West Virginia Cryptids Tour - Clio

Entries on This Tour

1. Mothman Museum and Monument

Dedicated in 2003, the Mothman sculpture in Point Pleasant celebrates the legends that surround one of West Virginia's most bizarre and beloved mythical creatures. The sculpture is adjacent to the Mothman Museum which opened in 2005 and offers exhibits related to the first "Mothman sightings" of the 1960s and Mothman's transition from rumor and superstition to a regional cultural icon. While most residents attributed the sightings to a barn owl that is on display at the museum, the legend of a mythical Mothman persists in the form of folk tales and an annual Mothman festival.

2. Braxton County Monster Crash Site

The crash landing of the "extraterrestrial" Braxton County Monster (a.k.a Green Monster, Flatwoods Monster, Flatwoods Phantom) on September 12,1952 sent shock waves throughout the country. This event took place during the height of McCarthyism and the Red Scare; as such, the phenomena was attributed both to the US Government and the USSR as possible secret weapons testing gone awry. Gray Barker, the man who proposed the concept of "Men in Black," was inspired by the Monster.

3. 'Blue Devil' Scare of 1939-1940

The triangle of hills between the towns of Jumbo and Grassy Creek in Webster County, West Virginia is home to the largest cluster of reported sightings of the “Blue Devil.” These sightings, which occurred in the winter of 1939-1940, described a bluish, doglike creature larger than a pony that prowled the area late at night and emitted a ghostly howl. According to many in Webster County, the animal was responsible for the deaths of a growing number of livestock over the period it stalked the land. Eventually the creature began making appearances in neighboring Randolph County, where residents joined the Valley Head Rod and Gun Club in offering a reward for its death totaling $400 (over $7200 today). Anyone interested in trying to catch a glimpse of the “Blue Devil” today may do so by traveling down scenic Grassy Creek Road in Webster County between Jumbo and Grassy Creek.

4. Grafton Monster Sighting

At this location Grafton Sentinel reporter Robert Cockrell made one of the first – and by far the best known – sightings of the alleged West Virginia cryptid known as the “Grafton Monster” or “Beast of Grafton.” Cockrell made the sighting on June 16, 1964 while driving home from work after 11 PM on Riverside Drive along the Tygart River, describing what he encountered as seven to nine feet tall, four feet wide, and white with seal-like skin. Though Cockrell’s editors at the Sentinel immediately dismissed reports of a “monster” in Grafton, the town’s residents quickly began a massive search of the area over the following weeks and the legend of a local “beast” soon spread across the state. Today the Grafton Monster is one of the most well-known West Virginia cryptids and cryptozoologists and enthusiasts frequent the town every year in their search for evidence of the beast’s existence. The town placed a sign at the site in 2018 to commemorate Cockrell’s 1964 sighting, but a theft of the sign shortly thereafter motivated its relocation to the downtown area upon its recovery.

5. Monongahela River Monster/Ogua Sighting

The confluence of the Monongahela River and Paw Paw Creek in Rivesville, West Virginia is the site of one of the most famous alleged sightings of what has become known as the “Ogua,” a word supposedly borrowed from the Delawares or Shawnees. Although such sightings are recorded as early as the eighteenth century, the most well-known is the encounter of Fairmont coal miner John Edward White while night-fishing at this location in the summer of 1983. White’s description of what he saw was less detailed than those of others, but included a glimpse of a “serpentine tail” that quickly led readers of his account to draw the connection with earlier ones that depicted a large, turtle-like beast with two heads, a long tail, and a penchant for dragging its victims to an underwater lair. Such accounts may describe an alligator or alligator snapping turtle that made its way northward from the Gulf Coast, incidents with the latter being recorded as far north as Maine. Regardless, Ogua sightings offer historians a unique opportunity to draw connections between the rumor mills of the colonial borderlands and those of deindustrializing Cold War America. Anyone interested in searching for the Ogua themselves may do so from the pedestrian walkway located on the bridge crossing the Paw Paw Creek where it meets the Monongahela.

6. White Thing/Sheepsquatch Sighting

Throughout the twentieth century, a cluster of reported sightings of a cryptid specific to West Virginia known variously as the “White Thing” or “Sheepsquatch” have occurred on a mountain range that traverses Monongalia and Marion Counties known as Morgan’s Ridge. Those who have reported these sightings describe a beast of varying sizes with white shaggy fur and long fangs that emits a chilling scream and alternates between moving on two legs and four. Though a number of individuals have claimed they saw this monster over the years the most well-documented case is that of coal miner Frank Kozul in 1929, who reported seeing the beast while walking to his home in Fairmont one night in July through the woods on Morgan’s Ridge somewhere in this vicinity. Tales like Kozul’s wove themselves into the folklore of the area, convincing many of their veracity despite some local residents later admitting to banging on neighbors’ houses and screeching to spread stories of the monster as teenagers. Regardless, anyone interested in trying to catch their own glimpse of the monster may follow in Kozul’s footsteps along what is now US 19.

This Tour is a Walking Tour.

West Virginia Cryptids Tour

Created by Nathan Wuertenberg on October 24th 2019, 6:38:01 pm.

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Description

Alleged encounters with cryptids of various shapes and sizes have a long history in the state of West Virginia, a history that has most recently been recognized in the Bethesda Studios video games Fallout 76. The most famous of these supposed creatures by far is the Mothman, first sighted in the town of Point Pleasant in 1966. Since then, the Mothman has gone on to become the central figure in a bevy of books, documentaries, and a 2002 Richard Gere film based on the 1975 book The Mothman Prophecies. The Mothman is not the only – or first – West Virginia cryptid, however. Creatures like the Ogua, Sheepsquatch, Grafton Monster, Flatwoods Monster, and Blue Devil have also received their fair share of notoriety in the state over the years. Take this tour to learn more about each of these Mountain State monsters: descriptions of claimed sightings, possible explanations for their appearance, and explorations of the historical context surrounding their rise in popularity.

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