The ‘Yucca Man’ is a beast that stalks Marines at 29 Palms

There are many versions of the age-old story. A Marine is assigned to a remote area of Twentynine Palms when he suddenly finds himself alone, in the dark, and being circled by a wild, growling beast. He pulls up his weapon and flashlight to see an eight-foot-tall hairy creature on two legs with glowing red eyes. The Marine then is either knocked cold or passes out from fear, awaking to find his weapon bent or broken in half.

Another Marine survives his encounter with the "Yucca Man," a Bigfoot-like beast of military legend – and the story is given new life.

He goes by a number of names, including the Mojave Bigfoot, the Sierra Highway Devil, and even the slightly endearing nickname "Marvin of the Mojave." His appearance isn't limited to the relatively recent arrival of the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center. The local native tribes have been telling stories of "hairy devils" who have lived in the deserts among the Joshua Trees for as long as native tribes have been around.

As the area around the San Bernardino mountains began to develop in the middle of the 20th century, it seems the wild man, the Yucca Man, were pushed out of their native habitat and headfirst into developing civilization. Strange reports of large, bipedal beasts were reported as far west as Palmdale and Edwards Air Force Base.

It was at Edwards AFB, with its numerous security cameras, that reports of the Yucca Man were said to be captured on video. More strange than that, the wild men were said to have actually been caught on camera, moving through the guarded, secure underground tunnels that hide the U.S. military's most advanced top secret technology. In the 1960s and 1970s, U.S. Air Force air police units would be sent on wild goose chases in the catacombs of Edwards tunnels after the men, who would suddenly disappear.

On Edwards AFB, however, the beast had blue eyes, not red. The blue eyes, according to one air policeman who was caught alone with the beast, were said to be four inches apart – the eyes of a predator – and rise seven feet off the ground. They glowed blue to the man who was sitting in his police truck. Suddenly, the eyes darted closer and covered half the distance between the animal and the truck in the blink of an eye. As an overwhelming stench filled the air, the airman took a disturbance call and drove off.

The airmen called it "Blue Eyes" for the rest of their time in the desert – and still talk about him to this day.