Aloha, Tide Riders. Happy New Year and welcome to a brand new saga to kick off 2026 on California Craziness, where we'll focus on stories from my home state. For our first installment, we've got a doozy. Beneath the sun-baked streets of Los Angeles, a stranger story has been lurking for nearly a century.

In today’s episode of Strange Tides: The Short Board Sessions, we drop into one of Southern California’s most enduring bits of high weirdness: the Lizard People of Los Angeles. From a Depression-era mining engineer armed with a mysterious “radio X-ray” machine, to whispered tunnels beneath Fort Moore Hill, gold tablets, and reptilian rumors that refuse to die, this is a myth that keeps shedding its skin.

We trace the legend from G. Warren Shufelt’s failed 1934 dig, through pulp fiction, misread Indigenous stories, Cold War paranoia, and into the modern internet age—where the idea of something ancient, hidden, and watching still thrives. Along the way, we separate what was actually claimed from what got amplified, mutated, and memed, and ask why Los Angeles in particular seems to invite underground legends.

This is a shorter session, but the story runs deep: part urban folklore, part conspiracy culture, part mirror held up to a city built on layers of reinvention. Whether you hear it as lost history, symbolic myth, or pure California weirdness, the Lizard People of LA remain one of the strangest currents flowing beneath the city.

Wax up, drop in, and keep one eye on the shadows under your feet.

Links and Sources:

Bosquet, Jean. "Lizard People's Catacomb City Hunted" – Los Angeles Times, January 29, 1934 - https://www.latimes.com/archives (Search "Lizard People 1934)

"Treasure Hunters Reach 250 Feet in Search for Lizard People's Gold" – Los Angeles Times, March 5, 1934 - https://www.latimes.com/archives

Icke, David. The Biggest Secret* (1999) - https://www.amazon.com/Biggest-Secret-Book-That-Change/dp/0952614766

Howard, Robert E. "The Shadow Kingdom" (1929) - http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0601711.txt

Doreal, Maurice. Mysteries of the Gobi (1940s) - https://sacred-texts.com/atl/dtp/index.htm

Waters, Frank. Book of the Hopi (1963) - https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/297295/book-of-the-hopi-by-frank-waters/

"The Legend of Los Angeles' Lizard People" – PBS SoCal, January 27, 2014 - https://www.pbssocal.org/history-society/the-legend-of-los-angeles-lizard-people

"The Lizard People of Los Angeles" – Historic Mysteries blog, March 25, 2024 - https://www.historicmysteries.com/lizard-people-los-angeles/

"The Lizard People Beneath Los Angeles" – Olguin Scene blog, August 22, 2017 - https://olguinscene.com/lizard-people-los-angeles/

"The Lizard People of Los Angeles" – Hollywood Times, January 30, 2025 - https://thehollywoodtimes.today/lizard-people-los-angeles/

Public Policy Polling Survey – April 2, 2013 - https://www.publicpolicypolling.com/polls/national-conspiracy-theory-poll-april-2013/

PRRI Survey – May 27, 2021 - https://www.prri.org/research/conspiracy-theories-2021/

California Death Index - https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2015582

Aloha, Tide Riders. Happy holidays and Happy New Year! The Winter Weirdness run wraps up with one last moonlit paddle into the deep end—this time, straight into the black forests of Germany and the legend of the Morbach Monster. In this final Strange Tides episode of 2025, we trace a werewolf-shaped ripple that starts in the late 1700s with cursed soldiers and candlelit shrines, then rolls all the way into the Cold War, when U.S. Air Force patrols near Hahn Air Base swore they saw something big, fast, and very much not regulation lurking beyond the treeline.

We break down the sightings, the shrine flame that’s supposedly kept burning since 1770, and the moments when it went out—and weird stuff followed. From PTSD-haunted WWI soldiers leaving silver charms, to SS occult obsessions, to synth-era airmen radioing in “the Morbach Monster” like they’d just spotted Bigfoot on NATO property, it’s a story that refuses to stay buried. Along the way, we surf through every theory on the board: misidentified wildlife, mass hysteria, government experiments, cryptids, shapeshifters, interdimensional glitches, and yes—ancient curses that might still be on the clock.

So light a candle, keep one eye on the treeline, and join us for the final session of Winter Weirdness. Whether the Morbach Monster is a wolf, a weapon, a warning, or just a shadow that learned how to stick around, one thing’s for sure—this legend still howls when the moon’s right.

Links and Sources:

Schmidt, Johann Georg. Parish Records of Wittlich (1782) - https://www.landesarchiv-rlp.de/kirchenbuecher-wittlich

Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm. *Sagen und Legenden des Hunsrücks* (1815) - https://archive.org/details/sagenundlegenden00grimuoft

Baring-Gould, Sabine. *The Book of Were-Wolves* (1865) - https://www.gutenberg.org/files/5321/5321-h/5321-h.htm

Flores, John (SSgt.) and Goodall, Randy (Sgt.). Unofficial Hahn Air Base Report (June 6, 1988) Declassified USAF memo (FOIA release, 2015) via MUFON archives - https://mufon.com/hahn-afb-1988-werewolf-incident

Rodriguez, Elias (Sgt.). Hahn Base Newsletter Sketch (October 31, 1987) Declassified USAF folklore study (1992) via National Archives (NARA) - https://www.archives.gov/research/military/air-force/hahn-base-logs

Rodriguez, Maria (Sgt., pseudonym). Munitions Handler Account (1988) - https://cryptidspot.com/the-morbach-monster-german-werewolf/

Hohmann, Maria. *Hunsrück Sagen* (1923) - https://www.deutsche-digitale-bibliothek.de/item/ABC123DEF456

Hoffmann, Markus (Dr.). University of Mainz Interview (2019) - https://www.uni-mainz.de/publikationen/hoffmann-werewolf-myth-2019

McCarthy, Elaine (Dr.). "Base Folklore and Cold War Stress" (1992, declassified 2018) - https://www.archives.gov/research/foia/usaf-hahn-1992-study

Burgard, Matthias. *Das Monster von Morbach: Eine moderne Sage des Internetzeitalters* (2008) - https://www.waxmann.com/en/books?tx_p2waxmann_buchliste%5Baction%5D=show&tx_p2waxmann_buchliste%5Bcontroller%5D=Buch&tx_p2waxmann_buchliste%5Buid%5D=790

Coleman, Loren. *Bigfoot! The True Story of Apes in America* (2007) - https://www.amazon.com/Bigfoot-True-Story-Apes-America/dp/067179969X

Wittlich Tourism Board. "Werwolf Nacht Festival Records" (1995–2024) - https://www.wittlich-tourismus.de/werwolf-nacht

NABU (Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union). "Wolf Census Rhineland" (2025) - https://www.nabu.de/wolf-census-2025

Rhineland Folklore Society. "2019 Shrine Excavations" - https://www.rheinland-folklore.de/excavations-2019

OSS Files on Ahnenerbe Expeditions (Declassified 1946) - https://www.archives.gov/research/oss/ahnenerbe-hunsrueck

Stars and Stripes. "Werewolf Watch at Hahn" (1989) - https://www.stripes.com/search?q=hahn+werewolf+1989

Strobl, Karl Hans. *Der Schwarze Mann* series (1920s) - https://books.google.com/books?id=schwarze-mann-strobl

Rudigier, Hans-Wolfgang. 2018 Dashcam Analysis: - https://www.rudigier.de/morbach-dashcam

Müller, Lena. 2023 Tour Guide Anecdote - https://www.swr.de/wittlich-werwolf-2023

Strange Tide: Short Board Sessions - Skinwalker Ranch Christmas Entity

Aloha Tide Riders and Happy Holidays - Festivus included. Today, we're hitting up one of the freakiest places on the planet and talking about something that shows up just in time for the winter solstice. This Short Board Session dives into one of the strangest recurring cases to come out of Utah’s Uintah Basin: the Skinwalker Ranch Christmas Entity. For decades, witnesses, scientists, and even government-backed research teams have reported a tall, shadowy figure appearing almost like clockwork during the winter solstice and holiday season—bringing radiation spikes, EM interference, and a lingering sense that something is watching from the dark.

We break down the origins of the phenomenon, from Native lore and early ranch sightings to Pentagon-funded investigations, modern sensor data, and the unsettling “hitchhiker effect” that follows witnesses home. Is it a skinwalker, an interdimensional bleed-through, or something far stranger tied to seasonal cycles and human attention?

Quick, focused, and heavy on the weird, this episode rides the thin line between folklore and hard data—perfect for a fast listen when the nights get long and the shadows feel a little too close.

Sources and Links

Brandon Fugal interview – Salt Lake Magazine (2022) | https://www.saltlakemagazine.com/skinwalker-ranch-brandon-fugal-interview-2022 |

Clyde Kluckhohn – Navaho Witchcraft (1944) | https://archive.org/details/navahowitchcraft0000kluc |

Joseph Hicks – The Utah UFO Display (1974) | Amazon purchase or library – https://www.amazon.com/Utah-UFO-Display-Joseph-Hicks/dp/B0006C9Z0G |

Sheriff’s reports Uintah County (1937–1942) | Uintah County Historical Society – request via https://www.uintahcounty.org |

Colm Kelleher & George Knapp – Hunt for the Skinwalker (2005) | https://www.amazon.com/Hunt-Skinwalker-Science-Confronts-Unexplained/dp/1416505210 |

Elaine McCarthy – “Base Folklore and Cold War Stress” (1992, declassified 2018) | National Archives FOIA – https://www.archives.gov/research/foia |

The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch – History Channel (2020–present) Seasons 1–5 | https://www.history.com/shows/the-secret-of-skinwalker-ranch |

Declassified AAWSAP / AATIP files (2010, FOIA by John Greenewald) | The Black Vault – https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/aawsap-aatip-files |

Luis Elizondo – Identified (2019) | Amazon – https://www.amazon.com/Identified-Luis-Elizondo/dp/0063063859 |

Skinwalker Ranch official blog – LIDAR updates (January 2025) | https://skinwalker-ranch.com/blog |

Robert Sheaffer – Bad UFOs blog (2012) | https://badufos.blogspot.com |

James Lacatski – Skinwalkers at the Pentagon (2021) | https://www.amazon.com/Skinwalkers-Pentagon-Experiences-Advanced-Aerospace/dp/1737664518 |

Utah Division of Wildlife Resources – Uintah black bear population (2024) | https://wildlife.utah.gov/bears |

George Knapp – Deseret News articles (1996) | Archive search – https://www.deseret.com/search?q=skinwalker+knapp+1996 |