Sheepsquatch

 Sheepsquatch

By Cole Herrold

When it comes to Cryptids, there are occasionally creatures that are relatively new to the scene that almost instantly become superstars. The Sheepsquatch is one such cryptid. Sheepsquatch is a bizarre amalgamation of man and mutton with a terrible attitude; very rarely do interactions with these creatures appear as peaceful. Sheepsquatch are described in the most basic descriptions as creatures that change in their locomotion from quadrupedal to bipedal have stark white or dirty white wooly hair, human-like hands or paws, a bear-like face with a snout, and long curved horns on the top of their heads. Most books that describe the Sheepsquatch will also go and claim that they have a long hairless tail like an opossum, but looking at all the confirmed or potential sightings, it's a feature that is never actually reported. The Sheepsquatch is a very regionally diverse cryptid but focuses on residing primarily in the Appalachian mountains of West Virginia and Virginia, with some sightings spreading into Kentucky and Missouri. While Sheepsquatch might seem bizarre in its appearance and region, it is not alone as a secondary variety of cryptid known colloquially as the White Things are also reported in these areas and are often lumped in with Sheepsquatch reports even though they are smaller, move primarily as quadrupeds and tend to have supernatural qualities surrounding them.

While the White Things had been reported to folklorists and researchers for generations, some tales going all the way back to Native American times. Tales of the Sheepsquatch are relatively very new as reports of the monstrous mutton did not start being reported till the '90s.  Yet while physical accounts did not start getting published till the 90s, there have been several detailed sightings of the creature that went back to at least the 50s, and some sightings that were once labeled as Bigfoot encounters have from some researchers such as George Dudding been reassessed as possible Sheepsquatch encounters, therefore, indicating that these creatures are much older than previously thought.

The oldest known encounter with a creature matching the appearance of Sheepsquatch occurred in Spencer, Roane County, West Virginia, during the Mid-1950s. It was Wintertime when a 60-year-old witness had an encounter when she was 16. The elderly woman would reveal her tale to researcher George Dudding in his book on the subject Sheepsquatch; it was an encounter she was hesitant to reveal to anyone but one that she would never forget. As the snow had just started to fall, she was surprised by the sudden arrival of her 19-year-old friend, who swung by her house to see if she would accompany him to visit an elderly man who lived alone. The friend would go out and check on the elderly figure to see if he was doing ok and if he would need anything, as well as stay and visit with him for a bit to give a little bit of company. The young girl went to ask her mother if it was ok for the pair to go out, and her mother, not seeing an issue, granted her permission to go. So, the two raced outside of the house and climbed in his 53' chevy and drove towards Tuckers Run Road, where the man lived. The pair drove westward from Spencer on US Route 33 for about 3 miles, then turned right onto Tucker Run Road (County route 5/11). The elderly man lived about 2 miles down that road, and it took several minutes to get there. The two pulled up in front of the house and proceeded to knock on the door; the elderly chap abruptly opened the door, and after checking in on the man and having a quick little visit, the pair returned to Spencer. They decided since it was dark out to take a quicker route of about 1 mile back to US Route 33 by way of the Reedyville Road (County Route 10). Light snow was falling as they turned left onto US Route 33 and began their trip westward toward town. They were driving at 25 mph. The young teens had traveled only about a half a mile and about halfway to where Stover Fork Road (County Route 13/1) turns off to the right when a huge white furry creature, at least 8ft tall, ran directly across the road in front of them. Her friend slammed on the brakes bringing the car to a stop even though there was snow on the ground. There were no seatbelts at that time, and the young girl hit her head off the dashboard, causing only minor injuries. The bipedal creature had, by the time the pair realized what had happened, crossed the road and ran down the embankment. The friend, after checking to the girl and making sure she was alright, said, “what the heck was that” and jumped out of the car to see if he could catch sight of what it was that ran across the road. Meanwhile, the girl, more terrified than curious, yelled and told him to get back in the car due to the potential danger of this unknown entity. The friend, however, just stood there gawking down the snow-covered bank trying to discern the creature from the snow-covered terrain, but as he looked, it appeared as though he was unable to see it further. The friend continued to search until the headlights of a second car illuminated and began to approach them. Her friend, not trying to stop traffic or get into an accident, then proceeded to jump back in the car and return to Spencer. When the pair returned to Spencer and arrived at the girl's home, the pair proceeded in telling the girl’s mother of the strange creature that crossed the road, but the girl’s mother was more concerned with the bumps and bruises from when her daughter hit her head off the dashboard and was extremely upset with the young man. This sighting stayed with the now elderly woman as she grew, and she could never explain what it was that crossed in front of their car that winter night, but now she was wondering whether it was the brutal beast that about a decade later would potentially be responsible for the death of a young camper.

It was in Bedford County, Virginia, in the 1960s when a solemn occasion rang out through the county. A search party of three people went looking for a missing camper. The group had started the search that early morning and had worked their way to the location where the man was supposed to of been camping. The group managed to meander their way to the site and found that the area was torn apart as though some wild animal had entered the camp. As the searchers examined the location, the group found evidence while looking at the nearby trees in the area of what appeared to be large claw marks 9ft up in a tree. The group had thought that perhaps the missing camper had climbed the tree to escape the creature. They searched the boughs and branches but did not seem to find any evidence of the camper spending any allotted time there. The group then decided to travel slightly down an old worn path which was littered with bizarre white hair and strange tracks that they could not identify. As the group continued to follow these bizarre leftovers of some strange visitor that they came to a high section of grass where they ultimately discovered the dismembered remains of the camper. The group proceeded in calling the police, and as an investigation broke out, neither the police nor the search party were able to determine what creature killed the camper. Yet members of the search party could not shake the strange white hairs, and whispers were spoken from the party as they felt that the camper had met with a creature known as the Wooly Booger, which was a kind of albino sasquatch. While the group felt that this was an attack by a rouge bigfoot researcher George Dudding, felt that this attack might fit into the Sheepsquatch territory due to the color of fur left behind and the enormous claw marks left on the trees. Now I cannot speak for the accuracy of this account in trying to find more information. I was not able to on this death, so perhaps it might be an urban legend. I include this account simply because it was included in Dudding's book and therefore feel he had done and found more verifiable information on this account.

The next account of a creature that somewhat resembles a Sheepsquatch occurred in Mason County, West Virginia, in November 1966. This sighting is interesting because it occurred during the infamous Mothman flap of 66’. Farmer Cecil Lucas who owned a farm North of Point Pleasant near State Route 62 in the area of the TNT Area, was out one late evening when he noticed a disturbance out in one of his fields and went to investigate. As he approached the area where he saw the strange motion, he noticed several dark shapes in the distance. As he got closer, he was able to see what appeared to be three creatures resembling bears messing around an oilfield pumpjack. Unable to determine the color of the creatures because it was too dark. They walked on all fours and, when alerted to his presence, rose on their hind legs and ran off into the darkness. This incident is often included with bigfoot reports and sightings, but George Dudding feels that the creatures may have been Sheepsquatch since the darkness could have made the white or dirty white color difficult to discern and since the creatures went from quadrupedal to bipedal. I personally do not think their identity was this since even in dark lighting, a whitish color should have been noticeable, but once again, I included it simply because of Dudding's research.

While those bizarre quadrupedal-bipedal entities that were around Cecil Lucas's house may or may not have been Sheepsquatch, there were several similar sightings of either the same creatures or something similar along Jericho Road in Mason County, WV throughout 1966-1967. These accounts were allegedly collected by the friend of John Keel and coinvestigator of the Mothman and UFO sightings of the area Mary Hyre of the Athens Messenger. Mary allegedly had a collection of reports of a creature she came to call the "The Jericho Road Man-Bear". Jericho Road is a winding blacktop road approximately 3.1 miles in length that joins with 22^nd street in Point Pleasant and extends to its intersection with State Route 2 near Hickory Chapel Church. The TNT Area to Jericho Road is only 3.5 miles, so it's a relatively short distance for some of the bizarre beasts and enigmatic entities to travel that was said to dwell there. Property owners during this time span encountered a creature which they compared to similar to a bear, ape, and, interestingly enough, a white thing. The creature is reported to be both quadrupedal and bipedal, and farmers in Point Pleasant have heard loud howling and screeching in the woods on the back of his property. On several occasions, something had attacked and run their livestock. Further information on these accounts has been difficult to track down but could be once again an early Sheepsquatch account.

While many of the sightings from the 60s may or may not be the beloved mutant mutton that has taken the cryptid world by storm when the 90s hit, there was a definite series of sightings that clearly were the hallmarks of the farmyard freak. Once again, Mason County was the lair of the white weirdo, and in the 1990s, three girls, during the winter, were driving from Huntington to Charleston Via Point Pleasant on State Route 2 when they would have a sighting with the beast. The girls traveled from Route 2 and turned onto State Route 62, which followed the Northern Bank of the Kanawha River. The snow was falling rather heavily, and they slowed their speed as the snow increased. The group was near Arbuckle in a lonely, heavily wooded area when they rounded a bend due to the weather; they were only going about 5-10 mph. The driver, out of boredom and out of love for the winter wonderland, glanced to her left when she saw some bizarre form standing in the field. The figure, which they thought might have been some snow-covered tree or scarecrow, seemed to move just slightly in the descending snow. As she looked closer, she soon realized that this was not some inanimate object but a creature that was something out of this world. The creature she saw was a white furry creature that looked half man and half animal. It had a sheeplike face, ram-like horns, and doglike paws; the creature stood bipedally on its hind human-like legs. The driver, after passing the creature, proceeded to stop the car and, in a questionable judgment call, proceeded to back up the car to where the creature was. The other passengers realizing that something was off, started to look out of their windows to see as to why their friend would need to back up. It was at that moment the other two passengers saw the creature and started screaming. The creature moved its big hairy head and looked straight at the driver staring intently at the curious driver. The creature then, in a moment of what could be considered boredom, ran away on its hind legs. The friends in the car were beckoning the driver to get out of there for fear that the creature might attack them as the snow provided perfect cover for it to blend in with the surroundings. The friends waiting for some ambush held their breath as their friend slowly began to pull away, but one friend was so traumatized by the sight and, fearing the worse proceeded to lay down in the backseat the rest of the way home. In George Dudding's book, he puts the approximate latitude and longitude of the sighting as 38˚ 42’ 46” N-81˚ 56’ 53” W.

One of the most famous sightings of a Sheepsquatch would also take place in Mason County in 1994 when a navy seaman from Gallipolis, Ohio, would have an encounter with the creature while legend tripping. The seaman being right across Point Pleasant, gained an interest in Mothman and had decided to travel to nearby Point Pleasant to search for evidence to validate or debunk the creature. The witness had no real leads on the red-eyed fiend but did have a potential lead on several UFOs that were reported to of been seen in the TNT Area near a particular section of the creek. Deciding to check this further, he parked in a section of the McClintic Wildlife Area and head down a game trail that stretched down to this creekbank which was north of Bethel Church Road. He was walking this creek bank when he began to hear what sounded like a very large animal making its way through the brush in front of them. Not sure of what this creature was, he proceeded in hiding in the nearby vegetation. He thought the creature was possibly a stray dog or cow based on the way the brush was shaking, but he was unsure as to why either animal would be out this far from a farm. Yet he froze on the chance he was wrong since the idea of Mothman, and Grinning Men were still firmly placed in his mind. As the brush separated, he realized that none of his ideas were correct as a large creature worked its way down towards the creek. The creature was large and had matted brownish-white fur; he could not tell if it was dirty white or was brown with a white undercoat. The creature walked on all fours went to the creek where it knelt to take a drink, putting out paws that looked more like hands. The head was long and pointed doglike in shape, yet sprouted large, single-point horns. The creature seemed to reek as it smelled of sulfur. The man in terror drew back into the brush, afraid to make a sound or move, yet continued to watch the bizarre animal. After slashing its thirst, the creature crossed the creek and went off toward Sand Hill Road. The young man waited until he was certain the creature was far enough away and then ran as fast as he could to his parked car. When reporting this account to wvtrueghoststories.com, the witness did not assume that the sulfur smell was indicative of the creature being demonic but that the smell came from lingering chemical pollution in the TNT area and so animals in the area could have absorbed the smell.

The next sighting, which occurred in Boone County, West Virginia, in 1994, two witnesses saw a large white bear about 6ft tall walking bipedally in the tree line near their home. The witnesses, who were children, were outside of their house playing when they witnessed the creature. The children being full of the Moxy of youth, were not scared of the event but excited and proceeded to go in and, in excited breaths, tell their parents. The parents rushing out noticed that several branches had been broken off by the creature and promptly told the children that was enough time outside for the day.

A year later, in Boone County in 1995, a couple driving their car along an isolated road were looking for a suitable place for “parking”. The couple had driven down the dark, desolate road for the perfect spot to have a suitable session when they noticed something lying in the bank by the side of the road. The couple slammed their car to a halt when they spotted the form thinking perhaps someone could be injured or that it was some animal that might wander out into the road. What they found was anything from a normal animal. The curious couple, having passed the creature, decided to back their car up and get a better look, and there sitting on the side of the road, was a colossal weird white woolly creature with what appeared to be four eyes set in its broadhead. As the pair looked on at the creature, it seemed to notice that it was spotted, and without warning, the creature leaped from the ditch, came into the roadway, and proceeded to attack the car. The couple panicked as they heard the heavy claws scrape along the metal exterior of the vehicle. While they panicked eventually, the driver managed to return his wits and, putting his foot to the gas, proceeded to speed off, leaving their anomalous assailant in the road. When they got home, the shaken couple went and looked at the exterior of the car and, in turn, found large deep scratch marks on the side of their car. While this entity seems to be very similar to Sheepsquatch accounts, the one feature that makes it different is the alleged second set of eyes which has not been reported in any other accounts. Some investigators, upon reflection, do feel that the anomalous second pair of eyes were actually misidentified due to the possibility that the creature may have had curled horns.

The next sighting of a Sheepsquatch would once again come from Boone County, Wv in 1999. This sighting occurred when two campers deciding to go and spend the night in the woods near their house. The pair had set up their tents and began to make their fire ring; they had chosen a site that was not particularly far from the house with the idea being that should the weather get bad, they need something, or that they just decide to enjoy the creature comforts of the homestead it would only be a short walk away. The pair had begun to set up their fire and had just had the logs roaring when they heard snorting and snuffling sounds in the woods as they sat by the campfire. The campers thought that the creature might have been a bear encircling their campsite as such animals were fairly common in the woods. Yet this was not to be the case; while they were unsettled at the idea of something encircling them, they felt that the fire would provide some protection from danger. This would not have been the case. The snorting and eerie calls continued until a large white creature began to charge from the darkness of the woods towards them. The campers seeing this creature running straight at them, did not have a second thought and instinctively fled back to their house as they were pursued by the creature. When they cleared the woods, one of the campers looked back and saw that the hairy beast had stopped at the tree line. The creature stopped and stared at the campers as they scuttled back into their home and let out a bloodcurdling scream before returning back to the woods. The campers, terrified, stayed up all night and did not feel safe all night for fear that the creature might come back. The next day the campers returned to their site and found that the trail and the site were all torn up as though someone had taken a tiller to the earth.

This account is perhaps the most famous account of a Sheepsquatch, namely because of the coverage it got as well as the fact that it pushed the Sheepsquatch into the public attention. The Breckinridge County Kentucky Sheepsquatch encounter occurred during summer July 2004. Two men named Ricky Joyce and Dakota Cheeks out deer hunting traveled to an isolated piece of land owned by Ricky’s grandparents. The property consisted of 100 acres of hills and woods and a cabin. On previous trips, they had heard unidentified screams, growls, and cries in the hills. They were never able to figure out the sounds, and they never had a problem before, but on this particular trip, as Dakota Cheeks would say, "This was a night that would change our lives forever." The following morning, they had awoken and noticed that Ricky's main hunting dog was gone, so they tried to call out to see if they could find it. The pair searched the property until they found the dog lying in the ditch dead. Something had broken its neck by twisting it completely around. No clues as to what/who/or how the dog was killed were found; the pair felt that they had to find out what happened and why since no known animal could kill the way Ricky's dog was. The friends searched the area seeing if they could find tracks or anything that could indicate what could kill a 150lbs dog in the way that it was. The group ultimately found nothing, and they decided they were going to stake out the hilltop, which was the area where the sounds they heard over the years seemed to come from. They went towards the far side of the property and searched for evidence in areas where no one really traversed on the property but still found nothing. That night the pair did not stay in the cabin but a pop-up camper on the site. At 5:00 am, they were awakened by some strange noises. The dogs began barking and then left the area of the camper as they ran off into the woods downhill. Suddenly the pair heard something scraping into the aluminum skin of the trailer. The canvas sides were being pressed inward, and the trailer was lifted upward and dropped as some creature continuously ran into the camper. The men in the camper could hear the squeaking sound of the metal bending but stayed perfectly still as the anomalous assault continued. The men, terrified, waited for a bit after the assault stopped, and everything got quiet. The men grabbed their guns and went outside, returning to the cabin to get as much ammunition as they could. Cheeks had the following thought emanate through his mind “anything that aggressive doesn’t deserve to be here, if it can’t coexist it needs to go." In a televised interview and recreation of the event, Ricky explained the following for their actions" I had some beast that lived on my property that killed my dog already. I didn't know what to do about it. I was scared that it was going to come to my house". The group deadest on killing whatever creature this was. They went through a nearby cemetery and into a field located beyond it. In the distance, there appeared to be an object which looked like a tree trunk. As they grew closer to the object, they saw a tall white creature that seemed hunched over with its long arms extended. Its front paws had talons or claws, and the creature stood about 8-9ft tall. The creature let out an ungodly growl and charged them. The man shot at the creature; when the firing stopped, the two men ran straight back to the safety of the cabin. They did not know if they hit it, they did not know where it went, but they survived their encounter to retell it on Monsters and Mysteries in America. To this day, however, they search for the elusive beast with the sole purpose of killing it, and they fully intend to drag the creature dead from the woods.

Another witness who appeared on the episode, named Susan Noe, who told her story of a Sheepsquatch encounter, saw a creature coming down a road which she would describe as “a big hairy thing standing on the road," and as she got closer, she could see an eye. She thought the creature might have been a deer as it peaked out onto the road, but it was by far too big to be a conventional deer. She would describe it as "some kind of sheep thing with horns."

The first account of a Sheepsquatch outside of either West Virginia or Kentucky would happen in the Fairy Stone State Park in Patrick County, Southwest Virginia, on June 2011 or 2014 (sources differ on the exact year). A hiker by the name of Teena and her friend were walking and climbing for about 2hrs in the park when they stopped to take a break and get a drink of water. They were in a secluded area of the park, and one once rehydrated, continued hiking along the trail. The hike had been uneventful up until this point, and nothing to them could change their willingness to be in nature this day. That is until they reached a rocky section of the woods. The pair had stopped briefly and were taken in the beauty of nature when about 150 ft ahead of them, they detected movement near the edge of the woods. Their line of sight was a little obstructed, but they could see some type of animal which was white and huge was lumbering its way down the side of the hill.  The pair watched, expecting maybe some kind of albino deer or even an albino bear or someone’s dog to come bounding down the rocky treed mountain. The creature moved out into the opening as they came closer, and the creature ended up on a rock ledge. When the creature stood on the ledge, they could tell that this creature was far from what they had thought it was. The creature took on the appearance of a good size bear with fur that was yellowish-gray in color. Head was oddly shaped with a bear-like nose large dark eyes were lower on its face than a bear. They could tell as they stared this was not a bear. The creature seemed to notice them as they stood frozen in their tracks. The pair, not waiting for some interaction, then proceeded to turn around and sprinting back whence they came. The pair kept staring towards the sides of the woods, half expecting to see the strange creature bounding in the foliage after them. The group kept a good case and did not feel safe until they ultimately reached their car, hopped in, and promptly locked their doors.

The furthest account of a creature that appears to be a Sheepsquatch comes from Branson, Missouri, in January 2014. A couple motoring up US Route 65 from Branson, Missouri to Ozark, Missouri at 11 am would encounter a bizarre carnivorous animal that they never had seen before nor could even have imagined. They were slightly south of Ozark, and as they were driving down the road, they seemed to notice a strange object lying on the side of the road. The couple, not exactly slowing down, saw that the object was, in fact, some sort of strange creature along the side of the road. The animal was hugely based upon its heavy coat of dirty white colored wool; it appeared to be a large sheep but seemed different from a large sheep. The couple thought it odd that such an oversized sheep would be on the edge of the road by itself in the middle of nowhere since this road did not appear to be connected or even have any farms on it. A closer look revealed an entire flip to this theory, for as they looked closer, they saw that it was bent down eating on a dead deer that had probably been hit by a car. The creature was strangely tearing away at the remains, and they were unable to get a good look at its face because its head was buried inside the deer carcass on which it was feeding. The disgusted and traumatized travelers, even though they were curious, were traveling 60mph, and they were not about to stop and turn around, especially since the creature might be dangerous, but they did notice that a pickup truck following then reduced its speed probably to try to get a better look at the creature.

In Barbour County, Wv, in 2014, the Sheepsquatch seemed to return to its old haunts as a woman spotted a white creature with large green eyes standing on four legs in a field next to her house. The family’s dog, in either an effort to establish its territory or to protect the household, started barking and took off towards the creature. The creature then, in a turn of events, started to pursue the dog. The creature did not seem to get far, for apparently, when the woman screamed, the creature stood up on two legs and proceeded to run away until it disappeared over the hill. The woman would report later that the creature was tall and skinny when standing up.

With the Sheepsquatch once more back in West Virginia, the creature seemed to of returned to all of its old haunts; this included Boone County when in 2014, another sighting broke out. It was a Saturday morning in September when a couple had decided to go ginseng hunting. Ginseng is a very valuable crop that can, in huge bundles, be worth a fortune, so many people who know the horticulture of the plant will go out and search for it to gain some financial kickback. The two agriculturalists took two four-wheelers and brought tools, extra cans of gasoline, food for lunch, drinking water, and decided to set out to a particular mountainside that they had some success in the past. It was 9:00 am when they left their home in Prenter, WV, and traveled the various dirt roads and blacktops that morning. The couple took Prenter Road, also known as Country Route 5, east towards Williams Mountain, the spot on the mountain they picked from there they had to turn left onto a crude trail situated across the road from an old abandoned mobile home. They then began exploring the mountainside south of Prenter Road for a good spot to dig for some roots. They traveled by four-wheeler and found several locations they felt were ideal for harvest. They took a break at noon, having gathered a small quantity but not enough to gain the riches that anyone in the quest truly longed for. The day was uneventful so far, and the two, after their lunch, moved further on down the mountain towards a nearby hollow. After dismounting in this new location, the group began scouring the area, searching for the plant they so desired. After a short time, the man saw movement in the dense undergrowth of the woods on the mountainside just above them. He signaled to his wife to look up, and there standing there as if on cue as the two looked, was an 8ft tall creature 150ft away staring back at them; they instantly knew this was not a bear. The animal had big eyes that stood out and a bear-like face with a snout. Its head had what they thought were pointed ears which they later in reflection felt might have been horns. It had curly, dirty, yellowish-white hair at fur like a sheep. The creature stood upright and looked at them for a few seconds; it seemed agitated by their presence and then let out a screaming growl. Man and wife, terrified by the possibility of an attack, then made their retreat for their four-wheelers which were 100ft away, and managed to hop on and find a new location to search for ginseng.  Looking back as they sped off to another section of the mountain, the man noticed the creature was gone. However, in their continued pursuit, they did not leave the main road, and they couldn't help but keep their eyes peeled for any movement in the woods. Since then, they have never gone back to Williams Mountain.

Sheepsquatch's homeward bound did not seem to last long for a year later, after its massive series of West Virginia sightings, it was sighted in Fulks Run, Rockingham County in Virginia in 2015. The sighting happened in the George Washington National Forest when a small group of campers camping in the forest would have an encounter with the creature. It was just about noon when a group of campers had decided to set up camp near the Shenandoah River. While this might have been a picturesque sighting for the campers and certainly John Denver, it would slowly turn into an episode of the Twilight Zone. It was as the group was fixing their site that one camper noticed some movement across the river near the tree line. The camper squinting saw what he assumed was a typical animal crouched on a hill around 12 pm. He thought it might be a bear, went to warn the others in the group as he did; the creatures stood up on two legs revealing the full form of the creature. The creature, as the group was trying to figure out what this creature was, soon started to sprint downhill towards their camp. The creature was 8-9ft tall. The North Fork of the Shenandoah river was in between both the campers and the Sheepsquatch. When the creature got to the water, it stopped. The creature started to slowly work its way into the water as though it had great difficulties in maneuvering in the flowing liquid. The campers got together and watched the creature, they watched as the creature traveled through the river lowly, clearly not used to crossing waterways, and it looked like a white bipedal dog with long fur. The creature had just managed to cross the stream and shake the water off its soaked form when the creature and campers heard a bizarre loud shriek. The creature, out of fear or interest (the witnesses felt out of fear), then proceeded to return to the woods as silently as it came. Thus, also ending the last official Sheepsquatch account. As a sidebar note, I'm interested but also concerned as to what sound caused the Sheepsquatch to flee in what the witnesses felt was terror. Sheepsquatch are, if reports are to be believed, an incredible predator and extremely aggressive. So, unless this Sheepsquatch might have been called by others of its kind for more pressing matters, Id hate to even imagine what could cause it to flee.

When it comes to the Sheepsquatch, it is so easy just from the name itself to think it's a piece of fiction or some extensive hoax. From a skeptical standpoint, there is plenty of reasons to think this creature is a myth. Anytime a creature includes the term squatch to a potential entity that seems to point to something false. A piggyback off an already difficult-to-prove creature. Skeptics multiply that by 10 or more when the supposed creature is a cross between the sasquatch and a sheep. While a primate is plausible, a bipedal sheep or sheeplike or even a predator that has several sheeplike features creature is something that has never existed in the history of evolution. And so, several theories to the origin of Sheepsquatch have been proposed.

Some folklorists point out that the Sheepsquatch legend came from British sheepherders who migrated to America and settled in Appalachia may have brought tales of demons who frequented their herds while wearing sheepskins complete with the head. Stories such as this could have been the origin of Sheepsquatch. Similar tales appear in Native cultures revolving around large white animals, and these tales are also reported by coal miners and lumberjacks that described a large 8ft tall creature that could walk on two or four feet and weighed hundreds of pounds. While further details of these accounts are scarce, there is an oral tradition and some collected accounts that do seem to emphasize that there is some official tradition of these creatures.

While many folklorists feel that these stories are simply necessary coping mechanisms or career-oriented tales that were almost mandatory for the lifestyle of sheepherding. This is not necessarily accurate since there is the chance that what they were describing were true accounts of real creatures. If this is accurate, the question is how and why would such a creature exist. In many ways, this creatures existence makes a lot of sense since a creature that appears to be an herbivore would be perfect for ambushing prey. If you also account that the creature is white, which would be perfect for ambushing and hiding during the winter months, the Sheepsquatch seems almost an ideal predator. Now while evolutionarily, it is plausible that such a creature exists, there is no such evidence either from the fossil record or in the known Zoological records that such a creature could have existed.

While there is some biological reason for such a creature to exist, there is no true reason to think this. Evolutionarily there should have been several similar creatures that have existed or reported that could have led to this creature. Perhaps the similarly reported White Things could have been this, but there's still no certainty to this as these creatures seem to be very different outside of the white coloring of the fur and assumed carnivorous nature. The Sheepsquatch is also something that has, even with reports of White Things, never had an official ancestor that we could point to.

While the creatures definitely seem firmly cemented into the realms of cryptozoology, there are those that have suggested several alternatives to where and why the Sheepsquatch comes from. The horned cryptid is very similar to accounts of the stereotypical demon since it had horns and humanoid qualities. Many of the early folklore accounts, if they are true, may be correct in that these creatures are examples of some form of a demonic entity that appears in a sheeplike form. Many of the classical demons seem to be a conglomeration between human and animal features, yet none outside of the classical devil or demon seem to indicate some connection between the Sheepsquatch and the sinister.

Another hypothesis for the origin of the Sheepsquatch is that the Sheepsquatch is from another planet. The alien Sheepsquatch is something that I've never seem to find some answer to. It's a hypothesis that has appeared time and time again but has never had some connection to it. Lights in the sky have never officially been connected to the creature; hence the UFO angle seemed highly unlikely as opposed to the cryptid angle or even the folklore angle, but there is one other angle that is still possible.

While it might seem the least likely, the final most probable answer to this entity is that it might be a creature from another dimension. If this creature is multidimensional or interdimensional, it is a possibility of what Sheepsquatch maybe does since clearly nothing can compare either evolutionarily or from the known UFO lore from the area. These creatures have had no anomalies associated with UFOs with them and seem to be territorial hence the more biological aspects of the creature while still being absent with the alleged evolutionary line of the creature. Yet even this is speculative at best since there have been no known anomalous elements with the creature.

While there are several possibilities to this creature's origin, we are left with the continuous unknown as to what this creature might be. Yet, it is not for my decision to know the truth as I have no been there to experience any of the sightings of the creature. What I will say is while I'm very open to almost all hypotheses, the one thing I cannot deny or disprove is the sudden research and fanbase the creature has seemingly received, especially since the creature has appeared on such shows as Mountain Monsters and Monsters and Mysteries in America. While from an academic level will certainly never come close with an answer, there will always be a pop culture reference that will be with us for a long time.

 

 

Quick Facts:

Species/ Potential Species: Mammal

Location: West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia, Missouri

Sighted: 1994-2016

Works Cited:

Chasing American Monsters By Jason Offutt

Goatman: Flesh or Folklore? By J. Nathan Couch

Monsters of West Virginia By Rosemary Ellen Guiley

Sheepsquatch By George Dudding

Strange Tales From Virginia's Mountains: The Norton Woodbooger, The Missing Beale Treasure, The Ghost Town of Lignite, and More By Denver Michaels

The Telltale Lilac Bush and Other West Virginia Ghost Tales By Ruth Ann Musick

White Things: West Virginia’s Weird White Monsters By Kurt McCoy

Swancer, Brent “Beware the Sheepsquatch! And Other Truly Bizarre Mystery Monsters”. Mysterious Universe. February 15, 2016. https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2016/02/beware-the-sheepsquatch-and-other-truly-bizarre-mystery-monsters/. Accessed August 8, 2021.

---“The Mysterious White Things of West Virginia." Mysterious Universe. January 12, 2019. https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2019/01/the-mysterious-white-things-of-west-virginia/. Accessed August 8, 2021.

Monsters and Mysteries in America “Appalachia” Season One Episode One. March 24, 2013. Destination America.

Mountain Monsters “Sheepsquatch of Boone County” Season Two Episode Six. May 9, 2014. Destination America.

Mud Mermaids

 The Mud Mermaids

By Cole Herrold

Merfolk are, in general, a difficult to peg bunch. They are the culmination of fantasy stories, faerie folk, misidentified animals, and potentially cryptozoological beasts. Their reign in the sea is something that has been disputed time and time ever since man has ventured out over the blue abyss. There have been some interesting reports that have come out over the years that do point to the existence of merfolk, but these cases usually come from the deep ocean or off of a beach. Yet, as I've researched into this phenomenon, there have been a few times id come across a mermaid that seems out of place from the oceanic lair they're supposed to dwell, for there have been several cases of merfolk reported in both rivers and lakes in landlocked sections of the world.

In Vevay, Indiana, one such account took place of not just one but two semiaquatic fish people. Vevay is located in Jefferson County and is located on the Ohio River in Switzerland County. The area was founded in the early 1800s and founded by Swiss immigrants and with them their legends and hopes and dreams. Part of the main formation of the town was with the planting of vineyards and production of wine, which to this day is still celebrated with a Swiss Wine Festival. The town has a rich history that makes it a quaint place to reside, and it just might have a pair of murky residences just off the coast of the modern dwellings.

It was in the Saturday, October 20^th issue of the Akron Daily Democrat in 1894 that readers would encounter the surprise of their lives. In a small article entitled “Mud Mermaids-Strange Humanlike Creatures That Live In the Ohio River” the article describes a pair of mud-covered miscreants who were sighted on the banks of the Ohio River. The creatures were dubbed Mud Mermaids by the townsfolk when they saw the strange species when they came to the shore for fishing, boating, and other necessary and recreational activities. Their appearance was described as reptile-like but with human-like features. When semi-submerged as they swim, they look very much like human beings with some unique characteristics but in all human-like in form. The features that seemed non-human were described on several accounts are large dog-like ears that behave similarly to those of a canine. Yet these creatures seemed unintelligent when many who saw them looked in their eyes. These creatures utilize the tides to extend their domain at times. During this time, certain areas of the banks of the river had areas with logs and stumps of trees. When the tide comes in and submerges this deforested section, the creatures will come and dwell within there. When the tide is low, there would-be tons of deshelled mussels and fish bones, which indicated that these semiaquatic creatures would be carnivorous. These creatures apparently require a lot of food to survive as the locals would describe that when the tides would come in to wash the remains of the beasts feasts away, the next time the tide was low, a new batch would be filled in its place. The first occurrence of these creatures being sighted by the locals is in 1890. Yet a truly detailed account of these beasts would come from a Ship Captain who, like many Cryptozoologists in later years, would search for unknown animals. He, however, found his quarry.

Confederate Captain J.M. Ozier of Covington, Kentucky, who had searched the area for the beasts, would be the one who would describe the creature the most in description. While out boating, he came across two of the creatures of what he believed to be both a male and a female. He claimed he could distinguish between the two sexes by stating that the male acted aggressively when he had approached as either the beast was territorial or attempting to protect its mate. He would go on to take notes of these amored aquatic animals stating they are approximately 5ft in length, about 150lbs with a yellowish color. Its body is humanoid but only from the waist up, and even then, its hand are webbed with long claws. It has legs humanlike in shape yet shorter than the arms, and the body in the back tapers to a point but not in the same way as a classic tail. On its back, there is coarse hair as well as a third of the way down its body. The skin of the lower portion of the body seems elephant-like, but the upper portion appears smoother. As well as appearing brighter than the lower portions. He describes it bearing a surprisingly strong resemblance to Zip, a member of P.T. Barnum's Troop, which is interesting seeing as how Zip seems to have very little compared to the Mud Mermaids. Another feature the Captain seems to emphasize is how skittish these creatures are. He would state that when these creatures are disturbed, they would submerge not in the classic way as seen with animals but would simply submerge like a stone that is dropped in the murky depth. With that biological survey of the creatures, we are left with more questions than answers. Yet that is all we have to go on a strange anomaly known as the Mud Mermaids.

This case is over 130 years old, so a further investigation into the witnesses of this case is impossible, which is unfortunate but not surprising with Crypto-historical cases. All we truly have is what was written about in the Democrat, what other researchers have speculated, potentially related cases from other areas, and a lot of guesswork. In many ways, these cases are the most frustrating because we are left with more questions than answers, and there is extremely little chance we will come to a conclusion unless some diary or journal is unearthed stating it's a journalistic hoax, or of some local’s prank, or even of some other sightings that lend credence to the account. So, we as researchers and those who have an interest in the phenomenon to assume that its either a case of yellow journalism or an authentic account.

Going under the assumption that this is an authentic encounter, where do we stand on this phenomenon? The first place logically to check is with the possibility that this could be a misidentification. The Ohio River is a diverse location with countless species that occur and frolic. Aquatic mammals make a decent amount of the population of the river, with such members as otters, beavers, minks, and muskrats. The largest of these animals is the North American otter, which can reach a little over two feet in length. There is the possibility that many of these animals could have been what was seen. The descriptions matching even more if any of these animals had mange resulting in the yellowish and brownish kind of skin.  Yet the comparisons end there. It could be possible that, as with many big fish tales, there is a level of embellishment in this case though it would appear that most are if not all of the description is total imagination. While we can't dismiss this possibility in its entirety, it would seem unlikely as the descriptions seem to match what the witnesses in Vevay and what Captain Ozier had seen. The fact that Ozier is assumedly a salted seasoned sailor adds more authenticity to his description, seeing as he clearly would know the difference between the local fish and aquatic fauna and a mud mermaid.

There is a famous type of adjusted taxidermy in which skates and rays are turned into the forms of strange creatures. These are referred to as Jenny Hanivers. Jenny Hanivers have been formed by several different craftsmen for many years, and many who first see them are taken back and that they can believe that these creatures are, in fact, strange biological anomalies. Some researchers have even gone and made comparisons with creatures like the Bishopfish and Sea Monk to these kinds of manufactured art. These figures do, in fact, bear a strike resemblance to what was seen in Vevay in some regard. It is possible that this Captain might have seen one of these figures and created a tale based on these fanciful taxidermied specimens. Yet that is once again speculation based on nothing but what we see now with these unique mummified specimens.

While these possibilities are possible, there is another element outside of the previously listed and yellow journalism. The next most possible outcome is that this could, in fact, be an as of yet unknown animal. What this animal's ancestor could be is clearly something that would be almost impossible to determine. It is not uncommon for something to become semiaquatic or fully aquatic if its ancestor was, in fact, terrestrials. Whales, for example, started out as Pakicetus, which was a small, almost rodent-like beast that, through millions of years, resulted in the colossal cetaceans we see today. Could some species result in a similar evolutionary choice-generating in these strange beasts that were seen in the 1890s?

Merfolk were a phenomenon I truly did not think could possibly occur and were the products of misidentified animals or objects. I had heard of the infamous Christopher Columbus account, which was when he claimed to of sighted three mermaids who were terribly ugly; most scholars conclude it was a manatee. Yet as I began to do more research, I had opened my mind a bit to the possibility. With the Mud Mermaids, however, I do not believe they are mermaids or merfolk in the classic sense. They seem to be connected, though, to a phenomenon, I have a true love for, that being the Aquatic Humanoids. These creatures are similar to a few different aquatic humanoids I have read about over the years, like the Loveland Frogman, which does make its home in the Ohio River, as well as the aquatic enigma known as the Green Clawed Beast, which attempted to drown a woman in the same state, and the Fishman type creature seen in Kentucky. In fact, the beginning of the article definitely seems to point to this kind of beast. Yet, the extremely detailed human points of the Mud Mermaid in the description are very different than the other previously mentioned cryptids. I could definitely see a possible Loveland Frogman type creature, and there is the chance that maybe that is the case with this creature as the other features could have been elaboration. Yet the Captain, if his account is accurate, is something entirely different and something that as of yet matches no known cryptid or known animal. Species outside of Insects, Crustaceans, and Arachnids do not typically have the multitude of limbs as seen in this case. These mud mermaids are more like aquatic centaurs in that respect (Which are an entirely different mythological, paranormal, and potentially cryptozoological pedigree, namely Icthyocentaurs).

In Barton M. Nunnelly’s Book The Inhumanoids, which has been one of the most useful tomes in my research, describes another account of a semiaquatic merbeing that does have some hallmarks that echo back to the Mud Mermaids. The account, however, predates the mermaids by approximately nine years in Vincennes, Indiana, on January 16^th in 1885 when several hunters would encounter a beast while out hunting. The group had no luck, but they would soon encounter a beast that had more luck than them as they came across it sampling its prey, a large hog.  that was described as having the head and face of a dark-skinned human whose mouth was lined with fangs and razor-sharp teeth. Its neck was approximately two to three feet long, covered intermixedly with short red hair and scales as bright as a sunfish. It did have a tail about three to four feet long, and it curled up over its back. Its webbed feet were attached to short legs and on its ties sprouted long claws. One hunter attempted to lasso this strange beast but was, in turn, hit in the head by the creature's tail. The beast made for the creek, which was no doubt the gate to its watery lair, and disappeared in the water. After the creature escaped a most certain able end, a monster hunt was conducted in search of the beast. Its outcome is unknown, but most likefully they came out empty-handed as such a prize would have definitely made the papers.

Another interesting thing is that this is not the only case of a mermaid-like creature in the United States. In a book on the total opposite end of the unknown spectrum, Haunted Bridges: Over 300 of America’s Creepiest Crossings, which I used back in my ghost hunting days to search for outside investigation sites. There is a bridge located on Highway 130 in Westville, New Jersey, that crosses over the Big Timber Creek. This particular creek allegedly was a spot the Lenape Indians viewed as a sacred spot. The natives of the area claimed that a strange creature akin to a mermaid dwells in the Creek. According to the source, sightings are still occurring, and people will leave tokens or offerings to it along the bridge and area. Yet, I have not found any sources on the internet or in any other book on the subject, so whether this is folklore or an actual Cryptozoological phenomenon is difficult to ascertain.

While there are reports of merfolk-type creatures and aquatic humanoids, these creatures do not match exactly any known species. It is well known that the Ohio River area is a hotbed for this kind of activity, yet with some imagination, there's a resemblance to the Loveland Frogmen or even possibly the Octoman, but still going off the reported sightings, they do not look at all like any of these creatures. There is, interestingly enough, a similar type of creature seen in folklore and romantic taxidermy as Gatormen. They essentially are the Feejee mermaid with a monkey head and humanoid torso attached to an alligator's body. They do bear a resemblance to the Mud Mermaids aside from their additional pair of legs, long tales and lack of ears. There are supposed reports in Florida and Louisiana of these creatures, but this is unlikely and more than likely tall tales and folklore. This also goes back to the Jenny Hanivers in the idea of the taxidermied specimens. Whether this Kentucky captain had seen one of these beasts, either real or taxidermied, and generated a tale of the Vevay Mermaids from this creature is also a possibility. Yet once more pure speculation. 

With this phenomenon, the only other possibility that ventures more into the fringe and into the more fantastical world that is supposed to dwell around us. The idea of both faeries and elementals is something I've found interesting for many years. The interest mostly sprung from my Irish heritage and ancestry, but from that, I found several books hypothesizing that these strange humanoids and beasts do, in fact, share our world with us. While I strongly feel that if these human-like creatures do exist, they most likely are early hominids or on some of the islands like Ireland, Iceland, etc. where these creatures are reported that they might be examples of Island dwarfism, a phenomenon we know that did occur to some of our relatives in the Isle of Flores; there is the possibility that they are in fact something supernatural. Mermaids could be guardians or spirits of the water, whether they be some minor deity as the Greeks believed with their tales of the Naiads or something like the Fossegrimen or Nokken as simply the elemental or Shinto-esque forms that are connected to everything. While this possibility is highly unlikely since the way these creatures behave is more animalistic than something supposed to be as intelligent, potentially dangerous, and sophisticated as what an elemental is supposed to be, they give off much more of a biological vibe. Yet, for completion, I have included this possibility.

While there are countless possibilities of what these creatures could have been, there is still to this day no answer. These creatures are incredibly bizarre and extremely obscure. This is part of the reason I love this account. If these animals did exist, it's safe to say they probably are either extinct or a misidentified unknown species that we as of yet don't have categorized. With that said, the time of the account is also ripe for Yellow Journalism, so while I want this to be a strange merfolk, there is also a strong chance this could be the case. Yet still, this is all speculation, and I doubt that there will be an answer to those murky marauding Mud Mermaids.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Mammal, Reptile, Amphibian, Fish (Merfolk and Aquatic Humanoids are more difficult to decide on a potential taxonomic category due to their mishmash of characteristics)

Location: Ohio River, Vevay, Indiana

Sighted: 1890-1894

 Works Cited

Beckley, Lindsey “Mermaids, Giant Turtles, and Wild Men…Oh My!”. Indiana History Blog. May 29, 2017. https://blog.history.in.gov/mermaids-giant-turtles-and-wild-men-oh-my/. Accessed December 29, 2020.

Bremer, Heather “Cryptids of Indiana- From monstrous turtles to ancient trolls, creepy creatures call Hoosier State home”. Washington Times Herald. October 23, 2020. https://www.washtimesherald.com/news/lifestyles/cryptids-of-indiana/article_9f017b3f-4500-58b6-b609-9b48f8ea803f.html. Accessed December 29, 2020.

Marimen, Mark, James A. Willis, and Troy Taylor. Weird Indiana: Your Travel Guide to Indiana’s Local Legends and Best Kept Secrets. Sterling. 2008.

Newman, Rich. Haunted Bridges: Over 300 of America’s Creepiest Crossings. Llewellyn. 2016.

Nunnelly, Barton M. The Inhumanoids: Real Encounters with Beings that Can’t Exist!. Triangulum. 2017.

Swancer, Brent “The Mysterious Mud Mermaids of Indiana”. Prairieland Paranormal Podcast. September 17, 2020. https://www.prairielandparanormalpodcast.com/blog/sfna548h6j3wf4z4u3mr1js1mvrn6r. Accessed December 29, 2020.

Weatherly, David. Monsters at the Crossroads: Cryptids and Legends of Indiana. Eerie Lights. 2020.

“Vevay, Indiana”. Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. December 26, 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vevay,_Indiana. Accessed December 29, 2020.

Debra, “Vevay Indiana – Reasons You’ll Love Visiting This Little Town” My Humble Home and Garden. August 12, 2019. https://myhumblehomeandgarden.com/2019/08/12/vevay-indiana-reasons-youll-love-visiting-this-little-town/. Accessed December 29, 2020.

“Ohio River Mud Mermaids”. Arcane Beasts and Critters. June 3, 2018. https://arcanebeastsandcritters.wordpress.com/2018/06/03/ohio-river-mud-mermaids/. Accessed December 29, 2020.

 Akron Daily Democrat October 20, 1894

Wood Eating Amish Country Goose Grabber

 The Wood Eating Amish Country Goose Grabber

By Cole Herrold

Cryptid Research, in general, can be extremely difficult for a myriad of reasons a lot of which are not too dissimilar to what biologists and zoologists experience in the field or as some archivists have trouble with when trying to find some missing piece in a grander account. Cryptozoologists have all of these issues and more as there is for those in the field equal parts of both with newer sightings the most difficult aspect would have to be the fieldwork itself but with resources the accounts are usually recorded and made readily available. When looking at older cases, though, the already established problems are doubled as witnesses either now are deceased or refuse to discuss the events due to the countless years of criticism or even the fact that to protect their identities, they chose to remain anonymous. While I understand and respect those who choose to do so, it does make it difficult for future researchers to discuss the events of their sightings in an attempt to glean more information. With cases that are older and feature anonymous witnesses, we are left entirely upon the research of those who have cataloged the accounts, which in itself can lead to problems. One of the main is the interpretation of extremely obscure cryptids. As researchers, I know we want to put things in neat little piles, but sometimes that desire for order really creates false information. This is one such case for this creature has appeared in The Bigfoot Casebook, Strange Pennsylvania Monsters, Goatman- Flesh or Folklore?, I Know What I Saw and the first book I encountered the beast in Monsters of Pennsylvania. The beast is such an enigma that it is thrown in almost every terrestrial Cryptozoological category and researchers completely aligning it to one cryptid or another. I’ve heard it referred to as a bigfoot, Goatman, horned tiger, and a totally unknown beast, and to this day, no one is sure what was lurking around the Amish homesteads. The creature I've come to dub the Wood Eating Amish Country Goose Grabber is a weird chimeral beast that, to me, does not match any known cryptid. It bears a resemblance to creatures we know like Sheepsquatch, Bigfoot, Goatmen, and even to some extent the fictitious Ozark Howler, yet there are features about it that are left up to interpretation, and because of this, the creature can appear extremely bizarre and different than all of them.

The Wood Eating Amish Country Goose Grabber is, as the name implies, reported to lurk in the fields, woodlands, and valleys of the Middle to Southern portion of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania has Amish colonies that have, in a way, become one of the state's most notable features. The humble and hardworking societies that dot the state are mostly located in the southern portion of Lancaster County. Lancaster County is, in fact, the largest and oldest Amish community in the United States, with an approximate population of 30,000. They are mostly known for their strong Christian beliefs, salt of the earth lifestyle, simple clothes, their shunning of modern technology, which results in probably their most famous attribute, their usage of horses and buggies. They are master craftsmen and cooks and have a rich folklife and folk history that is fascinating to study.

I stated earlier that this case is very problematic in many ways. It is beyond just problematic that to the point it's a mess. The beginnings of this are even in the location of the sighting. The first article that was written on this particular beast appeared in the January 1974 edition of the Pursuit newsletter in the article "And Still the Reports Roll in". In the article, the location of the sightings is in an area known as "the Big Valley" in Lancaster, Pa. Upon doing some digging, there currently is no area in Lancaster, Pa known as "the Big Valley". However, there is an area in both Mifflin and Huntingdon County called the Kishacoquillas Valley that is referred to as “the Big Valley," and it was settled by a group of Amish around 1791. There is still a striving population of Amish in the area, which is currently around 3,000. This area is around a 2hr drive from Lancaster, and it could be possible either through the assumption that the Amish witnesses were from Lancaster or simply a misunderstanding that when the article was written up, the location was placed in the wrong area of the state. Another possibility, even though it is easy to point out this discrepancy, yet to give the writer his due, that there very well could have been an area known as "the Big Valley" in Lancaster. The sighting occurred in 1973, and if this were some locally known name for a particular stretch of farmland or some community itself, the name and location then could be accurate. It is boggling the number of businesses and places that pop up and are shut down because of one reason or another, so this could be an example of that. Trying to find information on this possible hypothesis, however, currently proves fruitless. Hence why I refer to the beast as the Amish Country Goose Grabber instead of the Lancaster Goose Grabber or the Huntingdon County Goose Grabber.

The weird case of the Wood Eating Amish Country Goose Grabber, though, would occur in the summer of 1973. The Big Valley area would be besieged over the course of three evenings by this creature's strange and unsightly rampage across the local farms resulting in the loss of both livestock and tools. The first encounter occurred one late evening when two Amish brothers on horseback were finishing their day's work by bringing into their barn a load of hay. It was just as the sun was starting to dip lower in the sky that the horses began to behave strangely. They began to buck and neigh as though some unseen predator was in their midst. The brothers searched the fields of their farm, looking for a coyote, bear, or some other possible danger. As they stared out in a particular section of the field, they noticed a strange moving figure that seemed to come near them. The brothers looked as the figure approached yet remained unalarmed since the way the figure was running made them think it was a relative or neighbor coming to tell them supper was done or possibly to come help finish the chores for the day. As the figure came closer, however, the brother's eyes widened as the gray blob became clearer to them, and they realized that this was not a human but a strange beast running like a man. They could make this strange creature out as it came closer. Adorned on the top of its heads were two long horns like a Billy goat or rams. The creature was covered in gray fur and around its neck, and possibly its head was a white mane, the creature was as big as a good size cow with long legs, its mouth had large tiger-like fangs, it came closer to the men where they noticed the beast's large hands that were tipped with grizzly claws. The horses bolted and bucked the men off, and the two fell onto the dry ground.

The men stood and waited for their inevitable end, but the creature ran past them, and some reports claim it grabbed a chicken and ran back into the woods. The men ran off to their home and proceeded to tell their family about their experience. They returned to the area where the horses were still out and had begun to calm down and searched the ground for tracks to determine what the animal was and where it could have gone to. Yet because of the lack of rain in the recent days, the ground was dry, and no tracks could be found. The men terrified by the encounter decided that this creature was not something he, his family, and his neighbors could deal with and went to the police with their encounter. Apparently, nothing was done.

The next evening at a farm about 5 miles from the initial encounter, the landowner was out cutting the ever-growing weeds on his property when he heard a loud and ferocious roar the creature in a similar fashion as what was seen at the brother's farm happened as the beast began charging towards the farmer. The farmer, in fear, raised the hand scythe he was using to remove the pesky weeds as the creature came closer to where he stood. The farmer realizing that this creature was potentially coming to end his life, took a swing at the beast with his gardening tool. Yet it was in a moment of horror that the farmer realized he was no match for this strange abomination as in one swift motion, the creature beat the tool out of the farmer's hands before it could make connection with the beast's flesh. It was in that moment that the man of the soil saw the beast and described it the same as the way the brothers did with only two differences, the first being it bore three horns as opposed to two and the second being that it had a long tail.  The man began to run away after seeing his tool now in the grizzly bear handed beast's grip. The beast did not follow, but what the beast did with this tool would not go unnoticed as it began to gnaw and chew and swallow the handle of the scythe. The next day in the spot of where the beast was seen with his scythe was the blade and bolts, all that was left of the farmer's tool. There is some issue on this part of the account as some sources say the beast did this in front of the farmer, whereas others say he simply found his tool handle gone the next day. The investigators who would later arrive on the scene would later comment that the beast's sudden wood craving was due to the fact the creature was craving salt because of the summer heatwave.

The third, final, and arguably most comical encounter with this strange beast occurred at a farm midway between the two previous farms. An Amish woman out feeding her chickens and attending to other needs of the farm was distracted by the sound of a loud cacophony of fowl noises. The sound was not the usual honking and clucking she was used to but the sound as though the animals were scared and worried. As she looked up, she saw the creature that her fowl friends and food had tried to warn her of. She saw it slinking around where her largest geese were and watched as the beast reached down and grabbed the biggest two, one in each hand/paw. The beast looked up and realized the geese's rightful owner was watching began to run away towards the woods. The Amish woman, in a moment that some could argue as brave, others as suicidal or foolish, began to then chase the beast down. She was waving her apron at the creature and yelling as she ran towards the strange beast. The animal, either annoyed by its pursuer or simply not wanting to get caught, did one of the most hilarious and frightening things it could have done. It, looking down at its hands, stopped and with what could only be a fraction of its strength threw the goose at the poor woman. The goose, assumedly dead, hit the woman with such a force that the poor woman fell on her back, and she lay on the ground as the creature made its way into the wooded terrain with one of its quarries.

That was the last known encounter of the Wood Eating Amish Country Goose Grabber.  It has since been one of the weirdest cases on record, and while it has appeared in several books on the subject of Cryptozoology, it usually is summed up in a paragraph. It is an obscure topic that terrorized an Amish Community to the point of them seeking outside help, something that tends to point to a sort of authenticity to the case. As with most cryptid cases were left with more questions than answers, and this case is one of the largest amounts of unanswered questions for me personally. This creature, for example, even with its description in regard to the mane, is it like a horse's mane or a lion's mane or something entirely different? The hands are sometimes referred to as paws like a grizzlies or long clawed hands, and upon reading all the information I've come across, it seems intermixedly in every source. I commented on the wood-eating incident and when the wood of the scythe was eaten remains a mixed mystery. Yet unfortunately, this case is almost 50 years old, so the eyewitnesses are either extremely old or deceased, and the fact that they are anonymous makes finding them impossible. So, we are unfortunately left with the material given and a vast amount of questions. With that said, there are things that we can speculate on, like, as always, what it could be.

The most skeptical possibility is of a misidentification, possibly of a gray or blonde colored black bear or a piebald bear. Black bears are reported across the United States and Canada, and while mostly reported to be black in color, there is an incredible range of colors that they can appear as from brown or blondish bears seen in the Western USA, White and light brown seen in British Columbia, bluish-gray as seen in Alaska. While there are a ton of variations in black bear color in Pennsylvania, black is the predominant color, yet we do have what is referred to as Cinnamon bears, which are of a browner color. There is the possibility that an alternative-colored bear could be the cause of this sighting, but it seems unlikely. Especially when you look at how this creature moves and behaves, it's something much less bear-like, and even its description implies that it cannot be a bear since bears do not have horns.

The next likely possibility is of a Bigfoot. A Bigfoot would match the behavior and some elements of the description reported of the Amish Country creature. Bigfoot has been reported with gray fur and is famous for disturbing horses and stealing livestock. Even during the filming of the Patterson Gimlin film, the horses behaved erratically when in the presence of a sasquatch. The fact that the creature seen also runs bipedally adds more to this hypothesis. There are, however, several features that do not seem to indicate that this creature is a bigfoot though. For one, the creature seen has horns, which is something bigfoot do not have. The fact that the creature had long claws and tiger-like fangs are also something that does not match a typical bigfoot description. Another feature is that this creature has a mane, and while it is not stated what kind of mane is represented, it's something that bigfoot does not typically own.

One of the most interesting possibilities that I’d heard proposed was by J. Nathan Couch in his book Goatman: Flesh or Folklore?  in it, he proposes that this phenomenon was actually connected to another caprine-like beast. This strange Goatman he was connecting to this case was, of course, the Sheepman of Waterford; he proposes that since the Sheepman was seen in the 70s and assumedly around the same time as when the Wood Eating Amish Country Goose Grabber. The idea that the Sheepman of Waterford basically went on vacation to the Amish Country to what it seems simply to sample that super tasty Amish cuisine is fantastic and possibly something that I honestly love the idea of it. The possibility that this is, in fact, the same species as seen in Waterford adds to the idea that there is, in fact, a breeding population of these beasts adding a more biological twist to a phenomenon often connected with the occult.

Another creature that is very similar to the creature reported in the Amish country is the infamous Sheepsquatch. I've written about this albino monstrosity, what seems to be countless times, and am surprised at how many times this creature could be behind a variety of other cryptid reports. The Sheepsquatch is about the same height and color as the creature seen in the Amish lands, as well as bearing the horns and fangs seen. The Sheepsquatch's hands are often described as resembling paws with long claws, which is interestingly not unlike what was reported in 1973. Even in the second encounter, when the witness claimed the creature had a tail is something that matches with the Sheepsquatch. Of course, the big problem with this is that Sheepsquatch is reported to live in the Appalachian mountainous areas of Kentucky and West Virginia and not the open fields of Pennsylvania.

While a Goatman or Sheepsquatch might very well be the answer to this mystery, there is also the possibility that what was seen in Pennsylvania may be a new animal yet undescribed even from a Cryptozoological standpoint. This creature is something that, while similar to a variety of the previously listed beasts, does have some features that seem to be entirely specific to it alone. If this creature, for example, eats wood not due to some lack of nourishment but as a food source, that would be something incredibly different than what has been seen in a lot of species. The creature is clearly intelligent; however, if it is a new animal for not many species would throw an object, let alone a goose, to knock down a pursuer so it can escape swiftly so it would be interesting to see what this creature could be.

Another possibility is obviously that this creature could be a demonic creature or supernatural beast. There are obviously those of a more religious mindset that would view this creature as some agent engaged in spiritual warfare against the faith-oriented community. It is also worth noting that Goatmen or goatlike creatures are constantly connected with evil or dark forces of nature, and since this creature seemed to act aggressively in two of the accounts, it is always possible that that could be the case here. It is unlikely, however, as the way the community treated this creature, they viewed it as a biological animal and, from what we can glean from the article, not some supernatural threat requiring prayer or some other dogmatic rite of exorcism to rid themselves of the bizarre aberration.

While doing research on this subject, I did come across a creature known as The Goat Baby. This creature is a supernatural beast that was birthed by an Amish woman named Ruth and a man named Ezekiel from Lancaster who had sex outside of wedlock. The case occurred on the show Amish Hauntings and featured the granddaughter of the woman who claimed to of given birth to the creature around the early 1930s. She claimed the early days of the creature’s life were cared for by the grandfather, whose sole duty was to keep the beast quiet and to stop it from escaping. The mother of the beast, however, wanted to train her child to be more like what her beliefs should be and proceeded to take the creature to church. As a baby, however, the beast cried and fussed and escaped its mother's arms revealing the hooved monster to the church congregation. This resulted in the family being shunned and the creature, after a horse and buggy chase escaping into the woods. The creature now allegedly attacks both people and livestock when winter comes, and an offering of warm food is placed out to appease the creature. The creature even has some eyewitnesses such as fellow Amish Jedediah and Mervin Troyer, who supposedly heard both the beast cries and hooves as well as experienced the loss of a prized goat, which they claim was the result of the Goat Baby.

This case, while clearly drenched in folklore and religious mythology, does have some comparisons to other cryptids. The tale instantly makes me think of the Jersey Devil and Mother Leeds and the in-between relationship they had, depending on the version of the tale. There is even a possible biological relation to an actual animal since a lot of these kills are in the winter when animals in pens would be a more available target than other species. Yet the tale of the Goat Baby seems to be a mixed case, something that could describe a child with a birth defect, folktale, and to explain some of the modern sightings a possible cryptozoological phenomenon intertwined with the story. It is interesting that Pennsylvania does seem to have horned and hoofed visitors that are in a close range from each other, so possibly the Goat Baby and the beast seen in 1973 could be related.

While there are certainly even more bizarre beasts out there plaguing and wandering throughout the United States, the Wood Eating Amish Country Goose Grabber has always been one of my favorite obscure creatures for obvious reasons. It is something that has a lot of similarities to other phenomenon but at the same time is so unique that it does not seem to fit in the natural order of things. In that way, it is a mystery that will endure until the ancestors of the witnesses or even possibly the witnesses themselves come forward with more information on what they saw and the problems that have been passed down in each retelling of the events. There may even be more creatures seen to this day that the community has not branched out to talk about yet. Maybe someday, some individuals will come forward and say that this creature did not stop its wood-eating and goose grabbing in 73' but continues to chew on tools and goose grab to this very day, and I really hope that is the case.

Quick Facts:

Species/Potential Species: Mammal, (possible Hominid according to some researchers)

Location: "Big Valley" Amish Communities either Lancaster, Mifflin, or Huntingdon Counties, Pennsylvania

Sighted: Summer 1973

Works Cited

Bord, Janet, and Colin Bord. Bigfoot Casebook Updated: Sightings and Encounters from 1818 to 2004. Pine Winds Press. 2006.

Couch, J. Nathan. Goatman: Flesh or Folklore?. CreateSpace Independent Publishing. 2014.

Flick, Warren. “Amish Country: Out and About in the Big Valley of Pennsylvania” Later Living. January 7, 2019. https://www.laterlivingblog.com/amish-country-out-and-about-in-the-big-valley-of-pennsylvania/. Accessed January 3, 2021.

Godfrey, Linda. I Know What I Saw: Modern-Day Encounters with Monsters of New Urban Legend and Ancient Lore. TarcherPerigee. 2019.

Miller, Matthew L. “When Is a Black Bear Actually a Blue Bear?” Cool Green Science. February 7, 2017. https://blog.nature.org/science/2017/02/07/when-black-bear-actually-blue-bear-color-phases-grizzly-identification/. Accessed January 2, 2021.

Newton, Michael. Strange Pennsylvania Monsters. Schiffer Publishing. 2012.

Wilson, Patty A. Monsters of Pennsylvania: Mysterious Creatures in the Keystone State. Stackpole Books. 2010.

“Amish History & Beliefs” Discover Lancaster.https://www.discoverlancaster.com/amish/history-beliefs/#:~:text=The%20Pennsylvania%20Amish%20community%20in,in%20the%20past%2020%20years. Accessed January 2, 2021.

“Kishacoquillas Valley”. Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. September 15, 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kishacoquillas_Valley. Accessed January 2, 2021.

Allen V. Noe "And Still the Reports Roll in". Pursuit Newsletter. Volume 1 No. 7. January 1974.