Bluefield Wild Man

 

Happy Wild Men Wednesday! I thought today I'd bring you the article that actually inspired this series of post about wild men running amok in West Virginia. Back at the beginning of the year, the West Virginia High Strangeness Collective posted that they had been chosen as Bigfoot Research Group of the Year by The Bigfoot Forums. That awesome accolade led me over to the forums myself to poke around. 

There was an entire section, much to my delight, called Tirademan's Historical Newspaper Archives. According to the description on the site, this is a historical archive of newspaper clippings compiled by member, Tirademan---or Scott McClean. Unfortunately, Scott passed away, but before he did, he donated this collection of old newspaper clippings to the website. 

Broken down by state, West Virginia had two entries. One article was about the Braxton County Monster sighting of 1961, involving a Bigfoot-type creature (not to be confused with the 1952 Flatwoods Monster incident), which I've already blogged about pretty extensively. You can find out more about that from my post, The Braxton County Monster Wrap-Up. However, the other entry was one with which I wasn't familiar and was about a wild man spotted by hunters in Bluefield, back in 1895. This particular article came from the Newark Daily Advocate, an Ohio newspaper, and is dated November 9th, 1895. 

If you're interested in the Bigfoot phenomena, definitely go check out the Bigfoot Forums, linked above. There's a ton of great information, and a ton of knowledgeable individuals on there sharing their research. And, of course, there's a great collection of historic newspaper articles! 

Wardensville Wildman

 The Wardensville Wild Man Hoax 

27 November 1873
The Weekly Register (Point Pleasant, WV)
Source: Chronicling America

Yes! This is the kind of Wild Man story I love to find and share for Wild Men Wednesdays! Wardensville is located in Hardy County, West Virginia, and in 1873 was home to a wild man who wasn't obviously a regular human man. This creature was entirely naked but covered in coarse yellow hair. He had the appearance of a very high forehead and was quite large. There's still a possibility that this was a misidentification of a feral human, but I think it's also a good contestant for actually being something non-human. 

UPDATE MARCH 2025:

And, it was too good to be true. While researching a totally different topic, I ran across a follow-up article, dated a month later. It seems that a local hunter known around the area as old "Uncle Billy" had some turkey traps set up that were disturbed by several youngins'. To dissuade them from further bothering his property, he waited until they came back, then stripped naked and ran out of the woods screaming gibberish at them. 

South Branch Intelligencer (Romney, WV)
26 December 1873

Wild Man in Fairmont

 

17 September 1903
Daily New Dominion (Morgantown, WV)
Source: Chronicling America

It's time for another Wild Men Wednesday feature! This story come from Fairmont, WV. A young couple were hanging out in a wooded area near Fairmont's East End one evening when a huge, dark object walked out of the foliage. It walked toward them, uttered a strange sound, then headed back into the brush. Another person reportedly saw the same creature just after daylight, and reported HIS experience to the police as well. 

Was this just a really tall, anti-social human, or was it a Bigfoot-type creature? Could it be some sort of other supernatural entity? As always lemme know what you think...and let me know if you're having fun with these Wild Men Wednesday articles! There, is, uh, absolutely NO shortage of these types of sightings reported in early newspapers, but I'll probably be taking a bit of a break before too long, so enjoy them while you can! 

Wild Man Cured!

Miner's Hospital #3 at Fairmont ca 1912
Source: WV History on View

You don't come across too many happy endings when it comes to Wild Man stories being reported in old newspapers. Actually, you're lucky if you come across an ending of any sort to the story, but I digress. The February 9, 1916 edition of the Martinsburg WVa Evening Journal reported some good news when it came to a local 'wild man.' Once a broken man living in a cave, John Munkers was treated at a local hospital and afterwards found gainful employment as he returned to society. 

BROOKE CO. WILD MAN IS NOW NORMAL

John Munkers the wild man of Brooke co., who had his habitat for years in a cave near Follansbee, is a sane, normal person, employed in one of the mills of Wheeling. Munkers, who for years lived the most primitive sort of life, hiding when anyone approached and practically nude, was taken in charge by the Brooke county authorities some time ago and sent to the Miner's Hospital at Fairmont to be treated. His mind was a blank, but he was carefully nursed back to physical and mental strength at the hospital. 

Source: Chronicling America

Ohio Wild Man

The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer
26 August 1891
Source: Chronicling America

Originally, I was going to stick to only our West Virginia Wild Men in this Wild Men Wednesday feature, but since this story comes directly across the river from Moundsville, I thought I'd go ahead and include it. It's a nice contrast to last week's tale. Whereas the Weston Wild Man was obviously a human, this creature's identity is a little more dubious. Is it a man wrapped in robes or furs, or is it an escaped trained bear? The fact that the creature runs sometimes on two legs, and other times on four AND is slaughtering livestock further compounds the mystery. Oh, and apparently the livestock killings are accompanied by blood-curdling screams. 

This is a huge departure from the non-violent wild man running around the Weston area, not really bothering anyone. But, let me know down in the comments below: What do YOU think the Ohio Wild Man was...wild animal, escaped trained animal, Bigfoot or other monster, or simply a guy donned in animal furs? 

Wild Man of Weston

 

From The Daily Telegram (Clarksburg, WV)

March 14, 1903

Source: Chronicling America

Somewhat by accident, I stumbled upon quite a few stories of wild men running amok through the hills of West Virginia recently. Up until now, I haven't really featured these stories too often here at Theresa's Haunted History of the Tri-State. Sure, I love a good monster story and my heart skips a beat when I find tales that mirror early reports of Bigfoot-type creatures in our area. However, I've kinda shied away from the wild man tales that are obviously modern humans who, for whatever reason, have shunned the norms of everyday society. These men, whether they're just loners, or mentally ill, as supposed in the story above, just didn't fit the mold I was going for.

But, the more I come across such tales, the more I realize that they're a unique part of our state's folklore and history as well. And, if they were important enough to be written about in newspapers at the time, they're surely important enough to find a cozy lil' spot here on my blog. So, until I run out of tales to share, Wednesdays will be Wild Men Wednesdays here at Theresa's Haunted History. Stay weird, stay spooky, stay wild. 

Wild Man Attacks Train Near Morgantown

Opekiska Locks and Dam
Source

Last December,  I had the opportunity to head up to Sutton, WV and attend the Yeti Festival, hosted by the West Virginia Bigfoot Museum! While I was there, I purchased a copy of Louis R. Petolicchio's awesome book, The Wild Man of North America: Historic Newspaper Accounts About Encounters with Wild Men, Feral Humans and Other Curiosities. I was pleasantly surprised to see the following account from March 3, 1905 included in the book. The Daily Telegram, a newspaper based in Clarksburg, WV, reported that passenger trains coming through Opekiska, a small community in Monongalia County, located along the Monongahela River between Fairmont and Morgantown, were being attacked by a wild man! After one man was arrested, the attacks continued, scaring both train personnel and passengers so badly that they refused to go after the wild man themselves. 

I think this is a really interesting story in the annals of wild man lore, because to me, there is no mistaking this wild man as anything other than a normal human, possibly suffering with a mental illness. Despite being described as a 'giant,' by today's standards, his estimated height of 6' is about average for a man, and the fact that he was able to shoot a gun (given that it was the same 'wild man' in each encounter) would be more indicative of a human being than something more...animalistic. But, that does bring up a fascinating point...was this Lynch fellow involved in the first incident, and a separate 'man' involved later on? If so, why was Lynch trying to flag down the train? Was he trying to escape the true wild man? And just where did this wild man come from? In many stories where the wild man is clearly a human being, it is suspected that he is an escaped inmate, of either the prison system or the insane asylum, or has otherwise witnessed something so horrible that he takes to the wilderness and becomes feral, slowly losing his human identity which is replaced with more animalistic characteristics. I'll be completely honest: while I love this story as another one of WV's oddities, I'm a little disappointed that this is not an example of a wild man story that is clearly an early sighting of what we'd call a Bigfoot or Sasquatch today.  Anyway, I'll get more into my theories of Wild Men, both from a historical perspective AND a modern one, in another blog, so until then, enjoy this strange and fascinating tale from right here in the Mountain State. 

WILD MAN ATTACKS TRAIN

Giant Creature in Human Form with Bristles on Face Is at Large Near Morgantown

03 March 1905

The Daily Telegram (Clarksburg, WV)

The citizens of Monongalia County are thoroughly aroused over the strange and murderous actions of a man in that country, whose identity has not been established so far and whose capture seems a remote possibility, unless the state authorities organize a posse and force him to surrender.

Only a few days ago as chronicled, a man was seen standing on the track in front of a passenger train nearing Morgantown.  He was violently waving his hands.  The train did not stop and he was compelled to step aside to save himself. As the train was passing he fired several shots at it.

Later a fellow Lynch was arrested suspected of the deed and is yet held. But after his arrest the matter of trying to hold up passenger trains continued and Thursday afternoon at Opakeiski* as the passenger train was coming toward Fairmont a strange looking man stoned it.  The train stopped after having run him and the brakeman went back to arrest the fellow, but as he approached him the fellow showed fight and the trainman grew so nervous over the man's strange appearance that he returned to the train.

By the time he boarded the train, it had started again, but the brakeman called upon the passengers to volunteer to go with him and capture the giant--as he was at least six feet tall and wore a beard all over his face which looked more like a mass of bristles than whiskers. 

The passengers were not sufficiently alarmed over the attempt made by the fellow on their lives to organize themselves into a posse and pursue him. 

*You can read the original newspaper article as it appears in the Daily Telegram on the Chronicling America website, located at THIS LINK.