Hidden Folk in Horizon City

Horizon City is to be found in El Paso County, Texas, and is somewhat known for its history of Bigfoot-like entities being seen there. This legend apparently dates back to the 1970s, but a woman named Cecelia Montañez brought the local myth back into the spotlight in 2003 when an experience that she had '*more than two years*' before the publication of the article was written about for the first time.

## Steps Down Into Nowhere

Montañez is a retired secretary, and moved to Horizon City from East El Paso in October of 2002. She has seen the creature known locally as the Horizon City Monster on two separate occasions. The first of these seems to have been when she was still living in the desert east of El Paso. She was driving along a desert highway when she spotted a hairy figure crouched over a dead coyote on the side of the road. Driving closer to the entity, she was shocked when it stood upright and walked up a nearby mesquite mound (a dune-like formation also known as a Nabkha). Although she swears that the creature was initially taller than the mound, as it jogged down the other side of the mound it seemed to get progressively lower into the ground with each step. It eventually vanished below the mound.

Although she didn't actually see if submerge into the ground, she was so sure of what she had seen that she insisted that '*there had to have been a cave it entered*'. Confused, she left the scene before deciding to investigate the location further a day later. She found that the coyote had vanished, as had any potential footprints left by the creature thanks to the strong winds in the area. Struggling to rationalise what she had seen, she then concluded that the apeman must've had some sort of trap door hidden underneath the dirt, but she couldn't find it no matter how hard she tried. It was as if the hirsute monster had literally vanished into the ground below...

## A Community with Sasquatch on its Mind

After this incident, she remembered an old newspaper article that she had seen in the Sept. 20, 1975, edition of the El Paso Times, which talked about a group of three teenagers who had allegedly witnessed a gorilla-like creature near Horizon City Golf Course. Bill Rutherford was a deputy sheriff at the time, and he recalled being made to investigate the incident as a matter of protocol. He wasn't expecting to find anything, but instead found a single footprint which '*appeared to have been dug*'. Some local people were very worried by the report and associated footprint, but Rutherford remained unconvinced. He would eventually become Horizon City's first police chief in 1988, and later retired 10 years later - still saying that he didn't believe the kids' story and '*thought it was a hoax*'.

Horizon City Police Chief Tony Aguilar was the town's chief in 2003 when the source article was written, and he said that he had never received any reports involving Bigfoot creatures - but had recorded some reports '*of meteorites landing in the desert*'. Montañez said that the creatures must live in extensive cave systems beneath the city, but Phil Goodell, a geology professor at the University of Texas at El Paso - retorted that the existence of these caverns is impossible due to the rock being of the wrong type.

Montañez was apparently able to talk to an unnamed law enforcement official who had investigated the creatures and developed a profile. She alleged that he had told her that '*the mothers go out to find food, and that they nurse their young just like we do*'. She also said that the creatures had glowing red eyes '*like cats*' - and that they were naturally herbivorous but had been forced to exsanguinate small animals and eat their organs due to the lack of vegetation in the surrounding desert. In response to skeptics - of which there were of course many - Montañez said that her daughter didn't believe in the creatures either until she saw one.

Local witnesses say that the monster in question is between 7-8ft tall with broad shoulders and an elongated head. Montañez added that the entities '*have very short hair and are a faded brownish-maroon color*' and mouths resembling those of bulldogs. Other witnesses have attested that the creatures can be seen late at night as they drink water from Lake El Paso, and others still have said that they have heard the creatures emitting humming sounds when they were driving through Eastlake Boulevard, and that they can tell when the monsters are around due to their noxious odour.

Montañez has said that, although she is not hoaxing her sightings for publicity, she '*would like to see Horizon City become a tourist attraction like Roswell*'.

## Sources

http://www.sunstar-solutions.com/BFvanishing.htm#testimonies

https://eu.elpasotimes.com/story/news/history/blogs/tales-from-the-morgue/2010/01/13/horizon-citys-monster/31518771/