Monsters and Mysteries in America: Appalachia

I was watching Destination America a few nights ago and discovered a paranormal show I hadn't watched before: Monsters and Mysteries in America.  I watched a 2013 episode called "Appalachia," which focused on Sheepsquatch (I did not know that was a thing...how has there not been a Syfy Original movie about it?), UFOs/Little Green Men, and Mothman.

A creature named Sheepsquatch, “a giant sheep that’s gone savage,” has been spotted in Breckenridge, Kentucky.  Paranormal researcher Rosemary Ellen Guiley describes Sheepsquatch as having “wooly hair, it’s usually white or dirty white, huge jaws and fangs, and a tail that usually has no fur on it.”  In July 2004, locals Ricky Joyce and Dakota Cheeks went hunting, and their first morning there, they found one of Ricky’s dogs in a ditch with its head twisted almost all the way around (thanks for scarring me for life, Destination America!).  They’d been hearing strange noises coming from the top of the hill for months, so they decided to stake it out; when they were in their camper that night, all of the dogs got scared and ran off, then something started banging into the camper until it fell over.  The following night, they got their guns and went in search of Sheepsquatch; they saw something big (9 feet tall) and white standing in the dark, and it went after them, so they shot at it and ran back to the house.  They are convinced it was Sheepsquatch.

For more information about Sheepsquatch and pictures of what it supposedly looks like, check out this link:
http://www.americanmonsters.com/site/2011/07/sheep-squatch-virginia-west-virgina-usa/

When Geraldine Sutton Stith was 8 years old, she learned that her family had an encounter with the “Kentucky Green Men” at their farmhouse in 1955.  One member of the family saw a UFO when he went outside to get water, so he ran inside to tell everyone; when some more family members went outside with him, the UFO was gone, but they saw floating 3-foot tall creatures coming out of the woods.  They ran inside to get some guns; one of the extraterrestrials looked in the window, so the men started shooting.  The creatures eventually left, and the police were called, but they could find no evidence of bodies; they only found “a glowing substance on the ground.”

Residents of Point Pleasant, West Virginia have been spotting Mothman since the late 1960s.  Mothman has been described as “a cross between a man and an alien-with wings and red eyes," and there was a 2002 movie made about the creature called The Mothman Prophecies (starring Richard Gere, Debra Messing, and Laura Linney).  Faye Laport Dewitt encountered the monster when she was 13 or 14, and it changed her forever.  After a day at the movies, Faye’s brother decided that he wanted to go find Mothman and prove that it was just a man in a costume, so he started driving with all of their siblings in the car.  Faye noticed that he kept looking in her direction as he drove, and when she asked why, he told her not to look; she looked anyway and saw Mothman flying right outside the window.  The car suddenly came to a halt, and Mothman landed on the hood of the car, staring at them with his glowing red eyes.  Luckily for the Laports, Mothman soon flew away.  A few months later, Mothman was spotted on the Silver Bridge; a few days after that, a stop light malfunctioned and caused cars to pile onto the bridge, which then collapsed.  The cars fell into the water, then the bridge fell on top of them, killing 46 people.  Many people believe that Mothman appeared on the bridge as an omen that something bad was going to happen.

Monsters and Mysteries in America was an interesting show, and I'm definitely going to watch more episodes...I looked at the schedule and saw that there's an episode about a creature called Batsquatch, and you know I am watching that!  I had heard of Mothman because I've seen The Mothman Prophecies, but I had never heard of Sheepsquatch until I watched this show, and Sheepsquatch sounds both hilarious and terrifying. ; )

My rating: 8/10

http://www.destinationamerica.com/tv-shows/monsters-and-mysteries-in-america