The Slide-Rock Bolter

(Emily Wayland / Singular Fortean Society)

By Kallen of Slapped Ham

Mountainous regions are filled with shadows and mysteries. While you might expect to come across a brown bear or mountain lion in the hills of North America, some believe that these areas are filled with creatures beyond our imagining. One such fearsome creature is the Slide-Rock Bolter.

The strange creature was first spotted by North American lumberjacks in the 19th century. According to the legends, it is native to the mountains of Colorado. However, because of its distinct hunting style, it can only live in areas where the mountains have an incline of at least 45 degrees.

The Slide-Rock Bolter is extremely large, even thought by some to be larger than a blue whale. It has a huge head, small eyes, a large mouth, and a tail like a dolphin. Its tail has hooks which it uses to grasp on to the mountains. Some describe the hooks as resembling large, hairy knuckles that clutch tightly to the mountain peaks. Its tear-shaped body is covered with gray skin that allows it to easily blend in with its surroundings and hide its gigantic form.

According to the stories, the Slide-Rock Bolter waits high in the mountains for unsuspecting hikers or lumberjacks to wander into the area below it. At a perfectly timed moment, it will release its hold on the mountain and begin sliding down the slope with its mouth open wide, consuming anything in its path and completely flattening all plants and trees in its way. It is said that a slick liquid is released from the corners of its mouth, helping it quickly and easily slide down the mountains. Once the creature has finished its meal, the force of its descent carries it up to the next slope where it sinks in its hooks and waits for another target.

One story claims a forest ranger who wanted to protect the area under his charge concocted a brilliant plan to take down the monster. He created a dummy filled with gun powder and fulminate caps. The dummy eventually attracted the creature’s attention. When the monster collided with the dummy, it was killed in a massive explosion that flattened most of the nearby town. While this particular Bolter may have met a gruesome end, its kin allegedly still haunts the Colorado mountains.

The first widely spread account of the Slide-Rock Bolter came from William Thomas Cox, the State Forester of Minnesota. In 1910, Cox published a book entitled Fearsome Critters of the Lumberwoods, with a Few Desert and Mountain Beasts. He wrote of the massive creature as it was described by the lumberjacks who first told the tale. However, Cox was never unfortunate enough to encounter the creature himself.

In fact, there are few recorded sightings of the Slide-Rock Bolter. Stories of its existence have been passed down through generations, but no one seems to know exactly how knowledge of the creature came into being. This is likely due to the fact that anyone who gets a good look at the monster never lives to tell the tale. The only evidence of its hunting trips are the large swathes of flattened land left in its wake.

Some believe that the lack of recent sightings of the monster suggests that it is currently lying dormant high in the mountains of Colorado. However, whenever hikers go missing in the area, rumours spread that they may have met their ends within the Bolter’s massive maw.

Many tourists hiking in the Colorado mountains still fear the hunger and wide jaws of the Slide-Rock Bolter. Some recent tourists claim to have seen large swaths of crushed foliage consistent with the downward trajectory of the massive creature.

However, many find it hard to believe that a creature that rivals a blue whale in size could avoid detection in the mountains. Believers assert that it has some sort of camouflaging abilities which allow it to hide in the shadowy areas of the mountains.

Those who doubt the creature’s existence assert that the lumberjacks who circulated the stories mistook evidence of rock slides or illegal mining activities for the hunting grounds of the Bolter. However, those who have encountered areas of flattened trees insist that they could only have been caused by the massive monster.

This is a contributed post by Slapped Ham. Slapped Ham is a website that's been covering all things strange, mysterious and creepy for over 5 years. They have a YouTube channel with over one million subscribers and have been noted for their eerie, binge-worthy content.

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