Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Dover Demon| Between Monsters and Men









Before:
                Farm Road is known as the second
oldest road in the town of Dover, Massachusetts, and with age comes an unusual
past. There is a passage in the 1914 book, “Dover Farms” by Frank Smith; a
historian of that age. That states,  “in
early times this road went around by the picturesque Polka Rock (on the farm of
George Battelle) which was called for a man by that name, of whom it is
remembered, that amid the superstition of the age he thought he saw his Satanic
majesty as he was riding on horseback by this secluded spot.”
                However, that is not the only
abnormal event that has occurred on Farm Road. There is a rumor that is still
floating around till this day that the land around the Polka Rock was used to
bury treasure. There is still evidence of digging around the surrounding area
of the rock. There is no records or proof of any truth to this rumor, but it
would be a little odd since Dover is a little more inland than your typical
buried treasure would be found.
                But the strangest events
occurred in April 1977.
Dover
Demon:
                There is no better way to
describe this odd and little creature but to dive right into the three
sightings that brought Dover Demon, its fame.
-        
April
21, 1977 (10:30 P.M.) (Age 17)
Three seventeen
year old boys were driving along Farm Street in Dover, Massachusetts. Their
names were Bill Bartlett, Mike Mazzarra and Andy Brodie. While Mike and Andy
were in conversation, Bill Bartlett – the driver – became alert when he saw
something on the stone wall in his headlights. It was small and very much
alive.
What he saw was
nothing like he’s seen before.
Walking upright,
unsteady like a toddler, clutching the rock wall with long fingers and toes.
The small humanoid figure had a huge, bulbous head that was out of proportion
for its body. Large orange glowing orb-like eyes stared back at him. The
creature’s face had no nose, no mouth, or ears that were visible. It couldn’t
have been more than 4 ft tall; it was naked and hairless, its skin an odd peach
color.
He stopped his
car shortly after and told his friends who hadn’t seen it. The boys’ convinced
him to turn back around and they did but it was no longer there, and they were
too frightened to get out of the car to search any further.
After getting
home, Bartlett retells what he saw to his father, who told him not to mention
it to anyone. He, then, drew the famous image of the Dover Demon that we see
today.
---
-April 21, 1977
(midnight)
On the same
street, John Baxter (15), was walking home from his girlfriends, Cathy Cronin,
he was surprised when he came to see another person coming towards him.
Assuming it was a friendly face, John called out – but no reply followed. Yet,
the figure advanced towards him.
        John called out again. But nothing.
        Suddenly, the figure ran off the road
and into the forest, thinking that maybe it was a disabled neighbor, John
followed. They raced down to a wooded gully and up to a bank, where on the
opposite side of the bank John could better see the figure that now stands 30
feet away. At first, the creature reminded him of a monkey, with feet that
wrapped around the top of a rock but what threw him off was its head that was
the shape of a ‘figure eight’ and the large green eyes that was on its face. He
claimed he had never seen anything like it before.
        Realizing it isn’t human and that it
could cause him harm, he quickly took off.
---
-        
April
22, (nighttime)
Eighteen year
old, William Taintor, was driving with Abby Brabham, 15, on Springdale Avenue,
which is 2 ½ miles from Farm Rd. Abby noticed the little demon on top of a culvert
over Trout Brook. The creature was on all fours facing their oncoming car.
Shocked at the sight, Abby cried for Will to get them out of there.
        By then, Abby hadn’t heard the reports
that Bill Bartlett and John Baxter made, but she described the creature exactly
the same as the other two, but unlike Bartlett’s experience, the creatures eyes
were green.

-A Year later.
About a year
later from these events, Bill Bartlett was in a remote area, parked in his car
with his girlfriend when he heard a thump on the back of his car. When he
looked back, he said he saw a “Small figure” leaving the scene. He didn’t get a
good enough look to speculate whether it was an animal or the Dover Demon.

        Shortly after the two day event the
Dover demon and the town of Dover grew with fame. Out of this fame came forward
a man named Mark Sennott of Sherborn and with his story of seeing the Dover
demon in 1972.
        Mark Sennott exclaimed that he and his
friends saw the Dover Demon first one night while they were riding along
Sprindale Avenue near Channing Pond. What they claimed to see was a strange
tiny creature in the headlights, it was deep in the woods and moving along the
edge of the pond.
        Personally, I’m not entirely convinced
in Mr. Sennott’s story since it came up after the fame. Although he did say he
went to the authorities, and they did nothing – it’s the lack of description
about the event and the creature that throws me off the most. I couldn’t find
the names of his friends anywhere either; though that could be for their
safety.

Animal or
Cryptid?
        So what is it?
        Is it really a demon, an alien, or an
animal?
        Most who don’t believe in the
supernatural say it had to be a baby moose or a diseased fox. Bill Bartlett
said he knew most of the animals in the area and that the Dover Demon looked
nothing like anything he’s ever seen.
        Foxes do appear in Massachusetts but the
appearance of Moose in Dover during the 1970s was at a 0 sightings,  and even so, by April, a young moose would be
200 pounds, due to the Moose mating and birthing season not matching up to the
sightings.
        No one can sum it up better than
cryptozoologist, Loren Coleman. “To have a bipedal moose with long fingers and
orange skin, and no hair and no nose would be more of a phenomenon than the
Dover Demon.”
        And this is true, Bill and John, both
mentioned that the creature had elongated fingers on their hands and feet, that
wrapped onto the wall and rock. Very odd indeed, since no animal in the area
has those sort of digits.

Alien  or F-Faerie?
        But a faerie has wings. No, no – not all
of them.
        Remember that story about that Polka
Rock in the beginning of this story? Well, Loren Coleman theorized that what
historian Smith called, “Polka” stone might actually have been called the
“Pooka” Stone – after the fairy folk of Celtic folklore.
        Pooka or Puca are many things: goblins,
fairy, spirit, but they always have ears, a tail and fur of some sort which is
usually a dark color. Their favorite shift is of a black horse. They also don’t
show fear, are mischievous and like talking to humans when seen.
        All of these attributes are the opposite
of how the Dover Demon acted and looked. I think it’s safe to take fairy out of
the equation.
        So Alien?
        The Dover demon does follow the
description of the commonly known “greys” of the alien world, except the skin
color, the greys are grey and the demon was peach. Plus there were no UFO
sightings during this time period. And the orange eyes, maybe on eyeshine – is
animal like.
        But here is my speculation.

Theory
        This is only opinion and theory but I
do, in fact, believe the Dover Demon is an alien and here is how I came up with
that solution.
        Yes, there were no UFO sightings in
Massachusetts during the years of the events, however there are three military
bases surrounding Dover, Massachusetts. Hanscom Air Force Base, Coast Guard
Base Boston, and Natick Soldier Systems Center. Now I’m not pointing fingers and
I probably sound like a conspiracy theorist but hear me out with just a little
of the information that I have found.
       
        The Coast Guard Base hasn’t crossed my
mind of suspicion but Hanscom Air Force has been open since 1942, although it
has been used in less than 1% of the military air traffic and has mostly been
used for civilian flight.
        Natick Soldier Systems Center has been
made in 1949 and opened in 1952. The center is used for research and testing of
materials such as textiles and combat rations, advanced technology and human
performance.
        Again 
- not pointing fingers and making claims but with all the secrets the
government holds from us I wouldn’t be surprised if there are mysteries to be
unfolded behind closed military doors or even hidden in plain sight.
        My other opinion stems on how we have
never learned about the biology of aliens no one can put a definite on what a
young alien may look like or even if their skin and eye colors change due to
growth. Most human babies are born with blue eyes and change after a few
months. Our hair also changes with age and stress. Our skin can get lighter or
darker depending on our exposure to the sun.
        I’m not putting my stamp on this theory
but compared to all the other opinions such as animals and faeries, I find this
one a little more compelling.

After:
        “The short story is that over a two day
period on April 1977, four people saw a small, 4 ft orange sharkskin creature
(much like Golem in Lord of the Rings) in three separate sightings, in Dover,
Massachusetts, a rural location near Boston. The case goes down as
unexplainable. I don’t know the answer to ‘what really happened,’ as all the
eyewitnesses checked out and were found to be credible by law enforcement and
other people in Dover.” – Loren Coleman, American Monsters.
        Those who knew the teens truly believe
that they saw what they saw. They were never known for pranks, hoaxes, or even
mischief. In 2006, Bill Bartlett – 46 – was interviewed again on the events. He
stuck to his story strongly and even replied that he didn’t want all the
publicity and that even now, he gets calls from random people asking about the
Dover Demon.
        Now tell me, do you believe in the Dover
Demon?

Pop Culture:
-        
Lost
Tapes Season 2, Episode 10
-        
Monsters
and Mysteries in America

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