Virginia Wood Booger

[Guest monsnoleedra]

Many years ago I happened to experience a couple encounters with what I can only describe as a big foot like creature.  

 

One was simply a sighting of a creature along the side of the road in a heavily forested area of a national forest.  One of those things where your headlights hit it and it stands there for a moment before turning and fading back into the deeper shadows and darkness of the forest.  No sounds to mark the event just some creature that sort of challenges your mind and eyes as to did I or didn't I just see that thing.  Then for there ever after you watch extra hard in the area to see if you'll see it show itself once again.

 

Sometime later in the lower mountains up behind our house.  That time seeing something under the full moon and hearing three or four of them in the woods about me.  Me and my nephew high up on the mountain side in an open field as we listened to them.  Later finding what looks like a place where they bedded down and foot prints in soft ground or near the marshy area where the creek ran down from the mountains through a ravine.

 

But it wasn't until tonight that I was reminded we didn't always call them big foot.  In Virginia, but especially the southwestern section of Virginia they are known as Wood Boogers.  Seem's that is something that is unique to Virginia as I do not know of any other area that refers to them as such.  Most tales you hear revolve around them scaring kids to stay out of the woods at night and be good less the Wood Booger's get you but they are Virginia's Big Foot.

 

So in Virginia sometimes when people talk about the Boogie Man it's not the traditional Halloween type Boogie Man, but the hairy manlike creature that haunts the forest and watches from the shadows.

[Capsicum]

Heh, funny that you would bring this up...I've never encountered a booger but I became aware of the tale several years ago.  I spent some time rampaging through the ridges of Madison for a whole summer...  At the time I was engaged in *ahem* illegal-ish activities of sorts which required being deep in the woods for several hours in the evening/night.  An older black fellow in his 60's or so would come out there with us occasionally and he commented on some noises we heard coming from the woods a few times.  He was rather drunk most of the time and difficult to understand but he would talk about booger men, or boogie men in an unintelligible slur.  A friend of mine and I shrugged it off as bears or a still on the other side of the ridge rather than boogie men but me being ever curious about folklore dug into it.  I don't know specifically about it being a bigfoot type creature but I did find that the term "boogieman" as it's often used in this area comes from the old Irish tales of the bog spirits, or bogins that will take the shape of a man in the dead of night and "drag unruly children" into the bogs, never to be heard from again. 

 

I think we've had a conversation about cryptids before, like I said I've never encountered any ape-like critters here but there are a handful of things I've seen in the company of others that were unidentifiable out in the wilderness.

[Guest monsnoleedra]

The Blue Ridge line was settled by a lot of Scots-Irish so it makes sense that those tales would come over with them.

 

I had forgotten all about the Wood Booger's until I happened to come across it on a genealogy site I belong to.  Soon as I read the name I remembered it from my youth and hearing the stories.  Many times around Halloween of course but then the stories of things that went bump in the night when the family lived in the mountain's before the Shenandoah National Park was put in and they were evicted.  The stories seem to mostly be along the mountain chain and runs down into the Smokey's of Tennessee though I suppose down that way the name changes.  What's funny is that the valley line also follows the old wilderness road that ran down through the Shenandoah Valley and down to where it turned to Kentucky and Tennessee.  As such I think a lot of the stories and tales also moved with it.  I know a lot of the families moved down through those trails from the northern end of the valley line.

 

I do agree when people start talking at times its really hard to tell which "Booger" they are talking about.  I imagine the tales also passed into the local lore because of the close connection many of the early lines had with Native American's in the area.  So tales that originated with the Native American's also crossed over into the local lore and legends.  If I had to guess i'd say that is where the Hairy Man Wood Booger stories come from.  Though the name itself probably does come from some Scots-Irish influence.

 

I wish now I could recall all the tales we were told as children about things that walked the mountains at night.  Many a tale was spun over a campfire or sitting on the porch listening to things in the woods move and cry.  It's like the tale of the saber tooth looking cat that used to run the mountains.  Can't even tell you where the store is at now or if it still exists but when I was young there was an old general store up next to the mountains and the owner had one stuffed.  About the size of a bobcat with long fangs, like a saber tooth lion or tiger.  he would tell us about catching that one in his youth and how they used to run the high places and you'd hear them call in the dark.

 

Sounds like you were digging gingsing he he he  That used to be a money making practice years ago and I suppose still is for some people. 

[hawkwind]

I love studying about the bigfoot type creatures and have for many years. Scientist and biologist say it doesn't exist I say bullshit! You can't have that many sightings around the world that are describing something so similiar for it not to exist. Dr. Jeff Meldrome is a respected biologist that has accpted the idea of their existence and has the most vast collection of physical evidence than anyone in the world.

[RachelLizLear]

There is something similar where I live, the Fouke Monster, or the Boggy Creek Wooly Booger...what a mouthful! There is even a series of B-movies to laugh at, The Legend of Boggy Creek.

[hawkwind]

I've seen that movie very low bdget.LOL

[Guest monsnoleedra]

There is something similar where I live, the Fouke Monster, or the Boggy Creek Wooly Booger...what a mouthful! There is even a series of B-movies to laugh at, The Legend of Boggy Creek.

 

 

Is that the one they also call the Skunk Bear or something like that?

[hawkwind]

Yeah I think they call it the skunk ape I forgot about that name.

[Guest monsnoleedra]

Yeah I think they call it the skunk ape I forgot about that name.

 

 

I though so.  While best known in Florida as a Skunk Ape I think the Boggy Creek creature in Arkansas is supposed to be the the same type creature.   I find it interesting that science and many people claim they can not exist yet so many sightings of them continue.  I suppose that's why I always hear the line from Hamlet "There are more things under heaven and earth Horatio, than are dreampt of by your philosophies"  I recall the early stories of a man like creature that walked upright were discounted then someone actually captured a Gorilla. 

[hawkwind]

There so many things I feel that have not been discovered yet. And those are the things that fasinate me. I feel that in every myth there is a thread of truth.

[Capsicum]

I came across this when I was doing some "extreme tangential video surfing" just now.  Honestly it looks like an emaciated bear to me, but who knows?  I'm not sure why they have the map flipped all crazy either, that's just as disturbing lol. 

 

[hawkwind]

I have seen this video before it was found to be a young bear.

[Raineylane]

Hahaha, I have not heard the term Booger in ages!  No Big Foot sightings where I was from but a Booger was anything that was scary.

 

When I was little we used to play a game called, "Booger."

 

It had to be played outside at dark.  One kid was the "Booger" and would hide somewhere like in the bushes.  The other kids would then skip, yes you had to skip, around the yard singing, "Ain't no boogers out tonight, Grandpa shot them all last night."  If the kids got close enough to where the Booger was hiding, the Booger would jump out and chase the other kids back to "base."  If one of the kids got caught before making it to base, then they were the Booger for the next round.

 

Those were the days...when kids had to use their imagination for entertainment.

 

 

 

But I agree with the poster who said, there are just too many sightings of BF, going too far back in time for it to be nothing.

 

I've seen some pretty freaky things myself, that no one would believe, so I don't doubt there is something science has not identified yet.

 

And VA and WVA seem to be a hotbed for all kinds or strange things.

[hawkwind]

That's very true VA and WVA half a huge amount of sightings of a lot of different cryptids.

[Chloe]

I actually just found out that the TV show Finding Bigfoot had been in Sussex county which is right next to me. It's actually where my mother and her family is from. I'm not really a believer and not really a fan of the show in general but I'm kind of excited to watch that episode since it's so close to home.

 

Our Bigfoot (in Northern NJ) is apparently known as "Old Red Eye"... Never really heard the name mentioned before but it seems to be Lenape in origin. I'll have to look into it some more.

 

Here's an article about the episode though: http://www.dailyrecord.com/story/news/local/2014/11/21/searching-sasquatch-sussex-county/19337899/

 

Eta: looks like " big red eye" might be more accurate. "Old red eye" didn't bring up much of anything on google.

Edited November 23, 2014 by Chloe

[Atehequa]

Having often traveled up in the Appalachians, I've heard that name Wood Booger spoken by old hill men.We had an encounter while camping in Alleghany County.

 

Around 4:00AM, May 8 1993, Morris Hill Campground. Awoken by something rifling through our cookware and knocking over our Weber grill. Whatever it was, it approached our tent and fumbled with the dew cover. Sticking our heads out the door flap we could see enough under an almost fool moon to see the back of a large dark upright figure as it moved off into a thick strand of rhododendron across the campground road.There was a stench which could be described as a blend of rotten cabbage and wet hobo.  

 

I've a Lumbee friend who was there. His mother referred to them as being Bear Men. My people know them as Windigo, but but not the same as the northern Algonquian cannibal spirit Wendigo. We know them as big hairy ogres that carry away women and children or waylay solitary hunters sometimes eating them. In the old days they were sometimes hunted down by vengeful kin. Once slain their bodies were burnt into ash.They are also the subject of tales told to children to make them mindful of their surroundings and to make them behave. Boogie Men so to speak. There's been a large number of sightings and encounters all through Virginia. The creepiest one I heard of was a woman near Colonial Beach Virginia who looked out in her yard and saw a huge hairy man-like creature that was wearing bits of torn clothing.

 

Interesting site -

http://www.virginiabigfootresearch.org/

 

 

[Guest monsnoleedra]

Not the strangest I ever heard but one of the weird ones was supposed to have taken place up near Smith Mountain Lake in Bedford County.  Weird because of what the creature is reported to have done.  Supposedly a woman driving a car skids off the road and into the lake.  As the car is sinking witnesses see a large manlike creature wade into the lake and pull the car back out and onto shore.  Supposed to have occurred near dusk and in one of the more secluded areas of the lake though the stories at the time (late 70's) always stressed it was not near the dam which was a hot spot for a different reason back then.  Only instance I've ever heard of one of them assisting anyone.

 

Years later I tried to find any stories or such referencing that particular story to give it more factual info but never was able to.  So it falls into the urban legend category for me though Smith Mountain Lake and The Peaks of Otter have had a number of sightings over the years. 

[Guest monsnoleedra]

Having often traveled up in the Appalachians, I've heard that name Wood Booger spoken by old hill men.We had an encounter while camping in Alleghany County.

 

Around 4:00AM, May 8 1993, Morris Hill Campground. Awoken by something rifling through our cookware and knocking over our Weber grill. Whatever it was, it approached our tent and fumbled with the dew cover. Sticking our heads out the door flap we could see enough under an almost fool moon to see the back of a large dark upright figure as it moved off into a thick strand of rhododendron across the campground road.There was a stench which could be described as a blend of rotten cabbage and wet hobo.  

 

I've a Lumbee friend who was there. His mother referred to them as being Bear Men. My people know them as Windigo, but but not the same as the northern Algonquian cannibal spirit Wendigo. We know them as big hairy ogres that carry away women and children or waylay solitary hunters sometimes eating them. In the old days they were sometimes hunted down by vengeful kin. Once slain their bodies were burnt into ash.They are also the subject of tales told to children to make them mindful of their surroundings and to make them behave. Boogie Men so to speak. There's been a large number of sightings and encounters all through Virginia. The creepiest one I heard of was a woman near Colonial Beach Virginia who looked out in her yard and saw a huge hairy man-like creature that was wearing bits of torn clothing.

 

Interesting site -

http://www.virginiabigfootresearch.org/

 

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Bolded mine.  Now that is an interesting fact as I've never run across that word used in this region.

[Atehequa]

A word that varies little throughout many Algonquian dialects. Of course the meaning can vary.

 

Then there are the cliff ogres known for rushing victims and pushing them off high drops. Legend has it the cliff ogre's kin wait below. This is said to tenderize the victims.