Also Known As: Devil Dog, White Creature, White Devil, The White Thing

First off, I have to say it’s rather hard to take this particular cryptid seriously due to the name. That said, the Sheepsquatch or White Thing is an American cryptid that is found in the mountains of West Virginia in the United States. Some accounts hold The White Thing and Sheepsquatch as being two separate creatures, yet the descriptions or so similar, it’s likely they’re one and the same entity.

The creature, first known as The White Thing, makes its way into American folklore with the 1965 book: “The Telltale Lilac Bush and Other West Virginia Ghost Tales” by Ruth Ann Musick. A folklorist, Musick puts forth the idea that The White Thing has both a physical and phantom or spiritual presence.

As the White Thing gained in popularity and stories of it began to spread, it would later become known as Sheepsquatch, a name owing more to people trying to give it a name that is more accurately descriptive of what it looks like. An impossible hybrid of sheep and Sasquatch in the imaginations of some.

Description: The Sheepsquatch is often described as having dog-like features, large like a bear with long, shaggy white or dirty white hair, goat-like horns and a large fanged mouth. The front paws as being paw-like hands such as those of a raccoon and even a long ringed tailed like a raccoon’s. Much like the previous raccoon description and those of bears, the Sheepsquatch can move about either on two or four legs. It’s reported to be incredibly fast with lightning speed and a scream like a woman. Mountain Lions are also known to have a scream like a woman. The creature is often spotted racing through the forests and down to river banks to drink.

That tends to be more the original description. Later accounts vary and seem to have altered what the creature looks like. These later descriptions give it a humanoid big foot or demonic appearance. Some will say it’s just a large unknown mountain cat. Further reports say the creature has too many legs, that it has four eyes, that the eyes are red, in addition to large fangs, it has large claws, that its tail is long and hairless like a possum.

These later altering descriptions certainly give the idea that people might be misidentifying what creature they’re seeing, or they may have heard a vague name from somewhere and are describing what they think they saw. West Virginia does have a lot of cryptids in its local lore, so is there a different cryptid being seen or an ordinary animal getting misidentified?

Phantom Creature – People further describe the Sheepsquatch as being very blood thirsty and will attack without any provocation. What marks the Sheepsquatch as being a potential phantom creature is that people will say they’ve been attacked by it and can feel the monster sinking its fangs into them. When the attack is over, to the person’s shock and surprise, there isn’t a mark on their body.

Now, if the creature were real, it would need to have a reason to attack, the simplest being it’s protecting its territory, or it’s sick or just possibly learned to become aggressive if enough people are out there hunting it and not leaving it alone.

Sulfur – The smell of sulfur follows it and can be indicator that a Sheepsquatch is nearby. The smell of sulfur is attributed to the TNT Area of Mason County where it is said to have originated. It’s possible that this sulfur smell is nothing more than the animal’s musk.

Incidentally, the TNT Area of Mason County is also the same place that Mothman is from.

Cherokee Legend

To try and give this cryptid any historical accuracy; Cherokee lore is brought up about white wolves. How a white wolf is an omen of magic and premature death. Overtime, the white wolf becomes a white dog in Appalachian lore. This large white dog is described as having matted, unkempt fur and a powerful build. The dog will appear alongside roads and follow a person home where it will sit far enough away from the house and wait. This dog seems to be wait for when a death occurs, only appearing to a person about ready to die. Sometimes this death occurs within a few days or up to a couple weeks and sometimes those close to the person will also die. The rest of the time, the dog remains invisible.

Black Dog

The above legend sounds very much like the British folklore of Black Dogs and how they are an omen of death. Most Black Dogs encountered in British folklore might protect a family or warn an individual of coming death with some cases outright heralding it.

Cemeteries – Like the Black Dog, some Sheepsquatch seem to be connected to cemeteries and those ones seen, are a death-omen.

Sightings

Kanawha Valley – This is generally the location for the majority of The White Thing or Sheepsquatch sightings. The Kanawha Valley and its surrounding mountains, river and many branching streams and creeks seems to be an ideal place for such a creature to exist.

The creature has also been spotted in other counties of: Boone, Mason and Putnam. All areas located to the west and southwestern West Virginia. The mid-1990’s saw a rash of sightings of this creature near Cross Lanes, West Virginia.

1973 Point Pleasant, West Virgina – In July, in the TNT area of Point Pleasant, where the Mothman sightings are to have occurred, a white creature was reported seen. In 1994, a twenty-eight-year-old man reported how he was seven years old at the time, had seen a white shaggy haired creature whose head was three feet wide. This creature suddenly appeared alongside the car he was riding in with his family. He says the creature floated through the air, keeping pace with the car at 65 miles an hour.

1994 Point Pleasant, West Virgina – A group of women were driving cautiously along on a particularly icy road near the TNT area. The women report seeing a large, seven or eight tall creature stepped out of the woods ahead of them on the road. They describe the creature as having white shaggy hair with a prominent snout, ram-like horns and standing upright like a human. The creature froze for a moment when the headlights of the car shone on it before taking off running back into the forest.

1994 Mason County – A former Navy Seaman by the name of Edward Rollins reports having witnessed the White Thing appear in the forest. Rollins had been out in search of another West Virginian cryptid, the Mothman. Only instead of Mothman, it was the White Thing that Rollins encountered.

Rollins was out in an area near Bethel Church Road when the White Thing is to have exited the forest, coming down to a creek where it drank before crossing over the creek and moving on towards a nearby road. Rollins notes the creature had a sulfurous smell to it and believes the smell is just likely due to the lingering waste and pollution from when explosives used to be manufactured in the area.

1994 Boone County – The same year as the previous account, two children report having seen the Sheepsquatch while out playing in their yard. The two describe the creature as looking like a large white bear, standing up on its back legs to tower some six feet in height. The creature was startled by the presence of the children and took off back towards the forest.

1995 Boone County – In this sighting, a couple were driving when they spotted a large white beast sitting in a ditch by the roadside. Curious, the couple slowed their car to get a better look as they passed by. The couple describes the creature as having four eyes. Unlike other incidents where the Sheepsquatch ran away, this time, the creature attacked the car. Frightened, the couple drove away quickly. Once back home, that’s when they noticed the large scratches on the side of the car where the creature attacked.

1999 Boone County – This time around it’s campers out in the forest at night. As the group is sitting around their campfire, they hear an animal snorting and scuffling, much like what is thought of when a bear is nearby. Initially, the creature didn’t come into the light of the fire, then suddenly it charges the group. The campers jump up and run back towards their homes, the whole time being chased by whatever it is. The White Thing stops at the edge of the forest when the groups flees the tree line. The thing let out a loud scream before turning to retreat back into the woods. In the morning, when the group returned to their campsite, they found it all torn up. The commentary given is that it looked “like someone had tilled it up for gardening.”

2011 Patrick County – This story takes place in June, posted on June 11^th and is to have happened in Fairy Stone State Park. A woman identifying herself as “Teena” tells how she was out hiking a few weeks ago with a friend. They had been out for about an hour when the friend stops and points towards a large group of rocks. There was something moving, but it had been too far away to see it clearly. As the two walked closer, they got a better look at what looked like a medium-sized bear with light colored fur, almost yellowish gray, the head was unusual too. The pair immediately left and went for home.

2015 Fulks Run, Virginia – This story claims to be the most recent sighting of the creature, this time in the Appalachian forests. Another group of campers reports having seen the creature. It stood about 8-9 feet tall and with shoulders some 4-5 feet wide. One camper reports seeing it at the top of a hill, crouching down. When the camper stood to alert the others, the creature started running towards the group. Fortunately, a river separated the group of campers from the creature and they report how the creature looked for a way to cross the river before wading across. When the creature got closer, the group describes it as being like a bipedal dog with wet fur. A loud gut-wrenching screech was heard that campers said sound about two miles away from their location. The creature got a look of shock to its face before whimpering and turning to run away, opposite of the sound that was made. As for the campers, they quickly packed camp and left, reporting their story to the locals instead of the authorities. The identity of the campers remains unknown.

Sweet Home Alabama

West Virginia isn’t the only place that The White Thing has been encountered. The people of Alabama, particularly around Argo and Trussville, tell of a 150-year-old legend of the White Thing of Happy Hollow that has been sighted for generations along this stretch of road. It is described as being man height, furry and white with sharp claws capable of scraping bark of trees and a shrill cry like a baby’s or a woman in distress. This beast is notorious for mutilating livestock. This White Thing is noted as looking more like a white or albino Sasquatch.

Possible Reality

It’s very likely, with some of the varying descriptions of the Sheepsquatch that people are misidentifying what they’re really seeing. Anything from ordinary animals like dogs, wolves and mountain lions to practical jokers dressed in costume looking to scare the tar out of campers and passersby.

Ice-Age Survivor – One idea put forward is that it could be Panthera Atrox or the American Cave Lion, a now extinct animal. If there were such an Ice-Age Survivor, it could be this animal that’s being seen.

Misidentified Animals – This is always a strong likelihood. Especially for any reported sightings of Sheepsquatch that try to describe it as being a feline or smaller like a dog. They might have seen an albino animal and with that fear of the unknown, some people tend to be rather confused and easily persuaded by the power of suggestion to misidentify what they saw.

Practical Jokers – And of course, as Sheepsquatch seems to clearly be in that realm of spooky campfire stories to tell people, I wouldn’t put it past someone to go scare the living tar out of a group of campers who will then run off to report having been terrorized by Sheepsquatch again.

Reality T.V.

Sheepsquatch has featured on a couple of different Reality T.V. shows that claim to be exploring the unknown and searching for evidence of mysterious cryptids and urban legends.

Monsters and Mysteries in America – In 2013, on the Destination channel, an episode of this show featured two hunters who claimed to encounter a nine-foot tall creature with white fur and long talons. The hunters shot at the apparent monster before it fled but were either unable to hit it or their firearms just didn’t affect the creature.

Mountain Monsters – In 2014, on the Destination channel, this show featured a video taken by a person claiming to have seen Sheepsquatch attack a pile of lumber.

Having seen that episode clip, wrong color.

Fallout 76 – The latest installment in this video game series is set in West Virginia. The game took advantage of the state’s wealth of local urban legends, cryptozoology and folklore to adapt many monsters to the game’s post-apocalyptic setting. The White Thing is just one of many such monsters found in the game.

Ufology & Mothman

The Mothman sightings were very prominent in the 1960’s and the spate of sightings for Sheepsquatch seem occur in the mid-1990’s. Most of which were all around the Cross Lanes section of West Virginia with a couple in Point Pleasant’s TNT Area. For those who readily believe and want to make connections, it’s easy to continue to attach a connection of the two entities. West Virginia does have a wealth of local folklore and monsters to draw upon.

Modern Folklore & Urban Legend

This particular post for me really feels as if all I’ve done is take two different cryptids in the way of “White Thing” and “Sheepsquatch” and mushed them together.

And it feels that way when starting with “The White Thing’s” first appearance in American folklore as a potential campfire ghost story. Whose early description and what it means; has a strong feeling of being the adaptation of British folklore with Black Dogs being brought by early British settlers, bringing along their beliefs. It’s possible that when hearing the local native folklore about white wolves and death-omens, the two just blended together.

Now somewhere along the line, due to the increasing popularity of Sasquatches or Bigfoot and the belief in mysterious unknown hominids still living in the wilds, somebody heard about The White Thing, heard its description and dubbed it Sheepsquatch. Once it gets that name, the creature moves away from its Black Dog, ghost story roots to the campfire quality stories of telling Bigfoot stories to scare people. Of course, because of the origin of West Virginia and Mothman, a lot of people into Fortean Phenomenon and chasing Ufos also glom onto the lore of Sheepsquatch.

You can see how there’s slightly, alternating descriptions from different accounts and sightings of Sheepsquatch and how it seems to be gaining in size, going from 6-7 feet to the latest reality T.V. show claiming sightings having it at 9 feet tall. It’s the fish story that just keeps getting bigger!

The description and location of where The White Thing and Sheepsquatch are found is what really puts it to mind for me they’re one and the same creature getting described. Like any good story, they do have a way of taking on a life of their own.