Montauk Monster and More Long Island Mysteries?

What the Heck is Happening Around Montauk, Long Island?

Over the past decade, people are noticing stranger and stranger things have been happening on Long Island, New Jersey, and particularly around the town of Montauk.  It’s time to put these together and ask: “What the heck is going on?” From the Montauk Monster to the TV show Stranger Things, there’s a lot to be investigated.

Mainstream public awareness of Montauk and its mysteries seems to have really begun in 1992 when Preston Nichols and Peter Moon wrote a book called “The Montauk Project – “Experiments in Time”.  Since then, many researchers, fanatics, serious scientists, journalists, Long Island residents and paranormal investigators have been piecing together the story.

You need to know that while Long Island has always been New York’s party playground, it has also been the location of many very “strange” and important military bases and scientific research facilities. Some are still there and remain operational. Some are still there but closed, or so we’re told.

If ever there was a mystery that has everything from escaped mutant animals to USA Government Mind Control experiments, then this is it. If the book about the Montauk Project made waves in the 1990s, it was a picture of a weird animal that blew up a storm in 2008.

The Montauk Monster

The earliest source of the story was an article and photograph that appeared in a local newspaper, “The Independent”, on the 23rd of July 2008, under the title of “The Hound of the Bonacville” and was written by the news editor Kitty Merrill.  (The Independent is published by The East Hampton Independent News Company Inc.)

Ditch Plains Beach where the Montauk Monster was found (SSPL)

Everyone seems a little vague about what actually happened, but it seems that a group of teenagers walking along Ditch Plains Beach first spotted it and were joined by a group of other people.  One of the teenagers (Jenna Hewitt) apparently used a friend’s camera to take the now famous pictures.

The photo seems to have spread from person to person quite quickly and reached the possession of Los-Angeles based Alanna Navitski who then sent it on to Anna Holmes who runs a women’s magazine website.  Not exactly their sort of material, it was forwarded to another part of their group, the New York gossip website, “Gawker” who published it on the 29th of July 2008 under the heading “Dead Monster Washes Ashore in Montauk (Good Luck with your Hell Demons)”.

Suddenly the Montauk Monster story was everywhere, and everyone had an opinion on what the creature really was.  For some it was proof that something strange was going on around Montauk.  For the psychologists it was “hysteria” just before the Sub Prime Credit Crisis.  Scientists claimed it was just a racoon with its upper jaw missing. Fox News even covered the story.  But … we may never know what the creature was because – surprise, surprise – it disappeared.

There are several variations of the story but the one told by Alanna Navitski is:  “They say an old guy came and carted it away. He said, ‘I’m going to mount it on my wall.”  Others claim they still have the skeleton and yet others say they saw a couple of FBI agents put in the trunk of their car. Whatever happened – it’s still missing over a decade later.

What’s interesting about the photo above is in the two red circles.  One shows a fly, giving us a way to size the creature, the second shows a rope tied around its leg.

Plum Island Animal Disease Centre and the Montauk Monster

Located just 14 miles to the northwest of Montauk is a very mysterious place with the innocent name – Plum Island. This triangle of land was once home to Fort Terry, a gun battery emplacement that was eventually converted into a military controlled animal and biological warfare research centre in 1952.  Just two years later it was renamed as the Plum Island Animal Disease Centre. Still, it continued to be used as a bioweapon’s military facility until at least 1969.  Many researchers believe this activity never really stopped.

Plum Island Animal Disease Center (WMC -United States Department of Agriculture)

Officially, the scientists on the island work(ed) to protect the USA from dangerous animal diseases thus making it the CDC for livestock.  According to those working there, all research is published, and everything is above board.  Naturally, you still can’t visit the island without some exceptional official clearance.

Since the arrival of the Montauk Monster, interest in the island has been intense and in 2020 the US Government announced that it was closing the centre and potentially selling off the island to help fund an even more secret and secure facility, The National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, being built in Manhattan, Kansas.

Naturally, the suggestion that the mysterious Montauk Monster could have come from the animal centre on Plum Island was immediately denied.  People pointed out that the monster was found on the wrong side of Long Island.  However, ten minutes work studying ocean currents and the effect of the long Island Sound Race (current), shows that water can flow past Plum Island and then swing around past Gardiners Island and Montauk Point where it is picked up by the Atlantic tide and brought back across to Ditch Plains Beach.

Water flow past Plum Island

The Montauk Project – Fact or Fiction

While these events are quite recent, the area also has a dark history of military experiments and potential government coverups.  The most concerning of these is the Montauk Project.

The area of Montauk is located at the tip of the south fork of Long Island which, in turn, forms part of the Eastern Seaboard of the USA and is the dominant offshore landmass that stretches from New York towards the Cape Cod Peninsular.

If there was ever a place perfectly suited for secret activity, then this is it.  Heavily wooded in places, surrounded by water on three sides, pock-marked by marshes, isolated and easily secured, Long Island and the Montauk District in particular is just the sort of place secret government agencies and the military love. Over the years Long Island and other smaller islands near it have been, and still are, home to specialist research organisations.

Nasty Nazis Causing Trouble

Back in the 1930’s, the American Government had been aware of the growing threat that Nazi Germany posed to Europe. However, the Senate was still unconvinced that this potential conflict posed a risk to the USA. America still believed in a policy of isolationism.

In 1939 Germany invaded Poland and then other parts of Europe, thus triggering the start of the Second World War (WWII). The US Government discovered that it was ill prepared for a major international conflict and initially opted for neutrality – although it was prepared to support Britain with resources and equipment. (The Lend-Lease Plan).

The Tripartite Pact 1940

Psychologically the American populace were not yet motivated to take part even though Germany had just signed the Tripartite pact with Russia and Japan.  The American war machine was substantial in size, but its leaders had quickly realised, with something of a shock, that it had fallen well behind in military technology.  Rumours and reports of advanced German secret weapons combined with Adolph Hitler’s alliance with Bolshevik Russia and Imperialist Jap caused real concern in American circles-of-power.  Steps were immediately taken to “improve” America’s technological fighting ability.  Existing weapons development programmes were enhanced, and many new ones were initiated.  Every possible aggressive and defensive military technology was investigated – especially the science of camouflage.

Things Get Worse for America

On the 7^th of December 1941, the Japanese launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbour – the US naval base on the island of O’ahu, Hawaii. There had been rumours and concerns, but these had been ignored.  Yet again, and to their dismay, the US war leaders had discovered the power of the “new weapons” being used against them by their enemies. They now had no choice but to join the war.

The attack destroyed two main battleships, (The USS Arizona – BB-39, and The USS Oklahoma – BB-37) and so severely damaged another two that they were not returned to service until late in the war (The USS West Virginia BB-48 and The USS California – BB-44).  Two Destroyers (The USS Cassin – DD-372 and The USS Downes – DD-375) were ruined beyond repair and a third (The USS Shaw – DD-373) was effectively put out of action for over a year.  Many other ships were damaged or destroyed as were 188 aircraft.

Attack on Pearl Harbour (CC – National Archives and Records Administration)

It is estimated that a total of 2,402 people were killed – many of them military personnel of one kind or another.  Fortunately for the Americans, the aircraft carriers USS Enterprise, USS Lexington, and the USS Saratoga were out at sea and escaped the attack.

The destruction of so much military equipment, soldiers and fighting capability in a single battle sent shockwaves through the American military and Government.  Something had to be done to protect the various naval fleets from the devastating impact of enemy torpedo bombers.  What they needed was a way to hide their fleet.  What they needed was a whole new generation of camouflage.

The Philadelphia Experiment – Project Rainbow

Research apparently began immediately into various forms of camouflage including light refraction and electronic cloaking.

A little over a year after the Pearl Harbour raid a particular team of scientists were ready to test their invention. It is alleged that during October 1943 the US Government undertook a series of experiments to try and make a destroyer escort warship, the USS Eldridge, invisible using various forms of electromagnetic fields and equipment. This was the Philadelphia Experiment or “Project Rainbow”.

USS Eldridge Philadelphia Experiments

If this really took place, then this would mark the start of the American Stealth Technology Programme.  (It is worth noting that the records do reveal that at this time the use of magnetic field generation in ships was being tested as a protection against German magnetic sea mines. This is known as “Degaussing”)

According to researchers into this mystery, the experiment eventually worked but with disastrous results for the human beings involved. The internet has many reports, often repeating each other and often based on dubious sources, claiming that the ship was rendered “invisible” but was a physical and psychological disaster for those people onboard the vessel. Some sources even claim that the experiment may have temporarily created an inter-dimensional porthole that fused human flesh with the metal structure of the ship. Books and films have been produced about this event

It would appear that after this debacle the programme was cancelled.  According to many debunkers – it never happened in the first place and was just a misunderstanding about the work of Cmdr. Charles F. Goodeve, RCNVR who was using “Degaussing” to render vessels “magnetically invisible” to German mines.

Continued in part two: Read More!