Investigated report Logged and followed up by an investigating group.On the record In a newspaper, police, government or court record, or from a named public witness.Told story Folklore, oral tradition or a story passed along.Proven hoax Proven or confessed hoax.
Humanoid · Farm Street area, Dover · first reported April 21, 1977
Four-foot, big-headed humanoid reported by several Dover teenagers over about 25 hours in April 1977. See the main Dover Demon dossier for the full case.
Full story: Dover Demon →
Humanoid · Freetown-Fall River State Forest and the Bridgewater Triangle · first reported Indigenous tradition; written down by 1839 · also called Pukwudgee, Puck-wudj-ininee
Pukwudgies are little people from Algonquian traditions, recorded among the Ojibwe in 1839 and closely tied today to the Wampanoag of southeastern Massachusetts. They are living cultural figures, so this entry focuses on the modern sighting lore rather than sacred detail. In Wampanoag telling as summarized in print, they began as helpers who turned troublesome, and the culture hero Maushop scattered them. They are described as knee-high, gray-skinned, with large noses, ears and fingers, able to vanish or change shape. In recent decades, hikers and dog walkers in Freetown-Fall River State Forest and nearby towns have told of small gray figures, and the forest has become the center of Pukwudgie stories in the Bridgewater Triangle.
Visiting: Freetown-Fall River State Forest is open to the public; please respect the Wampanoag cultural sites in the area.
Water monster · Gloucester Harbor, Cape Ann · first reported August 1817 · also called Great New England Sea Serpent, Cape Ann Serpent
In August 1817, crowds in Gloucester watched what they took to be a giant sea serpent swimming in and around the harbor, and the sightings went on into 1818 and 1819. Witnesses described a long dark body, a serpent-like or turtle-like head, and humps along the back, with lengths often put near sixty feet. The Linnaean Society of New England gathered sworn statements, making it one of the best documented sea serpent cases on record. The society also examined a small deformed snake from a nearby field and named it as the serpent's young, a mistake later exposed. Proposed explanations include a narwhal, a large eel, or harpooned whales trailing gear.
Visiting: Gloucester's harbor walk and Cape Ann Museum cover the town's maritime history.
Ape-like · Hockomock Swamp, West Bridgewater and Easton · first reported 1970 · also called Bridgewater Triangle Bigfoot
Hockomock Swamp is the wet heart of the Bridgewater Triangle, a stretch of southeastern Massachusetts that cryptozoologist Loren Coleman named in the 1970s. Among the strange reports tied to the area are sightings of a tall, hairy, upright animal, sometimes said to drop to all fours, with reddish eyes. Reports run from 1970 into the mid-1980s and include police officers, a fur trapper and campers. Local researcher Joseph DeAndrade, who said he saw it himself in 1978, went on to found a team to look into the Triangle. Skeptics point out that black bears and deer can move through the swamp and that the Triangle label draws reports to itself.
Visiting: Parts of the Hockomock Swamp Wildlife Management Area are open to the public.
Winged · Bird Hill, Easton, and Hockomock Swamp · first reported 1971 · also called Bird Hill Thunderbird
Some of the strangest Bridgewater Triangle reports involve giant birds. In 1971, a creature more than six feet tall with a wingspan of eight to twelve feet was reported near Bird Hill in Easton, at the edge of Hockomock Swamp. Later accounts describe a pair of huge black birds fighting in 1984, a flying animal with a wrinkled dark face in 1987, and a big bird diving at a man on a Taunton bridge in 1992. A Norton police sergeant, Thomas Downy, is credited with one report. Theorists suggest surviving prehistoric birds or pterosaurs. Skeptics favor large herons, eagles, or vultures seen at odd angles and distances.
Humanoid · Provincetown, Cape Cod · first reported October 1938 · also called Provincetown Phantom
From 1938 to 1945, children and adults in Provincetown, at the tip of Cape Cod, told of a tall dark figure that leapt impossible heights and vanished into the dunes. It was said to be about eight feet tall, with pointed ears and glowing eyes, and some stories claim it breathed blue flame. A woman reportedly called police after it jumped a fence in front of her, and a resident said he shot at it with no effect. The last story says a man poured boiling water on its head and it never came back. Writers compare it to England's Spring-Heeled Jack. Skeptics suggest a tall prankster plus wartime nerves.
Beast · Truro, Cape Cod · first reported September 1981
In the fall and winter of 1981 to 1982, something killed cats and small livestock around Truro on outer Cape Cod. A witness described a big animal with short ears and a long, rope-like tail that curved like a J, weighing perhaps eighty pounds or more. Many locals thought of a mountain lion, which had been gone from the region for generations. The killings stopped by early 1982 and the animal was never identified. Researchers count it among New England's mystery cat reports. Skeptics suggest coyotes or loose dogs for the kills and a large dog or bobcat for the sighting.
Water monster · Silver Lake, Plymouth County · first reported 1940s-1950s · also called Frog Monster of Silver Lake
Silver Lake, on the borders of Kingston, Pembroke and Plympton, has a thin but odd story: reports in the 1940s and 1950s of a giant frog or a frog-like man near the water. Local newspapers of the era are said to have carried mentions of it, and cryptozoologist Loren Coleman included it in his writing on Massachusetts monsters. Later rumors shifted to alligators, and an official search in 2011 found nothing. The record is very sparse, with no named witnesses in sources seen. It is worth noting for fans because it sits alongside Ohio's better-known Loveland Frog as one of America's few frogman legends.
Ape-like · Cobble Mountain Reservoir, Blandford and Granville · first reported Folklore; report in September 2000 · also called Red-Eye Dick
Around Cobble Mountain Reservoir, in the hills west of Springfield, locals tell of a creature nicknamed Red-Eye Dick. In the folk version, a Civil War veteran was fused with a bear by a lightning strike. In modern accounts, a fisherman reported a broad-shouldered figure with glowing red eyes and a shriek he compared to a demon baby, at about one in the morning in September 2000, and posted it to a Bigfoot research website. The New England Legends podcast later featured the story. Like many hill-country wild man tales, it mixes a frontier joke with a modern night-fishing scare.