UNITED STATES · 103 CRYPTIDs

Cryptids of the USA

From Bigfoot country in the Pacific Northwest to the swamps of Florida, every state has its monster. Tap a state to see its cryptids, hotspots, sightings and local news. The busiest: Wisconsin, Texas, Minnesota, Illinois and Michigan.

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All 50 states

America’s most famous cryptids

Frame 352 of the 1967 Patterson–Gimlin film: a dark, hairy upright figure walking across a creek bed and looking toward the camera HOMINID · 1958

Bigfoot

Pacific Northwest forests, reported across North America

North America’s most famous cryptid: a huge, hairy, upright ape-like being reported from the Pacific Northwest to Florida since the 1958 “Bigfoot” tracks.

WIDELY REPORTED The stainless-steel Mothman statue with spread wings on a street in Point Pleasant, West Virginia FLYING · 1966

Mothman

Point Pleasant and the “TNT area”, Mason County, West Virginia

A man-sized winged figure with glowing red eyes reported around Point Pleasant, West Virginia, in 1966–67 – now a festival, museum and steel statue.

REGIONAL LEGEND Artist’s drawing of the classic Puerto Rican chupacabra: an upright gray creature with big eyes and spines along its back OTHER · 1995

Chupacabra

Canóvanas, Puerto Rico

The “goat-sucker” of 1990s Puerto Rico: a spiny, bloodsucking beast blamed for livestock deaths that spread across Latin America and Texas.

WIDELY REPORTED A 1909 Philadelphia newspaper drawing of the Jersey Devil as a winged, horned creature FLYING · 1735

Jersey Devil

Pine Barrens, southern New Jersey

A winged, hoofed devil said to have been born to “Mother Leeds” in the Pine Barrens, and the star of a week of panic across South Jersey in January 1909.

REGIONAL LEGEND Rows of tall red pines in Michigan’s Manistee National Forest, the heart of Dogman country DOGMAN & CANINE · 1987

Michigan Dogman

Northwestern Lower Peninsula, Michigan

A seven-foot, dog-headed creature said to walk upright through northern Michigan’s forests – a legend born from a 1987 April Fools’ radio song.

REGIONAL LEGEND A roadside statue depicting the Florida Skunk Ape HOMINID · 1818

Skunk Ape

Big Cypress Swamp and the Everglades, Florida

Florida’s answer to Bigfoot: a shaggy, foul-smelling ape-man said to roam the Everglades and Big Cypress Swamp, reported since the 1970s and before.

WIDELY REPORTED An illustration recreating Sandra Mansi’s 1977 photo of a long-necked shape rising from Lake Champlain LAKE & SEA MONSTER · 1819

Champ

Lake Champlain, New York–Vermont border

A long-necked monster said to live in Lake Champlain, made famous by Sandra Mansi’s 1977 photo and protected by local and state resolutions in the 1980s.

REGIONAL LEGEND An Andean condor soaring with wings fully spread, the kind of large bird sometimes proposed to explain thunderbird sightings FLYING · Pre-colonial

Thunderbird

Northern Pennsylvania mountains and central Illinois

A giant bird with a wingspan said to rival a small plane, reported over Pennsylvania’s Black Forest and blamed for lifting an Illinois boy in 1977.

REGIONAL LEGEND SPECTRAL · Pre-colonial

Wendigo

Boreal forests of Canada and the northern Great Lakes

A being of winter, hunger and greed from Algonquian traditions – Ojibwe, Cree, Innu and others – whose teachings warn against selfish excess.

FOLKLORE DOGMAN & CANINE · 1991

Beast of Bray Road

Bray Road, Elkhorn, Walworth County, Wisconsin

A wolf-headed creature that walks on two legs, reported along a farm road outside Elkhorn, Wisconsin, and made famous by reporter Linda Godfrey in 1991.

REGIONAL LEGEND A giant chair shaped like the Flatwoods Monster on the lawn by the town hall in Flatwoods, West Virginia HUMANOID · 1952

Flatwoods Monster

Fisher farm hillside, Flatwoods, Braxton County, West Virginia

A ten-foot figure with a glowing face and spade-shaped hood that seven witnesses met on a West Virginia hillside after a light fell from the sky in 1952.

REGIONAL LEGEND An artist’s illustration of the Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp REPTILIAN · 1988

Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp

Scape Ore Swamp, near Bishopville, Lee County, South Carolina

A seven-foot, green-scaled, red-eyed creature that a teenager said attacked his car beside a South Carolina swamp in 1988, sparking a summer-long craze.

REGIONAL LEGEND

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