Marsh Fork Monster: Big Cat or Hoax?

Beckley Post-Herald  20 October 1968

Earlier this week, there was an inquiry made in The Wild and Weird West Virginia Facebook group concerning a potential ‘monster’ from Naoma, WV, which terrorized a man named Wiley in the 1960′s. According to the poster, it was later revealed that the whole thing was a hoax, but not before a newspaper article was published on the phenomenon. I’ve transcribed the article I found on the incident below, and will follow with some of my own thoughts. Enjoy!  

From the Beckley Post-Herald (20 October 1968): 

A mysterious wild animal that rips dogs to nearly unrecognizable shreds, climbs trees to devour roosting chickens, and emits blood-curdling screams, is terrorizing residents of Marsh Fork District in Raleigh County.

Believed to be a large member of the cat family, the animal has left traces of its wide swath of destruction in the Naoma, Dry Creek, and Horse Creek areas. Meanwhile, clusters of citizens who congregate at local post offices and general stores repeat rumors that the ‘varmint’ has made its presence known as far north as Whitesville in Boone County.

“It sounds to me like a big elephant, the way it hollers,” said Cuba Wiley of Naoma, who has lost 12 chickens to the beast since September 1. According to Wiley, the cat or whatever, comes down a mountain near his home on the average of three to four nights a week. As it lumbers down, Wiley says that he can hear limbs breaking under its feet. Only when it reaches the bottom, in Wiley’s driveway, does the cat give its vicious yell. “Then it sounds like it goes up a tree like a gray squirrel,” notes Wiley.

Although Wiley has never caught a glimpse of the cat in the darkness, he believes it is accompanied by two young cubs. He has found both large and small footprints, the largest he estimates at four inches long and four inches wide, leading to the belief that the animal weighs between three hundred and four hundred pounds.

Wiley’s home is one of several where members of the communities stand vigil with high-powered rifles in hopes of destroying the animal. So far, one bullet has grazed one of the small cubs, knocking out tufts of red hair, tipped in gray. 

According to Horse Creek residents, where the cat has attacked several dogs including eight pups, the Department of Natural Resources has identified a track made there as that of a jaguar, an animal of brownish-yellow color with black spots. But most of the townspeople are skeptical of that identification. Some have termed it a “monster,” refusing to believe that even an animal could put up such a mournful wail. 

Said Wiley, “People think I’ve been telling it to keep squirrel hunters away, but this thing is a smart one and is going to be hard to catch. A lot of people are afraid—we won’t tangle with him.”

Theresa’s Thoughts:  It’s interesting that the DNR identified the tracks as being from a jaguar. Jaguars aren’t native to West Virginia and have never had a population here. Given the time period, it is possible that a jaguar could have escaped from a zoo or traveling circus…or even have been someone’s personal pet that got loose. But, the idea that there was a very large creature accompanied by at least two cubs suggests a breeding pair at the least, making the escapee theory just a LITTLE less likely.

The next closest candidate may be a mountain lion, or cougar. According to different sources, the last mountain lion in WV was killed in 1887, but continued sightings in various locations lasted many years after that. However, by the 1950′s, the mountain lion was declared legally extinct here in the Mountain State. That hasn’t stopped citizens throughout West Virginia from reporting mountain lion sightings up to this day. Pretty much every person I know living in even a remotely rural area has seen or heard evidence of mountain lions. So was it a mountain lion that was stealing Wiley’s chickens and killing dogs?

It’s possible, but that doesn’t explain Wiley’s estimation of the massive weight of the creature, nor the color of the tuft of fur found. A female mountain lion (presumably it was a female since it had cubs) rarely gets heavier than 120lbs, and males only go up to about 200lbs. Some mountain lions living in warm, humid climates may be more of a reddish color, but they generally tend to be a tawny brown. 

So, was this whole thing one big misidentification? A hoax? Or, is there a small possibility that the area around Naoma, WV was being stalked by a mysterious creature from the depths of cryptozoology? 

Are There Mountain Lions in West Virginia? by Amanda Barber (29 June 2022)

Mountain Lions in West Virginia- AZ Animals
 

Source: http://theresashauntedhistoryofthetri-state.blogspot.com/2025/04/marsh-fork-monster-big-cat-or-hoax.html