The Blackwood Pigtaur
By Cole Herrold
Cryptids often appear to be a cross
between at least two animals, typically a man and some other species like a
bird, ape, or dog. Others, even though it's less common, are a total chimera of
seemingly countless varieties of creatures. Perhaps the most famous chimera
cryptid is the Jersey Devil with its bat-like wings, horse-like head, reptile-like
tail, cloven hooves, and mammalian paws, and ram or deer-like horns, but it is
not alone and seemingly is not the only chimeral cryptid creature in New Jersey
if a particularly bizarre encounter from 1976 is to be believed.
It was on August 9, 1976, when a mother
named Olivia and her daughter were preparing for the incoming gales of
Hurricane Belle and, having gotten most of their mandatory prep work done,
decided to get some horseback riding in before the storm started beating on
their home. So, the two went to their barn, got their horses out, and proceeded
to head towards the Lakeland area by Blackwood. They had visited the area
several times and were quite familiar with the trails in and around the area.
They chose on that day a specific dirt road that went along a nearby junkyard
and began riding out into the woods. The winds were beating wildly already, but
the pair already on hoof decided that they might as well make the best of it
and continue on their trek. Things were normal even with the incoming storm
that would soon hit the Jersey coast, that is until they got to a certain
section of woods where everything went deathly silent. There were no bird songs
or insects, just absolute quiet the pair noticed this as the woods on an
average day were always so lively, and even before this section, there was a
cacophony of noises. They listened to the eerie silence for some time when as
if as some morbid prophetic omen, they heard the sound of a crow. The crow
cawed three times and was heard no more, and as if on cue, the horses started
acting up as if they were aware of something dangerous or frightening that the
two could not see. The riders were trying to calm down their mounts and were
doing their best to try to see what was upsetting the horses, but at their
current spot, they could see nothing.
The mother and daughter continued on their
path, and when they moved a little further up the path, they noticed something
moving about 100 ft from them. They saw a dark form that appeared to be about
6ft in height, seemingly scratching its back on a tree. The creature had its
back facing them, so they could not tell what the animal was. Olivia, when she
first saw it thought that perhaps this was a large dog, or maybe they saw the
top of the horse as the lower half was hidden by brush and nearby bushes.
Olivia looked over to her daughter when she realized that neither of her
guesses seemed to match, and so she asked, "What is that". As she
said this, the figure moved away from the tree and began walking the path in
front of them. They soon thought that whatever this was, it had to be a human
since the figure was walking like a man, but they were confused since while it
was windy, the person would be still extremely warm under all the fur clothing
he seemed to wear. The two continued to follow the figure up the hill but kept
their distance and moved extra slowly to try to discern just what was in front
of them. All the while, the horses were becoming more and more difficult to
control as they were seemingly deeply disturbed by the figure in front of them.
All this soon broke out as the horses went wild, rearing up on their hind legs
and whinnying loudly. This ruckus caught the attention of the figure in front
of them, and as it turned around, Olivia and her daughter could tell that
whatever this thing was, it was not human.
The figure before them seemed like
something pulled from mythology; it was covered in whitish hair and had long
curved horns. The creature stood on two feet, but in place of paws or toes, the
creature had cloven hooves. The creature's hips had big spots on it like one
would expect to see on a cow, and the creature had long muscular human-like
arms with hands that were tipped with razor-sharp claws. While all this would
seem like a classic Minotaur, there was one feature that seemed to indicate
something of a more swinish origin as in place of a bull-like snout, the
creature had an upturned and protruding pig-like nose. When she looked at the
creature's face even further, she noticed that the creature had bright red
slanting eyes and that the creature's fang-filled jaws were wide open and
profusely drooling and slobbering. The creature, which was on the side of the
path seeing these followers proceeded to jump into the middle of the road, arms
outstretched, and proceeded to lower its head as if it was going to charge
after them. Fearing that this would be an unconventional version of Spain's
running with the bulls, the daughter was fretting frantically; however, as
Olivia looked at the creature, she felt that she was almost in some sort of
trance which she would later describe "like she was in a movie or
something". Her daughter, seemingly noticed her mother's immobility began
to yell to her, "Let's turn around and get out of here!" and only
then did Olivia seem to snap from whatever trance she was in and realize the
very real danger she could be in.
They could feel terror seething through
their veins, and as they began to get the horses to turn around, the creature
began to move. The creature began to charge at them but brought its arms into
its body, tucking them inwards and running as the witness would describe
"like the Bionic Man". The creature came extremely close to them and
in an almost Legend of Ichabod and Mr. Toad style came so close to the
witness that it almost grabbed one of their horse’s tails. But right before its
clawed fist could close around the rear of the animal, they got their horses to
speed off, running as fast as they could down the hill and the dirt path. When
Olivia, in a moment of curiosity to see if they were still being chased by the
creature, turned around, she could see that it still stood in the road at the
exact spot where it had stopped to grab the horse's tail.
The pair, now mad dashing down the hill,
had managed to make their way to the junkyard where almost in a scene reminiscent
of such horror classics like My Bloody Valentine or Halloween, a
police officer was parked seemingly oblivious to the nightmarish marauder that
was lurking in his town. The Washington Township police officer saw the two on
horseback running at break-neck pace towards his vehicle, and he proceeded to
roll down the window. In strained and frenzied breath, Olivia and her daughter
began to tell the officer of the strange creature that they encountered and,
seeing the horrified expressions on their face, took them seriously enough to
reach over and start to write a report on what the women were saying. As he was
writing, he muttered, "Well I hope to hell we don't catch it," and
almost as if on cue, the creature returned.
The creature exited the woods and entered
the junkyard; it continued its bizarre bionic running and was coming straight
towards the police car. The woman and officer could only look in horror as this
Greek ghoul came sprinting through the old, dilapidated cars and hopped over
the 8ft tall fence that surrounded the auto graveyard. The creature, however,
either afraid of the law or for some other unknown reason, seemed not to care
for the women and horses that it only moments earlier attempted to chase down
and proceeded to gallop in front of the police car and into the nearby woods.
The officer stared in disbelief at the awful abomination that he had just
witnessed and looked over to Olivia and asked for her address as he wanted to
speak to her later about the event the three of them had just witnessed. Olivia
complied and began to lead the horses back home and into their stables. Olivia,
however, never got to have that follow-up with the officer as apparently she
did not make it home in time for his arrival, and he simply came and went.
Sometime later, a neighbor of hers who
owned a local ranch told her that at one time, he had found one of his horses
dead in the field with its stomach ripped open. Olivia kept this story secret
for a long time until her daughter decided that she should come forward with
her account and report it to the amazing New Jersey-oriented Fortean book and
magazine writers and investigators Weird NJ. She discussed the full
encounter over the phone and ended her account, stating, "I believe there
is something out there. There were three witnesses that day and my daughter and
I can recall vividly every moment of our encounter with this thing. Even after
40 years, Ill never forget it. I’ve never told this story to anyone outside of
the family, but my daughter convinced me to tell it to Weird NJ”.
Some of the researchers took an interest
in the tale and decided to do a follow-up focusing primarily on if there was an
official report on the creature in the local police station. Upon asking
several officers who were on the force during the time the event took place at
the Lakeland Police Department, they were surprised to find that all of the
officers knew about the encounter and claimed that the event did, in fact,
happen. The officers also said that the creature seen in 76' was not alone as
they frequently got reports about a bizarre flying creature that was also said
to hang out in the same area.
This case is unique for many reasons, but
perhaps the most interesting is that essentially what was described in the
encounter was something like a cross between a known cryptid called a Pigman
and a Minotaur, a seemingly mythological creature. Encounters with Minotaurs or
Cowmen from a cryptozoological perspective are practically unheard of; these
encounters are so rare that other rare cryptid species I've come to call
Barnyard Beasts like Goatmen or Pigmen are common in comparison, so this
encounter is very unique and rare simply for that reason. The creature's
appearance, while cow like is also similar to a Pigman with features similar
specifically akin to the Vermont Pigman as both creatures were reported to have
whitish hair and a piggish proboscis. Now while I cannot rule out that this
might be some unholy love child of a Minotaur and a Pigwoman (as there are
reports even though they tend to be interconnected with ghosts), perhaps this
pig-like feature could be a kind of deformity or because of Olivia's
interpretation of the feature and it could actually be more cow-like. Yet this is just speculation, and based on
the description might just be some hybrid between the two cryptids or its own
species altogether that just happens to bear a strong resemblance between the
two kinds.
While this creature does appear to be a
cryptid, there are some other options, obviously. One thing that points to a
potential paranormal avenue for the origin of this creature is the almost
trance-like state Olivia was seemingly put through. Now skeptically speaking,
this could simply be Olivia attempting to rationalize what she was seeing in
front of her and that she was so engulfed in fear that her fight or flight
instinct had not kicked in. With that said, however, Olivia definitely
described her encounter as being like a trance, so perhaps that is actually
what occurred to her, but if so, where does that put this creature.
The creature being an extraterrestrial is
highly unlikely, and arguably the same can go for the creature being a faerie
unless this was some guise it ultimately was taking. Interestingly the cloven
hooves, large horns, and humanoid form do seem to fit the iconic appearance of
a demonic entity, yet the problem I have with just about any demonic claim is
that the idea of a demon fits one specific kind of religious belief and that
these entities would need to behave in the same ways that religion says they
need to and almost in every case I've read including those involving the
Warrens or Zak Bagans there is a lot of potential ambiguity with what these
entities are and often after an exorcism or blessing the spirit is still there,
or activity in the house continues years later. With this case, there is an
extra layer when trying to fit this creature into this parameter as the
creature would need to do something more ethereal such as disappear or possess
someone, and outside of potentially putting someone in a trance, it did not do
anything of the sort.
Another possibility is that this creature
could be an interdimensional entity. The creature could have simply
accidentally popped into our dimension and may not have noticed that it changed
dimensions, and when the horses reacted, it was just as terrified to their
reaction as they were to it, and the trance was its way of protecting itself or
as a kind of predatory move. This, of course, is complete speculation. And alternatively,
perhaps this creature could be an Ultraterrestrial as the creature seemingly
only sought to scare the witnesses for food as it chased them, but they were
able to get away as its appetite was satiated. This possibility is also
extremely interesting when the creature is seen for a second time, and it seems
to completely ignore those that only earlier it was seemingly attacking.
New Jersey has tons of bizarre beasts that
are said to exist in the pines and woodlands of the state. While The Jersey
Devil is perhaps the most famous along with Old Red Eyes, the Jersey Squatch,
yet there are other equally bizarre creatures like a red-haired Collie faced
cryptid that ran bipedally across Bowman Road in 1982 and, of course, the
Musconetcong River Mantis Man (see entry for more information). This creature
is clearly a fitting addition to the New Jersey Paranormal Pantheon, yet as
with almost all paranormal entities, we are at a loss for a true answer. I
would love a follow-up to this case either from Olivia, her daughter, or the
officer who was there when the creature galloped across the road. Until the day
comes when possibly one of the witnesses goes and adds more information to this
account or perhaps others who had seen the same creature come forward, we are
simply left questioning just what this creature is, where it came from, and
perhaps more menacingly is there more of them.
Quick Facts:
Species/Potential Species: Mammal
Location: Blackwood, New Jersey
Sighted: August 9, 1976
Works Cited:
Jersey Devils, Bizarre Beasts And Other
Creatures of Weird NJ By Mark Moran and Mark Sceurman
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