seen this creature. There are articles in the paper all of the time about Nessie's Canadian cousin.
 Ogopogo
In Southern British Columbia there is a big lake in the town of Kelowna. The lake is called Okanagan. It is 80 miles long. Many people there have reported a creature called the Ogopogo. There are songs about it.  There is a million-dollar reward for anyone who can capture the Ogopogo. If you'd like to try and capture it. If you watch the videotape number two, at the end I put some clips on there of some people who have seen it. You can listen to them describe it for yourself. This article about Ogopogo says, “They were the latest among thousands to see something strange in this narrow, 80-mile-long lake in southern British Columbia.”
I talked to the man on top here. His name is Keith Ross. I talked to him for about an hour and audiotaped the conversation. These four guys were fishing off of Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia, Canada. They were fishing in the Atlantic Ocean six miles off of the shore. I talked to Keith Ross. I met with him in 1992. There is his phone number if you want to call him and verify anything I'm telling you [902-745-2285]. He said he was 67 and he'd been fishing out there since he was five years old. He said the creature was 40-50 feet long. It had a wide mouth and 4-foot tusks like a walrus as well as other pointed, sharp teeth about the size of his finger. It chased their boat for 1-2 miles. Its head was out of the water about 15 feet. It can't be a fish because they have to breathe underwater. I showed him a plesiosaur. He said it was close but not exact. What he saw had a two-foot thick, eight to nine foot long neck. Nine-inch diameter eyes with yellow/red circles around them. And they were set at an angle from the front not on the side like a fish. He could see no visible means of propulsion as it swam toward them. It was grayish brown, covered in barnacles, rough textured and did not appear to have scales. They were six miles south of Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia, Canada. The water was 180 feet deep and flat calm. He said, “I don't want to see it again!”
Cadborosaurus
 I've got a book about the Cadborosaurus. Interesting creature. Many folks have claimed they've seen the Cadborosaurus in Cadboro Bay, British Columbia just north of Vancouver. It has been seen down as far south as Oregon. All up and down the Pacific Coast there. A baby one three meters long was found inside the stomach of a sperm whale. They say the creature has a long neck, short pointed front flippers and a horse-like head. These two pilots saw one here recently. They reported seeing Caddy over there in British Columbia. A man caught one and had it in a bucket in his boat! He drew that sketch of it. It was sixteen inches long. This is found on page 57 of the book. He said it was scratching the bucket trying to get out, so he felt kind of bad. He thought it was going to die, so he threw it over board.
This book Monster! Monster!-we have it available from our ministry. It is all about North American sightings of creatures similar to Loch Ness Monster.
Lake Memphremagog Monster
 I talked to this man in the photo. His name is Jacques Boisvert. He's a Canadian fellow. He speaks French and he speaks English pretty well. I talked to Jacques Boisvert for three hours. He said, “Mr. Hovind, I collect sightings of the Lake Memphremagog Monster.” It is a big lake that goes from Vermont up into Quebec, Canada. Jacques videotapes interviews with the folks. He doesn't allow them to practice his live first time videotape interview. He has doctors, corporate vice presidents, lots of people who have claimed they've seen the Lake Memphremagog Monster.
Other North American Sightings (and Vietnam)
The Block Ness Monster
Something has been seen and reported in the Potomac River. They say it has a striking resemblance to the Loch Ness Monster.
This creature washed up on the coast of Rhode Island a couple of years ago on Block Island. So of course they called it the Block Ness Monster. It was fourteen feet long and somebody stole the bones. Now nobody knows where it is. It has disappeared.
Erie's Bessie
 There is a big lake in America called Lake Erie. There have lots of folks who have claimed they've seen the Erie Monster. “Erie's Besse matches Nessie.” They say the creature is 35 feet long and has a snake-like head. Many folks have claimed they've seen the Lake Erie Monster. It's reported in the newspaper from time to time. Boaters spot the Erie Monster here in Ontario. They say the creature “Moved up and down not side to side like a snake.”
I talked to John Kraft. My interviewed with him is on videotape number two. He said, “Mr. Hovind, when I saw that creature, the head was out of the water first. By the time I got my camera set up and focused in, the head was down and all I got was the back. Sorry about that. But that's the picture I got.”
 In 1998, I talked to Pete Peterson who lives in Cleveland, Ohio. He said he was walking on the beach about six years earlier and found a dead baby creature three feet long. The seagulls had been pecking at it. Pete took it home with him and mounted it. He's a taxidermist. He said this creature was lying on the beach of Lake Erie. Strange looking little fellow. Four flippers and has a tail sort of like a fish. He said it had something like pouches on the side of its cheeks. Carl Baugh bought it and it's in the museum in Glen Rose, Texas now. They've done a DNA analysis and a CAT scan x-ray. It had a fish hook stuck up in its head. Apparently somebody caught it sometime in the past and broke the line. The fish hook is still in there, it shows up on the CAT scan. Strange little critter.
Massachussetts There is a place called Scituate, Massachusetts that is south of Boston where this creature washed up on the beach in 1970. I talked to the lady who was the first one there on the scene. The lady and a sheriff at 2 o'clock in the morning, they had both heard about this creature on the radio or something, and came to see it before it got all chopped up. By the time they got pictures of it, everyone had been out there hacking off pieces to have a piece of the sea monster. So it is all chopped up in this picture. But it was 50 feet long. They said laying on the beach it was about eight feet thick. They said you could smell it about three miles away. Everybody argued about what it was. Finally the health department came and took dynamite and blew it back into the ocean. They said that they didn't want 50 feet of rotten meat laying on the beach right here near a major city. And they argued about it for a long time. And the people from Wood's Hole Oceanographic Center said it's a basking shark. Typical response. And the other folks that saw it said,”Hey look, it was not a basking shark, it was a sea serpent.” I don't know, you can argue with them if you'd like.
California's Nessie
On the coast of California, in Monterey Bay, something washed up on the beach in 1925. It came to be known as”California's Nessie”. There is an article from Skin Diver Magazine about”California's Nessie”. We sell the book at our ministry called Shipwrecks and Sea Monsters of California's Central Coast. Here are a few pages from that book. Here you can see the head of that creature as it lay on  the beach. The guy in the background has a rifle in case it moves again. The neck was 20 feet long. Some people tried to say it was some rare form of beached whale. Excuse me? Show me any neck on a whale! Talk about a rare form! The guys who examined it, like the president of the Natural History Society in British Columbia, said, “My examination of the monster was quite thorough. It had no teeth. Its head is large and the neck is 20 feet long. I would call it a type of plesiosaurus.” People watched it get killed a couple of days earlier. Some fishermen had seen it fighting with a group of seals. And apparently it lost the battle and rolled up on the beach a few days later.
In the 1930s and 40s, these creatures were still being reported (same family I guess). In Monterey Bay you go out a few miles and it drops off to 9,000 feet deep. There is a big trench out there. Real deep water. During the 1930s and 40s the sardine fleet (which at that time was the sardine capital of the world) reported seeing something. They said one account said a whole crew, 12 men, watched this creature. One report described the creature as surfacing near a fishing boat and staring at the crew with large baleful eyes from a rounded head that topped a long slender neck. Notice the description. The head is rounded on a long skinny neck. You will see that again in just a minute. They said it stuck out of the water a distance of eight or more feet.” There is a book called Mysterious Sea Monsters of California's Central Coast. You might want to get that one.
New York City
In 1969, fishermen were scared to death when something gigantic swam under a bridge in New York City. The New York Harbor Police reported they chased this creature trying to catch it. Bigger than a whale! Nobody knows what it was!
Arkansas’ White River Monster
 There could be a few of these creatures still alive. This is called a Zeuglodon or a Basilosaurus. That might be what was seen in Newport, Arkansas in the White River. The White River is huge. I have been over it hundreds of times. My wife's parents live right near there. And I preach in that area a lot.
This photograph was taken in 1972 of what came to be known as the White River Monster. From Arkansas. Not the White Water Monster-she's in Washington-the White River Monster. Many folks claim they saw it. Now it hasn't been seen since 1972, so apparently the creature died or moved on someplace else. But they said in 1972 there was a big flood and a lot of the river filled in. It used to be 100 feet deep. Now it is only 50 feet deep. So apparently it likes deeper water or something. I don't know. But you can see the body to the right and a bunch of bumps down its back going off in a straight line to the left there. The Arkansas Senate passed a resolution in 1973. It is unlawful to “Molest, kill, trample, or harm the White River Monster.”
Florida Monsters
Down in Jupiter, Florida, which is just north of Miami, a friend of mine emailed me a letter. He said, “Mr. Hovind, during the 1950s I was flying (he has a small plane) off the coast of Jupiter, Florida. “I was seven or eight miles out over the Gulf Stream. The water was glass calm. Suddenly I saw an animal. Its head came out of the water and its eyes stayed trained on me as I made another pass. It appeared to be thirty-plus feet long. Having seen the creature taken by the Japanese fishing boat and later the drawing in the National Enquirer I would say this is the same creature. I did not tell anyone for fear they would think I was nuts! I was working for Pratt and Whitney Aircraft Co. with high security. Later my brother and I caught a pigmy sperm whale for the Miami Sea Aquarium. (Captain Gray). I hope this will further support your belief.”
Almost every week, somebody will come to me after a seminar and say, “Mr. Hovind, I saw something. But I've never told anybody because they'd think I was crazy!”
Vietnam
I had a guy tell me, “Mr. Hovind, I was in Vietnam and I heard about reports of the local people being afraid of some creature near Saigon in the river there. Some big dinosaur-like creature in the river. I thought it was a bunch of baloney. I was home on R and R, I was in Saigon and I was on a Ferris wheel. He said I happened to be at the top of the Ferris wheel while they were loading someone into the bottom chairs. I looked out over the river and I saw this creature with its head sticking up out of the water like a snake. But the head was five or six feet out of the water. Swimming along like a periscope on a submarine. You are right. There are creatures like this still alive!”
Champ
 There is a lake between New York and Vermont called Lake Champlain. It's a big lake. Many folks have reported the Lake Champlain Monster. It appears in newspapers up in that region all of the time. This book is finally out of print, I wish we still had it. Maybe they will reprint it again. But as of January 99 they stopped printing the book. This book is called Champ: Beyond the Legend. About the Lake Champlain Monster. I called the lady that took the photograph; her name is Sandi Mansi. She agreed to meet with me. So I met with Sandi and we got a video camera and we set it up at her antique's shop and it's on videotape number two. You can listen to Sandi describe the creature that she saw. She and her husband and two kids watched it for ten minutes. I said, “Sandi, do you think you saw a dinosaur?” She said, “Oh no, Mr. Hovind I know I saw a dinosaur!” This was just in 1977.
In 1998, Discover Magazine reported in Lake Champlain, “Fifty eight passengers. aboard the Ethan Allan reported that a creature 30 to 35 feet long with three to five humps cruised with the boat about 200 feet off the port side for five minutes.” “Don't tell me it was a carp or a sturgeon,” said the skipper. “If it was a fish, it weighed 3,000 or 5,000 pounds.”
Somebody tried to tell Sandi Mansi that what she saw was a duck. You can listen to her on the videotape. She said, “If that was a duck, it was a 2,000-pound duck!!”
The Bible talks about the dragons in the waters. Dragons in the sea. You know it's obvious that dinosaurs, if they are still living, the ones in the water would be the last ones killed. It's a lot harder to exterminate them than it is the ones on land.
A Florida Account
In Pensacola, Florida, where I live, in 1962 five teenagers decided to go scuba diving. If you go off the coast about two miles there is an old sunken ship right off the harbor where the Navy base is. Here is the story that Edward Brian McCleary wrote. He was the only survivor. Five teenagers went scuba diving out by this sunken ship in 1962. Edward lives in Jacksonville, Florida now and he refuses to talk about it. After this happened, he became an alcoholic and a drug addict. He's right now a recovering alcoholic thirty-some years later. Here is his story. He said, “We were in an Air Force rescue raft bound for a sunken ship a few miles off the coast. Midway out, we were caught in a storm and dragged out to sea. When the storm cleared, we were in a dense fog..We began to hear strange noises, rather like the splashing of a porpoise. also a sickening odor like that of dead fish. The noise got closer to the raft and it was then we heard a loud hissing sound. Out in the fog we saw what looked like a long pole, about ten feet high, sticking straight up out of the water. On top was a bulb like structure.” Like a light bulb? Round with a beak on it. “It bent in the middle and went under. It appeared several more times getting closer to the raft.” “The silence was broken once again by something out of the fog. I can only describe it as a high-pitched whine. We panicked. All five of us put on our fins and went into the water..'Keep together and try for the ship,' I yelled. After we were in the water we became split up in the fog. From behind I could hear the screams of my comrades one by one. I got a closer look at the thing just before my last friend went under. The neck was about twelve feet long, brownish- green and smooth looking. The head was like that of a sea-turtle except more elongated, with teeth..There appeared to be what looked like a dorsal fin when it dove under for the last time. Also, as best I am able to recall, the eyes were green with oval pupils.” His four friends got eaten by it. He heard them screaming as they went under. He said, “I finally made it to the ship, the top of which protruded from the water, and stayed there for most of the night, early that morning I swam to shore and was found by the rescue unit.” Only survivor.
 In late 1998, I was preaching in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida. A lady came up to me after the service, and I told this story, and she said, “Mr. Hovind, my name is Val Bill. My step-son, Larry Bill, was one of the boys that was eaten.” She said his dad was involved in search and rescue for the president. He was real high up in Navy Search and Rescue. And he was in charge of trying to find his own son and they searched for days and didn't find a clue. One body was found. One boy apparently panicked and drowned. The other three apparently were eaten. You can call Val Bill. Her address is 612 Powell Dr. N.E., Fort Walton Beach, FL 32547. You can write her a letter.
In Panama City, Florida there has been something seen there several times too. I talked to a youth director at the Lutheran Mission. His name is Ray Angerman. He said, “Mr. Hovind, my youth group traveled over the bridge into Panama City and we saw a creature just like that sketch right there. We were afraid to tell anybody because they would think we were crazy.” There is a book in the library called Monsters of the Deep by Thomas Helm. He was a biology teacher in Crestview, Florida. He just died a few years ago, but Thomas Helm wrote a book after he and his wife saw a creature in Panama City.
Pterodactyls
There could be a few pterodactyls still alive. They are usually classified as dinosaurs, though technically they are not.
Kongomato
 In Africa, they call it the Kongamato. I was sitting in my office one day and I got a phone call and the man on the other end of the phone said, “Mr. Hovind my name is Romandi”. I forget his last name, but they call him “Steve” because his African name is a real long name. He said, “I'm a student at Louisiana State University.” LSU. Here is his phone number (612) 933-7895. He said, “I live in Kenya Africa. I'm over here as an exchange student.” He said, “You mentioned that there were pterodactyls still alive? We've got them in my village back home. They are only about a four feet wing span. They come out at night. Nobody likes them. Their favorite food is rotting human flesh. So if you bury somebody and you don't bury them deep enough, Kongamato will dig them up and eat them.” Four-foot wing span.
An African explorer named Melland kept hearing reports about a creature named Kongamato who is supposed to live in the swamps near Rhodesia in the Belgian Congo. The natives told him it was a bird. But not exactly a bird, more like a lizard with wings of skin like a bat's. When he showed them pictures of a pterodactyl and other animals, “All immediately plumpted for the pterodactyl, excitedly muttering kongamato!”
Folks, have we been lied to about dinosaurs being dead for millions of years?
Bird with No Feathers
A couple of cowboys apparently shot a pterodactyl in Arizona. It appeared in the Tombstone Newspaper about 100 years ago. They said, “Nobody's going to believe us! We shot a giant bird with no feathers!” So they cut off part of the wings and took them back to the saloon and showed the boys at the saloon. Saying look what we did fellows. We shot a giant bird with no feathers. It's in the Tombstone Epitaph Newspaper April 26, 1890.
Venezuelan “Giant Bat”
A missionary from Venezuela came to me a few months ago in November of 1998. His name is Adam Hutchison. He said, “Mr. Hovind, I'm a missionary in Venezuela. The natives in our area keep talking about this animal that they are scared to death of. A big flying animal. They killed one of them about 30 years ago.” Here is the story he told me. “There is a giant bat that they feared greatly. It was said to capsize canoes and even carry off Indians!” Adam told me that, “Indians, terrified of this great 'bat' had sent their bravest men to the head of the river where they killed the creature about 30 years ago and buried it near the Muwada River. (Muwada means bat dung in their language) When Clint (another missionary) showed the Indians a picture of a pterodactyl their eyes got as big as saucers and they said, 'That is the bat!' They positively identified this 'extinct' dinosaur as the bat that lived just a few miles from their village. Even today the Indians will not fish or drink from the river for fear of this creature.” Here is Adam's phone number 615-612-2586, you can call him and talk to him about it. He's a missionary down there.
Orang-Bati
There is an island called Seram off the coast of New Guinea an Indonesian island chain. Missionary Tyson Hughes told William Gibbons (my friend in Canada) that local people say there is a creature down there four and a half feet tall that has leathery wings. They call is Orang-Bati, which means: man with wings. They say the creature comes especially when you are fishing. He tries to steal your fish away from you. It's not a seagull. Carl Baugh has made several trips to Papua New Guinea where there are many reports of a creature like the pterodactyl. And again they say its favorite food is decaying humans and it glows in the dark!
One missionary told me when I was preaching in Bloomington, Illinois, that he was spear fishing under the water and his wife was holding a flashlight in the canoe so he could see. And this creature with about a four-foot wing span came in there and hovered over the top of her and was glowing. And whatever was glowing was dripping off. All that they could figure was that it must have been some kind of bioluminescent creature. When this animal goes and hangs in a cave little creatures get on its skin and as the animal flies they fall off. No one knows for sure. But the reports are that it glows in the dark.
The Thunderbird
 The Su Indians watched the creature get hit by lighting. It came to be known as the Thunderbird. When they found the bones three days later, they said it had a 20 foot wing span, had a bump on the back of its head and teeth in its beak. The legend of the Thunderbird existed all over, up and down the West Coast of America. Henry Ford put an eagle on the taillight of his thunderbird. It should have been a pterodactyl Henry!
Here is an Indian prayer stick from Colorado. It's in a museum right now in Manitou Springs. Showing the head of a pterodactyl.
When Marquette and Joliet traveled down the Mississippi in the 1600s, they  saw this big ugly bird painted on a cliff. They asked the Indians, “What is this big bird?” The Indians said, “Oh, that's a Piasa bird. It used to swoop down and pick up Indians and carry them away. But a great chief prayed and the Great Spirit gave him a plan and he killed the great bird.” Well the Indians moved out involuntarily and the white man moved in and the painting faded away. About a couple hundred years later people said,”Hey, you know we ought to put that painting back up on the cliff.” So it's on the Illinois side, just north of Alton, Illinois. They put the painting back up. All that they had at that time was a verbal description so they did the best they could. They got tired of painting this thing every year so they put a big metal plaque up. In the picture you can see me down below for scale. They finally took the plaque down in 1996. I went to Alton, Illinois and picked up the phone book and looked up the word Piasa. I found 25 listings.
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Creation Science Evangelism
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Kent Hovind OFFICIAL |
Copyright © 1999. Made available on the Internet by Michel Snoeck, A.D. 2003.
This page revised:
6 August, 2019
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