What was the mythical creature said to have stalked Erie County in the 1970s?

There’s legend of a mystical creature in Waterford that terrorized citizens in the 1970s.

According to the cryptid’s lore, the sheep-like creature was seen by hundreds of witnesses from school children to adult farmers, as told by Robin Swope, a Waterford native and pastor at the Bountiful Community Church in Utah. Swope told tale of the creature, yet no one really knew of its true origin nor what happened to it.

The legend of the Sheepsquatch, also called Sheepman or Goatman, has circulated around Waterford since the early 1970s, according to a chapter in the book “Pennsylvania in the Paranormal Vortex” by Fred Saluga and Raymond Keller.

The Waterford Sheepsquatch was described as a large humanoid being covered in fur with large horns and devilish hooves.

The Sheepsquatch often stalked farm fields

There have been some eyewitness accounts from Waterford residents who claim they have encountered the Sheepsquatch. These witnesses allegedly have seen the Sheepsquatch roaming throughout Waterford, including Baghdad Road, the covered bridge on Niemeyer Road between the intersection with East Street and the intersection with Union Road.

These tales can be found on the Facebook group Old Waterford PA  and in the book “Pennsylvania in the Paranormal Vortex.”

Waterford teen has two encounters with the Sheepsquatch

Swope provided Anita Palmer, who runs the Facebook group Old Waterford Pa. in Photos, his collective tales of the Sheepman.

According to Swope, hundreds of people have encountered the Sheepsquatch. One encounter came from a teenager by the first name of Marylin who claims she saw the Sheepsquatch not once, but twice.

Swope says that Marylin lived on Baghdad Road in the 1970s and once saw a figure running across a dirt road near the old sawmill. That figure she discovered resembled the Sheepsquatch.

Later on, Swope said that Marylin recalled a second encounter when she was 17.

“He was there that one night I drove home and right before I turned into my driveway, there he was, running across the road and into the woods,” she told Swope.

The Sheepsquatch lives in a cave on Baghdad Road

One Waterford businessman, Herb Kinney, told Swope that he had a friend who encountered the Sheepsquatch firsthand.

Kinney said that his friend encountered the creature waiting for him on top of the Waterford covered bridge on Nieymeyer Road spanning LeBoeuf Creek.

Kinney recalled that, “It was always said the Sheepsquatch lived in a cave on Baghdad Road. He was known to frequent the covered bridge southeast of town on East Street. He was said to hide up in the rafters of the old bridge and jump down and terrorize young lovers that had parked in the bridge.”

Another tale Kinney recalled was about two couples from Erie who were traveling into the bridge late one summer night. The couple drove in a dark blue Ford Mustang convertible with the top down.

“It had started to sprinkle, so they pulled inside the bridge … when they were attacked,” Kinney told Swope. “The boys fought off the creature and peeled out, filling the bridge with smoke from the burning rubber of their tires.

“The roof to the car was damaged, ripped, torn and mangled to the point it had to be replaced. All four of the young people insisted the incident really happened, telling the tale to their parents. The parents feared embarrassment and would not allow any police report to be filed.”

What ever happened to the Sheepsquatch?

In spite of Swope’s claims of eyewitness accounts decades ago, the whereabouts of the creature are unknown.

Waterford was not the only place in Pennsylvania to have sightings of a Goat-Man roaming farm fields. Saluga and Keller report that a Sheepsquatch appears to have been spotted by two farmers in Lancaster County.

Since the 1970s, Swope reports that there have not been any other confirmed sightings of the sheepsquatch.

In “Pennsylvania in the Paranormal Vortex,” Swope says, “the average lifespan of a sheep is usually no more than 10 years, so what should we expect from a creature that is part sheep anyways?”