West Virginia Couple Photographs Bigfoot Near New River Gorge
Posted Monday, August 24, 2026
By Squatchable.com staff
If you've ever wondered whether Sasquatch calls the misty ridges of Appalachia home, a recent video from The Haunting Truth dives deep into some seriously compelling encounters out of West Virginia. And honestly? It's got that perfect blend of folklore, eyewitness testimony, and a photograph that will have you staring at your screen for hours.
The video centers around the Summersville, West Virginia area and the surrounding Appalachian wilderness, where sightings have been stacking up for decades. What makes this region so prime for Sasquatch activity is pretty obvious once you think about it. West Virginia is over 75% covered in forest, with thousands of square miles of sparsely populated mountain hollows, ancient hardwoods, abandoned coal mining communities, and remote ridges that most people will never set foot in. It's the kind of terrain where something large could move through the woods without a soul noticing.
Long before Sasquatch became a household name in the late 1950s, Appalachian communities were already telling tales of enormous wildmen roaming the hills. Different communities had different names for them, too. Wildmen, Yahoos, hairy men. The stories have been passed down for generations, and they didn't just appear out of nowhere.
The video highlights the work of Less Odell, who runs the Midnight Talker Paranormal Group and curates the Bigfoot Museum in Sutton, West Virginia. According to Odell, the greatest concentration of sightings are now near the New River Gorge region in the southern third of the state. That makes total sense. It's one of the least populated areas, with the most dense forest and one of the oldest rivers in the United States. Rugged, vast, and largely uninterrupted by human development. Exactly the kind of place you'd expect a reclusive, intelligent hominid to thrive.
But the real gem in this video is the story of Billy and Sheena Humphrey of Fayette County, just a short distance from New River Gorge State Park. Their October 2019 encounter is one of the most detailed and credible witness accounts to come out of the region in recent years, and here's why it hits different.
Billy Humphrey wasn't a believer. Not even close. He was a lifelong hunter, a former US Marine, and a coal miner. If you know anything about coal miners, you know they're a skeptical bunch. They deal with hard realities every day and don't put much stock in things they can't see with their own eyes. Billy used to actually ridicule people who believed in Sasquatch or the paranormal. He figured the reports were just misidentified bears or raccoons.
So when something kept stealing his bait, he was determined to solve the mystery himself. He set up a hunting blind and mounted a trail camera near a 9-foot clearing, hoping to catch whatever critter was raiding his setup. What happened next changed everything.
The forest went completely silent. No birds, no insects, no movement at all. Billy later texted his wife that something felt really wrong up there. Then he heard something heavy approaching through the darkness behind his blind. It stood there for about a minute, then slowly walked around the blind and passed in front of the light. He assumed it was a bear at first, but something wasn't right. The light was mounted nearly 9 feet off the ground, and whatever passed underneath was tall enough to cast a shadow across the clearing. Much taller than any black bear he'd ever encountered.
Unsettled but still skeptical, Billy went back the next night and brought Sheena with him. They had only been sitting there for about 15 minutes when movement caught their attention. Without hesitation, Sheena quietly said, "There he is." Billy asked, "Who?" And she said, "Bigfoot."
According to the Humphreys, a large upright figure stood at the edge of the woods briefly before disappearing back into the trees. And they managed to capture a photograph of the figure peeking out from behind a tree. The hosts of The Haunting Truth actually attached the photo in the video, and they make a strong point. It's clear as day that whatever is in that photo is not a bear, and it's not anything you'd normally come across in the West Virginia woods.
For longtime researchers and witnesses, this photograph adds another solid chapter to West Virginia's growing Sasquatch history. The state has become a real hotspot over the past few years, with the annual Summersville Bigfoot Festival drawing thousands of people who want to celebrate the legend and share their own encounters.
The video also touches on the cultural side of things, including how the festival came about and how local communities have embraced the mystery. There's something special about a region that not only tells these stories but actively keeps them alive through gatherings, museums, and shared experiences.
If you're into Appalachian folklore, credible witness accounts, or just love hearing about Sasquatch encounters from regions outside the usual Pacific Northwest hotspots, this video is absolutely worth your time. The Haunting Truth does a great job laying out the history, the geography, and the people behind the sightings, and that Humphrey photograph is something you'll want to see for yourself.
Check it out and let your own conclusions guide you. The mountains of West Virginia have been keeping secrets for a very long time, and stories like this one suggest those secrets might be walking on two legs.