Posted: 16 Jun 2022 10:03 AM PDT

Several statements about weird and interesting items or anomalies found in the wilderness. Have you ever come across something out of the ordinary or in the wrong place?

“Back in the late 70’s when I was attending OSU, a group of us rented several canoes to travel from Junction City to Corvallis on the Willamette on a nice Spring day. We stopped on a gravel bar near Harrisburg for lunch, and I wandered around a bit while things were getting unpacked.

I came across a box with a strange looking tool in it that looked a lot like hook removing tool, but made out of stainless steel. There was an invoice nearby with an Eugene address and phone number on it. So I packed the items in the canoe and continued my journey after lunch.

When I got back to Corvallis, I called the number and found a very grateful person on the line. It turns out that I found a piece of surgical gear that was stolen out of a Greyhound bus that was ferrying the item from Eugene to Portland. Apparently the thieves thought that they were stealing drugs rather than a surgical tool used to install a double row of stainless steel staples during a bowl resection.

They owner of the medical supply store drove up from Eugene that evening to recover the item as it was scheduled to be used in a procedure the following week.” J

“One spot I loved to hunt, near Badin, NC, was just loaded with native American arrowheads. Thousands of flaked off pieces of stone and such and broken points. Came back one season and the area was posted off for an archeological dig. I never took anything out of the area as it felt just too cool to be bowhunting directly over a spot where people had made arrowheads and other stone tools for countless years.

The most offbeat was on Higginson-Henry wildlife area in Kentucky (site of a Bigfoot scare I had years later). The area was either a WWII POW or Internment camp, not sure which, but the woods had really grown up out there. In the middle of nowhere, big trees everywhere, was a 5-hole outhouse. Farther out was most of a WWII vintage airplane. Neat stuff.” AW

“While Elk hunting in an eastern Oregon wilderness unit, I found an old camp site with a cast iron pot belly stove that must have weighed close to 300 pounds. I was five miles from the nearest road. Probably was drug in by a mule team back in the mining days. There were very few other remnants of the camp, save for a few hand hewn lean-to beams strewn about. What a rough way to make a living!” SD

“A couple of years ago, while elk hunting in the Chesnimnus Unit 58 in Oregon, I came across a prop to an airplane. I looked all around for the rest of the plane but didn’t find anything. I would have packed it out but I was over 10 miles in and didn`t have the gumption to do it. I did tell the trooper on his daily drive through camp. I never did hear if anything ever came of it.” RL

“I found what looked like an “alter” with a goats head on it one time. It had been there for quite a while, but it still gave me the creeps!

I’ve also walked into pot fields twice. One had been harvested, but it was obvious what it was and the other hadn’t. I carefully backtracked out the way I came and got out of there!

I actually quit hunting in the area with the goats head as I have run into some WEIRD stuff and some STRANGE people since then.

On the lighter side a found an arrow about 10′ up in a tree one time. I stopped to take a drink of water and as I looked up, there it was. I thought for a bit then realized I was in a little draw. The poor guy must have been shooting across the little gully toward a trail on the other side and WACK, nailed a 3″ vine Maple!” W

“I have a couple friends that found a Mastodon tusk that was sticking out of a clay bank on the Yukon River. They spent some time digging it out, then hauled it around for 2 weeks while moose hunting. They later sold it for $15K.” A

Phantoms & Monsters