166. Sheepsquatch

0:14 Welcome to West Virginia Travelers. Prepare to immerse yourself in rich cultural heritage, from lively festivals celebrating Appalachian music and dance to quaint towns steeped in history. Indulge in hearty Southern cuisine, savoring the flavors of traditional Appalachian fare. Served with a side of genuine Southern hospitality. Experience the thrill of outdoor adventures as you hike through dense forests, kayak down winding rivers, or marvel at breathtaking vistas from atop the majestic peaks. Embrace the tranquillity of nature as you explore sprawling wilderness and discover hidden gems around every corner. But be warned, as you traverse these untamed landscapes, you might come across something that you weren't expecting.

1:00 Deep in the remote forest is a large white beast. Eyewitness reports to this monster say that you can expect to have your flesh ripped from bone as it grabs you with its raccoon like paws and sinks its fangs into your throat. That is after it has rammed you senseless with its large goat like horns. All that to say, you won't stand a chance against this 8 foot carnivorous predator. Remember this cautionary Jingle. If you're out in the woods and start to smell sulfur, run, run, run. Or else you'll die. I think you get the point anyway. Whether you're seeking adventure, relaxation, or simply a taste of authentic Appalachian culture, West Virginia welcomes you with open arms.

1:47 Welcome back to Infinite Rabbit Hole. Imagine this. Line represents the time as of 1985 Future Past prior to this point in time. Somewhere. Here in the past, the timeline you got into this tangent creating an ultimate 1985 alternate view near Einstein reality for everyone else.

2:31 You heard it travellers, We're exploring the woods of West Virginia today. Well, not really the woods, but what's in the woods rather? Have you ever heard of the sheep squatch? Honestly, when Jeremy came at me with this episode idea and I heard the name sheep Squatch, I immediately thought, well it was some kind of Bigfoot type creature and that's not the case. But I'm sure that's what you would think too if you hadn't ever heard of the sheep squatch. This is the second episode in the mini doc series, right after Loveland Frogman, because the sheep squatch is not very well known.

3:11 Actually, it's probably more well known now due to being able to be found in the new video game Fallout 76, where they have a abundance of cryptids and one of them is the sheep Squatch. But outside of the small area of West Virginia where this Cryptid resides, it's not very well known. As a matter of fact, there aren't very many sightings or accounts of it, and it's very much similar to the Loveland Frogman in just it's not very prevalent in the cryptozoology community. But either way, I'm sure that you'll enjoy this episode as I enjoyed writing it for y'all.

3:54 And without further ado, we'll get into it. Said to be located in the Point Pleasant TNT area and as far north as Rivesville, about 150 miles northeast, the sheep squatch or white thing can be a variety of sizes and shapes, whether it's walking on two legs and eight feet tall or walking on all fours and somewhere around the size of a bear. What remains to be consistent is that it has white fur, long fangs, and seems to prey on livestock, hence the name Sheep Squatch. Sheep Squatch go by several names depending on who's telling the story. A more familiar name to you might be the Morgan's Ridge Monster, due to what may be the first string of sightings, or at least stories about this fluffy fanged beast.

4:43 During the 1920s, a mine located near Morgan's Ridge had become the location of many mutilated sheep and sightings of the possible predator. One man named William O'dell, his son, and several farm hands had a run in with a mysterious creature on their farm. It was a rainy night and the party had heard a loud scream outside in the sheep pasture, so grabbing their guns they went to investigate the disturbance. It was only shortly after that they came across the outline of some sort of unfamiliar beast. The men took aim and fired at it and believed that their aim was true due to a loud painful shriek that was heard, but due to the weather decided to investigate the following morning when hopefully would be clear when the sun rose. The next day the group went back to the spot and we're hoping to find the body of whatever it was that they had attempted to guard their sheep against.

5:35 Instead though, they found not the body of the beast, but the corpses of four of Odell's sheep mutilated with slash throats, and there was a surprising lack of blood in the area. The following night it had started to rain once again, and again a loud scream was heard in the pasture. This time the men ran out right away and once again encountered the mysterious creature. This time though, after shooting it, they rushed to the spot with lanterns in hand to see what they had hit. But once again, there was no monster, just another dead sheep with the same mutilated remains. After that night though, it seems that the beast had enough because it never came back to harass the Odell farm or kill any more of his sheep. Another report in the 1920s came from a miner named Frank Kozol, who had come across the beast but described it to be white and doglike with a thick bushy tail.

6:31 He's returning home after his shift had ended and was confronted along the way As the creature snarled at him. He attempted to defend himself with his lunch box, but the thing seemed to be like a ghost because the lunch box apparently passed right through it. Frank then made a run for it and it gave chase. The pursuit ended, however, when Frank came up on a local cemetery he decided to take refuge in and the thing vanished into thin air. Honestly, this story's given me phantom black dog vibes. The next mention of the beast was several decades later in 1965 from a book titled The Tell Tale, Lilac, Bush and Other West Virginia Ghost tales by a folklorist named Ruth Ann Music.

7:15 In her book story #92 titled The White Thing, there's a short story where the white Thing was seen by a woman who is riding her horse from church and a beast with razor sharp fangs and white fur that was bigger than a dog but smaller than a horse came crashing through the trees. The monster chased her for a time, but eventually faded away Into Darkness. Upon arriving home, the woman put the horse away in the barn and the next day found her mare to be dead in the barn with most of its flesh ripped from its bones. Now to be fair, I don't believe that this is an actual account of an encounter unless it was told to Ruth while she was writing her book. This is probably just a story describing a local legend. The next documented sightings didn't occur until the early 1990s.

8:05 In 1994, there were two sightings, 1 by a former sailor in the United States Navy who was walking through the forest, and also by some children who were playing in their yard in Boone County. The man said he viewed it for several minutes as it drank from a Creek and then, seemingly without noticing him, decided to move on with its route through the trees. However, when the children saw what they described to be a large white bear standing on its hind legs, it did notice them and took off right into the woods. The creature was spotted again a year later in 1995, this time in an encounter involving a couple driving through Boone County who saw a large white beasts sitting in a ditch alongside the road. Curious, they stopped their car to get a closer look. They described the creature as mostly similar to earlier reports, but added that it had four eyes. Unlike previous sightings where the sheep squatch fled, this time the creature leapt out of the ditch and attacked the car. Terrified, the couple speed away and upon reaching home they discovered large scratches on the side of their car where the beast had struck.

9:17 Another incident in 1999 involved a couple of people camping close to their home who were gathered around a bonfire at night. They heard an animal snorting and scuffling around camp, similar to an aggravated bear, though it stayed out of the campfire's light. Suddenly the sheep squatch charged out of the darkness towards them. Reacting quickly, they jumped up and ran back to their house, pursued by the creature. The sheep squatch stopped at the edge of the forest and let out a terrible scream before returning back to the woods. The next morning, the campers returned to their campsite and found the area and the trail home all torn up, describing it as if someone had tilled it up for gardening.

10:00 The last reported incident with this sheep squatch came from 2015 in Fawkes Run, Virginia. The beast was spotted once again in the forest of Appalachia. 6 Campers spending the night in the dense woods reported seeing the creature close to midnight. The beast was described as 8 to 9 feet tall with a shoulder width of four to five feet. One camper first saw the creature crouching at the top of a nearby hill. When it stood up, he alerted the others. The beast began running down the steep hill toward the campers, but a river separated them. They watched in horror as it searched for a way to cross, eventually wading through the river. Emerging from the river, it appeared to be like a bipedal dog, and it's fur was wet from the crossing. Suddenly a loud, guttural screech was heard about two miles away.

10:50 The sheep's watch looked up in shock, its face illuminated by the moonlight, and it let out a pathetic whimper before sprinting away from the noise. The terrified campers quickly got packed up and left, reporting the incident to the locals but not the authorities. Fearing ridicule. The identity of the campers remains unknown. And that's it. Travellers. Those are the accounts. Now, this appears to have the same vibes as a lot of other local cryptids. There's a bunch of reports, but nearly no names are given and no newspaper clippings or any information on where the report was originally published. So personally I don't give stories like this much weight in reality.

11:35 That being said, if we look at consistencies in the reports, it appears to be large and white and sometimes aggressive. Let's try to tie this in with an animal that's known to exist but is extremely rare. Spirit bears, or Kermode bears are an albino subspecies of black bear and are said to be the rarest bears in the world and only known to reside in small sections of British Columbia, Canada. Could one or more of these bears also live in the dense forests of Boone County, West Virginia? Sure they could. It's probably more likely that there are a naturally occurring subspecies of black bears there than a four eyed horned bear like monster Between the size of a dog and a horse living in the woods, which I find hilarious. Somewhere between the size of a dog and a horse. You know, like 1000 LB weight difference. However, the sheep squatch entity isn't alone in the world of Bovidae legends.

12:36 From Pan and the story of Jason and the Argonauts retrieving the Golden Fleece of Greek mythology to recent sightings of the Goat Man of Pacheco Pass in California, it seems that humans have always been surrounded by some sort of legends regarding these split hooved animals. Perhaps it's due to the close relationship mankind has had with them throughout history. Either way, this is just my take on the topic. But if you've had a first hand sighting of the legendary sheep squatch and want to come on and tell us about it, then by all means hit us up on the Infant or Rabbit Hole Facebook group. Or shoot us an e-mail at infant or rabbithole@gmail.com. But that's it Travelers, this has been the legend of the sheep squatch of Boone County, West Virginia.

13:19 Thank you so much for joining us and we'll see you next time down the next fork of the infant or rabbit hole. Bye. I would like to thank you once again for tuning into the Infinite Rabbit Hole Podcast. Please make sure to give us a follow and one of those beautiful five star ratings on your podcast player of choice. If you would like to join the conversation and stay up to date on all things Infinite Rabbit Hole, head on over to Facebook and search for the Infinite Rabbit Hole Facebook group. You'll know it's us when you see the logo. If you would like to help contribute to the 'cause, there are a few ways to do so. First, head on over to anchor dot FN forward slash infant rabbit hole and click on the subscribe button, where for $5 a month you'll get access to all our old episodes that we'll never see the free spotlight ever again. It's horrible stuff, but if you're into that kind of thing then go check that.

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