Encounter Atlas
Historic encounters / New York
9 old newspaper reports of strange things in New York. Sea serpents and lake monsters (4); Wild men (2); Phantom lights (1); Giant birds (1); Jersey Devil, 1909 (1). Each links to the original page.
Eltingville, Staten Island, New York · Feb. 29, 1884
Eltingville was in an uproar after Constable Elbert Poillon said a sea serpent attacked his boat and crunched an oar. He described it as long as a shooting gallery, with a head like a powder keg. An oyster planter partly backed him up.
“a Head Like a Powder Keg”
Greenport breakwater, Long Island, New York · June 1891
Captain Edward Reeve, who rowed out each evening to light the beacon on the Greenport breakwater and was known as a sober, reliable man, told the New York World he had fought off a sea monster from his skiff.
Off Throgg's Neck, Long Island Sound, New York approx. · Aug. 10, 1896
Two Whitestone anglers, Anthony Rick and Wesley Hunt, said a sea serpent went scurrying through the water off Throgg's Neck, apparently headed for New York. Days later other boaters described a green monster about fifty feet long in the Sound.
Irvington-on-Hudson, New York · Sept. 19, 1896
For weeks, women and children in Irvington-on-the-Hudson said a wild man in tattered clothes was lurking in the woods along Hartman Lane, near a railroad agent's house.
Between Mount Vernon, Bronxville and White Plains, New York · Aug. 11, 1897
Cyclists on the road between Mount Vernon and White Plains reported a wild man who burst out of the woods to stop travellers, and a lawyer said he met him at the foot of a hill. Weeks later the Bronxville wild man was back, chasing passers-by and frightening women and girls in the Masterton woods.
Marine Hospital grounds, Staten Island, New York · Aug. 22, 1897
A sober old waterman named Lindsey and his dog said they saw a strange light moving across the Marine Hospital lawns between Stapleton and Clifton on Staten Island, and heard sounds with it.
North of Greenport, Long Island, New York · Nov. 16, 1897
C. Edwards Stauson, a Greenport drug clerk, came back from a morning's fishing on Long Island Sound with no fish and a story of two sea serpents, each about fifty feet long, swimming together north of Greenport.
Probably a hoax or tall tale The papers ran it as a fish story.
Pitcairn, New York · Feb. 1, 1909
Josiah Olmtree, a farmer on the edge of the Adirondacks, said a huge eagle that had been raiding his sheep's feed swooped on his eight-year-old daughter in the yard, and he barely saved her.
Spring Valley, New York · June 1909
Armed men searched the hills and swamps around Spring Valley for the Jersey devil bird, or bombat, described as having an immense head, a small hairy body and arms with web-like skin. Locals refused to believe the Atlantic City capture.
Newspaper pages: Library of Congress, Chronicling America (US newspapers published before 1927 are in the public domain). Text search: American Stories (Dell, Bryan, Carlson and others, CC BY 4.0). Summaries are our own. Place data: GeoNames (CC BY 4.0).