Monsters and Pike Counties

Missouri

Pike County is a county on the eastern border of the U.S. state of Missouri, bounded by the Mississippi River. As of the 2010 census, the population was 18,516. Its county seat is Bowling Green. Its namesake was a city in middle Kentucky, a region from where many early migrants came. The county was organized December 14, 1818, and named for explorer Zebulon Pike. The folksong "Sweet Betsy from Pike" is generally thought to be associated with Pike County, Missouri.

Pike County is said to be the home of Momo (The Missouri Monster). The first reported sightings by the Terry Harrison family, in the 1970s, were traced to various locations throughout the county, especially at Louisiana, Missouri. During 2019, the film production company of Small Town Monsters has released MOMO: The Missouri Monster.

The melodrama that unfolded at Louisiana, Missouri, continued in 2010, regarding the kidnapping of Alisa Maier ~ a granddaughter of the Harrison family. (See here and here.)

Pike County (next to Lincoln County) is well-known for Bigfoot and UFO sightings.

Kentucky

Pike County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2010 census, the population was 65,024. Its county seat is Pikeville. The county was founded in 1821. Pike County was founded on December 19, 1821. The county was named for General Zebulon Pike, the explorer who discovered Pikes Peak. Between 1860 and 1891 the Hatfield-McCoy feud raged in Pike and in bordering Mingo County, West Virginia. On May 6, 1893, Pikeville officially became a city and the county seat.

Hellier is an unincorporated community and coal town in Pike County, Kentucky, United States. A post office was established in the community in 1906, and named for Ralph Augustus Hellier, the head of a Pike County coal mining company.

Hellier was featured in an independent documentary called Hellier. It is a five part series that follows the investigation and research of the Kentucky goblins. Dana & Greg Newkirk, owners of The Travelling Museum of the Paranormal and the Occult, lead the investigation, along with Conner James Randall and Karl Pfieffer.

Hellier can be seen on hellier.tv and YouTube.

Georgia

The famed 1997 Elkins Creek cast is well-known in the Bigfoot community. It was found in Pike County, Georgia. 

According to Cliff Barackman, of the five prints found, the track from which "the cast was obtained [was found] near Double Bridges Road. Elkins Creek is over 8 miles to the north of this road, but apparently in between these two locations are thick woods and not much else. It seems that the southern border of Pike County more or less follows the course of Elkins Creek, so it can be reasonably assumed that it was found somewhere along that stretch north of Sprewell Bluff State Park and Wildlife Management Area."

Ohio

Pike County is a county located in the Appalachian region of the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2010 census, the population was 28,709. Its county seat is Waverly. The county is named for explorer Zebulon Pike.

In the Winter of 1987, near a trailer on Chenoweth Fork Road, there was "A tale of a Bigfoot sighting in Pike County," Ohio.

Name Game Killings: 8 in Ohio & 5 in Georgia

UPDATE: Investigators found three marijuana "grow operations" at residences where eight family members were slain in southern Ohio, state Attorney General Mike DeWine said Sunday at a news conference. He didn't say whether the marijuana was connected to the execution-style killings discovered last Friday at four residences in Piketon. According to DeWine, 18 pieces of evidence has been submitted to the crime lab and at least five search warrants have been issued and completed. Source.

The name game has hit another Pike location, rather dramatically, and involved a Wayne, elsewhere.

Most Pike counties around the country are named after Zebulon Montgomery Pike Jr. (January 5, 1778 – April 27, 1813), an American soldier, explorer, and Freemason, whose Pike expedition, often compared to the Lewis and Clark Expedition, mapped much of the southern portion of the Louisiana Purchase. Pike's Peak is one of the most famous locations named after Zebulon Pike.

In The Rebirth of Pan: Hidden Faces of the American Earth Spirit, Jim Brandon writes, regarding the overall "name game":

I'm not talking here of such spooky tongue-twisters as H.P. Lovecraft's Yog-Sothoth or Arthur Machen's Ishakshar, but of quite ordinary names like Bell, Beall and variants, Crowley, Francis, Grafton, Grubb, Magee/McGee, Mason, McKinney, Montpelier, Parsons, Pike, Shelby, Vernon, Watson/Watt, Williams/Williamson.

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said eight people were found dead in Pike County, Ohio, on Friday, April 22, 2016.

Originally said to be seven dead, the toll is up to eight. The eight people were found shot to death at a Pike County home. Reports indicate as the people are dead in Pike County, near the Adams County line, east of Peebles.

At least eight members of the Rhoden family, including a 16-year-old boy, were found dead from gunshot wounds to the head at multiple locations along Union Hill and Left Fork roads just northeast of Peebles early Friday morning.

The name Rhoden is generally associated with the German name Roden. Roden is a name of Germanic origin, originally meaning "red valley."

[The urban dictionary says Rhoden originates from the Jamaican language; it is a mixture of words: “rawda” meaning rather and “don” usually meaning a male mafia boss. A person described as a rhoden is a person who embodies the pinnacle of all the important social aspects. If a rhoden is not at a social gathering it’s not worth going to that event. The people usually put under this “rhoden” category are usually Jamaican but can also be from African-American origins as well.]

Officials said the victims were shot "execution-style." All of the victims are believed to possibly be members of the same family, and they were found in four homes.

DeWine also told WLW radio that "the assailant is probably loose somewhere."

“This is a horrible horrible tragedy," DeWine said on WLW. "It looks like two teenagers dead and it looks like young young children who must have been there when it occurred.”

Three juveniles were also recovered alive from the crime scenes, a 4-day-old, a 6-month-old and a 3-year-old.
None of those found shot appear to be suicides, indicating that it is likely that the assailant is at large, DeWine said.

DeWine said they do not know the motive at this time.

A spokesperson for Ohio's Bureau of Criminal Investigation said earlier that "we are sending everybody" to the shooting scene near the Adams/Pike county line. Spokesman Dan Tierney said the Pike County sheriff's office requested state help at 8:20 a.m.

Union Hill Road runs off Ohio 32 at the county line. Aerial video shows officers standing outside a home with crime scene tape around it.

More than two dozen vehicles were parked along the road in front of the home. Three ambulances and more cruisers were parked near where Union Hill Road meets Ohio 32.

The FBI in Cincinnati also said it was closely monitoring the situation and has offered assistance to the Pike County sheriff's office if needed.

Pike County victim's advocate Dave Dickerson said about 20 members of the family had gathered at the church to await information. He said they had been given little information so far.

Dickerson said he had been told as many as two children were taken to hospitals, but he didn't know anything about their identity or condition.

In Adams County, a few miles west of the crime scene, Peebles High School was on lockout for some time, but it was lifted shortly before 11 a.m.

Early reports told of seven, not eight, being killed. The house sits in Pike County, near the Pike/Adams county line.

"I was told we are out of danger. We feel sure of that," Superintendent Richard Seas said.

"Reports we are receiving from Peebles are tragic beyond comprehension," Gov. John Kasich wrote on his Twitter account.

On his Facebook page, Chris Rhoden says he's a native of Piketon, Ohio, and attended Piketon High School. A month before his death, Chris Rhoden posted a meme of a shotgun with the words, "I won't back up. I don't back down. I was raised up to stand my ground," according to sources.

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Meanwhile, a man suspected of killing five people in a pair of shootings, April 22, 2016, Friday night later died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.

Wayne Anthony Hawes, 50, of Appling, shot himself in the head, according to a statement from Columbia County (Georgia) Capt. Andy Shedd. Authorities believe he unsuccessfully tried to set his house on fire before killing himself.

The Columbia County Sheriff's Office searched for Hawes, who allegedly shot five people Friday night. Shedd said the incident stemmed from a domestic dispute and some of the victims are believed to be related to Hawes' wife.

Police first responded to reports of a shooting at 7:54 p.m. Friday at a Johnson Drive house in Appling, Shedd said. Officers found three shooting victims at that crime scene: Roosevelt Burns, 75; Rheba Mae Dent, 85; and Kelia Clark, 31.

Late Friday night, Columbia County deputies say Wayne Anthony Hawes is the suspect in the Pike County deaths, allegedly, 5'9" & 230 lbs.

Within the "weird news" field, it has been a well-known truism that if a criminal has a middle name of "Wayne," no one in the newsroom is surprised he is being charged with murder. The examples are multiple. The most famous case, of course, is John Wayne Gacy. See more on the "Wayne Name Game," here and here.

Hawes is from a Norman female personal name, Haueis, from Germanic Haduwidis, composed of the elements had "strife," "contention" + wide "wide."

An alternative origin is the place's name is derived from the Old Norse word hals, meaning "neck" or "pass between mountains."

h/t Theo Paijmans & Media Monarchy.

Pike Name Game Strikes Again

Pike County, Pennsylvania, was the scene of a mysterious shooting on Friday night, September 12, 2014. One state trooper was left dead, and another wounded by the unknown shooter.

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I've discussed the importance of this name before. See "Pikes Peak: Masonic Mountain."

Pike County, Pennsylvania was named after Zebulon Montgomery Pike Jr. (January 5, 1778 – April 27, 1813), an American soldier, explorer, and Freemason, whose Pike expedition, often compared to the Lewis and Clark Expedition, mapped much of the southern portion of the Louisiana Purchase. Pike's Peak is one of the most famous locations named after Zebulon Pike.

His father, also named Zebulon Pike, was an officer in the Continental Army under General George Washington and served in the United States Army after the end of the Revolutionary War.

One famed ancestor of Zebulon Pike is John Pike (1613-1688/1689), who was a founder of Woodbridge, New Jersey and a judge and politician of the early colony of New Jersey.

Another famous Pike is the shadowy Masonic figure Albert Pike, who was related to Zebulon, through their mutual ancestor John Pike.

Albert Pike (December 29, 1809–April 2, 1891), who was an attorney, explorer, soldier, writer, and Freemason. Pike is the only Confederate military officer or figure to be honored with an outdoor statue in Washington, D.C. (in Judiciary Square).

Albert Pike was elected Sovereign Grand Commander of the Scottish Rite's Southern Jurisdiction in 1859. (Some have said that the Civil War was an occult battle between the northern and southern branches of Freemasonry.) He remained Sovereign Grand Commander for the remainder of his life (a total of thirty-two years), devoting a large amount of his time to developing the rituals of the order. Notably, he published a book called Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry in 1871, of which there were several subsequent editions. Pike is still sometimes regarded in America as an eminent and influential Freemason.

Some have said that the Civil War was an occult battle between the northern and southern branches of Freemasonry. Some within the ranks of conspiracy theorist even are so bold as to say that Albert Pike "was chosen by [Italy's Giuseppe] Mazzini to head the Illuminati operations in America and moved to Charleston, South Carolina, in 1852."

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Names across the USA

Pike, Indiana, an unincorporated community
Pikeville, Kentucky
Pike, New Hampshire, an unincorporated community
Pike, New York, a town
Pike (CDP), New York, hamlet in the town of Pike
Pike, Texas, an unincorporated community
Pike, West Virginia
Pike Bay Township, Cass County, Minnesota
Pike Creek, Delaware, an unincorporated community
Pike Creek Township, Morrison County, Minnesota
Pike Creek (Current River), stream in southern Missouri
Pike Island, Minnesota
Pike National Forest, Colorado
Pike Place Market, Seattle, Washington
Pike Road, Alabama
Pikes Peak, in Colorado
The Pike, an amusement park in California
Pike County, Georgia, a county in Georgia

Pike County (disambiguation)
Pike Township (disambiguation)
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The 2014 shooting...

The two troopers were ambushed outside a State of Pennsylvania police barracks at Blooming Grove, Pike County during a 10:50 p.m. Friday shift change, leaving one dead and another injured, with authorities scouring the densely wooded countryside and beyond on September 12, 2014, looking for the shooter or shooters.

The deceased lawman was identified as Cpl. Bryon Dickson (above) and the other fallen officer is Trooper Alex Douglass, who was hospitalized in critical but stable condition.

[Bryon has the meaning "high, noble" and is a variant of Brian (Celtic, Irish, Gaelic), meaning "strength." The name Dickson means "strong leader" or "strong ruler." Alex means "protector of men," and Douglass means "dark water."]

Law enforcement officials from Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey, rushed to the Poconos to help search on foot and by helicopter for the mystery shooter or shooters. The Blooming Grove barracks is in a wooded area, surrounded by state game lands, near Interstate 84. The Blooming Grove barracks covers most of Pike County, which runs along the Delaware River and borders New Jersey and New York.

The Pocono Mountains is a geographical, geological, and cultural region located in northeastern Pennsylvania. The name Poconos comes from the Minsi or Munsee Indian word Pokawachne (pronounced Poke Ah Waak-nay), which means "Creek Between Two Hills."

[Update:
Eric Matthew Frein (born May 3, 1983) is an American domestic terrorist and murderer, convicted and sentenced to death for the 2014 Pennsylvania State Police barracks attack in which he shot and killed one State Trooper, and seriously injured another. A letter to his parents made it clear that he hoped to spark a revolution by his actions. After being identified as a suspect three days after the shooting, Frein was the target of an extensive manhunt before being captured on the night of October 30, 2014, at an abandoned airport 48 days after the attack. He was convicted of the ambush in 2017 and sentenced to death.]

The media reported:

This is the third death of a state trooper in the Poconos area in the last 35 years.
Pennsylvania State Trooper Joshua Miller was shot and killed June 7, 2009, by a father who had kidnapped his nine-year-old son. After taking the boy from his home in Nazareth, the father led police on a chase through Northampton and Monroe counties before he was cornered on Route 611 in Tobyhanna.
An eleven-year veteran of the New Jersey State Police, Trooper Philip Lamonaco was shot and killed Dec. 21, 1981, by members of a radical environmental group, known as the United Freedom Front, during a traffic stop on Interstate 80 in Knowlton Township.