Saturday evening at 8:30PM in the Athens Meeting Room (Courtland), Erika Lance and Mark Muncy spoke to a full room of folks in the X-Track panel, “Appalachian Cryptids: Lesser-Known Holler Monsters.”
If you aren’t sure what a cryptid is, it is an animal said to exist, but that has never been proven to exist. They are often creatures that appear in folklore and rumor. Think bigfoot, the yeti, the Loch Ness Monster, the chupacabra, and other such mythological animals.
Lance and Muncy, who host the Eerie Travels podcast, have researched cryptid sightings in various sections of the country. When traveling, they make a point to speak with locals about the folklore in the area. For this panel, they concentrated on the Appalachian area, stretching from northern Mississippi into southern New York State.
Muncy opened up the festivities by talking about his experience with a cryptid. He said he went out as a young boy, armed only with a flashlight and his Red Ryder BB Gun, and was surprised by a sound. He said he suddenly realized he was ill-prepared for a bear or mountain lion encounter, but what he saw was much stranger and turned his attention from sci-fi to ghost stories. A panther-sized creature with the head of a man, the body of a goat, and a wooden leg–The Benchleg of Goble Ridge.
With a backstory of death and revenge, a listener of the podcast wrote in after Muncy told his story on the podcast. He mentioned his grandfather had been a part of a group that had robbed and killed a traveling tinkerer. They buried his body under the body of his dead ox. After that, the Benchleg of Goble Ridge started roaming the area, knocking people in the head with his wooden leg.
They moved on from the Benchleg to small cryptids in Pennsylvania that are roughly one foot tall and rat-like. They were discovered by a family of moonshiners who were looking for a new recipe for a spicy new ‘shine. They found their Granny’s “recipe” book and tried one of the recipes. After making the moonshine and tasting it, they started seeing one-foot-tall rat-like creatures running around. They tried shooting them but kept missing. They finally caught one in a potato sack. When they looked inside, they said it looked like Venom from Spider-Man.
One person tried to reach inside to grab the creature, and it took a chunk out of his hand. He was taken to the hospital for treatment, but every time they tried to turn off the lights, he would start screaming, “It bites!” To this day, the person is in an asylum and they still cannot turn off the lights. It was later discovered that Granny was a witch, and those were not regular recipes.
The duo had multiple stories of cryptids like the Blue Ridge Boojum who would trade moonshine for gems to leave for the girl he loved. The Moon-Eyed People of North Carolina who the Cherokee claim came from Wales and Scotland, and moved to the mountains in the New World. The Flatwoods Monster, the Loveland Frog Man, the Boone Devil, the Pope Lick Monster of Floyd’s Fork, and the Point Pleasant Moth Man.
Lance and Muncy finished the panel with a story of the Tampa Trestle Bridge Monster. Though Tampa is outside the Appalachian region, they felt they should finish with a more credible cryptid that has an actual body count. The Tampa Trestle Bridge Monster could possibly be the inspiration for Slenderman.
Near Tampa, Florida, there is a train trestle bridge crossing the Hillsborough River in Rowlett Park. It is rumored a man died while building the bridge. Ever since, there will appear to be a man on the tracks, dressed in a black suit and yelling, “Help me!” When people go out to try to help the man, he rises with multiple arms much like a spider. The unsuspecting have to choose whether to brave the monster or jump and hope for the best.
Over the years, dozens of kids have gone missing and many have perished off that bridge, and it is rumored that these events are due to the monster.
For more creepy stories of cryptids and scary places to visit across the country, check out the Eerie Travels podcast.
