FIELD FILE · SHEEPSQUATCHOTHERLOCAL LEGEND
Sheepsquatch
Also known as White Thing, Boone County Sheepsquatch
A shaggy white beast with ram’s horns and a long, sheep-like face reported in West Virginia since the 1990s – heir to the state’s ‘White Thing’ tales.
The Sheepsquatch is one of West Virginia’s more recent and more peculiar monsters: a large, woolly, pure-white creature with a long face, ram-like horns and, depending on the witness, either a bear-sized four-legged body or an upright, Bigfoot-like stance. Reports cluster in the southwest of the state – especially Boone County, and also Kanawha, Putnam and Mason counties, including the old TNT Area near Point Pleasant famous for the Mothman.
The name dates from the 1990s, but the creature has older roots in West Virginia’s tradition of “White Things” – pale, shaggy, often menacing animals that turn up in Appalachian storytelling. Folklorist Ruth Ann Musick of Fairmont State College included a tale called “The White Thing” in her 1965 collection The Telltale Lilac Bush and Other West Virginia Ghost Tales, about a woman on horseback who fled a white beast and found her horse dead the next morning. Researcher Kurt McCoy, author of White Things: West Virginia’s Weird White Monsters, has gathered dozens of similar accounts, including a 1929 report from a Marion County coal miner who said a white-haired, dog-sized beast with sharp teeth attacked him after his shift.
Modern Sheepsquatch reports began in the mid-1990s. The best-known describes a carload of women driving home on a snowy road who saw a seven- or eight-foot creature with shaggy white hair, human-like legs, a long sheep-like face and curled horns; it froze in their headlights, then ran into the woods. Other witnesses – a miner, a motorist, a hunter by a river – described a large, pale shape with horns and something like hands. Early accounts said it fled from people; later ones made it more aggressive, though no injuries were ever documented.
Unlike Mothman, the Sheepsquatch has no single founding event, and even its fans admit the details are inconsistent. Television made it famous: it appeared on the first episode of Monsters and Mysteries in America in 2013 and on an episode of Mountain Monsters, and it later became an enemy in the video game Fallout 76. Today it has its own statue at a Morgantown cryptid mini-golf course.
- Type
- Other
- Status
- Local legend
- First reported
- 1990s
- Best-known location
- Southwestern West Virginia (Boone, Kanawha, Putnam and Mason counties)
- Also called
- White Thing, Boone County Sheepsquatch
- Reported in
- West Virginia
What witnesses describe
Covered in thick, white, wool-like fur, with a long sheep- or dog-like face, curled ram’s horns and, in some accounts, human-like legs or hands. Reports range from a bear-sized animal on four legs to an upright creature seven or eight feet tall.
Where and when it’s seen
Hollows, creek banks, backroads and wooded hills of southwestern West Virginia, especially Boone County and the TNT Area near Point Pleasant; often seen at night or in winter.
Notable sightings
- 1929A miner’s “white thing” Marion County, West Virginia
Croatian immigrant Frank Kozul reported being set upon after leaving the Jordan No. 93 mine by a white-haired beast the size of a large dog, with a bushy tail and sharp teeth. He escaped unhurt.
- 1965Ruth Ann Musick’s “The White Thing” Fairmont, West Virginia
Musick’s folklore collection The Telltale Lilac Bush preserved a tale of a white beast that chased a woman on horseback – an early written example of the “White Thing” tradition.
- Mid-1990sThe Sheepsquatch emerges Boone and Mason counties, West Virginia
A cluster of reports described a woolly white creature with a dog-like head and ram horns. Witnesses included motorists, a hunter and children playing outdoors.
- March 2013National TV debut West Virginia and Kentucky
The Sheepsquatch appeared on the first episode of Destination America’s Monsters and Mysteries in America, which also aired a disputed Kentucky hunting-trip encounter.
What could explain it?
- Escaped or feral sheep, goats and rams – including large, unshorn animals – can look strange and frightening in headlights.
- White-furred or albino deer, dogs and bears, though rare, may account for some “white thing” reports.
- The Sheepsquatch has no consistent description or origin story; researchers note the name is often applied loosely to any frightening white creature.
- Television shows and video games have spread and shaped the legend far more than new eyewitness evidence.
Legend, culture and tourism
The Sheepsquatch is part of West Virginia’s booming cryptid tourism alongside Mothman, the Flatwoods Monster and the Grafton Monster. It is a monster in Fallout 76, a statue at Cryptid Mountain Miniature Golf in Morgantown, and a regular on state tourism cryptid road-trip guides.
Where it’s reported
Sheepsquatch in the news
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Sources
First published · Updated
