The Wood Booger

Region: Appalachia
Location:Virginia and West Virginia (Blue Ridge region), with sightings throughout Appalachia

The Wood Booger is Appalachia’s local cousin to Bigfoot—a shy, forest-dwelling creature said to stand between six and nine feet tall, covered in dark brown or black hair. Unlike more aggressive folklore figures, the Wood Booger is described as elusive and almost gentle, avoiding confrontation by slipping deeper into the woods whenever humans approach. Hunters and hikers report glimpses of a large silhouette moving behind trees, sudden quiet in the forest, or the feeling of being observed from a nearby slope. Tracks attributed to the Wood Booger are large, humanlike, and usually found near creeks or muddy hillsides.
  Stories of the Wood Booger often center on brief encounters: a figure darting across a trail, a rock tumbling down a hill with no visible cause, or a pair of shining eyes staring from deep shadows before vanishing. Old-timers say that the creature whistles or taps on trees to communicate, a claim echoed in modern “wood-knocking” Bigfoot lore. Reports rarely describe aggression. Instead, the Wood Booger behaves like a forest guardian or a wary observer of human activity, keeping its distance unless cornered or startled.
  In recent years, the Wood Booger has become a local icon, especially in Norton, Virginia, where a park trail is named after it. But even before tourism turned the creature into a mascot, the legend had deep roots in mountain storytelling. Families warned children not to wander too far from camp at night “lest the Wood Booger get you,” though the tone was more teasing than fearful. As far as Appalachian cryptids go, the Wood Booger occupies a strange niche—too quiet to be a monster, too persistent to be ignored, always half-seen in the borderland between truth and tale.

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

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