If you’re from Prince George’s County, then you may have already heard about the legend of the Goatman, which actually has its roots on the Route 1 corridor.

The year was 1970. A researcher at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center was doing experiments on goats when something went awry, turning him into a hideous creature with the upper body of a goat.

That, at least, is one of the theories of the origin of the Goatman of Prince George’s County, a legendary monster that has attracted international attention over the years.

The Goatman’s territory ranges from Beltsville to Bowie, Mitchellville and Upper Marlboro, with the stories circulating from the 1950s to the 1970s, the heyday of suburban teen-age folklore.

One key moment came in October 27, 1971, when the Bowie-based Prince George’s County News published an article about the University of Maryland Folklore Archives which mentioned the Goatman and other local legends.

Two weeks later, the same reporter published a follow-up: “Residents Fear Goatman Lives: Dog Found Decapitated in Old Bowie,” about a family that believed the Goatman was responsible for the death of their puppy, Ginger.

The Washington Post followed up on Nov. 30, giving the local legend a national audience. By the following year, he was mentioned in “American Graffiti,” when a character says, “Maybe it’s the goat killer and he’ll get somebody and we’ll see the whole thing.”

The Goatman has competing origin stories. A variation on the scientific mishap story holds that a doctor named Stephen Fletcher confessed to creating it with the DNA of a goat and his assistant, William Lottsford — two names clearly cribbed from the locations of Goatman sightings on Fletchertown and Lottsford roads.

The research center shot down this version in 2013, noting it had been years since they even had goats at the facility. “Don’t you think he would have retired by now?” said a spokeswoman. “Is his great-grandson a goatman? Is he collecting Social Security?”

Other versions hold that he is a Bigfoot-like creature, an evil spirit from Native American beliefs named Okee, an angry goat herder out for revenge on the teen-agers who killed his beloved goats, or a hoax made up by local teens.

Members of two prominent local families told Prince George’s County historian Mark Opsasnick that the stories began as a way to keep their kids from wandering too far from home at a time when the area was largely rural.

“The Goatman would get them if they didn’t do as they were told,” he wrote.

Regardless of its origin, the Goatman has become an international phenomenon, inspiring a cheesy slasher flick, a British documentary, an episode of “The X Files” and a popular Route 1 haunted house in the early 2000s called GoatMan Hollow.

DCist included the Goatman in this piece, “Ghosts, Ghouls, And Goatman: 9 Local Haunts That Will Scare You.”

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