We have been awed by eyewitness reports from recent years; but we must not forget those who made possible recent investigations: The explorers of the 1990′s who searched for the ropen and interviewed native eyewitnesses in Papua New Guinea. Without those expeditions in 1994 and 1996, where would we be? Without Carl Baugh’s early expeditions, we would not have had Paul Nation’s expedition in 2002 nor my expedition in 2004 nor Guessman and Woetzel’s, also in 2004. Without Carl Baugh interviewing natives in the 1990′s, we would not have had the historic 2006 expedition by Paul Nation nor the Destination Truth expedition of 2007. Without Carl Baugh, we would not now have the live-pterosaur branch of cryptozoology nor the word “ropen” on Wikipedia. Baugh opened the door for these investigations.

Paul Nation accompanied Baugh and missionary James Blume in the 1994 expedition but not the one in 1996. He sent me his video footage in the fall of 2003, and I edited the videos into a mini-documentary that we called “Searching for Ropen.” But those original videos did more for me that provide material for a mini-documentary: They inspired me to go on my own expedition in 2004, searching for living pterosaurs.

The following are brief summaries of some of the early interviews (mostly 1994).

Tree-Trunk Hugging Ropen

Two native men were interviewed briefly, possibly by Baugh himself (through an interpreter) with videotaping by Paul Nation, perhaps. The two men reported how they had strung up some game meat and later encountered a ropen that they believed had followed the smell. The creature held itself upright on a tree trunk and looked down at the men by turning or twisting its head or upper body.

Native shows how the ropen was upright, holding onto a tree trunk

.

Another videotaped interview (probably also from the 1994 expedition) involved a native man who was shown an illustration of a pterosaur. The man said that they see those creatures and that they catch fish and live in caves.

Native tells interviewer that the creatures catch fish

.

Attempted Grave Robbery in 1993

Carl Baugh interviewed a young family regarding a sighting on the northwest coast of Umboi Island. The husband, a school teacher, interpreted for his wife. She was part of a funeral procession, in 1993, around the northwest coast of Umboi, when a flying creature with a glowing tail approached the body. The mourners chased the creature away, but the memory would not leave.

.

School teacher interprets for his wife, who saw the glowing ropen one night

.

First Videotaped Interview, in 1994, of Gideon Koro

Gideon was just a teenager in 1994, when he was first interviewed in front of a video camcorder. He was nervous talking about the giant ropen, for it had been only a few months or so since the terrifying encounter. The Baptist missionary from the mainland, Jim Blume, and a native interpreter questioned the boy about what he had seen.

The creature was skinny and its size was “house to house.” Some time after I had watched the original video footage, I came to realize what he probably meant: The flying creature was as long as the distance from one nearby village hut to the next hut.

When I myself interviewed Gideon, face to face in 2004, he told me that the length of the tail was seven meters. He was positive, in my interview with him, that the ropen had no feathers.

Gideon Koro was interviewed on Umboi Island in 1994

.

Ropen Expedition of 1996

I don’t know if anyone has any video footage from the 1996 expedition. Carl Baugh and Jim Blume may have visited more than one island in Papua New Guinea that year. They had one sighting of an apparent ropen as it was glowing at night; it was not flying but sitting above a beach, on the coast of a small island.

.

###

.

Wife of a school teacher saw a glowing ropen

“Eunice, a school teacher’s wife, described to Carl Baugh an  attempted grave robbery. One night, in April of 1993, near the  northwest coast of Umboi Island, after a large funeral procession  arrived at the burial location, a creature with a glowing red tail came  from the sea. . . .”

.

The expanded and improved third edition of my first book will be retitled: Searching for Ropens and Finding God. From the first edition, this has been a cross genre, a spiritual true-life-adventure cryptozoology book. The new title makes that fact more clear: This is about more than just modern pterosaurs.

Lake Pung Ropen Sighting

The following is taken from the May 14, 2013, version of the editing of the second chapter. It involves Gideon Koro’s first videotaped interview on Umboi Island:

Gideon’s testimony overshadowed the others. He was one of seven boys who saw a giant ropen, around 1994, flying over a crater lake; the boys ran down off the mountain, terrified. Within few months, Gideon answered questions in front of a video camcorder, nervously. He described the ropen as skinny, and the size as “house to house” (referring to nearby huts). One of the two interviewers, Baptist missionary Jim Blume, interpreted: “about twenty feet.” But he misunderstood.

The number of creatures then became confused with size. As Jim Blume was interpreting and estimating the wingspan, it sounded like Gideon mentioned additional “smaller ones.” The interpreters then questioned him about “how many” (meaning the number of creatures), and Gideon answered, “ten or twenty.”

I would discover, after interviewing Gideon myself in 2004, that he did not mean that there were ten or twenty ropens; he was probably adjusting, during the first interview, his size-estimate for the one ropen he encountered. But I would conclude, in 2007, that the median of ten and twenty—fifteen—was the approximate overall length or wingspan of that ropen, in meters, consistent with his estimate of wing-size during my interview with Gideon in 2004: seven meters.

We need to understand that Gideon thinks in meters rather than feet. When the subject was the size of the ropen observed by those seven boys, Jim Blume said “twenty.” Gideon then said something that was interpreted as “smaller ones.” What he meant, I believe, is this: The length or wingspan (probably similar in size) could have been smaller than twenty meters, less than sixty-six feet.

By the way, my memory of villages on Umboi Island may be instructive. I believe many of the huts are in the neighborhood of fifteen meters apart, which is what I believe Gideon meant when he estimated the size of the ropen with the words “house-to-house.” The interpreter may have thought about house length.

.

Publication of Searching for Ropens and Finding God

I hope this third edition will be completed and published by the end of summer.

###

.

A related book but in pure cryptozoology genre:

Live Pterosaurs in America, third edition, by Jonathan David Whitcomb

This book about modern living pterosaurs is available now, in contrast to Searching for Ropens and Finding God (which will not be published until around September of 2013). From the middle of the introduction, we read:

If this book does nothing more than comfort the eyewitnesses of strange creatures, I would be grateful; but there’s much more. We need to understand why we believe what we believe. When I first began researching these eyewitness sightings, years ago, I mentioned a word to a kindergartner: “pterosaurs;” he said, “A comet.” Years later, while writing this book, I mentioned my work to a second-grader; she said, “Who will buy your book? Crazy people?” I think better of you. And I think, because of what she and many others have told me, that we must understand indoctrination, for it influences our beliefs; the extent of that influence discomforts me.

Purchase your own copy of Live Pterosaurs in America — available now.

Last May, I predicted that my third book would be published “within a few weeks.” Publication is getting closer, but the index still needs to be created and linked, which may take at least a few days. Here is the cover of the ebook Live Pterosaurs in Australia and in Papua New Guinea:

[Update: It went on sale on Amazon on Sep 11, 2012 (click on the image below)]

Here is an excerpt from the third chapter, “The Bougainville Creature”

“I can’t remember why our vehicle had stopped. Maybe we had to wait for another vehicle to pass us. I don’t know. But I can still hear that slow flapping sound in the stillness of an early tropical morn, on the road from Panguna down to Loloho on Bougainville Island in 1971.

“When I looked up . . . I saw a very unusual creature. Firstly, it was very big (wingspan at least 2 metres, probably more . . . possibly much, much more). I can’t remember the exact distance estimate that this creature was from me . . . It was black or dark brown. I had never seen anything like it before. It certainly looked prehistoric, in that it did not look like any other bird that I have seen before or since.

Ropen Close to Bunsil Station, Umboi Island

. . . I received an email from a young man from Tarawe Village, Umboi Island. He was a student at the time: business accounting at the University of Technology in Lae City. He did not get a photograph of the ropen, but he had a wonderful sighting . . .

In Papua New Guinea, in 2004, I explored part of Umboi Island, Papua New Guinea, with my interpreter, Luke Paina. We were hoping to get photographs and video footage of a ropen, from Luke holding a film camera and me holding a video camcorder. Unfortunately, no ropen showed up for the cameras. We found many eyewitnesses and I interviewed them while videotaping them, but I longed to get a more.

But in 2009 I received an email from a young man from Tarawe Village, Umboi Island. He was a student at the time: business accounting at the University of Technology in Lae City. He did not get a photograph of the ropen, but he had a wonderful sighting:

I was on an outboard motor [probably a banana boat] as early as 9 am when we saw a giant creature floating along the coastline near Bunsil Bay [central-south coast of Umboi Island].  Its body was submerged under the sea but its tail was emerged. I saw that its tail is about 6-7 meters long [about twenty feet long] with sharp diamond shape. It was an awesome scenerio . . . It was floating 10 meters away from the boat . . .

Being in fear, we stopped the boat to let it pass by. . . . I wish I had a camera at that time because it was a frightening scene. Right now I’m looking for a camera to monitor this beast. . . .

Coastline just to the east of Bunsil Station, Umboi Island (that native fishing boat has one or two sails that may have originally been common bed sheets)

.

Flying Creature in Southern California

On June 19, 2012, an eyewitness saw, at close range and in clear daylight, in a residential neighborhood northeast of Long Beach, California, a “dragon-pterodactyl.” Details in the description . . . make it highly unlikely to be anything other than a ropen.

Ropen in California

Ropens, or “pterodactyls” or “dragons,” have also been reported in other states of the USA and in many other countries around the world.