The Dover Demon is a creature reportedly sighted on April 21–22, 1977, in

Dover, Massachusetts Dover is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 5,923 at the time of the 2020 United States Census. With a median household income of more than $250,000, Dover is the wealthiest town in Massachusetts. Located ...

, a town about southwest of downtown

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Sightings

17-year-old William "Bill" Bartlett claimed that while driving on April 21, 1977, he saw a creature "about 4 feet tall with glowing orange eyes and no nose or mouth in a watermelon-shaped head" on top of a broken stone wall on Farm Street in

. 15-year-old John Baxter reported seeing a similar creature on Miller Hill Road the same evening. Another 15-year-old, Abby Brabham, claimed to have seen the creature the following night on Springdale Avenue. The teenagers all drew sketches of the alleged creature. Bartlett wrote on his sketch, "I, Bill Bartlett, swear on a stack of Bibles that I saw this creature." According to a local news report, "the locations of the sightings, plotted on a map, lay in a straight line over ". The sightings were not made public until the first half of May. At that time, a local "investigator of unexplained phenomenon" noted similarities to creatures in the

Kelly–Hopkinsville encounter The Kelly–Hopkinsville encounter (also known as the Hopkinsville Goblins Case or Kelly Green Men Case) is a claimed close encounter with extraterrestrial beings that occurred near the communities of Kelly and Hopkinsville in Christian County ...

of 1955. Even though none of the witnesses reported seeing a

UFO An unidentified flying object (UFO) is an object or phenomenon seen in the sky but not yet identified or explained. The term was coined when United States Air Force (USAF) investigations into flying saucers found too broad a range of shapes ...

, the sightings were also investigated by the

Mutual UFO Network The Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) is a US-based non-profit organization composed of civilian volunteers who study reported UFO sightings. It is one of the oldest and largest organizations of its kind, claiming more than 4,000 members worldwide ...

and associated groups.

Possible explanations

It has been suggested that the creature may have been a

foal A foal is an equine up to one year old; this term is used mainly for horses, but can be used for donkeys. More specific terms are colt (horse), colt for a male foal and filly for a female foal, and are used until the horse is three or four. Whe ...

or a

moose The moose (: 'moose'; used in North America) or elk (: 'elk' or 'elks'; used in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is the world's tallest, largest and heaviest extant species of deer and the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is also the tal ...

calf.

Skeptic Skepticism ( US) or scepticism ( UK) is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the p ...

Joe Nickell Joe Herman Nickell (December 1, 1944 – March 4, 2025) was an American skeptic and investigator of the paranormal. Nickell was a senior research fellow for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and wrote regularly for their journal, '' Skeptic ...

believes the creature was likely a

snowy owl The snowy owl (''Bubo scandiacus''), also known as the polar owl, the white owl and the Arctic owl, is a large, white owl of the true owl family. Snowy owls are native to the Arctic regions of both North America and the Palearctic, breeding mo ...

, based on size and

plumage Plumage () is a layer of feathers that covers a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. The pattern and colours of plumage differ between species and subspecies and may vary with age classes. Within species, there can b ...

, which would have reflected in the yellow headlights of older cars as the peach color described by Bartlett. In addition, the "long spindly arms" and fingers of the supposed creature could be the partially opened wings and the splayed feathers at the wingtips of a snowy owl. Police told the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

that creatures reported by the teenagers "were probably nothing more than a school vacation hoax." Skeptic

Ben Radford Ben is frequently used as a shortened version of the given names Benjamin, Benedict, Bennett, Benson or Ebenezer, and is also a given name in its own right. Ben meaning "son of" is also found in Arabic as ''Ben'' (dialectal Arabic) or ''bin ...

has suggested the sighting may have been influenced by the pop culture of the time, as 1977 was the year ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera media franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and Cultural impact of Star Wars, quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop cu ...

'' and ''

Close Encounters of the Third Kind ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' is a 1977 American science fiction film, science fiction drama film written and directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Richard Dreyfuss, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban, Cary Guffey, and François ...

'' were released.

In popular culture

In 2009, the Dover Demon was featured in an episode of the American horror television series ''

Lost Tapes ''Lost Tapes'' is an American fiction television series that aired on Animal Planet. Produced by Go Go Luckey Entertainment, the program presents reenacted found footage depicting traumatic encounters with creatures cryptozoological, supernat ...

'', which aired on

Animal Planet Animal Planet (stylized in all lowercase since 2018) is an American multinational pay television channel focusing on the animal kingdom owned by the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks unit of Warner Bros. Discovery. First established on June 1 ...

. The Dover Demon appears as a character in the American comic book series ''

Proof Proof most often refers to: * Proof (truth), argument or sufficient evidence for the truth of a proposition * Alcohol proof, a measure of an alcoholic drink's strength Proof may also refer to: Mathematics and formal logic * Formal proof, a co ...

'', which features various other creatures. In the comic, it is a creature able to see into the future. It appears in another similar comic book series called ''

The Perhapanauts ''The Perhapanauts'' is an American comic book series created by writer Todd Dezago and artist Craig Rousseau in 2005. The first two Limited series (comics), mini-series, "First Blood" and "Second Chances", were published by Dark Horse Comics, ...

''. The Dover Demon also made brief appearances in the comic books ''The Pound: Ghouls Night Out'' and ''Hack/Slash: Entry Wound''. A Dover Demon also appears in the webcomic ''

Gunnerkrigg Court ''Gunnerkrigg Court'' is a science-fantasy webcomic created by Tom Siddell and launched in April 2005. It is updated online three days a week, and eight volumes of the still continuing comic have been published in print format by Archaia Studio ...

''. The manga and anime series ''

Dandadan , also script displayed as ''Dan Da Dan'', is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yukinobu Tatsu. It has been serialized in Shueisha's ''Shōnen Jump+'' app and website since April 2021, with its chapters collected in 19 volu ...

'' features an alien character called a Dover Demon. Its appearance is significantly different from the original sightings, being a bipedal crustacean-like alien with the ability to transform into a stronger form resembling a mantis shrimp.''Dandadan'' Volume 4

Notes

References

{{Reflist, 30em 1977 in Massachusetts Alleged extraterrestrial beings American legendary creatures American urban legends Dover, Massachusetts History of Norfolk County, Massachusetts Massachusetts folklore Supernatural urban legends