The Most Pitiful & Obscure Cryptid: THE SQUONK

This teary eyed creature emerged from the Lumberwoods. What and where exactly are the Lumberwoods you might be asking? I found a passage by author William T. Cox which summarizes itperfectly, 

“The Lumberwood regions are contracting. Stretches of forest that once seemed boundless are all but gone, and many a stream is quiet that once ran full of logs and echoed to the song of the river driver.” 

I just loved that passage, so poetic. Basically, the lumberjacks of old would camp in the woods where they worked, and often they would tell strange tales around the campfires at night about creatures they had seen while working in the forest. William T. Cox's book from 1910 called Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods was a wonderful resource for this episode because it is full of weird, wonderful creatures and mountain beasts, like the Snoligoster, the tote-road Shagamaw (which resembles a large hooved faun), & my personal favorite the Squonk. Tom, I'd be willing to bet my entire creepy doll collection that not many of our listeners have heard of the Squonk.

Had you ever heard about this strange cryptid? The given 'species' taxonomy of the creature is Lacrimacorpus dissolvens, which literally translates from Latin to mean tear, body, and dissolve. Although the squonk is a curious and mysterious mythical beast, not many people outside of Pennsylvania have heard the strange tale of this quaint cryptid who is said to be fairly common in the Hemlock forest. The Squonk has got to be one of the most homely, pitiful cryptids I'd ever seen. Artist renderings depict it looking like a mix of a sharpee (you know the dogs with the wrinkly skins and fat rolls), mixed with a wart hog. He is said to have loose fitting skin, weird moles, tusks, and big sad eyes that weep constantly. Is he weeping from some weird eye condition or because he is disheartened by his dastardly portions and ill fitting skin? Whatever the case, loggers, hunters and trackers have recounted that they were able to follow his trail of unhappy tears through the hemlock forest of Pennsylvania. I want to read you guys another account from William T. Cox's book which describes an eye witness account from the early 1900's, 

“Squonk hunters are most successful on moonlit nights, when tears are shed slowly & the animal dislikes moving about. It may be heard weeping under the boughs of dark hemlock trees. Mr. J.P. Wentling formerly of Pennsylvania, but now at St. Anthony Park, Minnesota, had a disappointing experience with a Squonk near Mont Alto. He made a clever capture by mimicking the Squonk and inducing it to hop into a sack, in which he was carrying it home, when suddenly the burden lightened and the weeping ceased. Wentling unslung the sack and looked in. There was nothing but tears and bubbles.”

So basically as a defense mechanism, when it's capture it just turns into a liquid form. My question from this bizarre account is this...does it transform from the liquid back into a solid creature again? The poor miserable little creature, the Squonk, is so interesting. 

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I was actually curious about the area in Pennyslvania where the Squonk was once said to be captured,Mont Alto, so I was able to do some research and pull it up on Google Maps and investigate some of the satellite photos of the area. It nothing but a large swatch of green on the map. Now from looking at this enormous forest that borders Mont Alto called Michaux State forest, I would say it's entirely possible that an undiscovered cryptid still hides in those woods. This forlorn weeping cryptid is one of the most interesting I've discovered and I was really excited to do an episode on it. Thank you for tuning in. We should be back on schedule and will have another excellent episode for true crime tuesday. So, in the meantime be sure to like, subscribe and share us with your friends.

Click HERE to listen to the FULL EPISODE with more about the Squonk!