Mason County, West Virginia. It's been called the White Thing, the Devil Dog, and the Great Horned Yeti. Today, most people call it the Sheepsquatch.
Tonight, we pull our chairs up to the fire and follow a pale, shaggy, horned creature through nearly a century of West Virginia stories.
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Legend at a glance
Legend: The Sheepsquatch, also called the White Thing
Where: Mason County and Boone County, West Virginia
When: Stories from the 1920s through the 1990s
Category: The Woods (cryptids and creatures)
A note: Most accounts are secondhand retellings, and we mark what's documented and what's legend
The TNT Area
The story begins near Point Pleasant, in the TNT Area, the old World War II explosives grounds where the Mothman was also seen. Some of the earliest White Thing stories come from these same woods and back roads.
Ruth Ann Musick's White Thing
In 1965, West Virginia folklorist Ruth Ann Musick published The Telltale Lilac Bush and Other West Virginia Ghost Tales, which includes stories of a mysterious "White Thing." One tells of a miner walking home in 1929 whose night ended at a cemetery fence.
The sightings
From there, the stories pick up: a creek in 1994, a car on a dark Boone County road, campers in 1999, and a scream in the trees. Many of the later accounts are tied to Boone County and a man named Edward Rollins, and they describe a large, pale, shaggy creature with horns and a strong, sulfur-like smell.
How it got its name
The name "Sheepsquatch" is a much newer invention, and in the episode, we trace how it caught on, along with the white dog omen and what skeptics have to say about the whole thing.
Solid ground, and handed-down stories
Most Sheepsquatch accounts don't come with names, dates, or newspaper records. We tell them as they've been handed down, and we're clear about which parts are documented folklore and which are campfire legend.
Sources
Ruth Ann Musick, The Telltale Lilac Bush and Other West Virginia Ghost Tales (University Press of Kentucky, 1965)
Rosemary Guiley, Monsters of West Virginia
Modern Farmer, "Move Over Bigfoot, Here Comes Sheepsquatch" (2013)
Brickthology, "Sheepsquatch" (2018)
Mental Floss, "White Things: Cryptids You Haven't Heard Of"
WVU Libraries "Appalachian Monsters" guide, via WOWK 13 News (2023)
Pull up a chair, Holler Dwellers
Heard of the White Thing growing up in West Virginia? Tell us your version. Send it our way, and it might just end up on the show.
New episodes every Monday. If you enjoyed this one, a quick rating or review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts helps more folks find their way to the fire. 🕯️
Holler Nights is Bramble and Bone's limited bonus series of Appalachian ghost stories, legends, and things that go bump in the night. Find every episode in The Archive.
Told by Silas Cade. Researched and produced by KT.
