STATE FILE · MA
Cryptids of Massachusetts
What cryptids are in Massachusetts? The best-known are Dover Demon, Pukwudgie, Bigfoot and Gloucester Sea Serpent.
Massachusetts has one of the strangest modern cryptid cases on record. On the night of April 21, 1977, 17-year-old Bill Bartlett said he saw a thin, hairless creature with a huge watermelon-shaped head and glowing orange eyes on a stone wall on Farm Street in Dover. Two other teenagers reported similar sightings over the next day. Investigated by researcher Loren Coleman, who named it the Dover Demon, the case was never repeated – and has since become a cult favourite, turning up on T-shirts, in books and on television.
Cryptids reported in Massachusetts
HUMANOID · 1977
Dover Demon
Farm Street and Springdale Avenue, Dover, Massachusetts
A small, hairless figure with a melon-shaped head and glowing eyes that three teenagers reported in Dover, Massachusetts, over two nights in April 1977.
LOCAL LEGEND
HUMANOID · Pre-colonial
Pukwudgie
Southeastern Massachusetts, especially Freetown–Fall River State Forest
Small, gray-skinned forest people of Algonquian tradition – foes of the Wampanoag giant Maushop – said to linger in southeastern Massachusetts woods.
FOLKLORE
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
LAKE & SEA MONSTER · 1817
Gloucester Sea Serpent
Gloucester Harbor and Cape Ann, Massachusetts
A huge, humped serpent that hundreds said swam in Gloucester Harbor in August 1817 – so convincing that a scientific society named it a new species.
REGIONAL LEGENDThe legends of Massachusetts
Southeastern Massachusetts is home to the Bridgewater Triangle, a roughly 200-square-mile area around the Hockomock Swamp that Coleman named in the 1970s for its cluster of reported oddities: giant birds, phantom animals, mystery lights and Bigfoot-type creatures. Within it lies the Freetown–Fall River State Forest, often linked to the pukwudgie – a small, powerful being in Wampanoag tradition, which deserves to be understood within that living culture rather than as a monster. Massachusetts also has a classic sea-serpent case: in August 1817 hundreds of people reported a huge serpent in Gloucester Harbor, prompting an inquiry by the Linnean Society of New England.
Skeptics suggest the Dover Demon may have been a young moose or a foal seen in poor light, that the Bridgewater Triangle reflects a well-publicized label more than unusual activity, and that the Gloucester serpent may have been a line of porpoises or a large tuna. But Massachusetts’s mix of colonial history, Indigenous tradition and modern mystery makes it a favourite with enthusiasts.
Hotspots
Where Bill Bartlett reported the Dover Demon on a stone wall in April 1977.
A large wetland at the heart of the Bridgewater Triangle, known for strange creature and light reports.
A forest within the Bridgewater Triangle often linked to pukwudgie stories.
Site of the famous 1817 sea-serpent sightings investigated by the Linnean Society of New England.
Sightings timeline
- 1638John Josselyn’s report Gloucester Sea Serpent
The English traveler recorded a story of a sea serpent seen coiled on a rock off Cape Ann – the earliest known account from these waters.
- August 1817The great Gloucester sightings Gloucester Sea Serpent
Over several weeks hundreds of people reported a huge humped serpent in the harbor. Former Washington aide David Humphreys wrote that it was seen by 200 people at one time.
- September 27, 1817The “baby serpent” Gloucester Sea Serpent
Gorham Norwood killed a small snake with a humped spine on the shore. The Linnaean Society took it for the monster’s offspring.
- November 1817<em>Scoliophis atlanticus</em> Gloucester Sea Serpent
The Linnaean Society of New England published its report with witness depositions and named the serpent as a new species. The classification was later shown to rest on a deformed black snake.
- 1839Schoolcraft’s <em>Algic Researches</em> Pukwudgie
Ethnologist Henry Rowe Schoolcraft published Ojibwe stories of the little people of the woods. His work gave English readers the word that became “Pukwudgie.”
- 1855Longfellow’s <em>Song of Hiawatha</em> Pukwudgie
Longfellow’s best-selling poem, drawing on Schoolcraft, has the Pukwudgies kill the giant Kwasind. Its popularity spread the name throughout New England.
- 1934<em>The Narrow Land</em> Pukwudgie
Elizabeth Reynard’s collection of Cape Cod lore told how Maushop and his wife lost their five sons to the little people’s poisoned arrows, the version most often repeated today.
- April 21, 1977Bill Bartlett on Farm Street Dover Demon
Around 10:30 p.m., Bartlett saw a big-headed, orange-eyed figure creeping along a stone wall in his headlights. He sketched it that night and signed the drawing.
- April 22, 1977 (after midnight)John Baxter near Miller Hill Road Dover Demon
Walking home around 12:30 a.m., Baxter followed a small figure into the woods and saw it clinging to a tree by a brook. His independent sketch resembled Bartlett’s.
- April 22, 1977 (night)Abby Brabham and Will Taintor Dover Demon
Riding home around midnight, Brabham saw a crouched creature with a large head and glowing eyes by a bridge. It was the last reported sighting.
- May 1977The story hits the Boston papers Dover Demon
The sightings became public in the first half of May, and Boston-area newspapers and the Associated Press carried the story to a wider audience.
- April 1, 2017“Pukwudgie Xing” Pukwudgie
The Freetown Police Department posted a tongue-in-cheek Pukwudgie crossing sign near the state forest, joking that mating season lasted only through April Fools’ Day.
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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).