General Information

The area was settled by German immigrants beginning in the 1730's. Early accounts describe the community being terrorized by a monster called a Schneller Geist, meaning "quick spirit" in German. The earliest incarnations mixed the half-bird features of a siren with the nightmarish features of demons and ghouls. The Snallygaster was described as half-reptile, half-bird with a metallic beak lined with razor-sharp teeth, occasionally with octopus-like tentacles. It swoops silently from the sky to pick up and carry off its victims. The earliest stories claim that this monster sucked the blood of its victims. Seven-pointed stars, which reputedly kept the Snallygaster at bay, can still be seen painted on local barns. It has been suggested the legend was resurrected in the 19th century to frighten freed slaves. Newspaper accounts throughout February and March 1909 describe encounters between local residents and a beast with "enormous wings, a long pointed bill, claws like steel hooks, and an eye in the center of its forehead." It was described as making screeches "like a locomotive whistle."

The prank

What do you mean I gotta tell this one!! Fine…. Elizabeth here. This one was odd. Loki appeared to me one day with a bag of mushrooms saying, “You need to use these for a prank.” So, I did. I tracked down the snallyghaster, and used the mushrooms given to me to make a meat pie to feed it. I don’t know what happened, but the creature started acting out of character. But I did the prank, I got the nautical star into it’s cave.