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Uncanny Georgia: The Georgia Mothman
The Mothman, a purported giant winged humanoid, is associated with a string of sightings in West Virginia in the 1960s. A similar creature, however, was sighted in recent years in north Georgia. A woman who wished to remain anonymous reported an encounter on an old country road. She says,
Suddenly, something flew in front of the car and hit the windshield with enough size and force that it totally mangled the grill and hood. I immediately stopped the car. I heard what sounded like wings flapping on the roof, but then something rolled down the back window onto the trunk then eventually on to the road. I thought I killed whatever it was. A woman in a truck had pulled up from behind and said she saw the thing hit the road. She said that it’s eyes were glaring bright red. As we looked more closely at this thing it resembled a man with large bat-like wings….
This thing had the body of a well-built man. It had no feathers but charcoal gray skin like that of a bat with some hair on the shoulders and around the eyes and legs. When it spread it’s wings, it had the span of 12 foot or more. I estimate it was about 8 foot tall. It had no head however, just the eyes embedded on the shoulders that had brows. I didn’t noticed a mouth or nose.
Someone else in northern Georgia apparently had a similar encounter and managed to snap a photo of a glowing, winged creature. (Though it’s probably a fake.)
Uncanny Georgia: The Horned Serpent
Horned serpents are powerful magical beings in many Native American mythologies. They feature in the legends of both the Creeks and the Cherokees. Both groups apparently got the idea from what is called the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex, network of cultural influences that spread across much of what is today the United States. As such, the creature is known by a number of names in various languages of the American Southeast, including:
cetto-yvprakko: Muskogee
chintoosakcho: Alabama (“crawfish snake”)
olobit: Natchez
sint holo: Chickasaw, Choctaw
sinti lapitta: Choctaw
uktena: Cherokee
The horned serpent is a creature of chaos, the underworld counterpart to the “thunderers” or “thunder beings” who represent order and live in the sky. Beyond that, there are some distinctions between the Cherokee and the Creek horned serpent.
In Cherokee mythology, the word for horned serpent is uktena. These malevolent and deadly monsters inhabit deep underwater pools as well as the high mountains.
An uktena is as large around as a tree trunk. Its scales glitter like sparks of fire. It has horns on its head, naturally, and a bright, diamond-like crest on its forehead. This crest is greatly prized, as one who can retrieve it is supposedly imbued with the power to become a great wonder-worker. This is a dangerous quest, however, because the uktena’s dazzling appearance draws people toward the creature when they should be running away.
For the Creeks, the story is pretty much the same, though their horned serpent does not seem as outright evil or destructive as that of the Cherokees. It might even appear to wise young men. The Creek horned serpent is a huge creature armed with crystalline scales, with an extremely bright crystal adorning its forehead. As with the uktena’s diamond crest, this crystal is said to grant mystical powers to whoever might retrieve it.
The Creeks have another supernatural serpent called the tie snake, and accounts differ as to whether they two are the same or whether they are, in fact, distinct creatures—though sometimes called by the same name. I’ll tackle tie snakes in a later installment.
Uncanny Georgia: Pterosaurs
Yes, pterosaurs. Apparently, there have been several sightings of large flying creatures in north Georgia that strongly resemble pterosaurs, prehistoric flying reptiles believed extinct for 65 million years.
Sightings have been recorded in Waltonville/Gwinnett Counties (Loganville), Barrow County (Winder), Heard County (Franklin), and Towns County. According to one eyewitness,
[In] July of 2010, My wife and I were sitting outside when motion from above the tree tops to our left caught my attention; it’s very hard to explain how I felt at that moment. We were looking at two extremely large birds flying together and heading north . . . I can only guess to be 15-20′ wing spans and the motion of their wings as they flew was very slow. The head was long and ended in a point; wings ended in a point and appeared to be featherless . . .
Anyway, it happened again yesterday [Dec 9, 2012], this time there were three of us who saw this bird fly over, in plain sight, in daylight, up close . . .
. . . I have been trying to contact a whole lot of people (with not much success) I don’t know how to say this any other way except that I have seen these very large birds that don’t even come close to looking like anything else I’ve ever seen. I believe them to be Pterosaurs or something similar to them. . . . I have seen three of these birds in the past year and a half, I have also heard them. . . .
This last sighting has sparked me to do something about it. There were two other people with me when I saw the last one; this was three days ago. I am intent on identifying these large birds. This is not a joke, I, we have seen something that is not supposed to be here! (emphasis added)
Other accounts (linked under “Sightings” above) report the presence of a long tail on at least some of these creatures.
Uncanny Georgia: The Wog
The wog, sometimes called the Georgia wog, is a fearsome beast associated with Jackson County. Think of it as a kind of black, demonic dog with characteristics of other animals as well.
G. J. N. Wilson described it, based on the accounts of early settlers, in his The Early History of Jackson County, Georgia (1914). He writes,
The wog was said to be a jet-black, long-haired animal about the size of a small horse, but his legs were much shorter, the front ones being some twelve inches longer than the hind ones. This gave him something of the appearance of a huge dog “sitting on its tail,” and when walking seemed to require him to carry forward one side at a time. His tail was very large, all the way of the same size, and at the end of it there was a bunch of entirely white hair at least eight inches long and larger in diameter than the tail itself. Whether sitting, standing or walking this curious appendage was in constant motion from side to side, not as a dog wags his tail, but with a quick upward curve which brought it down with a whizzing sound that could be distinctly heard at least when twenty-five or thirty steps distant. But the most distinguishing feature of this horrid tail was that it revealed the presence of the monster in the dark—the only time he ventured to go abroad. His great red eyes were very repulsive, but not so much so as his forked tongue, the prongs of which were thought to be eight inches long and sometimes played in and out his mouth like those of a mad snake. Really the meanest feature about the beast was that his bear-like head contained a set of great white teeth over which his ugly lips never closed. (46–47)
The wog is also known in nearby Barrow County, where it is sometimes said to protect a mud volcano called the Nodoroc Site: an odd, boggy, bubbling pond near the town of Winder. Local legends say the place was used by the Creeks to execute criminals and then throw the corpses into the bog. Nodoroc is purportedly a Creek word meaning “gateway to hell,” but I’m usually incredibly skeptical of claims about Native American etymologies—especially since there is no “r” sound in the Creek language!
At any rate, the wog seems to me very similar to monstrous dogs found throughout world mythology, from the hellhounds of Ancient Greece to the faery dogs of the British Isles. A while back, I suggested that the extinct Amphicyonids or “bear-dogs” would make a good stand-in for many such creatures.
Uncanny Georgia: The Allatoona Toe Nibbler
The Toe Nibbler’s Next Victim?
Seriously, how can I not include a cryptid with a name like “the Allatoona Toe Nibbler”? Especially since it is popular enough to have an entire blog dedicated to it?
Lake Allatoona is a man-made reservoir lake northwest of Atlanta. It is also, if reports are to be believed, home to some sort of unknown aquatic creature. Reports of the Toe Nibbler began in the 1950s. Even in recent years, boaters and swimmers have reported occasional nipping of the fingers and toes that could not, they say, be attributed to ordinary and harmless fish. Some say they have seen the creature. According to the aforementioned blog,
Those that have seen the Toe Nibbler describe it as being smaller than a human (accounts range from three to four foot in length.) Most often it is said to be dark green, brown, or black in color and has been seen sliding along under the surface of the water. It seems to enjoy shaded areas of the lakes and is seen most often up in small, but deep, coves along the shoreline.
The few accounts of up-close confrontations with the creature agree that it has small, black beady eyes and one eye witness stated that they saw a three toed webbed hand or foot extend out of the water.
So, what is this odd creature? Is it a pygmy cousin to more famous lake-dwelling monsters like the Loch Ness Monster or Lake Champlain’s “Champ”? A joke or a hoax? A known aquatic animal misidentified by swimmers with overactive imaginations?
It beats me, but you’ve sure got to love the name of this thing. 🙂
Uncanny Georgia: Fire Devils
This is the first in what will be at least a twenty-part series of posts on the weird and supernatural aspects of the state of Georgia. When I began research on the fourth book of the Into the Wonder series (working title, The River of Night), I knew I wanted it to be chock-full of as many references to native Georgia monsters and spirit-beings as I could fit. What I’ve found could easily fill several books! I’m sharing my findings here so I won’t feel guilty about all the cool beasties I’m going to have to leave out when I start writing. 🙂
Disclaimer: Some of the creatures to be featured here are cryptids, meaning people claim to have actually seen them though they are undocumented by science. Do not take the fact that I’m featuring them in this series as a statement that I believe they’re real—only that I think they’re cool and that they would make an awfully good story.
We’ll start in Rabun County in the extreme northwest of the state. Here, it is said, live a race of fire-breathing devils that stand guard over sacred caves and strange stone cairns deep in the forest. According to Indian legends (most likely Cherokee; Internet sources are vague), even the bravest warriors would refuse to go into certain deserted regions for fear of these “little demons.”
These creatures are apparently associated with strange sounds coming from the woods that the locals call “the music of the Bald” after nearby Rabun Bald, the highest peak in the county. The first published account of these sounds comes from the Monthly Weather Review in 1897. Ken Rasure summarizes this report as follows:
Two “reliable men” were camping one night on top of Rabun Bald…when they were awakened by “eerie, haunting melodies” coming from the woods. After some time, the melodies were replaced by sounds which reminded them of cannons being discharged in the distance. These noises went on for several minutes and then began getting closer and closer to them. Finally, the sounds seemed to be coming from deep in the ground right beneath their feet! The men later said they weren’t afraid, but they were very deeply perplexed. The sounds traveled on into the distance over the next few minutes and they were able to hear it for most of the night. The men reported this strange phenomena the next day to the sheriff who told them it was probably caused by bears rolling small boulders off the mountainsides while searching for worms and insects to eat. The boulders would sometimes roll downhill or off cliffs which would create the explosive sounds. The men were unconvinced as this explanation didn’t account for the eerie melodies or the way the noises traveled through the woods and it certainly didn’t explain how the sounds came from under the ground beneath their feet.
So, fire-breathing devils who love to play weird music with a hardcore rhythm section. Cool.
Darrell J. Pursiful 