Episode Ten - Three Weird (Only in Appalachia Am I Right) Monsters, Myths and Legends
Episode notes
We discuss three lesser known Appalachian myths and legends.
Flatwoods Monster
On September 12th, 1952, at around 7:15 pm, two brothers, Edward, 13, and Fred, 12, May, and their friend Tommy Hyer (10), saw a pulsing red light cross the sky and land on the property of G. Bailey Fisher, a local Farmer. The events that followed would go down in West Virginian folklore.
The Moon-Eyed People
The Moon-eyed people are a group of people who are said to have lived in Appalachia until the Cherokee people chased them away - though I will say that I’ve also seen that it was the Muscogee (Muh-skoh-gee) people who fought the Moon-Eyed People and chased them out. It’s said that they were short, bearded white-skinned people with blue eyes. Benjamin Smith Barton said in a 1797 book, that they’re known as “moon-eyed” because they couldn’t see very well during the day. Stories about this mysterious race of people are said to have originated in parts of Tennessee, Georgia, and North Carolina, however the true origins of the Moon-Eyed people are debated to this day.
Squonk
The Squonk (scientific name Lacrimacorpus dissolvens) is a folk loric creature reputed to live in the Hemlock forest of northern Pennsylvania.