Connecticut

1Glawackus On the record

Beast · Glastonbury, Hartford County · first reported January 1939 · also called Glastonbury Glawackus

In early 1939, people around Glastonbury reported a strange animal in the woods, and the Hartford Courant ran with it. Descriptions disagreed wildly: some saw a huge cat, others something like a dog behind and a cat in front, and its scream was compared to a hyena's laugh. A newspaper editor coined the name Glawackus from Glastonbury plus wacky, and radio host Lowell Thomas spread it nationally. Hunters went out with hounds and came back with nothing. One later telling claims a hunter posed with a fake made from a fur muff. Researchers suggest a stray big cat, a bobcat, or a fisher, with a big dose of newspaper fun.

• January 1939On the record The Hartford Courant reported a mystery beast near Glastonbury that was blamed for attacking dogs and killing livestock. A search party with hounds found nothing. Source: en.wikipedia.org
• 1939Proven hoax A later account says two men claimed to have chased the beast into Salisbury and shot it, posing it for a photo. It was reportedly a stuffed fur muff, a hoax. Source: preston-posits.com

2Melon Heads Told story

Humanoid · Trumbull, Monroe, Shelton and Oxford, Fairfield and New Haven counties · first reported Mid-1900s (legend) · also called Melonheads

Melon Heads are a teenage legend found in Connecticut, Ohio and Michigan. In Connecticut, they are said to be small, wild people with huge bald heads who live in the woods and attack anyone who parks on lonely roads. One story blames a 1960 asylum fire and escaped patients; another points to a colonial family banished over witchcraft fears. Kids talk about a road called Dracula Drive, which does not exist on any map, so the tale gets attached to real roads such as Velvet Street in Trumbull and Monroe. Folklorists note the legend leans on cruel stereotypes about disability, and that real neighbors on these roads deal with trespassers.

• VariousTold story Stories place the Melon Heads on Velvet Street, Edmonds Road in Oxford and Jeremy Swamp Road in Southbury, all tied to the mythical Dracula Drive. Source: en.wikipedia.org

Visiting: These are residential roads; do not trespass.

3Black Dog of the Hanging Hills Told story

Beast · Hanging Hills and West Peak, Meriden · first reported 1898 (in print) · also called Black Dog of West Peak

The Hanging Hills above Meriden are traprock ridges with steep cliffs, and their ghost is a small, friendly black dog. It leaves no tracks and makes no sound. The rule attached to it is the chilling part: meet it once for joy, twice for sorrow, and the third time you die. The story comes from an 1898 piece in The Connecticut Quarterly by W. H. C. Pynchon, which told of a geologist who saw the dog and later died in a fall on West Peak. Folklorists widely see Pynchon's piece as fiction drawing on English black dog lore. Hikers on the trails near Castle Craig still trade sightings.

• 1898Told story W. H. C. Pynchon's account in The Connecticut Quarterly gave the famous rule: once for joy, twice for sorrow, three times for death. Source: en.wikipedia.org
• Recent decadesTold story Hikers have posted claims of seeing a small black dog near Castle Craig that vanished or left no prints. Source: preston-posits.com

Visiting: Hubbard Park and Castle Craig tower in Meriden; trails lead to West Peak.

4Winsted Wild Man On the record

Ape-like · Winsted (Winchester), Litchfield County · first reported August 1895 · also called Winsted Wildman

In August 1895, a Winsted newspaper reported that a town selectman picking berries had met a large, naked, hairy man who rushed out of the brush and fled into the woods. Reporters from Boston and New York piled into town. The story came out of a town famous for one local newsman, Louis T. Stone, who made his name with tall tales such as a tree that grew baked apples, and he is often blamed for the wild man. Some researchers doubt Stone invented it. The legend came back in the 1970s, when teenagers and two couples near local reservoirs reported a big hairy figure. Skeptics blame black bears and Bigfoot-era excitement.

• August 1895On the record Selectman Riley Smith said a powerful, naked, hairy man burst from the bushes while he picked berries, then ran off. The Winsted Herald reported it and big-city papers followed. Source: preston-posits.com
• September 1974Told story Two couples at Rugg Brook Reservoir reported a six-foot, heavy, dark-haired creature. Source: preston-posits.com

5Connie, the Connecticut River Serpent On the record

Water monster · Connecticut River · first reported 1886 · also called Connecticut River Serpent

New England's longest river has its own serpent. In 1886, the New York Times carried a report that two men in a rowboat, named as Colonel Stocking and Silas Sage, saw a huge serpent rise ten feet from the water and show many feet of coils. In 1894, a Boston paper printed an elderly Deerfield, Massachusetts, farmer's story of a big reared head with a white stripe. Later claims include a 1995 sighting near White River Junction and a 2008 photo from a West Hartford reservoir. Fans joke that it hides in the old Hog River tunnel under Hartford. Skeptics point to sturgeon, which can top ten feet in big rivers.

• September 8, 1886On the record The New York Times reported Colonel Stocking and Silas Sage's account of a serpent that struck near their rowboat early in the morning. Source: preston-posits.com
• Spring 1894On the record The Boston Herald reported a Deerfield farmer, Austin Rice, saw a large head with a white stripe rear up from the river. Source: preston-posits.com

Visiting: Riverfront parks in Hartford and Middletown overlook the river.

6Higganum Mucket Told story

Water monster · Candlewood Hill Brook, Higganum (Haddam), Middlesex County · first reported 1982 (in print) · also called Mucket

The Higganum Mucket is a proudly local joke that grew into a village mascot. Writer Arthur Wiknik Jr. began spinning tales in 1982 about a small, mean fish-like creature in Candlewood Hill Brook, with a lizard-shaped head, little horns, a big appetite and the ability to crawl over land and hop dams. In one tale, firefighters drawing water accidentally sucked up a batch of muckets and found them fried. Residents embraced it with festivals and school art contests. A town official summed it up: it is a myth, but it is theirs. It is a fine example of a cryptid made on purpose and kept with affection.

• 1982 onwardTold story Arthur Wiknik Jr.'s 'Mucket Mania' stories introduced the creature, and the village adopted it as a mascot. Source: preston-posits.com

Visiting: Higganum village has held mucket-themed community events.

7Glastonbury Pterodactyl Told story

Winged · Glastonbury, Hartford County · first reported January 1956

Glastonbury, already home of the Glawackus, had a second monster flap in January 1956. The local sportsmen's association newsletter announced that members had seen a gray or brown flying creature with a six- to eight-foot wingspan and a long tail, and the club's new president called for a hunt. A member reported tracks with one webbed foot and one clawed foot. No beast was bagged, and the club's community dinner later that month did not serve pterodactyl, though someone published a tongue-in-cheek recipe. Writers who have looked at it treat it as a joke.

• January 1956Told story The Glastonbury Sportsmen's Association newsletter reported sightings by members and announced a hunt; tracks were claimed but nothing was caught. Source: preston-posits.com

8Noroton River Monster On the record

Water monster · Noroton River, Darien and Stamford · first reported August 1889

In August 1889, the Boston Daily Globe reported that a clam digger on the Noroton River, on Connecticut's Gold Coast, had seen a serpent with a coal-black head, a long red tongue and a pale green body, and that it hissed loudly. According to the story, about a dozen more people soon claimed sightings, a tavern keeper watched from his window, and reporters came from Boston and New York. Oddly, researchers have found no matching coverage in local papers or the New York Times, and local historians do not know the legend. It may have been an invented fish story or a misidentified oarfish or eel.

• August 18, 1889On the record The Boston Daily Globe printed a clam fisher's report of a hissing black-headed, green-bodied serpent seen about a week earlier. Source: preston-posits.com