EPISODES BY TOPIC: MYSTERY ARCHIVE
It All Begins Here
You can find much more on OST Premium! We’ve only included a few of those episodes on this list.
UFOS AND ALIEN ENCOUNTERS
From the mid-century “flying saucer” craze to modern-day “Jetpack Man” sightings over Los Angeles, the American sky has never been truly quiet. At One Strange Thing, we skip the blurry photos and dive straight into the local news archives to find cases backed by radar data, physical trace evidence, and high-ranking official testimony. This archive categorizes our coverage into the three classic levels of encounters, exploring why some sightings are dismissed as “swamp gas” while others leave behind scorched earth and medical mysteries.
Close Encounters of the First Kind: The Sightings
These cases involve well-documented sightings by reliable witnesses, often spanning multiple counties or involving official military pursuit.
Episode 92: The Sightings (Ann Arbor, 1966): The infamous “Swamp Gas” case. While the Air Force tried to dismiss the lights seen by 87 college students and multiple sheriff’s deputies, local officials and even a future US President (Gerald Ford) demanded the truth.
Episode 64: The Gulf Breeze: The Gulf Breeze UFO Sightings are among the most infamous in US extraterrestrial canon; Floridian Ed Walters claimed that for six months ranging from late 1987 through the spring of 1988, he experienced a number of close encounters with aliens and their space crafts.
Episode 48: The Saucer (Socorro, 1964): Officer Lonnie Zamora’s encounter with a white, egg-shaped craft is often cited as one of the most credible sightings in history, involving direct observation by a veteran police officer.
Episode 110: The Jetpack Man: A modern mystery over LAX. Multiple pilots reported a figure in a jetpack at 3,000 feet—an altitude and location that defies current commercial jetpack technology.
Episode 48, The Saucer: (Socorro, 1964) Officer Lonnie Zamora witnessed a landing and "occupants" near an egg-shaped craft—an event so compelling it became a centerpiece of the Air Force's Project Blue Book.
The Lubbock Lights :A summer night in 1951 when a “string of beads” captivated Texas Tech professors and was captured in some of the era’s most controversial photographs.
Episode 22: The Chase :Two small-town deputies in Ohio found themselves in an 86-mile, high-speed pursuit of a glowing, structured craft that defied physics and moved through multiple jurisdictions.
Close Encounters of the Second Kind: Physical Trace Evidence
In these investigations, the craft leaves something behind—whether it’s a physical mark on the land or a biological impact on the witnesses.
Episode 121: The Kansas UFO: The Delphos, Kansas case of 1971. A farm family was left with a glowing, mineralized ring in the soil that resisted water and baffled MUFON researchers for decades.
Episode 56: The Incident (Cash-Landrum): A terrifying Texas encounter where three people were bathed in heat from a diamond-shaped craft, leading to symptoms consistent with radiation poisoning and a historic federal lawsuit.
The Holiday UFO (Premium): Britain’s "Roswell"—the Rendlesham Forest incident. US Air Force personnel reported a metallic craft that left physical depressions and radiation readings on the forest floor.
The Oakville Blobs: (Premium)When “translucent gelatinous substances” rained from the sky in Washington state, sickening residents and leaving scientists to question if the origin was biological, military, or otherworldly. Out on main on February 23rd!
Episode 19: The Blob: Another gelatinous visitor, this time in Texas. Was it a rare fungus, or a remnant of a mid-century aerial event?
Close Encounters of the Third Kind: The Visitors
The rarest and most unsettling category: stories of direct interaction or observation of the entities themselves.
Episode 44: The Metal Man :Police Chief Jeff Greenhaw responded to a call in Falkville, Alabama, and found himself in a high-speed footrace with a “tin-foil” suited figure that moved with non-human speed.
Episode 9: The Trucker: Harry Joe Turner’s delivery run through Virginia ended with a massive weight on his truck roof, missing time, and a strange journey to what he called “the off-world.”
Episode 83: The Off-World :The 1969 Berkshire County sightings. A mass sighting event where residents reported being moved across space and time, leading to the first-ever historical monument dedicated to a UFO event.
Episode 51: The Flatwoods Monster: A classic West Virginia tale. Was the “Green Phantom” a visitor from the stars, or an owl caught in the hysteria of the 1950s?
Episode 33: The Abduction: In 1976, a Maine campers had a UFO encounter that transformed them into the Allagash Four, the most famous “alien abductees’ of all time. But when one of the men’s stories ran counter to the others, well--then things got a little more complicated.
Historical ReFLECTIONS
Was it aliens? These stories are some of the weirdest.
Episode 109: The Solway Spaceman: A weekend photo at Solway Firth revealed a figure in a spacesuit where no one had been standing. We look at the “Men in Black” visits that followed and the proximity to the Blue Streak rocket tests.
Episode 35: The Flying Men: Decades before the modern jetpack, residents of Chehalis, Washington, saw “men with wings” soaring through the air. We trace these reports back to the dawn of the mid-century saucer craze.
CRYPTIDS, MONSTERS & CREATURES
From the "Monster of Busco" to the "Missouri Monster," the American landscape is a map of localized panics. This archive collects the One Strange Thing episodes into unidentified biological entities. They’re creatures that triggered police reports, lake-draining operations, and town-wide hunts.
ON THE GROUND: TERRESTRIAL MONSTERS
Episode 66: The Dogman : Perhaps Michigan’s most infamous resident. We trace the legend back to a 1987 radio song that unleashed a wave of sightings and regional nightmares across the Mitten State.
Episode 86: The Missouri Monster (Momo): The 1972 stinky, 7-foot-tall “Thing” that sparked a media frenzy in Louisiana, MO.
Episode 69: The Park Monster (The Mill Race Monster): The 1974 “Bigfoot” that took up residence in a Columbus, Indiana park.
Episode 21: The Beast: (The Beast of Bray Road) The legendary “Beast of Bray Road” that haunted Elkhorn, Wisconsin.
Episode 60: The Grassman (The Minerva Monster): Ohio’s 1978 “Bigfoot” encounter that allegedly trapped a family in their home.
Episode 91: The Skunk Ape: Florida’s extra-pungent swamp dweller—the “Bigfoot” of the Everglades.
Episode 101: The Mud Monster: The white-haired, slimy creature of the Big Muddy River in Illinois.
Episode 119: The Cole Hollow Road Monster (CoHoMo): The 1972 Illinois creature that drew crowds of teenage “monster hunters.”
Episode 27: The Monster (The Fouke Monster): The “Boggy Creek” beast that set the Arkansas-Texas border on edge.
Episode 87: The Wolf Girl: The lycanthropy legend of 19th-century Georgia’s Emily Burt.
Episode 96: The Jackalope: Wyoming’s antlered rabbit. We trace the taxidermy roots and the real-life virus behind the myth.
Episode 70: The Moose (The Specter Moose): The uncatchable, white “immortal beast” of the Maine woods.
Episode 91: The Skunk Ape: Florida’s extra-pungent swamp dweller—the “Bigfoot” of the Everglades.
Episode 113: The Grafton Monster: West Virginia’s headless, “slick-skinned” giant reported in 1964.
The Peninsula Python : Premium now on the main feed. The 1944 Peninsula, Ohio serpent. A very real, very large, and very out-of-place python that held a village under its spell.
The Springs: Premium now on the main feed. The "Werewolf Springs" of Tennessee—a legend of 19th-century shapeshifters in Montgomery Bell State Park.
Episode 39: The Lizardman: The 7-foot monster with a taste for chewing on cars in Scape Ore Swamp, South Carolina.
Episode 90: The Chupacabra: The blood-draining newcomer that took the Southwest by storm in the mid-90s.
Episode 85: The Hog (Hogzilla): When a "monster" turned out to be a massive physical reality in South Georgia.
From the Depths: Aquatic & Semiaquatic Anomalies
These investigations focus on what lurks beneath the surface of America’s lakes, oceans, and swamps.
Episode 42: The Turtle (The Beast of Busco): The 1949 Indiana obsession with “Oscar,” the 500-pound turtle.
Episode 46: The Frogman (The Loveland Frog): Legendary anthropomorphic frogmen reported in Ohio since the 1950s.
Episode 75: The Champ: The “Loch Ness of North America” in Lake Champlain.
Episode 73: The Depths (The Flathead Lake Monster): Montana’s 130-year mystery lurking in the deep.
The Swamp (Premium 45): Now on the main feed. The web-toed, smelly Honey Island Swamp Monster of Louisiana.
The Winged & The Weird: Aerial Cryptids & Other Oddities
Creatures that defy the laws of aviation and anatomy, appearing as shadows against the moon or harbingers of disaster.
Episode 31: The Raptors (The Thunderbird): The 1977 Lawndale, Illinois sighting where a young boy claimed to have been carried off by a “birdzilla.”
Episode 58: The Moth (The Chicago Mothman): Since 2011, sightings of a “winged humanoid” have spiked around Lake Michigan. We look at the modern evidence for a classic monster.
Episode 111: The Batsquatch Born from the ashes of the Mount St. Helens eruption, this winged figure remains one of the Pacific Northwest’s most bizarre sightings.
Episode 115: The Owlman :The “British Mothman.” We investigate the 1970s sightings in Cornwall and the mysterious man behind the lore.
Episode 51: The Flatwoods Monster (The Braxton County Monster): West Virginia’s 10-foot “Green Phantom” that emerged following a crash-landing.
Episode 80: The Van Meter Visitor: The glowing-eyed, winged creature that emerged from abandoned mines in 1903 Iowa.
Episode 88: The Nightcrawlers: (The “Fresno Nightcrawlers): Are they aliens, cryptids, or just “walking pants”? We examine the 2007 footage that captivated the internet.
Episode 29: The Demon (The Dover Demon): The spindly, glowing-eyed creature that made a one-night-only appearance in Dover, Massachusetts.
Episode 94: The Hodag :Wisconsin’s spiked monster. We look at the 1890s hoax that became a beloved regional mascot.
Episode 98: The Squonk: Pennsylvania’s saddest cryptid. The creature so ugly it simply dissolves into a pool of tears.
The Yule Cat (Premium 68): Now on the main feed. Iceland’s giant, child-eating feline that patrols the snowy holidays.
GHOSTS, HAUNTINGS, AND CURSES
Ghosts, Spirits & Haunted Locations
Stories about spirits and unseen stalkers tied to specific homes, hotels, and lands.
Episode 52: The Letters (The Watcher): The real-life stalking of a New Jersey family by a mysterious correspondent.
Episode 8: The House (The Bleeding House): The unexplainable 1987 Atlanta mystery where walls began to seep blood.
Episode 68: The Move: The Nevada families who encountered opinionated spirits during their relocation.
Episode 77: The Witch (The Bell Witch): The 19th-century Tennessee spirit that allegedly tormented a family for years.
Episode 120: The Crescent Hotel: The dark history of “America’s Most Haunted Hotel” and its time as a fake cancer hospital.
Episode 117: The Ghost Bride: The Hotel Galvez legend of a spirit keeping a tragic, eternal vigil.
Episode 36: The Haunting (The Tallman Ghost): A Wisconsin family driven from their home by a spectral presence tied to their furniture.
Episode 4: The Whistler: The 1950s Louisiana phantom stalker who announced himself with an eerie whistle.
Episode 43: The Highway (The Dead Zone): Florida’s haunted stretch of I-4, allegedly cursed by paved-over history.
Episode 49: The Black Dog (of Hanging Hills): The spectral hound of Connecticut that serves as an omen.
Episode 118: The Haunted Woods: The legend of Moll Dyer, Maryland’s famous “witch” whose spirit allegedly haunts the frozen woods.
Episode 103: The Cemetery: Richmond’s Hollywood Cemetery, featuring both the Iron Dog (Haunted Object) and the Richmond Vampire (Spirit/Grave lore).
Episode 37: The Lovers (The Don CeSar): The story of the "Pink Palace" in Florida, built as a monument to a lost love and haunted by the man who built it.
Episode 54: The Visitation (The Smurl Haunting): The 1980s Pennsylvania case involving Ed and Lorraine Warren and a family beset by a reportedly demonic entity.
Episode 62: The Firestarters (The Odon Poltergeist): The bizarre 1940s Indiana and Illinois cases where fires spontaneously ignited on walls and furniture without a heat source.
Episode 76: The Clown Motel: In the vast Nevada desert, there is a lodge for the brave—or the foolish. We look at the history of the Tonopah landmark located right next to a historic cemetery, where the "residents" are said to be more than just plastic and paint.
Episode 107: The Stones: In the early 1980s, a formerly quiet suburban street in Birmingham, England—Thornton Road—was struck by a series of bizarre rock attacks. These "stone showers" were credited to unseen forces that some believed were the work of a phantom or a poltergeist.
Episode 102: The Lady (The Brown Lady): The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall—a vast estate that has belonged to the Viscount and Marquess Townshends for hundreds of years—might be one of Britain’s most famous ghosts.
Cursed Artifacts & Haunted Dolls
Physical Artifacts and Dolls that are reported to move, cause misfortune, or carry a residual haunting.
Episode 84: The Symphony: The Curse of the Ninth. We investigate the superstition that has haunted classical composers from Beethoven to Mahler—a pattern of mortality that makes the writing of a tenth symphony a dangerous endeavor.
Episode 65: The Toy (Robert the Doll): The world’s most famous haunted doll and his strict rules for visitors.
Episode 108: The Haunted Doll (Letta-Me-Out): A 200-year-old wooden doll found under an Australian home.
Episode 38: The Doll (The Audubon House Doll): The museum resident whose presence forced a relocation.
Episode 95: The Hands Resist Him: The “Cursed” eBay painting that became a viral legend.
Episode 55: The Box (The Dybbuk Box): The wine cabinet allegedly containing a restless, malevolent spirit.
Episode 59: The Artifacts: Investigations into Out-of-Place Artifacts and objects that shouldn’t exist.
Episode 79: The Angel (The Black Angel): The Iowa City statue whose changing color sparked a century of dark folklore.
Episode 114: The Curses: Cursed phone numbers, signals, and digital "spirit" attachments.
Episode 57: The Horse (Blucifer): The unsettling, glowing-eyed mustang statue at Denver International Airport that allegedly killed its creator.
TIME TRAVELING AND VANISHING
Investigations into those who have stepped out of time, vanished into thin air in circumstances that are outside the mundane, or claimed a reality that doesn't match our own. This archive explores the "Lost and Found" of the American news cycle—people who left behind everything they knew and those who appeared with no explanation.
The Time Travelers & The Displaced
Individuals whose stories suggest the timeline is far more porous than we believe.
Episode 100: The Time Traveler (John Titor): The man who appeared on 2001 message boards claiming to be a soldier from the year 2036 on a mission to retrieve an IBM 5100.
Episode 106: The Vanishing Room :A classic urban legend rooted in historical reporting: a guest checks into a hotel, but when their companion returns, the room—and the person—have completely vanished from existence.
Episode 59: The Artifacts :A deep dive into Out-of-Place Artifacts (OOPArts)—physical objects found in geological strata where they shouldn’t exist, defying our understanding of the historical timeline.
Vanished: The Missing & The Returned
Cases where people disappeared under impossible circumstances, sometimes returning with even fewer answers.
Episode 20: The Cadet (Richard Colvin Cox): The 1950 disappearance of a West Point student. This case remains one of the military’s most enduring mysteries, involving secret visitors and a vanishing act that was never solved.
Episode 3: The Skier (Steven Kubacki): In 1978, a student disappeared in the snow of Lake Michigan. He woke up 15 months later in Newark, wearing different clothes and having no memory of the intervening year.
Episode 61: The Boy (Larry): The harrowing 1973 search for a child calling for help via “phantom” CB radio transmissions—a voice on the airwaves that led rescuers on a desperate hunt for a person they could never find.
Episode 47: The Triangle (The Bennington Triangle): Between 1945 and 1950, a series of people vanished without a trace in the wilderness of Vermont. We investigate the geography of a place where people simply stop being.
VAMPIRES: THE UNDEAD
Our favorite episodes featuring the undead (undead undead).
Episode 32: The Vampire (of Mineral Point): Wisconsin’s most famous undead legend. We investigate the tall, caped figure reported by locals in the early 20th century and the town’s embrace of its spooky resident.
Episode 99: The Colorado Vampire: The mystery of the Lafayette grave belonging to “Fodor Glava.” We explore why this site became a focal point for vampire lore in the middle of the Rocky Mountains.
Episode 71: The Cure (Mercy Brown): The definitive 19th-century Rhode Island vampire panic. A grieving family and a desperate town resorted to exhumation and ritual to stop what they believed was a predatory spirit.
Episode 103: The Cemetery (The Richmond Vampire):The legend of the W.W. Pool mausoleum in Virginia. We look at the 1925 tunnel collapse that birthed a local legend about a blood-drinking resident of the cemetery.
AMAZING HUMANS & ANIMALS
Cases where the human body performed “impossible” feats of survival or underwent a sudden, unexplainable metamorphosis.
Episode 28: The Freeze (Jean Hilliard):The ultimate survival story. In 1980, a Minnesota woman was found frozen solid—literally a block of ice. We look at the medical records of her “thaw” and her inexplicable full recovery.
Episode 41: The Hunger: The medical mystery of a young boy who lost the biological capacity to feel hunger or thirst. We examine the science of “Inedia” and the terrifying reality of a body that forgets how to want.
Episode 40: The Genius (Acquired Savant Syndrome): A violent trauma didn’t break Jason Padgett’s mind; it rewired it. We investigate how a physical attack led to the sudden ability to see the complex mathematical fractals of the universe.
Episode 72: The Wonder Horse (Lady Wonder): The famous psychic horse of Virginia that "consulted" on police cases and predicted the future.
Episode 12: The Rays (Roy Beebe): The post-WWII scientist who claimed to harness cosmic rays for health and grew giant, anomalous vegetables.
Episode 13: The Bolt: Edwin Robinson, a Falmouth, Maine resident who’d been in a serious 18-wheeler accident, experienced a bizarre series of events after being struck by lightning--all because he’d wanted to rescue his pet chicken, TukTuk, from a storm.
Episode 15: The Pilot: After visiting an aircraft museum, a young boy begins to have disturbing dreams of World-War-II-era air battles. But after he begins to show an amazing knowledge of both the aircraft and a specific ship--and battle--from the era, his parents question whether he’s actually “dreaming” at all.
Episode 24: The Cat: Cats have always a reputation for magical affinity — for the ability to walk between worlds; so, is it so strange to imagine they might shepherd us between them?
Glitches, Panics, MIRACLES & Sensory Mysteries
Environmental anomalies and collective psychological experiences. These episodes cover the "Simulation Breakers,” from sounds that shouldn't exist to memories that shouldn't be shared.
Sensory Disruptions, MIRACLES & Warped Physics
When the environment itself begins to behave in ways that defy standard physical laws or medical explanation.
Episode 6: The Hum:The low-frequency, persistent groan heard by residents in Taos and beyond. Is it industrial, geological, or something else?
Episode 112: The Vortex: The Montana roadside mystery where gravity, height, and human perception are warped by a localized anomaly.
Episode 7: The Gas (The Mad Gasser of Mattoon): The 1944 community-wide chemical panic. Was there a prowler with a paralyzing spray, or was it a “virus of the mind”?
The Panics: Premium now on the main feed. A deep dive into the history and science of mass sociogenic illness—how a “mystery” can physically manifest in a population.
Episode 1: The Ring: On the first episode of One Strange Thing, we tell the story of Shawn and Debra, high-school sweethearts from Maine whose love story involves a class ring, a Finnish forest, a metal detector, and, perhaps, a little nudge from the afterlife.
Episode 45: The Choir: Perhaps some people are born lucky. . . and then there are others, who have singular experiences that can be described as, well, miracles. That seems to have been the case for fifteen people in a small Nebraska town in 1950.
Atmospheric Anomalies & Fallouts
When the sky delivers materials that don’t belong, often resulting in localized alarm or illness.
Episode 16: The Birds (The Beebe Die-Off): Thousands of blackbirds falling dead from the Arkansas sky on a single New Year’s Eve.
The Oakville Blobs: Premium now on the main feed. The translucent, gelatinous “rain” that fell on a Washington town and sickened those who touched it.
Episode 19: The Blob (The Texas Fungi) The pulsating, growing mass in a 1970s backyard that sparked a media frenzy and “alien” comparisons.
Episode 26: The Pits (The Seattle Windshield Panic): The 1954 event where thousands of drivers reported mysterious pits appearing on their glass.
Digital Mysteries & Urban Legends
The "modern myths, " these episodes focus on mysteries that spread through the internet, the airwaves, or cultural storytelling . . . including digital hauntings and classic urban legends that manifested in the real world.
Digital Mysteries & Modern Myths
Investigations into phenomena born from the internet, the airwaves, and the “glitches” in our shared reality.
The Black Eyes (Black Eyed Kids) : Premium now on the main feed. The internet’s most persistent modern legend. We investigate the terrifying reports of “kids” with solid black eyes asking for entry into homes and cars.
Episode 97: The Mandela Effect: Shared false memories on a global scale. Why do millions of people remember a logo or a movie line that never existed?
Episode 116: The Tweets: The viral social media haunting documented in real-time, utilizing modern technology to capture a spectral presence.
The Cryptographers: Premium now on the main feed. The global, high-stakes hunt for the shadowy organization known as Cicada 3301.
The Emails (Jack Froese): Premium now on the main feed. The moving and eerie digital mystery where friends received emails from a man months after his passing.
Urban Legends & Local Lore
Urban legends, local rumors, and assorted lore.
Episode 107: The Reflection: The mirror-gazing ritual that has terrified generations. We look at the roots and cultural importance of Bloody Mary.
Episode 104: The Bunny (The Bunnyman): The hatchet-wielding figure of the Colchester Overpass in Virginia—a legend born from real 1970 police reports.
Episode 10: The Tree: The "Tree That Owns Itself" in Athens, Georgia. We examine the legal and historical roots of a landmark with its own deed.
Episode 50: The Dutchman Mine: The notion of striking it rich at the Lost Dutchman Mine has drawn many adventurers to the outskirts of Phoenix, over the course of a little over a century.
Episode 89: The Mine Fire: Centralia, Pennsylvania was a busy mining town until a fire of unclear origins started — and swept its way beneath the town.
Episode 50: The Covered Bridge: Vermont is home to many, many historic bridges — and if that doesn’t strike your fancy, the ghost haunting the Stowe Hollow bridge might.
Episode 78: The Jersey Devil: The Pine Barrens of Southern New Jersey gave birth to one of America’s most famou cryptids—a beast known as the Leeds Devil, or The Jersey Devil.
Episode 11: The Thief (The Robin Hood of the Space Coast): The unusual 1970s Florida vigilante whose "crimes" were bizarre, selfless, and captured the local imagination.
Episode 5: The Soda Machine: The Seattle landmark that dispensed mystery flavors for decades before vanishing and "posting" to social media.
Episode 14: The Heist: The Montgomery Township standoff with a bank robber who turned out to be a very convincing, very stationary mannequin.
Episode 18: The Barber: The Phantom Barber of Pascagoula. A WWII-era prowler who wasn't after money or lives—he was after hair.
Episode 30: The Clowns: The phantom clown sightings of the 1980s that triggered community-wide alarms and van-based panics.
Episode 74: The Tramping Ground: The Devil’s Tramping Ground in North Carolina—a barren circle where nothing has grown for centuries.
Episode 81: The Night Before: The authorship mystery behind the world's most famous holiday poem.
Episode 93: The Connecticut Witch: Hannah Cranna, the "Wicked Witch of Monroe," who reportedly ruled her neighbors through fear and folklore.
Episode 23: The Lights: Nearly every region of the United States has its own lore surrounding supernatural “lights” that have no clear source—and the Ozarks are no exception. Unlike most other phenomena, though, the Spook Lights of the Ozarks resist the usual explanations, surviving decades of scrutiny to remain a staple of regional folklore.
Episode 2: The Owl (Woodsy the Owl): In “The Owl,” we explore the backstory of Woodsy the Owl, the lovable federal mascot who joined Smokey the Bear in 1970 to help deliver important public service announcements. There’s just one problem: some believe Woodsy’s past is more complicated than it seems.
Episode 63: The Sweetheart: South Florida’s Coral Castle is a marvel of human creativity, talent and engineering — so much so that how exactly it came into being is a mystery. But it’s also a monument to love, and loss, and some of the… weirder… corners of the human spirit.
The Hands: Now on the main feed. In Southwestern England, a legend grew along the road now known along the B3212—one that involved an invisible entity that forced drivers off the roads and into dangerous, and even fatal, accidents.
Episode 105: The Gate to Hell (Stull Cemetery): Stull, Kansas is a tiny town that nevertheless has garnered a big reputation: as home to one of seven Gates to Hell. Its cemetery and church have long attracted tourists, thrill seekers, and a lot of unwanted attention.
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