South Carolina

1Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp On the record

Humanoid · Bishopville, Lee County · first reported Late June 1988

The 1988 Bishopville case, in which a teenager said a seven-foot green creature jumped on his car roof, has its own dossier. One side story belongs here: a hoax attached to the case.

Full story: Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp →

• August 1988Proven hoax Six weeks into the flap an airman produced scales and blood he said came from the creature. He recanted soon after, admitting he made it up to keep the story alive. The hoax did not touch the original sighting, but it showed how quickly evidence can be invented. Source: en.wikipedia.org

Visiting: Bishopville's Lizard Man Stomp festival; footprint casts at the South Carolina Cotton Museum.

2Bigfoot in South Carolina Investigated report

Ape-like · Statewide; Lee, Oconee, Berkeley and Orangeburg counties · first reported BFRO database

South Carolina's upright ape reports belong to the main Bigfoot dossier. The BFRO lists about 60 reports here, led by Lee County with 8, the same county as the Lizard Man. Recent Class A reports came from Spartanburg, Florence and Sumter counties.

Full story: Bigfoot →

• May 2026Investigated report The BFRO lists a Class A report of motorists who saw a sasquatch at the edge of a dark road about eleven miles northwest of Spartanburg. Earlier in 2026 it logged repeated road-crossing sightings in Florence County, northwest of Myrtle Beach. Source: bfro.net

Visiting: South Carolina Bigfoot Festival, Westminster, October 9-10, 2026.

3Hound of Goshen Told story

Beast · Old Buncombe Road, Sumter National Forest, Newberry County · first reported Origin story set in the 1850s · also called Ghost Hound of Goshen

Along a stretch of Old Buncombe Road through the Sumter National Forest, travelers have long reported a huge white dog that appears at night. It runs alongside horses, buggies and later cars, and vanishes if anyone confronts it. The usual story makes it the ghost of a dog whose owner was hanged for a murder he did not commit, and which has hunted the guilty ever since. The curator of the county museum told South Carolina ETV it is plainly not a nice spirit. He also admitted that parts of the legend fall apart if you think about them too hard. It is one of the best-known black-dog style legends in the state, though here the dog is white.

4Third Eye Man Told story

Humanoid · Steam tunnels and Longstreet Theatre, University of South Carolina, Columbia · first reported Said to date from 1949

USC's campus monster lives in the steam tunnels. The legend says a student in 1949 saw a disfigured man climb out of a manhole near Longstreet Theatre and go back down. In the 1950s a campus police officer supposedly found a silver-clad figure with a third eye in its forehead crouched behind the theatre, eating raw chicken. Through the 1960s and 1970s fraternity pledges sent into the tunnels came back with tales of a man in silver swinging a lead pipe. The tunnels are real, and their sealed entrances can still be seen around campus. In 2016 the student newspaper searched its own archives for the 1949 story and could not find it, which suggests the date was added later.

5Boo Hag Told story

Humanoid · Gullah Geechee Lowcountry of South Carolina and Georgia · first reported Traditional; recorded in the 1930s · also called Boo Hagg, Hag

The Boo Hag comes from Gullah Geechee storytelling along the South Carolina and Georgia coast. By night she slips off her skin like a snake and goes out riding. She rides sleeping people like horses, drawing out their breath and strength so they wake up worn out, or hag-ridden. Some tellings say she steals voices or blood. The defenses are part of the fun. Leave a broom by the bed and she must count every straw until sunrise. Find her empty skin and fill it with salt and pepper so it burns when she climbs back in. Haint blue paint on porch ceilings and window frames is part of the same protective tradition. Many tales were recorded by the Federal Writers' Project in the 1930s.

6Plat-Eye Told story

Beast · Gullah Geechee Lowcountry of South Carolina and Georgia · first reported Traditional; recorded in 1936

The plat-eye is a shapeshifting spirit from African American and Gullah Geechee tradition in the coastal Lowcountry. Older accounts give it one large eye dangling from the middle of its forehead. Later tellings say it can take many forms, often a misshapen animal such as a dog or cat that looks wrong. It haunts dark woods, swamps, graveyards and lonely roads. Many stories make it the restless spirit of someone not properly buried, guarding buried treasure. These stories grew after the Civil War, alongside rumors of money hidden by planters. Its approach could sound like a chain rattling against a tree. Travelers carried gunpowder and sulfur in small cloth bags for protection. A 1936 Federal Writers' Project interview with Addie Knox records an encounter.

7Charleston Harbor Sea Serpents On the record

Water monster · Charleston Harbor and nearby coast · first reported 1830

Charleston's sea serpent record begins in 1830. That year the crew of the schooner Eagle reported two creatures in or near the harbor. They were said to be about seventy feet long, eel-shaped and grey, with scales and heads like alligators. The captain came within about twenty-five yards and fired a musket, and the animal swam on unbothered. Nearly two centuries later, in the summer of 2017, a longtime fisherman named Michael Green reported a serpent-like animal at least thirty feet long swimming near his boat. The Charleston City Paper has collected these reports with other harbor tales. They include a mermaid supposedly kept at an apothecary in 1867.

• 1830On the record The schooner Eagle's captain reported two grey, scaly, eel-shaped animals about seventy feet long with alligator-like heads. He said he fired a musket at one from twenty to twenty-five yards and it kept swimming. The account comes down through later retellings. Source: charlestoncitypaper.com
• Summer 2017Told story Fisherman Michael Green said a large serpent-like animal, which he estimated at thirty feet or more, swam near his boat off the Charleston coast. He said it matched nothing he knew from years on the Atlantic. No photograph of the animal was reported. Source: charlestoncitypaper.com

8Summerville Light Told story

Lights · Old Light Road, Summerville, Dorchester County · first reported 1950s-1960s

Near Summerville a glowing orb is said to hover over old railroad tracks at night. The local story makes it the lantern of a woman still waiting for a husband who died in a train accident. The legend grew in the 1950s and 1960s, and a nearby road became Old Light Road. In January 2025 U.S. Geological Survey seismologist Susan Hough offered a fresh idea in Seismological Research Letters. She noted that small quakes in 1959 and 1960 matched the period when sightings began. Hough suggested some sightings could be earthquake lights, perhaps from gases released along faults. She called the idea speculative.

9Colonial Lake Frogman Told story

Humanoid · Colonial Lake, Charleston · first reported 1902

Charleston's downtown tidal pond has a strange footnote. In 1902, local lore says, something described as half man and half frog was seen in Colonial Lake. The Charleston City Paper included it in a 2022 roundup of harbor-area monsters, alongside the 1830 sea serpents and a mermaid said to have been kept at an apothecary. No witness name or newspaper report came with it. The far more famous frog-man reports come from Loveland, Ohio, decades later, which makes this a curious early example if the date holds. Colonial Lake is a public park today, ringed by historic houses, and is an easy stop on a downtown walk.

Visiting: Colonial Lake Park, downtown Charleston, open to the public.