- Tonight on The Proof Is Out There.
Houston, we have a problem.
- [Tony] Unexplained lights over Texas.
- Who wouldn't pull out the camera and say, look at that?
- [Tony] Don't believe in haunted houses?
Maybe you should see what's in this attic.
- We heard a noise and that's when we turned
and were able to spotlight that creature.
(growling) I said go! Shoo!
- [Tony] Was the government caught
transporting alien technology near a military air base?
- We're seeing something that we weren't meant to see.
- [Tony] And what's the secret message inscribed
on this stone monument?
- No one seems to know who commissioned it or why.
- [Tony] It's so explosive, someone blew it up.
(dramatic music)
Around the globe are videos.
- [Witness] What the heck is this?
- [Witness] It's moving.
- [Tony] Photos and sounds that defy explanation.
(electric whirring)
- [Marc] Is it some kind of unidentified object?
What's exciting is nobody really knows.
- [Tony] What are they?
- [MJ] Some sort of bizarre mutation.
- Extraordinary claims need extraordinary proof.
- I'm Tony Harris and as a journalist
for more than 30 years,
I've followed the facts where they take me.
Now I'm bringing that spirit of investigation
to the world's strangest sounds and images.
We'll analyze each one with top experts.
- It's a credible case, It's a credible video.
- [Tony] And pass a verdict on what it is.
- This video is clearly faked.
- The proof starts now.
(dramatic theme music)
Good evening and welcome to The Proof Is Out There.
Houston, Texas is known as Space City
thanks to the presence of NASA's Johnson Space Center,
but we may have come across another reason
the nickname fits so well.
It's UFO Central.
Prepare for liftoff.
June 24th, 2020.
It's a tranquil summer evening in Cypress, Texas
just outside of Houston.
A woman is relaxing in her backyard
when suddenly something strange appears over the horizon.
She quickly takes out her phone and captures this.
Five glowing orange lights shimmer above the rooftops,
but take a closer look.
They also seem to fade away then reappear seconds later.
- [Tony] She records for almost a minute.
Then the lights begin to gradually disappear
until only one remains.
- [Witness] It is so weird.
- [Tony] Could this be an extra terrestrial sighting?
According to journalist MJ Banias,
it turns out Texas and especially Houston
is no stranger to UFOs.
- Houston has about 80 UFO sightings a year
where they're documented and recorded.
In fact, adding to the intrigue behind this video,
the witness claimed that there were
many other smaller lights that her camera
was unable to pick up.
- [Tony] But as Houston is an important NASA hub,
there could be another explanation.
One that's homegrown and just as fascinating.
- In 2016, a reporter uncovered
some archived footage where the military
was hiring a contractor to develop some novel aircraft
that potentially revolutionized aviation or jet technology.
One was called the Dino fan
and one was called the aero kinetic lift.
We need to remember that in the 1960s,
the Soviet Union was engaged in a sort
of arms race against the United States.
So who could develop the best aviation technology?
- [Tony] Has Houston returned
to its Cold War roots as a flight technology hub?
- It could be possible that what we're seeing
in this video is maybe some sort of new aircraft.
- What have we got here?
A UFO, new NASA secret technology?
Artemis is NASA's nearly 100 billion program
to return to the moon
with a goal of landed humans as soon as 2024.
Houston and the Johnson Space Flight Center
are playing a key role to achieve that goal.
Is it possible we've caught a glimpse of something to come?
Let's see what our experts have to say.
(tense music)
We begin with military aviation expert, Tim McMillan.
Is the answer the most obvious?
Could these be airplanes or helicopters?
- In order to stay in flight,
airplanes have to maintain a forward momentum
and we don't see the type of movement
that I would expect from airplanes,
but a helicopter can hover in place.
But typically if we're talking about helicopters,
you would see a green or red warning lights that would
determine on what side the helicopter is.
So you know if it's approaching or going away from you.
I don't see that.
- [Tony] If it's not a known aircraft,
what about an unknown one?
Could this be an experimental NASA project?
McMillan isn't so sure.
- They definitely do test some platforms
at Johnson in Texas, but at the same time,
it's obviously operating within the Earth's atmosphere.
That's a little out of the purview of what NASA does.
- [Tony] Next we go to astronomer
and video effects designer Marc D'Antonio.
- When we look at these, the color is this orange color.
That's kind of a dead giveaway.
Orange is the color of a flame and they're flickering
and flames flicker as well.
- [Tony] In an earlier episode,
we brought you another story from Texas
of what we believe to be nighttime skydivers with flares.
Could this be the same thing?
- A sky diver who jumps out of a plane
and what happens is they light up their flare,
but something happens with them,
they're leaving a trail behind them
and we would've seen these things dropping down.
In the time that she videotaped this,
We would've seen the drop and we do not.
- [Tony] Instead, D'Antonio believes
it's the fact that these lights
are going up that solves the mystery.
- So my feeling in looking at these
is that we're actually
looking at what are called sky lanterns.
They last 15 to 20 minutes max.
They do tend to fade out and as you can see,
it goes from several lights in the sky
with just one remaining.
So think that we're actually seeing
several of them that were launched.
(tense music)
- So our verdict, sky lanterns.
But if you're determined to see aliens
and interested in a good investment
head to Houston, quickly.,
One survey found that Houston ranks fourth
on the list of the best places in the United States
to buy a home if you wanna see UFOs.
Visiting abandoned locations was once off limits.
But in recent years,
places like the old Eastern State penitentiary
in Philadelphia have become a beacon of tourism.
Well, as you'll see in our next video,
some abandoned buildings are best left abandoned.
July 23rd, 2011 in a suburb
just outside of Portland, Oregon,
Thomas Collins hears strange noises
emanating from an abandoned house on a property
adjacent to his parents' home.
He enlists a good friend to join him in his investigation.
- [Thomas] This is Andrew.
- [Tony] When the two discovered this.
(screeching)
- [Thomas] There it is, there it is.
- [Tony] There is a high pitched howl.
(screeching)
- [Thomas] Be cautious.
- [Andrew] My camera's having a really hard time
picking this up.
- [Thomas] Shh, shh, wait, wait, wait!
- [Tony] As they enter the house,
they see strange graffiti scrawled on the wall.
- [Thomas] We have to make sure there's nothing in here.
(screeching)
- [Tony] They turn off the light,
but curiosity gets the best of them.
- [Thomas] I think it's on the roof.
I think it's there.
(screeching) I said go! Shoo, shoo!
- [Tony] Let's see that again, zoomed in and slowed down.
- We heard a noise and that's
when we turned and were able to spotlight that creature,
but it scared us so much that we just ran.
I didn't feel like it wanted to hurt me,
but I felt like if it wanted to it could.
And so that was enough to give me a scare.
- [Tony] Although Thomas says he's been back
to the property to investigate during daylight hours,
he's never encountered the alleged creature again.
Field researcher Ken Gerhardt helps us decipher
what we just saw.
- So this is a video that for, obvious reasons,
has gotten a lot of action online.
It's very creepy,
very reminiscent to a mysterious creature known as the rake.
A hairless humanoid creature standing about six feet tall.
Very cadaverous, gray pallid skin, deep set eyes.
It's described as being very evil,
terrorizing, even murdering people,
particularly small children.
Back in 1964, there was a gentleman
who described this rake creature as having tormented him
and driven him to the point to where
he actually had to take his life.
- [Tony] Gerhardt also theorizes
that it could be a fabled hairless
being from Native American tales.
- In the north central United States,
we have tales of the Mannegishi.
Humanoid types of creatures,
small in stature, but with large heads, large eyes,
very malevolent and evil, very dangerous to humans.
- [Tony] Gerhard suggests there may be another
Native American myth connected to this.
Dating back thousands of years.
various American Indian tribes have spoken of
extraterrestrial visitors they called star people
who bear a striking resemblance to the gray aliens
often described in more modern day alien abduction claims.
Since this video was recorded in the wee hours of the night,
whatever we are seeing here
seems to have a sixth sense for thriving and darkness.
You know, nocturnal predators such as owls, cats,
and rodents have developed keen hearings,
smell, and dark adapted vision in order to navigate
and hunt at night.
To assess the actual threat
level from this nocturnal creature,
we turn to our experts.
(tense music)
Professor of anatomy and anthropology, Dr. Jeff Meldrum
weighs in on the mannegishi claims.
- I think that the most
telling disqualification is the size.
I mean these are described consistently as little people
and my experience with indigenous populations here,
that can be anything from five inches tall
to three feet tall.
But my impression was of a more human size being
depicted in the video rather than a very small creature.
- [Tony] Anthropologist Kathy Strain
has some insights into the grays theory.
- When people talk about the grays,
they usually bring up that there's little ones
and there's big ones,
and the larger ones have these very long necks
and these big large eyes.
And this doesn't really look like that
because their eyes are much smaller.
- [Tony] So if it is in the mannegishi or grays,
could it be the fearsome rake?
Meldrum see some red flags.
- One thing that struck me about this video
was the very orchestrated feel.
I've never heard anyone say, "Be cautious."
- [Thomas] Be cautious.
(laughing)
- Which seemed extremely contrived.
And the only characteristics that really are discernible
are that it has a pale high forehead and rounded skull.
That could be a mask and given the popularity
of the rake image,
there's no shortage of rake masks online.
- [Tony] Next we bring in forensic
video expert Michael Primeau to analyze
if this video could in fact be an elaborate hoax.
- This doesn't appear to be anything
that was essentially CGI'd or manufactured.
The physical aspects of the scene kind of confirmed
that this appears to be something within this scene.
But whether or not it's a paranormal creature,
determinations about that
simply can't be made from a forensic perspective.
- [Tony] But Primeau isn't satisfied
and it doesn't take him long
to find more corroborative evidence online.
- Upon further investigating,
I found evidence that supported that this particular
person that created this video
had some sort of IMDB profile.
Specifically in the genre of science fiction.
It appears that this person does this professionally
in some capacity to create videos like this.
It's pretty clear cut here that these videos
have been post produced in and they are fake.
- [Thomas] I said go! Shoo, shoo!
(tense music)
- Our verdict, we're calling it a hoax.
The scripted feel of the video and the human-like
size of the creature are the main giveaways.
Though Thomas still swears the encounter was real,
we can clearly say this isn't a rake,
but abandoned sites still remain
a hotbed of supernatural activity.
So rest assured, we will continue to explore them.
- For decades, researchers have been trying
to communicate with Bigfoot,
but have you ever wondered who he
is trying to communicate with?
These audio recordings might just answer that question.
September 13th, 2009, just south of Wright, Minnesota.
A group of men set out to investigate
a series of Bigfoot sightings.
And upon hearing the sounds of a bizarre vocalization
in the dark, they hit record.
(creature howling)
Their recordings capture a series of howls
thought to be made by an alleged bigfoot.
Listen for the intermittent knocks and whoops
that conclude each howl.
(creature howling) (banging)
Now listen as it sounds like wolves
or coyotes have joined in the fun.
(coyotes howling)
Field researcher Cliff Barackman
wonders if we might be hearing a rare form of conversation.
- The research community have noted for decades
that there seems to be a connection
between coyotes and Sasquatches.
A lot of people were saying maybe the coyotes are following
the Sasquatches around and waiting for scraps
after the Sasquatch kills a deer or something like that.
I think it's the opposite.
- [Tony] Barackman thinks that what we might be hearing
is behavior modeled on a more surprising animal.
Ancient humans.
- Human ancestors used to have this foraging strategy
called power scavenging.
Our ancestors would wait for other animals
to take down their prey and then scare away
the hyenas or lions just long enough
for us to grab some meat and run away with it.
Wouldn't that make sense then
that the Sasquatches would utilize the same strategies
as human ancestors did?
- [Tony] But what about the knocks?
(creature howling) (knocking)
Barackman thinks that could be something
like a Sasquatch Morse code.
- It has been noted that Sasquatches
make something that we now call wood knocks
and quite possibly they are communicating with one another.
There's precedence in the other great apes.
A very high profile study was published
about gorillas in Rwanda clapping
when researchers enter their area
apparently to warn the other troop members,
there's no reason to think
that Sasquatches wouldn't do the same thing.
- In 2010, a man claimed that a Bigfoot
came to him while hunting in North Carolina,
attracted by his coyote calls.
He says he managed to shoo it away with a stick
and something he called rough talking.
So maybe Bigfoot does have
some longstanding history with coyotes.
Let's see what our experts think.
(tense music)
We turn to our resident Bigfoot expert,
renowned anatomist and anthropologist Jeff Meldrum.
(creature howling)
- One aspect of this recording
that I do find intriguing is wood knocks.
The problem with these types of recordings
is you don't know what is making that sound.
It could be the recorder himself,
but the initial vocalizations I found much more interesting.
(creature howling)
All the evidence that we have to date
suggests that Sasquatch is omnivorous,
that it eats everything from roots and berries
up to deer and elk.
Therefore, it's possible that there
is some sort of communication occurring between
Sasquatch and these wolves to take
advantage of the hunting skills of of one another.
- [Tony] However, wildlife biologist
Stephanie Schuttler wonders if wolves or coyotes
aren't responsible for all the howls in this recording.
- When I listened to this the first time,
I had a hard time distinguishing what sounds
people thought were the bigfoot sounds.
To me it all sounded wolf like.
Towards the end there's some coyotes.
(coyotes howling)
There's actually been studies
on people estimating coyote size just based
on how loud it is and they pretty much always overestimate.
So just because it's a large vocalization
doesn't mean it's necessarily from a large animal.
(creature howling)
- [Tony] With that, we go to soundscape ecologist,
Ben Gottesman for his opinion on how these sounds compare
to known wolf vocalizations.
(creature howling)
(wolf howling)
- The frequency range matches quite well.
The big, big, big difference is that wolves
usually howl for pretty long periods of time,
whereas all of the howls in this recording are quite short.
(creature howling)
- [Tony] And that leads Gottesman
to an important discovery.
- So I found a number of instances here
where the clips were just cut midway through.
(creature howling)
So did you hear that?
It completely cuts off and then starts up again.
(creature howling)
Those might have been wolf and coyote howls,
but they were heavily edited to create
what sounds like a much weirder creature.
(creature howling)
(tense music)
- Our verdict, this sound is a hoax.
But listen to this.
(whooping)
There have been cases of strange,
unexplained howls that experts have not ruled out
as being Bigfoot calls like this one.
So even though the one we just examined
doesn't cut the mustard,
we will keep our ears open for signs of Sasquatch.
- On this show, we've covered our fair share
of strange flying objects.
From weather balloons to genuine UFOs, we've seen it all.
But what we haven't seen before is one
of these mysterious aircraft
on the ground up close and personal.
You'd think seeing them that way would make them
easier to identify but not always.
Take a look.
September 2021, an anonymous source
at a construction site near Edwards Air Force base
in California spots an unusual structure
being towed by a large truck.
- [Witness] What the...
- [Tony] The video shows what appears to be a UFO like craft
being transported on the flatbed trailer.
Let's take a closer look.
At first glance, the shape of this mysterious
object seems reminiscent of the
curved contours of a B2 stealth bomber.
But upon closer examination,
it doesn't seem capable of flight.
Science writer Amy Teitel says people
tracked down the location of the video
soon after it was posted online.
- Internet sleuths were able to determine
that it was taken at Skunkworks.
Skunkworks is where Lockheed Martin
was designing spy planes back in the '50s and '60s.
So it's possible that we're seeing something
that we weren't meant to see.
- [Tony] In 2021, former Nevada Senator Harry Reid,
whose state is home to Area 51,
made an even more shocking claim.
That the defense contractors at Lockheed Martin
may also be in possession of fragments of a crashed UFO.
- A lot of conspiracy theorists will say
that aliens are drawn to the desert
out in California or Nevada.
So this is an area where they will land or will crash
and that opens the door for engineers to then collect them
and then reverse engineer and understand
what technology aliens are dealing with.
- [Tony] Many believe that one of these alien technologies
could have led to the development
of what's known on Earth as metametals.
- There's a type of material called metametals.
It absorbs light and electromagnetic radiation
and any kind of radio waves,
which would theoretically make it almost an invisible metal
because it would be unable to be seen on radar.
It could even be slightly invisible to the naked eye
if it's refracting light in a certain way.
- [Tony] We know that a former Skunkworks director
has teamed up with a private research group
to study an exotic metal object
that was recently purchased for $35,000.
The person who sold the possible meta material
claims it came off of a UFO that crashed
in New Mexico's White Sands proving grounds in 1947.
So, could this footage show something similar?
After this video was posted,
a reporter asked the Lockheed Martin executive
in charge of Skunkworks if he was able
to tell us anything about what we saw.
He simply replied, I can't.
So the truth may be out there,
but Lockheed Martin isn't talking.
Let's see if our experts can crack the case.
(tense music)
Aviation expert Tim McMillan admits that the object
seen in the video does seem alien in nature.
- At first glance, it definitely looks like a UFO.
If we were gonna draw an alien spacecraft,
we might draw something like this.
- [Tony] Still, McMillan has his doubts
that we could be looking at a recovered UFO.
- One of the first things that says
that this is probably not a UFO
is if they're going to move it in the daytime,
they're gonna do it in a manner
where it is completely sequestered.
- [Tony] So it seems strange
they would transport a UFO out in the open,
but it sure doesn't look aerodynamic
or like any sort of aircraft we fly here on Earth
and since we can't test for metametals,
it's hard to confirm it's material.
So then what are we looking at here?
Under further examination, video analyst Mick West
spots a detail that could shed some more light.
- [Mick] This structure in the background,
it looks like some kind of perhaps massive radar
installation and I think it's a big clue
as to what this facility actually is.
- [Tony] On a hunch, we geolocated the structure
using an open source intelligence comparison
of the scaffolding buildings and foliage.
It is possible to pinpoint the exact spot
where this incident took place.
The Helendale Radar Cross Section Facility.
- The testing facility is where the military
test what their planes look like on radar.
Sometimes they just build parts of the plane
and they'll look at it with radars from different directions
and they want to see how much
this one part of the plane actually
contributes to the radar cross-section.
- [Tony] Based on its shape,
West speculates that this is the fuselage
of a novel future stealth fighter
with a curved rather than an angular profile
and without a tail section or stabilizers.
(tense music)
Our verdict, this model certainly pinged our radar,
but in the end it was simply a prop
for radar testing being done in the area.
Military leaks happen all the time though,
so keep your eyes to the sky
and you might just see something you weren't supposed to.
- In November of 2021,
the Pentagon announced the establishment
of a new UFO task force
and just in time for our next sighting,
which took place on that very same day.
Coincidence? We'll let you decide.
November 24th, 2021,
a commercial plane is on an early morning flight
near Hong Kong.
As the plane flies over the South China Sea
at 39,000 feet, an unusual sight
out of the right window prompts the pilot
to whip out his cell phone and record this.
Nine orbs are moving across the sky in three organized rows.
Let's zoom in.
The wildest part,
watch how the orbs on the left disappear
before three more orbs reappear
on the far side of the formation and the cycle repeats.
- [Tony] Journalist Eric Grundhauser
explains that after a few minutes,
the mysterious objects do something extraordinary.
- These orbs seem to be blinking
in some kind of pattern or signal
until finally one by one they slowly, slowly disappear
and then they're all just gone.
- [Tony] The video quickly goes viral,
racking up nearly 300,000 views.
But the question is what could they be?
- There were a number of theories
as to what the lights could actually be.
One of the most popular is of course, that they were UFOs.
- [Tony] Patterns of strange lights in the sky
have been observed for decades.
In 1951, a group of scientists from Texas Technical College
claimed to see a group of 15 to 30
bluish green objects flying in formation.
A student at the college snapped these photographs
and the phenomenon became known as the Lubbock Lights.
The incident grabbed headlines across the nation.
But why would this formation
of lights be so near another airplane?
Grundhauser says Some Ufologists have theories.
- Some theories include that they are trying to show us the
technology that they have almost in comparison
to the technology we are using.
It's also possible that especially
when it comes to military aircraft,
maybe the aliens are just getting a measure of us,
seeing what our technology can do.
- Today, the formal US government name
of the UFO Task force is the Airborne Object
Identification and Management Synchronization Group.
Lord, if you can come up with a clunkier name,
please, please email it to us.
This organization wasn't established until after
more than 100 incidents documented
by military planes were officially
classified as unexplained.
So did this pilot's strange encounter
over the South China Sea merit a report with the department?
We ask our experts.
(tense music)
First, we head to forensic video analyst Michael Primeau.
Is this video even legit?
- What's interesting about this recording
is there is a moment where that automatic iris
makes a change and the white balance overall
in the image changes
and the intensity of the objects doesn't.
They stay fairly consistent.
So I did not detect any evidence that these objects
were overlaid into the recording
or any CGI was used to create them.
So this video does appear to be genuine.
- [Tony] Next, we turn to meteorologist Juan Hernandez.
Are we looking at some kind of atmospheric phenomenon?
- When we see lightning, it's a very quick flash.
It's a discharge of electricity.
In this case, it's a light that appears
to be fairly static for a couple
of seconds and then it goes away.
There really is no weather phenomena out there
that would manifest itself as an orb or a light.
- [Tony] If it's not atmospheric,
could these be actual alien ships?
We take the mystery to science writer
and video analyst Mick West.
- They're not doing anything amazing
in terms of moving very fast.
They don't appear to be shooting upwards,
which is a typical thing that you see in UFO videos.
So it probably has a relatively earthly explanation.
- [Tony] Maybe that steady formation
that rules out UFOs rules in another explanation, drones.
- Now, we see very impressive aerial setups sometimes
where lots of drones fly in synchronized shapes,
but no one's going to be making a drone display
at 20,000 feet over the South China Sea
and drones are probably not gonna be bright enough
to be seen at that distance.
- [Tony] But West does find a clue in the video
that he believes is key to solving the mystery.
- I think probably what we're looking at here
are three military planes dropping flares.
- [Tony] Many fighter jets employ
decoy flares which burn on contact with the air,
and at a temperature hotter than the engine exhaust.
They're deployed to attract heat seeking missiles.
And it's possible this timed formation
is due to a training exercise.
- These decoy flares,
they need to burn as bright as possible initially
so that they can guide the missiles away from the plane
and then they're just allowed to burn out.
- [Tony] Meanwhile, US government officials claim
China has fully militarized
at least three artificial islands
they've constructed in the South China Sea.
- There's probably Chinese military aircraft
just doing some kind of exercise.
Fighter jets are usually highly camouflaged.
So since it's dusk, there's gray clouds behind.
It's simply too far away to see the planes.
(tense music)
- Our verdict, military flares.
The South China Sea has gained major geopolitical significance
because a huge share of the world's
maritime shipping passes through it.
Given that the area has seen
a variety of territorial disputes of late,
it's not too surprising to see
a military presence in the airspace above it.
- No matter your opinions on Bigfoot,
the one thing we can all agree on is that he's, well, big.
Most reports clock him at 8 to 10 feet tall,
so you think he'd be easier to find.
And in our next story, it's precisely the size
of the creature that catches our eye.
It's a clear day in Provo, Utah in February 2019.
Local hunters are preparing in the driveway
of a home when one of them spots something
on the mountains in the distance
in stark contrast with the white snow.
- [Witness] I was gonna get more footage of the Sasquatch.
- [Tony] It's hard to spot with a naked eye,
but once the hunter zooms in,
we can see there's a hulking figure
on one of the mountain ridges.
It's visible even from this distance.
- [Witness] He's on the mountain,
way far back on the mountain,
but look how huge he is.
- [Tony] Field researcher Cliff Barackman
provides a much needed context
about the location of this supposed sighting.
- There are seven documented Sasquatch sighting reports
from Utah County, which is where Provo, Utah is.
There are probably 700 that we've never heard about.
- [Tony] According to Barackman,
this video has a lot of things going for it
in terms of the figure's appearance.
- If you look very closely,
you can actually make out that this is walking on two legs.
It is one color from head to toe,
that shows us it is not wearing clothing.
You would be able to see differentiation in color,
but this is one color head to toe,
which indicates to me
that this large bipedal thing is probably fur covered.
- [Tony] But he also says we shouldn't
believe the Hollywood version of the cuddly gentle giant.
According to some accounts, these creatures can be killers.
- There have been cases of Sasquatches
going after humans as a food source.
One example was written about by Teddy Roosevelt
in his book, the Wilderness Hunter.
In this book, Roosevelt talks about meeting
a grizzled old woodsman named Bowman,
who tells a tale of going into a secluded valley
to trap beavers and other animals with two partners,
only one man got out.
They saw a bipedal figure that stank really bad,
leaving big footprints and they shot at it,
which is a bad idea.
Don't shoot at a Bigfoot.
They don't like it, they'll come for you.
And two of his partners paid the price.
- Like UFO research,
Bigfoot hunting is edging closer to the mainstream.
A recent cover story in the Wall Street Journal
of all places, reports that a growing number of academics,
including primatologist, anthropologist,
and wildlife biologist, are taking the subject seriously.
Even though they often prefer to do so anonymously
for fear of reputational harm.
But our experts aren't shy about offering their opinions.
So let's see what they make of this footage.
(tense music)
Wildlife biologist Floyd Hayes
compares what we're seeing to the local fauna.
- This could potentially be a black bear.
It looks a little bit big for a black bear,
but they do stand on their hind legs sometimes.
They do live in the Provo area,
but normally they are hibernating during the winter
when there's snow on the ground.
- [Tony] So, given the winter weather,
a black bear seems unlikely.
- It's possible that this is a moose.
They are very large,
they're active year round.
The cow or female moose does not have antlers.
- [Tony] While there is a chance
that the right angle would create
the illusion of standing upright,
this occurring with the quadrupedal moose
also seems highly unlikely.
Next, return to anatomist and anthropologist
Jeff Meldrum, a former resident of Provo, Utah
who sees a red flag.
- That's just a very unlikely place to expect
an elusive creature like Sasquatch is described as
to venture out into the the open in the broad of daylight.
If there was anything attracting its intention,
I would suspect it would be more likely to investigate
or take advantage of that under the cover of darkness.
- [Tony] But what about the characteristic
that caught our attention in the first place?
Does size matter?
- [Witness] Look how huge he is.
- The slightly higher and the slightly more watered
flanks of those foothills
are a mixture of sage brush and mostly scrub oak,
which rarely gets much more than
about six, seven feet in height.
I think a human sized subject
is the most reasonable conclusion to draw.
(tense music)
- Our verdict, we're calling this one a man in a suit.
The kicker, according to Professor Meldrum,
very shortly after this incident,
someone climbed the mountain to look for tracks.
And while they didn't find big footprints,
they did find boot prints.
- You may remember a previous story we brought you
about mysterious monoliths popping up
all over the world back in 2020,
but a lesser known monolithic structure
also appeared out of nowhere nearly 40 years ago.
And some believe it spelled doom for mankind.
It's December 2021 in Elberton, Georgia.
Musician Jason Stalworth is on a road trip when he comes
across a peculiar site and decides to film it.
(dramatic choral music)
- I'll show you something really cool
that maybe many of you have never seen before
and you probably don't even know about.
But these are the Georgia Guidestones.
This is like for post apocalypse living.
- [Tony] The strange structure is composed
of four granite slabs connected
by a T-shaped stone pillar in the middle.
From above, it seems to form an X with a capstone.
The monument is over 19 feet tall
and is believed to weigh over 120 ton.
- [Jason] It's like Stone Henge of Georgia here.
- [Tony] On each tablet is writing in different languages,
which journalist Erin McCarthy says
just adds to the mystery.
- There are 10 guidelines written in 8 languages,
including Chinese, Swahili, Hebrew,
English, and Russian.
For how to continue society after
some kind of apocalyptic event.
It also has slot as well as holes
in the monument that allow it
to act as an astronomical calendar.
- [Tony] Since the Guidestones were put up
toward the end of the Cold War,
some wonder if they were meant as messages
for the future of humanity following nuclear annihilation.
(explosion booming)
But McCarthy says the cryptic writing
is far from the strangest thing about this structure.
- No one seems to know who commissioned it or why.
The story goes that one day in 1979,
a man named Robert C. Christian, not his real name,
walked into the Elberton Granite Finishing Company
with the idea for a monument.
And he said that he was serving as a representative for a quote,
"small group of loyal Americans"
who had been planning this monument for 20 years.
- [Tony] RC Christian was a pseudonym.
So to this day,
no one knows who actually commissioned the structure.
This mystery has further fueled speculation
about its true purpose.
- The guidelines on the stones included maintain
humanity under 500 million in balance with nature.
Some have actually criticized these guidelines
and said that they are in favor of genocide and eugenics.
And then of course there was an idea that RC Christian
was actually a representative of a satanic group.
- [Tony] The monument has been called
"the 10 Commandments of the Antichrist"
due to the evident biblical connotations
in its design without any reference to God.
There's even a theory it was built as an altar
for human sacrifice.
So some people, including a Georgia gubernatorial candidate,
have even called it an abomination
that had to come down.
- [Woman] It is a war between good and evil.
- Well, recently they got their wish.
In early July, 2022,
someone planted a bomb overnight that exploded
next to the structure.
Take a look at the security cam.
It couldn't be more clear.
Here we see the person moving in from the left,
ducks in behind the monument, places something down,
and then gets the hell out of there.
Fast forward a couple of seconds later, boom.
The structure remains standing in this footage,
but it was so severely damaged
that the whole thing had to be demolished.
(tense music)
Anthropologist Kathy Strain examines
if this could be a satanic altar.
- I went and looked for satanic temples
constructed in the United States, and I found one.
It's literally Satan sitting on a throne.
And so there's nothing here that I see
that would remind me of what I would traditionally
associate with something satanic.
- [Tony] Archeologist Dr. Ed Barnhart agrees.
- Satanism generally deals with the pentagram.
The goat is also another symbol,
but none of those symbols
are anywhere on the Georgia Guidestones.
- [Tony] So could this monument have been
built by those calling for eugenics and racial purity?
To Strain, that doesn't add up.
- There are multiple different languages
from multiple different continents.
Why would you do that if you were
intending to create basically a white society?
All these guides would all be in English.
- [Tony] So given the Guidestone post apocalyptic message,
could this simply be a relic of the Cold War era?
(exhaust roaring)
- [Ed] The time period
in which these were built was the 1980s
and that's when the United States
and Russia are in this terrible cold war.
- Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.
- Fearing nuclear annihilation from each other.
And whoever built this built it in a motivation
that the world and humanity were gonna have to start again.
(tense music)
- Our verdict, it's still unknown
who created this strange structure and why.
It's possible the people behind it thought
humanity would need the guidelines
to rebuild after a nuclear apocalypse,
but now we know it's unlikely to have survived Armageddon
since a regular homemade bomb
has already reduced it to rubble.
That's our show for tonight, thank you so much for watching.
Make sure you send us any videos you think
we should investigate
and remember to keep those cameras rolling.
(dramatic theme music)