Afanc – a lake monster from Welsh mythology that is variously described as a crocodile, demon or beaver hybrid. Any two of which would be scary.
Bigfoot – a legendary race of ape-men found (or not found) around the world, from the Sasquatch of the Pacific Northwest to the Yeti of the Himalayas. Enkidu, from the ancient Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh (c. 2100 BCE), arguably marks the beginning of this “wild man’s” grand genealogy.
Chupacabra – the dreaded “goat sucker” of the folklore of the Americas, a meter-high reptilian monstrosity said to have greenish-gray skin, sharp spines running down its back, and a taste for goat meat. BRC has reportedly not been spared from this cryptid’s attacks (seen here in the Black Rock Gazette from August 26, 2003).
Dingbat – a fearsome critter from the tales of lumberjacks of North America from the 19th and early 20th centuries, described as a large bat or bird-like creature, with a short feathered body, large wings, and short deer-like antlers on its head. It is also described as resembling “a very fast owl.”
Encantado – pink-skinned Brazilian weredolphins (what?) that shape-shift into smartly dressed humans. In the guise of men they walk the countryside listening for the sound of beating drums to guide them to the nearest party, since they love to dance and make love to human women. Their dapper chapeaux cleverly conceal their singular un-transforming feature: the blowhole. (WHAT?!)
Frogbat – native to the Black Rock Desert and possibly a distant cousin to the dingbat, the frogbat is a large fire-breathing playaphibian with bat-like wings and explosive digestion. Not even the firing squad of a well-regulated militia has managed to put this fearsome critter down for good.
Grootslang – literally “big snake,” a legendary cryptid that is reputed to dwell in a deep cave in the Richtersveld, South Africa.
Hodag – a folkloric animal of the North American state of Wisconsin, it has “the head of a frog, the grinning face of a giant elephant, thick short legs set off by huge claws, the back of a dinosaur, and a long tail with spears at the end.”
Igopogo – not to be confused with the Ogopogo – a lake monster reported to live in Lake Okanagan in British Columbia, Canada – the Igopogo is instead a lake monster said to dwell in Lake Simcoe, Ontario, Canada.
Jackalope – or Lepus temperamentalus, is an animal of North American folklore, described as a jackrabbit with antelope horns or deer antlers and sometimes a pheasant’s tail. Not to be confused with its winged Bavarian cousin the wolpertinger.
Kraken – a colossal legendary sea monster said to dwell off the coasts of Norway and Greenland, with the unique cryptid category of “massive.”
Okay, that’s it for this year. Feel free to discover, invent or embellish your own cryptid legends for future denizens of Black Rock City. Because myths grow fast in the desert, but not without the seed of hearsay.
And thanks in advance for not stealing the street signs, trash pandas. (At least not until Exodus, okay?)
Amber Dust Location Burning Man 2023 - 8:45 & D
Dingbat
So, you know those funny stories that old-timey lumberjacks used to tell each other back in the 1800s and early 1900s? They had these mythical creatures in them that they liked to call "fearsome critters." One of these critters was called a Dingbat!
These fearsome critters, including the Dingbat, were often weird and wacky, made up of different bits of real animals or with totally wild habits. These stories were mostly for fun or to play tricks on the new guys at the lumber camps.
Now, the specific details about the Dingbat might be a bit sketchy, because these stories changed a lot from person to person and place to place. But apparently, there was something called a Dingbat that was so popular around Rice Lake, Wisconsin, that they had a model of it at a local bar, the "Friendly Buckhorn," back in the 1950s. How cool is that?
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