Philadelphia Weirdness

More from the Surreal Menagerie

Fishermen will always tell you about the "one that got away," rather than the one they caught, and how, "It was this big", and how, "It bent the rod right over..." Surely such fishy yarns are the stuff of folklore, right? Not in the case of Wolf Pond, in Dauphin County. It is here that the legend of a huge fish or reptile lurks, although the lore suggests it may have last been sighted more than a century ago...

Many murky ponds, rivers, streams and even small water-holes across the United States and the world are rife with monster legends. The Wolf Pond mystery concerns several fishermen who allegedly hooked a fish resembling a gigantic pike, but black in color with yellow bands on its back, and having a green head. The legend was mentioned in Charles Skinner's nineteenth century book, Buried Treasure & Storied Waters, Cliffs & Mountains, in which he tells that on one occasion, an angler was so terrified of the beast that he struck it boldly with the oar from his small boat, casting the monster back to the depths. We know that the pike is a ferocious fish, but could such a creature capsize a boat?

Another weird monster legend from Pennsylvania Dutch territory concerns Lancaster County, which has to be one of the most active counties regarding monster legends, many of which have already been mentioned in Philly Weirdness.

It is said that at Adamstown, particularly Main Street, there are two legends of peculiar animals alongside several run-of-the-mill hauntings. One is that several headless pigs roam the area as phantoms and are usually sighted near an old brewery, whilst the other ghostly form seen is that of a small black dog which playfully follows passers-by for a few blocks and then fades.

Small black dog apparitions, in contrast to the larger "hellhounds," are considered good omens; such a phantom puppy may simply have been a ghostly pet. As for the pigs... who knows?

Image Credit: Flickr user shawnzam

Source: Pennsylvania Haunts & History