Humanity faces a lot of mysteries – and we can’t wrap our heads around most of them.
Who are we? Why are we here? Are we alone in the universe? Are shape-shifting reptiles truly behind a one-world government? And many more.
All of them pale in comparison when you remember the Montauk Monster, though. An unidentified creature that washed up ashore in New York – and nobody, not even the experts, can tell us what it was.
Worry not, because that’s what we are here to find out. Was the Montauk Monster a mutant? An alien? Or, perhaps, something more boring like a dead animal? Let’s look at the facts and wildly speculate.
Who found the Montauk Monster?
A 26-year-old woman named Jenna Hewitt found the Montauk Monster first. She took a picture of it, and the photo ended up in local newspapers. The incident happened back in 2008 – and soon enough, people were talking about it online. I truly believe the internet was a mistake, but I digress.
Hewitt gave a couple of interviews to talk about the creature she found. Her father too made several comments about it. There’s not much information about her other than that.
We don’t know where she is now, more than a decade later. There’s a possibility she was kidnapped by the government to prevent the truth from coming out. We have no proof to back that statement, though.
Where was the Montauk Monster found?
Here’s the funny thing about the story: nobody knows the exact location. Hewitt took a picture, sent it to a local newspaper, and even talked about it on the local news for a bit. But she refused to say where the body was.
Sometimes, you can use the background or different elements in a photograph to figure out where it was taken. Unfortunately, the picture she took is a close-up shot of the body. There’s nothing that could help us figure out where the Monster once was.
We know it’s somewhere in Montauk, where Jenna Hewitt lived in 2008. After a while, Jenna claimed she found it in Ditch Plains beach – but never gave an exact location.
The government might have blackmailed her to never tell the Monster’s exact location. Once again, we have no proof.
How was the Montauk Monster found?
When Jenna Hewitt first took a picture of the Montauk Monster, it was already dead, somewhat burnt, and starting to decompose.
That’s what made identifying the Montauk Monster incredibly hard: there was no way to be 100% certain what it was because of its state. That and the fact that Jenna Hewitt never told anyone where it was. Because of that, nobody got to study or dissect the body.
Other than being dead, the Montauk Monster seemed pretty chill. He was laying down in the sand, sunbathing. He truly looked like a cool monster.
Did anyone pay attention to the Montauk Monster?
Of course! People love this kind of stuff. The story became somewhat big. Hewitt gave some interviews because of it.
Plenty of people claimed to have seen the monster themselves and felt the need to tell the world what it truly was. They were the kind of people you couldn’t trust, though.
Believe it or not, the story made its way to television. It first appeared on a public-access TV show and other totally-reputable shows, such as Ancient Aliens.
More than a decade later, people are still speculating about it.
What are the theories behind the Montauk Monster?
Aliens
Right off the bat, we can’t cross out this idea. Mostly because I want aliens to be on this Earth so bad. Other than that, we should at least give this idea a spin. Aliens should never, ever be ruled out.
The Montauk Monster was a weird, unknown creature that nobody knew about. It also popped out of nowhere. We have no idea where it was or where it came from. This entire thing screams aliens. Okay, maybe not.
Government-sponsored animal testing
So, it wasn’t aliens. What’s the next best thing? Government-sponsored shenanigans. A few miles off the Ditch Plains beach (where the monster was allegedly found), there’s a US federal building dedicated to studying animal diseases.
Maybe, just maybe, our Montauk Monster was a freak experiment gone wrong that escaped from there. But not really, because people in animal disease centers aren’t playing God funded by taxpayers. Truth be told, they probably are – but that has nothing to do with this story.
A creature we have never seen before
The ocean represents 70% of Earth’s surface – and we have only explored less than 5% of it. What if the Montauk Monster came from somewhere deep down below?
Or perhaps something made its way out of the terrifying depths of the ocean only to end up dead ashore? What a tragic turn of events. Don’t worry, it wasn’t that.
Animals
- Cat: It was first speculated that the Montauk Monster was nothing but a cat’s carcass. This was soon ruled out because, first, that’s rather boring and, second, the Montauk Monster looks nothing like a cat.
- Dog: Soon after the cat theory fell apart, the dog hypothesis surfaced. This too was ruled out rather quickly. The eyes and feet do not have dog-like features.
- Sea turtle: After people went through every domestic animal, they started to go further down the animal list. Some people grasped at straws and claimed it was a sea turtle. Unfortunately, the Montauk Monster didn’t have a shell. It did have fur and teeth, something sea turtles don’t have.
- Sheep: By the time Montauk Monster theorists went for sheep, they definitely were running out of ideas. The teeth don’t match at all. It wasn’t a sheep.
Do we know what the Montauk Monster truly was?
Oh, we do know what the Montauk Monster was. It was a raccoon. A couple of experts managed to study the photograph and were able to identify the animal.
Plenty of the Montauk Monster’s features, such as skull shape, the feet, and many others are those of a raccoon. There was some confusion because of the carcass’s degree of decomposition. Other than that, it’s a match!
Or, maybe, that’s what they want us to believe.
Want more? Listen to our Montauk Monster episode below!
