The Summer of Skunkape, Skunkape sightings in August of 1971

         

Pictured Above: The Myakka photo, showing a purported skunkape, often times compared with an orangutan, and in some ways meeting the description of creatures in this article.


The Summer of Skunkape?


    The 1970s were a golden age for Bigfoot in the United States, the 70s saw the recent release of the Patterson-Gimlin film, at that point the best and clearest evidence for the creature that took the country by storm, later in the seventies would see the release of the Beast of Boggy Creek, a horror film that would become a cult classic, and later still, the release of “In Search of” with episodes related specifically to the Bigfoot. Against this backdrop, and even before such classics as “Boggy Creek” early in the decade South Florida saw a rash of Skunkape sightings in what I call a ‘Summer of Skunkape.”


It’s a balmy late July in south florida in 1971. Two children near Ft. Lauderdale claim to have been terrorized by a creature that they did not recognize. The little girl saw it first, and it elicited a scream from her, prompting her older brother to come to her rescue, where he yelled at the creature twice to scare it away, where it hopped under the brush. The children later described the beast to a rabies control officer Henry Ring as it being “really big, hairy, small eyes, a monkey face and long arms with grey splotches all over the body.” With the children adding “it was bigger than daddy.” The children were certainly shaken up, and their father called the authorities to report what had happened, and a few days later the Rabies Control Officer Henry Ring arrived on the scene and began investigating. Ring, with the help of men on the scene, attempted to track the animals, and they found indication of two monkey type creatures. Ring stated that they had “found tracks Farther than 4-5 feet apart with knuckle prints interspersed between them” further stating the tracks were “14-15 inches long.” 


Later on residents were reported to have formed an armed posse to look for the creatures, with multiple people reporting something strange. Newspaper reports from august 13,1971 report that Henry Ring, the Rabies Control Officer, led the armed poses and is quoted as saying “There was something strange out there, I don't know if it was an ape or not, but it was something strange.” Another man reported hearing something strange outside his trailer, and when he went outside something shot off into the woods, multiple residents also reported that the local dogs were barking more than usual and “raising Caine.” Ring was also reported to have said “I read that story about Skunkape the other day, and I didn’t believe, but when I got out there tonight though i got to wondering.” It is worth noting, that earlier in the summer there had been skunkape reports out of Miami that a skunkape lived in “Big Cyprus.”I am not sure yet, but I believe that initial report is from the Miami paper the “Sun Sentinel” which I wrote about in this post.  


https://cryptidhistory.blogspot.com/2022/03/native-legend-or-modern-nonsense.html


What appears to be happening in this instance, is an original sighting or report being written about in the paper, and having a rash of sightings later on. Indeed, the sightings continued in august in other newspaper reports. On August 16th the Ocala Banner Star reported that a woman,Mrs. King,  had seen a 5 ft “Everglades ape.” This particular report is especially fantastical, she reported that she saw the creature on her back porch, described it as grayish with sores on the body,(in keeping with earlier descriptions) about 5 foot tall with long arms and fingers, big feet, and teeth like a dog. The creature eventually fled, and while this instance may be strange, what happened the next day takes the cake. 


The next morning she claims that her poodle was barking at something on the back porch, when she went to investigate she discovered a small ape, this one only two feet tall. She describes this smaller creature as reddish brown in color, and claimed that both this, and the previous creature, reminded her of an orangutan. This is where the story really delves into the fantastic, she then claims that she made a salad plate, and walked out on the porch and offered it to the creature. The animal then accepted the food, and she was able to get so close she was able to stroke it on the arm TWICE. As the creature became more comfortable she says she heard a grunting noise from the woods nearby, and the small creature then scratched her ankle and fled away.  Henry Ring, the rabies officer, late came out to investigate, and also found foot and knuckle prints at the scene. 

This rash of sightings eventually calmed down, and at the end of the month an article was published in Sports Illustrated about the Skunkape of Florida that acts as a nice sort of cap for all of these other reported sightings.  The Sports Illustrated article titled “HE'S BIG! HE'S BASHFUL! HE SMELLS BAD!” By pat Putnam was published Aug 30th 1971 describes several of the August incidents and offers some context for the sightings outside of what occurred in the trailer park. The author sets the stage for the rash of sightings at the trailer park by relaying an incident where an 18 year old on lovers lane was supposedly knocked unconscious by a “6 foot shadowy creature” and also relays the story of Homer Osbon, who along with his cohorts in the peninsular archaeological society claim to have seen a skunkape in the Everglades while they were exploring ‘ancient ruins’ in the Everglades. 


  The author writes that the skunkape is “A five foot, skinny armed, otherwise overweight monster, one apparently racked with mange and smelling like an old garbage dump.” And goes on to say “ At the moment no one knows for sure where the skunkape came from, wether it is an overgrown chimp that escaped an old Tarzan movie set, or an orangutan that died a bankrupt Wild West show in Ft. Lauderdale, or perhaps just a little monkey greatly magnified by imagination.” The sports illustrated author offers several potential explanations for the skunkape, but does not imply that it is a Bigfoot like creature, not in any meaningful way anyway. 


Something was going on in South Florida in August of 1971. As near as I can tell so far the whole flap was started when the exploits of Homer C. Osbon and friends were published in some Miami newspapers. It seems these stories made their way into the ether, and eventually into the kings estate trailer park, where first children, and then adults began seeing something strange. The frequency of the encounters, and the evidence that was gathered by Officer Henry Ring points to something. It is interesting to note that while the size fluctuates in the sightings of this creature, it doesn’t really exceed six feet in height, and while footprints are discovered, they are not described as particularly human like, instead they always have the accompanying ‘and knuckle prints interspersed between the footprints.” Nor is the creature described as bi pedal.  If these people saw anything, much like the Sports Illustrated Article posited, it was likely some sort of ape that had escaped from a movie set or zoo that had managed to procreate with a partner, with the adult suffering from mange. All the tell tale signs are there, several people mentioned that it looked to them like an orangutan, knuckle prints, etc. What’s not there are descriptions that make this creature sound like a Bigfoot. 


What is the skunkape? Well that all depends on who you ask, and when. In these early days in south Florida you would probably get a much more ape like description, and be able to go with the assumption that the skunkape is some sort of escaped ape, possibly an orangutan, or even just gross exaggerations of the size of monkey sightings, we know for sure there are monkeys in florida, I have seen photos of them as far north as St. Augustine and other locations throughout the state.  In more recent history the descriptions are more in line with the descriptions of Bigfoot. Why the change? Is it possible there are two species of ape like creature living in florida, or that these people saw an escaped or invasive species of ape, and that they did not see the native Bigfoot style creature? Sure, but certainly not probable, and cryptid enthusiasts need to make peace with that. Is it possible that the Beast of Boggy Creek movie had a disproportionate effect on all later sightings? From where I’m sitting, definitely yes.


This period in Skunkape history in florida seems like a strange time, where things were sort of in flux,and I plan on reading, researching,and eventually writing more on this time period in the future. Understanding these early days of sightings is important to understanding the evolution of the so called skunkape in the minds of Floridians and popular culture at large. 

Comments