North Carolina Cryptids?

I would like to do some future investigations in North Carolina, but I'm looking for information. I just moved to the area, so I'm not familiar with whether or not there are reports of any cryptids in the state. I'll continue looking for information, but if anyone knows of any cryptid reports I would greatly appreciate the help. Thanks.

Ok have you ever heard of the beast of Bladenboro? They actually had a big festival about it a few weeks back.I live about five minutes outside of Bladenboro by the way.I recently was actually shown a picture of what appears to be a big cat. What is strange though is that it appears to be jet black.If I can find the picture I will post it.I dont think that there are to many big black cats in North Carolina. Good luck in your investigations.

Kind of a neat story... I looked it up and found an article written about it, here. It's a shame that the tale lead to so many wild cats being killed.

I'm wondering if there's anything more recent though. I'm thinking it was most likely a panther, and doubt it would still be alive after 54 years. One internet source I found cited panthers average lifespan to be around 8-15 years in the wild, 10-20 years in captivity.

Any more creatures?

Im not originally from around here either so I dont know of to many. But just keep searching, thats the only advice I can offer you. Who knows maybe you will find something new.

Well there is always Bigfoot. The Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization lists sightings by state. You have several in North Carolina according to them. From this page, www.bfro.net... , you can look by county. Click on the county and you get a listing of sightings there. Use the hyperlinks to read a more detailed report.

American Monsters.com has a search feature. When I typed in "North Carolina", I was informed about the
NORMAN LAKE REPTILE: (NORTH CAROLINA, USA) .
Part way down this page, www.americanmonsters.com... are two similar reports of an " unidentified mammal " in Randolph County. There are links to newspaper reports for both entries, but when I clicked on them I was told -- " The page cannot be found "
There is a third entry, also, which was seen near the "...Tyco Electronics' woodsy campus in Fuquay-Varina..." This may be a different animal, because it is described differently. There is a newspaper link here, also. It works AND has a picture.
I have only driven through NC a couple times and have no first-hand knowledge of anything. Sure hope the info I found helps you.

Thanks for the info, rawiea. Bigfoot is more what I was hoping for. I took a google map and highlighted the counties with sightings. It's mostly what I expected, there are no sightings around the major cities. Most sightings are near the Smokies, and the outskirts of towns.

The mammal with two different news reports in the News & Record is especially interesting! The links didn't work for me either, but I googled Bill and Gayle Kurdian and I found the photo of the unidentified mammal from Randolph county. It also turns out that the second photograph (which I haven't found yet) was taken by their neighbor Cynthia Pell about three weeks later.

www.xenophilia.com...

It looks like a cross between a cat and a fox, I think. The legs remind me of a deer. I'm not an expert at analyzing photographs, so maybe others on the board can help.

EDIT: Note - I just looked at the third report that you mentioned with the working link AND photograph. The animal looks exactly the same (color is different) as the photograph linked above.

www.newsobserver.com...

Also, found this photo:

www.lafim.com...

It doesn't look to me like a Whippet or a Mexican Hairless Dog. There is always the Red Wolf which is native to North Carolina, and endangered. Maybe a hybrid of some sort?

EDIT 2: Found a National Geographic article that speculates it is most likely a Red Fox with a genetic abnormality (a Sampson) that causes the fox to lack an outer layer of fur. However, without a genetic sample, biologists can't be sure.

news.nationalgeographic.com...

[edit on 25-11-2007 by CloudlessKnight]

Bigfoot is more what I was hoping for.

Then you might be in luck. I did an AOL Search from home here in Ohio and found a NC Bigfoot group. You would have to register with MSN Groups and join the Bigfoot one, but they might be able to help you. The address is below.

groups.msn.com...

Thanks, again. I've sent an application through to Bigfoot Hunter group. Hopefully I'll be able to get some good information.

hey, i joined the site JUST so i oculd reply to the thread.

i'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet, but there is a white stag running around chapel hill, nc.
actually it's just a white male deer, but i like to call him the white stag because of british isle folklore.
i've actually seen him with my own eyes because he lives in the woods by my church off of weaver dairy, so he definately exsists, and there have been multiple N&O articles on him. the man who took this picture is my stepmother's coworker:

blogs.newsobserver.com...

it doesn't say much about him here, but he hangs out in the woods off of weaver dairy road in chapel hill, and i'll tell you now, hes a very handsome guy. hes definately not albino, just white.:

reply to post by kikkaku


I don't know if that's classified as a cryptid or not, but very interesting none-the-less. I'd like to get out and try to find it some time; take some photographs. I live on the edge of Greensboro, near McLeansville/Gibsonville area, so it wouldn't be far out of the way.

kikkaku , Welcome. Nice to have you join ATS. There is lots of stuff here to read and reply to. Hope you stick around.
That White Stag was beautiful. He really shows up in that picture.

CloudlessKnight , Did that Bigfoot Hunter Group ever get back to you after you applied for membership?
I was recently at the BFRO site and discovered that they are planning an Expedition in North Carolina. The date has not been set yet. I don't know if you would be interested in going or not.
www.bfro.net...

If you get to know some of the oldtimers in the region you might learn a lot of things. It is said that the eastern cougar is extinct, but there are a number of sightings of very large cats with long tales ranging in color from tan to black. I don't no about N.C. but in the Appalachian region of KY, TN,and WV these sightings are almost common.

respectfully

reluctantpawn

I am in the mountains of Western North Carolina and we have all manners of critters out here...in the next county over, which is the last one before Tennessee, near Ducktown, there are all sorts of sightings in the woods of weird things..folks here turn the dogs loose and when they do not return they sometimes comment on the big cats that are known to inhabit this region. Some call them Catamounts ( the namesake of my nearby university, WCU Cullowhee ! ) and the old timers called them ' painters' ( panthers ) and we have a Knob here named Painter Knob for the many cats seen there.

Bears are quite abundant, and deer are like fleas..all over the place. I would not be suprised if in the areas around Andrews ( where Eric the Bomber hid for 5 years with Feds all around him ) there are places where the deep forest has not been disturbed in ages..around the big lake( Fontana ) near Bryson City there are areas that have no roads and many reports of weird animal sounds at night and signs of big critters at times. This is rugged and steep and brrush covered gullies and thorn bushes that block the sun..quite a place to hide!!

i live in gaston county in a small town called stanley. while i was in my mid to late teens, we lived in an old farm house on the outskirts of town. there were four households on this "farm" all at the end of a 1/4 dirt road. we all had dogs and were able to let them run. there were a couple labs, a couple austalian shephards and a chow/german shephard mix. it wasn't uncommon for the all the dogs to stand in my back yard and bark out into the field. eventually one of them would run out through the field and into the woods with all the other dogs following them. you could hear them out there barking. sometimes when they came back, they would be acting really spooked, tails between their legs. we just figured it was deer. after a few weeks of this, my dad told me a story about a friend of his that had a strange experience when they were teenagers(dad is 62). he told me that this friend was out parked with a girl one night up the road from where we lived, and that out of nowhere something jumped on top of his car. the guy was freaked and drove off, what ever it was fell off the back of his car and left scratches on the trunk lid. they didn't really know what could've done it, but assumed it was a big cat. that kinda spooked me a little, because i spent a lot of time in the woods around the house. one night just before dark i was out in the field walking along the tree line. where the field had been cleared over the years, there was some undergrowth along the tree line, you couldn't really see clearly into the woods. so, as i'm walking i think i hear something on the other side of the undergrowth, but when i stop, it stops too. as i start walking again, i definitely hear something and i'm getting freaked. i stop again, and nothing. i can hear my heart pounding though, then i hear the most god awful sound...almost like a woman in agony and it was right beside me. i don't know how to explain it, i took off...i ran flat out as fast as i could for about a half mile until i got back to the house. i never stopped to look back, i didn't want to see what it was. if a cat made that noise, i don't know why it didn't eat me. maybe she had cubs...i don't know. so, i guess what i'm trying to say is, i believe in stories of big cats in areas that aren't know for them....i saw a bobcat at an underpass off the interstate in charlotte.

my brother went to app state in boone. my cousin and i went up to visit one weekend. on the way back(1:30 at night on hwy 321), she and i both saw something in the grassy median that was large brown and furry it seemed large for a bear, unless it had stood when it saw the car. neither of us could tell was it was, i asked her is she wanted to go back and check it out, but she declined and i was cool with that. we joke about it being bigfoot.

anyway, welcome to this state...it's very beautiful and if you like the outdoors, you'll love it here.

reply to post by likzit


likzit:
I bet what you heard was a wildcat. Very elusive but have been known to follow people, especially when in heat. They scream just like a woman or child. It will make your hair stand on end even if you know what it is. I know I have almost filled my pants when I have heard them

respectfully

reluctantpawn

speaking of panst filled from a critter I almost got wiped out by a deer last night..a really big one jumped right out in fronty of Blackie ( my 92 Benz 300E ) and I had to lock down the brakes and get squirrely to keep from nailing him..quite a shock late at night on a fog covered road..as the developeement keeps going without stopping, more and more critters are being forced into areas with homes and roads..too many. Its a danger. Can you imagine some cryptid getting killed by a car ??Too funny!

I live in Anson County N.C. about 45 minutes southeast of Charlotte. In a small town called Peachland I swear I seen a very large black cat on Upper White Store Road. When I say large I mean about 6 and a half feet from head to tip of tail. Crouched back about to take a step onto the road at about 6:30pm around the last few days of November 07. I was going down the road in my car and my friend and I both seen it and freaked out. I had no idea those kind of "exotic cats" were around here. Everyone around here says that the Anson Co. wildlife center released a number of panthers years back to deal with deer over population. I have heard a lot of these stories in the past and thought they were lies but I swear I am a believer now.

A couple of years ago there was a special on the Discovery Channel about a woman in the mountains of NC who gave an account of living with Bigfoot and the bigfoot family. This british guy went to her shack (I'm sorry that is the only way to describe it) and she was talking about how the bigfoot leader would come to her door and knock and ask for garlic. She said he spoke in a gutteral tone and could speak english. She also said that she witnessed them hunting deer and killing it with their bare hands.

Now, I live in NC. I love this state, but we do have some nutjobs who are rednecked all up! This woman could not speak well, like she had a speach impediment or something. She looked like she was just out of the mental institution in Morganton, NC. She had a dirty little kid walking around holding the kittens by the wrong end, no kidding.

She and this very serious interviewer were talking at a picnic table in the yard. The interviewer even went so far as to recreate how the bigfoot stalked the prey and looked quite rediuculous. I know this lady was probably laughing her ass off at the funny talkin guy walking around like a monkey and jumping around and stuff.

Look it up. I don't remember the name of the show, but it was on the discovery channel. It's pretty funny too.

i remember seeing that show....what got me was how convinced the interviewer was that what the lady was saying was real. she even said that there were pictures, like family photos with the bigfoot in them, but she couldn't show them....pretty funny. she said she was the third generation of her family that had contact with these bigfoot.

That man was REALLY convinced in that documentary. . I've never heard another account like that either. This lady was really messing with the guy too. But he believed every word.