Mysterious America by Loren Coleman

Author:Loren Coleman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2007-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Sightings of kangaroos exploded all over the state of Nebraska in 1958. Not until researcher Ray Boeche passed along an aging newsclip did I learn that there was another person named Charles Wetzel that had seen something strange that year. (Read about the other Charles Wetzel in the Name Game chapter.) For years I had encouraged Boeche, as I had many others, to search their local newspaper libraries beyond the realm of lake monster and Bigfoot accounts, into the wide weird world of creatures that fill the cryptozoo surrounding us. I was thus happily amazed to discover that this Charles Wetzel was involved with one of my favorites—mystery kangaroos!

As soon as I tracked down this Charles Wetzel in the early 1980s, I interviewed him. The elements of his story were straightforward, as befits a true son of the plains. Charles Wetzel, born March 29, 1888, was at his Platte River cabin, near Grand Island, Nebraska, on the 28th of July, 1958, a Monday. Wetzel reported the thing he first took to be a deer was chasing some dogs, which in itself seemed a bit strange. Then he got within ten yards of it and saw what looked like a kangaroo bounding away with ten-foot leaps. To Wetzel, the animal, or whatever it was, appeared to be about six feet tall, brown, with large hind legs and small forelegs that barely touched the ground as it jumped. According to Wetzel, the kangaroo stayed around the cabin for several minutes but finally departed as Wetzel tried to get closer, first on foot, then in his car. The kangaroo finally disappeared into an alfalfa field.

Wetzel’s report was no isolated event in Nebraska in 1958. Other sightings of kangaroos were reported from towns as distant as 100 miles from each other, Endicott, Stanton and Fairbury among them. Wetzel was operating a brewery in Grand Island at the time of his sighting. He was so obsessed with his bizarre experience, he named one of his brands “Wetzel Kangaroo Beer.” With the advent of eBay, I’ve even talked to beer can collectors in Nebraska who have seen the Wetzel beer collectible, but it remains absent from my crypto-collection.

A year before Nebraska’s flap, strangeness settled in Minnesota. From 1957 until about 1967, the woods around Coon Rapids, Minnesota, were frequently the site of kangaroo reports. Mrs. Barbara Battmer first brought these cases to my attention when I interviewed that area’s residents. Her two sons were seven and nine, when in 1957 they were playing near a forested area of Coon Rapids off Highway 10. They claimed then, and have stuck to their story ever since, that they saw two kangaroos hopping together through the woods. The five-foot-tall animals hopped out of some trees, crossed a small clearing about fifty feet in front of the boys, and disappeared into another wooded area. With this clear view of the creatures, they were certain that the color of the kangaroos was a light tan to medium brown.

Because of Mrs. Battmer’s efforts, more people came forth with their knowledge of Coon Rapids kangaroo stories.

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