This gigantic orange-eyed monstrosity was said to have once lived beneath a Cleveland cemetery, but after its home was destroyed the beast was unleashed… a beast which has terrified residents of Mill Lake for decades.
There are many who claim that the legend of Orange Eyes dates back to March 28, 1959, when three panic stricken teenagers allegedly encountered a large, bipedal, hairless monstrosity, which rose from a mist covered morass on a desolate stretch of country road known, ironically, as “LOVERS LANE.”
This lane, which is officially named Ruggles Road, runs along the Charles Mill Reservoir outside of Mansfield, Ohio, and this is where the confusion begins, for while this region is the reported haunt of the hairy, ape-like night stalker known as Orange Eyes it is also the purported home of an even more bizarre, armless, web footed, green-eyed, semi-AQUATIC ENIGMA known as The CHARLES MILL LAKE MONSTER.
While the 1959 incident was likely a run-in with the Charles Mill Lake Monster, the first known encounter with the beast known as Orange Eyes occurred in 1963. According to eyewitness reports, the creature appeared before a plethora of eyewitnesses who described as being approximately 11-feet in height and weighing somewhere in the order of 1,000 pounds. This is considerably larger than most HAIRY-HOMINID reports, making old Orange Eyes a “monster” to be reckoned with.
The horrified wasted no time in arming themselves and forming a posse in order to ensure this massive beast’s destruction. Their efforts were met — as they are in so many cases, such as the 1973 search for the legendary MURPHYSBORO MUD MONSTER — with failure.
While the origin of this being is shrouded in mystery, there are many who believe that Orange Eyes was once a docile and reclusive creature, which dwelt in a tunnel in Cleveland’s River Side cemetery.
These individuals assert that it wasn’t until a highway construction crew destroyed the animal’s sanctuary in the late 1940s, that it was forced to move into the wooded area near Mill Lake, where it came into more frequent contact with human beings and its attitude took a distinct turn for the worse.
The next recorded encounter with Orange Eyes occurred on April 22, 1968. It was said the a group of children spotted the beast near Mill Lake after dark and took chase armed with flashlights, baseball bats and rope.
What these children intended to do with a cornered beast of the purported proportions of Orange Eyes is anyones’ guess. The elusive animal managed to slip away, however, much to the chagrin of the children and, no doubt, the delight of their concerned parents.
The final recorded encounter with this creature was said to have taken place in June of 1991, when this creature presented itself to a pair of anglers who were fishing near Willis Creek. These ostensibly horrified — apparently anonymous — eyewitnesses had the good sense to allow the beast to disappear without pursuit.
Although most witnesses agree that Orange Eyes is an ape-like creature, there are some skeptics who make the dubious claim that this beast is nothing more than a fanatical hermit who has, for the past 50 plus years apparently, fooled locals into believing in this creature by nailing two orange bike reflectors to a stick and waving it around in the woods.
If this is the case he must be one dedicated, not to mention spry, geriatric hermit. That is, of course, unless the sacred trust of the “mounted bicycle reflectors” is passed on from one generation of transient to the next. A theory that seems equally as dubious as the existence of the gigantic, primate-like beats itself.
It’s worth mentioning that, on October 18, 1973, outside Mansfield, Ohio, there was a bizarre, “green beam” emitting UFO that had an alleged encounter with what eyewitnesses reported to be a military Helicopter near the Charles Mill Reservoir.
While there is no direct connection between this event and the Orange Eyes phenomenon, one can not entirely rule out the possibility that this glowing eyed fiend might actually be from OUT OF THIS WORLD.
Whatever this creature may be, it is yet another in a long line of Ohio’s extremely strange cryptid list… a list which includes such illustrious monsters as the LOVELAND FROGMEN and the human grasping Ohio River resident known as the GREEN CLAWED BEAST.
