I'm Laura Norton, and this is one strange thing,

the show where we search the nation's news archives for stories that can't quite be explained.

I'm... Well, it's finally happened.

Today we have brought you something you can really sink your teeth into.

Some folks might call it a cryptid.

Others might call it a manimal,

but those aren't the sort of folks that we like to associate with.

Personally, we like the word beast.

We think that covers a lot of territory.

Now, the more enthusiastically weird among our listeners, they might think they know the story this week.

But we posit that, even if you've heard this one, you've likely heard a spooky retelling,

dramatized for maximum effect on a blog or listical, or maybe even, a certain documentary.

And while we love atmosphere and fog and people running around in the woods and shouting

and shaky cameras and night vision as much as anyone else, and let's be frank, probably

more than most people, we must admit that there's a special

place in our hearts for the way a story can be pieced together, not on the big screen,

but through the quotes of the small town residents who experienced it, printed in the pages

of their tiny local newspapers.

And that's what we have for you this week.

Because, listeners, there was a time in the early 1990s when the picturesque town of Elkhorn,

Wisconsin faced something wholly out of the ordinary.

And lack of normalcy alone was odd for the city. It was

...