The Dover Demon

A Unique Critter

In April 1976, three teenagers in Dover, Massachusetts had separate encounters with the same bizarre entity over a 24 hour period. Dubbed the Dover Demon by cryptozoologist Loren Coleman, the entity was of a type never seen before or since. Pundits debated whether it was a UFO occupant, a trickster from Native Canadian mythology, or even a baby moose. Others dismissed it as a teenage prank blown out of all proportion.

The Initial Sighting

The first sighting occurred at 10:30pm on April 21st. 17-year-old Bill Bartlett was driving home with two friends when he saw a strange creature clambering over a low stone wall besides the road.

"It looked like a baby's body," he told investigators. "It had a big head about the same size as the body - it was sort of melon shaped."

The entity was 3 to 4 feet tall and had hairless rough-textured skin "like sandpaper". As it turned its head to look at Bartlett, its huge eyes glowed bright orange "like glass marbles" in the headlights.

Neither of Bartlett's passengers noticed the creature. They persuaded him to drive back to take another look, but the entity had vanished.

The Second Sighting

Baxter's sketch of the creature.

Two hours later, the Demon was sighted within a mile of the first encounter. 15-yr-old John Baxter was walking home from his girlfriend's house when he saw a small figure approaching. He thought he recognised it as a local youngster with a deformed head and called out a greeting. The figure made no reply but continued to approach.

"Finally, I was about 15 feet away from it when I stopped and it stopped," he recalled. "I was looking at it and I'm sure it was looking at me - I could barely see the shape of it. And so I took another step towards it. The only thought I had was that it might be a very small person like a 4 or 5 year old. And as I took this step, it just ran."

The Demon fled into the woods beside the road with Baxter in hot pursuit. When he caught up with it, it was leaning against a tree by a stream. Now that he was able to see it clearly, he grew afraid that it might attack him, and hastily retreated.

The Final Sighting

The next night, 15-yr-old Abby Brabham was being driven home by a friend when she glimpsed an ape-like creature "the size of the goat" crouching by the roadside.

"The head was very big, and it was a very weird head," she remembered. "It had bright green eyes [which] just glowed like they were looking exactly at me." Abby was so frightened by the creature that she insisted her companion drive straight on without stopping.

Hoaxers?

Since the witnesses all attended the same high school, many locals dismissed their tales as a teenage prank. When interviewed, the youths seemed confused about when they first learned of each other's sightings, and while Bill Bartlett's science teacher stated that he was convinced of the boy's sincerity, other teachers suggested that Bartlett had orchestrated the whole affair.

Certainly, Bartlett was instrumental in publicising the encounters. He had a stack of photocopies made of his sketch of the Demon, one of which ended up in Loren Coleman's hands, instigating his investigation. And though the local police chief (a friend of the Bartlett's) vouched for Bill's honesty, a police spokesman told the press that the police considered the sightings "pretty much of a joke".

The witnesses have stood by their testimony ever since. "It's a thing that's been following me for years," Bartlett said in a 2006 interview. "Not the creature - the story. I wish it was seen again so everyone would know it was true."

Other Theories

Parallels have been drawn between the Dover Demon and the Mannegishi - a race of pygmy tricksters found in Cree Indian folklore. The Mannegishi have thin bodies with spindly limbs, oversized bald heads, and large eyes. They live on rocks near rapids and delight in playing pranks on passing travellers.

Sceptic Martin Kottmeyer, on the other hand, suggested that the Demon was merely a baby moose. While the Demon's large muzzle does resemble that of a moose, the theory is hard to reconcile with the witnesses' claim that it had fingers and toes and walked upright.

As Loren Coleman put it: "To have a bipedal moose with long fingers and orange skin and no hair and no nose would be more of a phenomenon than the Dover Demon!"

Sources

Alan Baker: Encyclopaedia of Alien Encounters, pp67-68.
Various websites including Cryptomundo, Boston.com and Paranormality.com.