; Phantoms and Monsters: Pulse of the Paranormal

Tuesday, April 02, 2019

'The Snowman' of Calhoun County, WV


I recently received another 'Snowman' report from Calhoun County, WV. This witness called and told me about an experience she had when she was a teenager near Mt. Zion, WV. Not much detail, other than her and her mother briefly witnessed a 7-foot tall Bigfoot-like creature with white fur / hair. They saw it while they were on their porch during a December evening in 2010. The witness also called it 'the Snowman.' It made no sound and it quickly crossed the road in front of their home.

Below is a more detailed report I received in 2013:


I grew up in a rural area of Calhoun County, West Virginia. The land we lived on had been in my father's family for many generations and was surrounded by hundreds of acres of woodlands. My sister and I were raised to respect our elders and not to question our parents. Our parents stressed attending and succeeding at school.

My father was what you would call a handyman. There wasn't much that he couldn't do even though he hadn't received much schooling. My mother was a homebody and didn't care much about traveling about. My sister and I were warned about the dangers in the world, especially those dangers close to home.

Both our parents used to talk about 'the Snowman.' This was a terrifying spirit that lived in a hidden burial mound for most of the year. It would rise from the mound after the first snowfall and roam the area each night until the last frost. The Snowman was feared by the Mingo people who once lived here in the early 1700's. My father told us that there was a great massacre of Mingo people one night, not far from our home. The Snowman gathered the bodies and carried them to his hidden mound. He described the Snowman as a tall, rotund being with long white hair all over the body. But the most terrifying aspect was that the Snowman had no face, just long white hair draped over from it's head.

We were warned not to venture out in the dark. The house was kept quiet during those winter nights because we didn't want to draw the attention of the Snowman.

In January 1979, my sister and I were both in our early teens. One evening around 8PM we were in the kitchen doing homework at the table. Our father walked in from the living room and grabbed his coat by the door, then stepped out into the night. I asked my mother what he was doing and she told me that he had forgot to bring in the firewood for the night. No sooner had she responded to my question, my father rushed through the door. He grabbed one of the kitchen chairs and wedged it on the door. Then he opened the cellar door and retrieved his 12 gauge shotgun and a handful of pumpkin-ball shells. What had he seen?

He stood at the door and said "Snowman - he's out there." I ran upstairs to the attic so I could get a look out the window. My sister was right behind me. For almost 10 minutes, we noticed no movement. Then my sister said "look at the garden." There it was. It was huge, maybe 8 ft high. It would stand, walk a few feet, then crouch down digging into the hard frozen ground. It continued do this for several minutes. Then it stood up and moved closer to the house. Father was correct, there were no facial features! A second or two later it turned and moved into the woods. I never saw it again.

My mother is still with us and continues to live in the old house. She says that she has heard screaming at night, but believes it's the spirits of the Mingo people killed by the Snowman. Jesse

Monsters of West Virginia: Mysterious Creatures in the Mountain State

Bigfoot: The West Virginia Foothold

West Virginia Bigfoot

Tracking the Stone Man: West Virginia's Bigfoot

Wild & Wonderful (and Paranormal) West Virginia

Lon's Suggested Reading List - Books & Films / DVDs