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Even as we move into an increasingly scientific age with little room for magic or the supernatural, there are still regional folklores that persist all around the world. Whether it’s the Loch Ness Monster swimming around in a Scottish lake or ghosts haunting roads in rural New Jersey, numerous communities across the globe still have their own folk legends that add color and mystery to the world we live in.
These legends are often passed down orally through generations and have become ingrained in the collective consciousnesses of the communities in which they were born. And even as we advance our understanding of the world through scientific exploration, there’s something special about sitting around a fire and telling stories of ghosts, ghouls, and all kinds of monsters.
One such local folk tale in the United States is that of the Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp. It’s the story of a half-lizard, half-human hybrid that has been terrorizing the community of Bishopville, South Carolina for generations.
The legend of the Lizard Man was born in the swamps around Bishopville over three decades ago and members of the community are still reporting Lizard Man sightings to this day. Whether or not you choose to believe these stories is up to you, but one thing is certain: the Lizard Man has become an inextricable part of the culture of Bishopville and it seems he’s here to stay.
The Origins of the Lizard Man
As the story goes, on June 29, 1988, a local teenage boy was driving home from his job when he blew a tire just outside of Scape Ore. When the boy got out of his car to see what was wrong, he suddenly noticed a figure emerging from the swamp. What he saw was seven feet tall, soaking wet, and had scaly green skin. The creature had red eyes and three sharp fingers on each hand.
Terrified, the 17-year-old hopped back in his car and tried to drive away, but the creature caught up quickly. At first, the creature hopped on the back of the car, but then crawled to the front and looked down at the boy through the front windshield.
The Lizard Man then snapped the front fender of the car in half like someone might snap a toothpick. It tore into the sides of the car and ripped off the radio antennae. Finally, the boy was able to shake the creature loose by quickly driving forward and then reversing, and he was able to drive away to safety.
When the boy returned home, he was so shaken up that it took his parents over two hours to calm him down. Sheriff Liston Truesdale, the acting sheriff for Lee County at the time, said that they dispatched two deputy officers to investigate the incident, both of whom reported that they’d never seen damage of that kind done to a car before. Sheriff Truesdale also said that the 17-year-old witness came from a responsible, respectable family and that he even passed a polygraph test.
From there, the legend of the Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp was born and a flood of hysteria swept not only through Bishopville, but through the entire world.
Lizard Man Hysteria
Soon after the initial Lizard Man sighting in 1988, many other people in the community reported seeing the monster as well. Once word of these Lizard Man sightings got out, newspaper reporters, network newscasters, local television stations, and cryptid enthusiasts from all over the world began arriving in Bishopville.
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Local vendors tried to capitalize on the hysteria by selling Lizard Man t-shirts roadside. Sheriff Truesdale said that during this period his phone was constantly ringing with inquiries about the Lizard Man.
WIS-TV, a news network out of Columbia, South Carolina, even offered a million-dollar reward for the capture of the Lizard Man. The offer brought hunters and their guns from all across the globe. For the rest of the summer of 1988, people continued to report Lizard Man sightings and car maulings, which Sheriff Truesdale claims were mostly credible sources.
Then, the Lizard Man seemed to disappear altogether around 1991 for over a decade until he reportedly resurfaced in the late 2000s.
Sheriff Truesdale has said that the name Lizard Man may actually be a misnomer, though, because he believes that the creature in question may have been a “skunk ape,” a relative of Bigfoot. The skunk ape is known for its foul odor, and Truesdale believes that one could have mistaken a skunk ape for a more lizard-like creature, especially if it was dark and the creature’s hair was wet.
The Legend Lives On
After years without a Lizard Man sighting, the cryptid is thought to have resurfaced in 2008 when he destroyed the car of Bishopville residents Bob and Dixie Dawson. A CNN news report showed footage of their car with what appeared to be claw marks and large holes in it.
After 2008, the Lizard Man seemed to once again go dark until 2015, when a woman named Sarah claimed that she snapped a photo of the Lizard Man as she was coming out of church. Around the same time, a man named Jim Wilson took some pictures of a humanoid creature running around in the woods that he claims he saw running over Scape Ore Bridge.
Neither of these sightings has been confirmed or disproven; however, Jim Wilson’s photos seem a little more believable, as Sarah’s photo looks like someone wearing a Godzilla costume that they bought from Walmart.
Regardless of whether or not you believe in the Lizard Man after reading all of this, the elusive monster has become an integral part of the culture of Bishopville over the years and has repeatedly popped up in the media.
In 2013, author Lyle Blackburn wrote a book called The Lizard Man: The True Story of the Bishopville Monster, which is adored by many Bishopville citizens. Blackburn also apparently gained access to the case files of Sheriff Truesdale, which makes his book probably the best place to learn more about the Lizard Man.
In 2017, the South Carolina Emergency Management Division put up a humorous Tweet about the upcoming solar eclipse, warning that it might lead to a reemergence of the Lizard Man and that South Carolina residents should be extra careful.
The Lizard Man has also been referenced on two separate television shows, Destination Truth and Fact or Faked, on the Syfy cable television network and spoken about on talk shows like The Late Late Show with James Corden and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
For the people of Bishopville, the Lizard Man is something to be proud of, so much so that they hold an annual Lizard Man Festival and Comic-Con. The celebration features tons of local vendors selling Lizard Man souvenirs and apparel, speakers recounting stories of the Lizard Man, artists selling Lizard Man depictions, and people from all over the country interested in reveling in Lizard Man culture. If you can’t make it to Lizard Con, you can’t still get yourself some awesome Lizard Man apparel online.
[…] of what the cryptid is, where it’s from, and what it looks like. For instance, the fact that the Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp is a half-man, half-lizard cryptid from a part of South Carolina called Scape Ore comes as no […]