Rare Monsters

 Wisconsin is known for many cryptid sightings. Most famously the beast of Bray Road, one of the most famous dogman sightings. Although Wisconsin is also home to bigfoot, lake monsters, and even dragons, the latter I have covered in this blog before. Two other monsters which are occasionally sighted in Wisconsin are lizard men, which are far more famous from the Scape Ore swamp of South Carolina, and giant bat human hybrids, the most famous being Batsquatch of Washington state. While these cryptids may be more commonly associated to other places, Wisconsin still has their share of them. And unique to Wisconsin is what appears to be a hybrid of the two, a winged lizard man.  Medford Flying Lizard Man  In 1997, sometime at night, a warden for the DNR was driving along highway 13, south of Medford. There he saw a reptilian humanoid standing right in the middle of the road. The creature was as tall as an above average human, had no clothing, scaly skin and slitted reptilian e...

  The Mississippi monster is one of those old time cryptid stories that appeared in 19 th century news papers. And like many of these stories it pushes the limits of what can be believed. Although I find this monster in particular pushes those limits more than most. Stories like the Swan Valley monster had a bizarre creature that defies biology, but only a small number of witnesses and ultimately the creature didn’t do very much. The Ape Canyon attack has lots of action and damage, which should leave a paper trail of police reports and insurance claims that can be verified if someone where to look deep enough, but involves big foot, one of the more reasonable cryptids to exist. The Mississippi monster involves both a confounding monster that is like nothing else alive, and over the top damage, which should be able to be verified by its own paper trail. However the story takes place long enough ago that such things like insurance claims and repair reports of company owned ships wo...

   The slide rock bolter is a fearsome critter from Colorado. It’s whale like in shape and size, in spite of being an entirely land based creature. On the ends of its tail fins are hooks that allow it to grab onto mountain ridges. It has tiny eyes and a large gaping mouth, much like a sculpin. The bolter also constantly drools out an oily slippery saliva that surrounds it. The slide rock bolter lives only on the steepest cliff sides, ones that are over 45 degrees. There it remains in wait, hanging high up on the cliff side watchful for its prey. The slide rock bolter’s primary prey is tourists, although it will eat practically any creature it catches unaware. When it spots prey in the valley bellow it lets go of the cliff with its tail hooks and slides down the side of the mountain like an avalanche, flattening anything in its way and leave and trail of destruction. Helping the slide rock bolter slide down the hillside is the ample drool it left behind before, as this a...

 The Alzada anomalies are one of the most bizarre and over the top cases of high strangeness. It happened during the month of July, 1974, in the unincorporated community of Alzada, Montana. A man and a woman, their relation not specified, were hunting for some caved used by ancient Native Americans. They were search for artifacts, although their intent for the artifacts and the legality of their hunt was never specified. The report was originally submitted to MUFON, but languished in obscurity. Alzada itself could barely be considered a community. In modern times it’s home to less than 30 people, with only slight more in the seventies when this took place. The landscape itself is semiarid ranch land and bad lands, filled with rough terrain and canyons. The two of them were staying in a rented cabin while they were on their search in Alzada. The strangeness started as they returned to the cabin after a fruitful days search around the caves. The first signs of something wron...

 The dingbat was a fearsome critter from the local folklore of the western Great Lakes region. It’s origin was a taxidermied mash up of different animals that was displayed in the Friendly Buck-horn Tavern in Rice Lake, Wisconsin. The dingbat had the head of some small predatory mammal, often some sort of mustelid, the body of a bird of prey, and the antlers of a young buck. The legend of the dingbat states that it revelled in making the life of hunters difficult. The dingbat would whinny like a horse just as a hunter was about to take a shot at a buck, breaking his concentration and making him miss. If that didn’t work, the dingbat was capable of flying at incredible speeds and capturing the bullet mid air. The dingbat fed on bullets and gasoline, which it would drink from the hunter’s truck, leaving him stranded. The dingbat was a humorous way for hunters to explain why they had bad luck on a hunt or came back empty handed. The Friendly Buck-horn Tavern had several taxi...

  The sheepsquatch is a cryptid from various wilderness locations around West Virginia, mostly in Boone county, but also the famed TNT area, and even in neighbouring states. It’s rather poorly named, as it has little to do with sheep and nothing to do with sasquatch. What sheepsquatch is not, is a ram horned, humanoid, goatman. Although there’s plenty of confusion on this subject, resulting in sheepsquatching being depicted as such in media. The sheepsquatch is a white hairy beast of some variety. Because of this, sheepsquatch has often been categorized with other white, hairy cryptids of the Appalachians, such as the white things, devil dogs, and even the white bigfoots of southern Pennsylvania, which is likely how sheepsquatch ended up with squatch in its name. Adding to the confusion, goatmen have also been seen in similar parts of West Virginia, although they’re usually brown or black in colour. Likely the source of the misconception about sheepsquatch’s appearance, aside...

  The hellidid is one of the fearsome critters of American folklore. Unlike most other fearsome critters, it’s found in the deserts of the south west. It is a chimeric monster with the head of an ant eater, the body of a zebra and four ostrich like legs, and a fluffy tail. The hellidid primarily ate fibrous plants, such as yuccas. It would use its long, serrated tongue to lick at the plants, scraping off the soft bits and leaving the fibre within the leaves behind. The hellidid was also extremely shy and would run off, allowing only quick glimpses of the creature. However, at night it would approach travellers sleeping out in the open and use its rough tongue to lick all the hair off their heads, leaving them shaved in the morning. Obviously the legend of the hellidid was part of a prank cowboys would play on greenhorns and people who overslept, shaving their heads, and blaming it on the hellidid. Sources https://www.deviantart.com/monstrumamericanum/art/Hellidi...

  What follows is the least modern of the modern dragon sightings I’ve researched, although it’s far from the medieval era where dragons belong. On October 5 th of 1877 a farm boy named Johnny Smith witnessed an epic battle between one of his bulls, and reportedly, a real dragon. All of this happened outside Saint Louis, about seven miles away from the ruins of the ancient city of Cahokia. In the farming community surrounding Saint Louis the Smith family was well known for being honest. Lead by their father Jabez, he was a pillar of truthfulness and practicality, never giving into any form of exaggeration or flights of fancy, to the point where he was known as truthful Jabez. Under his strict discipline his sons followed suit. So when his son Johnny reported seeing a monster fight their bull, and came home with a badly injured bull, people believed him, no matter how fanciful the events sounded. Around 4pm that day Johnny Smith had been sent out to collect one of t...

Even in comparison to the states I’ve covered so far, New Jersey has a lot of dragon sightings. Unfortunately they’re not as widely published as the other states, with so far only Lon Strickler compiling them. Another thing to consider is New Jersey has a lot of other flying cryptids which dragons could be mistaken for, or those cryptids mistaken for dragons, beings like the Jersey devil, thunderbirds and pterosaurs. Still, some of the dragon sightings are compelling, and I’ve recounted some of the best one bellow.  In this first story, the year was not given, but Lon Strickler said it was recent. A couple was driving home in the early morning after visiting a friend’s house. It was around 1:30 to 2:00 am and took place in Saleme County NJ. The witness was the wife of the duo, and she was driving home because her husband had a few drinks that evening. She was driving along back country roads while passing through a wooded area. It was then a huge creature flew over the vehicle,...

  Yet another unlikely place dragons have shown up in the modern world is the eastern side of Iowa. Just like the River Dinos, this is another one of those frustrating cryptids that have multiple sightings, but there’s very little information in each account. The description of these dragons varies with each encounter, but generally they’re winged snakes, with shiny scales and horned heads. No legs are ever reported. Sometimes their heads are more sea horse like or crocodile like. All the dragons are reported to be larger than any native bird, with wingspans up to 15 feet. They also flying by slithering or twisting through the air, so we have another cryptid who doesn’t flap its wings. The earliest sighting was written about in the Burlington Times on August 11, 1887. A farmer named Lee Quarter saw a giant serpent flying over his corn fields. He said it had a forked tongue, serpent like body and scales that glistened in the sun. It flew with a writhing and twisting motio...

  On October 7 th 2007 there was an astonishing sighting of a mythical dragon straight out of a fantasy story in Oconto Falls, Wisconsin. Not only this but it was seen by multiple witnesses, who corroborated each other’s stories. All the names in this retelling are pseudonyms. Jim was the primary witness, who saw the dragon the most times. He, his friend Kay, and six other friends were leaving an arcade, after hanging out there for the evening. In the parking lot one of the friends said he saw something large in the sky, although he didn’t know what it was. The group of them laid down in the grass at the edge of the lot and watched for it to return. After a few minutes they saw a white and tan colored dragon. They described it as a classic European dragon, with four legs and additional wings, a long neck, reptilian head and a long tail. Jim noted that it had smooth, shiny scales that reflected the street lights. They waited a few minutes longer and it returned again, this ti...

  This was a little known monster that appeared in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania during the summer of 1973, where it terrorized the Amish community. The creature has no official name, but has been referred to as the Amish Country Goat Man, The Mystery Beast and humorously The Goose Grabber. This monster defies categorization and has been lumped in with bit foot, dog man, goat man and the Sheepsquatch, yet it doesn’t neatly fit with any of them. It is a unique being. One thing is for sure, the Amish don’t give up their paranormal stories to outsiders easily. So the fact that they contacted outsiders over these events showed how frightened they were. The first encounter happened to two brothers in the evening, as they were bringing in the hay at the end of the day. While they were working their horses started to startle like a predator was near by. The two brothers went looking for the cause, suspecting a coyote or bear was near. Instead they saw a grey, indistinct bipedal fig...

  Butler county Gargoyle was a winged cryptid seen by several witnesses in Butler County, Pennsylvania during 2011. First witness was a businessman known only as RK. He saw the monster several different occasions. Rk described the monster has being overall humanoid in shape. It had brown or tan leathery skin. The face was small and punched in, with almond shaped eyes that were pointed at the ends. The head was swept back and came to a point at the back, similar to a performance bicycle helmet. The creature also had ears that were long and swept back to points which pointed to the back of the head. The body was very muscular. The arms were longer than a human’s and ended in hands with four fingers and sharp claws. It had very muscular legs, with knees that pointed back in the opposite direction from normal. Most notably were a set of large wings on the creature’s back. These were bat like, with their ends pointing back towards the creature’s head. The first known report of the...