America’s mysteries

The Jersey Devil is an infamous New Jerseyite who is rumored to roam the Pinelands, a national reserve in Shamong Township, NJ. According to the Pinelands Preservation Alliance, the Jersey Devil has a kangaroo-like body with the face of a horse, the head of a dog, bat wings, horns, and a tail. For over 250 years, the creature is rumored to make the marshes of southern New Jersey its home, emerging occasionally to rampage through towns. To this day, people driving down the Garden State Parkway or Atlantic City Expressway report sightings of a “something” and recount stories of unusual encounters with the fabled Jersey Devil.

According to the Washington National Guard, this seven-foot-tall hairy man stalks along the mountainous western region of North America sometimes spooking campers, lumberjacks, and hikers. Reports of sightings go back to the 1800s with rare encounters, footprints, and even some grainy photos. His legend really gained momentum in 1958, when a journalist highlighted a letter from a reader about loggers in northern California who’d discovered extremely large footprints. Since then, Bigfoot has been a wonder wandering through the woods just beyond those scenic roads that meander the Pacific Northwest.

Like The Creature from The Black Lagoon, the Loveland Frog has webbed appendages, leathery skin, and a froglike face. The Skeptoid podcast pinpoints the first sighting in 1955 when an unnamed traveling salesman pulled over after seeing three frog-esque figures that stood about four-foot tall on their hind legs in Loveland, Ohio. The salesman watched the figures “converse” for a few minutes before one of the figures held up a metal cylinder above its head and fired sparks into the air in a magical display. According to Tetzoo zoology blog, the second significant sighting occurred when a police officer was driving in the Loveland area and a presumed Loveland Frog scurried across the road in front of his car then climbed over the guardrail into the river. Scratch marks were later identified on the guardrail where the creature descended. Two weeks later, another officer named Mark Matthews saw a creature that matched the first officer’s description along the road. Originally thinking it was an injured or dead animal, he went to remove it from the road until the creature lurched up at Matthews who shot the animal and watched it hobble over the guardrail. WLWT5 News reported on the most recent sighting in 2016 by a group of people playing Pokémon GO. While searching for virtual Pokémon characters, they claim to have spotted the fabled giant frog in the real world. Is the Loveland frog real? We might never know for certain.

As stated in the Fresno Bee, the Fresno Nightcrawler has been captured on several security cameras. This creature looks like a pair of possessed white pants sauntering across lawns and parks through California and Yosemite. The first sighting of a Fresno Nightcrawler occurred in Fresno, CA on surveillance footage. The man who captured the footage was so scared by his findings that he stayed in his house for weeks after to avoid whatever was out there. Footage of the Nightcrawlers have surfaced since then, some being debunked as fake, but the original video remains unexplainable. Today, Fresno embraces the local legend by selling pins and plushies that replace the creepy with the cute.

The Honey Island Swamp in Louisiana is home to a creature known to hunt animals and cause destruction. Stories of this creature terrorizing the region originate in Native American folklore where it is associated with a human-like creature raised by alligators. Other tales of origin say the swamp monster is the offspring of an alligator and a chimpanzee who were on a circus train that crashed, releasing the animals. According to Country Roads, the first reported sighting was in 1961 by a man named Harlan Ford who saw a seven-foot-tall beast with yellow eyes and a putrid scent. For ten years, Ford remained committed to spot the creature again. When he returned to the location of the first sighting, he found large footprints with webbed toes in the mud and cast them in plaster. After his death, his granddaughter continued the search and found her grandfather’s old footage of something large walking on its hind legs beyond the trees of the swamp. In her commitment to prove the existence of this ruthless creature, she’s written a book and made a documentary.

The Mothman is named for the Killer Moth villain from the batman comics. The creature swooped into sightings and stories in 1966 during a thirteen-month period when hundreds of eyewitness accounts informed law enforcement and local media of the mysterious creature lurking through Point Pleasant, West Virginia. EBSCO states that the first sighting was by a group of five grave diggers who claimed to see a brown, human-like creature flying overhead. Three days later, two couples claimed to see a similar creature with red, glowing eyes. When they attempted to flee the scene, the creature kept pace with their car, gliding through the air overhead. Some reports say, the beast’s flying speed reached 100 mph. Another notable sighting occurred during the fatal collapse of the Silver Bridge in Point Pleasant on December 15^th, 1967. Dozens of local citizens reported sighting of the creature flying to and from the bridge immediately before and after the bridge collapsed.  After that 13-month period, sightings have really slowed down. It’s now a prideful part of Point Pleasant’s history with a museum, statue, and even a festival.

We’ll lighten this load of spooky creatures with one that we know is fake. High Country News claims the antlered rabbit called the Jackalope was created after two brothers were hunting small game for supper. They bagged a jackrabbit, returned home, and placed the animal next to a pair of antlers from a previous hunt. They decided to forgo dinner and mount the jackrabbit with the antlers on its head to create the Jackalope. Versions of the mount spread throughout the west and now Jackalopes watch over restaurants and homes all over the world. The fun, homemade creature has since spawned folklore, artwork, and constant arguments over how fast a Jackalope can run, how to attract it, or even how well it can sing. These pieces of folklore represent the significance of passed-down stories that make us all want to believe there’s something more out there beyond the exit signs.

It’s the stories we’re told around the campfire and the ones we pass down that make every RV trip that much more memorable. With or without the existence of Bigfoot, RV trips can be full of unwelcome surprises. That’s why having protection is important.