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Sheepsquatch! Does It sound like a bad cryptozoology joke – what do you get if you cross a Sasquatch with a sheep? But the answer’s no joke, there’s a strange cryptid reported from West Virginia known as Sheepsquatch. So what exactly is this weird creature?
The first sightings of the creature date back to the mid-1990s and were reported in Boone, Kanawha, Putnam and Mason counties. Eyewitnesses described the unclassified cryptid as an entirely white bear-sized animal that initially lead to the name ‘White Thing’. As additional reports piled up, the creature’s description became clearer and the most appropriate name ‘Sheepsquatch’ has been used ever since.
The first word in this concatenation, sheep, describes the creature’s pointed head adorned with a single set of goat-like horns. Long, sabre-like teeth protrude down its jaw, its forelimbs end in paws, and it has a long, hairless opossum-like tail. The comparison of the creature to Sasquatch is loosely based on the creature’s size and upright modality but has no connection beyond that.
Some of those who’ve encountered the creature reported a strange, sulphurous odor. This smell is oddly similar to reported sightings of another cryptid from the West Virginia area, the Mothman of Point Pleasant, where witnesses said they smelt sulphur. However, other observers have said the smell is muskier, similar to a skunk.
A former Navy seaman reported one of the earliest sightings of Sheepsquatch in 1994 after spotting the creature in a forest. The cryptid had walked through the brush line and knelt to drink at a stream, before crossing the stream and continuing away along a nearby road. In the same year, two kids playing in their yard in Boone County reported seeing a large white bear, over six feet tall, standing on its hind legs. The children screamed, and the creature ran off, breaking some good-sized trees as it did.
The following year a couple were driving through Boone County when they saw a white creature sitting in a ditch at the roadside. They slowed the car to see better, and the description they gave was consistent with earlier reports with two notable differences. First, they claimed the creature had four eyes, rather than two. Second, they said the animal ran towards the car, as if to attack, prompting them to drive away quickly. According to the couple, the large scratches on their vehicle were created by the creature’s claws.
A third report from Boone County came from a pair of campers staying in the area in 1999. They heard animal sounds in the woods near their campsite that they attributed to an annoyed bear. Abruptly, a large white creature ran out of the darkness, so the campers fled to a house nearby. When they reached it, they looked back to see their assailant had stopped at the tree line and gave a ‘terrible scream’ before returning to the woods. When they went back for their belongings the next morning, the campsite had been destroyed.
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