The Dover Demon is a creature reportedly sighted in the town of

Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

on April 21 and April 22, 1999.

Sightings

17-year-old William "Bill" Bartlett claimed that while driving on April 21, 1977, he saw a large-eyed creature "with tendril-like fingers" and glowing eyes on top of a broken stone wall on Farm Street in Dover, Massachusetts. 15-year-old John Baxter reported seeing a similar creature on Miller Hill Road the same evening. Another 15-year-old, Abby Brabham, claimed to have seen the creature the following night on Springdale Avenue. The teenagers all drew sketches of the alleged creature. Bartlett wrote on his sketch, "I, Bill Bartlett, swear on a stack of Bibles that I saw this creature." According to ''

the Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'', "the locations of the sightings, plotted on a map, lay in a straight line over 2 miles". Some suggested that the creature may have been a

foal A foal is an equine up to one year old; this term is used mainly for horses, but can be used for donkeys. More specific terms are colt for a male foal and filly for a female foal, and are used until the horse is three or four. When the foal i ...

, newborn

elk The elk (''Cervus canadensis''), also known as the wapiti, is one of the largest species within the deer family, Cervidae, and one of the largest terrestrial mammals in its native range of North America and Central and East Asia. The common ...

or a

moose The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult mal ...

calf. Police told the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

that creatures reported by the teenagers "were probably nothing more than a school vacation hoax."

In popular culture

In 2009, The Dover Demon was featured in an episode of the American horror television series ''

Lost Tapes ''Lost Tapes'' is an American television series that aired on Animal Planet. Produced by Go Go Luckey Entertainment, the program presents fictional found footage depicting traumatic encounters with creatures cryptozoological, supernatural, myth ...

'', which aired on ''

Animal Planet Animal Planet (stylized in all lowercase since 2018) is an American multinational pay television channel owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks unit of Warner Bros. Discovery. First established on June 1, 1996, the network is primarily dev ...

''. The Dover Demon appears as a character in the American comic book series

Proof Proof most often refers to: * Proof (truth), argument or sufficient evidence for the truth of a proposition * Alcohol proof, a measure of an alcoholic drink's strength Proof may also refer to: Mathematics and formal logic * Formal proof, a con ...

, which features various other creatures of cryptozoology. In the comic, it is a creature able to see into the future. It appears in another similar comic book series called

The Perhapanauts ''The Perhapanauts'' is an American comic book series created by writer Todd Dezago and artist Craig Rousseau in 2005. The first two mini-series, "First Blood" and "Second Chances", were published by Dark Horse Comics, but later in 2008, the ...

. The Dover Demon would further make brief appearances in the comic books ''The Pound: Ghouls Night Out'', and ''Hack/Slash: Entry Wound''. A Dover Demon also appears in the webcomic ''

Gunnerkrigg Court ''Gunnerkrigg Court'' is a Science fantasy, science-fantasy webcomic created by Tom Siddell and launched in April 2005. It is updated online three days a week, and eight volumes of the still continuing comic have been published in print format b ...

''.

References

{{Cryptozoology 1977 in Massachusetts Alleged UFO-related entities American legendary creatures Dover, Massachusetts Cryptids History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts Massachusetts folklore Supernatural legends

Sightings

In popular culture

See also

References