Things that go "bump" in the night...

[The_Universe]

I'm sure there are mountains lions in the western quarter or so of the state - where the mountains are.

The Universe is talking about sightings of mysterious cats on the plains. There have been sightings of anything from panthers to pumas in the far eastern side of the state - hundreds of miles from where any mountain cats could or should be found. Once every couple of years - there will be a rash of sightings or complaints of livestock being ripped apart and eatten, but nothing is ever confirmed/no giant cat is ever found.

It is very creepy.

At the very least, it's cryptozoological, as even the Black Hills are more than 400 miles from where I grew up. There's no native mountain lion and/or cougar population until you hit the Hills.

 

[cuteasaurus]

Well now there are mountain lions all OVER the state...not just the mtns. My mom no longer lets my younger siblings outside unsupervised. :S

 

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

"Mountain lions" aren't restricted to the mountains by any means (panthers, pumas, cougars, mountain lions, and catamounts - yes, even catamounts! - are all one species, Felis or sometimes Puma concolor). They're quite happy in a wide range of environments, mountains, plains, forests, swamps, etc. Most sightings by random Joe Schmoes aren't
actually pumas for sure though, mostly large house cats. It often reminds me of the guy in my condo complex who was frantically taking pictures of a buzzard (turkey vulture), convinced it was a california condor.
http://www.easterncougarnet.org/prairiestates.html has a map of plains sightings.

They may be happy in a wide range of environments, but eastern South Dakota - to the best of my knowledge - is not home to many large cats. There may well be some but, I would be completely, utterly, and incredibly shocked to see a big cat of any variety on the highway or in a pasture.

This thread is about spooky stuff that creeps people our, tarchon. Why the attempts to discredit the creepiness of a story? Just have fun with it!

 

[The_Universe]

"Mountain lions" aren't restricted to the mountains by any means (panthers, pumas, cougars, mountain lions, and catamounts - yes, even catamounts! - are all one species, Felis or sometimes Puma concolor). They're quite happy in a wide range of environments, mountains, plains, forests, swamps, etc. Most sightings by random Joe Schmoes aren't
actually pumas for sure though, mostly large house cats. It often reminds me of the guy in my condo complex who was frantically taking pictures of a buzzard (turkey vulture), convinced it was a california condor.
http://www.easterncougarnet.org/prairiestates.html has a map of plains sightings.

You're pretty determined to suck the creepy right out of this thread, eh?

The dude wanted creepy stories, I gave him a little cryptozoology (even on the link you gave, the closest sighting was 200 miles from the area in question and only a "class 2" confirmation - in other words, about as reliable as a bigfoot sighting. ).

Let's get back to the creepy. Please.

 

[The_Universe]

Well now there are mountain lions all OVER the state...not just the mtns. My mom no longer lets my younger siblings outside unsupervised. :S

That's because you lived near the hills of the Missourri river, which *do* have a documented Mt. Lion population.

 

[cuteasaurus]

Yes, but the point was the "territory" of the mt lion is not what it used to be since they've been pushed out of the west (via starvation) and now are infiltrating previously mt.lion-free areas. But, since that isn't the pt of the thread...I'm done now. Continue with the creepy stories.

 

[tarchon]

I'd think cougars would be a lot scarier if you knew for sure they were there. After that mountain biker got killed (and apparently partly eaten) by one here in OC last year, cougar anxiety has become a real phenomenon. They're usually very shy, so you don't tend to see them all that often, even if quite a few are around. A friend of mine in Phoenix who worked with cougars could spot them regularly in South Mountain Park with binoculars from his house back in the 90s, and they actually caught one in '96. Far as any one knows, there aren't any there now, but it's still probably not a good place to let your dogs or kids wander around unsupervised.

 

[RedWick]

Bring about the true creepiness! I want to not be able to sleep tonight by noon tomorrow!

Wait...that didn't make any sense, did it?

...

Bugger...

Anywho, while I don't have anything creepy, per se, I do have something that borders on the strange. Every great once in a while, just before I go to bed, I'll have a particular song stuck in my head. Then as drift off to sleep and I'm hovering in that strange place between wakefulness and being asleep, I find the song I'm listening to turns into what almost sounds like a symphony and chorus. It only happens as I'm just about to drift off to sleep, and the second I become aware of it, I'm brought back to wakefulness and it disappears. Very pretty sounding, but the music isn't such that I'm activly able to recall what it sounds like.

 

[adwyn]

Several years ago a friend of mine bought an old dilapidated victorian house that exuded "haunted" by its very appearance. To top it off every one said it was, including several notable state politicians who had stayed in it during the legislative sessions.

Scoffing at the suggestion my friend started into remodeling. It was nearly two years before he got to the third floor, the reputed sight of a lady in white. One winter night while working on a ladder he was startled to see an hourglass figure in white shoot across the room, so startled he fell off. After a couple of days stay he gathered up several friends with science degrees, including a forensics pathologist, and we literally tore the third floor apart trying to figure out what he had seen.

We found nothing, and teased him about the sighting for years. Still, several of the borders he took in also told about seeing the woman in a tight corset running down the hall or in the large third floor room. A couple of books even mentioned the house, much to my friend's chagrin.

This went on for more than ten years. Then the neighbors sold their house to an out of state couple who remodeled it in the most garish of colors. The next sighting of the lady in white suddenly became a lady in red - the sight was actually car headlights reflecting off of two mirrors and through an attic window in the neighbors house.

 

[Jerome Steelsides]

I don't have a link handy, but do a check on the Net for recordings of supposed Bigfoot howls. Sure, I heard about how they might be faked, but listen to 'em and tell me *you* wouldn't be freaked out if you heard that noise. A particularly creepy one is from Snoqualmie, Washington (I think).