Minisode 16 - Welcome to the Woodbooger

Howdy, Strange fam! Tonight we have a good ol’ fashioned cryptid episode. We’d like to introduce you to The Woodbooger. Gross name, cool dude. Join us we discuss this regional take on Sasquatch and Bigfoot. Long hair, don’t care…amirite?

STOP! INSIDE JOKES AHEAD!

If you haven’t gotten to listen to the episode yet, spoiler alert! This post contains lots of stuff that will make waaay more sense if you listen to the episode before or while reading. So if you haven’t already, pump the brakes and listen to the episode or just click above to play so that you can be in on all the shenanigans to follow!

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Produced by Peter Woodward

WE PRESENT...THE LEGENDARY WOODBOOGER!

Who's that??

There is an awesome cryptid with a gross name in southwest Virginia, specifically in Norton City in beautiful Wise County. Originating in 1892, a local newspaper by the name of The Old Post in a November 24th article reported on a mysterious creature that is basically Virginia’s flavor of Bigfoot or Sasquatch. Their cryptid was coined “Wood Booger” after the boogeyman because it was rumored to carry children off into the woods at night.

Though a hard and fast “first sighting” was not mentioned, the Woodbooger has been a frequently sighted and talked about fixture since the turn of the 20th century!

So what did people see?

Usually, the Wood Booger was sighted while hiking, hunting, or walking in the woods. The bulk of the reported sightings were between Norton and High Knob, which is an area of about 5 miles or so.

Descriptions of the creature somewhat vary, but generally speaking, it was described as around 7 to 8 feet tall with black or brown fur and a bulky build.

Original documented reports of sightings are nearly impossible to find. Other than the reference to the naming of the creature, we have not come across a description of the first true “first sighting”. However, the lore is strong in southern Virginia with generations passing down cautionary tales for children that wander into the woods and are snatched up by the Wood Booger.

An interesting fact in the legend of this creature is that children are not hurt by the Wood Booger, but are sort of adopted and made part of their families. Apparently, they cannot reproduce and need children from the outside to continue on. However, adults should beware!

He Becomes Popular on the Internet!

-Renewed interest in the creature was created after a YouTube video surfaced in 2009. Titled “Beast of Gum Hill Wood Booger“, it features a man on a 4-wheeler briefly encountering a man-sized, man-shaped bipedal creature in the woods along a creek. The video is very short and it’s—as per usual–grainy and hard to make out what the creature is, but it’s very interesting. Check it out below!

On the heels of this video, the show Finding Bigfoot did an episode on the area, exploring the possibility that this creature could be or is related to the famous Bigfoot. Though not a lot of official reports exist documenting sightings, it was discovered during filming that numerous current sightings have taken place, but were just never reported.

Sightings of the Wood Booger

Here are a few fairly recent documented sightings:

–January 5, 2006: two witnesses described a large creature with matted black hair that walked with a slouch and smelled absolutely terrible.

-June 23, 2008: a huge creature growled at a witness and their friends, then threw rocks at them!

-Spring 2011: A family on a fishing trip reported strange noises unlike anything they’d ever heard coming from the nearby lake.

Still Celebrated as a Hometown Hero

The Woodbooger Search Festival is held October on Flag Rock. This area is an official Wood Booger Sanctuary! Because protect your Wood Boogers at all cost, right? Right.

The Norton Wood Booger Festival is held yearly in October. Though the last few years have been canceled due to covid concerns, as of this post, they are back in 2024! According to the Wood Booger Facebook page, the event is set for October 19! So…hey, if you’re in the area, stop in and check it out!

WHAT ELSE DID WE TALK ABOUT?

Mr. Ballen again! The recorded "Bigfoot" sounds!

We discussed an audio recording of possible sasquatch/bigfoot creatures. This was captured in 1971 and has been analyzed and determined to be unaltered! The story starts at 10:42. The recording of the sounds we talked about can be heard at 17:20. SO CREEPYYYYYYY! Check it out!

FREDDY'S ON THE WALK OF FAME, YA'LL!

Legend. Robert Englund as Freddy Kreuger in the Nightmare on Elm Street films. Congrats, dude. Well-deserved.

Dead Zone

Incidentally…Dead Zone was not a sitcom. Jeez, Jeremy.

Minisode 08 - Rap Battle of the Cryptids! Black Annis vs Spearfinger

Learn about Spearfinger in this fun minisode. Hey, there’s a rap. Original. Js.

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