By Dennis Detwiller, ©1998
DATE: June 8 to July 2, 1996
AGENTS: Ivan, Irene, Weston, Irving (D) and Louis (D) (Friendly)
SUMMARY: Investigation into the disappearance of loggers in the area of Clastenbury Mountain, Vermont.
CASE STATUS: Open.
Reported locally, the disappearance of James Thurall and his associate Mark Eubell was marked for investigation by the organization by a friendly in the police department. The two men had been employed by the Weston Logging Consortium on a six-month contract to remove fourteen acres of old growth from the west face of Clastenbury Mountain, Vermont.
Small six-man teams worked in tandem on different sites on the mountain, moving the logs down in trucks to the consortium¼s site at the base of Clastenbury Mountain. On the morning of 6JUN96, Thurall and Eubell arrived at their central site excited, saying that they had located some odd stones near the peak of the mountain. They retrieved some dynamite, and after attempting to get the rest of their team (Team 9) to follow (each declined, it was a long walk), headed up the mountain. It was the last time either of them was seen.
At about 10:30 AM, a large explosion was heard, and not thought unusual, was ignored.
By 7:30 PM, Team 9 had organized a search with members from other teams, and moved up the mountain with flashlights, looking for Eubell and Thurall. The search was called at 12:00 AM due to poor visibility and poor weather. The local authorities were alerted.
The next morning, a forty-man search party combed the mountain, the story made the local newspaper, and the site of standing stones Eubell and Thurall had reported was discovered.
Our local police friendly Louis (see profile) was on the team that discovered the site. The organization was notified of the incident on the afternoon of 8JUN96.
The organization arrived with the cover story that several survivalists were known to be hiding out in the area. The fictitious individuals were wanted for murder in Connecticut and Massachusetts as federal fugitives. The case was glossed over into federal jurisdiction with a little help from friendlies on the inside.
On 9JUN96 Louis led I Cell to the site on Clastenbury Mountain. It was a circle of small, exactingly cut, standing black stones with odd sigils incised into them. Extensive photos were taken. Irving noted that several dozen old trees grew all over the site, and that Thurall and Eubell most likely wanted to remove the stones to get at the old growth. In addition, an explosion mark was discovered on the ground next to one of the stones, and had damaged a tree. The explosion (Irving estimates it to be about two sticks of dynamite), left the stone unmarked except for a dry patina of blood, but the tree next to the burn was pulverized.
Louis drew our attention to the center of the stones. A large oblong hoofed footprint was visible. Several other footprints were located heading up into the thicker treeline on the ridge. Louis informed the team that local legends reported that these stones had been built by alien creatures. We were referred to Old Thomas, a man who lived on nearby Whistler mountain. Thomas, a full-blooded Pennacock Indian was a local repository of legends and rumors about the mountains of Vermont.
Thomas knew of the standing circle of stones and the legends of the creatures connected to them, although he knew nothing that could make a footprint like the team had photographed at the site. The creatures who made the stones were known to his people since the world was made he claimed, they were called “The Winged Ones” and lived on a star in the constellation called the Great Bear. Thomas located on a map four other sets of standing stones which he claimed were the same as the one on Clastenbury Mountain.
After a long discussion (wherein Ivan convinced Thomas that indeed they had seen similar things), Thomas admitted to having seen the creatures in the past on Clastenbury Mountain. In 1926, he had followed a local bootlegger up the face of the mountain at night in the hopes of locating his still and whiskey. He came upon a standing circle of stones lit by odd lights. When he approached, he discovered that the bootlegger was engaged in conversation with three “Winged Ones” whose heads were glowing odd colors and who spoke with high, reedy, buzzing voices. Thomas blundered home through the woods, and believes he was pursued for some distance. For two nights his shack was assaulted by the creatures and the bootlegger. This siege ended with his dog being killed and left in front of his door. Thomas believes this was a warning. The bootlegger later was found decapitated by a shotgun blast on Clastenbury Mountain. Thomas never returned to the site. Thomas was given contact information for Ivan.
Ivan set about examining the odd markings on the standing stones. His extensive background in cryptography and mathematics made him the only person in the group with a chance at deciphering them. Ivan was left at the hotel to pursue this line of inquiry. The rest of the team joined a search party organized on 10JUN96 to scour Clastenbury Mountain.
About thirty people, along with Louis, the local sheriff, and others moved in a line up the side of the mountain, starting at about 3:30 PM due to poor weather.
At 6:30 PM or so, upon reaching the crest of the mountain, the group was confronted by a creature. About thirty feet tall, it seemed to simply step from a copse of trees. It had three or four huge hoofed feet and a half-dozen prehensile tentacles which stretched more than thirty feet from the top of its body. Its body was covered in a half-dozen shark-like mouths. A firefight ensued. The sheriff, Louis, and Irving were killed almost instantly as the creature charged their portion of the line. Bullets had little effect.
The creature bounded around, lashing out at members of the search party, chasing down and eating others. Few escaped. Those that had success in avoiding the creature’s attacks invariably stood still or hid near the base of trees and froze. Those running seemed to attract the attention of the creature. Only seventeen people made it off the mountain; of them, four were seriously injured, seven were hospitalized with mental difficulties, and two later committed suicide.
Agents Weston and Irene returned to the hotel and found that Ivan had checked out. His personal effects and the photographs from the standing stones were gone. Weston contacted a friendly at the New Brunswick New Jersey National Guard Armory.
On 29JUN96 Weston and Irene returned to Vermont and destroyed all five standing stone sites on Clastenbury Mountain with plastic explosives. No other sightings of the creature have been reported in the area.
No cover story was offered for Irving’s prescence on the mountain or the origins of the “Survivalist” story. The case is now really being investigated by the Bennington, Vermont FBI office.
The disappearance of Ivan has been forwarded to A Cell for investigation.
