“What I saw walking across that street I will never ever forget.”

The Oxford English Dictionary defines the word cryptid as “An animal whose existence or survival is disputed or unsubstantiated, such as the yeti.”  For the following witnesses to living cryptids, there is no dispute. In this series of National Cryptid Society’s case files, you will read what the witnesses have experienced in their own words.

Keep an open mind when reading these accounts, and also remember one’s perception and memory of an event can be influenced by the emotions felt at the time of the occurrence. The contributors to this series of articles are doing the best they can to recount what are in some cases very shocking and traumatic experiences.

Remember, these accounts as told by witnesses, are not being presented as evidence of any event.  Rather, they are the recollection from memory from everyday, ordinary people who want to be heard.

If you have a personal cryptid sighting story you would like to tell us, please visit our “Make A Report” page on this site.

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In North central Texas, 20 miles south of the Red River border with Oklahoma sits the town of Honey Grove. Davey Crockett discovered the area of Honey Grove when he camped there on his way to join the Texas Army at San Antonio in 1836. Crockett sent many letters back to Tennessee, telling of an area with an abundance of honey-filled trees, hence the town’s name. Honey Grove bills itself as “The Sweetest Town in Texas,” and the population was just shy of 1700 people at the time of the 2010 census. Every year the small down celebrates “Davey Crockett Days,” a festive time where street vendors and small events dot the downtown area celebrating the historic adventurer who had a hand in naming the town. Honey grove is much like any other small town in rural America. It’s surrounded by rich agricultural land, creeks, and wooded areas nestled between the Sulphur and Red Rivers. It seems like the perfect little American town, but one night in 1984 something strange reared its head in Honey Grove Texas and only one person was witness to it.

I was sent the following report through our website from Kelli, formerly of Honey Grove, Texas: 

“One night I was awakened by my dogs barking. I heard a twig snap beside my window. I got out of bed and went to the front door. I thought my daughter’s pony was loose. In the street walking on two legs was about a 7 ft lizard. Gray in color. Arms halfway to the concrete. Tail in the road. He walked right under a street light. There was no mistaking what he was.”

After reading the email and speaking with the witness over the phone, I thought of the Lizardman, and I asked my friend author and investigator Denver Michaels what he thought of the encounter as it was told. Being true to form Denver provided a wealth of information that is just to much to squeeze into the video, so I have included it in the article associated with this report and the link to that is in the description [Denver’s input is below the transcript of the recorded witness statement].  It is well worth the read.

The lizardman is reported to be a large, bipedal reptile of unknown origin.  Sometimes it has been reported to be aggressive towards those who stumble upon it. The most famous of all encounters of bipedal reptilian humanoid creatures is the Lizardman of Scape Ore Swamp when a then 17 year old Christopher Davis stopped on a road by Scape Ore Swamp in Lee County, South Carolina on June 29, 1988. After he had gotten off work for the night, at about 2AM his car got a flat tire. After he finished changing the tire he heard a noise behind him. Turning around, he saw a seven-foot lizard-like creature running toward him from the distance. He entered the car and tried to speed off when the thing jumped on the roof of his car and hung on with its claws as Davis sped down the road desperately trying to shake it off.

The media frenzy that followed made the Lizardman a household name in Lee County. Since the eighties there have been several additional reports of the Lizardman in South Carolina. For the most part the media has reported these sightings as hoaxes or stories from mentally unbalanced individuals. Not to say there hasn’t been hoaxes. It wasn’t too long ago that some government agencies warned that the eclipse of 2017 might cause an increase of Lizardman sightings. Almost every report was done in a tongue-in-cheek fashion. Unfortunately Christopher Davis would not live to see the resurgence of the lizardman in the media, as he met an untimely death in 2009.

But this report is not about the Lizardman of Scape Ore Swamp. This is not about South Carolina and all the hoopla that surrounds other Lizardman sightings. There are no outlandish or unbelievable claims made by the witness, save the fact that seeing a seven-foot tall lizard walking upright is pretty otherworldly and otherwise unbelievable. The witness saw a seven-foot bipedal reptile not as an aggressive monster, but an animal crossing the road without a care in the world.

The following is the witness telling in her own words what she saw that night, and it is the first time she is telling anyone what she saw walking across the road in a sleepy small town in North Central Texas. [Play the video to hear the witness herself.]

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The Witness:

“My name is Kelli and I’m the 55 year old female and in 1984 I lived in a very small town in Texas it was called Honey Grove Texas. It didn’t have a lot of people in it… um probably at the time maybe twelve to fourteen hundred and one night I had put my … I have two daughters and I put them to bed and I went to sleep. Well my dogs went to barking ferociously and up against my house I heard twigs breaking… well my eldest daughter had a Shetland pony so in my mind I thought the Shetland had gotten loose I got up out of bed and went to the front door… My front door had nine panes of glass in and right caddy cornered from me 25 feet was a streetlight a very bright streetlight… What I saw walking across that street I will never ever forget.

I saw a lizard standing on two feet with his back to me… He had crossed the road and his tail was so long it was still halfway in the road. He was gray I could see scales… his arms for lack of a better word to call them went between his hip and his knees he was just nonchalantly walking across the road right under the streetlight across the street from me was houses but behind those houses was a sawmill.

 I was in shock I had never seen or experienced anything like this before my life my world was black and white with no gray and… pun intended… he never looked my way I never left the house I was it did it put me in shock I was totally in shock in her that night as a matter of fact I didn’t go to sleep the rest of the night I just stood there looking outfit was looking at my front door long before or long after he had he had passed beyond my field of vision. 

I didn’t tell anybody about the sighting, this is my first time of telling it and I was estranged from my family and I just didn’t I just didn’t tell no one I mean I I didn’t want to be um… Honey Grove was a small town and I did have two small children and I didn’t want any type of flack I guess coming towards me or mine or my daughters so I kept it to myself. 

I only saw him that one time like I said he was just nonchalantly walking across the street there had been other sightings back then not of what I saw but of Bigfoot and I’m trying to remember the people’s name and since I’ve talked to you I’ve been trying to remember but a lot of times the guys would go down into the hollow to um – there was a hollow down there somewhere and they would want to go hunting and the dogs wouldn’t even would not follow them they would not go down there and there would be a screams of it they said the guys would say it almost sounded like a woman in pain and I haven’t I don’t know of any animals that would sound like that but I have heard many rumors about people that have seen Bigfoot in that area along the same timeline. 

I didn’t go to look for the creature for this lizard I had never seen a deer or a bear come through there but yes I was not what a deer was my kids’ dad was a very avid hunter he would bring home two three year a year so it was no deer it had no had antlers and had scales. It was just like looking at a chameleon if you would that had been blown up to 7 feet and its tail was humongous.

I just want to say thank you for getting this information out to people because there are things out there you know and they don’t fit into our black and white areas so you know… I don’t know what say I don’t know where it came from… all I know is what I saw and he walked so he was right underneath that streetlight there was no question about what he was. I think people should know that there are things out there that don’t fall into the category of A to Z in a regular animal world.”

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As earlier stated, I asked Denver Michaels What his thoughts were on this particular report.  The following are his thoughts on the sighting and historical accounts of the Lizardman.

This is a fascinating case, one that I don’t really have any answers to. I do have a few thoughts which I will share.

Lizardmen Throughout History

Lizardman encounters, while not unheard of, are not very common when compared to other cryptids (or paranormal entities) such as Bigfoot, large black cats, and even winged humanoids. Probably the best-known case took place along a Bishopville, South Carolina swamp in 1988. Seventeen-year-old Christopher Davis had just changed a flat tire on his way home from work when he noticed and a strange lizard-like humanoid coming toward him. Davis managed to get into his car and flee the scene, but not before the lizardman jumped on his car. Davis swerved and hit his brakes and the monster rolled off of his car, leaving some damage behind. The monster was seven feet tall with glowing red eyes; it looked wet and had three fingers; the creature was covered in scales.

Davis reported the incident to local police who blamed the encounter on a bear. 

Other sightings (along with a hoax or two) occurred in the area as well, and in 2008, something chewed up a car fender. In this case, DNA was collected and sent to a lab that determined a dog had caused the damage. Local police blamed the damage on a coyote or wolf, believing a domestic dog was not powerful enough to damage a car in such a manner. Despite the DNA results, to this day, not everyone is convinced that this was not the work of the Lizardman and sporadic sightings still occur. 

Lizardmen, whether real or imagined, or cases of mistaken identity, have been ingrained in the human psyche since time immemorial. One has to look no further than the Ubaid Lizardmen—7,000-year-old statues from Mesopotamia. These mysterious relics depict reptilian humanoids, both male and female. In one statue, the figure is helmeted and holding a scepter. In another, a female reptilian is breastfeeding a child!

There have long been rumors of a colony of Lizard people inhabiting underground tunnels beneath Los Angeles. In fact, the Los Angeles Times ran a piece on January 29, 1934 titled: “Lizard People’s Catacomb City Hunted: Engineer Sinks Shaft Under Fort Moore Hill to Find Maze of Tunnels and Priceless Treasures of Legendary Inhabitants.”

These are but a few examples of lizard people, and does not even delve into the myriad of reports of reptilian humanoids associated with UFO sightings and alien abduction experiences.

The Honey Grove, Texas Sighting

While I do not know what to make of the 1984 Lizardman sighting in Honey Grove, I am certain of one thing: The witness knows exactly what she saw! The descriptions of the creature point to nothing but a lizard-like humanoid and there is no chance of misidentification of a known animal here. It walked underneath a street light in plain view and the witness had a clear look. We’re certainly not dealing with a bear or a deer or something more exotic. 

Some Bigfoot enthusiasts out there like to chalk up lizardman sightings to mistaken Bigfoot sightings.  See Matt Moneymaker’s tweet from August 26, 2017:

In the Honey Grove case, we do not have a mistaken Bigfoot any more than a bear or deer—no, the witness saw a lizardman. However, Bigfoot sightings were taking place nearby around the same time frame. Are the two things related in some way?

A Window Area?

In Honey Grove during the early-1980s we have a lizardman sighting and Bigfoot sightings taking place. Perhaps unsurprisingly, there was also a lot of UFO activity. The following UFO report occurred in November 1984 in Honey Grove: 

From the NUFORC database:

Occurred : 11/1/1984 17:30 (Entered as : 11/01/1984 17:30) Reported: 12/27/2004 12:48:25 AM 00:48 Posted: 1/19/2005 Location: Honey Grove, TX Shape: Disk Duration:5 min

UFO in wheat field – Honey Grove – Texas About the Winter of 1984 my friend and I were riding his Honda 185s 3- wheeler just north of the small town of Honey Grove , Texas. We were actually riding on the public golf course (knowing we were not suppose to! We were about 10-11 yrs old) and there was a back way out of the golf course. So after driving over a couple greens and tee boxes we decide to go the back way out that leads to a gravel road about 3/4 of a mile from the GC. We head out and down through this trail that at first is thick trees and then becomes an open plowed field. We ran through this trail many times before. Well, just at the end of the trail, the tree line stops and the open field begins and there is a jump or a dirt mound that we always liked to jump. We get up some speed and ramp this dirt mound and become airborne! As soon as we land and look ahead my bud slams the breaks and we both say at the same time “What the hell is that!” The craft was about 50yrds in front of us and hoovering about 30 to 40 feet or treetop high. It seemed to be moving very slowly to the east away from us. (It has been 20 yrs but I still remember it well) I knew immediately what it was and I told my bud to turn around and get the hell out of here, but he wanted to observe it for a minute and I said “that is a UFO and the dam thing will take us up if we don’t go” and that scared him, so we turned around and boogied off back through the golf course. Nobody was playing golf that day cause it was wet and cold. Although, that day was very clear and the sun was just starting to set. The UFO looked like it had a welding ark multiplied by 100 on the top and all colored lights like a rainbow dimmer than the top “ark” brightness. How I could tell it was round was because in the middle of it, this row of approx. 2′ tall by 1′ wide squares of orange lights would start at a point at us and go around to the otherside of the craft and then end up back at us, but moving constantly. I could hear a faint hum over the 3-wheeler at idle. It sounded like what a guardlight sounds like in your back yard. Besides the lights, the color of it, looked to be smooth stainless steel or some alloy. I was only 11 yrs old, but my mom had seen something a few years before and started researching the UFO thing and talking to people in the area that had seen things like UFO’s. I was, and still am, up to date on all the latest Technology as far as Public “need to know” goes. I have 2 brothers, 1 in the USAF serving in Both gulf wars and knows a lot of stuff about a lot of things along these lines, and another that was in for 4 yrs and got out. I have worked at a top secret Gov. facility but I won’t go into detail on that. I know this UFO was definitely a UFO. In a rural town near a rural road in a wheat field looking like that!! I’ve been waiting for something to look like it for 20 yrs but I have not. There had been a lot of strange sightings around that area in the early 80’s. If someone can explain what it was please do so. I’m not sure if it took us up, but I’m sure curious! I have a deviated septum if it means anything. My bud became one of my enemies later in life over a girl, so I don’t know if I could talk to him about it, but I think we could. I had another encounter in the exact same area about 10 yrs later, but I will save that one. I have waited 20 yrs to tell this to the public! ((NUFORC Note: Date of incident is approximate. PD))

The NUFORC database has a number of other sightings from 1984 that occurred near Honey Grove. Additionally, the MUFON database had eight sightings in Texas and three in Oklahoma that were within a three hour drive of Honey Grove between 1983 and 1985.

1980s Honey Grove seems similar to some of the well-known “window areas”—locations where a disproportionate amount of strange activity takes place. Think Point Pleasant, West Virginia, Skinwalker Ranch, Mount Shasta, and places like that. Is that what was going on here? 

In conclusion, and there’s nothing much to really say—there are certainly no explanations to offer for the sighting. For me, there are two takeaways: 1) a lot of strange things were happening around Honey Grove, Texas in the early-1980s; 2) the witness knows what she saw.

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Additional Resources for the Lizardman:

Wikipedia

Lizardman Cryptid Wiki

South Carolina’s ‘Lizard Man’ Of Scape Ore Swamp — A Brief History Of The Humanoid Reptilian Cryptid

Agencies advise on possible ‘Lizard Man,’ ‘Bigfoot’ sightings in South Carolina during eclipse

Has ‘lizard man’ returned? Photo, video apparently show fabled SC creature

People still talking about South Carolina’s weirdest legend; festival held 3 decades later

What’s the scariest urban legend in SC? It depends on who you ask.

LIZARD MAN: The True Story of the Bishopville Monster

by Lyle Blackburn

From the swamplands near Bishopville, South Carolina, come reports of a seven-foot-tall, scaly humanoid creature the locals call the “Lizard Man.” Over the years, the creature has been seen by numerous witnesses, including a teenager who claimed it attacked him one night near a remote area called Scape Ore Swamp. The young man’s testimony and physical evidence was so compelling, it not only launched a serious investigation by the local sheriff’s office but an all-out monster hunt that drew hundreds of people to the small town.

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Monsters In Print: A Collection Of Curious Creatures Known Mostly From Newspapers

by Adam Benedict

This collection of over 170+ articles, direct from newspapers of the 1800s and 1900s, brings some of the most bizarre, amazing, and incredible stories of true monster encounters out of the past and into your hands! Presented with zero spin or bias, this book delivers just the facts and allows you, the reader, to decide for yourself if the stories within actually happened or not.
From the funny to the frightening, the sincere to the weird, there is something for everyone within these pages!

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