On April 21st, 1977, 17-year-old William “Bill” Bartlett and two friends were driving on farm road in Dover Massachusetts, when Bill saw what he thought was a cat or dog. As the headlights from the car illuminated the being, and more details became apparent, he could see something, crawling on top of the stone wall alongside the road. As he began alerting his friends, the creature ran off before his friends could see it.
As Bartlett reported, the creature had a disproportionately large, watermelon-shaped head and glowing orange eyes. The creature had long, thin arms and legs with slender fingers, which were used to grasp onto the pavement. The being had no hair, and had rough tan skin, like sandpaper, there was no nose or ears, and no mouth was seen.
If only Bartlett and his friends had seen the creature, then perhaps their story that night would have died off over time. But shockingly, an hour later another sighting occurred on the same stretch of road, with another sighting occurring the following day.
John Baxter, 15 was walking home from his girlfriend’s house when he saw someone walking toward them. Initially, John thought the person was his friend MJ and shouted toward it. Only about 15 feet away, the creature jumped into a gully and next to tree. Stunned, john was horrified to realize it was like nothing he had ever seen.
The next day, Abby Brabham, 15, and Will Traintor, 18, were driving in Will’s car and claimed to have seen a similar-looking creature on the side of the road. Abby’s description matched Bartlett’s and Baxter’s descriptions; except this time the cryptid had illuminated green eyes. Abby reported its height as “about the size of a goat”.
Investigators attempted to shake up Abby by noting she said it had green eyes reflected by car headlights, while Bill Bartlett, the first witness, mentioned orange eyes were reflected back to him by his automobile’s lights. Still Abby didn’t waver in her description.
Other witnesses have claimed the creature had green eyes and seemingly smooth, chalky gray toned skin, about three feet tall, and made a bloodcurdling noise, similar to a hawk’s screech combined with a snakes hiss. Interestingly, all witnesses said it had no ears, mouth, nose, or known sex. Witnesses also said that it waits in the trees to scare its next victim.
Cryptozoologist Loren Coleman was the initial investigator and the individual who named the creature the Dover Demon. it was pushed by the press, and the name stuck. Coleman quickly assembled and brought into the inquiry three other investigators: Joseph Nyman, Ed Fogg, and Walter Webb.
As the investigation proceeded, investigator Coleman interviewed Bartlett a few days after the sighting and got a much more in-depth description. According to Coleman, He said the creature appeared to be walking on all fours and had strange little feet and hands with long digits,” Coleman said. “The creature, the way he described it, had two large, round, glowing, glassy, lidless eyes, shining brightly like two orange marbles. The head was also shaped like a marble and was the same size as the rest of the body. He noticed the body was peach-colored, and described the skin as like shark skin, like sandpaper.”
There have been various theories as to what exactly the dover demon is.
Skeptics suggested it could have been a baby moose, despite the fact that moose sightings are extremely rare in Massachusetts and even a baby moose would have been much larger than the creature reported.
Some have also suggested what the three teens saw was nothing more than a common animal that was suffering from mange, like a dog or a fox.
Still, many believe the sightings as legitimate and either some unknown cryptid or perhaps an extraterrestrial. Believers point out that all of the witnesses were on summer break and wouldn’t have been able to contaminate each other’s stories. Also, its intriguing that all of the sightings occurred within a 1/2 mile in a 24-hour period. This may suggest the creature was lost, out of their natural habitat, or perhaps a more extreme theory that the creature was here from another dimension and crossed back over.
Regardless, to this day all witnesses remain steadfast in what they saw that day. Bill Bartlett, who had artistic abilities, went home after the event, and sketched what he saw. The sketch has become the famous image of the Dover Demon, with him writing right on the sketch, “I, Bill Bartlett, swear on a stack of Bibles that I saw this creature.”
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