Script

 Brontosaurs in the Congo

Are there dinosaurs still alive in the Congo? Come with me to the heart of Africa, where 19th and 20th-century explorers claimed to have encountered living dinosaurs, including Brontosaurus. I’ll examine the stories that claim to answer the question: could dinosaurs still be among us?

It was the year 1932, and the world was still reeling from the Great Depression. Yet here, in the heart of Africa, John Johnson felt alive with possibility. He'd heard the stories from the local Congolese - tales of massive creatures that roamed these unexplored territories, leaving behind footprints the size of dinner plates and a wake of broken trees.

This account from John Johnson comes from the 1932 edition of the Rhodesia Herald newspaper. As it wasn't digitized, I visited the Library of Congress recently to look it up on microfilm.

"On February 16 last I went on a shooting trip, accompanied by my gunbearer. I had only a Winchester for small game, not expecting anything big. At 2 p.m. I had reached the Kasai valley. No game was in sight.

As we were going down to the water, the boy suddenly called out "elephants". It appeared that the jungle almost hid two giant bulls. About 50 yards away from them, I saw something incredible - a monster, about 16 yards in length, with a lizard's head and tail.

I closed my eyes and reopened them. There could be no doubt about it, the animal was still there. My boy cowered in the grass, whimpering. I was shaken by the hunting fever. My teeth rattled with fear.

Three times I snapped; only one attempt came out well. Suddenly the monster vanished, with a remarkably rapid movement. It took me some time to recover.

Alongside me, the boy prayed and cried. I lifted him up, pushed him along, and made him follow me home. On the way, we had to transverse a big swamp. Progress was slow, for my limbs were still half-paralyzed with fear.

There in the swamp, the huge lizard appeared once more, tearing lumps from a dead rhino. It was covered in ooze. I was only about 25 yards away. It was simply terrifying. The boy had taken French leave, carrying the rifle with him.

At first I was careful not to stir, then I thought of my camera. I could hear the crunching of rhino bones in the lizard's mouth. Just as I clicked, it jumped into deep water. The experience was too much for my nervous system.

Completely exhausted, I sank down behind the bush that had given me shelter. Blackness reigned before my eyes. The animal's phenomenally rapid motion was the most awe-inspiring thing I have ever seen.

It was reddish in color, with blackish-colored stripes. It had a long snout and numerous teeth. The legs were thick; it reminded me of a lion, built for speed."

He decided that the creature, over 40 feet long, was a Tyrannosaurus. 

Johnson staggered into the camp, waving the camera before collapsing. Later, he recalled:

"I must have looked like one demented, when at last I regained camp. Metcalfe, who is the boss there, said I approached him, waving the camera about in a silly way and emitting unintelligible sounds. I dare say I did. For eight days, I lay in a fever, unconscious nearly all the time."

When Johnson finally awoke, he developed the film and started sharing 3 photos of the creatures he had taken.

The three photos each showed a different view of a cryptid that came to be known as the Kasai Rex – named for the Kasai River.

The three photos are, perhaps, what you’d expect of a photo of a dinosaur in the Congo. The first shows the striped lizard-like creature, its mouth open wide, but little else is detectable in the photo – there's no sense of size or the environment.    The second shows what is clearly a lizard with its front legs and claws standing on a rhino. And the third – is the most dramatic. What is very clearly a t-rex is towering over its prey - tearing away flesh from a dead rhino.

These photos have been circulated broadly over the subsequent decades, purported evidence of the continued existence of dinosaurs. But since then, they have been debunked as fraudulent. The first two are simply monitor lizards, and the third has been demonstrated to be a fake.

Still, the excitement over these fake photos reflects the optimism that these relics of the past might still exist in the Congo. Its jungles remain as mysterious as ever, their secrets guarded by the mists of time and the dense canopy of trees. And who knows? Perhaps somewhere in those unexplored rainforests, something unknown to us still roams, oblivious to the modern world, waiting for the day when truth and legend finally converge. As with any good story of discovery, you have to wind your way through cheap fakes and trickery, like that of the Kasai Rex, to find potentially authentic stories of modern-day dinosaurs.

This is My Dark Path.

Hi, I'm MF Thomas, and welcome to My Dark Path, where I explore stories about conspiracies, the paranormal and the unexplained. For reasons known only to the algorithm gods at Youtube and the podcast networks, we’ll maximize our reach by splitting the channel, and soon, we'll launch a new dedicated channel and podcast focused only on history, allowing My Dark Path to focus on more fringe topics. Thank you for sharing this journey with me. Words cannot adequately express my gratitude for your support. Let’s get started with episode 65, Brontosaurs in the Congo.

Part 1

The Congo Basin of West Africa is an extraordinary place. It boasts expansive jungles and waterways unique in this world of wonders. As one of the largest tropical rainforests in the world, it claims 300 million hectares of land for this thriving ecosystem – that's about the size of Western Europe or India. Nine countries cover this area, including Angola, Tanzania, and Zambia, that are home to roughly 253 million people. Some regions have seen a steady population growth while great stretches are untamed and unseen by humans.

Nature, in all its awesome might, is an unsaddled beast. The Congo Basin is one of three thunderstorm hotspots in the world. Rainstorms can last for a staggering 11 hours, the downpours cleansing the whole of the land. And through these storms, flora and fauna thrive in an evolutionary war of the fittest. Specialized for survival, each species thrives in a living labyrinth of forests, rivers, and swamps. In these severe conditions, only the strong survive.

If a dinosaur species were to remain alive today, it would likely find refuge in the Congo.

Unlike the faked photos of Johnson’s Kasai Rex, the stories of an incredible sauropod that stalks the area’s waters are hardly new. In fact, stories of this creature first emerged in the late 18th century, when French Catholic missionaries began working with African tribes in modern Gabon, Cameroon, and the Republic of the Congo. The first mention of the creature, also called the Mokele-mbembe, appears in a 1776 book by French priest Abbé Lievain Bonaventure Proyart, describing the Congo Basin's natural history. They noted the tracks of an animal:

“which was not seen but which must have been monstrous: the marks of the claws were noted on the ground, forming a print about three feet in circumference. The arrangement of the impressions indicated that the animal was walking, not running; the distance between the footprints measured seven to eight feet.''

This account was not full of hyperbole; this description was inserted between two factually correct accounts of an elephant and a lion. When assessed today, the book's observations were accurate regarding plant and animal descriptions.

The term Mokele-mbembe (mokèlé-mbèmbé), Loosely translated from Lingala,  means “one who stops the flow of rivers.”  It’s an imposing name for a creature of such an epic description. Bantu tribes are composed of approximately 400 distinct native groups. Spanning 24 nations, these Bantu-speaking people expanded across the continent. Even across more than 400 dialects, the people of these tribes tell similar tales. Share similar stories. Stories that also spread around the villages of the Biaka pygmy. Legends shared by the Bantu and Biaka pygmy speak of one such beast. 

A local recounted the local legend as it was passed down from generation to generation:

“In our village, we have always known about the great beast that lives in the waters. My grandfather told me stories of Mokele-mbembe, how it moves silently through the swamp, leaving behind a trail of broken branches and disturbed water. I once saw it with my own eyes while fishing with my father. We were near the edge of the lake when we heard a deep, rumbling sound, like thunder but from beneath the water.

We saw its back first, a massive, smooth mound rising slowly, then its long neck appeared, moving gracefully as it surveyed the surroundings. It was as big as three hippos, with a long tail that swished through the water. We stayed very still, knowing that to disturb it would be dangerous. My father whispered that it was looking for its favorite food, the Malombo leaves, which grow thick in that part of the swamp.

After a few minutes, it sank back into the water, disappearing as quietly as it had come. We returned to the village and told the elders what we had seen. They nodded, saying that Mokele-mbembe is the spirit of the waters, a creature from the time of our ancestors, meant to remind us of the mysteries and power of the forest. We must respect it and the land it protects.”

This beast was called the Guardian of the Waterways or the Mokele-mbembe (mokèlé-mbèmbé).

A second Western explorer to report on the Mokele-mbembe was a German military officer, Lieutenant Paul Gratz, who explored the Congo in 1909. It's unclear if Gratz claimed to have seen the creature personally, but he collected numerous accounts from local tribes and hunters about the creature.

Outside of these anecdotes, some of the most robust evidence of the Mokele-mbembe comes from the life of Carl Hagenbeck, a pioneer in zoology and a forerunner in the field of crypto-zoology. He dedicated his life to the exploration and understanding of both known and mysterious animals. His interest in crypto-zoology, particularly the legendary Mokele-mbembe of the Congo Basin, offers a fascinating glimpse into his adventurous spirit and scientific curiosity. 

Born on June 10, 1844, in Hamburg, Germany, Carl Hagenbeck was exposed to exotic animals early in life through his father’s business as a fishmonger and animal trader. He wrote:

…one day in March 1848, it happened that some of the fishermen, whom my father employed, and who were under contract to deliver over to him their entire haul, captured in their nets no fewer than six seals. My father was very fond of animals and greatly interested in natural history, and thus it occurred to him that the curiosity…might…be shared by his fellow-citizens of Hamburg, and that the interest…could be made profitable…. He therefore exhibited the creatures in two huge wooden tubs at our house…charging an entrance fee of one Hamburg shilling (about a penny) per head.

This early exposure to wildlife ignited a lifelong passion for animals. In 1866, Hagenbeck established his own animal trading business, gaining a reputation for his humane treatment and training methods, which contrasted sharply with the harsh practices of the time.

Hagenbeck revolutionized the design of zoos by introducing the concept of panoramic exhibits. He replaced traditional cages with open enclosures surrounded by natural barriers such as moats, creating more naturalistic environments for the animals and enhancing the visitor experience. In 1907, he opened Tierpark Hagenbeck in Hamburg, the first zoo to implement these principles on a large scale, significantly influencing modern zoological practices.

Hagenbeck's travels and encounters with different indigenous cultures sparked his interest in crypto-zoology. These interactions introduced him to legends and reports of mysterious creatures, fueling his curiosity about undiscovered species.

In his autobiography, Hagenbeck recounted that in 1909, two different explorers told him stories of a massive, mysterious creature. A German explorer, Hans Schomburgh, and an English hunter both described a monster that was half elephant, half dragon that lived in the Congo. About the same time another naturalist, Joseph Menges, indepdendently told Hagenbeck that a brontosaur-like dinosaur lived in the swamps.

In his book, Beasts and Men, Hagenbeck wrote

Some years ago I received reports from two quite distinct sources of the existence of an immense and wholly unknown animal, said to inhabit the interior of Rhodesia. Almost identical stories reached me, firstly, through one of my own travellers, and, secondly, through an English gentleman, who had been shooting big-game in Central Africa. The reports were thus quite independent of each other, and, as a matter of fact, the Englishman and my traveller had made their way into Rhodesia from opposite directions, the one from the northeast and the other from the southwest. The natives, it seemed, had told both my informants that in the depth of the great swamps there dwelt a huge monster, half elephant, half dragon. This, however, is not the only evidence for the existence of the animal.

And Hagenbeck viewed the native sources as being reliable

They often hear stories from the natives concerning strange animals which, from the descriptions given, would appear to be unknown to Europeans. It might be supposed that these are mere cock-and-bull stories, either exaggerated descriptions of well-known animals or else intentional fabrications. But such is not usually the case. Much more often, the information given by the natives will lead to the discovery of new species, if the instructions of the savages be properly carried out. For instance, the case of the discovery of the remains of the giant sloth in South America is famous, and all my readers will remember the excitement which was caused when the existence of the okapi was made known. Native reports are more reliable than is commonly supposed.

Hagenbeck was correct in referring to the western discovery of the okapi. It has a striking appearance, with a dark brown body, zebra-like white stripes on its legs, and a long neck, though it is more closely related to the giraffe than to zebras. The okapi is a solitary and elusive herbivore that feeds on leaves, fruits, and other vegetation. It is known for its long, prehensile tongue, which helps it grasp foliage. It's not a mammal that is easily confused with another species.

Its existence was well known to indigenous peoples in the Congo Basin. They referred to it by names like "o'api," and it was a part of their local folklore and knowledge of the forest. Despite these native reports, it wasn't until the late 19th century that a Westerner observed it. The first recorded mention was made by British explorer Sir Henry Morton Stanley when, in 1887, he wrote about a mysterious donkey-like animal. However, the exact nature of this animal remained unclear to him and others. Sir Harry Johnston, a British colonial administrator and naturalist, was the first Westerner to document the species formally. In 1900, while he was the governor of Uganda, Johnston heard rumors of a strange animal resembling a cross between a giraffe and a zebra in the dense forests of the Congo. He set out to investigate, obtaining the first tangible evidence in the form of a skull and a piece of striped skin from local hunters. These specimens were sent to the Zoological Society of London, where scientists identified the animal as a new species closely related to the giraffe.

In 1901, the okapi was officially named Okapia johnstoni in honor of Harry Johnston. To Hagenbeck, this confirmed that native reports were reliable and that large creatures remained unknown to the West even into the 20th century.

With this in mind, the reports that came to Hagenbeck describing a brontosaurus-like creature were hardly farfetched tales. And the two reports I just shared were not the first ones that reached Hagenbeck’s ears.

It is now several decades since Menges, who is of course perfectly reliable, heard a precisely similar story…and…on the walls of certain caverns in Central Africa there are to be found actual drawings of this strange creature. From what I have heard of the animal, it seems to me that it can only be some kind of dinosaur, seemingly akin to the Brontosaurus. As the stories come from so many different sources, and all tend to substantiate each other, I am almost convinced that some such reptile must be still in existence.

Hagenbeck, fascinated by these reports from trusted sources, decided to find out for himself. He organized and sent an expedition to the Congo to search for the monster.

At great expense, therefore, I sent out an expedition to find the monster, but unfortunately they were compelled to return home without having proved anything, either one way or the other. In the part of Africa where the animal is said to exist, there are enormous swamps, hundreds of square miles in extent, and my travellers were laid low with very severe attacks of fever. Moreover, that region is infested by bloodthirsty savages who repeatedly attacked the expedition and hindered its advance. Notwithstanding this failure, I have not relinquished the hope of being able to present science with indisputable evidence of the existence of the monster. And perhaps if I succeed in this enterprise naturalists all the world over will be roused to hunt vigorously for other unknown animals; for if this prodigious dinosaur, which is supposed to have been extinct for hundreds of thousands of years, be still in existence, what other wonders may not be brought to light?

And that, my friends, is everything Hagenbeck shared about his search and the expedition. His book, Beasts and Men, is absolutely worth reading. Over 324 pages, he carefully describes the capture and caretaking of scores of animal species. Yet, his description of this expedition is almost a footnote tucked at the end of the chapter called "How Wild Animals Are Caught."  There are virtually no specifics, unlike the exhaustive detail he provides elsewhere in the book. 

It's possible there was simply little to report. But in this dark path, we'll explore a more conspiratorial angle. Perhaps Hagenbeck was forced to acknowledge the expedition but deliberately chose to write virtually nothing about it. In addition to Hagenbeck, a renown U.S. research institution has a peculiar history tied to the search for dinosaurs in the Congo.

Part 2 – The Smithsonian Disaster

The Smithsonian Institution was founded in 1846, thanks to a bequest from British scientist James Smithson, with the mission to increase and diffuse knowledge, and has since grown into the world’s largest museum, education, and research complex. It cares deeply about its reputation. And so it was not surprising that in 2011, an article in the Smithsonian magazine stated definitively: “There aren’t any sauropods in the Congo Basin."  The article argued that anyone hypothesizing that brontosaurs still inhabit the Congo is a fanatic of one type or another. Fair enough. Yet, when you read deeper into the newspaper coverage of the Smithsonian expedition of 1919, you can come away with a more complex view of the social interests surrounding the expedition.

In the 1910s, amid the flurry of dozens of Smithsonian expeditions across the globe, the institution decided to sponsor one to the interior of Africa in 1919. The expedition's objective was to secure additional specimens of plants and animals. However, the organization and participants of this expedition seem unusual, as though it was designed to capture photographic evidence of something extraordinary. And despite the modern denials, the newspaper coverage at the time – in the U.S., UK, Africa and Australia- played up the hunt for the brontosaurus side of the story.

The Smithsonian did not plan the expedition in a vacuum. Around the time of the expedition, newspapers and magazines amplified the story of explorers Capelle and Lepage, who were reportedly connected with the Belgian government's Congo expedition of 1913. Before telling the story of the tragic end to the Smithsonian expedition, we will first discuss the story of Capelle and Lepage's encounter as it was said in many U.S. newspapers in early 1920.

Reportedly, these two Belgians were exploring the Congo around 1913. As they struggled to pass through dense jungle, on some days they hiked fewer than 2 miles.. They had gone through forests so dense and so interwoven with vines that, at times, although it was broad daylight, they moved in semi-darkness.

One afternoon, they emerged from the dense jungle at the edge of a great swamp. The marsh, perhaps ten miles wide, was covered with a lush and high semi-aqueous vegetation and was bordered by lofty, almost perpendicular cliffs. The explorers pitched their camp upon a slope between jungle and swamp and started scouting the area, making their way around the bog.

They had not gone far when they halted in amazement. Before them, plainly printed in the soft mud, was a footprint. The print was four feet at its widest and sunk deep like some incredible weight had pushed it into the soil. And there could be no doubt that this was a footprint, for beyond it was a succession of identical footprints stretching across the swamp's edge. And the prints were very fresh.

They followed the tracks until they angled and swept back into the water. Unwilling to abandon the pursuit, the pair kept on along the swampy shore until they reached the foot of one of the cliffs, hoping to find the creature. Examining this, they saw not far away an opening like a tunnel mouth partly screened by vegetation that had clearly been torn and crushed by this tracked beast.

They waded across the marshy land, sometimes in water up to their waists, and entered the tunnel in the rock. They found themselves in a wide, high-roofed passage. It was not entirely dark; a faint light glimmered through it. The water was clear and about three feet in depth. Through this, the explorers waded on. The tunnel floor gradually rose, and the roof rapidly grew higher. With the aid of their electric torch they could guard against any dangerous missteps. They followed the tunnel for perhaps a quarter of a mile before a turn brought them out upon a shelf of rock over which not more than a couple of inches of water was flowing, and they looked upon what was clearly a subterranean lake. They could not determine its size, for no walls of the cave it occupied were visible.

The dim light filled the massive cavern from fissures in its roof, opening out to the sky. As they gazed upon this strange scene, something like a horse's head broke through the water's surface about a hundred yards away from them. It raised its strong, serpent-like neck until the head towered twenty feet above the water. They caught the glean of saucer-like, phosphorescent eyes, Then the creature's huge, smooth, glistening body and an incredible forty-foot-long tail—powerful and sharply tapered.

For an instant, the explorers were too astonished to move.

The creature seemed to look them over curiously but with no inclination to attack.

Before they could recover from their shock, the creature sunk back into the water and out of sight.

The explorers had their guns, but it was evident that they would be useless if they either needed to protect themselves or wanted to kill the creature. Besides, they agreed that it would be better to return to civilization and tell people about their discoveries. Before backtracking through the large rock tunnel, they found evidence of another creature like the first, but smaller.

Yet, this story, like that of Kasai Rex, was ultimately a hoax. As recounted in his 1978 French language book, the Last Dragons of Africa, Bernard Heuvelmans unveiled how this story came to be.

In 1919, F.W. FitzSimons, the curator of the Port Elizabeth Museum in South Africa, received a report of an "extraordinary monster" from J.J. Raymer, a missionary in the Belgian Congo. Raymer was relaying an account from a railway engineer named Lepage, who claimed to have encountered the creature while hunting in October of that year. According to Lepage, the animal charged at him before wandering away, allowing him to observe it through binoculars. He described the creature as being about 24 feet long, with a pointed snout, horn-like tusks, a short nasal horn, hooves, and a scaly hump on its shoulders.

A sharp-eyed audience member will notice that the animal described here would not have been a sauropod but a ceratopsian dinosaur.

As this story circulated in the Congo and South Africa, Mrs. H.L. Lees, who was a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, heard it. She publicly accused Le Page of fabricating the entire incident, noting that she was present when Le Page first told his account. 

Mrs. Lees explained further that Le Page was not a Belgian explorer but an Australian engineer named David Le Page. He was working in Rhodesia and had returned from a hunting expedition. To explain why he had returned empty-handed, he declared that a massive creature in the swamp had scared away his potential prey. And Raymer, the purported missionary, was an employee of the American Drilling Sondage. Raymer passed on Le Page's account to F.W. FitzSimons, the curator of the Port Elizabeth Museum, who subsequently released it to the press.

Arthur Davison recounted a different version of this hoax in 1950. In Davison's account, Le Page initially shared the story with a group of missionaries, who documented the claim as factual. According to this version, Le Page later gained notoriety across Africa and became known as "Brontosaurus Dave." The tale grew and evolved over time, with some even using it to explain a 1901 report by a European hunter who claimed to have seen a sauropod-like creature.

At about the same time, a similar report surfaced in the Rhodesian press, bringing the name Gapelle into the story. A Belgian prospector and big game hunter named Gapelle claimed to have seen a creature in the swamps of the Belgian Congo, with large scales, a thick tail resembling that of a kangaroo, a humped back, a single horn, and red and yellow markings. Again, this would not be a sauropod-type creature that would show up in the newspapers. Gapelle reportedly fired at the creature, which then disappeared into the swamp.

It's fascinating to observe how these two separate stories, whether intended as hoaxes or not, were woven together to produce a credible narrative to underpin hundreds of newspaper articles, even coloring how the public viewed the objectives of the Smithsonian Congo expedition of 1919.

That transition was relatively easy, as this example from the Buffalo Times was published on Sunday, January 18, 1920. The paper summarized the frenzy of interest in searching for sauropods in the Congo.

Scientists are interested as they have not been for years in the cabled reports from London that an English expedition has set forth for the Belgian Congo to discover and, if possible, to secure a specimen of giant, unknown reptilian creatures whose discovery was the subject of circumstantial reports by Captains Capelle and Lepage, explorers connected with the Belgian Government's Congo expedition in 1913.

Given what we've just learned about the natural source of the Le Page and Capelle stories, it's fascinating to see how the press spun the credentials of these two. The article goes on to say about the British and Smithsonian expeditions to find evidence that sauropods still inhabited the earth:

…It leaked out a few weeks ago that an English expedition, under the charge of Captain Lester Stevens, one of the best-known British explorers, was on its way to the Congo, financed by several famous British scientific associations, to secure, if possible, one of these great creatures. And although the Smithsonian will not admit that one of the purposes of the party is to investigate the story of Capelle and Lepage, London reports persistently repeat that such is its main aim.

And now we return to the Smithsonian expedition.

The official name was actually the Smithsonian-Universal Film Manufacturing Company African Expedition. Its purpose was to gather additional plant and animal specimens, primarily from Africa's interior and southern regions.

At the helm of the venture was Edmund Heller, a seasoned naturalist and zoologist. Heller had cut his teeth on Theodore Roosevelt's famous African expedition a decade earlier, where he demonstrated his scientific understanding and ability to lead fieldwork in challenging environments.

Joining Heller was a carefully selected team of scientists and support staff, each bringing unique skills. Among them was James P. Chapin, an ornithologist who had already spent several years in the Congo and whose knowledge of the region's birds was unparalleled. Another was Herbert Lang, an experienced collector and taxidermist, who rounded out the core scientific team.

While Heller was the leader, the expedition was actually a joint venture between the Smithsonian Institution and the Universal Film Manufacturing Company, the precursor to Universal Pictures. This collaboration was quite innovative for its time, combining scientific research with documentary filmmaking. Ed Thierry, a cameraman and photographer, joined the expedition to document it in film.

Hollywood frontman William "Bill" Stowell, who'd tantalized Tinsel Town, had tagged along to provide his face to the story, especially if it happened to find dinosaurs of the waterways. Stowell went from acting in the silent movies, playing the roles of cowboys and a handsome heartthrob, to an explorer overnight. He carried out the film company’s wishes by joining the search for new discoveries in the Congo.

The group left New York on July 16, 1919. Upon arriving in Africa, the expedition made its way to the Belgian Congo, establishing a base camp on the outskirts of the town of Léopoldville, now known as Kinshasa. From there, they began their journey into the interior, following the Congo River and its tributaries deeper into the continent's heart. A frenetic pace of collection and documentation marked the early days. Every day brought new discoveries, from tiny insects to large mammals, each meticulously recorded and preserved for future study.

Heller's leadership style was hands-on and adaptive. He recognized the importance of maintaining morale in the face of their numerous challenges. The dense jungle terrain proved difficult to navigate, and the oppressive heat and humidity took their toll on both men and equipment. Tropical diseases lurked in every mosquito bite and contaminated water source, a constant threat to the health of the expedition members.

Despite these obstacles, the team made significant progress. One of their most celebrated finds came several months into the expedition when they encountered a small herd of okapi. 

The expedition also took on an anthropological dimension as they pushed further into the interior. The team encountered various indigenous groups, many of whom had had little to no contact with Westerners. Chapin, while an ornithologist, took a keen interest in documenting these people's customs, languages, and material culture. His notes and observations would later contribute significantly to the anthropological understanding of central African peoples.

And then, disaster struck the party. While traveling on a train in early December of 1919, a train accident killed William Stowell and Dr. Armstrong, the medical director and business manager. Every news wire described the accident differently. Some said that the train car they had been riding became uncoupled from other cars and ran off the tracks when the train was traveling over a steep grade. Other reports said another train had derailed, striking the train the expedition members were riding. But some of the most exciting coverage came from the Australian and New Zealand cable associations – they shared the news of the two deaths but added more – that the expedition was en route to “search for the Brontosaurs which was alleged to be in the Congo.” 

As the expedition entered its sixth month, the deaths of Stowell and Armstrong started to erode the group’s façade of scientific zeal. The constant physical demands of the journey and the psychological strain of prolonged isolation in a hostile environment began to wear on the team. Tensions arose between Heller and Lang over collection priorities and expedition resources. Once quickly resolved through compromise, their disagreements became more frequent and heated.

An unexpected malaria outbreak that swept through the expedition added to the internal strife. Several team members, including Heller himself, were laid low by the disease. While extensive, the expedition's medical supplies were not infinite, and the decision was made to pause their progress to allow for recovery. This unplanned delay put additional strain on their schedule and dwindling resources.

As Heller convalesced, he was forced to confront the harsh realities of their situation. The expedition was behind schedule and over budget, and the team's morale was at an all-time low. Furthermore, political instability in the region was increasing, with rumors of local uprisings against Belgian colonial rule reaching their camp. Once a background concern, the expedition's safety became a pressing issue.

During this period of forced inaction, Heller received a communique from the Smithsonian. The institution, while impressed with the expedition's findings thus far, expressed concern over the mounting costs and risks. They suggested it was time to consider bringing the expedition to an early close.

For Heller, this suggestion was initially unthinkable. They had come so far, endured much, and still had so much to discover. However, as he looked at his weakened team and considered the increasing dangers, he saw the wisdom of ending the expedition early.

The decision was a challenging one. Heller gathered the team and explained the situation. While initially disappointed, most team members understood and even welcomed the decision. The strain of the past months had taken its toll, and the prospect of returning home was welcome to many.

The journey back to the coast was a sad affair but not without its moments of scientific excitement. The team continued to collect specimens and make observations, determined to make the most of their remaining time in the field. As they emerged from the jungle and made their way to the port where they would begin their journey home, there was a sense of both accomplishment and unfulfilled potential.

There is very little public information about the Smithsonian’s terminated expedition to the Congo.  Even on the Smithsonian's Archive site, the summary omits any mention of the Mokele-mbembe. It states the "objective of Smithsonian-Universal Film Manufacturing Company African Expedition was to secure additional specimens of plants and animals, primarily from the interior of Africa and South Africa".

The film company pieced together a finished product, but the Smithsonian suggested that this was more for entertainment than educational purposes. The film was scrapped, and there was little left to present the world's citizens on their discoveries – and whether sauropods were among them.

Perhaps the Smithsonian Institution had a glimpse into the future and suppressed its exploration of the Brontosaurus because of how its research might tarnish its reputation. Smithsonian records and claims seem to contradict tales across North America as well. They claim stories of giants' skeletons in the United States to be lies and satire, yet native legends of remains beneath the mounds or ruling giants persisted. From tales of Lovelock Cave in Nevada, said to be the final home of tyrannical giants burned within their own cave, to Abraham Lincoln in 1848's "Fragment on Niagara Falls," where he stated, "The eyes of that species of extinct giants whose bones fill the Mounds of America, have gazed on Niagara as ours do now." 

With less than 1% of their specimens on display, the rest are held in secret collections of millions of specimens. Miles of tax-funded and protected research is outside of our view, though they permit some to enter high-security areas to view a portion of their 147 million specimens. But do they share it all? Are visitors or journalists permitted to see every piece of interesting history or unique artifacts? Their search for knowledge could also prove a proactive veiling of what lies yet undiscovered. Whether to protect the population or natural wonder or to keep the world blissfully ignorant, the Smithsonian avoids tarnishing its name. Whatever their reasoning and whatever truth lies in its vaults, another expedition decades later shared some amazing, if controversial, film evidence of the sauropods in the Congo.

Part 3 -

When we examine stories of cryptids, perhaps like the investigation of UFO incidents, one has to be prepared for disappointment, or at least, the discovery that most of the cases we hope for something extraordinary are, at best, misidentifications, or worst case outright hoaxes.

Still, some observations keep our hopes alive that sauropods might still inhabit the Congo. One such case with intriguing video evidence is based on a 1992 Japanese expedition that ventured deep into the Congo's remote Lake Tele in pursuit of

Mokele-Mbembe. 

Like the Smithsonian/Universal Film expedition of 1919, this undertaking was organized by a media company in hopes of capturing a film of something incredible. In this case, the organizer was Nippon Television, a Japanese T.V. network, as part of a more significant effort to investigate mysterious and unexplored regions of the world. Lake Tele, located in the heart of the Congo's vast and impenetrable Likouala swamp, had long been rumored to be the home of Mokele-Mbembe. Previous expeditions undertaken from Europe and the U.S. have tried to penetrate the region's thick jungles, but they were often met with logistical challenges, from harsh climates to dangerous wildlife and diseases such as malaria. Despite these dangers, the Japanese team was determined to succeed while others failed.

The crew consisted of scientists, adventurers, and television personnel, all eager to document something extraordinary. They were armed with video equipment, cameras, and scientific tools to record and analyze any findings. They enlisted the help of local guides who had grown up hearing tales of Mokele-Mbembe, believing that the creature was real.

The expedition set out from the town of Impfondo, one of the last vestiges of civilization on the edge of the frontier. The journey to Lake Tele itself was grueling, taking days of trekking through mud-soaked trails, dense forests, and treacherous waters. Along the way, the team was forced to confront the realities of the Congolese jungle—intense heat, venomous snakes, and the constant threat of tropical diseases.

Nevertheless, the Japanese team pressed on. The idea of capturing even a glimpse of Mokele-Mbembe made the hardships worthwhile. As they approached Lake Tele, anticipation grew. Arriving at Lake Tele, locals recounted stories of strange sounds emanating from the lake at night—low rumbles that could be heard from miles away. They also spoke of giant footprints seen along the lake's shore, though these were often difficult to verify due to the swamp's constantly shifting terrain.

Something remarkable happened on one of the team's days at Lake Tele. As they set up equipment and prepared to take footage of the surrounding lake and its wildlife, one of the cameramen noticed something unusual in the water. What appeared to be a large, long-necked creature briefly surfaced on the lake's still waters before disappearing under the surface once again.

The video footage captured by the Japanese expedition shows what appears to be a head and neck protruding from the water, reminiscent of the description of Mokele-Mbembe. Although the footage is grainy and lacks the clarity needed to provide concrete evidence, it’s clear enough to show a creature moves slowly before submerging itself, leaving only ripples in its wake.

The Japanese expedition’s video quickly became a topic of heated debate. Cryptozoologists, who study animals not yet recognized by science, embraced the footage as a significant find. They argued that the vast and largely unexplored swamps of the Congo Basin could easily hide large, unknown species. The dense jungles and remote geography would make it difficult for traditional scientific expeditions to locate and document such creatures.

The brief nature of the encounter left many questions unanswered. Was the creature an undiscovered species or perhaps a known animal behaving in a peculiar way? Skeptics were quick to point out that the video quality made it difficult to draw any firm conclusions, and that the creature could have been something as simple as a giant snake, crocodile, or even a misidentified mammal. However, believers of the Mokele-Mbembe legend hailed the footage as the closest anyone had come to proving the existence of a living dinosaur in modern times.

However, mainstream scientists were far more skeptical. They pointed out that while the Congolese swamps are indeed remote, they are not beyond the reach of modern exploration. Furthermore, the existence of giant, long-necked dinosaurs in modern times would require significant food sources and breeding populations, which had yet to be documented in the region. They also emphasized that the creature in the video could have been a misidentified known species, such as an elephant, a large bird, or even an optical illusion caused by floating vegetation.

Despite the video's controversy, the 1992 Japanese expedition remains a landmark event in cryptozoology. The footage captured by the team continues to fuel debates about the existence of unknown creatures in the world's most remote regions. For many, the mystery of Mokele-Mbembe is a reminder of how little we truly know about the natural world and how much there still is to discover.

Thank you for joining me in this episode of My Dark Path. I’m MF Thomas, creator and host. If you enjoyed what you just watched, please like the video and subscribe. See you next week as we walk the dark paths of the world together. In the meantime, goodnight.