Transmitting from the Mojave Wilderness in Joshua Tree, California.

Now is the time for Desert Oracle Radio, the voice of the desert.

It's Friday night on the Mojave Desert

It's a little warm out there this evening

Seems to be kind of a recurring issue

This time of year

But there are other things to worry about But there are other things to worry about.

Like Yucca Man.

The story you'll hear most often goes like this.

There's a young Marine on guard duty in some far-off corner of the massive 29 Palms

Desert Training Base.

He hears an awful sound in the dark, something like a growl.

Then the breathing.

It's coming from one side of his lonesome little guard booth And now it's coming from the other

It's circling him

He steps out into the dark his sidearm drawn drawn, and there it stands, eight feet tall, an unbearable stench from its hairy body, the eyes glowing like red coals.

Sometimes the Marine is knocked unconscious by the beast and found hours later by the next shift.

In one version, the guard is at the old rifle range, and he wakes up to find a rifle bent in half.

Since the 1970s, when the Mojave Desert base expanded from its World War II encampment,

there have been regular reports of new recruits terrorized by both the Yucca Man

and pranks inspired by the tales.

But most sightings of a spectral creature come from campers and hikers in Joshua Tree National Park.

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