Woman Reports 2002 Sighting of "Gargoyle" with Feathered Wings in Babcock, Wisconsin

*(Emily Wayland / Singular Fortean Society)*

Tobias Wayland, the Singular Fortean Society’s lead investigator, spoke to a woman recently who said that in her early teen years she’d seen a “gargoyle” with feathered wings perched on the roof of her family’s home.

The witness said that her sighting took place in 2002 in Babcock, Wisconsin—an unincorporated town of around 125 people which lies about 120 miles west of Lake Michigan.

This sighting report was initially given to Lon Strickler of Phantoms & Monsters before being further investigated by the Singular Fortean Society, and details of Strickler’s investigation have been used to fully develop the account. It should be noted that the witness’s account as told to Wayland was consistent with what was told to Strickler.

"It was summer; I don’t remember which month," the witness told Wayland. "I’m a night owl, so I was up fairly late; it couldn’t have been too late, maybe around midnight or so. I was watching TV in my room—my room is on the second floor of the house—and right outside my bedroom window I had access to the roof of the living room. I was watching TV one night and I decided I was going to lie down instead of just sit on my bed, and as I was adjusting to lie down, I noticed something really weird on the corner of the roof. My bed was positioned right up against the wall where the window was, so the end of my bed was right up against the window. I had a pretty good view of at least half the roof to the living room."

Due to some previous issues, we had a security light installed in our backyard, so that lit up the whole backyard and the roof that I could see. I noticed this weird thing, and I’m kind of looking, and it honestly made me think of a gargoyle, except for the wings just didn’t look right. The wings had feathers—and they were really, really perfect feathers—they were a light grey color, they were a little lighter grey than the skin of the thing.
I couldn’t see its face at all, I basically just had a side view of it because it was facing out towards my backyard and the top of the wings kind of blocked off the face. I couldn’t tell if there was an ear or eyes or anything. I could tell it had a bald head and it had, at least from what I could tell from the back, it looked like a pretty normal, human-type neck. I could also see from the side view that it had human-shaped legs, because it was kind of perched on my roof with its knees bent and its feet on the roof. I couldn’t see its arms or anything.
I’m guessing the arms and the hands were just positioned between the legs, and the hands were on top of the roof. The feet looked fairly human-like, too. It was just really weird looking. I’ve never seen anything like there. There were no scales on the skin, it just looked like regular skin, just grey. The only part that had feathers were the wings, and they kind of had an angel wing shape to them. I would guess, I’m like 5’2”, even at that time I was like 5’2”, and had it been standing up it probably would have been at least a couple of feet taller than me.
I watched it for probably close to a half hour, and I kind of got bored because it wasn’t doing anything. It didn’t move, it didn’t make noise. I mean, just nothing. Then I went back to my movie, and fell asleep.
I didn’t feel like it was a threat to me. I just seemed more surprised than anything, because you don’t expect to see something like that.

In her interview with Strickler, the witness added that she had "made an attempt to get its attention, softly speaking to it, but the being never responded."

When she woke up around sunrise the next day—sometime between 5 and 6 am—she checked the roof, but the being had gone.

At that time, she heard a “really weird, high-pitched radio frequency sound."

"I couldn’t pinpoint where it was coming from, it just sounded like it was all around," she said of the sound. "I thought about asking people about it, but then I backed away from that because you know how people can be. I don’t know if anyone else heard it. I know my parents didn’t, neither did my siblings. It was just me that heard it, because they weren’t early risers at that time, either."

The Sandhill State Wildlife Area is within a few miles of the sighting area, and the witness said she remembers hearing strange reports over her dad’s scanner from Department of Natural Resources (DNR) personnel who would mention “hybrids of certain animals.”

"This is probably going to sound even crazier," she said. "I don’t remember when this happened, but my dad, he used to have a scanner for when the weather would get bad. He had the channel for the DNR, and occasionally some of the guys talking on the scanner late at night would mention hybrids of certain animals, but they wouldn’t say what. I don’t know if any of that is related [to my sighting]. It’s just really weird. As far as I know, I don’t know if anyone has ever seen anything like I did."

Like many witnesses, she said that she's largely kept her story to herself.

"I’ve only told a handful of people that I’m really close with, because I know they won’t think I’m nuts," she explained. "Pretty much my entire life I’ve dealt with paranormal experiences, but that one definitely takes the cake of strange things."

As for the creature itself, she's not sure what she witnessed, although she has done some research.

"The only thing that really confused me about it, and I’ve researched quite a few reports of Mothman sightings, was that people tend to report that you feel a lot of dread with the sighting," she said. "That’s what threw me off. I wasn’t sure if I was seeing Mothman, because people say it’s associated with dread and then something bad happens. But nothing bad happened after that sighting."

Wayland explained that although fear is a common element, it's not reported by every witness, and perhaps in this case that could be because she didn't seem to have the creature's attention, nor did she see the glowing eyes that disturb so many who view them. Also, the idea that 'Mothman' or other flying creature sightings portend disasters is often refuted by researchers who believe that the infamous collapse of the Silver Bridge in 1967 acted only as a convenient narrative ending to the sightings reported in that area and was not, in fact, related to the Mothman phenomenon.

"I always wondered about that," the witness responded. "That would be a little too crazy."

Ultimately, said the witness, "I always figured it was one of those creatures that hadn’t been discovered, just kind of doing its thing and not realizing the effect it’s having on people."

This report constitutes the latest news in a string of ‘Mothman’ sightings from within a few hundred mile radius surrounding Lake Michigan, including every state bordering the great lake. These sightings ostensibly began in the spring of 2017, but more historical accounts are being reported as more people become aware of the phenomenon. They generally take place in the evening or at night, often in or near a park, and around water. Witnesses consistently describe a large, gray or black, bat or bird-like creature—although in a small number of cases the creature was described as insect-like—sometimes with glowing or reflective red, yellow, green, or orange eyes, and humanoid features such as arms and legs are often reported. Some witnesses have reported feeling intense fear and an aura of evil emanating from the creature they encountered. Many of the sightings are also of something seen only briefly or are described only as a flying creature with few details, which leaves open the possibility that a large bird or bird-like being could explain some—although certainly not all—of the encounters. A number of associated high strangeness incidents have also occurred alongside the creature sightings; including reports of UFOs, other anomalous flying creatures and mysterious humanoids, psychic and haunting phenomena, and bizarre events experienced by those investigating the sightings.

To report a sighting reach out to us directly at the Singular Fortean Society through our contact page.

You can view a timeline of the sightings so far here, and an interactive map here.

To report your own encounter with the impossible, reach out to us directly at the Singular Fortean Society through our contact page.

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