STATE FILE · MD
Cryptids of Maryland
What cryptids are in Maryland? The best-known are Snallygaster, Chessie, Goatman and Dwayyo, among 5 on file.
Maryland packs mountains, rolling farmland and a great estuary into a small state, and each has its monster. In the Blue Ridge country of Frederick and Washington counties, German settlers of the 18th century told of the Schneller Geist – a “quick spirit” that became the Snallygaster, a winged, beaked, dragon-like beast. In 1909 the Middletown Valley Register ran a series of tongue-in-cheek reports of the creature swooping over the valley, and the name stuck. Its rival, the wolf-like Dwayyo, emerged from a 1965 newspaper story set on Catoctin Mountain near Gambrill State Park.
Cryptids reported in Maryland
FLYING · 1730s
Snallygaster
South Mountain and the Middletown Valley, Frederick County, Maryland
A winged, beaked dragon of Maryland’s Blue Ridge: born of German settlers’ folklore and made famous by a 1909 newspaper hoax in the Middletown Valley.
REGIONAL LEGEND
LAKE & SEA MONSTER · 1943
Chessie
Chesapeake Bay and its tidal rivers, Maryland and Virginia
A long, dark, serpent-like animal reported in the Chesapeake Bay since the mid-20th century, famously caught on a blurry 1982 home video off Kent Island.
REGIONAL LEGEND
HUMANOID · 1971
Goatman
Fletchertown Road, Bowie, Prince George’s County, Maryland
A half-man, half-goat said to stalk the back roads of Prince George’s County, Maryland – a 1970s legend fed by teenagers, folklore archives and the press.
REGIONAL LEGEND
DOGMAN & CANINE · 1965
Dwayyo
Catoctin Mountain and Gambrill State Park, Frederick County, Maryland
An upright, wolf-like beast from Frederick County, Maryland – born in a 1965 newspaper story and remembered as the Snallygaster’s mortal enemy.
LOCAL LEGEND
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 REPORTEDThe legends of Maryland
Near Washington, D.C., Prince George’s County has the Goatman, a half-man, half-goat figure said to haunt Fletchertown Road near Bowie and to menace parked couples – a legend collected by University of Maryland folklore students in the 1970s. On the water, the Chesapeake Bay is home to Chessie, a long, serpent-like animal reported since the mid-20th century and famously caught on a blurry home video off Kent Island in 1982, which Smithsonian scientists examined without reaching a firm conclusion.
Skeptics suggest that Chessie may have been a wandering manatee (a real one, nicknamed after the legend, visited the bay in the 1990s), a large eel, an otter or a string of swimming birds; that the Snallygaster was a newspaper joke built on immigrant folklore; and that Goatman is a classic teenage legend-trip. Enthusiasts head to South Mountain, Catoctin Mountain and the bay shores.
Hotspots
Frederick County farmland and ridges where the Snallygaster was reported in 1909.
The back road in Prince George’s County most associated with the Goatman legend.
Where Chessie was famously videotaped in 1982.
Forested ridges linked to the wolf-like Dwayyo of 1965.
Sightings timeline
- June 22, 1953A monster in Life magazine Snallygaster
Writer Whittaker Chambers, who lived on a Carroll County farm, used the snallygaster – a winged hobgoblin used to frighten rural children – as a metaphor for Senator Joseph McCarthy in an essay for Life.
- November 27, 1965The Becker report Dwayyo
The Frederick News-Post reported that a man named Becker had fought off a bear-sized, long-haired creature with a bushy tail that reared up on its hind legs, and had reported it to state police as a “Dwayyo.” Police later could not find the man or the road named in the story.
- December 10, 1965The hunt that never happened Dwayyo
After a student-organized Dwayyo hunt drew dozens of sign-ups but no actual hunters, reporter George May described joking sightings around town and a dog license issued for a “Dwayyo.” Newspaper coverage of the creature ended soon afterward.
- Spring 1971A student folklore project Goatman
University of Maryland student George Lizama collected local Goatman tales for a folklore class. One teenager described him as an old man with the face of a goat and the body of a man. The project was deposited in the university’s Folklore Archives.
- October 27, 1971“Boaman, Goatman, and Ghosts” Goatman
Reporter Karen Hosler’s article in the Prince George’s County News brought the archive’s stories to the public and placed the Goatman near Fletchertown Road in Bowie.
- November 1971The headless puppy Goatman
The Edwards family’s puppy, Ginger, vanished and was later found decapitated near the railroad tracks. Teenagers including 16-year-old April Edwards said they had heard noises and seen a large creature walking on two legs the night it disappeared.
- November 30, 1971The Washington Post takes notice Goatman
The Washington Post reported on the legend, quoting police who said the story is passed down through generations and that they had received recent calls about sightings.
- 1978Virginia papers name a monster Chessie
Sightings near Calvert Cliffs and in the Potomac off Westmoreland County, Virginia, were printed in local newspapers, launching Chessie’s modern reputation.
- September 1980The Guthrie sketch Chessie
Baltimore’s Evening Sun published a boater’s sketch of a strange animal. It was later identified as a Florida manatee, a rare but real visitor to the Bay.
- May 31, 1982The Frew videotape Chessie
Robert and Karen Frew filmed a dark, serpentine object, which they estimated at 20 to 40 feet long, moving past swimmers off their home. Their house was soon besieged by reporters and sightseers.
- August 20, 1982Smithsonian review Chessie
Smithsonian scientists met with witnesses and examined the Frew tape and other photographs. Zoologist George Zug reported that no identification – not even a tentative one – could be made from the evidence.
- October 1994Chessie the manatee Chessie
A wandering Florida manatee found in the Bay was nicknamed Chessie and flown back to Florida. Tracked by satellite tag, it later swam north again, as far as Rhode Island, and returned to the Chesapeake as late as 2011.
Latest from Maryland
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Videos
ARCHIVE.ORG3:07
Patterson–Gimlin film (unedited)
Roger Patterson and Bob GimlinThe original 1967 Bluff Creek footage – the most famous and most debated minute in Bigfoot history. Marked public domain on archive.org.
ARCHIVE.ORG4:59
The Film That Made Bigfoot A Star
Oregon Public BroadcastingOPB’s short documentary on how the Patterson–Gimlin film turned a regional legend into a global icon – and the hoax claims around it.
▶ VIDEO
Sts’ailes Sasquatch Days in Harrison Hot Springs
Tourism Harrison River ValleyShows the festival celebrating the Sts’ailes people’s Sásq’ets, the being behind the word “Sasquatch” (no archive.org equivalent).
▶ VIDEO
Cryptid: Goatman
Small Town MonstersFeature-length documentary on American goatman legends from an independent cryptid documentary studio.
ARCHIVE.ORG19:35
Cryptid Review Show Episode 3 – The Snallygaster
UVMtvShort student-television explainer on the snallygaster’s German roots, barn stars and 1909 newspaper flap.
▶ VIDEO
The racist roots of Maryland’s mythical Snallygaster monster
WJZ (CBS Baltimore)Baltimore TV news report on the legend’s history, including its troubling 19th-century uses.