West Virginia Woman Describes Close Encounter with 7.5-Foot Sasquatch

There's something about Appalachian encounters that always hits different, and a recent interview circulating on YouTube captures exactly why. The Michigan Cryptid channel hosted a live session with Beth Duncan from West Virginia, and her story is one of those accounts that stays with you long after you hear it. Beth comes from a long line of West Virginia mountain people, and her family has owned their land for generations. Growing up, she was raised on two different names for the same phenomenon. Her mama called them "wood boogers" or just "the boogers" and warned her to be home before dark because they would get her. Her papa called them "old men of the mountain." For the longest time, Beth thought the boogers were the devil and the old men were just a hobo living up in the woods. That childhood confusion is something a lot of people in Appalachia can probably relate to, where folklore and family warnings blur together into something you don't question until you're much older. Her grandfather's story is one of the most fascinating parts of the interview. He came home from fox hunting one day completely distraught and sent all the kids to bed. Beth, being curious, remembered the things he said. He claimed he got pushed by something up on the land, felt two hands on him, and was shoved away from an area. He tripped and fell down the mountain but wasn't hurt. Beth later did the research and found that there were little baby prints in that area. The implication is clear, and it's one of those details that researchers have heard before, a family group protecting their young, and rather than attacking, simply pushing the human away from the nursery. That kind of behavior speaks volumes about how intelligent these beings are. The "ghost horses in the creek" that Beth's family warned her about is another layer of Appalachian folklore that has been discussed in Sasquatch research for years. Beth eventually figured out through her own research that what her family thought were ghostly horses traveling up and down the creek beds at night were actually Sasquatch using the waterways as travel corridors. This tracks with what many researchers have reported, that creek beds and water sources are common travel routes for these beings, and the sounds of large animals moving through water at night could easily be interpreted as something supernatural by people who didn't know what they were hearing. Beth also pushed back on one of the most popular pieces of folklore out there, the idea that you shouldn't whistle at night or you'll attract them. She's whistled after dark her entire life and doesn't buy into it. She believes the rumor got started somewhere and then spread because people put it out there. It's a fair point, and it's worth noting that folklore like this varies wildly from region to region. But the heart of the interview is Beth's own encounter, and it's one of the most emotionally powerful accounts I've come across in a while. She was going through an absolutely terrible time. She was in a horrible relationship with someone who was in prison, raising a child alone, and dealing with constant harassment from him. She needed a moment to herself, so she left her daughter watching the boys and started walking up the mountain. Her route is a zigzag switchback path that goes up to a graveyard where her grandparents and great-grandparents are buried, and then up to a power line ridge where there's a big rock she calls "her rock." It's her place to cry, her place to scream where nobody can hear her. As she was making her way up, she noticed something was off. It was quiet. No birds, no deer, nothing. Just an eerie stillness. She almost turned around, but she needed that time too badly. When she got to the second switchback where the path closes in, she started feeling like eyes were on her. She described that feeling perfectly, the sensation people talk about when they say you can feel when you're being watched. There's no faking that feeling, and it's been reported in encounter after encounter. She sat on her rock, screaming and crying, asking God why this was happening to her. And then she heard it. A noise to her left, over the hill. It sounded like a grunt, but not like a deer grunt. It was deep, resonant, and it vibrated in her chest. It gave her chills immediately. When she turned around, there was a humanoid being standing about 30 to 40 feet in the tree line, watching her. Seven and a half feet tall. A human-like face. A very distinctive brow ridge. A knot on the head, which she later learned is called a crest, something that some of these beings have and some don't. The fur was cinnamon brown, really dark, but when the sun hit it, it had a reddish tint to it. What happened next is the part that makes this account stand out. Beth described an "eye lock" with the being that was so intense she got tunnel vision. All she could see was the face and the eyes. The eyes were large, dark brown almost black, oval-shaped, and the gaze wasn't threatening. It felt sorrowful. It felt like the being was saying, "I hope you're okay. I'm sorry you're going through this." Beth believes this being had watched her her whole life and came to check on her. She also believes there's a clan on that property that has known her family for generations, since they first settled in West Virginia. And now that she knows they're there, she doesn't feel like they own the land anymore. They share it. That last detail is something that resonates deeply with a lot of researchers and witnesses. The idea that these beings have been on this land long before any of us, that they have family groups and territories that span generations, and that they might actually know the human families in their area, it's a concept that comes up again and again in serious Sasquatch research. The idea that we don't own the land, we're just visitors, is a humbling one. The interview is worth watching in full. Beth's story is told with such raw emotion and honesty that it's hard not to feel what she felt in that moment. The Michigan Cryptid channel did a great job letting her tell it in her own words, and the conversation touches on so many aspects of Appalachian Sasquatch lore that it's a goldmine for anyone interested in the cultural side of these encounters.