Rhode Island

1Glocester Ghoul On the record

Beast · Paige Farm area, Glocester, Providence County · first reported 1830s (printed 1889) · also called Glocester Monster

The Glocester Ghoul comes from a treasure hunt gone wrong. As retold in an 1889 Providence Journal piece, a group of men digging for buried treasure on a Glocester farm in the 1830s said a monstrous animal rose up and drove them off. The description is a nightmare collage: eyes as big as pewter bowls, bat-like wings, ram's horns, duck-like feet and scales the size of clam shells. One of the diggers was said to be Albert Hicks, who later became infamous as a pirate and was hanged in 1860. A second account from 1896 described an elephant-sized beast. Folklorists read it as a classic treasure-guardian tale, the kind meant to explain why the digging came up empty.

• 1830s (date given as 1833 or 1839)Told story Treasure diggers including a man named Albert Hicks said a huge winged, horned, scaled creature chased them from the site. Source: preston-posits.com
• May 5, 1889On the record The Providence Journal printed the story of the treasure hunt and the creature. Source: preston-posits.com
• January 15, 1896Told story A later account attributed to Neil Hopkins described a beast as big as an elephant, without a tail, that made a metallic sound. Source: preston-posits.com

2Block Ness Monster On the record

Water monster · Off Block Island · first reported June 27, 1996

In June 1996, the crew of a fishing boat named the Mad Monk pulled up a strange carcass off Block Island. Accounts describe a skeleton roughly fourteen feet long, with no fins, a spear-shaped skull and fleshy whiskers. The local press called it the Block Ness Monster. A biologist examined it, and the leading explanation was the rotting remains of a basking shark, whose carcasses are famous for turning into fake sea serpents as they decay. The remains were later reported stolen from a freezer, ending any chance of more testing. Another odd carcass was reported on the island in 2004.

• June 27, 1996On the record The Mad Monk's crew brought in a long, finless, serpent-like carcass. A biologist, named as Lee Scott, examined it, and a basking shark was the favored identification. Source: preston-posits.com
• 2004Told story A second mysterious carcass was reported on Block Island. Source: petakovmedia.com

Visiting: Block Island is reached by ferry from Point Judith; the beaches are public.

3Teddy's Beach Sea Monster On the record

Water monster · Teddy's Beach, Portsmouth (Island Park) · first reported 2002

A small beach on the Sakonnet River in Portsmouth produced one of New England's odder modern sea monster stories. A couple from Fall River and a fishing friend told a Providence TV news crew that a creature about fifteen feet long, with a round head, sharp teeth and pale underside, came at them in the shallows. They said it hissed, brushed against the woman's leg and spat water, and the friend showed a leg wound. Commentators suggested a wolf eel or another large eel-like fish. The story lives on mostly through the TV clip and online discussion, and no animal was ever caught.

• 2002On the record Rachel Carney and Dennis Vasconcellos, with fishing friend Joey Mailloux, described the creature on Channel 12 news. Mailloux had a wound on his leg. Source: preston-posits.com

4Big Rhodey Told story

Ape-like · Great Swamp (South Kingstown), Foster, Exeter and the Blackstone Valley · first reported 1998 · also called Rhode Island Bigfoot

Rhode Island is small and crowded, but people still report Bigfoot-like figures in its wooded western towns and in the Great Swamp. Enthusiasts call it Big Rhodey. Reports describe an upright, ape-like figure six to eight feet tall, white or brown, with a sloping forehead. They include a cyclist near Glendale in 1998, a hiker in the Great Swamp in 2006, and a driver on Route 6 in Foster in 2010. Some of these are drawn from a national Bigfoot research database. Skeptics point out that black bears have been spreading back into Rhode Island and that the state's forests are thin and close to roads.

• October 15, 1998Told story A cyclist with a large dog reported a tall upright figure near Glendale in the Blackstone Valley. Source: preston-posits.com
• April 15, 2010Told story A motorist reported a tall, ape-like figure along Route 6 in Foster. Source: preston-posits.com

Visiting: Great Swamp Management Area in West Kingston is public land.

5Mercy Brown, the Exeter Vampire On the record

Other · Chestnut Hill Baptist Church Cemetery, Exeter · first reported 1892 · also called Mercy Brown vampire incident

Mercy Brown is not a cryptid, but she is Rhode Island's most famous monster story, and it really happened. Tuberculosis killed several members of the Brown family of Exeter over a decade. When 19-year-old Mercy died in January 1892 and her brother Edwin was gravely ill, neighbors feared a dead relative was feeding on the living. On March 17, 1892, the family graves were opened. Mercy's body, kept through a cold winter, looked fresher than the others, and blood was found in her heart. Her heart and liver were burned and the ashes given to Edwin in a drink. He died two months later. Historians call it one of the last New England vampire panics.

• March 17, 1892On the record Villagers and a doctor exhumed the Brown family dead. Mercy's heart and liver were burned and mixed into a tonic for her brother Edwin, who died about two months later. Source: en.wikipedia.org

Visiting: Mercy Brown's grave is in the cemetery behind Chestnut Hill Baptist Church in Exeter; visit respectfully.

6Palatine Light On the record

Lights · Sandy Point, Block Island · first reported 1738 wreck; light reported by 1810 · also called Palatine ghost ship

In December 1738, the ship Princess Augusta, carrying German Palatine emigrants, ran aground at Sandy Point on Block Island after a terrible voyage that had already killed most of its passengers. Out of that tragedy grew a legend of a burning phantom ship seen off the island around the holidays, often tied to a woman passenger who would not leave the wreck. A doctor named Aaron Willey wrote in 1811 about a light he saw on the water near the island, sometimes small and sometimes as big as a ship. John Greenleaf Whittier's 1867 poem The Palatine made the story famous. No remains of the wreck have been found.

• December 27, 1738On the record The Princess Augusta wrecked at Sandy Point in a snowstorm. Islanders rescued surviving passengers the next day. Source: en.wikipedia.org
• February 1810On the record Dr. Aaron C. Willey described a fire-like light on the water near Block Island in a letter to Dr. Samuel Mitchill. Source: preston-posits.com

Visiting: Sandy Point and North Light on Block Island are public.