The Calamari Caper
Texas is the perfect place for the paranormal. Why? Cause there's just nothing else here to look at. You ride through the country and after 300 miles of nothing but miles and miles of miles and miles you start waiting for something to happen. You WANT something to happen. Your mind is just waiting for the slightest tidbit of visual stimulation so it can go off on some tangent and have you believing that there's a monster hidden just off the highway, ready to skin you alive and have your entrails for breakfast.
And maybe that explains why the residents of Spano Texas are convinced there's a monster called the desert squid attacking their livestock. Just what is a desert squid? I went to the heart of cowboy country to try and find out.
What's bothering the livestock in Spano Texas?
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You always hear about small town folk being secretive. Not so in Spano where the motto seems to be "tell the outsiders everything." Within a coupla hours of hitting town we had already been given numerous explanations on the desert squid's whereabouts and mode of operation. One local even tried to sell us a "one of a kind" tentacle. (I politely refused the offer when I discovered several more "one of a kinds" sitting in a nearby cooler.) We did pick up some serious info from one local who prefers not to be named. Mr. Z, as I'll call him, (Basically cause Freakylinks already has a MR. X) told me that the desert squid had become active in the past few months and showed me a picture of a recent cow mutilation that had been attributed to the monster. More importantly, it was while we were inside Mr. Z's camper that we had a little attack of our own.
We got the slimy thing off Chloe, who was bruised and battered but ok. After almost losing a team member to a giant tentacle in the middle of the desert I decided to call it a night and head for the hotel. But on the way there something ran across the road and hit my car. When I got out to investigate I discovered the end of a tentacle lying on the pavement. I never refuse paranormal manna from heaven so I boxed the thing up and took it with us. Later in the hotel room we decided to give it a closer look.
So just what does this thing look like? What use are tentacles out in the desert? One explanation might be found in the 1972 book, "The Great Sea of Texas" by Simon Newland. Newland claims that a huge body of water lies under most of Texas, trapped there when the continents were shifting about millions of years ago. He further states that this body of water contains millions of unknown sea creatures that were trapped in this sea and have been forced to evolve in the total darkness of the underground reservoir. Newland's theory sounds like total nonsense but two occurrences in Texas history seem to bear him out. The first occurred in 1841 when a group of pioneer settlers were trudging through the Texas prairie and came upon the remains of a large lake. Reverend Joseph Humpter, who was with the expedition, wrote about the discovery in his memoirs.
"As we crested the hill we came upon the source of the stench. There spread below us was a sight like no other we had ever seen. Thousands of fish lay on the ground, all dead and decomposing in the hot sun. They ranged in size from the length of my finger to some over 4 feet long. All of them seemed to be with eyes and looked most peculiar. Mr. Simmons, who had been a fisherman in New England, said that the fish resembled none that he had seen. After trudging through this horrible smell for the better half of a day we finally came upon an immense hole in the earth that seemed to be without end. Mr. Simmons said that it was possible that this could have been the reason for the disappearance of the lake although no such body of water was noted on our maps. Peering into the darkened crevice chilled my heart and I said a silent prayer as I looked down into the black heart of the earth."
In 1912 the San Denton Texas newspaper noted another peculiar event.
"A new gusher came in at field 23 on Springs road although it wasn't the oil spout that owner Phillip Lockhart had hoped for. Instead of the black gold, one well started throwing water and fish into the air! Lockhart told this reporter that he had hit pockets of water before but never one with critters in it. After a few minutes of hard work the men were able to shut the drill off and terminate the spray. Lockhart further said that several men on the crew cooked up some of the fish for lunch and declared them inedible."
So if these claims give credibility to the theory that a sea full of creatures lies under Texas is it a stretch to think that some of these creatures may have evolved over time to live on dry land? Perhaps this "desert squid" may have discovered a rift in the earth that allows it to finally come to the surface. And once above land it may have discovered that the pickings here are more to it's liking than they were below. Certainly something is killing livestock out in Spano Texas. The only unanswered question is what.
sources
"The Great Sea of Texas" by Simon Newland, 1972, Unknowing Press
Personal Interviews by Derek Barnes
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