The Goat-Man Monster of Pope Lick Bridge

By M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
Call it urban myth or a malevolent elemental spirit, the Goatman demon that is said to haunt the railroad trestle over the Pope Lick Creek is said to have lured many victims throughout the years; and that is the one real fact about this story, which is the amount of people that have met their death at this spot. 

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The legend of the Pope Lick Monster or Goat Man has lured many to their deaths on the train trestle he is supposed to haunt.

The area was named for a salt lick located on land settled by the Pope family. These "licks" provided salt for the settlers and also attracted game that were used as a food source.​

The trestle is where the Norfolk Southern freight railroad crosses over Pope Lick Creek and South Pope Lick Road, just east of Louisville, Kentucky in an area called Fisherville. 

​The creature is said to use hypnosis or mimicry to lure the unwary to a dangerous situation where they face either being run over by a locomotive, or jumping which is a hundred-foot-fall to the rocky ground beneath.

In some versions the Pope Lick Monster carries a bloody axe to claim any that survive the ordeal, and he hangs out on the trestles where he jumps down onto the roofs of cars passing beneath it.

The origins of the goat-demon is as varied as it's way to bring you to your doom. In one version he was a circus freak, part of a traveling 19th-century show, who threatened revenge for mistreatment, after he escaped when a train derailed on the trestle after being struck by lightening.

The other story told by the locals is that he was a farmer who got the short end of a deal with the devil. He had sacrificed goats and sheep to satan in exchange for eternal life and power over others, which of course he didn't get. What he did get, was cursed to look like the animals he had killed. In a variant of this story, the creature was conjured by devil worshippers.

The Goat-Man is not the only one who is said to haunt the train tracks. A boy lived in a house close to the creek under the trestles. One day he climbed to the top of the hill to watch the train, however he lost his footing and fell on the tracks when the train was thundering across the bridge and it ran him over. It's said that if you drive under the trestles at twilight you will see his blue shirt blowing in the wind

Another story that is factual occurred in 1906, when Robert Yeager a farmer who lived on Pope Lick Road came home after dark. He found his daughter Mattie Yeager, 17, hanging by a trace-chain from a rafter in the passageway between two rooms. Her face was distorted which proved she had been there for a few hours. Next to her was an overturned chair. Her mother had been committed to Central Kentucky Asylum for the Insane for 12 years.  Mattie is supposed to haunt the area.

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Pope Lick Trestle

A couple went legend tripping at Pope Lick Trestle and one of them died in 2016

These stories are all folklore, but what is not is the number of legend trippers that have scaled an 8-foot fence seeking the goat man and have found death instead. Foolish trespassers have been struck by the locomotives, or fallen off the bridge while climbing the trestles. Legend or no, the Pope Lick Monster may have claimed more lives than most myths.

In April, 1986 David Bryant, 19, jumped from the trestle in order to escape the oncoming train. He died 3 weeks later from his injuries.

In February, 1988 Charles Jack Bahm was killed by the train when he and two friends were walking on the tracks. 

In April, 1994 James Ratterman, 34, was riding his ATV on the tracks when it got stuck.  He was about 25 yards out on the trestle, and he was hit by an eastbound train. However not all stories end in tragedy.

There are others who escape the cursed tracks. In 1994, Diona Donald, 15, with two other girls took a shortcut over the trestle. One of the girls was able to run off the end of the tracks. The other leaped 20 feet onto a sandy gulch. Diona couldn't make it, and she fell between the rails, where she pressed herself against the trestle as the engine and two cars passed over her head. She suffered no serious injuries.

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Creek running under the Pope Lick Trestle

In April, 2016 a young couple spotted the locomotive, bearing down the railroad trestle at over 30 miles an hour. They faced an 8-story drop on either side, with no way to outrun the train, the pair’s only hope was to cling to the sides of the tracks.

​The engineer later told officials, that he blared his horn and tried to slow down. David Knee, 41, who was on the tracks managed to make the split-second dive to the edge, the train was traveling too fast for his companion. The train fatally struck Roquel Bain, 26, who fell about 100 feet to the ground. The couple had purchased tickets for a midnight tour of Waverly Hills Sanatorium, a former tuberculosis clinic turned haunted house. While in Louisville, they caught wind of another occult story, one which they decided to investigate in the twilight hours before their tour: the Pope Lick Monster. 

In May, 2019 two girls were hit by a Norfolk Southern train. Savanna Bright, 15, was pronounced dead at the scene and Kaylee Keeling was hospitalized with serious injuries.

Unsurprisingly those who have lived for generations in the area, claim the story of the Goat Monster only came about since the 1980s, and prior to this teenagers from the area would go to the trestle in a coming-of-age dare, but they were well aware of the train schedule and no one was killed.

Present day the trestle bridge is an active train bridge. There is no room at all to stand aside if a train comes across; it is only as wide as the track and has no railings. The uneven surface of the railroad ties makes it difficult to traverse in a hurry. If you survive you might also face trespassing charges. No urban legend is worth your life.

West Virginia has it's own version of the Goat man known as The White Thing, which is described as a mix of humanoid with ram's horns and a sheep's face, which has been seen for decades.

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