Weirdness in Waterford

As many times as I’ve visited Waterford in Erie County, I never realized there was a covered bridge located just southeast of town. I had somehow missed the covered bridge on an earlier journey exploring northwestern Pennsylvania and northeastern Ohio, but on this trip I detoured into Waterford to visit the bridge and photograph it.

Waterford Covered Bridge, also known as the Wattsburg Road Bridge, is located along Niemeyer Road, a dirt road that becomes South East Street in town. The road into the bridge, has been blocked from vehicular traffic since a box truck damaged part of it a couple years back.

I parked at a small turnaround at the end of Niemeyer Road and grabbed the camera, hoping to get a couple of pictures of the peaceful surroundings, but nothing was about to prepare me for the events happening over the next few minutes.

As I stood studying the covered bridge, I could hear something crashing through the undergrowth off to my right. My first thought was I had spooked a bear when I pulled into the parking area. I stared in the direction of the noises, curious to know what I was hearing and quickly realized whatever it was, was getting closer to me, not running away. I kept the vehicle between me and the approaching noise, ready to step back into the vehicle if a bear appeared from the undergrowth.

Suddenly two beings stumbled out into the clearing and stopped in their tracks. They were far from being cryptids, but two boys, who were both in their late teens, possibility early twenties, covered head to toe in mud and slime. They were as obviously surprised by my presence and I was by theirs.

A note before I go on: While I did not get their names in order to make the conversation easier, I’m naming them Daryl and Chad.

I was not going to ask what they were doing wandering around the swampy area, when Daryl, the taller of the two, spoke. “Dude, are you here searching for the Goatman?” I just stared unsure of how to respond.

“Man, of course he’s here for the Goatman,” Chad laughed as he slapped Daryl on the arm. “Why else would he be here with equipment? Probably going to do some fancy test or two to find it.”

I wasn’t about to explain to them the only thing I had was a camera and I only planned on photographing the bridge, but the duo definitely had my attention. Part of me wanted to get back in the vehicle and leave, but part of me was curious about what they were talking about. When I looked up the Waterford Covered Bridge, I definitely did not recall reading anything about a Goatman.

“Goatman?” I asked before I even realized I had spoken. The two of them stared at me as if I was speaking a foreign language.

“Dude, you don’t know about the Goatman?” Daryl asked causing them to start laughing at my ignorance of the subject. Chad added a goat noise which caused them laugh even harder.

“He lives under the bridge,” Daryl continued once they stopped laughing. “If you come here at night, you’ll more than likely see him.”

“Eric said that he saw it once,” Chad added “He said it was tall and hairy. It had a goat’s head with horns and hooves.”

“Dude, Eric was drunk, so you can’t believe anything he says,” Daryl protested. “Besides he saw a chupacabra, not the Goatman. Everybody knows the Goatman is half-human and half-goat.”

“So what kind of tests are you going to run?” Chad asked in a serious tone as he stared at me.

“I’m just here to take a couple pictures of the bridge,” I answered.

“But if you see it are going to take pictures of it? Ain’t you?” Chad demanded of me.

“Sure,” I muttered. “If I see it I’ll take a picture of it.”

“Cool man,” Chad responded. They seemed happy with the answer and went to the far side of the parking area and plopped down on the ground to watch me. I could hear them whispering back and forth before bursting out in fits of laughter. I turned my attention to the bridge while trying to keep an eye on the two of them as I took pictures.

The Waterford Covered Bridge is of a Town Lattice Truss design, with a length of seventy-eight feet that spans a swampy portion of Le Boeuf Creek. The bridge, known locally as The Old Kissing Bridge, was built in 1875 and used until 2014, when it was closed due to structural integrity. While the road through the bridge seems solid, the entrance on the eastern side shows damage from an incident involving a box truck which was a little too big to get through the bridge. The covered bridge was blocked off at both ends and since then it has become victim to locals who have scrawled graffiti all over it. There is blue piping that crisscrosses the southern side of the bridge that has been there for a while, but I could not find any place that states what the purpose is for the piping, but I believe it is for oil.

I have to admit that I had first thought the two boys were playing a joke on me when they were telling me about the Goatman. I was surprised to discover when I returned home the strange creature is part of regional lore. While they called the creature the Goatman, local legend more commonly calls it the Sheepman.

The story seems to have its origin in the late 1960s/early 1970s when people began reporting sightings of a large, hairy creature covered in either gray or black hair with glowing red eyes. The creature had a goat-like head complete with horns, long arms with clawed hands, and hooves like a goat for feet. Note: whether their friend Eric saw or imagined the creature, his description was really close to the description of the creature seen in the 1970s.

By the mid-1970s everybody was seeing the strange creature roaming the forests and fields around Waterford. Despite the name, the Sheepman was not a friendly beast. Farmers during the height of the sightings reported their livestock being savagely torn apart and eaten by this strange creature.

The Sheepman supposedly lived in a cave northwest of town, but was often spotted lurking around the covered bridge on the southeast side of town. After a massive wave of sightings by residents in the mid-1970s, the creature seemed to have vanished from the local landscape though every now and then it seems to make an appearance before disappearing again.

What was Waterford’s mysterious creature? Was it a Sheepman, liked so many people claimed? Reading through the handful of reports regarding the Sheepman, they are very similar to two different urban legends that morphed into one.

The first story is the “boogeyman.” The story told by parents to their kids to encourage them to behave. If they didn’t obey, creature would get them. The second is a version of an urban legend warning young lovers to behave while out on a date because the creature was out there waiting to get them if they “misbehaved.”

What about the witnesses who maintain they saw the Sheepman? One explanation is misidentification. A handful of stories claim it was spotted running across a field or road at night, which could have been a bear or possibly someone playing a prank. Though it would be a dangerous prank if someone would have decided to take a shot at the creature.

After the late 1970s, stories of the Goatman stopped. As far as I can tell, there have been no “official” sightings of the creature in recent years.

“Did you get any pictures of the Goatman?” I jumped at the sound of Chad’s voice. I hadn’t realized the duo had walked up to me.

“I don’t believe so,” I replied.

“Did you check?” Chad asked. Under their watchful eye, I glanced through the pictures I had taken, confirming the fact I had no picture of the Goatman.

“Not a single picture of it.”

“”Dude that sucks,” Daryl responded in a disappointed voice as they sat down on the concrete barriers. They were still sitting there when I drove off.

Notes on other Goatmen/Sheepmen: Looking into the handful of other Goatmen legends around the United States, I find it interesting that the majority of these legends start with “in the early 1970s.” The most famous of these monsters came out of Prince George County, Maryland, with sightings in the early 1970s. Only one of these legends seems to be pre-1970s and that is the story of the Louisville, Kentucky Goatman which first appears in the late 1950s. I have to wonder why there was a sudden influx of these stories, but have not been able to discover a satisfying answer to this phenomenon.

All of the Goatman stories have the creature killing dogs, livestock, and in some cases humans. Even the Waterford creature supposedly killed a person though I have found no definite source, just a mention in a “friend of a friend” story. I have not found any verified deaths that come directly from a Goatman attack. Only the Louisville, Kentucky legend has recorded deaths linked to it, but those are not a result of an attack by an unknown creature. The Louisville Goatman legend states that for the creature to appear one has to walk across a high railroad bridge that is still active. People have died from jumping from the bridge to escape the oncoming train or dying after being hit by a train.

Waterford was not the only place in Pennsylvania to have sightings of a Goatman roaming the fields of the state. In 1973 two farmers in Lancaster County spotted a man-like creature covered in grey hair and having a white mane grab a chicken and run off with it. The creature had long fangs, a wolf-like head with two horns protruding from it and long arms with sharp claws.

Other sightings of Goatman have probably been reported, but I have not been able to verify these. As I continue my research, maybe more Goatman encounters will be located.