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Monuments Commemorating Fortean Phenomena & Incidents

EnolaGaia

EnolaGaia

I knew the job was dangerous when I took it ...
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It occurred to me that there are any number of threads dedicated to Fortean aspects of monuments (broadly defined ... ), but none focused on monuments which aren't 'Fortean' themselves but commemorate Fortean incidents or phenomena.

For example ...

There's the Mothman statue in Point Pleasant, West Virginia.

mothman-statue-in-point.jpg

​
As a result, I'm starting this thread to consolidate references to such monuments (broadly defined).
 
great thread idea..... I'm thinking that there must be notices about Nessie? would they count?
 
Frideswide said:
great thread idea..... I'm thinking that there must be notices about Nessie? would they count?
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My intention was to focus on public monuments / statues / markers / etc. commemorating Fortean things. The idea was to emphasize those monuments (etc.) that a community had established, so as to limit the scope to incidents a community had considered substantial enough to memorialize (however seriously / facetiously).

I was hoping to exclude private displays that just anyone may have erected (e.g., alien statues at a Roswell souvenir shop; dinosaur figures at a roadside attraction; a Noah's ark conception built as a tourist attraction).
 
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EnolaGaia said:
There's supposedly a plaque placed at the scene of the 1979 Bob Taylor / Dechmont Woods / Livingston UFO incident.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Taylor_incident

Based on this YouTube video:


... I believe the (awful) photo below is of this plaque.

This second photo shows Ron Halliday at the incident / plaque site ...


http://caledonianmercury.com/2010/0...1979-ufo-mystery-is-investigated-again/004871
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https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place...:0xb14eaaa33e2f792d!8m2!3d55.91065!4d-3.54851
Sorry about the long link...
 
EnolaGaia said:
My intention was to focus on public monuments / statues / markers / etc. commemorating Fortean things. The idea was to emphasize those monuments (etc.) that a community had established, so as to limit the scope to incidents a community had considered substantial enough to memorialize (however seriously / facetiously).
Click to expand...

it sounds really good :)
 
Sorry I don't have a picture of this one myself, as I've been here more than once. Hell, I've even had a search around the area to see if I could find remnaints of the the structure, but it's in a flood plain.

here's a link to an image on Google. You can't read the wording, but the story goes...
Hudson Bay Co. explorer Peter Fidler made contact with the Native Americans occupying the area around the Old Man River in Southern Alberta, where the various tribes would get together and play a game of skill involving a hoop, an arrow, and a field ringed with stones (see diagram on plaque).

When asked where they learned this game, he was told that many years ago, the Natives had encountered a "white" man who taught them the game, so that the various tribes could aleave aggressions through competition instead of war.

Not as overtly Fortean as the grave of an alien, but a bit of a head scratcher. If it was an earlier explorer, why did he teach them a game white men never heard of? And if it wasn't an earlier explorer of the Hudsons Bay variety, could the game have an earlier European origin?
 
Gizmos Mama said:
Sorry I don't have a picture of this one myself, as I've been here more than once. Hell, I've even had a search around the area to see if I could find remnaints of the the structure, but it's in a flood plain.

here's a link to an image on Google. You can't read the wording, but the story goes...
Hudson Bay Co. explorer Peter Fidler made contact with the Native Americans occupying the area around the Old Man River in Southern Alberta, where the various tribes would get together and play a game of skill involving a hoop, an arrow, and a field ringed with stones (see diagram on plaque).

When asked where they learned this game, he was told that many years ago, the Natives had encountered a "white" man who taught them the game, so that the various tribes could aleave aggressions through competition instead of war.

Not as overtly Fortean as the grave of an alien, but a bit of a head scratcher. If it was an earlier explorer, why did he teach them a game white men never heard of? And if it wasn't an earlier explorer of the Hudsons Bay variety, could the game have an earlier European origin?
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He may have been a Viking explorer. Maybe it was an old game they played in Greenland?
 
ramonmercado said:
Could it be: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knattleikr
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That it was possibly a Viking explorer, as far west as the eastern Rocky Mountains would be very impressive, and also (perhaps) the most realistic theory. It was also what my mind went to immediately!

Knattleikr... Hmmm, perhaps. The monument does mention that the elders would gather round to watch the young warriors participate in the game. The object was to hurl an arrow, by hand (no bow) through a rolling hoop.

Unfortunately I can't remember more, as it's been a few years since I've been down there. I also can't find the text on the monument online anywhere. It almost makes me want to go and get some really good pictures, but it's a three hour drive... one way.
 
Gizmos Mama said:
... The monument does mention that the elders would gather round to watch the young warriors participate in the game. The object was to hurl an arrow, by hand (no bow) through a rolling hoop. ...
Click to expand...

This was a widespread game among Native Americans. It's most often cited with the variable labels 'Hoop(s) and Pole(s)' or 'Ring(s) and Pole(s)'.


A brief description can be found at:

http://www.nativetech.org/games/hoop&pole.html

Natives of different groups have their own special ways to play the Hoop and Pole game, but in all the games a person tosses a long dart of some kind at a circular hoop. In this version of the game the hoop is rolled along the ground, set into motion by a third player, while the two other players throw their pole as the hoop rolls in front of them. The score depends on how or if the pole falls on or through the hoop.
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An overview of the various tribes and different versions of the game can be obtained throughout this 1904 report to the Smithsonian's Bureau of Ethnology:

https://books.google.com/books?id=F...6AEIQzAK#v=onepage&q="hoop and poles"&f=false
 
EnolaGaia said:
This was a widespread game among Native Americans
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Well then, not as mysterious as I first thought. It was probably an earlier Hudson's Bay type then, and maybe the local tribes had never heard of the game before.
 
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