Cryptids In Maine
Posted by: Loren Coleman on March 10th, 2007
Drawing by Michelle Souliere. Used by permission.
I live in Maine, and have been associated with the state, wow, now for 27 years. I want to give something back, in terms of a small booklet on “Cryptozoology in Maine,” sort of a small regional nonprofit pamphlet. Not a big book like the Weird USA series, because, frankly, no publisher will support it. It won’t even be a moneymaker, as publishers tend to think in terms of “Weird New England,” and that Maine doesn’t have enough weirdness. I beg to differ, but that’s okay, publishers don’t see it that way because of the bottomline. So sometimes I do things anyway, just for the love of the subject, or in this case, the state.
If you start thinking about cryptozoology (versus general strangeness) by states, your pool of choices and subjects seems even smaller. But such a pamphlet would not be a marketing ploy, merely a way to give back to the state that has become my permanent home.
So, here goes. I’d begin a three-question survey today, with the goal of pooling what is known about every cryptid associated with Maine. But first a little demographic sampling.
(1) I know there are people out there who read this blog, who live in this state, use to live in this state, and have visited the Pine Tree State. Are you one of those individuals? (I’m just trying to get a sense of how many Cryptomundo readers, which actually is the very best sample of the cryptozoologically-aware public around, have physically been here.)
(2) No matter if you have been here or not, live here or not, what specific cryptids do you associate with Maine?
(3) What reports or literature are you aware of about any cryptids reported from Maine or coastal Maine? Please cite your source(s).
That’s it. Thank you.
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Hello, Loren
I have hunted, fished and vacationed in your lovely state, especially northern part. I would be living there now, but somehow I wound up in Idaho. When bass fishing there in Maine, I heard tales about Maine’s relic species of moose. Great idea re: ‘book’ and keep on keeping on.
I really hadn’t heard of any Maine cryptids before I started ran across Cryptomundo (unless you count Stephen King lol). I’d heard of the pumas in the northeast, and giant moose, and Bigfoot too, but not specifically in asociation with Maine.
Kittenz- Well, I think Stephen King has been proven to exist.
I’m a big fan! I will be honest and say that I know little about Maine cryptids. That being said, however, I have learned of them on this site and become quite interested in learning more about them.
Loren,
As you can tell from my log in name I live along the Maine coast. I have spent the last 17 years here and have anxiously awaited a good burst of cryptid reports. These never really materialized (outside of the Maine Mystery Beast which never caught my imagination).
Most of what goes on here these days seems to revolve around out of place animals or freakishly large sea creatures. I have met people who have seen mountain lions all around the MDI area. I don’t really consider the existence of these animals in question any longer. State recognition of a species doesn’t seem to be pivotal in proving something is around. An urchin diver I know claims to have encountered a 4-5 foot long lobster in an estuary near here. But this isn’t cryptid as much as simply a lucky lobster than managed to avoid a tourists dinner plate for 60 years.
Honestly, it was during my youth in western Pa. that the cryptid fire was kindled. There was always something percolating in the papers during the 1970’s. Before the internet this was the only way one could hope to stay current with the rumor mills and find the important contact information that was laced throughout the story. Oh, the people I met along the way. There is a novel in those encounters. Some of those folks were weirder than the stories they were expounding. Investigations about the Kecksburg UFO, the lost B17 Bomber, and other weird happenings cycled through the printed media because it sold Sunday papers. It was the western Pa. bigfoot craze of the 1970’s that hooked me even to this day.
Outside of the sea serpent reports that occasionally filter out, it seems Maine has an absence of good stories with legs (Save the Maine Mystery Beast). I would be excited to see something authoritative published on this subject if there are indeed sightings being made in the vast Maine woods. Loren, you seem to be the man best positioned to give some credibility to the effort. Good luck with your efforts. Let me know if you can think of anyway I could help you. I’m sure you have access to all contact information needed to participate in this forum.
Yes… I’ve never been to Maine (yet), but I hope to make it up there someday. I keep saying I’m going to walk the Appalachian Trail with my dogs, ONE OF THESE DAYS. But a little annoyance called WORK keeps interfering with that plan.
I’ve learned about the Maine cryptids here at Cryptomundo too. I’m especially interested in the “mystery beast” that was killing dogs. From the descriptions it sounds a lot like a lynx … but Canada lynxes are usually shy, and they are not known for going on killing sprees. Has there been any new information on that cryptid, I wonder?
When I think of Maine, a place I’ve yet to visit, in the crypto sense, I think of the vast forests which for so long had been held captive by paper companies. Their conserving those vast tracts of land for their use has done some good despite the wholesale slaughter brought on by commercial and sport hunting and harvesting practices which diminished the natural system’s ability to sustain itself and it’s host of dependent creatures, in the previous generations. I’ve read reports of BF from around Baxter State Park and Mt Katahdin and wonder if the scarcity of reports has to do with the scarcity of access that people in Maine have had for so long. Along the coast, aside from the seaserpents, I’ve long held a fascination for the SeaMink which Farley Mowat describes in his bood “Sea of Slaughter”. He believes he’s seen one, though up on the coast of Newfoundland. His remarkable book also projects his research into the original populations of animals that have long since vanished from most of the east; wolves, wolverines, stags, moose, bison, even grizzly bears, but above all the loss of the impossibly rich rookeries of seabirds that once dotted the north atlantic. I guess efforts are now underway to provide for the returning atlantic salmon and shad…near cryptids in the practical sense when compared to their historic levels.
Hi Loren
I lived in Hiram, Maine for approximately 6 years. I was not born there, just an “outta stata” who got transplanted for around 1963-69. Much to my dismay, cryptids were rare in Maine.
However, I actually met one on a cold dark night in the middle of winter. I lived in a house about 6 miles from the nearest village and back in the woods on a road we called “the Notch.”
It was the Black Dog. I’d seen it several times before we met up close and personal. Fleeting glimpses of him sitting back among the trees as I drove by in a car or running through the woods behind a number of deer it was chasing.
I was 10 or 12 tears old. For some odd reason he decided to make contact one night while I was sleeping. I awoke to the sound of footsteps endlessly circling the house, the sound of that hard, crunchy snow crumbling into the soft stuff below it when a foot forced it down.
I finally could bear the creepiness no more and went to a window and pulled a curtain back and almost wet my pants. He had reared up on his hind legs and placed his forefeet on the very window I happened to go to.
Blacker than the night he stood out clearly against the white of the snow covered ground. He just stood there staring at me at eye level. About the size of a black Labrador but of no discernible breed.
To keep it short, I took him in and fed him for a few days until he broke the contract of mutual tolerance. One day as I sat on a couch, he walked up to me and I reached to pet him. With my face very near his muzzle. Suddenly, he opened his mouth and bit me full in the face. His upper canines ripped all the way through my upper lip and one of his bottom ones punctured my lower lip. After some muffled screaming, I began beating him about the face while still trying not to pull away till he let go. I wanted to keep my lips awhile longer.
Eventually, he released me and I was rushed to the village doc for a mouthful of stitches.
They tied him to a elm tree in the front yard, then called the constable to come out and shoot him in the head. I heard tales later of a large black dog that had been chasing small children and knocking them down. Apparently he just moved through the woods on him own agenda.
Sometimes nowadays women ask me why I don’t shave my mustache off to be clean shaven for a change. Once in a while I’ll tell them the truth about the mark of the Black Dog that I try to hide beneath the lip hair.
The Black Dog bit me, and it may well be silly to think it was just a coincidence, and that it could have happened to anyone. But from that time forward, I look at the shadows behind the dense trees in the forest and hear things that other people do not hear in the wild places I visit.
Loren,
I lived in Maine till I was six, but the best I can do is my dad’s sighting what appeared to be a black panther back in the 50s. I can send you Dad’s phone # if you want to ask him if he recalls further details.
Regards,
Matt Bille
1) I’ve never been to Maine but my wife has. She’s an artist (painter) and would love to live there. (I’m more the Wyoming, kinda guy).
2) When I think of cryptids in Maine, I think of sea serpents. However, it seems that I vaguely recall some Indian legends concerning strange creatures there, but I don’t recall details.
3) I’m not near my reference books presently so I can’t give specific accounts, sorry.
As I eventually will get to Maine, since my wife definitely wants to go again, I would love to get a copy when you finish it to have with me. Best of luck on it!
Maine is a one of those states where population densities are more isolated to the coastal areas, and the central and northern portions have a much smaller per capita population. This makes for beautiful scenery as well as isolation for hikers, hunters and outdoors people. Eagles, moose, deer and more haunt the woods and waterways.
In 2000 the population of Maine was just under 1.3 million spread over some 31,000 square miles. 3500 miles of coastline, 17 million acres of forest. The US census bureau projection is around 1.4 million people by 2025, or 42nd in the nation for population.
My grandparents lived outside of Houlton, Maine (where I-95 ends at the Canadian border, past Bangor) for over 50 years. My mother, and her brothers / sisters grew up in the area, as well as bordering New Brunswick. We have had family cabins in areas around August (Three Mile Pond) and currently in Weston, Maine on East Grand Lake (and international lake, half-and-half in the USA and Canada).
The waterways host a variety of fish, and fishing from docks and boats usually garners a good day (though not as good now as in the 1980’s). Attraction wise the area is more “wilderness” drawn, but there are some nice family attractions that are fun. The Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunk, York Animal Park in York, Desert of Maine in Freeport, or the outlet stores in Freeport and Kennebunk (to name but a few).
Having lived in New England off / on since 1980, both in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, I’ve spent many a summer in Maine (and winter). Both with family, in the woods and exploring its scenic areas. I also travel occasionally to different areas on business, though this is primarily in the Portland, Kennebunk or Bangor areas (sometimes Presque Isle).
Maine has a history of cryptid sightings, or enigmatic mystery animals worth reviewing. It is a sampling of similarities that cross into other areas of New England, especially New Hampshire and Vermont who share similar population densities and wilderness isolations over Connecticut and Massachusetts.
Hairy Hominds:
Bigfoot style reports have floated through Maine . See Chad Arment’s “The Historical Bigfoot”, Janet and Colin Bord’s “Bigfoot Casebook” for examples of published accounts (to name but a couple sources).
Sea Creatures
The Maine coastal region has had its fare share of aquatic reports of “Sea Serpents”. See Loren Coleman / Patrick Huyghe’s “Field Guide to Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents…..” , Bernard Heuvelmans “In the Wake of the Sea Serpent” for examples of published accounts (to name but a couple sources). Most recently Loren Coleman touched on Casco Bay in his article in “TAPS.”
Lake Creatures
While lesser know, Maine does have its cryptic lake creature or “lake monsters”. Not often researched or well documented, and some are the onesy-twosy style accounts:
Boyden Lake, Chain of Lakes, Machias Lake, Moosehead Lake, Rangely Lake, Sysladobsis Lake, Gardner Lake. See Loren Coleman / Patrick Huyghe’s “Field Guide to Lake Monsters, Sea Serpents…..” , John Kirk’s “In the Domain of the Lake Monster” for examples of published accounts (to name but a couple sources).
Land Mysteries
There are of course the enigmatic creatures of the land. From “fortean” stylized accounts of the Spectre Moose (see Loren Colemans’s entry at Cryptomundo, and also in “TAPS” as well as Craig Heinselman’s King Moose, to oversized otters in Maine, see Chad Arment’s Historical Record of a Giant Otter in Maine.
Additionally, there are the Eastern Cougar reports from Maine, including “Black Panthers” ( see Loren Coleman’s “Mysteries America” ).
Wolf reports from Maine appear from time to time, and the state has treatments in place to protect these animals (see the state of Maine’s government website). Same for cougars and lynx. Or the “Maine” mutant areas.
While these may seem mundane in totality, the land mysteries are highly interesting. They mix folkloric icons with hunter’s tales. Popularized media portrayals with wildlife analysis. A hunt for the unknown can take place in ones backyard.
Maine is still full of open land and mountainous terrain. Worth a look and review of its mysteries (perhaps then we can move onto to New Hampshire and Vermont, all under scrutinized but having their own less famous creatures, like Lake, Land and Air cryptids).
As for references, see those noted above. A wide variety are lesser published and appear in the regional newspapers, odd magazine articles and so forth.
Craig Heinselman
Peterborough, NH
I am from New Hampshire. There are reports of the big man there. One by a friend whose word I would never doubt. No reason to think they’re not in Maine too.
Loren, glad to see your still blogging…
Born in Maine and now residing in NH, I have spent many a fall day in the Maine woods hunting.
Never have seen or heard anything out of the ordinary.
I have heard stories of giant squid off shore and large cats sulking through the timbers.
Never have seen the squid, but the cat is different.
My sighting of a mountain lion took place in the early 80’s on the ME/NH border.
There was no doubt what I had seen, it took place within 15-20 feet of me.
Heinselman- What a fascinating and informative comment you posted! Thank you for putting it up!
Fantastic post, Heinselman.
I haven’t heard much about Main in regards to crytozoology’s bad boys, but I have heard a bit about wolves, coyotes (which are apparently Canadian wolf/SouthWest coyote hybrids and are on Cape Cod now), fishers, and big cats. There is the white Moose which you covered here a few weeks ago. That was a fun read. And there was that strange dog you were called in to investigate. One could say that Maine is quite far from the cryptid center of the Universe, but I’m afraid Utah occupies that spot for this century. Not even a faith promoting story of Cain as Bigfoot to follow up on. (I hope to get to Bear Lake this summer, though. I hear there were some lake monster sightings there. Might be a fun trip)
Thank ya all; that’s a wicked good start to a list. From CH’s summary, it is obvious I’m the source of too much recent material, and I want to encourage other cryptozoologists in the state to emerge from the forests!
Hello Loren,
Obviously I live in Maine!
I have for all of my 23 years except one winter when I was young. These woods are full of fabulous creatures and we all know it. I think mostly of creatures in the woods and only as a secondary thought do I think of sea creatures here, that is because of my own experience.
I posted it on the article about “The Awful”. One night, I was driving a friend home in a small town on the coast in Mid-Maine. All of a sudden a large “creature” flew in front of our car. It was brown or grey from what I could tell. The closest thing that I could think of was a pre-historic bird. It looked leathery, not feathered. It was quite large (maybe 4 feet long) and very quick. It made all the tingles go up and down my neck as they sometimes do when you are in the Maine woods at night. (Maybe you know the feeling- that there is something else in the woods with you..?)
Also, as for disputable animal residence of Maine, My family has seen mountain lions several times as well as wolves.
Keep up the great work and thanks for representing our state so well!
I see this is an old post, but I will post anyway.
I live in Vermont and cannot speak much for Maine, but considering the proximity of these two states I might be able to add a bit to the discussion.
As has been already touched upon, mountain lions (cougars, pumas, etc.) are a reality in Northern New England. Every fifth local has had an up-close experience with one. Wolves are often sighted, as well as the enigmatic “coydogs” here in Southern Vermont. These are well known to everyone in my area, but their identity is hotly debated. Larger than coyotes, slightly smaller than wolves, and roaming wild, they have been contended to be either coyote-domestic dog hybrids (hence, “coydog”), or coyote-wolf crosses. They are a fairly common sight around here.
A very interesting event occurred at the beginning of the 20th century in the far north-eastern corner of Vermont. A beast known as “old slipperyfoot” terrorized the isolated families in that region of the state. I have not been able to find any information on his appearance, identity, or individual accounts, but I did find out that the monster warranted a hunting expedition by Theodore Roosevelt.
There is, as alway the occasional account of a hairy primate, but these are fairly generic, so I will spare any descriptions, except to say there are Native American stories in the Northeast of men and hairy, upright creatures producing offspring.
I don’t know if this helps, or if anyone is even following this post anymore, but here is what I know.
I usually associate Maine with bigfoot. Something about those pine forests in the mountains just evokes some kind of feeling, like any moment some kind of hairy creature will walk out of the forest.