A chill in the air, darkness falls in forests faster in October. As each passing evening gets hauntingly dimmer earlier by the minute, and each night features a few extra decreases of colder air, a roaring fire or porch light may be the only thing that can save you from .. the squonk.
The squonk will make itself known widely in the woods around you — it will be clear to express itself with a long and drawn out moan. It will be a scream mixed with anger, and pain.
The squonk’s visual appearance, if you are lucky enough to see one, will feature warty, loose fitting skin.. It will go wandering around your local forest, weeping while it does due to its sadness..
Legend has it that when the temperature features its full winter-chill, the squonk’s bitter tears of pain will freeze so fast that you can follow its trail in the woods.
The squonks among us
As we open our “Skooky Things 3” series on the dark woods that surround us, and mysteries that abound within, we needed to focus on one of the oldest, gloomiest, and most frightening of cryptids that reportedly make trees their home.
It makes for scary stories around fires at a camp.
It is a mythical creature (we hope!) that resided in the forests of Northern Pennsylvania. At the time they were mentioned in pop culture, most of the woods around were hemlocks. It appears that squonks loved hemlocks, at least according to old lure.
The squonk is of a very retiring disposition, generally traveling about at twilight and dusk. Because of its misfitting skin, which is covered with warts and moles, it is always unhappy…Hunters who are good at tracking are able to follow a squonk by its tear-stained trail, for the animal weeps constantly. When cornered and escape seems impossible, or when surprised and frightened, it may even dissolve itself in tears.
It was said that squonks were so sad about their skin, that often they would cry themselves into such a puddle that they would literally dissolve right before hunters that caught them!
Now that is impressive..
But it also seems that squonks just need a nice, big hug..
Where are they now!?
Logging got them!
Advanced technology and less forests took their homes away, according to folklore.
In the 1800s when Hemlock forests started getting cut down, the squonks got confused and went into marshes and drown.. According to the oldest legends, you can dig in marshes to find the little squonk bones in the mud..
Who wants to go searching?
The squonk in news!
Newspapers gave us some of the more amazing urban legends of our times.. The ink filled papers of the 20th century offered up paranormal as though it was true. Carnival barkers had their moments to shine!
On May 14, 1946, the SNYDER COUNTY TRIBUNE gave us a page 6 byline describing the squonk:
This exact post became a repeated newspaper snippet in a number of national fishwrappers over the next two or three decades..
The DUNN COUNTY NEWS from Menomonie Wisconsin gave us a much better background of the squonk on January 19, 1977, with a snipper on page 34 of their paper talking about how the legendary beast goes back to the 1700s with a story of Harmon Best:
The story went on to say that the Becks were frightened by the noise of weeping noises from the woods. Beck grabbed his shot gun and stormed out the door.. when he was in the hemlock forest that surrounded his home, he saw the wet ground and followed it, beginning to hear strange noises. And weeping, getting louder as he got closer.
And then, the paper reported, right in front of his eyes: The Squonk!
What animal could the squonk have been?
We speculate here..
It is interesting to consider how and where the legend of the squonk could have had its birth. Perhaps a crying and sad bear crying for its cub? The bear would have had a mange?
That is a sad thought in itself..
No matter the genesis of the squonk, there are a number of people that can attest to going on “squonk” hunts in the 1960s and 70s with elder hunters.
Squonks today
While they may have cried themselves into puddles in the 1800s and 1900s, we still have them today thanks to people who keep the legend alive.
Principal photography began in 2012 and included a 150 square foot life size set against a blue screen. Following the shoot, the crew constructed various miniature sets, and 900 individual elements, mostly miniature trees, to use as the basis for background replacements. Each tree was photographed at different angles and in different lighting situations, then added to a “tree library” in Shotgun. Artists could then easily sort by lighting situation and choose which element would work best on a shot-by-shot basis.
IMDB has a listing on their site for 2022..
THE SQUONK by Genesis
Yes, pop culture from the old times made it to pop culture of the near to late 20th century.. Genesis, and Phil Collins, sang about this old legend with SQUONK..
Squonk by Genesis.
Like father like son
Not flesh nor fish nor bone
A red rag hangs from an open mouth
Alive at both ends but a little dead in the middle
A tumbling and a bumbling he will go
All the King’s horses and all the King’s men
Could never put a smile on that face
He’s a sly one, he’s a shy one, wouldn’t you be too?
Scared to be left all on his own
He hasn’t a, hasn’t a friend to play with the ugly duckling
The pressure on, the bubble will burst before our eyes
All the while in perfect time His tears are falling on the ground But if you don’t stand up, you don’t stand a chance ey ey ey yeh-yeh
You don’t stand a chance Go a little faster now, you might get there in time
Mirror mirror on the wall
His heart was broken long before he ever came to you
Stop your tears from falling
The trail they leave is very clear for all to see at night
All to see at night
They come at night In season, out of season
Oh, what’s the difference when you don’t know the reason
In one hand bread, the other a stone
The hunter enters the forest
All are not huntsmen who blow the huntsman’s horn and by the look of this one
You’ve not got much to fear
Here I am,
I’m very fierce and frightening
I come to match my skill to yours Now listen here, listen to me, don’t you run away now
I am a friend,
I’d really like to play with you
Making noises my little furry friend would make
I’ll trick him, then I’ll kick him into my sack
You better watch out, you better watch out
I’ve got you,
I’ve got you You’ll never get away
Walking home that night
The sack across my back the sound of sobbing on my shoulder
When suddenly it stopped I opened up the sack, all that I had
A pool of bubbles and tears, just a pool of tears
Just a pool of tears
All in all you are a very dying race
Placing trust upon a cruel world
You never had the things you thought you should’ve had
And you’ll not get them now
And all the while in perfect time
Your tears are falling on the ground
The squonk may just be old Pennsylvania Dutch folklore.. but maybe, just maybe, the squonk represents all of us in the end.
Our skin just aging and wilting and us crying during cold nights in the dark woods of autumn..
Enter the squonk. Our first tale of Skooky Things, 2022.
