The Eerie Erie Sheepman of Waterford
By
Cole Herrold
Half-human creatures are a constant occurrence in the
worlds of Cryptozoology, Ufology, Demonology, and other Fortean studies. Some
are constantly pegged into their appropriate categories, whereas others seem to
cross the boundaries forming new and difficult to determine classifications.
Bigfoot, for example, is generally accepted to be a large unknown ape that
resides in the forested regions of the state, yet there are some reports where
bigfoot is in fact either directly or coincidentally connected to UFOs or other
anomalous phenomena. Other creatures like dogmen, frogmen, fishmen, and
lizardmen are regularly reported, and some do teeter in that gray Keelian world
of joint phenomenon. But of all the unknown creatures out there, there is one
that has brought many to the brink of terror and, in some cases, their own
demise and ventures of into both a cryptozoological, Fortean and demonological
phenomenon. This unknown group of creatures is referred to as Goatmen.
Goatmen are a peculiar bunch of creatures that exist
almost universally around the United States, the most famous cases being the
Maryland Goatman and the Pope Lick Monster. These creatures are described as
humanoid in form, typically 6-7ft tall with features reminiscent of goat-like
horns and hooved feet. These creatures are a mixed bagged phenomenon as they
are researched by folklorists, Cryptozoologists, and paranormal investigators.
These creatures are considered extremely aggressive some varieties have
supposedly been known to carry axes or lure individuals to perilous locations.
These creatures are also reported to attack cars, pets, and livestock, leaving
dismantled corpses or bloodless bodies behind.
While reading J. Nathan Couch’s book Goatman: Flesh
or Folklore? I stumbled upon one particular beast I had never heard of and
was very near in location to me. This creature was tucked away in a short
chapter called "The Pennsylvania Sheepman". The creature was
described in very much the same universal way as the classic Goatman type figure,
yet to me, it was interesting as it added another feather in Pennsylvania's
already remarkably gaudy cryptid hat.
Waterford is a small town located in Erie County,
Pennsylvania. Waterford has a rich early history predating both the English and
French arriving in the US. The site where Waterford now stands was at one point
a Native American village. The area had some remnants of this previous
civilization all the way up to the 1860s. The area was home to two forts
created by the French, and a wagon road was developed that interconnected the
two. This fort and roadway led to an increase in commerce, which eventually
helped build the town. The area had a rich history, some violent and some
peaceful between settlers and the native inhabitants. In fact, the first death
that occurred on the land was of a boy by the name of Rutledge, who died of
wounds from a native American skirmish in 1795. Waterford today is a sleepy town, not unlike
the vast majority of towns and boroughs that exist around the country, has a
current population of 1,517 and possibly one sheepish citizen.
The Pennsylvania Sheepman or the Sheepman of Waterford
is a beast that made its debut in the town in the70s. America, it seemed, was
reaching an all-time high at this point in weird creature sightings, including
those of Goatmen like beasts, and Pennsylvania was no stranger to such beasts.
Trying to research information about this peculiar creature is very difficult
as a lot of sightings were not reported to the police or any other media
source. All documented knowledge of the creature comes from later accounts,
particularly in October of 2012 when such tales tend to be reestablished by
local sources. Before that point, however, the tales of the beast were spread
orally in the town's schoolyards and playgrounds and homes, spoken only just
above a whisper to keep the beast at bay.
The vast majority of this enigmatic entity's sightings
occurred on what is known as the Waterford Covered Bridge or, as it's known
locally, the Old Kissing Bridge, which is located on Niemeyer Road. The
creature is said to frequent this location, and some of the most violent
encounters have been reported to of occurred by this hoofed hooligan. The most
famous being a tale told by Herb Kinney, who had a friend who would come face
to face with the monster one rainy night. His account would be included in both
J. Nathan Couch's Book as well as an article entitled "The Legend of the
Sheepman of Waterford, PA" found on the now-defunct Examiner.com
website. Attempting to find the original article proves impossible as the site
now is linked to a website that sells concert tickets.
Herb Kinney’s friend was out one summer night enjoying
a nice little drive with another individual he knew. The night was growing
darker as the two traversed down the old road in his dark blue ford mustang
convertible. The sky began to swarm with an amass of clouds, and as the two
reached a certain point in their journey, the heavens wept. The rain was
beating down on the young men's heads due to the fact that the two decided that
since it was such a nice night to drive around with the top down a decision,
they would most certainly regret it. Herb's friend saw the possible air of
protection from the elements in the Old Kissing Bridge and proceeded to go and
drive inside. Putting the car in park, the pair left the vehicle and began to
lift and adjust the collapsed roof back into place.
It was at that
moment that the sounds of heavy footfalls emanated from the bridge. The two
men, probably thinking it was some kind Samaritan who noticed their plight or
someone who was annoyed by their halted presence on the bridge, began to turn
around unperturbed by the sounds. As the men turned, they realized that this
was by no means something that seemed heaven-sent but something that to them
seemed to of ascended from the bowels of Old Scratch's lair. The two men stared
at this strange anomaly taking in the foul apparition in every detail. The
creature was a 6-7ft tall beast covered in wet, dank grayish-white hair on its
body, and atop its head, the beast was adorned with large, curled horns like a
goat or rams. Its maw was adorned with long sharp carnivorous fangs, and the
beast walked upright on hairy goat-like haunches, and its human-like hands were
adorned with long sharp claws. Before the duo could even comprehend the strange
caprine creature that clambered before them, the beast began to rush toward the
men. Herb's friend reached out as he was assaulted by the beast hitting and
smacking the creature until it let go. The two rushed back to the safety of
their car, but the creature was in hot pursuit. The creature continued its
aggravated assault on the top of the vehicle beating its fists and scratching
its claws on the roof of the car. The friends struggled to get the car moving,
but in a quick motion, the engine roared to life, and the two sped out of the
bridge, leaving their unknown attacker behind as it unleashed a series of
guttural sheep like sounds.
The two
returned to town, and Herb's friend returned home. He sat in his car for a
second, his eyes reeling from the ghastly horror show he was plunged into and,
with a sigh of relief, got out of the car. His roof, which was the whole reason
for his pause in coming home, was decimated, its frame bent, and rooftop clawed
and beaten. He went inside and told his parents all about his encounter with
the horned hellion on the bridge. The parents proceeded to go outside and see
the carnage. When Herb's friend said about calling the police, the two adults
looked down at their offspring and said that nothing of the sort would happen.
The idea of their son's brush with the goateed nightmare to them would be
embarrassing and not something they would want to be advertised in town. So,
the story stayed quiet until Herb would recount his friends' perilous encounter
with the beast some thirty-forty years later.
This account is by far the most aggressive and
detailed account of the Sheepman in the very scant cases on it. In several
sources, there are claims of over one hundred sightings of this creature from
the sixties to at least 2012. Yet finding anything about a vast majority of
these other sightings has proven fruitless. This tends to be the case with a
lot of cryptid sightings, though. For everyone sighting of a strange animal, chances
are there are another ten that goes unreported partially out of fear of
ridicule and partially out of a lack of places to submit an encounter. While
the internet now has countless sites where people can submit their reports like
Phantoms and Monsters, Cryptopia, BFRO, Singular Fortean, and with us
now at the New World Explorers Society. Back in the seventies and
sixties, while there are countless UFO newsletters, magazines, and bulletins,
monster or cryptid encounters really only got reported to individual
investigators, police, or the local newspapers. These options go back to the
reason’s reports went unwritten.
While cases of the Sheepman are difficult to come
across, Herb's friend is not the only one to claim to come into contact with
this malicious faun. A woman named Marilyn had actually seen the satyr on more
than one occasion. Marilyn claimed to grow up on Baghdad Road, which is another
area that is a hotspot for Sheepman sightings. Some claim the Sheepman lives in
a cave located along the road. Her accounts are interesting, for while they
lack the sensationalism that Herb's friend experience, these accounts point to
something more biological in origin as opposed to some heinous beast. Marilyn
had claimed that she had seen this allegedly horned beast crossing the road
twice in her lifetime. The second and most recent sighting occurred on one dark
night as she had just pulled into her long stretch of driveway when there in
front of her a gray form sprinted in front of the car it looked at her as it
ran and without stopping returned to the wild wilderness it called home.
In my research on the subject, I came across one other
scant account that appeared on The Pennsylvania Rambler of a boy named Eric
who claimed one night to of encountered a tall and hairy beast with horns under
the Old Kissing Booth who the boys whom the author of the article heard the
account from claimed lived under the structure to come out at night to harass
those on the bridge and nearby woods. This account is probably the most recent
account if authentic, but the boys who regaled the author with the story also
made claim Eric was drunk at the time of his sighting.
Another witness called Sally B. said that the Sheepman
had lived along an old dirt road near her family’s farm. She claimed that the
creature was part man part sheep much like the other cases reported yet in a
strange turn of events claimed that the beast also carried a hook that it would
use to scare people out of the areas it would call home as well as presumedly
kill anyone it could get its hairy hands on.
This last report tends to shred some of the
authenticity of the creature. Goatmen type creatures are often discussed by
folklorists for the fact that in many ways, they behave and enact in many of
the same or similar manners as other urban legends such as the Hookman or
Cropsy. These figures are essentially immortal serial killers rumored to come
out of their wooded locals to kill and frighten teenagers stupid enough to
venture or make love in their areas. The Maryland Goatman case has many of
these same attributes, including coming out to accost teenagers making out in
cars. The Maryland Goatman is said to attack vehicles, pets, and teens with a
large hatchet or ax. The Pope Lick Monster of Louisville is another supposed ax
and lantern wielding Goatman that lurks atop a train trestle. Many who have
climbed the trestle either led by the siren song of the beast or by their own
curiosity have actually lost their lives, making it a legend with actual
danger. These ax wielders are not dissimilar to the Sheepman and his hook in
this respect. In Massachusetts and New York, legends of Cropsy and the Hookman
reign supreme, and in the legend of the Hookman, the story goes that he was an
escaped mental patient who had a hook for a hand and would come out to attack
lovers, usually scaring them by scraping his hook along the side of their car.
The Pennsylvania Sheepman, in this way, seems to be a weird barrier between the
two areas of legends. This makes this creature more than just a physical
chimera but a folkloric one.
Another element that seems to point to something
folkloric as opposed to Cryptozoological or paranormal is an anonymous email
claiming to know the origin of the Sheepman. Paranormal researcher and folklorist
Heidi Kirclich LaDow received this email from a local after she was
investigating the legend of the beast. The email goes as follows:
“I will let you know that the Sheepman
story, as far as I know, started in the vocational agriculture student's heads,
and the fable grew until the general public adopted it as a local legend. I
heard of Sheepman in the 1970, and as a seventh grader it awed me and others.
[the story was] that a man could have sex with a sheep [and produce a
sheep-man]. What started as a dirty little story grew into a small town legend.
I ain’t telling no more!”
This email is not an original idea. Many times, in the
world of folklore, there are countless beasts that were supposedly the
offspring of man and animal. In Greek culture, for example, the god Zeus in the
form of a great white bull seduced Minos's wife Europa, and the two in a union
produced an offspring which would become known as the Minotaur. Many times, in
folklore, the idea of two totally separate species producing an offspring is
common in places where cryptids are reported. There are several ideas of
separate species like alligators and a monkey crossbreeding to form the
creature that is seen or terrorizing the area. While we know this is a
ridiculous idea, it is not unheard of for separate species to create offspring
ligers, zonkeys, and mules; for example, are some common varieties that zoos or
sideshows would purposefully create. In human history, our species co-bred with
other hominids like Denisovans and Neanderthals resulting in the wide
genetic diversity we have today as a species. There even was an attempt at one
point where a scientist had tried to create an ape-human hybrid by inseminating
a woman with orangutan semen. The results were unsuccessful but possible. There
are even reports of the Almas Zana who supposedly had given birth to a
half-human half Almas offspring in Russia. Now a man breeding with a sheep,
however, is an entirely different ballgame and not possible to occur.
While the Sally B. account does match and points
towards a more folkloric kind of beast, Marilyn and Herb's friends' accounts,
if authentic, definitely point to something other than the oral traditions that
all cultures share. What this creature or creatures could be, those are
difficult to determine. Most Cryptozoologists often lump these kinds of reports
in with Bigfoot cases as bigfoot is frequently known to attack cars and the
sprinting type figure is a common behavior described by witnesses. While
Marilyn's account is rather vague as she described it simply as a dark gray
form that streaked across the road, so there is the possibility she did see a
bigfoot like creature. Herb's friend, even though it's told from a secondhand
source however seems to point to something entirely different his liminal space
Sleepy Hollow-esque account is something that clearly depicts a half-human half
goat-like beast and not a traditional bigfoot like creature. With that said, what
could this creature be?
A bear or bigfoot would be the most likely explanation
for this creature seeing as the height would be about the same as the creature
seen, and it wouldn't take much to think that in the darkness that a bear's
ears could be in the right light look like horns. The problem with this
hypothesis, though, is, of course, that while bears will walk upright if their
front paws are injured, they do not have the fluid movement as seen in
creatures that are described as walking bipedally. As sasquatch would be the
next possibility, but again there's nothing that would appear as horns on a
bigfoot, and while it may be the answer to a select amount of sightings, it
cannot be the answer to the creature Herb's friend reported.
One cryptid that does bear a striking resemblance to
the Goatman is the Sheepsquatch. These creatures are almost a direct match for
the beast seen in Waterford. The color, height, fangs, horns, aggressive
behavior are all features that are the same as the Sheepsquatch. Now one
feature that is reported in some Sheepsquatch accounts is that of a possum-like
tail, but a tail is something not described in any of the accounts. Another
possibly misleading aspect that could point to a different kind of creature is
Goatman accounts typically are described as a thin creature, not a big hulking
monstrosity like what is seen typically in Sheepsquatch accounts.
The idea of a Goatman type creature as an undiscovered
species is unlikely but of all the hypothetical answers seems to be one of the
only possibilities that could explain biologically what this creature could be.
True, there is no evidence for such a creature in the fossil record, but at one
possible point in our history, the ancestors of sheep were carnivores.
Andrewsarchus was a large animal found in China, which has some debate around
it. This animal was at one point believed to be the ancestor of sheep, but some
are thinking it could be related to whales.
If the original hypothetical origin is correct, though, it is possible
that this could be the great grandfather of the Goatman. As evolution would
take its course, the creature’s ability to stand upright for a short period
could turn into longer and longer periods and ultimately freeing up the front
paws, which could extend the phalanges to the point of fingers. Resulting in
what we now know as Goatman and even possibly Sheepsquatch. Yet, as with
everything when it comes to hypothesizing this kind of phenomenon, the evidence
for this is basically nonexistence.
Interestingly this is not the only time PA has seen a
strange goat hybrid beast. A group of sightings from late summer of 1973 of a
strange creature described as a goat horned, white-maned, tiger fanged, bipedal
beast was seen attacking Amish farms. This creature was seen rampaging from
farm-to-farm, devouring wooden tools and grabbing geese with its hands, which
it later threw at a brave Amish woman who pursued the beast. J. Nathan Couch
hypothesizes in his book that this creature could very much be the same beast
and that it managed to move from Erie to the southern section of the state
where these sightings took place.
Another article argues that this creature might, in
fact, be extinct or if it was a singular entity dead, seeing as how the average
life span of a sheep is around a decade. This to the author could explain why
sightings after the 1970s were essentially nonexistent. This is interesting if
accurate because if this animal is advanced in every other element as it seems
to be, it would be unique for it to maintain this primitive aging quality.
A demon is a common answer for this mystery for a lot
of people who have researched this phenomenon. While the Sheepman of Waterford
does seem to be a physical entity in many regards' creatures like the Pope Lick
Monster appear as something more phantasmagorical. Supposedly many mediums have
linked these creatures to the infernal realms or as negative entities whose
only goal is to kill and destroy humans. I personally do not agree with this
assertion into this phenomenon as a lot of our depictions of demons are the
culmination of the church taking various cultures' gods and spirits and
converting them into the cloven-hooved beasts we see now. While I suppose it is
not outrageous for maybe if these spawns of the dark one do exist that one or a
few of them could look like a Goatman.
The final possibility is that what is seen is
something like a faun, Pan, or satyr. In Greece, there were several myths of
half-human half-goat animal and nature spirits. These creatures were a paradox
as they were loud, rowdy creatures that would have sexual encounters with
humans and have drunken bouts with the god of wine Dionysus but also passive,
peaceful creatures who would play music on the panpipes and walk peacefully in
the woods. The leader of the satyrs and fauns was the god Pan who could create
a sound that would result in humans running away in absolute terror hence the
origin of the word panic. These creatures are tied into the faerie world and
folklore of a variety of European cultures, and some Fortean researchers
believe that some reports of cervine and caprine type humanoids could be these
creatures returning to our world to either protect nature or some other as yet
undetermined reason.
While I'm open to the idea for a lot of creatures to
exist, the Sheepman seems to me to be a heavy mixture of folklore and some
potentially real encounters with an as of yet unknown animal. Just what that
animal is, is to be debated. It seems that all the answers to what this
creature could be are shrouded in mystery. Unfortunately, most of the accounts
we do have are from secondhand sources or from online interviews, emails, and
comments, so trying to interview the witnesses even more thoroughly is almost
impossible. This creature, if real, would be an evolutionary discovery that
could change the fabric of what we know about the ancestry of a variety of
creatures and how evolutionary change occurs. Yet there are too many folkloric
variables to ignore as well and this, of course, just pushes this creature
deeper into the shadows of fable and out of the light of science. But perhaps
someday we will find the answer to this mystery down Baghdad Road.
Quick Facts:
Species/Potential Species: Mammal/Hominid/Primate
Location: Waterford, Erie County, Pennsylvania
Sighted: Throughout 1970s
Works
Cited
Couch, J. Nathan. Goatman: Flesh or
Folklore?. CreateSpace Independent Publishing. 2014.
Styn, Rebecca. “Eerie Erie: Seven Tales to
be Told After Dark” Erie Reader. October 17, 2012.
https://www.eriereader.com/article/eerie-erie-. Accessed December 23, 2020.
Wanna See Something Weird?. February 7th,
2019. https://cryptids-of-the-world.tumblr.com/post/182627376451/the-waterford-sheepman-is-a-goat-like-creature.
Accessed December 22nd, 2020.
Fort LeBoeuf Historical Society.http://fortleboeufhistory.com/about/waterford-erie-county-pa/.
Accessed December 22nd, 2020.
“Andrewsarchus”.
https://walkingwith.fandom.com/wiki/Andrewsarchus. Accessed December 22nd, 2020.
“Weirdness in Waterford”, The
Pennsylvania Rambler. August 5, 2018. https://thepennsylvaniarambler.com/2018/08/05/weirdness-in-waterford/.
Accessed December 22nd, 2020.
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