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.
Water monster · Lake Champlain · first reported 1800s · also called Champy, Lake Champlain Monster
Lake Champlain's famous lake monster, shared with New York. See the main Champ dossier for the full story, sightings and the 1977 Mansi photograph.
Full story: Champ →
Visiting: Burlington and Port Henry, NY, both celebrate Champ.
Humanoid · Northfield, Washington County (Devil's Washbowl area) · first reported 1971 · also called Pigman of Northfield, Vermont Pigman
Around 1971, the Northfield area began to tell of a man-sized figure with white hair and the face of a pig. A farmer is said to have found it in his trash, and a few days later high schoolers drinking near a dance said it came out of the dark at them. Later stories put it at an abandoned pig farm, where people claimed to find flattened straw and bones, and on back roads near a gorge called the Devil's Washbowl. Some tellers tie it to a local man said to have vanished on Mischief Night in 1951. Vermont folklorists point out that no newspaper or police record backs any of it, and many suspect teenagers and a mask.
Ape-like · Glastenbury Mountain and the 'Bennington Triangle', Bennington County · first reported 1800s (legend) · also called Glastenbury Wild Man
Glastenbury Mountain is a nearly empty corner of southern Vermont that author Joseph Citro nicknamed the Bennington Triangle. Between 1945 and 1950, several people went missing in the area, including hunter Middie Rivers and college student Paula Jean Welden, and their cases remain open. Over the years, storytellers have tied those losses to an older legend of a hairy wild man or Bigfoot-like creature in the mountains. Cryptid writers also list later reports of a tall black figure on nearby Equinox Mountain and near Manchester. Researchers point out the disappearances have ordinary possible explanations in rough, remote terrain, and that the monster link is a modern layer added to real tragedies.
Visiting: The Long Trail crosses the Glastenbury area; it is remote backcountry.
Water monster · Lake Memphremagog, Newport · first reported 1816 · also called Memphré
Lake Memphremagog stretches from Newport, Vermont, north into Quebec, and its monster, Memphre, has been reported since 1816. Descriptions vary from a long dark serpent with humps to a large animal with a horse-shaped head. Quebec diver Jacques Boisvert spent years exploring the lake and helped found a society devoted to the creature. Reports were still coming in the 2000s, including a 1997 photograph and a 2000 family sighting of a very long serpent. Canada even put Memphre on a colored quarter in 2011. Scientists remain skeptical, pointing to large fish, waves, and floating logs on a long, windy lake.
Visiting: Newport's waterfront on Lake Memphremagog; a long-distance 'In Search of Memphre' swim has been held there.
Winged · Berkshire and Richford, Franklin County · first reported 1925
The Awful is a flying beast said to have appeared over the farm towns of northern Franklin County in 1925. Witnesses in the story describe gray skin, huge claws, a serpent-like tail and enormous wings, and later tellers compared it to a griffin. Sawmill workers were said to have seen it, and one reportedly suffered a heart attack and weeks of nightmares. The tale gained new life in 2006 when a local paper published a piece about it, along with newer claimed sightings. Folklore researchers have questioned the story's reliability, since the 1925 events rest on a single much later write-up.
Water monster · Lake Willoughby, Westmore, Orleans County · first reported 1868 · also called Willy, Willoughby Wisp
Lake Willoughby is a deep, fjord-like lake squeezed between cliffs in the Northeast Kingdom. Its monster stories range from a giant snake to oversized eels. The oldest tale, from 1868, says a boy cut a huge snake in two and it measured more than twenty feet. Later claims include divers meeting very large eels in the 1950s, and two men in 2006 who said they watched a humped creature twenty to twenty-five feet long for most of an hour. Skeptics point to the lake's depth and cold water, which favor big fish and eels, and to the way still water can make wakes and logs look alive.
Visiting: Willoughby State Forest and the public beaches at both ends of the lake.
Beast · Northeast Kingdom, Essex and Orleans counties · first reported Early 1800s · also called Wejuk
Slippery Skin is a frontier legend from Vermont's Northeast Kingdom about a bear-like animal that walked on two legs and seemed far too clever. The name is said to come from an Abenaki word meaning wet skin. In the stories, it tore up fences and gardens, dragged trees across fields, threw rocks at people and livestock, and dodged hunters by doubling back on its own tracks. One tale has Governor Jonas Galusha leading a hunting party that fled in fear, and another says the beast rolled a log down at hunters. The reports fade after the Civil War era. Folklorists see it as a blend of real bear trouble and frontier storytelling.