Recently I watched a marathon of Destination America shows, emerging with only a few brain cells intact but catching the original Mountain Monsters show, S1/Ep01 originally airing in 2013. In it we see the AIMS team uniting for the first time, that standing for the Appalachian Investigators of Mysterious Sightings. The “West Virginian Sons” go in pursuit of the Werewolf of Wolfe County, Kentucky, a bipedal cryptid canine described as being a cross between a bear and a gorilla, standing about 7′ high and weighing around 400 pounds.
Deviating little from their habitual formula, the bearded investigators first interviewed an eyewitness described only as “R,” a marksman who described seeing a large, dark-colored wolf in a wooded area. On their first night’s investigation, the AIMS team saw claw marks on an overhang, and found a large bone pile or kill site. “The SOB is a mountain monster, and we’re on his ass!,” pronounced the team leader.
A drop-cage trap was constructed out of salvaged junk yard metal, and a second eyewitness, “Turtleman,” was interviewed. This survival specialist described seeing a wolf-like creature who walked on two legs, and presented a video of a black, hulking creature seen in the distance. A third eyewitness, a hunter-trapper called “Jasper,” reported hearing the howl of a creature, and saw a large unfamiliar track that he photographed.
Well, the trap was baited with a poor goat called “Daisy,” and the team found additional tracks indicating that whatever made them had a 6′ stride. On the final night’s hunt, the group split into two, with one contingent finding what appeared to be a lair, where movement was seen and fur. Thinking that multiple werewolves were involved, team members heard a rather haunting howl, and saw movement on their thermal camera. They went to their ATV’s and headed to their trap, finding that it was unsprung and that Daisy the goat was safe and well. Tracks found on the site indicated that the werewolf had circled the area, with a camera left on the site giving some partial images of something having passed the camera’s lens and perturbing the goat. It was concluded that the trap’s trigger had been set the wrong way, and as for the werewolf, “He plumb out-smarted us,” in the memorable words of one team member.
Little has changed in the episodes which have since followed, but this is how it all began! I only wish that Daisy the goat had been continued as an on-going character, however…she seems to embody the spirit of the series…
– – When a werewolf is matched against armed West Virginian “Mountain Monsters” hunters, my money is on the werewolf! In S2/Ep/04, the Mountain Monsters crew went in search of the Webster County werewolf in West Virginia, a creature over seven feet tall and weighing over 400 pounds with yellow eyes who is most active during the full moon. The legend of the werewolf dates back to 1770, when some Native Americans were killed along a Shawnee game trail, their chief supposedly reincarnated as a werewolf. Notably, wolves are not indigenous to West Virginia.
FOXSYLVANIA 
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