Sheepsquatch

 

The sheepsquatch is a cryptid from various wilderness locations around West Virginia, mostly in Boone county, but also the famed TNT area, and even in neighbouring states. It’s rather poorly named, as it has little to do with sheep and nothing to do with sasquatch. What sheepsquatch is not, is a ram horned, humanoid, goatman. Although there’s plenty of confusion on this subject, resulting in sheepsquatching being depicted as such in media. The sheepsquatch is a white hairy beast of some variety. Because of this, sheepsquatch has often been categorized with other white, hairy cryptids of the Appalachians, such as the white things, devil dogs, and even the white bigfoots of southern Pennsylvania, which is likely how sheepsquatch ended up with squatch in its name. Adding to the confusion, goatmen have also been seen in similar parts of West Virginia, although they’re usually brown or black in colour.

Likely the source of the misconception about sheepsquatch’s appearance, aside from its name at least, was an episode of Monsters and Mysteries in America. It was this show, that not only first depicted the sheepsquatch as an unusually hairy goatman, but also introduced it to the wider world outside of rural West Virginia. Since then other televisions shows have followed suit, such as Mountain Monster, and it even appeared as such in the video game Fallout 76.

What sheepsquatch actually looks like, according the eyewitness accounts, is a quadrupedal animal with an overall bear shaped body. Although it primarily moves on all fours, it has the ability to rear up and even take a few awkward steps on two legs, much like a bear. It’s head is large, rounded and the eyes low on the head, and is described as being a mix of bison and badger. The creature has a long sabre like set of fangs and predatory teeth. It has as set of horns, which are small for its size, and gently curve back, not making a full ram’s horn spiral. This, and the shaggy white fur is where the sheep part of its name originates. The beast’s legs end in hairless, long fingered, raccoon or opossum like hands. It also has a long, opossum like tail. The beast is covered in long, shaggy fur, which is often matted and filthy. The fur is alternately described as grey with a noticeable white undercoat, or white but discoloured with filth. The sheepsquatch is large, about the size of a bull.

The sheepquatch also has a sulphur smell, which is sometimes overpowering. Some people has suggested the sulphur smell is due to the sheepsquatch being demonic in origin, but it’s just as likely it picked up the smell from living in swampy environments. One such environment being the notorious TNT area of mothman fame, which is still highly polluted with compounds used for manufacturing explosives.

Witness accounts of sheepsquatch stay remarkably close to this description with little variation, except for one notable sighting. Local legend of the sheepsquatch dates back long before it became known to the wider world. However sightings with specific dates and details mostly come from the 1990’s.

There were two sightings of sheepsquatch in 1994. The first happened in Mason County, in McClintic Wildlife Area, better known as the TNT Area. An ex-Navy Seal named Edward Rawlins was out in the wildlife management area looking for mothman. He was out trying to verify the stories of mothman for himself. Surprisingly but ingeniously, his reasoning was to try to disprove mothman in a scientific manner. And if he was unable to do this then he would have proven, to himself at least, that mothman did exist. While walking along a creek, he heard something large moving through the bushes. Mr Rawlins froze. The sheepsquatch emerged from the underbrush in front of him. It drank from the stream and then wandered off towards the nearby road. The whole time the creature paid no attention to Mr Rawlins. Once he was certain the sheepsquatch was far enough away he turned and ran back to his parked car in the opposite direction.

The second sighting of 1994 happened in Boone County. Two children were playing in their back yards when the sheepsquatch emerged from the forest. It reared up on its hind legs like a bear, standing over six feet tall. The sheepsquatch then spotted the children, became startled and ran back into the forest.

 The next sighting happened next year in 1995, again in Boone County. Amy Sharp and her boyfriend were driving along a rural road at 8pm. Along the way, they saw a large white object beside a car resting in the ditch. They pulled over to check on the other car, in case any occupants needed assistance. It was then that they saw the large white thing was in fact a creature, the sheepsquatch. They described the sheepsquatch in a similar manner to everyone else, except for one unusual difference, the beast had four eyes. The sheepsquatch turned and attacked their car with its long claws. The couple drove off terrified. Once they reached home, they noticed their car had large scratch marks where the beast had attacked them.

In 1999, again in Boone County, some locals were camping in the forested extent of their own property, within some walking distance to their house. They were sitting around the camp fire when they heard something snorting and rummaging around the ground. At first they assumed it was a black bear. The campers clapped their hands and yelled out to scare the bear off. The thing wandering around in the darkness then charged at them, coming within reach of the campfire light. The campers could see it was not an ordinary black bear. Terrified by the unknown beast they ran back to their house, with the sheepsquatch chasing close after them. Once they reached the mowed part of their lawn the sheepsquatch gave up the chase and made a loud screech before ran back into the forest. The next morning the campers returned to their camp only to find their equipment destroyed and the ground scratched up by the beast.

The next sighting happened in 2015, in Fulks Run, Virginia. Six campers saw the creature around midnight. In their encounter the sheepsquatch was quite a bit larger, reaching 8 to 9 feet high when it reared up. One of the campers first saw the sheepsquatch on a nearby hill. He told the others. The whole group watched the beast as it made its way down the hill towards the river on the edge of camp. At this point the campers were fascinated by the creature, but believed they were still safe, being separate from it by the river. Then the sheepsquatch stood up on its hind legs and awkwardly waded across the river. The campers stood frozen with fear, not knowing where they could run to in time. As the sheepsquatch was emerging on the close side of the river the campers heard a loud screech off in the forest, somewhere beyond the hill the sheepsquatch had come from. The sheepsquatch also looked up towards the source of the sound. It then ran off on all fours back into the forest, away from the campers and the sound. The campers packed up their things and left for their cars, not wanting a return visit from the beast they just saw, or whatever was capable of frightening it off.

Sources

https://cryptidz.fandom.com/wiki/Sheepsquatch

https://cryptonautpodcast.com/podcast-episodes/343-sheepsquatch-birth-of-a-legend/