America's Cryptid Road Trip (Part 1)

Dive into the mysterious world of cryptids in the United States of America! For this edition of the show I'm taking a cross country road trip to unveil the stories and legend of strange creatures said to inhabit each state in the USA. From Bigfoot in the Pacific Northwest to the Jersey Devil in the Pine Barrens, you'll learn about their folklore, sightings, and cultural significance in this 2 part series. Stay tuned for part 2!

Watch this episode over on my YouTube Channel!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Several ecnally nine flying gotor blying dip that are out there.
Extra read Laura, Larry uh, hairy creature with arms and
hang down. Besides it's you know, bore down on the
side cartuny and he said he's called come not an

(00:35):
anything from question. You're listening to the Strangeology Podcast. I'm
your host, Jeff Floren, and this is your place to
explore the weird, strange and unexplained from cryptids and creatures,
the paranormal, aliens in UFOs, forbidden knowledge, ancient mysteries, conspiracies
and more. Hey everyone, and welcome back to the show.

(01:21):
Thank you so much for hanging out with me today.
I want to apologize and thank you for bearing with
me for the extra time that it took to get
this episode out. We're at the end of the summer
beginning in the school year, lots of home projects and
different things going on at home. Took me a long

(01:44):
time to put this together and I'm super excited for
this episode. It's going to be just plain out wild.
We're going to be taking a cryptid road trip across
the United States and talking about each and every state
and the most prominent or maybe even some b list

(02:06):
cryptids that are part of that state's folklore, and this
is going to be the first part in a two
part series. There's a YouTube component to this as well.
I actually did a kind of video podcast version of
this as well, which is what the audio is going
to be for the episode today, and it took a

(02:28):
very long time to edit, So again, thank you for
bearing with me as that took quite a while to do.
But I'm definitely stoked on it and it's going to
be a good one and I think you'll really enjoy it.
But just to throw out a couple of quick reminders
front of house stuff here before the episode gets started,

(02:49):
don't forget to set your podcast apps to auto download
so you never miss a new episode. And don't forget
to follow Strangeology over on all of my social media accounts.
You can find me on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, etc. For
more content, updates, giveaways, and all that stuff. And also
make sure to check out my website strangeology dot com,

(03:11):
where I have a blog with a bunch of articles,
and you can also sign up to my mailing list
to receive updates and get occasional promo codes to my
Etsy shop if you're ever looking for Strangeology merch and
you want to support the show, And I've also got
a bunch of new designs I'm working on for the
holidays coming up, so definitely stay tuned to that, keep

(03:35):
checking back often. I'll mention it here as well, but
I already have a ton of stuff up there, So
if you like that kind of merch, it helps me
out so much, so definitely check that out. And the
best way to support the show, of course, is to
tell your friends and anyone who loves the strange and unexplained.

(03:55):
And if you want to support the show another way,
you can always do so by signing up to become
a member of my Patreon over at patreon dot com
forward slash Strangeology, and you can join for as little
as one dollar per month. Any support helps out a
ton and helps keep the lights on here at Strangeology HQ.
Higher tiers unlock Moore perks like early Access and add

(04:17):
free episodes, access to the members only episode extensions Strangeology Beyond,
which are sometimes pull out the research topics or extended
guest interviews. There's also a merch discount for my Etsy
shop for members. I also have exclusive merch there's voting
power on topics I cover bonus content and more so,

(04:38):
if you want to join a growing community of like
minded people who are into the strange and unexplained, it's
a great place to be. I appreciate the support so much,
and the more of it I get, the more content
that I can create for everyone out there. And to
those members out there, you know who you are. I
love you. Thank you so much for your continued support.
And just a brief reminder, I have two more events

(05:02):
coming up for the year that I will be vending at.
The next one is going to be the Sasquatch Calling
Festival in Whitehall, New York, on September twenty eighth. It's
an all day event, I believe. It starts at ten
am and goes until six pm. It's in the Skemesboro
Park right along the river. It's gonna be an awesome time.
There's gonna be tons of vendors. I think they have

(05:24):
something like one hundred or more vendors this year. It's
kind of like this big outdoor craft fair type thing,
but it's cryptid themes, so it's super fun. If you're
into this kind of stuff and there's also going to
be speakers, and at the end of the day they
have a Bigfoot Sasquatch calling contest over this little amphitheater
that overlooks the river and people do their best Bigfoot

(05:46):
calls like in Finding Bigfoot? Where Cliff or Bobo are
you making the call? So it's gonna be a great time. Definitely,
if you're in the area, come out of the event
and find my tent and say hi and my My
final event for the year is going to be at
the Do You Believe Too? Convention, which is going to
be happening at the Viaport Aquarium Mall in Rotterdam, New York,

(06:11):
just outside of Schenectady in Albany. That's gonna be October nineteenth,
and there's going to be a ton of vendors and
some speakers as well. I believe Kenny Irish is going
to be speaking, who is a cryptid author also fellow
musician from my hometown, which is pretty interesting, and a
few more that are waiting to be announced. So that's

(06:32):
going to be a fun event and super close for
me since I don't have to drive very far for it.
But definitely check those out if you're in the area.
All right, that is enough of the intro portion of
the show. Let's get into the full episode. And if
you enjoy watching things on YouTube, definitely check that out
over on my channel. You can find it at YouTube

(06:54):
dot com. Forward slash at Strangeology And this is going
to be super fun. I haven't done many research episodes
this season. Schedule just hasn't permitted it. I do have
some other research episodes that I've been working on in
the background that are coming very soon. But this is
going to be pretty epic, So buckle your seat belts.

(07:16):
Let's get into it. From the towering forests of the
Pacific Northwest to the swamps of the Deep South. Did
you know that every state in the USA has its
own mysterious cryptid that haunts local folklore. Today we're going

(07:39):
on a road trip across America, but not the kind
that you'd find on any map. We're diving into the
shadows where legends live in the unexplained rooms free. This
is an exploration into the top cryptids of each state
in the US. Now, I've covered a lot of these
before on my social media feeds, so this is going
to be a kind of compilation of all of it
together into one new epic video with a couple new

(08:02):
ones thrown into the mix, and then we'll circle back
to some of the craziest cryptids at the end. So
make sure to stick around, and before I get started,
make sure to subscribe to my channel like this video
and hit the bell icon below so you never miss
a new video. And with that said, buckle up because
this is going to be a wild and fun ride
through the United States of cryptids. First up is Maine. Now,

(08:33):
Maine has a massive amount of untouched wilderness, thirty three
thousand square miles worth of it, which includes places like
the Acadian National Park or the Debskania Lake's Wilderness Area
where many things could potentially be hide. It's said in
these remote woods there was a creature that was as
elusive as it was enormous, the Specter moose. Now, the

(08:53):
spectr moose is often seen as a harbinger of bad luck,
with those who encounter it often facing miss fortune or injury.
It was first spotted in eighteen ninety one near Lobster
Lake by a hunting guide. It was basically described as
this massive, ghostly white moose. Now moose are already large
but this creature was on a whole other level. It

(09:15):
was otherworldly in size and apparently had the ability to
disappear into thin air. In one sighting, a hunter named
Howard van Ness saw the spectrum moose and fire two
slugs at it, which did nothing. It then charged at Howard,
and as far as we know, Howard must have escaped
because he lived to tell the tale. Since the late
eighteen hundreds, it's been sporadically seen, though at this point

(09:36):
most think that if it was real, it likely died
of old age by this point, but some believe it
could still be lurking out in the most remote regions
of Maine. While some believe that the spectr moose was
just a rare albino moose of the species, others think
that there was something supernatural about it and that it
might still haunt the forest of Maine. And I think

(09:57):
that the spect moose is a reminder that the wilderness
can hold secrets that we may never fully understand. Next
up is New Hampshire in Coast County, the northernmost county
in New Hampshire. Local legend says that there are some
mysterious creatures lurking there and they're known as the wood devils.
These wood devils are described as tall and thin humanoid

(10:18):
creatures which are covered in this grayish hair, and they
stand over seven to nine feet tall. Think of them
like a skinny Bigfoot now. According to the stories, the
wood devils are said to be incredibly fast and also
very much elusive. It's said if you're hiking out in
the woods, many witnesses have described these things peeking out

(10:38):
from behind trees or even standing completely still if they
see you coming. It's kind of a way that they
try to camouflage in with the surroundings, and they appear
treeli like to avoid being detected, and then once they
find an opportunity, they'll vanish from the area with lightning
speed before anyone can even get a good look at them.
The legend of these wood devils dates back to the

(11:00):
early nineteen thirties at the very least, with numerous sightings
reported by hunters and hikers who either caught a quick
glimpse of something watching them from behind a tree or
hearing their screams off in the distance. Now, like I
mentioned previously, some believe that wood devils are basically a
subtype of bigfoot. While others think that there's something far

(11:21):
more mysterious about them, kind of like the hide behind
the legend of the wood Devils is Again, it's a
reminder that even in the most remote tranquil forest settings,
there can be something strange that's lurking just out of sight.
Moving over to Vermont, we've got some pretty creepy creatures
and legends here. One of the most well known comes

(11:42):
from the small town of Northfield, where it's said that
a creature that's as terrifying as it is mysterious resigns.
This is the story of the Northfield pig Man. Now,
the pig Man is described as this large humanoid figure
with the head of a pig the body of a
man that's covered in white fur, and was often seen
lurking in the woods around Moretown Mountain, specifically near Devil's

(12:02):
Washbowl Road, digging into people's trash bins in the middle
of the night, or slaughtering livestock on local farms. So
this story actually dates back to the nineteen fifties, when
a local teenager named Sam Harris went missing on Cabbage Night,
or the day before Halloween. Now, Sam Harris had this
reputation of being cruel to animals, especially pigs, and despite

(12:24):
there being a search effort to locate Sam, he was
reportedly never found. Decades later, in the nineteen seventies, during
a dance at Northfield High School, some students were hiding
out back, drinking and smoking and they suddenly saw this
pig man creature burst out of the woods. Now this
terrified the unsuspecting teens. Of course, they ran back to

(12:46):
the gym to get help and wound up rounding up
this posse of brave youths. But by the time that
they got back outside, the pig Man was long gone.
Now this case continues to be mysterious, and over the
years some have theorized that Sam Harris may have been
the true identity of the pig Man. Perhaps he get
lost in the woods around Mooretown Mountain and became feral,

(13:08):
or there's some that think that he may have made
a deal with the devil which turned him into this
pig man creature. And to this day we still don't
know if it was just an urban legend or if
there was some creature really lurking around Northfield, Vermont. Next
up is Massachusetts. Now between April twenty first and April
twenty second. In nineteen seventy seven, the small town of Dover, Massachusetts,

(13:29):
became the site of one of the most unusual cryptid
settings in history. This is the story of the Dover Demon.
Over the course of these two nights, several teenagers reported
encountering a small humanoid creature that had these large, orange
glowing eyes, pale skin, and long, spindly limbs and fingers.
The first setting happened around ten thirty pm on April

(13:50):
twenty first, when then seventeen year old Bill Bartlett and
his buddies were driving down Farm Street when he saw
this weird creature scaling across an old stone wall on
the side of the road, and as they by, Bill
could see it turning its head to observe them. Later
that night, around midnight, another teenager in town, John Baxter,
was walking home from his girlfriend's house, and as he

(14:10):
strolled down a dark street on the way home, he
could see this small, shadowy figure walking towards him. He
thought it might have been a person or someone he knew,
so he called out to it multiple times and got
no response. Suddenly, the figure dashed down an embankment into
a gully and then into the woods beyond, so John
Baxter decided to run after it, but when he arrived

(14:31):
to the near side of the gully, he could see
that there was this three and a half foot tall
creature that had this big head, with these glowing orange
eyes and pale skin, with these spindly fingers gripping onto
a tree, and in that moment he realized that this
was a bad situation, so he ran back up to
the street, and thankfully there was a car passing by
that wound up pulling over to give him a ride home,

(14:54):
because who knows what that thing would have done now.
The following night, another teenager was driving through Over and
claimed to see a strange creature lurking on the side
of the road, which matched the previous descriptions from the
night before, this three and a half foot tall, big headed,
large eyed creature that just seemed totally alien now. The

(15:15):
sightings caused a media frenzy and the creature was dubbed
the Dover Demon, of course, but after those two nights
it was never seen again. Skeptics who have looked into
this case believe that this was simply just a lost
baby moose, but with three different sightings all describing the
same skinny humanoid creature, as well as the time of

(15:36):
year that this was. There shouldn't have been baby moose
around in April, according to the data that's out there.
I could be wrong, but maybe there was something else
going on back then. Next up is Rhode Island. Now
in the waters off the coast of Rhode Island lies
Block Island, where it's said that an unknown sea creature works,

(15:57):
the Block Nest Monster. Stories about the Block Nest Monster
are interestingly much more recent, historically speaking, than a lot
of the cryptids on this list. It started in nineteen
ninety six when a group of fishermen hauled up this
fourteen foot long carcass of some unknown animal off of
Block Island. Its body was described as having a long,
spear like head, fleshy whiskers, a serpentine body, and it

(16:21):
was covered in thick, leathery skin. Now news of this
mystery creature spread and it was hailed as evidence of
one of the sea monsters of legend. The remains of
this creature were entrusted to a local biologist for study,
but bizarrely, specimen suddenly vanished from the freezer it was
being stored in rumors floated around speculating that a rival

(16:42):
scientist stole them, or even the government was looking to
cover up this discovery for some reason. And the ocean
is massive, with a lot of it still being unexplored
of course and uncharted, So perhaps there are some creatures
down there still waiting to be discovered. Just think of
the giant squid that was largely thought to just be

(17:02):
a legend until the early two thousands when one was
finally documented and filmed. And perhaps this was a known
creature and it just was unidentifiable because it was so decayed.
But from what I understand, no one could really identify
what exactly it was, so this one remains a mystery.
Moving on, we've got the state of Connecticut. Now. The

(17:25):
legend here is a little bit creepy, which is about
the black Dog of Hanging Hills. And I thought about
doing melon heads for this one, but when you look
into the story of melonheads, they're not really cryptids exactly,
and I figured that something like this would be a
little bit more fun. So in south central Connecticut there

(17:45):
are the Hanging Hills, which is a series of volcanic
rock ridges that formed around two hundred million years ago,
so there's a lot of old stuff going on here. Now,
near the town of Meriden, there's this recreational area called
Hubbard Park which contains this fifty one one mile long
nature trail called the Metacomet Trail, and while it's home
to flower gardens and even a lake, is also said

(18:07):
to be haunted by this spectral hound, the black Dog
of Hanging Hills, and stories of this hound date back
to the late eighteen hundreds when this geologist only known
by the initials FS, was doing research in the Hanging
Hills area. One day he was followed by this strange
black dog. Now, the animal never made a sound or

(18:27):
a track in the dirt, and as the sun was
beginning to set, this dog seemed to vanish into thin air.
So what was this thing now? A couple of years
later FS returned with a colleague of his, a man
named Herbert Marshall. Marshall had been out to the Hanging
Hills before and had encountered this hound, so he was
aware of this weird mystery dog, and after spending a

(18:49):
day or two in the Hanging Hills area, they encountered
the dog yet again. Shortly after, while they were up
on this cliff face, Herbert Marshall fell to his death. Now,
fs didn't return to the Hanging Hills for about three
years after that incident, but when he went in one
more time for another round of research, he wasn't heard
from again, that is until his body was found, having

(19:13):
plummeted to his dad from the same exact spot that
Herbert Marshall fell from before. Now some speculate that he
potentially saw the black Dog of Hanging Hills again. So
was this cryptidog a harbinger of doom? Was it a hellhound?
No one knows for sure, but many believe that this
story was maybe a work of fiction. However, every once

(19:35):
in a while, somebody who is out on the trail
occasionally encounters this mystery black dog. So maybe there is
something going on with this story, all right. Next up
is the state of New York. So back in the
nineteen sixties, in Chautauqua County, near the small town of Sherman,
there were apparently sightings of these massive creatures that came
to be known as the White Monsters of Sherman. According

(19:57):
to an eyewitness who was a young boy at the
time and his family would be kind of harassed on
their home property by this pair of colossal, white furred creatures.
The boy wrote a letter to the late great author
and high strangeness investigator John Keel all about his sightings
and what he described to Keel was basically a species
of megafauna. These things traveled on all fours, but could

(20:20):
also stand on their hind legs, reaching twelve to eighteen
feet up into the trees when they were trying to
forage for food, and they had these massive sloth like
claws and long thick tails. Occasionally they were seen with
juveniles as well, which suggests that they were potentially a
breeding pair. Now, these descriptions closely resembled that of a
type of species that went extinct a long time ago,

(20:42):
something like Megatherium, the giant ground sloth, or rather Megalonix,
which is North America's version of the giant ground sloth.
So could this species still be surviving today in isolated
pockets in remote wilderness areas. It's pretty interesting to think
about and might even be plausible, But let me know
what you think in the comments. Next up is the

(21:05):
state of New Jersey, and of course we're talking about
the Jersey Devil. This Guy is one of the most
famous cryptids in the US and its legend has haunted
the Pine Bearns and beyond for almost three hundred years,
and you can check out my Deep Dive podcast episode
about the Jersey Devil. But the short of it is this.
In the seventeen thirties, there was this woman known as

(21:26):
Mother Leeds who was pregnant with her thirteenth child and
she cursed it to be the devil. It was a
stormy night when the child was finally born at the
family home in the Pine Barns, and soon after it
transformed into this devilish creature, whipping its tail at everyone
in the room before flying out through the chimney, and
in some versions it says that it actually killed everyone

(21:47):
in the room before flying out of the chimney and
haunting the Pine Bearns and Greater New Jersey ever since now.
The Jersey Devil is said to be a bit of
a chimera, having the body of a kangaroo or a goat,
the head of a horse or goat as well bat
like wings, cloven hoofs, and fork tail, and some even

(22:09):
reported that it could breathe fire. So some speculate that
there could be a dragging component to this thing as well,
and according to the legends, the Jersey Devil has been
blamed for livestock killings, strange tracks, and eerie noises throughout
the Pine Bearings for generations. Now, the largest flap of
sightings occurred in January nineteen oh nine, where several towns

(22:31):
throughout New Jersey, Maryland, even into Pennsylvania, Delaware, upstate New York.
There were all these mass sightings of the Jersey Devil.
And despite numerous sightings and investigations over the years, the
true nature of the Jersey Devil still remains a bit
of a mystery. But there's a lot of really cool
folklore and history to this story. So again, you should

(22:53):
definitely check out my Deep Dive podcast episode if you haven't.
Before moving down to Delaware, we have the story of
a swamp creature that's been said to lurk there for decades,
the Selbyville Swamp Monster. Now, this cryptid first gained notoriety
in the nineteen sixties when motorists would be shocked by
the sight of this hairy humanoid on the side of

(23:14):
the road going through Delaware's Great Cypers Swamp. It was
often described as a bigfoot looking creature, and many people
also reported seeing it holding what looked like a baseball
bat with a nail driven through it, which is really weird.
There was even this photo taken of the alleged creature
that made the front page of the local newspaper on

(23:36):
April twenty third, nineteen sixty four, which prompted a monster
hunt to find this cryptid and of course nobody ever
found it. But as it turns out, the editor of
the Delmarva News, Ralph Grapperhouse, and his friend Fred Stevens,
confessed to dressing up as the monster to scare people
decades after keeping this a secret. I believe it was

(23:58):
in the nineteen eighties that that happened. However, even after
this admission, reports of the Selbyville Swamp monster continued, with
witnesses describing a large, hairy creature with a terrible odor
lurking out there. Some accounts even surfaced from the nineteen
twenties of such encounters with a similar creature decades before
grapper House and Stevens concocted their hoax. But whether it

(24:20):
was a hoax, the misidentified animal, or something more, the
story of the Selbyville swamp monster has definitely cemented its
place in Delaware folklore. Next up is Pennsylvania, where we
get to talk about some fearsome critter folklore. Now, according
to these old lumberjack legends, in the hemlock forests of Pennsylvania,
there's said to be a creature that's as strange as

(24:41):
it is pitiful. This is the story of the squawk Now.
It was first written about in the book Fearsome Critters
of the Lumberwoods by William T. Cox in nineteen ten.
This cryptid is described as a small creature with wrinkled,
ill fitting skin, and it's covered in warts and blemishes.
It's often shown as being of the swine family, basically

(25:01):
a kind of pig like creature, and it has this
perpetually sad expression, and it's known for its habit of
constantly crying because of being self aware of just how
hideous it is. And according to the legend, the squonk
is also so ashamed of its appearance that it'll hide
from anyone being able to see it, even hiding from

(25:22):
itself like. It avoids puddles of water that are clear
enough to produce a reflection, and if it's ever seen
or caught, it's said that it would dissolve into a
puddle of its own tears. Now, the story of the
squank dates back to the nineteen tens, of course, and
has become a beloved part of Pennsylvania folklore. So this

(25:45):
is just a really silly kind of story, and some
people believe that it's just a figment of the imagination,
and others think that there might truly be something strange
and pitiful working in the forest of Pennsylvania, but likely
it's just a lumberjacks tall tail. Next up is the
state of Maryland, which is said to be home of

(26:06):
a very wild flying cryptid called the snaally Gaster. According
to the legend, this is a kind of dragon like chimera,
just a basic menace that can be found in the
mountains in and around Frederick County. The snelly Gaster is
described as this large winged creature with sharp talons a
singular eye on its forehead. Some reports say it has

(26:30):
tentacles kind of coming out of its mouth or on
the side of its head, and it has this metallic
beak and these razor sharp claws, and his screech was
also said to sound like a train whistle totally nightmare fuel. Now,
the origin of this legend dates back to the early
seventeen hundreds, when German immigrants brought tales of this creature
to the New World. Its name derives from the German

(26:52):
phrase Schnellergeist, which means quick spirit, and over the centuries,
stories spread of this creature swooping down on unsuspecting prey,
carrying off livestock, pets, and even people, and at one
point it was said that the Smithsonian offered a reward
for the capture of the snailing Caster, and even President
Teddy Roosevelt had considered hunting this mythical beast. And an

(27:15):
interesting piece of history about this whole thing is that
local residents of Frederick County and beyond adopted the practice
of painting seven pointed stars on their barns, as it
was believed to ward off the Snaaly Gaster, and some
of these stars can still be seen today on barnes
all throughout Maryland. Interestingly, in nineteen oh nine, shortly after

(27:38):
the flap of Jersey Devil settings, many people in Maryland
as well as Virginia also reported seeing some enormous flying
beast that looked like it had claws that were like
steel hooks, along with a long pointed bill and a
single eye in the center of its forehead, so some
people think there could have been a potential connection between
the Jersey Devil and the snailing aster at that point.

(28:00):
Some even claim to find giant eggs from this creature,
suggesting that there may have been more than one. However,
the last leged sighting happened after a snally Gaster flew
over a moonshine still and fell into it. The authorities
were called to take the creature away, but instead they
apparently blew it up with dynamite, erasing any evidence of

(28:21):
this legendary cryptid. Now, I also have a Deep Dive
podcast episode all about the snelly Gaster. It is one
of my very early episodes for the podcast, so definitely
check that out. Next up is Virginia. Not only is
Virginia for lovers, but it's also for cryptis of course,
so this state is the home of the Chesapeake Bay
Monster or Chessi for sure, and according to the witness

(28:43):
accounts and the local legends, this is an aquatic cryptid
that resides in the waters of the Chesapeake Bay, which
also goes up into Maryland, but we're talking about this
for Virginia, of course. Now. It's been described as being
a kind of serpentine creature with a long, sinuous body,
a horse like head, and it also has flippers. It's
said to be very quick and agile, easily gliding through

(29:06):
the water. Many have equated Chessi and other lake and
sea monsters to being a surviving species of dinosaur, like
aplesiosaur or something similar. However, there isn't really any proof
of that being the case just yet. The origin of
when people first started seeing this creature is unclear, but
the first written accounts of Chessi appear in nineteen thirty six.

(29:29):
There was this story of a military helicopter flying over
the bay back then in nineteen thirty six, and its
crew said they spotted a sea serpent in the bay below. However,
this account is likely just made up, since the first
helicopter flight didn't actually happen until nineteen thirty nine, hundreds
of miles away in Connecticut. However, over the course of

(29:52):
the twentieth century, witnesses continue to come forward saying that
there was some unknown creature living out in the bay.
One prominent side in nineteen seventy eight described the creature
being spotted near the Potomac River. And then there was
another witness in nineteen eighty named Trudy Guthrie who drew
what she saw, claiming that it was chessi and what

(30:12):
she drew very much resembled a manatee. So perhaps some
manatees found their way up from Florida and that's what
people have been seeing all these years, or perhaps there's
something else out there that hasn't been discovered yet. Moving
down the coast brings us to North Carolina, and this
is the story of the Beast of Bladenborough. Back in

(30:33):
nineteen fifty in the small town of Bladenborough, there was
a mystery creature that was massacring tons of livestock and
pets out of nowhere. This happened around Christmas time in
nineteen fifty and into New Years of nineteen fifty one.
Those who managed to spot this elusive creature described it
as basically a large black cat with red eyes. Some

(30:56):
believed it was vampiric, as it was said to drain
the blood of its victims and it would leave its
victims carcasses behind, which has led some to believe and
speculate that it could have been something like a chupicabra.
One woman even had a face off with this creature.
While she was walking out of her home to drive
her car into town one morning, there was this massive

(31:18):
cat like creature growling at her, ready to pounce, until
her husband came out, which startled the creature and caused
it to retreat back into the woods. And because of
the damage this creature was causing, a massive hunt ensued. Eventually,
a bobcat was found and culled, and the livestock and
pet attacks seemed to stop. However, a bobcat didn't really

(31:40):
fit the description of what people were seeing, so some
believed that the Beast of Bladenborough was still at large.
And then decades later, in two thousand and seven, a
series of new livestock killings began around Bladenborough County in
different towns, prompting some to believe that the beast or
one of its offspring may have returned. Now, there's not

(32:01):
much other information following up on that story from two
thousand and seven, so hopefully whatever it was moved on.
Next up is the state of South Carolina. Now, this
state has a pretty terrifying cryptid story. So, there is
a swamp area in South Carolina that's said to be
home of a reptilian cryptid known as the lizard Man

(32:26):
of Scape or Swamp. Now. It's basically described as a large,
bipedal reptilian creature with green, scaly skin and glowing red eyes,
and it's also outfitted with sharp teeth and claws. Of course. Now,
the lizard Man first gained notoriety in the late nineteen eighties,
when a series of strange attacks were attributed to the creature,

(32:48):
the most famous of which happened on the evening of
June twenty ninth, nineteen eighty eight, when a teenager named
Chris Davis was driving home from work when he got
a flat tire right out near the swamp. Chris was
finishing up putting on the spare tire when he suddenly
heard this thumping noise in the marshy field across the
road from where he was, and it was getting louder

(33:10):
and closer, So naturally he turned to look and see
what it was, and he saw this unknown creature. It
was this tall, scaly reptilian humanoid, and it was barreling
right towards him, and it looked angry, so Chris was
terrified and jumped into his car as fast as he could,
and just as he slammed the door shut, he heard
and felt this lizard man grab onto the trunk. So,

(33:33):
like in any horror movie, Chris starts the car and
starts to drive off, but not before he hears a
loud thud on the roof of his car, and of
course it was the lizardman who had jumped up there
and started clinging onto the roof of the car. So
Chris started swerving wildly and speeding up faster, and thankfully
this maneuver eventually caused the lizard man to be thrown off,

(33:55):
and from there it probably retreated back into the swamp.
And when Chris arrived home, his car was just messed up.
There was damage to the side of you mirror, there
were scratches and dents all over the roof, in the trunk,
and when he brought his car into the police department
to report the incident, they couldn't explain what it could
have made those marks on his car. And since then,

(34:17):
several other witnesses have had their cars attacked or have
seen the creature. As recently as twenty seventeen and if
you park in or near the swamp, a lot of
people say that the lizard man will come out and
mess your car up, so probably you want to avoid
that area if you can. Next up is Georgia. Now,

(34:37):
according to the legend for this state, in the murky
waters of the Altamaha River, there's said to be another
aquatic cryptid, the river monster, known as the Alta Mahaha
or Alti for sure so Alta is described as a
large serpent like creature with a long, sturgeon like body,
two front flippers, and a tail. Some have said that

(34:59):
it has the snout of a crocodile, with large protruding
eyes large sharp teeth, but it also swims like a dolphin.
Its coloring is said to be gray or green on top,
with a whitish yellow underbelly, and can be anywhere from
twenty to thirty feet long. The first modern reports of
Alti date back to newspaper articles from eighteen thirty, but

(35:20):
legends of it date back well before colonial times and
can be found in Native American folklore dating back millennia.
It's said to inhabit the myriad of waterways and tributaries
of this part of Georgia, which is actually one of
the largest river basins in North America, second only to
that of the Mississippi River, so there's tons of areas

(35:40):
for some unknown creature to be able to hide down in.
Sightings of some mystery water cryptid still happen down there today,
although it's thought that it's likely just a misidentified dolphin
or manatee, which I could totally see based on the description,
so perhaps that's all it is, or maybe there is
some unknown creature that lives in this area. Finishing up

(36:04):
on the East coast and moving on to the Gulf
Coast is the state of Florida. Now, Florida is said
to be home of the infamous Skunkcape, which is Bigfoot's
smaller and stinkier cousin. Although sightings happen all throughout the
state and beyond. For Skunkcapes, it's primarily said to be
found in the Everglades National Park. Some of the earliest
sightings date back to the nineteen sixties and seventies around

(36:26):
Dade County, where witnesses claim to see a hairy, tall,
humanoid ape creature that was typically preceded by its horrendous smell.
One of the most famous sightings with photographic evidence for
the skuncape occurred in the year two thousand, when a
woman who lived near the Mayaca River sent photos to
the Sarasota County Sheriff's office. She sent a note with

(36:47):
the pictures saying that she believed that this animal was
just an escaped orangutan which had been raiding food from
her back porch and if real it certainly looks like
it's some kind of great ape, definitely resembling an orangutan.
And after the photos circulated out to the public, many
cryptid enthusiasts believe that this was the smoking gun evidence

(37:08):
to prove that skunk Cape exists. And then there's also
Dave Sheley's footage from that same year that appears to
show a skunk ape or a big foot type creature
walking through this marshy area with relative ease, which it's
argued that a person would have a lot of trouble
going through this area. Now, Dave is a self proclaimed
skunk ape expert who claims to have encountered these creatures

(37:33):
multiple times, starting when he was just a kid, and
now he runs the skunk Ape Research Headquarters. And while
Skeptics argue that skunk Cape is nothing more than a
bear or just a hoax. The Skuncape remains a beloved
and terrifying part of Florida's folklore. Now we're going to
go through the Deep South, starting with Alabama. So there

(37:54):
are a number of legends and creatures found in this state,
but one creature stands out and it's known only as
the White Thang. It's described as a seven to eight
foot tall humanoid with shaggy white fur and glowing red eyes.
The White Thang has been spotted all throughout Alabama since
the early nineteen hundreds, but primarily it's said to be

(38:15):
found in the northern parts of the state, in the
foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, primarily between Morgan, Jefferson, and
Antoa Counties. Skeptics will say it's just something like a bear,
but many believe it could be something like an albino bigfoot.
And interestingly, many reports have described the white thing with
an almost kangaroo like tail and more feline like features

(38:37):
in its face, which does not sound bigfoot like, and
it also has these cat like ears, So could we
be looking at a type of catman humanoid monster instead.
Next up is Mississippi and the story of the Pascagoula
River aliens, or they're also known as the Pascagoula elephant Men.
This story starts out in nineteen seventy three in the

(38:59):
town of Ascagoula, Mississippi, which became the site of one
of the most famous alien abduction cases in history. And
I don't necessarily classify aliens as cryptids per se, but
this story is just so huge that I couldn't not
include it. So the story goes that two co workers,
Charles Hickson and Calvin Parker, claimed that they were fishing

(39:20):
on the Pascagoula River one night when they suddenly heard
this whizzing sound. Moments later, they saw this oval shaped
craft with flashing blue lights descending out of the sky
towards them. Then these three beings reportedly came out of
a hatch on the craft and floated towards them. Charles
and Calvin said they were paralyzed with fear. The creatures

(39:41):
were described as having this elephant like skin, their heads
were devoid of facial features, and they didn't even really
have a neck. The only things that they had on
their heads were these long protrusions where the ears and
nose would be on a human. Their legs were seemingly
fused together and almost formed a kind of lobster tale

(40:02):
like look to it, and their arms ended in these
claw like appendages. Now, the aliens then levitated Calvin and
Charles into their craft and they were subjected to a
bizarre series of medical examinations before being returned to the
river bank. The two men immediately went to file a
police report, and unbeknownst to them, Calvin and Charles were

(40:23):
actually already being recorded while they were waiting for an
officer to come in and take their statement, and in
the recording they sounded generally terrified as to what had
just transpired. Now, this case gained national attention, and despite
skepticism over fifty years, Calvin and Charles, who have both
since passed away, never wavered in their story, and this

(40:44):
incident remains one of the most well documented and mysterious
alien encounters in the United States. Next up is the
state of Louisiana, and it's here that it's said there
is a creature to be found that's as feared as
it is legendary. The Ruger, which is a variation on
the French name for these werewolf type creatures lou garou.

(41:06):
This is essentially the Cajun version of a werewolf which
roams the swamps around Acadiana in Greater New Orleans hunting
for its next victim. Now, the legend of the ruguru
is rooted in French folklore, brought over by settlers and
adapted to the swamps of Louisiana. According to the tale,
the rugaroo is actually a human that's cursed by a

(41:28):
witch who transforms into the beast at night, but unlike
a normal werewolf, it doesn't have to be during a
full moon. During the day, it turns back into a human. However,
the human appears quite sickly and avoids people as to
not rouse suspicion of it secretly being a rugarou and
then being killed. One of the main things that the

(41:48):
ruguru is known for is hunting down Catholics who break
lent or commit other sins, and interestingly, one of the
ways a person can become a ruguru is if they
break lent for seventy years in a row. It's believed
that in order to ward off a rugaru, one must
leave a pile of thirteen objects on their front doorstep,

(42:09):
and in doing so, a ruguru is compelled to sit
down and count all of the objects, but it can't
count past thirteen and it gets confused, so it repeats
the process until sunrise, which is when it needs to
retreat back into the swamps before transforming back into its
human form. And it's said that the only way to
break the curse is to survive for one hundred and

(42:30):
one days, and you also have to be able to
find a person willing to take on the curse from you,
or you need to draw the blood of someone by
attacking them, which doesn't really sound all that hard if
you're a werewolf type creature. Right now, we're going to
jump up to Arkansas, which is said to be the
home of a creature known as the Ozark Cowler, and

(42:52):
this is a pretty cool cryptid that also has a
few different names like the Who Who, the night Shade Bear,
and the Devil. Cap and side of this cryptid allegedly
date back to the days of Daniel Boone, who was
said to have encountered one of these things. It's described
as being bear sized with black, shaggy hair, stocky legs,
glowing red eyes, and horns on its head, and according

(43:15):
to the legend, it's called the howler for a reason,
as its cry is this kind of combination of a wolf,
an elk, and a hyena. Some think it may be
an unrecognized species of big cat, or even something like
a solo transient black panther. Others think that it might
just be a mis identified animal like the American red wolf,

(43:35):
but it's also been speculated that it could be a
species thought to have gone extinct around five million years ago,
a creodont species known as the bear dog, which were
apex predators of their day, although this one's I like
this idea, but it's probably pretty unlikely seeing as how
many millionaires have passed. But then again, there was also
the white Beasts of Sherman, which were thought to be

(43:59):
an extinct species of megafauna as well. And there's another
theory that suggests that the ozark cowler could actually be
a hellhound of sorts, as the folklore surrounding it often
describes them as a bad omen or harbinger of death.
And interestingly, there is an alleged strange connection with yet
again Teddy Roosevelt and the creation of the National Park

(44:21):
systems in the early nineteen hundreds. Back then, there was
this organization of lumber bearings that was created called the
Concatenated Order of the Hooho, which some believe hides secrets
within our national parks, namely the Ozark Cowler for this case,
which is sometimes called the Hooho in order to preserve
the rare animal or any other mystery animal they're trying

(44:41):
to hide there. Next up is Oklahoma and specifically something
that's said to reside in its man made lakes, the
Oklahoma octopus, and this one is pretty straightforward. It's basically
described as a giant octopus like cephalopod with a body
that's as big as a horse, with long tentacles and
red Some say that this cryptid lurks in the depths

(45:02):
of the state's lakes, including Lake Thunderbird, Lake Ulaga, and
Lake ten Killer, and according to this local legend, this
creature is often said to be responsible for the numerous
drownings and disappearances that have happened over the years in
these lakes, although many of these unfortunate incidents can be
explained by people being irresponsible unfortunately, but despite that, over

(45:26):
the years, some locals have actually claimed to have seen
massive tentacles shooting out of the water, pulling down unsuspecting
people to a watery grave. Now, it's unlikely that an
octopus would be living in a freshwater lake, since they
are saltwater creatures, much less something of this purported size.
And even though that's the case, there was once a

(45:49):
common octopus actually found surviving in Lake Conway over in Arkansas,
or a brief period of time before being caught. That
one was likely just a released exotic and probably wouldn't
have survived much longer if it hadn't been captured and relocated.
But it's interesting to note that an octopus could potentially
survive for at least a little while in a freshwater lake,

(46:13):
But in the end, this one's probably highly unlikely. All right.
Onto the next, which happens to be the state of Texas.
A cryptid for Texas is the Lake Worth Monster, which
made several appearances in the summer of nineteen sixty nine.
This creature was said to be found around Lake Worth
in the Dallas Fort Worth area. Witnesses described seeing this
humanoid goat like creature, almost like a satyr from ancient

(46:36):
Greek folklore. This goat man was said to be around
seven feet tall, with white fur horns on its head,
and some even say that it looked like it had scales,
suggesting it had some kind of aquatic nature to it.
According to people who encountered this thing, they said that
it had a knack for showing up around lover's lanes
where couples would be parked, and it would come out

(46:57):
of the woodwork to terrorize them, which is a common
story among goatman type cryptis. There was one witness, a
man named John Reikert, who had heard the stories of
the Lakeworth Monster and decided to go investigate one evening
by himself, and as he was driving down one of
the roads that followed the lake, the creature suddenly dropped

(47:18):
down from a large tree branch and landed on the
hood of his car. This caused Reker to speed off
and lose the monster. Later on, the authorities couldn't identify
what caused the damage to his hood, so it remained
a mystery. Shortly after, there was a group of people
who were hanging out at the lake that witnessed this
monster up an embankment, and it suddenly picked up and

(47:38):
threw this tire down at them and they all scattered,
being terrified that this just happened. And later that year,
in October, there was a photographer named Ellen Plaster who
took this photo near Lakeworth, claiming that it was the monster.
You can't really make out too much other than it
looks like this kind of white, furry blob or humanoid

(48:00):
type of thing. Maybe it's the monster, but we're not
sure exactly. Now decades later, a group of people who
were high school students at the time came forward and
claimed to have actually hoaxed the Lakeworth Monster that summer,
dressing up in a gorilla costume and even tossing that
tire down at people to scare them. The only problem
with that is that sightings continued after that summer, such

(48:22):
as Alan Plaster's sighting and his picture of the alleged creature.
So while we may have some answers for some of
the sightings in this case, there may still be a
mystery creature, a goat man type thing lurking in the area.
Next up is New Mexico, which many claim to have
seen what they call thunderbirds or territorns, basically prehistoric giant

(48:44):
birds akin to giant condors. Those who have claimed to
see these mystery birds often speak of a massive wingspan
that could cover an entire road. Some believe that these
may be connected to the Native American legends of thunderbirds.
Now in two thousand and three, outside of Las Cruces,
New Mexico, a man named Dave Xander was hiking in
the Doniaona Mountains when he saw something that he couldn't

(49:07):
quite explain. What he saw was two very large creatures
perched up on the side of a nearby mountain. Xander
said they were so large that it looked like they
could be the size of small plains like cessnas. Suddenly,
one of them jumped and dive bombed down the mountain side,
and within a moment it spread out its wings, which
he said had to be at least a twenty foot span.

(49:30):
He could see that it was covered in all black feathers,
and it had this vulture like head as it flew off.
So perhaps these flying monstrosities are real after all. Next
up in the American Southwest is the state of Arizona.
You might not think there's much going on there because
of the vast desert, but in the Ponderosa pine forest
that cuts through the middle of the state, known as

(49:52):
the muggy On Rim, there are legends of a creature
that's called the muggy On Monster. This cryptid is basically
another type of bigfoot. It's said to be over seven
feet tall, with reddish brown to black hair all over
its body, and it also has large red eyes and
a horrendous smell. Of course. Now, one of the earliest
reports comes from a nineteen oh three Arizona Republican newspaper

(50:16):
article written by an IW Stevens, saying that the muggy
On Monster was described as this fearsome beast. Allegedly IW
Stephens encountered it while exploring near the Grand Canyon, which yes,
isn't in the muggy On Rim, but I'll mention a
story or two from there in just a minute. This
one is definitely important to the lore of this monster.

(50:38):
So basically, this article states that while hiking, Stephens came
across the grizzly scene of this hairy humanoid creature feasting
on a pair of dead cougars, and when it saw Stevens,
it picked up a club and chased after him, and
all the while letting out this unearthly screech. Now, as
he was trying to make his escape, another mountain lion

(51:00):
jumped out of the bush and started attacking the muggy
On Monster, which gave Stevens enough time to actually escape
with his life. Now his stories that actually took place
in the muggy On Room. In the nineteen forties, there
was a man named Don Davis who at the time
was in the Boy Scouts and he was on a
camping trip with his troop outside of Paysin in Tonto Creek.

(51:23):
One night during this trip, he woke up to this
awful smell permeating the camp and he heard what sounded
like something pretty big rummaging through his fellow camper's belongings.
It was dark, so he called out to whoever or
whatever it was messing with them, and he could see
this silhouette of this figure stand up, and it was massive.
It was over seven feet tall. It then walked over

(51:45):
to him while he was in his sleeping bag and
just stared at him for about a minute before wandering
off into the forest. Davis described it as having this expressionless,
ape like face with deep set eyes. Sounds a lot
like a bigfoot to me. There was also another campfire
story that would get told about a man who is
a camp counselor getting defaced by the muggy On Monster. Again,

(52:09):
with a lot of cryptids on this list, I do
have episodes about them, and I do have one a
deep dive all about the muggy On Monster on my podcast,
so definitely check that episode out as well. All Right,
we're halfway through. Thank you so much for sticking around
to this point. Don't forget to subscribe to my channel
here for more on cryptids, folklore, ancient mysteries, the paranormal,

(52:33):
and more. And make sure to check out my Patreon
if you want to support what I do and get
some great membership perks. Anyway, let's get back to the video.
So now we're in the state of California, which is
the home of the Fresno Nightcrawlers. These things were first
spotted on a CCTV security system one night in the

(52:54):
city of Fresno, and this strange creature has garnered quite
the fan base and also has a series of mostly
unsuccessful debunks of the original footage, which I find very interesting.
The story goes that one evening, a man named Jose
woke up to his dog barking and he went to
go check on his security camera monitor, as there had

(53:15):
been a recent string of vandalism and people messing around
in his neighborhood. He wanted to make sure that his
home and his family were safe, and instead of people,
he sees what looks like this odd creature going across
his front lawn. Jose then takes a camquarterer video of
what's happening on his security monitor, because if he rewinds it,

(53:37):
the footage would be automatically erased. Now, after a lot
of hesitation, he finally brought the camp quarter tape to
the local univision station, and this was a while between
when the initial sighting happened and when he actually took
this to a TV station and from there, the footage
on the viewing monitor that he put his tape in

(53:59):
was recorded by yet another cam quorder, which is why
the footage that's available looks so bad now. Jose died
a few years later, unfortunately, so we'll never know the
full story behind this footage. However, in twenty eleven, these
creatures were allegedly filmed yet again in Yosemite National Park,

(54:19):
and this video is much more clear. However, there was
a Reddit post recently where someone claimed to have been
a CGI artist and was actually responsible for creating the
footage as a hoax as part of some kind of
viral marketing campaign. But if you want to know a
lot more about the presdent Nightcrawler, make sure to check
out my Deep Dive podcast episode all about Them here

(54:41):
on my channel or your favorite podcasting platform. All right,
thank you all so much for listening to part one
of the Cryptid road Trip series that I'm doing, and

(55:04):
stay tuned for part two. It's going to be coming
as soon as possible. I have all the rest of
it recorded, it just needs to be edited, so it's
going to be the rest of the last twenty five
states and maybe some bonus stuff in there as well,
so I hope you enjoyed it again. In the future,
I'm probably going to be doing a few deep Dive

(55:25):
episodes on some bigger cryptids within this I already did
cover a couple like Snellygaster and the Muggy un Monster.
But I do have a Mothman, a big Mothman episode
or maybe multiple episodes that I'm planning on doing because
that topic is just so huge. So cursory overview of

(55:45):
all these cryptids, and there's a lot of them that
don't have tons of information, so you can't really do
a deep dive. But that's okay. This was a super
fun trip for everyone, I hope and stay tuned again
for the next part. As always, I want to give
a huge thank you out there to everyone who checks

(56:06):
out my show. Those are you who download it, share
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(56:29):
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(56:52):
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(57:13):
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(57:39):
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All right, that's all for me for today. Unfortunately, due

(58:01):
to time constraints, there's not going to be a Strangeology
beyond portion of the show today due to all of
the editing involved with the YouTube portion of this episode
and the next one as well. But thank you again
so much for listening or watching wherever you're checking out
this episode and stay tuned for part two. And as

(58:26):
I always say, make sure to take care of yourselves
and each other and keep it strange