By Nate Brislin, guest contributor
In the summer of 1961 within the Spanish Province of Vizcaya, Arquimedes Sanchez was driving home from work when he encountered a strange creature that would go down as one of the most obscure and outlandish things ever to be reported within the field of Forteana. The anomalous encounter occurred at around 11:00 at night as the trucker and a co-worker, who either chose to remain anonymous or whose name has since been lost to history, were driving through the Basque Mountains. As they approached Puerto de Barazar to conclude their night on the job, the two came upon a curious sight; something that they would later describe as quite unconventional, even by cryptid and alien standards: a "hairy octopus."
As one might imagine, this surreal sight caused Sanchez to immediately stop their vehicle as he and his anonymous associate stared in silent scrutiny at the "rust-colored" cryptid that would later come to be known as the Octosquatch (despite having only four appendages). The creature reacted to being within full blast of the headlights by raising one if its furry tendrils to cover its eyes from the light. They described the creature’s eyes as glowing though it's uncertain whether they were self-illuminating or reflecting from the headlights. After several minutes of debate over killing the seemingly stationary creature with a jackhammer and threatening it with their truck, Sanchez and his partner decided that there was nothing more they could do and drove off, leaving behind any evidence of the anomalous entity.
So what was the Octosquatch? Did the truckers misidentify an animal? This is doubtful in light of how clearly they claimed to have seen it for an allegedly extended period of time. Surely more people would have had similar encounters if that were the case. Why was it sighted only a single time and never again? Was this an original hoax fabricated by the truckers that never caught traction? That would seem to be the most logical explanation considering they never brought back any evidence of their claim and there have been no similar reports of such a creature since.
Perhaps it's possible that the Octosquatch was a lost extraterrestrial visitor or an entity from a different dimension. Again, this is less plausible for obvious reasons but it could explain why it was only seen a single time. Whatever the case may be, the Octosquatch was a brief blip on the Fortean radar akin to the Dover Demon of Massachusetts; only being sighted for a moment and never again.
Nate Brislin is a producer and director, known for Bizarre Base Broadcast, Pine State Phantoms and Eyes from the Pines: The Pine Ape Project.