Latest / On the Same Page: A KCPL Podcast / Chapter 4, Part 2: The Cryptid Chat Continues

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Chapter 4, Part 2: The Cryptid Chat Continues · On the Same Page: A KCPL Podcast

0:03
Welcome back to episode 5.
0:06
Uh, this is part 2 of On the Same Page,
0:09
a KCPL podcast. I'm Evan and I'm
0:13
Tanya, and today we are joined once again by Kathy
0:17
Mason and Kayla Stamper from the Sissonville Branch
0:21
Library, and we're going to keep talking about things cryptid.
0:26
Uh, we're gonna have a little discussion about maybe some— I brought some,
0:30
um, books, uh, that to talk about that the
0:34
library has that are cryptid related. So the first one, like,
0:37
like we said at the beginning of the last episode, we gave the definition of
0:41
a cryptid. Maybe people want to know more about these cryptid things.
0:45
And so we have a book called The United States of Cryptids:
0:50
A Tour of American Myths and Monsters. And so
0:54
it kind of goes into all sorts of cryptids.
0:59
There are so many cryptids across the United States,
1:03
more than I ever would have thought. Uh,
1:06
cryptid— I mean, there's literally a term, cryptozoology,
1:10
is like the study of cryptids. Like, thinking about it, yeah,
1:14
it's kind of intense. I know what book you're talking about. I've actually checked it
1:16
out before. It's really interesting. But you don't really think about how
1:20
many cryptids there are until you pick up one of the books and you're like,
1:23
what? Like, oh my gosh, there was so much to
1:27
read about what that— some people just think, you know, oh, Mothman or
1:31
Flatwoods Monster, but there's so many other things. Shub-Squatch.
1:34
Yeah, Shub-Squatch. There's the Veggie Man, there's the
1:38
Frogman. Frogman of Loveland. Yes, of Loveland. Fresno Nightcrawler.
1:42
Like, there's so many things. There's so many lore,
1:47
like, you know, and even I'm sure, like,
1:50
you go back and you look at like a lot of like Native American like
1:54
folklore and things like that, like you can see, you know, they may
1:59
not have called those things cryptids, but kind
2:03
of the description and that they're mysterious and they're
2:07
only seen by some, and like, you know, I mean, there's that element,
2:11
um, you know, of cryptids. Now, uh,
2:15
from what I understand with that is they actually believed in
2:18
those things, that they were, you know, real and that was part of their culture.
2:22
But, you know, um, cryptids today are kind
2:26
of like in the middle.
2:29
Like, people like having fun with them, but I don't know how many people actually
2:33
believe they exist. But there are some who do, you know. It's kind of in
2:37
the middle. You can have fun with them either way, you know, whether you just
2:40
like reading about them and just, you know, they're, they're interesting,
2:43
or you truly believe they believe in them, or, you know,
2:47
it's just a fun thing to read about. But either way, I mean, I think
2:51
he is fun to read about whether you believe in them or not, because it's
2:55
just interesting to think of where these stories may have come from.
2:59
I once had a professor in college who was interviewed
3:03
on one of those like, uh, Discovery Channel shows,
3:07
uh, because he apparently, uh, was a Bigfoot
3:12
hunter. I did not know that my college professor, my earth science
3:16
professor, was a, uh, you know, uh, Bigfoot hunter, but, uh, he was.
3:20
So they are— there are people who are devoted to these cryptids as
3:23
well. Fan club can be real hardcore. People get
3:26
really, really into it, which, I mean, I get it. It is very interesting.
3:30
I wonder if there are enough cryptids that each state has one.
3:33
Are there that many? I would say there has to be. Like,
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West Virginia has at least 4. So I did a quick search and
3:41
I found, uh, a map here that somebody created that does
3:45
look like there is a cryptid, at least one for each state.
3:51
So it does look like that that is indeed
3:54
true. There's a cryptid for each state. In my true
3:58
crime club, I did true crime around
4:01
cryptids, and believe it or not, there are
4:04
some cases where, like, people have mentioned
4:08
that it was Bigfoot that did it. People in the community literally believed
4:12
Bigfoot that committed this crime, or this person,
4:15
you know, was found dead and it was Bigfoot. I mean, like, in communities that
4:19
people swore up and down that that was what was going on. There was— there's
4:23
some cases involving cryptids that I discussed
4:28
that I had no idea that true crime and cryptids
4:31
kind of intersected there. But there's a whole documentary on—
4:36
I think it might be Hulu that's about region where all these crimes
4:40
were happening and the people in the community blamed it on Bigfoot.
4:44
So I mean, some people say that Bigfoot, Sasquatch, you know, they call them
4:49
a highly intelligent creature. So yes, I mean, yeah, maybe he
4:53
did commit some of these true crimes. I'm just imagining the crime
4:56
scene with like giant footprints.
4:59
That's, that's a thing. And,
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and a lot of the books that I like saw kind
5:07
of have that going on too. Like, people are disappearing and,
5:12
you know, it's related to a cryptid. It's just
5:15
spooky. And like, horror and cryptids kind of intersect
5:20
in a lot of different ways. But there's been so many new, um, kids books
5:24
too around cryptids, like a lot of chapter books and stuff too. And yes,
5:27
they're, they're, they're so cute. Like, I'm like, I'm gonna check them out for me.
5:31
I mean, I did when I was looking to see what we had in our
5:34
catalog for cryptids, there is a lot, a lot of
5:38
stuff for kids, um, relating to cryptids. And actually,
5:42
somebody in my book club a couple years ago read it even though it was
5:45
a kid's book. They wanted to read it, which is totally fine. I think it's
5:49
called Dear Mothman, and it's about this kid who writes to the Mothman, uh,
5:53
as they're trying to figure out a lot of different things. And like,
5:57
I'm like, this is wholesome and this is cryptids.
6:00
And that's like, you know, a lot of this kids stuff that is,
6:04
is about cryptids, they're very like, we're teaming up with them and we're gonna,
6:07
you know, do this or do that. And like, I don't want to call it
6:11
like the new fantasy, but like, you know, people like kids reading fantasy stories
6:15
like cryptids is a thing that legitimately they really like
6:19
it. There's so many different, you know, cryptid genre crossovers at this point.
6:22
Like you were saying, true crime and horror,
6:26
but then you've got like books that are
6:30
for kids that are wholesome. You've got funny ones, you've got graphic novels. So there's
6:32
such a wide variety. That you could choose from. I'm not sure if it's in
6:34
the library or not. I saw a cryptid joke book.
6:37
I feel like I have 2. So it might be something we have in
6:41
the library, and maybe that's— but yeah, there was a cryptid joke book
6:44
for kids. It's like, you know, I mean, that's definitely a crossover.
6:48
I'm gonna check that out because I love silly jokes.
6:54
So I have another book here that we have, and it is
6:58
in the horror genre. It is called Near the Bone by Christina Henry. It is
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a book about this young woman named Maddie
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who lives on a snowy mountain, and she lives
7:10
with her cruel and controlling partner William, and she must survive
7:14
both a human monster and a mysterious
7:18
deadly creature lurking in the woods. It's,
7:21
you know, got horror, suspense, and there's that element of cryptid,
7:24
like what is this creature in the woods? That's another
7:28
one that I found that we have here at the library. Most of the adult
7:32
ones that I found were cryptid related were that like horror genre
7:36
crossover with cryptids and taking the spooky
7:40
element and going with that. Yeah, that's mostly I think
7:44
what I found in the adult besides the nonfiction
7:47
type books. But, uh, right, there are a lot of cool nonfiction.
7:51
I can't remember, we recently got a new one in, new books,
7:54
but it's an illustrated book of,
7:57
uh, cryptids and it's Just looking through the illustrations that somebody had made
8:01
in those, it was very cool. Absolutely. Another book
8:05
that I have that is also a— this one's in
8:08
the folk horror genre called The Twisted Ones
8:12
by T. Kingfisher. The story follows Mouse, a young
8:16
woman who goes to clean out her grandmother's cluttered
8:20
house in North Carolina and uncovers that
8:24
this, this journal that she finds that details these bizarre
8:29
entities that live in the woods surrounding the home.
8:33
And, uh, she's got to figure out what's going on. So I
8:36
know, uh, T. Kingfisher— a lot of the books
8:40
that, you know, I've heard people read of that author, they've really
8:44
enjoyed them. So I love books that have
8:48
journal entry excerpts in them too. I guess it's not quite like found
8:52
footage, but it gives me a similar feeling.
8:55
I think— okay, so this is— speaking
8:59
of that, there's another, there's another book that, um,
9:03
we have that is this found footage idea.
9:08
So it is called, um, Devolution by
9:12
Max Brooks. Um, now Max Brooks Uh,
9:16
I believe I'm looking to confirm. He— yep, he's the author
9:20
of The Zombie Survival Guide and, uh,
9:23
World War Z. And, uh, he has a book that
9:28
is about like a moth— or not
9:31
Mothman, see, Mothman on the brain— Sasquatch. There's a clan
9:36
of Sasquatch, uh, and it's about this,
9:39
uh, survival of this group, and they find
9:43
a journal from someone who lived there.
9:47
And so they use that journal to piece together what actually
9:52
happened. So it is— it even mentions here the
9:56
structure is the found footage style. It reads like a scientific
10:00
report of, you know, what went on and what
10:03
they found. So it is fiction, but it does read
10:08
like it is a diary entries and like,
10:11
this really happened. That sounds, that sounds like another good
10:15
cryptid story to me. And I loved The Zombie Survival Guide.
10:18
I read that book when it came out, and that's why I loved it,
10:21
because it seemed like this is a true guide. Yeah,
10:25
I remember seeing that one a lot. Like, I've, I've never read it,
10:28
but I mean, I know it is beloved. I mean,
10:32
zombies, when it came out, zombies were really like
10:36
the thing at the time. Um, and so it
10:39
was a big deal. Uh, so those are the, those are the books that
10:43
I have. Now, we— there's one we haven't mentioned that is a book and
10:47
relates to West Virginia, The Mothman Prophecies.
10:51
Yeah, I can't forget that one.
10:55
Uh, you know, and, and Richard Gere, the Mothman movie
10:59
that came from that and kind of really put a spotlight on Mothman.
11:03
I mean, and ChapStick brand ChapStick. And ChapStick
11:07
brand ChapStick, absolutely. Can't forget that either.
11:12
Oh no. Pretty sure at the Point Pleasant Mothman Museum
11:17
they have the ChapStick. They do. Pretty sure the ChapStick
11:21
that he held is in that museum. So the
11:25
museum, I've been there, it's a fun time. Uh, I've never been to the festival
11:29
because That seems like it would be, uh,
11:33
a lot. It's better on Sunday. It's not as crowded on Sunday.
11:36
Okay, it's a good tip. Hey, maybe your guys's CryptidCon next
11:40
year will be as big. Keep growing, you could be the next Mothman Festival
11:45
right there in Sissonville.
11:48
Okay, we might have to call in other staff branches if it
11:52
gets that big. My goodness, that'd be something.
11:55
We know Mothman holds a special place here for us at the Kanawha County
11:59
Library because, I mean, we— Mothman has his very own
12:02
library card that you can get, and it's
12:06
very popular. And I mean, I imagine— I don't know this to be
12:10
true, but I imagine we are the only library that has a Mothman library card.
12:14
I mean, it's not out of the realm of possibility that someone else
12:18
does, but I'm not aware of anywhere else that has
12:21
that. This one I've had so many people sign up for library cards and,
12:25
you know, I show them, you know, which was gonna— they get so excited when
12:27
they see the Mothman one. Like, that's the one that gets picked the most.
12:30
Yeah, because it's the most, uh, like unique, and it is like Appalachia,
12:34
like it is, you know, West Virginia. Like, it's very
12:38
specific. So the way that that Mothman's drawn is just so cute.
12:42
Like, it's just like a cute little adorable little Mothman.
12:45
Like the lanyards, gosh, those are adorable. Yes. All the illustrations
12:49
on the lanyards are just— they're so cute. Shout out to Corey. And I
12:53
mean, they've been popular every year, the lanyards.
12:56
I mean, people, people love them. I'm pretty sure that some
13:00
people, like, at this point are on a yearly replacement cycle.
13:04
Like, yeah, they come and update their card and get a new
13:07
one, you know. They're— they, they look really great and they're really fun.
13:11
So I mean, they serve their purpose, that's for certain.
13:15
So do you guys have any like favorite cryptids? Like, I mean,
13:18
like, is Mothman it? Is there another one that you particularly like?
13:22
It's hard not to say Mothman because of the connection
13:27
to our area. Like, you know, I feel like it would
13:30
be wrong to say no to Mothman. Absolutely.
13:33
That's true. Maybe we're all afraid. I like the idea
13:36
of Sheepsquatch. A couple years ago I did a which cryptid are
13:41
you quiz and I got Sheepsquatch. I think I did that too, but Mothman is
13:45
definitely a fan favorite. I love reading about him, I love drawing him.
13:49
Um, uh, I do love the Flatwoods Monster too though,
13:53
because they always— people say it's a girl for a little outfit. It's actually a
13:56
dress with pockets, so every time I see her I'm like, yes,
14:00
she's wearing your dress with pockets, girl. I've seen some great
14:04
cosplays of the Flatwoods Monster. You can make it so
14:07
cute. I love people— I, I love creepy like cryptids too, but I love when
14:11
people good cute ones, right? My favorite one to say is chupacabra.
14:15
That's just fun to say. It's true.
14:20
I would say outside of Mothman, I think I'd say the one that I like
14:24
the most is probably the Loch Ness Monster,
14:27
the nickname Nessie. And like, you know, there's another element
14:32
that that one's turned into a cute factor, just like the same way we've got
14:35
our cute Mothman drawing. Like, Nessie has become this,
14:39
you know, like adorable little lake thing,
14:42
like monster. And I would say that Nessie is probably my,
14:47
uh, favorite outside of the Mothman. Like, we don't want to shade the Mothman.
14:51
Do not throw shade at the Mothman because he'll throw it
14:55
right back, and we don't even know what that looks like. We don't want it.
14:58
Also, I'm pretty sure he works out.
15:00
We've all seen the statue. We've all
15:05
seen the statue. But where does he exercise? Where does the Mothman exercise?
15:09
That's the question. Where? Planet Fitness.
15:12
Holler Boot Camp. Isn't that
15:15
a thing that people say like on West Virginia Day? Like, did you
15:20
leave out your pepperoni roll and Mountain Dew for the Mothman? That's actually—
15:24
if you come here and take a photo up by Mothman,
15:27
he's actually holding pepperoni rolls and Mountain Dew. So, okay. And a book. Yeah.
15:31
Oh, what does it say? The book says The Very Hungry Mothman.
15:34
There we go. Very Hungry Mothman. Hey, that, that, that could
15:38
be a cute book. So since we've been talking about the Mothman,
15:42
I'm gonna go into the next segment
15:46
that we have done before, but this one is a cryptid
15:50
twist on it. And that is History Does Not Have to Be a Mystery.
15:54
A little bit about the Mothman and the
15:58
history behind the Mothman, because there is a highly
16:01
debated topic. If you did not know this. I didn't
16:05
know as how much it was debated, but it is very
16:08
much so. What is the true first sighting of the Mothman?
16:12
You know, everybody knows about the, the Silver Bridge,
16:17
and then about a year before that, the one where in the TNT
16:21
area the couple saw the Mothman and,
16:24
and chased supposedly 100 miles an hour. The Mothman chased
16:28
them. But there is one sighting that is kind
16:32
of not as well known that occurred a few days before
16:36
that car, and that actually occurred in Kanawha
16:41
County. It occurred in Kanawha County. So supposedly in
16:45
1966, there was a group of gravediggers who were at work
16:50
in Clendenin, and they noticed a giant creature soaring between
16:54
the trees overhead, the size of a man with abnormally large wings.
16:58
They were out there doing their job as gravediggers and they saw
17:02
this thing out in the— it's in, um, I believe
17:06
it's the Koons Cemetery in Clendenin,
17:10
was supposedly the first sighting of the Mothman,
17:14
uh, that can be recorded.
17:16
And I did not know this,
17:20
uh, I did not know this until we had We
17:24
had a lady come in and do a presentation, and during
17:28
that presentation she was talking about it. And so I
17:31
had no idea that the Mothman was
17:36
seen in Kanawha County before Point Pleasant. Did they
17:41
have any— so I know because I've used the newspaper archive
17:45
actually on the library website to look up articles and
17:48
things about the Mothman before. And they would interview the
17:52
people. Did she have any, like,
17:55
direct quotes from them or anything that they said?
18:00
So I did a quick search on the newspaper archive
18:04
to, like, try to— like, on our website to try to see if I could
18:07
find it, but I may not have had the right, like,
18:09
keywords or the right search terms to narrow that
18:13
down because, you know, the Mothman
18:16
wasn't the Mothman in 1966. So, uh,
18:20
you know, try— I wasn't able to find it. What I did
18:24
find, however, is on the Tamarack's
18:28
website, they had like a series of articles
18:31
they did called West Virginia Wonders. And so
18:36
Mothman was one of the West Virginia Wonders, and in that,
18:39
uh, they covered the whole, um, cemetery and the gravediggers and
18:45
that happening a few days before. So I'm
18:49
not saying that there's not quotes out there and that they don't exist,
18:52
but in my research that
18:57
I did this morning, I was not able to find out about that.
19:01
So I just had heard it from someone else,
19:05
an author, and so it's like, hmm.
19:09
And I was able to find it on the Tamarack. They mentioned it too,
19:12
so— oh, that's okay, because I could imagine that
19:17
if you saw that at nighttime in a cemetery,
19:20
like, yeah, I'd be kind of scared. Yeah,
19:24
I would probably tell everyone I saw that. I mean,
19:28
same, in all honesty. I'd be like, hey, look what I saw.
19:32
I feel like I don't care if you think I'm crazy, but only to friends.
19:36
Only to friends, for sure. Strangers, I,
19:39
I'll hide. Yeah, but see, right now, like, if you
19:42
were to do that, you'd go viral online. Like, if you told the
19:46
story, like, listen, I— what I saw, this thing, and like, you know,
19:50
um, so like you could turn that into like you're a mini celebrity. You found
19:53
this new cryptid or this new creature. Like,
19:57
nowadays, why wouldn't you tell everybody? Protect the cryptid.
20:02
You could start a new cryptid and get selling t-shirts and
20:06
merchandise. I mean, you could You could make bank doing that, I guess.
20:11
Oh man, I actually
20:14
looked at one point to see if Mothman was, uh,
20:17
trademarked, and he is not, FYI, if you were curious. Yeah,
20:21
they belong to all of us.
20:23
Exactly, exactly. And maybe that's why the
20:28
libraries and cryptids go so well together, because cryptids are for everyone
20:32
and libraries are for everyone, so You know,
20:36
maybe that's how we go hand in hand there. And, uh,
20:40
you know, I gotta try to connect those 2 things, uh, 2 things there together.
20:44
So, all right, well, that's our history
20:48
section. Um, because I mean, I know a lot of the Mothman stuff
20:52
people already know, the main, you know, the Silver Bridge and the other sightings.
20:57
But this one little element that perhaps Kanawha County was
21:01
the first place is, is, I think, kind of cool.
21:04
I mean, I know Point Pleasant will always be the home of the
21:08
Mothman. Maybe he didn't find his home until he stopped
21:12
in Kanawha County on his way to Point Pleasant. He was on a journey.
21:17
All right, well, I will say thank you both for joining us today.
21:21
It's been fun talking about all things cryptid. Yeah, absolutely.
21:25
I agree. Yeah, thank you guys for having us.
21:28
Always down to talk cryptids. I'm so excited. Y'all are so creative.
21:33
I know this CryptidCon is going to be so much fun, so can't wait.
21:36
Can't wait for it. And so, uh,
21:40
just before we, before we sign off, I do want to give a little bit
21:43
of a teaser, if you will, for our next episode
21:47
in October. Uh, for our next episode in October,
21:51
we're actually going to have an author on with us who
21:56
will be at the book festival And we're going
21:59
to talk about what she does and a little bit about,
22:03
you know, the book festival, and it should be a good episode.
22:07
So I hope you all who are listening look forward to that.
22:10
I want to also say, mention again, that we
22:14
do have a survey that we are taking that is located on our website.
22:17
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And so we hope you will do that and
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stay tuned for our next episode of On the Same Page, a KCPL
22:52
podcast. I'm Evan. And I'm Tanya. And thanks
22:57
for listening.