It looks like something attacked your car with a small
chainsaw. There are deep scratches in the sides and on the bumper. The wheels
slashed and flat. The edge of the hood is mangled as if an animal chewed on it.
But what kind of animal gnaws metal? Your eyes slide from the damaged vehicle
to the swamp that comes right up to your backyard. You know there are bears and
coyotes out there. Maybe even pumas. Could something like that have done this?
But you’ve also heard the stories about that other thing out there, lurking
among the tupelos and sedges and dark, still water. The thing that walks upright like a man, but
which is covered with hair and scales, and has only three fingers and three
toes.
Rumors of a strange beast inhabiting Scape Ore Swamp just
outside Bishopville, South Carolina allegedly go back decades. But the creature
first entered pop culture in 1988 when a couple woke up to find that the car
parked in their driveway had been heavily scratched and chewed by an unknown
vandal. A few days later local teenager Chris Davis went to the sheriff
claiming he’d been attacked by a strange bipedal monster while he was changing
a flat tire on a lonely dirt road near the swamp. Davis said the beast was
covered in thick hair and green scales. When it jumped on the roof of his car
and scratched at the windshield, he saw that it had only three fingers on each
hand.
It didn’t take long for local newspapers to conflate the two
stories, even if there was no direct evidence that the being that had attacked Davis
had also damaged the couple’s car. The strange monster was dubbed the “Lizard
Man” due to the scaled appearance Davis had described. As so often happens when
word of a monster gets out, Bishopville became a tourist draw as people came
from all over to see the home of the mysterious creature. A local radio station
even offered a tongue-in-cheek reward of one million dollars to anyone who
could bring it in alive. The Lizard Man was apparently quite shy, however, as
only a few brief sightings were reported after 1988. Hoaxes were actually more
common than actual sightings. For instance, two sheriff’s deputies found a
supposed footprint that they made a plaster cast of, but even a cursory look at
the print can tell a viewer that it is clearly a crude fake. When the hype surrounding the Lizard Man began
to die down, a Bishopville local claimed that the monster had attacked his car
and left behind blood and scales. He later admitted that he had faked the
damage and the evidence in an effort to keep the legend alive.
The Lizard Man is often depicted in pop culture as a bipedal
reptilian being. However, the limited descriptions of it suggest that it is
mammalian. More like a swamp-dwelling, three-digited variation of a sasquatch
than an upright saurian. It’s worth noting that hairy tridactyl hominids have
been reported form other wetland areas of the American South and Midwest. Perhaps
they are a separate species, or at least subspecies, of North American hominid.
Though the Lizard Man hasn’t been seen in a long time, it
has become a fond part of Bishopville’s culture. The town has even begun
hosting an annual Lizard Man Festival in honor of their famous cryptid.
On a side note, the name of the Lizard Man’s home, Scape
Ore Swamp, has its own weird history. It is allegedly a corruption of Escaped
Whore Swamp. According to local folklore, during the Revolutionary War
Continental troops came across British soldiers being entertained by a group of
sex workers. The Red Coats were captured but the women were allowed to flee
into the nearby swamplands, giving rise to the name.
SOURCES
Lizard Man: The True Story of the Bishopville Monster by Lyle Blackburn
American Monsters: A History of Monster Lore, Legends, and Sightings in America by Linda Godfrey
An article from The State about the Lizard Man festival
An article from South Carolina Public Radio about the Lizard Man
An article from Mysterious Universe about the Lizard Man
