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...

  Guissepe Zitella and his family were on an outing together in Pettorano sul Gizio, Itally. It was June 20 th , 1993. Mr Zitella was there with his wife Concetta, and his brother and his family. Mr Zitella was a retired air force officer. One article says he was a marshal, while another says he was a non-commissioned officer, so who know what his rank actually was. They were sitting at a restaurant patio when the brother’s wife saw something fly by, about 100 meters away, over some short trees. She pointed it out to the rest of the family. To Mr. Zitella, it looked like a balloon, a large one that would usually be won at a carnival. Mr Zitella decided to chase after the balloon and capture it for his nephew. He followed it out towards the edge of town. As he ran he noticed it had two long structures hanging down from the main body. On the edge of town he saw it hovering over a field, just skimming the tops of the wheat. It appeared to be in the middle of the field. Mr Zitella ra...

   The Ziz is a giant bird from Jewish mythology. It also appeared in earlier versions of the bible, but has since been edited out. The Ziz was one of the archetypal animals, like the Leviathan and Behemoth. As Leviathan was the king of the sea creatures and Behemoth the king of the beasts, Ziz was king of the birds. The Ziz was said to look like a gryphon. Its exact appearance beyond that is left vague, other than its great size, which is discussed in two stories. One story said there were some sailors who saw a giant bird standing in the water when they were out at sea. The water was only ankle deep on the bird, and it was so massive its head towered into the heavens. The sailors assumed the water must be shallow there where the bird stood, so they planned on bringing their ship ashore and swim in the water. God called out to the sailors and told them, “Do not stop there. That bird is the mighty Ziz, who towers above all beings. The water there is so deep once a carp...

  The pyraustra, also known as the pyrallis was a fiery dragon like insect from Greek and Roman mythology. It is tiny, somewhere between the size of a gnat and a house fly. It had fiery colours, and a glowing bulb on the end of its tail. It also only had four legs in spite of being insect like, but believing insects had only four legs was a pretty common thing in ancient times. Pyraustras are born directly from fire. They must stay within the heat of the fire or die. Within the fire’s range pyraustraus fly about chaotically, mostly moving upward until they are out of range of the fire and then puff out of existence. The pyraustra were primarily found in the copper smelting furnaces of Cyprus. It’s wildly believed today that the legend of the pyraustra was misinterpretations of sparks or embers flying away from the fire. How dragony the pyraustra was has been called into question, as the only reference to it being dragon like comes from a modern source, Inventorum Naturum ...

 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 gudiao is a monster from China, featured in The Classic Of Mountains And Seas . It resembles a giant eagle or maybe a more gryphon like beast, as it’s sometimes described as having panther qualities too. One thing that is consistent is that the gudiao always has a single horn on its head. Often, its depicted with a bright green head as well. The gudiao was said to live on Mount Luwu, where there is very little plant life, but bountiful amounts of mineral resources, like gold and precious stones. The gudiao would prowl this mountain looking for prey. It would eat almost any animal, but it especially favoured human flesh. It’s call sounds like a baby crying, which it would use to lure people within range. Sources https://cryptidz.fandom.com/wiki/Gudiao https://chinese-mythology.com/en/wiki/gu-diao/ https://mythus.fandom.com/wiki/User_blog:RUBENHC/Creatures_and_Beings_of_China_Folklore_and_Lower_Mythology#List_of_creatures

  The nachtkrapp is a boogeyman that haunts Germany, Austria, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Poland. It’s name in German means night raven. The exact details of the legend vary quite a bit regionally. Sometimes it appears as a raven, or as a more human like undead being, or as a shadowy, shape shifting ghost. It also varies in size from huge, to human sized, to the size of an ordinary raven. The nachtkrapp is used as a cautionary tale to scare children into behaving. It’s said the nachtkrapp only comes out at night. If the nachtkrapp sees a child out at night it will carry the child off to its nest, rip the child apart limb from limb and eat its heart. Some tamer versions of the legend only have the Nachtkrapp putting children in a large bag it carries over its back and doesn’t say what’s done with them after that. The nachtkrapp has hollow skeletal eye sockets. If anyone looks into its empty eye holes they die instantly. Depending on the region the nachtkrapp is said to ha...

  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...

 While dragons vary greatly around the world they can generally be placed into to broad categories, the eastern and western dragons. You would expect that if dragons are being seen in modern times that each type of dragon would be witnessed in their respective regions, eastern dragons being seen in Asia and western dragons being seen in Europe and North America. So far this has held true with the cases I’ve showcased in this blog, with western style dragons and wyverns appearing in America. However I’ve found two incidents that go against this trend, where each kind of dragon is found far outside their respective lands. In 2001 cryptozoologist Karl Shuker received a report from a group of scientists from the British Naturalists Association. They were adamant about keeping their anonymity, as any admission of a paranormal event happening to them would be career ending. In March of that year this group of scientists had been out at a quarry in Powys, Wales. There they saw a cre...

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...

  Tianlu Pixiu The pixiu is a mythical beast from China. It first appeared in the Han dynasty (206 BC to 220 AD) and are still popular today, although both their appearance and role have changed greatly over the centuries. Today the pixiu are bringers of wealth and associated with the practice of feng shui. Bixie Pixiu There are two types of pixiu. The bixie, or female pixiu, has two horns or antlers. It was responsible for guarding its masters and protecting them from harm. The tianlu was the male and only had one horn or antler. The male was responsible for guarding and attracting wealth. Today the bixie pixiu has largely been forgotten about and pixius are almost always depicted with one horn. Likewise the pixiu has become more associated with wealth than protection. The pixiu comes in several colors. It is often gold, to represent its association with wealth. It can also be black to represent its protective aspects. The pixiu is often depicted as white or red as well. O...

  The Salt Lake Fire Drake is a flying cryptid seen near the Great Salt Lake in Utah. It was seen once in 1903, and again just under a hundred years later, in 2001. This cryptid is often touted as a living pterosaur, however in my research I found this cryptid to be something far stranger. On September 3rd, 1903, a flying creature was seen by multiple witnesses on Stansbury Island, in the south end of the Great Salt Lake. Two hunters, John Barry and Martin Gilbert, gave the most detailed report of the creature. They described it as equal mixes of bat, fish and alligator, having the head of an alligator, the wings of a bat and the tail of a fish. In addition the creature was covered in either thick, rough scales, or salt accretions from the lake. The creature got its name from the fiery rainbow iridescence of its wings, shining with reflected sunlight. The two men described the monster as being prehistoric in nature, although they didn’t specifically say it was a pterosaur. Othniel ...

  The Alber is a demon or dragon from the legends of the Ziller Valley in Tyrol. It’s said to live on Teufelseck mountain, the mountain’s name meaning ‘devil’s corner’. At times the Alber would descend from the mountain, towards Ziller Valley as a giant fiery dragon, flying through a hole in the cliffs called the Bleiarzkar and down to the valley, spreading plagues, war and famine. It was thought the Alber was the devil himself in dragon form. Legend tells of two men from the village of Meran who witnessed the flight of the Alber and were lucky enough to survive such sights. One was the tailor Hanser, who was a wicked and dishonest man. He partook in every sort of sinful activity, lying, scamming, idleness and debauchery. The other was Loaserer Sepps, a good and honest villager. One night Hanser made a bet with his equally loathsome friends to steal cherries from the cherry tree in the yard of the Mission Cross of Algund. But Hanser was a coward and wouldn’t travel out there at nig...