As a child, I loved tales of monsters and otherworldly things. My time was spent reading Greek Mythology, watching “Monster High,” and (when I eventually discovered them) shows like “Supernatural.”
If there are monsters, I am there too. So, when I was told to come up with an idea for a column, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.
As a freshman last year, I learned about the ghosts of campus from “marble boy” in Clement to Christina in Burleson. Of course, I was obsessed.
And as I learned more and more about the supernatural of this college, I began to think more about the cryptids of the South. Almost everyone knows about Mothman in West Virginia, but the South is full of monsters and cryptids.
What this column aims to do is educate and entertain those interested too and will be starting next week with one of my local favorites: the Tennessee Wildman.
Before I started my column, however, I was encouraged to talk to Associate Professor Rebecca Fletcher, the creator of a new class that is being trialed this semester called “Paranormal Appalachia: Folklore and Tourism Development.”
The class looks at the folklore of the Appalachian region and anthropology of tourism in terms of the growing interest in paranormal tourism.
“The class asks not to do monsters exist, but why they exist and what can they tell us about our culture,” said Rebecca Fletcher, professor of the class.
Fletcher shared a lot of information that I’ll be using later and possibly some events, including the Mothman Festival happening this weekend Sept. 17 in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. We discussed dark tourism and the human attraction to the macabre, why we have these stories and why we are enticed so much by them.
