The Appalachian region of America is old. Very old. Perhaps one of, if not THE, oldest existing mountain range in the world. Once a huge, tall mountain range exceeding even the current Himalayas in height, these mountains once rose to around 45,000 feet above sea level, although now they max out at around 6000 feet, after millions of years of erosion.
The only older mountain range I'm aware of is the bedrock remnants of some ancient mountains east of here near the Virginia - North Carolina border that now amount to mere folded hills, the remaining core of a great mountain range that has worn down to nearly nothing over time.
There is strangeness in these hills. Old family tales tell some of it, but those can always be set down as "campfire stories"... until one experiences some of the weirdness for themselves, as I have. Over a long lifetime, one may expect to encounter the occasional glitch in the matrix here, always unexpectedly. I've seen and heard things here that I can't explain. Note well that I said I can't explain them, not that there are no explanations. Just because I can't figure something out doesn't mean that it can't be figured out.
Some things I've never even heard of anywhere else. Not old legends, not shared experiences across a wide range of people, just one-off things that leave me scratching my head and wondering what the hell was that? As an example was the "clanking" noise I once heard coming from the ground at my feet. Never heard of that anywhere else but here, and it wasn't something I expected to encounter on that dark night so many years ago. It just suddenly WAS, and I've never heard it again afterwards.
Other things fit into a more universal framework, like "skyquakes", strange noises emanating from the skies with no observable source. Grace is actually the one who first detected and recorded those at this location. She couldn't explain them, either, although she has zero belief in paranormal things. That doesn't negate the fact that she has also experienced things here in the Appalachians that she has no explanation for. The skyquakes are one, and feeling... "something"... or "someone"... get into the bed at night when no one is there is another.
Note that in recent years, I've heard tales of "skinwalkers", "the rake", "chpuacabras", etc. I tend to discount most of those as "copycat" stories set in these mountains that actually belong to other areas. "Skinwalkers", for example, are a Navajo thing that have never occurred here. This isn't Navajo country. Shapeshifting witches of the Indian variety here almost always changed into owls. "The Rake", "Chupacabras", and "Slenderman" all had their start elsewhere with the development of the internet, and have never occurred here despite tales to the contrary. There is already enough native weirdness here without having to import tales from other places or brand new inventions designed for internet dispersal.
So this thread is intended as a collection point for strange but true tales from the Appalachians. I'll try to add some of my personal experiences here over time, but also more general stories are welcome to it. "Feral people", "Moon-eyed People", strange disappearances, cryptids and the like are all fair game.
To kick things off, here is a video that covers most of the mountain range, north to south, with some of the strangeness that radiates from these mountains. It's a pretty fair overview of what goes on here.
.
The only older mountain range I'm aware of is the bedrock remnants of some ancient mountains east of here near the Virginia - North Carolina border that now amount to mere folded hills, the remaining core of a great mountain range that has worn down to nearly nothing over time.
There is strangeness in these hills. Old family tales tell some of it, but those can always be set down as "campfire stories"... until one experiences some of the weirdness for themselves, as I have. Over a long lifetime, one may expect to encounter the occasional glitch in the matrix here, always unexpectedly. I've seen and heard things here that I can't explain. Note well that I said I can't explain them, not that there are no explanations. Just because I can't figure something out doesn't mean that it can't be figured out.
Some things I've never even heard of anywhere else. Not old legends, not shared experiences across a wide range of people, just one-off things that leave me scratching my head and wondering what the hell was that? As an example was the "clanking" noise I once heard coming from the ground at my feet. Never heard of that anywhere else but here, and it wasn't something I expected to encounter on that dark night so many years ago. It just suddenly WAS, and I've never heard it again afterwards.
Other things fit into a more universal framework, like "skyquakes", strange noises emanating from the skies with no observable source. Grace is actually the one who first detected and recorded those at this location. She couldn't explain them, either, although she has zero belief in paranormal things. That doesn't negate the fact that she has also experienced things here in the Appalachians that she has no explanation for. The skyquakes are one, and feeling... "something"... or "someone"... get into the bed at night when no one is there is another.
Note that in recent years, I've heard tales of "skinwalkers", "the rake", "chpuacabras", etc. I tend to discount most of those as "copycat" stories set in these mountains that actually belong to other areas. "Skinwalkers", for example, are a Navajo thing that have never occurred here. This isn't Navajo country. Shapeshifting witches of the Indian variety here almost always changed into owls. "The Rake", "Chupacabras", and "Slenderman" all had their start elsewhere with the development of the internet, and have never occurred here despite tales to the contrary. There is already enough native weirdness here without having to import tales from other places or brand new inventions designed for internet dispersal.
So this thread is intended as a collection point for strange but true tales from the Appalachians. I'll try to add some of my personal experiences here over time, but also more general stories are welcome to it. "Feral people", "Moon-eyed People", strange disappearances, cryptids and the like are all fair game.
To kick things off, here is a video that covers most of the mountain range, north to south, with some of the strangeness that radiates from these mountains. It's a pretty fair overview of what goes on here.
.
