The Dover Demon – described as a small humanoid creature with large dark beady eyes, and roughly 4 feet tall with a watermelon-shaped head and no other distinguishable facial features. This cryptid vanished as quickly as it appeared with its first sighting in 1977, when a group of 3 teenagers driving at 10:32 p.m. on April 21 encountered it. Bill Bartlett, Mike Mazzocca and Andy Brodie were heading north on Farm Street when suddenly Bill (who was driving) spotted the creature crawling along the side of a low wall of loose stones next to the road.
The driver Bill was able to take note of several additional details of the creature. A thin body, long spindly arms, legs with the exception of large hands and feet. Its body is completely hairless, with a peach-coloured tinge to its skin additionally with a sandpaper-like texture.
Within 48 hours, however, one more confirmed sighting occurs before the cryptid vanishes. Around midnight, shortly after Bill Bartlett had his encounter, 15-year old John Baxter was leaving his girlfriend’s house (Cathy Cronin). Making his way home, after about 30 minutes he observes someone approaching him. Being such a short figure, Baxter assumes it’s possibly someone he knows, specifically his friend Bouchard who lives on this street. John call begins calling out while receiving no response. John continues to approach this figure while it continues to approach him until it comes to an immediate stop. John stopping as well, calls out once more “Who is that?” while still not being able to make out any definitive features in its physique. John steps forward to try and capture a better look at this figure, which immediately triggers the creature to run off to the side. Hearing its footsteps press against the leaves, John runs after the figure off the road and down a slope. After a short chase, John stops and stares across roughly 30 feet from his position, he sees the creature sort of moulded against a rock near a tree. The description John Baxter gives is the same as the above encounter that Bill Bartlett himself had seen prior.
Most people and skeptics these days dismiss the Dover Demon as simply being a lost baby moose, being viewed under less than ideal circumstances and conditions, which could then pose as something otherworldly. Counters to this claim are that the moose don’t reside in Massachusetts at this time of the year, let alone in Massachusetts to begin with in terms of moose habitats. There are those who speculate “alien” connections to these encounters and the curious nature of the creature, but whether this cryptid is more spiritual than physical or vice versa remains to be seen as there have been no such further encounters with the Dover Demon since 1977.
Do you think the Dover Demon is more alien, or more cryptid?
