North Carolina

1Bigfoot in North Carolina Investigated report

Ape-like · Statewide; Montgomery County and the western mountains lead · first reported 1970s (BFRO database)

North Carolina's upright ape reports belong to the main Bigfoot dossier. The BFRO lists about 107 reports here, with Montgomery County in the Uwharries far ahead at 15. The accounts below come from the far western mountains, close to the Tennessee line.

Full story: Bigfoot →

• January 31, 2020Investigated report Two motorists on Needmore Road near Bryson City passed what they took for a very large person walking the shoulder at dusk. In the mirror it stood upright in the road, watching them. They turned back and watched it from about a hundred yards for three minutes. They put it at eight or nine feet, covered in long black hair. Source: bfro.net
• 1973 to July 2025Investigated report Macon County, home to much of the Nantahala National Forest, has six investigated reports over fifty years. They include a 1973 stare-down, a daylight creek sighting near Franklin in 1985, two in June 2015 and a two-witness daylight sighting near Highlands in July 2025. Four of the six are direct sightings. Source: bfro.net
• September 10-11, 2011Investigated report At Davidson River Campground in Pisgah National Forest, a mother and her ten-year-old daughter opened their tent around 1 a.m. and saw something about nine feet tall leaning out from behind a tree twenty feet away. It had coarse white hair, dark eyes and what both called a gorilla-like face. It watched silently. Source: bfro.net

2Moon-Eyed People On the record

Humanoid · Cherokee County Historical Museum, Murphy · first reported 1797 (in print); statue found early 1840s

In 1797 the writer Benjamin Smith Barton recorded a report that the Cherokee had found moon-eyed people in the mountains when they arrived, people who could not see by day. Later retellings made them small, pale and bearded, though scholars note that detail may have been added by white writers. In the early 1840s workers clearing land near Murphy dug up a soapstone carving of two joined figures, about three feet tall, with no arms and very large round eyes. It is now on display in the county museum beside the courthouse. The museum presents the night-dwelling tradition. Other readings hold that the carving shows two rivers, or a man and a woman. Treat this as cultural history, not a creature hunt.

• Early 1840sOn the record Workers clearing land near Murphy unearthed a soapstone sculpture of two conjoined figures with dished faces and oversized round eyes. It is linked locally with the moon-eyed people tradition and is displayed in downtown Murphy, where visitors can see it up close. Source: roadsideamerica.com

Visiting: Cherokee County Historical Museum, 87 Peachtree St, Murphy, NC (call ahead for hours).

3Tsul'kalu and Judaculla Rock Told story

Humanoid · Caney Fork Creek near Cullowhee, Jackson County · first reported Petroglyphs of undetermined age · also called Judaculla, Slant-Eyed Giant

Judaculla Rock is a soapstone boulder in a creek bottom covered with more than fifteen hundred carved marks. It is the densest petroglyph panel known in the eastern United States. Cherokee tradition links it to Tsul'kalu, a great slant-eyed giant who lived on the mountain above and farmed a large clearing there. In the telling, the marks are scratches left when he leaped from his mountain into the valley and landed hand-first on the rock. Some archaeologists argue instead that the panel records a battle fought in 1755. Tsul'kalu belongs to a living Cherokee tradition and is best heard from Cherokee storytellers.

Visiting: Free county-run site with a boardwalk and signs, daylight hours, Caney Fork Road, Cullowhee.

4Boojum Told story

Humanoid · Eagle Nest Mountain, above Waynesville · first reported About 1900 · also called Hootin' Annie's Boojum

The Boojum is Haywood County's gentle giant. He stood about eight feet tall, covered in shaggy grey hair except for a surprisingly human face. He roamed the Balsam Mountains gathering rubies and emeralds that wash out of the streams, hiding them in jugs buried in caves only he could find. The story took off around 1900, after a hotel opened on Eagle Nest Mountain and guests started asking about him. In the best-known version a young woman named Annie found him bathing in a stream, decided he was simply lonely, and married him. Because he wandered off each night hunting gems, she invented a holler to call him home. One folklorist claimed that call gave us the word hootenanny.

5Brown Mountain Lights On the record

Lights · Brown Mountain, Burke and Caldwell counties · first reported 1833

Since at least 1833 people looking at Brown Mountain after dark have reported lights rising over the ridge. They swell, hover for a minute or two, and fade. Witnesses report anywhere from one to a dozen at a time, mostly white, sometimes red or blue. They are said to show best on clear evenings just after full dark. Federal investigators studied them in 1913 and 1922. The Geological Survey blamed headlights and train lights refracted from the valley. Supporters point out that reports seem to predate cars and trains in the area. The lights remain one of the South's most-watched mysteries.

Visiting: Public overlooks at Wiseman's View, the Brown Mountain Overlook on NC 181, and Lost Cove on the Blue Ridge Parkway.

6Knobby On the record

Ape-like · Carpenter's Knob, Toluca and Casar, Cleveland County · first reported December 21, 1978

Knobby's story opened on December 21, 1978, when 88-year-old Minnie Cook reported a hairy, upright animal near her home. She described it as about six feet tall and dark, with a small head and flat face. Through January 1979 people around Carpenter's Knob heard a cry that slid from a growl up into a scream; one neighbor compared it to a bull bellowing. Sammy Price said it let out the awfullest scream he had ever heard near his father's livestock. Searchers reported ape-like tracks, hair snagged on logs and a possible den two miles away. The story made national news, and nothing was ever caught. Cleveland County still has six BFRO reports.

• December 1978 to spring 1979On the record Minnie Cook's sighting was followed by weeks of screams, reported tracks with a thumb-like toe, hair on logs and a den. Neighbors including Sammy Price described the cries. Contemporary press coverage from 1979 is collected on the BigfootEncounters archive, and the case drew reporters from outside the state. Source: bigfootencounters.com

7Santer of Iredell County On the record

Beast · Statesville, Iredell County · first reported 1890 · also called Wampus, Sainter

From 1890 onward, the Statesville Landmark reported a mysterious predator in the wooded bottoms around Statesville. Early stories called it the Santer. Farmers described a long-bodied animal with a large bald head, small eyes, long legs and a tail knotted with hard lumps. Its cry was a piercing, baby-like wail that made dogs refuse to follow. It took the blame for dead chickens, dogs, a calf and pigs, and by 1897 papers had it carrying off children. By the 1930s newspapers were calling it the Wampus instead, with reports of livestock attacks in southern Iredell in 1931. Parents used it to call children home before dark. Iredell never had a confirmed cougar population.

• 1931On the record Newspapers reported a run of Wampus sightings and livestock attacks across southern Iredell County. By then the name Santer was fading in favor of Wampus, and descriptions ranged from black to silver fur with red eyes and strange tracks. Parents used it as a warning to get children home before dark. Source: folkbestiary.com

8Normie, the Lake Norman Monster Told story

Water monster · Lake Norman, near Cowans Ford Dam · first reported 1960s

Lake Norman is man-made. Duke Power flooded the Catawba River valley in the early 1960s. That makes it an odd home for a lake monster, and locals enjoy the joke. Sightings cluster near the Hot Hole, the warm-water outflow near the dam where fish gather. Descriptions do not agree. One witness said it looked kind of like a gator, another put it at fifteen feet, and others describe something brown that matches no native animal. The man who has run a sighting website for twenty years cheerfully admits there has never been one agreed description. No photograph has settled the question.

Visiting: Lake Norman has public access areas and marinas; the Hot Hole is near Cowans Ford Dam.

9Beast of Bladenboro On the record

Beast · Bladenboro, Bladen County · first reported December 29, 1953 · also called Vampire Beast

It began just after Christmas 1953 with a dog killed at Clarkton. Within days Johnny Vause found two of his dogs savaged, and the wounds looked drained rather than eaten, which earned the name Vampire Beast. On January 5, 1954, Mrs. C.E. Kinlaw said a big cat like a mountain lion charged her in her own yard and stopped only when she screamed. A boy said its cry sounded like a crying baby. By January 7 hundreds of armed men were combing the swamps, and the mayor called off the hunt the next day because the crowd itself had become dangerous. Several animals were later shown off as the beast, but none convincingly matched the damage.

• January 5, 1954On the record Mrs. C.E. Kinlaw reported that a large cat-like animal, which she likened to a mountain lion, charged toward her in her yard and broke off when she screamed. The same day a freshly decapitated rabbit was reported nearby. Within two days hundreds of armed men had joined the hunt. Source: en.wikipedia.org

Visiting: Bladenboro holds an annual Beast Fest.

10Spearfinger (U'tlun'ta) Told story

Humanoid · The southern Appalachians of western North Carolina and East Tennessee · first reported Cherokee oral tradition; printed 1900 · also called U'tlun'ta

Spearfinger is one of the most famous figures in Cherokee story, recorded by James Mooney for the Bureau of American Ethnology in 1900. She was a shapeshifting old woman with skin as hard as stone and a long stone spike for a right forefinger. She took the form of a kindly grandmother and sang to draw children close. Her victims felt nothing and died days later. Weapons could not pierce her stone skin. Hunters killed her only after learning that her heart was not in her chest but in her right hand. She is part of a living Cherokee tradition rather than modern monster lore, and the Museum of the Cherokee People is the right place to hear such stories.

Visiting: Museum of the Cherokee People, Cherokee, NC.

11Beast of Bolivia On the record

Beast · Bolivia, Brunswick County · first reported Fall 2007

In the fall of 2007 something began killing dogs around Bolivia, near Brown and Midway roads in Brunswick County. Residents blamed it for three dogs in September. In a later attack it mauled a pit bull and killed two puppies. Animal control found three-inch paw prints and droppings but could not name the animal. Nobody reported actually seeing it. Neighbors suggested a bear, a cougar, a panther or a wolf. Some wondered whether something had escaped from the closed Faircloth Zoo nearby, though zoo staff said its lion and tiger had gone elsewhere. By December locals were calling it the Beast of Bolivia, and a 2008 MonsterQuest episode revisited it alongside Bladenboro.

• December 2007On the record An Associated Press report said the unknown predator had mauled a pit bull and killed two puppies, adding to three dog deaths in September. Animal control found three-inch tracks but no witness had seen the animal itself. Residents floated bears, cougars and wolves as suspects. Source: archives.lincolndailynews.com

12Maco Light Told story

Lights · Maco Station, Brunswick County · first reported 1867 · also called Joe Baldwin's Light

In 1867, the story goes, conductor Joe Baldwin was riding the last car of a train near Farmer's Turnout, about fourteen miles west of Wilmington, when it came uncoupled. He stood on the platform swinging his lantern to warn the next train and was killed in the collision. Witnesses said his lantern flew off and kept burning in the swamp. For more than a century people reported a swaying light along the tracks, said to be Baldwin searching for his head. Train crews stopped for it so often that the railroad gave signalmen two lanterns, one red and one green. After the tracks were taken up around 1980, a local museum historian said sightings had nearly vanished.