The Wild Man of Mason County

Robert Hannaford
Self Portrait as a Wild Man

It has been a minute, but I wanted to bring you all another Wild Man Wednesday blog! This particular wild man doesn't appear to be a Bigfoot or Sasquatch, but an actual human. Still, the story is pretty interesting!

Back on October 27, 1897, the Point Pleasant newspaper, The Weekly Register, ran not one, but TWO small pieces about a Wild Man who had been seen for awhile in an area of Mason County called Coal Hollow. Coal Hollow was a local hunting area known for an abundance of rabbit and squirrel. For several weeks, at least, area residents would see a very large man. When approached and questioned, he refused to talk. And, when spotted, would disappear back into the dark ravine. 

Residents speculated as to who this strange man may be, and it was largely believed that he must be an escaped lunatic OR a member of a group of escaped highway men from Meigs County, Ohio. Whoever is was, he was blamed for setting a series of mysterious and destructive fires at area farms. 

Fast forward almost three years later to June 6, 1900. The Weekly Register posted another article about a wild man in Mason County. Described as having hair 5 feet long, and arms 5 feet long, and wearing an old pair of boots, this particular wild man may or may not be the same one seen in 1897. This time, the unkempt stranger was being seen along Mission Ridge, near West Columbia. That's about 35 miles from Coal Hollow. 

And, unlike the Coal Hollow wild man, this particular wild man DID speak. Believed to make his home in the nearby caves, when hungry, the man would come to local farms and order the women-folk to prepare him a meal. 

One house he sought sustenance from was the Edwards residence. He was given an adequate lunch, but the wild man insisted that he be allowed to sit at the table and dine with the family. He stated that he was good enough to eat with President McKinley himself. Mr. Edwards didn't agree, and a verbal altercation broke out. That fight devolved into a physical altercation, and no more was mentioned about the Mason County Wild Man. At least...not that I've found yet, but the hunt continues!

So, what do you all believe? Was this an escaped asylum patient, or even a criminal on the run? Were these two incidents, three years and 35 miles apart, even the same person? Let me know in the comments what YOU think! 

The Weekly Register
27 October 1897
Page 4

The Weekly Register
27 October 1897
Page 1

The Weekly Register
06 June 1900

Mason County's Mysterious Skeletons

The idea that giants once roamed the Kanawha and Ohio Valleys is always a fascinating and popular topic within the mysterious history of West Virginia.  Time and time again, we hear stories of Adena burial mounds throughout the state and surrounding areas having once held the skeletal remains of a people who averaged over 7 feet in height. 

Source

Today, the area of West Virginia where I live is still dotted with some of the larger burial mounds, such as the Criel Mound in South Charleston and the Shawnee Mound in Dunbar.  The May Moore Mound, located on private property in Mason County, WV is another large mound, but it is believed to be largely intact---never properly excavated.  What many don't realize, though, is that at one time, there were many, many more (usually much smaller) mounds throughout this area!  I've always heard stories that farmers along the Ohio River in what is now Mason County, WV would constantly come across small burial mounds in their fields, and simply plow them over.  Supporting that claim is an old newspaper article I ran across from the Niles Register (Ohio paper), dated October 20, 1821.  I haven't been able to locate a copy of the original article, but the text can be found in West Virginia Heritage: Volume One, a collection of books compiled and edited in the late 1960's by the West Virginia Heritage Foundation.  The article is as follows:

Mason County's Mysterious Skeletons
From Niles Register
October 21, 1821

From the Kenhawa Spectator.  A gentleman from Mason County, Va. has very obligingly furnished the following singular facts:  On the 19th ult. four very large skeletons were found in a field which had for twenty-four years past been cultivated in corn. They were deposited in a mound apparently very ancient.  The first was discovered by the owner of the field, having ploughed it up, which induced him to make a further examination, when three others were found.  The bones are perfectly sound, and much larger than common, and more especially the skulls, which can be very easily slipped over the largest man's head.  The upper jaw bone has one row of double teeth all round, and the under jaw two teeth only on the left side, and no sockets whatever in the rest of the bone were provided by nature for more.  Considerable quantities of broken crockery ware, with buck horns and bones, bear's bones and muscle (mussel?) shells, etc. were found with the skeletons, and the whole buried in line two feet deep.

It is hoped that the curiosity of the intelligent public may excite them to examine the skeletons, and furnish us with some interesting speculations on the subject. 

May Moore Mound. Image from Todd Bledsoe

I've seen this particular case mentioned on a few websites, mostly in passing, but haven't been able to really find any more substantial information about who the farmer was, where the property is located, and just what the heck happened to these giant skeletons with their strange double row of teeth.  However, with stories such as these, it makes me wonder why the nearby May Moore Mound was never excavated...and if it ever is, just what will we find inside?

Craving MORE Giant Skeletons in Burial Mounds stories?  Check out my post about another small mound, complete with giant skeleton found in the Central City area of Huntington, WV.  People drive over the site every day, and very few realize that the road was once blocked off by an ancient burial mound!

The Ghost of Anna Potts

Posted at Anna's Violin

I recently stumbled upon a new-to-me ghost legend from the Clifton area of Mason County, WV.  Once a coal mining area in the mid to late 1800s, Clifton, which is named for a small cliff in the area, sits along the Ohio River about a mile and a half south of the town of Mason.  No longer home to even a post office, the former "town" of Clifton does yield a few street names within its vicinity that offer a few clues from its past:  Cliff Road, Cliff Street and Old Clifton Road are obvious examples that help mark out the town and roads such as Blake Street, Stewart Street and Rader Lane are a tribute to some local families.  

But within the maze of streets, marked and unmarked, you'll find one in particular that goes by the name of Ann Street...

While I can't be for certain how Ann Street got its name, its a neat little coincidence that the ghost of Anna Potts has been seen in the area for over 200 years!

As the legend goes, Anna McDade Potts and her husband Sandy came to this area shortly before the Revolutionary War, when tensions were still high between white settlers and local Native American tribes.  But there was something about Anna that fascinated the local Indian population.  Her bright red hair and creamy white skin was unlike anything they had ever seen before and bestowed upon her the moniker: Great Spirit Woman with Hair of Fire.

Anna and Sandy had two daughters who presumably took after their mother, for a local tribe became obsessed with one of the girls.  They came to the Potts and offered a trade of 10 horses for the girl.  When the family refused, they came back with 20 horses.  The second refusal enraged the Natives and legend has it that they attacked the family.  Anna and her two daughters were raped and the daughters kidnapped.  Sandy was allegedly attacked and had both his legs burned off.  

For the rest of her years, Anna grieved over the loss of her daughters.  Each November, she would leave her little farm and search the neighboring settlements for any evidence of her daughters.  She searched all winter long before returning to the farm each May.

To some people, Anna never gave up her search, even after her death.  Over 200 years later, the Great Spirit Woman with Hair of Fire still rides the countryside on her faithful mule, searching each winter for her missing daughters.  She is sometimes seen, but more often she is heard; her grief-filled wails pierce the darkness near Clifton Woods and she cries and screams across the centuries.  

This story is so well known locally that a West Virginia author took the story and turned it into a novel. From Out of the Forest by William Winebrenner was an instant success and is/was being made into a move called Anna's Violin.  Buzz over the book and upcoming movie has led to a number of people coming forward with their own experiences, attributed to Anna's ghost.  

The photo above was brought to a book signing at the Pt. Pleasant Farm Museum  by a young girl who claimed to have caught the image on her family's game camera in the woods.  It came courtesy of the author, and the blog cited below.  Also available on the same blog is a video interview with another gentleman who claimed to have witnessed Anna's ghost when he was a boy.  Go to the link below and listen to what happened to him while out one evening!

If you have any additional information on this WV ghost story, or have seen/heard/experienced the ghost of Anna Potts for yourself, I'd love to hear from you!  Feel free to comment below or send me an email at theresarhps@yahoo.com!

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