FIELD FILE · LAKE-WORTH-MONSTERHOMINIDHOAX / DEBUNKED

Lake Worth Monster

Also known as Goat-Man of Lake Worth, Texas Goatman

A hairy, scaly ‘man-goat’ that terrified couples at Fort Worth’s Lake Worth in summer 1969 – a scare later linked to teenage pranksters.

In the summer of 1969 – the summer of the Moon landing – Fort Worth had a monster of its own. Couples parked by Lake Worth, a reservoir on the city’s northwest edge, told police they had been menaced by a big, hairy, man-like creature with a goat-like face. The newspapers nicknamed it the “Goat-Man,” and for a few weeks the woods around Greer Island became the most crowded lovers’ lane in Texas.

The story broke on July 10, 1969, when the Fort Worth Star-Telegram ran reporter Jim Marrs’s front-page article under the headline “Fishy Man-Goat Terrifies Couples Parked at Lake Worth.” One witness, John Reichart, said the creature had leaped from a tree onto his car, and showed police a long scratch as proof. The next night a crowd of onlookers said the monster stood on a bluff and hurled a car tire at them from hundreds of feet away.

Police, who had brushed off earlier calls, now took the reports seriously, and hundreds of armed amateurs joined the hunt. Traffic jams, bonfires and parties ringed the lake for about two weeks. A local writer and investigator, Sallie Ann Clarke, self-published The Lake Worth Monster of Greer Island that September and later said she had seen the creature herself. In October a man named Allen Plaster snapped the only well-known photo – a blurry white shape beside the road – though he later said he believed the whole thing was a prank.

The prank theory has only grown stronger. A former director of the Greer Island Nature Center said a teenager confessed that he and his brother had put on a show for parked couples and rolled – not thrown – a junkyard tire down a slope. In 2005 an anonymous letter to the Star-Telegram claimed three high-school classmates scared people with a homemade tinfoil mask, and in 2009 a man told Fort Worth, Texas magazine he had taken part in the tire incident. Today the monster is a cherished piece of local lore, celebrated each fall by the Fort Worth Nature Center and Refuge, which now includes Greer Island.

Type

Hominid

Status

Hoax / debunked

First reported

1969

Best-known location

Greer Island, Lake Worth, Fort Worth, Texas

Also called

Goat-Man of Lake Worth, Texas Goatman

Reported in

Texas

What witnesses describe

Around seven feet tall and 250–300 pounds, covered in white or gray hair and sometimes described with scales, with a man-like body, long clawed fingers and a goat- or dog-like head; one account gave it a single horn.

Where and when it’s seen

The wooded shores, bluffs, gravel pits and dirt roads around Greer Island on the West Fork of the Trinity River at Lake Worth, mostly at night in July 1969.

Notable sightings

1. July 10, 1969“Fishy Man-Goat Terrifies Couples” Lake Worth, Fort Worth, Texas

   The Star-Telegram reported that couples parked near Greer Island had been frightened by a creature. John Reichart said it jumped onto his car from a tree.

2. July 11, 1969The tire on the bluff Greer Island, Lake Worth

   Onlookers said the monster threw a car tire at them from a bluff. Decades later, men involved said the tire had been rolled down a slope as part of a prank.

3. September 1969Sallie Ann Clarke’s book Fort Worth, Texas

   Clarke self-published The Lake Worth Monster of Greer Island, gathering newspaper reports, interviews and her own experiences. She later offered a reward to anyone who could pass a polygraph claiming to be the monster.

4. October 1969Allen Plaster’s photo Near Greer Island, Lake Worth

   Plaster photographed a pale, shaggy shape at about 1:15 a.m. and gave the picture to Clarke. In a 2006 interview he said he considered the monster a prank.

5. October 3, 2009The first Monster Bash Fort Worth Nature Center and Refuge

   To mark the 40th anniversary, the Nature Center held a celebration of the legend, which has since become an annual fall event.

What could explain it?

• Teenage pranksters in costumes or masks: several people have since described staging scares, and reporter Jim Marrs later wrote that police had questioned students found with a gorilla outfit and mask.
• The famous tire was reportedly rolled down a slope by pranksters rather than thrown by a monster.
• Officials in 1969 suggested a bobcat; a kennel owner said he had lost a pet macaque that summer.
• Crowds, darkness, drinking and nightly newspaper coverage created ideal conditions for rumor and misidentification.

Legend, culture and tourism

The Lake Worth Monster is Fort Worth’s favorite homegrown legend. The Fort Worth Nature Center and Refuge has hosted a Lake Worth Monster Bash since 2009, the city’s water department made a four-part podcast about it in 2019, and the creature turns up in summer-camp ghost stories, art shows and local merchandise.

Places to visit

Where it’s reported

Texas

Lake Worth Monster in the news

No recent headlines about the Lake Worth Monster. Our news desk checks every day — see all cryptid news.

First published October 14, 2026 · Updated October 14, 2026