Within Vermont Monsters
Why Do Vermont's Smaller Monsters Endure?
Catamount sightings, the Pigman, the Awful and other local creatures show how wildlife memory and folklore keep Vermont strange.
On this page
- Catamount memory and possible misidentification
- The Northfield Pigman and the winged Awful
- Why local oddities survive beside Champ
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Introduction
Vermont’s smaller monsters endure because they sit in a productive grey zone: not famous enough to be polished into a single official myth like Champ, but familiar enough to keep resurfacing in local talk, radio segments, Halloween retellings, brand art and roadside folklore. The phantom catamount is the strongest example. Vermont really did have mountain lions, the last famous specimen was killed in Barnard in 1881, and people still report seeing long-tailed cats in the woods; yet state and federal evidence does not support a breeding modern population. The Northfield Pigman and the winged “Awful” are thinner as wildlife claims, but useful as folklore: they show how Vermont’s dark roads, old farms, wooded ravines and local humour can turn uncertain sights into durable little monsters. These stories matter because they reveal how wildlife memory, misidentification and place-based storytelling keep Vermont strange without requiring every creature to be real.
Why the Catamount Is Vermont’s Most Plausible Ghost
The catamount is not an invented animal. “Catamount” is the old regional name for the cougar, mountain lion or puma, and Vermont’s best-known historical specimen is the taxidermied animal at the Vermont History Museum. The Vermont Historical Society’s account says the last catamount killed in Vermont was shot in Barnard on Thanksgiving Day in 1881, after a young hunter followed tracks in the snow and Alexander Crowell shot the animal. The same account places the killing in a changing nineteenth-century landscape: forests had been cut for farms, deer had declined, and large predators came into conflict with sheep farmers.[Vermont History Explorer]vermonthistoryexplorer.orgOpen source on vermonthistoryexplorer.org.
That history gives modern sightings emotional force. A reported catamount in Vermont is not like a dragon or lake serpent; it is a claim that a known native predator has either survived, returned, wandered in, or been mistaken for something else. The animal has also been absorbed into state identity. The University of Vermont’s athletic teams have used the Catamount nickname since 1926, presenting it as a legendary mountain cat associated with the Green Mountains, even though the species is believed extinct in the state.[University of Vermont Athletics]uvmathletics.comGEN 0627105917GEN 0627105917
The problem is evidence. Vermont Public’s 2025 discussion of catamount sightings stated plainly that the animal has not been officially documented in the state since 1881, while also noting that many Vermonters remain convinced they have seen one. Biologist Declan McCabe described a modern sighting by a trusted wildlife photographer in South Burlington as “unlikely — not impossible, but unlikely”, which captures the fair position better than a flat dismissal.[Vermont Public]vermontpublic.orgVermont Public So you think you've seen a catamount? | Vermont PublicVermont Public So you think you've seen a catamount? | Vermont Public
Federal wildlife history pushes the sceptical side further. In 2018, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removed the eastern cougar from the federal endangered species list, saying the subspecies was extinct and had likely disappeared at least 70 years earlier. The agency also noted that many suspected cougar sightings are probably bobcats or other animals, while rare confirmed eastern records outside Florida tend to involve western dispersers or escaped or released captives rather than a hidden eastern population.[U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service]fws.govOpen source on fws.gov.
That does not make every witness foolish. Vermont now has more forest cover than it did in the heavily cleared nineteenth century, and the state’s wildlife agencies still invite reports of rare furbearers, including mountain lion, Canada lynx, wolf and American marten. The official rare furbearer form asks for first-hand observations and encourages photos of animals or tracks, which is exactly the kind of evidence needed to move a sighting from campfire certainty to biological record.[ANR Web]anrweb.vt.govRare Furbearer Reporting Form - VT FWD…
Catamount Memory and Misidentification
Most phantom catamount stories live or die on a few field marks: size, tail length, gait, distance and light. A true mountain lion is a large, long-tailed cat. Vermont’s more ordinary wildcat, the bobcat, is smaller and has a short “bobbed” tail, but difficult viewing conditions can exaggerate size, blur markings or turn a fleeting animal into something more dramatic. Canada lynx add another complication. They are rare in Vermont, but not imaginary: a Shrewsbury resident filmed one on 17 August 2024, the first confirmed state record since 2018, and biologists noted that lynx are often mistaken for bobcats.[Vermont Public]vermontpublic.orgrare canada lynx spotted in rutland county vermont first time since 2018rare canada lynx spotted in rutland county vermont first time since 2018
This matters because Vermont’s woods can plausibly produce confusing cats without producing a resident cougar population. A bobcat glimpsed in headlights, a lynx on a gravel road, a house cat seen with no scale, a dog or coyote moving through brush, or even a deer partly hidden by cover can become a “catamount” if the observer already knows the old story. The long tail remains the detail that keeps some reports alive, because it is the feature bobcats and lynx cannot easily supply.
The strongest sceptical reading is therefore not that all witnesses are inventing things. It is that catamount sightings are a mixture of several different events:
- Real historical memory: Vermont genuinely had catamounts, and the 1881 Barnard specimen gives the story a museum object, not just a rumour.
- Possible wanderers: Western cougars have occasionally travelled far east, as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service noted in the famous 2011 case of a young male that moved from South Dakota to Connecticut.
- Misidentified known animals: Bobcats, lynx, coyotes, dogs and domestic cats can all confuse observers under poor conditions.
- Landscape expectation: Reforestation makes the return of large predators feel plausible, even where proof is missing.
- Cultural affection: Vermont likes the catamount as a symbol of wildness, independence and lost mountain country.
This is why the catamount remains the most credible of Vermont’s smaller oddities without becoming a confirmed modern animal. It has a real past, a plausible ecological shape, and a state agency pathway for evidence. What it lacks is the hard proof that would settle the question: clear photographs, DNA, tracks verified by specialists, a carcass, or repeated records showing more than isolated possibility.
The Northfield Pigman Is Folklore With Mud on Its Boots
The Northfield Pigman belongs to a different category. It is not a plausible undiscovered animal so much as a local fright story that has found the right habitat: teenage roads, old farms, wooded hollows, Halloween mischief and a place name that sounds ready-made for legend, Devil’s Washbowl. Modern summaries vary, but the figure is usually a half-man, half-pig creature, a pig-headed man, or a missing boy transformed into something feral.
One reason the Pigman works is that no single version owns it. Darn Tough Vermont, a Northfield-based company, describes the story as a cluster of variants: a half-man, half-pig creature; a missing boy haunting the woods while wearing a hollowed-out pig head; and a 1971 farmer’s account of a pig-faced man rummaging through rubbish while local youths told stories of pig-headed figures watching from the shadows.[Darn Tough]darntough.comDarn Tough Northfield Pigman LivesDarn Tough…
Seven Days, writing about local legends in 2009, linked the Pigman to folklorist Joseph Citro and to Northfield resident Brian Hatch’s memories of Bean’s pig farm and Devil’s Washbowl. Hatch described an abandoned farm once associated with enormous pigs, something running into the brush, a night-time search near the Washbowl, a straw bed in a cave, small animal bones and a high-pitched screech that seemed to circle him. The article does not prove a monster, but it shows how the legend gains texture from real local geography.[Seven Days]sevendaysvt.comSeven Days Local Legends | Seven DaysSeven Days Local Legends | Seven Days
The Pigman is also a warning story. Its usual scenery is not the middle of town at noon, but the edge of adult supervision: high-school parties, cars parked at night, abandoned barns, ravines and dares. That makes it less like a zoological claim and more like a New England version of the rural “don’t go there after dark” tale. The monster polices boundaries. It gives teenagers a reason to scare each other away from secluded places, and it lets adults laugh while pretending not to believe too much.
Its commercial afterlife matters too. Darn Tough folded the Pigman into local art, a “Pigman Lives” design and Northfield identity, noting that the response from locals was recognisably amused rather than shocked. That is a key stage in the life of a small monster: once it appears on shirts, maps, beer cans or event chatter, the question shifts from “did this happen?” to “does this belong to us?”[Darn Tough]darntough.comDarn Tough Northfield Pigman LivesDarn Tough…
The Winged Awful Shows the Risk of Retelling Thin Evidence
“The Awful” is one of Vermont’s strangest minor creatures: a supposed winged beast reported around Berkshire and Richford, sometimes described as vulture-like or griffin-like, with grey wings, a long tail, huge claws and a wingspan of roughly six metres. Some retellings place the first appearances in the 1920s and include dramatic claims of rooftop sightings, frightened residents and a dubious connection with H. P. Lovecraft.[Skelos]skelos.grOpen source on skelos.gr.
This is where evidence-aware folklore reading becomes essential. The Awful is memorable, but its sourcing is much weaker than the catamount’s and even less locally grounded than the Pigman’s. A 2025 review of the legend noted that no official record or contemporary newspaper account has been found to confirm the supposed 1920s sightings, and that the Lovecraft connection is highly questionable, with no reliable evidence that he visited Vermont at the relevant time or mentioned the creature in his writing or correspondence.[Skelos]skelos.grOpen source on skelos.gr.
That does not make the Awful useless. It makes it a good example of how a cryptid can be built backwards. A vivid creature design appears online; later summaries repeat one another; dates shift; locations blur; an authorial connection adds prestige; and a thin tale starts to look older and more documented than it is. The Awful survives not because it has strong evidence, but because it has a striking silhouette and a name that sounds like something Vermonters might have said.
A cautious reader can still enjoy it, but should keep it in the right box. The Awful is best treated as a modern or weakly attested folklore item, not as a robust 1920s flap. Its likely explanations include hoax, embellishment, misremembered bird sightings, internet-era cryptid compilation, or a small local story that only became visible after being processed by paranormal media. Compared with the catamount, it has almost no biological weight. Compared with the Pigman, it has less clear community texture. Its value is mainly diagnostic: it shows how easily a monster can become “Vermont folklore” once repetition gives it a paper-thin past.
Why Small Vermont Monsters Survive Beside Champ
Champ dominates Vermont monster tourism because Lake Champlain gives the story scale, scenery and a ready-made public stage. The smaller oddities survive for almost the opposite reason. Catamounts, Pigman stories and the Awful are intimate. They belong to roads, barns, ravines, school rumours, local radio, museum displays, team mascots and that particular moment when a shape moves at the edge of the trees.
They also answer different emotional needs. Champ is a civic mascot and lake mystery. The phantom catamount is a lost-wildness story: a way to imagine that the Green Mountains still hold something powerful, native and almost erased. The Pigman is a social boundary story: a creature for party spots, Halloween nights and places where young people test local fear. The Awful is a cautionary example for readers of cryptid lore itself: a reminder that a good monster design is not the same thing as a well-attested tradition.
Vermont’s environmental history keeps all three kinds of story alive. The state moved from dense forest to widespread pasture, losing catamounts and wolves as habitat and prey systems changed; later forest recovery made the idea of hidden or returning wildlife feel plausible again. At the same time, modern deer abundance, forest browsing and predator absence are still part of Vermont’s ecological conversation, so large predator memory is not just nostalgia.[Vermont Historical Society]vermonthistory.orgOpen source on vermonthistory.org.
The useful distinction is not “believers versus sceptics”. It is a four-part sorting habit:
- Historical animal: the catamount existed in Vermont, and its disappearance is documented in the state’s environmental history.
- Unverified modern claim: present-day catamount reports may include mistakes, rare wanderers or unresolved sightings, but they do not yet establish a population.
- Local legend: the Pigman is strongest as Northfield folklore, especially around Devil’s Washbowl, youth culture and Halloween retelling.
- Fragile cryptid file: the Awful is vivid but poorly sourced, and should be handled as a modern or weakly documented monster story.
That sorting keeps the fun without flattening the evidence. Vermont’s smaller oddities endure because each one lets readers stand in a different doorway between nature and story: the museum case, the dark road, the abandoned farm, the winged shape on a roof. None needs to dethrone Champ. Their job is quieter and in some ways more revealing: they show how a state’s monster tradition is made not only from its famous lake, but from all the half-seen things people keep talking about after they get home.
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Endnotes
1.
Source: anrweb.vt.gov
Title: ANR Web
Link:https://anrweb.vt.gov/FWD/FW/FurbearerReportingForm.aspx
Source snippet
Rare Furbearer Reporting Form - VT FWD...
2.
Source: skelos.gr
Link:https://skelos.gr/en/the-awful-the-winged-monster-of-vermont-and-its-dubious-connection-to-h-p-lovecraft/
3.
Source: wildlife.org
Title: vermont reports rare canada lynx sighting
Link:https://wildlife.org/vermont-reports-rare-canada-lynx-sighting/
4.
Source: youtube.com
Title: Horrific Creatures and Haunting Legends of New England
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0O5pXieoeo
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PIGMAN - Rural legend of Northfield, Vermont...
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Source snippet
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Source: vermonthistoryexplorer.org
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Source: vermonthistory.org
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Source: uvmathletics.com
Title: GEN 0627105917
Link:https://uvmathletics.com/sports/2010/6/27/GEN_0627105917
9.
Source: vermontpublic.org
Title: Vermont Public So you think you’ve seen a catamount? | Vermont Public
Link:https://www.vermontpublic.org/show/vermont-edition/2025-03-13/so-you-think-youve-seen-a-catamount-heres-how-to-know
10.
Source: fws.gov
Link:https://www.fws.gov/press-release/2018-01/long-extinct-eastern-cougar-be-removed-endangered-species-list-correcting
11.
Source: vermontpublic.org
Title: rare canada lynx spotted in rutland county vermont first time since 2018
Link:https://www.vermontpublic.org/local-news/2024-08-21/rare-canada-lynx-spotted-in-rutland-county-vermont-first-time-since-2018
12.
Source: darntough.com
Title: Darn Tough Northfield Pigman Lives
Link:https://darntough.com/blogs/the-alternate-stitch/northfield-pigman
Source snippet
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13.
Source: sevendaysvt.com
Title: Seven Days Local Legends | Seven Days
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Source: facebook.com
Link:https://www.facebook.com/DarnToughVermont/
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Source: facebook.com
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16.
Source: cryptidz.fandom.com
Title: Northfield Pigman
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17.
Source: obscurban-legend.fandom.com
Title: The Awful
Link:https://obscurban-legend.fandom.com/wiki/The_Awful
18.
Source: fws.gov
Title: endangered and threatened wildlife and plants removing eastern puma 0
Link:https://www.fws.gov/species-publication-action/endangered-and-threatened-wildlife-and-plants-removing-eastern-puma-0
19.
Source: vermonthistory.org
Title: what we talk about when we talk about catamounts
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20.
Source: vermonthistory.org
Title: last catamount in vermont
Link:https://vermonthistory.org/last-catamount-in-vermont
21.
Source: Wikipedia
Link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermont
22.
Source: Wikipedia
Title: Eastern cougar
Link:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_cougar
23.
Source: reddit.com
Title: The Awful
Link:https://www.reddit.com/r/HighStrangeness/comments/1b1r8mf/the_awful_in_1923_several_residents_of_berkshire/
24.
Source: paranormalarchive.miraheze.org
Title: The Awful
Link:https://paranormalarchive.miraheze.org/wiki/The_Awful
25.
Source: folkbestiary.com
Link:https://folkbestiary.com/vermont/
26.
Source: darntough.com
Title: The Alternate Stitch
Link:https://darntough.com/blogs/the-alternate-stitch?page=15
27.
Source: darntough.com
Title: [bigfoot]({{ ‘bigfoot-dd2b33/’ | relative_url }}) in vermont
Link:https://darntough.com/blogs/the-alternate-stitch/bigfoot-in-vermont
28.
Source: darntough.com
Title: The Alternate Stitch
Link:https://darntough.com/blogs/the-alternate-stitch/tagged/here-in-vt?page=3
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Source: dynamic.webnovel.com
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Source: fairleeforest.org
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31.
Source: sevendaysvt.com
Title: are there catamounts in vermont 2316424
Link:https://www.sevendaysvt.com/arts-culture/are-there-catamounts-in-vermont-2316424/
32.
Source: darntough.eu
Link:https://darntough.eu/pages/made-in-vermont-usa?srsltid=AfmBOopbuMB63wCzGqjyAQMXK6NrYpUHH8-_54PLn80aWQqr499hlER1
33.
Source: newengland.com
Title: mountain lions
Link:https://newengland.com/today/mountain-lions/
34.
Source: vermontgear.com
Title: Darn Tough Socks
Link:https://www.vermontgear.com/darn-tough-socks.html?srsltid=AfmBOooIwLlig_4xSmBqKfQcB8JE_CL3HWupDvt025DYVkR1DKmggi3i
Additional References
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Source: federalregister.gov
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36.
Source: youtube.com
Title: 10/20/23 Catamounts in Vermont: Mystery Solved?
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=az0pEOTE0Qg
Source snippet
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37.
Source: facebook.com
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Source: facebook.com
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Source: vtliving.com
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