Small Fresno County town said to have history of cult activity.

About 40 miles east of Fresno lies the small town of Dunlap. Like most towns in eastern Fresno County it got its start as a stage coach stop in the 1800's. For the most part this small town seems to be unremarkable except for rumors of occult activity during the early history of the area.

Legend says that some time in the mid 1800's there was a small shack on the outskirts of the town that served as a meeting place for a local cult. It was rumored that this shack was used for dark rituals designed to conjure up demons and sinister supernatural entities. The goal of these rituals were to give the members supernatural powers to help them further their sinister goals.

This went on for years until for reasons unknown the sect decided to disband and the members went on to carry normal lives. Even though no longer practicing, the group were still loyal to one another and when a member died they requested to be buried in the Dunlap Cemetery in an unmarked grave despite the fact most members no longer even lived in the area. It seems one final ritual was performed and the group conjured three tall, shadowy figures and bound them to the cemetery to protect the members buried there and seemed to be seen the most near a cluster of oak trees.

People have heard whispering voices chanting "Leave us alone!" over and over. One witness decided to disobey the whispers and ventured further into the cemetery only to hear footsteps follow them despite the fact they were alone. The voices grew louder and louder until they were no longer whispers but screams in their ears. This seemed to go on for an hour until they couldn't take it anymore and fled the cemetery. 

Of course the skeptic in me questions this story and wants to chalk it up to nothing more than urban legend. People who live in the are vehemently denying the story and most claim to never even have heard of it. If it is indeed nothing more than fiction, what was the genesis of the story? That part has always interested me, that there was some story that seemed to have lasted the years and took on a life of it's own and became a living, breathing entity. People can dismiss it all they want, but the story still is out there. I'm not the only one to have written about it. And I doubt I'll be the last. 

Chupacabra forces prom in Mendota to be canceled

Did this friendly lil guy cause the prom in Mendota to be canceled?

Photo courtesy of sapherequeen from fanpop.com

First off let me apologize for the lack of recent context. I've been in the process of moving and didn't have time for much else. Now that I'm settled in I can focus again on providing content for Weird Fresno. Today I thought I would do that by revisiting an early story that I had done.

According to a website called the Chupacabra Tracker, on May 10 (the year is never told) in the small farming town of Mendota a rooster is said to have died of "mysterious" circumstances. Soon after that the Fresno County Department of Agriculture started to receive reports of Chupacabra sightings in the area. This apparently alarmed the local parents so much that they had the prom canceled out of fear their children might become victims to the legendary goat sucker.

How legitimate this story is, I have no idea. When I first came across it I contacted both Mendota High School and the Fresno County Ag Commissioner (there is no county Dept. of Ag, only state) but never received a reply from either party. Still I love this story. Something had to have happened to freak out the local parents to have them go as far to cancel the local prom. I just really hope it wasn't a dog with a case of mange.

Piranha fished out of the San Joaquin River back in 1987

The stretch of the San Joaquin River in Fresno County where a

piranha was caught in 1987.

On July 4, 1987, a lone piranha was caught in the San Joaquin River in the western part of Fresno County. It was fished out of the San Joaquin River north of the city of Kerman along a stretch of river near the intersection of Madera Avenue (Hwy. 145) and Modoc Avenue (this is according to the LA Times, but is incorrect as both Modoc Ave and Hwy. 145 run north/south and therefore are parallel).

The fish was about 15 inches in length and weighed roughly two pounds. A biologist with the Department of Fish and Game confirmed that the fish had been in the river for some time as its growth pattern and scales confirmed it came from the San Joaquin.

More representatives from Fish and Game were dispatched to determine if there were any more of the fish, which is illegal to own in California, as there was a rumor that another fisherman had caught another piranha downstream, but nothing was ever found.

The question remains, even twenty three years later. Where did the piranha come from? Most likely a person somehow obtained the piranha, probably for a fish tank, and when the fish started eating the other fish the owner decided that it would be smart to dump it in the San Joaquin instead of disposing of the fish. Who knows how long the fish was in the river before the fisherman caught it.

Full source: Los Angeles Times

ABC 30 reports Bigfoot sightings on the rise in Fresno County

Recently ABC 30 did a short newspiece on multiple Bigfoot sightings in the foothills and mountain regions of Fresno County. Gene Haagenson interviewed several people in the area who have claimed to have witnessed the legendary creature in some capacity.

One was a member of the Mono Indian tripe and says he was in the woods once and smelt a strong odor and associated it with Bigfoot (there have been multiple occurences of a strong rotten egg like odor accompanying a visual encounter of Bigfoot). Another was a Northfork resident who heard strange sounds outside her window one night. Only later, when she heard similiar sounds on a Bigfoot sight did she realize what was outside her window was a Bigfoot. The newspiece then mentions a Bigfoot museum in Santa Cruz and then goes into how many people have taken the search of Bigfoot seriously.

I actually liked the piece, as they weren't trying to make these people out to be a bunch of cooks and portrayed them as normal people who just witnessed something strange. Mainstream science still hasn't taken the idea of Bigfoot seriously, but with the ever increasing amount of evidence being gathered it's only a matter of time before they do.

Reports of chupacabra in Calfornia farm town cancels high school prom.

I have no idea what year this was, but it made me chuckle.

From the Chupacabra Tracker.

On May 10, a rooster fell victim in Mendota, California, and the Fresno County Department of Agriculture subsequently logged ten complaints of goatsucker activity, prompting worried parents to cancel their childrens prom outings.


I'm going to have to look into this some more. I'm not sure of the truthfulness of the prom being canceled due to a few complaints of chupacabra activity. But if this is true, I'd love to see the reports that were filed.

Bigfoot sigtings in Fresno County

My friend Tom (whom I'm hoping will be doing an upcoming podcast with me) showed me a website, the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization, that had a listing of sightings by State, and then a sub listing by County. Under Fresno County there were several sightings up at Florence Lake, which is above Hunnington. What's interesting about the sightings is they occur only in the late summer and early fall. Tom has a theory that perhaps Bigfoot is a migratory animal and that is why sighting of them are rare. They are always on the move. We've been talking about taking an expedition up to Florence at the start of summer and set up some cameras that are set off by an IR sensor (these are the type that hunters use to photograph game on trails) and come back in six weeks to see if we captured anything. When we do I'll definitely post what we find, if anything, on here.

Here's the link to BFRO's lisings for Fresno County.