The Winsted Wild Man

New England has its own version of Bigfoot. Sightings of the Winsted Wild Man began in 1895.

The Winsted Wild Man made his first documented appearance in August of 1895, when the Winsted Herald reported that then Selectman Riley Smith, while traveling to Colebrook, stopped along the road to pick blueberries, accompanied by his bulldog. The dog became frightened of something, and ran to Smith, whining and cowering.

A bit later, Smith related, an extra-large buck-nekkid man, covered with thick black hair jumped out of the bushes, yelling like crazy, and ran for the woods. Riley was understandably a tad disturbed by the interruption to his bucolic little trip. Apparently he never lived it down either.

The next documented appearance of the Wild Man didn’t occur until the 1970s, when two young men, Wayne Hall and David Chapman heard some very strange noises outside one morning in July 1972. Hall described it as a mix of frog and cat snarls and snorts. Read more