Mud Creek Road Monster
By Cole Herrold
Sometimes in the annals of Forteana, a
creature can be interpreted a certain way that matches an already existing
category. These cases are sometimes accurate as of the incredibly large Hairy
Hominid category, which includes everything from Momo, the Fouke Monster, the
Honey Island Swamp Monster, Skunk Apes, and of course the quintessential
Sasquatch; however, sometimes a case gets lumped into a category simply out of
convenience because the entity's appearance when you look at the original case
files is something entirely different, that currently makes it stand alone in a
world where there's already a huge range of bizarre beasts reported. One such
case that occurred on Mud Creek Road near Troy, Pennsylvania, is often lumped
into the category of Werewolf or Dogman type creature, yet when you actually
view the initial report, it clearly is something even more bizarre.
On November 20, 2011, a pair of travelers
were driving down Mud Creek Road traveling west towards Highway 14. It was
11:05 that night, and the road was completely shrouded in darkness that could
barely be penetrated by the beams of the headlights. The driver, a young man,
stared blankly into the darkness, cautiously looking for deer or any other
native species that might scurry out into the road. As he stared down the paved
road, he noticed that near the edge of the bank was something moving. He could
not tell what the object was, but he could tell it did not appear normal, and
so he grabbed the attention of his friend. She was staring out the passenger
side window, focused on the enveloping tree-shrouded darkness, and hearing his
voice, she turned her head, staring then in the direction he alluded to. The
driver proceeded in slowing down the car expecting that it could be some deer
that they misidentified, and so slowed down even more to get a better look. As
they came closer, the female friend staring at the anomalous object soon felt
that what they were staring at was a naked human. Concerned that it could be
someone hurt, the two slowed down even more until they realized that even this
was certainly not the case.
The driver ended up stopping the truck in
the middle of the road and directed the headlights at the bizarre form. The
truck was about 30-40 ft away from the object and could now clearly tell that
this was not a person but instead was a strange creature crawling on the
ground. As they watched, the creature suddenly rose up on its hind legs in a
squatting position, its back completely straight, which was similar to a
kangaroo's. The creature in this position was about 5ft tall. The arms of the
creature were held close to the body, and each hand had four long talons like
that of an eagle's. Each claw was 8-10" in length except for one which was
much shorter than the other one. The creature had a muscular body slightly
covered in barely noticeable little black hairs and was mostly covered in grayish black wrinkly
skin that covered the entire body in bizarre folds of flesh, yet the most startling
feature was the oversized head which appeared wolf like as it had pointed
bat-like ears about 4-6” in length. As if this wasn't nightmare fuel enough,
the creature had a mouth filled with razor-sharp fangs, and its eyes were a
solid black, almost as though they were voidless pits. The witness would go on
to state that these dark pits were the size of a silver dollar and that
throughout the entire time of the headlights being on it, not once did they
reflect with eyeshine.
The man stared at the entity for some time
when a peculiar thought broke into his mind, which was that he felt that the
creature should have wings, yet none were clearly apparent. The creature was
slowly moving in this position, and it slowly worked its way to the road being
only 1-2ft on the pavement. As the creature did this, it began to do something
incredibly bizarre it began to what can only be described as stretching its
body as the animal got down onto all fours. The witnesses would describe that
as the creature stood up on its back legs, it fell forwards onto its front
ones. It was in this position that the creature seemed to be about 6-7ft long.
In doing the seemingly awkward stance of getting down on all fours, the creature,
when its front paws hit the pavement, managed to span the road almost in the
same way a tree falling would, and the creature's top half made it 2ft beyond
the center of the road. This anomalous abomination which now took up more than
half the road with its bewrinkled form, soon began to turn its head and
instantly looked at the vehicle. The two travelers could tell its black-holed
gaze was focused straight at them and not the mechanical transport they were
in; a shiver ran down their spine as they expected the beast to come barreling
towards them to rip them asunder but what happened next was beyond what they
expected.
The creature's expression changed, and to
the witnesses, the only word they could describe the face was
"panicked." The creature appeared to be horrified of them just as
much as they were, and it began to take a heavy deep breath as though to calm
itself in this situation. The witnesses stared at each other, confused at this
behavior as it almost was as though the creature had some sort of supernatural
stage fright due to being seen. The driver would later comment that "he
had the feeling the creature didn't realize it was being observed and when it
did realized it was- it was like it was caught doing something." Just what
would only be speculated later, but in the present, the creature soon began to
move after freezing for that short duration. The creature started to lean back
and then proceeded to reach forward with its claws; after doing what seemed to
be a kind of a stretch, the creature then took an enormous leap which managed
to clear the entire roadway from where it was and a seven-foot embankment which
was on the other side of the road and ultimately disappeared out of sight all
in the same length of time. The way the creature leaped, the man would later
state, was that it made itself perfectly straight in position and held its
front claws forward. As the creature did this grand leap, the back legs were
more noticeable and were even more surprising as the creature's lower legs "were
only slightly larger than broomsticks or about the size of a walking cane and
were very long." The woman in the passenger seat also felt that as the
creature jumped, it was almost 9ft tall, as though the process of jumping
increased its height or length. Later it would be estimated that the total
length the creature jumped was an incredible forty feet.
The driver and his friend were just trying
to figure out what they had just seen when something just as bizarre happened
as they waited in the dark road. A large bird, possibly an owl, suddenly rushed
at the passenger side window, almost hitting the glass. Then took off and did
not return. The witnesses frightened by this flying feather friend were unsure
whether this avian anomaly was an owl, but they thought it was bizarre that
such an airborne anomaly would come from the exact area as where the creature
was meandering.
On April 11, 2012, the driver would later
get ahold of Pennsylvania Paranormal Researcher Stan Gordon, and he would
retell his experience to him as best he could. Stan then was able to interview
the woman of the 26th, but even after those few months, the effects
of their creature sighting lingered on as the man would tell Stan that the
creature "scared the hell out of us" and "I will never forget
that night." Stan would later ask the two what their thoughts on the
creature were, and both had some rather unique if not conflictory ideas of what
the creature was. The two were both in agreement that the creature appeared to
of changed form somehow. The driver stated, "Its shape was nothing like
when it squatted." The driver, after his sighting, went online to see if
he could find anything that matched the creature they were seen, but he came up
empty-handed when later asked by Stan what the closest thing it looked like
was, he later stated that it looked more like a gargoyle without wings. Whereas
his female counterpart reluctantly and conclusively went on to say, “It shaped
into another form…I think it was a man turning into a werewolf”.
Thus ends the account of the Mud Creek
Road Monster, a brief encounter that took no more than 12 seconds but instantly
changed the lives of two young people. This account is interesting for so many
reasons; first of all, there's nothing truly like it, its safe to say it's not
a black bear with mange since bears don't have incredibly long broomstick thin
back legs; bears also have five claws as opposed to the four the Mud Creek Road
Monster allegedly had. Mangy cats, dogs, foxes, wolves, and coyotes have four
claws but also do not reach the height or lengths of the creature reported.
Compared to other cryptids that are said to be endemic to the area, like black
panthers, Bigfoot, Flying Humanoids, and even Dogmen, none of them truly match
the creature. Another interesting factor is unlike other cryptid cases, there’s
a point of scale with how much of the road the creature took up, so measurement
is easier as opposed to an ambiguous photo or a sighting in an open field. This
sighting has reasonable places where measurements, as opposed to spitball
guesses, can be applied.
This entity is perhaps one of the most
bizarre I've come across in Pennsylvania's Fortean history since there's so
much to unpack in such a short encounter. I guess the first thing to discuss is
the possibilities of what this creature could be. I've already discussed why it
couldn't be a mangy native animal, so I'll branch over into cryptid territory
and discuss some of the similar creatures that vaguely resemble this creature.
The first that comes to mind, of course, is the Dogmen. Dogmen sightings are
becoming extremely common in Pennsylvania, and this creature was described as
being rather wolf-like in the face; perhaps Dogmen like Bigfoot can get mange. There’s
a famous PA bigfoot case of a bigfoot with a short mohawk and patches of hair
on a practically hairless body that many, myself included, feel is a case of
Bigfoot with mange. If this is possible with dogs, bears, and Bigfoot, perhaps
Dogmen are just as plausible to be subject to getting it. My only problem with
this is that Dogmen usually have eyes that naturally seem to glow or reflect
light; the creature's eyes seem to be devoid of any light as though it was to
quote Sam Loomis "The Blackest Eyes the Devil's Eyes." This entity
also was described as having four claws which is something that is different
from dogmen accounts. Dogmen are described as having five digits, and some of
the track evidence also verifies this.
Another Cryptid possibility is a recent
phenomenon known as crawlers. Crawlers are described as pale humanoids that
have small heads, long spindly arms and legs, and long, overly extended
fingers; they also are sometimes described as having red or black eyes. These
entities are very close to what the Mud Creek Road Monster was described except
for a few points. Crawlers are typically pale white in color or light gray and
completely hairless. The Mud Creek Road Monster, on the other hand, is dark
grey to almost black in color with very fine black hair, almost like one would
expect to see on a peach. The Mud Creek Road Monster also had one less digit
than what is typically described with Crawlers, who usually have five long
razor-sharp or skeletal-like fingers. The Mud Creek Road Monster also has a
wolf-like head that is larger in mass than most of its body which is something
that is completely opposite of what the Crawler phenomenon seems to indicate.
From there, the possibilities seem to of
hit a brick wall; there was an alleged creature that was said to of been killed
by some boys in Panama that does have some similarities to the creature. This
particular creature was known as the Cerro Azul Monster and was a popular
mystery for some time; however, the Cerro Azul Monster was later revealed to not
be a new undiscovered animal but simply the bloated remains of a sloth. Yet
even if this was a cryptid animal, it would still not exactly match.
The next possibility, even though it seems
too ridiculous to even think about, is that this creature is a Squonk. For
those who have no idea what a Squonk is, a Squonk is a Fearsome Critter (a
creature folktale created by lumberjacks to entertain, frighten, or pass the
time) that is often described as a kind of pig-like creature completely ugly to
look at. Its usually described as having the overall appearance of a pig with
long spindly back legs, a warty, wrinkled body, slight hair that covers the
body, and a pig-like face. The creature's appearance, however, is not its most
known attribute legend says that when this creature is seen or captured, it
reacts in a bizarre way due to the fact that the creature is very
self-conscious it hates to be seen even by its own species and so when spotted
by another living creature it will begin to cry. Now, this might seem unimpressive,
but its body has a bizarre reaction to this natural behavior as the more the
creature cries, the creature begins to dissolve. This can continue for a short
span of time before ultimately turning into nothing but a pool of tears.
Clearly, this has to be a folktale; there's nothing in nature that would
benefit from such a behavior; an organism's sole purpose is to live its life
and continue its line by reproducing; you cant have a species that dissolves
when another of its kinds around there would be no offspring. However, if you
remove the anomalous behavior of the Squonk, the Mud Creek Road Monster has an
incredible likeness to it; the only difference is the size and supposed leaping
ability, but the creature's ability to leap is not referenced in any books on
fearsome critters so perhaps it can. Perhaps a pig-like face could have been
mistaken for a wolf-like one; they both have a snout and large semi-pointed
ears. I could see how it could be mistaken, and to me, more interesting is that
perhaps the legend of the Squonk could be based on this creature. Even the
creature's shyness could be accurate when the Mud Creek Road Monster was seen
it didn't attack even though it clearly could have done some damage, but it
seemed to be panicked or upset it even took a deep breath as though to calm
itself this is similar to anxiety that we could attribute to Squonk behavior.
While I want this creature to be the thing
that inspired the legend of the Squonk or that it is, in fact, the Squonk, I
seriously doubt it, but it makes me double think putting the creature in the
harsh Folklore file. With that said, there's another option that needs to be
entertained that ventures out of the realm of Cryptozoology and into the
paranormal. The female witness was adamant that what she saw was a human
turning into a werewolf; perhaps she's right. Humans turning into werewolves
have been around since the Greek Myth of King Lycaon, and every culture around
the world has tales of such shapeshifters. We chalk this up to man's attempt to
understand serial killers, animal attacks, the animal nature of humans, and
wishful thinking, yet what if these accounts are legitimate claims of people
who, through some supernatural means, have been able to change their skins and
become snarling monsters. In this case, if this was what was seen, the creature
seemed to be deliberately doing it and not forced to by some curse or some
lunar cycle as depicted by classic werewolf movies. Even the witness had the
feeling that the creature gave them a look as though it was caught with its
claw in the proverbial cookie jar. Now with that said, the creature seems to be
halfway through transformation if this is the case as it was clearly devoid of
one of the most iconic features of the monster, the overly abundant hair
growth. And this image of the creature then does seem similar to the
uncomfortable Rick Baker transformation scene in American Werewolf in London
when David is in his lover's apartment, just a less hairy version.
Other options for what this creature could
be is the infamous Ultraterrestrial, a creature that appears to simply mess
with humanity or feed on their fears, but this seems unlikely as the creature
seemed more afraid of the witnesses than them of it. The creature could have
been an interdimensional being and could have popped in from another dimension
hence why when the witnesses saw it, the creature seemed to of been
shape-shifting; it could also explain why the creature seemed so disturbed by
their presence since perhaps on its homeworld it had never seen or experience
humans before. Or perhaps on its homeworld, humans hunted these creatures for
some reason or another. This creature could also be a faerie, yet I cannot
think of any that would exactly match what this creature is said to be, but
like the previous possibilities, I cannot rule it out.
In conclusion, the Mud Creek Road Monster
is an enigma that is totally unique. Pennsylvania has had tons of encounters
from Thunderbirds, Albatwitches, Black Panthers, Giant Snakes, Bigfoot, Dragons,
What-Is-Its, and Aliens and none seem to match this creature. There were some
reports of small hairless badger-like creatures, but they seem to be an
altogether different breed of beast. I have no conceivable clue as to the
origin or identity of this creature, and part of me would love some follow-up;
perhaps some other motorist along Mud Creek Road encountered something similar
or had an even closer encounter, yet there's no way of knowing for sure. Until
the time being, if you're on Mud Creek Road, look all around, for you just
might encounter a broomstick legged monstrosity that defies all logic.
Quick Facts:
Species/Potential Species: Mammal
Location: Mud Creek Road, Troy, Bradford
County, Pennsylvania
Sighted: November 20, 2011
Works Cited:
Stan Gordon "Three Mysterious
Creature Encounters Reported From Pennsylvania” Stan Gordon's Anomalies Zone.
https://www.stangordon.info/wp/special-reports/three-mysterious-creature-encounters-reported-from-pennsylvania/.
Accessed October 5, 2021.
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