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 22nd 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.
