Dover Demon Sightings in North America

1977 Dover Massachusetts USA: On April 21 and 22 there were sightings of a strange creature that could not be easily explained or likened to any other known animal in the Massachusetts region.

The first sighting occurred after dark and a creature was seen by 3 teenaged boys. The trio of seventeen-year-olds was driving near Dover, Massachusetts, when the headlights of their car shone on something animal-like. At first guess, the animal might have been a dog or cat, but as the youngsters gazed longer, the animal seemed to have an unfamiliar shape and appeared to be crawling on a stone wall, along Farm Street.

Bill Bartlett was the teen who was driving the car on this night, and he later said the animal had a watermelon-shaped head, orange eyes that were like glassy marbles.

Other sightings were reported soon after the three teens saw the creature.

Unfortunately, reports of the creature deemed Dover Demon have been largely discredited because the witnesses of this strange form have all been teenagers.

Not long after Bartlett allegedly saw the creature, another teen had a brief encounter with it, right on the same night. Technically the sighting occurred on April 22, because a youth, John Baxter saw the creature at half past midnight.

Baxter had been visiting his girlfriend on the evening of April 21. The 15-year old was going home when a small figure approached from some distance away. Assuming that the figure was a friend of his who was of short stature, young John Baxter called out the friend's name, but received no verbal response.

The two continued to get closer to each other, but then the unknown figure stopped, so Baxter also stood still. After a moment, Baxter choose to investigate and get a better look at whoever this was exhibiting sort of secretive behavior, and he started to walk again, toward the figure. At this, the creature bolted, ran down into a gully, then back up onto the other side of the bank of the gully, but it stopped on this other side and stood still.

Baxter observed these actions and continued to peer into the shadows where the figure had paused. Baxter tried to get a better look at the figure that had just fled, and he concluded that from what he could see, that he'd never heard of or seen anything like this creature before.

The creature remained in the shadows at a distance of about 30 feet away and its feet seemed molded around the rock on which it stood, while its hands were molded around the trunk of a tree. The fingers appeared greatly elongated. Baxter left the area and returned home.

The rest of Baxter's description of the creature matched the details that Bill Bartlett reported, but it appears that Baxter's experience with the creature may have been of longer duration than Bartlett's. Baxter was on foot and actually remained paused for a while in attempting to see what the unknown figure was in the dark outdoors. Bartlett had been in a moving vehicle earlier in the evening when he saw the creature of Dover Demon.