Lmst

RE: https://disabled.social/@GimpyGurl/115729762577866244

I love short form #fortean stuff like this seasonal coincidence.

Lil’ devil’s footprints – Sharon A. Hill
#Fortean

https://sharonahill.com/lil-devils-footprints/

Lil’ devil’s footprints

In February 1855 in Devon, England, tiny curved tracks, like horse-shoes or donkey prints, appeared in the snow overnight. The tracks, which reportedly extended some 40 miles, caused quite a stir. Someone suggested that they were made by the devil himself. The tale grew and became a well-known Fortean incident, mentioned to this day.

This story was one of my favorites, not because I thought of it as a real and perplexing mystery, but because it made such a lasting impact. Skeptics will immediately note that the tracks melted and what was left resembled a hoof print. Yet, I hadn’t seen any actual demonstration of this. There probably was a demonstration, but the mundane answers to the world’s mysteries are not very popular. People prefer the more dramatic and exciting “unexplained” framing. However, on December 14, 2025, my grand-dog and I inadvertently made the devil prints ourselves.

Devon: Winter, 1855

The weather reported in Devon on the day of the 1855 tracks was cold and windy, another day of the severe winter that froze parts of the nearby rivers. A half inch to 4 inches of snow had fallen overnight. Then came a bit of rain before another hard freeze. The next day, someone noticed the hoof-like tracks. Framed as a mystery, the news spread. Many people found similar tracks.

According to the collected information by Mike Dash (my favorite Fortean historian) in Fortean Studies, Volume 1, no one actually did any careful logging of the tracks. Some reports had the tracks going across rooftops or high walls. It’s unclear how someone could be certain of the rooftop claim. Later, the story evolved into miles of continuous trackways that were from the same creature, and happened simultaneously. This was untrue as the story unfolded over more than one day. Dash cites sources noting that the trackway wasn’t a direct line but meandered “like an animal looking for food”.

The tracks were not a hoax (but subsequent tracks in the following days could have been). The contemporary sources were sometimes anonymous and unreliable, with questionable details. Extra exaggerated elements were likely added to the tale later on. Speculation about the origin included reference to all sorts of animals to blame, including a kangaroo(?!). There were a myriad of creative explanations volunteered by serious investigators. Dash concluded that it is unlikely the mystery can ever be thoroughly solved.

The unknown culprit led to some people throwing up their hands and declaring the devil had traversed the land. This was a grievous insult to the local bishop!

The Devil prints.
By English Papers 1855, Public Domain

The making of the devil tracks

Additional accounts of mysterious “hoof prints” similar to the Devon mystery are reported up to modern day. Even more examples were noted in the UK that same winter. Certainly, there were more incidents that are never reported.

I’m reporting an incident right now. And I know how they were made.

On Sunday morning, Tito, the long-legged, long-haired Chihuahua, had to go on a walk to do his business because that’s the way he rolls. I was not keen on walking outside that blustery suburban morning, but I am his temporary keeper and I do his bidding. The sidewalk was mostly snow-covered with about an inch of powder. It was brutally cold, well below freezing. Our prints in both directions were the only markings in the windswept snow. No other sane people were walking, or cleaning their sidewalks.

Later that afternoon, we were off on our second trip. The winds had blown most of the snow clear off the smooth concrete sidewalks, leaving only the icy traces of our morning walk. I was amused to see my shoe prints enlarged, but Tito’s had formed into adorable little horse-shoe shapes. The prints remained the following day as the temps stayed in low double digits.

The Explanation

The original prints from Tito, the lil’ devil, pushed the snow into little ridges in the direction of travel. The tiny outer ridge remained as the wind blew away the loose snow and the sun melted the paw prints that were originally obvious.

As for the Devon prints, the single track indicated an animal that either hopped (like a rabbit, squirrel, etc.), making a single indentation in the snow, or a two-legged animal (a bird) tracked a linear path, unlike a dog that shows a parallel track.

This is no mystery. But we still want it to be. No matter how many times we show how a mystery was solved, a monster made, or a mistake revealed, the fun story will live on.

Tito was unimpressed with his Fortean accomplishment. He would rather lounge, careless, on the couch. I recognized that a mystery is mostly about context and culture, with a heavy dose of slow news day reaction.

#DevilSFootprints #DevonshireDevilPrints #Fortean

https://sharonahill.com/?p=10631

Early this AM, Tito and I went for a walk down the snowy sidewalk. His little paws left prints. 8 hours later, we did it again except the snow had blown away leaving what, for all the world, looked like icy Devil's Footprints (little horseshoes) on the sidewalk. #fortean

Sadly, I didn't have my phone in hand because it was friggin' 7 degrees F.

'Jenkins' by Paul Glanville (Pearson's Magazine, 1907), is a humorous out-of-body experience tale in which the titular character temporarily turns into a ghost. The illustration is by the then-well-known comic artist H M Bateman. #PhantomsFriday #ghost #ghosts #Fortean #ForteanFriday #BookChatWeekly

A man in a nightgown swirls up into the air as a man and a domestic servant look on, startled. The caption reads: 'To my surprise, I did not stop there, but passed imperceptibly right through the ceiling.'

I'm digging up some old, sadly neglected, posts from earlier in the year. I've always liked this straightforward attitude to the #Fortean from maverick archaeologist T C Lethbridge. I particularly like his choice of the simple word 'odd'.

RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:b2hyz7hdcoiglhniwkwykt3f/post/3lmk7xzop2c2v

New Video: An Irreverent take on the history of Fortean Times magazine with Ian Simmons, their News Editor. Watch the full 50 minute live video here:
https://youtu.be/hQ8dhObF21E
#fortean #video #unexplained #mysteries

I am jealous of those who get to attend this. #fortean

The Haunted Landscape: Ghosts, Magic and Lore https://www.conwayhall.org.uk/whats-on/event/the-haunted-landscape-ghosts-magic-and-lore/

Missed this one at Halloween time.
Good stuff. Alan Murdie writes a great column for #Fortean Times. #paranormal #ghosts

https://www.swlondoner.co.uk/life/31102025-the-ghost-club-the-worlds-oldest-paranormal-society

Mawnan Church and Woods in #Cornwall, scene of the mysterious 'Owlman' sightings in the 1970s: a #Fortean and #cryptozoology favourite. In 1993 I found it an atmospheric location with its ancient granite church. The wood wasn't as spooky as expected but it will have grown a lot thicker in 30 years!

A modest medieval, gothic church built of grey granite blocks.

In among the deciduous tress of a wood growing on a steep slope covered in a carpet of autumn leaves.

An Irish lion? Nope. A dog. Mystery of ‘lion’ spotted in Co Clare solved #cryptid #Fortean

https://sundayworld.com/news/irish-news/mystery-of-lion-spotted-in-co-clare-solved/a2092117012.html

Updates to the #paranormal database include a dental #poltergeist and respectful birds, as well as the normal #fortean experiences and ghostly encounters... https://www.paranormaldatabase.com/recent/

Uncertain if the publication in two UFO newsletters is meant to imply an extraterrestrial angle to the Exploding Piano Mystery, or if both of those periodicals had broader, more Fortean, themes.
#piano #explosion #UFO #Fortean

Faded mimeograph periodical, the QUEST-UFO REPORT, about the Exploding Piano Mystery of May, 1970, reprinted from the Merseyside UFO Bulletin.

The Mad Gasser of Mattoon as foretold in a Fritz Lang movie:
https://lthanlon.com/2024/04/22/movies-connection-to-mad-gassers-is-examined/
#gas #Mattoon #Fortean

OTD in 1944 the police chief of Matton Illinois pronounced "The Mad Gasser of Mattoon", a supposed nocturnal prowler spraying paralytic gas, to be the result of mass hysteria https://cromwell-intl.com/travel/usa/mattoon/?s=mb #history #travel #gas #Fortean

The panic over "The Mad Gasser of Mattoon" continued OTD in 1944 https://cromwell-intl.com/travel/usa/mattoon/?s=mb #history #travel #gas #Fortean

The Commissioner of Public Health, addressing the panic over "The Mad Gasser of Mattoon" announced that "The whole town is sick with hysteria" https://cromwell-intl.com/travel/usa/mattoon/?s=mb #history #travel #gas #Fortean

#Fortean

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