I talk about the strange and the unexplained of the US state of Maryland from a possible cryptid cover-up, to goat and wolf men and also a sea serpent called Cassie!

1. Post author By Charlie December 7, 2020
Mysterious Maryland – Monster Cover Up, Goat and
Wolf Men and Cassie the Serpent
theweeklyrambler.com/mysterious-maryland-monster-cover-up-goat-and-wolf-men-and-cassie-the-serpent/
Maryland is one of the most oddly shaped US states, located in the Mid-Atlantic region.
The state is bordered with Virginia, West Virginia, District of Columbia, Pennsylvania
and Delaware and also has access to the Atlantic Ocean. The state capital is Annapolis
and the largest city is Baltimore.
Maryland has a very diverse environmental and topographical features, so much so that
the state is known as America in Miniature. Such environment features sandy dunes
and seagrass in the east, low marshlands and bald cypress around the Chesapeake Bay,
which is an estuary that punctures into Maryland, with many tributaries and rivers
branching off of it into the state, this area is also one of the most urbanized of the state.
The Piedmont Plateau also stretches through the state including rolling hills and oak
forests. The Valley and Ridge and the Blue Ridge Mountain ranges also stretch through
the state as well as the Allegheny Mountains which stretch through the state’s
panhandle, a part of the Appalachian Plateau in the West of the state.
Maryland has a highly diversified economy and one of the highest median household
incomes out of the other states. Major sectors include manufacturing, services, higher
education, government, transportation and biotechnology. The Maryland economy also
benefits from being close to the federal capital city of Washington D.C. Medical
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2. research, defense and aerospace industries are also other large sectors. There is also a
large food-production sector in the state, with large thanks to commercial fishing.
Agriculture like in many states also plays a role, but it is being encroached on by
urbanization. Tourism also plays a large role including entertainment services and
historical and military sites and tours, Maryland has one of the highest numbers of
historic landmarks per capita out of the other states.
Image by Chräcker Heller from Pixabay
And now we’re through that let us get on to the strange and unexplained of Maryland.
First of all is the legend of a Goatman said to be around the city of Beltsville. There are
as always numerous stories to how it came about, and the first sightings are said to have
begun in the 1950s and hit their peak in the 1970s. Some say it was a creature or cryptid
that has long existed in the area while others say it was a human who turned into
a Goatman, such as through experiments on themselves by combining goat and human
DNA or instead done to a person by the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center and that
it managed to escape, so practically all the usual legend tropes.
Quite humorously the United State Department for Agriculture came out to deny that
the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center had done any such thing.
Some also say the Goatman is a former farmer who went mad for revenge after his
livestock were killed by a group of troublesome teenagers.
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3. The Goatman as can only be imagined looks like a goat but can walk on two legs like a
human can and is very much larger than an average goat would be, as well as that it is
meant to be aggressive and dangerous to anyone who comes across it, as the goatman is
also said to carry an axe around as a weapon. Some describe the goatman as looking like
a Satyr, a mythical creature that is half goat on the bottom and half man on the top,
rather than a full on humanoid goat.
Common activities the Goatman is said to partake in is stalking people out in the nearby
wilderness and farmland around Beltsville or jumping out at cars and trying to attack
them. Some have even blamed the killing of animals, such as pets, on the goatman as
well.
One such is in a 1971 article in the Prince George’s County News on a pet death, the
Edwards family had lost their puppy called Ginger. It would eventually be discovered by
a group of men; the corpse of the puppy was headless and was found
on Fletchertown Road. The article goes on to say that the death of the puppy started
being connected up with the Goatman as a group of teenage girls that also included the
Edward’s 16-year-old daughter who is called April, claimed to hear strange noises and
even seen a large creature on the night the puppy vanished. The article also mentioned
that during that time locals had claimed sightings of an animal-like creature that walked
on its hind legs being seen along Fletchertown Road. The men who discovered the
deceased puppy also claimed to have seen the Goatman and believe in it.
Later on, a larger publication, the Washington Post, would also pick up the story
bringing it to a wider audience and further spreading the legend, and can be attributed
perhaps to the reason why the legend of the Beltsville Goatman peaked during that
decade. The Goatman and the Fletchertown Road would become a sort of Boogieman
used to scare children as well. Teenagers going out to hunt and look for the creature also
became a popular activity, Goatman parties would even be held in such areas where
the Goatman was said to frequent.
Some skeptics say that the legend may have come about due to the rising prevalence of
teenage car culture, allowing them to go out and experience more of nature and may
have led to such an invention of folklore, or that it may also be related to the teaching of
Greek mythology in schools that started or was taking place during the time period.
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4. Image in Public Domain.
Next up is an old cryptid or paranormal creature of the state known as the Snallygaster
which goes as far back as the later 1700s and is said to have been brought over by
German immigrant superstition and belief, with the name possibly originating from
Schneller Geist which means ‘quick ghost’. It is a chimera-like creature meaning it is a
mythical creature made up of various parts of real-life creatures, with such early
descriptions including it being a mixture of a bird, siren, demon and ghoul. Another
popular description is that of a reptile and bird mix with a metallic beak that was lined
with razor-sharp teeth, with it sometimes also being described with octopus-like
tentacles.
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5. The creature was first documented in Frederick County, most prominently in South
Mountain and Middletown Valley but would also spread to being seen across Central
Maryland and also in the Metropolitan area of Washington D.C in neighboring District
of Columbia.
Back when it originally first came about in the 18 Century it was described as swooping
down to pick up its victims from the ground and fly off with them. It was also said to
suck the blood of its victims as well. Scared residents of the time took to painting seven-
pointed stars on to buildings, which they believed kept it away, this was most often done
on barns, of which some of these symbols can still be seen from the time on such old
barns to this day. Such was likely done due to religious belief and that many saw it as an
evil demon.
During the 19 Century it was speculated that the legend of the snallygaster was
exploited as a boogieman to scare freed slaves. In the 20 Century and beyond
sensationalized newspaper reports of sightings helped to revive the legend and keep it
within the public consciousness even until this day.
One such series of hoax articles came about from 1909 which sensationalized apparent
local accounts of residents coming across a beast, with descriptions including huge
wings, a long-pointed bill, claws that were like steel hooks, and also an eye in the center
of its forehead. It was also said to make screeching noises. These articles led to the
Smithsonian Institution offering a reward for the hide of such creature, and there was
even rumour of U.S President Thoedore Roosevelt considering whether to postponing
his African safari in favour of a hunt for the beast in Maryland.
But it would later come out that the editor of the Middletown Valley Register George C.
Rhoderick and reporter Ralph S. Wolfe had hoaxed the sightings in an attempt to
increased readership of the paper. To create their hoax they had borrowed themes from
German folklore, such as dragon-like creatures snatching children and livestock, and
they may also have been inspired by the Jersey Devil which had been sighted a few
weeks before the hoax.
All of this and more has helped keep the legend of the Snallygaster alive and well in
Maryland.
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6. Could a sea serpent be living in the Chesapeake Bay? Image in Public Domain.
Next up we shall come to another of many water cryptids that are said to be across the
United States in various bodies of water and also sometimes in the sea along the coasts
as well. This one is known as Chessie, named after the Chesapeake Bay, a large estuary,
in-fact the largest in the United States, that cuts into Maryland and provides most of the
state’s waterways, Chessie is said to be living in this estuary.
The legend has existed for decades and many working and living on the shores of
Chesapeake Bay have claimed to see the creature merely just staring at them from a
distance in the waters, just simply watching them, perhaps in curious fashion. One of
the earliest known sightings goes back to 1936, claimed to be seen by a crew of a
military helicopter flying over Bush River, a tidal estuary that connects to Chesapeake
Bay, describing it as some unknown reptilian beast.
It is most often simply described as a large and dark snake-like creature which could be
as long as 30ft in length. The beast received further prominence in 1982 when a family
allegedly caught footage of Chessie swimming along in the Bay, the footage was taken
from the Bay’s largest island, Kent Island. The Smithsonian held a mini-symposium on
the video and came to the conclusion that something was alive in the bay, but they could
not determine what it was. Although the video does likely exist based on the
information I found, I have been unable to find the footage itself, although there is a
still shot from the video that shows a black mass in the waters.
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7. The peak of the sightings took place around the 1970s and 1980s before leveling off
though the odd report still comes in of a Chessie sighting from time to time.
Image by zoosnow from Pixabay
Back to Frederick County now and this time we shall go over something known as
the Dwayyo, which is said to be a wolf man and also a creature that is an arch enemy of
the Snallygaster. One of the basic descriptions is of a dark hairy creature that stands tall
and on two feet as a bipedal. It is found around similar areas to the Snallygaster, such
as the Middletown Valley.
One of the first documented sightings comes from 1944 in West Middleton where
strange screams were heard and unidentifiable footprints were found. It would not be
until 1965 when the beast enters into the public consciousness thanks to an article from
the Frederick News Post which details a sighting of the creature as well as a subsequent
attack.
The sighting was made by a man under the alias of John Becker in his yard near to the
woods of the Gambrill State Park. Becker had gone out to investigate a strange noise as
evening and its darkness closed in. After initially finding nothing of significance he had
begun to head back towards his house when he caught something odd in his sight, some
kind of creature heading towards him.
He described it as large as a bear, with long black hair, bushy tail, and that it growled
like an angry dog or wolf. The creature was at first heading towards Becker on all fours
before it got within range of Becker and then rose up on to its hind legs, walking like a
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8. human, and then attacked Becker, who fought the creature until it eventually ran off
into the woods. Becker named the creature the Dwayyo in his recount of it to the
newspaper.
As is typical of an initial widely publicized encounter of a strange unknown creature,
other reports soon flooded into the newspapers of similar or perhaps the same creature,
and from there it spread quickly through the community and beyond.
Sightings of the creature continued through the 1960s and 1970s where it peaked and
then thereafter calmed down.
Some believe that the creature could have originated from a similar mythical creature
known as the Hexenwolf that had been possibly brought over from superstitions and
folklore of immigrant German settlers to Pennsylvania, many of which moved on into
areas of Maryland, including places where the Dwayyo came about.
Image by Simaah from Pixabay
Finally, there is one last cryptid to go over, a creature that is believed to either be
a wildman or a bigfoot-type creature and which is known as the Sykesville Monster,
where it is said to hang around and has been reported by many local residents.
The legend of the creature started around the early-1970s, with the creature being
sighted in woods around Sykesville. Continued close encounters with whatever the
creature was would lead to residents of Sykesville descending into a tumult of fear.
Some have even accused authorities of attempting to cover up whatever is going on in
the area with the creature, giving residents little reasoning behind its responses.
One such sighting in 1981 was observed by a Lon Strickler who was fishing at the time
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9. in the south branch of the Patapsco River. During his fishing he would soon notice a
large stray dog on the opposite bank around about 50ft away from him. He then
observed this dog growling and barking at a clump of brush close to the river, that’s
when he witnessed a large humanoid shape emerge from the brush, describing it as
around 7-8ft in height and covered in hair.
Strickler then saw the dog attack the creature, and Strickler said the creature made a
strange ticking sound as it struggled with the dog, eventually the large humanoid got a
hold of the dog and slammed it to the ground, causing it to back down and run away.
The large humanoid then headed back into the woods, Strickler said shortly after he
caught the scent of the beast, describing it as a heavy musk.
After the encounter Strickler got out of there and drove to a phone where he called the
police. The authorities told Strickler to return to the scene of his sighting and wait, of
which he did, but despite it only taking him 3-minutes to get back a police cruiser was
already on the scene and he was instantly told to leave the area. Strickler did leave but
then decided to return to the area an hour later, where this time he observed several
state vehicles, a federal vehicle and also local authorities on the scene that was now
taped off and he could see authorities combing the area, including with search dogs and
a helicopter was also in the area, which seemed to be a rather overproportionate
response to a simple unidentified sighting, he was quickly again told to leave by
authorities of which he did. There was apparently also a curfew put in place.
Strickler said he attempted to get answers from the state for several days afterwards but
never got any such answer. Strickler also said he called several Baltimore TV stations
who he said seemed to be interested in the sighting, but after he called the stations back
after several days each one rebuffed him, saying they had no idea of any incident and
didn’t want to talk to him.
So just what was this all about? Was it simply just a coincidence? Or is something very
odd afoot? It’s likely we shall never truly know. It certainly sounds like something right
out of the X-Files.
Well, that will do for Maryland, it certainly had some very interesting things. Next up we
shall go over the strange and the unexplained of the US state of Massachusetts.
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