Years ago, he terrorized teenagers and vandalized cars. Now he hangs out in the swamp, playing scales on the washtar and stomping to the beat. Or so the story goes.
I’m talking about the Lizard Man of Scape Ore Swamp. Depending on who you talk to, he’s either the pride and joy of or an extreme embarrassment for Bishopville, South Carolina, a town of about 3,000 people about 30 miles west of Florence.
He’s like Bigfoot without the fur. A few people believe. Most don’t. But no one can resist a good marketing opportunity. 
Lizard Man is our region’s star cryptid, and that’s how I recently found myself dressed in a Sleestak costume, doing a line dance down Main Street on a day that was hot enough to fry frog legs.
He Has Something Against Cars
The legend of the Lizard Man does not seem to indicate that he poses any risk to the safety of humans, despite his frightening appearance. He apparently attacks only cars. And possibly cows.
It was scratch marks on a car that first drew the police to investigate in the summer of 1988. The marks were reported by the mother of 17-year-old Chris Davis, who told his parents about his encounter with the creature but who did not want to report the incident to the police for fear of being ridiculed. When he finally made a statement, he explained that he’d gotten a flat tire on his way home from closing up a fast-food restaurant the night before. He was stopped along the edge of the Scape Ore Swamp. As he finished putting on the spare tire, he saw something emerge from the swamp and start to walk toward him.
He said it was about seven feet tall with glowing red eyes. Not waiting around to see what would happen next, Davis jumped back in his car, and roared off. But the creature ran after him and jumped on top of his car. Davis swerved from side to side to shake the creature lose. The move succeeded, but the creature ripped off his side mirror and left dents on the roof and deep scratches along the side of the car.
Police conducted an investigation, and Davis passed a lie detector test regarding his testimony. Weeks later, reports started coming from people living around Scape Ore Swamp who noticed damage to their vehicles. Something tore off and apparently chewed the bumper of at least one car. A local farmer reported that Lizard Man attacked and killed his livestock. Another resident reported he was about to take off in a small plane when the sighting of a nine-foot tall creature in his path made him change his plans.
Someone even came forward with scales and blood claiming he’d shot the Lizard Man. When the scales and blood were found to have come from a fish, he admitted his story was a fraud he’d concocted just to keep the Lizard Man legend going. And that’s because the story had created a media circus that brought in tourists from all over. For a while, Lizard Man was a star and Bishopville was the center of a tourist constellation.
But by the end of the summer, the reports of sightings tapered off, and authorities concluded that if anyone had indeed seen anything to begin with, it was probably a bear. Chris Davis got tired of being asked about the story, and he moved away.
Twenty years later, the legend resurrected briefly when a Bishopville couple reported strange claw or bite marks and blood on their car. A year after that, Chris Davis was murdered, and news report headlines of his death described him as the “Lizard Man witness.” He was the only victim who never could seem to escape the effects of the monster he may have created to avoid being blamed for wrecking his car in Scape Ore Swamp on a late summer night.
Scape Ore Swamp
The Scape Ore Swamp basin is a low-lying region that covers about 95 square miles that drains into the Pee Dee River. Legends about how the swamp got its name predate the Lizard Man by over 200 years.
During the Revolutionary War, British soldiers were stationed at a cabin in the area to watch for American General Francis Marion, the notorious “Swamp Fox.” In the evenings, however, the soldiers were more interested in partying with loose women. One night while they were drinking and dancing, a group of American soldiers snuck up on the cabin and attacked. (The leader of the group later claimed he heard the soldiers expressing a wish to cut off his head to present to the king, so he stuck his sword through the window and cut off the British soldier’s head instead.)
During the attack, several British soldiers were killed. The women they were entertaining disappeared into the swamp. And so the swamp became referred to as “Escaped Whore Swamp” in honor of the women who got away.
Lizard Man Stomp
In 2019, locals formed a “Friends of the Lizard Man” committee to ensure the local reptilian legend would not be forgotten. They found that there was more interest than they realized, and they started making plans for an outdoor festival. Although initial preparations had to be put on hold due to COVID, they succeeded in holding the first Lizard Man Stomp in the summer of 2022. They called it a stomp because of muddy footprints reportedly found in the swamp during the original media frenzy.
But even before the organized events, fans were undertaking efforts to sustain the legend. Local Artist Robert Howell has been living the legend since 1988 when he and his friends combed through Scape Ore Swamp in search of the Lizard Man. He’s created numerous designs and shares information about the legend ever since and hosts discussions on his Lizardman Lounge.
Musician Roy Atkinson wrote a song called the Lizard Man Stomp which features the washtar, an instrument he invented to enable special needs individuals to enjoy playing simple music even if they only have limited use of one hand. The song describes the Lizard Man as the leader of a country band who plays the washtar as he stomps through the Scape Ore Swamp. During the festival, fans of Lizard Man honor him with a line-dance.
And that’s how I ended up hamming it up in a Halloween costume on Main Street. (Click here to see a link to the dance as posted on the Stormy Willow Podcast by Sarah Collins Sellars) The night before the festival, my daughter Meg and I camped at nearby Lee State Park and walked around in the dark looking for red glowing eyes. Unfortunately, while we found plenty of blood-sucking monsters in the park, they were all of the uninteresting mosquito family and they did not inspire me to dance or buy t-shirts.
Next Stop, Loch Ness!
Cryptids—animals sighted in fantastical accounts rather than scientific journals—have been a part of human culture for probably as long as we’ve been able to relate stories. They reveal our ability to look beyond the ordinary and see things that exceed our expectations. They help us keep our minds open to new possibilities.
And they provide an excuse for a festival with a theme far more original than the local blueberry or pumpkin harvest. So even if the summer weather in the Scape Ore Swamp is less than pleasant, I’ll be happy return next year to join in the celebration of an almost certainly nonexistent giant reptile.
Although I have to admit, looking for a plesiosaur on the foggy banks of Loch Ness sounds a little more appealing this time of year…
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I don’t think Bigfoot, Nessie, or other cryptids are mentioned in any of my books. However, Meg invented some truly amazing creatures to serve the witch in Toto’s Tale, which tells the story of the Wizard of Oz from Toto’s point of view. She was probably about seven or eight-years-old when she developed the characters she called the “lickloes.” Most of the time, she was more interested in drawing them than writing about them, but unfortunately, the publisher chose to use the work of another artist to illustrate the book. If I can find any of her original drawings, I’ll add them in here!