Appalachian Mountains Folklore: Monsters, Demons and Ghosts

Photo depicting the Bigfoot statue from the Shawnee National Forest in Illinois, United States. Photo by Bloodyboppa on Wikimedia

Appalachian Mountains Folklore: Monsters, Demons and Ghosts

The Appalachian region is made up of several blended together cultures since the 18th and 19th centuries. Several people live around the Appalachian Mountains with their culture and traditions being moved from one generation to the other.

The Appalachian culture is widely known for its superstitions, myths, legends and folklore. Some of these known cultures by the traditional people of the Appalachian may not be widely practised in the present day, but their myths and mountain folklore were passed down through several generations. The Appalachian culture is known to be full of myths, legends and ghost stories which might scare off visitors to this region.

Here are the Appalachian Mountains Folklore: Monsters, Demons and Ghosts;

1. The Bell Witch

Signs at the entrance to the Bell Witch cave promote ghost tourism in Adams, Tennessee. Photo by BRad06 on Wikimedia

Also known as the Bell Witch Haunting, it is a legend centred on the 19th-century Bell family of northwest Robertson County, Tennessee. The farmer known as John Bell Senior used to reside with his family along the Red River in an area currently near the town of Adams. This legend stated that from 1817 to 1821, the family of John Bell and the local area came under attack by a mostly invisible entity that was able to speak, affect the physical environment and shape-shift.

Another record state that the spirit was clairvoyant and capable of crossing long distances with superhuman speed and capable of being in more than one place at a time. The Bell Witch Haunting started when John Bell witnessed the apparition of a strange creature resembling a dog. John tried to fire at the animal but it mysteriously disappeared.

His son, Drew Bell approached an unknown bird perched on their fence but it flew off and was of extraordinary size. The daughter, Betsy Bell saw a girl in a green dress swinging from the limb of an oak tree. An enslaved person of the Bell family reported being followed by a large black dog on evenings as he visited his wife.

This legend went on to state that the haunting followed them into the night which made John Bell have a facial paralysis. However, the modern-day theory has been deemed to have been built on fictional aspects.

2. Bigfoot

Photo depicting the Bigfoot statue from the Shawnee National Forest in Illinois, United States. Photo by Bloodyboppa on Wikimedia

The Bigfoot tales were told by many of the indigenous tribes of the Appalachian Trail where they claimed that mysterious hair-covered creatures lived in forests. Some of these legends existed way long before the contemporary stories of Bigfoot. These stories varied in their details both regionally and between families living in the same community.

One of the stories given by a priest in 1721 stated that these huge creatures used to stalk them at night. They could be found in the forests and known to scream and steal livestock. The Sts’ailes people usually tell stories about Bigfoot that is a shape-shifting creature that protects the forest.

Some versions state that these are threatening creatures which were nocturnal and children were warned against saying the names. They were warned as the ‘monsters’ would come and carry them off to be killed. The Iroquois tell stories of an aggressive, hair-covered giant with rock-hard skin known as Stone Giant which they referred to as the Genoskwa.

3. The Brown Mountain Lights

These lights are purported to be ghost lights near Brown Mountain in North Carolina around the Appalachian Mountain area. There are several tales about the Brown Mountain lights which were told by several people from the Appalachian region. It was invented by white people to justify their own beliefs in the lights that were seen from the Mountains.

An older ghost story stated about a woman and a baby who was murdered in the Jonas Ridge community which was used to incorporate the source of the lights. Another ghost story about the lights includes one about a Revolutionary War soldier linked to the Civil War ghosts.

Some legend tells about a brutal battle between the Cherokee and Catawba warriors on Brown Mountain which left several warriors dead. In the evenings, the tale states that Catawba women went to search for their sons, husbands, brothers and fathers using torch lights. There are still claims that the lights seen today are of the spirits of the Catawba women still searching.

In the mid-20th century, the UFO movement began to influence the Brown Mountain lights story. Ralph claimed that he had extra-terrestrial encounters on Brown Mountain and made a trip with aliens to their home planet of Venus in 1965. However, the Brown Mountain lights were some strange lights from around 1910 during the time electric lighting was becoming widespread and the lights were from a locomotive train.

4. The Flatwoods Monster

Artist’s impression of the Flatwoods monster. Photo by Tim Bertelink on Wikimedia

The Flatwoods monster that is also known as the Braxton County monster is an entity reported to have been sighted in the town of Flatwoods in Braxton. Two brothers, Edward and Fred May and their friend Tommy Hyer reported having spotted a bright object cross the sky and land on the property of a local farmer on 12th September 1952 at 7:15 p.m.

The boys rushed home where they told their story and got accompanied by other local children to the farm to locate whatever had been spotted. On top of a hill, they saw a pulsing red light which Lemon aimed a flash to it and saw a tall man-like figure with a round, red face surrounded by a pointed, hood-like shape. May described the figure to have small, claw-like hands, clothing-like folds and a head that resembled the ace of spades.

The figure made terrifying hissing sounds and glided towards them which made Lemon drop his flashlight making the group run for safety. A UFO writer, Gray Barker described the Flatwoods Monster as 10 feet tall, with a round blood-red face, a large pointed hood-like shape around the face, eye-like shapes which emitted greenish-orange light and a dark black or green body. However, it is believed that this was a meteor that had fallen off the sky and the round object was an owl.

5. The Moon-eyed People

Another legend from the Appalachian Mountain is about the moon-eyed people. They are a legendary group of short, bearded white-skinned people who are believed to have lived in the Appalachia region until they were expelled by the Cherokee Indians.

Several stories about the moon-eyed people attributed to Cherokee tradition are mentioned by early European settlers in America. A book by Benjamin Smith Barton of 1797 explained that they were called moon-eyed because they could not see properly during the day. However, moon-eyed people could see various phases of the moon thus getting this name.

Other stories claim the moon-eyed people created the area’s pre-Columbian ruins and they disappeared from the area completely without leaving any trace. Barton’s legend about the moon-eyed people is from a story he heard from Leonard Marbury who was an early European settler in the area.

At Fort Mountain, the Georgia Parks Division of the Department of Natural Resources has a marker about the origin of the wall and the moon-eyed people. The plaque says, “These people are said to have been unable to see during certain phases of the moon. During one of these phases, the Creek people annihilated the race. Some believe the moon-eyed people built the fortifications on this mountain.”

6. The Mothman

Artist’s impression of the Mothman. Photo by Tim Bertelink on Wikimedia

The Mothman is a humanoid creature that was reportedly seen in the Point Pleasant area from November 15th 1966 to December 15th 1967 as per the West Virginia folklore. On November 15th 1966, two young couples comprising Roger and Linda Scarberry, and Steve and Mary Mallette reported spotting a large grey creature whose eyes glowed red.

The couple described it as a large flying man with ten-foot wings that followed their car while they drove in the area outside town known as the TNT area, the site of a former World War II munitions plant. Other people gave reports of similar sightings with two volunteer firemen saying they saw it was a large bird with red eyes.

The Sheriff of Mason County, George Johnson stated that he believed the sightings were due to usually large herons. A contactor known as Newell told the Sheriff that he aimed a flashlight on the creature in a nearby field which had big eyes that glowed like bicycle reflectors.

On 15th December 1967, the collapse of the Silver Bridge and the death of 46 people were connected to the Mothman sightings of the bridge collapse. Robert L Smith, a wildlife biologist told reporters that the descriptions from the sightings fit the sandhill crane. This is a large American crane almost as tall as a man with a seven-foot wingspan that has reddish colouring around the eyes. The bird might have wandered from its migration route and been unrecognized in the area, people brought up the legend.

7. The Wampus Cat

Wampus Cat. Photo by U458625 on Wikimedia

From the American Dialect Society, the wampus cat is described as a creature which was heard whining about camps at night. In folklore, it was a spiritual green-eyed cat which had occult powers or sometimes was taken as an undefined imaginary animal.

Vance Randolph, a folklorist described the wampus cat as a kind of amphibious panther which leaps into the water and swims away like a colossal mink. Other people liked the wampus cat as a creature of Cherokee mythology.

The Cherokee legend stated that the monster is the cat-like embodiment of a female onlooker cursed by tribal elders. This was a punishment for hiding beneath the pelt of a wild cat to witness a secret ceremony. Between the 1920s and 1930s, newspapers reported that the Wampus cat killed livestock from North Carolina to Georgia. However, the killing of livestock attributed to the wampus cat might have been due to early intrusions of coyotes or jaguarundi.

8. Appalachian Superstitions

Other than the folklore of the Appalachian Mountain, there are more shocking superstitions that have been passed down by several generations. Some of these superstitions are mesmerising while others do not have any sense.

These are some of the Appalachian Superstitions:

a) Never close a knife you did not open, or you’ll have bad luck for 7 years.

b) Keep a penny in your washer.

c) Always go out the same door you came in.

d) Eat black-eyed peas or collard greens with hog jaw on New Year’s Day.

e) Don’t wash clothes on New Year’s Day or you will wash a family member out.

f) Don’t sleep on New Year’s Day.

g) Don’t do any canning or gardening during your period.

h) Plant your crops under the full moon.

i) Don’t walk under a ladder. If you find yourself under one, don’t turn around back up.

j) Don’t let anyone sweep under your feet.

k) Never give someone a set of knives as a gift. If you give them to newlyweds, it will cut their love.