The small community of Dover, Massachusetts entered into the cryptozoological limelight on April 27th, 1977 at approximately 10:30PM, with three (3) separate sightings of a bizarre creature, termed "The Dover Demon", that seemed utterly unlike anything that had ever been reported before.

At approximately 10:30 p.m. on the night of April 21, 1977, 17-year old Bill Barlett and two friends were driving down Farm Street in Dover, Massachusetts. They were passing the Farm Street Wall (a low wall of stones on the left side of the road) when Barlett noticed movement in the loose stones of the wall. As the animal turned its head and stared into the car's headlights, Barlett saw that it was unlike anything he had ever seen. It had two huge orange eyes, a large, oval-shaped head. The creature was thin-limbed, with large hands and feet. It was hairless and fleshtone in color, with a rough texture. Bill later made a sketch of the creature he saw (as shown below).

About two hours later, 15-year old John Baxter saw a short figure approaching down the street. As the figure neared, it stopped and fled into woods at the side of the road. John pursued the small figure into the woods, halting at the edge of a shallow gully. He looked across the gully at a tree, against which stood the figure. Claiming that he did not know of Barlett's sighting, he nonetheless described a similar creature. The description of the creature was nearly identical.

The next evening, the creature was seen again by Will Taintor and Abby Brabham. They saw a monkeylike creature without hair. It was thin and sat on all fours at the side of the road. Brabham insisted that the creature's eyes were green, even after investigators told her that Barlett and Baxter said they were orange.

The creature was initially investigated by Loren Coleman, Walter N. Webb, and Ed Fogg. They uncovered no evidence that the "Dover Demon" was the result of a hoax.

SOURCES: Clark, Jerome. Unexplained! 347 Strange Sightings, Incredible Occurrences, and Puzzling Physical Phenomena. Detroit: Visible Ink, 1993. pp. 105-107.