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VOICE ONE:
This is Phoebe Zimmerman.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English programEXPLORATIONS. Many people in America’s Pacific Northwest believe inthe existence of an animal that is half human and half ape. Otherpeople have reportedly seen a huge creature in a famous lake inScotland. Today we tell about these and several other mysteriouscreatures.
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VOICE ONE:
In nineteen-fifty-eight a young man named Jerry Crew was on hisway to work. Mister Crew worked for the Wallace Construction Companyin Humboldt County, northern California. Mister Crew drove largeconstruction equipment for the company. It had rained for the pastseveral days and the area where the construction vehicles were keptwas very wet and muddy.
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As Jerry Crew walked toward the vehicle he would drive that day,he saw something extremely unusual. What he saw frightened him.There, in the mud, were footprints — footprints that were almostten times larger than a normal human foot.
Newspaper reporters found out about the huge footprints. Theytalked to Mister Crew and took pictures of the footprints. Theypublished stories all over California. One newspaper story calledthe creature that made the prints “Bigfoot.”
VOICE ONE:
In nineteen-sixty-seven a mannamed Roger Patterson used a small movie camera to take pictures ofan ape-like creature moving from a clear area into a forest. Manypeople said this proved Bigfoot was real. The movie pictures showeda large ape-like creature walking on two large feet.
Over the years, books and magazine stories were printed aboutBigfoot using photographs from Mister Patterson’s film. Large groupsof people spent their holiday time searching forests for Bigfoot.Many people worked long hours in an effort to prove that Bigfootexists.
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In two-thousand-two a man named Ray Wallace died of heartfailure. He was the man who owned the Wallace Construction Companywhere the mystery creature’s foot prints first appeared. Soon afterMister Wallace’s death, his family told reporters that MisterWallace had invented Bigfoot. They told how he had made huge feetout of wood and tied them to his shoes. They said Ray Wallace leftthe footprints that Jerry Crew found. They said Ray Wallace had donethis as a joke.
The Wallace family said the joke became bigger and bigger. Theysaid Ray Wallace just could not stop. He was having too much fun.For example, in nineteen-sixty-seven he dressed his wife in a monkeysuit with large feet. Ray Wallace and Roger Patterson filmed herwalking into the woods. That film became famous among people whoreally believed the creature existed.
VOICE ONE:
Our story about Ray Wallace and his joke should end here. But theBigfoot story has not died with Ray Wallace. Many people say theWallace family is lying. They say Ray Wallace never made thefootprints. They say there really is a Bigfoot creature. They saysomeday someone will find the creature. These people plan tocontinue their search for Bigfoot. Several organizations of peopleare still searching for the creature. If you have a computer thatcan link with the Internet, you can find many stories about Bigfoot.
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People have always been afraid of large areas of water, sometimeswith good reason. Crocodiles and alligators have attacked people inrivers and lakes. That still happens in several areas of the world.But many people in many different countries tell of other hugecreatures that live in deep lakes. In the United States, some peoplesay a creature called Champ is living in Lake Champlain, in New Yorkstate.
These beliefs are not new. More than two-hundred years agoreports began about a creature named Selma seen in a lake in Norway.Other reports are very recent. In nineteen-ninety-seven someone tookvideo pictures of some kind of creature in Lake Van in easternTurkey.
But the most famous creature that reportedly lives in a very deeplake is the Loch Ness Monster, called Nessie. Many people believeNessie lives in Loch Ness in the highlands of Scotland. Loch Ness isthe largest freshwater lake in Britain. It is about thirty-sevenkilometers long and about two kilometers wide. Special equipmentshows it is as much as two-hundred-fifty meters deep.
The first written record of Nessie appeared in the yearfive-hundred-sixty-five. A Catholic religious leader named SaintColumba reportedly made the creature disappear after it threatenedseveral people.
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Few people visited the Loch Ness area until thenineteen-thirties. In nineteen-thirty-three a man and woman claimedto have seen a huge animal in the water. It looked like nothing theyhad ever seen before.
In nineteen-thirty-four RobertWilson took a photograph of an unusual looking animal he said he sawin Loch Ness. The photograph and a story were printed in the LondonDaily Mail newspaper. That photograph provided the best evidence ofthe creature for the next sixty years. It showed an animal with along neck sticking out of the water. It looked like some kind ofancient dinosaur.Doctor Wilson’s photograph can be seen in books,magazine stories and on many Internet Web sites about the famousLoch Ness Monster.
Over the years, scientists have investigated Loch Ness. They haveused special equipment to search the deep lake. These includespecial underwater cameras and sound equipment. Nothing of greatimportance has ever been found.
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In nineteen-ninety-three a man named Christian Spurling admittedthat he made the monster in the famous photograph. Mister Spurlingsaid this as he was dying. He said it began as a joke with hisbrother and father. His brother really took the famous photograph.Then they asked Robert Wilson to take the photograph to thenewspapers. The Loch Ness Monster became extremely famous after thephotograph was printed.
Thousands of people came to Loch Ness each year in hopes thatthey too would see the famous creature. Each year aboutone-hundred-thirty people report that they have seen Nessie or atleast something unusual in the lake. Loch Ness has hotels, museums,and boat trips that provide holidays for people hoping to see theLoch Ness Monster.
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VOICE ONE:
Many people believe in the truth of the stories about Big Foot,the Loch Ness Monster and other creatures. Research scientists saythat it is not good science to dismiss all claims of unusualanimals. For example, many scientists dismissed reports of an animalwe now know as the gorilla until scientists studied one ineighteen-forty-seven.
In nineteen-twelve reports of a huge, fierce, meat-eating lizardwere confirmed. Today we know this to be the famous Komodo dragonthat lives on a few islands of Indonesia. It is the largest lizardin the world.
In nineteen-thirty-eight fishermen caught a strange- lookingfish. Scientists recognized it as a fish they had only seen as afossil. They thought the fish had disappeared from the Earthmillions of years ago. The fish is called a coelacanth(SEE-la-canth). Coelacanths are unusual but they are still very muchalive.
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Scientists say reports from people who claim to have seen unusualcreatures are interesting. Photographs reportedly taken of suchcreatures are also interesting. However reports and photographs arenot scientific evidence.
Researchers say some claims have led to real scientific research.However, no one has found the body of Bigfoot or Nessie or the manyother creatures reported by people around the world.
Scientists must have a live animal or the body of such a creatureto prove that animals like Nessie or Bigfoot really exist. Even thebones would be valuable evidence to study. Scientists must takedetailed photographs. They must study the blood, hair, teeth, andgenetic material of the animal.
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So we have no scientific news to report about any of themysterious creatures that live on land or in deep lakes. If we dofind good scientific information about these creatures we willreport it. Until then, visiting the northwestern part of the UnitedStates or Scotland’s Loch Ness is still a great holiday — even ifyou do not see anything unusual.
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VOICE TWO:
This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced byCaty Weaver. This is Steve Ember.
VOICE ONE:
And this is Phoebe Zimmerman. Join us again next week for anotherEXPLORATIONS program in Special English on the Voice of America.