Cryptid Corner: The Lake Worth Monster

I graduated from high school in 1997. My 10 year high school reunion is on the horizon, and that’s got me thinking about Texas and my youth.

Somehow, that led my twisted mind to land on the Lake Worth Monster for Cryptid Corner this week.

Lake Worth is a Texas town about 10 miles from the Dallas/Forth Worth metroplex. It’s not really known for much, and I only encountered it when we played against them in Football.

In 1969, however, Lake Worth was put on the map for a rash of sightings of a creature not unlike Bigfoot. Initial reaction by law enforcement was that it was a hoax, but even they changed their mind after a particular sighting in which 30 people witnessed the creature.

The Lake Worth Monster sightings are very compressed in history, but I’ve always found the reports interesting in their detail.

For example, the Lake Worth Monster was reported to have hurled a spare tire some 500 feet towards curious onlookers. There are descriptions of his cry, reports of him breaking limbs off of trees, and even one report in which he jumped up onto the hood of a car.

Numerous tracks were found as well as many reports of hearing and smelling the creature around the area. In one incident, the creature was shot, leaving a blood trail that was followed for some time before yielding no monster.

Whatever this white bigfoot-like creature was, it seemed to disappear by 1970. Whether it died, moved on, or was killed by the gunshot wounds it received we may never know.

The Lake Worth Monster, however, has always been a story to me as to how close these cryptids can really be. My hometown is a mere hour’s drive from Lake Worth. So keep your eyes open — you never know when you’ll find a cryptid in your own backyard!