Lake Worth Monster. Greer Island Goatman

For years, a legend has circulated around Lake Worth, Texas, about a mysterious creature known as the Lake Worth Monster or the Goatman. First sighted in 1969, the creature gained notoriety thanks to terrifying eyewitness accounts describing it as a human-goat hybrid. While some dismiss these stories as folklore, cryptozoology enthusiasts continue to investigate reports of the monster. Every October, the Lake Worth Monster Hazing Festival attracts enthusiasts of local legends.

The only known photograph of the Greer Island creature.

Something monstrous lurks among the singing cicadas and rustling reeds on the banks of the western Trinity River basin.

First sighted in July 1969, the creature is known for throwing tires and scaring teenagers.

Whether real or imagined, the creature, according to witnesses, resembled "part man, part goat" with horns and long claws. By the summer of 1969, the press was writing about it, and Tarrant County was gripped by a frenzy of searching for the monster.

It was called the "Lake Worth Monster."

Stories of this monster, also known as the "Goatman," can still be heard around campfires in North Texas today. Researchers have made documentaries and written books. Lakewood Brewing even paid tribute to the creature with a limited-edition Goatman beer.

“The stories and folklore still exist,” says Michelle Villafranca, a nature resource specialist at the Fort Worth Refuge and Nature Center.

To celebrate the anniversary of [the first monster report], Villafranca organizes the Lake Worth Monster Hazing Festival every October. Besides her work managing the park grounds, she has also become a collector of all things monster-related.

An empty bottle of Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Ale sits on her office windowsill. In her library, alongside guides to local mammals, sits a book about the Lake Worth Monster.

"We have forms designed for reporting alligator sightings; we don't have forms for the Goatman. Maybe we should start collecting those reports," says Villafranca. "After all, it's part of the fauna of north-central Texas."