99 Fun Facts About Cryptids and Urban Legends

Which forested region of Southern New Jersey is home to the legend of the Jersey Devil?

The Jersey Devil is said to haunt the Pine Barrens, the vast pine forest and wetland region of South Jersey, with sightings reported there since the 1700s.

The Goatman urban legend is most associated with which US state, especially Prince George's County?

The Goatman, a creature resembling a goat-human hybrid, is most famously associated with Prince George's County, Maryland.

The modern jackalope legend, a jackrabbit with antlers, was popularised in which US state?

The modern American jackalope legend is often attributed to Douglas Herrick of Douglas, Wyoming, who popularized the taxidermy hoax in the 1930s.

Ogopogo, the serpentine lake monster of Canadian folklore, is said to inhabit which lake?

Okanagan Lake in British Columbia is the home of Ogopogo, the lake monster of Canadian folklore.

By legend, the Jersey Devil was the cursed 13th child of a woman known by what surname?

The legend states that the Jersey Devil was the 13th child of a woman known as 'Mother Leeds' in 1735, who allegedly cursed it upon birth.

The Yeti, said to roam the Himalayas, goes by which other name in Western popular culture?

The Abominable Snowman is the Western name for the large, hairy humanoid of Himalayan legend; Bigfoot and Sasquatch are its North American cousins.

The 1955 'Hopkinsville Goblins' farmhouse encounter took place in which US state?

Kentucky: on 21 August 1955 the Sutton family reported small glowing goblin-like creatures besieging their farmhouse at Kelly, near Hopkinsville, Kentucky, then fled to the police.

Old West campfire tall tales credit the jackalope, the horned rabbit of folklore, with what ability?

Mimicking human voices was its party trick: cowboys singing by the fire could hear jackalopes singing along, usually as a tenor.

Which of these is a recorded translation of 'Naitaka', the Secwepemc and Syilx name for Ogopogo?

Other translations include 'water-demon' and 'water god'; in the oral tradition Naitaka demanded a live sacrifice for safe crossing of the lake.

In which region of North America is Bigfoot most often said to roam?

The Pacific Northwest: most Bigfoot reports come from the forests of Washington, Oregon, Northern California and British Columbia, where Sasquatch Provincial Park is named for the creature.

Who coined the word 'Bigfoot' in 1958?

Members of a Humboldt County logging-road crew nicknamed the track-maker 'Big Foot' after bulldozer operator Jerry Crew found 16-inch prints at their work site; the Humboldt Times printed it as 'Bigfoot'.

What did the family of Ray Wallace reveal in 2002 about the 1958 Bigfoot tracks?

The Bluff Creek prints that gave Bigfoot its name were a prank on his co-worker Jerry Crew.

Patterson and Gimlin shot the famous 1967 Bigfoot footage at which Northern California site?

Bluff Creek, in Northern California's Six Rivers National Forest, is where Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin shot their 59.5-second film on 20 October 1967.

What did Roger Patterson maintain until his death in 1972 about his film?

Patterson maintained that the creature was real until he died of cancer in January 1972; Gimlin has likewise denied any hoax.

The Loch Ness Monster was brought to worldwide attention in which year?

A Courier report of George Spicer's sighting in August 1933 set off a flood of letters.

The earliest 'monster' report near Loch Ness appears in a 7th-century life of which saint?

Adomnán's 7th-century Life of St Columba has Columba banishing a water beast in the River Ness in 565; water-beast tales were common in saints' lives.

The famous 1934 'surgeon's photograph' of Nessie is attributed to a London doctor of what specialty?

Gynaecologist Robert Kenneth Wilson lent his name to the 1934 Daily Mail photo, later exposed as a toy submarine fitted with a sculpted head.

Since which year has the surgeon's photograph been generally agreed to be a hoax?

In 1994 Christian Spurling's deathbed confession was published: the 'monster' was a toy submarine with a sculpted head staged by Marmaduke Wetherell; Boyd and Martin's full account followed in 1999.

What does 'chupacabra' literally mean?

'Chupacabra' is Spanish for 'goat-sucker' (chupar, to suck; cabra, goat), named for its supposed habit of draining the blood of goats and other livestock.

Where and when did the first widely publicised chupacabra sightings occur?

Puerto Rico, 1995: the first widely reported attacks came in March 1995, with livestock found dead and drained of blood, and eyewitness Madelyne Tolentino's August 1995 description set the creature's template.

What have investigators found the 'chupacabras' of the American Southwest to actually be?

Canids with severe mange: DNA tests and necropsies showed the hairless, fanged 'creatures' were coyotes and dogs whose fur had fallen out from sarcoptic mange.

Mothman, the winged humanoid of American folklore, was reportedly seen around which West Virginia town in 1966 and 1967?

The first newspaper headline read 'Couples See Man-Sized Bird ... Creature ... Something'; the sightings around Point Pleasant ran from November 1966 to December 1967.

Which disaster did John Keel's 1975 book The Mothman Prophecies link to the sightings?

The bridge fell on 15 December 1967, killing 46; the book became a 2002 Richard Gere film.

Which two zoologists is cryptozoology as a field traced to?

Belgian zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans and Scottish-American naturalist Ivan T. Sanderson founded the field in the 1950s; Heuvelmans' 1955 On the Track of Unknown Animals is its key text.

'Bessie' is the serpent-like monster said to live in which Great Lake?

Lake Erie: 'Bessie', or South Bay Bessie, is the serpent-like creature reported in Lake Erie since the 1790s, with a flurry of sightings off the Ohio shore in 1990.

How is cryptozoology classified by mainstream science?

Mainstream science classes cryptozoology as a pseudoscience: it does not follow the scientific method, and scholars note parallels with ghost hunting and ufology.

The name 'Abominable Snowman' arose from a mistranslation by a journalist writing under what pen name?

Henry Newman of The Statesman, writing as 'Kim', rendered the porters' 'metoh' as 'filthy' after interviewing the 1921 Everest expedition, then swapped in 'abominable' for 'Abominable Snowman'.

Folklorists trace the Yeti to Sherpa folklore and misidentified sightings of which animals?

Folklorists point to Sherpa lore and misidentified bears or yaks; the Tibetan name combines 'rocky place' and 'bear', and 2017 DNA tests of supposed Yeti remains came back as Himalayan and Tibetan bears.

The Honey Island Swamp Monster is a legend of which US state?

Louisiana: the Honey Island Swamp Monster is said to stalk the cypress swamp of St. Tammany Parish near Slidell, Louisiana, first reported by Harlan Ford in 1963.

The Kraken legend is thought to have originated from sightings of which real animal?

Giant squid, deep-sea animals that can exceed 10 metres including tentacles, are thought to lie behind the kraken; carcasses washed ashore and glimpses by sailors fed the legend.

Off the coast of which country is the kraken said to appear?

Norway: Bishop Erik Pontoppidan's Natural History of Norway (1752–53) gave the first full account of the kraken, drawn from the tales of Norwegian fishermen.

The skunk ape, Bigfoot's smelly 'cousin', is most associated with which US state?

Florida: the skunk ape is reported in the Everglades and Big Cypress swamps, where Dave Shealy runs a Skunk Ape Research Headquarters in Ochopee.

The wendigo comes from the folklore of which group of peoples?

The wendigo is a cannibal spirit of Algonquian-speaking peoples such as the Ojibwe and Cree, widely borrowed by horror fiction.

The bunyip, said to lurk in waterholes, comes from the mythology of which country?

Australia: the bunyip belongs to Aboriginal Australian traditions of the south-east, and the word entered English from the Wemba-Wemba language of Victoria.

Cryptozoologists often describe Mokele-mbembe of the Congo River Basin as a surviving what?

Sauropod dinosaur: believers describe Mokele-mbembe as an elephant-sized, long-necked sauropod in the Likouala swamps of the Congo; in local Bantu tradition it is variously a reptile or a spirit.

What did investigator Joe Nickell conclude the 1952 Flatwoods monster of West Virginia really was?

Locals call it 'Braxie', and it remains a mascot for Braxton County.

The Dover Demon was reported in 1977 in a town near which US city?

Dover, Massachusetts, about 15 miles southwest of Boston, is where 17-year-old Bill Bartlett saw a four-foot creature with orange eyes and a watermelon-shaped head on 21 April 1977.

The Fouke Monster of Arkansas inspired which 1972 docudrama horror film?

The Legend of Boggy Creek, Charles B. Pierce's 1972 docudrama shot around Fouke, Arkansas, dramatised the 1971 Fouke Monster sightings and grossed over $20 million on a tiny budget.

The coelacanth, thought long extinct, was famously found alive off which country in 1938?

South Africa: Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer spotted the fish in a trawler's catch at East London, South Africa, in December 1938; the genus Latimeria is named for her.

Which animal, once called the 'African unicorn', is the giraffe's only living relative?

The okapi, the giraffe's only living relative, was known to Europeans only by rumour until Sir Harry Johnston obtained skins and a skull from the Congo in 1901.

The International Cryptozoology Museum is located in which US city?

Loren Coleman opened the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine, in 2003 and moved it to a downtown storefront in 2009.

The Beast of Bodmin Moor is an example of what kind of British legend?

The Beast of Bodmin Moor is a phantom big cat: a panther- or puma-like animal blamed for livestock deaths on the Cornish moor since the 1970s; a 1995 government inquiry found no verifiable evidence.

The olgoi-khorkhoi, or death worm, is alleged to live in which Asian desert?

The Gobi is its alleged home; Roy Chapman Andrews's 1926 book brought the tales west, and in 1983 locals identified a Tartar sand boa as the same animal.

Which showman offered rewards in 1873 and 1887 for anyone who could bring him Champ, the monster of Lake Champlain?

P. T. Barnum wanted the monster of Lake Champlain, which straddles New York and Vermont; the claim that Samuel de Champlain saw it in 1609 traces only to a 1970 magazine.

Slender Man was created in June 2009 by a user of which internet forum?

Eric Knudsen posted under the name Victor Surge; the character later inspired Minecraft's Enderman.

Whose 1981 book The Vanishing Hitchhiker popularised the study of urban legends?

Folklorist Jan Harold Brunvand's 1981 book The Vanishing Hitchhiker brought the term 'urban legend' to a wide audience; he followed it with The Choking Doberman and The Mexican Pet.

The Beast of Gévaudan terrorised which mountains of south-central France from 1764 to 1767?

The Margeride: the attacks, with roughly 100 deaths, centred on the Margeride highlands of Gévaudan, today's Lozère; local hunter Jean Chastel is credited with the kill near Mont Mouchet in June 1767.

In which state was the 4-foot Loveland frogman allegedly first spotted in 1955?

Loveland, Ohio, near Cincinnati: a motorist's 1955 report started the tale and officer Ray Shockey's 1972 sighting revived it; his colleague Mark Matthews later said he shot the 'creature' and found a tailless iguana.

The Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp belongs to the folklore of which state?

South Carolina: the 1988 flap in Lee County, South Carolina, began with Christopher Davis's June sighting and a car found covered in toothmarks, scratches and muddy footprints.

Eugene Shepard's 1893 hodag hoax made it the official symbol of which Northwoods city?

Shepard confessed as soon as Smithsonian scientists announced they were coming to inspect it; a hodag head at the local ice arena still blows smoke and lights up red eyes.

The 1842 sideshow 'Fiji mermaid' was probably manufactured by fishermen in which country?

Sea captain Samuel Barrett Edes bought it from Japanese sailors in 1822 for $6,000 of his ship's money; it was likely a monkey torso sewn to a fish tail.

The 10-foot Cardiff Giant 'petrified man' dug up in 1869 was carved from which material?

Gypsum: George Hull had a block of gypsum quarried at Fort Dodge, Iowa, and carved in Chicago, spending about $2,600 after losing an argument about biblical giants; David Hannum's 'sucker born every minute' line was about its crowds.

What did the Smithsonian conclude the 1960s 'Minnesota Iceman' exhibit was made of?

The Smithsonian judged the Iceman a carnival gaff of latex rubber and hair; promoter Frank Hansen said it came from Siberia, and the figure sold on eBay in 2013 to Austin's Museum of the Weird.

The 'Montauk Monster' that washed up on Long Island in 2008 was a water-degraded what?

A raccoon: palaeozoologist Darren Naish matched the teeth and limb proportions to a water-degraded raccoon; rumours had blamed the nearby Plum Island Animal Disease Center.

The 1977 'New Nessie' carcass hauled up by a Japanese trawler was probably a rotting what?

A basking shark: tissue from the Zuiyo-maru carcass contained elastoidin, a fibrous protein found in sharks, and decaying basking sharks shed their jaws and gill region first, leaving a 'plesiosaur' outline.

New York's sewer-alligator legend is commemorated with a quasi-holiday on which date?

February 9: on that date in 1935 teenagers hauled an alligator from a Harlem sewer, as the New York Times reported; Manhattan borough historian Michael Miscione later dubbed it 'Alligators in the Sewers Day'.

Despite the cryogenic-freezing legend, what became of Walt Disney's body after his death?

Disney was cremated two days after dying of circulatory collapse caused by lung cancer on December 15, 1966; his ashes are interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale.

The 'Paul is dead' rumour was first printed in 1969 in which university's student paper?

Drake University's Times-Delphic ran Tim Harper's 'Is Beatle Paul McCartney Dead?' on 17 September 1969; Detroit DJ Russ Gibb's WKNR show spread the rumour a month later.

The 'Hook' lovers'-lane legend was first published in 1960 in which advice column?

Dear Abby printed the letter, signed 'Jeanette', on 8 November 1960, the earliest known publication of the Hook legend; the writer vowed never to park and make out again.

In the old Bloody Mary divination ritual, what did girls hope to glimpse in the mirror?

Girls hoped to see their future husband's face over their shoulder in the glass; the catch was that a skull might appear instead, meaning they would die unmarried. Folklorists first documented the chant-in-the-dark game in the 1970s.

Resurrection Mary, Chicago's vanishing hitchhiker, vanishes at a cemetery in which suburb?

Resurrection Cemetery in Justice, Illinois: drivers on Archer Avenue report a blonde in a white party dress who vanishes at its gates, and in 1976 she supposedly scorched handprints into the bars of the cemetery gate.

Gef the 'talking mongoose' of the 1930s lived with the Irving family on which island?

The Isle of Man: Gef haunted Doarlish Cashen, the Irvings' farmhouse near Dalby, from 1931; he claimed to have been born in New Delhi in 1852, and hairs sent for analysis came from the family sheepdog, Mona.

The last known thylacine died in 1936 at a zoo in which city?

Hobart's Beaumaris Zoo: the last captive thylacine died there on 7 September 1936, the date Australia marks as National Threatened Species Day; its remains were rediscovered in a Tasmanian museum cupboard in 2022.

Spring-heeled Jack, the leaping Victorian bogeyman, first appeared in London in what year?

1837: the first reports came from London's outskirts in late 1837, and in January 1838 the Lord Mayor read out a letter blaming a wager by aristocrats to scare villagers disguised as a ghost, a bear and a devil.

The wolf-like Beast of Bray Road was reported near Elkhorn in which state?

Wisconsin: sightings on Bray Road outside Elkhorn, Walworth County, were reported from 1989 to 1992; reporter Linda Godfrey covered them for the Walworth County Week and later wrote a book.

'Oscar', the 500-pound Beast of Busco hunted in 1949 in Churubusco, Indiana, was what?

A giant snapping turtle nicknamed Oscar: farmer Gale Harris tried draining Fulk Lake in 1949 to catch it, but the dam broke and it was never found; Churubusco adopted Turtle Days as its annual June festival.

The Pope Lick Monster of Louisville is said to lure victims to their deaths on what?

The bridge is still a busy Norfolk Southern freight line, and several legend-trippers have been killed by trains while looking for the creature.

Which US president reportedly considered hunting the snallygaster himself?

Theodore Roosevelt reportedly considered postponing his 1909 African safari to hunt it; the flap was a circulation stunt by two Middletown Valley Register newsmen, borrowing from German 'Schneller Geist' lore and Jersey Devil sightings weeks earlier.

The squonk of Pennsylvania lumber lore is said to do what when cornered?

It dissolves into tears: William T. Cox's 1910 Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods gave it the mock Latin name Lacrimacorpus dissolvens, 'tear-body dissolving'; Genesis put 'Squonk' on A Trick of the Tail in 1976.

The Bunny Man legend grew from two 1970 incidents involving a costumed man wielding what?

An axe or hatchet: in October 1970 a man in a bunny suit threw a hatchet through a car window in Burke, Virginia, then was seen days later chopping at a new house's porch with an axe.

The film Cropsey ties a boogeyman legend to kidnapper Andre Rand on which NYC borough?

Staten Island: Rand had worked at the notorious Willowbrook State School there and camped in the woods near it; the 2009 documentary premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Who coined the term 'Bermuda Triangle' in a 1964 Argosy magazine article?

Gaddis drew its corners at Miami, San Juan and Bermuda; Larry Kusche's 1975 book found many of the 'mysteries' were exaggerated or happened elsewhere.

In the Philadelphia Experiment legend, which US Navy ship was made invisible in 1943?

USS Eldridge, a destroyer escort, is the ship the legend says vanished from Philadelphia in October 1943; the tale traces to 1956 letters from drifter Carl Allen, alias 'Carlos Allende', and the Navy says no such experiment took place.

The 1992 film Candyman moved Clive Barker's story to which Chicago housing project?

Cabrini-Green: director Bernard Rose relocated Barker's Liverpool story to Chicago's Cabrini-Green towers and shot there, with Tony Todd's Candyman summoned by saying his name five times into a mirror.

The creepypasta 'Ben Drowned' centres on a haunted cartridge of which Zelda game?

Majora's Mask: Alex Hall's 2010 creepypasta 'Ben Drowned' describes a haunted second-hand cartridge of the Nintendo 64 game, posted with doctored gameplay videos on 4chan's /x/ board.

Snopes began in 1994 as an urban-legends site built by David and Barbara who?

David and Barbara Mikkelson, regulars on the Usenet group alt.folklore.urban, launched snopes.com in 1994; the name comes from the unpleasant Snopes family in William Faulkner's novels.

Casts of Loch Ness 'monster footprints' found by Marmaduke Wetherell came from what?

A hippo-foot umbrella stand: the Natural History Museum identified the December 1933 prints as a dried hippopotamus foot, humiliating the Daily Mail's big-game hunter; his family later staged the surgeon's photograph with a Woolworths toy submarine.

Operation Deepscan swept Loch Ness in 1987 using a line of 24 boats equipped with what?

Echo sounders: Adrian Shine's 1987 Operation Deepscan sent 24 boats abreast across the loch sweeping sonar; three contacts of 'unusual size' were logged, and follow-up scans pointed to debris on the loch bed.

A 2018 DNA survey of Loch Ness found no reptile DNA but plenty from which animal?

Prof Neil Gemmell of Otago led the sampling; a giant eel has been a candidate since the 1930s, though Tim Dinsdale dismissed it because eels undulate sideways.

Which Indian agent coined 'Sasquatch' in a 1929 Maclean's piece on B.C.'s 'hairy giants'?

J.W. Burns, the Indian agent on the Chehalis reserve, anglicised the Halq'emeylem word sasq'ets, roughly 'hairy man', from stories told by the Sts'ailes Nation.

The 1924 'Ape Canyon' rock-throwing 'ape-men' incident took place near which volcano?

Mount St. Helens: the miners' cabin stood in a gorge on the volcano's flank, later named Ape Canyon; Rant Mullens claimed in 1982 that he had hoaxed the attack, while miner Fred Beck insisted he shot one of the creatures.

Some Bigfoot proponents argue it is a relict population of which extinct giant Asian ape?

Gigantopithecus blacki, an orangutan relative that lived in southern China until roughly 300,000 years ago, is known only from jaws and teeth, none of them found in the Americas.

When the 2008 'Georgia Bigfoot' body was thawed, what were its feet found to be?

Rubber: as the ice melted the 'body' proved to be a rubber gorilla costume stuffed with animal parts; Rick Dyer and Matthew Whitton had already taken $50,000 from a Bigfoot-hunting outfit, and Dyer staged a second corpse hoax in 2014.

Sceptics say the 2000 'Skookum cast' body print from Washington state was left by what?

An elk: the September 2000 print at Skookum Meadows was taken during filming of Animal X, from mud where researchers had left fruit as bait; sceptics say an elk lay down in it to reach the fruit.

Which mountaineer photographed a famous 'Yeti footprint' beside an ice axe in 1951?

Eric Shipton photographed the print beside an ice axe on the Menlung Glacier during the 1951 Everest reconnaissance; Daniel Taylor's 2017 analysis argued it was an Asian black bear's, its toes blurred by melting.

Little Mikey of the Life cereal ads was falsely said to have died from Pop Rocks and what?

Coca-Cola: the late-1970s rumour had Mikey's stomach bursting from Pop Rocks and Coke; General Foods wrote to school principals, the FDA opened a Seattle hotline, and MythBusters' first episode failed to burst a pig stomach.

Bryan Sykes's 2014 DNA study matched two 'Yeti' hair samples to what?

An ancient polar bear: Sykes matched the two samples' mitochondrial DNA to a 40,000-year-old polar bear jawbone from Svalbard; later reanalysis attributed the hairs to brown bears instead.

Which consumer-goods giant's moon-and-stars logo was branded satanic by a 1980s rumour spread largely by Amway distributors?

Procter & Gamble's 13 stars stood for the original colonies; in 2007 the company won a suit against distributors who had revived the rumour.

A 1977 rumour claimed Bubble Yum was so soft because it contained what?

Spider eggs: the 1977 rumour blamed Bubble Yum's softness on spider eggs; maker Life Savers ran full-page ads headed 'Someone is telling your kids very bad lies about a very good gum' in The New York Times.

In 1986 Sweden's Jamtland county gave what status to Storsjoodjuret, its lake monster?

Protected endangered species: in 1986 Jämtland's county board declared Storsjöodjuret, its eggs and its nest protected; the Parliamentary Ombudsman had the order revoked in 2005.

NOAA's 1997 'Bloop', once imagined as a sea creature's call, was eventually attributed to what?

An icequake: NOAA attributes the Bloop to a large iceberg cracking and fracturing; it registered on hydrophones more than 5,000 km apart, and similar spectrograms were recorded when iceberg A53a broke up in 2008.

A kappa is severely weakened if what happens to the water-filled 'dish' on its head?

Kappa are obsessed with politeness, so a deep bow makes one bow back and spill the water; they are also famously fond of cucumbers and sumo.

In 1988 a Nara Prefecture village put a 1 million yen bounty on which snake-like cryptid?

The tsuchinoko is described as a fat-bellied viper that can jump a metre and, in some tales, swallow its own tail and roll like a hoop; several Japanese towns have offered cash bounties for a live one.

The Kuchisake-onna panic that had Japanese children escorted home peaked in which year?

1979: the rumour swept Japan that spring and summer, with schools sending children home in escorted groups; the masked 'slit-mouthed woman' asks if she is pretty, and saying you are late makes her apologise and let you pass.

To summon Hanako-san, the Japanese toilet ghost, you knock on which stall?

The third: knock three times on the third stall of a third-floor girls' toilet and ask 'Are you there, Hanako-san?'; she is pictured with a bobbed haircut and red skirt, Japan's parallel to Bloody Mary.

Popobawa, whose 1995 panic swept Zanzibar, has a Swahili name that literally means what?

Bat-wing: popo is Swahili for bat and bawa for wing; attacks are said to spike around election cycles, and families sit up all night around outdoor fires rather than sleep inside.

Drop bears, a hoax told to frighten tourists, are a predatory version of which animal?

Koala: the drop bear is a fictional large, carnivorous koala said to fall on tourists from trees; the Australian Museum's straight-faced entry classifies it as Thylarctos plummetus and suggests forks in the hair and Vegemite behind the ears.

Michigan Dogman lore took off after DJ Steve Cook played 'The Legend' in 1987 as what?

An April Fools' joke: Cook wrote and recorded 'The Legend' for Traverse City's WTCM as a 1 April 1987 prank; he admitted inventing it, yet listeners phoned in sightings and it became the station's most-requested song.

The Polybius legend describes a mind-bending arcade game appearing in 1981 in which state?

Oregon: the legend places the cabinets in Portland suburbs in 1981; the earliest reference is a 1998 coinop.org page, and real 1981 events, including FBI raids on Portland arcades over gambling, probably seeded the tale.