What is the Presque Isle Chupacabra?

Even before the arrival of the Europeans to the Great Lakes area in the 1600’s, legend told of strange creatures that haunted what became to be known as Presque Isle State Park. Feral creatures bristling with fur and teeth, rarely heard or seen, and then only in fleeting glimpses. Half dog, half wolf, half devil.

Scattered but regular sightings were reported over the decades. Always just glimpses through the dense underbrush. Rabid beaver? Angry bobcats? Hungry wolves? No one knew, and few people cared, until a fateful day in the summer of 1878, when little James Cortland went missing on a family picnic out on the Isle.

According to reports, the weekend day had dawned clear and warm – a beautiful Saturday for a picnic. The Cortland family, like many other families in Erie, Pennsylvania, hitched up the wagon, taking the dirt and mud track out to what is now known at the Waterworks. The family enjoyed their picnic and the cool breeze on the bay side of the Isle. Little James, only six years old, played with his sister amongst the trees while his parents looked on.

Everything was idyllic. Everything was fine. Until, as the local newspaper put it the next day, something crazed and horrid – a “devil wolf” – lunged out of the bushes to grab little James, pulling him back into the vegetation, which, away from the picnic area, quickly turned dense and impenetrable.

Panicked, the Cortland family frantically searched the surrounding area, aided by other picnicking families, but there was no sign of little James.

Over the next week, the folks of Erie County launched an extensive search of Presque Isle, involving bloodhounds, hundreds of men, and dozens of hours of searching.

Despite the valiant effort, neither little James Cortland nor his body were ever found. And thus was (re-)born the legend of the Presque Isle Chupacabra.

(A note on etymology: until the late 1990’s, to the extent it was remembered at all, the citizens of Erie County referred to the creature responsible for little James Cortland’s disappearance as the “Presque Isle devil” or “devil wolf,” in line with the original newspaper reports. In 1999, the story of little James Cortland re-surfaced after a series of bizarre sightings at the State Park. In line with the recent popularization of the Spanish term “chupacabra” for similar-such legendary creatures from Puerto Rico to Texas to the desert southwest, the “devil wolf” became known as the Presque Isle Chupacabra.)

BirdingPI.com Investigation

Circa 2018, after repeated recent sightings, the BirdingPI.com team launched a systematic overnight survey of the entirety of Presque Isle State Park. Numerous locations were chosen based on animal population density (e.g., assuming such a creature would have to subsist in the woods, vs. the ponds/marshlands), with semi-random dates over time. A partial distribution map is reproduced here:

With the cooperation of DCNR, teams of two were dispatched to the selected locations (with a bag of Taco Bell and a Thermos(r)-brand vacuum container of black coffee) for overnight monitoring and assessment. Mostly it was quiet – skunks, racoons, deer, nothing. … Then, late one afternoon, spotting of a desiccated, toothy animal of unknown origin:

Chupacabra? Dead racoon? Not even science knows!

Typical photographic evidence, off the Dead Pond Trail:

Hawk or other bird? Chupacabra? Too elusive to know for sure.

A typical overnight:

After many overnight surveys, the only concrete proof is the lead picture above – while fleeing through the woods responsive to ‘spooky noises,’ the BirdingPI.com team caught a shot on iPhone of something horrendous – a clawed foot or paw reaching out in terror! What was this strange creature? We cannot say for sure, but beware the Presque Isle Chupacabra! And please obey “day use only” regulations.

[Editor’s Note: Happy Halloween!]