Snallygaster

 

The Snallygaster is a monster that sits somewhere between lumberjack folklore and actual cryptid. In spite of it's ridiculous appearance, rivalry with another monster, and humorous stories, people have reported seeing it in earnest, some sightings being as late as the 1930's.

The Snallygaster originates near the South Mountain in Maryland, but sightings and legends of it range as far away as West Virginia and Ohio. The Snallygaster looks like a cross between a bird and a dragon. It has large horns on its head. The Snallygaster's strangest and most notable features are having octopus like tentacles and a single glaring eye. Other than this short description the Snallygaster's appearance can varying greatly. Sometimes it has a set of front legs, other times it only has back legs like a wyvern. The Snallygaster's body can be long and twisting like a serpent, or short and squat, with its length being made mostly of its neck and tail. Even the location of its tentacles varies. Most of the time they're placed within the Snallygaster's beak, like many long tongues, although they can also surround the beak as seen in squids. Other times the tentacles are placed on the rear end of the Snallygaster, giving it multiple tails, or just scattered randomly around the body.

The Snallygaster was extremely aggressive and carnivorous. It was believe to prey on both people and livestock, capturing them in its bird like talons and carrying them off into the sky. In some versions of the legend the Snallygaster would also suck blood like an animalistic vampire.

The legend of the Snallygaster started in the 1730s among German immigrants. They called it the Schneller Geist, which means quick spirit. In this early time the Snallygaster hadn't yet developed it's distinctive appearance, instead these people knew it as s of mix of bird and demon, similar to a hideous harpy. This version of the Snallygaster had none of the humour or comedic stories associated with it. The Maryland Germans honestly believed in and greatly feared the Schneller Geist. Seven pointed stars could ward off the beast, and were painted on barns. The practice continues even today, long after honest believe in the Schneller Geist is gone.

Over time the legend of the Schneller Geist reached the English population, who mispronounced its name as Snallygaster. Now the Snallygaster gained its more draconic appearance. It also gained a rival in the Dwayyo, a werewolf or dogman like monster that also inhabited Maryland. Reportedly the Snallygaster and Dwayyo could be heard battling in Middletown Valley. Over time the Snallygaster became more humorous (while still remaining frightening) and gained its tentacles and single eye.

It was in 1909 when the Snallygaster legend truly erupted, with numerous people claiming to see the monster for real. Sightings were all over Maryland and ranged as far as West Virginia and Ohio. It's of note that only a few years later was the peak of Jersey Devil sightings in near by New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Something truly was terrifying people in the night skies at this time, although we may never know what.

One February sighting in 1909 was from a man who claimed to have been grasped in the Snallygaster's talons and carried off. That it tried to suck his blood from the claw wounds and he only narrowly escaped with his life. A man in Casstown Ohio also claimed to see the Snallygaster, saying is soared over him on enormous wings and screamed like a train whistle. Back in Maryland the Snallygaster was awakened from rest from the fumes of a brick burning kiln stoked by a man in Cumberland County. And in Frederick County three men fought the beast at a train station and chased it into the woods.

So many sightings of the monster occurred that even the Smithsonian Institute offered a reward for anyone who handed over the body. Even president Roosevelt visited Maryland with the intent of hunting the Snallygaster.

Alongside terrifying encounters, there were more humorous sightings of the Snallygaster as well. In Scrabble, West Virginia the beast was found nesting in a barn and had laid a giant egg, which was subsequently eaten as a giant omelette in a cookout by the locals.

The Snallygaster was said to meet its end when it flew over a moonshine still in Washington County. The fumes from the still incapacitated the beast, where it fell into a large vat of moonshine and drowned.

This was thought to be the end of the Snallygaster, however it appeared again 20 years later in the 1930's, when it was spotted flying near South Mountain again. Newspapers took a more skeptical view of the Snallygaster's existence this time, yet it didn't stop sightings from being reported.

After this short rush of sightings in the 30's, there have been no more recent sightings of the Snallygaster. Possibly the creature is dead and gone for real, or its sightings are now reported as thunderbirds and cryptid pterosaurs. The idea of a one eyed, betentacled dragon being too outlandish for the modern cryptid hunter. A shame really.