The Mystery of The Dover Demon

On the evening of April 21, 1977, Bill Bartlett and three friends were driving through Dover, Massachusetts when they would have an encounter that would change their lives forever.  All three seventeen-year-olds were shocked when the car’s headlights illuminated a strange creature.  Bartlett described it as having a large, watermelon shaped head and orange eyes.

The teens drew sketches of  the creature right after their encounter.  The incident created widespread interest.  It was the first documented sighting of the Dover Demon.

There are several theories as to what the Demon was:  an alien, a being from another dimension, a newborn moose.  There is also speculation that it was a mythological creature of the Cree Indians called the Mannegishi.  Some writers postulate a poltergeist-type being since all the witnesses were teenagers.  By the same token, because they were all teens, some believe the Dover Demon to be a hoax. 

Two hours after the original sighting, a fifteen-year-old named John Baxter was walking home from his girlfriend’s house.  Suddenly, he saw the Dover Demon sitting atop a broken stone wall.  Abby Brabham, 15, was driving home with her boyfriend at midnight the next night.  She sighted the creature sitting upright on Springdale Avenue.

The next year, Bill Bartlett was sitting in a parked car with his girlfriend when he heard a thump.  He saw a small figure running away.  This made him start wondering if perhaps the Dover Demon was back.  By the way, the name Dover Demon was coined by cryptozoologist Loren Coleman.  Coleman led the initial investigation into the sightings.

Loren Coleman believes Bartlett’s account and features the Dover Demon in his book “Mysterious America”.  Coleman interviewed all of the witnesses.  He concluded,”We have a credible case, over 25 hours, by individuals who saw something.

1977 might not have been the first time local teens spotted a strange creature in the woods near Dover.  Mark Sennott said he and his friends may have seen the Demon at Channing Pond on Springdale Avenue in 1972. 

Nowadays, William Bartlett stands by what he saw that night.  He insists that he saw something that “was definitely weird”.  Although he has made a career as a painter, Bartlett is still best known for his encounter with the Dover Demon.