1Slide-Rock Bolter Told story
Beast · San Juan Mountains between Ophir and Lizard Head, near Rico · first reported 1910 · also called bolter
The Slide-Rock Bolter is one of the 'fearsome critters' of logging-camp humor, written down by forester William T. Cox in his 1910 book Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods. It lives only on Colorado slopes steeper than 45 degrees. It has a huge head, tiny eyes, a wide fish-like mouth, and a split tail with hooks that it uses to anchor itself on a ridge top. When something tasty wanders into the gulch below, it lets go, greases its way down the mountain like a toboggan, scoops up its victim, and coasts up the far slope. Cox placed one near Ophir Peaks and Lizard Head. Nobody took it as fact; it was a tall tale to scare greenhorns and tourists.
- 1910Told story Cox tells of a forest ranger who stuffed a dummy tourist with explosives as bait. The bolter took it, and the blast is said to have flattened half of Rico, a joke about the old mining town's decline. Source: lib.lumberwoods.org
Visiting: Lizard Head Pass on CO-145 between Rico and Telluride.
Sources
- Slide-Rock Bolter, from Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods (1910)
- Colorado Cryptids and Folklore (Folk Bestiary)
2Augerino Told story
Beast · Middle Park, Grand County · first reported 1941
The Augerino is a Colorado ranch-country joke creature recorded by folklorist Ronald L. Ives in 1941. It is a giant corkscrew-shaped worm that lives underground in dry country and cannot be killed. Because it needs dry soil, it is said to bore holes through irrigation ditches and dams to drain the water away, which conveniently explained every leak a farmer ever had. Some tellings say it lines its tunnels with a glassy coating. The joke had a scientific afterlife: in 2008 paleontologists named a spiral-shaped trace fossil from New Mexico Augerinoichnus helicoidalis in its honor.
- 1941Told story Ronald L. Ives published Middle Park tales of the Augerino boring through dams and ditches. Source: folkbestiary.com
Sources
- Colorado Cryptids and Folklore (Folk Bestiary)
- Augerinoichnus helicoidalis, a new helical trace fossil (ResearchGate)
3Tommyknockers Told story
Humanoid · Colorado mining districts, especially Central City, Gilpin County · first reported 1800s (Cornish miners) · also called knockers
Cornish miners who came to Colorado's gold and silver camps brought their knockers with them. Tommyknockers are small underground beings whose tapping in the rock might warn of a cave-in, or might be the reason tools went missing and lamps went out. Some miners believed they were the spirits of men who had died underground and left food scraps for them to stay on their good side. Folklorist Caroline Bancroft found the belief still alive around Central City in the 1930s. In one 1931 case, two miners quit the Chain-O-Mines after hearing eerie lowing noises below ground; the cause turned out to be water dripping onto sheet metal.
- 1931On the record Two miners left the Chain-O-Mines near Central City over strange underground sounds; an investigation traced them to dripping water on metal. Source: folkbestiary.com
Visiting: Central City and Black Hawk historic mining district.
Sources
- Colorado Cryptids and Folklore (Folk Bestiary)
- Knockers, Tommyknockers and the question of ghosts (University of Exeter)
4Vampire of Lafayette Told story
Humanoid · Lafayette Cemetery, Lafayette, Boulder County · first reported by the 1950s · also called Tudor Glava, Teodor Glava
In the Lafayette Cemetery east of Boulder stands a headstone that reads that Tudor Glava was born in Transylvania and died in 1918. He was a Romanian coal miner. The word Transylvania was enough. By the 1950s local kids were warning each other about the vampire's grave. The story grew: a stake through his heart, a tree sprouting from that stake through the grave, roses springing from his fingernails, and a tall thin figure seen nearby at night. Teenagers drove up after dark to frighten their dates. A CU film student made a short film, Glava, in 2010. The real man's grave deserves respect, and the cemetery is not a party spot.
- modernTold story Visitors describe a tree growing up through the grave, said to come from the stake, and claim two nearby 'victim' graves have vanished. Source: cuindependent.com
Visiting: Lafayette Cemetery, N. 111th St.; please be respectful, it is an active cemetery.
Sources
- Did someone say 'vampire grave'? (CU Independent)
- Colorado Cryptids and Folklore (Folk Bestiary)
5Riverdale Road Jogger Told story
Humanoid · Riverdale Road between Thornton and Brighton, Adams County · first reported after 1975 · also called Ghost Jogger
An eleven-mile stretch of Riverdale Road north of Denver is known locally as one of the most haunted roads in the country. The best-known figure is a ghost jogger who taps on car windows; others include a phantom Camaro with one headlight and a hitchhiker in white who vanishes. The road's darkest legend says a mansion owner went mad, burned his family alive and disappeared. Denver Public Library researcher Katie Rudolph traced that tale to a real fire on November 28, 1975 at an old brick house at 9190 Riverdale Road. The house had been empty after health officials ordered it cleared, and no one died. The ghost stories outgrew the facts.
- Nov 28, 1975On the record A fire gutted an old two-story brick house on Riverdale Road. Records show it was vacant at the time, which contradicts the family-murder legend that grew from it. Source: history.denverlibrary.org
Sources
- David Wolpert House: Dissecting a Riverdale Road ghost story (Denver Public Library)
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