West Virginia is a landlocked state found in the Southern United States in the Appalachian Region and it is bordered with the US states of Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania. The state capital and largest city is Charleston.
The states location in the Appalachian Region (the only state to be entirely located within it) makes it that the state is almost entirely mountainous and a terrain that is often very rugged, there are also many forests amongst the terrain as well. The elevations and ruggedness drop when close to rivers.
Due to the state’s location tourism is very popular in the state due to the large presence of recreational activities that includes skiing, fishing, whitewater rafting, hiking, mountain biking, rock climbing, hunting etc. The state is also known for its coal mining industry and is one of the top coal producers in the US only behind Wyoming, the state is also a global hub for chemicals manufacturing and a national hub for biotech industries and has a leading energy industry. Other contributing sectors include forestry, aerospace, automotive, healthcare, education, metals/steels, media, telecommunications etc.
And that’s West Virginia. Now let’s get into the strange and unexplained of the state.
Naturally the first one that has to be mentioned when we reach this state is none other than the Mothman. This legendary cryptid is well-known often even among those who do not have a special interest in cryptids, the paranormal or the unexplained in general.
The Mothman is said to look like a giant humanoid moth, so a bipedal figure with giant moth-like wings and is also said to have large red-glowing eyes and is also able to make a terrible screech. It isn’t exactly known what it could be if anything, some have suggested it was a human or animal that was altered by polluted chemicals in one of the areas it is said to inhabit (the TNT area), while others say it is some kind of dark entity, or an alien or being of the divine come to warn of bad events.
The TNT area is a WW2-era munitions factory since abandoned with the area described as now very polluted by chemicals, it is found near to Point Pleasant within the forest.
The mothman can use his wings, said to be up to 10ft in width, to fly at blindingly fast speeds. The mothman has also been connected with tragedy during its main sightings back in the 1960s, after the Silver Bridge collapsed in the state (killing many people) people claim that the mothman then mostly vanished from frequent sightings, leaving many cryptid investigators to view it as a tragic omen. Although since the main sightings there has been some stories of encounters with the creature since, especially in Point Pleasant, on many of these occasions though the mothman has appeared to haunt people like some kind of dark entity and is usually after an initial encounter has taken place, often not too far from the TNT area.
The city of Point Pleasant in the state is where the mothman is best known as that is where the most prominent sightings took place, they even hold an annual mothman festival each year and it has become a major tourism generator for the city.
Author John Keel was one who brought the connection to tragedy for the mothman to wider thought in his book The Mothman Prophecies, which also talks of other flying humanoid creature encounters and is a fun and interesting read for those interested in the weird, strange and unexplained.
I will take the most well-known sighting of mothman from my previous blogpost from last year on the cryptid…
One of the most infamous stories and sightings of the Mothman was on November 16th 1966 where Mothman was witnessed by two couples, Roger and Linda Scarberry and Steve and Mary Mallette. They described it as large and grey and that its eyes glowed red when it was picked up on their car headlights, this happened near to the “TNT area” and upon leaving back towards home they were apparently chased by the creature where they described it as a large flying man with 10 feet long wings.
After losing it they decided to head back to the TNT area one last time, believing what they had seen must have just been a large erratic bird, but upon getting close to the TNT area again they claimed to encounter the creature for the last time where they witnessed it shoot up into the air at amazing speeds, describing it as no bird, they quickly returned then and reported the incident to authorities before going home, the incident later found its way to the local newspaper and spread then there on to other outlets.
After this encounter, which was the 2nd recorded encounter after the first encounter by a group of five men working at a cemetery in Clendenin, West Virginia on November 12th 1966, there was a sudden explosion of Mothman sightings across Point Pleasant leading up to the Silver Bridge disaster where sightings of the Mothman thereafter dramatically declined.
You can read my full blogpost on the Mothman here.
Next up is something called the Sheepsquatch, also just called The White Thing, some kind of large bipedal creature that has a white wooly coat of fur, horns on its head, long-pointed head, hairless tail and saber-like teeth. It has often been seen in the West Virginian county of Boone, but also with common sightings in the counties of Kanawha, Putnam and Mason. There are some who believe the creature originated from the TNT area near Point Pleasant similar to the Mothman.
One of the first recorded sightings was claimed by a former Navy-man in 1994 who saw it breaking through a forest and then knelt to drink from a nearby creek for a few minutes before it then crossed over the creek and sauntered off towards a nearby road.
In 1995 a couple in a car driving through Boone county claimed to have sighted the creature sitting in a ditch at the side of a road and the couple, being curious as they were, decided to stop to get a better look at whatever it was, giving the usual Sheepsquatch description but this time saying it also had four eyes. This time the creature seemed to be aggressive and jumped out the ditch to attack the car, prompting the couple to quickly drive off, they eventually discovered scratch marks on the side of their car when they got home.
Another aggressive encounter took place in 1999 in Boone county. Several campers were around a bonfire at night in the forest when they suddenly heard a snorting and ruckus nearby, as if made by some large animal, suddenly the creature revealed itself to appear to be the Sheepsquatch by charging out of the darkness towards the campers in terrifying fashion, it chased the campers all the way back home, when the campers exited the forest the creature stopped at the edge of the forest and let out a screech before it retreated back into the forest.
The campers were brave enough to return to their campsite the next morning only to find it completely torn up.
So just what is it? Could it just be a misidentified large creature such as a Bear? Or could it be some kind of mutated animal or even dark entity.
Next up is something that seems to be of alien-origin, from outer space… from another world. It has been dubbed the Flatwoods Monster. It all started in 1952 near to the town of Flatwoods when a group of children, Ed (aged 13) and Freddie (aged 12) May and their friend Tommy Hyer (aged 10) claimed to see a strange pulsing red light crash close to a nearby farm up in hills above the town. The children accompanied by the May’s mum who they had ran to fetch headed towards the area the light went down in and they were soon joined by three other boys one of whom had brought a dog and another who was a National Guard member.
They are said to have eventually come across a red pulsing light when they reached the top of the hill and upon pointing a flashlight in that direction, they then came into contact with something that seemed to have survived the crash, a terrifying alien being. The very tall alien (as tall as 10ft) begun moving towards the group, who described it as having green skin, reptilian head, long and thin arms and that the being appeared to have no legs but was instead utilizing a device that enabled it to hover, it is said to have hissed while moving towards them.
The dog was apparently scared off by the terrifying sight soon followed by the rest of the group after the hissing.
One of the boys, 17-year-old Gene Lemon who was the National Guard member at the time said he was leading the group to the area when he saw a pair of bright eyes in a tree, prompting the boy to scream and stumble backwards, the account describes the being as having a bloody-red body and a green face that seemed to glow and be surrounded by a pointed hood-like thing, it was also possible it may have had claws for hands but due to dense mist it wasn’t easy to tell.
Some later claims from the witnesses said the mist also smelled pungent and some of them became nauseated. Description of the alien being has also been altered over time, not just by the witnesses but also in descriptions by investigators.
It wasn’t until 2000 that a group called the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry concluded that the light seen was likely a meteor streaking through the sky (of which one had been sighted over the area and nearby states at the time), the red pulsing light was likely an aircraft navigational/hazard beacon and that the alien was likely nothing more than an owl and that perceptions of these things had been altered/exaggerated due to heightened anxiety.
Whatever it was, the town has enjoyed a tourism boost from the flatwoods monster which has not been sighted since the original sighting, either due to the skeptical explanation being correct or perhaps if it was an alien it found a way to return home.
There has long been a piece of folklore about a black phantom dog or wolf known as the Snarly Yow, named after the noises it is said to make, such as its eerie and unsettling howls and wailing that can echo through the air when it is said to be nearby.
The folklore of the creature has existed since the 1700s and it is believed to have been introduced by German’s settling in the area, the creature is most often said to be living in the state’s eastern panhandle among the rugged landscape near Harper’s Ferry but its folklore and existence also stretch into the neighboring state of Maryland and also less commonly in the state of Virginia as well.
The creature or even spirit appears to be invulnerable to damage and/or death and there have been many stories of people shooting at it or accidentally running it over only to find that the creature is perfectly fine and even acts in a menacing mocking manner in such incidents. The fact that it appears to be invulnerable to damage and death likely supports it more being a spirit rather than a true flesh and blood cryptid.
The creature or spirit is said to appear and then vanish as quickly and mysteriously as it first appearing and it is most commonly seen besides or on the roads among the area. Some have also claimed to see the creature/spirit standing up on its hind-legs as if it were bipedal, the beast has also been described contorting its body into odd shapes, such as being able to stretch itself. Some also say it can change the colour of its fur to white and there was a reported sighting that told of a Snarly Yow, describing it as a headless white canine.
Back in the older days the creature was said to enjoy spooking riding horses kept at stables but now a days it appears it has evolved into taunting and chasing vehicles on the roads.
Then to round this off we shall go on to a final monster that is called the Grafton Monster, a large humanoid creature said to have been sighted around the outskirts of the town of Grafton. The beast is described as being bipedal and seemingly headless with white seal-like skin that is very slick, it is said to be 7-9ft in height and as much as 4ft in width.
The sightings of this quite unsettling sounding creature begun in 1964 when a reporter of the Grafton Sentinel newspaper Robert Cockrell was driving home, while going down Riverside Drive and rounding a corner the headlights of his vehicle suddenly revealed a large white mass in front of him, causing him to come to a sudden break as to not hit whatever the obstruction was, eventually he realized it was some kind of living creature causing him to flaw it out of there quickly home.
Cockrell soon returned to the area with some friends to try and find whatever it was but the only clue to something having been there was a depression in the grass from where it had stood. After a while they decided to head home but then suddenly heard an odd and eerie whistling sound coming from a nearby river, the sound oddly followed them about the area but they were unable to track down its source.
Cockrell then wrote an article about his encounter in the Grafton Sentinel newspaper prompting wide concern and interest in the monster from local residents and also lead to a mob hunting for whatever the creature was. Soon after this, other residents also begun reporting sightings of the creature as well.
Due to tension in the air and the danger of someone possibly getting shot accidentally by monster hunters the local authorities performed their own investigation into the monster and came to the rather odd conclusion that the original sighting was merely a cart piled high with boxes being pushed by a person along the road and that anxiety and unclear conditions lead to it being seen as a monster and further sightings were put down to overactive imagination due to lack of recreation areas, spring fever and also hysteria/excitement about recent monster sightings in Michigan, about a similar looking monster said to follow people’s cars, as one can imagine the box-piled cart explanation was met with quite a bit of skepticism itself.
Soon after though sightings begun to die down and there were not many reported sightings in the following decades. It is likely that the proceeding sightings after the original sighting can be put down to mass hysteria, but just what was the original sighting? Could it just have been a reporter looking for a story or did they actually see something?
Well that will do it for West Virginia. It does appear they have quite a bit of cryptid and monster lore in the state! Next up we will be looking at the strange and the unexplained in the US state of Maine.
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