Cryptid US

by Tyler Houck

  Katie’s two male friends had brought BB guns with them, and they went off to do some practice shooting in a field while the girls stayed behind. The two girls noticed a large paw print with claws in the mud by the road when they got back there, and it was only the first sign of what was to come.

  Soon after the boys left, they came running back, screaming at the girls to get back in the car. Then Katie saw what they were running from; a giant, wolf-like creature running after them on its hind legs. “It was six or seven feet tall and was covered in fur,” She said. “Its gait was kind of wobbly.” The four humans jumped into the car, and the Dogman ran off into the woods.

  The teens decided to still go look for the haunted bridge after that chase. They got to the bridge, and , figuring that the beast was gone, got out and looked down at the creek. To their amazement (or perhaps horror) they saw three of the creatures kneeling by the creek. They were drinking from their “hands” like a human, not lapping water like a dog. When the creatures saw the teens, they waded into the creek and started coming towards them. The four jumped back in the car and left.

  Katie did not talk about her story for many years, but later took a polygraph test (aka a lie detector test) and passed on an episode of MonsterQuest. The conclusion of the test showed no indication of deception, and Katie has stuck to her story to this day.

  Another sighting of multiple Dogmen occurred in October of 1984, when Rick Renzulli saw two of the creatures cross County Highway ML at 5 a.m.. As Renzulli stopped at an intersection, one of the creatures dashed in front of him. It was on all fours and its back was as high as the hood of his truck. He estimated the length of the creature at 7 to 9 feet. He said it was three or four times the size of a St. Bernard he used to own. He said its eyes reflected in his headlights and it looked angry. “I thought of evil.” He said.

  Another, smaller creature then ran across the road after the first one. Renzulli said that both of the creatures had bristles on their back and had long legs.

  There have been many sightings of the Dogman in Wisconsin, but the first may have occurred in 1936, when a guard at the St. Coletta School for Exceptional Children saw a strange creature. The guard, Mark Schackelman, saw what he thought was a large animal digging on a mound. The creature was as big as a man, had dark fur, and was kneeling in a way that a four-legged (quadrupedal) animal could not. It fled on two legs when it saw Schakelman.

  The next day, Schakelman found big claw marks where the creature had been digging. That night, he armed himself with a flashlight and saw the creature digging at the mound again, near midnight. The creature did not run away again, however. It turned and face Schakelman, who said it was six feet tall and smelled like rotten meat.

  Schakelman shined his light at the creature and could see powerful arms that ended in hands with thumbs and fingers. It was very muscular and had a canine head. The creature made a growling sound (Schakelman later described it as a “neo-human voice”) that sounded like it was saying “ga-dar-rah.”Schakelman became terrified at this point, and felt that he needed to pray. As he prayed, the creature walked off into the night. He worked at St. Coletta for many more years but never saw the creature again.

  In one last report from Wisconsin, the werewolf seen apparently had a friend, and that friend was a vampire, no less. In April of 1981, a police officer from Mineral Point, Jon Pepper, saw a tall, thin, pale colored man wearing a trenchcoat near Graceland Cemetery. Pepper tried to question the man, but was unable to catch up to him because of his ability to jump high fences. No one really believed Pepper, though, because he was known for his practical jokes. He had once walked around Mineral Point in a gorilla suit.

  Six years after Pepper’s “vampire” encounter, 15 to 20 people in Mineral Point saw your normal Hollywood style werewolf in broad daylight. According to one witness, it transformed as it ran. It could not have been Pepper playing a prank, however, because he had moved away, but there was a rumor saying he had left his gorilla suit with a friend.

  OKLAHOMA ODDBALLS It was a nice autumn night in 1981. Two men were traveling along Highway 3 from Atoka to Antlers, Oklahoma. As they were nearing the Muddy Boggy Bridge, which is over the Muddy Boggy River, they saw a strange creature on the right side of the road. They said it was just standing there, not moving, and it was on two legs. They said it was 7 feet tall and looked like an Olympic athlete and was covered in short, black fur. They compared it to Anubis, the Egyptian Jackal-Headed god of the dead.

  That is only one of the many Dogman sightings from Oklahoma. Another sighting occurred in 1993, when a man named Brandon and his friend were driving in a Toyota on a secluded dirt road. They stopped to complain about life, as all people do, when they heard a strange noise. The creature had red eyes, and the man said he felt like it looked through him.

  He said it was 7 feet tall and had to bend over to look in the window. “It was black and had a furry head and pointy, erect ears.” Brandon said. “It was strong enough to shake the car. I expected him to bite me and have his mouth cover my shoulder, I mean entire shoulder blade to mid-chest, that’s how big its mouth was.” He tried to get into the passenger seat, but couldn’t because he had his seatbelt on. When he looked back over, the creature was gone. His friend did not see the creature, but had felt the truck rock.

  The last Oklahoma sighting I will mention (there are still many others, however) occurred one summer evening in 1998. It was about 11 p.m. when the two witnesses saw the creature when they were driving home. The driver swerved and barely avoided hitting a large creature holding onto a tree and leaning forward, like it was going to jump on the car. They were certain it was not a bear.

  A DOGMAN IN NORTH DAKOTA In 1997, an 11 year old girl playing a hide and seek game with her friends that they called “Ghost in the Graveyard.” She was hiding in a ditch with a friend to avoid being found by who was playing the ghost. Her other friends got up to run to the base, and she did as well, until she heard a strange sound.

  The sound was coming from the out of bounds area, and she wondered if one of her friends had gone that way. When she turned to look in that direction, she heard a growl. The creature then stood up. The witness said it was much taller than she was, had a face like a husky, and was dark-colored. She said it moved its head from side to side as it looked at her and had almond shaped eyes.

  The two stared at each other for about 45 seconds before the creature reached a hand toward her that “looked like a deformed wolf paw.” The “hand” had very long claws on its “fingers.” She jumped out of the ditch and ran to where her friends were, and lied to them when she told them what it was, saying that it was a crazy person who lived down the street.

  She tried to convince herself that it was a bear or a human, but couldn’t. She said it did not look like a bear and had dog legs, which humans do not have.

  WERECAT-DOGS IN CALIFORNIA Lee Ehrlich, a paranormal investigator, first saw a Dogman in 1988 on Mount Wilson Toll Road in California. While he was riding his mountain bike, he said he almost ran into an upright creature that reminded him of a satyr or devil. He said:

  “It was standing there, upright. It had pointy ears, a wolflike snout, and hinged legs. It looked like a lynx but was the size of a doberman. It held its front legs like a Tyrannosaurus Rex, had hair like a hyena, and was grayish brown. It had a black frill running down its back from its head to its tail. It went down on all fours, took a bounding leap, and then disappeared.” Ehrlich saw a second creature that same year in Malibu Creek State Park. It was standing with its front paws hooked over the top of a dumpster. He said it looked exactly like the first one, but its color was different. He told park rangers about it, and they said others had seen the same animal and that it was some type of lynx.

  His final encounter occurred in Rustic Canyon Park when he was exploring an abandoned building. He began to hear footsteps and thought it was another human following him. Every time he stopped, the footsteps stopped. When he started to move, it started to move
. Finally, he used a fake step maneuver and tricked the thing into revealing its position.

  “It was gigantic, bipedal, werewolf sized.” He said. “It was reddish in color, and very intelligent. These things are cats.”

  Are the creatures Lee Ehrlich saw just lynxes? Are they giant, bipedal cats that happen to look similar to a Dogman, or are they real werewolves? We may never know the answer.

  Drawing of the creature Lee Ehrlich saw, dubbed a “Doberman

  Lynx”by author Linda Godfrey. Drawing by Linda S. Godfrey “Werewolves” are seen in many other states not mentioned yet in this book. Those states include Texas, Kansas, New York, Maine, Minnesota, Maryland, Virginia, and others. Is it possible that there is a population of giant, bipedal canines in the United States? Are all the reports hoaxes, pranks, or misinterpretations? I don’t think so. Werewolves seem to be just another type of Cryptid creature living in the United States.

  5 Strange Beasts Galore: The Dover Demon and More

  There are some monsters seen in the U.S.A. that can’t be put in any category. Some of these creatures are described as frog-men, others are giants, too big to be a Bigfoot, and still another is described as a creature with wings, hooves, a serpent tail, and a horse head!

  These creatures are seen in every corner of the US, and come in many shapes and sizes. Some have horns, some can swim, some can climb walls just by sticking to them, and others suck all the blood out of farm animals, and leave the rest of the body unharmed. This chapter is about these creatures, ranging from Chupacabras, to Lizard Men, Frog Men, and mutant monsters.

  Dover Demon The Dover Demon is perhaps one of the strangest creatures in Cryptozoology. For two nights in 1977, the strange entity was seen around the town of Dover, Massachusetts.

  The first sighting occurred on April 21, 1977, at 10:30 p.m. Bill Bartlett, Mike Mazzocca, and Andy Brodie were driving on Farm Street in Dover. As the teens drove past a structure called the Farm Street Wall, Bill Bartlett noticed something moving out of the corner of his eye. He thought it was just a dog or cat; until his headlights hit it, that is. He quickly realized that the creature he was seeing was no household pet. As he approached it, it turned its large, watermelon shaped head and looked towards him with two large, glassy eyes. The eyes had no eyelids and Bartlett described them “like two orange marbles.” He also said the creature had no tail, its head was about the size of its body, it had long, spindly arms, legs, hands and feet, and had hairless, peach colored skin. The skin looked like it had a rough texture.

  Bartlett said the creature stood about three to four feet tall and “was shaped like a baby’s body with long arms and legs.” The being had been walking along the rock wall when the car lights hit it, and its long fingers curled around the rocks. The sighting only lasted a few seconds, and neither of Bill’s friends saw the creature. Mike and Andy both said Bill was “pretty scared.”

  They drove on for a few more miles, but eventually Bill’s friends convinced him to go back. They returned to the spot, but did not see the creature again.

  When Bill got home, he drew a picture of what he had seen to show his friends. “I draw a lot.” He said. “I train myself to remember what I see as soon as I see it.”

  Bill Bartlett’s drawing of the Dover Demon. The writing on the right says: “I, Bill Bartlett, swear on a stack of Bibles that I saw this creature”

  Just two hours later, another teenager, John Baxter, left his girlfriend’s house and began walking home. It was now after midnight, on April 22, 1977. As Baxter was walking up Millers High Road, he saw someone

  approaching him. The thing approaching him was short, so he assumed it was someone he knew, M. G. Bouchard. He yelled “M. G., is that you?” No response. He continued walking towards the figure until it stopped. At this point, Baxter was only about 25 feet away from the creature. He also stopped and called out “Who is that?”

  He couldn’t get a good view of the creature, so he took a step forward. The being then ran into a gully by the road. John could hear it running and followed it. He saw it standing on the other side of the gully, and its feet were “molded” onto a rock it was standing on. The creature was also leaning on a tree a few feet away, and its fingers wrapped around the trunk.

  Baxter said the body reminded him of a monkey, and the head looked “like a figure 8.” Its eyes looked directly at him, and after a minute he began to feel uneasy and left, fearing that the creature might attack. He ran back up to the road where a couple picked him up and drove him home.

  Baxter drew a sketch of the creature when he got home (like Bill Bartlett had done) before he knew of the other encounter. Baxter said that he was unaware that Bartlett had seen the creature until five days later, and the same creature is pictured in both drawings. When he heard about Bill’s sighting, Baxter showed him his drawing. Bill was amazed because it was the same creature he had seen.

  RIGHT: John Baxter’s drawing of the Dover Demon

  The next night, Will Taintor and Abby Brabham were driving down Springdale Avenue. They were 2.4 miles away from where Bill Bartlett had his sighting. Abby saw a strange creature crouched on all fours by the side of the road. She said the body was thin and monkey-like, and it had a large head with no ears, nose, or mouth. She said the thing was hairless and had tan or beige colored skin. The area around the creature’s eyes was a lighter shade than the rest of the body, and its eyes glowed green. The other witnesses described orange eyes, but Abby insisted that the eyes of the creature she saw were green.

  Will, who was driving, caught a quick glimpse of the creature before they drove past it. All he could make out was something with a large head and a tan body, and he said it had its arms up in the air.

  Abby became frightened and urged Will to speed up. She later described the creature in more detail for him since he had only gotten a quick glimpse.

  That was the last sighting of the Dover Demon. What did those students see? Theories ranged from an alien, a baby moose, or just a prank. The moose theory was put forward in 1998 by Martin S. Kottmeyer. A baby moose, however, does not look at all like the creature described by the witnesses.

  A baby moose, which does not match the description of the Dover Demon, cannot climb up the sides of walls, and cannot walk on two feet

  The sightings were investigated in 1977 by Cryptozoologist Loren Coleman, author of books such as Mysterious America and Monsters of Massachusetts who lived near Dover at the time. He gave the creature the name “Dover Demon” and it has stuck since. The Dover Demon has now become a very well known Cryptozoological creature.

  The Green-Clawed Beast It was August 21, 1955. Mrs. Darwin Johnson and her friend Mrs. Chris Lamble decided to go for a swim in the Ohio River near Evansville, Indiana. They had only gone about 15 feet in to the river when Mrs. Johnson felt something grab her leg. She said it felt like a hand with “furry”(perhaps she meant scaly) palms. Whatever it was had come up from behind her, grabbed her knee, and pulled her under the water.

  She kicked at whatever it was and got away from it. She barely had time to go to the surface and get a breath before the creature pulled her under again. Both women were now screaming at the creature, which they could not see, and it only left when Mrs. Johnson hit Mrs. Lamble’s inner tube. When the two got back on shore, they saw that Mrs. Johnson had scratches and a green stain on her leg. They could not remove the stain for several days.

  Later, Mrs. Johnson said she was visited at her home by a man who identified himself as an Air Force Colonel. The “colonel” listened to the story and took many notes, and told Mrs. Johnson not to talk about the incident again.

  Strangely, the encounter in the Ohio River sounds like a real life Creature From the Black Lagoon encounter. That movie had come out only one year before the incident in the river. Is it possible that the “Green-Clawed Beast”, as it is called, is a real life “Creature?”

  Bishopville’s Lizard Man

  Another reptile-man began being seen in Scape Ore Swamp,
near Bishopville, South Carolina, in the late 1980s. Now commonly called the Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp, the Bishopville Lizard Man, or simply the Lizard Man, it was described as a tall, green, reptile-like creature. The catch: it walked on two legs and looked like a man!

  In 1986, George Plyler, a resident of Bishopville, was working with three other men to put up a hog pen. As he was working, Plyler felt like something was watching him. He thought it might be a deer, so he turned to look. What he saw was no deer!

  He saw a strange creature “with a face like a human’s, red eyes, and arms that hung down like an ape’s.” The two looked at each other for a few seconds, and then the creature turned and ran off. He was able to see the creature better as it ran off through the brush, and described it in more detail:

  “The features were more like a human than any animal I have ever seen. The arms were a little bit longer than

  human arms, and the legs were long and skinny. Its body was kind of similar to a lizard, except for the head, and it had no tail.”

  A little over a year after Plyler’s sighting, George Holloman spied the strange creature near the Scape Ore Bridge.

  It was early October, and Holloman had decided to ride his bicycle around the back roads of a little town called Browntown. It was quite warm outside that day, and he became thirsty. Holloman stopped by the Scape Ore Bridge to get a drink of fresh water. It was a nice night, and he was in no hurry to do anything, so he also lit a cigarette. As he stood smoking, something across the road caught his eye. He thought it was a dead tree that had been struck by lightning at first, but realized that it was no tree when it stood up, just like a man would.