Wisconsin cryptids are everywhere. We’re surrounded monsters and seemingly paranormal creatures. There’s the dogman known as the Beast of Bray Road in Elkhorn. The bearwolf and/or Bigfoot at Holy Hill. Rocky, the lake monster of Rock Lake. The menacing hodag of Rhinelander. Wendigo and Goatman roam the Kettle Moraine. Thunderbirds in the Northwoods.
But the forests and backroads of Wisconsin are filled with countless sightings of even stranger unidentified creatures that defy explanation. Let’s take a look.
1. La Crosse Man Bat
The encounter with this winged horror, also known as the “Briggs Road Bat Man,” occurred in 2006. A Native American man named Wohali and his son were driving down Briggs Road in La Crosse when a large winged creature flew toward them. They described it as being six feet tall, having sharp teeth, leathery bat-like wings spanning 10-12 feet, human legs with claws, and protruding ribs. It flew up to their windshield, screamed at them, and then vanished over the treetops into the sky.
Wohali and his son both suddenly became ill and had to pull over to vomit. They reported feeling sick for a week after the incident.
When researcher Linda Godfrey investigated the scene 18 days later, she found no signs of the man bat but noted the discovery of a mutilated deer carcass in the woods where the creature had flown. The deer was missing its hind legs and intestines, and there was no blood.
2. Man-Faced Pigs of Door County
Many things probably come to mind when you think of Door County: Beautiful views, wine, maybe the restaurant with goats on the roof. But pigs with human faces probably isn’t one of them.
Legend says a Belgium immigrant had received a letter from his family back home. The man was illiterate, so he called on a local priest to read it to him. The letter, according to the priest, was informing the man that he had been written out of his parents’ will. Enraged, the man is said to have cursed the priest. However, since the priest was a holy man, the curse bounced off of him back to the man. Because that’s how curses work, I guess.
This curse twisted the faces of the man’s pigs into human faces.
The curse remained until the man eventually built a chapel, lifting the curse and restoring his pigs back to normal.
“The chapel remains to this day,” says an article titled 25 Fun Facts About Door County, Wisconsin.
3. Rock-Throwing Gnomes of Fifield
Holy Cross Road in Fifield, WI is home to a legend about a woman and her children who were killed trying to get across the train tracks before the train arrived. It’s said they still haunt the area, and if you stop your car and put it in neutral, the children will push you off the tracks to safety.
But that’s not even the weirdest part about this road.
Legend says that there are little people or gnomes living in the woods near those tracks, and if you throw a rock into the woods, they will throw it back. But beware, the story goes that if you do throw a rock, the gnomes will curse you with misfortune.
4. Steinthal Monster
An abandoned farm in the village of Steinthal west of St. Nazianz became prime monster-hunting territory in the fall of 1965. Area teens using the property to “park” started reporting sightings of a huge, bizarre creature. Researcher Adam Benedict writes on his website, The Pine Barrens Institute, that the monster was described as being anywhere from six to nine feet tall, hairy, and with one to three green glowing eyes, depending on who was telling the story.
Teens would wander around the property at night with flashlights, searching for the creature until their beams reflected in its shining eye(s). Then they would flee back to their cars and speed off terrified into the night.
One night, Manitowoc Herald Times reporter Syd Herman, who wrote a long-running column called “Sparks From The Campfire,” decided to investigate the rumors of the Steinthal Monster. He and a TV cameraman visited the property to investigate. They didn’t find any large hairy beasts lumbering around, but they did discover a ghost inside the house. Someone had covered a dress form in a sheet and placed it at the top of the stairs in the abandoned house.
The monster-hunting craze ended abruptly on the night of October 1st, 1966, when a car full of teens leaving the farm was struck by a drunk driver. Three of the four teens were dead before paramedics arrived.
5. Mauston Birdman
Mauston residents have been encountering this feathered horror for decades, often seen peering through their windows at night. Witnesses describe the creature as a sort of “Frankenstein creation combining the characteristics of a bird and a man,” researcher Chad Lewis writes. It’s said to have a bird head with a large yellow beak, a human torso, arms, and legs with large feet and clawed toes. The most surprising part, however, is probably the big, round yellow feathers.
“My sister insisted that ‘Big Bird’ came to visit us one night,” one witness writes in the book Weird Wisconsin. “She said he took us outside and showed us all kinds of neat stuff and played with us. The next morning, we went outside and found big yellow feathers.”
6. Kidrick Swamp Whatsit
Located way up north in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, Kidrick Swamp is home to…something. It seems no one can even agree on what it looks like, as it varies widely from sighting to sighting as Adam Benedict details. Is it an alligator-possum hybrid? A wild alpaca-like creature? A dog-sized beast with a horn, rhinoceros skin, and large yellow eyes?
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7. Deltox Marsh Monster
For two months in 1968, the hunt for Bigfoot was on in the town of Fremont in Waupaca County. The first sighting occurred during deer hunting season on October 19, 1968. A group of 12 hunters witnessed a hairy, bipedal, 600-pound beast standing 8-9 feet tall.
While many thought it was a hoax, most didn’t think anyone would be dumb enough to be out in the woods dressed as an animal during hunting season.
“Either it was a deranged person in a monkey suit attempting suicide or it was one of the half-dozen or so kinds of man-creatures that we call collectively (abominable snowmen),” Ivan T. Sanderson wrote in an article for Argosy magazine.
Researchers descended on Fremont to investigate. They came to the conclusion that this Yeti was a vegetarian (it seemed to be chewing on the Canary grass but ignoring nearby deer carcasses) and it may have been a bit of a drunk if the pile of empty beer cans found in the Deltox Marsh area where numerous sightings occurred was any indication.
Footprints were found after a snowfall, but they were quickly dismissed as they resembled the tracks of a “good-sized man wearing swim fins.”
The sightings and the investigations ended after about two months. Most seemed to believe it was a practical joke. There were a few suspects in mind, but no evidence, and no one ever confessed to being the Deltox Marsh Monster.
Wisconsin Cryptids
That’s just a few of the weirder obscure Wisconsin cryptids lurking around the state. That’s not even including the phantom chickens of Seymour, the ghost elephants of Baraboo, the Peshtigo Fire demon boy, the mini mastodons eaten by a hungry mob during the Great Depression, the Milwaukee demon, many of the other lake monsters and Lovecraftian horrors, the trolls of Barron County, or any of the sightings of the Lake Michigan Mothman. Those are all tales for another day.
Have you had an encounter with any of these cryptids or something else unexplained? Tell us about it!
