The Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp
Sightings of an Unidentified Lizard-like Creature
An unknown creature, known as the Lizard Man, has been sighted by several people in the Scape Ore Swamp area in Lee County, South Carolina.
South Carolina is home to one of the most perplexing creature sightings reported in modern times. The animal, known as the “Lizard Man”, was seen several times around Scape Ore Swamp, outside of Bishopville in Lee County. Could this lizard man be an animal from prehistoric times, who has escaped detection by inhabiting the rural swamplands? And if not, then just what is it?
Encountering an Unknown Creature
Christopher Davis had the dubious honor of meeting the unfriendly creature face to face when he was seventeen. He had been driving in the area around the swamp on June 29, 1988, when his car had a flat tire. It was about 2 a.m. and as he was changing the tire, he noticed something running toward him. It was about 7 feet tall, with red eyes and scaly green skin. It had three digits on each foot and hand, and each digit was equipped with a four-inch-long black claw. The creature was coming at him at a furious pace, running on its spindly hind legs.
Frightened, Davis jumped into his car. As the unknown creature approached, he tried to shut the car door, but the creature grabbed ahold of the side mirror and tried to pull the door open. Davis managed to get the door shut. He started his car and the creature climbed onto the car’s roof. Davis was finally able to dislodge the creature as he sped away out of the swamp. It continued to chase him, running up to speeds of 40 mph. When Davis arrived home, he was visibly shaken. His car was covered in long scratches, the roof was damaged, and the side mirror had been twisted.
Davis wasn’t the only one to see the Scape Ore Swamp lizard man. Soon after his encounter, other reports started coming in to the sheriff’s office. A construction worker stated that a reptilian creature had jumped out at him while he was collecting water from a well. He later passed a lie detector test to that effect. Two teenagers and their girlfriends were driving near the swamp, when they saw a huge lizard-like creature dash across the road in front of their car.
Unidentified Animal Tracks
The reports did not go ignored by the Lee County Sheriff’s office. A Deputy Sheriff investigated the area around Scape Ore Swamp. He reported finding saplings torn off at eight feet above the ground and large footprints preserved in the hard clay. The prints had three toes, and measured 14 inches long by 7 inches wide and one inch deep, with a stride of 40 inches. As the tracks were followed several hundred yards, some fresh impressions were found inside the tire tracks the car had made in entering the swamp. The creature was on the move! Later, the prints were analyzed by state wildlife biologists, and here's where the swampy story gets muddier. Some reports indicate that they were a hoax, while others called the tracks "unclassifiable" and not belonging to any known creature.
Theories about the Lizard Man
Two decades later, the questions are still unanswered, but theories abound. Could the Lizard Man be a prehistoric creature that has survived in the secluded swamp? Or could so many people be misidentifying an indigenous creature? One interesting idea belongs to two Canadian paleontologists, Drs. Dale Russell and R. Seguin, from the National Museum of Sciences in Ottawa. These well respected scientists speculated in a 1982 paper that if the dinosaurs had never become extinct, they would have eventually evolved into a sort of dinosaur-humanoid. They presumed that this creature would likely walk on its hind legs and have three digits on each hand and foot. The description sounds like the sightings in Scape Ore Swamp six years later, although no one has either proved or disproved the theory.
Cryptozoology seeks to explain or identify the Scape Ore Swamp Lizard Man, as well as other mystery animals. However, despite the publicity produced by the anomalous sightings in the late 1980s, the paranormal antics of the Scape Ore Swamp Lizard Man seem to have disappeared for the most part, without ever having been adequately explained.
