Welcome to the first entry for Cryptids State-by-State.
States have plenty
of official things-- rocks, flowers, mammals, fish, trees, mottos,
fossils. Even state soils. Yet there are no state cryptids-- a grievous
oversight that I aim to fix.
I've been thinking about doing this blog off and on for a
while now. With Halloween approaching, I
figured this would be an opportune time to finally get things rolling.
There's a ton of cryptid artwork out there, especially for
famous critters like the Mothman, Sasquatch, Lake Monsters, Flatwoods Monster,
etc. So I've tried my best to make my little
doodles stand out a bit. You can judge
how well I succeeded.
For my first entry, I originally wanted to start off with
the unofficial cryptid of my current home, Connecticut. The Nutmeg State's creatures are the
Melonheads, whose mythology I have a bit of a problem with. I'll explain more when I get to their entry
soon.
So instead, this week's entry is the State Cryptid of
Massachusetts:
THE DOVER DEMON
On the night of April 21, 1977, three teenagers were driving
in their hometown of Dover, Massachusetts.
One of the boys, Bill Bartlett, spotted a strange creature with a
massive, hourglass-shaped head crawling on all fours along a rock wall. As the car passed by the being, it turned its
head and its eyes flashed with orange light.
Bartlett later described the Demon as having pale, peach-colored skin
that appeared rough like sandpaper, and toes that curled around the rocks as it
moved.
Later that night another teenager, John Baxter, saw a figure
approaching him in the shadows as he walked home from his girlfriend's
house. Thinking it was a friend of his,
he called out. The being did not respond,
and as Baxter drew closer, it ran off.
He followed it halfway across a roadside gully, before stopping to
observe it at a distance. Like Bartlett,
Baxter described the Demon as having a figure-eight shaped head and toes that
curled around the contours of rocks and a tree it leaned against. Before he could get a better look, the Demon
ran off.
The creature's description initially resembles a classic
"Gray" alien-- with its large eyes, enormous head and spindly
body. But there were no reports of UFO
activity at the time. Additionally,
other features stray from the usual alien myth, such as its quadrapedal stance,
it's glowing orange eyes and it's odd toes.
Some skeptics think the "Demon" was nothing more
than a baby moose distorted by the darkness and by the brief glimpses the
witnesses had. It's glowing eyes could
merely have been the light reflecting back from the headlights of the car or
another bright light source-- a phenomenon called eyeshine.
I tried to make my Dover Demon reflect a bit of the
"baby moose" explanation, at least in the face. But I wanted it to still have an otherworldly
look, with its spindly neck and egg-shaped body. I ran with the idea of its toes curling
around the rocks and made them more like boneless tentacles.
So there you go, Massachusetts-- you're the first state to
get your very own wicked awesome unofficial Official State Cryptid.
Sources:
http://www.theawl.com/2012/10/a-spooky-scary-secret-monster-in-every-state
http://www.animalplanet.com/tv-shows/lost-tapes/creatures/dover-demon.htm
http://cryptidz.wikia.com/wiki/Dover_Demon
