Famous Cryptids of Wisconsin

Wednesday, October 25th, 2023 -- 11:00 AM

(Keith Uhlig, Green Bay Press-Gazette) It's Halloween season, time for all the ghosts and ghouls to come out and have their fun.

And, according to Keith Uhlig with the Green Bay Press-Gazette, while the eeriness of the paranormal will always have an allure for many people, some of us prefer our creepiness to be grounded more in the natural world. For us, Halloween is the season of the cryptids.

Like ghosts and spirits, cryptids are delightfully mysterious. A cryptid is, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, "an animal (such as Sasquatch or the Loch Ness Monster) that has been claimed to exist but never proven to exist." It's the doubt that gets us.

You might not really believe that Bigfoot is out there. But isn't there, in the ancient and primitive corner of your brain, an image of a hairy, hulking creature lurking in the wilderness? And doesn't that speck of apprehension cause you to turn around when you hear the mysterious ruffling of leaves when you are out on a hike?

Cryptids and other forms of the paranormal fascinate Todd Roll, the library director at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. He's studied the phenomena for years and interviewed people who say they have seen various incarnations of animals such as a wolf/bear hybrid and other creatures.

There are a lot of theories as to why cryptids are part of peoples' lore across the planet, Roll said. Stories about lurking monsters have been used to keep children away from dangerous places such as deep woods and water. Maybe it comes from a person's mind, filling in gaps with something seen for a moment. Maybe it comes from the human notion of using a narrative for entertainment.

Some more well known cryptids in Wisconsin include the Hodag of Rhinelander, Bigfoot sightings in central Wisconsin, monsters in Lake Winnebago and Lake Pepin, the infamous Beast of Bray Road in Walworth County, and the bizarre phantom chickens of Seymour.

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