Mysterious Footprints Left On The Sand Of Clearwater Beach In 1984 Sparked Theories That A Prehistoric Monster Had Surfaced From The Sea
Something seemingly sinister occurred one morning in February 1984. A set of mysterious footprints appeared on the sand of Clearwater Beach in Tampa Bay, Florida. Many residents were convinced that a prehistoric monster had surfaced from the water.
The tracks were large, measuring about 14 inches long and 11 inches wide. They featured three long toes with claws and were imprinted deep into the wet sand on the shoreline.
The creature had two legs and seemed more birdlike than reptilian. It had walked along the beach for approximately two miles before disappearing into the Gulf of Mexico.
It was the talk of the town, and news of the strange creature spread. The press called it the “Clearwater Monster.” A few weeks later, new footprints materialized, leading to one of the lifeguard towers, which had been knocked over.
The monster would continue to vanish for weeks at a time but suddenly creep back out just when people started to forget about it.
The monster made appearances at Indian Rocks Beach, the waterfront of Sarasota, the Pinellas peninsula, and the Courtney Campbell Causeway in St. Pete. In October 1948, the Clearwater Monster left a trail of 240 footprints along the banks of the Suwanee River in Old Town, Florida, which was about 150 miles north of Clearwater.
Some people believed it was a giant sea turtle, crocodile, or even a bear. Reports of sightings came flooding in, with locals claiming they saw a 15-foot-long birdlike figure floating on the water or a large, hairy animal with the head of a rhinoceros resting on the shore.
A zoologist and author from the British Museum named Ivan Sanderson was determined to get to the bottom of the mystery. He traveled to Florida to check out the tracks for himself. He made plaster casts of the tracks and interviewed witnesses.
Based on the evidence, he concluded that only something heavy and tall could’ve made the prints, like a giant penguin.
Bradley – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
According to fossils that were previously discovered, the area had once been inhabited by giant penguins that had gone extinct about 35 million years ago.
Sanderson hypothesized that one member of the species might have somehow survived. The prints finally stopped showing up in 1958.
Thirty years later, Tony Signorini, a Clearwater local, confessed to being the Clearwater Monster. After World War II, he moved to the town and worked at an auto repair shop in 1947.
His boss, Al Williams, was a practical jokester and showed him some pictures of dinosaur tracks in a National Geographic magazine.
Together, they made a mold of a pair of giant three-toed footprints that vaguely resembled the dinosaur tracks from the magazine.
Then, they attached high-top tennis shoes to each track. They stamped the prints into the sand under the cover of night.
Signorini still had the fake feet decades later. He died in 2012 at the age of 91, leaving the monster’s feet to his son.
Several museums have offered to buy the artifacts, but the Signorinis wanted to keep them in the family.
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