Delaware swamp has folks talking about its weird folklore with monsters, slaves, and more

Strange folklore haunts Great Cypress Swamp near Selbyville, tales allegedly connected to a plane crash, runaway slaves, and a woman who survived a grisly murder.

One of the strangest stories inspired by the Sussex County marsh is the legend of the Selbyville Swamp Monster, a hideous ape-like creature that was said to scare folks traveling nearby. The first time a photo of the monster was made public was on April 23, 1964, when the then-Delmarva News (DelmarvaNow.com) published it in the newspaper.

This year marks the 60th anniversary of that photo causing a commotion in lower Delaware.

Memories of the Swamp Monster

Scott Collins — who retired as Selbyville Police chief in 2022 (after 20 years as chief, and 10 as an officer) — is a Selbyville native who was 9 when the Swamp Monster hysteria swept through the town. 

"My dad ... he'd drive through the swamp real slow and then turn the headlights out. He'd go, 'Oh my, God! My lights!' It would scare the crud out of you," Collins, 51, told Delaware Online/The News Journal in a recent interview.

The swamp: Restoration at Great Cypress Swamp after centuries of timbering, fires and draining

Collins noticed the legend of the monster continued to grow over the years. Parents loved to use it to keep their kids in check, like his parents did.

"My parents would always threaten to throw us to the Swamp Monster if we were bad," he said in a 2005 article published by Delmarva Now.

He continued, "In the winter, when I was little we used to go ice skating out in the swamp but you never stayed past dark because of the Swamp Monster. Then when we got older that was the biggest thing — trying to stay out in the swamp all night on Halloween. I don't think we ever made it."

Jersey Devil is a cousin of Swamp Monster

The Swamp Monster could be considered the lesser-known cousin of New Jersey's Jersey Devil — a mythical creature, said to be a mix of human and devil, that inspired the name of the NHL team the New Jersey Devils. The creature has reportedly been seen traveling across the Delaware River to Maryland, Pennsylvania and Delaware.

Folklorist Andy Nunez of Salisbury has long been drawn to tales of the weird and paranormal creatures that spooked the Eastern Shore. He wrote about the Swamp Monster in his book "Mysteries of the Eastern Shore," published by Cambridge Books in the late 2000s.

So, how does Delaware's version of Bigfoot compare to other urban legends in the Eastern Shore?

"It holds up as good as any other folklore stories that I've encountered," Nunez, 67, said.

What is the Selbyville Swamp Monster?

The enduring legend's backstory involves Fred Stevens, a Selbyville native who played the role of the Selbyville Swamp Monster. He posed for photographs staged by Delmarva News editor Ralph Grapperhaus in 1964, according to a 2005 article by Delmarva News.

"The newspaper man [Grapperhaus] started it to sell papers after he saw me in the Halloween parade in my swamp suit I'd made out of my aunt Dorothy Pepper's raccoon fur coat," Stevens told Delmarva News. "He'd take me out into the Swamp and we'd take pictures and before you know it people were out there every night searching."

Stevens said he stopped wearing his monster costume after people came out there with guns, looking for the creature.

According to Delmarva News, Stevens promised Grapperhaus he wouldn't say anything about their plan for 25 years. It’s a promise he held onto until stories about the history of the swamp revealed the truth around that time.  

Collins said he finally learned about the Swamp Monster’s identity when he was 20.

"My dad was a collector of local history. He actually said, 'Hey, knucklehead. You know this Swamp Monster thing isn't real? I know who it really is.' And I'm like, 'Nooo!'" Collins recalled.

Stevens passed away in 2021. He was 83.

Washington Post wrote about Selbyville Swamp Monster

In a 1989 Washington Post feature story, Mark Chorvinsky, then editor of Strange Magazine, mentioned the Swamp Monster. Chorvinsky told the Post that even though was editor for a sci-fi magazine, he was skeptical whenever he heard claims of UFO or monster sightings.

"The Selbyville Swamp Monster is a good example of that — I didn't mind saying it was a man dressed up in a monster suit," Chorvinsky told the Washington Post.

Cypress Swamp history, lore includes everything from crash to monsters to slaves

The Swamp Monster was believable to many people in the area because Cypress Swamp, nicknamed "Burnt Swamp," already had its own complicated history and lore, decades before Stevens cosplayed as the monster, Collins and Nunez said.

Nunez said that in the 1930s during prohibition, bootleggers had a still in the swamp, and the still caused a fire that burned a large portion of the area.

Native Americans also shared tales of swamp creatures they believed lurked around the area.

Not all of the area's history involved mythical creatures, however. There were also stories of enslaved people hiding in the swamp while attempting to gain their freedom, the folklorist said.

Adding to the Swamp's lore, a Beechcraft 23 plane crashed there on July 19, 1969, five years after Stevens was first photographed in his monster costume, according to a Facebook post by Delaware Wild Lands, a nonprofit specializing in land conservation in Delaware.

Did a mass murder lead woman to Cypress Swamp?

Nunez hasn't forgotten one particularly strange story. An old friend, who passed a few years ago, told him he used to hunt in the swamp, sometime around the 1940s, and would always see a woman camping there. The folklorist said his friend eventually earned the woman’s trust: One day she told him she was a survivor of the 1930s Orphan Jones case, a grisly incident named after a Black man who was lynched after being convicted of murdering a white man and his family in Worcester County.

But there supposedly weren't any survivors from that case.

"She was a child at the time of the murders. She hid under the bed and [Orphan Jones] never found her. She was so traumatized, she ran into the swamp and never came out," Nunez said the story goes.

Nunez said his friend returned to the swamp after learning her backstory, but said she had vanished. Nunez said he hasn’t been able to verify his friend's tale.

UD journalism professor talks monster hoax

Lydia Timmins, journalism professor at the University of Delaware, said the Swamp Monster isn't the first time a story was fabricated to sell newspapers.

She has taught her students about the Great Moon Hoax of the 1830s, where the New York Sun newspaper made up a story about there being non-human life on the moon.

"People making up stories to get clicks, to sell articles, is not new," said Timmins, a former producer for NBC10 Philadelphia. "But I think in our society, now it's so much easier. You [previously] had to go to the store and buy the newspaper and read it. And now you just click on something."

Former Selbyville Police chief has monster conspiracy theory

Looking back on the Swamp Monster drama, Collins said the beloved "Mr. Stevens" didn't create the character to upset anyone. "It was always done in fun. I mean, the Swamp Monster was never hurtful."

Collins likes celebrating the Swamp Monster, especially since Selbyville has many new residents who don't know about this folklore.

Before having a laugh, he shared a light conspiracy theory about Cypress Swamp.

"Who's to say the Swamp Monster isn't still in there ... that Mr. Stevens came out as the Swamp Monster to keep people from going in there?"

If you have an interesting story idea, email lifestyle reporter Andre Lamar at alamar@gannett.com. Consider signing up for his weekly newsletter, DO Delaware, at delawareonline.com/newsletters. 

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Selbyville Swamp Monster — old folklore that's new to many in Delaware