BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Whether the topic is ghosts, haunted houses, UFO sightings or cryptids, they all exist under the umbrella of the paranormal, Eric Mintel said.
“Because there is nothing normal about it,” said Mintel, a Bucks County jazz musician and paranormal investigator. “When I go into an investigation, I try to say, ‘Hey, what's really going on here?’ Whatever it is.
“But, having said that, and then having captured what we captured on camera, I'm a very firm believer that there's a very thin veil from here to there. And, you know, at the end of the day, people are seeing something.”
Like the Sasquatch of the Pacific Northwest and the Jersey Devil of South Jersey’s Pinelands, there’s plenty of creatures said to go bump in the night right here, in Pennsylvania’s northeast.
While there’s some crossover, like Bigfoot or Mothman, the Lehigh Valley and the Poconos are also home to its own unique cryptids, too, like the Slate Belt Owlman and the Squonk.
While no hard evidence exists of these creatures of folklore and local legend, paranormal investigators and storytellers said recent government disclosures of UFO activity have made more residents comfortable sharing their stories, and cryptids are becoming more like community mascots than scary threats.
"When these people are talking, and they're having a hard time describing what they're seeing and they're having this nervous reaction, or their voices are cracking and they're getting goosebumps, it's like something really profound happened to these people."Eric Mintel
“I think we're finally, and even the scientific communities are coming to grips with, well, we can't ignore this stuff anymore, because people are having these experiences,” Mintel said. “ … When these people are talking, and they're having a hard time describing what they're seeing and they're having this nervous reaction, or their voices are cracking and they're getting goosebumps, it's like something really profound happened to these people.
“At the end of the day, they're experiencing something.”
‘I'm a believer now’
Earlier this year, Jimmy Smith was sent a story written by a Northampton County man who reported seeing a giant owl one night near the Alpha Cement Plant in Lower Mount Bethel Township.
It wasn’t unusual for Smith, a West Virginia resident who runs Spooky Appalachia, a blog and YouTube page focused on sharing folklore and cryptid sightings across the Appalachian region. He gets two or three stories of sightings each week.
“I started going a little slower to take a photo, but as I got closer it suddenly opened its wings and to my surprise it was massive, and its eyes were like reddish brown, not even with a light reflecting on it,” the man reported. “It was very bizarre.
“It looked like a man put on an owl costume and the head was human shaped. It then took off up near the trees, and that stump or fence post was not something it was sitting on, it was its legs. So it had to be almost 6 [feet] tall.”
He tried to get photos, but the creature, dubbed the Slate Belt Owlman, took off. Describing the encounter as “unsettling,” he said he returned to the area later, but didn’t see it again. He only heard “some high-pitched squeaking or some sort of noise.”
A request for comment from the man was not returned. Posts to social media about the incident garnered hundreds of comments, both from those disregarding the story as a fake and many who chimed in with support.
While it’s the first time Smith has heard of the Slate Belt Owlman, the creature fits in the menagerie he’s curated over the last four years. His blog holds stories of giant leeches, sirens, werewolves and more.
Describing himself as a “collector of stories,” Smith has been sharing cryptid stories for years.
"When I was a kid, people called you weird if you talked about seeing this kind of stuff. And, nowadays, most people I know have either seen Bigfoot, a UFO or a ghost."Jimmy Smith
“When I was a kid, people called you weird if you talked about seeing this kind of stuff,” Smith said. “And, nowadays, most people I know have either seen Bigfoot, a UFO or a ghost.
“I think I’ve seen all three.”
After helping out with technical work at Mothman Museum in Point Pleasant, W. Va., Smith started his blog during the COVID-19 pandemic, posting stories of cryptid sightings and also recording audio of the stories, and then posting them on YouTube. His channel has grown to just shy of 6,000 subscribers.
In February 2023, Smith posted the story of the Squonk – “a morose dog-pig hybrid, hairless and weeping, and covered with warts and moles.” Said to roam the commonwealth’s hemlock forests, this creature has been written about as far back at the early 1900s in newspaper articles and books of local legends.
Other cryptids have also been reported across the region, but not on Smith's blog, including: the White Bigfoot, the Delaware Water Gap Hooter and the Kittatinny Ridge Witch, among others.
Asked if there’s a certain threshold of belief needed in order to spot a cryptid, Smith said the opposite is more often true.
“I've probably got hundreds of stories sent to me over the years, a good majority of them say, ‘I've never really thought of this kind of thing, and here I am. I'm seeing this, and I'm a believer now,’” Smith said.
“I couldn't tell you how many times I've gotten that. I've also heard a lot of people talk about, if you think about this kind of stuff, you're going to see it. I have heard that saying quite a few times.
“So, it almost feels like it's kind of a mixed bag, but a lot of people say they never expected to see this, and then here they are seeing it.”
‘You can’t fool the animals’
Stan Gordon, a paranormal researcher based in western Pennsylvania, has been interested in cryptids and UFOs for decades. When he was 16 years old, he worked his first case: the 1965 Kecksburg, Westmoreland County, UFO crash.
The incident, which has given the community the mantle of “Pennsylvania’s Roswell,” is celebrated each year during the Kecksburg Volunteer Fire Department UFO Festival.
“I worked on that case, and I still, on occasion, get information on it, even the last couple years, surprisingly,” he said.
“I started documenting it as it was breaking on the news that evening, and I've been out in the field ever since.”
In 1969, he started a hotline for the public to report UFO sightings, and it hasn’t stopped ringing. In the decades since, he estimates he's investigated thousands of reports of paranormal activity.
Earlier this month, Gordon spoke at Albatwitch Day in Columbia, Lancaster County. It's an annual celebration of a short, ape-like creature that has been regularly spotted in the area. It’s often called a shorter version of a Bigfoot.
"Last year, we had significant Bigfoot sightings across the state. Many of the sightings in more recent years, but in daylight, at very close range."Stan Gordon
“I've interviewed hundreds of Bigfoot witnesses for years and years,” Gordon said.
“Last year, we had significant Bigfoot sightings across the state. Many of the sightings in more recent years, but in daylight, at very close range.
“So, we're talking 40, 50, 60 feet away from witnesses. So, they're seeing these things from head to toe, and there's certain details they report that are very, very interesting.”
With 16 million acres of forested land across the state, there’s lots of opportunities for cryptid sightings, especially from hunters.
“When they go into the area — right before the sighting — everything is completely quiet, completely unnatural,” he said.
“No birds, no insect sounds, no frogs, nothing. And in many other cases with very large dogs, all types of animals react, but dogs in particular, even very big, normally vicious dogs, when they're close to these creatures, they don't bark.
“They just stand still. They shake. They run away from these things. They don't want to be anywhere near them. But very, very commonly, they will just go back and hide and not bark.
“You can fool people. You can’t fool the animals.”
‘A life-changing experience’
Similar to Gordon, Mintel travels to festivals and gatherings focused on the paranormal. Last month, he visited Point Pleasant, W. Va., where the annual Mothman Festival is held. A few weeks before that, he spoke at the Exeter UFO Festival in New Hampshire.
“Twenty thousand people were at that festival,” Mintel said of the former.
“It was incredible.”
The fact that these events exist, even when hard proof of cryptids does not, shows how legends and lore have embedded themselves into the communities they inhabit. The stories intended to scare or entertain have taken on new meaning as more and more people share their experiences.
“I just think the fact of the matter is that it captured the attention of the public,” Mintel said.
“I don't care who it is, rich, poor, whatever — everyone has had some kind of paranormal experience that they can't explain, whatever that experience is, whether it's ghosts or cryptids or UFOs.”
But, even with government disclosures and a culture trending toward centering the marginalized, there can still be a heavy stigma attached to those who have reported their interactions with the paranormal.
“I talk to people from all walks of life who report these things: men, women, children, hunters, educators, first responders,” Gordon said.
“And I can tell you, almost nobody wants any publicity, because a lot of these people didn't believe these types of reports until they had their own experience.
“And I can tell you, being in touch with many of these people for years and years, for many it was a life-changing experience, and that's just how it is.”
