In Louisville, Kentucky there is an urban legend that a Goatman lives on top of and near the Pope Lick trestle.  Known as the Pope Lick Monster, this creature has been entrenched in the local folklore for decades, spawning multiple origins for the legend and what powers it possesses. But behind the veneer and flashy tales, there is a darkness to the legend that affects people’s real lives. In order to find out more about this legend, two experts on the myth were interviewed, J. Nathan Couch and David Dominé, who helped with an investigation into the topic.

The Pope Lick Monster, most people agree, is a rather creepy tale. The fact that the trestle itself looks like something unnatural, “something from a bygone era,” as it was put by Couch, only causes the legend to have an extra air of mystery. The origins of the Pope Lick Monster are highly debated and vary on several different occasions. The most common origin for this legend is that a circus train crashed, and during the commotion and confusion that was caused by it, a half-man, half-goat creature escaped into the woods surrounding the Pope Lick trestle. Another is that a farmer bred with a goat, making the hybrid, though this was mostly the result of “the dirty humor of high schoolers.” Either way, it became known as the Pope Lick Monster. Despite what you may think, it had nothing to do with licking the Pope. It was described sort of like a satyr from Greek mythology, with the ability to mimic voices and sounds. Some people even claimed that the Monster would jump off the trestle and attack cars from above. Though this is a version, it is a highly unlikely version. “He is a siren kind of figure… very few stories I have heard have him killing people himself,” said Dominé.

Back in the 1960’s, there was a boom in the popularity of the legend. In the local community of Louisville, “it was seen as a test of courage or machismo,” to walk across the jaw-dropping 772 foot span and 90 foot drop to the creek below. This was a test of bravery which made them tough to their friends and was apparently a rather common occurrence for the high schoolers of that time. The legend was then made infinitely more popular when a 1988 short film called Legend of the Pope Lick Monster by filmmaker Ron Schildknecht was shown in local theaters in Louisville. A warning to not visit the trestle was played before the movie, sponsored by the Norfolk Southern Railway company that owned the trestle. This did not stop an influx of teenagers and legend trippers (people who travel to the sites of legends) traveling to the site. The film is not at fault in this scenario, unlike a lot of people believe. Folks had been visiting the trestle for years, this just gave it exposure on a bigger scale. 

In the whole timeline of the Pope Lick Monster, tons of people have died looking for the creature on top of the trestle. The trestle has no areas to step off onto or duck below into. It is a straight flat plane with nowhere to go when a train is bearing down on you. Nowhere, except down. People who die on the bridge usually are hit by an oncoming train or because they jump off the side. The thing is the 90-foot drop is not survivable and most people die directly on impact.  The sound of the oncoming train does not usually make it to the victims ears until it is too late, as the topography creates a muting for the trains sounds. Some people believe that it is possible to hold on to the side of the trestle to save yourself until it passes, as seen in the 1988 film. The only problem is that the train’s vibrations are so strong and violent that anybody would be shaken off by them before the train can safely pass. Only one person has been known to survive by this, David Knee, who survived his encounter with the train in 2016 but his girlfriend, Roquel Bain, did not and fell 90 feet to her death.

With a “Goatman” festival every year, the Louisville community celebrates their cryptid but still faces the issues of people sneaking into the area for that thrill factor. Some people believe that the railroad should upgrade the security of the chainlink fence they currently have in place to keep people out or that they should add platforms to the side of the trestle. Either way, as the years go on, the legend only grows and grows in popularity.