Bennington County, VT. Fall 2011 Sighting. Greg Van Houten.
I have been meaning to get you details on my encounter with a real
live Mountain Lion, Of course, I can't verify that it was a native
Catamount, but it was a lion and I saw it up close.
Bennington County, VT. Winter 1993. Anonymous.
Cheshire, MA. 2012. L.R.
It occurred on October 13, 2011. I was traveling
north in North Bennington just around dusk. From the
Bennington College side of the road came something at a full gate which
caused me to abruptly jump on my brake pedal. As I came to a stop, a
Mountain Lion ran across just in front of my car. It was as wide as the
traffic lane including the tail . I would compare it to a large German
Shepherd in size, though lower to the ground. It's color was a rich
light brown, small rounded ears turned back from a small round head and
the tail was thick like an ocean grade tie line. No spots. I actually
had my camera on the front seat, but by the time I had it turned the
lion was long gone.
If you travel the road you will see a
low spot where the creek leads to the swamp. That is where he/she
crossed and disappeared into what looks like a well worn wildlife trail.
Bennington County, VT. Winter 1993. Anonymous.
My personal experience with a mountain lion. Initially the first time I was driving home at night in December, it was probably 1993 & the road I live on is rural & I saw for less than a second and a half an animal cross the road in front of me that came out of the side of the road and it touched the yellow line and was gone in a flash. It was long, lean and had a three foot long tail.This was at night and the headlights were on the animal & I would have gone back to look for tracks but there wasn't any snow.
Do you remember the color?
Tawny-beautiful
and there was no mistaking it when you see one-You know a coyote has a
puffy tail and a deer has a white short tail and there is nothing else
that has a three foot long tail that looks like a sausage. There
was no way I was going to catch a glimpse in the woods it was dark. I
was amazed and ecstatic-never thought I would see one again.
Bennington County, VT. Summer 2013. A. Mishkin.
"It jumped out in front of me, I hit the brakes!" -
Adirondacks, NY. 2000. R. VanOrden.
Cat sighting: It was about 13 years ago, in the Adrondacs somewhere between Long Lake and Tupper lake. It was just after dark (I forgot the month but it wasn't in the winter) and the cat ran across the road in front of my car. At first I thought it was a deer because of its size, but then I noticed the tail. There is no mistaking that tail. It was a catamount. And then it was gone.The Barnard Monster. Williams Tefft Schwarz. Bennington Museum Collection |
-Send In Your Catamount Stories-
To The Bennington Museum
-Artist and Bennington native Daniel Richmond has devised a conceptual, community based art project to collect stories from local residents of recent catamount sightings. In addition to a call for catamount sightings, which will be shared with museum visitors, the exhibit will include fragments of recycled Vermont marble sidewalks carved by Richmond with disjointed accession numbers, vestiges of the museum's formal cataloging system.
After the exhibition is over Richmond will give the markers to individuals who share their story of a catamount sighting with the museum. These individuals will then be asked to place the markers at the location that their sighting occurred and provide a photograph of the marker in situ to the museum. In doing this Richmond draws upon Bennington's rich legacy of historic markers and Vermonters' love of their land and its native flora and fauna, while simultaneously validating the stories, which are so often dismissed as lore by the public at large-
-Jamie Franklin, Curator Bennington Museum. 2013.
Stories can be sent to: jfranklin@benningtonmuseum.org richmondsculpture@yahoo.com
Bennington Museum 75 Main Street, Bennington, Vermont 05201
Bennington Museum 75 Main Street, Bennington, Vermont 05201
Link to entire article
A project in collaboration with Jamie Franklin, Curator of the Bennington Museum and People of the New England Region.
A project in collaboration with Jamie Franklin, Curator of the Bennington Museum and People of the New England Region.
2013. Marble Story Marker. Re-purposed Sidewalk Fragment.