The trading cards

Size

6-7 ft

Habitat

Forests & river valleys

Sighting

Point Pleasant • 1966

Trait

Glowing red eyes

A mysterious winged visitor whose glowing red eyes have haunted West Virginia folklore for generations.

Size

10-80 ft long

Habitat

Lake Tahoe's deep waters

Sighting

Cave Rock • 1950s

Trait

Humped serpent back

A shy serpent of Lake Tahoe, glimpsed as a dark hump in water nearly a quarter-mile deep.

Size

3-4 ft at shoulder

Habitat

Ranch & brush country

Sighting

Elmendorf • 2004

Trait

Hairless blue-gray hide

A hairless, blue-gray livestock vampire that still stalks the ranch roads of South Texas.

Size

Man-sized

Habitat

Foggy coastal rainforest

Sighting

Inside Passage • Ancient

Trait

Mimics loved ones' voices

A shapeshifting otter-man who lures the lost into Alaska's fog with the voices of those they love.

Size

Up to 8 ft

Habitat

Pine hollows & creek beds

Sighting

Happy Hollow • 1930s

Trait

Bone-chilling scream

A ghost-white phantom beast, part lion and part ape, whose scream still chills north Alabama's hollows.

Size

7-8 ft

Habitat

Swamps & creek bottoms

Sighting

Fouke • 1971

Trait

Three-toed tracks

The shaggy terror of Boggy Creek, whose 1971 rampage scared a whole generation of moviegoers.

Size

Over 7 ft

Habitat

Pine forests & canyons

Sighting

Grand Canyon • 1903

Trait

Dead-fish stench

A towering wild man of Arizona's rim country, announced by a blood-curdling scream and a terrible stench.

Size

Whale-sized

Habitat

Steep mountain slopes

Sighting

Colorado Rockies • 1910

Trait

Hooked grabbing tail

A whale-sized critter that hangs from ridgetops by its tail and toboggans down on hikers, mouth first.

Size

Child-sized

Habitat

Back-road woods

Sighting

Fairfield County • 1930s

Trait

Oversized heads

Small, bulbous-headed watchers said to swarm cars that linger too long on Connecticut's back roads.

Size

2-3 ft

Habitat

Deep woods & swamps

Sighting

Lenape lore • Ancient

Trait

Mischievous trickster

A gray-skinned little woodland being of Lenape legend who loves to lure travelers off the path.

Size

6-7 ft

Habitat

Cypress swamps

Sighting

Everglades • 1960s

Trait

Overpowering stench

Florida's reeking swamp ape, hunted across the Everglades for sixty years and never caught.

Size

20-30 ft long

Habitat

River delta & salt marsh

Sighting

Darien • 1830

Trait

Gentle river glider

A gentle serpent gliding Georgia's Altamaha River delta since before the schooners came.

Size

Man-sized

Habitat

Valley surf & river mouth

Sighting

Waipiʻo Valley • Ancient

Trait

Shark jaws on his back

Son of a shark god, born with a shark's mouth between his shoulders that he hid beneath a cape.

Size

4-5 ft

Habitat

Rural skies & fields

Sighting

Van Meter • 1903

Trait

Blinding horn-light

A bat-winged creature with a blinding horn-light that terrorized an Iowa town for five nights.

Size

30-35 ft long

Habitat

Cold, deep lake water

Sighting

McCall • 1920

Trait

Camel-like head

The camel-headed serpent of Payette Lake, spotted by work crews and Sunday boaters for a century.

Size

4.5-5 ft

Habitat

Farms & rail lines

Sighting

Enfield • 1973

Trait

Three legs, huge leaps

A hissing, three-legged thing that scratched at a farmhouse door and bounded away in giant leaps.

Size

Table-sized shell

Habitat

Muddy lakes & ponds

Sighting

Churubusco • 1898

Trait

Giant snapping jaws

Indiana's 500-pound snapping turtle, hunted by divers and pumps in 1949 and never caught.

Size

1.5-6 ft

Habitat

Wheat fields & back roads

Sighting

Rural Kansas • 1890s

Trait

Grows when provoked

An ordinary-looking black cat of the Kansas plains, until it rises to its full and terrible size.

Size

Man-sized

Habitat

Railroad trestle & creek

Sighting

Louisville • 1940s

Trait

Goat legs & horns

Louisville's goat-man, who lures the curious onto a live railroad trestle with a borrowed voice.

Size

Man-sized

Habitat

Bayous & cane fields

Sighting

Terrebonne • 1700s

Trait

Wolf's head

A wolf-headed cursed soul doomed to roam the Louisiana bayous for 101 nights.

Size

About 4 ft

Habitat

Stone walls & woods

Sighting

Dover • 1977

Trait

Glowing orange eyes

A big-headed, glowing-eyed figure seen by three teenagers in a single day in 1977, then never again.

Size

6-7 ft

Habitat

Back roads & creek woods

Sighting

Bowie • 1971

Trait

Carries an axe

An axe-carrying goat-man of Maryland's back roads, born of a lab-experiment legend gone wrong.

Size

10-15 ft

Habitat

North Woods lakes

Sighting

Lobster Lake • 1891

Trait

Ghostly pale glow

A colossal pale moose glowing between Maine's pines, shot at by the best hunters but never hit.

Size

7 ft upright

Habitat

Northern pine forests

Sighting

Wexford County • 1887

Trait

Walks on two legs

A seven-foot upright canine with a wolf's head that prowls the back roads of northern Michigan.

Size

Towering & gaunt

Habitat

Frozen boreal forest

Sighting

Ojibwe lore • Ancient

Trait

Endless hunger

A gaunt winter spirit of the north woods whose hunger grows with every meal it takes.

Size

6-7 ft

Habitat

Wooded river bluffs

Sighting

Louisiana, MO • 1972

Trait

Pumpkin-shaped head

A foul-smelling, pumpkin-headed hairy giant that walked out of the Missouri woods in 1972.

Size

12-15 ft long

Habitat

Bayous & river bottoms

Sighting

Pascagoula • Old lore

Trait

Scaled & amphibious

A scaled, amphibious haunt of Mississippi's backwaters that watches the riverbank from the duckweed.

Size

Wolf-sized

Habitat

Sage flats & timber

Sighting

Madison Valley • 1886

Trait

Sloping hyena back

A hyena-like wolf beast of Montana, shot and stuffed in 1886 and rediscovered over a century later.

Size

About 5 ft long

Habitat

Pine flats & swamps

Sighting

Bladenboro • 1953

Trait

Drains its prey's blood

A cat-like "vampire beast" that haunted a small North Carolina town in the winter of 1953.

Size

Buffalo-sized

Habitat

Missouri River ice

Sighting

Mandan lore • Ancient

Trait

One eye, one horn

A red-haired, one-eyed, horned river spirit said to break the Missouri's ice each spring.

Size

About 40 ft long

Habitat

Sandhills lake shallows

Sighting

Hay Springs • 1920s

Trait

Horned, gator-like snout

A horned, alligator-like leviathan that made a small Nebraska lake a 1920s newspaper sensation.

Size

7-9 ft

Habitat

Spruce & fir woods

Sighting

Coos County • Old lore

Trait

Stick-thin & still

A tall, gaunt gray phantom that stands so still behind the trees it vanishes before you're sure.

Size

Horse-sized

Habitat

Pine Barrens

Sighting

Leeds Point • 1735

Trait

Hooves & bat wings

The cursed thirteenth child of Mother Leeds, haunting New Jersey's Pine Barrens since 1735.

Size

Human-sized

Habitat

Riverbanks & acequias

Sighting

Rio Grande • Centuries

Trait

Mournful wailing

The Weeping Woman in white who wanders New Mexico's rivers at night, crying for her lost children.

Size

Infant-sized

Habitat

Desert lakes & springs

Sighting

Pyramid Lake • Ancient

Trait

Cries like a baby

Crying spirits of Nevada's desert lakes that wail like lost infants from the deep water.

Size

15-30 ft long

Habitat

Lake Champlain depths

Sighting

Lake Champlain • 1977

Trait

Many-humped back

A dark, many-humped serpent of Lake Champlain, photographed in 1977 and sighted hundreds of times since.

Size

3-4 ft

Habitat

Riverbanks & bridges

Sighting

Loveland • 1955

Trait

Frog-faced biped

A frog-faced humanoid of the Little Miami River, reported by a businessman and two police officers.

Size

Horse-sized body

Habitat

Murky reservoirs

Sighting

Lake Thunderbird • Modern

Trait

20-ft tentacles

A horse-sized freshwater octopus said to drag swimmers down in Oklahoma's murky lakes.

Size

9 ft tall

Habitat

Cascade volcanoes

Sighting

Cascade foothills • 1994

Trait

Leathery bat wings

A nine-foot, blue-furred flyer of the Cascade volcanoes, with leathery wings and yellow eyes.

Size

Dog-sized

Habitat

Hemlock forests

Sighting

Northern PA • 1910

Trait

Weeps endlessly

A warty, bashful beast of Pennsylvania's hemlock woods that weeps until it dissolves into tears.

Size

10 ft wingspan

Habitat

The Dark Swamp

Sighting

Glocester • Colonial era

Trait

Ram horns & bat wings

A ram-horned, bat-winged guardian said to protect Rhode Island's forbidden Dark Swamp.

Size

Over 7 ft

Habitat

Swamps & bean fields

Sighting

Bishopville • 1988

Trait

Three-fingered claws

A seven-foot, red-eyed swamp reptilian that clawed at cars around Bishopville in 1988.

Size

About 7 ft

Habitat

Prairie back roads

Sighting

Pine Ridge • Lakota lore

Trait

Faceless, arms spread

A towering, faceless shadow-man who walks the Pine Ridge night with his arms outstretched.

Size

Human-sized

Habitat

Ridges & hollows

Sighting

Cherokee lore • Ancient

Trait

Midnight death scream

Appalachia's cursed cat-woman, whose midnight scream is said to warn of a death before dawn.

Size

40-90 ft long

Habitat

Turquoise lake depths

Sighting

Bear Lake • 1868

Trait

Outruns a horse

A serpentine beast of turquoise Bear Lake, said to swim faster than a galloping horse.

Size

7-9 ft

Habitat

Mountain hollers

Sighting

Norton • Longtime

Trait

Shaggy & red-eyed

A towering, red-eyed ape-man so beloved around Norton, Virginia that the town threw him a festival.

Size

5-6 ft

Habitat

Gorges & back roads

Sighting

Northfield • 1971

Trait

Hog-faced

A pale, hog-faced wildling of Northfield's back roads, lurking near the Devil's Washbowl since 1971.

Size

7-9 ft

Habitat

Old-growth rainforest

Sighting

Ape Canyon • 1924

Trait

Giant footprints

The towering, hair-covered wild man of the Pacific Northwest and father of every Bigfoot legend.

Size

6-7 ft upright

Habitat

Cornfields & farm roads

Sighting

Elkhorn • Late 1980s

Trait

Wolf-headed biped

A wolf-headed beast caught crouching over roadkill on a dark Wisconsin farm road.

Size

Jackrabbit-sized

Habitat

Sagebrush prairie

Sighting

Douglas • 1932

Trait

Mimics human voices

An antlered jackrabbit of the Wyoming prairie that sings along with cowboys around the campfire.