The Pigman of Vermont: Northfield’s Feral Cryptid and One of New England’s Creepiest Urban Legends

In the quiet, maple-lined town of Northfield, Vermont—population barely 6,000, nestled in the Green Mountains where the leaves turn fire-red every fall and the winters bury everything under three feet of snow—there’s a story that locals still tell in lowered voices. They call him the Pigman: a half-human, half-porcine creature that stalks the woods, attacks teenagers, and leaves behind the stench of blood and slaughter. For over half a century, this legend has terrified generations of Vermont kids, turning certain back roads into no-go zones after dark and inspiring everything from high-school dares to indie horror shorts. But unlike many urban legends that fade with time, the Pigman of Vermont keeps resurfacing—new sightings, new details, new reasons to keep your car doors locked when driving the Devil’s Washbowl at night.

The core story is simple but chilling. On October 30, 1971—Halloween Eve—a 17-year-old named Sam Harris vanished while walking home from a party near the Devil’s Washbowl, a remote swimming hole off Route 12 surrounded by dense forest. Search parties combed the area for days. All they found were his shredded jacket hanging from a tree branch and strange, cloven-hoof prints mixed with human footprints in the mud. Three days later, Sam stumbled out of the woods naked, covered in blood, babbling incoherently about a “pig thing” that chased him. He was institutionalized shortly after and never spoke coherently again. From that night forward, locals claimed a feral man-beast—tall, pale, with a misshapen head like a pig’s, tusks protruding from his mouth, and a squealing grunt—began haunting the area. He attacks couples in parked cars, smashes windshields with rocks, and drags victims into the woods, leaving behind the smell of rotting pork and blood. That’s the most widespread version, but like all good New England legends, the Pigman has multiple origin stories that locals swear are “the real one.” The older, darker tale dates back to the 1950s and involves a reclusive pig farmer who lived on the outskirts of Northfield. Known only as “Piggyman” to the kids who dared each other to sneak onto his property, he supposedly went mad after his wife left him, began experimenting on his animals, and eventually disappeared. Some say he killed himself in the barn; others claim he started living with the pigs, eating raw meat, and devolved into something inhuman. When teenagers began reporting a naked man with a pig’s head mask (or real tusks) chasing them off his land, the legend was born. After his farm burned down in the early 1970s, the sightings moved to the Devil’s Washbowl and surrounding trails.

A more supernatural spin claims the Pigman is the restless spirit of a farmer who made a pact with the devil for bountiful crops. When the devil came to collect, the farmer tried to cheat him, and as punishment he was cursed to wander the woods forever as a pig-human hybrid, forever hungry but unable to die. This version ties into Vermont’s long history of witchcraft and devil folklore, from the Bennington Triangle disappearances to the cursed Dudleytown ruins in Connecticut. The most grounded—and disturbing—explanation is that the original Pigman was a real person: a teenage runaway or escaped mental patient who lived feral in the woods for years, surviving by raiding farms and slaughtering pigs (hence the blood and pork smell). Over time, exposure, malnutrition, and isolation caused physical deformities or mental breaks that made him appear monstrous. The 1971 Sam Harris incident cemented the legend, and subsequent sightings are either misidentifications, hoaxes, or mass hysteria fueled by decades of storytelling. Whatever the origin, the sightings are remarkably consistent. Most occur around the Devil’s Washbowl, a deep, rocky swimming hole surrounded by steep cliffs and thick forest, or along nearby trails like the Northfield Trails system. Witnesses describe a tall figure (6–7 feet) with pale, hairless skin, a snout-like face, small eyes, and tusks or jagged teeth. He moves on two legs but sometimes drops to all fours for speed. The smell—rotting meat mixed with pig manure—is almost universal. Attacks are rare but dramatic: windshields smashed, doors rattled, screams that sound half-human, half-animal.

In the 1980s and 1990s, during the Satanic Panic, some reports claimed he carried a butcher’s hook or wore a pig mask made from real skin.The legend peaked in the late 20th century. High-schoolers from Northfield Falls and Montpelier made “Pigman runs,” driving the Washbowl roads with lights off, daring the creature to appear. One famous story from 1987 involves a group of teens whose car was surrounded by the Pigman banging on the roof; they floored it and escaped, but found deep scratches and blood on the paint the next morning. In the 2000s, the internet spread the tale nationwide. Blogs, Creepypasta forums, and early YouTube videos retold the story, often embellishing with fake photos or “found footage.” The legend even inspired a 2012 low-budget horror film called Pigman and local metal bands with songs like “Squeals in the Night.”

Today, the Pigman remains active in Vermont culture. Northfield’s annual Fall Festival includes tongue-in-cheek “Pigman Sighting” contests. The Devil’s Washbowl is still a popular (if nervous) swimming spot in summer, and hikers on the Cross Vermont Trail report occasional strange grunts or the smell of decay. Recent sightings are rarer but persistent: a 2022 report from a trail cam near Dog River showed a tall, pale figure; a 2024 account from a hunter described hearing pig-like squeals followed by heavy bipedal footsteps circling his stand.Skeptics point to rational causes. Black bears are common and can stand upright, making guttural sounds. Feral pigs escaped from farms in the 1970s–80s roamed the area for years. Hoaxes by bored teens are rampant. The original “Piggyman” farmer was likely just a reclusive eccentric, and the 1971 incident possibly a runaway teen or mental health crisis exaggerated over time. The smell? Rotting carcasses from hunting season or natural decomposition.Yet the legend endures because it taps into something primal.

Vermont is rural, isolated, and dark in winter. The idea of something not quite human living just beyond the treeline resonates in a state where the woods still feel vast and untamed. Like the Jersey Devil in the Pine Barrens or the Glawackus in Connecticut, the Pigman is Vermont’s own homegrown monster—a reminder that even in the Green Mountain State, where maple syrup and Bernie Sanders dominate the image, the night can still belong to something older and wilder. So if you’re ever driving Route 12A near Northfield after sunset, keep your eyes on the road. Roll the windows up. And if you smell something like a slaughterhouse on a hot day… well, you might want to drive a little faster.

Mike D. is the host of Northeast Legends and Stories and has spent far too many nights researching things that go squeal in the Vermont dark.