Cryptid Lore

Call it a cryptid claim to fame.

The riverside community of Columbia, Lancaster County, has latched onto the long-held lore of the Albatwitch, a small, fury creature that dates to Native American times here, and elevated it to legendary status.

The Albatwitch is now driving what creature hunter David Spinks calls “para-tourism” as thousands flock to the mountainous woods surrounding Columbia in search of the red-eyed, apple-stealing abnormality.

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Sixty-seven years ago, an eighteen-year-old Mennonite farm boy from a tiny Kansas town had a lake monster in his sights. Albert “Bert” Neufeld fired two shots from his hunting rifle in a vain attempt to bag Sinkhole Sam, the greatest monster legend Kansas has ever known.

There are multiple reports of a massive, snakelike creature swimming in the Big Sinkhole—that’s the official name according to the Kansas State Department of Transportation—a few miles outside of Inman, a tiny town northwest of Wichita. The legend began surfacing in the summer of 1952, the year before Neufeld took his shot. The creature was described as being between fifteen and thirty feet long, a wormy beast as big around as the tire from a 1951 REO Speedwagon.

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If I had to pick a favorite, it's hard to do worse than the Jackalope!