Sheepsquatch, also known as "the white thing", is a woolly-haired cryptid reported across numerous counties in West Virginia, predominantly within the southwestern region of the state. Those counties with the most sightings are Boone, Kanawha, Putnam and Mason, with a surge in sightings taking place in Boone County during the mid-1990s. It is described as being a quadruped about the size of a bear, with entirely white wool-like fur.
It has a long and pointed head, similar to a dog but with long, saber-like teeth and a single-pint set of horns not dissimilar from those found on a young goat. Its forelimbs end in paw-like hands, similar to those of a raccoon but larger, while its tail is long and hairless like that of an opossum. It is reputed to smell like sulfur, which has been attributed through folklore to the beast being born within the TNT area in Mason County like one of the mothman theories, though this is not likely and instead may be a musk scent gland similar to those found in many species in the order Carnivora such as weasels and skunks.
Sightings
1994
In 1994, a former Navy seaman stated having witnessed the beast breaking through the forest, after ingesting a mound of shroom caps he found on the forrest floor. The white thing breached, the brush line and knelt to drink from the creek. Here it drank for a few minutes before crossing the creek and continuing on toward the nearby road. The witness stated that they observed the animal for a while before it moved on into the surrounding brush.
Within the same year, two children observed the creature while playing in their yard within Boone County. What they reported having observed looked like a large white bear yet in this case stood up on its hind legs, making it over six feet tall (presumably it did so in a manner similar to bears trying to observe as opposed to walking bipedally). Startled by the children, the beast ran off through the forest, breaking medium-sized limbs off of trees in its path.
1995
The creature was next spotted a year later, this time involving a car. A couple driving through Boone County observed a large white beast sitting in the ditch alongside the roadway. As many curious passersby might do in such a situation, they stopped their car to get a better look at it. They came to describe the creature again as mostly similar to earlier descriptions, yet they added that the creature had "four eyes". In stark contrast to the last sighting where the Sheepsquatch fled the scene, the creature leaped out of the ditch and started to attack the car. Frightened by the attack, the couple drove off quickly, and once they arrived back at home noticed large scratches on the side where the beast had attacked.
1999
Another incident in 1999 involved a couple of campers who were in the forest at night, again in Boone County, around a bonfire. They eventually heard an animal snorting and scuffling around the camp in a manner similar to an aggravated bear, though it did not come into the light of the campfire immediat
ely.
All of a sudden the Sheepsquatch suddenly charged out of the darkness at the campers. Reacting quickly, they jumped up and ran back into their house, all the while being pursued by the Sheepsquatch. The white thing stopped at the edge of the forest when they crossed it and let out a "terrible scream". It then turned around and headed back into the woods. The next morning, the campers returned to their campsite and the trail home, finding it to be torn up; they referred to it as "like someone had tilled it up for gardening".