Moon Lake and the Devil Creatures

Charlie claimed to have arrived in Thomas Bay, but could not find the half-moon shaped lake. Instead he spent some time off an S-shaped lake (actually called Ess Lake). He claimed that the surrounding area seemed oddly devoid of life; there were no squirrels, no birds, etc. Wanting to get his bearings after he found the large chunk of quartz he later brought back in his canoe, he climbed to the top of a ridge. From there he could spot Frederick Sound, Cape of the Straight Light, the point of Vanderput Spit (Point Vanderput), and Sukhoi Island from the mouth of Wrangell Narrows. Behind the ridge, Charlie finally spotted the half-moon shaped lake, which is where the Patterson Glacier ends at a lake which drains into the Patterson River.

It was from this point that Charlie claims that a swarm of "devil creatures" were making their way up the ridge from the half-moon shaped lake. Charlie claimed that he barely managed to outrun the strange creatures and that he received several scratches along his back from them. He never returned to the area.

Strangest Story Ever

The people who have had encounters with these creatures seem to go into hysterics and are usually deemed "temporarily insane." The creatures have always been described as looking neither like man or monkey, but covered with coarse hair and oozing sores. They are foul smelling. They are about 4 feet (1.2 m) tall and have claw-like fingers.

In 1925, a trapper reported losing a dog in the hills around Thomas Bay, but finding strange tracks, with the hind feet resembling a cross between a bear's and a human's footprints. The trapper returned later to find the traps he had hastily left; some were sprung, some were not. Some were destroyed. He set out to try to find his dog, and was never seen again.

In 1974 Harry Colp's daughter Virginia was interviewed by writer Irving Warner in Petersburg, Alaska. She had helped her father in the production of the story, and was extremely familiar with it. She was sure of the basic veracity of her father's narrative with regard to how he saw and lived it. She said that she could not, and would not, say whether her father′s story was true, false, or some sort of mental aberration. She did, however, express confidence in her father's abilities and truthfulness. Naturally, she had fielded many questions about it afterwards. She did say that large amounts of arsenic were alleged to be present in the watershed at Thomas Bay, which might or might not help to explain the strange events reported by visitors. (addition by I.W.)