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The Dover Demon is a creature that has mystified people, including its witnesses, for over three decades. The Dover Demon's known sighting location is the town of Dover, Massachusetts. Dover is a town with an errie presence at night. No streetlights line the average street and homes mostly conceal their presence down long private driveways that disappear into the woods. It seems the perfect setting for an encounter with something from the unknown. Something that became a reality for a handful of Dover residents just over thirty years ago.
The first sighting of what we know today as the "Dover Demon" happened on April 21, 1977 by the then 17 year old teenager Bill Bartlett. Bartlett noticed the creature illuminated in his car's headlights as he drove toward it on Farm Street. It was reported to be moving near a stone wall and reacted to the headlights before disappearing into the woods. Bartlett described the creature as having large glowing "orange marble" like eyes, a large oval head, and hairless sandpaper like skin. Furthermore it appeared short in stature (about four feet tall) with long limbs and hands. The shaken teenager was the only one to spot the creature from the car. However it would be only hours before a second witness would have another encounter of his own.
Just after midnight a second Dover resident would spot this same creature. Fifteen year old John Baxter was returning home from his girlfriends house when he noticed the creature approaching him. At first he thought it was a friend of his and called out to him only to hear no response. As he got a closer look at the creature it quickly ran out of view. As he later described the creatures size, appearance and features it would be eerily accurate to the testimony of Bill Bartlett.
The last of these sighting would occur the following night by Will Taintor. The eighteen year old was driving home with his girlfriend when he spotted the creature from his car. Although his description of the creature was similar to that of the other two teenagers, he described its eyes as being green instead of orange. Experts say this difference may be due to eye shine, an effect many animals possess which causes their eyes to reflect light in darkness. Eyes illuminated by different colored headlights can give the illusion of different eye colors from the same animal.
It wouldn't be long before all these accounts became headlines not only in local papers but throughout the world as well. Loren Coleman, a local investigator of strange creatures, gave the creature the name the Dover Demon and it has stuck ever since.The witnesses were interviewed by a team of investigators he assembled as well as the press. Although many years have past since the creature initially made headlines it is still talked about and featured on the internet, in books, and even on tv.
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