By this time, no one would be surprised if I mentioned Fallout 76, West Virginia or some sort of Sasquatch.
Anyways, today we’ll be taking a deeper look into the humanoid monsters of Appalachia–or to be quite frank, bigfoot in general. Regardless of where we look, every country and nearly every state has some sort of creature described as large and bipedal, with glowing eyes, and lots of hair. Locally, we have Bigfoot (who is also present through the continents of America), Sheepsquatch, White Thang and so many more.
Other cultures and countries have legends of their own. Australia has the Yowie (which the candy is named after) and Britain has the Woodwose (usually seen in Scotland) and while these are two specific examples, the list goes on. No matter where you look, you’ll find at least one (probably more) legends that seem to describe creatures like the previous ones listed.
Appalachia, alone, seems to have an overabundance of similar cryptids and bigfoot sightings. While they may not be directly connected, their similarities and similar lore seem to point to a relationship of some sort–cousins if you will. In the U.S. alone, the average bigfoot sighting is said to be roughly 10,000 (though these citations seem to loop back onto themselves as sources for the information) as of 2019. Most believers claim that the majority of sightings are falsified. Non-believers simply say these sightings are caused by something else.
“You look at it and you see what you want to believe,” said Brian Regal, a professor at Kean University, in an interview with Live Science.
He and others believe that these sightings are commonly mistaken animals, such as apes, humans and bears. After all, most regions have at least two of those creatures. Though I would love to firmly state my belief in the cryptid world, I have to admit that I approach cryptozoology critically. If these creatures ever existed, we would have found bones. We would see signs of…something.
Except we sort of have, specifically, for Bigfoot and other hair humans. In science they’re called Homo Erectus. Humanity has a clear knowledge of nonhumans, but how does that stand against pre-humanity?
Homo Erectus fits the description given for almost all. Of course, this doesn’t include some like Sheepsquatch, but most people consider this one to be fringe-related to the rest of bigfoot species. It’s not an impossible leap to consider that perhaps (even if they don’t exist now) that the hairy-man cryptid category did once exist.
Those interested in animation may know of the uncanny valley concept, which is that humans have an almost fight or flight response to something that looks too human. Or admittedly, not human enough. There are no scientific reasons for this, but I’ve always had the idea that this may be tied to the previous versions of humanity. If one follows this line of thinking, it makes sense it would be so prevalent on the human psyche as to see the presence of early humans popping up in most, if not all cultures.
After all, there was a time when we existed at the same time. Perhaps it is an encoded instinct to look for those who might be erectus rather than sapien. Regardless, bigfoot hunting seems to be a very popular sport and the stories make for amazing entertainment whether they are true or not.
