The Ultimate Guide to the Squonk of Pennsylvania

• The squonk is a mythical creature that lives in the hemlock forests of northern Pennsylvania in the United States.
• Squonks are unusual-looking beasts with saggy skin, warts, moles, and webbed feet. They constantly cry because they look so hideous.
• People all over the U.S. have turned the squonk into a cultural icon—not only are there books and songs about them, but they have a festival called Squonkapalooza.

Squonk Origins

The squonk started as lumberjack folklore in the early 1900s. Squonks first appear in William Thomas Cox’s 1910 book, Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods. Squonks are thought to have appeared in the hemlock forests of Pennsylvania during this time because it was the height of the state’s timber and hunting industry. In 1939, Henry D. Tryon published the book Fearsome Critters which hypothesized that squonks once lived in the high plains, but migrated to the swampy countryside. The squonk’s scientific name, Lacrimacorpus dissolvens, comes from the Latin words for tear, body, and dissolve.

Squonk Appearance and Behavior

The squonk has saggy skin with warts, moles, and webbed feet. Cox says that the squonk is a very unhappy creature with a low mental ability that always weeps over his ugly appearance. Tryon later described the squonk as having webbing between the toes on its left foot, causing it to swim in circles forever. Tryon also says that fossil bones dredged from those lake bottoms reveal that thousands of squonks died of starvation because they couldn’t get back to shore. In the 2015 retelling of Tryon’s book by Hal Johnson, the squonk is a kind of pig with warts, cauliflower ears covered in wax and hair, and yellow crooked tusks.

The squonk only travels at twilight and dusk. On clear moonlit nights, the squonk moves slowly or lies still in its den to avoid catching a glimpse of its ugly appearance in illuminated bodies of water. It’s said that you can sometimes hear one weeping softly to itself through the night. Some people believe that the squonk reproduces through binary fission, meaning its body splits into two new bodies.

Catching a Squonk

Squonks tend to dissolve into a pool of water when they’re caught. Not many people have been able to catch the mythical squonk—one hunter named J. P. Wentling was reported to have mimicked the weeping of the squonk and captured it in a bag. When he carried it home, the bag grew light, and when he looked inside, all that was left was a pool of tears and bubbles. Other hunters who have tried to catch them have found out that these creatures dissolve completely into a pool of tears when they’re cornered.

Follow the squonk’s trail of tears on clear nights in the Hemlock forest. If you’re an aspiring cryptid hunter, legend says that you can follow a squonk’s tear-stained trail to its hemlock home. Since squonks dissolve when surprised or frightened, you may want to only attempt to capture the creature on film. You can also listen for its low-toned weeping under the boughs of the dark hemlock trees. Some sources also say that hunters might be even more successful on cold nights when tears are shed slowly and squonks don’t like moving around.

Squonks in Pop Culture and Media

Johnstown, Pennsylvania celebrates Squonkapalooza in August. Squonkapalooza is an all-ages festival that celebrates its home state cryptid, the squonk, along with other creatures of Appalachian folklore and cryptozoology. The festival’s mission is to turn frowns upside down—who knows? Spreading a love of the squonk might cheer them up. There’s also a performing artist group from Pennsylvania called Squonk Opera.

Squonks have appeared in songs by rock bands like Genesis. Artists and musicians from Pennsylvania have embraced the legend of the squonk. “Any Major Dude Will Tell You” by Steely Dan contains the line, “Have you seen a squonk’s tears? Well look at mine,” and Genesis has an entire song called “Squonk.” Genesis’ song seems to follow J. P. Wentling as he tries to catch the squonk. The squonk also appears in video games like Final Fantasy XIV and in a cryptozoology-themed collectible card game called Metazoo.

The squonk also appears in Paul Bunyan and His Great Blue Ox. In this 1964 book by Wallace Wadsworth, one of the loggers hears wailing in the woods, mimics its cry, and catches a squonk in his bag. However, when he opened the bag, there was nothing inside except salt water and bubbles. In this account, the squonk is described as having red eyes, a long comical nose, and ill-fitting warty skin.