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.
Winged · Middletown Valley and South Mountain, Frederick County · first reported Settler folklore; newspaper rampage 1909 · also called Snollygoster
The winged, one-eyed terror of Frederick County, built from German settler lore and blown up by a 1909 newspaper hoax. See the main Snallygaster dossier.
Full story: Snallygaster →
Humanoid · Fletchertown Road, Bowie, and Tucker Road, Clinton · first reported Talk since the late 1950s; documented 1971 · also called Goatman, Maryland Goatman
Maryland's Goatman is a lovers'-lane monster from the suburbs east of Washington. In the best-known version, a scientist at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center was changed into a half-man, half-goat by an experiment gone wrong, and now prowls back roads with an axe. Descriptions range from a hairy humanoid to a faun with goat legs. The legend was documented in 1971 by University of Maryland student George Lizama, and the Prince George's County News reported on it that fall. A dog's death was blamed on Goatman around then. Folklorist Barry Pearson called the legend very old, and police fielded many reports, a good share of them pranks.
Visiting: Fletchertown Road and Governor's Bridge are public roads; do not trespass on private land.
Water monster · Chesapeake Bay, Kent Island and the Bush River · first reported 1936 (claimed); 1943 · also called Chesapeake Bay Monster
Chessie is the Chesapeake Bay's sea serpent. A claimed 1936 helicopter sighting is doubtful since helicopters were barely flying then, but in 1943 two fishermen described a head the size of a football, shaped a bit like a horse's, with about twelve feet of body showing. Reports grew in the late 1970s and 1980s. In 1982, Robert and Karen Frew filmed a long, dark shape swimming with a side-to-side motion off Kent Island, and experts who reviewed it could not settle what it was. Chessie became a friendly mascot for the bay's environmental health in the 1980s. Notably, a real manatee nicknamed Chessie later showed up in the bay many times.
Visiting: Calvert Cliffs State Park, near some 1978 sightings, overlooks the bay.
Beast · Middletown area and Gambrill State Park, Frederick County · first reported 1944 (screams); November 1965 (sighting)
The Dwayyo is a wolf-like creature of the Catoctin and South Mountain ridges in Frederick County, the same country as the Snallygaster. Witnesses describe something bear-sized with long dark hair, a bushy tail, a dog- or wolf-like head with pointed ears and glowing yellow eyes, and the ability to walk upright. Locals blamed it for frightening screams in 1944, and the first widely reported sighting came in November 1965, when a man using a pseudonym said it attacked him in his yard. Reports have continued, including a motorist near Myersville in 2009. Some writers tie the name to Pennsylvania Dutch werewolf words. Today it is often grouped with modern dogman reports.
Visiting: Gambrill and Cunningham Falls state parks are public.
Beast · South Mountain and Turner's Gap, Washington and Frederick counties · first reported 1800s (legend)
The Snarly Yow is the phantom black dog of South Mountain, an area soaked in Civil War history near Antietam and Harpers Ferry. It is described as a huge dog with burning red eyes, sagging skin and crowded teeth. In the stories, bullets pass straight through it, and drivers who hit it feel a bump, only to see it standing unhurt behind them, snarling, before it fades away. One well-known tale says a school bus returning from a field trip in 1975 struck the dog and saw it standing behind the bus. Seeing it three times is said to foretell death. It shares that rule with black dog legends from Britain to Connecticut.
Visiting: South Mountain State Park and the Appalachian Trail at Turner's Gap.
Ape-like · Patapsco Valley State Park and Piney Run Park, near Sykesville · first reported June 1973
Along the wooded south branch of the Patapsco River west of Baltimore, people have reported a tall, dark-haired creature since 1973, when a truck driver first described it. Researcher Lon Strickler, who runs the Phantoms and Monsters blog, says that in May 1981 a seven- to eight-foot creature attacked his dog, which escaped bleeding. He has since collected a dozen or more reports from the area in the 1970s and 1980s, plus tales of mutilated deer, raided chicken coops, a strange smell like fox urine and a clicking sound. Some of his claims, such as federal agents sealing off the area, have no outside support. A jogger reported a sighting as recently as 2020.
Visiting: Patapsco Valley State Park and Piney Run Park are open to the public.
Beast · Rose Hill Road, Port Tobacco, Charles County · first reported Late 1700s (legend) · also called Blue Dog
Port Tobacco, an old river town in southern Maryland, has one of the region's oldest ghost-animal stories. Soon after the Revolutionary War, the tale goes, a soldier named Charles Thomas Sims was murdered on Rose Hill Road for his gold by a man named Henry Hanos, and his faithful dog died defending him. The dog's ghost, a large bluish hound, is said to guard the buried gold to this day, and the killer came to a bad end when he returned for it. People claimed to see the Blue Dog on cold February nights into the 1970s. Some call it one of America's oldest ghost stories, though its true age is debated.
Visiting: Historic Port Tobacco village; a local restaurant has used the Blue Dog name.
Beast · Wicomico County landfill, Eastern Shore · first reported Autumn 1980
In the fall of 1980, four young people driving near the Wicomico County landfill on Maryland's Eastern Shore reported a large black cat-like animal with a long whip-like tail, big curved claws and, most disturbing, a face that looked almost human. They said it slunk and crouched like a cat, then charged their car, scratched the door and battered the windows, and let out a terrible scream when a claw caught in the door handle. They came back with more friends and said it appeared again. Around the same time, the area reportedly saw an unusual number of mutilated deer. Skeptics point to a dog, bobcat, or the panic of a night at a dump.
Humanoid · Bay marshes near Aberdeen, Harford County · first reported January 1980
In January 1980, Frank J. Bennett, a Bible teacher with an interest in the paranormal, reported a strange encounter in the marshes along the bay near Aberdeen. He described a dark figure about six feet tall that seemed to be wearing a button-up shirt, looked quite human, and yelled in a human-sounding voice rather than grunting like an ape. He also said it could swing through the trees. Bennett later wrote a book about the experience. With only one witness and the human details, some readers suspect a person living rough in the marshes. Harford County also has a cluster of Bigfoot reports in national databases.