Alternate Perceptions Magazine, April 2025
The Basin Screecher
By Nomar Slevik
The town of Phippsburg, Maine, located at the western mouth of the Kennebec River, is known and celebrated for its pristine natural beauty and is home to a wildlife refuge, Popham Beach, historic forts, and much more. In 1971, Phippsburg gained unexpected attention with the discovery of three runestones in Spirit Pond. If authenticated, the stones could provide compelling evidence of pre-Columbian European exploration of North America. The stones were found by Walter J. Elliot, Jr., a carpenter from nearby Bath, they are now preserved at the Maine State Museum in Augusta.
Alas, after the stones were studied by academics, they have been widely regarded as a hoax. Harvard University professor, Einar Haugen, was the first to study the stones scientifically. In 1974, after transcribing the inscriptions, he found the individual runes to be inconsistent with 11th-century Old Norse. The text contained only a few recognizable Norse words, while the rest appeared to be gibberish. Haugen concluded the inscriptions were most likely created sometime after 1932. Amateur researchers, however, have been more sympathetic to the discovery. Suzanne Carlson of the New England Antiquities Research Association (NEARA), an organization of enthusiasts who believe in a widespread Viking presence in North America, has suggested a mid-14th-century origin for the inscriptions. Another amateur researcher, Richard Nielsen, even proposed a precise date of 1401.
But Phippsburg’s mysteries are not limited to the ancient carvings. In the basin area of town, there are reports of something far more unsettling. Witnesses have reportedly encountered a bipedal creature with wings… and a chilling scream. Locals have called it, the Basin Screecher.
As its name suggests, more people have heard the Basin Screecher than have seen it with their own eyes. Its blood-curdling scream is said to echo through the wooded area of the Basin, a place long known for late-night parties in the woods and beer-fueled mischief.
Those few who claim to have seen it describe the creature as half man, half bird. One local resident noted, “I’ve grown up here, had an encounter, and have been around hundreds of people that have had encounters. … My brother has seen it near West Bath, but has little to no description other than a strange animal. The scream can grab the attention of anything, all animals will flee, birds, raccoons, anything. We’ve never found too many tracks, but this is just one of the many strange things in Maine. Heed my warning, you head north, you head to danger.” Another witness dismissed skeptics who attribute the sounds to local wildlife, claiming, “I’ve heard foxes before. This wasn’t them.”
But it’s the accounts shared by a man named Mike Dauphin that truly highlight the potential dangers of this creature. Dauphin recounted a chilling story to author Cathy McManus about a former police chief named Bob and his encounter with the screecher. McManus wrote, “Bob was chasing what appeared to be a naked, old man. The creature was oddly hunched, but ran so fast, he was barely able to keep up. The chase led to the village graveyard. He yelled, ‘Stop, or I’ll shoot! Stop NOW or I’ll shoot!’. The creature kept running and Bob emptied his gun clip into it. It merely turned and made its horrible shrieking noise, which made Bob flinch and duck away. When he looked back up, it was gone. Bob never saw it again.” Dauphin also shared another story with McManus, this time about Bob’s grandson. “Many years later, Bob’s grandson, Nick, was driving in the basin with a friend,” she wrote. “Nick and his buddy were smoking and cruising around. Nick then fumbled his cigarette. He looked down to retrieve it, his friend yelled, ‘Dude, look out!’ Nick looked up and saw a naked, old man standing in front of him. The boys freaked out and whipped the car around. They looked back to see if the creature was chasing them, but it was gone.”
Nick’s mother had also seen the creature. McManus continued, “One night when she was driving home, she saw it at Center Pond. It was crouching on the rock cliffs and she thought it was some old man trying to kill himself. It then let out its terrible cry and jumped off the cliff. It then glided down into the water.” She doesn’t like to talk about the incident, and since that evening, she refuses to drive down that road after dark.
While all of these encounters are chilling in their own right, the following story stands out as one of those rare instances where an unknown creature is said to have attacked and harmed witnesses.
This account involved two teenage girls, Charlotte and Kim. They were visiting the Phippsburg area with their families for the summer and had met some local boys who invited them to a bonfire in the Basin. “They made it to the basin without a problem,” McManus wrote, “however, it was so dark in the woods that one dirt road looked like the other, the girls got lost. Suddenly, Charlotte saw something flash by the front of the car. She swerved and ended up stuck in the soft, muddy shoulder of the road. They had no choice but to continue on foot. Charlotte started to get scared as they walked. She felt like something was watching them from behind the trees and just knew they were being followed.”
Kim was older and felt responsible for Charlotte’s wellbeing. She hoped it were the boys playing a practical joke and yelled for them to come out of hiding. “No one came out of the woods,” she added, “and after a long moment, they heard the screech.” The girls winced and covered their ears. Suddenly, something from the trees passed over their heads. “As it flew over them, it screeched once again,” McManus continued. “The girls screamed and ran back towards their car.” They boys hadn’t been hiding, they were down at the bonfire with their friends and they had all heard the shriek. “Some laughed it off,” she wrote, “others grabbed flashlights and searched the surrounding area.” With the second shriek, followed by the screams of Kim and Charlotte, they realized something was wrong.
Dauphin told McManus, “It wasn’t until morning, when the girls were reported missing, that a proper search began. The police discovered the car… then the girls. Parts of them, anyways. There was not much left. They had been torn to shreds; parts of their flesh were scattered about the trees.” He also made sure to tell McManus that the girls’ heads were never found.
Turns out, Police Chief Bob had been in charge of the case, and there was a rumor of a conspiracy. “…he and other searchers agreed to keep the case quiet,” McManus noted, “as to not start a panic. Bob was never able to solve the case and those close to him say that it haunted him for the rest of his life. After his own encounter with the creature… he was convinced that it had killed Charlotte and Kim.”
McManus did some digging and spoke with the Sagadahoc Sheriff’s Office about the incident. They informed her that their records didn’t go back to the Sheriff Bob days, and could not confirm any of the information. She also contacted the town office, where no one had heard of the murders. Even after further research at the Patten Free Library, she was unable to find any information regarding the two missing teenage girls. Perhaps Police Chief Bob really did manage to keep the story quiet.
With further research, I found that these encounters were not the first time a “screecher” had been reported in the area. Author Al Michaud dug up a couple of interesting encounters from the late 1800s, including one detailed in an 1860 issue of Harper’s Magazine, written by Charles Hallock. In it, a Maine lumberjack recounted a strange experience deep in the woods. They shared, “It was nigh onto nightfall, and Owen was stirring the coals around the teapot, to get it a-simmering; when all at once we heard a whimpering in the timber hard by. One minute it seemed to be talking low, the next chuckling, and the next crying; and such a mixing up of queer noises you never heard.” I realize that’s a bit of a reach from the ear-piercing shriek described in later encounters but the next report might be a little closer.
An article in an old Bath newspaper, The Plain Dealer, described a chilling encounter experienced by a local family. “Recently this unknown beast visited the farm of Roy Jones, a reputable farmer, and by its infernal howling aroused the whole family, which had retired for the night. Mr. Jones got his rifle and went forth to reconnoiter (observe). He soon located the beast in an adjacent cornfield, and fired in the direction of the sound. The noise ceased, but began again a short distance from the first point. Calling his dog, a large shepherd, he sent him in pursuit. Soon after there were sounds of conflict, and hurrying to the scene found his dog in the throes of death, almost torn to shreds. The beast had escaped. It is thought to be a panther. An organized search led by Ross Hallett, will be made as soon as snow is sufficient for tracking purposes comes. The residents are in a terrified condition and dare not venture out after nightfall.” Creepy. Cougars were native to Maine during that timeframe, so perhaps they were behind the unusual howling. But it’s a bit harder to explain the more recent encounters, especially since the beast in question was sighted and described as a humanoid with wings.
As far away from Bath as one can be while still in Maine, another flying entity was sighted in the 1890s, this time by ten-year-old Aaron Jackson. It had been a somber evening in the small northern Maine town of Allagash; his aunt had passed, and he had just finished visiting with family. While his mother stayed behind, Aaron walked home alone. On his way, he saw something strange fly overhead. “I thought it was a bird,” he said. “I looked up and it was a person, I’d say three or four feet long, naked and flying. It went right over my head. I seen it plain with my own eyes. It never scared me a bit. That was her death angel.” Convinced it was an entity that came to help his aunt’s soul pass over, Jackson remained steadfast in his belief, sharing the story at ninety-three years old with the Bangor Daily News.
Whether you’re in Phippsburg, northern Maine, or any other forest, if you hear that dreadful screech, it might be best to vacate the area.
Sources:
Bennett, Troy. R. (2019, March 21). Teens Go in Search of Mythical “Basin Screecher” in Phippsburg Woods. Bangor Daily News. https://bangordailynews.com/2019/03/21/news/teens-go-in-search-of-mythical-basin-screecher-in-phippsburg-woods/
McManus, Cathy., & Paradis, Summer. (2014). New England’s Scariest Stories and Urban Legends. Schiffer Publishing.
Michaud, Al. (2020). Fortean Forest: The Weird Wildlife and Phantom Phenomena of the Maine Woods. Antlerian Press
