Part 1

By David Perkins

Reprinted with the Permission of David Perkins and Spirit Magazine

By day, you may be lucky enough to have your own bigfoot sighting or stumble upon the carcass of a freshly mutilated cow.

A sweeping expanse, about three times the size of Delaware, the San Luis Valley runs north/south for 125 miles from southern Colorado into New Mexico. It is bordered on the west by the jagged San Juan Mountains and on the East by the majestic Sangre de Cristo range. Presiding over this vast serenity is the 14,363 ft. Mt. Blanca. Many Native Americans of the Southwest consider Blanca to be the Sacred Mountain of the East, the place on Earth where thought originates. According to these legends, Blanca is also a doorway or "portal area"- the place of emergence for the Star People, who are often described as "arriving aboard flying seed pods."

Nestled against the Sangres, a few miles north of Blanca, is the Great Sand Dunes National Monument. This 50 square miles of gleaming sand is one of North America's most impressive natural wonders. Near the Dunes area is a series of small lakes which some Native Americans call the sipapu, or point of emergence of their people from the underworld.

A few miles north of the Dunes lies the small town of Crestone. In recent years, this ex-mining town has grown into a thriving New Age Mecca. Drawn by "a certain mystical vibration", several traditional religious groups, as well as some unconventional sects have established temples, retreat centers and monasteries in vicinity. Crestone residents speak of a "magnifying glass effect" which they say is conducive for spiritual seekers. Local legend has it that this pristine place has always been a sacred spot to Native Americans. Members of various tribes traveled hundreds of miles to go on "vision quests" here.

Currently, Crestone residents are debating the pros and cons of allowing an Albuquerque group to build a 450 ft. pink granite pyramid in their midst. According to Dr. Norma Milanovich, a group of alien beings called the Arcturians channeled instructions to her (through her computer) to build the "Templar". It's purpose would be to "increase the Earth's vibrational frequency as it undergoes a birthing process into the Fifth Dimension."

It is here among the meditators and channelers that we might find Chris O'Brien and his partner Isadora; that is, if Chris isn't out investigation reports of weirdly surgerized cows and unidentified flying objects. A rock musician by night and researcher of "one of America's most anomalous regions" by day, Chris is a gregarious man of 37. He's fond of sporting a T-shirt which reads: Metaphysically Challenged. He tells us; "This area is unique. No other area in the country has the variety of anomalous activity or the recent levels of weirdness."

O'Brien who is writing a book about his investigations titled, Mysterious Valley, has his hands full with media projects. He has just filmed a segment for the Fox Network show, Sightings. Unsolved Mysteries and Encounters have expressed interest. In recent months, The Denver Post, the Rocky Mountain News and several local newspapers, TV and radio stations have provided a steady stream of stories on the strange goings on in the San Luis Valley.

So what is going on? The valley first drew national and world media attention back in 1967 with the case of Snippy the Horse.

Snippy (whose real name was Lady), was an Appaloosa mare who was found "mutilated" on September 9th, 1967, on the King Ranch, a few miles south of the Great Sand Dunes. She was the pride and joy of Burl and Nellie Lewis. The animal was boarded on the ranch of Nellies's brother, Harry King. Mr. King found Snippy, dead and horribly disfigured less than a quarter mile from his house. Somehow, the animal had been completely denuded of flesh from the neck up.

According to Dr. John Altshuler, a Denver pathologist, and hematologist who examined the carcass, the animal's internal chest organs had been removed "surgically with heat." The mare was drained of blood and the cuts were "surgically precise." Further lab examination by Dr. Altshuler revealed that the animals hemoglobin had been "cooked." The implications were that some type of laser cutting tool had been used.

Don Richmond, of the Pueblo County Sheriff's Department, and his wife Alice noted several other interesting oddities at the site. A medicinal "incense-like " smell hung over the area. Bushes near he carcass were flattened. Strange holes were poked into the ground and other random burn and scorch marks punctuated the meadow. Most curious of all was the fact that Snippy had apparently been running at full speed when her tracks ended abruptly. Her body was found 100 feet beyond the last prints.

For several months prior to the incident, Nellie Lewis and other area residents had seen unusual nocturnal lights bobbing and weaving through the valley. On the evening Snippy was killed, Agnes King, Harry's 87 year old mother had seen a "large object" pass over the ranch house. Unfortunately, she wasn't wearing her glasses at the time.

The Associated Press in Denver put a story on the world-wide wires stating that Mrs. Lewis was "blaming a flying saucer" for her horse's death.

Since the days of Snippy there have been several thousand animals reported mutilated throughout the U.S and Canada. The evidence grows that the phenomenon is world-wide. The large majority of these animals have been cattle.

Mutilation is an inappropriate term to describe the precise and intricate surgery so often reported in a "classic" case. The typical pattern goes like this: the animal is found with no signs of struggle. The sex organs are neatly removed. The rectum is "cored out." In the case of females, the udder or individual teats are excised. The classic mutilation also involves various other missing members - an eye, and ear, the tongue, a portion of the lip or snout, teeth, a patch of skin, the heart.

Almost invariably, investigators report that the animal is drained of blood. Nor is there blood around the cow or around the cuts. The scene of the crime reveals no tracks or evidence that would cast light on how the operation was performed.

What few clues there are tend to be puzzling, contradictory and challenging to our notions of reality. Much has been made of unusual aerial phenomena reported in mutilation "flap" areas. Almost every type of flying object imaginable has been seen; from saucer-shaped objects with revolving lights, to dark unmarked helicopters. Many of these "helicopters" are reported as being "totally silent" and performing maneuvers beyond the limits of (known) contemporary technology.

Cultists and pranksters were the first suspects. Cattlemen's associations offered thousands of dollars in reward money for the apprehension of the culprits. By 1975, when the phenomenon was at it's peak in the West, Colorado governor Dick Lamn was calling the mass animal-carving among among the "the greatest outrages in the history of the Western cattle industry." Carl Whiteside, of the Colorado Bureau of Investigation , said it was "like chasing a ghost.. a phantom."

In 1979, Senator Harrison Schmitt of New Mexico (the former astronaut and geologist moonwalker) convened a Mutilation Conference in Albuquerque. He gathered law enforcement officials and private researchers from around the country "to discuss the mutilation killing of thousands of cattle and horses... animals killed and systematically mutilated for no apparent purpose by persons unknown."

From the time of Snippy's extra-mundane demise in 1967 until the summer of 1975, the San Luis Valley, for the most part escaped the wrath of the motiveless mutilator. Then in September, the phantom surgeons returned to the scene of the original Snippy crime, mutilating several cattle in the Great Sand Dunes area and others further south in the Valley.

Chris O'Brien estimates that there have probably been well over 100 mutilations in the greater San Luis Valley area since 1976. Cattleman simply stopped reporting the incidents when they perceived that law officials were totally ineffectual in dealing with the situation. A random sampling of O'Briens files and incidents reported in the media reveals an intriguing pattern: ....

Copyright 1994, David Perkins

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