Seen by many. Proven by none. Believed by millions.
Cryptids–what are they, really?
Across the USA and the world, people are fascinated by the idea of creatures that have yet to be identified or discovered by science. Creatures that act in unexplainable ways have baffled onlookers, leaving them with no real answer on how or why. These entities are called Cryptids, otherworldly manifestations that witnesses have either spotted, heard about through rumors or legends, or they may simply be fabricated by humans themselves.
Here are a few popular Cryptids you might have heard about.
Bigfoot
Possibly the most recognized cryptid of all time, featured in movies, TV shows, brands, and pretty much anything you can think of has been “Bigfootified.” Bigfoot is often described as a hairy, brown, large humanoid ape-like or primate-like creature with a height ranging from 6-15ft, and of course with oversized feet or footprints left behind. The origins of this icon trace back to before the first settlers arrived in America, with native American mythology and cave paintings depicting these figures. Each tribe has different interpretations of Bigfoot, from peaceful caretakers of the forest to sinister stalkers who carry children away–even cannibals.
Bigfoot has had many witnesses/encounters from early settlers up until the modern day, with one encounter even being retold by a US President. Teddy Roosevelt wrote about an encounter in his book The Wilderness Hunter. “Coming back to the fire, he stood by it a minute or two, peering out into the darkness, and suddenly remarked: ‘Bauman, that bear has been walking on two legs'” (Roosevelt, T., 1893).
This is a retelling of when speaking with a mountain man who had issues with a creature with a foul smell and oversized footprints that ended up ransacking his trapping grounds and even killed one of his men. You can find the full text of the original 1893 book on the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/wildernesshunter0000roos/page/n9/mode/2up
However, the most famous media with Bigfoot is the video of the Patterson–Gimlin film.
In the footage, you see a bigfoot-like creature walking near Bluff Creek, Northern California. You see it walk for a bit, then look over its shoulder before once more walking off into the woods. This gave a face to the monster and the iconic walk that has become a staple for Bigfoot fans. Many have tried to debunk the footage; however, with more and more technological advancements, the footage seems to hold up or cause more questions than answers.
Some movies featuring Bigfoot are included in our current collection:
Nessie (Loch Ness Monster)
The myth of a mighty, colossal creature lurking beneath the mysterious depths of Loch Ness in Scotland has captured the hearts and imaginations of countless people, fueling a relentless fascination and an unyielding hope to uncover the secrets that lie underneath its murky waters.
Information regarding Nessie or hinting at the sea monster in the lake goes back to the 6th century, with an account from St. Columba, an Irish abbot. St. Columba’s biography records and recounts his encounter with a water beast in 565. “Everyone on the shore cried out hoping to warn the monk of his impending doom. However, Columba was unmoved. Instead, the saint stepped forward boldly to the edge of the loch and, making the sign of the cross while invoking the Name of the Lord, spoke in a commanding voice” (Stagnaro, 2018). This is the first known record of the famous monster, but soon more would come as locals and newspapers recounted seeing a sea serpent on the water.
Nessie itself is described as a sea monster with a small crocodile-like head, long neck, large body, and four fins or flippers to help it propel itself through water. Many have tried to debunk this as a natural misunderstanding, as the area of the lake that encompasses Loch Ness often has lots of mist or rain, hiding real animals and making them look unnatural, or perhaps it is just the perfect spot for a large creature of the deep. The biggest real-life animal comparison that skeptics believe it gets mistaken for are eels, as lots are known to live in Loch Ness.
Others speculate that it’s a Plesiosaur as it matches the description above, with one hypothesis that it’s a dinosaur that managed to survive to the modern day.
Nessie became well known from a famous photo that everyone associates with the legend, known as the Surgeon’s Photograph, taken in 1934. “The photo was sold to the Daily Mail by a London physician named R. Kenneth Wilson, who said he had taken the picture when he noticed a commotion in the water as he was driving up from London to photograph birds with a friend near Inverness” (Lyons, 2000). The photo depicts a black figure with a long neck and tiny head appearing out of the water with ripples around it. It wasn’t until 1975, when it was released, that the original photo was in fact proven a hoax–revealing that it was a toy submarine with the neck and head of the monster constructed with plastic, wood and painted gray.
Despite all of this, more claims/proof of the monster still exist, with so many references to the Loch Ness monster in countless TV shows, movies, and even amusement park rides!
Some included in our collection are:
In Search of … : The Complete Collection
Mothman
By Csassen13 – Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=148886070
A favorite among many, terrified by eyewitnesses and overall iconic folklore, Mothman is described as a humanoid, 6-7 ft tall, black and gray in color with large wings, glowing red eyes, and no mouth. The creature was first encountered in 1966 by some grave diggers. “They glanced up from their work as something huge soared over their heads. It was a massive figure that was moving rapidly from tree to tree. The gravediggers would later describe this figure as a “brown human being” (Anglis, 2025).
After that, two teenage couples spotted him after they drove back from the TNT area north of Point Pleasant, West Virginia. Soon after, it followed them and flew over their vehicle, keeping up with the car at a top speed of 100 miles per hour, and even left scratch marks on the top of the car itself. Then the rest of the town started to see more and more of the creature over hundreds of recordings and sightings, leading up to the Silver Bridge collapse. The bridge collapsed during rush hour traffic on December 15, 1967, due to a failure of a single eyebar in one of the suspension chains, alongside too much weight on the bridge itself. Forty-six lost their lives, and many blamed Mothman as a negative omen or warning, as witnesses claimed to have seen the figure on the bridge before its collapse.
The town itself has a statue of the cryptid present downtown and has since embraced the idea of Mothman as it’s brought lots of tourism and business to it. Each year, the town of Point Pleasant, West Virginia, hosts a festival in the third week of September. This year’s festival is from September 20th-21st, 2025. “Described as a crossover between a comic con and paranormal conference, the Mothman Festival boasts a lot of family friendly fun, including a 5k race, live music, cosplay, and a popular bus tour to a “TNT area,” site of World War II ammo bunkers and a “top secret West Virginia Ordnance Work facility” (Lescure, 2025).
Hopkinsville Goblins
By Tim Bertelink – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47056991
When most people think of goblins, they imagine little green creatures from Dungeons & Dragons or other fantasy-related entities/media. However, for the city of Hopkinsville in Kentucky, they recall a bizarre experience and a different association with the name. In 1955, the Sutton family and its guests witnessed and experienced something remarkable. The encounter story goes that on August 21, 1955, on a hot summer night, the Sutton family was having dinner with some guests. “Around 7 p.m., Taylor went outside to fetch some water from the backyard well. While out there, reports indicate he saw a silver-colored object, ‘real bright, with an exhaust all the colors of the rainbow'” (Carey, 2021). Upon telling the family of what he experienced, they laughed and shrugged it off. That was until the dog started barking violently, and the men of the family went off to investigate why.
Upon stepping outside, they encountered a glow in the backyard and then saw small gray, silver-like, humanoid creatures with large forearms, tiny legs, round, circular heads, and long flappy ears, with their bodies almost hovering over the ground. The creatures raised their arms over their bodies and slowly moved towards them. The two men hurried to grab their guns. Soon after, they kept firing at the creatures (they seemed to be in pairs) as they kept trying to peek into the house/approach it. Upon firing at them/hitting them, they described noises sounding like hitting metal, and the creatures, after being shot, would flip backwards and run on all fours back into the woods.
This kept up for a while (4 hours) until they made a run for the car and drove to the Hopkinsville police station in visible distress. “So, they did get scared enough to run here into Hopkinsville to grab the sheriff,” Ginnie Pruitt said (Battle, 2024). Soon after an investigation, the police were involved and walked the grounds, the creatures not present, and found only the shells from the guns. No footprints or any trace of the goblins, until after the investigators left, when once more the creatures paid a visit to the Suttons around 3:30 in the morning.
The media picked up on everything and went into a frenzy, with people coming from all over to try to visit the farm, and the term “little green men” was coined/misinterpreted by the reporters.
The Hopkinsville Goblin sighting has inspired many books, movies, TV shows, and even video games. Some of these include Steven Speilberg films such as E.T., in which the original script (Night Skies) had darker elements that later contributed to his other films, Gremlins and Poltergeist. “Spielberg wrote a treatment based on the incident, and turned to filmmaker John Sayles for a script, Night Skies. To flesh out the plot, Sayles gave the aliens that besieged the family their own personalities” (Dicky, 2024). There is even a goblin-like character in the Pokemon franchise as it has a similar appearance to the sketches provided by the family that described what the creatures looked like.
Whether you are an avid fan of exploring the unknown or just heard about Cryptids from this very post, maybe you just think it’s all nonsense. We hope that you were able to learn something new about the creatures and ideas behind them that go bump in the night.
Happy Halloween!
Want to read more about the Cryptids above? Perhaps even ones in your own backyard? Try our recommended Cryptid reading list below:
The Secret History of Bigfoot: Field Notes on a North American Monster
The United States of Cryptids: A Tour of American Myths and Monsters American Monsters: A History of Monster Lore, Legends, and Sightings in America
Chasing American Monsters: Over 250 Creatures, Cryptids & Hairy Beasts
-Blog post by Christina Cavanaugh, Print Shop Manager
References
Anglis, J. (2025, May 9). The legend of the Mothman was a joke in West Virginia – until 46 people died. All That’s Interesting. https://allthatsinteresting.com/mothman
Battle, W. (2024, August 14). Hopkinsville residents prepare for Alien Invasion Day. WBKO. https://www.wbko.com/2024/08/14/hopkinsville-residents-prepare-alien-invasion-day/
Carey, L. (2021, October 22). The legend of little green men invading Kelly, Kentucky, continues. The Daily Yonder. https://dailyyonder.com/legend-of-little-green-men-invading-kelly-kentucky-continues/2021/10/22/
Cryptid Wiki Contributors. (n.d.). Hopkinsville goblins. Cryptid Wiki. Retrieved July 14, 2025, from https://cryptidz.fandom.com/wiki/Hopkinsville_Goblins
Dicky, C. (2024, February 8). The long, surprising legacy of the Hopkinsville goblins. Atlas Obscura. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/column-hopkinsville-goblins-spielberg
Lescure, A. R. (2025, June 3). 13 offbeat American festivals you should attend at least once. Atlas Obscura. Retrieved July 14, 2025, from https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/off-the-beaten-path-american-festivals
Lyons, S. & NOVA, PBS. (n.d.). The legend of the Loch Ness Monster. PBS. Retrieved July 14, 2025, from https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/lochness/legend.html
McCully, S. (2017, July 15). Little green man festival in Kelly, Kentucky, could get big with eclipse. The Leaf-Chronicle. https://www.theleafchronicle.com/story/news/eclipse/2017/07/15/little-green-man-festival-kelly-kentucky-could-get-big-eclipse/478678001/
Monstrum. (2023, November – approximate). Sasquatch: Unraveling the sightings [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxXhp-xjZ28
Mothman Museum. (n.d.). Mothman Festival. Retrieved July 14, 2025, from https://www.mothmanmuseum.com/mothman-festival.html
RoadsideAmerica.com Team. (n.d.). Kelly–Green men days. Roadside America. Retrieved July 14, 2025, from https://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/10850
Roosevelt, T. (1893). The wilderness hunter. G. P. Putnam’s Sons. https://archive.org/details/wildernesshunter0000roos/page/n5/mode/2up
Stagnaro, A. (2018, November 25). St. Columba and the Loch Ness Monster. NCR. https://www.ncregister.com/blog/st-columba-and-the-loch-ness-monster
The Carpetbagger. (2022, October 31). The Mothman Festival! A celebration of high strangeness! [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bknt7M9kJ8
The Why Files. (2023, October 5). The Goblin problem: What happened in Kelly, Kentucky? [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wW6eKLLViK8
Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). Loch Ness Monster. Wikipedia. Retrieved July 14, 2025, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loch_Ness_Monster
Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). Patterson–Gimlin film. Wikipedia. Retrieved July 14, 2025, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patterson%E2%80%93Gimlin_film