Florida

1Skunk Ape Investigated report

Ape-like · Statewide; Big Cypress and the Everglades are the heartland · first reported 1818 (newspaper report)

Florida's smelly swamp ape has its own dossier. The BFRO lists about 346 Florida reports, led by Collier County with 22. Below are Florida landmarks in its record, from an 1818 newspaper item to the 1990s Big Cypress wave.

Full story: Skunk Ape →

• 1818On the record According to the record summarized on Wikipedia, local newspapers that year reported a man-sized monkey near Apalachicola in the Florida Panhandle. It is often cited as the earliest Florida item in the skunk ape story, long before the name existed. Source: en.wikipedia.org
• 1977On the record A bill put before the Florida legislature would have made it illegal to take, possess, harm or molest anthropoid or humanoid animals in the state. It failed, but it shows how seriously the 1970s wave of Broward and Palm Beach sightings was taken. Source: en.wikipedia.org
• 1997On the record Ochopee fire chief Vince Doerr photographed a dark upright figure in the swamp after seeing something cross the road. Within about two weeks more than fifty further sightings were reported around Big Cypress National Preserve. Tour operator Dave Shealy reported raided bait stations and strange tracks that July. Source: en.wikipedia.org

2Myakka Ape Photographs On the record

Ape-like · Near Myakka River State Park and I-75, Sarasota County · first reported December 2000 · also called Myakka Skunk Ape

In late 2000 the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office received an anonymous letter with two photographs. They showed a large, hairy, ape-like animal at night. The sender said it had been stealing apples from her back porch near I-75. The pictures, now called the Myakka photos, became some of the most debated images in the skunk ape file. The photographer was never identified, so nobody could go back to the yard. Some researchers count them among the best skunk ape images. Others note that without a known location, scale or witness, the photos cannot be tested. They came just three years after the 1997 Big Cypress wave.

• 2000On the record Two anonymous photographs mailed to the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office showed what the sender called an animal raiding apples left on her porch near I-75. The sender never came forward, the location was never confirmed, and the photographs remain the only evidence from the episode. Source: en.wikipedia.org

3Bardin Booger Told story

Ape-like · Bardin, Putnam County, northwest of Palatka · first reported 1940s

Bardin is a small community northwest of Palatka, and its Booger is the friendliest monster in Florida. Locals trace the first sighting to the 1940s near Etoniah Baptist Church. The stories describe a hairy, man-like creature that stole clothes off the line, raided refrigerators and was spotted near lanterns at night. Over the years residents answered with pranks and costumes. In 1981 Palatka Daily News publisher Jody Delzell gave it the name Bardin Booger in his column, and it stuck. Local musician Billy Crain wrote a song about it, and Lena Crain appeared publicly in a Booger costume. In 2006 the Booger marched in Palatka's Azalea Festival carrying a flag and azaleas.

4Two-Toed Tom Told story

Beast · Sand Hammock Lake between Esto and Noma, Holmes County · first reported About 1922 · also called Two-Toe

Two-Toed Tom is a giant alligator who has been blamed for trouble along the Florida-Alabama line for a century. He is said to be about fourteen feet long, with red eyes and a front foot that lost all but two toes to a steel trap. Stories blame him for terrorizing the swamps on both sides of the state line. Esto councilman Ralph Dupree, born in 1912, said he had heard Tom stories since he was ten. The earliest written account is in Carl Carmer's 1934 book Stars Fell on Alabama. One farmer is said to have chased Tom into a pond and thrown fifteen syrup buckets of dynamite after him. Tom supposedly survived and moved on to Sand Hammock Lake. Tracks were reported near Red Head in 1972.

• 1972Told story Tracks credited to Two-Toed Tom were reported on Boynton Island near Red Head, Florida, decades after the first stories. The report kept the legend alive into the era when Esto later created a Two-Toed Tom Festival, which began in 1987. Source: en.wikipedia.org

Visiting: Esto held an annual Two-Toed Tom Festival from 1987; its current status is uncertain.

5St. Johns River Monster On the record

Water monster · St. Johns River, Central Florida to Jacksonville · first reported 1849 · also called Borinkus, Pinky

Florida's longest river has a long sea-serpent record. In February 1849 Captain Adams of the schooner Lucy and Nancy reported a ninety-foot serpent with a snake-like head and big fins at the river mouth. Former state attorney J.W. Hunter later claimed that in the 1910s the river had plenty of creatures he called Borinkus. In October 1953 Kissimmee reptile-park owner Owen Godwin offered five thousand dollars for a live thirty-foot specimen with a horn. In May 1975 five friends near Jacksonville described something pink and dragon-like, and in 1976 Kathy Kirkland reported linked humps and a head the size of a basketball. Biologists have generally suggested manatees.

• February 18, 1849On the record Captain Adams of the schooner Lucy and Nancy reported an immense serpent at the mouth of the St. Johns, which he judged to be about ninety feet long, with a snake-like head and large fins. It is the earliest newspaper account found for the river. Source: thejaxsonmag.com
• October 1953On the record After several people reported a large animal with a horn, reptile-park owner Owen Godwin of Kissimmee publicly offered five thousand dollars for a living specimen about thirty feet long, or one thousand for a dead one. Nobody ever collected the money, and the reward became part of the legend. Source: thejaxsonmag.com

6St. Augustine Monster On the record

Water monster · Anastasia Island, St. Augustine · first reported November 30, 1896 · also called Giant Octopus of St. Augustine, Octopus giganteus

On November 30, 1896, two boys bicycling on Anastasia Island, Herbert Coles and Dunham Coretter, found an enormous carcass on the beach. Dr. DeWitt Webb, founder of the St. Augustine Historical Society, examined it the next day. He described a badly decayed mass about eighteen feet long and seven feet wide, weighing several tons. Yale zoologist Addison Verrill first suggested a giant squid, then a giant octopus, and even gave it a scientific name. A 1971 tissue study seemed to support the octopus idea. Studies in 1995 and 2004 found the samples were almost pure collagen from whale skin. The case is now treated as explained: the blob was whale remains.

• 1995 and 2004On the record Electron microscopy and biochemical tests on preserved samples found masses of collagen typical of whale blubber and skin, not octopus tissue. A 2004 follow-up confirmed the result, closing the case for most scientists. The St. Augustine blob is now the textbook example of a misread whale carcass. Source: en.wikipedia.org

7Wild Man of Ocheesee Pond On the record

Humanoid · Ocheesee Pond, Jackson County, south of Sneads and Grand Ridge · first reported August 1884

In the summer of 1884 people around Ocheesee Pond, a cypress swamp in Jackson County, reported a wild man. He swam between the islands, lived on berries and made cries that kept neighbors awake. He was described as naked, thin and covered with a remarkable growth of hair. In August local men with guns, boats and horses closed in from several sides and caught him. Assuming he had escaped from an asylum, they took him toward Tallahassee and then back to Chattahoochee to be identified. No institution claimed him, and his fate is unknown. Historian Dale Cox traced the story through several 1884 newspapers. It reads as a real event with a human at its center.

• August 18, 1884On the record A report carried by the steamer Amos Hays from Columbus, Georgia, described the capture of a hairy, naked man at Ocheesee Pond. His captors took him for an asylum escapee, but no asylum reported anyone missing, and nothing further about him has been found. Source: exploresouthernhistory.com

8Two Egg Stump Jumper Told story

Ape-like · Near Two Egg and Old Parramore, Jackson County · first reported February 2010

Two Egg is a tiny crossroads in the Florida Panhandle, and in 2010 it got its own little monster. In February that year historian Dale Cox wrote up two reports from about seven miles northeast of town, near the ghost town of Old Parramore. One man heard noises outside his home at night and saw a pale figure run away on two legs. Another person saw something in swampy ground near Circle Hill Baptist Church in the early evening. Both described a small, hairy, upright creature, smaller than a person, which locals nicknamed a mini-Bigfoot or hobbit. Cox noted that such reports were new to the area, though Central and South Florida have long had skunk ape stories.

• February 2010Told story Two separate witnesses told historian Dale Cox of a small, hairy, two-legged figure near Old Parramore, one at night outside a home and one at dusk near Circle Hill Baptist Church. Neither produced a photograph, though Cox noted unusual tracks were also discussed locally. Source: twoeggfla.blogspot.com

9Muck Monster On the record

Water monster · Lake Worth Lagoon, West Palm Beach · first reported August 2009

In August 2009 two Lagoon Keepers, Greg Reynolds and Don Serrano, were cleaning up Lake Worth Lagoon near Channel Marker 10. They filmed an unusual wake from something that kept diving whenever they approached. A state marine biologist reviewed the video and could not identify the animal. In September 2009 West Palm Beach commissioners voted to make it an official city resident and to add observation stations on the water. Commissioner Bill Moss called it good-natured fun and a boost for the lagoon. The city said it had spent no money promoting it. County tourism later invited visitors to look for it.

• September 2009On the record West Palm Beach city commissioners voted to name the Muck Monster an official resident and approved observation stations along the lagoon. A local fishing guide welcomed the attention as good for business and for restoration of the water. Some residents questioned the priority during budget cuts. Source: wflx.com

Visiting: Lake Worth Lagoon waterfront, West Palm Beach.

10Snoligoster Told story

Beast · Cypress swamps around Lake Okeechobee · first reported 1910 (in print)

The Snoligoster comes from William T. Cox's 1910 book of lumber-camp tall tales, Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods. Cox placed it in the cypress swamps around Lake Okeechobee. He described a huge, legless crocodile shape covered in glossy fur, with one long spike on its back and a tail like a three-bladed propeller. It drove itself through the muck with the tail, tossed victims onto the spike, then ground them up in a mud hole. Cox credited a tale to forester Inman F. Eldredge, who supposedly found a man impaled on what he took for a cypress knee. It is a deliberate tall tale, not a sighting. The original text also contains racist language of its era.

11Old Three Toes (Giant Penguin Hoax) Proven hoax

Beast · Clearwater Beach and the Suwannee River · first reported February 1948 · also called Clearwater Monster, Giant Penguin

In 1948 people found huge three-toed tracks on Clearwater Beach, and more turned up along the Suwannee River. Some witnesses described a fifteen-foot animal like a penguin with alligator feet. Cryptozoologist Ivan Sanderson stated that the tracks could not have been faked. In 1988 St. Petersburg Times reporter Jan Kirby revealed the truth. Tony Signorini and Al Williams had made heavy iron penguin feet, strapped them on at night and hopped along the sand. Writer Daniel Loxton later found that Sanderson had known about the hoax and left that out of his book. The case is a classic lesson in how tracks alone prove very little.

• 1988Proven hoax St. Petersburg Times reporter Jan Kirby revealed that Tony Signorini and Al Williams had made the 1948 tracks using cast-iron feet. The confession ended forty years of speculation about a giant penguin on the Gulf Coast, including claims by a well-known cryptozoologist. Source: en.wikipedia.org

12Carrabelle Sea Serpent On the record

Water monster · Off Carrabelle, Franklin County · first reported August 1896

In August 1896 the Ocala Evening Star reported that crew from the vessel Crescent City had killed a sea serpent off Carrabelle in the Gulf. The animal was described as eel-shaped and about forty-two feet long, with a girth of seventy-two inches. It had a spoonbill head, a shark-like mouth with teeth angled back, a forked tongue and small tail fins. Its back was brown going to green, looking black under water, with a yellow belly. The body was brought to Carrabelle, but it was never formally identified and no remains are known to survive. Researchers have compared the story with other Gulf serpent reports of the period.

• August 24, 1896On the record The Ocala Evening Star carried the account of the Crescent City crew killing a forty-two-foot, eel-like animal with a spoonbill head and forked tongue, then bringing it in to Carrabelle. The newspaper item is the only record found, and no remains are known to have been kept or studied. Source: countryroadsmagazine.com