Rare Monsters

  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 the glistened in the sun. It flew with a writhing and twisting motion...

  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...

This entry is going to indulge in some original research. Something I’ve noticed among dogman encounters is the occasional mention of horned dogmen. The cryptid community is usually pretty thorough in classifying subtypes of cryptids. For instance there’s standard, hyena and rottweiler types of dogmen, based on their head and muzzle shape. Yet I haven’t seen anyone else in the cryptid community discuss horned dogmen as a category, just scattered unrelated stories. It’s possible that’s because these creatures aren’t always considered dogmen, but demons, or goatment who happen to have a canine head, although I would think that quality is important enough to change what sort of cryptid they’re classified as. So I’ve gathered here all the horned dogmen stories I could find.  Caldwell’s beasts This first encounter happened to Roger Caldwell in October of 2005. He was on a hiking trip along the Appalachian Trail through North Carolina at the time. Mr Caldwell was an experienced hiker who...

  The Grand Lake hoedag is a fearsome critter from St Mary’s Ohio, not to be confused with the more famous Wisconsin hodag. It was said to be a lake monster, albeit one that was completely different from the typical plesiosaur / Nessie type. The hoedag was said to be a one of a kind, female creature, not a species. It appeared in news articles from 1912 to the 1960’s, and was never meant to be taken seriously. The hoedag was the size and shape of a giraffe. She had fur on her body and a combination of feathers and porcupine quills on her neck. Her body was covered in a cow spot pattern and had a camel like hump on her back. Her front legs were long like a chicken’s and her back legs were short like a pigs. Both sets of legs ended in plate shaped feet, which were capable of moving over mud and water plants without sinking in. On her head she had a singular green eye, partly covered by cow licked bangs. Her tail stuck up in the air like a flagpole and at the end of it was a red eye. ...

  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 ...